Monthly archives: March, 2021

Google is making some big upgrades to directions in Google Maps

The Verge: “Google is announcing a bunch of new features planned for Google Maps, including a new tool to help with indoor navigation and suggestions for eco-friendly driving routes. The features announced today aren’t rolling out all at once, though; many aren’t available just yet, and it’s unclear when some will be available in some …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Search Engines, Transportation

CRS – Executive Orders: An Introduction

Executive Orders: An Introduction March 29, 2021: “Executive orders are written instruments through which a President can issue directives toshape policy. Although the U.S. Constitution does not address executive orders and no statute grants the President the general power to issue them, authority to issue such orders is accepted as an inherent aspect of presidential …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Legal Research

Billions of records have been hacked already. Make cybersecurity a priority or risk disaster, warns analyst

ZDNet – “A new report warns against relegating cybersecurity to the bottom of the to-do list. More data records have been compromised in 2020 alone than in the past 15 years combined, in what is described as a mounting “data breach crisis” in the latest study from analysis firm Canalys.  Over the past 12 months, …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Financial System, Health Care, Internet

CRS – Congressional Oversight Manual

Congressional Oversight ManualUpdated March 29, 2021: “Today’s lawmakers and congressional aides, as well as commentators and scholars, recognize that Congress’s lawmaking role does not end when it passes legislation. Oversight is considered fundamental to making sure that laws work and are being administered in an effective, efficient, and economical manner. This function is seen as …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation, Libraries

Google Scholar – Track and manage your public access mandates

Google Scholar Blog – [On March 23, 2021 we added] “a Public access section to Scholar profiles to help you track and manage public access mandates for your articles. If your public Scholar profile has papers covered by public access mandates from research funding agencies, you should see a new section that looks like this. …

Subjects: Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries, Search Engines

Dissemin – Fostering self-archiving of research papers in open repositories

“Dissemin detects papers behind paywalls and helps their authors to upload them in one click to an open repository. FAQ – “What is dissem.in? Dissemin is a web platform gathering metadata from many sources and analyzing the full text availability of publications of researchers. It has been designed to foster the use of repositories (rather …

Subjects: Education, Freedom of Information, Internet, Knowledge Management, Libraries

Bring Your Professional Story to Life on LinkedIn

LinkedIn Blog: “…we’re excited to announce that we have re-imagined how you can bring your professional story to life on LinkedIn and are introducing tools to help you create a more expressive and inclusive Profile.  This starts with a video Cover Story, a new tool that lets you personalize your first “hello,” so you can …

Subjects: Economy, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Social Media

Biden administration will investigate Trump-era attacks on science

The New York Times – “The Biden administration will investigate Trump-era political interference in science across the government, the first step in what White House officials described as a sweeping effort to rebuild a demoralized federal work force and prevent future abuses. In a letter to the leaders of all federal agencies, the White House …

Subjects: Censorship, Climate Change, Congress, Economy, Education, Energy, Environmental Law, Freedom of Information, Government Documents

Paper – How video conferencing reduces vocal synchrony and collective intelligence

Tomprou M, Kim YJ, Chikersal P, Woolley AW, Dabbish LA (2021) Speaking out of turn: How video conferencing reduces vocal synchrony and collective intelligence. PLoS ONE 16(3): e0247655. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0247655 “Collective intelligence (CI) is the ability of a group to solve a wide range of problems. Synchrony in nonverbal cues is critically important to the development …

Subjects: Knowledge Management

How to Recognize Scam Sites That ‘Help’ You Schedule Your Vaccine

lifehacker – “As vaccine supply struggles to meet demand, grassroots social media groups known as “vaccine hunters” have sprung up all over the country, helping people find and book appointments. As helpful as these groups can be, they’ve also become the new favorite target for scammers. Here’s how you can protect yourself. How vaccine hunter …

Subjects: Health Care, Medicine, Social Media