Markmedia

Internet usage and social networks

The Pew Internet & American Life Project today released a report describing how the internet improves Americans' capacity to maintain their social networks and how they gain a big payoff when they use the internet to activate those networks to solicit help.

The report is based on two surveys and finds that the internet and email expand and strengthen the social ties that people maintain in the offline world. The surveys show that people not only socialize online, but they also incorporate the internet into their quest for information and advice as they seek help and make decisions.
Disputing concerns that heavy use of the internet might diminish people's social relations, the report finds that the internet fits seamlessly with Americans' in-person and phone encounters. With the help of the internet, people are able to maintain active contact with sizable social networks, even though many of the people in those networks do not live close to them.
The report, "The Strength of Internet Ties," highlights how email supplements, rather than replaces, the communication people have with others in their network.

The full report is available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/172/report_display.asp

rss help

RSS is becoming a staple in more media houses. Both as a service to users,  but also  as a way  for rreporters to cover their beats  and to monitor primary sources.
If you feel  left out, or lagging behind, have a look at the BBC´s Feed Factory.
It is a simple introduction to RSS in  general  and to  the BBC's feeds in particular.

Excellent collection of economic research papers

A large (and growing) collection of economic research papers, journal articles and book chapters is  available  from  the Department of Business, Economics, Statistics and Informatics       at Örebro University.

EconPapers provides access to RePEc, the world's largest collection of on-line Economics working papers, journal articles and software;

We have:

• 169,602   Working Papers   (114,461 downloadable) in 1,470 series 
• 185,829   Journal Articles   (140,932 downloadable) in 445 journals 
• 1,336   Software Items   (1,322 downloadable) in 21 series 
• 624   Books   (492 downloadable) in 20 series 
• 1,432   Chapters   (1,432 downloadable) in 34 series
• 8,788 Authors and 3,736 individuals have registered     in the RePEc Author Service

for a total of 358,823 searchable working papers, articles and software items with 258,639 items available on-line.

Google Earth för Mac

Google har nu släpt en Mac version av Google Earth.
Träden är fortfarande grön i Gröndal enligt Google :)

Biometrics

This document from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) outlines concerns with biometrics, "the automatic identification or identity verification of living persons using their enduring physical or behavioral characteristics." Discusses specific concerns (such as accuracy of the systems and privacy), current biometrics initiatives, attributes and components of biometrics systems, types of systems (such as fingerprinting, facial recognition, and voice verification), and related information.

Community-based Networks and Innovative Technologies

Much of the talk about an information society and the use of technology in such a society remains an unfulfilled promise in the developing world. This disconnect is particularly strong in rural areas, which often do not have the necessary infrastructure to take part in any social or economic improvements that may be the by-product of such developments. This report from the United Nations Development Program, authored by Sean O Siochru and Brian Girard looks at how an innovative combination of community-driven enterprises and the new wave of wireless and related technologies may assist such communities most effectively. The report is divided into five primary chapters, and a number of appendices which contain detailed case study
information from such countries as Poland, Argentina, Peru, and India.
There is a summary.

European Library portal

The European Library webservice is a portal which offers access to the combined resources (books, magazines, journals.... - both digital and non-digital) of the 43 national libraries of Europe. It offers free searching and delivers digital objects - some free, some priced.

dissertations from Nordic universities.

In DiVA you can find theses, dissertations and other publications in full-text from a number of Nordic universities. The publications are stored in pdf which requires Acrobat Reader to open and print them. DiVA has been developed by the Electronic Publishing Centre at Uppsala University Library.

how men and women use the Internet

The Pew Internet Project has recently released a new report on how men and women use the Internet. You can find the full report at:
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/171/report_display.asp

The percentage of women using the internet still lags slightly behind the percentage of men. Women under 30 and black women outpace their male peers. However, older women trail dramatically behind older men.

*68% of men are internet users, compared with 66% of women. Because they make up more of the population, the total number of women online is now slightly larger than the number of men.
*86% of women ages 18-29 are online, compared with 80% of men that age.
*34% of men age 65 and older are online, compared with 21% of women that age.
*60% of black women are online, compared with 50% of black men.

"If there is an overall pattern of differences here, it is that men value the internet for the breadth of experiences it offers, and women value it for the human connections," said Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow at the Pew Internet Project."