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Daily Archives: March 22, 2021

Negligence, Not Politics, Drives Most Misinformation Sharing

Wired – “Researchers found that social media users are generally adept at identifying fake news. But that doesn’t always affect their decision to repost it. you don’t need a study to know that misinformation is rampant on social media; a quick search on “ vaccines” or “climate change” will confirm that. A more compelling question is why. It’s clear that, at a minimum, there are contributions from organized disinformation campaigns, rampant political partisans, and questionable algorithms. But beyond that, there are still a lot of people who choose to share stuff that even a cursory examination would show is garbage. What’s driving them? That was the question that motivated a small international team of researchers who decided to take a look at how a group of US residents decided on which news to share. Their results suggest that some of the standard factors that people point to when explaining the tsunami of misinformation—inability to evaluate information and partisan biases—aren’t having as much influence as most of us think. Instead, a lot of the blame gets directed at people just not paying careful attention…”

Emojis Meet Hieroglyphs: If King Tut Could

The New York Times – “An Israel Museum exhibition explores the complicated relationship between the hieroglyphs of antiquity and emoji, the lingua franca of the digital age… An exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, “Emoglyphs: Picture-Writing From Hieroglyphs to the Emoji,” highlights the seemingly obvious, but also complicated, relationship between the iconic communication system… Continue Reading

What’s new in Congress.gov? Spring 2021 Edition

In Custodia Legis by Andrew Weber: “Most of our Congress.gov posts focus on the enhancements which are part of our three week sprint cycles by which we release new material and upgrades to Congress.gov. However, sometimes I like to take a longer look back at the work we have done and provide a bigger snapshot… Continue Reading

The pandemic’s impact on email: Increased volume, adjusted strategy

Tech Republic: “Whether because of the boost the pandemic bestowed upon online shopping or simply more time in front of their laptops, senders had to change strategies regarding promotional emails and the way they are distributed, according to “How The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Changed Emailing,” a new study from Pathwire. More than half, 55% of… Continue Reading

How hospitals hide pricing data from web search results

Becker’s Health IT (no paywall): “HCA Healthcare and Universal Health Services are among hundreds of hospitals that have embedded special coding within their websites to block previously confidential pricing information from appearing in web searches, according to a March 22 Wall Street Journal report. Seven things to know…” Continue Reading

The Next Great Disruption Is Hybrid Work—Are We Ready?

Microsoft – “Exclusive research and expert insights into a year of work like no other reveal urgent trends leaders should consider as hybrid work unfolds. We’re on the brink of a disruption as great as last year’s sudden shift to remote work: the move to hybrid work — a blended model where some employees return… Continue Reading

A New Portal for the Decentralized Web and its Guiding Principles

Internet Archives Blog – “For a long time, we’ve felt that the growing, diverse, global community interested in building the decentralized Web needed an entry point. A portal into the events, concepts, voices, and resources critical to moving the Decentralized Web forward. This is why we created, getdweb.net, to serve as a portal, a welcoming… Continue Reading

In ‘Landmark’ Ruling, Court Raises Threshold for Firing Feds

Agencies must do more to prove feds were actually performing poorly, court says in precedent-setting decision. “Federal agencies are now facing new requirements to fire employees thanks to a court ruling that reversed a decades old precedent.  In Santos v. NASA, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found the space agency failed… Continue Reading