Today’s dominant internet platforms are built on aggregating users and user data. As these platforms have grown, so has their ability to provide value — thanks to the power of network effects — which has enabled them to stay ahead. For example, Facebook’s (now Meta’s) data on user behavior helped it fine-tune its algorithms to a point that its content feed and ad targeting were dramatically better than what competitors could offer. Amazon, meanwhile, has exploited its broad view into customer demand to both optimize delivery logistics and develop its own product lines. And YouTube has built a massive library of videos from a wide array of creators, enabling it to offer viewers content on almost any topic.
In these business models, locking in users and their data is a key source of competitive advantage. As a result, traditional internet platforms typically do not share data even in aggregate — and they make it difficult for users to export their social graphs and other content. So, even if users grow dissatisfied with a given platform, it’s often not worth it to leave.
But all of this might be changing. While it’s hard for newcomers to challenge “Web 2.0” companies like Meta on their own terms, now companies — working in what they’re calling a “Web3” model — are proposing a novel value proposition. Despite all the public conversations around the metaverse and various hyper-financialized NFT projects, Web3, more than anything, is a fundamentally different approach that some developers have agreed to. It’s based on the premise that there’s an alternative to exploiting users for data to make money — and that instead, building open platforms that share value with users directly will create more value for everyone, including the platform.
In Web3, instead of platforms having full control of the underlying data, users typically own whatever content they have created (such as posts or videos), as well as digital objects they have purchased. Moreover, these digital assets are typically created according to interoperable standards on public blockchains, instead of being privately hosted on a company’s servers. This makes the assets “portable,” in the sense that a user can, in principle, leave any given platform whenever they want by unplugging from that app and moving — along with their data — to another one.
Continue reading: https://hbr.org/2022/05/why-build-in-web3

Artistic autonomy has probably been a fraught issue since the dawn of time. Even artists like Michelangelo had to balance creative desires with the whims of his patrons, at times sacrificing artistic integrity for his livelihood. While the advent of the creator economy emboldens contemporary artists to create what they choose to (and how), the relationship between creators and the platforms that host them—like YouTube, Twitch and TikTok—can still be parasitic. Such platforms rely on digital talent to drive user engagement, yet creators receive only a small fraction of the revenue they generate. Throughout my experience in running an agency that works with content creators and artists, this is something I’ve witnessed firsthand.
Recently, we have expanded to working with brands within the blockchain and Web3 space, which is how I recognized the opportunities it presents to artists and content creators. A decentralized, blockchain-based Web3 framework provides artists with complete control over their business, empowering content creators in unprecedented ways. Here are three of the most significant:
Ownership
In the current creator economy, creators rarely own the media they produce with full control. Instagram, for example, can use user content for promotional purposes, as well as distribute, copy, modify and sell users’ material. It can even transfer these rights to third parties. For those, like content creators, who devote large amounts of time to producing original media, this can be immensely frustrating. In Web3 environments, however, digital creators can use blockchain technology to establish digital copyright. Creators can tokenize their content as NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which use blockchain technology to demonstrate the provenance and ownership of media.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2022/05/16/how-web3--blockchain-tech-can-empower-artists/?sh=29d6c4f17483

I just love me some data that tells a good story. To all the equality champions out there - Keep up the good work!  There's still much left to do.  Companies continue to move towards parity and the commitment to diversifying board composition continues. Women are rising in numbers and in representation in the boardroom. In April women comprised 41.1% of new appointments to the boards of public companies. Public companies appointed 125 women to boards and 175 men to their boards. Women are rising up, and the monthly average holding steady at around 41%. 
https://www.wbcollaborative.org/women-boards/monthly-reports/april-2022-report/

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help e-commerce brands and retailers deliver valuable customer experiences across online channels. Implementing AI may seem like a daunting task due to its underlying complexity and various applications, yet nothing could be further from the truth.
With the proliferation and increasing adoption of AI across the retail industry, there are now several approaches to gain from its advantages. This article highlights two easy ways to implement AI in e-commerce.
Why AI is Significant for Online Businesses
More and more enterprises are implementing AI as its benefits are difficult to pass on. According to Accenture, AI can boost profitability by an average of 38 percent across 16 industries, including retail, by 2035. To achieve that, however, AI must be directed to efforts that can guarantee success in e-commerce.
Today, a key differentiator for brands is personalization. It’s also one of customers’ top expectations from the online shopping experience. McKinsey reported that 71 percent of customers expect brands to deliver personalized interactions, and 76 percent become frustrated when that’s not met.
Continue reading: https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/the-easiest-ways-to-use-ai-in-e-commerce/

