Did you know that one month from today — April 20 — is ResearchBuzz’ TWENTIETH anniversary?

NEW RESOURCES

WLNS: New website features fiscal data on Michigan public schools. “The fiscal health of each public school in Michigan now can be viewed on a new website. The Michigan Treasury department says the MI School Financials Dashboard is easy to use and provides visual financial data about local and intermediate school districts and public academies.”

New-to-me, from Artsy: This New Website Is Offering Free Art Lessons from Professors and Artists. “In 2017, [Clara] Lieu launched Art Prof, a website that offers a wide range of art classes, captured in videos. Taught by professional artists and university art teachers, courses range from the basics, like drawing, to more complex or niche mediums, like types of sculpture, printmaking, and animation. Professional development advice is available, too, in videos with titles like “Facing Artists Block” and “Selling Your Art.” What’s more, lessons are fun. One instructor, illustrator Casey Roonan, often starts lessons with an impression of actor Matthew McConaughey in the cult film Magic Mike. In other videos, a pet guinea pig makes cameos as a very cute, albeit silent, studio assistant.” The site and the videos are completely free.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Twitter to ban an array of cryptocurrency ads. “Just a few days ago, it was revealed that Google plans to ban ads for cryptocurrencies and related products and services later this year. Now it seems as though Twitter could be following suit. The plans could see the social network implementing a ban on ads for ICOs and almost all cryptocurrencies. It is reported that Twitter’s ban could come into force within a couple of weeks.”

The Verge: Facebook is rolling out Patreon-style subscriptions for a small group of creators. “Facebook is investing in its creator community in an attempt to get them to make content for the social network. The company announced multiple new creator features today, including the ability for fans to support creators with monthly payments. Fans will receive exclusive content as a reward, as well as a new badge that shows their support. Top fans can also display the badge based on how often they comment, share, react, or watch a creator’s content, but they have to opt-in to this experience.” The timing of this is… not great.

SEO Roundtable: Google Core Algorithm Update Continues To Fluctuate For Some. “A week ago Friday there was a Google core algorithm update that touched down pretty hard. Technically it was released on March 7th but most noticed it on March 8th and 9th. But people are still noticing it.”

USEFUL STUFF

Kris Shaffer: Build an instant Twitter dashboard, with just a little code. “Over the past year and a half, I’ve been building tools to collect, analyze, and visualize large quantities of tweets. These tools have helped me (and my colleagues at Data for Democracy) monitor trends and uncover disinformation campaigns in the French presidential election, the 2017 Virginia election, the #unitetheright rally in Charlottesville, and the #MeToo movement, among others. Over the past few months, I’ve been building a pre-packaged dashboard kit that will help me spin up something quickly, so I can get an at-a-glance view of trends surrounding a certain hashtag, topic, or movement right away, as I start to analyze these trends, often in the moment.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CNN: Why nobody can tell Mark Zuckerberg what to do at Facebook. “Facebook is under fire for its role as a conduit of influence in American elections. But Mark Zuckerberg has insulated himself, ensuring his job is secure. It’s possible that politicians may eventually rap the Facebook (FB) CEO’s knuckles. Customers might revolt. Shareholders could one day even call for Zuckerberg to step down — although that seems doubtful.”

The Irish Times: New university archive will store film documenting Ireland’s past. “The opening of a new archive at Maynooth University will safeguard thousands of hours of film documenting Ireland’s past from potential decay and allow the Irish Film Institute (IFI) to open its doors to more amateur collections. The new moving image preservation facility at the university is the largest facility of its kind in Ireland and triples the IFI’s storage capacity.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

eWeek: GitHub Paid $166,000 in Bug Bounties to Security Researchers in 2017. “For 2017, GitHub reported that it received 840 bug submissions to its bug bounty program, which is run on the HackerOne platform. A total of 121 reports were resolved by GitHub, with an average reward payout to security researchers of $1,376. Overall in 2017, GitHub paid security researchers a total of $166,495 in bug bounty awards, up from $95,300 in 2016.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CNET: Study: 1% of Reddit communities spark 74% of conflicts. “How does a simple disagreement on Reddit blow up into a mess of feuding, personal attacks and brigading? That’s what a team of Stanford University computer science and linguistics, inspired by a predictably hyperbolic post on r/conspiracy, have worked to find out.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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