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Newley's Notes

#️⃣ Newley’s Notes 104: Social Media and Harvey, Decade of Hashtags, ConfirmShaming

2017 09 06abstract

Edition 104 my email newsletter, Newley’s Notes, went out on Sunday.

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Hi, friends. Welcome to the latest issue of Newley’s Notes, a newsletter in which I share my Wall Street Journal stories, posts from my blog, and links about tech and life.

📲 5 Cool Tech-ish Reads This Week

1. On social media and Hurricane Harvey. A WSJ story looks at how people are using big platforms like Facebook and Twitter to summon help following the massive flooding.

Meanwhile others are using lesser-known services like Zello, a walkie-talkie like app, and neighborhood-based network Nextdoor, Buzzfeed reports. Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, was quoted in our story as saying:

People have gotten used to this idea that if you are stuck in an airport and you tweet at an airline, sometimes they will find a way to swoop down and save you when the system isn’t working.

2. The Twitter #hashtag turned 10. Over the last decade, hastags have powered everything from social movements (#BlackLivesMatter) to bad punchlines. And of course, the convention is commonly abused (i.e., #blessed). Some 125 million hashtags appear on Twitter daily.

3. Can’t stand Burning Man? Read these stories. It’s time for the annual festival in the Nevada desert popular with hipsters, bohemians, anarchists – and wealthy tech types. LAist provides a list of the “10 Best Burning Man Hate Reads.

4. Apple watchers: Put Tues., Sept. 12 in your calendar. WSJ broke the news, later confirmed by Apple, that the tech behemoth will hold an event that day. They are likely to unveil three new iPhones and a smartwatch, just in time for the holidays. There could also be a new Apple TV.

As ReCode notes, the event is an important one for Apple because it needs to show it can still create innovative new products without Steve Jobs at the helm.

5. For serious travel/tech nerds only: here’s an exhaustive oral history of online travel from the early 1990s through 2005, recounting the rise of companies like Hotels.com, Travelocity, Booking.com, Orbitz and many more.

💫 1 Silly Thing

1. Term of the week: “confirmshaming.” A new-to-me Tumblr highlights instances in which links visitors must click to opt-out of special offers contain ridiculous text, like “no, I’m ignorant and complicit in hate,” “I don’t read,” or “I don’t want smarter email.”

What’d I miss? Send me links, rants, raves, juicy news scoops and anything else. Thanks for reading, amigos, and please do forward this email to friends or mention it on Facebook or Twitter.

Fist bump 👊 from New Delhi,
Newley

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