The Internet giant took a proactive step in the battle against online piracy Tuesday by releasing a 26-page report titled “How Google Fights Piracy.” Google announced this release through a post on its public policy blog, which summarized “highlights” of the report.
via Google Outlines Anti-Piracy Tactics in Comprehensive Report | Mashable.
It’s not every day you see Google, Facebook and Yahoo aligned on a issue, but a push toward increased governmental transparency is just the sort of cause that’ll put competing web companies on the same outraged page. All three noted [September 9, 2013] through their respective channels that they’ve filed petitions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to disclose the number of requests the government has issued for user data under national security statutes.
The full story: Google, Facebook and Yahoo petition court to disclose government data requests | Engadget.
via ▶ Drone’s eye view of Burning Man 2013 – YouTube.
You may also like: What is Burning Man? | Burning Man
Google, AT&T and a host of online education organizations are forming an alliance to develop standards for career readiness. Spearheaded by Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) provider, Udacity, the Open Education Alliance will explore standards for how to prepare and evaluate graduates. The still-forming group of technology companies will help online education providers develop courses, tests, and certifications meant to supplement the use of a college degree in the hiring process.
See the full story: Tech Titans And Online Education Orgs Team Up With The Open Education Alliance | TechCrunch.
I don’t know what to say about Riptide, the massive oral history of digital journalism that popped up on the Web tonight.
That’s because I’ve been looking at it for a couple hours, and have no idea how much of it I’ve consumed.
But it doesn’t seem like a very significant percentage: The project, sponsored by Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center, revolves around interviews with more than 60 people who have played key roles in the way news and the news business has transformed in the last few decades.
There are more than 50 hours of video on the site.
via Riptide Digital News History Interviews with Google, Twitter, NYT – Peter Kafka | AllThingsD.
Oyster, an app launched [September 5, 2013] by a trio of self-proclaimed bookworms, is already being called the “Netflix for books.” That’s a lofty moniker, but the app may just live up to the hype – it offers access to over 100,000 books for $9.95 a month!
Right now, the only Big 5 publisher it’s partnered with is HarperCollins, but they’ve still got some really big books: “Life of Pi,” “Water for Elephants,” and “The God Delusion” all came up when we were browsing.
According to its website, they are constantly adding new titles, so who knows? Other bigger publishers may be signing on as well.
Right now, Oyster is invitation-only, and it’s only available as an iPhone app (although they’ll be adding on a iPad app later this fall). The app is free to download. You can request an invite here.
The BiblioTech library in Bexar County is doing something that no library in the US has ever done. Since last year, the organizers had a grand vision of an all digital library. Six hundred e-readers and over ten thousand eBooks will be available to loan out when the new library opens this week.
via BiblioTech Digital Library Opens this Week | GoodEReader.
Tumblr has launched the Reblog Book Club, its first official book club. The series opens with Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, “a coming-of-age story about fanfiction, family, and first love.”
If you want to join the book club conversation, you can post to your Tumblr with the #reblogbookclub tag or you can follow this link to post on the official Tumblr page.
BlackBerry Messenger (or BBM), a marquee messaging app for the BlackBerry OS is coming to Apple’s iOS soon.
See the full story: BlackBerry: We submitted BBM for iOS two weeks ago | Smartphones – CNET Reviews.
This is great news for those organizations who have a bring your own device policy. It will open up opportunities for this type of policy in more restrictive enterprises or enterprises exclusively using BB Enterprise Servers.
infophile 