Technology has brought on a lot of amazing innovations, and artificial intelligence is one of them.
Artificial intelligence has been around for quite a while now, and it has helped us in a lot of ways. It has improved the way we interact in our daily lives and even helped the way businesses operate. 
To take it a step further, some scientists and analysts have stated that the advancement of AI is so rapid that they believe it will surpass human intelligence by 2045. Due to this analysis, artificial intelligence stocks have gone through the roof.
Now, a lot of businesses are incorporating artificial intelligence into their everyday tasks. But what is artificial intelligence? And why is it making the front lines of every news outlet these days?
 If you’re wondering how exactly AI can help your business, you’re in luck. I have listed five of the best ways artificial intelligence can help a business.
Product recommendation systems that boost revenue
Since the inception of businesses, one of its main goals has remained to bring in revenue. However, this seems to have become a major problem, nowadays.
Only about 10% of startups and businesses actually make it past five years of establishment. Many others are forced to close due to a lack of revenue influx.
AI has brought a solution to this, and it becomes better as it learns more about business. Now, there are machine learning and artificial intelligence systems on social media and search engines that recommend products to users using some special analysis. 
They would only recommend products based on that particular user’s personal taste, which sharply improves marketing efficiency. 
Continue reading: https://knowtechie.com/5-ways-artificial-intelligence-helps-businesses/

Technology revolutions often move through predictable phases. What begins in science laboratories is put to work and scaled by organizations—and then those organizations contend with how to manage the technology toward its greatest value. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) has reached this third phase, and to capture the most potential benefit, we are called to consider AI through the lenses of effective governance, ethics and trust.
Like any technology, enterprises should be able to trust that the AI tools they use deliver the outcomes they expect. While there is no silver bullet, there are leading practices. To understand why they are important, we should first appreciate just how nuanced AI is in today’s marketplace.
The many shapes of AI deployment
The qualities of an AI tool are a function of the model type, the underlying data and the factors specific to each use case. Assessing AI impact means understanding it within the context of a business application.
Imagine a facial recognition system. In one scenario, it is acquired by a retailer and deployed in stores to track customer age, sentiments and reactions while shopping. The AI outputs are used to inform real-time personalized advertising to influence buying decisions.
In another scenario, the same facial recognition system is trained to detect expressions consistent with someone who is being abducted or trafficked. The system is paired with CCTV cameras in airports and train stations to help law enforcement stop human trafficking.
We see from this how the same AI system can be deployed for unrelated use cases and with significantly different outcomes. This can be true for AI used within the same industry and even within the same organization.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/05/16/why-is-solving-for-trust-in-ai-so-challenging/?sh=447610846f48

Blockchain is state-of-the-art technology. In the past ten years, it has grown steadily in popularity even though it has been around since the 90s.
In the healthcare industry, things can become a bit difficult to understand. Numerous issues exist in the healthcare industry.
One of the most significant issues with the healthcare industry is that healthcare expenses rise considerably more rapidly than inflation rates or personal income does.
There is a possibility that Blockchain can help solve this issue. There's also the possibility that it will aid in decentralising the industry.
Decentralised and centralised systems have their advantages, but blockchain can aid in several ways.
Blockchain technology will be responsible for great leaps in healthcare advancement in a few years.
According to research done by BIS, worldwide health blockchain revenue is expected to reach $5.61 billion by 2025.
Blockchain-based healthcare information exchange will account for most total market revenue.
What exactly is blockchain?
A blockchain is a decentralised database that keeps track of all transactions. There are blocks in the database, each containing the history of the blocks that preceded it.
It is often referred to as an infallible public ledger of financial activities that can be configured to record banking transactions and almost everything of significance/value.
This innovative decentralized blockchain technology has the potential to alter the healthcare sector by enhancing the security, confidentiality, and accessibility of health data.
It can also increase the efficiency and safety of electronic health records (EHRs), serving as a new paradigm for exchanging health information between different institutions.
Satoshi Nakomoto is the pseudonym of the individual or group responsible for creating Bitcoin and the first blockchain database under which transactions are recorded.
How can decentralization help the healthcare industry?
Medical records, personal information, and other patient information can be decentralized thanks to the power of blockchain technology.
Blockchain includes a wide range of characteristics, including decentralization, security, and immutability.
By making medical records more widely available, the blockchain could help to decentralize the healthcare sector.
Medical records would be shared more easily and securely using blockchain technology if all medical records were converted.
It will be simpler for any medical practitioner to provide faster processing and thus a more quick medical response if the data is decentralized.
Insurance companies can compete more effectively if they have access to standardized and decentralized patient medical information.
Medical records administration and insurance claim processing are expensive and time-consuming, and blockchain can help alleviate both of these problems.
There would be fewer hurdles to entry into the insurance and healthcare industries due to improved processes, allowing smaller companies to compete more effectively.
As a result of the decentralization enabled by the blockchain, additional forms of coverage can be given, and end-users can have a greater say in their coverage selections, medical data collected, and tracking.
Continue reading: https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/health/2039027-how-blockchain-can-lower-healthcare-costs

China has made blockchain technology a strategic priority. The Blockchain-based Service Network, or BSN, is part of its efforts to enhance its capabilities in this sector.
Yoichiro Chino | moment | Getty Images
Chinese President Xi Jinping He declared that his country needed to “seize the opportunities” offered by blockchain technology.
In a speech in 2019, the Chinese leader said that blockchain was an “important breakthrough in independent innovation of core technologies.” As a result of this rhetoric, blockchain has been elevated to a national priority for China, among other technologies – such as semiconductors – in which the country is trying to boost its capabilities.
Since then, without much publicity and hype, China has been building a platform aimed at facilitating the deployment of blockchain technology for businesses. It’s called Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN).
Here’s what we know so far.
First, what is a blockchain?
Blockchain first emerged as the core technology of cryptocurrencyBitcoin. It is the distributed ledger of activity that records transactions on the Bitcoin network.
It is decentralized and no single entity owns or manages it. Instead, it is maintained by a network of participants who operate specialized computers.
Since then, there have been many different definitions of what a blockchain could look like. Some companies or governments may refer to it as distributed ledger technology. Much of that derives from whether the blockchain is public or private.

