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Maria Gurova

The Personal Blog of Zack Kanter - How Uber's Autonomous Cars Will Destroy 10 Million J... - 1 views

  • . Autonomous cars will be commonplace by 2025 and have a near monopoly by 2030
  • They will cause unprecedented job loss and a fundamental restructuring of our economy, solve large portions of our environmental problems, prevent tens of thousands of deaths per year, save millions of hours with increased productivity, and create entire new industries that we cannot even imagine from our current vantage point.
  • Morgan Stanley’s research shows that cars are driven just 4% of the time,5 which is an astonishing waste considering that the average cost of car ownership is nearly $9,000 per year.6
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  • The car purchasers of the future will not be you and me – cars will be purchased and operated by ride sharing and car sharing companies.
  • , it is unlikely that major automakers like General Motors, Ford, and Toyota will survive the leap.
  • while startup automakers like Tesla will thrive on a smaller number of fleet sales to operators like Uber by offering standardized models with fewer options.
  • 884,000 people are employed in motor vehicles and parts manufacturing, and an additional 3.02 million in the dealer and maintenance network.22 Truck, bus, delivery, and taxi drivers account for nearly 6 million professional driving jobs. Virtually all of these 10 million jobs will be eliminated within 10-15 years
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    an article about autonomous transportation and how disruptive they might be not only for the car and transport industry but for entire economy
Maria Gurova

The Movie Theater Of The Future Is All About Big Screens And Big Data - 2 views

  • With huge-flat screen TVs becoming more affordable — and more original TV content being produced — cinemas have to step up their game to keep pace in the arms race with home theaters. That’s why theater chains are coming out with better food, reclining chairs, and more supersized screens like Imax to take full advantage of the special effects in many tentpole blockbusters.
  • The theater, which opens to the public Friday night, now has a lobby that’s part of the show (and soon, a camera-based audience data gathering tool to go with it), and a cinema equipped with the showpiece Barco Escape, which combines three screens in a U-shaped pattern that gives the viewer almost a cockpit-type perspective of the action.
  • “The Maze Runner” and its sequel, “Maze Runner: Scorch Trials,” were the first — and only — two films with scenes optimized for Barco Escape, but with dozens of Imax films coming out every year, there needs to be a much broader pipeline of content to compete with other large format
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  • Hoddick said he wants to develop three additional films this year, then eight in 2017 and then 12 a year after that
  • The Barco Escape costs exhibitors $100,000 with an additional fee per movie.
  • there are currently 21 Barco Escape theaters in the world — 16 in the United States, two each in Europe and China, and one in Mexico.
  • the plan is to have more than 100 by the end of this year, and 1,000 within three to five years. Oh, and they want an additional 1,000 just in China, soon to be the world’s biggest movie market — and one where Imax is in the process of opening hundreds of its own screens
  • Hoddick said while Barco Escape is only for 2D films at this point, he imagines it’s only a matter of time before 3D comes to the platform
  • it’s currently about 4 percent more expensive to produce a movie for Barco Escape, because the work has to happen in post-production, Hoddick said new cameras from manufacturers including Sony that can film in the 7:1 aspect ratio necessary for the medium will slash costs significantly
  • the theater will soon install a camera-based surveillance system to analyze demographics and customize which “lobby dominations” go live — think superhero trailers going up when a crew of high school kids walks in
Maria Gurova

Pixar Vets Reinvent Speech Recognition So It Works for Kids | WIRED - 0 views

  • Though characters like Woody and Buzz Lightyear are wonderfully realistic and lovable, the relationship that kids have with them is largely one-sided. Kids can hear these characters talk—not only through movies, but games, toys, and other movie merchandise—but they can’t engage them.
  • It was this idea that inspired Jacob to team up with his former Pixar colleague, Martin Reddy, and launch a new company, ToyTalk. The San Francisco-based outfit develops mobile games that let kids have conversations with animated characters—dialogues that can last for hours
  • Known as PullString, it’s equal parts speech recognition engine and script writing tool, and it’s quite a departure from other speech rec tools developed by the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Apple. It’s tailored specifically to kids, whose sentence structure, pitch, and vocal tone have posed challenges for traditional tools.
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  • “The way kids talk and communicate is very different from how adults do, both in terms of how they use language and the fundamental frequencies that come out of their throats,
  • But as he points out, the way today’s children use technology will likely dictate the tech landscape for decades to come. If you can get kids hooked on speech technology young, they’ll stay with it forever.
  • Kids don’t want to ask a monkey character in a game what the weather will be on Tuesday. They want to sing him a song or ask him about life in the zoo.
  • While ToyTalk uses existing third party technology for its raw speech recognition, it works with those partners to develop better recognition models using ToyTalk’s own data. Now, ToyTalk has a trove of some 20 million children’s utterances, which Jacob believes is the largest database of kids conversation in the world
  • “Virtual assistants are awesome when they can answer every question. In our case, it’s the opposite,” Jacob says. “I have to know a lot of things that I’m not able to answer, and redirect the conversation to something that is within character.”
  • And Jacob says some toy companies are already testing PullString to power apps based on existing characters.
  • this technology could give kids a whole new way to play that falls somewhere in between the playground and the imaginary friend. “I think at some deep level if we succeed, we’ll inspire the imagination of kids to talk about things they might not otherwise talk about,”
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    the voice rec technology developed by ex-Pixar guy that is targeted to kids. It considers all nuances of kids speech behavior and analyses millions of kids conversations to make interaction with favorite characters within all possible media truly engaging
Oleg Batluk

Web-mad Hongkongers have digital dementia - and we're losing our memories | South China... - 1 views

  • Frequent use of digital devices is causing memory loss among Hongkongers
  • brain health experts have even coined a name for the condition: digital dementia.
  • correlation between more frequent usage of digital devices and self-reported memory loss in daily life and at work.
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  • the cognitive challenges and attention problems that result from overuse of digital technology.
  • Almost all respondents (95 per cent) owned at least two digital devices
  • bio-behavioural sciences
  • Respondents who spent more than six hours daily on their digital devices were more likely to report experiencing forgetfulness in the past month compared to those who spent fewer hours
  • the survey for first time shows this connection between overuse or higher use of digital devices and more complaints of memory disturbances in Hongkongers
  • "digital immigrants"
  • In his 2008 book iBrain, Small talks about "digital natives"
  • The survey also found poor dietary and exercise habits among the respondents
  • The term digital dementia was coined a few years ago in South Korea, after doctors reported seeing young patients with memory and cognitive problems, conditions that were more commonly linked to brain injuries.
  • Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul, South Korea: "As people are more dependent on digital devices for searching information than memorising, the brain function for searching improves whereas an ability to remember decreases
  • Dr Manfred Spitzer, a German neuroscientist and author of the 2012 book Digital Dementia: What We and Our Children are Doing to our Minds,
  • warns that children who spend too much time on electronic devices could experience irreversible deficits in brain development.
  • multitasking teens
  • The devices are not all bad," he says. "It's really about content, context and dose
  • balance the online time with offline time
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    Digtal overdose and multitasking digtal natives with "Inspector Gadget Syndrome" ((c) Batluk) can lead to medically diagnosed digital dementia which can be avoided by offline online balance
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    Digtal overdose and multitasking digtal natives with "Inspector Gadget Syndrome" ((c) Batluk) can lead to medically diagnosed digital dementia which can be avoided by offline online balance
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    Digtal overdose and multitasking digtal natives with "Inspector Gadget Syndrome" ((c) Batluk) can lead to medically diagnosed digital dementia which can be avoided by offline online balance
Irina Marchenko

G20's Young Entrepreneurs are Increasingly Interested in Digital Technologies but not H... - 0 views

