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How to Teach Yourself to Code

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By Lulu Chang

Whether you’re looking to land a new job, brush up on your personal branding, or create a new game, learning how to code can help. Of the many skills that we can learn today, few provide a greater unlock in our digitized world than the ability to code. By taking the time to understand and use various programming languages, you can develop a mobile app, help create software for a medical device, or get a remote control car to start. Needless to say, learning how to code can certainly be a positive use of your time.

Of course, as with any language (and any skill), learning how to code takes not only time but patience, perseverance, and the right set of resources. But even if you weren’t taking computers apart in grade school or you neglected to take coding classes in college, it’s still very possible to teach yourself how to code at just about any point in your life. To help you get started, we’ve rounded up a few key considerations and pointers to help you learn how to code, all on your own.

1. Determine your end goals

This will help you decide what language (or languages) make the most sense. If you’re looking to do some front-end website development, then perhaps HTML and CSS are the best choices. Python could be helpful for folks looking to do more quantitative analysis. JavaScript, as the most common coding language around the world, is another excellent option for Web development.

2. Enrol in a programming course for beginners

Once you’ve decided on a language (or set of languages), it’ll be helpful to take a programming class or a tutorial project. Many of these are available online and can be completed asynchronously. Some of our favourites include:

FreeCodeCamp

freeCodeCamp

This nonprofit offers free coding classes that are perfect for beginners, and they’re made all the more attractive by the nonexistent price tag.

Enroll Now
Coursera icon

Coursera

Coursera has plenty of different coding classes and tutorials for you to choose from to fit your unique needs and learning preferences.

Enroll Now
Udemy icon

Udemy

Another great online learning option comes from Udemy, which offers tens of thousands of classes and certifications.

Enroll Now
General Assembly

General Assembly

You can check out some more intensive coding programs from General Assembly, which can help get you up to speed quickly.

Enroll Now

3. Check out a few coding books

In addition to your online (or in-person) coding classes, it may be useful to check out a few books that can help you develop a deeper baseline of knowledge. While the best way to learn to code is often by coding, books are also a great reference point. Some of our favourites include The Self-Taught Programmer and Daily Coding Problem.

The Self-Taught Programmer

The Self-Taught Programmer

If you’re looking to teach yourself, what better guide than someone else who taught themselves? Author Cory Althoff goes over programming and computer science basics, along with other tips for landing your first programming job.

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Daily Coding Problem

Daily Coding Problem

This book aims to tackle some common problems beginners might come across while coding. It has interviews with actual programmers, along with some coding fundamentals. You can learn about linked lists, arrays, randomized algorithms—and even what these terms mean!

Buy Now

4. Do your own independent research

Believe it or not, a big part of coding is just Googling. If you’re working through an assignment and don’t understand how to execute a command, check out the search engine. If you get an error message and don’t know how to fix it, throw that error message into your browser and see if anywhere online has a solution. You’ll likely find your way to forums that feature other coders asking the same questions, which is critical for your own learning journey.

5. Work on a project

While learning code in small bits and pieces is a good first step, putting it all together by actually doing a project is the best way to put your skills to use. Having a project to work on makes your goals more tangible. For example, if you’re a board game lover, try to build a simple game of checkers or chess. If you’re a freelancer, you can build a website to showcase your work. If you find yourself frequently running behind, learn how to program an alarm or a countdown timer. You could even build a Web scraper to find information about flights or hotel prices.

6. Check out a coding bootcamp

If you’re ready to take your coding to the next level, you could check out an in-person or digital coding bootcamp that will prepare you for a job in software engineering. It’s helpful to have some rudimentary understanding of coding before starting one of these bootcamps (especially given that there is generally some prework before your first class). Some of our favourites include Flatiron School, App Academy, and Hack Reactor.

Flat Iron School

Flatiron School

Flatiron School offers an intensive 15-week course or flexible online pace options. Available concentrations include software engineering, cybersecurity, data science, or product design.

Enroll Now
App Academy

App Academy

App Academy offers in-person and online courses to become a software engineer. You can do it in 16 or 24 weeks, or opt for a flexible part-time option.

Enroll Now
Hack Reactor

Hack Reactor

Hack Reactor’s software engineer courses can be done in 12, 19, or 26 weeks. All programs are currently fully remote.

Enroll Now

 

By Lulu Chang

Sourced from Encyclopaedia Britannica

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How artificial intelligence ‘blew up’ tennis

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By Chiyo Robertson

Bridie Lynch has been playing and coaching tennis for most of her life.

As her parents run a local tennis club in Wales, she was immersed in the sport from the age of 14.

One aspect she has noticed is the embrace of technology, at all levels of tennis.

“Tennis is such a technical sport. These days, anyone I play or coach is into tech, be it video analysis or longest rally stats.”

She uses a range of apps and techniques for her own matches and coaching including a smartphone-based video system called SwingVision, which breaks down her performance with details such as forehand errors and backhand winners.

“Personally, I like having the tech to enhance my game. I can see a clearer vision of what I can improve, from my swing to my patterns of play,” she explains.

Data analytics has been around a long time in sport. Perhaps the best known in example of its use is from 2002, when the Oakland Athletics baseball team used statistical analysis to choose their squad, rather than the wisdom of coaches and scouts, and their favoured metrics.

Jonah Hill and Brad Pitt speak onstage at "Moneyball" Press Conference during 2011Getty Images
Even Hollywood has taken an interest in data analytics with the movie Moneyball starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill

That experience was the core of Michael Lewis’s 2003 best-selling book Moneyball, which later become a film staring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.

Tennis has also seen this revolution. “Data blew up our sport,” says tennis strategist and coach Craig O’Shannessy.

For him the 2015 Australian Open was a key moment.

As Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray battled on court, powerful computers crunched the data and grouped rally length into three distinct categories, essentially short, medium and long.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia plays a forehand in his men's final match against Andy Murray of Great Britain during day 14 of the 2015 Australian OpenGetty Images
In tennis the 2015 Australian Open final was a big moment for data analysis says Craig O’Shannessy

“We discovered 70% of all points were each player hitting the ball into the court a maximum of just twice,” he says.