We believe that blockchain technology is so powerful that it will change the entire Internet and almost the entire architecture of the IT system.
Yifan He
CEO of Red Date Technology

Click to expand...

An unauthorized blockchain – also known as an untrusted or public blockchain – allows anyone to join a blockchain and make potential changes to it, as long as they are running a particular software or hardware.
By contrast, licensed blockchains are usually private and only allow certain participants to participate in their use.
Why do we use the blockchain?
Proponents of the technology say that blockchain can help bring transparency and speed to usually slow and costly processes, such as transferring funds across borders.
Another important aspect of blockchain technology is the so-called smart contracts. These are contracts, written in code, that are automatically executed if certain conditions are met. Proponents see these elements as essential in areas such as trade finance.
“We believe that blockchain technology is so powerful that it will transform the entire Internet and almost the entire infrastructure of the IT system,” Yifan He, CEO of Red Date Technology, told CNBC.
Red Date Technology is one of the founding members of the Blockchain-based service network in China.
“Blockchain technology in general is very important to China, as government officials see it as a low barrier to entry in the tech sector, and they want Chinese companies to push the envelope to use blockchain applications to solve real-world problems,” Paul Triolo, head of technology policy at consultancy Albright Stonebridge, for CNBC.
What can PSN do in China?
The BSN product is aimed at companies, in particular, those running cloud computing infrastructure. It can be a large public cloud launcher such asAmazon or Microsoftor it could be a company that runs its own cloud or intranet.
BSN considers itself a “one-stop shop” for deploying these blockchain applications in the cloud, a process that can be costly and time-consuming.
The Chinese company’s other selling point is that it is trying to solve a difficult problem in the industry: interoperability — or getting different blockchains to work with each other. For example, if two banks have apps built on different blockchain platforms, they may not be able to work with each other. But applications built via the BSN infrastructure will be interoperable as the company interconnects different block chains.
For companies that want to use multiple blockchain applications in their enterprise, the BSN product will allow them to do so via the cloud vendor they are using rather than installing a set of new servers to build the blockchain product. The idea is that any company or government can use the BSN platform to easily deploy blockchain applications, without incurring a high cost.
Demand is now low, according to Red Date’s He, but is optimistic about the product’s long-term future.
“I believe that within 10 years, all clouds will have a standard blockchain environment to handle all blockchain-related applications,” said the CEO.
Continue reading: https://techsprouts.com/china-blockchain-explained-what-is-bsn/

Beware of major reasons for small data failure to make an AI project successful in future
Big data is dominating the global tech market and transforming it into a data-centric world in recent times. Cutting-edge technology models and projects of artificial intelligence need data to drive meaningful insights to earn profit while having a deep understanding of human behaviour. Working on an AI project is essential for effective data management and to look out for small data failure. Yes, a small data failure can lead to a massive collapse of an AI project because data is the essential or key element in that. Small data failure can lead to cost huge losses of millions of dollars in a company. Thus, let’s explore some of the top reasons for an AI project to collapse because of a small data failure.
Small data failure is directly proportional to an AI project failure
It is known that an AI project involves a majority of data from primary research that provides small data due to the time-consuming process. Data scientists or other data professionals may have a deeper knowledge of the artificial intelligence algorithms behind AI project models. But there can be a lack of the importance of assumptions behind working on any technique. An AI project largely depends on data from different sources in the form of structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data. Thus, for effective data management, big data helps in providing the relevant data that can be used for training purposes. If there is any small data failure like negligence or potential error in collecting and reporting the necessary data, it can lead to AI project failure. The unsuccessful AI project will not provide an accurate prediction or meaningful in-depth insights to drive profit in the nearby future.
Small data failure can create a drastic effect on the data management of an AI project due to the involvement of necessary information. This includes information from CRM, customers, sales, customer behaviour, customer satisfaction, customer engagement, and many more. these factors are all important for a successful AI project. Smart functionalities of artificial intelligence depend on the relevant information for effective data management for the betterment of the target audience.
Continue reading: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/why-small-data-failure-will-result-in-major-ai-project-collapse/

I lived the life of a data engineer. The majority of my time as a data engineer was dedicated to writing or maintaining data pipelines. Every time I thought I was on top of things, something new would set me back. There was always a new request for faster analytics, new data in the pipeline, or scaling to an impossible level.
My day-in-the-life-of-a-data engineer story went like this:

• Fielding around five requests a day to create new tables, update schemas, and change transformations. (Of course, from the point of view of my internal customer, each of these requests was urgent.)
  
