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Monthly Archives: June 2014

At a Tipping Point: Education, Learning and Libraries

“OCLC Market Research teams have been studying the habits and perceptions of information consumers for a decade. In this latest report to the OCLC membership, At a Tipping Point: Education, Learning and Libraries, OCLC explores the information consumer’s behaviors, beliefs and expectations for online learning. Fueled by mobile devices, new learning platforms and economic incentives, learners are trying… Continue Reading

U.S. Says It Spied on 89,000 Targets Last Year, But the Number Is Deceptive – Wired

Follow up to previous posting – ODNI and DOJ – Declassification of Renewal of Collection Under Section 501 of FISA – this commentary from Wired: “About 89,000 foreigners or organizations were targeted for spying under a U.S. surveillance order last year, according to a new transparency report. The report was released for the first time Friday by… Continue Reading

Which City Is the Next Big Fintech Hub? New York Stakes Its Claim – American Banker

Penny Crosman: “A friendly rivalry seems to be bubbling up between New York and London over which is the world’s next big financial technology hub. Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City, an investment fund that supports New York-based entrepreneurs, released a study Thursday detailing how the city is emerging as a hotbed of… Continue Reading

Facebook tinkered with users’ feeds for a massive psychology experiment – Study

William Hughes: “Scientists at Facebook have published a paper showing that they manipulated the content seen by more than 600,000 users in an attempt to determine whether this would affect their emotional state. The paper, “Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks,” was published in The Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences. It shows how Facebook data scientists… Continue Reading

New “Census Explorer: Estimate Edition” Launches

“The Census Bureau and Social Explorer announce the launch of Census Explorer: Estimate Edition.  This latest version of the our collaboration with the Census Bureau enables users to explore the latest population estimates for states and counties by age, race, and Hispanic origin.  (Prior editions of Census Explorer showcased American Community Survey data, transportation trends, and retail business.  Click… Continue Reading

The Akamai State of the Internet Report 1Q 2014

“This quarter’s report includes data gathered from across the Akamai Intelligent Platform in the first quarter of 2014, covering attack traffic, Internet connection speeds and broadband adoption, and mobile connectivity, as well as trends seen in this data over time. In addition, this quarter’s report includes insight into NTP reflection & WordPress XML-RPC pingback attacks,… Continue Reading

ODNI and DOJ – Declassification of Renewal of Collection Under Section 501 of FISA

“On March 28, 2014, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) declassified and disclosed publically that the U.S. government had filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) seeking renewal of the authority to collect telephony metadata in bulk, and that, on March 28, 2014, the FISC renewed that authority.  The DNI also announced… Continue Reading

Making the Grade Report 2014 – Infrastructure Leadership

“A new report was released that outlines innovative new ways that the federal government, industry and other stakeholders can work together to solve the crisis of the failing state of U.S. infrastructure. Entitled Making The Grade, the report is the result of experts from 45 different organizations, including corporations, professional organizations, think tanks, financial advisors… Continue Reading

Diverse organizations launch coalition focused on ending mass cyber surveillance

“We are a coalition of organizations from across the political spectrum joining forces to fight mass surveillance by the National Security Agency. We have different missions, different goals, different communities that we represent. However, we all agree that mass surveillance is contrary to freedom and democracy. It must be stopped. Surveillance that sweeps up the communications of… Continue Reading

Open Discovery Initiative – NISO

“The Open Discovery Initiative (ODI) aims at defining standards and/or best practices for the new generation of library discovery services that are based on indexed search. These discovery services are primarily based upon indexes derived from journals, ebooks and other electronic information of a scholarly nature. The content comes from a range of information providers… Continue Reading

National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning

Complete coverage and archive of all documents relevant to the case via SCOTUSblog: “Holding: The Recess Appointments Clause authorizes the president to fill any existing vacancy during any recess – whether occurring during or between sessions of Congress – of sufficient length. However, for purposes of the clause, the Senate is in session whenever it… Continue Reading

The Renewable Fuel Standard: Issues for 2014 and Beyond

“The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) establishes minimum volumes of various types of renewable fuels that must be included in the United States’ supply of fuel for transportation. Those volumes—as defined by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA)—are intended to grow each year through 2022 (see the figure below). In recent years, the… Continue Reading