Optimizing Photos for the Web

Photos on the web are essential elements of storytelling and connecting with our audience. But it’s important to note that:

  • Photos are usually the biggest factor in total webpage weight.
  • The weightier the page, the slower it is to load, especially on slow internet connections.
  • The average smart phone photo is more than 2 MB in file size. Too heavy!
  • The average modern DSLR photo is more
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Photo Feature: Occupy Wall Street

A view of Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park, Manhattan

Occupy Wall Street emerged as a radical political movement, inspired by the Arab Spring and fueled by the subversive creativity of Adbusters’ Kalle Lasn and Micah White. The movement was committed to political change through nonviolence and participatory democracy, and was focused primarily on issues of corporate influence in politics. On September 17, 2011 Occupy Wall Street established a tent city in Zuccotti Park in New York City’s … Read the rest

WordPress: Adding Media and Featured Images to Posts

WordPress allows you to add many types of media to any post or page. You can place images, audio, and embedded video in the body text, add captions and credits, resize and make text wrap left or right around any image or other media item.

This post explains how to add media and Featured Images to a post or page, using WordPress’s Add Media and Featured Image tools.… Read the rest

Archives and the Future of News

National Film and Sound Archive building

“Of all our national assets, Archives are the most precious; they are the gift of one generation to another and the extent of our care of them marks the extent of our civilization.”
– Arthur G. Doughty, Dominion Archivist, 1904-1935

At the dawn of the web I was producing a radio show at WILL, the public broadcasting station at the University of Illinois. We were creating about … Read the rest

Managing your Third-Party Accounts and Services

Graph showing connections between various web service providers

Most websites today have connections and dependencies on third-party services and platforms. These can include things like:

  • Website hosting
  • Google for analytics and search
  • Disqus for commenting
  • Secure payment processing
  • Email newsletter services
  • Domain name registration for your website
  • Media hosting e.g. Vimeo, YouTube, etc.
  • Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Each of these services requires setting up an account on its platform, where you typically have … Read the rest