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    The recommendations summarized in a final Summit communique primarily focus on the following: *Need to develop digital infrastructure. Young entrepreneurs are the most active group in terms of both starting up businesses and using the latest digital technology to help run the business and optimize business processes; *Importance of developing educational programs for entrepreneurs, advancing the entrepreneurial culture, and streamlining government funding for "green" technology studies; *Need to ease the tax burden in the fields of scientific-technical programs and social entrepreneurship, namely the taxes imposed on employers and employee income tax; *Access to funding for startups and emerging companies. Ensuring funding on easy terms, changing banking requirements, developing rules for new forms of funding, including cross border online platforms, investors' and entrepreneurs' networks.
Maria Gurova

5 | 5 Visions For What Families Will Look Like In 2030 | Co.Exist | ideas + impact - 2 views

  • As more people move into cities, natural resources decline, climate change heats up, and the "sharing economy" continues to pick up steam, our notions of family will continue to shift.
  • five different types of families of the future: the Multi-Gens, the Silver Linings, Ruralites, the Tandem Tribe, and Modular Movers. The firm also work out how different brands might service each family type
  • The Multi-Gens are exactly what they sound like--multiple generations of families living together.
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  • with a "cloud-based family hub" that allows family members to divvy up chores and financial transactions
  • the local Marks & Spencer department store (this is the U.K., after all) has been converted into a combination cafe, store that both shares and rents items, and maker-space outfitted with the requisite 3-D printer
  • The Silver Linings families live in community-centric villages for active older people that offer amenities like yoga and fitness classes
  • The Ruralites are families living in rural areas that live at the cutting edge of technology--using 3-D printers to get replacement parts for household items and "video walls" to communicate with friends and family
  • Dragon Rouge refers to single parents sharing a family home as members of the Tandem Tribe. In this vision, energy and resources are tracked individually and a larger micro-community offers shared resources, including tools and vehicles.
  • Finally, there are the Modular Movers--professionals who hop from one megacity to the other, exploring the world while they work and opting to walk and use bikes whenever possible. Like some of the other family types, this group relies on shared resources and subscription plans.
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    what would families look like in 20 years
alexbelov

Podshare is like a hostel and hotel combined - Tech Insider - 0 views

  • Guests get their own bunk with a TV, towel, outlets, and more for between $40 and $50 a night, depending on the location. They can also share the community fridge, food, bathrooms, toiletries, and work space areas.
  • Four years after launch, Podshare has hosted over 5,000 guests and has a loyal fan base. The company has a near-perfect five-star review on Yelp, 4.5 stars on TripAdvisor, and 16 members love it so much they had the logo tattooed on their body. Keep reading to see what it's like inside.
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    Podshare provides cheap and really small accommodation space to its customers who get their own tiny place to sleep and access to shared community space, which includes fridge, food, bathrooms and working area.
alexbelov

Microsoft is bringing bots to Skype - and everywhere else | TechCrunch - 0 views

  • Microsoft’s own virtual assistant Cortana, aim to help pave the way for the future of communication, productivity, and interactions with businesses and brands.
  • In Skype, the company showed off rich Cortana integration which put the assistant directly into the app where she could help users do things like identify the persons, places and things in your messages, underline them, and then display more info in a card-like interface when clicked.
  • She is also able to help you perform a variety of tasks, like adding items to your calendar, booking travel or hotel rooms, or even pre-populating conversations to friends with text.
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  • The bots’ integration in Skype is rolling out today on Windows, iOS and Android as a preview.
  • The company launched the first-ever Skype Bot SDK, which lets brands, businesses and other third parties create their own bots that can work on Skype, seamlessly integrating into users’ chats. These aren’t just text bots, as many of the SMS-based virtual assistance startups we’ve seen so far – Skype bots can introduce both audio and video experiences
  • The company is also launching a bot directory, giving us a brief peek at a few bots it had created itself.
  • Bots “represent a huge opportunity to write new types of applications,” Nadella told developers
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    Microsoft jumps bots bandwagon by introducing bots ecosystem in skype, which includes bot development kit, bot framework and bot directory.
alexbelov

