#''Design principles are guidelines not rules - they help designers create flags that will be effective widely adopted and loved.

[fujouppy]

oh my god theres actually people who hate the rules of flag design . how are you this stupid .

[endenogatai]

Europe is prepared to rule over 5G cybersecurity

The European Commission’s digital commissioner has warned the mobile industry to expect it to act over security concerns attached to Chinese network equipment makers.

The Commission is considering a defacto ban on kit made by Chinese companies including Huawei in the face of security and espionage concerns, per Reuters.

Appearing on stage at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona today, Mariya Gabriel, European commissioner for digital economy and society, flagged network “cybersecurity” during her scheduled keynote, warning delegates it’s stating the obvious for her to say that “when 5G services become mission critical 5G networks need to be secure”.

Geopolitical concerns between the West and China are being accelerated and pushed to the fore as the era of 5G network upgrades approach, as well as by ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China over trade.

“I’m well away of the unrest among all of you key actors in the telecoms sectors caused by the ongoing discussions around the cybersecurity of 5G,” Gabriel continued, fleshing out the Commission’s current thinking. “Let me reassure you: The Commission takes your view very seriously. Because you need to run these systems everyday. Nobody is helped by premature decisions based on partial analysis of the facts.

“However it is also clear that Europe has to have a common approach to this challenge. And we need to bring it on the table soon. Otherwise there is a risk that fragmentation rises because of diverging decisions taken by Member States trying to protect themselves.”

“We all know that this fragmentation damages the digital single market. So therefore we are working on this important matter with priority. And to the Commission we will take steps soon,” she added.

The theme of this year’s show is “intelligent connectivity”; the notion that the incoming 5G networks will not only create links between people and (many, many more) things but understand the connections they’re making at a greater depth and resolution than has been possible before, leveraging the big data generated by many more connections to power automated decision-making in near real time, with low latency another touted 5G benefit (as well as many more connections per cell).

Futuristic scenarios being floated include connected cars neatly pulling to the sides of the road ahead of an ambulance rushing a patient to hospital — or indeed medical operations being aided and even directed remotely in real-time via 5G networks supporting high resolution real-time video streaming.

But for every touted benefit there are easy to envisage risks to network technology that’s being designed to connect everything all of the time — thereby creating a new and more powerful layer of critical infrastructure society will be relying upon.

Last fall the Australia government issued new security guidelines for 5G networks that essential block Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE from providing equipment to operators — justifying the move by saying that differences in the way 5G operates compared to previous network generations introduces new risks to national security.

New Zealand followed suit shortly after, saying kit from the Chinese companies posed a significant risk to national security.

While in the U.S. President Trump has made 5G network security a national security priority since 2017, and a bill was passed last fall banning Chinese companies from supplying certain components and services to government agencies.

The ban is due to take effect over two years but lawmakers have been pressuring to local carriers to drop 5G collaborations with companies such as Huawei.

In Europe the picture is so far more mixed. A UK government report last summer investigating Huawei’s broadband and mobile infrastructure raised further doubts, and last month Germany was reported to be mulling a 5G ban on the Chinese kit maker.

But more recently the two EU Member States have been reported to no longer be leaning towards a total ban — apparently believing any risk can be managed and mitigated by oversight and/or partial restrictions.

It remains to be seen how the Commission could step in to try to harmonize security actions taken by Member States around nascent 5G networks. But it appears prepared to set rules.

That said, Gabriel gave no hint of its thinking today, beyond repeating the Commission’s preferred position of less fragmentation, more harmonization to avoid collateral damage to its overarching Digital Single Market initiative — i.e. if Member States start fragmenting into a patchwork based on varying security concerns.

We’ve reached out to the Commission for further comment and will update this story with any additional context.

During the keynote she was careful to talk up the transformative potential of 5G connectivity while also saying innovation must work in lock-step with European “values”.

“Europe has to keep pace with other regions and early movers while making sure that its citizens and businesses benefit swiftly from the new infrastructures and the many applications that will be built on top of them,” she said.

“Digital is helping us and we need to reap its opportunities, mitigate its risks and make sure it is respectful of our values as much as driven by innovation. Innovation and values. Two key words. That is the vision we have delivered in terms of the defence for our citizens in Europe. Together we have decided to construct a Digital Single Market that reflects the values and principles upon which the European Union has been built.”

Her speech also focused on AI, with the commissioner highlighting various EC initiatives to invest in and support private sector investment in artificial intelligence — saying it’s targeting €20BN in “AI-directed investment” across the private and public sector by 2020, with the goal for the next decade being “to reach the same amount as an annual average” — and calling on the private sector to “contribute to ensure that Europe reaches the level of investment needed for it to become a world stage leader also in AI”.

But again she stressed the need for technology developments to be thoughtfully managed so they reflect the underlying society rather than negatively disrupting it. The goal should be what she dubbed “human-centric AI”.

“When we talk about AI and new technologies development for us Europeans it is not only about investing. It is mainly about shaping AI in a way that reflects our European values and principles. An ethical approach to AI is key to enable competitiveness — it will generate user trust and help facilitate its uptake,” she said.

“Trust is the key word. There is no other way. It is only by ensuring trustworthiness that Europe will position itself as a leader in cutting edge, secure and ethical AI. And that European citizens will enjoy AI’s benefits.”

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://ift.tt/2tCDIcM via IFTTT

[sheminecrafts]

Europe is prepared to rule over 5G cybersecurity

The European Commission’s digital commissioner has warned the mobile industry to expect it to act over security concerns attached to Chinese network equipment makers.

The Commission is considering a defacto ban on kit made by Chinese companies including Huawei in the face of security and espionage concerns, per Reuters.

Appearing on stage at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona today, Mariya Gabriel, European commissioner for digital economy and society, flagged network “cybersecurity” during her scheduled keynote, warning delegates it’s stating the obvious for her to say that “when 5G services become mission critical 5G networks need to be secure”.

Geopolitical concerns between the West and China are being accelerated and pushed to the fore as the era of 5G network upgrades approach, as well as by ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China over trade.

“I’m well away of the unrest among all of you key actors in the telecoms sectors caused by the ongoing discussions around the cybersecurity of 5G,” Gabriel continued, fleshing out the Commission’s current thinking. “Let me reassure you: The Commission takes your view very seriously. Because you need to run these systems everyday. Nobody is helped by premature decisions based on partial analysis of the facts.

“However it is also clear that Europe has to have a common approach to this challenge. And we need to bring it on the table soon. Otherwise there is a risk that fragmentation rises because of diverging decisions taken by Member States trying to protect themselves.”

“We all know that this fragmentation damages the digital single market. So therefore we are working on this important matter with priority. And to the Commission we will take steps soon,” she added.

The theme of this year’s show is “intelligent connectivity”; the notion that the incoming 5G networks will not only create links between people and (many, many more) things but understand the connections they’re making at a greater depth and resolution than has been possible before, leveraging the big data generated by many more connections to power automated decision-making in near real time, with low latency another touted 5G benefit (as well as many more connections per cell).

Futuristic scenarios being floated include connected cars neatly pulling to the sides of the road ahead of an ambulance rushing a patient to hospital — or indeed medical operations being aided and even directed remotely in real-time via 5G networks supporting high resolution real-time video streaming.

But for every touted benefit there are easy to envisage risks to network technology that’s being designed to connect everything all of the time — thereby creating a new and more powerful layer of critical infrastructure society will be relying upon.

Last fall the Australia government issued new security guidelines for 5G networks that essential block Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE from providing equipment to operators — justifying the move by saying that differences in the way 5G operates compared to previous network generations introduces new risks to national security.

New Zealand followed suit shortly after, saying kit from the Chinese companies posed a significant risk to national security.

While in the U.S. President Trump has made 5G network security a national security priority since 2017, and a bill was passed last fall banning Chinese companies from supplying certain components and services to government agencies.

The ban is due to take effect over two years but lawmakers have been pressuring to local carriers to drop 5G collaborations with companies such as Huawei.

In Europe the picture is so far more mixed. A UK government report last summer investigating Huawei’s broadband and mobile infrastructure raised further doubts, and last month Germany was reported to be mulling a 5G ban on the Chinese kit maker.

But more recently the two EU Member States have been reported to no longer be leaning towards a total ban — apparently believing any risk can be managed and mitigated by oversight and/or partial restrictions.

It remains to be seen how the Commission could step in to try to harmonize security actions taken by Member States around nascent 5G networks. But it appears prepared to set rules.

That said, Gabriel gave no hint of its thinking today, beyond repeating the Commission’s preferred position of less fragmentation, more harmonization to avoid collateral damage to its overarching Digital Single Market initiative — i.e. if Member States start fragmenting into a patchwork based on varying security concerns.

We’ve reached out to the Commission for further comment and will update this story with any additional context.

During the keynote she was careful to talk up the transformative potential of 5G connectivity while also saying innovation must work in lock-step with European “values”.

“Europe has to keep pace with other regions and early movers while making sure that its citizens and businesses benefit swiftly from the new infrastructures and the many applications that will be built on top of them,” she said.

“Digital is helping us and we need to reap its opportunities, mitigate its risks and make sure it is respectful of our values as much as driven by innovation. Innovation and values. Two key words. That is the vision we have delivered in terms of the defence for our citizens in Europe. Together we have decided to construct a Digital Single Market that reflects the values and principles upon which the European Union has been built.”

Her speech also focused on AI, with the commissioner highlighting various EC initiatives to invest in and support private sector investment in artificial intelligence — saying it’s targeting €20BN in “AI-directed investment” across the private and public sector by 2020, with the goal for the next decade being “to reach the same amount as an annual average” — and calling on the private sector to “contribute to ensure that Europe reaches the level of investment needed for it to become a world stage leader also in AI”.

But again she stressed the need for technology developments to be thoughtfully managed so they reflect the underlying society rather than negatively disrupting it. The goal should be what she dubbed “human-centric AI”.

“When we talk about AI and new technologies development for us Europeans it is not only about investing. It is mainly about shaping AI in a way that reflects our European values and principles. An ethical approach to AI is key to enable competitiveness — it will generate user trust and help facilitate its uptake,” she said.

“Trust is the key word. There is no other way. It is only by ensuring trustworthiness that Europe will position itself as a leader in cutting edge, secure and ethical AI. And that European citizens will enjoy AI’s benefits.”

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/2tCDIcM via IFTTT

[technicalsolutions88]

The European Commission’s digital commissioner has warned the mobile industry to expect it to act over security concerns attached to Chinese network equipment makers.

The Commission is considering a defacto ban on kit made by Chinese companies including Huawei in the face of security and espionage concerns, per Reuters.

