Skip to main content

Home/ CIS Focal Issue/ Group items tagged in

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
ksenia12348

The Sex Recession Is Making Young Americans Unhappy - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...586405

happiness trend young people social surveys

shared by ksenia12348 on 10 Apr 19 - No Cached
  • In 2018, happiness among young adults in America fell to a record low. The share of adults ages 18 to 34 reporting that they were“very happy” in life fell to 25 percent—the lowest level that the General Social Survey, a key barometer of American social life, has ever recorded for that population.
  • Happiness fell most among young men—with only 22 percent of young men (and 28 percent of young women) reporting that they were “very happy” in 2018.
  • We wondered whether this trend was rooted in distinct shifts in young adults’ social ties—including what The Atlantic has called “the sex recession,” that is, a marked decline in sexual activity for this group in recent years.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • We’re happiest when our ties with others are deep and strong. And the research tells us that the ebb and flow of happiness in America is clearly linked to the quality and character of our social ties—including our friendships, community ties, and marriage. It’s also linked, specifically, to the frequency with which we have sex.
  • So we investigated four indicators of sociability among today’s young adults—marriage, friendship, religious attendance, and sex—in an effort to explain
  • married young adults are about 75 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who are not married
  • As it turns out, the share of young adults who are married has fallen from 59 percent in 1972 to 28 percent in 2018. The decline has been similar for men and women, although from 2016 to 2018 the share of married men fell, while the share of married women rose.
  • Faith was the second factor. Young adults who attend religious services more than once a month are about 40 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who are not religious at all
  • The share of young adults who attend religious services more than monthly has fallen from 38 percent in 1972 to 27 percent in 2018, even as the share who never attend has risen rapidly.
  • The third factor was friendship. The effect of seeing friends frequently is less clear than that of marriage or religion, but young adults who see their friends regularly do seem to be about 10 percent more likely to report being very happy than their less-sociable peers.
  • Indeed, it may be that rising social time spent with friends in recent years could be buffering young adults from the declines in institutions such as marriage or religion, as friends stand in place of other relationships or forms of community.*
  • And, finally, we looked at sex. Young adults who have sex at least once a week are about 35 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who have no sex.
  • This trend in rising sexlessness is broadly confirmed in other surveys of sexual behavior,
  • Less sex, we speculate, could help account for declining happiness for many young adults.
  • What’s more, as the #MeToo era has taught us, there has been too much unwanted or nonconsensual sex out there, which is obviously bad for the (more often female) target of such advances. From this perspective, the so-called sex recession might just amount to a sexual recalibration, with a lot of bad sex being eliminated from our social lives—and this would be a good thing. For all these reasons, the feminist family historian Stephanie Coontz is “suspicious of any hand-wringing” about the sex recession.
Vladimir Antonov

China bought nearly half of the world's luxury goods last year - 0 views

mashable.com/...china-luxury-goods

Social Economy china

shared by Vladimir Antonov on 15 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • Consumers in China spent $116.8 billion on luxury goods abroad in 2015
  • This translates to 46% of the global volume of high-end goods, which includes branded leather goods, cosmetics and electronics, according to consultants at Beijing-based Fortune Character Group, which derived these figures from the revenues of some 20,000 brands.
  • The government says that 120 million Chinese tourists — just about 1% of the population — went overseas in 2015, and contributed to 12% of global spending on their holidays.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Many Chinese buyers are keen to make their high-end purchases overseas because luxury goods imported into China are priced at a premium, in part because of high import tariffs. The China Chamber of International Commerce found last year that high-end goods were priced at up to 68% higher in China compared to prices in the U.S. and Europe.
  • This has resulted in many overseas brands shutting their mainland stores, such as French fashion house Louis Vuitton, which closed stores in Guangzhou, Harbin and Urumqi last year. Other luxury goods brands such as Burberry, Hermes, Armani and Prada also shut outlets in China over the past two years.
  • Some brands remain bullish on China, however. Apple, for one, has been aggressively expanding in the country in the past year, and has set a goal to have 40 stores in Greater China by mid-2016
  • Domestic retail has been growing as an economic driver for the country, as the economy faces its slowest growth rate in two decades. Consumption contributed to 66.4% of GDP in 2015, up 15.4% from 2014.
  • Vladimir Antonov on 15 Feb 16
     