Mr O’Shannessy, who worked with Novak Djokovic between 2017 to 2019, says that insight made him realise that the way players practice was all wrong.

“Ninety percent of practice is focused on consistency, but only 10% of the match court is in rallies of more than 9 points,” he points out.

“This data changed our sport forever,” he says.

Tennis strategist and coach Craig O'Shannessy with Novak DjokovicCraig O’Shannessy
Craig O’Shannessy worked with Novak Djokovic for two years

That manipulation of data has been taken to a new level.

Coaches now have artificial intelligence (AI), where sophisticated software is fed, or trained, with unimaginable amounts of data. The resulting AI can spot patterns that a human would never be able to see.

“AI can sniff out areas of significances. Humans do a very bad job at layering data, whereas AI can do it in seconds,” says Mr O’Shannessy.

So, for example, if Novak Djokovic hits 50 winners from his forehand those shots could be broken down in multiple ways or layers. Perhaps 40 of them came when he was serving and then 35 came on the first shot after the serve.

Finding a pattern of play where Novak hits 35 out of 50 winners in exactly same way is a first, according to Mr O’Shannessy.

“We’ve stumbled around for decades trying to bring all this together.”

AI requires vast amounts of data to train and build accurate algorithms.

Rafael Nadal of Spain plays a forehand against Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada during the Men's Singles Fourth Round match on Day 8 of The 2022 French Open at Roland Garros on May 29, 2022Getty Images
Players have access to even more data than ever at this year’s French Open

Raghavan Subramanian is the head of the Infosys Tennis Platform and has been working with the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) since 2015 and with The French Open (also known as Roland Garros) for more than three years.

He has access to videos and statistics from around 700 matches every year. “Valuable data that forms the raw material for all our AI and machine learning systems,” says Mr Subramanian.

He said accuracy has improved over the past four years, as more training data has become available.

From the player’s point of view it means they can analyse a match with more precision. Using the Roland Garros Players App, they can see exactly the placement of key shots, such as winners, errors and serves.

Raghavan Subramanian is the head of the Infosys Tennis PlatformInfosys
Raghavan Subramanian says the Infosys AI gets more accurate with each tournament

“We saw a 51% jump in the use of the RG Players App in 2021, compared to the previous year, with 1,100 players and coaches using AI-powered videos,” says Mr Subramanian.

The AI is also speeding up media coverage of the tournament. AI is slicing and dicing data to create video content in seconds, a job that would normally take a multimedia team hours to do.

“Fans are able to access and analyse match highlights and other smart playlists almost immediately after a match.”

Feature Image Credit: Bridie Lynch.  Tennis players are embracing tech says Bridie Lynch

By Chiyo Robertson

Sourced from BBC News

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The 6 biggest mistakes made by newbie digital marketers

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By Tom Welbourne

Digital marketing is an ever-changing world, with new platforms and algorithms constantly shifting the goal posts. Tom Welbourne, founder and director at agency The Good Marketer, tells us how to avoid rookie mistakes.

The constantly-shifting digital marketing landscape is exciting and full of opportunities. But this presents room to make costly mistakes, from underestimating the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) to lacking clarity about social media marketing goals. Gaps in your marketing plan can make otherwise promising strategies fall at the first hurdle.

To avoid making mistakes, the key is knowledge. We’ve compiled the six biggest mistakes that newbie digital marketers make to equip you with the knowledge of what to avoid – and how to do things the right way.

1. No clarity on audience

Think you know who your audience is? It’s time to rethink your assumptions and get more specific. Most people have an idea of who their audience is, but this is useless if you don’t clearly define their age, gender, and interests as well as broad audience categories.

For example, a mortgage provider will have multiple audiences, from first-time buyers looking for their first mortgage to more mature homeowners who have had mortgages before but are looking for a new agreement.

Use analytics tools like Google Analytics to find out who your audience really is, rather than who you think they are.

2. Lack of clear goals

You won’t get to where you’re going if you don’t know exactly where that is. Clear goals give you a clear destination and help to map where you need to hit along the way. If you establish that you want to reach 10,000 followers on Instagram, you can break this down into what you need to achieve month-on-month to achieve that overall goal.

Digital marketers use the ‘Smart’ (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goal framework to create well-defined growth goals that will give a direction to take and the basis to measure your campaign’s success.

3. Setting unrealistic goals

Perhaps the most important aspect of Smart goals is the ‘achievable’ aspect. Having clear goals is important, but you will always end up falling short if your goals aren’t realistic.

If you currently have 500 followers, setting a goal to gain 10,000 followers organically in six months is always going to leave you disappointed and feeling like you’ve failed.

To ensure your goals are realistic, evaluate based on past experience; do some research about similar businesses; or speak to other people in your industry about what could be achievable.

4. Ignoring SEO

Everyone loves an aesthetically-pleasing website, but how many people prioritize SEO when building their site?

SEO is an essential digital marketing strategy used to increase the online brand visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs). When someone searches a keyword related to your business, SEO improves the likelihood of making it to the top of those results.

When newbie digital marketers hear about SEO, they can mistake the acronym as something too technical for your average marketer, but they’d be wrong. SEO is something that even a beginner can do comfortably when equipped with the right knowledge.

5. Overlooking quality content

You’ve heard it over and over and will continue to: content is king. Your marketing strategy is nothing if you haven’t taken the time to create quality content that works for your audience.

Ultimately, your digital marketing strategy will succeed if your content can provide value to your audience. Whether you’re solving a problem or providing valuable insight, take time to reflect on how your content conveys value.

6. Lack of recorded strategy

Often, newbie marketers have a strategy in mind for how to reach their goal, but leave it undocumented and not fully developed. A written strategy gives you a clear outline of how to grow your brand or business, and how to leverage your USPs to achieve your vision of success.

