NEW RESOURCES

RA News: Spotify and SoundGirls launch database for women in audio production. “The initiative aims to bring gender parity to the music industry at a time when less than five percent of all audio professionals are estimated to be women. The free online database is a place to showcase work and build connections and serves as a tool for those looking to hire.”

Phys .org: Jodrell Bank Observatory release 50 year-old audio archive of Soviet Zond 6 lunar mission. “Jodrell Bank is releasing audio recordings of a Soviet space mission from fifty years ago, just as the race to the moon was approaching the finish line. On November 10th 1968, the Soviet Union launched Zond 6. Its mission was to loop around the moon and return to Earth safely. Although there was nobody on board, it was planned as a precursor to a crewed flight around the moon, racing to beat the American’s Apollo 8 whose launch was scheduled for December 1968.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Rolling Stone: Pandora Wants to Recommend Your Next Podcast. “Two decades ago, Pandora launched the Music Genome Project, a.k.a. the backbone of its Internet radio service, and changed music discovery forever. No longer did fans sift through clunky physical or digital record stores to find new artists to love; Pandora’s meticulous recommendation engine served that all up effortlessly to them. Now, the music company — which has been through tough times of late, reorganizing and figuring out a fresh identity after swinging back from the cusp of bankruptcy — wants to do the same for podcasts.”

Engadget: Facebook fundraisers have raised over $1 billion . “Facebook announced today that it’s expanding its nonprofit fundraising tool to Canada and Australia, and it also shared that it recently reached a major fundraising milestone. Since it launched the tool that allows users to raise money for nonprofits and personal causes, over 20 million users have raised over $1 billion by starting or donating to a fundraiser. The company also said that over 1 million nonprofits across 19 countries are now eligible to receive donations through the tool.”

The Verge: Instagram starts rolling out dashboard that shows how much time you spend on it. “Back in August, Facebook and Instagram announced they would introduce new activity dashboards that tracked how much time users spent inside the apps, but the features never materialized. Now, Instagram has finally started rolling out its own ‘Your Activity’ feature, which includes tools for setting daily time limits and the option to temporarily mute push notifications.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Quartz: Instagram was the target of the latest political interference efforts. “Facebook’s newest announcement updating the public on the latest political interference efforts on its platforms is an important reminder that Instagram can be just as much a target of coordinated misinformation as Facebook itself.”

The Intercept: Google’s “Smart City Of Surveillance” Faces New Resistance In Toronto. “From the start, activists, technology researchers, and some government officials have been skeptical about the idea of putting Google, or one of its sister companies, in charge of a city. Their suspicions about turning part of Toronto into a corporate test bed were triggered, at first, by the company’s history of unethical corporate practices and surreptitious data collection. They have since been borne out by Quayside’s secret and undemocratic development process, which has been plagued by a lack of public input — what one critic has called ‘a colonizing experiment in surveillance capitalism attempting to bulldoze important urban, civic and political issues.'”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Next Web: Google’s ethical black hole swallows Deepmind’s best intentions. “Google yesterday set off another controversy when it announced the acquisition of Streams, DeepMind’s algorithm-based healthcare data management platform. The controversy stems from what the deal’s detractors view as a breach of trust by Deepmind. The UK-based AI startup, which was purchased by Google‘s parent company Alphabet in 2014, has always maintained that it operated autonomously underneath the umbrella of Google. As such, it’s long said it would never share identifiable patient data – from its healthcare endeavors – with Google.”

Reuters: Snap reveals U.S. subpoenas on IPO disclosures. “The U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission have subpoenaed Snap Inc (SNAP.N) for information about its March 2017 initial public offering, the social media app maker told Reuters on Tuesday.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Quartzy: The Cruelty And Kindness Of Social Media In The Midst Of A Disaster. “There was a time, long before social media was blamed for many of the world’s biggest problems, that digital communities were posited as the utopian replacement to the small-mindedness of staying close to home, close to what we know. Of course, that didn’t turn out so well. We know now that compassion, empathy, and community can’t be provided by a large tech company with a clear profit motive for winning our attention. In times of disaster as well as in times of normalcy, that part is up to us.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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