The Guardian: UK government considers classifying Google and Facebook as publishers. “Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, has said the government is considering changing the legal status of Google, Facebook and other internet companies amid growing concerns about copyright infringement and the spread of extremist material online. The internet groups are considered conduits of information rather than publishers under UK law, meaning they have limited responsibility for what appears on their sites.”
UK
Public Technology: How The National Archives is digitising 1,000 years of history
Public Technology: How The National Archives is digitising 1,000 years of history. “There can be few, if any, public bodies for whom the concept of ‘digital transformation’ will be quite so transformative as The National Archives. The organisation, a non-ministerial government department sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, manages hundreds of millions of documents spanning 1,000 years of British history. Its headquarters in Kew, in west London, requires well over 100 miles of shelving to store all these records – with another mile needed each year. All of which adds up to a pretty hefty digitisation project.”
The Guardian: Say moo! Why Instagram loves life on the British farm
The Guardian: Say moo! Why Instagram loves life on the British farm. “Instagram often gets criticised for triggering Fomo or self-esteem issues, but staring at images of belted galloway calves in the Yorkshire dales could inspire an unfamiliar calm instead. Around the country, farmers are using the app to connect not only with fellow farmers but also with fans of their animals, the rural lifestyle or simply just the picturesque landscapes they capture.”
MedicalXPress: Social media feedback can identify high risk hospitals
MedicalXPress: Social media feedback can identify high risk hospitals. “Online patient feedback, including Twitter and Facebook posts, can provide accurate near real-time representations of the quality of care in NHS hospitals – thereby identifying high risk hospitals in need of inspection. These are the findings of a new study by researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) published today (29 September) in the BMJ Quality & Safety.”
National Library of Wales: Launching the Welsh Music Archive
National Library of Wales: Launching the Welsh Music Archive. “The Library takes pride in the fact that the Merêd and Phyllis archive, which includes their detailed research into traditional music, has come to the Library and is grateful to the family for their generosity in transferring the collection to the Library’s care. The Library intends to provide access to this new resource to everyone who wants to find out more about folk music, and to create online access in digital format. The Merêd and Phyllis archive reflects their extensive knowledge of traditional singing and leads to further study of the Library’s collections such as the collections of J Lloyd Williams (one of the founders of the Welsh Folk Song Society) and Maria Jane Williams, a prominent collector of Welsh Folk Songs.” This blog post links to some resources which are already online.
WiredGov: Researchers release largest ever public collection of British conversations
WiredGov (UK): Researchers release largest ever public collection of British conversations. “The recordings used for the project were carried out between 2012 and 2016. They were gathered by members of the British public, who used their smartphones to record everyday conversations with their families and friends. These included: a newlywed couple reminiscing about their recent honeymoon, students drinking in their halls, a father and daughter chatting in the car and grandparents visiting family for the day. In a landmark moment for social science, the anonymised transcripts of these recordings were released yesterday, free of charge, to the public. This is the largest collection or ‘corpus’ of British English conversations ever made freely available.”
Variety: BFI Launches Huge Database Spanning a Century of British Film
Variety: BFI Launches Huge Database Spanning a Century of British Film. “Judi Dench is the most prolific working female actor in British film today. Michael Caine is the most prolific male actor. Queen Victoria, James Bond, and Sherlock Holmes are, in that order, the characters who have appeared most in British film, while war is the subject covered most. Such are some of the facts now discoverable in the British Film Institute’s new Filmography database, a huge digital repository covering more than 100 years of film in the U.K., with details of more than 10,000 movies and 250,000 cast and crew.”
