#companies and the state -> individual citizens due to automation and changes to

[allgremlinart]

stop arguing the existence of forklifts in the atla comics under my post you guys. there was an honest to god truck in Day Of Black Sun

[seashellsoldier]

Well, as if we thought “next week can’t be any worse”, the sedition and treason of this past week has pushed the GOP from the crazed wilds of Fantasyland into the dark recesses of Insanityland. This country is in deep trouble. I don’t know what makes sense anymore. It seems as though the evil geniuses of GOP greed have mutated into a party of evil imbeciles supported by the most deplorable in the realm, with a demented ass-clown at the helm spewing seditious words and creating the greatest stress-test on this republic since the Civil War. What happens to the GOP now will remain to be seen. A schism seems likely though. What is indisputable though is that the filthy-rich have used Trump for their own advantage, completely unconcerned about anyone else. Anyway, about the book . . .

Kurt gave a glimpse into his personal struggles with complicity to vampiric capitalism in The Atlantic back in AUG 2020 as a lead-in to this book (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc...), and how so many “blue-collar” joes saddled onto the GOP horse of “trickle-down economics” only to see their occupations, facilities, unions, benefits, and industries flushed down the toilet, or sent off to other countries with cheaper labor to abuse and laxer environmental protections:

“I really hadn’t known all the crucial advance work done by big business and the economic right during the 1970s—the decade of strategizing, funding, propagandizing, mobilizing, lobbying, and institution-building. My initial underemphasis was due to a different kind of ignorance. Because I’d lived through the 1980s and definitely noticed in real time, plain as day, the rapid and widespread uptick in deference to business and the rich and profits and the market, I’d neglected afterward to take a close, careful look at the various pieces of that shift.”

Andersen, like so many other Dems, capitulated to Friedman-esque Neoliberal policies because of the beautiful delusions manufactured by its puppeteers. Of course articles in the Wall Street Journal and other defenders of Mammon just fortify their ivory defenses and yell “whiny libtard” over the battlements, because that’s all they can do to defend the almighty gods of Greed and Profit anymore. We have decades of facts on our side now. The GOP has been waging a class-based war on the middle-class and the struggling poor for the sake of their own insatiable greed, using women’s wombs and assault weapons and disinformation campaigns as distractions from their consolidation of wealth. Period. The fact that the top wealthy 10% of the US population owns 84% of all stock should illustrate everything well enough. The bottom 80% of Americans owns 6.7% of all stocks (https://www.politifact.com/factchecks...). The United States is a huge plutocracy that infects both political parties deeply, but the GOP and its donor base are by far the most egregiously rapacious. The events of 2020 demonstrate the 50-year-old playbook woefully: Government is bad. Establishment experts are overrated or just plain wrong. Science is suspect. All hail big business. Protect the economy at all costs. Short-term profits are everything. Inequality’s not so bad. Systemic racism doesn’t exist. Universal healthcare is tyranny. Entitled to your own facts. Anderson connects the dots in Evil Geniuses to show the “not-quite-an-organized” conspiracy that has evolved over the past 50 years, where “[k]ey intellectual foundations of our legal system were changed. Our long-standing consensus about acceptable and unacceptable conduct by big business was changed. Ideas about selfishness and fairness were changed. The financial industry simultaneously became reckless and more powerful than ever. The liberal establishment began habitually apologizing for and distancing itself from much of what had defined liberal progress” (p. 156). Robert Reich reinforces this book talking about the latest study from the London School of Economics (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/20/joe-biden-trickle-down-economics-build-up).

“In a new study, David Hope of the London School of Economics and Julian Limberg of King’s College London lay waste to the theory. They reviewed data over the last half-century in advanced economies and found that tax cuts for the rich widened inequality without having any significant effect on jobs or growth. Nothing trickled down. (The emphasis is mine.)

Meanwhile, the rich have become far richer. Since the start of the pandemic, just 651 American billionaires have gained $1 tn of wealth. With this windfall they could send a $3,000 check to every person in America and still be as rich as they were before the pandemic. Don’t hold your breath.”

Obviously McConnel’s GOP-led Senate wouldn’t even gift a $2,000 check to every citizen making under $75K during a crippling pandemic, idiotically calling it “socialism”, but he’s a multi-millionaire so why would he care about you. It’s all about the “economy”, meaning their stock portfolios. The London study is here (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/107919/1/Hop...) and the results are stated thusly: “Overall, our analysis finds strong evidence that cutting taxes on the rich increases income inequality but has no effect on growth or unemployment” (p. 6), and that “[o]ur results have important implications for current debates around the economic consequences of taxing the rich, as they provide causal evidence that supports the growing pool of evidence from correlational studies that cutting taxes on the rich increases top income shares, but has little effect on economic performance” (p. 21). Never mind the Panama Papers from 2016 (https://www.icij.org/investigations/p...), and the FinCEN Files of 2020 (https://www.icij.org/investigations/f...), or the Gini Index, which measures income inequality by nation and has the US at 41.19—in-between Togo and Iran (https://www.statista.com/forecasts/11...).

Of course there was no blueprint scrawled in a secret bunker by a cabal of robed priests for how to do what was done . . . and yet there is a convincing, damning forensic trail of thoughts and theories, memos and actions, articles and legislation which Andersen takes us down, starting with Milton Friedman and the libertarian acolytes of Ayn Rand, propelled by Lewis Powell, Charles Koch, Dick Cheney, and many other familiar names (Welch, DeVos, Kavanaugh, Mercer, Stone, Ailes, etc.), Grover Norquist’s “Taxpayer Protection Plan”, the huge seeding of lobbying groups spending billions each year, partisan “think tanks” which have grown exponentially thanks to billionaire supporters, to the manipulated elected officials and the agencies they oversee, to the planting of Neoliberal judges in the federal courts—including the Supreme Court (Citizens United), to the bribing of scholars to publish propaganda (just like Big Tobacco and Big Oil and Big Coal and Big Pharma and Big Ag) such as Charles Murray and George Gilder, to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show and Rupert Murdoch’s fledgling media empire (this was all done before the internet). The “freedom” of the Internet has now allowed every tinfoil-hat-wearing redneck to find one another.

“So what if millionaires would start paying a little less too? So what if big business was relieved of some government red tape everybody hates? And as for cutting government programs, people understood that Reagan was only going to get rid of the things that didn’t benefit them—all the waste and fraud, all the foreign aid, all the giveaways for all the lazy bums and welfare queens” (p. 140). These ideas echo Trump and his cronies and their sweeping nostalgification—some of them actors of this grand scheme since the 1970s—and despite the overwhelming evidence against such foul logic. “Drain the swamp!” was a rallying cry of Trumpers, like it was for Reagan, and they added $7 trillion to the national debt while padding their own coffers even more in a lucrative “tax relief” bill that just made the filthy-rich even wealthier while the rest of us got a cash prize of a few hundred bucks (I gave mine to the local food bank, on behalf of Trump.) Osita Nwanevu complied an incomplete list of all the corporations supporting the GOP (https://newrepublic.com/article/16080...), and found:

The discourse surrounding money in politics can at times obscure as much or more than it reveals—the nearly exclusive focus on campaign finance and direct lobbying oversimplifies the myriad and diffuse ways that the wealthy influence and manage our politics, and it is an inescapable fact that the right wins in large part because millions of geographically well-distributed Americans simply support right-wing rhetoric and policy. That said, turning those preferences into actual political power does take money. And the Republican Party gets its money not only from the individual villains who’ve soaked up the most progressive outrage and attention—the Kochs, the Mercers, Sheldon Adelson, and all the rest—but from a number of companies familiar to the American public. Don’t worry, she lists them.

The point is that the GOP is soulless, feeding their plebeian followers with abject propaganda, baseless lies, and easily deconstructed smoke & mirrors, wrapping themselves up in flags while screwing over the lower classes at every opportunity so they can capitalize on everything possible, including a pandemic. Automation is increasing and it's all those low-wage jobs that will vanish first. NPR’s Hidden Brain show recently talked about the subject of “double standards” in people (https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/the-d...), wonderfully discussing naive realism, cognitive dissonance, magical thinking, and all the other defense mechanisms a brain can manufacture to protect one from reality. Of course we’re all biased, but we also truly live in a PSYOPed world now, and I’m uncertain if we can get out of it. The terrorist insurgency on the Capital this week, and the utter lack of police enforcement (https://theintercept.com/2021/01/07/c...), never mind the seditious and treasonous acts of those involved, are a perfect highlight to the hypocrisy of it all. This is the new norm, and it won’t be getting any better unless severe accountability is enforced.

“Most Americans, even those to the left, have been reluctant to subscribe fully to Marx’s basic big idea, that modern society is shaped by an endless struggle between capital and labor, owners and workers, the rich and powerful versus everyone else” (p. 135). Too many have been drinking the toxic kool-aid for far too long. Bernie Sanders has been railing against this sadistic behavior only to be mocked and jeered by disinformation and dusty Cold War propaganda while the new Robber Barons make off with the loot, in DC, on Wall Street, and in Silicon Valley. All the brainwashed “white national” groups are their moronic thugs taking selfies while they plant pipe bombs in the Capitol wearing viking cosplay garb and waving Confederate flags.

Jeremy Adam Smith penned a nice piece for the Greater Good Science Center (https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/arti...) analyzing the science and psychology of lying, citing a 2017 study published in the journal Advances in Political Psychology. The results are dour. Not only have we become terribly tribalistic, where “[s]cientists call this kind of reasoning ‘directionally motivated,’ meaning that conclusions are driven by feelings, not facts—and studies find that this is our default mode”, but that anger further fuels such mindless adherence to misinformed idiocy, and nothing short of a manufactured messiah could alter the untruths already sown within the minds of millions by Trump and his treasonous sycophants and the media networks, social media podiums, and entrenched echo chambers they all feed from. NPR was kind enough to compile a list of all the elected GOP officials who fomented sedition and supported treason upon the Rule of Law (https://www.npr.org/sections/congress...). How much evidence do we need to prosecute the bulk of the entire GOP? People should be in prison for this egregious violation of the law. Otherwise this nation is doomed to fall into sectarian factionalism and dysfunctional chaos where the lower classes will take the brunt of it (like they always do), if not outright terrorism. The Intercept's Mike Giglio was embedded with the wingnuts (https://theintercept.com/2021/01/10/c...) and surmised this:

I witnessed successful coups in two countries, and the conspirators came heavily armed with well-laid plans so that by the time people realized what was happening, it was done. I’ve also seen a country tipped into civil conflict by people who just kept taking that next blind step until they were trapped in their own momentum. But it’s naive to see America’s worst failings through the lens of foreign nations. What I saw in all the pained and screaming faces in the Capitol — in the half-naked QAnon disciple dressed in furs and also in the state lawmaker and sheriff’s deputy and schoolteacher and disenchanted veteran — was uniquely American. It wasn’t the start of something or the end of something, just the next step.

America is definitely Great Again. Thank you DJT, and every person that supported him.

For everyone else—be safe out there.

[joriehc-blog]

Joriehc | Profits Cycle Monitoring: Taking Back Your Clinical Technique Is Feasible

Profits Cycle Administration, to the average person, the perception of the income of a medical company has transitioned from that of the steadfast as well as patient country "doc" who looked after family members for "poultries," to the fancy office mogul that functions less and bills more. That first perception was not much from accurate in times past; nevertheless, the latter understanding is far removed from reality. As a matter of fact, the average medical technique today is squeezed from both sides in greater costs just to remain in technique, and lower costs as settlement for tougher work.

  Profits Cycle Administration: The Financial State of the Clinical Sector Today

  Intensifying this revenue press for many suppliers is the reality that it is ending up being an increasing number of hard to make money in a practical time frame for solutions currently made. Unidentified to lots of, there are more than a few medical methods today which are barely able to remain open, and also can not risk even a temporary dip in capital. Seems improbable, does not it? It's more widespread than you may believe.

  Doctors are retiring earlier. Practices are marketing out to regional hospitals and also working as employees. And also, some carriers simply quit practicing and most likely to work in study, mentor, or some other area that offers them an income, rather than maintaining their once extremely pertaining to entrepreneurial standing. Unfortunately, the ordinary patient is the best loser in this equation because high quality as well as availability of medical care will endure.

Practice Management

Yet it doesn't need to be this way. Innovation as well as "good old American knowledge" can place the clinical service provider back where she or he belongs, in the exam room and also not in the back workplace pacing the floor with the personnel to obtain resolution on hundreds of bucks in outstanding cases and client equilibriums.

  Revenue Cycle Monitoring: There an Alternative for the Citizen Medical Office

  While insurance companies, and also the federal government, make it increasingly more hard to receive proper as well as prompt reimbursement for services, there are "partnering" choices that eliminate this worry, yet cost the method much less than "going it alone." And, contrary to common belief, the clinical supplier does not need to surrender control of the economic as well as patient communication processes to a disinterested third party whose abilities as well as methods might be no far better than a 9 to 5 white-collar worker in back offices today.

  There are inexpensive, level price programs from experienced, across the country acknowledged experts that methodically produce "tidy," virtually pre-approved, insurance cases, and maintain very delicate individual relationships based call for private pay balances. Their proven programs are hailed by countless suppliers today, some of whom claim they would certainly not be in business otherwise for the swift and accurate billing, claim "scrubbing up," and also timely follow up these partners give their clinical customers.

  Revenue Cycle Management: The Future is Right here.

  Earnings Cycle Monitoring (RCM) is the new phrase, changing "invoicing and also collection." And, Earnings Cycle Management has improved typical payment as well as collections' practices just as surely as cellular phones have overshadowed the phone booth in interactions abilities. Making use of guidelines engines, and also other advanced software program techniques, professional Profits Cycle Administration companies can benefit from hundreds of "paid" claims for certain solutions as well as submit a carrier's insurance claims appropriately the first time, resulting in a rapid compensation over 90% of the time.

