Most mapping and surveying professionals see clear value in using drone technology for their work. Low-cost, fast-moving drones equipped with high-quality cameras and sensors can cover large areas of territory and deliver detailed and accurate information. This information that can be accessed, analyzed, and put to use immediately, saving surveying and mapping operations time and money.
Leaders in this sector were early adopters of UAV technology, and, over the years, they have found many ways to integrate drones into their projects. “Many industry experts realized that drones could quickly and inexpensively cover large areas, as well travel to hard-to-reach places,” Christian Stallings, a certified photogrammetrist and Director of Operations at Alynix, told Commercial UAV News. “Also, they understood that these vehicles could be equipped with remote sensing technology and sensors capable of delivering high-quality data.”
These realizations have spurred heavy investment in drones and related technologies. According to the 2022 study “Aerial Imaging - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics,” the worldwide aerial imaging market could hit $4.6 billion by 2026. The report asserted that the growth is driven by improvements in imaging technology, as well as “processing methods, collection platforms and cloud storage and analytics platforms.”
Looking ahead, the report stated that the aerial imaging market will continue to expand as businesses and government entities become more aware of its value in areas such as urban planning, energy exploration, security, and environmental management.
So, where do these efficiencies come from and how can the value of drones in surveying and mapping be defined? First, drones can go places where human beings cannot go, greatly expanding the scope and usefulness of surveying and mapping projects. And, as stated earlier, UAVs equipped with the right cameras and sensors enable mapping and surveying professionals to capture hundreds of aerial images and thousands of pieces of information quickly and efficiently.
Speaking of sensors and cameras, drones have changed the "photogrammetry vs. LiDAR" debate, an ongoing concern in the world of surveying and mapping. In simple terms, photogrammetry uses photographs to make measurements, while LiDAR, short for “Light Detection And Ranging,” gets its measurements using light or lasers. Both are powerful data capture technologies that become even more powerful when paired with drones.
Continue reading: https://www.commercialuavnews.com/surveying/defining-value-with-drones-as-a-tool-for-surveying-and-mapping-applications-2022

Fisheries Officers in the South West are clamping down on illegal activities with the help of the Avon and Somerset Police drone unit.
The unit is working in partnership with the Environment Agency to support fisheries officers in checking for illegal nets and out-of-season fishing.
A drone can scan miles of river bank in quick time and alert the Environment Agency to the presence of suspicious activity which may require further investigation on the ground.
Fisheries Officer, Richard Dearnley, said:

We take illegal fishing seriously. It’s through partnership working like this that we can send a clear message to those who break the law.
Anyone committing offences can expect to be prosecuted and face a substantial fine. Not only does illegal fishing damage the sport, it also poses a serious risk of spreading fish diseases and invasive species.
The irresponsible and illegal actions of a few can have widespread consequences for fisheries.

Click to expand...

Sergeant Colin Powell, at the Avon and Somerset Police drone unit, said:

Drones offer a supplement to officers on the ground and are increasingly used by police to assist in searches and to offer a different angle to crime scenes and major incidents.
It’s been great to join up with the Environment Agency and expand the use of our drones in combatting illegal activity.

Click to expand...

Continue reading: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/drones-offer-extra-eyes-to-combat-illegal-fishing-activity

Hawaii's fishing community is waiting to hear whether Gov. David Ige will sign or veto a bill that bans the use and possession of drones for fishing in, on or near state waters. Senate Bill 2065, which passed floor votes in the state House of Representatives and Senate on May 3, was criticized by some lawmakers as unfair to fishers. Under the bill, drones are allowed only for "simple reconnaissance " and not for fishing. Additionally, anyone who wants to use a drone for the approved purpose would have to apply for a permit from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
The increasing use of drones to cast fishing lines hundreds of yards from shore has raised safety and environmental concerns. In testimony supporting the bill, DLNR said the situation has led to more incidents of animals and ocean users getting caught in fishing lines. The practice also has contributed to ocean debris from abandoned fishing tackle, the agency said. During last week's floor vote, Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point ) argued that the drone ban was proposed without adequate consideration and would adversely affect subsistence fishers.
Continue reading: https://www.govtech.com/policy/hawaii-lawmakers-pass-fishing-drone-ban-to-gov-ige

At the core of the digital universe is data. Thriving at the edge of this paradigm, where it all begins, is the Internet of Things (IoT). As a key component of the digital twin story, IoT is the enabling technology for the acquisition of data that will fuel economic growth. It is also one of the starting points of the data lifecycle.
The March 2022 update of IoT Analytics’ Global IoT Enterprise Spending Dashboard, reveals the IoT market grew slightly slower than the 24% forecasted last year attributing this to factors such as a slower-than-anticipated overall economic recovery, a lack of chipsets, and disrupted supply chains.

