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Daily Archives: December 3, 2017

Paper – Stewardship in the “Age of Algorithms”

Stewardship in the “Age of Algorithms [via First Monday] by Clifford Lynch – This paper explores pragmatic approaches that might be employed to document the behavior of large, complex socio-technical systems (“algorithms”) that involve some mixture of personalization, opaque rules, and machine learning components. Thinking rooted in traditional archival methodology — focusing on the preservation of physical and digital objects, and perhaps the accompanying preservation of their environments to permit subsequent interpretation or performance — has been a total failure for many reasons. If we are to successfully cope with the new “Age of Algorithms,” there must be shift from artifacts requiring mediation and curation, to experiences. Specifically, it must focus on making pragmatic sense of an incredibly vast number of unique, personalized performances that can potentially be recorded.”

32 Most Dangerous (and Safest) Cities for Cycling

24/7 Wall St: “The United States is not known for its bike-friendly infrastructure. Next to cities like Copenhagen, Denmark and Amsterdam, Netherlands, where bikes often outnumber cars and where biking is common across all demographics, U.S. cities appear car-obsessed places, where biking is reserved for athletes and young adults. Despite the nation’s relatively poor bike… Continue Reading

Moody’s: Climate change is forecast to heighten US exposure to economic loss placing short-and long-term credit pressure on US states and local governments

News release: New York, November 28, 2017 – “The growing effects of climate change, including climbing global temperatures, and rising sea levels, are forecast to have an increasing economic impact on US state and local issuers. This will be a growing negative credit factor for issuers without sufficient adaptation and mitigation strategies, Moody’s Investors Service… Continue Reading

Report – Bias, Bullshit and Lies Audience Perspectives on Low Trust in the Media

“These findings should be a wake up call for journalists, platforms and regulators. Rebuilding trust will require all interested parties to work together. We need better incentives to create and showcase more accurate and more trusted content.” – Report Co-author Nic Newman. “Even in a world where people increasingly get news from social media, the… Continue Reading

Facebook to Temporarily Block Advertisers From Excluding Audiences by Race

The social network’s actions come after a ProPublica investigation revealed that Facebook failed to keep its promise to reject discriminatory housing ads. “Facebook said it would temporarily stop advertisers from being able to exclude viewers by race while it studies the use of its ad targeting system. “Until we can better ensure that our tools… Continue Reading

DOJ Publishes New Guidance on FOIA Websites

[November 30, 2017– DOJ]: “OIP [Office of Information Policy] published updated guidance for agency FOIA websites. This new guidance, Agency FOIA Websites 2.0, encourages agencies to review their FOIA websites to ensure they contain essential resources, and are informative and user-friendly. While the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996 required agencies to use… Continue Reading

Treasury IG to report on completed tax bill analysis that was not released

ThinkProgess: “Treasury watchdog to investigate why analysis of GOP tax bill was never made public. Sen. Warren said the department has “grossly misled” the public. The Treasury Department’s inspector general has opened an inquiry into why the department’s analysis of the Republican tax plan hasn’t been released to the public, following a request from Sen.… Continue Reading