• Starting work at 2 a.m. because operations wouldn’t allow me to change data pipelines during work hours.
  
• Responding to calls from the network operations center about production data pipelines not completing, leading me to have to profile the problem, restart servers, increase server sizes, and clean temporary data that wasn't purged -- all under extreme time pressure.

I was burnt out. This drove me to change my life -- not only to change careers but to build a product and company that would address the insanity of data pipeline engineering. I joined Yoni Eini, a CTO in the Israeli Defense Force, to solve this problem for us (and the world).
Data Engineers Feel Burnt Out
It turns out that I was not the only one suffering burnout due to data pipeline engineering. We have been hearing a great deal lately about data engineers feeling exhausted and ready to leave their jobs. One aspect that is rarely talked about in this discussion is the role that manual operations for data pipelines play in the mounting frustration levels for data engineers.
According to an October 2021 study, 97 percent of data engineers reported experiencing burnout in their daily jobs. Nearly 80 percent reported they were considering switching careers. Four in five respondents (78 percent) wished they’d had a therapist available to help them cope with work stress.
This is troubling for a number of reasons. First, as tech leaders, we want professionals to be in jobs they enjoy and where they feel they are making important contributions without feeling overwhelmed. Second, as the U.S. deals with the Great Resignation and a large number of professionals are leaving their jobs and careers, the tech industry is feeling the pain.
Right now we need more -- not fewer -- data engineers. Data engineering is suffering from an intense talent gap already. To get a sense of how big the shortage is, I recently looked on LinkedIn and discovered that there are 217,000 open data engineer positions in the U.S. for only 33,000 employed data engineers, roughly a 6.5-to-1 ratio of jobs to people. This ratio eclipses that of data science, a profession which has for years been the skills deficit poster child. I also found roughly 398,000 open data science positions and 78,000 employed data scientists, a 5-to-1 ratio, which is bad but still a better situation than for data engineering.
Finally, the advent of big, complex, and streaming data, combined with real-time analytics and machine learning users, has made data engineering much more difficult than it was when I experienced this pain. Data engineers used to be productive with SQL and Oracle under their belts. Today they need to manage several data platforms, write production code on complex distributed systems, and perform more manual operations (orchestration, file system management, and state management, for example) than ever before.
Continue reading: https://tdwi.org/articles/2022/05/16/diq-all-how-to-prevent-data-pipeline-engineering-burnout.aspx

Data fabric and data mesh both strive to bring organization to the data that is spread across the databases or data lakes. Data fabric is very technology-centric, and data mesh focuses on organizational changes.
Every data-first company strives to or is already in the process of adopting a self-service business intelligence model. A lot of these companies are still not in a position to make their data fully accessible across their platform and scale it across to all their users across different verticals. For these companies, data that sits in siloes in a data warehouse or a data lake with no to limited facilitating capabilities as and when the teams require. Here is where data technologies like data mesh and data fabric come into play.
When looked at superficially, both might look fundamentally similar. After all, meshes come into existence from fabrics. Considering their impact on any IT system, it might be worthwhile to learn the difference between these two offerings to identify the right product fit for your organization. In many cases, finding the best of both worlds, an entity-centric data fabric can incorporate the data product concepts of data mesh, and the decentralization of data engineering might just be what the organization needs.
Data fabric
Noel Yuhanna, a Forrester analyst, was one of the first people to bring a definition to data fabric. Data management tools have come a long way from databases to data warehouses, then data lakes, depending upon the complexity of business solutions. Data fabric can be considered the logical next step in the data management process.
Data fabric is a metadata-driven process at its core, where it aims to connect a wide array of data sources and tools in a united and self-service manner. As the sizes of the data stored in the organizations keep increasing, the number of silos that hold this data as well increases. The type of data also widely varies in the way that it could be transactional or operational data.
With data fabric deployed over these repositories, data lakes, or warehouses, it brings about clarity in terms of the centralization of data across the organization. It makes data provisioning easier for the consumers downstream, be it data engineers, QA management engineers, or analysts. It should be noted, though, that while the management of this data is centralized, the access locations remain the same.     
Continue reading: https://www.rtinsights.com/data-fabric-vs-data-mesh-key-differences-and-similarities/

To commemorate AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) Heritage Month, CompTIA’s Advancing Tech Talent, and Diversity Community and AWIT is highlighting the extraordinary technological innovations that come from the AAPI community. We are shining a spotlight on several individuals who have demonstrated long and successful careers in technology and we want to encourage others to pursue careers in tech.
Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month: Three Innovators Transforming the Tech Industry
Please share more contributions that we can celebrate. 

