NEW RESOURCES

Smithsonian: Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Launches New Digital Magazine and Redesigned Websites. “Among the highlights of the redesign is a new Smithsonian Folkways Recordings site, which features an improved searchable database and enhanced video players that provide visitors with better access to the record label’s online collections, educational resources and multimedia features. Since its acquisition by the Smithsonian in 1987, Folkways has published over 3,600 recordings; this new site improves access to all of the label’s 58,000 tracks, free liner notes and in-depth artist profiles.”

PRNewswire: CinemaStock.com Launches Stock Footage Library for Filmmakers (PRESS RELEASE). “CinemaStock.com is proud to announce the launch of its stock footage platform offering low-cost subscription-based HD and 5K footage for independent filmmakers, YouTube video producers, music video producers and video marketers…. All footage features individual actors and characters is model-released and available for use by filmmakers without a need for further licensing fees. Outside/street/scenery footage may feature public and pedestrians and is marked and intended for editorial use.”

Delaware Art Museum: Delaware Art Museum Puts Over 500 Rare Archives Online. “The Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives has embarked upon a digitization initiative to provide free access to our most significant collections, including the John Sloan, Howard Pyle, and Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft, Jr. Pre-Raphaelite Manuscript Collections. The archives are available through the Delaware Heritage Collection, an online portal supported by the Delaware Division of Libraries at delart.org. Visitors to this new online resource are able to browse the Museum’s collections, search for specific objects, view images, and read transcripts.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Next Web: YouTube TV gets a boost with seven new channels. “YouTube TV is expanding its service for the first time since it became available over a month ago. Seven new networks have been added to the basic $35 package.” Hasn’t added any new markets, however.

Washington Post: Lyft and Waymo just teamed up on self-driving cars, taking aim at a common enemy. “Two key players in Silicon Valley’s battle to define the future of transportation are teaming up, taking aim at a common enemy. Waymo, the self-driving division of Google’s parent company Alphabet, and ride-hailing company Lyft are partnering to test driverless car technology, the companies confirmed Sunday.”

USEFUL STUFF

Practical Ecommerce: 12 Online Tools to Produce Video Content. “If you’re interested in producing video content to promote your business, you can find plenty of video production tools online for very little cost, or free. … Here is a list of online tools to produce video content for your viewers. There are full-featured video editors, easy-to-use video builders with professional templates, animation apps, and tools for live-streaming video. Most of these tools are free.”

Honestly, if you want to follow resources on Twitter, I recommend Nuzzel. But as an alternative, from How-To Geek: How to Follow a Twitter Feed in Your RSS Reader. “RSS readers are a great way to keep on top of the news. Unfortunately, a lot of sites have moved away from RSS and towards just publishing all their articles on a Twitter stream. This isn’t so good if you want to make sure you keep up to date with a particular site; anything they post will get buried in your timeline with a million other Tweets. What you can do, however, is convert their Twitter feed to an RSS feed. Here’s how.”

TechCrunch: TexTranslator automatically translates texts for users. “Incorporating tech from Nexmo, which makes APIs for SMS, voice and phone verifications; the cognitive technology IBM Watson; and PubNub, which makes APIs for real-time apps, TexTranslator allows users to simply send one number to all of the contacts they’ll need to communicate with during a trip abroad, and every text sent back to them is translated into their preferred language.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Washington Post: Under Trump, inconvenient data is being sidelined. “The Trump administration has removed or tucked away a wide variety of information that until recently was provided to the public, limiting access, for instance, to disclosures about workplace violations, energy efficiency, and animal welfare abuses. Some of the information relates to enforcement actions taken by federal agencies against companies and other employers. By lessening access, the administration is sheltering them from the kind of ‘naming and shaming’ that federal officials previously used to influence company behavior, according to digital experts, activists and former Obama administration officials.”

Financial Post: Open data — Canada’s ‘new natural resource’ — proves harder to mine than expected. “The gold — or ‘new natural resource’ — to be mined wasn’t a precious metal, oil reserve or forest. It was government data. Before the digital age, the government’s collection of records about everything from traffic patterns to the weather was stored in banker’s boxes and filing cabinets, inaccessible to the public without an access to information request. Thanks to spreadsheets and the Internet, it can now be hosted online for anyone to analyze or build a business on.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Wired: If You Still Use Windows XP, Prepare For the Worst . “AS A VICIOUS new strain of ransomware swept the UK’s National Health Service yesterday, shutting off services at hospitals and clinics throughout the region, experts cautioned that the best protection was to download a patch Microsoft had issued in March. The only problem? A reported 90 percent of NHS systems run Windows XP, an operating system Microsoft first introduced in 2001, and hasn’t supported since 2014.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Wired: Google’s AI Invents Sounds Humans Have Never Heard Before. “The idea is that NSynth, which Google first discussed in a blog post last month, will provide musicians with an entirely new range of tools for making music. Critic Marc Weidenbaum points out that the approach isn’t very far removed from what orchestral conductors have done for ages—“the blending of instruments is nothing new,” he says—but he also believes that Google’s technology could push this age-old practice into new places. ‘Artistically, it could yield some cool stuff, and because it’s Google, people will follow their lead,’ he says.” Good morning, Internet…

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