  Furthermore, the continuing to be "rejected" or "turned down" cases are rapidly sent off using prompt, prioritized comply with up. Specifically by utilizing a verified "lawful contact" method of prioritizing cases such that payers in fact respond (proactively sometimes), unsettled cases are refined much sooner than merely relying upon a white-collar worker in the back room, waiting on hold to speak with payers.

  While guaranteeing that the insurance policy billing and also compensation process is automated, accurate, as well as in complete compliance for optimal repayment, these professionals likewise significantly quicken the person settlement cycle with extremely sensitive individual contact, analyzing and performing the very best timing for making get in touch with early in the repayment cycle, and also as frequently as required.

  On the whole, these 3rd party companions guarantee that no client statements are refined late, or are ever before allowed to go down with the splits. Systematic and also high touch comply with up makes sure that the ever raising patient liable sections of clinical solutions are paid rapidly, or are determined for an installment layaway plan, or a lot more aggressive collection initiatives.

  Thankfully, the use of last resource negative debt/collections becomes needed much less usually due to the techniques employed by these specialists in both the insurance coverage repayment cycle, as well as in the individual liable cycle of managing the receivables for clinical methods.

  We focus on aiding clinical practices collect patient responsible equilibriums much faster as well as a lot more successfully reducing your expenses and also increasing cash flow. We additionally help clinical techniques enhance insurance policy receivables. Our customers commonly obtain insurance coverage claims paid 3 - 4 weeks previously and some even get concern insurance claims review status.

[floridaprelaw-blog]

Neural Networks In Political Campaigning And Its Impact On Democracy

By Jasmine Emilio, University of Tampa Class of 2022

September 13, 2020

Neural networks (NN) are a rapidly expanding branch of artificial intelligence (AI). NN’s ability to predict from data has seen an explosion in capability over the last decade due to improvements in data storage, computing power, and new mathematical algorithms. As a result, political campaigns are increasingly turning to NNs to predict voting outcomes and target voters in ways that could forever change the political landscape. Data-driven campaign models are becoming the new norm in elections. But what does this mean for democracy? Some see this new technology as a threat to democracy because voters can easily be manipulated, and their privacy can be compromised. Others see the positives of AI where it can increase voter-turnout and political knowledge, strengthening democracy.

What is AI and NNs?

AI mimics human or animal intelligence. For example, AI can do many things we as humans can do, such as seeing, speaking, listening, moving, communicating, and learning. NNs are currently the most popular AI methodology used to mimic human predictive intelligence.NNs are used in political campaigns to find patterns in voter data and predict the best methods to appeal to voters. Rouhianen describes NNs as:

the ability of machines to use algorithms to learn from data and used what has been learned to make decisions like humans would. Unlike humans, though, AI-powered machines do not need to take breaks or rest and they can analyze massive volumes of information all at once. The ratio of errors is significantly lower for machines that perform the same task as their human counterparts (Rouhianen 3).

AI’s learning and decision-making capabilities will affect society in many ways. For example, AI will displace jobs previously performed by humans; legal or ethical boundaries could be crossed; more data will be collected on individuals; and workplaces will become more efficient. AI needs data to produce its algorithms. Rouhianen predicts “data will be the new oil” (Rouhianen 10). Companies with greater access to data will outperform those lacking access to data. We already see data becoming very important to political campaigns. Data can be the difference between winning and losing an election.

AI in Trump’s 2016 Presidential Campaign

After some hesitation, Trump eventually embraced the use of AI in his campaign model. Trump used microtargeting to mobilize his voters and demobilize Clinton’s voters by reminding democrats of Clinton’s controversies through targeted ads. Much of this microtargeting was done on Facebook. Trump spent forty-four million dollars on Facebook ads. In comparison, Clinton spent twenty-eight million dollars on Facebook ads. Stromer-Galley argues Trump’s Facebook ads were more effective than Clinton’s. She states, “Trump's campaign ran 5.9 million different variations of ad content, conducting rigorous A/B testing to determine which was more effective. Clinton's campaign ran sixty-six thousand different variations of ad content by comparison” (Stromer-Galley 251). A/B testing is a method campaigns use to test which messages are more effective to audiences. The Federal Elections Commission reported Trump spent 400% more than Clinton on digital advertising even though Clinton outspent Trump in her campaign all together (Stromer-Galley 251). While Trump’s campaign lacked organization, experience, and staff in comparison to Clinton’s campaign, his focus on sophisticated digital advertising may be largely responsible for his win. This suggests how effective AI-driven digital marketing and microtargeting can be.

Cambridge Analytica (CA), a data analytics firm, played a controversial role in the Trump campaign. CA provided tools that helped the Trump campaign find the most influential individuals and communities to micro-target as well as what the most effective communication strategies would be. It helped Trump find the most effective cities and towns to hold rallies. CA seemed to be cutting edge, boasting that they have “up to four thousand distinct data points on each adult in the United States” (Stromer-Galley 248). CA claimed that their ability to perform psychographic modeling separated them from other data analytics companies. Psychographic modeling uses data to predict an individual’s personality, thenuse these predictions to appeal to individuals more effectively. The Trump campaign planned to use CA’s psychographic modeling with Facebook data. A whistleblower revealed that CA never deleted the Facebook data of fifty million accounts they were contractually required to delete, creating a huge controversy for the Trump campaign (Stromer-Galley 249). Some scholars are doubtful about CA’s capabilities. Stromer-Galley argues many of the capabilities CA boasted about were ineffective to the campaign. She states, “Consultants complained that Cambridge Analytica was better at selling themselves than delivering on their technologies” (Stromer-Galley 249). While data analytics has had significant shortcomings in previous campaigns, as technology becomes more advanced, data analytics may become essential to campaigning.

Risks of AI in Political Campaigns

Jamie Barrett et al. forecasts the dangers of AI being used in political campaigns in The Future of Political Campaigning. Barrett et. al outlines five risks of AI in politics. The first risk is privacy. More diverse data is needed to maximize AI’s capabilities. Therefore, campaigns are incentivized to obtain even more personal data on citizens, raising privacy concerns. The second risk is user consent and knowledge. As AI becomes more complex it is hard for users to understand how it works and how data is being used. Barrett states, “AI led processes are typically difficult to scrutinize and explain, the principle of ‘informed consent’ will become increasingly difficult to apply” (Barrett 38). The third risk is inappropriate profiling and messaging. AI can produce automatically generated messages tailored to citizens. An issue with this is that like humans, AI can be biased, racist, and sexist in its automated messages. Inappropriate and false messages can result, leading to citizens distrusting political parties. The fourth risk is accountability. As the use of AI technology in campaigns grows, it will be increasingly hard for parties to be monitored and regulated. Barrett believes AI will soon be used by all political parties “enabling them to routinely run thousands, perhaps millions of algorithmically tuned messages” (Barrett 39). It will be challenging for the high volumes of messages to be monitored and regulated, posing major accountability concerns. The fifth risk is emotional manipulation. Emotional targeting will improve as campaigns collect more information on citizens. This will allow campaigns to find correlations between mood, personality, and psychological state and individual’s political behavior. Barret finds, “handing control to an AI based system could potentially sometimes result in political parties targeting people who are extremely depressed, anxious or suffering from particular psychological difficulties with adverts designed to appeal to them” (Barret 40). The magnitude of these risks is dependent on whether campaigns adopt the new AI technologies on the market. However, Barrett et al. is confident campaigns will purchase these AI technologies, stating “It is reasonable to assume that political campaigns will continue to evolve, and will adopt many of the state of the art techniques being developed in the marketing and advertising technology. The allocation of political campaign budgets supports this assertion” (Barrett 27).

AI is changing the way campaigns operate, but what does this mean for democracy? The use of AI can be a promise for democracy by increasing political engagement and knowledge. However, it can also be seen as a threat for democracy. For example, political parties increasingly collecting data on citizens raises privacy concerns. Only certain groups of individuals that are most influential to the campaign’s success will receive microtargeted advertisements. So, campaigns are discriminating against individuals who do not receive advertisements, limiting their political knowledge. Next, microtargeted ads can manipulate citizens into taking political action. Messages do not always have to be true and campaigns may target individuals who exhibit psychological difficulties and are easier to sway. Lastly, parties are not being transparent about their use of AI in campaigning. CA failing to delete Facebook data that they were contractually required to delete is an example of this. Campaigning rules and regulations must catch up to the speed at which AI technologies are accelerating to protect democracy. Furthermore, media sites have the power to enforce regulation as well. In 2019 Twitter banned politicians from running microtargeted advertisements. Facebook has followed, limiting microtargeting in response to Trump’s controversial digital advertising in the 2016 campaign (Timberg 2019). Yet, even with these regulations it is hard to know what AI’s capabilities will lead to in the 2020 election and what its implications will be on democracy. NN’s capabilities will forever change the political landscape; perhaps in ways that are unimaginable today.

________________________________________________________________

1. <ref name="Timberg 2019">{{cite web | last=Timberg | first=Craig | title=Critics say Facebook’s powerful ad tools may imperil democracy. But politicians love them. | website=Washington Post | date=2019-12-09 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/09/critics-say-facebooks-powerful-ad-tools-may-imperil-democracy-politicians-love-them/ | access-date=2020-09-07}}</ref>

2. <ref name="Demos 2019">{{cite web | title=The Future of Political Campaigning | website=Demos | date=2019-02-04 | url=https://demos.co.uk/project/the-future-of-political-campaigning/ | access-date=2020-09-07}}</ref>

3. <ref name="Rouhiainen 2018 p. ">{{cite book | last=Rouhiainen | first=Lasse | title=Artificial intelligence : 101 things you must know today about our future | publisher=Lasse Rouhiainen | publication-place=San Bernardino, CA | year=2018 | isbn=978-1-9820-4880-8 | oclc=1030308615 | page=}}</ref>

4.<ref name="Galley 2014 p. ">{{cite book | last=Galley | first=Jennifer | title=Presidential campaigning in the Internet age | publisher=Oxford University Press | publication-place=New York, NY | year=2014 | isbn=978-0-19-973194-7 | oclc=869281940 | page=}}</ref>

Photo Credit: The Opte Project

[districofcolumbiaprelawland-blog]

Technology As A Threat To The Human Workforce

By Jessica Bride, George Washington University Class of 2022

July 1, 2020

The public’s reliance on technology is widespread, and most struggle to remember a time when it was not. As more technology, such as robots, becomes further integrated into our lives, the dilemma emerges of when convenience outweighs human values. From factories replacing human workers to the number of job opportunities protected from automation decreasing, technology’s current presence anticipates negative effects for humans. A greater socioeconomic split and threats to job options will result from technological growth.

A balance should exist between the emergence of technology and its integration into human life.Inventors desire machines that can perform better than humans, allowing justification for replacements. However, an “all-in-one” robot does not exist yet [1]. The delay for such a complex robot is linked to the desire for machines that can perform better than humans because the technology is not currently available. Still, the advancement of robots is adequate for them to replace humans in their current forms.

Job automation is not a debatable threat, but rather one that should be expected. Despite this, most employees of robotics companies fail to explain what precautions are being taken to avoid those consequences [2]. Nevertheless, solutions for affected individuals need to be proposed.However, American governments and policymakers are failing to make those plans, and innovation only continues to advance.

Perhaps, the American government could implement programs to protect job security or support citizens while they search for new work. Canada, for instance, proposed a plan in their 2017 budget to “create jobs and grow the middle class” [3]. Acknowledging the importance of education for finding new jobs, their government outlined an Employment Insurance program “that allows claimants to pursue self-funded training and maintain their EI status” [3]. An investment in its people, whether through education programs or providing economic security for the unemployed, is more beneficial to society than the proposed advantages of robots. The American government has an obligation to its citizens to ensure that they are still recognized as more important than machines.

With the option of technological integration, business owners have faced the dilemma of choosing robots over human staff. It can be argued that robots are cheaper alternatives to human workers. Machines do not require health insurance or other benefits employees frequently receive from their work, and they do not need to be paid for the same work humans require at least minimum wage to do. In the eyes of some employers, humans are less than optimal compared to robots due to hour limits, unions, and wages. Ironically, laws and standards meant to improve human work conditions threaten employment now that robots are feasible options.

Inevitably, if thousands of people are laid off and replaced by machines, then their income suffers, and they are potentially unable to buy the product unless it is a necessity. Business owners risk losing business from lower-income families in exchange for the perceived benefits of a robot workforce.Money should not outweigh the benefits of employing human workers, but many employers make that choice[2]. While not all developers create robots for profit, the public needs to become aware of when the benefits of machines outweigh the costs. As job automation becomes more common, the damage includes widespread threats to financial security.

Inventors idealize diminishing the presumed jobs that require fewer skills. One research article addressed studies that compared the US and Germany’s use of industrial robots and highlighted that “around 75% of manufacturing workers are medium-skilled who did manual, routine work” [4]. Like fast food workers and baristas, factory workers displaced by machines are often less educated and have trouble finding alternative jobs [4]. A report from the United Kingdom compared education levels and susceptibility to automation: “around 30% at risk for those with GCSE equivalent or lower education and 9% for those with university degrees” [5]. Low wage workers already face an imbalance of power with their employers. Robots threaten human job security and therefore chances of financial stability.

If action is not taken to provide alternatives to less-skilled displaced workers, then robots will become symbols for a cycle of oppression. Upon further research into Uber’s expansion into self-driving trucks, American truckers like Trucker Brown, who posts YouTube videos on autonomous trucking, have voiced their concern: “this was an avenue for people to go in to pull themselves out of poverty and have a middle-class job” [2]. Overall, the public is unaware of the disruption to these jobs and workers are struggling to change the minds of businesses intending to automate. Johannes Moenius, an automation expert, joked that companies do not want to be labeled: “you don’t want to write a banner over your company logo: ‘We are America’s Top Killers’” [2]. When questioned about truck driving, Moenius asserted that if current drivers are not seeking further education or training then they are “in a difficult situation” [2]. The problems for workers losing their jobs are apparent, but practical solutions are not available.

However, job automation can be avoided if workers further their education. Displaced workers could then reenter the workforce and take higher-paying jobs that are safer from job automation. However, the notion that education will solve job displacement overlooks that some people cannot afford higher education. Two professors and co-authors of The Future of Higher Education proposed that free higher education should have been available decades ago: “we should no longer delay our students’ escape from the decades-long spiral of state cuts, higher tuition, and dwindling financial aid” (Clawson). As artificial intelligence and machines continue to negatively impact the public, college can no longer be priced as a luxury and still be regarded as a necessity for the sake of favorable employment. The establishment of free college would reflect the government’s commitment to supporting incoming and current members of the workforce.

Replacement by robots means a possible future that would include the decimation of lower and middle-class jobs. A study by McKinsey and Company predicted job losses of 800 million globally and up to 73 million in the United States by 2030 [2].  A hierarchy exists between white-collar and blue-collar jobs, and it has only furthered due to the addition of technology. After conducting research on twenty years of German labor data, study co-author Jens Südekum addressed the divide: “robots really fueled inequality, because they benefitted the wages of highly skilled people—like managers and scientists, people with university education…but the bulk of medium-skilled production workers suffered” [4]. Humans have the right to make a living and the presence of robots overall threaten one’s ability to find work.

The erasure of humans in the workplace stunts available jobs for young adults entering the workforce. PwC, a global accounting practice, released a report on the evolution of the job market and inferred that “STEM sectors could be long-term beneficiaries of new digital technologies such as AI and robotics” [5]. The need for students to study STEM subjects is high because technology companies are still emerging and expanding. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, created a list of the percent of new students choosing a STEM field across multiple countries and determined the average to be 26.5% [5]. With richer countries disclosing percentages around thirty, these statistics are concerningly low when considering the need for jobs related to technology [5]. As STEM opportunities increase, young people may consider this field in lieu of a preferred career.

Despite the growing independence of technology, robots cannot solely make up a company’s employees. The modern lack of complete artificial intelligence means humans must remain present to oversee the machines. Still, the government first must ensure that the progression of technology into society has not hurt the very citizens it needs for cooperation in the future. Also, developers need to acknowledge the displacement of other humans. The overall integration of technology must be supervised, or the public will lose faith in the government that they trusted to protect their security.

Technological innovation will not stop. Consequently, the rapid growth of the technology industry leads to progress being taken for granted. Machines now must work harder to impress consumers and the communities they are introduced to. Expectations of efficiency will surge as machines become more prevalent in the daily lives of consumers. Plans for integration should not be influenced by profit and cannot be implemented without viable solutions to the problems their inventions impose on the same public they aim to improve the lives of. Therefore, it is important to remain aware of how humanity has changed and continues to.

________________________________________________________________Jessica Bride is a rising junior at The George Washington University pursuing degrees in Psychology and Criminal Justice. She is interested in pursuing a career in public service that allows her to conduct research. Along with the social sciences, she is also passionate about creative writing and activism.

________________________________________________________________

[1] “Question of the Fortnight: How Soon Will we be using Robots at Home?” Computer Act!ve, no. 441, Jan 2015, pp. 9. ProQuest, http://proxygw.wrlc.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1650409613?accountid=11243.

[2] “Robots And AI: The Future Is Automated and Every Job Is At Risk.” YouTube, uploaded by AJ+, 23 Jan 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnBAdnNIIXk.

[3] Trudeau, Justin. “What Should Governments Do to Prepare for the Technological Automation of Human Jobs?” Quora, 3 Apr. 2017, https://www.quora.com/What-should-governments-do-to-prepare-for-the-technological-automation-of-human-jobs.

4] Petzinger, Jill. “Germany Has Way More Industrial Robots than the US, But They Haven’t Caused Job Losses”. Quartz, Atlantic Media, Ltd, 2017.

[5] Brinded, Lianna. “Only 5% of Young Workers in Britain are in Jobs that are Safe from Robot Replacement”. Quartz, Atlantic Media, Ltd, 2017. https://qz.com/1098441/only-5-of-young-workers-in-britain-are-in-jobs-that-are-safe-from-robot-replacement/.

[6] Clawson, Dan, and Max Page. “It’s Time to Push for Free College.” National Education Association. http://www.nea.org/home/62740.htm.

[https://qz.com/1096642/germany-has-more-industrial-robots-than-us-impact-on-jobs-wages-inequality/.

Photo Credit: Richard Greenhill and Hugo Elias

[joeyrob1]

Lending Club vs Prosper. Rise of MarketPlace Lending

Lending Club vs Prosper. Rise of MarketPlace Lending

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This article is contributed by Ong Kai Kiat. He is a professional freelance writer who enjoys the process of discovering and collating new trends and insights for an article. He adds value to society through his articles especially those related to finance and technology. He is reachable at ongkaikiat86@gmail.com

– As banks reduce their lending due to regulatory hurdles, marketplace lenders such as Lending Club and Prosper had risen to fill the void. These are models for the world to adopt.

– Borrowers are ranked according to their risk profile and charged interest rates accordingly. Refinancing at a lower rate is the main motivation for them.

– Lenders have to diversify with 400 investments and $10,000 of capital for positive expectations of returns. There are free and paid tools to assist them in their loan portfolio selection.

– Marketplace lending is a global phenomenon and it is a matter of time before it reaches your shores.

Decline of Banks & Rise of Marketplace Lenders

The rise of peer to peer lending occurred with the gradual fall of the banking system ever since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) which saw the collapse of the revered 150 years of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Regulators imposed tough capital requirements on banks and banks were forced to retreat on their loans. The void was filled up by peer to peer lending platforms.

The subsequent rise of peer to peer lending was led by 2 prominent organizations in the United States: Lending Club and Prosper. Currently US regulations is such that only US citizens can be borrowers and lenders in both entities. However it is still important for us to know what is happening in the United States as such major trends might be exported worldwide.

One good example would be the rise of the Exchange Traded Funds. It started in the United States in 1993 Currently it is a popular method for investing worldwide for the instant diversification and low cost.

Dominance of Lending Club & Prosper in the United States

Both Lending Club and Prosper came from San Francisco, California in the United States and from the heart of Silicon Valley. Prosper started slightly earlier in 2005 and used the auction method of interest rate price discovery while Lending Club started later in 2006 and charged a fixed interest rate based on its assessment of the borrower’s credit rating. While Prosper had its own recent to use the auction method, it recognized that Lending Club’s method was more superior and changed track in 2009.

Lending Club is the more successful marketplace lending platform and it was the first and only peer to peer lender to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in November 2014. It is the largest peer to peer lender in the world and Financial Times reported that it raised $870 million from investors who valued the company at $5.4 billion.

Source: LendingMemo

Source: LendingMemo

LendingMemo is a reputable third party reviewer of peer to peer lenders in the United States. As seen from its chart, Lending Club outperformed Prosper 3:1 in terms of loan origination in the United States. Another common trend is that the growth of peer to peer lending had grown steadily from 2006 to 2012 before its exponential growth from 2013 onwards.

While there are others platforms in the market, the entire marketplace lending ecosystem in the United States is dominated by Lending Club and Prosper.

Source: PeerIQ

Hence the marketplace lending industry is practically a duopoly like how Coca-Cola and Pepsi dominate the soda market. We can understand this market by looking at the practices of both companies.

Borrower’s Perspective

Credit risk is a good area to begin our discussion. Whenever you lend out your money, there is the distinct risk of you not being paid back. Based on the criteria of each borrower, Lending Club and Prosper categorize the risk of each borrower as seen below.

Source: Lending Club

Source: Prosper

As you can see, both companies classify its borrowers into 7 grades and the lower the risk, the lower the interest which they have to pay. This theory applies to its investors as well. It should be noted that interest rates change every day due to various factors that affects the supply and demand of credit. These rates are accurate at the point of writing, so do not be surprised if the rates change with your click on the links above.

Lending Club disclosed how it priced its loans while Prosper does not. Both Lending Club and Prosper verify the income for their borrowers. Lending Club verifies the suitability of its lenders while there appears to be no such requirements for Prosper at this moment.

Due to the lower transaction cost from online lending, the majority of Lending Club’s borrower came with the explicit purpose of refinancing their existing loans at a lower rate.

Source: Lending Club

The payment of credit card loan is also another method of refinancing as marketplace lenders charge a lower interest rates than banks for their credit cards.

Prosper has explained the major reasons for borrowers to seek loans as seen below.

Source: Prosper

You can click on the link above to read the details of the various loan types.

Investor’s Perspective

After looking at crowdfunding from the borrower’s point of view, it is time to switch to the lender’s point of view. The first thing for any investor to keep in mind is that defaults will happen and they have to diversify their loans.

Each investor can participate in each loan from $25 slice and it is recommended that they invest in at least 200 loans or Notes. This means that the minimum investment amount would then be $5000 for reasonable expectations of positive returns. The recommended diversification would be on 400 Notes or a starting investment of $10,000.

Source: LendingMemo

Lending Club had tracked the returns of its lenders invested in 400 notes and found that almost all of them have positive returns. At this point, you would have realized that it is almost impossible for you to handpick 400 notes for investment. In other words, you have to build a large portfolio of loans to be a successful marketplace lender.

Lending Club offers a free selection system called Automated Investing while Prosper offers its own version called Quick Invest. You would just have to put in your own parameters and the system will select the loans that meet your criteria.

Source: Lending Club

As investors, it is worth it to pay at external party who has no conflict of interest to select your portfolio for you. There are platforms such as Lending Robot, NSRPlatform, Peercube and Bluvestment to do the heavy lifting for you.

Source: Lending Robot

These platforms charged between 0.2% to 0.45% on the loan amount as fee for their superior method of filtering and selection. They usually give a free trial for small loan amount from $1000 to $5000.

These sites also allow you to backtest filtering conditions and provide relevant information about the marketplace lending conditions.

Source: NSRPlatform

Another reason to use these platforms is that good loans get picked up very quickly by these automated system especially those that are mispriced by Lending Club and Prosper. So if you are individual investor manually going through the list, you will only get the weaker loans with unappealing interest rates for the risk involved.

Conclusion

The momentum for peer to peer lending is only going to strengthen as we move forward into the future. The initial public listing of Lending Club is a leading example and both Prosper and Lending Club have strong institutional investors behind them. The success of Lending Club has spurred a lot of clones throughout the world.

Marketplace lending is beneficial for both lenders and borrowers. Lenders can get higher interest rates with lower risk and borrowers can get lower priced loans. The online platforms can profit from the fees which they charge both the lenders and borrowers. Hence it is only a matter of time before it reached your shores and technology has once again played the leading role in disrupting business as we know it.

Brought to you by RobustTechHouse. We provide Fintech Development services.

Lending Club vs Prosper. Rise of MarketPlace Lending was originally published on RobustTechHouse - Mobile App Development Singapore

[weewu]

PwC study finds Singaporeans are second most anxious about the future impact of technology on their jobs

Source: PwC Singapore

September 2019, Singapore – Technology is changing the way people work and two in five Singaporeans (18%) are scared or nervous about the future impact of technology on their job. The city-state’s workforce as second most nervous or scared globally, just behind French workers (20%) and tied with the British (18%).

These findings are from a new PwC report, Upskilling Hopes & Fears, which surveyed 22,000 adults across 11 countries worldwide, and build on PwC’s economic analysis on the impact of automation on jobs.

Singaporeans are starting to see the impact of technology on work and jobs. As a smart-nation, the pace of technological advancements is expected to be faster than neighbouring countries in South-East Asia, and both government and the private sector are adopting technology quickly which could potentially accelerate the impact on jobs. This makes Singapore jobs more susceptible to the impact of technological advancements.

When Singaporean workers were asked why they had felt nervous or scared about the impact of technology on their jobs, 58% were worried that technology would make their role redundant and 36% were worried that they wouldn’t have the right skills.

On top of that, about half the Singaporeans (54%) surveyed believe automation will significantly change or make their job obsolete within the next ten years. While most admit that technology would change their jobs significantly, 4% still believe that technology would not affect their day-to-day work.

Despite the uncertainty, there is also a sense of optimism. The report found that 53% of respondents indicated that they felt technology would bring about more opportunities than risks in the workplace and 85% felt that technology will change their work for the better.

Fang Eu-Lin, Leader of PwC’s Academy in Singapore says:

“With technology, roles that are more process-driven are more at risk of being displaced and individuals doing these roles must prepare for their “version 2.0” role. For example, robotic process automation (RPA) is becoming more commonplace, driving greater efficiency in highly repetitive tasks. In the short term, this change will require employees to understand how to work with the technology. In the longer term, individuals with the skills to maximise these new opportunities will be the ones who thrive in the marketplace.”

Time to upskill

While employees seem to understand how the technology can be embedded into the workplace, they are concerned that they may not have the right skills to remain relevant as the business landscape changes. Given the clear recognition of the change that technology will bring, it is unsurprising that 81% of respondents in Singapore were already learning new skills to better understand or use technology.

Even if they weren’t already pursuing opportunities, 92% in Singapore said that they would take the opportunity to better understand or use technology if it were available to them. If their jobs were at risk, 85% of Singaporeans would learn new skills now or completely re-train in order to improve their future employability.

This is a clear reflection that individuals are aware of the necessity of upskilling. This is potentially due to the increase in efforts by both the public and private sector. For example, Singapore has put in place safeguards, such as the establishment of SkillsFuture to inspire an attitude of life-long learning amongst its citizens. Initiatives such as Professional Conversion Programmes (PCP), Industry Transformation Maps and SkillsFuture Frameworks serve as good and tailored guidance for organisations and individuals to prepare for their job in the future.

With the strong national push for upskilling there are many more opportunities in the market for Singaporeans to upskill, but ultimately it’s up to each worker to take the step. However, less than half of Singaporeans (44%) recognised that it is their own responsibility to upskill. 32% felt that upskilling was the government’s responsibility higher than the global average of 22%.

