Monthly archives: September, 2019

Automatic for the People

American Libraries – Are self-service libraries a threat to the profession or an opportunity to better serve patrons? – “Automated and self-service libraries—which have been popular in Europe for years—are gaining a foothold in the US. Will these services eliminate librarian jobs, or are they a cost-effective way to stretch budgets and provide basic services …

Subjects: Economy, Education, Knowledge Management, Libraries, Marketing

How does Apple (privately) find your offline devices?

Matthew Green – Cryptography Engineering Blog: [June 5, 2019] Apple announced a cool new feature called “Find My”. Unlike Apple’s “Find my iPhone“, which uses cellular communication and the lost device’s own GPS to identify the location of a missing phone, “Find My” also lets you find devices that don’t have cellular support or internal …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy

The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Law: Basic Questions

Surden, Harry, The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Law: Basic Questions (August 22, 2019). Forthcoming chapter in Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI, 2020. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3441303 [h/t Joe Hodnicki] “Ethical issues surrounding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in law often share a common theme. As AI becomes increasingly integrated within the legal …

Subjects: AI, Education, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Safe Online Surfing Challenge Launches

“The FBI’s Safe Online Surfing (SOS) Internet Challenge, which had record participation in 2018-2019, is reopening for the start of the new school year to help students navigate the web securely. As the FBI sees more and more crimes begin online, the growing participation numbers show that educators and caregivers also recognize the importance of …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Government, Education, ID Theft, Internet, Social Media

Real-time maps warn Hong Kong protesters of water cannons and riot police

Quartz – The “Be Water” nature of Hong Kong’s protests means that crowds move quickly and spread across the city. They might stage a protest in the central business district one weekend, then industrial neighborhoods and far-flung suburban towns the next. And a lot is happening at any one time at each protest. One of …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

Our past on the internet is disappearing before we can make it history

Lapham’s Quarterly – Please, My Digital Archive. It’s Very Sick. “Digital history isn’t history at all—until, without warning, it is. In an age in which any internet user is a creator-in-the-making, reaching a handful of virtual friends or entire corners of the web in a moment’s notice, the line between archive-worthy material and the detritus …

Subjects: Education, Freedom of Information, Intellectual Property, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

Tech Paging Big Brother: In Amazon’s Bookstore, Orwell Gets a Rewrite

The New York Times – As fake and illegitimate texts proliferate online, books are becoming a form of misinformation.The author of “1984” would not be surprised. “I started browsing Orwell on Amazon after writing about the explosion in counterfeit books offered by the retailer. The fake books appeared to help Amazon by, for example, encouraging publishers …

Subjects: Copyright, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Libraries

The Decline of Online Piracy: How Markets Not Enforcement Drive Down Copyright Infringement

Quintais, João and Poort, Joost, The Decline of Online Piracy: How Markets – Not Enforcement – Drive Down Copyright Infringement (August 14, 2019). American University International Law Review, Vol. 34 , No. 4, pp. 807-876 (2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3437239 “This article deals with the acquisition and consumption of music, films, series, books, and games …

Subjects: Copyright, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Legal Research

How Young People Consume News and The Implications For Mainstream Media

A report by Flamingo commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford University: “Younger audiences are different from older groups not just in what they do, but in their core attitudes in terms of what they want from the news. Young people are primarily driven by progress and enjoyment in their lives, …

Subjects: E-Commerce, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Social Media

More Than Half of U.S. Adults Trust Law Enforcement to Use Facial Recognition Responsibly

But the public is less accepting of facial recognition technology when used by advertisers or technology companies: “The ability of governments and law enforcement agencies to monitor the public using facial recognition was once the province of dystopian science fiction. But modern technology is increasingly bringing versions of these scenarios to life. A recent investigation …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Commerce, E-Government, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy