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The US military runs studies on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit to learn how to counter propaganda

Jul08
by on July 8, 2014 at 5:11 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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In light of Facebook’s disconcerting emotion experiment, The Guardian has published an in-depth look at the US military’s own research efforts to understand and influence social media. DARPA, the Department of Defense’s tech research arm, has sponsored numerous studies across the most popular services, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Kickstarter and Reddit. The studies come under the Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program, which was revealed back in 2011. Here’s the initiative’s stated mission: The general goal of the Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program is to develop a new science of social networks built on an emerging technology…

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CheckiO launches a crowdsourced coding game platform for Python developers

Jul08
by on July 8, 2014 at 4:35 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Design & Dev, Insider, Product Updates, Profiles and Interviews

checkio
By looking at the variety of online services for wannabe programmers, it seems like nowadays it is easier to learn how to code than how to cook. There is, however, not much of gamified experience for those who know the craft but still want to stretch their brains instead of playing another few hours in WoW or LoL. Those bored coding enthusiasts are the main audience pursued by CheckiO, a Techstars-seasoned Ukrainian-born startup based in Las Vegas. After two years of flying under the radar and raising $750,000 in seed funding in November 2013, the startup is aiming at a…

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Mynd’s smart calendar gives you the entire day at a glance with a premium version to manage your every minute

Jul08
by on July 8, 2014 at 4:30 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider

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Scheduling has become hectic. This is especially true when you’re dealing with multiple calendars and your day ends up looking like a blob of bars and colors and events and where am I supposed to be at 5:30? The Mynd smart calendar app arranges that daily nightmare into an easy to read, single-page brief. Today, that app was updated to work with your Linkedin and iPhone contacts, to let you share Evernote notes from within an event and create and assign categories to events. There’s also an Inside Mynd premium feature that can be added via in-app purchase. It’s meant…

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Finding the balance between unconventional tech funding routes

Jul08
by on July 8, 2014 at 4:23 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Entrepreneur

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Derek Schoettle is the CEO of Cloudant. There seems to be a never-ending stream of news and opinion about startups’ shocking valuations, the latest multi-million dollar rounds of funding for companies yet to turn real profits, and the potential for another tech bubble. Just to name a few recent examples: An app with the purpose of sending a “Yo” notification to friends received $1 million in seed funding (and perhaps more importantly, the backing of Marc Andreessen). Uber garnered a $17 billion valuation after completing a round of financing last month. Foursquare took on yet another round of funding in previous months…

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Readymag takes on Squarespace, helping you make stylish microsites, photo stories and more with ease

Jul08
by on July 8, 2014 at 3:35 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Product Updates

Moscow-based startup Readymag, which provides users with the ability to create and distribute online publications, has announced its latest update. The platform is gunning for the likes of Squarespace and Wix but focuses more on ‘micro-publishing’ – providing publishers with the tools to easily set up mini-sites, online magazines, presentations and photo stories. The update brings to the table a variety of responsive layouts, templates, custom domain names and integration with Adobe Typekit, which provides free access to over 1,500 fonts. Readymag’s update follows a recent milestone; it says that 15,000 publishers have signed up to use the software. Subscriptions start…

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