    Asian expansion overseas growth continues, also confirms global vs local trend.
Vladimir Antonov

Project Skybender: Google's secretive 5G internet drone tests revealed | Technology | T... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...rnet-spaceport-virgin-galactic

google internet Technology Social Connected World Global Mobility Internet of Everything

shared by Vladimir Antonov on 02 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • Google is testing solar-powered drones at Spaceport America in New Mexico to explore ways to deliver high-speed internet from the air
  • Project SkyBender is using drones to experiment with millimetre-wave radio transmissions, one of the technologies that could underpin next generation 5G wireless internet access
  • High frequency millimetre waves can theoretically transmit gigabits of data every second, up to 40 times more than today’s 4G LTE systems. Google ultimately envisages thousands of high altitude “self-flying aircraft” delivering internet access around the world.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • “The huge advantage of millimetre wave is access to new spectrum because the existing cellphone spectrum is overcrowded. It’s packed and there’s nowhere else to go,” says Jacques Rudell
  • However, millimetre wave transmissions have a much shorter range than mobile phone signals. A broadcast at 28GHz, the frequency Google is testing at Spaceport America, would fade out in around a tenth the distance of a 4G phone signal. To get millimetre wave working from a high-flying drone, Google needs to experiment with focused transmissions from a so-called phased array. “This is very difficult, very complex and burns a lot of power,” Rudell says
  • The SkyBender system is being tested with an “optionally piloted” aircraft called Centaur as well as solar-powered drones made by Google Titan, a division formed when Google acquired New Mexico startup Titan Aerospace in 2014. Titan built high-altitude solar-powered drones with wingspans of up to 50 metres
  • Project SkyBender is part of the little-known Google Access team, which also includes Project Loon, a plan to deliver wireless internet using unpowered balloons floating through the stratosphere.
  • In 2014, Darpa, the research arm of the US military, announced a program called Mobile Hotspots to make a fleet of drones that could provide one gigabit per second communications for troops operating in remote areas.
  • Vladimir Antonov on 02 Feb 16
     
    Could this be a next gen. technology that would bring hi-speed internet access literally to every place in the world?
Maria Gurova

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

www.ibtimes.com/t-big-screens-big-data-2347076

Theatrical Technology Economy infrastructure devices screen In-Theatre Experience big data Barco Escape IMAX premium format

shared by Maria Gurova on 01 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • 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
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • 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

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

www.hollywoodreporter.com/...gelfond-virtual-reality-898136

Theatrical Technology IMAX premium format Netflix non-conventional content in cinema In-Theatre Experience The Screening Room windowing strategy screen fights VR Immersive Experience content production

shared by Maria Gurova on 03 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • 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.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • 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

www.guardian.co.uk/...rs-pilotless-planes-jobs-human

robotics Technology Social KE CIS employment expertise jobs big data wicked issues wellbeing

shared by Maria Gurova on 13 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • 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
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • 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
  • Maria Gurova on 13 Jun 13
     
    demand for the new expertise may impact not only the school and academic education, but earlier development stages
Maria Gurova

From Netflix to full immersion: how the future of cinema lies in our handhelds | Film |... - 2 views

www.theguardian.com/...vod-streaming-future-of-cinema

Theatrical Technology entertainment immersion Immersive Experience 360-degree video Storytelling VR in-home vs in-theatre In-Theatre Experience interactive screen fights fly-off-the-wall-film-making Netflix premium format IMAX

