NEW RESOURCES

University of Notre Dame: Center for Civil and Human Rights to publish first database examining intersection of Catholic social teaching and international human rights law. “The University of Notre Dame Center for Civil and Human Rights, in partnership with Hesburgh Libraries, will unveil Convocate — the first online research tool for simultaneous searching of Catholic social teaching documents and the instruments of international human rights law — on Friday (April 21). … Convocate is a free online database designed to help scholars, students, practitioners, advocates, public officials, diplomats, ministers, pastors and concerned citizens compare documents from Catholic social teaching and international human rights law for the purpose of investigating the convergences and divergences between the two fields.”

The International Chamber of Commerce has launched a new digital library. “At the world business organization, we recognise the importance of information and knowledge to your business and legal practices. That’s why we’ve created the ICC Digital Library. Through this online service, we’ll deliver easy, 24/7 access to our vast collection of essential reference materials to promote innovative research, learning and more.” Some of the items are available for paid members only, though other sections are open to anyone.

Digital NC: The Future Outlook: Documenting African American Communities in Greensboro from WWII-1970’s. “The Future Outlook, a community newspaper from Greensboro, NC, is now available on DigitalNC. Thanks to our partner, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, nearly 25 years of the paper are now online and full-text searchable. The nearly 450 editions range from 1941-1947, 1949, 1952, and 1958-1972. The Future Outlook served an African American community in Greensboro and documents major events from their perspective.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Digital Trends: Google Voice Now Filters Out Unwanted Calls, Thanks to Update. “Last summer, Google took the initiative of adding anti-spam features to Nexus, Pixel, and Android One phones, allowing your device to warn you if you were receiving a ring from a ‘suspected spam caller.’ Now, Google Voice is receiving the same functionality.”

TechCrunch: Everything Facebook launched at both days of F8 and why. Warning: slide show.

Marketing Week: How Google is disrupting the education system. “Google has unveiled plans to use its online course We Are Squared to disrupt the education system, as it says it is ‘successfully’ merging classroom and online learning styles, something others have failed to do.”

Marketwired: Baidu Announces Project Apollo, Opening Up its Autonomous Driving Platform (PRESS RELEASE). “Baidu has today announced a new project named ‘Apollo’ which will provide an open, complete and reliable software platform for its partners in the automotive and autonomous driving industry to develop their own autonomous driving systems with reference vehicles and hardware platform.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Forbes: Why Don’t Social Media Companies Stop Violent Imagery?. “The intense media coverage this past week of the so-called ‘Facebook killer’ drew attention once again to the horrific ways in which social media platforms can provide a global audience to people who wish to do themselves or others grievous harm and indeed begs the question of whether in the absence of such instant fame would at least some of these acts have been prevented?”

Bloomberg Quint: European Telcos Team Up to Take AI Fight to Google, Amazon. “European mobile networks Orange SA and Deutsche Telekom AG are teaming up to build an artificial intelligence platform, in a bid to catch up with Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon.com Inc.”

The Drum: Google considers introducing ad-blocker for Chrome web browser. “This feature would filter out certain types of online ads deemed to provide a bad user experience, and could be turned on by default. The unacceptable ad types are based on those defined by the Coalition for Better Ads in March.” And I’m sure that exactly zero of the unacceptable ads would be coming from Google, which makes an awful lot of money from advertising….

Mashable: I tried to join an Instagram pod and it was like high school all over again. “I’m an avid Instagrammer who’s thirsty for likes and comments as much as the next person. The notion of a delightful Insta love-in sounded like a dream-come-true. So, I tried to join one. And, it could not have been further from what I expected. An excellent idea in theory, but, put into practice, it feels like a brutal popularity contest straight out of Mean Girls.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

CNET: Google wants better international rules for data requests. “We know governments send requests to Google for our data. We know they sometimes get a court order, and they’ve even done so secretly. And though Google puts out a semiannual transparency report giving us a broad sense of how often governments are asking to access private data of its users, Google says a new problem has cropped up: The number of requests from governments outside the US is growing.” Good morning, Internet…

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