Appearing on stage at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona today, Mariya Gabriel, European commissioner for digital economy and society, flagged network “cybersecurity” during her scheduled keynote, warning delegates it’s stating the obvious for her to say that “when 5G services become mission critical 5G networks need to be secure”.

Geopolitical concerns between the West and China are being accelerated and pushed to the fore as the era of 5G network upgrades approach, as well as by ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China over trade.

“I’m well away of the unrest among all of you key actors in the telecoms sectors caused by the ongoing discussions around the cybersecurity of 5G,” Gabriel continued, fleshing out the Commission’s current thinking. “Let me reassure you: The Commission takes your view very seriously. Because you need to run these systems everyday. Nobody is helped by premature decisions based on partial analysis of the facts.

“However it is also clear that Europe has to have a common approach to this challenge. And we need to bring it on the table soon. Otherwise there is a risk that fragmentation rises because of diverging decisions taken by Member States trying to protect themselves.”

“We all know that this fragmentation damages the digital single market. So therefore we are working on this important matter with priority. And to the Commission we will take steps soon,” she added.

The theme of this year’s show is “intelligent connectivity”; the notion that the incoming 5G networks will not only create links between people and (many, many more) things but understand the connections they’re making at a greater depth and resolution than has been possible before, leveraging the big data generated by many more connections to power automated decision-making in near real time, with low latency another touted 5G benefit (as well as many more connections per cell).

Futuristic scenarios being floated include connected cars neatly pulling to the sides of the road ahead of an ambulance rushing a patient to hospital — or indeed medical operations being aided and even directed remotely in real-time via 5G networks supporting high resolution real-time video streaming.

But for every touted benefit there are easy to envisage risks to network technology that’s being designed to connect everything all of the time — thereby creating a new and more powerful layer of critical infrastructure society will be relying upon.

Last fall the Australia government issued new security guidelines for 5G networks that essential block Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE from providing equipment to operators — justifying the move by saying that differences in the way 5G operates compared to previous network generations introduces new risks to national security.

New Zealand followed suit shortly after, saying kit from the Chinese companies posed a significant risk to national security.

While in the U.S. President Trump has made 5G network security a national security priority since 2017, and a bill was passed last fall banning Chinese companies from supplying certain components and services to government agencies.

The ban is due to take effect over two years but lawmakers have been pressuring to local carriers to drop 5G collaborations with companies such as Huawei.

In Europe the picture is so far more mixed. A UK government report last summer investigating Huawei’s broadband and mobile infrastructure raised further doubts, and last month Germany was reported to be mulling a 5G ban on the Chinese kit maker.

But more recently the two EU Member States have been reported to no longer be leaning towards a total ban — apparently believing any risk can be managed and mitigated by oversight and/or partial restrictions.

It remains to be seen how the Commission could step in to try to harmonize security actions taken by Member States around nascent 5G networks. But it appears prepared to set rules.

That said, Gabriel gave no hint of its thinking today, beyond repeating the Commission’s preferred position of less fragmentation, more harmonization to avoid collateral damage to its overarching Digital Single Market initiative — i.e. if Member States start fragmenting into a patchwork based on varying security concerns.

We’ve reached out to the Commission for further comment and will update this story with any additional context.

During the keynote she was careful to talk up the transformative potential of 5G connectivity while also saying innovation must work in lock-step with European “values”.

“Europe has to keep pace with other regions and early movers while making sure that its citizens and businesses benefit swiftly from the new infrastructures and the many applications that will be built on top of them,” she said.

“Digital is helping us and we need to reap its opportunities, mitigate its risks and make sure it is respectful of our values as much as driven by innovation. Innovation and values. Two key words. That is the vision we have delivered in terms of the defence for our citizens in Europe. Together we have decided to construct a Digital Single Market that reflects the values and principles upon which the European Union has been built.”

Her speech also focused on AI, with the commissioner highlighting various EC initiatives to invest in and support private sector investment in artificial intelligence — saying it’s targeting €20BN in “AI-directed investment” across the private and public sector by 2020, with the goal for the next decade being “to reach the same amount as an annual average” — and calling on the private sector to “contribute to ensure that Europe reaches the level of investment needed for it to become a world stage leader also in AI”.

But again she stressed the need for technology developments to be thoughtfully managed so they reflect the underlying society rather than negatively disrupting it. The goal should be what she dubbed “human-centric AI”.

“When we talk about AI and new technologies development for us Europeans it is not only about investing. It is mainly about shaping AI in a way that reflects our European values and principles. An ethical approach to AI is key to enable competitiveness — it will generate user trust and help facilitate its uptake,” she said.

“Trust is the key word. There is no other way. It is only by ensuring trustworthiness that Europe will position itself as a leader in cutting edge, secure and ethical AI. And that European citizens will enjoy AI’s benefits.”

from Mobile – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2tCDIcM ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM: https://techcrunch.com/

[hudsonespie]

Major Maritime Bodies Call Governments To Immediately Recognise Seafarers As Keyworkers

The Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the CEO and Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact and the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) have jointly issued the attached statement to urge all United Nations Member States to take action to urgently resolve the crew change crisis to avert a humanitarian disaster that will also affect the safety of shipping, the protection of the marine environment, the continuation of efficient trade and the recovery of the world economy.

Joint Statement

Joint Statement calling on all Governments to immediately recognize seafarers as key workers, and to take swift and effective action to eliminate obstacles to crew changes, so as to address the humanitarian crisis faced by the shipping sector, ensure maritime safety and facilitate economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic

The maritime shipping sector faces a humanitarian crisis

The maritime shipping sector moves more than 80 per cent of global trade and is a crucial component of the global economy. As a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic this sector, and in particular the seafarers who drive it, are facing severe challenges in making the necessary crew changes of seafarers. This is due, among other reasons, to restrictions on travel, embarkation and disembarkation in ports; quarantine measures; reductions in available flights; and limits on the issuing of visas and passports.

Image Credits: imo.org

It is because of the sacrifices of seafarers, who have continued working after their contracts have expired, that ports have remained open for trade, so allowing cargo operations to be carried out in a timely manner and goods to continue to circulate smoothly. The world owes a great debt to seafarers for maintaining supply chains throughout the pandemic.

Actions taken by many governments that limit or prevent ship operators from conducting crew changes is the single most pressing maritime operational challenge to the safe and efficient movement of global trade. This has created a humanitarian crisis, with approximately 300,000 seafarers trapped working aboard ships who cannot be repatriated, and an equal number of unemployed seafarers ashore because they are unable to board ships. Those on board have had their contracts extended, sometimes beyond 17 months, and are facing fatigue and physical and mental health issues, leading to fears of self-harm and suicide. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) have received thousands of urgent calls for help from seafarers and their families.

The rights of seafarers, as enshrined in the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC 2006), as amended, and other international instruments, have not been fully respected by all governments, notably their rights to shore leave, annual leave, a maximum period of service on board (11 months), repatriation, and access to medical care onboard and ashore.

The current rise in seafarer fatigue threatens the safety of maritime navigation. The efficient continuation of trade and the undisrupted functioning of supply chains will also be affected, because ships with fatigued seafarers cannot operate indefinitely. Commercial fishing, an important contributor to food security and livelihoods, is facing a similar crew change problem.

It is therefore essential that all governments urgently recognize seafarers as key workers and take immediate, concrete action to eliminate obstacles to crew changes, so addressing this humanitarian crisis, ensuring maritime safety and sustainable shipping, and facilitating economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social dialogue and coordinated action

Since the beginning of the crisis, ITF, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), and other key national and international actors have made unprecedented efforts to use collaboration and social dialogue, working continuously, creatively and tirelessly to address these issues. This has included the development of a framework of protocols for safe crew changes, as well as other guidance.

The United Nations specialized agencies have cooperated actively to address this situation. This has included endorsing the framework of protocols for safe crew changes and issuing a number of publications to ensure the protection of seafarers’ rights during the pandemic. They have made individual and joint statements to draw attention to the urgency of the problem, and they have strategically approached key governments – including major flag States, port States and labour-supplying States – to eliminate obstacles to crew changes whilst ensuring public health and safety.

The urgent need to resolve the crew change crisis was highlighted in the Joint Statement of the International Maritime Virtual Summit on Crew Changes (9 July 2020)1 and in the G7’s statement on High-Level Transportation Principles in Response to COVID-19 (29 July 2020).

In its Resolution 44/15, adopted on 17 July 2020, the Human Rights Council recognized the relevance of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in the context of global crises such as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, and the need for States to ensure responsible business conduct during the crisis and as part of a resilient recovery.

Urgent measures still to be taken

While many States have responded to these statements and calls for action, the rate of crew changes continues to be far below what is needed to avert a humanitarian disaster that will also affect the safety of shipping, the protection of the marine environment, the continuation of efficient trade and the recovery of the world economy. The issue requires increased and immediate government attention.

All United Nations member States are therefore urgently requested to undertake the following actions:

designate seafarers as ʺkey workersʺ providing an essential service, to facilitate safe and unhindered embarkation and disembarkation from their ships;

undertake national consultations involving all relevant ministries, agencies and departments, to identify obstacles to crew changes, and establish and implement measurable, time-bound plans to increase the rate of such crew changes;

consult with representative shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations when developing and implementing measures related to, or that have an impact upon, crew changes of seafarers; in particular – for those States who have ratified the MLC (2006) – in relation to achieving full compliance with the obligations enshrined in the Convention;

implement protocols for crew changes, drawing upon the latest version of the Recommended framework of protocols for ensuring safe ship crew changes and travel during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic;

refrain from authorising any new extension of seafarers’ employment agreements beyond the default maximum period of 11 months, in accordance with the MLC, 2006;

facilitate the diversion of ships from their normal trading routes to ports where crew changes are permitted;

accept internationally-recognized documentation as evidence of their status as key workers and that the purpose of their travel and movement is to undertake crew changes. Examples of such documentation include certificates issued in accordance with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers; seafarers’ identity documents issued in accordance with the Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention, 1958 (No. 108) and the Seafarersʹ Identity Documents Convention (Revised), 2003, as amended (No. 185). Letters ssued by the seafarer’s company or as part of the seafarer’s employment agreement, (as carried by seafarers) should also be considered evidence that they are seafarers joining or leaving ships;

provide seafarers with immediate access to medical facilities in the port State. When the required medical care cannot be provided in the port of call, facilitate the medical evacuation of seafarers in need of urgent medical attention. Address the situation of seafarers who, due to the unforeseen extension of their periods on board, are facing the expiration of essential medical prescriptions;

review (working in conjunction with health, immigration and other relevant ministries, agencies and authorities) the necessity of any national and/or local restrictions that may continue to apply to the movement and travel of seafarers in relation to crew changes, including allowing exemptions from quarantine or similar restrictions in accordance with relevant international rules or health regulatory guidelines;

increase access to commercial flights to and from the principal countries of origin of seafarers, and airports in reasonable proximity to seaports where crew changes are effected. Where scheduled commercial flights are not available, authorize landing slots for chartered flights, or include seafarers on other repatriation flights for citizens and permanent residents;

permit seafarers to disembark from ships in port and transit through their territory (i.e. to an airport) for the purpose of crew changes and repatriation;

allow seafarers who are their citizens or permanent residents to return home, and take all actions to expedite their return;

facilitate the clearance of seafarers who are citizens or permanent residents of their State, so that they can travel to join ships;

undertake bilateral and multilateral discussions between governments to eliminate obstacles to the movement of seafarers leaving or joining ships;

implement guidance issued by the United Nations agencies and disseminate guidance developed by the maritime sector, aimed at ensuring safety and health of seafarers and the public;

take any other actions deemed useful to address this issue.

