Software tools, web apps and services for online collaboration

When I first met Cathy, she had been unable to move or speak for 14 years.

We are a growing community of tens of thousands of creators with tens of millions of readers. Among us are world-class publications like The Daily Dot and The California Sunday Magazine, professionals, educators, and people with stories or ideas worth shaping. We believe digital storytelling is a craft. The ability to design and share your idea yo…

growth in engagement has remained flat for most of 2015 – and we’ve seen little more than a two-point increase over the past two and one-half years... Engagement Largely Comes Down To Whether People Have A Manager Who Cares About Them, Grows Them And Appreciates Them - Employee Engagement Isn't Getting Better And Gallup Shares The Surprising Re…

digital natives have wised up: They’re less likely to share after they read these articles because of their lack of heft. Newsrooms who employ this tactic immediately lose the trust of users, who don’t return ...Your article can be topped with a cool headline, but you’d better back it up with something substantive In 2015, Some publishers steer…

My prediction for 2016 is that distributed platforms and native environments will be more valuable than the traditional homepage.... Apple News and Apple TV, Facebook Instant Articles, Google AMP, Twitter Moments, Snapchat Discover, 360º video and VR, over-the-top TV, chat apps — these are all products, platforms, and programs developed (ish — G…

the big media institutions knew that they really couldn’t leave their business models, they were locked in... there really is an open question to whether digital journalism will replace the profit margins of traditional journalism... one huge issue in journalism today is how a couple places, particularly Facebook, are becoming a major source of…

Using Windows 10, Word 16 and OneDrive, and suddenly can’t open your Word files?If, like me, you like the idea of Word templates in theory but find them The Greatest Source of Pain, Hate and Frustration in your Life, you’re not alone. Word 16 was installed a few days back. Since then, I could not open some files. But most were OK. 

Text takes more thought and time. Writing is an inherently vulnerable act... numerous websites... demonstrate that long form writing can and does succeed on the internet... If text is to survive on the internet, sustainable structures need to be implemented to support it ... The next step is to have publishing and blogging platforms introduce “…

BuzzFeed is perhaps the most prominent outlet yet to promise sponsored content for political candidates.... will create and sell native advertising for office seekers in 2016, a potentially lucrative move in an election cycle that is expected to see $1 billion spent on digital ads, up from just $22 million in 2008. The move could herald in a new m…

In four of the six groups shown a native advertisement, the majority interpreted the piece as an article.

it is close to impossible to report well on the European Union. The bureaucratic monster only makes great news when it fails, and even then either you, your editor, or your audience will misunderstand the reasons why.

Our first attempt devoted much of the homepage to a continually updated news briefing. We are dispensing with that briefing today to try something else. Homepages, it turns out, aren’t dead so much as reborn.

The development of the VR industry is not solely based on wearable devices launched by major hardware vendors... growth drive also comes from independent developers ... making apps does not have a high entry barrier

a new wave of “homeless” media companies that don’t require a home page; their sole purpose is to syndicate content.... With native content consumption on third-party platforms growing, will it still be relevant for media companies to invest significant resources on running and maintaining their websites and mobile apps?

blogs and Twitter drive two-thirds of content flow. Mainstream media has become a catalyst that blogs and Twitter drive. Responsive Experience Tops Responsive Design: ... preparing for 10 types of customers ... you know who they are via their search terms ... content changes to meet their needs. We must know who they are and start building…

Circa is indeed returning, but it won’t be the Circa its users remember.... “an independent digital news site aimed at the new generation,” building on the “intellectual property and technology of Circa News.”

the notion of functionality lifting itself out of app silos and being made available as services.... pieces of micro-content and micro-functionality surfacing as cards... a constellation of screens, regardless of whether it’s a desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, watch, or whatever ... an app-based channel for cards... your conversations and the f…

if business needs are met, it generally doesn’t matter whether the intranet is involved or not, so long as the solution is effectively integrated into an organisation’s digital workplace... In trying to make an intranet essential, we lock ourselves into starting with a solution and then looking for the problems... Sometimes the outcome of this ch…

Being surrounded with ready-made solutions to problems can inhibit our creative growth... Given a problem with scarce resources, the human mind will twist and mull until it has a solution. This creativity is probably our species most important feature.

On Thursday night, as part of its ongoing coverage of the shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., The New York Times highlighted reader comments in one of its most prominent digital spaces: The top of its homepage... While Times journalists interact with readers on social platforms, the paper also makes an effort to bring the conversation back to …

What determines whether the ideas we generate are truly creative? Recent research of ours finds that one common factor often gets in the way: we tend to undervalue the benefits of persistence.

taking us towards what an American legal scholar, Frank Pasquale, has christened the “black box society”... subtitle – “the secret algorithms that control money and information” ... it’s not just about money and information but increasingly about most aspects of contemporary life... we know that Facebook algorithms can influence the moods and t…

When EU tried to create its own platforms directly, “it was spectacularly bad. It tried to create its own version of Google, called Quaero... Going head-to-head with Google with a project involving well-funded, energetic entrepreneurs would be foolish. Attempting the same with a multigovernment collaboration is beyond description.”... there a…

while authority can compel action it does little to inspire belief. Only leadership can do that... That’s why change management efforts commonly fail. All too often, they are designed to carry out initiatives that come from the top. - To Create Real Change, Leadership Is More Important Than Authority | Digital Tonto

If there was an idea that could ‘fix’ democracy, it would have been thought-up already... When I started working on GovTrack, I thought I was building an accountability tool. If only the American public had more information they could head-off failures in government by voting more effectively in elections. ... I was wrong. The world is complic…

So, optimistically, I guess, we build a new independent media on a bedrock of explaining and celebration and condemnation, with a side of antagonistic reporting (or hopefully more) and infinite essays and personal narratives bubbling underneath it all (and occasionally breaking through). - Access Denied - The Awl

most politics coverage is about politicians, not the things I care about and the actions I could take... Political journalism could imagine the audience as agents, people who act. Political journalism could be genuinely empowering, if it started from the concerns of the people it’s supposed to serve and not the spectacle of elections... In t…

this couple will seal their union not before a priest or a judge, but on the almighty blockchain, a distributed global computing and data storage technology. BitNation... has established itself as the first virtual nation... has been building a set of tools and services that together may one day allow people to replace their national identity w…

Over 40 new resources ... some great longreads to enjoy as the nights grow long, the productivity tips you’ll need to find the time to read them, and a free set of steak knives. The Christmas season, after all, is almost upon us.