Although, only one in five (19%) felt that employers were responsible for upskilling their workforce, a majority of employers have already begun to play their part in championing the agenda. In Singapore, 76% of workers said that their current employer was giving them the opportunity to improve their digital skills outside of their normal duties, although only 31% of respondents indicated that they are currently upskilling through their employers. This seems to indicate that there is a need for some reconciliation between the skills employees need and what is being offered to them.

Martijn Schouten, Singapore People & Organisation Leader, PwC South East Asia Consulting says:

“Employers are faced with a lot of complexity in understanding, managing and mitigating the impact of technology on the world of work. It’s the type of wicked problem that requires a wide variety of perspectives; deeper insight in the demand and supply for job roles; the capability to redesign structures and roles; an understanding of the skills and capabilities required to fulfil new and changing roles; and the ability to coach and motivate people to embrace learning and upskilling. A challenging, yet very important problem to solve.”

Country comparisons

Singaporeans emerged the most likely to be learning new skills through their employer, tied with the Dutch at 35%. As compared to the other countries surveyed, Singaporean workers were also the most likely to accept a lower level position in another company or industry if they believed their job was at risk of automation (60%, global 47%).

Looking across the markets surveyed, workers in China and India are by far the most upbeat about the impact of technology (even after adjusting for cultural bias), despite being the most likely to believe their jobs will change significantly. Workers in these regions are getting more opportunities to upskill: 97% and 95% respectively are being given these opportunities by their employers. On the other hand, workers in the UK and Australia say they are given the least opportunity to learn new skills. They also tend to be less positive about the impact of technology.

Despite Chinese workers being more positive about the impact of technology, it’s interesting to note that Singaporeans are taking more responsibility for their own upskilling as compared to their Chinese counterparts. Only 26% of Chinese workers reflected that it was the individual’s responsibility to upskill (as compared to 44% of Singapore workers), while 40% and 31% of them said the responsibility lies with the government and the businesses respectively.

Although Singaporean workers are ahead of the average worker when it comes to learning new skills (81% in Singapore, 77% globally), our population is still behind emerging countries such as India (96%) & China (96%).

Fang Eu-Lin, Leader of PwC’s Academy in Singapore concludes:

“The world of work in changing rapidly. For Singapore to remain relevant on the world stage, every player must do their part to keep the momentum of digital upskilling going. Employers, industries and government play a significant role in this by partnering and creating opportunities for upskilling, supporting and encouraging Singaporeans to upskill in an effective way.”

PwC study finds Singaporeans are second most anxious about the future impact of technology on their jobs was originally published on The Neo Dimension

[danieljbockman]

“Who Made Who, Who Made You?” 

`ACDC

The video game says "play me"

In this age of exponentially advancing technology that seems to be moving forward at breakneck speeds and leaving most people in the dust, you have to ask yourself, “Are you mastering technology or are you being mastered by it?” The movie Maximum Overdrive comes to mind when I say it but it seems to me that most people are being mastered by the technology of the world because, for one, they can’t fully understand it! And who would other than the extremely smart geeks that are the ones that have designed and developed it. But I’m not talking about understanding how code works or being versed in advance complex binary language, and electrical engineering, what I’m talking about is understanding the nature of technology.

Face it on a level but it takes you every time on a one on one

I think we’ve all seen that one person we know that has made a fool of themselves or did some embarrassing thing on social media just because they didn’t fully understand the nature of the medium or what it was capable of. But to go even further than just devices and social media, what about AI, artificial intelligence, and robotics? There has been a lot of attention as of late to the subject of AI and robotics coming from three main places, 1) the tech world 2) labor 3) government. All three of these groups have different perspectives on the subject of AI, but when you get down to it, those perspective are virtually the same. What it boils down to our jobs! When I was a kid, robotics and AI were a cool thing from a social aspect because it was going to be the future and create lots of jobs but, today’s attitude toward AI is, it’s considered an insidious disruptive technology because it’s starting to threaten the American work force for not only the low wage entry level employee, but some upper-level echelon type jobs are now on the AI chopping block.

Feeling running down your spine

As a businessman myself, I am always looking for ways to optimize my operation and work to a much more efficient level so I, over many other people, have an eye for the things that make life better for not only me but my customers. One day I was in the city close to where I live early in the morning and I saw a garbage truck picking up trash in a small neighborhood. The truck would drive up the street from house to house and with a hydraulic grappling arm, would grab the garbage can at the curb and with superlative precision, dump the trash into the truck’s hopper and then move on to the next house and the next… I couldn’t help but remember when I was a kid, it took 3 people to run a garbage truck, one to drive the truck and two hanging on the back jumping off and grabbing garbage cans and dumping them into the truck. Now, there is only one person driving the truck and a mechanical/hydraulic grapple does the pickup. Now think about this,��mechanical/hydraulic technology is fairly rudimentary. It’s been around for decades so this is nothing new or what would be considered disruptive. But here it is, a low level of basic elementary technology replacing two, and I would assume good paying jobs, on a garbage truck. A simple redesign of an already existing mechanics and hydraulics technology that probably only took one mid-western raised farm kid mechanical engineering student a few days to devise, replaced 2/3’s of the garbage collection jobs in a cities sanitation department! That’s 2/3’s of the jobs per truck! Think about how many garbage trucks the average city could have!

Nothing gonna save your one last dime cause it owns you

The garbage truck example is showing you that this kind of disruption was not invented by a bunch of Silicon Valley tech billionaires, therefore this is probably the first time you have ever heard of this kind of example or even thought about it because it’s not high profile pop-culture news on the subject of AI. Now that AI is front and center of the jobs debate and more than just garbage collection jobs are being threatened, the low-level positions that are being replaced with AI are in the spotlight. Debates are being volleyed back and forth about the ethics of AI, the responsibilities of a safe AI and what the future for the low-level job is going to be. There are so many issues being generated by the acronym AI that it’s hard to keep up with them but no matter the issue, they are all sitting on the foundation of fear. Fear of job loss, fear of robot take over, fear of an economic crash, fear, fear, fear! There is very little coming out of these discussions or debate about how good AI and more automated tech will be for businesses. Mostly because AI, robots and the evil word, “automation” has created social sting to it. Back in the 90’s the word automation was associated with production and prosperity, today here in 2017, you might as well have kicked someone’s dog when you say automation!

Through and through

Something very interesting has evolved out of this discussion and some very interesting data has been mined by it but because the issue of automation has been so stigmatized by the social aspect, not many people know this or want to know some facts about automation. Have you heard the saying, necessity is the mother of all invention”? The Wall Street Journal Opinion did a piece on the subject of automation with a brief history of minimum wage disasters. In the piece, they have a paragraph that says,

Our analysis at the individual level draws many similar conclusions. We find that a significant number of individuals who were previously in automatable employment are unemployed in the period following a minimum wage increase.      

I think it’s important to point out the words “automatable employment” in this statement and that when people in automatable jobs rally for a wage increase, it’s generally followed up by automation of the positions resulting in job loss. No wonder this has become a social issue! Here’s another statement from the piece,

After a union harassment campaign against McDonald’s over its entry-level wages, the company accelerated the deployment of digital technology that allows customers to tap their orders on a screen instead of talking to a cashier. In the face of city and state mandates to raise wages, the chain has continued to automate more functions in its restaurants, and investors have been cheering. McDonald’s shares have risen more than 30% just this year.      

The databank knows my number

So what is this telling us? Even though wages and jobs are a social issue, money is not! Money doesn’t care whether you deserve a raise or fair pay or a living wage. Take the social side out of the issue and look at the business side of automation and you will see what is actually rallying - are the company stocks! Stock respond enthusiastically with the thoughts of automation. What this is telling us is that money and business itself is like a robot with no feelings or sympathy. It may be artificial intelligence but it's not emotional intelligence! These two forces have always been pulling at each other and will continue to pull even harder long into the future. The employee and the company owner will be at odds over the social aspect of the work force for many, many more years to come. It will be like the world is pressing down way too hard on an already unstable fault line and then you add the element of job loss as a result of automation and the powder keg continues to fill.

Says I gotta pay 'cause I made the grade last year

Even though it hurts to hear, automation is good for business. I had a friend who works for the rail road express his concern for the loss of his job because the rail road employees had heard about a company that just fully automated a semi-truck and tested it with a flawless result. The company Otto installed an automated self-driving truck add-on to a truck in Colorado last year. During the test, they hauled a full load of beer from Fort Collins CO to Colorado Springs without incident under fully automated self-driving. Even though there are plenty of issues and concerns about self-driving vehicles and we are still long ways from seeing it on our public roadways due to safety concerns, the important part of this whole test was the technology to fully automate a semi-tractor trailer only cost about $30,000! That may seem like a lot of money to the average working class citizen but its chump change to a company owner and - the most significant part is - it will only get cheaper!

Feel it when I turn the screw

Listen to this closely! Another friend of mine with a background in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering once told me in a mastermind group session that all the technology needed to fully automate our entire rail road system (freight and passenger) has existed for the last 20 years! To make that fact even more significant, (or worse depending on your view) the technology for that kind of automation can be easily bought by anyone in something as simple as a child’s RC parts catalog for only the price of a few dollars! Ouch!!!  

Kicks you round the world, there ain't a thing that it can't do

With all the uproar and debates around AI, robotics, and automation, how do you protect yourself from being a job loss statistic in the future of high tech? I have two suggestions for you.

1. Start your own business. Eliminate yourself from the automatable employment arena. I know what you’re about to say, “Dan, what if I choose a business that it too becomes automated?” I say, jump in with both feet and become the automation company for that industry. Remember, automation is good for business! I once took an online test to see if my job was subjected to potential automation. There is no subject on the test for “company owner, entrepreneur or self-employed.” Take the test here to see where you fit.

2. Reinvent yourself. For those that prefer to not start a business, it would be in your best interest to reinvent yourself for the future of the automated work force. This is probably going to be the hardest part for a lot of people and, without a doubt, is the core reason automation has become a social issue! Here’s what’s happening and if you doubt I’m right on this, you need to open your eyes! It's human nature to take the path of least resistance, we are lazy by nature mostly because we were given advance cognitive thinking and reasoning skills from having the most advanced brains in the known universe. Basically, we can think our way to survival vs having to rely on instincts like lower life forms such as animals. So we are lazy! Modern technology (ironically) makes us even lazier so we continue down this path of not having to change much in our lives to live a fairly good life or to just get by. But now livelihoods are being threatened as a result of exponential tech advancements. These easy paths of making a living are becoming more and more scarcely available because let’s face it, low-level jobs don’t take much thinking to perform effectively and satisfactory and, they are reasonably easy and cheap to automate. You just go to work, keep your nose clean and go through the motions of the job and you get paid. Whether it’s a living wage or not, is not the issue. You are still getting paid money and you are managing to live on it. The hard part of this is, now that easy is going by-way of the robots, we humans have to start using our brains to figure out how to make a living. Using your brains is work, humans don’t like work, so now it sucks and the tension begins to get tighter on the fault line of employer and employee.

Do to you

If for nothing else, try this. Think about what you could do to reinvent yourself and see what you can find. I think you will be very pleased with getting to know yourself a little better and that you defiantly have what it takes to change something about yourself to survive and prosper. Go out and get the book by James Altucher Reinvent Yourself. It’s a great book by a bestselling author and you will get a lot out of it.

Who made who?

It’s time to do the work, easy is now out and you are going to have to use your brain! But you can do this and keep in mind that, “The easy path leads to a hard life but the hard path leads to the easy life!” Be sure you’re the one turning the screw!

Daniel J Bockman                

[gloriasousaus]

Smart Cities and the potential Misuse of Data

Context

During the seven weeks of the Pre-College Summer Intensive English Program at The New School, my class was divided into groups of three to work on a Capstone project. Each group received a broad theme, and our job was to narrow it down to build a presentation with a specific thesis, which was presented to an audience composed by The New School Faculty and Staff on August 3rd. We also had to write separate research papers with paraphrased academic sources.

My team got Technology as a topic. The following text consists on the final research paper I handed in, named Smart Cities and the Potential Misuse of Data.

Credits: Gabriella Ullauri 

Introduction

Smart Cities are emerging hotspots. Huge producers of Data, these are places that aim to use the personal information collected from its citizens to improve public infrastructure. Cities like Singapore, London, and New York are among the few that openly declare their attempt to adapt to this new model. In the case of NYC, this undertake exists since the year 2000: presented on September 28th of that year, at the 2nd International Life Extension Technology Workshop in Paris, the document entitled “The Vision of A Smart City” stated the early solid efforts of the city government (in consonance to Brookhaven National Laboratory) to integrate the city. According to this report, the main strategies at that point included underground utility mapping and passive structural integrity monitoring.

As written in the article "Addressing big data challenges in smart cities: a systematic literature review", the gathering and use of Big Data through new technologies increases information awareness, facilitating the policy-making process while creating many alternatives for social interaction in the city. In that sense, the data compiled enhance real-time services automation, which consequently drives city administration towards making urban management more effective. Examples of that would vary from installing intelligent traffic lights to monitoring the conditions of infrastructure in public areas, transforming urban settings into more dynamic spaces. And that is what should happen in smart cities.

But although the authors’ conclusions are true and can be extremely beneficial to society, there is an aspect that is often overlooked: A Smart City is a direct product of its government. Despite the idea and the tools to implement it, what is done to the online content is not a matter of technicality. Once carrying people’s information, the success of a Smart City is an outcome of political intention. And that can be disastrous. 

Songdo, a smart city in construction since 2004. Retrieved from https://youngining.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/smart-city-songdo-incheon-korea/

We know humanity is now experiencing an invisible revolution. At the beginning of the XXI Century, there were already 502 million internet users in the world [1]. In 2012, 67% of the internet users had social media accounts [2]. In 2013, 56% of American adults owned a smartphone [3]. What these numbers show is a fast transition to the globalized world. But the intrinsic fact is that the latest changes are not material, yet virtual. They consist on the interpretation of our personal lives, sprinkled in infinite bytes of Data.