Being a digital marketer is a learning curve. The mistakes will probably be plenty, so the best you can do is equip yourself with a solid framework that provides a path to follow. The best marketers are able to use the same process of goal-setting, strategizing and implementation no matter the project. Once you get to grips with how these stages can benefit you and your work, the world is your oyster.

By Tom Welbourne

Sourced from The Drum

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How to build a website for your small business or side project: We explain everything from domain names to hosting and design… and what it costs

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By Emilia Shovelin for Thisismoney.co.uk

  • There are few small businesses that wouldn’t benefit from having a website
  • But setting one up can be daunting for those without tech know-how
  • We explain how to get a web address and find somewhere to build your website
  • We also look at what features can be included and how much it all costs  

Whether you’re opening a cafe, starting a charity or setting up as a freelance photographer, there are few types of business that wouldn’t benefit from having a website.

An attractive and user-friendly site can tell potential customers the story behind your business, act as an advert for your products or services and help them find you in the real world.

But for small enterprises and sole traders without any tech experience, it can be difficult to know how to get started.

The good news is building a website has never been easier – and you don’t need any web design experience or a complicated marketing strategy.

Getting online: Building a basic business website doesn't need to be expensive or complicated - though there are endless options for those who do want something more bespoke

Getting online: Building a basic business website doesn’t need to be expensive or complicated – though there are endless options for those who do want something more bespoke

We spoke to Ben Law, vice president and head of UK and Ireland at leading domain registrar and web hosting provider GoDaddy, to get the lowdown on everything from getting the perfect web address, to figuring out how hosting works and making sure people find your new site.

How much does it cost to build a website?

This will depend on a number of factors from what functions you want the website to have, to whether you want to pay someone to professionally build, design or write copy for you.

Setting up the very basics of a website can be an extremely affordable.

Website building blocks and their upfront cost

 
Essential website features Cost 
Domain name £0 – £30
Website hosting £0 – £950
 Optional website features Cost
Content and branding £0 – £5,000
Website security £0 – £250+
SEO and marketing £0 – £100+

Registering a domain – essentially buying the address of your website – can be done for as little as £10 a year.

However, you’ll need to find one that isn’t already taken, which is easier said than done.

If you want a specific web address and someone already has it, you can ask them sell it to you – but this can be an expensive game.

Once you have a domain you will need a hosting platform, which can cost less than £5 per month.

A hosting platform offers the technical facilities required for you to create a website and make it accessible on the internet.

Law says: ‘You can expect to pay from around £100 per year for a simple website, with website prices going up to £10,000 and beyond for a very large, complex website.’

The extra costs from your website tend to come from content and marketing support, website security and bespoke branding and design. These can range from pennies to thousands of pounds.

How long does it take to build a website?

Once you have your domain and hosting provider, getting your new business website live can happen quite quickly, depending on how complex you need it to be.

Law says: ‘The average amount of time it takes to build a website depends on the size and complexity of the site, and to get a website up and running it could take anywhere between a few hours and a few months.’

If you opt for a simple website, you could go live within a couple of hours.

But if you’re starting an e-commerce website – where you sell products online – you should expect the process to get a little longer.

How do you get a domain name?

Before you start picking out colour schemes or fonts, you need to get your hands on a domain name.

What if my domain name isn’t available?

Let’s say you wanted to buy the domain ‘thenewbusiness.com‘, but it is currently being used by someone else.

While it’s understandably frustrating, you still have a couple of options:

Find an alternative domain 

You might have to tweak your domain, potentially subtracting unnecessary words like ‘the’; adding an identifying word like ‘shop’; or abbreviating your company name, ‘tnb.com‘.

Use a different domain extension 

If you can’t buy the domain you want with a specific extension – for example, .com – it may be available with an alternative extension.

There are a huge range of domain name extensions available, so you could opt for .co.uk or .net for example.

Law added: ‘In a situation like this, it’s important to make sure the domain you want to buy doesn’t infringe on someone else’s intellectual property.’

In simple terms, a domain name is your website’s equivalent of a physical address, which helps potential users or customers find your site easily.

Your domain name is typically the name of your business, but can sometimes vary depending on the availability, as each domain must be completely unique.

While a domain name and a URL share some similarities, a URL acts as a complete web address that can direct visitors to a specific page on a site, whereas the domain name is just a part of it.

Your domain name is typically followed by your specified extension, usually ‘.com’ or ‘.co.uk‘. For example, the domain name for MailOnline is ‘dailymail.co.uk‘.

But where do you get your hands on a domain name?

‘The first thing you need to do is to find a reputable company to register your domain with,’ Law says. ‘These companies are known as domain registrars and they provide domain registration services to the public.

‘Once you’ve found a domain registrar that’s right for you, you can start the process of registering your domain.’

Domain registrars usually offer a search function, which makes it easy to see if the domain name you want to buy is available. They can often suggest alternatives, if the name you want is being used by someone else.

Domain names usually cost between about £10-£20 per year.

If you’re trying to buy a domain name that is already owned by someone else, then you may have to pay much more.

Some domains containing popular words or phrases are classified as ‘premium’, costing hundreds to thousands of pounds to buy outright.

However, once you’ve bought it, you will usually only pay the standard annual renewal fee, which varies based on who you buy your domain from.

Free: Website builders such as GoDaddy sometimes offer a domain names and URLs when you choose their web hosting software for your site

Free: Website builders such as GoDaddy sometimes offer a domain names and URLs when you choose their web hosting software for your site

Sometimes it’s possible to get a domain name for free.

For example if you use a website builder service, such as GoDaddy, WordPress or Wix, they offer bundle deals which include a domain, hosting and design templates.

Law says: ‘Many domain name registrars offer free domain names when you buy one of their other products.’

‘You can get a domain name for free with GoDaddy with our website builder, and many of our web hosting packages.’

If you want to get set up quickly and with minimal hassle, buying your domain name from your hosting provider could save you time and hassle down the line.

How do I choose the right hosting platform?

Once you acquire your domain name, the next step is the hosting platform.

But what exactly is website hosting? Law says: ‘Think of a website like a house. All houses have two related parts: an address and a piece of land where the house sits. Websites work similarly.

