NEW RESOURCES

The Republic of China, more commonly known as Taiwan, has officially launched its Executive Yuan Digital Archive. I mentioned the trial launch that took place last May; I’m mentioning this one now because it includes livestreaming of Cabinet press conferences and similar events. All of this, as you might expect, is in Mandarin. (I think it’s Mandarin.)

The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, North Carolina) has been digitized and put online. “During our last call for newspaper digitization, the Kings Mountain Herald was nominated by Mauney Memorial Library. Issues of the paper from December 1937-December 1954 have now been added to DigitalNC.”

In development: a database of Georgian winemakers. (That’s Georgia the country, not Georgia the state.) “The new online database, which is currently under development, will provide a range of information about wine producers in Georgia and at the same time, help them to access key information about wine export opportunities to the EU. A hundred companies mainly from Georgia’s Kakheti and Kartli regions have been selected and interviewed to feature on the new website. The website will share information about these companies’ production, pricing and availability for export.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) recently awarded over $21 million dollars in grants for 206 museum projects. You can browse or search the awarded grants here.

Game-changer: Facebook Live is coming to laptops and desktops. “And a source with knowledge of the social network’s plans told SocialTimes the launch of the feature was a response to demand from journalists, vloggers and do-it-yourselfers, among other users, adding that it is currently available to a ‘small percentage’ of users, with more set to come on board ‘in the coming months.'”

Almond is now on IFTTT, and apologies for the breathless quote: “Almond routers from Securifi have been leading innovation in the Wi-Fi and connected home spaces since 2012. The built-in touchscreen, integrated smart home hub, and Alexa-enabled voice control make Almond a powerful WiFi, security, and smart home platform.”

Twitter is trying to be more business-friendly. “Businesses’ Twitter profiles can now display the hours that a company is available to respond to people’s tweets — such as ’24/7′ or ‘4am-11pm’ — and feature a button people can click to send it a direct message.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

We live in a world with new, strange battlefields. Ukrainian Ministry of Information Policy Thanks Facebook Bots for Their Hard Work. “On Tuesday, Mikhail Degtyarev, an MP from the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, sent a letter to Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov requesting that action be taken against Ukrainian bots he said are unfairly targeting Russian-language Facebook users. In a tweet responding to the news, an arm of the Ukrainian government’s Ministry of Information Policy seemed to thank those responsible for creating the bots.”

Facebook is insisting that it’s not a media editor. Uh-huh. “Facebook makes value judgements about what can appear in News Feed and what’s censored, but insists its a tech company not a media editor. At TechCrunch Disrupt SF, writer Josh Constine sat down with Adam Mosseri, a VP at Facebook and head of News Feed, to hear more about how policies control what you see.”

Some people are complaining about last night’s NFL livestream on Twitter. “In the debut of an N.F.L. plan to live stream ‘Thursday Night Football’ games on Twitter, the entire experience could have benefited from an accompanying #spoilers hashtag, as the instantaneous nature of Twitter ran headfirst into the speed-related flaws still inherent in streaming video.” I had the stream on at work to keep me company. The video quality was surprisingly good, and there was only one crash/glitch. I can see, however, how if I had access to other game video I might be unhappy. For my situation – at work, no TV available at all – it was terrific.

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Did we all see this coming? A woman is suing her parents for posting embarrassing pictures of her on social media. “The teenager, from the southern Carinthia region of Austria, claims the intimate pictures from her childhood have made her life a misery. She claims more than 500 images have been posted by her parents on the social media site without her permission since 2009.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Being bullied on Facebook might increase the chance of depression. “Of 264 study participants surveyed in 2013 and 2014, more than 8 in 10 reported at least one negative Facebook experience, such as bullying, meanness, misunderstandings or unwanted contacts. And 63 percent said they’d had four or more negative experiences since they’d started using the online service. Moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms were reported by about one-quarter of the respondents. The risk of depressive symptoms was 3.2 times higher among those who had any negative Facebook experiences compared with those who had not, the study found.” Good morning, Internet…

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