In this scenario, Big Data is a key term, once it can be stated as the theoretic column of smart cities. Amply used in the sense of an amount of complex, coded information., it has intrigued tech enthusiasts for different reasons: The interpretation of this informational web has many uses, from knowing a target audience for a product to extracting index statistics. But while some agree that it can be a tool to address the Common Good, others argue that once addressing particular interests, it can be a weapon for controlling of the public opinion.

Retrieved from https://smartcity.org.hk/index.php/aboutus/background

This way, the conception of privacy and State’s power in smart cities rises as two big question marks in our future. As we go deeper in the Digital Age and the interconnection between different devices becomes clearer, the ethical aspect of technology must be discussed. Between the absence of concrete policies to regulate enterprises and the political apathy of the civil society, privacy becomes more and more of an abstract idea: In the realm of social media, is anything really private?  

To answer this question, our research tries to look into the way the governments operate in smart cities. More specifically, our approach to the privacy issue focuses on how Smart cities raise privacy concerns, considering the potential misuse of Data and violation of people’s basic civil rights. For that purpose, we adopted examples of various smart cities initiatives, from those in Boston and New York City to in Rio de Janeiro.

     2. Structural vulnerabilities in Smart Cities and how they afflict its inhabitants

As humans, we often don’t want to share something. Where we are going, our health records, our bank account information: These are some examples of what it’s usually considered private matters.Yet, we display so much information online without hesitating. And by doing that, we allow private companies and governmental organizations to take advantage of it by selling or incorporating (in their databases) our personal data. Still, we trust and agree to website's security policies.

In this vicious cycle, Smart cities can be extremely vulnerable places. In their article “Data Security in Smart Cities: Challenges and Solutions”, Daniela Popescul and Laura Diana Radu write about how this happens. According to the two researchers, if on one hand the use of smart objects - that is “objects connected in order to provide seamless communication and contextual services”- enables the collection, transmission, and processing of huge amounts of Data; on the other hand, it needs to be constantly protected. These devices have multiple resource-constraints, such as network requirements, hardware limitations or software restrictions, which is an obstacle to the installation of security mechanisms.  Due to these difficulties, software designers often overlook the issue of device security and prioritize other aspects of the product, such as performance and energy consumption. That seems like a way to deceive the consumer: The best-ranked tech products on the market cannot guarantee your safeness in the virtual world,  and they are sold as they could.

Another factor that weakens Smart Cities’ structure is the lack of regulations. Our Capstone group had the opportunity to interview New School’s Director of Information and online security, David Curry. When asked “how secure is our Data?”, Mr. Curry said: “ In Europe, particularly, and some would say in Latin America, [...] there are very specific laws about when you collect private Data you have to say exactly what is it used for, and you’re not allowed to use it for something you didn’t say you’re going to use it for. In the United States, that’s a little squishy. As for smart cities and that kind of thing, that is a real concern: What kind of Data is being collected by what? Who has access to it? It’s the whole notion of the Internet of Things. ”

Besides not being able to guarantee information security, the smart city system doesn’t make the city accessible to all citizens. In the November edition of Fordham Urban Law Journal,  the authors Kelsey Finch and Omer Tene argue that, despite the nature of government’s intentions, services offered by smart cities often impact individuals in a discriminatory way. According to Finch and Tene, that happens because the system automatically favors those used to technological devices. For example, when looking closely at the case of the Street Bump app, which was an initiative aimed to report to Boston’s Public Works Department the location of potholes and road castings,  it is possible to affirm that the younger and wealthier areas of the city benefited the most. By that we can infer that people who are less likely to carry smartphones, such as seniors, were indirectly excluded from the perks of such in the same manner others did.

Retrieved from https://www.bu.edu/systems/2014/12/18/boston-is-becoming-a-smart-city-with-eng-support/

This problem appears in other social and infrastructural projects. For instance, take Singapore’s regulated Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) scheme. Once the toll booth system was installed in a single cordon area, dramatic changes in traffic happened. According to the book “Transport Economics”, within few months, the percentage of carpooling with less than four passengers dropped from 48 to 21, while the use of public transportation rose from 41 to 62 percent. Despite that, the average number of cars during rush hours also declined, but the traffic after ERP’s functional hours peaked. What these numbers show, in fact, is that those who could not afford the extra fee were indirectly prevented from accessing some parts of the city. As we can see, technology itself is not inclusive, and often perpetuate the status quo.

Retrieved from https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltaweb/en/roads-and-motoring/managing-traffic-and-congestion/electronic-road-pricing-erp.html

     3. Governance vulnerabilities in Smart Cities and how it affects individual liberties

The complete eradication of privacy in Smart Cities by the government is also a risk to the current democratic system. By exchanging our information for security and practicality, we allow the government to not only know about us but also to profile us and even forecast our actions. In her article, " Legislating Privacy: Technology, Social Values, and Public Policy", Priscilla M. Regan, Professor at George Mason University, writes about the implications of new technologies in Public Policy. According to Regan, while the use of digital media devices by enterprises is usually classified as an invasion of privacy, it usually makes the organization even more powerful over individuals. That is, the online information turns into a new source of mass control, once that by accessing it, they can know one's history, activities, and proclivities.

In this scenario, minorities are groups of special interest. Historically underrepresented in public matters and often the target of authoritarian measures, this part of the population is more exposed than any other. One key factor to explain this is society’s tendency to generalize. Although the United States of America Civil Rights Act states that “All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin”[4],  ethnicity, nationality, and religion continue to result in stereotypes and hate crimes. Take terrorism as an example. After the 9/11 attacks in New York, more muslims started to be selected for security checks at airports, despite the fact that most of them were peaceful individuals. Simultaneously, less of them were accepted in the U.S. as immigrants and tourists [5]. Statistically speaking, when the numbers prove that there is a profile for people that commit certain crimes, it is almost impossible to assure that there won’t be reprisals to this particular group.

Indeed, as technology makes these kinds of web intelligence acts evident, it also broadens its scope. In that sense, one concern about the interconnection of databases is shown in the forensic use of DNA. While the use of DNA samples to identify criminals boosts the efficiency of the judicial system, it also makes us question whether this measure leads to wrongful convictions. According to the article “Building a Face, and a Case, on DNA”, some researchers doubt the accuracy of the technology used in the recreation of facial images. The argument is that such techniques could stimulate racial profiling among law enforcement agencies, consequently affecting individual privacy and resulting in a violation the Fourth Amendment, which states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”[6]

Retrieved from http://nuffieldbioethics.org/project/bioinformation

Another example of how good ideas can become dangerous is seen in New York City. Recently, the City Hall opened the possibility to its citizens of avoiding bureaucracy when registering to its Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program through an app called HRA Mobile. Instead of handing documents directly to a social services office, applicants can quickly upload them using the platform. According to Nina Stewart, the reporter behind the New York Times’ headline “Those Needing Food Stamps Find City App Eases the Path”, from March to June 2017, more than a million documents were posted. What is not said in the news, however, is what else these Data can be used for. From mere statistic purposes to profiling people to make use of populist measures, there are unlimited possibilities.

Unfortunately, one of the effects of Big Data usage by the government can be the perpetuation of tyranny. When it comes to an actual vigilance mechanism, the lack of privacy that is characteristic of Smart Cities becomes a dangerous threat to freedom of thought and expression. In the article “The watchers”, the author, Jonathan Shaw, argues that the mere awareness of surveillance reshapes people's behavior. This happens because, once you know you are constantly being watched, you tend to be more careful in your actions. According to the text, many governments use this kind of self-censorship to perpetuate its values. One example of this comes from China. By basing its system in 24/7 vigilance and rigorous repression, the Chinese government manages to keep its population following the rules. The understanding behind this approach is that, in the words of Bruce Schneider, one of the experts working in the cybersecurity program at Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, “if you don’t know where the line is, and the penalty for crossing it is severe, you will stay far away from it.”

In smart cities, surveillance is a vivid reality. Both New York and London have special departments to deal with the information gathered from security cameras - the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) and Government Communications Headquarters (CCHQ), respectively. And even not so developed cities seem to be heading in the same direction. In the online article “The truth about smart cities: ‘In the end, they will destroy democracy'”, Steven Poole mentions Rio de Janeiro’s center of operations. In Poole’s view, “One only has to look at the hi-tech nerve center that IBM built for Rio de Janeiro to see this Nineteen Eighty-Four-style vision already alarmingly realized. It is festooned with screens like a Nasa Mission Control for the city.” The journalist also highlights what Anthony Townsend writes about the building in “Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia”: “What began as a tool to predict rain and manage flood response morphed into a high-precision control panel for the entire city.” They both make use of a quote of Rio’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, when he affirms that “The operations center allows us to have people looking into every corner of the city, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Rio’s Center of Operatios (Centro de Operações da Prefeitura do Rio). Retrieved from http://www.metropolismag.com/cities/big-data-big-questions-data-smart-cities/

      4. Conclusion

To sum up, although Smart Cities seem to be a strong tendency for the future, they still must overcome many issues. The matter of whether technology should influence in policy-making – and more importantly, remain under the realm of already rich and powerful institutions such as governments – has to be addressed in the next years. In that sense, awareness of the population over the matter needs to increase, and is, therefore, one of the goals of this paper.

In the original online survey conducted by this Capstone group, the subjects were asked to briefly tell us about their background with social media. But we included an extra question. By the end of the form,  we simply put “What is Big Data?” as an optional part. From the 779 responses, we obtained only 65 answers to this particular inquiry. And even between these few, many included variations of “I don’t know.” The outcome of the process described was clarifying, even though it was somewhat expected. Living immerse in a technological environment, we understand that the loss of privacy often seems natural and that concepts like Big Data are not really discussed. What surprised us, however, was the unwillingness of people to find more about it. Most of the participants didn’t even try to google the term, they just jumped the question. And that is worrying.

Translated from Portuguese: “ Have you ever heard of Big Data?” In red, “no”; in blue, “yes”; and in orange, “maybe”.

So, the best way to address the privacy issue is to invest in ways to inform the population about it. Once we are all aware of the complexity of Smart Cities and understand the possible consequences of it, we can demand our governments to be more transparent and to formulate concrete online privacy policies. Anyway, the future is uncertain, but it is possible to minimize its risks.

References (in order of appearance):

Hall, E. (2000). The Vision of a Smart City. Retrieved from: https://ntl.bts.gov/lib/14000/14800/14834/DE2001773961.pdf

Chen, W. & Wellman, B. (2004). The Global Digital Divide. IT&Society (1) 19. [1]

Duggan, M. & Brenner, J. (2013).  The Demographics of Social Media Users – 2012. Pew Research Center. 2. [2]

Smith, A. (2013). Smartphone ownership – 2013 Update. Pew Research Center. 2. [3]

Chauhan, S.; et al (2016) Addressing Big Data challenges in smart cities: a systematic literature review. The Journal for Policy, Regulation and Strategy for Telecommunications, Information and Media. 2, 2-5.

Popescul, D. & Radu, L. (2016). Data Security in Smart Cities: Challenges and Solutions. Informatica Economica. 30.

Finch, K. & Tene, O. (2013). Fordham urban Law Journal. 41. 1602-1604.

Oum Hoon, T.; et al. (1999). Harwood Academic Publishers. 289.

Regan, P. (1995). Legislating Privacy: Technology, Social Values, and Public Policy. University of North Carolina Press. 74-75.

The United States Civil Rights Act (1965). Retrieved from https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=97&page=transcript [4]

Abbas (2007); Croucher & Cronn-Mills (2011); Gonzàlez, Verkuyten, Weesie, & Poppe (2008). [5]

Pollack, A. (February, 2015). Building a Face, and a Case, on DNA. New York Times: D1

Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment [6]

Stewart, N. (2017). Those Needing Food Stamps Find City App Eases the Path. The New York Times. Published on July 25th, 2017.

Shaw, J. (2017). The Watchers. Harvard Magazine. 119 (3), 56.

Poole, S. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/dec/17/truth-smart-city-destroy-democracy-urban-thinkers-buzzphrase [7].

[myreadingexperience]

Researching cybersurveillance, I stumbled upon the Citizen Lab, and subsequently upon Deibert’s book, Black Code. First book to have read on Kindle, and there’s irony in this, as the more I read, the more data I produced to be collected and analyzed. 