Micromanufacturing the future | TechCrunch - 1 views

  • Micromanufacturing is the manufacturing of products in small quantities using small manufacturing facilities
  • In a perfect positive feedback loop that invariably forms around emerging technologies, SMT machines, reflow ovens and other necessary components of electronic board production will become smaller and cheaper, then cheaper still as they get even smaller.
  • Digikey is like Amazon and Wikipedia rolled into one
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  • Digikey is a vast store of virtually anything and everything that goes on printed circuit boards, from humble resistors to mighty CPUs
  • Digikey also provides technical data and marketing materials for everything they offer
  • most components can now be ordered in reels, even if the order quantity is very small
  • The idea is to allow manufacturers to create parts delivery schedules and thus achieve that coveted just-in-time production.
  • Extrapolating into the future, I see a world where compact SMT machines automatically order electronic parts from Digikey.
  • This budding movement to bring the manufacturing back home is not restricted to America alone. Across the globe in Russia, the government has started to eliminate tariffs on electronic components and simultaneously created significant barriers to using imported goods in government projects. The trend is clear, and countries big and small are beginning to follow suit.
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    On-demand component-based production becomes available to consumers. A trend of micro-factories is starting to take off. Just-in-time manufacturing will be a local and niche business. It should allow countries to return goods manufacturing back home from China and other off-shore locations.
isoldatenkova

Venture Capital Is Putting Its Money Into Astrology - The New York Times - 1 views

  • Meditation, Ms. Guler said, is an antisocial way of interacting with the world. She views astrology as a form of collective wellness, with Co-Star helping people relate to each other based on star signs. Another big difference between astrology and meditation’s practitioners: Astrologers are not allergic to making money.
  • Co-Star promotes its use of artificial intelligence and data from NASA to track movements of the stars.
  • the selfie-loving nanoinfluencer generation is eager to hear that they’re unique and special, no matter how woo-woo it seems
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  • What’s better than something that is basically a story about you?”
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    "Millennials (and the rest of us) are lonely and want community, no matter how many followers we have on social media. Why wouldn't we turn to the stars and moons and planets and houses of the horoscope?"
alexbelov

The 10 skills you need to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution | World Economic F... - 0 views

  • By 2020, the Fourth Industrial Revolution will have brought us advanced robotics and autonomous transport, artificial intelligence and machine learning, advanced materials, biotechnology and genomics. These developments will transform the way we live, and the way we work. Some jobs will disappear, others will grow and jobs that don’t even exist today will become commonplace. What is certain is that the future workforce will need to align its skillset to keep pace.
  • Creativity will become one of the top three skills workers will need.
  • negotiation and flexibility are high on the list of skills
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  • Those working in sales and manufacturing will need new skills, such as technological literacy.
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    Technological change sets new requrements to people as some occupaitons become obsolete and others emerge. Tops skills in the next 5 years are: complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, people management, coordinating with others, emotional intelligence, judgement and decision making, service orientation, negotiation, cognitive flexibility.
Maria Gurova