Source: IoT Analytics 2022
North America was the fastest-growing region in 2021 (+24.1%), and process manufacturing was the fastest-growing segment (+25%).
The researcher forecasts connected IoT devices to reach 14.5 billion globally by the end of 2022. IoT Analytics noted the increasing importance of artificial intelligence in IoT projects. It posits that the infusion of AI into legacy applications and advances in AI hardware will boost the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) – a US$102.2 billion market opportunity by 2026.
Continue reading: https://futureiot.tech/what-lies-ahead-for-iot-in-2022/

If nothing else, the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would end the right to privacy allowing women to get abortions should serve as a scary wake-up call to companies that have vast stores of user data. Technology companies, including app makers and connected device companies, have a stunning array of information about people housed in their data centers. In many cases, that data is just a subpoena or warrant away from government hands.
In other cases, the data is actively harvested and sold to buyers, ranging from governments to advertisers to academic researchers. When you add connected devices into the mix — where remote access to a device and control of that device is possible — companies might be forced to turn over data and turn against customers.
Without decisive regulations on what data should be considered private, how and who can access data, and clear rules about ownership and rights that ensure a buyer has physical control of a purchased device, technology firms are creating new windows into their users’ lives and then being forced to let the government peer in. In the case of connected devices, they may even let the government open the window.
If you think I’m overstating the potential for damage that could occur as technology firms and the state collide, consider some recent examples:

• After Russian troops stole $5 million worth of agricultural equipment from a John Deere dealership in Ukraine, the company apparently bricked the combines and tractors remotely, turning them into bright green and yellow agricultural sculptures. In this case, John Deere was simply remotely controlling inventory stolen from its dealership, but I can see a future where a government pressures John Deere to remotely deactivate customer equipment if it was owned by a wanted criminal, or if doing so would change the direction of an armed conflict. In the meantime, we are currently debating, as part of the current infrastructure bill, whether or not new cars should have some kind of kill switch so that police could stop a car chase.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spent $420,000 to buy location data on millions of Americans from a private company. The CDC wanted to see if people were following COVID curfews but also wanted to track neighbor-to-neighbor visits, visits to church and pharmacies, and other related activities during the pandemic. Much of that data collection could be related to the agency’s auditing of lockdowns to better determine their effectiveness, but the CDC is also using location data for other more nebulous programs. Additionally, because location data can be tied back to addresses where a person lives or works, it’s not anonymous, which means the CDC could theoretically identify the people breaking curfew or quarantine and get law enforcement involved.

• SafeGraph, the company the CDC contracted with to buy that location data, also gave up access — this time to Vice, and for a mere $160 — to location data on people visiting abortion providers. If abortion becomes illegal in certain states, those states could easily buy data to figure out exactly who may have accessed health care services and punish them. SafeGraph’s CEO said he was glad the media called him out; he also said his company has stopped selling that data. He added, however, that researchers trying to figure out the effect of recently enacted new laws on abortion providers were frustrated by the company’s reversal on providing that data.