We ask governments to bring the contents of this joint statement to the attention of the competent authorities and all others concerned.

Press Release

Report an Error

from Storage Containers https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/major-maritime-bodies-call-governments-to-immediately-recognise-seafarers-as-keyworkers/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[myallywynn]

More calls for Governments to recognize seafarers as keyworkers amidst humanitarian crisis

Yet another appeal has been sent to Governments to recognize seafarers as keyworkers and address the humanitarian crisis faced by the shipping sector, ensure maritime safety and facilitate economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic

The Director-General of the International L         abour Organization (ILO), the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the CEO and Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact and the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) have jointly issued the attached statement to urge all United Nations Member States to take action to urgently resolve the crew change crisis to avert a humanitarian disaster that will also affect the safety of shipping, the protection of the marine environment, the continuation of efficient trade and the recovery of the world economy.

Below is the Joint Statement calling on all Governments to immediately recognize seafarers as key workers, and to take swift and effective action to eliminate obstacles to crew changes, so as to address the humanitarian crisis faced by the shipping sector, ensure maritime safety and facilitate economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic

The maritime shipping sector faces a humanitarian crisis

The maritime shipping sector moves more than 80 per cent of global trade and is a crucial component of the global economy.

As a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic this sector, and in particular the seafarers who drive it, are facing severe challenges in making the necessary crew changes of seafarers.

This is due, among other reasons, to restrictions on travel, embarkation and disembarkation in ports; quarantine measures; reductions in available flights; and limits on the issuing of visas and passports.

It is because of the sacrifices of seafarers, who have continued working after their contracts have expired, that ports have remained open for trade, so allowing cargo operations to be carried out in a timely manner and goods to continue to circulate smoothly.

The world owes a great debt to seafarers for maintaining supply chains throughout the pandemic.

Actions taken by many governments that limit or prevent ship operators from conducting crew changes is the single most pressing maritime operational challenge to the safe and efficient movement of global trade.

This has created a humanitarian crisis, with approximately 300,000 seafarers trapped working aboard ships who cannot be repatriated, and an equal number of unemployed seafarers ashore because they are unable to board ships.

Those on board have had their contracts extended, sometimes beyond 17 months, and are facing fatigue and physical and mental health issues, leading to fears of self-harm and suicide.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) have received thousands of urgent calls for help from seafarers and their families.

The rights of seafarers, as enshrined in the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC 2006), as amended, and other international instruments, have not been fully respected by all governments, notably their rights to shore leave, annual leave, a maximum period of service on board (11 months), repatriation, and access to medical care onboard and ashore.

The current rise in seafarer fatigue threatens the safety of maritime navigation. The efficient continuation of trade and the undisrupted functioning of supply chains will also be affected, because ships with fatigued seafarers cannot operate indefinitely. Commercial fishing, an important contributor to food security and livelihoods, is facing a similar crew change problem.

It is therefore essential that all governments urgently recognize seafarers as key workers and take immediate, concrete action to eliminate obstacles to crew changes, so addressing this humanitarian crisis, ensuring maritime safety and sustainable shipping, and facilitating economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social dialogue and coordinated action

Since the beginning of the crisis, ITF, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), and other key national and international actors have made unprecedented efforts to use collaboration and social dialogue, working continuously, creatively and tirelessly to address these issues. This has included the development of a framework of protocols for safe crew changes, as well as other guidance.

The United Nations specialized agencies have cooperated actively to address this situation. This has included endorsing the framework of protocols for safe crew changes and issuing a number of publications to ensure the protection of seafarers’ rights during the pandemic.

They have made individual and joint statements to draw attention to the urgency of the problem, and they have strategically approached key governments – including major flag States, port States and labour-supplying States – to eliminate obstacles to crew changes whilst ensuring public health and safety.

The urgent need to resolve the crew change crisis was highlighted in the Joint Statement of the International Maritime Virtual Summit on Crew Changes (9 July 2020)1 and in the G7’s statement on High-Level Transportation Principles in Response to COVID-19 (29 July 2020).

In its Resolution 44/15, adopted on 17 July 2020, the Human Rights Council recognized the relevance of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in the context of global crises such as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, and the need for States to ensure responsible business conduct during the crisis and as part of a resilient recovery.

Urgent measures still to be taken

While many States have responded to these statements and calls for action, the rate of crew changes continues to be far below what is needed to avert a humanitarian disaster that will also affect the safety of shipping, the protection of the marine environment, the continuation of efficient trade and the recovery of the world economy.

The issue requires increased and immediate government attention.

All United Nations member States are therefore urgently requested to undertake the following actions:

designate seafarers as ʺkey workersʺ providing an essential service, to facilitate safe and unhindered embarkation and disembarkation from their ships;

undertake national consultations involving all relevant ministries, agencies and departments, to identify obstacles to crew changes, and establish and implement measurable, time-bound plans to increase the rate of such crew changes;

consult with representative shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations when developing and implementing measures related to, or that have an impact upon, crew changes of seafarers; in particular – for those States who have ratified the MLC (2006) – in relation to achieving full compliance with the obligations enshrined in the Convention;

implement protocols for crew changes, drawing upon the latest version of the Recommended framework of protocols for ensuring safe ship crew changes and travel during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic;

refrain from authorising any new extension of seafarers’ employment agreements beyond the default maximum period of 11 months, in accordance with the MLC, 2006;

facilitate the diversion of ships from their normal trading routes to ports where crew changes are permitted;

accept internationally-recognized documentation as evidence of their status as key workers and that the purpose of their travel and movement is to undertake crew changes. Examples of such documentation include certificates issued in accordance with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers; seafarers’ identity documents issued in accordance with the Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention, 1958 (No. 108) and the Seafarersʹ Identity Documents Convention (Revised), 2003, as amended (No. 185). Letters  ssued by the seafarer’s company or as part of the seafarer’s employment agreement, (as carried by seafarers) should also be considered evidence that they are seafarers joining or leaving ships;

provide seafarers with immediate access to medical facilities in the port State. When the required medical care cannot be provided in the port of call, facilitate the medical evacuation of seafarers in need of urgent medical attention. Address the situation of seafarers who, due to the unforeseen extension of their periods on board, are facing the expiration of essential medical prescriptions;

review (working in conjunction with health, immigration and other relevant ministries, agencies and authorities) the necessity of any national and/or local restrictions that may continue to apply to the movement and travel of seafarers in relation to crew changes, including allowing exemptions from quarantine or similar restrictions in accordance with relevant international rules or health regulatory guidelines;

increase access to commercial flights to and from the principal countries of origin of seafarers, and airports in reasonable proximity to seaports where crew changes are effected. Where scheduled commercial flights are not available, authorize landing slots for chartered flights, or include seafarers on other repatriation flights for citizens and permanent residents;

permit seafarers to disembark from ships in port and transit through their territory (i.e. to an airport) for the purpose of crew changes and repatriation;

allow seafarers who are their citizens or permanent residents to return home, and take all actions to expedite their return;

facilitate the clearance of seafarers who are citizens or permanent residents of their State, so that they can travel to join ships;

undertake bilateral and multilateral discussions between governments to eliminate obstacles to the movement of seafarers leaving or joining ships;

implement guidance issued by the United Nations agencies and disseminate guidance developed by the maritime sector, aimed at ensuring safety and health of seafarers and the public;

take any other actions deemed useful to address this issue.

We ask governments to bring the contents of this joint statement to the attention of the competent authorities and all others concerned.

The post More calls for Governments to recognize seafarers as keyworkers amidst humanitarian crisis appeared first on Shipping and Freight Resource.

from Moving https://www.shippingandfreightresource.com/more-calls-for-governments-to-recognize-seafarers-as-keyworkers-amidst-humanitarian-crisis/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[neptunecreek]

Our EU Policy Principles: User Controls

As the EU is gearing up for a major reform of key Internet regulation, we are introducing the principles that will guide our policy work surrounding the Digital Services Act (DSA). We believe the DSA is a key opportunity to change the Internet for the better; to question the paradigm of capturing users’ attention that shapes our online environments so fundamentally, and to restore users’ autonomy and control. In this post, we introduce policy principles that aim to strengthen users' informational self-determination and thereby promote healthier online communities that allow for deliberative discourse.

A Chance to Reinvent Platform Regulation 

In a few months, the European Commission will introduce its much anticipated proposal for the Digital Services Act, the most significant reform of European platform regulation in two decades. The Act, which will modernize the backbone of the EU’s Internet legislation—the e-Commerce Directive—will set out new responsibilities and rules for online platforms. 

EFF supports the Commission’s goal of promoting an inclusive, fair and accessible digital society. We believe that giving users more transparency and autonomy to understand and shape the forces that determine their online experiences is key to achieving this goal. Currently, there is a significant asymmetry between users and powerful gatekeeper platforms that control much of our online environment. With the help of opaque algorithmic tools, platforms distribute and curate content, collect vast amounts of data on their users and flood them with targeted advertisements. While platforms acquire (and monetize) a deep understanding of their users, both on an individual and collective level, users are in the dark about how their data is collected, exploited for commercial purposes and leveraged to shape their online environments. Not only are users not informed about the intricate algorithms that govern their speech and their actions online; platforms also unilaterally formulate and change community guidelines and terms of service, often without even informing users of relevant changes. 

The DSA is a crucial chance to enshrine the importance of user control and to push platforms to be more accountable to the public. But there is also a risk that the Digital Services Act will follow the footsteps of the recent regulatory developments in Germany and France. The German NetzDG and the French Avia bill (which we helped bring down in court) show a worrying trend in the EU to force platforms to police users’ content without counter-balancing such new powers with more user autonomy, choice and control. 

