NEW RESOURCES

GhanaWeb: Manual, Database and Mobile Application on migration unveiled. “The Media Response, a Non-Governmental Organisation has concurrently launched a training manual for journalists, database and mobile application on migration to enhance accurate and up-to-speed information dissemination on free movement of persons.”

This is from a couple of weeks ago but I just found it today. Follow the Money: Tracking the cashflow of European political parties. “Over the past few months, FTM journalists Dieuwertje Kuijpers and Lise Witteman compiled two separate datasets. The first, containing the 2014-2018 annual budgets of the 10 Europarties and their respective thinktanks that currently receive funding from the European Parliament, was released on April 23. The second dataset, containing all 997 traceable donations and contributions made to all 15 existing EU parties and their respective thinktanks between 2014 and 2018, is available today (April 30).”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Discord, Slack for gamers, tops 250 million registered users. “Overall, the company says it counts more than 250 million registered users, or basically the same number of people who’ve signed up to play the cultural phenom Fortnight. More than 56 million people log in each month on the app, which marks its fourth anniversary Monday.”

Technical .ly: Maryland’s open data portal now has a Twitter handle. “With the Twitter presence, DoIT will provide updates on when new datasets have been uploaded to the portal, as well as other #opendata communications from the state government.”

USEFUL STUFF

ZDNet: How to make posting Instagram hashtag clusters a breeze. “If you want to expand your Instagram engagement, you have to use a lot of hashtags. Posting them can be a pain, but we show you a way to post an entire cluster with one tap.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

PR Newswire: First Digital Human Gives Ted Talk In Real Time (PRESS RELEASE). “Digital Domain Head of Software R&D Doug Roble, and for the first time, his virtual avatar DigiDoug, presented a talk at TED2019 on what it takes to create a digital human. DigiDoug is the industry-leading work of the Digital Human Group, a unit within global visual effects studio Digital Domain overseen by VFX industry veterans Darren Hendler and Doug Roble. The group is focused on the creation of digital humans, creatures and characters for feature films, live real time events and new technology applications.”

Columbia Journalism Review: Should a Colorado library publish local news?. “Voters in Longmont—who previously approved a publicly owned fiber-optic broadband network, and now have some of the fastest internet speeds in the nation—could be asked to consider new taxes to fund a ‘library district,’a special governmental subdivision that would operate a community library. Roughly a dozen residents are pushing to explore the library district to include some form of community news component.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Yahoo Finance Canada: ‘The greatest threat facing the country today’: Is Canada doing enough to thwart cyber crime?. “Another day, another breach, is the tune we’re trolling to these days. This week, Freedom Mobile announced its database had been breached, affecting 15,000 users. Whether or not this data has been misused is still being investigated, but the information was unencrypted. And while this public data was compromised, tech giants like Google are now giving users more control over how long their data lives online. Control and transparency over one’s data is a win, but what happens when that data gets into dangerous hands?”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Quartz: The dark reason new mothers share photos of their kids on Facebook. “Why would a busy and exhausted new mother use valuable time to craft the perfect baby photo for Facebook? Moreover, why should she care so much about how these ‘friends’—some of whom are family and close friends, but many of whom are mere acquaintances —respond to photos of her baby? To connect. Being a new mother can be lonely and overwhelming.”

New York Times: Breaking Up Facebook Is Not the Answer. “When does a company become too big or too successful to exist? Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, argues that Facebook should be dismantled because ‘big’ poses a risk to society. In my view — and that of most people who write about technology’s impact on society — what matters is not size but rather the rights and interests of consumers, and our accountability to the governments and legislators who oversee commerce and communications.” This was written by Nick Clegg, who works for Facebook. Good evening, Internet…

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