‘Every website on the internet, no matter how big or small, absolutely must have a domain name and web hosting.

‘Web hosting is like the land where you build your house. This is the space on the internet where you place your website’s files.

‘Typically, web hosting runs on a server owned by a web hosting company. Your website is just a small section of that server.

‘Because web hosting is such a commonly used term, we usually shorten it to ‘hosting’ – not to be confused with having people over for nibbles and cocktails.’

Put to the test: You can use free trials to help you choose a web hosting platform. It should be simple for you to manage, but also give your customers a good user experience

Put to the test: You can use free trials to help you choose a web hosting platform. It should be simple for you to manage, but also give your customers a good user experience

The software and hosting you choose must be able to support your growing needs.

Switching from one to another is costly because it involves additional migration complexity, expenses and inevitable impacts on your customer experience.

There are a wide selection of web hosting services including GoDaddy, WordPress, Squarespace and Wix.

They will host your website and also provide you with the tools to create and manage it via their content management system (CMS) – basically the ‘back end’ of the website.

If you want to sell products on your site, you may want to use a specialist ecommerce site builder such as Shopify, BigCommerce or WooCommerce – but other hosting sites also offer this option as an add-on.

When researching which host to use, questions to ask include:

  • What’s the average cost?
  • What add-ons will you need to purchase to build the store you want?
  • Is there a demo you can try, to test out how easy the websites are to manage?
  • Are the user reviews good?
  • Will the website run smoothly and load quickly?

Law added: ‘As noted by KissMetrics, almost 50 percent of web users expect to wait no more than two seconds for a website to load, and if it takes three seconds, they will completely abandon the site.

‘Almost 80 per cent of online shoppers who feel the website has poor performance say they won’t visit the site again to make a purchase, and approximately 44 per cent would share their bad shopping experience with friends.’

Do your research, and when in doubt, give the free trials a go. Some sites such as SquareSpace offer 30 days to test building your dream website, before needing to commit to the software.

Working well: You'll need to have responsive design so your website functions seamlessly across computers, phones and tablets

Working well: You’ll need to have responsive design so your website functions seamlessly across computers, phones and tablets

What does my website need to have?

When you start to build your website, hosting providers can bombard you with optional extras, from business email accounts, to extra virtual security options.

Deciding if you want to pay for the extras is completely up to you, so it depends on what your customers will use the website for.

Law says: ‘Decide what features you need. What will your website need to do? Will it be a simple one-page website offering only basic details about your business, or will you be looking to accept orders online?

‘Drawing up a list of features you need your website to have will help ensure you end up with a website that’s right for you.

Crucial basic features for any website include:

  • Responsive design – so your site works correctly for visitors on any device
  • An SSL certificate – to protect your users’ data, an SSL certificate is crucial if you plan to sell products or allow customers to contact you via the website
  • Fast, reliable web hosting – to ensure customers can browse without issues and and buy the goods or services you are selling

Law adds: ‘Remember, these are only the most basic features of a good small business website. You’re likely to have your own crucial features based on your business’s needs.

‘For example, if you plan to sell products online you’ll need to ensure your site has ecommerce functionality.’

Getting a website up and running is one thing, but what if you need to make a change to your website?

Do you want the ability to make changes yourself, or would you prefer to have someone to do it for you?

The option that you pick will have an impact on the amount you end up paying for your small business website, so it can be crucial.

If you decide to have someone make changes to your website for you, you may find yourself paying a fee to a web designer to make even small changes, such as an adjustment to your opening hours.

Or you may find yourself paying a monthly retainer to a web designer to cover any changes, something which could significantly increase the cost of your website over its lifespan.

That said, it could be worth paying if your website is crucial to the running of your business, is technically complex or the design will need to be changed regularly.

How should I design my website?

Some content management systems come with free basic templates that can be tailored to your business, to help you launch your dream website quickly and effortlessly

Some content management systems come with free basic templates that can be tailored to your business, to help you launch your dream website quickly and effortlessly

Having a website that looks good is just as important as having a website that has all the features you need.

To get the perfect design for your website, you don’t necessarily need to fork out thousands of pounds on a website designer – though they can offer bespoke designs and insight into how customers use websites, if you choose to hire one.

Lots of CMS platforms come with thousands of simple-to-use templates that can be tailored to include your logos, colour schemes and branding.

Law added: ‘A business website’s look isn’t just cosmetic, a confusing and cluttered website will put off potential customers.

‘Take a look at the websites of businesses that are similar to yours and take a note of things you like.

‘By looking at other websites, you’ll get a better idea of how your website should look, feel and work. You can use this research to help you sketch out some basic ideas.

‘Of course, you won’t want to copy a rival website exactly, but it will provide inspiration.’

By Emilia Shovelin for Thisismoney.co.uk

Sourced from Mail Online

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What Is Web3?

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By Jeremy Laukkonen

How a blockchain-based decentralized internet can change the world

Web3 is a term describing a future internet built on decentralized blockchains, which are the ledger systems currently used by cryptocurrencies.

What Is Web3 in Simple Terms?

At a very basic level, Web3 is the third stage of internet development. To understand exactly what Web3 is, you first need to have a basic understanding of the first two stages.

The first stage of the internet, Web1, mostly involved users reading static webpages, although forums and message boards did exist. The next stage, Web2, marked the arrival of social media like Facebook and Twitter, and sites based around user-generated content like YouTube. The big difference between Web1 and Web2 is many people transitioned from passively consuming content provided by big companies to creating and sharing their own content, although that sharing is still facilitated by websites owned by big companies.

The basic idea behind Web3 is it will represent a transition from big companies controlling and monetizing content on the internet, to individual creators and consumers sharing content and interacting through decentralized networks. These networks would rely on open protocols, allowing anyone to connect and participate, and shift power away from big companies and toward creators and users.

What Is Web3 and How Does It Work?

