NEW RESOURCES

East Idaho News: ITD launches ‘Travel Back through Idaho History’ photo collection. “For some, it’s a trip down memory lane. For others, it’s enlightenment. For the Idaho Transportation Department, it’s giving back. ‘There are so many historical photos that really belong to the people. All these state agencies, we collect these over the years and they reflect our history,’ ITD spokesperson Reed Hollinshead said. The ITD launched its 30,000-photo archive on May 1, making historic photos of the state of Idaho available to the public.” It feels like I’m hearing more and more about transportation departments launching photo collections.

The Portland Mercury: Peep The Library’s Photo Archive of Portland’s Black Community. “The Multnomah County Library just launched a new digital collection of photos and documents chronicling Portland’s African American community over the years. Called ‘Our Story: Portland Through an African American Lens,’ the collection melds archives from Oregon Historical Society Research Library, Oregon State University, and City of Portland Archives.”

University of British Columbia: Launch Of The Habitat Conferences Digital Archive. “Held in Vancouver in 1976, The United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I) was the largest UN conference then undertaken, the first to include a global NGO Forum and ultimately the birthplace of UN-Habitat. Habitat I was also the largest global event ever held in Vancouver at the time, catapulting the city onto the world’s stage. Habitat II, known as ‘The People’s Summit,’ took place in Istanbul twenty years later. Both conferences aimed to address human settlements issues in a rapidly urbanizing world.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Gizmodo: Google Removes ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Clause From Its Code Of Conduct. “Google’s unofficial motto has long been the simple phrase ‘don’t be evil.’ But that’s over, according to the code of conduct that Google distributes to its employees. The phrase was removed sometime in late April or early May, archives hosted by the Wayback Machine show.”

Los Angeles Times: Cambridge Analytica is liquidating in wake of Facebook scandal. “Cambridge Analytica, the beleaguered data collection agency that worked for President Trump’s 2016 election campaign, is liquidating operations. The British firm filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection late Thursday. It said in a New York court filing that its assets totaled $100,001 to $500,000. Its liabilities are between $1 million and $10 million, and it has between one and 49 creditors.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 5 Little-Known Book Sites and Apps as Alternatives to Goodreads . “Goodreads is among the best sites for writers and readers alike. It’s a book club, a recommendation engine, a news site, a scrapbook, an organizer for what you read, and so much more. But that also makes it overwhelming. For simpler sites for book lovers, check out these little-known choices.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Reuters: Vietnam set to tighten clamps on Facebook and Google, threatening dissidents. “A struggle over internet laws in Vietnam is pitting a government keen on maintaining tight control against U.S. technology companies trying to fight off onerous new rules – with the country’s online dissidents among the biggest losers. The latest conflict centres on new cybersecurity legislation set for a vote by Vietnamese lawmakers later this month. It aims to impose new legal requirements on internet companies, and hardens policing of online dissent.”

Fashionista: Archivists, And The Archives They Maintain, Are The Heartbeat Of Fashion Houses. “In fashion, as in anything else, everything old is new again. This is especially true right now, as the planet’s most-followed individuals revert back to such once-eschewed, decades-old staples as tracksuits and inflated shoulders. The industry has been riding a nostalgia wave for several years, with no indication that the swell might subside anytime soon. And for many brands of price-points high and low, luxury and mass-market, this poses an interesting challenge: to create newness while reissuing pieces it designed 10, or 50, or more years ago. How do fashion houses package their past while also contemporizing it, looking to the future? Archivists play a very large role in that, but they also work fluently with their brands’ respective creative teams to inform on everything from house codes to pattern-making.”

Bloomberg: Facebook Rethinks News Organizations as Political Advertisers. “The company came up with a policy that puts news publishers in the same category as political publishers for the purposes of its new ad-transparency efforts. Facebook told media organizations they would have to verify their identities and have any ads promoting stories about politics placed in a public database, just like political campaigns would. Within hours of a Bloomberg News report on the initiative and criticism from news organizations, Facebook decided to rethink its plan. It no longer has a clear solution for transparency around ads that promote news stories about politics, according to a person familiar with the matter.”

New York Times: Germany Acts to Tame Facebook, Learning From Its Own History of Hate. “Security is tight at this brick building on the western edge of Berlin. Inside, a sign warns: ‘Everybody without a badge is a potential spy!’ Spread over five floors, hundreds of men and women sit in rows of six scanning their computer screens. All have signed nondisclosure agreements. Four trauma specialists are at their disposal seven days a week. They are the agents of Facebook. And they have the power to decide what is free speech and what is hate speech.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TechCrunch: Does Google’s Duplex violate two-party consent laws?. “Google’s Duplex, which calls businesses on your behalf and imitates a real human, ums and ahs included, has sparked a bit of controversy among privacy advocates. Doesn’t Google recording a person’s voice and sending it to a data center for analysis violate two-party consent law, which requires everyone in a conversation to agree to being recorded? The answer isn’t immediately clear, and Google’s silence isn’t helping.”

Wall Street Journal: Buyer Beware: Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud. “Hundreds of technology firms raising money in the fevered market for cryptocurrencies are using deceptive or even fraudulent tactics to lure investors. In a review of documents produced for 1,450 digital coin offerings, The Wall Street Journal has found 271 with red flags that include plagiarized investor documents, promises of guaranteed returns and missing or fake executive teams.” This article is paywalled. Good morning, Internet…

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