EFF will work with EU institutions to fight for users’ rights, procedural safeguards, and interoperability while preserving the elements that made Europe’s Internet regulation a success: limited liability for online platforms for user-generated content, and a clear ban on filtering and monitoring obligations.

Principle 1: Give Users Control Over Content

Many services like Facebook and Twitter originally presented a strictly chronological list of posts from users’ friends. Over time, most large platforms have traded that chronological presentation for more complex (and opaque) algorithms that order, curate and distribute content, including advertising, and other promoted content. These algorithms, determined by the platform, are not necessarily centered on satisfying users’ needs, but usually pursue the sole goal of maximizing the time and attention people spend on a given website. Posts with more “engagement” are prioritised, even if that engagement is driven by strong emotions like anger or despair provoked by the post. While users sometimes can return to the chronological stream, the design of platforms’ interfaces often nudges them to switch back. Interfaces that are misleading or manipulating users, including “dark patterns”, often contravene core principles of European data protection laws and should be addressed in the Digital Services Act where appropriate.

Platforms’ algorithmic tools leverage their intimate knowledge of their users, assembled from thousands of seemingly unrelated data points. Many of the inferences drawn from that data feel unexpected to users: platforms have access to data that reaches further back than most users realize, and are able to draw conclusions from both individual and collective behavior. Assumptions about users’ preferences are thus often made by making inferences from seemingly unrelated data points. This may shape (and often limit) the ways in which users can interact with content online and can also amplify misinformation and polarization in ways that can undermine the transparent, deliberative exchange of information on which democratic societies are built.

Users do not have to accept this. There are many third-party plugins that re-frame social platforms’ appearance and content according to peoples’ needs and preferences.  But right now, most of these plugins require technical expertise to discover and install, and platforms have a strong incentive to hide and prevent user adoption of such independent tools. The DSA is Europe’s golden opportunity to create a friendlier legal environment to encourage and support this user-oriented market. The regulation should  support interoperability and permit competitive compatibility, and should establish explicit, enforceable rules against over-aggressive terms of service that seek to forbid all reverse-engineering and interconnection. Beyond the Digital Services Act, the EU must actively support open source and commercial projects in Europe that offer localised or user-empowering front-ends to platforms, and help foster a vibrant and viable market for these tools.

Giving people—as opposed to platforms—more control over content is a crucial step to addressing some of the most pervasive problems online that are currently poorly managed through content moderation practices. User controls should not require a heightened threshold of technological literacy needed to traverse the web safely. Instead, users of social media platforms with significant market power should be empowered to choose content they want to interact with—and filter out content they do not want to see—in a simple and user-friendly manner. Users should also have the option to decide against algorithmically-curated recommendations altogether, or to choose other heuristics to order content. 

Principle 2: Algorithmic Transparency

Besides being given more control over the content with which they interact, users also deserve more transparency from companies to understand why content or search results are shown to them—or hidden from them. Online platforms should provide meaningful information about the algorithmic tools they use in content moderation (i.e., content recommendation systems, tools for flagging content) and content curation (for example in ranking or downranking content). Platforms should also offer easily accessible explanations that allow users to understand when, for which tasks, and to which extent algorithmic tools are used. To alleviate the burden on individual users to make sense of how algorithms are used, platforms with significant market power should allow independent researchers and relevant regulators to audit their algorithmic tools to make sure they are used as intended.

Principle 3: Accountable Governance

Online platforms govern their users through their terms of service, community guidelines, or standards. These documents often entail the fundamental rules that determine what users are afforded to do on a platform, and what behavior is constrained. Platforms regularly update those documents, often in minor but sometimes in major ways—and usually without consulting or notifying their users of the changes. Users of such platforms must be notified whenever the rules that govern them change, must be asked for their consent and should be informed of the consequences of their choice. They should also be provided with a meaningful explanation of any substantial changes in a language they understand. Additionally, platforms should present their terms of service in machine-readable format and make all previous versions of their terms of service easily accessible to the public.

Principle 4: Right to Anonymity Online

There are countless reasons why individuals may not want to share their identity publicly online. While anonymity used to be common on the Internet, it has become increasingly more difficult to remain anonymous online. In their hopes to tackle hate speech or “fake news”, policymakers in the EU and beyond have been proposing duties for platforms to enforce the use of legal names.

For many people, however—including members of the LGBTQ+ community, sex workers, and victims of domestic abuse—such rules could have devastating effects and lead to harassment or other forms of attribution. We believe that as a general principle, Member States should respect the will of individuals not to disclose their identities online. The Digital Services Act should affirm users’ informational self-determination also in this regard and introduce the European right to anonymity online. Deviating terms of service should be subject to fairness control.

from Deeplinks https://ift.tt/3b3utHr

[seotoronto00-blog]

SEO – What it means for your Business Like Real Estate?

You are a realtor and you have a spot. Stunning! In any case, how is your action? What is your Google page rank? How precisely would you say you are changing about the visitors you attract distributions and offers?

If the responses to any of these inquiries escape you, you are not alone. When in doubt, we transfer our goals, check something explicit outside our plan and proceed onward. In any case, the organization of our locales requires a cautious association and execution on the off chance that we comprehend the assurance gave by the advancements of the web and Web 2.0 (web distributions, Twitter, and so on.).

Luckily, there are experts like Roman Haidak, SEO and WEB authority of Sages Marketing, who have some involvement with helping realtors upgrade their locales for the most extraordinary adequacy. For instance intensity of land law website design enhancement for various areas in Canada Bellaliance Real Estate Lawyers from Vancouver get 5500 guests from web search tool month to month, Fiset Legal Real Estate Lawyers from Montreal get 4666 guests from google search and Gklaw Real Estate Lawyer from Toronto, get 6700 guests month to month.

Joe's circumstance on land sites is very immediate:

For the situation that land specialists need to profit by the web, by then a strong SEO technique is basic. In an engaged industry like the earth, two or three associations back and some meta labels will not, at this point cut it. To mount a solid SEO fight, you should begin with a fruitful technique.

I had the delight of going through about an hour chatting on the telephone with Joe, discussing how realtors can extend their locales and use them to expand their detectable quality, just as their principle concern. On the off chance that you accept the open door to grow your endeavors to improve sites on your site, you ought to counsel an article sent in Marketing Pilgrim named An impenetrable SEO technique for realtors. Pass, is a champion among the most instructive pieces on the arrangement of the SEO framework there.

The significance of site improvement for land sites.

Land merchants destinations can enormously surpass the increases of their standard time-constrained endeavors. The trading of land online is flourishing. Similarly, as there are a few trades that go on the web, up and coming clients are likewise attempting to make fundamental suspicions. This has opened up a huge locale for the land business, since the proprietors can get a ton of eyewitnesses to help their courses of action through the administrators' destinations.

This is concluded by distributing destinations on locales for realtors. Coincidentally, it is basic that you ensure that the arrangement of your locales and your online distributions is precisely made by a committed business that utilizes the methodologies appeared in SEO or in the enhancement of the site. These ought to be solely to include the matter of the land.

The destinations of the administrators rely upon SEO, since a site with no action is horribly wasteful, since just two or three individuals would presumably see the site. It would be an incredible assistance for you to pick a comapny like

SEO Toronto

that performs SEO solely for the land business on the web, since this infers they know the various terms and dialects ​​used as a major aspect of the land and its related trades. This implies whenever that somebody utilizing web search devices compose certain terms or words that are proper for your business, your website will be among the primary outcomes appeared in the Internet indexed lists portion. This could ensure an enduring current of development to your site.

Furthermore, it is basic to have a structure in a place that guarantees that you get a blog site in spite of the ordinary locales of realtors. This is colossal since numerous individuals are watching locales when all is said in done. Sites are likewise significantly preferred by a few web crawlers. Another favored perspective is that it offers you the chance to construct a notoriety for you as an effect on the trading of land, guaranteeing that clients generally come to you to comprehend its downsides. Plainly, this forgets about a chance to be designed, be that as it may, when your reputation has been built up, you will start to pick up the upsides of a superior online land arrangement.

Web Optimization: how to install watchwords for your land site

Web streamlining or site design improvement is the study of website situating on web crawler destinations. All land locales should would like to please the goals of the Internet web crawlers with the goal that they are situated on the principle page of the inquiry. Search locales pick which destinations will show when there is a question in their situation thus that they can find how to pick the site of their property, you should realize how to perform SEO.

There are various entryway destinations for conferences, in any case, there are just a few them that issue and there is an exceptional case that everybody attempts to please and that is Google. Why? It isn't that Google is well known, notwithstanding, that is valid, and another is that these goals have their own specific figuring and fundamentally you can not tail them all.

Google is very explicit for catchphrases. When the internet searcher enters its trademarks, Google will move to a few destinations and, for the situation that you introduce your expressions precisely on your website, Google will choose it so it has the most noteworthy need in the outline.

The watchwords stand apart among the most basic piece of SEO, introduce it precisely on your site and you're prepared. Spots to insert catchphrases on your land site

Title of the page and meta portrayal: These are the most significant SEO catchphrases. It isn't difficult to do, notwithstanding, you should realize how huge it is in your territory site. These words will give an early prologue to the clients since this is the piece of your webpage that the web crawler will show up in the recorded records. Arrive at the organization gathering of your site so you can get to these parts and that SEO benefit should be conceivable.

Headers: this shows the web list regarding the matter of your website. Ensure the header is stacked with SEO basic catchphrases.

Sub-Headers: This is another flag from your website to a web crawler that uncovers to you that it should be found.

Section of the body: You should join your expressions in your substance, yet you should be mindful so as not to over-burden the body since the web record will rebuff you on the off chance that they catch you. You should ensure that the weight of your SEO phrases is up to 2-4% figuratively speaking. Similarly, don't offer your supplication the chance to oppose on the premise that it ought to insert its mottos. You should make ordinarily and with sense. You will believe that at first it is troublesome, however you continue idealizing and you will find how to do it.

ALT picture labels: Images are an extraordinary assistance for SEO, they can enable your site to land with a higher positioning, in the event that you simply put your trademarks on ALT labels. With the assistance of ALT labels, Google can peruse your picture. It is a brand that incorporates the photograph that demonstrates the web record that adds a picture to your webpage and that is related to this subject. Catchphrases encourages the web file to see your website of landscape. In the event that you find that it is somewhat mind boggling, you can essentially demand the help of the experts. Regardless, he currently understands that his natural site must be wealthy in phrases.

3 reasons why SEO is suggested for land

Land is one of the organizations that profited by the change brought by the Internet. These days, numerous various associations contend with one another utilizing the Internet, since it is simpler to accomplish a more extensive crowd without spending more resources. Sadly, this issue prompted restriction to another level, and that is through the control of the web crawler.