Cryptocurrency is defined as “a digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography, rather than by a centralized authority.” Cryptocurrency is used as a digital form of payment in investments or to purchase goods and services.
Although it has been around since the mid to late 1990s, it is often thought of as fairly new since it only recently has gained popularity. However, the industry has been male-dominated since the beginning, causing a gender imbalance in the growing industry. 
Despite the development of cryptocurrency, many are still intimidated to invest. Giving women educational tools and resources like workshops, advice from an expert or joining a Women in Blockchain organization allows them to explore into the world of cryptocurrency. Learning and investing in cryptocurrency would eventually create a level playing field for women that have been on the sidelines. 
According to Yahoo, more than twice the amount of investors are men, compared to women. In a Pew Research Center survey, 43% of men said they have invested in or traded cryptocurrency, compared to the 19% of reported women.
“Women don’t feel they know much about cryptocurrency,” Eva Crouse wrote for CNBC.
One of the main reasons why women are underrepresented in the cryptocurrency industry is that the industry has not addressed its own inherent issues with diversity. According to CNBC, crypto was meant to “democratize” the financial services industry by allowing diverse investors into the field. 
Continue reading: https://dailytitan.com/opinion/leaving-women-out-of-crypto-widens-wealth-gap/article_ec5db3d4-d488-11ec-b242-1bf5c1751f7a.html

By now, you’ve probably heard of bitcoin. You might even know someone who’s invested in it or another cryptocurrency. You might have even thought about investing in crypto yourself.
However, the buzzword-heavy space can be a difficult one to wrap your head around.
What is cryptocurrency, and why do people invest in it?
Cryptocurrencies are new-age digital currencies with some key defining characteristics. They leverage cryptography to provide a high level of security, meaning they are incredibly difficult to counterfeit or double-spend. Most run on blockchain technology, meaning they are decentralized and not controlled by any one entity, such as a central bank or other financial institution.
Cryptocurrencies have gained significant traction recently and particularly during the pandemic, where many young investors were flush with both time and cash (in the form of government stimulus). This prompted prices to soar, which then caught the attention of many larger institutional investors.
How do you buy cryptocurrency, and what is a digital wallet?
The first port of call when buying cryptocurrency is an online exchange, which acts similarly to a share brokerage platform, such as CommSec. Some of the more popular local and international exchanges are Coinbase, Kraken, BTCMarkets and Independent Reserve.
Once you’ve set up an account, transferred some money and run through the mandatory “know your customer” process, you can then get to purchasing your crypto. On most exchanges, this is as easy as picking what you want and hitting a big green “buy” button.
Continue reading: https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/what-exactly-is-cryptocurrency-and-why-has-it-become-so-popular-20220309-p5a35k.html

Data from Colourintech and Meta shows that 56% of Black people in tech feel unable to negotiate a fair salary – while 75% of white respondents feel empowered in doing so
In 2020, many businesses across the world made commitments to furthering racial equality post-George Floyd – as Black Lives Matter activism led the way to a collective realisation of contemporary racism, across all sectors.
While promises to change the power dynamics acting against racial minorities were widespread, what were the outcomes of those commitments?
The UK Tech Workplace Equality Report finds that just 3% of UK tech workers identify as Black.
Did companies deliver meaningful change for racial minorities?
For some people, wage negotiation is a discreet but critical element of beginning a new job. For others, accessing the opportunity of the job itself is a tenuous thing. While the wage gap is a problem between genders, it also exists between different races.
According to recent research, 56% of Black people in tech didn’t feel empowered to negotiate their salary. This figure contrasts sharply against 75% of white respondents, who said they felt comfortable negotiating a fair salary.
Colourintech, working with Meta, found that Black students and professionals face many barriers when advancing in the tech industry. To figure this out, the research team looked at 2,000 individuals in tech – asking questions about finding a job, getting hired, advancing and being supported in their careers.
They found that while diversity programmes exist in some organisations, the overwhelming majority of Black people in tech faced barriers when getting into the industry. 65% of Black tech professionals said they felt this way.
Lack of training strategy for Black people in tech, despite hiring push
Saloni Shah, a student at Imperial College London in MSc Strategic Marketing, said: “Navigating the world of tech-from the kind of roles available, skills required to even not knowing from where to start and also the lack of confidence as I didn’t see a lot of people who ‘looked’ like me being in this industry.”
In the findings, it seemed that Black people in tech were the least likely to be satisfied with their current role, while people of white origin were 20% more likely to be satisfied.
It seems that some diversity programmes led to recruitment of Black tech professionals, without a substantial development plan for the new hires. This, while well-meaning, can lead to a stagnant work environment – as individuals are hired to create a diverse employee roster, with not enough thought put into how to develop their talents.
Continue reading: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/56-of-black-people-in-tech-felt-unable-to-negotiate-salary-meta-colourintech-research/135648/

The blockchain network was created to allow people to interact without the need for a central authority or government. All member nodes have equal rights to administer and manage the network’s transactions without any controlling authority. However, as the number of nodes grows, a scalability issue in blockchain has arisen.
Although this issue has surfaced for a long time, we currently have several solutions to this problem, such as sidechains, sharding, and rollups. These solutions limit the issue of scalability to greater lengths. Thus, one can consider scalability to be a dissolved issue at this rate. Let us first understand what scalability means and which factors affect it.
What is scalability?
Scalability refers to the platform’s ability to sustain a rising number of nodes and transactions. The following variables determine it:

• When a new transaction is made on the blockchain, it is broadcast to all nodes involved. In addition, anytime a new block is created, it is revealed to all nodes. As a result, this operation uses many network resources and increases propagation delay.