Since Web3 isn’t here yet, we don’t know exactly how it will work. Most concepts of Web3 involve the blockchain, an unchangeable ledger system used by cryptocurrencies to keep track of transactions. The appeal of the blockchain for Web3 supporters is that it logs everything in a way that is transparent and impossible to edit or falsify. Each new transaction creates a “block” in the ledger anyone can see.

The main issue of the blockchain is the same as its purported benefit. Because nobody can edit the ledger, and anyone can create as many crypto accounts as they want, it’s hard to address and protect against fraud. Once something exists on the blockchain, it’s impossible to remove.

Some proponents of Web3 have suggested that creators and users could monetize their efforts on the internet through the blockchain, or that users could monetize their own data for targeted advertising purposes the same way Facebook and other companies sell that kind of data today.

Control over decentralized services could also be placed into the hands of users, instead of big companies. Decisions to change rules and regulations, when to ban users, and other choices could be voted on by users of a decentralized service instead of decided unilaterally by the company that owns a website. This would take the power out of the hands of big tech companies and place it in the hands of users.

Are There Any Examples of Web3 Today?

The concept of creators and users being compensated through the blockchain is currently still in its infancy, but there are some examples. The video game Axie Infinity is somewhat similar, in that it runs on the Ethereum blockchain and rewards users with cryptocurrency for achieving goals.

Another example is Helium, which is a crowdsourced wireless network that rewards users with cryptocurrency for sharing their home network connections. This effectively creates a large network of hotspots users can tap into, and the owners of those hotspots are able to receive compensation in the form of crypto tokens.

This “play to earn” setup is one of the most widely talked about features of Web3, as it could have a huge impact on both creators and users. Through the blockchain, Web3 could allow creators to monetize their content without relinquishing control to big tech sites, and users could monetize their activities and even their own data.

What About Decentralization of Web3? 

Proponents of Web3 spend a lot of time talking about the blockchain, but that’s only one part of the larger picture. The other central conceit of Web3 is it will be decentralized in a way that Web2 isn’t. An easy way to think of this is today, Twitter users can communicate with each other, but they can’t communicate with Facebook users or Instagram users. That’s because Twitter owns its website, controls its communication protocols, and keeps everything locked down. The same is true of most other Web2 sites and services.

For Web3 to function, these would need to be replaced by decentralized services. There are actually signs of this today in the form of federated services where multiple Web2 sites are able to communicate using an open protocol. One example is Mastodon, which is free and open-source software that individuals and organizations can use to build their own microblogging platforms that work a lot like Twitter. Users of the original Mastodon site and users of others, like the India-based Tooter, are able to communicate with each other, because both sites use the same open-source protocols.

Is the Metaverse Web3?

The metaverse isn’t Web3. It’s a term used to describe immersive digital worlds, often experienced through VR instead of a computer monitor or phone screen. In this metaverse users can play games, socialize, and communicate. The big connection between the metaverse and Web3 is that various items in the metaverse could be NFTs, like your avatar, virtual real estate, and other items.

The big difference between Web3 and the metaverse is the latter is currently being championed by big tech companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and HTC. Since Web3 is envisioned as being driven by decentralized networks, open protocols, and the blockchain, the metaverse would seem to miss the mark.

Will Web3 Change the World?

It’s impossible to say exactly what Web3 will do, or even precisely what form it will take, since it’s currently still just a set of loose concepts. There is a real potential for Web3 to change the world though, or at least to drastically change the way you use and interact with the internet.

If Web3 does rely heavily on the blockchain, it could present new ways for both creators and general internet users to use the internet, and a shift to decentralized services would completely alter the landscape and potentially big tech as well.

FAQ

  • What does “decentralized” mean?

    In the world of Web3, decentralization means that the internet and every site on it exists across a distributed network instead of companies owning and maintaining the servers. Ideally, this means that the internet doesn’t really “belong” to anyone, but the concept is vague and nobody has made any progress toward achieving it.

  • How does cryptocurrency work?

    Most cryptocurrency uses “proof of work” to distribute tokens, which means that computers have to solve increasingly complex problems to “mine” the currency. Because of this, cryptocurrency uses vast amounts of energy and has driven up the prices of graphics cards. Cryptocurrency is also extremely unstable and vulnerable to fraud, and it hasn’t seen widespread acceptance for retail transactions.

By Jeremy Laukkonen

Sourced from Lifewire

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    How To Grow Your Business Online

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    Many businesses may exist on the Internet but they truly are not living up to promise

    For many industries, online sales make for the vast amount of their takings. Most businesses are online, but the big question is: are they fulfilling their fullest potential? The answer is frankly, no!

    Many businesses may exist on the Internet but they truly are not living up to promise, according to Julius Tirrá of Celebian. Understanding the online sphere and how to make the most of it involves knowhow and expertise, however it doesn’t mean you can’t do so with a little forward planning and outsourcing of expertise, according to Tirrá.

    Below are seven great ways you can grow your business.

    Design a Good Website

    A website is a must-have if looking to grow a business empire online. It is your business’ frontline for creating the first impression to your target customers and audiences and the platform to sell whatever products or services you have to offer. That said, it would be advisable to create a website unique to your business, not a copy of the generic ones found all over. One of the advantages of creating a unique website is that customers will be able to distinguish you from the rest, enabling you to build and grow your brand.

    There is more to creating a good website than just the aesthetics; it needs to be practical, fast, and more importantly, responsive says Tirrá. This should be, however, relatively easy, especially if looking to create or partner with an e-commerce website. Many e-commerce websites, including Facebook, Flipkart, Amazon, etc., have some of the best platforms you can use. You also won’t have to invest heavily in the website if partnering with these websites.

    Ensure the Website Is Mobile-friendly

    The website needs to be both desktop and mobile-friendly too. Many people today (including your target customers/audiences) use their smartphones or iPads/tablets to shop online; they need to be able to access and navigate your website on limited screen sizes. As long as audiences and customers can access and navigate your website with ease, you can be assured of stronger impressions and return visits.