Web advancement for the earth is fundamental, particularly if you have to saddle the certified vitality of the Internet. Interestingly, this market requires a more forceful SEO approach as opposed to various organizations. Numerous associations will spend a lot of dollars to improve their site, believing that this will get a great deal of dollars in income. Before we begin searching for SEO organizations, we should initially look at the reasons why SEO is basic.

Extended perceivability

As a player of the land, you unquestionably understand that changing visitors to shopping clients is an industrious activity, except if, clearly, you experience your site with the desire for purchasing a property. Recall that the puzzle of turning into a fruitful player in the land business is to begin creating more impressions and send more guests to your site.

In the event that there is a likelihood that you request the web crawler to be founded on a complex SEO way to deal with land, you will get colossal movement measures, which can be changed over into offers, with the proper advancement, clearly. To make it less troublesome, just let it be said that no visitor infers any understanding. One of best technique broaden perceivability it's blogging with low rivalry catchphrases or search recommendations here at case of web journals mind this system. Vehicle Window Tint Laws In Ontario Canada. Guidelines, Law and Types Of Tint, Is it workable for the Anglophone minority to look for sensible facilities with regards to co-proprietorship? – Fiset Legal ,New Residential Tenancy Rules on Fixed-Term Leases and Rent Increases – Bell Alliance.

Coordinated Audience

Clearly, the detectable quality will expand your pay, yet disregarding all that it relies upon the "quality" of guests that your site gets. In what limit will you bunch somebody who uses web records to look "where to purchase the properties accessible to purchase"? OK have the option to arrange them as individuals who need to purchase a property in a "flicker"? Or then again would they say again that they are squandering the chance to search for properties they won't accepting?

Clearly, these individuals are what you should be in your site!!

More affordable

Publicizing and propelling your business on the Internet will truly devour a space in your pocket. Except if you realize how to utilize it totally or play with advancement stages, it will devour a lot of dollars before you can agree. The issue with publicizing and progressing is that the cash comes out of your pocket whether you profit by advancing or not.

Website streamlining for the earth is more fitting, since it is a strategy. You ought to just search for a strong

Toronto SEO Agency

and they will deal with every one of the improvement undertakings of your site. You will take every one of the offers, and you will essentially need to pay the association a month-to-month advantage charge, which is an extensively more affordable measure, as opposed to most promoting stages, particularly for this industry.

Neighborhood search foundation Land Marketing – How to make SEO from land sites for a steady stream of expected clients

The development of land destinations for web crawlers for the most part shows amazing verification as a result of the irregular condition of contention in the land business.

Nevertheless, there are new entryways open for exceptional realtors, delegates and even neighborhood merchants to improve their destinations and get rankings of web search devices and free deals openings. This article looks at certain norms to recollect for site improvement (SEO).

1. Pick the trademarks that are explicit to the geographical domains in which you are found.

One of the benefits of earthly locales is that they can utilize land identifiers. This outcomes in less contention when it is enrolled # 1 in the things on the Google list for your market.

There might be a few landscape modifiers inside a state or metropolitan zone. The more expressions for which you update, the more broad your systems will be with the desire for a free Internet search movement.

Basically, you won't have restriction to by far most of these expressions changed geographically.

2. Pick phrases by undeniable property composing.

Every region will have its own specific style of structures, homes and gatherings. The catchphrases that are related to these realistic terms can be utilized to propel the titles and marks of your page. This will give a steady progression of visitors searching for these specific kinds of properties.

On the off chance that you know a territory for shut green gatherings, you can push ahead for that watchword search term. Think about the moderately boundless conceivable outcomes in your overall neighborhood.

Spot each kind of building, house or gathering on an alternate website page, since you should have a solitary expression of the primary expression on each page. This will send to your site the biggest number of centered visitors.

3. Use watchwords that genuine land purchasers will utilize.

Think about your gathering of individuals. Individuals who seek after the earthly online on certain pursuit terms are for the most part accomplished and among the most refined and instructed web customers.

You can utilize this to strengthen your favorable luck by giving information that distinguishes the specific motto and see the terms that you realize you are utilizing.

You start with content about these themes on the pages of your site. Starting there on, it will join specific mottos in the titles, headings and metatags of each page. Google and the other web search apparatuses will send you a constant flow of free deals open doors as webpage visitors searching for those themes.

[thelmasirby32]

How blockchain will dominate the digital advertising industry in 2020

Every day we read data breach scandals by ad tech vendors. We are getting tracked every day with hidden cookies, and permissions we give unconsciously. According to Juniper research, advertising losses were to reach $42 billion in 2019 and were predicted to be driven to reach $100 billion by 2023. Blockchain came into action to provide transparency while serving ads and paying for the real human interactions on the ads, not automated traffic.

Blockchain is emerging into the technology market these days and transforming the way we have been doing the online transactions lately. This technology is not only limited to the finance market, but it is also impacting the advertising and marketing industry too.

In this article, you’ll learn how blockchain is going to impact the digital advertising supply chain in the year 2020.

People generally associate blockchain with bitcoin, a well-known cryptocurrency market but it’s not the same. Bitcoin is the name of a cryptocurrency developed through blockchain technology.

So, what exactly is blockchain?

Blockchain is the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) which contains the record of multiple distributed transactions between different people. It doesn’t require any central control, because the data is not located in any local server, it’s stored in a secured server distributed globally.

The application of blockchain in digital advertising is very significant. From the last few decades advertising firms using user’s personal data to understand their buying habits and designing campaigns by invading their personal space.

It offers a secure environment for the advertisers and the publishers and allows them to connect the right audience and make safe transactions.

A look into what data says

The blockchain market is expected to reach over $23.3 billion by 2023 and $176 billion industry by 2025.

Digital advertising is expected to climb to  $427.26 billion by 2022.

“Blockchain advertising” – According to Google Trends data

Why is blockchain technology entering into digital advertising?

The industry space opened up for blockchain recently when data inflation and data discrepancy news surfaced online – advertisers and publishers started looking for a better alternative for transparency.

Advertising platforms like Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and others, were enjoying the monopoly in the digital advertising place since the last decade. These advertising giants were manipulating the data and information to make a huge profit margin.

Some news to read on data inflation

Advertisers sued the social networking platform for overstating video-viewing metrics over an 18-month period from 2015-16, which led the advertisers to pay extra for video ads based on the inflated data. Read more here.

A lot of other news reported about the fake bot traffic advertisers were paying for. It is all because of a lack of control. The publishers and advertisers don’t control the data, hence restricted to see only information ad tech vendors are offering. Data is very vulnerable today, digital advertising tools are using this as their new profit-making plan.

How would publishers know that they’re receiving a fair share of profit?

Kanstruktor over at Steemit explains:

“Decentralized network between advertisers and publishers through caching, and logging of clicks and leads, key statistics, personalized nodes in the blockchain operator MetaHash (fork of Ethereum – ERC20). It is a basic principle of protection against fraud and concealment of data on actual transactions from advertisers, or making unrealistic target bots in the traffic of publishers instead of real users.”

Ad vendors employing illegal techniques to access users’ personal data for their benefits, in exchange for rewards, and similar scenarios is a major threat and blockchain basically came into the picture of digital advertising to give the user control over their data.

Blockchain applications in digital advertising

1. Ad Buying and selling without the mediator

No intermediaries will be benefitted by employing blockchain-powered online advertising platforms. Blockchain is solving the transparencies and trust issues the ad tech industry has.

2. Fraud prevention and transparency in the ad supply chain

It’s very difficult to find the fraudulent clicks and impressions you are paying for. Blockchain technology integrated with the tools helps find and flag sites with click discrepancy and bot infiltration which would flow the ad budget to the right sites with genuine clicks.

3. Targeting the right audience

Driving an ad campaign according to their customer journey is important. With the help of blockchain, ad tech platforms can automate campaigns based on the specified set of rules. If the audience falls into those certain criteria, then only an ad will be visible to them. By doing this advertisers can utilize the budget on better sites to show ads.

Audience engagement will be credible now with very much accurate data that will help design better campaigns. The leads and subscriptions would be genuine and identifiable.

4. Data management

Data and insights play a key role in drafting a great campaign strategy. Blockchain makes it simple to retrieve the right KPIs utilize the data for better decision making.

5. Customize ad delivery

No one likes to see the same ads multiple times and increase ad fatigue. But, advertisers were not able to control the delivery of the ads in most of the top advertising platforms. With blockchain, advertisers will be given control to limit the ad frequency according to their campaign objectives.

6. Social media ads

A lot of fake news used to surface online through social media channels, now it can be controlled as blockchain technology is the distributed system is highly transparent and trackable. It can limit the social media ad frauds.

7. Data safety

Data safety and privacy is a major challenge in the digital advertising industry. The users browsing behavior is no longer the reason you serve your ads to them. Now, audience permission is required to use their personal data. A lot of countries are taking initiatives to stop the illegal practices. Security compliance like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and a lot more came into the picture for data privacy and safety.

8. Ad-verification

Blockchain reduced the role of third-party platforms to verify ads if they comply with the guidelines and save a lot of time for the advertisers.

9. Ad automation

Ad auctioning process and more easy and transparent with the help of blockchain-based advertising platforms. The ads will now be more effective and relevant.

10. Content management

The delivery of the content is more data-driven and accurate with blockchain. Content monetization, content personalization, content discovery, and content creation would be easier in these blockchain technology ad platforms.

Some digital advertising platforms using blockchain

Today the market is flooded by blockchain-powered ad platforms. Tech giants like IBM Corporation, Amazon Web Services, Inc., Accenture Plc, Microsoft Corporation, SAP SE, Oracle Corporation, Infosys Limited are investing in this technology.

Big companies like Kellogg, Kimberly-Clark, Pfizer, Unilever McDonald’s, Nestlé, and Virgin Media have joined a new blockchain pilot seeking to increase transparency in advertising online. Automobile giant Toyota uses blockchain tech to reduce fraud in their digital advertising campaigns.

Kat Howcroft, senior media and budget manager at McDonald’s, said:

“This technology offers us the opportunity to see a truly transparent picture of our investment across the digital supply chain. We are also eager to understand the potential impact that this may have on our ROI and efficiency.”

According to Babs Rangaiah, Global Marketing, IBM iX:

“Blockchain is creating new ways of doing business across industries, particularly where greater trust and transparency are required. As it relates to media, we expect blockchain to be able to provide a single source of truth to any given media buy, eliminating the doubt and uncertainty that is common today.”

Benefits of blockchain in the digital advertising industry

Accountability and transparency are required in the digital advertising ecosystem across the globe. Blockchain brings that trust factor to the table. With the help of blockchain ad tech vendors are now able to show the comprehensive actionable view of the ad distribution and transactions.