• The necessity for vast amounts of data to be kept on the blockchain is defined by cost and capacity. The blockchain stores all of your data, from the genesis block to your most recent transaction, even though the network’s nodes cannot retain such a massive quantity of data.

• The size of the transaction block and the time it takes to confirm a transaction are also factors in throughput. As the number of transactions grows, so does the size of the block, necessitating extra resources.

Continue reading: https://www.lcx.com/is-blockchain-scalability-still-an-issue/

While the world around us advances at dizzying rates, our workplace culture can often seem frozen in time. This leads to opportunities being lost, as well as providing a place for exploitation and abuse. Blockchain technology offers new possibilities for enterprises to function more openly and have greater data security. It also offers workers more freedom and control over their work, which are vital tools for securing a fairer future of work that embraces all individuals. The potential of blockchain technology for enterprise applications is huge. Current challenges for businesses include the ability for different roles and teams to freely collaborate and share information. 
Blockchain can help overcome these challenges. It allows for greater data security, transparency, and an open way to manage contracts and business processes. These benefits would be beneficial to any business, whether large or small. Data security is one of the most important aspects of enterprise applications. The ability to have data secure and safe from access by others is crucial for organizations of every size. Blockchain offers a new way to focus on data security. It offers a fully transparent consensus mechanism that can be verified by multiple parties, so it is much easier to prevent a party or group from modifying or accessing data in an illegitimate manner. The best way to learn about bitcoin and digital currency is at Bitcoin Motion.
How does foreign trade benefit from blockchain?
While the idea of a distributed ledger has been around for quite some time, only recently have we started to see companies implement it in a meaningful way. While blockchain is generally associated with cryptocurrencies and financial transactions, it can be used for purposes other than just digital currencies. An interesting example is the implementation of blockchain technology in regard to foreign trade. The term blockchain has been used as a catch-all phrase for any type of decentralized ledger technology. 
Continue reading: https://techbullion.com/the-changing-face-of-work-how-can-blockchain-technology-help-create-new-opportunities/

The global artificial intelligence (AI) market is predicted to reach $267 billion by 2027. But concerns have been raised about whether these advancements could replace humans in jobs as technology is being used to simulate human intelligence processes. In fact, approximately 68.5 percent of college graduates think that the development of AI could either take their job away or make them irrelevant in the next few years.
But AI can offer many benefits for human connections and collaborations. Here, we delve into the outcomes of AI and how it can benefit businesses.
Increased productivity
Artificial intelligence can help the productivity of employees, which in turn benefits collaborative situations. Implementing these technologies can help recurring meetings by offering insights. It can be tricky to take note of every element of the conversation in meetings, but AI can aid transcription to ensure that vital information is recorded. Alternatively, the customer service sector can reap the benefits too. A survey from 2021 by Economic Impact and Genesys reflected that 65 percent of customer experience leaders who integrated AI technologies into their businesses acknowledged a significant increase in agent productivity. So not only is technology boosting collaborations in the workplace, but it’s also helping connections with customers, too.
Offering inclusivity
Connections can be made with remote workers thanks to artificial intelligence. With over 4.7 million people in the U.S working remotely at least half of the time, this is an important addition for businesses to consider. Video calls are essential to those working from home, but what can AI add to this? Weak connections during a video call can often hinder the working process for employees. But AI can offer stronger connections to avoid issues, keep collaborations smooth, and reduce file sizes. Even lighting and background can be altered through artificial intelligence to offer remote workers the office experience.
Continue reading: https://betanews.com/2022/05/15/ai-collaborate-and-connect/

It’s no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the world as we know it. From retail to healthcare, nearly every industry is being disrupted by AI in one way or another. And advertising is no exception.
• According to Accenture, two-thirds of organizations are planning investments in AI over the next year, with investments expected to boost revenue by over 30% over the next four years.
• Gartner predicts that AI will be responsible for creating $3.9 trillion in business value this year alone.
• Marketing consultant group Infosys believes that nearly 85% of customer interactions will be managed by AI.
Advertising is an industry where creativity is one of the most important elements. While AI has been a part of advertising for a long time now, its role has been limited to targeted media and data analysis. However, with the advent of more powerful AI technologies, it is now starting to play a more significant role in the creative process itself. AI is combining with human creatives to provide insights and directions that creatives can alter. Ad agencies are beginning to use AI to create better ads faster and more cheaply.
For example, Wieden+Kennedy created a campaign for Nike using AI. The AI program they used helped them come up with ideas for ads, and then the team created the actual ads themselves. This was done by analyzing Nike’s past marketing campaigns and then using that data to generate creative.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2022/05/16/the-future-of-creativity-in-advertising-is-ai-for-real-this-time/?sh=44ed8d8023f7