    Creating a mobile-friendly website has its benefits in that it will boost the userbase, enable you to collect usage data, and even analyse collected data to see which areas can be improved for better performance. With almost everyone today using their smartphones to access the Internet and possibly shop online, creating a mobile-ready website is the way to go. It would help if you also considered creating a profile on some of the social media platforms, such as Facebook, for improved visibility as well.

    Embrace Social Media Marketing

    Social media provides an excellent platform for marketing and promoting your business. With billions of users logging onto these platforms each day, you can be sure to attract tons of traffic from it. Social media marketing is a highly converting strategy that can help grow your business or brand within a short time, especially if done correctly.

    Facebook, for example, has a marketplace section that allows businesses (small and big) to advertise their services and products. You can opt to use the free or paid option, depending on how much you wish to spend on Facebook marketing campaigns. Some of the benefits of paying for Facebook advertising is that your content will be displayed to the target audience, increasing clickthrough rates, and possible conversions. Whatever your ranking is on search engines, you can be sure to benefit from social media marketing on Instagram and others. Twitter, for instance, makes it possible to push specific advertisements to target audiences within your business’ niche.

    Email Marketing

    Email marketing has been around for several decades and is still effective and efficient to this date. Almost everyone today has an email or two. You can thus take advantage of email marketing to promote your business as well. All you need is to build an emailing list to use for your marketing campaigns and promotions. Asking your audiences to signup for newsletters, running a giveaway campaign, or even promotions with a chance of someone winning a present, are some of the ways you can collect email addresses genuinely. With global audiences and relatively high conversions, you can be sure to get your business known and even earn more clients this way.

    Know Your Competitors

    Google Analytics (among other tools) enables website owners and managers to study current trends, make predictions, and research their competition. These tools allow one to find similarities and strategies that work for other companies and those that you could use to boost your chances. Google analytics is thus a handy tool that can help you avoid losses by focusing on higher-performing campaigns.

    Another advantage of running an online business is that you can research and even find other strategies that could help drive traffic to your website. Some of these analytics tools can help you identify your rival’s weaknesses, giving you a chance to turn the tables around and divert traffic to your business.

    Optimize Content

    Although you might know this already, the key to getting your business known by organic visitors and search engines is publishing high-quality and properly optimized content. Publishing optimized content on your website and running blogs can significantly impact your search engine rankings and website performance. Properly optimized websites often get a spot on the top page of a search result, translating to increased traffic and online visibility.

    The key to optimizing content lies with proper keyword research and usage of the same. For this reason, you want to choose keywords relevant to your business niche and high-converting at the same time. Search engine optimization is one of the pillars of online marketing and plays a crucial role in boosting online visibility and inbound traffic.

    Work Towards Increasing Website Traffic

    Web traffic is everything when running an online business. It is through the said traffic that you can start converting much of it into potential and even loyal customers/clients. A website that gets tons of traffic is more likely to generate sales/profits than one that doesn’t. Your business thus should unwind and focus on attracting traffic by first creating and publishing unique and high-quality content, optimising your content, then venturing into other online marketing campaigns.

    Generating organic traffic is one of the best ways to grow your online business. You can also use paid methods to generate the same. Facebook and Google, for example, offer paid options for directing traffic your way. This however entails paying for such through Google or Facebook Ads. You could also hire online marketing experts to help get your business known and improve traffic as well. You only need to find the best online marketing agency or company, especially one with tons of experience in the field.

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    Sourced from Entrepreneur India

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    Short Social Video Showdown: TikTok Just Beat YouTube In This Key Metric

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    By Johan Moreno

    Short videos can lead to big outcomes, just ask TikTok.

    When eMarketer compared average time spent on the top social platforms by U.S. adults, TikTok surpassed YouTube. Users spent an average of 45.8 minutes on the Bytedance-owned social video platform versus 45.6 minutes on YouTube.

    This milestone follows a series of changes on the TikTok platform that were seen as threats to YouTube’s video dominance. In February, TikTok extended the video length limit from 3 minutes to 10 minutes. The platform also announced a new revenue sharing program that is very similar to YouTube’s.

    YouTube has likely caught onto the success of TikTok and is looking to stop its roll: Earlier this year, YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan announced a series of product announcements that would be coming to the platform, centered around YouTube’s answer to TikTok, Shorts.

    TikTok is also delivering these results on videos shorter than 10 minutes. The data does account for company’s virtual MVPD service YouTube TV. YouTube also offers videos longer than 10 minutes, which likely increase the overall time spent on the platform. The survey was conducted in April 2022 and accounted for all viewing engagement with a platform, be active or multi-tasked.

    Despite efforts to emulate the features found on TikTok, Instagram accounted for an average of 30.1 minutes per day. Its parent platform also had an average of 30.1 minutes.

    TikTok and YouTube were followed by Twitter, with 34.8 minutes spent on average, Snapchat with 30.4 minutes, Facebook with 30.1 minutes, followed by the aforementioned Instagram. Users spent an average of 23.8 minutes per day on Reddit.

    However, it is worth noting that TikTok has a smaller user count, 1 billion monthly active users, while YouTube is believed to have north of 2.6 billion.

    Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

    By Johan Moreno

    I’m a contributing writer for Forbes covering Google and Alphabet. I’m also a writer and curator for Inside.com, where I have covered a variety ot topics, ranging from automotive to Google. Send tips, pitches or notes via email ([email protected]) or on Twitter (@dudejohan).

    Sourced from Forbes

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    Instagram seems to have completely stopped caring about its users

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    By Stan Schroeder

    Wait, Instagram has content that’s not ads?

    Instagram is my waiting room app. I don’t use it every day, but when I have a couple of spare minutes, I like to casually check out what the people I’m following are up to.

    The problem, lately, is getting to the stuff I actually want to see requires battling through a mountain of sponsored content and suggested posts. When it comes to ads on platforms, there’s a point at which a user inevitably will throw their hands up in the air and say: enough. This level is different for everyone, but for me, Instagram has not only reached it — it’s running circles around it.

    Dude, where’s my content?

