NEW RESOURCES

CNET: Twitter opens huge archive of tweets tied to Russia, Iran misinformation. “Twitter is sharing a massive trove of data on foreign interference in political conversations. The social network on Wednesday opened an archive of material linked to accounts associated with potential information operations by Russia and Iran. The goal: letting independent researchers, and the general public, see what it’s been up against.”

The Scotsman: Black anti-slavery campaigners in Edinburgh traced. “A map which charts some of the hundreds of black campaigners, many of them former slaves, who came to Edinburgh to campaign for the abolitionist movement has been released.”

Lebanon Support: Understanding Conflictuality in Lebanon: #DataforChange. “The Conflict Analysis Project… within Lebanon Support’s Civil Society Knowledge Centre, aims at understanding contemporary conflict dynamics and actors in Lebanon, in order to better comprehend their root causes and inform interventions and policy-making. As part of this project, in partnership with the UNDP, Lebanon Support has developed new interactive mappings which provide data and information on the various dimensions of conflictuality in Lebanon, including security operations, mobilisations, and policy decisions: This data serves as a tool for civil society actors, policy makers, and researchers, to produce evidence-based analysis on conflictuality in Lebanon, leading to better tailored interventions on conflict transformation and peace-building.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

I don’t normally do much on high school newspapers, but the breadth of this one timewise led me to make an exception. DigitalNC: More issues of the Greensboro High School student newspaper are available on DigitalNC. “Thanks to our partner, the Greensboro History Museum, additional issues of the student newspaper from Greensboro High School, High Life, are now available on DigitalNC. Newly available issues cover the years 1923-1926, 1937-1941, 1957, and 1976-1978. The paper features information from the high school, now Grimsley High School, and the surrounding Greensboro community.”

Indiana University: IU will lead $2 million partnership to expand access to research data. “Students, faculty and researchers across the Midwest and beyond will gain critical access to new research data through a cloud-based platform whose construction has been made possible under a large-scale partnership led by the IU Libraries and IU Network Science Institute.”

The Verge: Scribd partners with The New York Times for a cheaper joint subscription. “If you already have or are looking into a subscription for The New York Times, then Scribd has a bundle for you that’s a great deal: for $12.99 a month, you can subscribe to both NYT and Scribd.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: 6 Useful Tricks to Get the Most Out of Google Photos. “It may seem like Google Photos has been around for quite some time, but it’s only been with us since May of 2015. in those few years that it’s been around, it’s one of the most used Google services. It allows you to do all sorts of things with your images and it also sends you stylized photos from time to time. With Google Photos you can do things such as create movies, collages, animation GIFs, and even back up your pictures/videos so you can erase them from your device. This last option really comes in handy when you’re continually struggling to save storage space.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechCrunch: Macaw will curate Twitter for you, help expand your network. “Twitter today inserts activity-based tweets into your timeline, alerting you to things like the popular tweets liked by people you follow, or those Twitter accounts that a lot of people in your network have just started to follow. These alerts can be useful, but their timing is sporadic and they can be easily missed. Plus, if you turn off Twitter’s algorithmic timeline (as may be possible for some), you’ll lose access to this sort of info. A new Twitter app called Macaw aims to help.”

NBC News: Exclusive: Twitter pulls down bot network that pushed pro-Saudi talking points about disappeared journalist. “Twitter suspended a network of suspected Twitter bots on Thursday that pushed pro-Saudi Arabia talking points about the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the past week.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Livemint: Why libraries that digitize and expedite the availability of new content will not die. “…in a world that is becoming increasingly digital, do libraries have a future? The short answer would be: If books have a future, then so do libraries. And libraries are more than just about books. They are safe public spaces where you meet, sit, read and work. Walk into BCL in Delhi and see how crowded it is: young people doing reference work, taking notes from books. Even in the days of internet, a good library is a priceless resource. Sadly, in many parts of the world libraries are struggling for funds; but there are also many enlightened nations where governments are spending millions on new libraries, many of which are designed by world-renowned architects.”

Children & Young People Now: National child death database to launch next year. “A new national database recording all child deaths is to launch in April next year in a bid to improve information sharing which will help prevent future deaths, the government has announced.” This is the UK.

BetaNews: Goodbye noisy neighbors, I quit Nextdoor. “Six days ago, Facebook notified me that my personal information had been pilfered in a recently revealed hack affecting tens of millions subscribers. Lovely. Why don’t you kick me in the head, too, Mark Zuckerberg? Perhaps you would prefer a baseball bat, so you can beat me to death instead? I responded by removing most of the same information from my FB and started a content purge ahead of possible account deletion. Since then, I have been on a social media account rampage, which turned my sights to Nextdoor, where I joined on Aug. 29, 2017 (my Facebook is 12 years old, for comparison). ” Good morning, Internet…

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