For every advertiser, data is the key to define their business success. With blockchain now, the advertisers receive the right high-quality data and reduce the chances of its alteration because of the distributed ledger approach.

The cost of the transaction is reduced significantly by removing various payment gateway platforms. Blockchain-powered ad platforms assure safe transactions while maintaining users’ anonymity.

Conclusion: Blockchain is the future in the digital ads industry

It will be too early to say if this could stop the whole of digital advertising scandals, ad frauds, and bot traffic. But, definitely, blockchain is impacting the digital advertising ecosystem positively and gradually. Ad tech giants like Google are adapting the blockchain-powered tools to enhance their functionality.

Blockchain topped the list of the digital marketing trends 2020. It’s time to show zero tolerance for the ad frauds, data alteration, and data breaches. The companies considering an upgrade to their advertising platform with blockchain will lead the way going forward, and it’s time you added your business to this roster.

The post How blockchain will dominate the digital advertising industry in 2020 appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

from Digital Marketing News https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/02/26/how-blockchain-will-dominate-the-digital-advertising-industry-in-2020/

[biofunmy]

Google Hires Firm Known for Anti-Union Efforts

Google has hired an anti-union consulting firm to advise management as it deals with widespread worker unrest, including accusations that it has retaliated against organizers of a global walkout and cracked down on dissent inside the company.

The firm, called IRI Consultants, appears to work frequently for hospitals and other health care organizations. Its website advertises “union vulnerability assessments” and boasts about IRI’s success in helping a large national health care company persuade employees to avoid a union election despite the unions’ “dedicating millions of dollars to their organizing campaigns.”

Google’s work with IRI is the latest evidence of escalation in a feud between a group of activist workers at Google and management that has tested the limits of the company’s traditionally transparent, worker-friendly culture. Since Google was founded two decades ago, employees had been able to ask management tough questions at weekly meetings, and anyone who worked there could look through documents related to almost any company activity.

That Google hired a consulting firm known for its anti-union work is a surprising turn in Silicon Valley. Union organization — even labor unrest — has traditionally been rare among big tech companies because their employees have usually been treated and paid well. Google, in particular, has been known for its perks, like free meals and shuttle buses to the office.

There does not appear to be any serious effort underway at Google to create a formally certified union, but employers sometimes bring in firms like IRI to pre-empt unionization amid widespread discontent among workers.

Last fall, Google employees around the world walked out to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment complaints. And discussions on the company’s internal message boards have at times turned into contentious debates about politics or company policies that have become public embarrassments.

Google recently cracked down on some of those discussions and limited how much employees can peer into the work of others. Last week, Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, announced that Google was making its free-flowing weekly all-hands meetings — a hallmark of its open culture — into monthly affairs with restrictions on what can be discussed.

Google employees stumbled upon the company’s relationship with IRI in October, according to two employees familiar with the discovery who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the fear of retaliation. They unearthed internal calendar entries indicating that Google had hired IRI, according to screenshots shared with The New York Times.

Chloe Cooper, a Google spokeswoman, said the company engages “dozens of outside firms to provide us with their advice on a wide range of topics.” IRI did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

At the time of the discovery, Google had recently installed a tool on employees’ web browsers that would flag internal calendar events requiring more than 10 meeting rooms or 100 participants.

Many employees believed that the so-called browser extension, which was first reported by Bloomberg, was a surveillance tool designed to crack down on organizing among workers. The company said at the time that it simply wanted to reduce internal spam and that the tool does not collect personally identifiable information.

To learn more about the extension and a calendar policy change that the tool would reinforce, employees began to search the calendar of the Google human resources official who had requested the policy change, according to the two employees knowledgeable about the situation.

While searching that official’s calendar, which was open to other Google employees at the time, these employees discovered that she had been part of a group of Google human resources, legal and communications officials who for months had been invited to meetings with officials from IRI, according to the two employees.

They noticed that the group had a meeting scheduled only a few hours before the human resources official requested the change in calendar policy. One of the employees provided The Times with screenshots of portions of the official’s calendar and two posts on an internal ticketing system discussing the change.

Asked whether IRI advised the company on these matters, Ms. Cooper, the Google spokeswoman, said that “to suggest this particular firm had anything whatsoever to do with the recent calendar extension — or any internal policies whatsoever — is absolutely false.”

Google employees have chafed for months at what they said was a series of moves by management designed to make it harder for them to confront the company, whether it was over government contracts they objected to, or policies like its handling of sexual harassment, the issue that triggered last year’s walkout.

In August, the company handed down new “community guidelines” that prohibited employees from insulting one another on internal forums and “disrupting the workday to have a raging debate over politics or the latest news story.” Many employees saw it as a way to stifle the internal debate that had long defined the company.

Then, earlier this month, two Google employees were placed on administrative leave over possible violations of company rules. According to a memo circulated internally and obtained by CNBC, some employees believed the administrative leave was a form of retaliation because the two suspended workers had engaged in activism at the company.

Google said one of the employees had searched for, gained access to and shared sensitive documents, though other employees have questioned the documents’ sensitivity. The company said the second suspended employee had set up email alerts to track the calendars of several Google officials, which made them feel unsafe, but did not say that setting up such alerts broke company rules.

Mr. Pichai’s announcement about the staff meetings came on the heels of a particularly contentious meeting last month when employees challenged management about the browser extension and the hiring of a former Department of Homeland Security official, who had defended a version of the White House’s ban on travel from several mostly Muslim countries.

In leaked audio of the meeting, reported earlier by The Washington Post, Mr. Pichai said that Google was struggling with how to adapt the principles of openness to a global behemoth with more than 100,000 employees and a roughly equivalent number of contractors.

Last month, Google management in Zurich caused an uproar when it tried to cancel an employee discussion about unionization and proposed its own discussion about labor laws and employee rights. In September, a small group of contractors who work for Google voted to unionize with the United Steelworkers.

Some Google employees oppose their colleagues’ organizing efforts and believe that Mr. Pichai hasn’t gone far enough in reining in the chaos that they say the organizers have created. And most Google employees, even those active in efforts to organize co-workers, appear to be skeptical of trying to create a formally certified union.

Still, many appear to favor creating some kind of worker organization, and thousands continue to engage in collective action, like signing a petition in August urging the company not to enter a forthcoming competition for a contract with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, which it had indicated an interest in pursuing.

Meredith Whittaker, a walkout organizer who left the company in July after 13 years, said the hiring of IRI showed that Google has “begun to do what most large companies and bosses do, which is figure out how to fight worker power using a fairly routine bag of union-busting tricks.”

Ms. Whittaker added that all the recent policy changes and actions that affected workers’ ability to organize “need to be read through the light of hiring a firm that specializes in busting worker organizations and discrediting organizers.”

Google said IRI did not participate in any of the recent high-profile policy changes, but would not elaborate on the work it did.

A detailed public account of IRI’s involvement in a past union campaign, at the Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut in 2006, shows that the firm prepared a training manual more than 30 pages long for managers at the hospital, on such topics as how to cast the union in a negative light.

In one passage of the manual, which was obtained by the Yale Daily News and whose authenticity was confirmed by a hospital spokesman at the time, the document instructed managers to speak to employees about the history of Mafia influence and corruption in organized labor.

According to an arbitrator’s report on the case from October 2007, IRI and the hospital created six teams, a number of which included both consultants and hospital officials and met biweekly or weekly.

John Logan, an expert on anti-union consultants at San Francisco State University, said it was difficult to determine the effectiveness of firms like IRI because employers often keep these relationships secret and can deploy the same tactics even without hiring consultants. But, he said, the tactics tend to work.

“There are so many things an employer can do that have devastating impact on the likely success of an organizing campaign,” Mr. Logan said. “In that sense, there’s no question they’re effective.”

Sahred From Source link Business

from WordPress http://bit.ly/35oJksf via IFTTT

[fmservers]

Europe is prepared to rule over 5G cybersecurity

The European Commission’s digital commissioner has warned the mobile industry to expect it to act over security concerns attached to Chinese network equipment makers.

The Commission is considering a defacto ban on kit made by Chinese companies including Huawei in the face of security and espionage concerns, per Reuters.

Appearing on stage at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona today, Mariya Gabriel, European commissioner for digital economy and society, flagged network “cybersecurity” during her scheduled keynote, warning delegates it’s stating the obvious for her to say that “when 5G services become mission critical 5G networks need to be secure”.

Geopolitical concerns between the West and China are being accelerated and pushed to the fore as the era of 5G network upgrades approach, as well as by ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China over trade.

“I’m well away of the unrest among all of you key actors in the telecoms sectors caused by the ongoing discussions around the cybersecurity of 5G,” Gabriel continued, fleshing out the Commission’s current thinking. “Let me reassure you: The Commission takes your view very seriously. Because you need to run these systems everyday. Nobody is helped by premature decisions based on partial analysis of the facts.

“However it is also clear that Europe has to have a common approach to this challenge. And we need to bring it on the table soon. Otherwise there is a risk that fragmentation rises because of diverging decisions taken by Member States trying to protect themselves.”

“We all know that this fragmentation damages the digital single market. So therefore we are working on this important matter with priority. And to the Commission we will take steps soon,” she added.

The theme of this year’s show is “intelligent connectivity”; the notion that the incoming 5G networks will not only create links between people and (many, many more) things but understand the connections they’re making at a greater depth and resolution than has been possible before, leveraging the big data generated by many more connections to power automated decision-making in near real time, with low latency another touted 5G benefit (as well as many more connections per cell).

Futuristic scenarios being floated include connected cars neatly pulling to the sides of the road ahead of an ambulance rushing a patient to hospital — or indeed medical operations being aided and even directed remotely in real-time via 5G networks supporting high resolution real-time video streaming.

But for every touted benefit there are easy to envisage risks to network technology that’s being designed to connect everything all of the time — thereby creating a new and more powerful layer of critical infrastructure society will be relying upon.

Last fall the Australia government issued new security guidelines for 5G networks that essential block Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE from providing equipment to operators — justifying the move by saying that differences in the way 5G operates compared to previous network generations introduces new risks to national security.

New Zealand followed suit shortly after, saying kit from the Chinese companies posed a significant risk to national security.

While in the U.S. President Trump has made 5G network security a national security priority since 2017, and a bill was passed last fall banning Chinese companies from supplying certain components and services to government agencies.

The ban is due to take effect over two years but lawmakers have been pressuring to local carriers to drop 5G collaborations with companies such as Huawei.

In Europe the picture is so far more mixed. A UK government report last summer investigating Huawei’s broadband and mobile infrastructure raised further doubts, and last month Germany was reported to be mulling a 5G ban on the Chinese kit maker.

