Penn State Great Valley Library Blog

If you use Facebook and you haven’t already switched to Timeline you will be required to do so shortly. To get more information see this post http://mashable.com/2012/01/24/facebook-timeline-roll-out/

If you use Facebook and you haven’t already switched to Timeline you will be required to do so shortly. To get more information see this post http://mashable.com/2012/01/24/facebook-timeline-roll-out/

Interested in using social networking in the workplace, you might want to read this blog. http://mashable.com/2012/01/23/social-media-workplace/

Interested in using social networking in the workplace, you might want to read this blog. http://mashable.com/2012/01/23/social-media-workplace/

Mobile broadband is reshaping society, communications, and the global economy, writes Darrell West. With smart phone usage surpassing that of personal computers, there has been a sea change in the way consumers access and share information. For more information go to http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/1208_mobile_broadband_west.aspx

Mobile broadband is reshaping society, communications, and the global economy, writes Darrell West. With smart phone usage surpassing that of personal computers, there has been a sea change in the way consumers access and share information. For more information go to http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/1208_mobile_broadband_west.aspx

If you are taking an online or hybrid class ( or even a regular class) you may want to look at a great blog post by Penn State’s World Campus on helpful hints for taking notes for online classes. Go to http://studentblog.worldcampus.psu.edu/index.php/2011/10/helpful-hints-for-online-note-taking/

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project Twitter use by adults is growing:
“As of May 2011, 13% of online adults use the status update service Twitter. That represents a significant increase from the 8% of online adults who identified themselves as Twitter users the first time we asked our “stand-alone” question about Twitter adoption in November 2010.”
In addition, “Non-white internet users continue to have higher rates of Twitter use than their white counterparts.”
For the complete report go to http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Twitter-Update-2011/Main-Report.aspx

We all know that it is important that we manage what we share on the Internet but did you know just how much facebook apps open that info to third parties. For more information go to http://techland.time.com/2011/05/11/facebook-apps-are-leaking-your-profile-to-third-parties/

The Census Bureau has released preliminary results of the 2010 Census for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Viewing of the information is available through the Pennsylvania State Data Center (PaSDC).

The overall population (as of April 1, 2010) is 12,702,379, an increase of 421,325 or 3.4 percent since April 1, 2000. This initial population data regarding counties, cities, etc. is utilized by state officials to determine the congressional and state legislative districts in Pennsylvania. At this figure, Pennsylvania retains its status as the sixth largest state in the country, but it will lose one U.S. House of Representatives seat due to population increases in other states.

You can find these latest Census results at: http://pasdc.hbg.psu.edu/. Click on “Read the PaSCD’s Research Brief” link on the right side. There are some details in that section of Research Briefs.

For more detailed data on the 2010 Census itself, click on the 2010 Census link on the left side of the page. A map of Pennsylvania will appear that is broken into counties. Hovering the mouse over each of the various counties reveals population changes in that specific area. There are also topics of racial and ethnic breakdowns, minority groups, housing units, municipalities, and maps of the districts.

In a related article, this week the Philadelphia Inquirer revealed 2010 Census population changes in the City of Philadelphia. The population of Philadelphia has been declining for 50 years; this latest Census has shown a slight increase of 8,456 to 1,526,006 or 0.6 percent. This Census number for Philadelphia may indicate that the decline in citizens has halted and that the population has stabilized. To view this information, see a chart of city population trends, and to vote for what you think may be the reasons for a population increase visit:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20110309_The_population_of_Philadelphia_grew_ever_so_slightly.html

Every year the New Media Consortium and Educause issue the Horizon Report that discusses the latest technologies of importance to education. This year’s report was just released and can be found at http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/HR2011.pdf

Scientific American has released an article regarding the purported government shutdown of the Internet in response to citizen protests in Egypt.

Anti-government protestors were organizing utilizing Facebook and Twitter. Beginning at 12:34 AM Cairo time on January 27, over the span of twenty minutes, five of the six major Internet service providers in the country ceased operation; the only one left operating was the one supplying the stock exchange. Ninety-three percent of the Internet, in Egypt only, was non-functional.

Renesys Corp., a New Hampshire security firm, which studies the global routing table, reported that Telecom Egypt, Raya, Link Egypt, Etisalat Misr, and Internet Egypt were closed down in sequence an average of three minutes apart, which reflects an unprecedented amount of control. while countries such as China and Iran control the Internet by blocking domains and information, this was a complete shutdown in rapid succession.

Could this happen in the United States? According to this article, if a shutdown were requested, it would most likely be unsuccessful. Internet providers in Egypt are few and licensed by the government. the U.S. as well as many other countries, has a much more complex system of many independent providers each with its own layers of decision-making.

To read this article and view reader reactions visit:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=egypt-internet-mubarak

However, on the same day the Egyptian Internet was shutdown, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut proposed to Congress the concept of an “Internet kill switch” as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle in its article “Egypt Action May Spread Internet Kill Switch Idea”.

View this second article at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F02%2F05%2FINO91HHD7P.DTL

A new study by Carnegie Mellon University, presented at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, found that there are regional characteristics not only in speech as we all might expect but also in texting - even in the extremely brief text messaging offered by Twitter.

Carnegie Mellon researchers used computer analysis to examine 380,000 tweets from 9,500 users utilizing mobile phones with a “tag” identifying the location of the sender. The computer model then randomly analyzed the tweets several times, with slightly varied outcomes produced each time, which resulted in a breakdown of approximately twelve computer-generated regions nationwide.

Some of the computer regions did not completely correspond to spoken language dialects but the researchers were able to place a tweeter’s location within a median error of 300 miles.

“Datz” (that’s), “mayb” (maybe), and “smh” (shake my head) were represented in the Northeast, including Philadelphia.

The researchers cautioned that analysis was performed on only a week’s worth of texts, and that it would take further examination to verify results.

For more details, a chart of twitter “dialects”, and an opportunity to offer your opinion on the topic visit:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20110113_Regional_quirks__Datz_phila_on_Tweeter.html

The Pennsylvania State Data Center is a useful resource available at: http://pasdc.hgb.psu.edu/

PaSDC is an applied research, public service, and training division of the Institute of State and Regional Affairs, which is housed at Penn State Harrisburg.

PaSDC is the official Commonwealth resource for economic and population data. Extensive information is available ranging from the latest 2010 U.S. Census data; to detailed breakdowns of variables including age, educational achievement, income and poverty, etc.; through to travel and transportation figures for Pennsylvania.

The obtainable information is useful for business start-ups, marketing plans, public policy programs, and research with additional potential applications suggested on the PaSDC website.

Reproducible brochures are available online for PaSDC itself as well as one entitled “Pennsylvania Facts”.

PaSDC supplies numerous publications and ebooks including the Pennsylvania Statistical Abstract yearly editions; The Source Book, a collection of contact details for hundreds of public and private organizations which gather and publish data across the state and nation; and reference maps of the 67 counties comprising the Commonwealth as well as U.S. Census Bureau maps.

Workshops are available that offer training in interpreting and utilizing census data.

You have probably heard that Yahoo is going to get rid of delicious and that you should move your links from delicious right away. According the delicious blog http://blog.delicious.com/blog/2010/12/whats-next-for-delicious.html it isn’t quite that clear and Yahoo claims to be supporting delicious while looking for other alternatives for its continuation. You can easily move your delicious links to your browser favorites as I did earlier to day just in case, it is also a great was to back up those links generally. To do this you can find directions at http://lifehacker.com/5714313/how-to-export-your-delicious-bookmarks-and-import-them-into-your-favorite-browser while we wait to see what will happen in the future.