A few of the main ideas: To start with, code is law. As Marshall McLuhan postulated that the medium is the message and Harold Innis showed the bias of communications, we must understand that instructions encoded in software regulate what we can do. Second, a recent change is the movement away from searching the WWW to a push notifications environment where „information is delivered to us” through apps. Third, while in the beginning the internet seemed like a free place, hard to regulate, right now, many countries use censorship and block Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc. Internet censorship went from being regulated – like usual things – through law, to being regulated through code and software, and responsibility is put directly on the service providers. For example, China has a particular way of doing this: it sends back to the user an error message, as if the content itself doesn’t exist (Google found a way around this, suggesting users alternate spellings). We must begin to understand and connect the dots, as users and as citizens: the internet is international, but its cables are everywhere, its central nodes are everywhere – but mostly around the US – and the devices we use are from specific nations – bending to specific national laws. From a lawless place, it has became a place of many, many laws. Fourth, the future is at least partly out of the West’s hands. The growing populations of the rest of the world will have access to the net, along with living in increasing inequality due to climate change and capitalism’s mechanism,  so the question Deibert asks is, what kind of web will they craft? As the author shows, in some countries governments outsource to extra-legal intervention groups to deal with unrurly citizens. Coming back to corporations, Google has started issuing transparency reports, showing the number of requests it has received from governments to censor or remove content, and highlighting those it complied with or turned down (most requests are „other requests”, not issued through a court order). Most companies don’t tell users if their data is asked for by the government. In 2002 and 2004, Chinese government requested information on two dissidents from Yahoo!, who complied. When being sued by the families in the US, the company testified that it was following local law. Skype, as well, uses content filtering for China, and can be intercepted, although it promises end to end encryption. After 9/11, a key point in the cybersurveillance debate, governments felt entitled to more and more of citizen’s information, creating the false tradeoff: privacy vs security. Human Rights Watch found that the UN passed several resolutions urging member states to pass laws that expand government powers to „investigate, arrest, detain, and prosecute individuals at the expense of due process”. With enough data, a Minority Report future isn’t just dystopian fiction anymore – politically inclined individuals can be monitored before they do anything. Researcher Chris Soghoian pointed out that some companies even charge fees for „lawful access”, with automated process. Cybercrime is real, and just like most crime, its structure is knotted in complicated patterns and networks – many „cyberweapons” (spying software, malware for breaking in, or just hiring a black hat to hack someone) are cheap and easy to buy on the internet, and, as Deibert puts it, how can the West condemn the Syrian Electronic Army when it openly markets computer network attack products at trade shows? Besides, when cyberweapons are perceived as clean, there might be „strong pressures to adopt military over diplomatic solutions”.  Technology is multi-puroposed, and the same is used for surveillance of dangerous targets or of peace activists. Hacking used to have a more positive value – „of experimentation and exploration of limits and possibilities”. Technology can be seen not as a thing, but as a craft, inherently political. In the context of our constant connectedness, the increasing restrictions on cyberspace „are alarming”. The closing off of hardware and software and putting on copyright or other laws to diminish access to them are not only barriers to our freedoms, but ultimately to our security as well. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has found laws (in debate – Article 3 of DAAIS in Europe) that limit the publishing of research on security flaws. The denial of access to knowledge is increasing, together with the tools to dismantle it. One solution could take the form of a distributed model: mixture of multiple actors with governance roles, division of control with cooperation and consent, and restraint. Without humans „cyberspace would not exist”. Deibert pushes for a position of joint custodianship: we either degrade cyberspace, or we extend it. The responsibility is inter-generational. 

I also finished Program or be programmed by Rushkoff. It’s a kind of manifesto for the digital age, with ten main “commandments”, which I quite enjoyed - an easy read, fast and recommended for anyone interested in what it means to live online. Rushkoff is a character, writing that “instead of optimizing our machines for humanity ... we are optimizing humans for machinery”. The base for the ten commands are the biases inherent in the technology we use. First, ‘do not always be on’, as machines live beyond time, from decision to decision, while we live in the present, continuously flowing, so, “by becoming “always on”, we surrender time to a technology that knows and needs no such thing”. Second, ‘live in person’, be local, be there, where you are - technology is biased towards distance, non-space, and scaling. Third, ‘you may always choose none of the above’, as technology draws lines that are too simple, categorizing or binary through our lives, we can refuse all options, or label freely, with tags. Fourth, ‘you are never completely right’, because, “thanks to its first three biases, digital technology encourages us to make decisions, make them in a hurry, and make them about things we’ve never seen ourselves up close”. It is “biased towards a reduction of complexity”. Rushkoff stresses that we should opt for a world in which we learn about our technology, not a world in which it learns about us. Fifth, ‘one size does not fit all’, because this hyper-abstracted model of internet business doesn’t work for smaller start-ups. Sixth, ‘be yourself’, because while anonymity can protect you, it can also make people behave irresponsibly, facilitating angry and revengeful mobs. Seventh, ‘do not sell your friends’, exposes the internet’s bias towards connection rather than content, and how businesses are making money off it. Eighth, ‘tell the truth’, “because this will increase our value to others”, and besides, lies don’t last long. Ninth, ‘share, don’t steal’, shows how our belief in open sharing has lead to the current business model based on ads, and how we should support the work we consume directly. Tenth, and most importantly, ‘program or be programmed’, because if you don’t understand the inner workings, or at least the superficial biases of the technology you use, it will bias you towards certain things, and you’ll never know why.  

When I find the time, I plunge into Haruki Murakami’s short story collection, Men without Women - a gift from my cousin. I re-read the first story, which I hear a few years ago at a “Vocea cititorului” meeting - “Drive my car”. This time, I enjoyed it more. I guess I read the book with a kind of nostalgia, but also detachment. Murakami used to be a favorite of mine in high school, and although I’ve always sensed his novels are far better than his short stories, I have a feeling now I wouldn’t like those as much as I did back then. Men without women is a collection of stories about exactly this - lonely men, left by women in one way or another. I think they’re a bit like writing exercises, in which Murakami tries this and that, typical characters and settings of his, on jazz or Beatles music. None of them contain anything too surreal, maybe just a smokey atmosphere. “Yesterday” is about the narrator’s relationship with his peculiar friend and his girlfriend, “The independent Organ” is about a doctor that is constantly in romantic relationships, for short time and without engagement, with married women, “Sheherezade” contains a woman taking care of a man who can’t go out for some mysterious reason and telling him stories of her youth, “Kino” is about a man whose wife cheats on him so he leaves and opens a bar, “Samsa in love” is, well, a bug turned into a man, and “Men without women” is the narrative of a man who gets a phone call about the death of a love from his youth. I most liked “Kino”, for its emotional, fantastic ending, and “Samsa in love”, because it’s such a nice stretch of the imagination, and kind of lovely all in all. 

[mildredjizquierdo]

COVID-19 outbreak tracker. Interview with Cotiviti’s Jordan Bazinsky

Cotiviti EVP, Jordan Bazinsky

Healthcare analytics company Cotiviti has launched a COVID-19 tracker to predict infection outbreaks based on insurance claims data. It says its model has a high degree of accuracy and is useful for health ecosystem players and government authorities that need to decide where to allocate resources.

In this interview, I asked Cotiviti EVP, Jordan Bazinksy to explain.

What are the needs for COVID-19 tracking in the US?

To make decisions on how to best protect their citizens and employees while also limiting harm to their economies, policymakers and business leaders need accurate and timely data about how far COVID-19 has spread in their communities. But unfortunately, we’ve seen that in too many areas, COVID-19 tests are not being administered to everyone who should receive one due to lack of resources. Therefore, in the absence of this testing, we sought to develop a model that would help to forecast which geographic areas were likely to see a substantial number of COVID-19 cases using other factors such as flu testing and flu diagnoses.

How could this model impact/shift the U.S. approach to combating this health crisis (at private, federal, and state/local levels)? 

We’re already seeing many states and local governments move to re-open their economies even as COVID-19 testing remains scarce. While this is understandable given the economic devastation this pandemic has caused for many, these decisions should be guided by accurate data to protect those who are most vulnerable. We hope this approach will encourage everyone to proceed with the utmost caution as they make decisions that could have far-reaching impacts.

What is the unmet need you saw at Cotiviti? And what approach are you taking to address it?

 This project originated the same day the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. We assembled a team to explore how Cotiviti could help respond to the outbreak by using our Caspian Insights data and analytics platform. The team began examining leading indicators such as telemedicine, rapid flu testing, and chest x-rays, that can help predict potential areas of concern before COVID-19 testing takes place.

The primary deficiency we are aiming to solve is the widespread lack of COVID-19 testing resources, which has left states unable to confirm the true impact and reach of the virus in their communities. Instead, our approach relies on other leading indicators of COVID-19, such as flu testing and diagnosis. By comparing current flu testing data seen in the CPT codes processed through our systems against confirmed flu diagnoses seen in ICD-10 codes, we can spot significant discrepancies that could indicate a “hidden outbreak” is occurring. 

What are the use cases? Are people using it for purposes beyond what you originally envisioned?

Our focus is on helping all healthcare stakeholders to prepare for what’s ahead given the unpredictable nature of this virus. As healthcare organizations seek to gain more data and use that data to extract meaningful insights, we are offering this resource to supplement their existing resources.

We have fielded questions recently regarding how this data may support contact tracing. We have also had inquiries from retailers wanting to use this data to inform decisions about when to open stores in various parts of the country. While neither of these were uses we initially envisioned, they reflect the need from all stakeholders to have access to reliable, timely COVID-19 data.

Now that states are looking at loosening their social distancing mandates and re-opening previously shuttered businesses, Cotiviti has unveiled a second map that shows which states have seen a downward trend of influenza-like illness and COVID-like syndromic cases to aid in decision making. It will be critical to maintain active surveillance of any early spikes that may be predictive of COVID-19 resurgence.

How does it compare with other initiatives, like the Johns Hopkins model?

 While Johns Hopkins has assembled an excellent, informative COVID-19 dashboard that aggregates data to track cases around the world and show trends over time, it specifically focuses on confirmed cases, which can only be identified through COVID-19 testing. Similar dashboards and tracking tools released by other organizations are also limited to tracking confirmed cases. Our approach looks at where there are a significant population of unconfirmed but likely cases to help forecast the hidden impact of this outbreak.

What are the data sources? How did Cotiviti ensure data quality and accuracy?

 Our data source is Cotiviti’s Caspian Insights data and analytics platform—the engine behind our healthcare analytics solutions—which processes millions of claims per day and comprises longitudinal data for more than 130 million Americans. It combines financial and clinical information alongside a multitude of other healthcare data types, such as social determinants of health, medical records, pharmacy, dental, and lab information to give health plans and providers actionable information at their fingertips.

We have both automated data quality standards and rigorous processes to ensure data quality and accuracy at all levels. For example, healthcare data is known to be inconsistent across disparate systems—the same individual might be listed by different names in the different data feeds we receive. To overcome this challenge, we leverage a unique combination of probabilistic and deterministic models to establish linkages between data sources, while also ensuring the data is de-identified. Finally, we have a strong organizational commitment to quality at all levels of Cotiviti.

How accurate are the predictions? How is that changing?

 We made our first forecast on March 12, and 80 percent of our predictions were realized by March 22. We have continued to maintain this level of accuracy while refining our data and algorithms, and we continue to see indications of potential hidden outbreak in certain states. However, as COVID-19 testing becomes more available, we know that hidden outbreaks will diminish and transition to confirmed outbreaks. Therefore, our team is preparing to shift to a more sophisticated modeling approach that identifies “COVID-like illness” based on the unique care pattern of COVID-19 that can be seen in the claim, clinical, prescription, and lab data for a patient. This approach will allow continued monitoring of the virus until a vaccine is available.

By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group.

The post COVID-19 outbreak tracker. Interview with Cotiviti’s Jordan Bazinsky appeared first on Health Business Group.

[nathanielburgos]

New UK Points-Based Immigration System

New UK The Government has laid out its plans for the new UK points-based immigration system which is to apply from 1 January 2021.

In a policy paper published on 18 February 2020, the Government confirms that the new system will apply to both EU and non-EU citizens in the same way.

The changes outlined in the paper centre on economic and work immigration only, and do not impact existing routes for students, families or asylum seekers. Further changes in these areas may transpire as the Government seeks to “transform the way in which all migrants come to the UK to work, study, visit or join their family”.

  A new UK points-based system

The Government’s overriding vision is “to reduce overall levels of migration and give top priority to those with the highest skills and the greatest talents”.

The changes will affect anyone coming to the UK from 2021 to work.

EU free movement will end on 31 December 2020. Nationals of EEA countries looking to come to the UK to work from 1st January 2021 must attain the required points and apply for a visa under the new immigration system. EU citizens currently in the UK are required to register under the EU settlement scheme to secure their immigration status.

For UK employers, the impact of the reforms cannot be underestimated. The new system has been designed to move the UK economy away from a “reliance on cheap labour from Europe”, and will drive fundamental shifts in how workforce needs are met across sectors and skill levels.

While some measures are to be introduced to ease the transition for scientists, graduates, NHS workers and those in the agricultural sector, the Government has stated these will be short term. The message to employers is that they have no choice but to “adjust” to the new world.

With changes to the definition and scope of skilled workers and removal of any lower-skilled work visa, there is a lot for employers to absorb and respond to, and a fast-approaching deadline of 1 January 2021 to be ready by.

We summarise the changes employers need to be aware of.

  UK work visas

The new points-based system will offer immigration routes for highly skilled workers, skilled workers, students and other specialists such as global leaders and innovators.

Visitors will in most cases be able to come to the UK for up to six months without a visa, but will not have the right to work. Those who come to the UK as a visitor will need to leave the country before making an application to another route.

  Points requirements

Non-UK nationals will have to attain 70 points to qualify for a UK work visa.

There are three mandatory requirements: having an offer of a job with a sponsored employer; having a job at the appropriate skill level; speaking English to the required level. These total 50 points, and applicants must then make up their points to the 70 points threshold from the remaining characteristics, which include salary level, shortage occupation and education qualification.

  Requirement Tradeable? Points Offer of job by approved sponsor No 20 Job at appropriate skill level No 20 Speaks English at required level No 10 Salary of £20,480 (minimum) – £23,039 Yes Points Salary of £23,040 – £25,599 Yes Points Salary of £25,600 or above Yes Points Job in a shortage occupation (as designated by the MAC) Yes Points Education qualification: PhD in subject relevant to the job Yes Points Education qualification: PhD in a STEM subject relevant to the job Yes Points

  The policy paper also indicated that points allocations will remain subject to review and may be “refined” to improve flexibility, such as including new characteristics or amending tradeable attributes.

Skilled workers

Under the plans, the definition of skilled workers is being expanded and the skill level reduced from level 6 (degree) to level 3 (A-level), ie those educated to A-level/Scottish Highers-equivalent standard and not just graduate level, as is currently the case.

In a welcome move, there will no longer be a cap on the number of skilled worker visas that can be issued to qualifying individuals.

The minimum salary threshold for skilled workers is to be lowered from £30,000 per annum to £25,600, and in some cases £20,480 for shortage occupations, which currently include nurses, civil engineers and individuals with a PhD relevant to a specific job.

