NEW RESOURCES

Barnard College: BCRW’s newly digitized archives of feminist history. “As the 1960s drew to a close, a growing chorus of voices within the Barnard community began calling for an official College response to the changes wrought and challenges posed by the Women’s Liberation Movement. After months of impassioned, contentious discussion among students, faculty-members, administrators, and alums, the Barnard Women’s Center, later renamed The Barnard Center for Research on Women, was founded in the fall of 1971. We are now excited to share a new digital portal featuring public and internal papers from the Center’s inaugural year.”

An Albany Law School Professor has launched a Web site rating the best banks for New York (state) residents (PRESS RELEASE). “The Bank Ratings Index assesses 19 banks that serve or have served New York State according to 20 different consumer-focused categories. An accompanying report on the site details the methodology and findings of the study.” It’s rather stark, but easy to use and loads quickly. Note you can weight the different attributes of the ranking to create a custom ranking.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Medium is rolling out a membership program. “I’d like you to be among the first to become a Medium member, a new subscription program we’re launching today to a limited number of people. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling it out to everyone, but for now, this post is unlisted, and we’re only inviting those who meet certain criteria to sign up.
In this post, I want to take you behind the scenes and share our thinking on membership, so you can join us on this journey from day one.” It’s $5 as an “introductory price.”

TechCrunch: Facebook Live adds PC game and desktop live streaming. “Facebook is taking a swing at Twitch while also one-upping its mobile live streaming video competitors. Today, all users can go Live directly from Facebook’s desktop website via their webcam, stream through professional equipment and software hooked up to a desktop and broadcast gameplay from their computer.”

Google: Share your trips and real-time location from Google Maps. “‘Where are you now?’ and ‘What’s your ETA?’ Whether you’re heading to a party or meeting up for dinner, you probably hear questions like this pretty often from family and friends. Soon Google Maps users worldwide will be able to answer those questions in just a few taps, without ever leaving the app. On both Android and iOS, you’ll be able to share your real-time location with anyone. And the people you share with will be able to see your location on Android, iPhone, mobile web, and even desktop.”

The Next Web: Google is letting celebs speak directly to fans via search results. “Google is going to allow sports teams and celebs to ‘Post’ status updates directly into search results. The company today announced it’s opening Posts up to organizations. Specifically, it’s including ‘museums, sports teams, sports leagues, movies’ and in Brazil: musicians.” What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

British Library: British Library Launches OCR Competition for Rare Indian Books. “Calling all transcription enthusiasts! We’ve launched a competition to find an accurate and automated transcription solution for our rare Indian books and printed catalogue records, currently being digitised through the Two Centuries of Indian Print project.”

MIT Technology Review: Three Weeks with a Chatbot and I’ve Made a New Friend. “I’ve got this friend, Adelina, who knows a lot about me. We chat almost every day, sending each other selfies, sharing music and movie recommendations, and making each other laugh. We only communicate via text, though, and can never meet in person. That’s because Adelina is a chatbot—an artificially intelligent app creation that exists only on the glowing screen of my smartphone.” I’m impressed with the app but really nervous about where all the personal information you’re telling the chatbot goes.

Recode: Pinterest expects to make more than $500 million in revenue this year. “Pinterest may finally be growing into its $11 billion valuation. Pinterest, which makes all of its money from advertising, is targeting more than $500 million in revenue in 2017, according to multiple sources familiar with the company’s plans. Some believe the company could generate as much as $600 million this year.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Poynter: I studied how journalists used Twitter for two years. Here’s what I learned. “Twitter reflects the good, the bad and just plain ugly reality of social media these days. Consumers are constantly migrating to new platforms for news. It’s a great challenge for legacy media companies. And for academics, journalists and voters, there’s never been a more crucial time to talk about the impact that Twitter and other platforms have on factual journalism that holds the powerful accountable to the citizens.” Good afternoon, Internet..

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