Research Says Screen Time Can Be Good For Your Kids - Forbes - 0 views

  • Still, most parenting wisdom continues to portray television as an evil mind-rotting demon. The fear of ‘screen time’ is so deeply ingrained in our collective imagination that an irrational opposition between outdoor play and media consumption is taken for granted. Many parents believe the choice is either/or: indoors or out.
  • most storytelling is interactive. We consume most of our media through internet connected devices. And technology is so adept at providing ‘adaptive feedback’ that it proves to be an exceptionally effective teaching tool. In fact, a recent SRI study shows that game based learning can boost cognitive learning for students sitting on the median by 12%.
  • Joint media engagement refers to spontaneous and designed experiences of people using media together, and can happen anywhere and at any time when there are multiple people interacting together with digital and traditional media.
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  • describes the rules and restrictions we put on screen time. Some of these restrictions limit time, other restrictions filter content.
  • Restrictive Mediation
  • Unlimited access to media becomes one of the markers of adulthood.
  • Instructive Mediation describes what happens when we talk to our kids while watching a movie or playing a video game with them. Make it a teaching opportunity
  • Instructive mediation is key for raising kids that are critical thinkers and intelligent adults in a media saturated world–kids who know how to THINK about the media they consume.
  • Social Coviewing is when you watch something with your kids but don’t necessarily talk about it. This is what happens in a movie theater.
  • This is what happens when I watch Phineas and Ferb with my kids.
  • Parallel play is kind of like multitasking. I can be typing on my Chromebook next to my son while he’s playing minecraft. We engage in peripheral conversations, some tangential, and some directly related to the game he is playing.
  • Asymmetrical joint media engagement
  • While interacting with me online, I hope they learn good web etiquette. I’m teaching them lessons about propriety and social media. They see the kinds of things I write in emails and chats.
Maria Gurova

I quantified my baby and wish I could get the time back - 1 views

  • It’s part of an experiment to see if technology can help with the daunting and seemingly Sisyphean tasks of a first time parent, to find out why a growing number of people are turning to gadgets to help with one of life's toughest jobs.
  • Attempting to simplify parenthood with gizmos and apps has perversely made it a lot more complicated. And as for peace of mind, forget it.
  • The concept of the “quantified baby” has been around for some time now, and there’s a large and growing market for smart infant products from anxious or diligent or curious new parents.
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  • But does it all help you to be a better father, or mother, or is it all a massive distraction from the serious business of parenting?
  • While tracking proved useful as a reminder of feedings, and gave an objective insight into longer term sleep patterns, there wasn’t much she could do with the info.
  • It's the same problem quantified self devotees have: what to do with all that data. Unless you're a math or data viz wizard and prepared to take it all incredibly seriously, the numbers that consumer gadgets and apps spew out can be pretty meaningless — even more so when you're dealing with an unpredictable baby.
  • The Mimo and the Owlet are just the tip of the emerging infant tracking iceberg.
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    does using all the tech can offer to monitor your infant health make you a better parent or ease the toughest job in the world. Based on the article - not really 
Maria Gurova

Academic conference on 'Love and Sex with Robots' abruptly cancelled after being declar... - 0 views

  • Humanoid robots are now being introduced into nursing homes, and as therapists, for example. The new Hello Barbie toy will be a "friend" to children, holding conversations with young boys and girls. Robots are even getting married in Japan.
  • A perfect example of the backlash against human-like machines happened last Friday, when Adrian David Cheok and David Levy were forced to cancel their second annual Congress on Love and Sex with Robots, set to be held in Malaysia next month.
  • The case of the cancelled conference is just the beginning of the kind of obstacles intellectuals and researchers may encounter in the pursuit of academic study of humanoid robotics—an increasingly controversial field as the line between fantasy and reality gets blurred
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    Two academics decided to hold a conference for a controversial matter of human robot interactions, the conference with a provocative name and a highly scientific content was banned in a very conservative and religious country of Malaysia 
Anton Vorykhalov

'Snooper's charter' bill becomes law, extending UK state surveillance | World news | Th... - 0 views

  • 'Snooper's charter' bill becomes law, extending UK state surveillance
  • The new surveillance law requires web and phone companies to store everyone’s web browsing histories for 12 months and give the police, security services and official agencies unprecedented access to the data.
  • “The government is clear that, at a time of heightened security threat, it is essential our law enforcement and security and intelligence services have the power they need to keep people safe. The internet presents new opportunities for terrorists and we must ensure we have the capabilities to confront this challenge. But it is also right that these powers are subject to strict safeguards and rigorous oversight.”
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  • He said the legislation was debated and passed while the public, media and politicians were preoccupied with Brexit: “Now that the bill has passed, there is renewed concern about the extent of the powers that will be given to the police and security agencies.
  • Home secretary hails ‘world-leading’ laws, which include forcing web and phone companies to collect browsing histories
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    British Yarovaya law
Maria Gurova