But more recently the two EU Member States have been reported to no longer be leaning towards a total ban — apparently believing any risk can be managed and mitigated by oversight and/or partial restrictions.

It remains to be seen how the Commission could step in to try to harmonize security actions taken by Member States around nascent 5G networks. But it appears prepared to set rules.

That said, Gabriel gave no hint of its thinking today, beyond repeating the Commission’s preferred position of less fragmentation, more harmonization to avoid collateral damage to its overarching Digital Single Market initiative — i.e. if Member States start fragmenting into a patchwork based on varying security concerns.

We’ve reached out to the Commission for further comment and will update this story with any additional context.

During the keynote she was careful to talk up the transformative potential of 5G connectivity while also saying innovation must work in lock-step with European “values”.

“Europe has to keep pace with other regions and early movers while making sure that its citizens and businesses benefit swiftly from the new infrastructures and the many applications that will be built on top of them,” she said.

“Digital is helping us and we need to reap its opportunities, mitigate its risks and make sure it is respectful of our values as much as driven by innovation. Innovation and values. Two key words. That is the vision we have delivered in terms of the defence for our citizens in Europe. Together we have decided to construct a Digital Single Market that reflects the values and principles upon which the European Union has been built.”

Her speech also focused on AI, with the commissioner highlighting various EC initiatives to invest in and support private sector investment in artificial intelligence — saying it’s targeting €20BN in “AI-directed investment” across the private and public sector by 2020, with the goal for the next decade being “to reach the same amount as an annual average” — and calling on the private sector to “contribute to ensure that Europe reaches the level of investment needed for it to become a world stage leader also in AI”.

But again she stressed the need for technology developments to be thoughtfully managed so they reflect the underlying society rather than negatively disrupting it. The goal should be what she dubbed “human-centric AI”.

“When we talk about AI and new technologies development for us Europeans it is not only about investing. It is mainly about shaping AI in a way that reflects our European values and principles. An ethical approach to AI is key to enable competitiveness — it will generate user trust and help facilitate its uptake,” she said.

“Trust is the key word. There is no other way. It is only by ensuring trustworthiness that Europe will position itself as a leader in cutting edge, secure and ethical AI. And that European citizens will enjoy AI’s benefits.”

Via Natasha Lomas https://techcrunch.com

[toomanysinks]

Europe is prepared to rule over 5G cybersecurity

The European Commission’s digital commissioner has warned the mobile industry to expect it to act over security concerns attached to Chinese network equipment makers.

The Commission is considering a defacto ban on kit made by Chinese companies including Huawei in the face of security and espionage concerns, per Reuters.

Appearing on stage at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona today, Mariya Gabriel, European commissioner for digital economy and society, flagged network “cybersecurity” during her scheduled keynote, warning delegates it’s stating the obvious for her to say that “when 5G services become mission critical 5G networks need to be secure”.

Geopolitical concerns between the West and China are being accelerated and pushed to the fore as the era of 5G network upgrades approach, as well as by ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China over trade.

“I’m well away of the unrest among all of you key actors in the telecoms sectors caused by the ongoing discussions around the cybersecurity of 5G,” Gabriel continued, fleshing out the Commission’s current thinking. “Let me reassure you: The Commission takes your view very seriously. Because you need to run these systems everyday. Nobody is helped by premature decisions based on partial analysis of the facts.

“However it is also clear that Europe has to have a common approach to this challenge. And we need to bring it on the table soon. Otherwise there is a risk that fragmentation rises because of diverging decisions taken by Member States trying to protect themselves.”

“We all know that this fragmentation damages the digital single market. So therefore we are working on this important matter with priority. And to the Commission we will take steps soon,” she added.

The theme of this year’s show is “intelligent connectivity”; the notion that the incoming 5G networks will not only create links between people and (many, many more) things but understand the connections they’re making at a greater depth and resolution than has been possible before, leveraging the big data generated by many more connections to power automated decision-making in near real time, with low latency another touted 5G benefit (as well as many more connections per cell).

Futuristic scenarios being floated include connected cars neatly pulling to the sides of the road ahead of an ambulance rushing a patient to hospital — or indeed medical operations being aided and even directed remotely in real-time via 5G networks supporting high resolution real-time video streaming.

But for every touted benefit there are easy to envisage risks to network technology that’s being designed to connect everything all of the time — thereby creating a new and more powerful layer of critical infrastructure society will be relying upon.

Last fall the Australia government issued new security guidelines for 5G networks that essential block Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE from providing equipment to operators — justifying the move by saying that differences in the way 5G operates compared to previous network generations introduces new risks to national security.

New Zealand followed suit shortly after, saying kit from the Chinese companies posed a significant risk to national security.

While in the U.S. President Trump has made 5G network security a national security priority since 2017, and a bill was passed last fall banning Chinese companies from supplying certain components and services to government agencies.

The ban is due to take effect over two years but lawmakers have been pressuring to local carriers to drop 5G collaborations with companies such as Huawei.

In Europe the picture is so far more mixed. A UK government report last summer investigating Huawei’s broadband and mobile infrastructure raised further doubts, and last month Germany was reported to be mulling a 5G ban on the Chinese kit maker.

But more recently the two EU Member States have been reported to no longer be leaning towards a total ban — apparently believing any risk can be managed and mitigated by oversight and/or partial restrictions.

It remains to be seen how the Commission could step in to try to harmonize security actions taken by Member States around nascent 5G networks. But it appears prepared to set rules.

That said, Gabriel gave no hint of its thinking today, beyond repeating the Commission’s preferred position of less fragmentation, more harmonization to avoid collateral damage to its overarching Digital Single Market initiative — i.e. if Member States start fragmenting into a patchwork based on varying security concerns.

We’ve reached out to the Commission for further comment and will update this story with any additional context.

During the keynote she was careful to talk up the transformative potential of 5G connectivity while also saying innovation must work in lock-step with European “values”.

“Europe has to keep pace with other regions and early movers while making sure that its citizens and businesses benefit swiftly from the new infrastructures and the many applications that will be built on top of them,” she said.

“Digital is helping us and we need to reap its opportunities, mitigate its risks and make sure it is respectful of our values as much as driven by innovation. Innovation and values. Two key words. That is the vision we have delivered in terms of the defence for our citizens in Europe. Together we have decided to construct a Digital Single Market that reflects the values and principles upon which the European Union has been built.”

Her speech also focused on AI, with the commissioner highlighting various EC initiatives to invest in and support private sector investment in artificial intelligence — saying it’s targeting €20BN in “AI-directed investment” across the private and public sector by 2020, with the goal for the next decade being “to reach the same amount as an annual average” — and calling on the private sector to “contribute to ensure that Europe reaches the level of investment needed for it to become a world stage leader also in AI”.

But again she stressed the need for technology developments to be thoughtfully managed so they reflect the underlying society rather than negatively disrupting it. The goal should be what she dubbed “human-centric AI”.

“When we talk about AI and new technologies development for us Europeans it is not only about investing. It is mainly about shaping AI in a way that reflects our European values and principles. An ethical approach to AI is key to enable competitiveness — it will generate user trust and help facilitate its uptake,” she said.

“Trust is the key word. There is no other way. It is only by ensuring trustworthiness that Europe will position itself as a leader in cutting edge, secure and ethical AI. And that European citizens will enjoy AI’s benefits.”

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/25/europe-is-prepared-to-rule-over-5g-cybersecurity/

[pacewisdomuk-blog]

Things to consider while choosing app development platform

•       Target crowd

While picking the best android application development UK you have to think about your intended interest group. Play out some exploration and make your client profile. Focus on geographic criteria as they might be the most vital for you. Stages fluctuate generally by area. In this manner, on the off chance that you choose to center around Europe, remember the way that the dominant part of Europeans lean toward Android gadgets to iPhones. Americans utilize both, while in Asia the circumstance may contrast from nation to nation.

 •       User conduct

Client conduct varies relying upon an OS and furthermore a nation. On the off chance that you build up a free application with no adaptation, at that point it might likely be immaterial for you to know where individuals are slanted to purchase applications and make in-application buys. Apple clients will probably burn through cash on applications. Android clients tend to utilize free applications and are not willing to purchase anything from the Google Play Store or make any in-application buys.

 •       Features

Consider required highlights and in addition client experience and contrast them and the capacities of a specific stage. On the off chance that you'd jump at the chance to build up a custom application with the local look and feel, consider such arrangements as iOS, Android, WP. Mobile application development UK dependably perform best. They are top notch with regards to convenience and give unrivaled in general involvement.

 On the off chance that you hold fast to the "run-once-run-all over" approach more, consider a cross-stage improvement of your undertaking. In any case, know that not the majority of the highlights, which could be effectively actualized locally, are upheld by cross-stage arrangements.

 •       The cost of advancement

It is anything but an error that the point about value comes straightaway. Having perused about highlights, you could have felt that a "run-once-run-all over" arrangement may be savvy. In reality, what's the feeling of paying for a few designers when you could employ only one cross-stage build? At first glance, it appears an alluring choice. In any case, when you burrow further, you'll see that the overlooked details are the main problem.

 How about we figure out what a half and half application really implies. It is essentially a site page streamlined for the utilization on different gadgets and enclosed by a local compartment. Because of this they can get to some local highlights. "Some' ought to be worried here. With regards to the improvement of refined capacities like picture handling or video live gushing, half breed applications fall flat. A portion of the local highlights are difficult to incorporate. Going cross-stage, you pay less and get less.

 •       Devices you have to help

Android bolstered gadgets check 160 things. While Android endeavors to build this number, Apple has an alternate methodology. Their most recent iOS 9 underpins 15 gadgets, among which there are different renditions of iPads, iPhones and iPods. Looking at these two principle showcase holders, clearly it might be a test to adjust an application for every device. Windows Phone 8.1 as of now takes a shot at 100 gadgets, while Blackberry is bolstered by just 10. Talking about the last two working frameworks, you should consider that their fortune is vulnerable. Probably the most mainstream applications, for example, WhatsApp decline to help them. Building up a cross-stage application with the help of mobile app development company UK, you should adjust it to every one of those gadgets together.

 •       Additional costs identified with programming

Something you should consider ahead is extra costs identified with application improvement. To present an application into an application store, you should purchase an engineer account. Google Play charges $25 for this administration. Apple is more costly as it will influence you to dispense $100 for a designer account and $299 for the Enterprise Program. In the event that you need to create half and half portable applications, you should pay to each market you intend to get distributed in.

 •       Moderation

iOS applications are dependably entirely directed. Apple has certain standards on how an application ought to carry on so as to be submitted to their commercial center. On the off chance that it doesn't agree to them, it will probably be rejected. One can without much of a stretch discover the App Store Review Guidelines on their official site. For example, they won't acknowledge an application that accidents or contains void iAd flags. Being extremely intensive with regards to application audits, Apple takes up to 10 days to check your task and either acknowledge or dismiss its accommodation.