shared by Maria Gurova on 02 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • Unlike films made for the silver screen, an internet film doesn’t need to contain something for everyone
  • But the internet is different. As viewers are watching alone, films can be made exclusively for certain fanbases and still be confident of finding an audience.
  • in the eyes of a conservative family, the company should stand for wholesome entertainment, but to a 20-year-old city-dwelling college graduate, it should be more edgy. It’s unlikely these two demographics would go to the cinema together, while they almost certainly won’t be streaming the same content.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Cinemas probably aren’t going to die out any time soon, but they may well host different kinds of films than laptops and phones in the near future.
  • Netflix’s chief content officer is open about this, saying that watching a movie online is like seeing a sports game broadcast on TV rather than being at the stadium
  • When you watch it, you realise that this software blurs the boundary between films and games: although, strictly speaking, you are not playing anything; you are participating in the experience.
  • A distinctive form of film is also emerging on phones: 360-degree movies were developed by Google
  • The technology gets really interesting when it comes to documentaries. Director Chris Milk has used virtual reality to make films about a refugee camp in Jordan and a mass protest in New York.
  • Fundamentally, this is taking out the middle man in that process, and making you feel as if you were actually there.
  • Call it fly-off-the-wall film-making
  • traditionally it is the director’s job to tell the audience what to look at, in this approach directors don’t exist, only “creators”
Maria Gurova

HBO NOW Pushing the Cord-Cutting Trend - App Annie Blog - 3 views

blog.appannie.com/pushing-the-cord-cutting-trend

Technology entertainment KE VOD cable TV TV Networks Entertainment as Service Theatrical Cord-cutting HBO Netflix Hulu Video Streaming Copyright Storytelling adjustable entertainment Market Digital Consumption Digital vs Physical

shared by Maria Gurova on 12 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • In 2007, Netflix changed the landscape by introducing streaming on PC, allowing customers to instantly watch shows. By 2010, Netflix video streaming became available on additional platforms, including iOS devices. Today, video streaming services Netflix and Hulu have a strong hold among combined iOS and Android Top US Apps.
  • These convenient apps have set the stage for a preferred entertainment delivery. A whole generation of consumers have grown up with video streaming, rather than (or in addition to) paying for cable television: cord cutters and cord nevers. Major premium cable networks, HBO and Showtime, are now after a piece of the pie Netflix and Hulu have carved out
  • Both HBO NOW and Showtime are taking different approaches to standalone streaming partnerships. HBO NOW has gotten more traction in part to a heavy promotion from Apple, resulting in positive metrics. Showtime’s success is less clear, being married into Hulu’s already strong performance
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Netflix isn’t being left in the dust completely, kicking off their original film initiative with “Beasts of No Nation”, which will launch both in theaters and streaming video on October 16th. HBO, Showtime, Netflix and Hulu will still need to compete with each other to retain users in a new “entertainment as a service” landscape where retention is not a given, but an earned currency.
  • Cable provider Comcast hasn’t felt the heat from the cord-cutting trend, having its second best Q2 in nine years. Comcast is also in an advantageous place as a broadband provider, with 22.3 million total customers in Q2. Good quality video streaming relies on broadband internet, meaning cable providers that offer bundled internet service will still be valuable
  • Maria Gurova on 12 Aug 15
     
    the rise of streaming services and how cable networks are competing with video streaming services on their battle field 
Maria Gurova

The future of local government - 0 views

newcity.ca/publicspace.html

Social KE public spaces citizenship government kid's health community

shared by Maria Gurova on 29 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • We increasingly live in a world where we don’t have to leave our homes, and when we do, we travel in isolation
  • It is in public space that we encounter a wide variety of people different from ourselves. Public spaces are important because they provide room to negotiate how we will live together in a highly populated environment. Encountering people of different races, classes, ages and abilities on a daily basis has the potential to cultivate a citizenry that is more tolerant of diversit
  • Streets are declining as a form of public space because street life often is perceived – and sometime is – unsafe: thus we frequently retreat indoors, making the streets even less safe
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Harford argues that much can be done to make public space safe for children. “I would like to see pedestrian-friendly crossings more frequently on streets. I would like to see the streets be more kid-oriented with wider sidewalks, as well as a more coherent attitude amongst people on the street to be watching out for kids.”
  • in “real life, only from the ordinary adults of the city sidewalks do children learn – if they learn it at all – the first fundamental of successful city life: People must take a modicum of public responsibility for each other even if they have no ties to each other.
  • Ronda Howard, a Vancouver senior city planner, notes that when there are greater incentives for people to walk in their neighbourhoods, there are more eyes on the street: thus the streets become safer.
  • Despite the challenges facing parents raising children in the city, different social networks can augment child involvement in public space. Harford says that strong social ties help increase her son’s autonomy in Vancouver
  • When we actively engage with others who are different from us, we have the opportunity to become more sophisticated and tolerant citizens. When we get to know the diverse members of our communities, we create social networks that make our cities safer and more enjoyable. Public spaces are integral to making this happen. These spaces are an antidote to the inward gaze of individualism. We need to reclaim public space and work to expand its boundaries. It’s time for us to leave the house of the self in the background, and go outside
  • Maria Gurova on 29 Jul 13
     