As the scope of artificial intelligence is growing, different countries are in a race to achieve AI supremacy
Artificial Intelligence has an immense impact on socio-economic development across the world. Technology holds a wide range of promises in terms of social, security, economic, and environmental. It has the potential to disrupt and bring technological innovation, enabling a high level of learning and problem-solving capabilities. This is why Governments worldwide perceive AI as a key defining technology for economic growth. Since countries look for improving their citizens’ living standards, AI has become constructive to deliver efficiency while ensuring equity, privacy, transparency, and accountability.
The applications of AI have the potential to assist governments, corporations, and individuals to acquire new skills and training, democratize services, design, and deliver faster production times and quicker iteration cycles. They also help lessen energy usage, deliver real-time environmental monitoring, bolster cybersecurity defenses, heighten national output, minimize healthcare inefficiencies, and create new kinds of experiences and interactions for people to connect others around the world.
In order to support the secure and transparent development of artificial intelligence and strengthen their leadership in AI, countries around the world are establishing governmental and intergovernmental strategies and initiatives.
Global AI Policies
Many governments have developed AI frameworks and policies to help prompt economic and technological growth. The frameworks range from the US executive order on AI leadership, India’s National Strategy for AI #AIforAll, and China’s Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan” to “AI Made in Germany” and the “Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, among others. These strategies majorly focus on talent and education, research and development, government investment, and collaborations with other countries and regulatory frameworks for the best development and deployment of AI.
Continue reading: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/global-ai-strategy-how-different-countries-are-pursuing-ai/

There’s Nothing Artificial About Life
The Artificial Intelligence impact on the world cannot be denied. But, before we get into how, it’s important to pause to explore what AI is today. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an area of computer science that combines various disciplines intending to produce intelligent machines – devices and systems capable of executing complicated tasks that frequently need human ability but in a way that equals or exceeds human capabilities.
There are numerous fascinating applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in our daily lives. AI helps us in all aspects of our lives, whether we’re attempting to read our emails, get driving directions, or find music or movie recommendations. This article will show you how artificial intelligence is applied in everyday life.
Social Media Advertising
Experts say the AI social media market will reach $2.1 billion by 2023. The convergence of artificial intelligence and social media will become more popular as both become more pervasive in people’s lives. Social media networks use AI to promote to users more effectively. Most social networks allow marketing companies to run huge sponsored ad campaigns, but without artificial intelligence, advertisers must spend a significant amount of money generating and distributing content for each campaign. AI technology, on the other hand, may generate clever social media ads on its own. These are designed to encourage clicks and conversions, and they may contain shortened links and hashtags.
Increased Work Production
Artificial intelligence has the ability to greatly improve workplace efficiencies and supplement the work that humans can do. When it takes over mundane or dangerous work, it frees up human labor to focus on tasks requiring creativity and empathy, among other things. Moreover, people’s happiness and job satisfaction may grow if they do work they enjoy.
Continue reading: https://www.intelligentliving.co/what-impact-will-ai-have-on-our-day-to-day-life/

Lucy Flynn from Beyond Corporate Law, says to mark International Women’s Day this year, the Minister for Women announced a pilot scheme intended to level-up employment opportunities for women which would see participants disclosing salary information in job advertisements and refraining from asking job applicants about salary history during the recruitment process.
Recent polls run by the Fawcett Society - the UK's leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women's rights - found that around 60% of women and over half of the men surveyed felt that being asked about their earning history caused them to be offered a lower wage and affected their confidence when asking for better pay.
Supported by the Fawcett Society’s and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) new End Salary History campaign, which invites organisations to take the simple step of ending the practice of asking about salary history, the aim of the government’s pilot scheme is to improve pay transparency in the job application process and help bring an end to historical gender pay inequality.
Pay Gaps
Research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) shows that it is not only women, but people from ethnic minorities and disabled people who experience negative pay gaps because of barriers to accessing work and career progression.
Gender
It has been unlawful to pay people performing the same or similar work differently based on gender for decades. However, commentators and campaigners have long agreed that lack of transparency regarding pay in the UK, both at an organisational and personal level, are genuine barriers to understanding whether there is real equality of terms for the same work across the genders. 
In an attempt to overcome this, in 2017 the government introduced gender pay gap reporting responsibilities for organisations with 250 or more employees, obliging them to report the difference between what a man is paid on average per hour and what a woman is paid on average per hour within that organisation, irrespective of job role.
Despite noble intentions, the gender pay gap reporting obligations are generally accepted as providing little more than a fairly basic indicator of inequality within the workforce rather than giving an accurate representation of the level of gender pay equality – or equal pay – within an organisation.  The gender pay gap among all employees increased in 2021 to over 15%.
Ethnicity
Furthermore, despite a 2017 government-funded review into the progression of ethnic minority groups in the UK labour market recommending an introduction of mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for organisations of 50 or more employees, the government is yet to publish its response and there is still currently no obligation on organisations to disclose ethnicity pay data outside of the public sector.
However, in the year to March 2021, figures from organisations voluntarily reporting their ethnicity pay gap showed that the mean ethnicity pay gap in hourly pay between those declaring their ethnicity as White or BAME was 23%. 
Disability
As with ethnicity pay gap reporting, there is no mandatory requirement for private organisations to report what is paid to those who meet the definition of disabled under the Equality Act 2010 compared to non-disabled workers.  The results of an ongoing consultation regarding a potential introduction of disability pay gap reporting is due in June of this year.  Despite this, the ONS has long gathered information on a voluntary basis and reported its findings that the disability pay gap appears to have been increasing since 2014 and was just under 14% in 2021.
Achieving Parity of Pay
The statistics are sobering. 
But are there steps that organisations can take to understand and achieve equal pay regardless of gender, ethnicity or disability? Is transparency – be it voluntary or mandatory – the answer when mandatory pay gap reporting, as for gender, has not yet managed to counter-balance the multitude of other factors at play, such as the uneven distribution of “unpaid work” preventing women engaging more fully in paid work and female workers dominating lower paid sectors, such as care?
Campaigners and HR experts say that there are simple ways that pay gaps can be tackled at an organisational level.  For example, advertising the salary for a role from the outset, rather than stating it as “negotiable” or “competitive” is one way to remove gender, ethnicity or disability pay bias.
Continue reading: https://www.insidermedia.com/blogs/north-west/business-matters-tackling-pay-disparity