Continue reading: https://staceyoniot.com/we-need-laws-and-regulations-on-data-use-and-privacy/

Photo Credit: jamesteohart/Shutterstock

As devices and technologies are becoming more interconnected and can gather more data, federal agencies are looking to harness the power of "internet of things" to gather data and increase communications for enhancing their mission work.
For biomedical research, IOT capabilities have been helpful for forming ecosystems and enhancing instruments to generate large amounts of data around biological profiles, chemical properties and data analysis. These features better enable researchers to improve drug and treatment discovery, noted Timothy Mierzwa, enterprise strategy lead at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences' (NCATS) IT Resources Branch.
Not only are agencies using IOT to improve data collection, but also they're leveraging connected devices to disseminate that respective data and other critical information. This is the case for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said the agency’s Cloud Portfolio Manager James Rodd. In particular, FEMA has and will continue to use IOT to disseminate information in response to disasters.
While there are different use cases for IOT adoption, there are also different challenges and considerations to take into account before folding them into mission activities. For one, agencies must have the proper infrastructure to enable the data ingestion and analysis to best leverage IOT.
“At NCATS, we have a combination of not only the smart devices and instruments, but also the cloud infrastructure to handle that big data analysis that comes off those instruments and devices,” Mierzwa said.
FEMA is focused on maintaining the telecommunications infrastructure required to disseminate information reliably. To do this, Rodd said that the agency has relied on its First Responder Network Authority, or FirstNet, to create a reliable mobile communications network.
Cloud and telecommunications infrastructure are key for successful IOT deployment as well as cybersecurity. Increased connectivity and device uses also means the attack surface expands, making extra security steps a must for agencies adopting IOT capabilities. This is certainly the case for the Defense Department, said Chief of Implementation and Policy Stacy Bostjanick.
“One of the things that we’re working on hard in DOD is providing those standards that should be met to at least meet the minimum security level, to protect ourselves from our adversaries because as everybody hopefully is aware with CISA’s 'Shields Up' information that’s gone out,” Bostjanick said. “One of the things that we have to make sure of as we use these new and innovative ideas is that we can also protect them and ensure that we keep our advantage.”
Rodd added that security is also paramount to FEMA, especially during emergency response. He said that maintaining baseline updates is one of the most critical steps to ensuring that connected devices remain secure.
“[Make] sure that your mobile devices are updated to the latest firmware, that you’re aware of any security weaknesses that were discovered either by white hackers or the individual companies — or even black hat [hackers] — and they’ve now done something to address the issue,” Rodd said. “Basic systemic and network maintenance is a critical tool beyond the fancy software and firewalls and VPNs all the other kinds we utilize as well.”
Continue reading: https://governmentciomedia.com/here-are-federal-agencies-steps-iot-adoption

Internet of things jobs took the longest to fill across tech roles in the power industry in Q1 2022 according to Power Technology‘s analysis of millions of online job advertisements.
Internet of things (IoT) job ads at these companies were online for an average of 64 days before being taken offline during the quarter, meaning they took 33 days longer to fill than an average job at the same companies.
The figure for Q1 2022 was an increase compared to the equivalent figure a year earlier, indicating that the required skillset for these roles has become harder to find in the past year.
IoT is one of the topics that GlobalData, our parent company and from whom the data for this article is taken, has identified as being a key disruptive technology force facing companies in the coming years. Companies that excel and invest in these areas now are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/P4Os4/1/
Robotics jobs took the second longest to fill on average at 58 days, while cloud came third among the tech themes tracked by GlobalData and which were linked to at least 100 job ads in the power industry in each of the past five quarters.
The power industry found it harder to recruit IoT jobs compared to the wider market, with ads online for 82.9% more time on average compared to similar jobs across the entire jobs market.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/mkFba/1/
At the other end of the scale batteries related positions were the quickest to fill in the power industry in Q1 2022 with positions closing during that period having been online for an average of 30 days.
Continue reading: https://www.power-technology.com/analysis/internet-of-things-vacancies-in-the-power-industry-were-the-hardest-tech-roles-to-fill-in-q1-2022/

Tori Dunlap founded Her First 100k to help women become more financially independent. Watch this video to learn how the founder coaches job seekers to negotiate for better salaries and benefits. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi 
Continue reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrY2zF2Q_hs

Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) is set to become the first natural gas utility in the state to deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for the inspection of gas pipelines. Self-dispatched Mavic 2 Pro drone will fly across Hampton Roads, northern James and New Kent Counties for the inspection of critical infrastructure and over 5,500 miles of gas pipeline. VNG will also initiate a pilot program for its sister companies in Illinois, Georgia and Tennessee that all fall under VNG’s parent company, Southern Company Gas (SCG). This new project builds on a program established in 2015 by SCG parent Southern Company.
“Southern Company, and now Virginia Natural Gas, is leading the energy industry in deploying state-of-the-art drone operation technology and elevating their processes,” said Dean Barefield, Unmanned Aerial Services program manager at Southern Company. “We see parallels between our electric and gas utilities and the ability to integrate that technology. The addition of drones to the day-to-day operations at VNG will offer a cost-effective platform for pipeline inspection while increasing efficiency and safety due to their availability, range and ease of operation.”
Previous methods of pipeline inspection have been less efficient, and at times caused safety concerns due to the surrounding environment. Despite running underground, natural gas pipelines are accessed from above the surface for maintenance and inspection. Obstacles such as vegetation can often make the pipeline difficult to access for workers.
“VNG is always looking at new, innovative ways to help us continue to provide reliable service to our customers,” said Zack Gravely, Asset Protection specialist and one of three new FAA-certified pilots who will be operating the drones. “Drones are ideally suited for inspecting equipment because they can safely and quickly deliver high-quality photos and videos of our system in a way that can minimize environmental impact and inconvenience for customers along any rights-of-way. This technology will be another tool in our arsenal.”
Continue reading: https://dronelife.com/2022/05/09/virginia-natural-gas-first-in-state-to-deploy-pipeline-inspection-with-drones/

Dairy farms produce large amounts of two things: milk and poop. Milk finds its way into delicacies like hot cocoa and grilled cheese sandwiches but the poop just piles up.
Dairy farmers bulldoze the mess into artificial ponds called manure lagoons, where anaerobic microbes break it down into methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Methane traps 80% more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, contributing to around one fourth of climate change to date. The cow digestive tract also produces methane and releases it when the cow burps.
About 50% of the methane that California emits comes from dairy farms. In order to meet strict climate goals, the state has proposed ways to regulate dairy methane emissions. But these efforts run up against a big problem: There isn't currently a reliable way for dairy farmers to measure the amount of methane produced on their farm.
The amount of methane produced depends on the number of cows, their diet, the weather, and how wet the manure is stored. Estimates of how much methane a farm produces are therefore uncertain. Measurements made by satellite or aircraft return the most accurate estimates, but these tools are expensive and do not always work at the level of individual farms.
UC Riverside postdoctoral fellow Javier Gonzalez-Rocha wants to change that. He's working with mechanical engineering professor Akula Venkatram and environmental sciences professor Francesca Hopkins to develop aerial robotic systems that can quantify methane emissions directly over a specific dairy facility.
Read more: https://phys.org/news/2022-05-drones-dairy-farms-methane-emissions.html
 

Flying drones and robots.
That may be how fresh food gets delivered to food-insecure parts of Washtenaw County in the not-so-distant future.
“I’m really excited to see this from beginning to end, where we take farm-to-table produce and move it to those areas that don’t have grocery stores, etc., and use robots and drones to make that happen,” County Administrator Greg Dill said.
“Perhaps we’re on the cusp of making food insecurity a thing of the past in Washtenaw County.”
Dill presented the concept to the county board last week, saying it’s something county leaders have been working on with community partners through the Civic Innovation Project.
“It’s kind of complicated,” he said, explaining the project. “It is optimization of mixed-mobility solutions towards improving fresh-food access in Washtenaw County’s underserved regions. And that’s a fancy definition for leveraging drones and robots to connect food and our robust food network in Washtenaw County with food-insecure zones in our community.”
There are seven project partners, including the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions, American Center for Mobility, Aerotropolis, software company Airspace Link, delivery-robot company Kiwibot, nonprofit Food Gatherers and the county.
County Commissioner Justin Hodge, D-Ypsilanti Township, is the county’s lead on the project. It would be a great way to get food into areas of the county that need it most, he said.
“Drones are certainly not my specialty, but to figure out how we can go about tackling food insecurity while making use of aerial drones and then robots, the potential for us to be able to do that’s really exciting, so I’ve been very happy to be able to be part of this and to help bring in additional partners,” he said.
They’re now seeking an initial $50,000 planning grant through the National Science Foundation’s Civic Innovation Challenge, Hodge said, telling his colleagues to stay tuned.
Continue reading: https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2022/05/flying-drones-and-robots-may-help-washtenaw-county-end-food-insecurity.html