The Migration Advisory Committee is being commissioned by the Government to devise the shortage occupation list for the new skilled worker route.

  Low skilled workers

There will be no work visas for general low-skilled or temporary workers under the new points-based immigration system. This means roles that do not require A-level qualifications or higher will not qualify under the new rules.

This will be hugely problematic for UK employers that rely heavily on ‘low-skilled’ and/or low paid workers such as farms, restaurants, hotels and care homes.

While sectors such as health & social care, agriculture, construction, retail and leisure have been vocal in their concerns about cutting off the supply of low skilled migrant labour, the Government has stated its position with the new rules is to shift the economy away from a dependence on unskilled European workers, in favour of the domestic labour market and innovation, automation and technological solutions.

This will be a painful transition, particularly for employers reliant on human resources to perform critical work deemed unskilled under the new system.

The Government has said the EU settlement scheme has provided employers with some reprieve in allowing EU citizens who have applied to stay in the UK to help meet short-term labour demands.

In addition, it has also referred to additional sector-focused schemes to alleviate labour shortages, for example seasonal agricultural workers and youth mobility programmes (currently under Tier 5) allowing 20,000 young people to come to the UK each year.

Affected employers will, however, need to take action now to reassess and remodel their recruitment strategies and workforce planning to take them into 2021 and beyond.

  DM comment 

So how much is going to change with the new points-based immigration system?

The Government has worked hard to distance the new rules from the existing points-based system for work visas; the policy paper avoids referring to ‘tiers’ as per the current system and the routes themselves also differ, with the skills level being lowered.

The biggest shock to the system – both economically, culturally and socially – will be the end of EU free movement coupled with no general UK work visa for lower skilled roles.

We expect the Government may get creative in providing sector or role-specific concessions, and may well use such schemes as leverage in trade negotiations.

The functional aspects of the new system, from the detail so far released, appear not to be too dissimilar to how the current UK points-based system for work visas operates. In any event, the reform certainly does not go as far as the Australian-style system which affords considerably more flexibility for work visa applicants in attaining the required points.

Practical detail still eludes, however, in many areas, with the policy paper stating further detail on the points-based system is to be released in due course.

Frustratingly, this leaves very little time for employers to digest the new rules and to take action in readiness for the new system going live on 1st January 2021.

If you are concerned about the impact of the changes on your company and its ability to meet its workforce needs from 2021, DavidsonMorris can help. As employer solutions lawyers, we bring together specialist UK immigration lawyers with experts in employment, HR and global mobility to provide advice, strategy and implementation support across all your people requirements.

  UK points-based immigration system FAQs

How does a points based immigration system work?

Individuals wanting to come to the UK work will need to apply for a visa by showing they have enough points to meet the requirements of the immigration route. Work visa applicants will need a minimum of 70 points, from a combination of mandatory and tradeable characteristics.

Does the UK have a points based immigration system?

The UK currently operates a points-based system applicable to non-EEA workers. From 1 January 2021, a new immigration system will be introduced requiring all non-UK nationals to apply for a visa to work in the UK. To be eligible for a UK work visa, applicants will need to attain a minimum of 70 points.

Can I move to the UK without a job?

Free movement rules still apply to EU nationals until 31 December 2020. After this date, all EU citizens and non-EEA nationals will have to apply for permission to the work in the UK under an appropriate immigration route. Under the new points-based immigration system, applicants will need to be sponsored by an employer, in addition to meeting other requirements to attain the required 7- points. Unsponsored routes are also available eg Global Talent visa, for individuals possessing specific skills or level of standing within their profession.

How can DavidsonMorris help with the new points-based immigration system?

DavidsonMorris’ specialists bring together expertise in UK immigration law, employment, HR and global mobility. We are working with companies across all areas of the UK economy to advise on the implications of the new points-based system on recruitment and workforce planning. We also advise individuals on immigration routes and applications, alleviating the stress and improving your prospects of securing a visa.

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  The full policy paper can be found here. 

Last updated: 20 February 2020

New UK Points-Based Immigration System published first on https://ordergcmsnotescanada.tumblr.com/

[lazykoalacollectionblog]

ICT and Governance | New Topic UGC NET 2019 Sylalbus

New Post has been published on https://ugcnetpaper1.com/ict-and-governance/

ICT and Governance | New Topic UGC NET 2019 Sylalbus

Short Notes on ICT and Governance

Table of Contents

Short Notes on ICT and Governance

Introduction

Background

About ICT and Governance

Benefits

2006 -11: National e-Government Plan(NeGP)

Current E-Gov – 12th 5yr plan (2012-17)

Digital India

Nine Pillars of Digital India

Important Key Points to remember

  Introduction

The “e” in e-Governance stands for ‘electronic’. Thus, e-Governance is basically associated with carrying out the functions and achieving the results of governance through the utilization of ICT (Information and Communications Technology).

In this century where almost everything has been made electronic like e-commerce, e-service, e-learning, etc. the Indian government is also trying to go with the wave and wants to govern through ICT. E-governance needs the help of ICT services to achieve their objective anytime and anywhere. It eliminates the need of physical travel by citizens to various government offices in order to get their work done.

The major objective of e-governance is to support and simplify governance for all the government agents, citizens and businesses.

E-governance also means e-democracy where all forms of communications between the electorate and the electoral happen electronically or digitally.

Background

India is country of villages and for overall prosperity, growth and sustainable development ,ICT and Governance play a key role not only in terms of e-Governance models to demonstrate the key changes we see in the services for healthcare, education, banking, mobility, agriculture and other allied fields but also to keep country on the path of development in emerging competition on various fronts from other countries.

Journey so far …

1970 : Department of Electronics

1977 : National Informatics Centre(NIC)

1980 : Use of computers began

1987 : Launch of NICENET & DISNIC

1998 : National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development

1999 : Union Ministry of Information Technology

2000 -05: 12 point e-Governance launched by central & state Govt with focus on G2C,G2B, G2G initiatives

2006 -11: National e-Government Plan(NeGP)

2012 -17: Current E-GoV & Digital India

  About ICT and Governance

The term e-governance focuses on the use of new ICT by governments as applied to the full range of government functions. Thus e-governance is the application of information and communication technology for delivering government services, exchange of information, communication, transaction, integration, various stands alone systems and services between government and citizens, government and business as well as back office process and interaction within the entire government frame work.

ICT acts in speeding up the flow of information and knowledge between government and citizen and transforming the way in which government and citizen interact.

Types of Government Interaction in e-governance.

G2G: Government to Government

G2C: Government to Citizen

G2B: Government to Business

G2E: Government to Employee

  Some important Initiatives in the fields of E-governance

G2G: Government to Government  Aimed at efficient file routing, quick search and retrieval of files and office orders, digital signatures for authentication, forms and reporting components etc.

§  e-office project of central government for file movement across the departments

    G2C: Government to Citizen  The goal of government-to-customer (G2C) e-governance is to offer a variety of ICT services to citizens in an efficient and economical manner, and to strengthen the relationship between government and citizens using technology

§  CSC(Scheme to deliver various services to Citizen of India)

§  Bharat Bill Pay(One Stop Bill payment System)

§  Passport Seva Kendra

§  PAN(NSDL & UTI Services)

§  E-District (Various certificates/licences, social welfare scheme, RTI, Land registration, etc)

§  EPIC(Election Commission services)

§  IRCTC

§  e-Panchayat

§  e-Court Mission Mode Project (MMP)

§  NTA- National Testing Agency

§  National Agriculture Market (eNAM)

And many more…

  G2B: Government to Business Refers to the conduction through the Internet between government agencies and business companies.

§  MCA- All Business relates needs & requirements for Company

§  e-tender

§  GST

§  e-Biz Mission Mode Project

§  E-Gem(Government e Marketplace )

§   Government Online Procurement Portal

And many more…

    G2E: Government to Employee Government to Employee solution is about empowering their own employees to assist citizens in the fastest and most appropriate way, speed-up administrative processes, and optimize governmental solutions.

§  Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana

§  The EPF-EPS model- EPFO & provident funds

  Benefits

Increases accountability

Increases transparency

Higher availability of public domain information

Reduces corruption

Higher penetration due to automation

Increases efficiency due to connectivity

    2006 -11: National e-Government Plan(NeGP)

National e-Governance Plan(NeGP) – make all government services accessible to common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable cost to realize the basic needs of the common man.

Initiatives under NeGP

State Wide Area Networks – connect all state

State Data Centres – host Govt apps

Common Services Centres – internet enabled centres at district level

Electronic forms through state portal – download forms & submit applications

Capacity Building – implementation from city to village

E-District – provide district administration services by web services like right to information, social welfare, ration card, birth & death certificate etc.

Citizen engagement – deep awareness of project

Current E-Gov – 12th 5yr plan (2012-17)

Deliver all Govt services in electronic mode so as to make Govt process transparent, citizen centric, efficient and easy accessible

Create sharable resources for all Govt entities

To deliver both information & transaction of Govt services over mobile

Build shared service platforms to accelerate e-Gov project implementation

To strengthen & improve existing project through innovation and infusion of advanced technology

To promote ethical use of technology & data and create safe & secure cyber world

To create ecosystem that promotes innovation in ICT for governance & for applications that can benefit the citizens Ø To better target welfare schemes of central & state Govt

To increase all round awareness & create mechanism that promotes & encourages citizen engagement

To make available as much data as possible in public domain for productive use by citizens

Digital India

The Digital India programme is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

The focus is on being transformative – to realize IT + IT = IT

The focus is on making technology central to enable change.

It is an Umbrella Programme – covering many departments.

It weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into a single, comprehensive vision so that each of them is seen as part of a larger goal.

Each individual element stands on its own. But is also part of the larger picture.

It is coordinated by DeitY, implemented by the entire government.

The weaving together makes the Mission transformative in totality

The Programme:

Pulls together many existing schemes.

These schemes will be restructured and re-focused.

They will be implemented in a synchronized manner.

Many elements are only process improvements with minimal cost.

The common branding of programs as Digital India highlights their transformative impact.

Nine Pillars of Digital India

Digital India Nine Pillars

  Broadband highways – To support Broadband for all Rural, Broadband for all Urban & National Information infrastructure by DoT & DeitY

Universal access to mobile connectivity- For providing coverage to uncovered villages with mobile connectivity

Public internet access programme-  This has two important sub components

CSCs- Aims to cover each gram panchayat to provide delivery of e_services to the citizens

Post-Office- To be converted into multi service centers

E-governance – reforming government through technology

Online applications and tracking – Online applications and tracking of their status should be provided.

Online repositories – Use of online repositories e.g. for certificates, educational degrees, identity documents, etc. should be mandated so that citizens are not required to submit these documents in physical form.

Integration of services and platforms – Integration of services and platforms e.g. Aadhaar platform of Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI), payment gateway, Mobile Seva platform, sharing of data through open Application Programming Interfaces (API) and middleware such as National and State Service Delivery Gateways (NSDG/SSDG) should be mandated to facilitate integrated and interoperable service delivery to citizens and businesses.

Ekranti – electronic delivery of services- There are 44 Mission Mode Projects under e-Kranti programme. These mission mode projects are grouped into Central, State and Integrated projects. You can read more details – here.

Information for all- Open Data platform, Social Media Engagement and Online Messaging

Electronics manufacturing- promoting electronics manufacturing in the country with the target of NET ZERO Imports by 2020.

IT for jobs- This pillar focuses on providing training to the youth in the skills required for availing employment opportunities in the IT/ITES sector.

Early harvest programmes- Early Harvest Programme basically consists of those projects which are to be implemented within short timeline. Such as Biometric attendance, Wi-Fi in public places, secure email, SMS based alerts.

Important Key Points to remember

The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has been formulated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY) and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) in 2006.

[xharleyxjonesx-blog]

Doc Shredding, Password Security, And A Lot More

8. Since indoor tanning does not require the use of a bathing suit, use a towel to cover those ‘sensitive areas that dont see the sun very often if you want to tan all over. You might want to use an artificial sweeter as opposed to sugar. While this is indeed convenient, it makes it just like any other business. With our economy these days, people are following a strict budget and like to save as much as possible. This will help to repel possums because these chips come from quassia plants which are usually native to South America and Central America. We will learn about this in detail along with where it stands in comparison to other generic flea and tick control for dogs and cats. 4. Medicare Part D. These prescription drug benefit plans change every year, in terms of the drugs they cover, the co-payments you will pay for a specific drug, the pharmacies they include, and the basic premium for the policy itself. This will detour robbers and salesman. Prior to selling the commercially bottled extract on store shelves 19th century pharmacists used to mix and sell the syrup on request. 250 million internal program to “disrupt rogue online pharmacies,” as part of a deal to end shareholder litigation over its alleged placement of advertisements offering to sell prescription drugs from outside the United States, Reuters reports. Statistics show that around 60,000 individuals countrywide undergo surgery with general anesthesia and other Canadian prescription drugs readily available in Canadian pharmacies . There are many reasons why buying drugs online is a wise decision. • Make an evaluation of the ingredients that are used in both. Marketing to a global audience isn’t the best interest for all businesses, but for companies that are selling products online it has been found to vastly increase their customer base. Refinancing - If you’re paying a high interest rate on your home mortgage, now’s a good time to explore refinancing. Provide pamphlets and brochures for employees to take home to family members. Within three days, I boarded a plane and flew home to North Carolina - travel was not a big issue. Criminal homicides are subdivided into three categories: murder, capital murder and manslaughter. Because these creatures are extremely territorial, they are not easily relocated especially if they decide to seek shelter in your home's attic. They are pretty, interesting and very educational for me! The situation is such that American HMOs are encouraging US citizens to get the prescriptions medications from Canada. 1. Be sure that your children know the phone number and address of the facility that you are staying in. Great to see you and do good to know you enjoyed. I phone them “screens”. This brings back old memories of bewing batches of root beer as a kid. Within 20 minutes, it was back down to 80/120. Four days later, I gave her 0/25 ml. I understand that cooling root beer after the "four days" stops the fermentation. You can not claim just about anything for specified on the subject of e-squander as well as its outcome on the surroundings in the arriving years possibly, canada pharmacies online that’s why this should be taken into thing to consider. Aside from novelty, the soapy bubbles that your child soaks in every night have another purpose - they can be nourishing, moisturizing, and even calming. United States and you can also find them in online stores. Ensure is a gluten-free product available in pharmacies, grocery stores and other retailers and does not require a prescription. I have heard (and I could not verify this) that if you attempt to bring in large quantities of prescription controlled substances to Kuwait (with or without a doctor's note/prescription), you may be stopped and a case may be registered. She was Barbara. She was one of the most intelligent, special ladies I have ever known. Bites occur when people pass close by the females web, or if one has crept into your shoes or bed. Many people order this medication online, resulting in large profits for online drug companies. 6. Pay attention to you surrounding at all times, and on any suspicious people or places. We always question what they'll think of modern medicine 100 years from now. And for others, they have tried everything medicine has to offer and using a hemorrhoids natural cure is their last resort. Private clinics tend to have higher success rates because these are focused only on addiction recovery. Basically all forms of diabetes are due to the fact that the beta cells in the pancreas cannot produce sufficient insulin to prevent hyperglycemia but their causes vary. Due date to in shape borrower’s plan. 20 per pill. Most of these companies do not take insurance. What is drug addiction? 6. Once you build up your base, you really dont need to tan as often. With automation, uncooked products could be shipped quickly and successfully to the required projects and finished items could be delivered out for shipping and delivery.

