The Internet Archive has posted for free viewing the movie – The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, “an investigative documentary from director Brian Knappenberger about the life of the internet pioneer and activist Aaron Swartz.” See also related postings on Aaron Swartz. Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: July 2014
Files provided by Snowden show extent to which ordinary Web users are caught in the net – WaPo
In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are, by Barton Gellman, Julie Tate and Ashkan Soltani “Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post. Nine of 10 account holders found… Continue Reading
New Forms of Discovery and Purchasing in Libraries: Demand Driven Acquisitions
Michael Levine-Clark – Professor/Associate Dean for Scholarly Communication and Collections Services, University of Denver Libraries, 2014 NISO/BISG Annual Forum, June 27, 2014, Las Vegas, NV. Link to SlideShare presentation. “Goals • Develop a flexible model for DDA that works for publishers, vendors, aggregators, and libraries. • Model should allow for DDA programs that – Meet local budget… Continue Reading
Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 Years Later
Fencing Out Knowledge – Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 Years Later, American Library Association, Policy Brief No. 5, June 2014. “What do Hotmail, YouTube, Google Docs, Facebook, and National Geographic have in common? They offer content and services that millions of Americans use every day to communicate, share content, and seek information. They also… Continue Reading
Americans work more hours than counterparts around the world – OECD
WSJ.com, Erin McCarthy – ‘The U.S. needs to focus on improving well-being more broadly for its citizens, particularly as long working hours and stark income inequality are hindering quality of life, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said in its recent economic survey of the U.S. [OECD Economic Surveys: United States 2014]. It highlighted a notable divide… Continue Reading
How a Bitcoin Rival Could Create a Global Supermoney – American Banker
American Banker, Richard Samson – [Editor’s note: This article is based in part on SUPERMONEY: The New Wealth Beyond Banks and Bitcoin, which appears on Samson’s Futurist blog published by the World Future Society.] While Bitcoin grabs headlines, a little-noted rival promises to supercharge all currencies old and new, fiat and cyber. An open-source programming system… Continue Reading
Facebook Experiments Had Few Limits – WSJ
Follow up to previous posting – Facebook tinkered with users’ feeds for a massive psychology experiment – Study, via WSJ.com – Facebook Experiments Had Few Limits, Data Science Lab Conducted Tests on Users With Little Oversight: Reed Albergotti – “Since its creation in 2007, Facebook’s Data Science group has run hundreds of tests. One published study deconstructed how… Continue Reading
Is Your Android Device Telling the World Where You’ve Been? – EFF
“Do you own an Android device? Is it less than three years old? If so, then when your phone’s screen is off and it’s not connected to a Wi-Fi network, there’s a high risk that it is broadcasting your location history to anyone within Wi-Fi range that wants to listen. This location history comes in the… Continue Reading
Food waste reduction could help feed world’s starving – BBC
Caroline Hepker – “Some 40% of all the food produced in the United States is never eaten. In Europe, we throw away 100 million tonnes of food every year. And yet there are one billion starving people in the world. The FAO’s best guess is that one third of all food produced for human consumption is lost… Continue Reading
New Chinese LDR Rules Could Raise Bank Asset Quality Risk
Fitch news release: “Fitch Ratings-Beijing/Singapore-03 July 2014: The 30 June decision by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) to amend the calculation of bank loan/deposit ratios (LDRs) is part of an ongoing targeted easing of liquidity conditions. Spurring growth of lending to small/micro enterprises (MSEs) has the potential to hurt bank credit profiles over the… Continue Reading
Utah Is on Track to End Homelessness by 2015 With This One Simple Idea
Via NationSwell – “Utah has reduced its rate of chronic homelessness by 74 percent over the past eight years, moving 2000 people off the street and putting the state on track to eradicate homelessness altogether by 2015. How’d they do it? The state is giving away apartments, no strings attached. In 2005, Utah calculated the annual… Continue Reading
EPIC Challenges Facebook’s Manipulation of Users, Files FTC Complaint
“EPIC has filed a formal complaint to the Federal Trade Commission concerning Facebook’s manipulation of users’ News Feeds for psychological research. “The company purposefully messed with people’s minds,” states the EPIC complaint. EPIC has charged that the study violates a privacy consent order and is a deceptive trade practice. In 2012, Facebook subjected 700,000 users to an “emotional”… Continue Reading