    how modern public spaces are interconnected with the health and social skills of the future generation. When kids spent less time indoors not only their health become vulnerable, but also their position as future citizens 
Maria Gurova

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

www.artsy.net/...ul-artistic-medium-of-our-time

VR Immersive Entertainment Immersive Experience Technology Art media escapism entertainment Oculus gaming Digital vs Physical

shared by Maria Gurova on 04 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • “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.”
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • “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?
  • Maria Gurova on 04 Apr 16
     
    on how contemporary are embraces VR, what artist can do to explore, explain and populate the exciting technology.
Maria Gurova

AMC Could Allow Moviegoers to Use Cellphones Inside Theaters to Appeal to Millennials - 2 views

mic.com/...aters-to-appeal-to-millennials

Theatrical devices second screen In-Theatre Experience Millennials My Smartphone My Precious AMC Theatres

shared by Maria Gurova on 02 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • AMC Theaters issued a statement on Twitter saying that due to the negative response, it will not proceed with the plan to allow cellphones inside its theaters: "With your advice in hand, there will be NO TEXTING ALLOWED in any of the auditoriums at AMC Theaters. Not today, not tomorrow and not in the foreseeable future."
  • "When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don't ruin the movie, they hear 'please cut off your left arm above the elbow,'" Aron told Variety. "You can't tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That's not how they live their life ...
  • and one way would be taking "specific auditoriums and make them more texting friendly." 
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "Given that so many of today's moviegoers are passionate about preserving the purity of watching movies undisturbed in our theatres, there is no specific timeframe as to when we might introduce such a test, if ever,"
  • Maria Gurova on 02 Jun 16
     
    in the attempt to satisfy Millennial consumer AMC tried to allow texting and using the smartphones during shows. Twitter reaction was outrageous and they have changed their mind, but say that they might reconsider this policy in the future or maybe not
al_semenchenko

Smartypants: the fart-filtering future of underwear | Art and design | The Guardian - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...f-underwear-fashion-technology

Technology underwear future

shared by al_semenchenko on 20 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • The term “enhancing underwear” might summon images of go-go-gadget pants that help you run faster and jump higher, but it actually refers to a new breed of briefs that promise you a bigger bulge. Push-up bras and “butt-lifters” have long been a staple of women’s lingerie aisles, but genital scaffolding has now spread to menswear. Featured in the V&A exhibition, the “Wonderjock” is the work of Australian company AussieBum and aims to do for men’s bits what the Wonderbra did for women’s busts – hoisting them up and thrusting them out.
  • US army researchers have developed smart underwear, with sensors secreted inside elastic waistbands that track heart rate, body temperature and perspiration, and beam the stats back to a central monitor. This “wear-and-forget” sensory system is also designed for stressful training situations, identifying which soldiers remain more balanced, so they can be picked for the harder missions.
  • Underwear is already a common place for smuggling drugs of the illegal variety, but a recent pharmaceutical innovation could soon make putting pills in your pants a legitimate activity. Swiss textile giant Schoeller has developed a fabric that administers drugs to the surface of your skin over time, and thinks the best place to put it is in your undies – as those are the garments you’re least likely to forget to put on.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • A more practical innovation comes from British manufacturer Shreddies, which has developed flatulence-filtering underwear, allowing you to “fart with confidence”. Their magic farty pants incorporate a layer of Zorflex, a microporous carbon-based material more commonly used in chemical warfare.
Maria Gurova

