Commentary: Facebook's Algorithm vs. Democracy. Over the last several years, Facebook has been participating—unintentionally—in the erosion of democracy.
The social network may feel like a modern town square, but thanks to its tangle of algorithms, it’s nothing like the public forums of the past. The company determines, according to its interests and those of its shareholders, what we see and learn on its social network. The result has been a loss of focus on critical national issues, an erosion of civil disagreement, and a threat to democracy itself. Facebook is just one part—though a large part—of the Big Data economy, one built on math-powered applications that are based on choices made by fallible human beings.
Many of the algorithms built for the Big Data economy contain mistakes that can undermine solutions to the problems they hope to solve. In 2008, when the economy crashed, I witnessed the power of these “ Weapons of Math Destruction ” firsthand from my desk at a hedge fund in New York City. Social Searcher - Free Social Media Search Engine.
(18) Searching LinkedIn (new design) What is Reddit? A Beginner's Guide to the Front Page of the Internet. What is Reddit? It’s what is lovingly known as the front page of the internet. It’s a place where millions of people go every day to discuss politics, post memes, find porn, and share every odd thought that’s ever occurred to them in the shower. No matter who you are or what you’re into, Reddit has a place for you. From social justice warriors to men’s rights activists and conspiracy theorists, all are accounted for.
But many first-timers stare at the front page and wonder how to use Reddit. While Reddit is easy to navigate once you learn the ropes, it isn’t an intuitive website, and its basic design hasn’t been updated in ages. Search Social sites with this custom social search engine. 9 Best People Search Engines You Can Use to Find Anyone. Finding people online is easy if you have the right tools.
You can track down someone's phone number, figure out their address, see their relatives, dig up their email address, read arrest records, and more when you use a people search engine. Why Use People Search Engines. Advanced Twitter Search Commands. By Tracy Z.
Maleeff Most people—and not only information professionals—are familiar with Twitter. The social media platform, originally an outlet for individual expression, is becoming a breaking news and information-sharing platform. However, information professionals underutilize and undervalue Twitter as a research tool, although they may use it to follow what’s happening in real time at library conferences. Twitter offers users a medium through which to send messages of no greater than 140 characters—at least as of now. There is a wealth of information on Twitter.
Twitter’s extensive global reach can yield vast amounts of unique data that you can tap into—if you use the right search queries. The from: and to: commands reveal the origin and destination of tweets. What results will this search yield? Perhaps the simplest of searches, this is the easiest way to get a comprehensive list of all the tweets sent from or to a particular Twitter handle.
Facebook Help Center. HLS/ACRLog: Tweet your heart out?: Social Media and Expanding Professional Development – ACRLog. Today we welcome a post by Zohra Saulat as part of our collaboration with Hack Library School.
Zohra Saulat is a second-year MLIS student and graduate assistant at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She plans on becoming an instructional and reference librarian. Through librarianship, she hopes to do her part in making information accessible. She likes cats, chai, and cardigans, as well as alliteration. She tweets occasionally @zohrasaulat. From MySpace and Facebook to Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, social media is one the most radical developments in the past fifteen years, altering the way we do things and think about things.
Whether an individual or an institution, having an online presence is necessary to stay connected in today’s world. Each social media platform has been designed for a unique purpose. Librarians can find each other using hashtags (#library #librarians etc.). Achieving Social Media Success for Your Library – The Digital Librarian. 6 Most Powerful Search Engines for Social Networks. Social Media Search: 7 Super Tools for Searching Social Media. If you ever tried to do social media search using social media platforms, you probably found that the results are often not great.
13. Other Information Sources – jonasfransson.com. (This is originally a chapter from the book Efficient information searching on the web.)
Facts services You might use the term facts services for the type of Web sites that function as encyclopaedias. These are not search services in the common sense of the term as they don’t lead on to other Web sites. As further reading they may offer links, but their main function is to provide information. The information is in most cases self-produced (or collaborative when it comes to Wikis) and the services are not navigators but producers of information.
Wiki Web sites Wiki Web sites, Wikis, are Web sites where the visitor can do his or her own editing of pages. Wikipedia ( exists in several languagesWebopedia (www.webopedia.com) contains Internet- and computer terms.