NEW RESOURCES

Now available: a Web site that measures how government Web sites are doing complying with policy guidelines and best practices. “Earlier this week, GSA launched Pulse.cio.gov – a public dashboard that displays how well all federal domains are performing in accordance with government-wide web policy requirements and best practices. Pulse was created to give agencies and the public access to data on how the Federal government is improving security, safeguarding privacy, and improving citizen experience on Federal websites.”

The HIV Story Project has launched an online archive (PRESS RELEASE). “More than 500+ video stories are currently archived on the GenerationsHIV.org website where users can explore, share and reflect. Over the next several months, leading up to World AIDS Day on December 1st, the archive will grow to more than 1000+ stories and testimonials.”

The state of North Carolina has digitized select correspondence of Governor Samuel Johnston and made it available online. “Johnston served as North Carolina’s sixth governor from December 1787 through December 1789. While governor, he presided over the North Carolina convention that ratified the United States Constitution in November 1789.”

Silly: Microsoft has a new site to help decide if two people are twins. “Upload a picture of yourself and someone else you think may share the same resemblance as you, and Microsoft does the rest by analyzing the two photos. When it’s done, a percentage of how much you look like the other person is presented.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Peach Public Libraries has joined the Digital Library of Georgia and kicked off with several new photo collections.

Ooo! Firefox has integrated Pocket. “Mozilla’s Firefox now features a full integration with the Pocket read-it-later service for saving text and video. In addition, Reader View now offers users a distraction-free reading mode that’s similar to Apple’s Reader mode in Safari and the functionality of the popular Readability extension and bookmarklets.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Google has tanked the Google+ link on many of its properties.

Yahoo is killing off several properties, including Yahoo Pipes and Yahoo Maps. Sad about Yahoo Pipes….

Instagram is opening its feed to ads. “Marketers will be able to target ads to the service’s 300 million users by interest, age, gender and other factors, just as they can on Facebook.”

A lot to think about in this article. Who asks better interview questions: CNN or Reddit?

Facebook is testing the ability for business page owners to use canned responses. Mark the date: it’s the first time in a while that I’ve read an article about a new Facebook Pages feature that doesn’t make me want to throw something.

RESEARCH AND OPINION

The US Copyright Office has published its final report on the digitization of orphan works (PDF, sorry). There’s too much in the Executive Summary to try to quote here, but it’s worth a read.

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

University College London has launched an Open Access press. “UCL is pleased to announce the launch of UCL Press, the University’s in house publishing arm. UCL Press will be the first fully Open Access university press in the UK with all books, journals and monographs freely available online, creating a diverse and accessible global knowledge resource…. All titles published by UCL Press will be made available in Open Access digital form, as well as in print and e-book formats available commercially.” Good morning, Internet…

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