In just a decade, Netflix has grown from a video service with seven million U.S. subscribers to one that reaches 93 million people worldwide. In her book, Portals: A Treatise on Internet-Distributed Television, U-M communications professor Amanda Lotz explores how Netflix and other internet-distributed video services forced the existing television industry to radically change its practices. During the early 2000s,… Read More »
The U-M Center for Health Communications Research and the National Cancer Institute have developed a text messaging program called Tips4Health that aims to promote healthy habits in people that sign up. The U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center is using the service to deliver behavioral interventions for smoking cessation, healthy eating, and physical activity. A text messaging program to encourage colon cancer screening… Read More »
The Bentley Historical Library has unveiled 12 decades of Michigan Daily history through a new online database that contains searchable digital copies of the historic newspaper. The first online search of the digitized Daily was performed by President Mark Schlissel during a reception Thursday at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. “This effort celebrates and preserves 125 years… Read More »
Kelli reflects on the commitment of so many staff to make our community better through “other duties not assigned,” U-M’s dedicated faculty, and the joys of Cuban street food.
Social media is an ever-changing landscape of exciting options. There’s Friendster, Orkut, Vine, and Yik-Yak just to name a few. But no social media platform is as leading edge, new, and cool as Myspace. That’s why the Michigan IT Steering Committee has created a Michigan IT Myspace account! Some of the standout features of Myspace include: Friends — Connect with… Read More »
Scholars and researchers have a new way to find and compare geospatial data and maps: the Big Ten Academic Alliance Geoportal. “The ease of use is wonderful, but what’s really new and different here is a search that allows you to compare contemporary data to old maps,” said Mara Blake, spatial and numeric data librarian at the U-M… Read More »
Pending final approvals, the UM-Flint School of Education and Human Services will launch a new online Master of Arts in Inclusive Education degree program in Fall 2017. Offered in an interactive, completely online format for the convenience of working educators, courses will be taught by doctoral-level education faculty members who have significant classroom teaching experience. The program aims to… Read More »
Lisa Callihan (LSA IT customer experience manager) and Jennifer Herron (ITS infrastructure business planning lead) presented at the 46th ACUTA (Association for College and University Technology Advancement) Annual Conference on March 20 in Chicago, IL. Their presentation focused on their effort to create, maintain, and grow a Community of Practice (CoP) for U-M’s contact centers, in partnership with the Michigan IT… Read More »
Google Maps recently rolled out real-time location sharing that lets you select which contacts to share with and how long you want to keep them in the loop. The added convenience for users also has an upside for Google. “Mapping, very granular mapping, could actually be a bigger source for ad revenue than search,” says Erik Gordon, who studies… Read More »
Do you find yourself incapable of controlling an incessant urge to look at your smart phone or other electronic device? You’ve got company. Nearly nine out of 10 Americans report being so tethered to their digital gadgets that they constantly or often check their email, texts, and social media accounts, a new poll shows. The problem may stem from… Read More »
Whether a nation should retaliate against a cyber attack is a complicated decision, and a new framework guided by game theory could help policymakers determine the best strategy. The “Blame Game” was developed in part by Robert Axelrod, a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy who is well known for solving a version of the classic… Read More »
By now, we’re all familiar with the storyline in which a person replaces relationships with a digital device. A recent study co-authored by Carolyn Yoon, professor of marketing at U-M, sought to see exactly how much a humanlike digital device might replace humans. Yoon and her colleagues hoped to find out how devices that replicate human characteristics — such… Read More »
A project started by U-M students Ish Baid and Michael Copley can make daily life easier for people with food allergies or special diets. They are the co-founders of the Edible Project app that helps people with diet restrictions find restaurants and meals they can enjoy without worrying about allergies or ingredients. The idea was prompted by Copley’s severe dairy allergies. Edible Project… Read More »
Joanna Millunchick, professor of materials science and engineering, is working to change the way people visualize crystal structures. In the video below, Millunchick and her development partner, Duncan Abbot, CEO of Gwydion Inc., explain how an app that centers on virtual and augmented reality, technology more frequently used for video games, can create a new affordable platform that… Read More »
L. Jay Guo, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, has developed a “stainless” silver film that could change the way touchscreens and flat or flexible displays are made, and also help improve computing power. By combining silver with a little bit of aluminum, the U-M researchers found that it was possible to produce exceptionally thin, smooth conductive layers… Read More »
Software company Puppet interviewed Benjeman Meekhof, ARC-TS high-performance computing storage administrator and lead engineer on the Open Storage Research Infrastructure (OSiRIS) project.
Imagine if Twitter and Paypal had a love child. Meet Venmo, the latest, hippest tool for oversharing (and possibly overpaying) with your friends. The mobile app pairs with people’s bank accounts to let them pay each other or request money. The difference is that Venmo lets its users make those payments and their associated messages public on social… Read More »
Computer Showcase now carries secure Aegis drives from Apricorn, providing encrypted removable media with layers of protection to keep sensitive data safe in transit. The Aegis Padlock Fortress is a 500GB USB 3.0 hard drive with 2 levels of military grade encryption, unique PIN access with programmable auto-lock features, and rugged physical attack protection. Aegis Secure Key offers… Read More »
Silicon Valley has long portrayed the H-1B visa program for skilled foreign workers as a win-win, providing much-needed tech talent and fueling innovation and economic growth. Critics say it disadvantages American workers by allowing companies to hire cheaper foreign labor for jobs that would have gone to U.S. workers. A new study by researchers from U-M and the University… Read More »
A security loophole that lets someone add extra steps to your Fitbit might seem harmless, but a group of computer security researchers at U-M and the University of South Carolina say it points to the broader risks that come with technology embedding itself into our lives. They found a vulnerability that allows them to compromise devices through the tiny accelerometers that… Read More »