Imax's Richard Gelfond on Virtual Reality, Woody Allen and Reservations Over Netflix - ... - 0 views

  • Given Imax receipts typically account for about 10 percent of the average tentpole's box office, studios and top filmmakers frequently shift their release dates to land a big-screen berth
  • Looking forward, the company is making a big push into virtual reality, partnering with Google on a camera, and will launch its first VR space in Los Angeles this year. On the content front, Michael Bay is in talks to create original VR content for Imax
  • Any regrets about partnering with Netflix to release the low-grossing Crouching Tiger 2? I have no regrets about experimenting because, especially with the windows changing distribution patterns, with digital distribution and over‑the‑top alternatives evolving quickly, the industry is going to have to experiment and learn.
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  • If someone came to us and said, "Would you launch a TV series in Imax day-and-date?", that's definitely something we would consider
  • We have over 300 theaters open; we have over 200 theaters in backlog [where a theater has been approved and the space designated, but it hasn't been built yet]. We just announced a 10‑theater deal.
  • Wanda, which accounts for the largest number of Imax screens in China, has its own giant-screen technology. Worried? I'm not very worried.
  • If the public wants an experience that's better than a standard 35mm but not as good as an Imax, there's a category they fit in.
  • In 2015, you announced the creation of the Imax China Film Fund to invest in Chinese tentpoles.
  • We can leverage those relationships, plus the Imax technology, plus the Imax release windows, and create value by investing in the right films.
  • We could get into original programming, but we're not going to be a small participant in a $200 million movie. Could I see there being a $10 million or $20 million film that is with an Imax filmmaker who loves Imax and plays well to the Imax audience and has the right ancillary distribution afterward? Yes. That's something we're exploring.
Maria Gurova

Driverless cars, pilotless planes … will there be jobs left for a human being... - 3 views

  • From staff-free ticket offices to students who can learn online, it seems there is no corner of economic life in which people are not being replaced by machines.
  • One of the reasons Google is investing so much is that whoever owns the communications system for driverless cars will own the 21st century's equivalent of the telephone network or money clearing system: this will be a licence to print money.
  • The only new jobs will be in the design and marketing of the cars, and in writing the computer software that will allow them to navigate their journeys, along with the apps for our mobile phones that will help us to use them better
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  • The invention of 3D printing, in which every home or office will be equipped with an in-house printer that can spew out the goods we want – from shoes to pills – anticipates a world of what Summers calls automated "doers". They will do everything for us, eliminating the need for much work.
  • we have come to the end of the great "general purpose technologies" (technologies that transform an entire economy, such as the steam engine, electricity, the car and so on) that changed the world. There are no new transformative technologies to carry us forward, while the old activities are being robotised and automated.
  • The second is in human wellbeing. There will be vast growth in advising, coaching, caring, mentoring, doctoring, nursing, teaching and generally enhancing capabilities.
  • Notwithstanding robotisation and automation, I identify four broad areas in which there will be vast job opportunities.The first is in micro-production
  • The third is in addressing the globe's "wicked issues" . There will be new forms of nutrition and carbon-efficient energy, along with economising with water, to meet the demands of a world population of 9 billion in 2050.
  • And fourthly, digital and big data management will foster whole new industries
  • the truth is, nobody knows. What we do know is that two-thirds of what we consume today was not invented 25 years ago. It will be the same again in a generation's time
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    demand for the new expertise may impact not only the school and academic education, but earlier development stages
Irina Marchenko

