The Tracking Protection Working Group has published two documents today.

• A Working Draft Tracking Preference Expression (DNT). This specification defines the DNT request header field as an HTTP mechanism for expressing the user’s preference regarding tracking, an HTML DOM property to make that expression readable by scripts, and APIs that allow scripts to register site-specific exceptions granted by the user. It also defines mechanisms for sites to communicate whether and how they honor a received preference through use of the Tk response header field and well-known resources that provide a machine-readable tracking status.
• A Working Draft of Tracking Compliance and Scope. This specification defines the meaning of a Do Not Track (DNT) preference and sets out practices for websites to comply with this preference.

Learn more about the Privacy Activity.

While superfast Internet access is still scarce, average speeds worldwide inch up, and attacks rise, too.

We hear a lot about a few standout efforts to boost Internet speeds here and there (see “When Will the Rest of Us Get Google Fiber?”). But ultimately, what’s more relevant are broad-based trends, and there’s some good news:

The Internationalization Working Group has published a Working Draft of Encoding. While encodings have been defined to some extent, implementations have not always implemented them in the same way, have not always used the same labels, and often differ in dealing with undefined and former proprietary areas of encodings. This specification attempts to fill those gaps so that new implementations do not have to reverse engineer encoding implementations of the market leaders and existing implementations can converge. Learn more about the Internationalization Activity.

The WebFonts Working Group has published a Working Draft of WOFF 2.0 Evaluation Report. Web Open Font Format (WOFF) 2.0 is a proposed update to the existing WOFF 1.0 with improved compression. This report lists requirements for successful deployment, evaluates how the requirement may be met, and examines the compression gains and tradeoffs vs. code complexity, encode and decode time. This document is non-normative. Learn more about the Fonts Activity.

Meet Mary.

She is a Dance and INDS major and current Undergraduate Research Award (URA) scholar. Her current research measures the benefits of dance lessons on children. She is also a Linehan Artist Scholar, the President of the Dance Council of Majors and has served as a Welcome Week Leader for the past three years.

How did you know this was the project you wanted to do?
I have always wanted to combine my passion for the Arts with my purpose to advance the Arts in education through policy. With the creation of my Interdisciplinary Studies Major titled “Arts Advocacy”, I knew that I wanted to do research that would help me grow as an advocate. I also love to teach dance, so I knew this project would be a lot of fun!

Is this your first independent research/artistic project?
This is my first independent research project of this type, but I previously received the Linehan Summer Research and Study Award to study dance for three weeks with Doug Varone and Dancers in New York.

Do you get course credit for this work?
Yes! This research will also be presented as my Interdisciplinary Studies Capstone.

How did you hear about the Undergraduate Research Award (URA) program?
I had attended URCAD several times and many of my friends had done research through the URA. After seeing their projects and learning about their experiences, I wanted to do it, too!

What academic background did you have before you applied for the URA?
I was a Junior when I applied to the URA, so I had completed most of my core and degree requirements. One of the classes that has helped me the most in completing the analytical portion of this research was POLI 301- Political Science Research Methods with Dr. Carolyn Forestiere. She became my URA mentor and has been infinitely helpful in designing, implementing, and completing this research.

Was the application difficult to do?
The application was easier than I thought it would be. I found it really helpful to attend the workshops provided, and would recommend working closely with your mentor while completing the application.

What has been the hardest part about your research?
The hardest part of my research was definitely coordinating with all the necessary people to implement my dance program within the Summer Learning Program. I began planning with the local YMCA in December, but by May they had gotten so busy that it was hard to schedule meetings about my research. I had to be persistent while also trying not to be bothersome, as I understood they had a lot they were trying to plan.

What was the most unexpected thing?
I thought that the children I worked with would like dancing, but I didn’t expect that on the last day they would all want to know where to take dance lessons and wanted to know if I would be coming back next summer! They were a little bit resistant at the beginning, so I wasn’t expecting that sort of reaction to the dance program in the end. It was unexpected, but I was so happy!

How does your research relate to your work in other classes?
Because I am an Interdisciplinary Studies Major, I designed my coursework to eventually lead up to this research project. I took classes in research, dance, sociology, political science, and social work that all related to my project in some way.

What else are you involved in on campus?
I am a Linehan Artist Scholar, the President of Dance Council of Majors, and have been a Welcome Week Leader for the past three years.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research?
Don’t be afraid to ask for help!!! Everyone I have worked with on this project has been more than happy to help me and I am really grateful for that. It is easy to think that because you designed the project you shouldn’t ask for help, but that is not the case!

What are your career goals?
While I know that I want to be an advocate for the arts, I do not exactly know how I want to do this. In the Spring, I will be interning with Americans for the Arts working on arts education governmental affairs. I’m really looking forward to this experience helping me shape my career goals.

Did you transfer to UMBC from another institution? Where?
I started at UMBC as a freshman and will be graduating next May!

Read her abstract here...

“As human beings, we're always striving to be better. The most common self-improvement goals people set, particularly this time of year, are things like losing weight, improving our cholesterol numbers or blood pressure, or getting in shape for a marathon. These are body goals. They are concrete and easy to understand. Because we have metrics to measure things like weight loss, for example, it's easy to track our progress and stay motivated.

Making "soul resolutions" is more challenging. These are the deeper aspects of self-growth. These would be things like trying to be less critical, more loving, more patient, or more optimistic. Soul resolutions are not so easy to measure.
And that can be a problem. Too often, when it comes to changing profound aspects of our attitudes, behavior, and character, we can get bored, uninspired, and discouraged after a while. We can't really tell sometimes if our efforts are "paying off."

To avoid the boredom of spirit that sometimes accompanies profound changes you're trying to make on yourself, here are some simple strategies for staying motivated.”

Read more…