The logistics industry is the leader of the pack when it comes to using drones. Although still not fully developed, there are plenty of potential use cases of cargo UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). So, today we’re talking about the future of drones in transportation and logistics.
In the last few years, the competition to launch passenger drones caught the eye of the public. And there’s no surprise here. At the end of the day, the idea is both fun and convenient. However, the real progress when it comes to these is happening in the logistics sector.
While flying taxis are cool, this is not a proven technology. And the same can’t be said for the cargo drones. We’ve already seen them delivering in backyards and taking medications to inaccessible locations. There are even UAVs transporting parts from one side of the warehouse to another.
And the best thing is that these can be used in numerous industries. As a matter of fact, drones are affecting the construction industry already. But let’s see what we can expect in the future.

We’ll have to wait a few more years for drones to start carrying passengers.
The civil drone market
Most people aren’t aware of the wide variety of applications non-military Most people aren’t aware of the wide variety of applications non-military drones could have. However, this is bound to change. Just a few years from now, we’ll be used to seeing drone delivery vans and taxis all ll hese are infrastructure, environment, and transportation. Each of these categories could easily change what we think the conventional ways of doing certain tasks are. Some of the applications are already well-developed. And because of them, many new sub-industries are growing.
As you can expect, the civil drone market is on a fast track. Experts suggest that it will experience a growth of around 11% in the next five to six years. Many industries, the moving industry included, will have a lot of benefits, especially cost-wise. So, you shouldn’t be surprised if the next time you decide to move and call homegrownmoving.com, they ask you if your preferred way of relocation would be with a regular truck or a UAV.
Continue reading: https://ajot.com/news/the-future-of-drones-in-transportation-and-logistics

Cybersecurity must become as flexible as the architecture itself to help companies pivot quickly and respond even faster. Continuous intelligence can help.
Cloud computing offers enterprises the flexibility and proficiency to not only gather vast amounts of data but put it in motion for real-time insights. The downside to moving to the cloud is that new cybersecurity challenges arise. These are some of the most pervasive cloud computing threats for the coming years and what some enterprises are doing now to mitigate the risk.
The cloud offers an attractive place for threat actors to focus their efforts. Enterprises are layered with systems, creating loopholes that allow cybersecurity threats to work their way into systems far from where the original source of weakness was located. Add in the millions, even billions of data assets IT teams manage, and you have a massive potential to overwhelm during monitoring alone.
According to a report from Checkpoint Security, cyberattacks were on the rise last year. This is also worrying because we often see an increase in certain types of attacks as they prove lucrative, but it’s rarer to see a general increase. Better automation and tools that allow companies to run their businesses have also created better tools for cyberattacks. Companies will have to approach their security strategies with the same thoughtful automation.
Cloud services are also a primary target because of pandemic-related activities. The pandemic caused an acceleration in cloud adoption as companies tried to adjust to lockdown and other changes in how we work.
Now it’s been two years. Companies and their third-party service providers have had the opportunity to close many of those early security loopholes caused by rapid movement and have largely been successful. However, vulnerability still exists within cloud infrastructure, providing opportunities despite greater security measures.
Continue reading: https://www.rtinsights.com/2022-cloud-computing-cybersecurity-threats-and-trends/