Why Women Make Excellent Entrepreneurs in the Digital Age - 0 views

  • Women are advancing in entrepreneurship as well. An American Express OPEN State of Women-Owned Businesses report found that between 1997 and 2011, the number of businesses in the U.S. increased by 34%, but the number of women-owned firms increased by 50%. That compares to a growth rate of just 25% for male-owned firms and has allowed businesses owned by females to reach 49% of U.S. firms — near parity with their male counterparts.
  • The Digital Age and Childcare Entrepreneurship in the digital age lends itself to childcare, a consideration that affects any discussion of women in the workforce. Young, single, urban woman are outearning their male counterparts; however, this trend reverses as workers age and start families. And even though many companies are replacing “maternity leave” with more gender-neutral “flex time,” it’s clear that working women will always be seeking that balance of career and family.
  • The digital age offers a wealth of low-risk opportunities. Ventures like blogging, web-based services, ecommerce and software development require smaller upstart costs than manufacturing-based, brick and mortar type businesses. Cloud-based tools and virtual workforces further lower the cost of entry, making the idea of starting a business more feasible and/or palatable for risk-averse entrepreneurs.
Maria Gurova

Virtual Reality Is the Most Powerful Artistic Medium of Our Time - 0 views

  • “When the zeitgeist is moving, art usually goes hand-in-hand with it,” says Rossin, describing a world in which we’re constantly glued to our iPhones, Androids, laptops, and tablets as much if not more than we are to the faces of fellow humans. Mediums have historically risen from the predominant technology and social relations of the time in which they exist
  • “Because of the level of sensory overload we experience on a day-to-day basis, we need to have this fully arresting experience in virtual reality in order to get a total sense of vertigo from a work of art,”
  • Enveloping, consciousness-bending experiences aren’t “just to escape life,” says Rafman. “But to create a total experience that will create a feeling that is qualitatively new. That is ultimately the most radical thing.”
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  • “Ultimately, new technology can reveal desires that already exist on a deep level in society,” says Rafman of the works, which pull from and amplify the seductive forces of video games and cinema. “This desire to escape completely into another dimension has existed for a long time.”
  • Virtual reality’s recent resurgence in prominence begins with Oculus and its visionary 23-year-old founder, Palmer Luckey. In 2012, the then-18-year-old with an affinity for retooling defunct ’90s VR headsets took a hacked-together model to Kickstarter with a funding goal of $250,000. A month later, over 10,000 individuals contributed $2.4 million to the campaign for what was at the time mainly aimed at being a gaming peripheral. Two years later, Facebook wrote a check to buy Oculus VR for $2 billion
  • “This is not a drill. It’s real. It’s a moment,” says Michael Naimark, Google’s first resident virtual reality artist (like Char Davies, he’s listed as a pioneer of VR on Wikipedia). “And the arts community can play a huge role in propagation.
  • Throughout art history, art has reflected the prevalent social relations of the time. It makes sense, then, that the most relative and innovative art forms being produced today would mirror our reality—one defined by a perceived sense of agency in a world filled with invisible algorithms and clicks baited to us by past clicks. The internet spoils us with infinite choice: opportunities to invent our personas, refashion our self-brands, optimize our lives, and enhance our experience. But with mega-corporations quietly holding the joystick, can we really self-determine our destiny?
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    on how contemporary are embraces VR, what artist can do to explore, explain and populate the exciting technology.
alexbelov

Bkstg directly connects musicians with their fans | TechCrunch - 1 views

  • the connection between fan and celebrity is minimal
  • Bkstg is looking to change all that, not only for fans but for artists.
  • Bkstg is its own platform, created by Ran Harnevo, that lets artists own the entire experience of connecting with their fans, from posting videos and photos, selling tickets, and selling merchandise.
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  • Bkstg gives artists a full dashboard to show interaction on the consumer side. They can see who is buying tickets, who is engaging with content, and who is watching exclusive videos and listening to exclusive tracks.
  • But Bkstg isn’t just about targeting those top revenue fans, but for creating new ones. For example, an artists on tour can send a geo-fenced message out on Bkstg to offer discounted tickets that haven’t sold yet.
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    Bkstg offers artists a direct way to manage and grow their audiences, including interaction with fans, selling tickets, and making limited offers. This can potentially reduce the need for intermediaries and give creative people more independency.
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