The same can't be said for Google Play. They likewise have certain rules. Be that as it may, this market is entangled in terrible bits of gossip about a lot of theft applications. It can be clarified by a feeble balance framework. Also, a client can without much of a stretch download an .apk document of any application and introduce it onto his/her gadget. A comparable plan won't work with Apple.

 •       User desires

Contingent upon the stage and its maker, clients have certain desires from applications on their gadgets. On the off chance that you need to influence them to feel fulfilled, think about those expectations. For example, best android application development UK for the upscale quality and developments. The brand supporters are exceptionally faithful and focused on the organization administrations and hope to encounter stylish outline and extraordinary ease of use from the applications they utilize. They will be the principal with regards to developments and are prepared to pay more to get them. Android application clients are more hesitant. They don't prefer to burn through cash on applications or in-application buys. They lean toward Material styled outline and complimentary gifts.

[lindyhunt]

10 Universal Writing Rules from The Onion’s Founding Editor

“If you want to create a great piece of writing, you have to be in total control of the reader’s experience,” said Scott Dikkers, The Onion’s founding editor and longest-serving editor-in-chief.

Dikkers held the position from 1988 to 1999, then from 2005 to 2008, and again from 2011 to 2013. He’s also a screenwriter and a #1 New York Times best selling author with more than twenty books to his name.

During his tenure, The Onion evolved from a local print magazine in Madison, Wisconsin, into a satirical juggernaut. Today, it’s a globally renowned media house with nearly 20 million social followers and over 10 million monthly visitors.

We were speaking over the phone. I was interviewing Scott to better understand his approach to writing, the process he uses to engage and connect with readers.

“The reader is a puppet and the writer is pulling the strings,” said Dikkers.

“The writer’s job is to manipulate the reader’s emotions, to push their buttons — and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re never going to succeed, whether you’re writing satire or anything else.”

Needless to say, if anybody knows how to write great content — content that readers can’t help but to consume, share, and come back to again and again — it’s Scott Dikkers. He grew The Onion from a seed in the dirt to a brand that commands attention around the world.

This article is about the writing principles that enabled his success.

Scott Dikkers, On Writing

The Onion is a humor publication. Its content is satire. That is, the jokes have something to say about the world, about society, politics, and people with power.

Over the years, Dikkers has punched up and published thousands of articles that have made readers laugh — and think. And like any professional editor, he’s maintained his standards by following a set of guidelines.

In his book, How to Write Funny, Scott details his process, explaining how to create hilarious writing at an elite level. And while some of his techniques are specific to crafting jokes, many are also applicable to any writing discipline.

Dikkers and other talented humorists are playing by the same engagement rules as are copywriters and content marketers.

In other words, the tenants of humor writing are transferable to lead-gen articles and columns, landing pages and emails, web pages, video scripts, and speeches.

Because every writer’s goal is identical: control the reader’s experience.

When you have control, you have leverage to deliver the message in an engaging and compelling way, a way that sells. And whether you’re selling a product or a service, a belief system or a joke, following these writing principles will help you reliably hook, engage, and compel readers.

Ready for a master class? Let’s dive in …

1. Concept is king.

“What’s going to make your content stand out?”

For a long time, The Onion was a physical weekly newspaper distributed for free on the street. So, in the early days — before anyone cared enough about the brand to seek it out — the success of every issue hinged on the strength of its headline.

“I knew we had to grab people’s attention with the concept, the headline,” said Dikkers. “I knew we had to put the joke first so that people were laughing before they even picked up the paper.”

Decades later, the internet has only reinforced this principle.

“We live in an attention economy where there are billions of online articles to read,” said Dikkers. “But when the headline really speaks to you — when it addresses a personal problem or promises to answer a burning question — you’re going to click it. You’re going to read that article.

“Your concept — and I would equate that with your headline or title — is the flag you’re raising, it's the shingle on your door. And if it’s not a good concept or the right concept, then you’re sunk before you’ve even written a word.”

How do you know what the “right” concept is? Start with your target audience:

What pleasures are they seeking?

What pains are they trying to assuage?

2. The key to quality is quantity.

“Basically, 95% of everything we create is garbage.”

When The Onion grew to about six or seven staff writers, each one was expected to bring 20 headlines to a weekly brainstorming meeting.

“We quickly realized that the quality of our ideas increased with the number of ideas people brought in,” said Dikkers. “When you have six high-performing comedy writers coming up with 20 ideas each, you’re gonna walk away with a dozen headlines that are just solid, I mean really funny — and that practice is still in use at The Onion.”

Today’s team examines several hundred headlines every week, picking only a dozen or so for publication. Late-night talk shows follow the same strategy: selecting their best monologue jokes from a place of abundance.

“This is how professionals work,” said Dikkers, “because they understand that most of what they write is dreck.”

3. Omit needless words.

“The shorter the better.”

Superfluous words take up space, slow down the reader, and dilute the message.

“Any time I edit a joke, I look for ways to reduce,” said Dikkers. “Cutting even a single syllable can make the joke punchier, better.

“But this applies to all kinds of writing because when you trim the fat, you get to the core of your message. And sometimes, after you’ve cut everything, you could realize that you weren’t really saying anything at all — and while that realization might be sad, it’s also very valuable.

“Because if you don’t have a message, why are you writing in the first place?”

4. Ruffle some feathers.

“This is how your message will stand the test of time.”

Satire is divided into a couple categories, which are based on two ancient Roman satirists: Juvenal and Horace.

Horatian satire, generally, is not offensive. It’s acceptable to all strata of society because it’s relatively gentle and light-hearted, designed to amuse people and get a laugh. It’s foolish and innocent and superficial, like a court jester.

Juvenalian satire, on the other hand, pushes buttons. It addresses perceived social evils, poking holes in the status quo. It defends the marginalized and speaks truth to power. It’s bitter and dangerous and important, like 1984.

“Thing is, Horatian satire isn’t really remembered because it’s toothless,” said Dikkers. “It might get a lot of laughs today but it’s not going to live in our cultural memory. Only satire that angers or offends people will be remembered.”

What is your content’s message? What’s your goal?

5. Don’t fall in love.

“Kill your darlings.”

If you get so attached to an idea (e.g., a headline; a turn of phrase) that you’re unwilling to 1) hear feedback on it and 2) move onto something new, then you’re “in love.”

This happens a lot, especially to new writers with a small body of work. After all, the less work you have to your name, the more weight each new idea holds.

“When a writer has just one idea, it causes their soul to feel crushed when someone critiques that idea in a way that makes them doubt it,” said Dikkers. “They link that idea with their personality and, in turn, take any feedback as a personal slight against them.”

Avoid falling in love with any one idea. It’s unproductive, a distraction that’ll keep you from giving the audience what they want or need.

Serve your readers, not yourself.

6. Be specific.

“Detail almost always makes writing better.”

Specificity doesn’t necessarily call for verbosity. Instead, it demands clarity: crisp imagery that uses one or more of the five senses to paint a mental picture.

The Catcher in the Rye, for example, is saturated with specificity:

He came over and stood right in my light. “Hey,” I said. “I’ve read this sentence about twenty times since you came in.”

Notice how Salinger gives the reader incredible context — how he illustrates a clear physical and metaphysical image — using only a handful of words.

“Whether you’re writing humor or anything else, the same rule applies: use specific detail,” said Dikkers. “These little pieces of specific detail are critical because they help the author paint a picture that enables the reader to feel an emotion.”

And almost all writers should strive to conjure an emotional response, as it’ll compel people to take action: to laugh, to hit the like button, to take out their credit card and make a purchase.

7. Proofread.

“It’s a mode of conveying professionalism.”

Mistakes, even little ones, set something off in an editor’s brain — and it’s never anything good.

“When it comes to submitting — because many people get jobs in comedy by submitting a packet of jokes or sketches — you might’ve done all the hard work of learning how to write comedy and you’re perfect for the job,” explained Dikkers, “but if you don’t take the time to proofread it for grammar and spelling and syntax, there are plenty of other qualified, hilarious people who will. And they’ll get hired.

“Proofing your work is an easy way to increase your chances of achieving your goal, whether that’s connecting with readers or getting a life-changing job.”

8. Show, don’t tell.

“You’re going to be so much more effective at engaging an audience if you do.”

This concept can tie a knot in your brain because, as a writer, all you do is “tell” the reader things, right? How can you “show” people something by merely using black letters on a white page?

“It’s easy to say, ‘Bob is mean,’” said Dikkers. “That’s telling. You’re telling the reader what the character’s traits are. But if you show the character’s traits, it’s so much more engaging for the reader. So, instead, you’d say, ‘Bob just stabbed a baby through the heart!’”

Using an example, analogy, or any number of literary devices is just a better way to communicate information. It paints an image that conjures a feeling, an emotion — and that’s what readers want.

“If you want to write engaging content,” said Dikkers, “you need to take one step back, hide your message, and instead just show what you think and feel. Let the audience get there on their own.”

9. Make it accessible.

“Your writing needs to be understandable to just about every level of reader.”

If your writing is too dense, too complicated or confusing, most people won’t read it. As a writer, the onus is on you to compel people to read.

“Your work needs to reference things that people can understand without caveats or prerequisites,” said Dikkers. “It should be an easy-on ramp to the superhighway of your writing.”

Authorial intent, or the need to interpret the underlying meaning of an author’s work, has no place in the attention economy. As a 21st century writer, your priority is to ensure the audience understands you — and if they don’t, it’s your job to think, How can I make this more clear?

10. Know your joke and make sure the reader knows your joke.

“Always be in control.”

When you give a speech, you’re supposed to say what you’re going to talk about, then you talk about it, and then, at the end, you tell the audience what you talked about. In other words, be explicit. Make sure your point is unambiguous.

Of course, this principle applies to all writing.

“As a humor writer, you have to know your joke’s subtext,” said Dikkers. “You have to know what funny filters you’re using to elucidate that subtext and how you’re organizing your joke to make sure the audience is laughing at the right thing and time.

“You need to control as much of the experience as possible in order to make it all work.”

This is also true for copywriters and columnist, novelists, screenwriters, and playwrights. In fact, writers in every discipline must understand their topic, their audience, and the purpose behind their work.

Without that information, the puppeteer is pulling strings in the dark.

“Here’s the thing, Eddie,” said Scott.

I turned up the volume on my phone.

“Readers want to know they’re in the hands of a master who is going to manipulate them,” he said, “the way Spielberg does in his movies. He takes you on a ride, through the highs and lows. “Audiences love that. Readers love that. They want to be taken for that ride.”

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