afternoonbuzz

Azerbaijan Production, NYC Rents, YouTube, More: Thursday Afternoon Buzz, September 22, 2016

NEW RESOURCES

The government of Azerbaijan is creating a database of goods produced in that country. “The Center for Analyses of Economic Reforms and Communications is to provide creation of the internet portal in three languages (Azerbaijani, English and Russian), which will have data on Azerbaijan-produced goods and their manufacturers, within three months, create a search system on production activity on that portal (each good, manufacturer, legal address, contact, as well as group of manufacturers, production opportunities, partners and etc.)…”

A new tool is available to show New York apartments at risk for rent hikes. “The Displacement Alert Project Map mined several public databases to include more than 96,400 residential properties with more than three apartments that met at least one of three conditions: The building was sold in 2015, had obtained a work permit from the city’s Department of Buildings since 2013 or contained at least one rent-regulated unit since 2007.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

YouTube has launched yet another new initiative: Creators for Change. “YouTube Creators for Change is a new initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of role models who are tackling difficult social issues with their channels. From combating hate speech, to countering xenophobia and extremism, to simply making the case for greater tolerance and empathy toward others, these creators are helping generate positive social change with their global fan bases.”

Like Facebook livestreaming? looks like you’ve got some new options. “Mobile platform BlueStacks today announced an elegant solution to stream apps directly to Facebook. The company has already had success doing the same with platforms like Twitch.tv, a move that saw streamers and technophiles broadcasting in front of a potential audience of millions while demonstrating applications, playing games, or even cooking dinner.”

Flickr is getting rid of Marketplace. “Two years ago Flickr rolled out Marketplace, a photo licensing service that was meant to help Flickr users get paid by big websites and media properties that wanted to use that user’s photos. As of today, Flickr Marketplace is going away.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

A British consumer watchdog is telling Microsoft it must compensate users for computers which broke upon an upgrade to Windows 10. “Which? found that 12 per cent of Microsoft customers that had downloaded Windows 10 ended up reverting to an earlier version of the operating system after experiencing problems. The watchdog surveyed 5,596 British customers, 2,500 of whom at upgraded to the latest Microsoft system.”

From Quartz, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite RSS feeds: It turns out designing a Facebook for farmers makes growing food cheaper. “For more than a century, farmers have been gathering in coffee shops to trade information about what crops grow best, which seeds are worth planting next season, and the prices for everything from factors to fertilizer. Now those cafes are moving online—and farmers are handing over their fields to the nerds. The pitch coming from startups and agricultural giants is simple: share your data (confidentially, anonymously) with us, and our algorithms will tell you the best way to increase your harvests and manage your farm.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Wow: Oversight orders Reddit to preserve deleted posts in Clinton investigation. “The House Oversight Committee has ordered Reddit to preserve deleted posts believed to be written by an IT technician the committee suspects may have deleted Hillary Clinton emails that were under subpoena. Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) confirmed that the committee has issued a preservation order and that Reddit is ‘cooperating.'” I am not posting this because it’s Clinton – I’d post it if it were Trump or any other person running for elected office. This feels historical.

Brian Krebs got DDOS’d. “One of the biggest web attacks ever seen has been aimed at a security blogger after he exposed hackers who carry out such attacks for cash. The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack was aimed at the website of industry expert Brian Krebs. At its peak, the attack aimed 620 gigabits of data a second at the site.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Research: Want the most telling presidential polling data? Professor says turn to Twitter. “National polls have traditionally been a go-to barometer to gauge public opinion of presidential candidates and who has the inside track on the race for the White House. But Northeastern assistant professor of political science Nick Beauchamp says state-level polls provide an even better example of voter intention. The problem, he says, is that state-level polling is rare and often focuses primarily on swing states. So Beauchamp created an innovative computational model to gauge up-to-date voter intentions in individual states using Twitter. In a paper published on Sept. 13 in the American Journal of Political Science, Beauchamp explains that social media is an ideal platform for predictive polling data.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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