In 2013, Apple bought PrimeSense, which developed motion-sensing technology in Microsoft Corp.’s Kinect gaming system. Purchases of software startups in the field, Metaio Inc. and Flyby Media Inc., followed in 2015 and 2016.
“AR can be really great, and we have been and continue to invest a lot in this,” Cook said in a July 26 conference call with analysts. “We are high on AR for the long run. We think there are great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity.”
As governments around the world impose new restrictions on internet freedom, it is worth remembering what is at stake. The present crackdown comes as digital platforms are being used in new and creative ways to advocate for change and, in many cases, save lives. Internet advocacy had real-world results in both democracies and authoritarian settings over the past year, and its impact was often most pronounced in countries where the information environment was more open online than off. In over two-thirds of the countries examined in this study, there was at least one significant example of individuals producing a tangible outcome by using online tools to fight for internet freedom, demand political accountability, advance women’s rights, support victims of unjust prosecution, or provide relief to those affected by natural disasters.
Fighting for internet freedom and digital rights
Social media were used effectively to fight for internet freedom in a variety of countries over the past year. In Thailand, over 150,000 people signed a Change.org petition against a government plan to centralize the country’s internet gateways, which would strengthen the authorities’ ability to monitor and censor online activity. As a result, the government announced that it had scrapped the plan, though skeptical internet users remain vigilant.
Using the hashtag #NoToSocialMediaBill, Nigerian digital rights organizations launched a multifaceted campaign to defeat a “Frivolous Petitions Prohibition Bill” that threatened to constrain speech on social media. Alongside significant digital media activism, civil society groups organized a march on the National Assembly, gathered signatures for a petition presented during a public hearing on the bill, and filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Lagos, all of which contributed to the bill’s withdrawal in May 2016. India’s telecommunications regulator banned differential pricing schemes in February after more than a million comments were submitted online to protest companies that charge consumers different prices for select content or applications.
Please look on the bottom of this blog entry for more resources
Effective Library Signage: Tips, Tricks, & Best Practices Workshop
Mark Aaron Polger and Amy F. Stempler Item Number: 1541-9212
Effective Library Signage: Tips, Tricks, & Best Practices Workshop
A 90-minute workshop, Thursday, January 5, 2017, 2:30pm Eastern/1:30 Central/12:30 Mountain/11:30am PacificLibrary signage represents the first lines of communication between a library user and the library. Are you doing everything to ensure that your signage is user friendly and inviting? Although we have the best intentions, sometimes our signage can be punitive, contradictory, outdated, or passive aggressive.In this new workshop, Mark Aaron Polger and Amy F. Stempler, library professionals who’ve conducted a four yearlong study at the College of Staten Island, CUNY that involved an extensive signage audit and replacement project, will provide you with the top ten tips to follow when preparing new signage for your library. They will discuss what constitutes “bad” and “good” signage and the importance of developing a signage policy to ensure consistency in design and overall language. Other topics that will be addressed will be placement, ADA compliancy, branding, design, verbiage, and the use of images, language, and font. You’ll come out of this workshop with the best practices to assess your current signage and develop improved signage for your institution.Learning Outcomes
After participating in this workshop, you will be able to:
Identify the best practices when developing new signage
Distinguish and follow the steps involved in coordinating a signage audit
Create a signage policy that is appropriate for your institution
About the Instructors
Mark Aaron Polger is the first year experience librarian and information literacy instructor at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York (CUNY). His responsibilities include promoting library services and resources to first year students and providing library instruction and information literacy classes. Polger’s research interests include library marketing, outreach, and user experience design. He has written and presented on topics ranging from library marketing strategies, faculty outreach, Information Literacy outreach, embedded librarianship, library jargon, and library signage. Polger holds a BA in Sociology from Concordia University, an MA in Sociology from the University of Waterloo, a B.Ed. in adult education from Brock University, and an MLIS from the University of Western Ontario. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning at SUNY University at Buffalo.
Amy F. Stempler is an associate professor in the library department at the College of Staten Island, CUNY, where she has worked since 2008. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in History from The George Washington University and a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science Degree from the Pratt Institute. Stempler is currently the coordinator of library instruction, and has written on library signage, Jewish history, Judaica librarianship, and the role of archives in environmental history.
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more on signage for libraries:
Polger, M. A., & Stempler, A. F. (2014). Out with the Old, In with the New: Best Practices for Replacing Library Signage. Public Services Quarterly, 10(2), 67-95. doi:10.1080/15228959.2014.904210
authors’ thesis is that library signs are living documents
Stempler, A. F., & Polger, M. A. (2013). Do You See the Signs? Evaluating Language, Branding, and Design in a Library Signage Audit. Public Services Quarterly, 9(2), 121-135. doi:10.1080/15228959.2013.785881
To be effective, signage must be consistent, concise, and free of jargon and punitive language.
