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Daily Archives: July 1, 2019

Internet Research Agency Twitter activity predicted 2016 U.S. election polls

First Monday – Volume 24, Number 7 – 1 July 2019 > Ruck “In 2016, the Internet Research Agency (IRA) deployed thousands of Twitter bots that released hundreds of thousands of English language tweets. It has been hypothesized that this affected public opinion during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Here we test that hypothesis using vector autoregression (VAR) comparing time series of election opinion polling during 2016 versus numbers of re-tweets or ‘likes’ of IRA tweets. We find that changes in opinion poll numbers for one of the candidates were consistently preceded by corresponding changes in IRA re-tweet volume, at an optimum interval of one week before. In contrast, the opinion poll numbers did not correlate with future re-tweets or ‘likes’ of the IRA tweets. We find that the release of these tweets parallel significant political events of 2016 and that approximately every 25,000 additional IRA re-tweets predicted a one percent increase in election opinion polls for one candidate. As these tweets were part of a larger, multimedia campaign, it is plausible that the IRA was successful in influencing U.S. public opinion in 2016.”

Identity in the Decentralized Web

Internet Archives Blog – “In July of 2018, more than 1000 people gathered at the Decentralized Web Summit to share the latest decentralized protocols for the Web. Over three days, groups took deep dives into the “roadblock” issues we must surmount to reach scale, including identity. The following report by Jim Nelson explains what identity… Continue Reading

Cyber Resilience – The 6 Biggest Threats Right Now for Legal

British Legal Technology Forum 2020: “Cyber resilience – the ability to withstand both attacks on your computer network and attempts to steal valuable client data – is a business priority which an increasing number of legal firms in London and UK depend on us for year after year. The threat constantly evolves and grows –… Continue Reading

Judiciary Creates Public User Group for PACER

Via press release on June 26, 2019: “The Federal Judiciary has created and is seeking members for a public user group to provide advice and feedback on ways to improve its electronic public access services. The Electronic Public Access (EPA) Public User Group membership will be selected from interested applicants who represent the legal sector,… Continue Reading

Google Earth Beta on the web – Chrome Only

From Google: “Google Earth puts a planet’s worth of imagery and other geographic information right on your desktop. View exotic locales like Maui and Paris, as well as points of interest such as local restaurants, hospitals, and schools. Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps, and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geographic… Continue Reading

How to speak Silicon Valley: 53 essential tech-bro terms explained

The Guardian UK – Your guide to understanding an industry where capitalism is euphemized – “For Californians of a certain tenure, Silicon Valley is a location – an actual, geological valley nestled between two mountain ranges and the marshy southern dregs of the San Francisco bay. The titans of technology – Adobe, Alphabet, Apple, eBay,… Continue Reading

How To Win “As One” with Other Talented Professionals

Leader to Leader, Molly Tschang, First published: 06 June 2019 – “Our relationships with ourselves and others make or break our success. The group or individual with highest intelligence or skill set does not necessarily come out on top. Those who get to a shared reality make the best decisions, execute with speed, and deliver outstanding… Continue Reading