NEW RESOURCES

Fiji Village: Database launched to view boarding passes of Girmitiyas. “Descendants of Girmitiyas can now go online to look at the boarding passes of their ancestors who came to Fiji… Developer, Akhilesh Shiuram says they wanted to create a database that has records of passes of more than 60,000 Girmityas that came to Fiji in the 37 years of the indentured labour system.” Girmityas were indentured laborers who came to Fiji (and other places) from British India. You can learn more about them at https://harvardlawreview.org/2021/03/the-agreement-and-the-girmitiya/ . (There’s a Web site devoted to Girmityas and their history but it is inaccessible at this writing.)

The Film Stage: Watch: Hundreds of 35mm Film Trailers Will Induce Untold Nostalgia. “YouTube user Denis-Carl Robidoux has uploaded, across two playlists, more than a thousand videos—largely trailers spanning 2000-2007 studio films, but with the occasional trash-bin salvation or ad.”

World Health Organization: WHO launches new Mortality Database visualization portal. “Since its founding in 1948, WHO has required all Member States to report mortality data and collected this information in the WHO Mortality Database. Today, this unique database is the oldest and largest of its kind, containing data from over 120 countries and areas by cause, year, sex, and age. The portal is a significant step towards ensuring mortality data is used to drive impact in countries. Among other features, users can now filter and compare information by disease category or age group. They can also use interactive visualizations to view the data by number of deaths, death rates per 100 000, or as a percentage of total deaths.”

Dublin City University: Updated Placenames of Ireland website launched by Minister Jack Chambers . “The updated… website provides a searchable database of the official Irish-language versions of approximately 100,000 places throughout the country. The new Placenames Database of Ireland site features interactive maps, aerial photography and better ease of navigation for those looking to find out the origins of place names from Arklow to Zion Road.”

EVENTS

Library of Congress: Registration Now Open for IIPC’s 2022 Web Archiving Conference. “We are excited to announce that registration is now open for the 2022 Web Archiving Conference! The event, which the Library of Congress is hosting in partnership with the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) will be held virtually on May 23-25, 2022. The conference is free and open to everyone with an interest in web archiving, but space is limited so we recommend registering now to reserve your spot.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Washington Post: How Twitter lost the celebs. “Interviews with 17 people who represent, consult and tweet for celebrities show that Twitter is viewed as a high-risk, low-reward platform for many A-list entertainers. It’s a place where the discourse has become so politicized that many prefer not to engage personally at all, delegating tweeting duties to underlings or outside agents who post anodyne promotional messages. They have also been turned off by harassment or abuse.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

CoinDesk: Lighthouse Raises $7M to Be the Search Engine of the Metaverse. “Lighthouse allows users to search through a database of all the active events going on in metaverse games like Decentraland and The Sandbox, while also being able to search for where users themselves are in these virtual worlds.”

Techdirt: The Internet Has Opened Up The Creator Economy To New Heights. “Until recently, writers, musicians, artists and filmmakers collectively formed a relatively select group that was hard to enter as a professional. Today, anyone with an Internet connection can spread the word about their work and make money from it. In effect, everyone who is online, to a greater or lesser degree, is a digital creator – even with the most ephemeral of posts on social media.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Hollywood Reporter: Twitch Says It’s Deleted Livestreamed Video of Mass Shooting Posted by Gunman. “Livestream service Twitch has deleted video posted by an 18-year-old who authorities say opened fire with a rifle Saturday at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people and wounding three others. A representative for Twitch told The Hollywood Reporter that the company removed the livestream less than two minutes after the shooting began at the Tops Friendly Market.”

Marine Corps Times: New social media, electronics policies likely on the way for Marines. “The Marine Corps is about to release a document codifying ‘information’ as a war-fighting function ― and that’s likely to have direct implications for how Marines are told to conduct themselves online. As Russia and Ukraine wage a conflict in which misinformation and disinformation play a central role, top-echelon Marine leaders want troops and commanders to be clear on how information affects every part of war-fighting and decision-making.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Engadget: Fewer Americans want the government to regulate Big Tech, Pew study says. “Last year, more than half (56 percent) of Americans wanted more regulation of Big Tech. Now, only 44 percent of Americans want to see more government enforcement of tech companies. And the number of respondents who want less government regulation of the tech industry has doubled this year, from nine percent to 20 percent. But those results shouldn’t suggest that the public has a rosier view of Big Tech or trusts that tech companies are getting it right.”

The Conversation: Language matters when Googling controversial people. “Our recent research showed how Google’s search engine normalizes conspiracy theorists, hate figures and other controversial people by offering neutral and even sometimes positive subtitles. We used virtual private networks (VPNs) to conceal our locations and hide our browsing histories to ensure that search results were not based on our geographical location or search histories. We found, for example, that Alex Jones, ‘the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America,’ is defined as an ‘American radio host,’ while David Icke, who is also known for spreading conspiracies, is described as a ‘former footballer.'” Good morning, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!