Russia's War on Foreigners - By Anna Alekseyeva | Foreign Policy - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...russia_war_on_foreigners_gays

CIS social Political illegal immigration labor workforce

shared by Maria Gurova on 23 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Estimates of the number of illegal immigrants living in the country vary widely, but fall somewhere in the range of three to six million people. It is likely that around 30 percent of Moscow's immigrant population is illegal.
  • According to Russia's Federal Migration Service director, Konstantin Romodanovsky, these middlemen have created a shadow economy that amounts to almost $1 billion. As with every lucrative industry in Russia, this shadow market inevitably has ties to the government.
  • The cruelty that has become an all-too-common refrain in today's Russia stems, at least in part, from the ingrained belief in Russian exceptionalism -- the idea that Russian morality is unique and therefore beyond reproach. Originating in ancient Kievan Rus, this idea was propagated by the Orthodox Church in the Middle Ages, and was prominently displayed in the communist revolutionary claims of the 20th century.
Vladimir Antonov

After Investing In A Local Services Startup, Google Turns Around And Builds A Competito... - 1 views

www.forbes.com/...rounds-and-builds-a-competitor

Technology Clash of Titans Economy centralization Big Data Digital Monopoly No Middle Man

shared by Vladimir Antonov on 12 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • Google is working to create a new product in the home services market
  • Calif.-based technology giant is working on an offering through its ads team that will allow customers to connect with roofers and repairmen and put it in direct competition with Thumbtack and Amazon.com
  • As Buzzfeed reported, there will likely be some integration with Google Ad Words, which will likely create targeted ads for users searching for certain services that will allow them to receive direct quotes.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • This isn’t the first time that Google’s investing has created a possible conflict of interest. In February, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that Google was developing an Uber competitor in anticipation of the launch of its self-driving cars. The search company, through its venture capital arm Google Ventures, had previously invested $258 million in the ride-sharing service in Aug. 2013, with Google chief legal officer David Drummond taking an Uber board seat
  • Google is extremely wary of the expansion of the vertically-integrated tech giants into other spaces, said sources, and it’s not staying still with Amazon announcing its entry into a local services market that some experts estimate does more than $400 billion in business every year.
  • Vladimir Antonov on 12 Feb 16
     
    Big tech companies expansion // to be added to the 'clash of giants' trend
Maria Gurova

online piracy in Norway falls says report - 1 views

www.worldipreview.com/...all-in-online-piracy-in-norway

Political anti-piracy legal copyright Norway

shared by Maria Gurova on 29 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • 210 million songs were illegally downloaded last year, compared to more than a billion four years ago.
  • Earlier this month, strict new laws aimed at tackling piracy were introduced which give rights holders the power to monitor suspected infringers and potentially order the government to shut down sites.
  • claims and has said on its website that income from online use of music, including legal streaming services, has risen.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • TONO also
  • “As high-speed internet capacity has become normal and often included in mobile subscriptions, illegal download and use of music has decreased,”
  • “The new legislation is in my opinion not sufficiently technology neutral, as it is clearly designed to serve as a tool to prevent P2P file sharing and not, for example, illegal streaming services, which may become a problem in the years to come.”
  • Maria Gurova on 29 Jul 13
     
    Norway continue to tighten the copyright laws in the advantage of the IP owners. Though the approach is based on strong preventive measures rather then transparent, easy to use, relatively inexpensive access to content it seems to work
Maria Gurova