Entering uncharted waters can be a daunting experience, especially in a male-dominated industry like tech - but it's never too late for a woman to enter the space. Like any career path, there is no cookie-cutter method for breaking into this ever-changing industry. But, there are some lessons from women in the tech field that are worth keeping in mind. So, let's look at it from the foundation up.
Schooling foundation
One of the main reasons why tech remains such a male-dominated industry is because boys and girls are engrained from a young age with what types of careers they should follow based on their gender. Conversations with teenagers usually involve gendered career paths that lead to STEM careers being viewed as less feminine. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2021, “in Cloud Computing, women make up 14% of the workforce, in engineering 20%, and in data and AI 32%.” Sovtech product manager Kaira Day says, “STEM-related subjects can open many prospective doors for any student. I wish I had known and understood the opportunities sooner.” This is a common sentiment from many women in tech, that change is needed from a foundational level at schools and universities. Another common misconception is if you don’t take computer science, IT, or mathematics at school, you can’t pursue a tech career. This is completely misconstrued. Yes, certain tech fields of study do have subject requirements e.g. data science or information systems – but these degrees aren’t the only stepping stone into this sector. The diversity of the tech industry is a major benefit in this sense – its requirements are very different from the traditional professions like medicine or engineering.
Continue reading: https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/706/227753.html

Today’s Woman in Tech: Lætitia Avrot, Field CTO for EDB
Lætitia Avrot is Field CTO for EDB in France. She has worked as an IT engineer since the early 00s. She’s involved with the PostgreSQL community as she was elected PostgreSQL Europe’s treasurer, she co-founded Postgres Women, and she’s a recognized PostgreSQL project contributor.
When did you become interested in technology? What first got you interested in tech?
I was introduced to technology at a very early age because of my dad’s passion for computers. We always had a computer at home, which was not common in the early 1980s. My dad also had very strict principles around using the computer. He believed that a computer was meant for programming, not for video games. That’s why he gave me a programming book when I was eight years old. The language I learned at the time was Basic. I remembered that I had changed the compiler and the computer was writing “But I’m not crazy” each time it compiled a new program, and my father was never able to remove it!
Let’s talk about your background. How did you end up in your career path? What obstacles did you have to overcome?
My parent’s support was the driving factor behind my career path. I was very lucky to have parents who were able to pay for my education, who knew how important it was and who supported me with my choices. I was also raised by parents who taught me that I could take the same place in this world as a man.
Thankfully, I didn’t have many obstacles throughout my career and I had enough confidence to overcome the ones in my path. That said, I did face some challenges due to my gender, which many women have unfortunately experienced. I had recruiters that asked if I wanted a family and I experienced harassment from a manager. All these challenges helped me to become the strong woman that I am today.
Continue reading:https://jaxenter.com/women-in-tech-avrot-177363.html

From finance to art, blockchain enthusiasts have long claimed the technology can transform a range of industries. But, now, lawyer Martyn Huckerby believes the technology could help solve the global supply chain crisis. Huckerby is head of competition law at Tiang & Partners, a Hong Kong-based law firm. And, recently, he led a team of lawyers as they helped establish the Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN), which was launched last year with the aim of increasing digitization in the global logistics industry. “There are a lot of challenges in the [shipping and logistics industries] at the moment,” he says. “The founding members [of GSBN] have seen an opportunity.
“It is the kind of thing most lawyers would like to have the chance to work on. And it is something that will hopefully help the world,” he adds. The global supply chain certainly needs assistance. From the outbreak of Covid-19 to the war in Ukraine and China’s recent lockdowns, a string of extraordinary events has upended the system that ensures the smooth movement of goods across the world.
GSBN’s aim is to use blockchain to build a repository of digital data on global trade flows that will help “streamline operations across the entire supply chain”. To try to achieve this ambition, Huckerby and his team had to tackle a number of legal and regulatory obstacles, not least because some of the founding members are Chinese state-owned companies.
“The supply chain is a very fragmented market with participants who largely rely on paper,” explains Bertrand Chen, chief executive of GSBN. He believes digitizing logistics will speed up trade. “The biggest issue is: how do we share the data?”
Continue reading: https://www.ft.com/content/0064e0a2-2210-45de-b366-b0439cb575a2