NEW RESOURCES

The Stanford Law School has released a new free database. “The FCPAC is a free, comprehensive database of enforcement actions and information related to the Federal Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). It allows users to search and sort data about enforcement actions, view original documents, access relevant laws and precedent, and read articles about FCPA compliance and enforcement. It is a public service provided through the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford Law School.” If you’re not familiar with the FCPA, Justice.gov has you covered.

Cameron Moll has a Medium post about a new tool called Anchor. “Unless you’re a professional podcaster or a podcast listener with an hour to spare, probably the only kind of audio you listen to with your phone is music. Anchor brings vocal audio to the masses with short recordings and a cheap mic—your smartphone.” I actually listen to a lot of podcasts on my phone thanks to a terrific app called Pocket Casts (not affiliated, not a paid endorsement, I just really dig them) But Anchor sounds interesting. I just installed it; maybe I’ll do new resource roundups from ResearchBuzz. Enjoy making fun of my accent!

The Eastern Townships of Quebec in Canada are creating an online archive of historical materials. “Archivists in the Eastern Townships are in a race against the clock. Their goal? To get hundreds of years of historical documents uploaded in time for the launch of a new online database this spring. The Eastern Townships Archive Portal will allow users to search people and places, and browse through the materials that come up.”

Facebook has launched a new resource to teach nonprofits how best to use it. “Facebook says the new resource will be essential for nonprofits and NGOs looking to create a presence on the social network — or for organizations looking to up their game when it comes to their existing Pages. The site serves as a simple, accessible roadmap of best practices, with tips and tricks coming from the platform itself.”

TWEAKS & UPDATES

Twitter is adding new tools for customer service. “Customer service conversations often start in Tweets, but then need to transition to a private channel when personal information is required. We’re making that transition as easy as a single click. A business can now add a deep link to their Tweets that automatically displays a call to action button, which allows the customer to send the business a Direct Message, quickly and easily.” And: “Customer Feedback makes it easy for customers to share their feedback with a business after a customer service conversation. With this feature, businesses will be able to use two industry standard question formats: Net Promoter ScoreSM (NPS®) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT).” The “deep link” feature is available to businesses now, the “Customer Feedback” feature will be rolled out more slowly.

More Twitter: it’s adding video support for Direct Messages. “The feature is rolling out globally to iOS and Android so you’ll soon be able to both record and share videos from within Twitter’s mobile app, the company says. On twitter.com, you’ll be to send videos from within DM threads, but you won’t be able to record them directly on the website.”

Apple has fixed the “Error 53” issue that was plaguing iPhones. If your phone is bricked, updating the iOS should fix it. “The error was caused by unofficial repair shops replacing the connector that ran between the Touch ID sensor in an iPhone’s home button — usually in the process of replacing faulty home button assemblies.”

YOU get Facebook Live! And YOU get Facebook Live! EVERYONE IN THE WORLD IS GETTING FACEBOOK LIVE! “Facebook’s new ‘Live’ video feature is beginning its expansion outside the U.S. and into other countries around the world.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Oh dear. One of the balloons in Google’s “Project Loon” Internet access test had a bit of a mishap. “Villages found the deflated balloon with its electronic equipment in the island’s central tea-growing region of Gampola on Wednesday night, an officer told AFP….However Sri Lanka’s Information and Communication Technology Agency, which is coordinating the tests with Google, described the landing as controlled and scheduled.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Google has submitted a patent for a real-time voting system. “The system is titled ‘Social Voting-Based Campaigns in Search’ and it’d let users submit one or more votes in a voting-based campaign. It would also gather and display related social content from different platforms.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Okay, I’ve been linking to so many pile-on Twitter articles lately I want to be fair: Twitter is not a failure. “What if half a billion dollars a quarter really is all the world wants to spend on tweets? But that is not an option. Instead, the company must pivot toward new potential growth areas, at the expense of the market it already has.”

Twitter got mocked – a lot – for the public pronouncements it made about its stance against ISIS and other terrorist organizations. But apparently what it’s doing is working. “The white paper, “The Islamic State’s Diminishing Returns on Twitter,” written by J.M. Berger, fellow at the Program on Extremism, and Heather Perez, a law enforcement analyst, examined English-speaking ISIS supporters’ accounts for a 30-day period in August and September 2015 with additional samples measured at various times from June to October. The researchers found that individuals who repeatedly created accounts after being suspended suffered massive reductions in follower counts. Additionally, Mr. Berger and Ms. Perez found that suspensions diminished overall activity from these accounts and the broader network. ”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Fun friday: if you want to explore 360-degree video, check out this YouTube offering of 500 episodes of The Simpsons all playing at once. I didn’t have a hope of actually seeing what was on the screen until I upped it to max HD. The cacophony was amazing. Good morning, Internet…

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