Developed world plays waiting game with mobile payments - FT.com - 0 views

www.ft.com/...cb-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2.html

Economy financial services mobile banking mobile payments Digital vs Physical mobile wallet Emerging Economy Financial Inclusivity Technology

shared by Maria Gurova on 15 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • High-profile mobile money launches by Apple and Samsung may have caught the headlines
  • But it is the developments in payments systems in supposedly less developed nations in Africa and Asia that point the way to the probable future for wider mobile banking.
  • the reality remains that the mobile phone as a means of payment remains relatively niche even in developed markets.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • But analysts anticipate a further shift as more financial services and greater interactivity are added, which is when mobile payments will become mobile banking.
  • In the UK, for example, just 1 per cent
  • the mobile phone is taking on extra roles as a place to keep money safe and move it around, as well as to acquire other financial services from trusted providers.
  • services are quickly expanding to include loan disbursement, bill payment and micro insurance.
  • In the next few years mobile banking apps will become the predominant means to access all routine banking services, from applying for a loan or overdraft increase to letting the bank know you are moving house
  • So while we are working closely with digital giants such as Apple, Samsung and Google to roll out their payment services, we’re also working with the banks to create their own payment functionality embedded within their existing hugely popular banking apps
  • Maria Gurova on 15 Oct 15
     
    The article is about a shifting consumer behaviour in mobile payments and that it's not driven by developed economies with the established finical systems but rather by the emerging regions, like Africa and Asia 
alexbelov

In-Ear Language Translators May Soon Be Here - 0 views

futurism.com/be-here-thanks-to-waverly-labs

language translator

shared by alexbelov on 18 May 16 - No Cached
  • Waverly Labs says they will soon release the Pilot, a pair of in-ear translators designed to let people who speak different languages understand each other in real-time
  • The technology makes use of an embedded app that does the translating, which is delivered to the earpiece that is shared by two people. The Pilot is also supposed to come with an additional earpiece for wireless streaming music and an app that allows people toggles between languages.
  • The company intends to develop support for European and Germanic languages first, but the Slavic Semitic, Hindi, and East Asian languages are not too far behind.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • the Pilot will be available at $410 by next year
  • alexbelov on 18 May 16
     
    In-ear translator renders speech in real-time, so that people talking different languages can understand each other.
Maria Gurova

Future of Film: Even Bigger Screens and, Yep, Cinema Selfies - Hollywood Reporter - 0 views

www.hollywoodreporter.com/...film-bigger-screens-yep-728426

Theatrical Technology cinema screen fights Immersive Experience 3D 360-degree video adjustable entertainment Adaptive Storytelling interactive Barco Escape panoramic screen non-conventional content in cinema

shared by Maria Gurova on 03 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • a new generation of even more ambitious theaters — possibly even including cinema's first holodeck — is waiting in the wings.
  • The first Escape theaters — which will include the Cinemark 18 & XD at the Promenade at the Howard Hughes Center in Los Angeles — will open Sept. 19, showing a special edition of Fox's new young adult thriller The Maze Runner
  • Escape theaters showing The Maze Runner will project the live-action movie on to the center screen, and the side screens will feature additional visual effects
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • "We believe entertainment needs to continue to evolve with a more immersive experience,"
  • Movie screens will continue to morph into ever-wider configurations
  • That footage will be shown in a special 360-degree OmniCam theater installation planned for the FIFA World Football Museum in Zurich. Meanwhile, startup Jaunt is developing a 360-degree camera for use in virtual reality
  • High-tech interactivity also may play a role in the next generation of theaters.
  • They would include a theater where a 3D movie is projected onto a 360-degree dome-shaped screen and real-time facial replacement would be used to project audience members into the action
  • "You'd have a wristband that identifies who you are, and if you elect to, your body and face can be scanned, allowing the attractions to include you in them and allow you to interact with them
Maria Gurova