    Let’s test this. I’ve just opened the Instagram app on my iPhone and counted 14 (fourteen) instances of ads, suggested posts, and sponsored content, in the first 16 posts on the top of my feed. I had to scroll past six ads before I got to a post by someone I actually follow. I’m not sure when Instagram became this aggressive when it comes to ads, but I don’t remember it being this bad earlier this year. A month-old Reddit post showcases the same issue, with a seemingly infinite array of ads lined up one after another.

    Worse, there’s something deeply insulting by the content of the ads and suggested posts I’m seeing. Yes, I follow a couple of fitness-oriented pages, as well as wrestling pages, on Instagram. So its algorithms have decided that I must be into boxing and bodybuilding (I’m not). I’m constantly being served ads for boxing lessons, which I don’t particularly care about, and I keep seeing muscular men posing on a stage, which, again, is not my cup of tea. Instagram is relentless about this type of content; there’s little variety to it. I’m a human in 2022, which means I have the luxury of having specific, nuanced interests — I’m alright with bodyweight workouts, but not interested in bodybuilding. I can watch Brazilian jiu-jitsu videos all day, but not boxing. Maybe it’s the way I’m engaging with this content that throws Instagram’s algorithms off, but it just seems incapable of accurately predicting what I really want to see.

    It’s not just me. Another Reddit thread, also from about a month ago, titled “Okay, we get it. Your feed is entirely ads,” has dozens of users complaining about how bad Instagram’s feed has become.

    “60 percent of the posts on my newsfeed are from accounts I do not follow — yet there are accounts I do follow who post regularly and I don’t ever see their posts,” writes user HireLaneKiffin. “It’s gone from all my follows to every other follow and ad to as of today a three to two ratio of ads and promoted follows from the worst people and things,” writes user ilivedownyourroad. I don’t have a scientific method to determine how many ads are too many for the majority of users, but my guesstimate is that Instagram is well past it.

    This behavior is spilling over to Meta’s other property, Facebook. On this platform’s feed, you’ll see at least some content from the pages and people you follow on top, but there will be a ton of ads in between, and every now and then you’ll see a suggested post from a page you don’t particularly care about — I’m looking at you, Nick’s Strength and Power. In fact, this particular page which serves bodybuilding-related content, probably has little to do with it; Facebook has decided that I must be into bodybuilding, and bodybuilding videos I will watch, so help me the almighty algorithm.

    Instagram ad
    But I don’t wanna watch what Simon did next. Credit: Instagram/upromototraining

    The sponsored overload is not as bad on Facebook as it is on Instagram, but Instagram may be an early warning here. A few months down the road, you might have to jump through the hoops of switching to chronological post order every time you open the app (to do that, tap “Menu,” then “See more,” then “Most recent” on the iPhone).

    Can you help it? Yes, but not quite.

    There are ways to alleviate this influx of ads, but Instagram is quite cunning about it. Once you’ve opened the app, there’s a little white arrow that appears next to the Instagram logo on top, letting you see content only from the accounts you’ve set as favourites. But the little white arrow only appears once you’ve scrolled past the first post — a way to force you, I reckon, to see at least one ad before getting to the content you want. Furthermore, you have to do it every time you start the app, and you also have to ardently add all the content you want to follow to your favourites, which is an additional hassle.

    You can also get an Android-only unofficial app for Instagram that lets you get rid of ads altogether, but unofficial apps, besides probably being against Instagram’s terms of service, can be a way to get malware on your device.

    The bottom line is that, for the majority of users, the Instagram experience is severely tarnished when you’re force fed stuff you don’t want. There’s a point at which even advertisers will start to complain, as they inevitably see engagement numbers fall from their tired and resigned audience. I’ve asked Instagram whether they think they’ve gone too far with sponsored content, and will update this article when I hear back.

    UPDATE: Jun. 9, 2022, 12:21 p.m. EDT An Instagram spokesperson got back to me, saying that my feed having so many ads and suggested posts is “not the intended experience.” The company will look into it and get back to me with more information.

    I know the mantra: If you’re not paying for it, you’re not the user, you’re the product being sold. But for me to consent to being sold, I need to get something back from the app or else I’ll just give up. Right now, Instagram is working very hard to make me give up.

    Feature Image Credit: Sopa Images / Getty Images

    By Stan Schroeder

    Sourced from Mashable

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    10 Years Ago, She Predicted COVID. Here’s What She’s Worried About Next

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    Sourced from Next Big Idea Club

    In January 2020, when the coronavirus started making headlines around the world, Jane McGonigal’s inbox was flooded with emails from Silicon Valley execs, government officials, and nonprofit leaders. They all had the same question: “Jane, didn’t you run a simulation of a respiratory pandemic?”

    Yes, she had. All the way back in 2010.

    Jane is a game designer. She builds simulations that help players imagine the unimaginable. And in 2010, she invited nearly 20,000 people to immerse themselves in a future world besieged by a global pandemic. “How would you change your habits?” she asked. “What social interactions would you avoid? Can you work from home?”

    A decade later, when COVID went from nascent threat to full-blown crisis, Jane started hearing from folks who had participated in the simulation. “I’m not freaking out,” one of them said with relief. “I already worked through the panic and anxiety when we imagined it ten years ago.”

    According to the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, we can all learn to make the shift from panic to poise by training our brains to think about the unthinkable. But what does that training look like? In her new book, Imaginable—and on today’s episode of the Next Big Idea podcast—Jane shares evidence-based techniques you can use to see the future coming. Listen to the full episode below, or read a few key highlights. And follow host Rufus Griscom on LinkedIn for behind-the-scenes looks into the show.

    How Jane went from game designer to future forecaster.

    Rufus: Your path from studying and designing video games to working as a futurist—some would see that as counterintuitive. I think you see this as a logical progression. Why does that sequencing make sense?

    Jane: What first really fascinated me about the gaming community was this trend that I was observing in gamers: they were developing real skills, real abilities, collective intelligence, and collective imagination that they wanted to apply in a bigger context—maybe help solve some real-world challenges.

