NEW RESOURCES

Hyperallergic: An Important Archive of New York Quilt History Is Being Digitized . “The vast majority of these quilts are not at the New York City museum, but are heirlooms in private collections, whether an attic in the Catskills or a quilt trunk in Brooklyn. AFAM received a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) in January of 2017 to digitize the New York Quilt Project and add its records to the Quilt Index, a joint project of the Alliance for American Quilts, Michigan State University, and the Michigan State University Museum. The Quilt Index has quilts from across the United States, from Hawaii to Kansas, allowing users to compare various quilts between distant collections. AFAM has so far put about 1,500 quilts online, and expects to finish the digitization in 2019. AFAM also has related oral history recordings that they’re working to digitize.”

Inquirer: SOAS University of London launches ‘Digital Filipinana’ collection. “SOAS University of London (the School of Oriental and African Studies) has created ‘Digital Filipiniana’, an open-access collection of digitized Philippine texts and materials. Dr. Cristina Martinez-Juan, senior teaching fellow and researcher in the South East Asia Section of the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, initiated the project, which was resulted from an effort to advance Philippine studies in the UK.”

FamilySearch: What’s New: FamilySearch Places. “Anyone who has tried to uncover his or her family history knows that place is an integral part of every family’s story. The places our ancestors lived shaped their lives and experiences. They also determined what records were created about them. It makes sense, then, that to find our ancestors and understand their lives, we need to learn about the places they came from. FamilySearch has a new tool called FamilySearch Places, which makes learning about places easier. Although the development of this tool is ongoing, some great features are already available, so you can start using it now.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Inside Higher Ed: Big Brother: College Edition. “When Matthew Wolfsen, a student activist at Georgia Tech, asked the university for all its records on him, he got back two binders of documents. Some of it was expected — his high school transcript, for instance. He also found that administrators kept tabs on his political affiliation and a trip he took to Washington in July. ‘Continuing to monitor this student’s social media accounts,’ Steven Norris, a social media manager for Georgia Tech, said in one email reviewed by Inside Higher Ed. The email contained details about a Facebook group Wolfsen had joined and a screenshot from his Facebook account about a meeting of the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents Wolfsen planned to attend. The materials were sent to several leaders of the institution’s communications team.”

Mashable: Facebook signs first-ever music deal with a record label. “Facebook is getting more musical. In what’s been quite the long-time coming for the social network, Facebook has signed its first-ever deal for music rights with a record label. Universal Music Group and Facebook agreed on a multi-year deal that lets Facebook host content with the label’s licensed music across its network, including the main app, Instagram, and Oculus. That could include Facebook and Instagram videos made by users with the music in the background.”

Recode: Google is sending more traffic than Facebook to publishers — again. “Google used to be the main source of referral traffic for web publishers. Then Facebook eclipsed it. And now, Google is back on top again. Over the course of 2017, the search engine has become publishers’ main source of external page views, according to new data from Parse.ly, a digital analytics company.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

KDWN: Officials To Build Database To Aid Las Vegas Shooting Victims. “Clark County officials say they are working to create a database of everyone who attended, worked or responded to the county music festival on the Las Vegas Strip where a mass shooting killed 58 people and left hundreds injured.”

The Next Web: Eric Schmidt is stepping down as Alphabet’s executive chairman. “Eric Schmidt will be stepping down from Alphabet’s board of directors to serve as a technical advisor, the company announced today. He will continue to serve as a member of the board.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

I beg your pardon for the expletive in the headline. Personally, I agree with it, but I try to keep this newsletter rated G or low PG. Also this article features at least one f bomb. Techdirt: Keeper Security Files Bullshit SLAPP Suit Against Ars Technica, Letting Many More People Know Not To Use Its Software. “If you’re a security software company and you want to know the best way to make sure that no security professional ever recommends your software ever again, you should do what Keeper Security did and sue a respected security journalist for reporting on your security flaws. As first reported by Zack Whittaker (link above), Keeper Security has filed a totally bullshit SLAPP lawsuit against Ars Technica and its widely respected security reporter Dan Goodin. Last week Goodin published a story about a major flaw in the browser extension for Keeper’s password manager, that was bundled with Windows.”

TechCrunch: Twitter will tell users if content was blocked to comply with local laws or legal demands. “Twitter will now display messages to inform users if blocked tweets were withheld to comply with local laws or court orders, which it calls Country Withheld Content (CWC). The public already has information about CWC through notices sent directly to affected accounts, Lumen, a database of legal requests for the removal of online content, and Twitter’s own biannual transparency reports. The new interstitials, however, will give Twitter users information as soon as they try to access blocked tweets or accounts.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Southern California: Fake social media accounts can be hazardous to your health. “Fake social media accounts already have a reputation of swaying political discourse, but a Keck School of Medicine of USC researcher says these automated accounts are even more dangerous — they can be bad for your health. Social bots are automated accounts that use artificial intelligence to influence discussions and promote specific ideas or products. USC researchers focused on how these bots promoted the notion that using electronic cigarettes helps people stop smoking, a conclusion not definitively supported by research.”

University of Connecticut: Losing Face on Facebook. “Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, assistant professor of communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, recently published the study ‘Face threats, identity, and the audience on Facebook’ in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, with colleagues Jeremy Birnholtz of Northwestern University and Jeffrey Hancock of Stanford University. The study showed that something as simple as a Facebook post by a friend can produce strong emotional and nonverbal responses. She spoke with UConn Today about the study.” Good morning, Internet…

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