Is it curtains for the big screen? - FT.com - 1 views

next.ft.com/...e8-1c1c-11e6-a7bc-ee846770ec15

Theatrical entertainment in-home vs in-theatre screen fights The Screening Room premium formats windowing strategy Pause pushers tentpole strategy blockbuster

shared by Maria Gurova on 01 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • According to the National Association of Theatre Owners, US movie attendance peaked in 2002 and has been steadily declining ever since. To compensate, theatres have rolled out new technologies such as 3D, Imax and premium large-format cinemas, raising their ticket prices and thus keeping the box office at record-breaking levels
  • The majority of us are increasingly staying home.
  • At Cannes this year, the studio with the most films in competition
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • was not one of the big studios, but the streaming service Amazon.
  • But blockbusters have a design flaw: their marketing costs are enormous — opening a movie typically costs anywhere from $20m — and they spend less and less time in cinemas. To take a recent example, ticket sales for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice dropped by an astonishing 68.4 per cent on its second weekend
  • “What you’re going to end up with is fewer theatres,” George Lucas said during a panel at the University of Southern California in 2013. “Bigger theatres, with a lot of nice things. Going to the movies is going to cost you 50 bucks, maybe 100.”
  • He argued that a film will come out in cinemas for 17 days — three weekends — which is where 98 per cent of films make 95 per cent of their revenues anyway. On the 18th day, the film will be available everywhere and you will pay for the size: a movie screen will be $15, a 75-inch TV will be $4, a smartphone will be $1.99.
  • “Fifty per cent of Americans did not step into a movie theatre last year, and of the 50 per cent that did go into a theatre, 95 per cent of them went to one or two films,”
  • Arguably, it’s more visual than television. It has our full attention: each frame must pull its weight in terms of narrative and spectacle. That is why it is a director’s medium: it envelops us. TV comes to us, into our homes, casual, familiar, favouring habit-forming episodic narratives. That is why it is a writer’s medium. The big screen glamorises — its stars are the stuff of myth; the small screen is more like a member of the family
  • And something like The Avengers, it’s too much fun laughing with the audience. These things are communal experiences.
  • But then many film-makers would argue that movies should be consumed differently from music: a song is a song wherever you play it, whereas films were built for the big screen.
  • “I don’t think that experience is going to die,” says Obst, “although I do worry that eventually we will all be inside on our huge computer screens, watching all of the different types of entertainment together
  • Nothing breaks the spell of the movie more instantly than the pause button.
Maria Gurova

The Public Costs of Private Distribution Strategies: Content Release Windows as Negativ... - 0 views

www.project-disco.org/...dows-as-negative-externalities

Theatrical windowing strategy Political policy legal Copyright content production piracy Pirates don't Surrender

shared by Maria Gurova on 08 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • “copyright extremism” – a term he used to describe extended delays in content distribution, which often result in content reaching foreign markets months after it is released in the United States.
  • Essentially, “extremism” is another way of saying that piracy is more a business model problem than a policy problem. 
  • The strategy of windowing has long been practiced because it is believed to maximize revenue opportunities for a given film.  By giving successive distribution channels exclusive rights to the work, a film distributor aims to extract maximum revenues from licensees in each channel.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Even if film distributors were to reject the conventional wisdom of windowing, those windows are jealously guarded by their respective sectors.  The theatrical exhibition window is particularly so
  • announced in September 2014 that they would distribute a sequel to the 2000 hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon simultaneously via Netflix and IMAX theaters worldwide, movie theater chains swiftly circled the wagons and announced a boycott of the Weinsteins’ film.
  • “value of ownership for the consumer” is a euphemism for “consumer willingness-to-pay.”  The longer a consumer must wait before they can watch a movie on their Netflix subscription, the likelier that consumer is to pay for a DVD
  • numerous industries have attempted to insulate themselves from disruption by persuading lawmakers to prescribe their exclusive industrial role in public laws, including auto dealers and beer distributors
  • windowing has been widely criticized as contributing to piracy, and “leaving money on the table.”  Empirical evidence bears that out.  Content producers are not unaware of this data; their calculus is that the revenues attributable to aggressive windowing (and avoiding friction with their distributors) exceed losses associated with piracy.
  • Windowing alienates consumers and arguably undermines respect for copyright in countries that receive content late
  • In the content distribution example, compensation might involve repayment for government resources expended on attributable piracy, perhaps based on a user-fee model that various government agencies already have.  If the windowed release distribution model generated more revenue than the costs it incurs, it would continue, taxpayers would be made whole, and the externality would be “internalized.”
1 - 20 of 294 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page