Literati roundup: “IFLA Publishes a Statement on Privacy in the Library Environment…

IFLA Publishes a Statement on Privacy in the Library Environment At its 14 August 2015 meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, the IFLA Governing Board endorsed an IFLA Statement on Privacy in the Library Environment. The FAIFE Committee oversaw preparation of the Statement and benefitted from consultation with IFLA units and various Internet civil liberties advocacy … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: #Alphabet is the new Google

Now It Can Be Evil! Twitter Reacts to Google’s Alphabet  Wired Top Stories by Davey Alba Rarely is the Internet simply handed a joke fest on this scale. A New Company Called Alphabet Now Owns Google Wired Top Stories by Cade Metz Google has reorganized itself into multiple companies, spinning off several of its most ambitious projects … Read more

Journalism agenda: “London attacks changed the news: The value of the witness

The value of the witness: How the London attacks changed the news  Mashable! by Colin Daileda The night after the deadliest peace-time attack on London, the BBC led its 6 p.m. newscast with a shaky video of screaming commuters, an ambulance siren howling in the background Twitter’s new article preview cards could be a boost for publishers … Read more

Eurosphere agenda: Spanish establishment shaken… “Europe must take in 40K refugees in 2 years…

Anti-austerity parties soar in Spanish elections as Greece threatens default  Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow Two new, anti-establishment parties (including one that grew out of the indignados movement — a kind of Spanish precedent to Occupy) took key seats in regional and municipal elections in yesterday’s Spanish election, which is a kind of dress rehearsal for the … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: “The business model of NSA apologists… “Google’s self-driving cars…

Cloud computing by the numbers: The rise of the private and hybrid cloud  Mashable! by Stephanie Walden The proliferation of cloud computing is one of the most impactful trends in the world of enterprise IT today — and the technology is ever evolving. The business model of NSA apologists Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow Those talking heads you … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: ISIS vs Twitter a data visualization… Prolific twitterbots…

ISIS vs Twitter: A cautionary tale told through data visualization  Boing Boing by Bob Parks A report by the Brookings Institution analyzed a sample 20,000 ISIS-supporting Twitter accounts, and sought to answer the question of how suspending accounts impacts the community.   Meet the Editors Fighting Racism and Sexism on Wikipedia Wired Top Stories by Issie Lapowsky Wikipedia’s … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: “Wikipedia Sues NSA …” VPN Services that Take Your Anonymity Seriously…

Wikipedia Sues NSA Over Dragnet Internet Surveillance  The Intercept by Cora Currier Wikipedia is suing the NSA over surveillance programs that involve tapping internet traffic en masse from communications infrastructure in the U.S. in order to search it for intelligence purposes. Which VPN Services Take Your Anonymity Seriously? 2015 Edition  TorrentFreak By now most Internet users are … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: Youtube is 10…

  The complete beginner’s guide to social media benchmarks  The Next Web by Kevan Lee This post originally appeared on the Buffer blog. If I were to tell you that a recent tweet of mine received 20 clicks, what would you think? The Creepy Collective Behavior of Boston Dynamics’ New Robot Dog Wired Top Stories by Neel … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: Obama’s Cyber-Threat initiatives… EFF: Transparency Is No Substitute For Free Speech…

Transparency Is No Substitute For Free Speech  EFF.org Updates by Eva Galperin and Jillian York  / Twitter has released a new transparency report. The company—which scored five stars in our latest “Who Has Your Back?” report—blogged about the release, wrote that “[p]roviding this insight is simply the right thing to do, especially in an age of … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: KickassTorrents has to move to kickass.to… “DARPA’s Memex for searching the deep Web…

KickassTorrents Taken Down By Domain Name Seizure  TorrentFreak With millions of unique visitors per day KickassTorrents (KAT) is one the most used torrent sites on the Internet. DARPA’s Memex for searching the deep Web  Boing Boing by David Pescovitz DARPA’s “Memex” program is developing new search tools for the vast majority of the Web that isn’t indexed by … Read more

As Turkey intelligence chief resigns to run in election…”10 Articles To Understand Presidential System Debate in Turkey…

10 Articles To Understand Presidential System Debate in Turkey  The Istanbulian by Emre Kızılkaya The debate to switch to a full-throttle presidential system in Turkey has been rekindled this week after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began to lobby for it actively. Here are 10 news articles or opinion pieces to understand the current debate: #Turkish President … Read more

Cyberculture agenda: Ross Ulbricht found guilty on all counts in Silk Road trial verdict…

Silk Road trial verdict: Ross Ulbricht found guilty on all counts Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin Ulbricht faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison. Read the rest Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht found guilty for all 7 conspiracy charges  The Next Web by Napier Lopez Today, Ross Ulbricht, known by his online alias “Dread Pirate Roberts,”was … Read more

As Facebook caves in, Turkey’s authoritarian march continues: “Specially authorized courts to be reintroduced

Zuckerberg’s free-speech rhetoric proves empty as Facebook censors Charlie … International Business Times UK “In comparison with Twitter and YouTube, Facebook cooperates with the Turkish authorities much better,” Yaman Akdeniz, a professor in cyberlaw at Bilgi University in Istambul, told the New York Times. “Therefore it’s not surprising that Facebook . Facebook Caves to Turkish Government … Read more

Turkey vs. Facebook over some pages allegely insulting Prophet Mohammad. Erkan also quoted…

Facebook blocks Turkish users from viewing pages deemed offensive to Prophet … National Post This comes on the heels of an ongoing government crackdown on critical political expression in Turkey. “There is a continuous, routine crackdown on media,” said Erkan Saka, a communications professor and new media expert at Istanbul’s Bilgi University. Facebook blocks pages … Read more

Anthropology roundup: “Ethnographers as Writers…

Ethnographers as Writers: Theory and Data – Part II  Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog by Kristen Ghodsee So I’m staring at some fieldnotes and trying to sort out the best way to blend my theoretical analysis with my ethnographic data. Where to start? How to find the right balance? Once … Read more