We conducted a short 5 min live session on Facebook Live and Periscope; the first of three mini-series to test the potential of these tools for academic purposes:
Here is the link to the LITA Webinar Facebook Group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitaSocialMediaWebinar/
“Hybrid learning gives us the advantage of having technology available to learn in the way that we’ve grown used to,” says Ms. Pillwein, who is also a Brock University graduate. “In the abnormal psychology course, the online component is mainly tests and quizzes that you can do in your own time. I’ve found that suits my learning style more, as opposed to doing a test in class where you’d have to memorize a lot of terms and concepts.”
Ms. Pillwein also likes that the professor uploads all of her PowerPoint presentations for students to access and review. She feels that helps get the material embedded in her brain more than writing things down word for word during the lecture.
Ms. Hotham finds that the combination of two hours of classroom lecture and then one hour of online activity for the week is an effective way of teaching the material, particularly because it gives students time to take away what has been said and digest it.
After two years of teaching the course with the online component and one year before that of teaching without it, she says the student grades are higher than when she taught only in the classroom.
Ms. Hotham also finds students are more engaged in the discussion the week after doing the online activities because they have more to talk about. Sometimes she posts a video, which then becomes an online discussion.
Patrick Lyons, director of teaching and learning services at Carleton University in Ottawa, visualizes online learning taking many different forms, presenting all kinds of opportunities that could not be delivered any other way. Carleton has a long history offering distance learning, first broadcasting courses on a local cable TV channel in 1978 and then offering the world’s first video podcast of a university credit course in 2006.
Instagram Adds Boomerang, Mention Tags, and Links to Instagram Stories: Instagram introduced two new tools “to help you make your story even more fun, Boomerang and mentions,” and announced that it’s starting “to test links inside some stories.” Boomerang, which “lets you turn everyday moments into something fun and unexpected,” can be selected as an additional format option under the Record button. Boomerang records and stitches together “a burst of photos into a mini video that plays forward and backward.” Users can also tag and mention people in stories just as they do in Instagram captions and comments. These updates for Instagram Stories are available as part of Instagram version 9.7 available for iOS in the Apple App Store. It’s also available on Android and Windows.
Facebook Opens Sponsored Messages on Messenger: As part of a larger Messenger update “designed to provide visibility into optimal entry points, enhance existing conversations and enable you to build better overall experiences,” Facebook made sponsored messages within Messenger generally available to all advertisers. According to Facebook, “sponsored messages give businesses the ability to send targeted updates, information about promotions, reminders and other relevant messages.” All Facebook advertisers can now reach people through sponsored posts and ads in the news feed and direct them to a conversation in Messenger.
Periscope Introduces New Ways to Connect With Audiences: Periscope rolled out “three new ways to connect with your audiences and the communities on Periscope – with Superfans, groups, and logging into Periscope.tv.” The new Superfans feature allows broadcasters to identify and target the top 10 “most engaged” members of their audience. Building on this information, broadcasters can now create groups where they can “broadcast to and share videos with more granular sets of people” such as friends, superfans, or a community built around specific interests. The Superfans and Groups features are available on the Periscope app for Android and iOS and on the web.
Periscope recently updated Periscope.tv with an “easier way to search, browse suggested and highlighted channels” and has just rolled out “a more complete web experience” that allows users to send hearts in any live video on Periscope.tv.
Snapchat Adds New World Lenses, Rewind Capabilities, and Support for Spectacles: With its recent updates for iOS and Android, Snapchat introduced World Lenses. Similar to Snapchat’s Selfie Lenses, the new World Lenses change your background and surroundings. According to TechCrunch, “some World Lenses will actually animate your face too and can have different effects depending on if you use your front- or rear-facing camera.” Snapchat also added the ability to rewind individual snaps and entire stories with just one swipe.
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more on social media in this IMS blog:
My note: I listened to the report in my car yesterday. It is another sober reminder for being proactive rather then reactive (or punitive). We must work toward digital literacy and go beyond that comfortably numb stage of information literacy.
An Experiment Shows How Quickly The Internet Of Things Can Be Hacked
We have basic security in place in modern devices that screen out the most obvious attacks. Really getting phished, if you will, is more of a problem where you are tricked in surrendering your password or username to a common service. If you plug in your webcam into your router or to your Wi-Fi, you’re relatively safe.
I think the biggest security concern for folks at home would be if their router actually is old, it might have an easily guessed password that someone could gain control. Most modern devices don’t have that problem, but that certainly is a concern for older devices.