    This was back in 2001 when I was starting my Ph.D. work. And I thought, “This is amazing! It would be really good for humanity if we could channel these new skills that are coming out of online gaming into real-world problem-solving.” But at that time, there were not a lot of games to play that actually connected this community with real-world challenges.

    After studying it for six years, writing my dissertation on this topic, I rolled right into, “I’m going to be the one to make games that help gamers apply those strengths to real-world contexts.” And the context that I wound up working in was trying to anticipate hard-to-predict futures, or apply that collective imagination to seeing future scenarios from massively many points of view—the same way that we see a game world—so that we might discover the outlier risks or unexpected opportunities. And that’s what I’ve been doing for 15 years now.

    Predicting COVID … back in 2010.

    Rufus: This mission to take our interest in gaming and collective imagining exercises and use them to help us better understand possible future outcomes—you and your team have been engaged in this for a while, and you have an astoundingly impressive track record at anticipating possible future outcomes. Can you share some of the details of what you all have done?

    Jane: 2020 was a really strange year to be a future forecaster, in that I had an experience of living through a very difficult future that we had been forecasting for a decade or more. My work at the Institute for the Future involved creating these social simulations way back in 2008, 2010, where we were inviting thousands of people to spend weeks in a private social network. It would look like Twitter, Facebook, or Discord, but everything being posted and shared was about a hypothetical future.

    “There was this incredible proliferation of news stories and headlines using the word ‘unimaginable’ to describe the pandemic and its consequences. But it wasn’t unimaginable. We just didn’t have a critical mass of people imagining it.”

    Futurists love to look 10 years ahead because that gives us enough mental distance to think creatively. And if we’re imagining problems that might not happen for 10 years, it gives us enough time to prepare for them or prevent them. So we were looking at the years 2019 and 2020, and back then our simulation centered around, how would we survive and adapt to a respiratory pandemic that started in China that was also complicated by cascading crises? One of the things that I specialize in is figuring out how different crises and disruptions intersect. So we’re not just looking at it from a public health perspective or an epidemiology perspective. We were also thinking about how we would survive and adapt when we have the supply-chain disruptions, when there is misinformation and conspiracy theories about the pandemic being spread on social media, when there are historic wildfires and extreme heat waves due to climate change. And that’s just what we lived through in 2020.

    What made me sort of crazy for a little while, and made me want to write the book Imaginable, is that there was this incredible proliferation of news stories and headlines using the word “unimaginable” to describe the pandemic and its consequences. But it wasn’t unimaginable. We just didn’t have a critical mass of people imagining it. We had 20,000 people in one of our simulations, and 8,000 in another. My goal is to have 20 million—I think that would really help us prepare for the future.

    Why you should think 10 years into the future.

    Jane: When we give ourselves these long, luxurious deadlines, we feel time rich. And when we feel time rich, we think, “I have all this time! I can do what I want. I can do what matters to me.”
    When we have urgent deadlines or too many tasks on our to-do list for today, we feel time poor, time deprived—and then we just don’t use our time, because even though we still have the same amount of time, it feels scarce.

    Another thing that researchers have found is that when we imagine 10 years out, we tend to think about things that are more relevant to our most important values—the kinds of goals that would help us live a life that we would consider really authentic, really true to our dreams or what we find meaningful and purposeful.

    I give people this challenge. It’s not, “where would you like to be in 10 years?” or “what would you like to be different?” The challenge is to try to vividly imagine waking up on a specific day. So, pick a day of the week; is it a Monday? Is it a Saturday? A Sunday? You imagine yourself waking up, and you try to picture every detail. Where are you? Are you in the same room that you woke up in today, or is it a different room? Where is it? Is there somebody with you? Is it a person? Is it a pet? Is it a different person or pet than you might wake up with today? And then imagine what mood you are in. What mood would you like to wake up in? What would put you in that mood? What might be on your calendar for that day that would put you in that mood?

    “Because we’ve given ourselves 10 years, it allows us to dream bigger, and also enjoy that sense of time spaciousness to really make some changes or explore possibilities that we would dismiss as impossible today.”

    And then I tell people, “Go put it on your calendar.” If you’ve just imagined yourself doing this amazing thing that makes you feel a certain way, go ahead and open up your Google or Apple calendar—they do go 10, 20, 30, 40 years in the future—and put it on your calendar. Even better, invite somebody. Invite a loved one.

    It can spark some really interesting conversations about our real hopes and dreams. What is it going to take to get there? Because we’ve given ourselves 10 years, it allows us to dream bigger, and also enjoy that sense of time spaciousness to really make some changes or explore possibilities that we would dismiss as impossible today.

    The future scenarios everyone should consider.

    Rufus: Are there any other future scenarios that you think our listeners should consider?

    Jane: Things to pay attention to: government-mandated internet shutdowns is a huge future force that is spreading globally. If you’re not aware of this phenomenon and not potentially prepared to live through weeks or months of the government turning off the internet, that’s something to think about.

    Another one is climate migration. We’ve got to be willing to think about the risks where we live. Are we in a climate-secure, climate-resilient place that will probably be welcoming others who are migrating out of climate-unsafe regions? If so, we should be prepared to see a higher density of living, to be welcoming to people who have been forcibly displaced. Are we emotionally ready for that? Are we economically ready for that? Also think about our pathways to move if we need to. That is something that every serious futurist that I know is thinking about—pathways of human movement within countries, and across borders. How can we support people economically, socially, mentally, psychologically? How can we make a home? That’s a problem space that warrants so much imagination and innovation and creativity. If I could get all of the smartest minds on the planet to work on something, it would be thinking about movement. That is the biggest future scenario that would benefit from our imagination, and also our innovation.

    Feature Image Credit: Amanda-Dalbjorn /unsplash

    Sourced from Next Big Idea Club

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    5 Surprising Signs You Are on the Road to Burnout

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    By Kelly Main

    Seemingly innocuous habits and tendencies common among entrepreneurs can be signals of a serious problem.

    Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

    By Kelly Main

    Sourced from Inc.

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