[aeriesblockchaincorp-blog]

Blockchain - Rescuing KYC post Aadhaar Verdict

For some in India's private sector, the Supreme Court's prohibition on privately owned businesses utilizing Aadhaar implies the time has come to reconsider business strategies. They may need to do so only temporarily, due to the pressure built by government Indeed, high-stakes legal and policy clashes have just started.

Impact on the private sector

After the Aadhaar judgment, private companies across sectors are looking at increased operational costs and changes to their business models, at least in the short to medium term. These progressions are not negligible and will affect the organizations as well as consumers and markets as a whole.

Here’s an example, Aadhaar-enabled KYC had a vast influence in Reliance Jio's story of overcoming adversity, which caused a gradually expanding influence over India's telecom sector, incorporating a sharp fall in service rates, even market union, and mergers. Presently, barring another law that empowers non-state entities to utilize the Aadhaar framework, disturbance at this scale sooner rather than later may turn out to be troublesome.

For the nation's digital payments industry, especially fintech startups Aadhaar-based verification helped minimize expenses. Startups are particularly delicate to operational expenses. The increased expenses of non-Aadhaar based KYC will now be met either by consuming investor capital or, more probable in the long haul, passing them on to the clients. In case of fintech firms, for example, cryptocurrency exchanges verifying users’ identity through Aadhaar was essential to counteract illicit trading.

Numerous customers such financial inclusion platforms serve may have no other method for verifying their identity, and the prohibition of Aadhaar as an identity confirmation system will mean abolition from such services through and through. What’s the way forward?

In spite of the fact that the apex court has banned biometric-based e-KYC, there is no cause for alert among banks, telecom companies, and fin-tech firms, they can explore several available alternatives to Aadhaar-based authentication instead.

While other centralized solutions may alleviate some of the KYC challenges, the blockchain architecture will provide a modern and elegant way forward with immutability and security features that help provide greater trust in, and integrity of the data. e-KYC is one of the strongest use cases of Blockchain where the digital identity of an individual is kept on blockchain and different service providers can make use of it.

Currently, establishments offering financial or professional services are obliged to pursue time-devouring and expensive practices for each new customer. The adoption of Blockchain technology can lead to the reduction of the KYC cost because of its cross-establishment client verification capacity and in addition to the effectiveness of observing and investigating data, required for KYC checks.

 Distinguishing characteristics of Blockchain

Blockchain is an immutable technology and once data is verified and stored in the distributed database it can't be manipulated — just updated. The speed and ease with which blockchain enables participants to get useful and quality data make it very appealing to regulators, banks and law enforcement agencies around the globe.

1. Decentralized -

Blockchain is distributed and synchronized crosswise over huge systems; hence, it is suitable for advanced hierarchical business networks, for example, financial consortia or supply chains.

2. No trusted Authority

Any centralized database is prone to get hacked and they demand trust in the third party to keep the database secure. Blockchain overrides the need for a central authority by distributing data previously held in a centralized ledger over a network of computers.

3. Immutable Records:

Blockchain is inherently immutable — once recorded, data on the blockchain can't be changed retroactively without the alteration of every single subsequent block and a collusion of the network larger part.

4. Auditability

By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to alteration of any stored data. Practically, a blockchain can serve as an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. Thus, one of the applications of blockchain is that it can be used as a source of verification for reported transactions.

Advantages of Blockchain If blockchain was used in place of Aadhar for identity verification, most of the concerns could be assuaged.

●      Increase speed from 3-4 weeks of onboarding time to 1 week or less by compressing data gathering and automating processes

●      Reduce costs decrease significantly costs to at least 20% less by eliminating duplication through shared services

●      Reduce risk via a redundant. distributed and shared ledger that acts as in immutable assured audit trail of all the corporate KYC processes.

●      Enhance experience via instant visibility across all shared information by customers, secured through a consent-based mechanism, which controls information access.  

Aadhar Vs Blockchain

 Key challenges to Aadhaar

Since its inception, Aadhaar has been criticized as a project encompassing ample scope for forgery and fraud.

●       The fallibility of biometric data: A testimony has already been presented in court expressing that fingerprints can be replicated and the same has been demonstrated to the UIDAI too. Replicated fingerprints as passwords can be used to alter Aadhaar data with no notice to the end user and auditor.

●       The government has control over data, code, and tracking: Aadhaar is under control of the government through which it can track anyone's login patterns, representing a threat to the Right to Privacy, a fundamental right as per a recent judgment by the Supreme Court.

●       The effectiveness of linking Aadhaar with Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT): Leaked data can be used to alter already existing data linked with DBT. On the off chance that the central database is hacked, the entire system may crumble down affecting the nation's citizens on the loose.

On the other hand, Blockchain/Distributed ledger is immutable and distributed around multiple nodes. Unless 51% of the nodes are compromised all at one time, manipulation of the data becomes impossible. Highly improbable! As per 2001 Sensex, India has 12% population under the age of five. Biometric authentication does not work since it keeps changing till the age of five and hence makes Aadhaar system inefficient in dealing such citizens data. Any data kept on Blockchain is immutable and hence will survive the time test!

 eKYC platform on Blockchain

A blockchain-based Aadhar would help the database match the data protection stipulations outlined in the Right to Privacy judgment. It would allow for information to be collected and held transparently, with the consent of the individual whose information it is.

We can keep the hash of demographics as well as biometric data on to the blockchain. As part of the KYC verification process, whenever the service provider receives data from the CIDR, it can validate the hash of that data against the hash stored in the blockchain and hence can confirm the validity. This will make Aadhaar more transparent, despite the fact that all the user records are maintained centrally. Visit: https://aeries.io/services/blockchain/

[suzannemcappsca]

Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) in Brazil: a major opportunity for stakeholders

Andrea Maia and Daniel Becker

The arrival of the internet age has posed many new challenges as a larger part of the economy has started to operate online and transnationally with a new emerging framework. After the spread of the global computer network and the rise of online business activities and operations, it became necessary for disputes between contracting parties to be resolved online – cheaply, quickly and efficiently – thereby culminating in the development of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) methods.

Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)

While old disputes are vanishing from society (e.g., which neighbor owns the fruit from a tree that falls on the boundary of their properties) new disputes are exponentially being created by the interconnection of the world and the inclusion of more individuals in the world-wide web. The internet age is rapidly increasing the connectivity of society and the number of transactions conducted.

Bearing in mind this frenzy of disputes, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) organized in June 2017 a conference titled “Equal access to information and justice, online dispute resolution” in which stakeholders from more than 30 countries discussed the progress of ODR, as Mirèze Philippe, Special Counsel at the ICC International Court of Arbitration and co-founder of ArbitralWomen detailed commented at a post last year . Due to the new requirements of operations and contracts established on the internet, understanding ODR and its techniques becomes, above all, the new dispute resolution lawyer’s duty. This trend has four pillars, which can be summarized as (i) the virtualization of the courts, (ii) the use of decision-making algorithms, (iii) the use of big data for dispute prevention* and (iv) free access to legal information**.

ODR has been gaining wider acceptance in conflict resolution, especially in the e-commerce context. The early adopters of ODR were e-commerce marketplaces, who created a channel in their websites for resolving the disputes arising from the business held within the company. The American eBay, the Chinese Alibaba and the Brazilian Mercado Livre solve their conflicts in an impersonal, objective and predictable way at an impressive settlement rate of approximately 90%. . An important point in this regard is that the more conflicts they resolve, the more their algorithms collect data that serves to provide more precise responses, improving the settlements.

In the public sector, ODR has also been growing. Fifteen years ago, the Money Claim Online program was set up by the Ministry of Justice of England and Wales in order to allow users to open protocols equivalent to collection actions in the amount of up to GBP 100,000. Virtual court statistics are extremely positive: they are able to resolve more than 60,000 cases a year, according to Prof. Richard Susskind in his book Tomorrow’s Lawyers: an introduction to your future (Oxford University Press, Oxford: 2012). In the Canadian province of British Columbia, the first online tribunal, the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT), has been operating since 2016, accepting claims of up to CAD 5,000, aside from condominium disputes, which have no pre-specified amount.

It is important to note that, although ODR is expanding, its methods are still restricted to simpler controversies that can be adapted to pre-defined parameters. Its use so far is not viable for complex cases with large values at stake, which require extensive evidence production. On the contrary, simple litigation cases involving consumer law, for example, which can overwhelm the judiciary and could easily be resolved, are good candidates for resolution by ODR. Conventional litigation for these cases can be quite costly, time consuming and inefficient, proving ODR to be the most efficient solution.

Brazil: offline crisis, online opportunity

When we look at the implementation of ODR services, there are two factors that must be taken into account: (1) Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and (2) the local digital economy. Both give an indication as to how quickly the ODR infrastructure is developing, especially when considering its use to resolve disputes involving online and offline commerce.

According to the Justice in Numbers 2016 report published by the National Justice Council (CNJ), court litigation represents a cost of 1,3% of the Brazilian GDP . Also, a study published in 2016 by Valor Econômico (a leading business newspaper in Brazil), entitled “The Costs of Court Litigation to Organizations” states that the Brazilian Justice System has about 100 million cases. If we consider that in 2014 companies spent close to BRL 124,81 billion (approximately USD 35 billion) in litigation, it is not difficult to understand why the need for changes and improvements has become mandatory.

Consumer cases rank in third place amongst those faced by Brazilian companies and, in Rio de Janeiro alone, the second most populated state Brazilian State, over five hundred thousand new cases are filed every year.

Notwithstanding that, the Brazilian Judiciary Branch was stagnant in the last century. Although the Law No. 11,419/06 (Electronic Procedure Act) has been enacted more than ten years ago, little has changed in terms of procedural speed since the electronic procedure merely replicated the steps of an offline lawsuit. Without any cognitive computing devices, case management, document automation and data science to facilitate processing and decision, judges are being flooded with new lawsuits in a number that has grown exponentially since the enactment of this law, according to Daniel Becker and Isabela Ferrari.

Fortunately, in August 2017, during the Conference on Civil Procedural Law organized by the Brazilian Federal Justice Council (CJF), the Statement No. 25 was approved, which provides that conciliation or mediation hearings may be held by videoconference, audio, exchange of messages, online conversation, writing, electronic means telephone or other mechanisms that serve the purpose of self-composition . This measure allows bolder approaches by judges to carry out their court proceedings with a larger involvement of technology.

In the same sense, aiming to try to decrease such a high demand of pending and new cases, the CNJ (National Justice Council) enacted the Resolution No. 125/2010, which regulates the Judicial Policy for the Treatment of Conflicts, which was recently updated. On its Amendment number 2, as along with several other important adjustments, the Digital Mediation System was introduced to allow a pre-procedural resolution of conflicts as well as a consensual action in ongoing legal proceedings.

However, there is still a strong resistance to ODR methods. The legal industry demand for ODR is only 2% according to research carried out by the Brazilian Association of Lawtechs & Legaltechs (AB2L) on 2017. This happens not only because of a lack of knowledge about the method itself and the benefits inherent of this type of dispute settlement , but also because of the traditional and old school mindset of many lawyers.

In Brazil, arbitration took approximately fifteen years to go mainstream; mediation is still crawling. ODR cannot afford to evolve and to be popularized in such a slow pace. Otherwise the Brazilian Justice System will simply stop working, while its citizens will be isolated from one of the most fundamental rights of modern societies: access to justice.

Conclusion

Technology has come to the legal field to stay. ODR methods will undoubtedly aid to improve access to justice. These methods are capable of reducing the judicialization of ordinary conflicts of a simpler nature. From a social perspective, it is necessary to question whether investing a large part of the Brazilian limited public resources with judicial courts is, in fact, appropriate when there are faster and less expensive alternatives available.

*Ethan KATSH and Orna Rabinovich-Einy. Digital Justice: technology and the internet of disputes (Oxford University Press, New York 2017, 46-47. **Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind. The Future of the Professions (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015), 43-44.

More from our authors:

EU Mediation Law Handbook: Regulatory Robustness Ratings for Mediation Regimes by Nadja Alexander, Sabine Walsh, Martin Svatos (eds.) € 195 Essays on Mediation: Dealing with Disputes in the 21st Century by Ian Macduff (ed.) € 160.00

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from Updates By Suzanne http://mediationblog.kluwerarbitration.com/2018/09/09/online-dispute-resolution-odr-brazil-major-opportunity-stakeholders/