NEW RESOURCES

TechCrunch: Equal Justice Initiative, backed by Google.org, launches ‘Lynching in America’. “Thanks in part to funding by Google.org, Equal Justice Initiative has launched an online platform to explore the history of lynching in America. The goal with Lynching in America is to enable people to confront the history of lynching through research, data and the stories of those affected by lynching in America.”

PR Newswire: Gale Launches Second Installment of the Archives of Sexuality and Gender Series (PRESS RELEASE). “LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part II complements and broadens the depth of content provided by the first installment in the series, and provides significant historical context for understanding the lasting impact and influence of the LGBTQ movement. More than 1.4 million pages of content from newsletters, periodicals, photographs, personal papers, manuscripts, pamphlets, and other types of primary sources, highlights underrepresented and often-excluded groups within the LGBTQ community.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

SEO Roundtable: Officially Live: Google My Business Launches Website Builder. “Earlier this year, Google was beta testing a website builder for Google My Business customers. Well, that tool is now available globally for any business within Google My Business.”

Mashable: Patreon wants to grow up with a new look, big-name artists, and its own Snapchat ripoff. “Patreon has fed a hotbed of homemade art and bootstrap media. Now it’s looking to get more professional. The crowdfunding platform launched a sleek brand overhaul and a host of new creator tools on Wednesday in a bid to cast itself as a serious business builder for scrappy bedroom artists and established entertainers alike.”

USEFUL STUFF

IDEO Blog: How We Did It: Snapchat-Enabled Safety Goggles. “A few weeks ago, while I was in our workshop, I had an idea: If I could modify Snapchat’s Spectacles into a pair of safety goggles, I could document our projects without ever picking up a camera.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Arizona State University: Watch your church service on Facebook? ASU professor confirms there’s an app for that. “Many faith communities — from traditional churches to spiritual and non-denominational congregations — are now embracing digital technology for leading worship services, delivering religious teachings, and building relationships with current and potential members. The use of digital technology is also changing the way some religious communities identify, create and maintain religious authority.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES
McClatchy: Researcher finds Georgia voter records exposed on internet. “A security researcher disclosed a gaping security hole at the outfit that manages Georgia’s election technology, days before the state holds a closely watched congressional runoff vote on June 20. The security failure left the state’s 6.7 million voter records and other sensitive files exposed to hackers, and may have been left unpatched for seven months. The revealed files might have allowed attackers to plant malware and possibly rig votes or wreak chaos with voter rolls during elections.”

Ars Technica: Supreme Court will weigh in on troll-killing patent-review process. “The Supreme Court has often overturned Federal Circuit rulings in recent years, and that pattern has generally led to rulings that are praised by opponents of so-called ‘patent trolls,’ a colloquial term for non-practicing entities—the licensing shops that file the majority of patent lawsuits. But if the Supreme Court continues that pattern in one of its next cases, it could actually result in the wholesale elimination of one of the most powerful tools for fighting patent trolls.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Phys.org: Scientists call for consistent guidelines on social media use in research. “Scientists at the University of York have called for guidelines, informed by public opinion, to be made available to researchers who are considering using social media as a research tool. Whilst there has been much debate on the ethics of using social media posts in research, a comprehensive search of studies from around the globe only identified 11 that have explored the views of social media users on employing such research methods, and as few as six which considered the views of researchers.” Good afternoon, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!