For the past decade or so, unless enterprises wanted to build more of their own datacenters, the cloud providers were the only game in town to tackle new workloads at massive scale. That capacity was available under a pay-as-you-go consumption model, which was great, until the bill arrived.
In many cases, cloud is more expensive than doing it yourself and carrying the capital investment on your balance sheet. The difference between what it costs a cloud to build the infrastructure and what customers pay to rent it is profit, but the difference between trying to build it yourself and using a credit card to borrow cloud capacity is called agility. Balancing these two is the main task of IT organizations today.
Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and other datacenter hardware OEMs saw the changes and over the past few years have methodically built out platforms that offer their portfolios as a service and established partnerships with the hyperscalers to increasingly make their software available in the public clouds.
With a boost from advanced automation capabilities, what Dell with its Apex and HPE with GreenLake as-a-service initiatives offer is on par with public clouds in terms of ability, ease of use, scalability and flexible consumption models, according to John Roese, global chief technology officer for products and operations at Dell (shown in the feature image above). Organizations can now weigh which workloads can go the public cloud and which can stay on premises, which is important when dealing with data sovereignty and regulatory issues.
It essentially ends the debate over public versus private infrastructure and changes the definition of the fast-growing edge, Roese told The Next Platform during an interview at last week’s Dell Technologies World show in Las Vegas. For a long time, the edge was seen as the third leg of the IT infrastructure stool, a separate domain from on-premises datacenters and public clouds.
It’s an outdated view, particularly given that while 10 percent of data now is processed outside of the datacenter, that will switch to 75 percent by 2025, according to CEO Michael Dell. That acceleration will be helped by the growth of faster 5G networks.
Instead, organizations need to shift their thinking and view their rapidly decentralizing IT environments. To Roese, there are two models that define the edge going forward. One is the cloud-extension model, where the edge sits at the end of a data and application pipeline that begins in the public cloud. The problem is that most enterprises use more than one public cloud, which forces them to build different edges to support those environments.
Continue reading: https://www.nextplatform.com/2022/05/09/rethinking-the-edge-in-a-multicloud-world/

Women are often the unsung heroes of many businesses, but too often they are undervalued and underrepresented across the tech industry. This year’s International Women’s Day theme focused on ‘breaking the bias’, referring to the gender-based biases, stereotypes and discriminatory behaviors women encounter in their everyday lives.
Breaking the bias means working towards a world where women are valued and their success is recognized. Today, women in the UK represent only one in six tech specialists and one in ten IT leaders. These statistics are a poor reflection of female capability and potential. Although there has been recent growth in the number of women working in IT roles, overall female representation in the technology sector has halted over the last ten years. Meanwhile, Deloitte’s latest Global Women in the Boardroom shows that only just under a fifth of board seats are female. The number of women in FTSE 100 boardroom roles has increased by 39% over the last 10 years, indicating a slow rise in female presence, but concerns remain around these figures hiding an ongoing lack of diversity.
The term ‘women in tech’ is a closed, rather than open, door; it suggests a woman with complex digital skills suited for the role – when in reality, this expertise can be learned on the job. The stereotype of a woman in tech is generally a highly-skilled coder or someone at the bottom of the working hierarchy, in an entry-level role. This bias persists in part because of men in leadership positions being comfortable with the status quo and their ignorance to the issue, but the reality is that unless we push through that, nothing will change.
Continue reading: https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/the-future-of-women-in-technology-how-we-can-break-the-bias/

Why am I the only woman on the team?”
It’s a simple but impactful question that Ashley Phillips encourages other women to not only reflect upon, but ask other teammates and leaders directly when they find themselves in such a scenario. That’s because, as senior vice president of product at Provi, she knows firsthand what it’s like to rise through the ranks in the male-dominated tech industry. “Diversity doesn’t just magically happen, and that is particularly true in a high-growth company,” she said.
But how does this situation arise in the first place, especially with the magnified focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in recent years? Unfortunately, the problem of representation is self-reinforcing. Because women in tech still only make up 25 percent of the workforce, according to a 2021 study conducted by Deloitte, it’s harder to form a community to lift each other up.
“I’ve been a woman in the technology landscape for almost seven years,” said Perla Villarreal, technical assistant at Thoughtworks. “And yet, I still often experience imposter syndrome. Being in a room or on a team where I am the only woman, Latina and person under 30 only underlines the problem.”
Phillips also noted that the responsibility for countering feelings of workplace insecurity shouldn’t solely belong to the woman experiencing them. “It’s not imposter syndrome, it’s the system — and the system is working as designed,” she said.
Continue reading: https://www.builtinchicago.org/2022/05/06/3-women-share-strategies-succeeding-male-dominated-teams

Web3 — or the new internet — is edging into the mainstream. This new version of the web is built with blockchain technology, which is based on the concept of decentralization and allows for more transparency. Blockchain supports digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The art, fashion, gaming and finance worlds are already exploring the potential of this new realm. From Starbucks’ plans to launch NFTs for coffee drinkers to gain access to “experiences” to Gucci auctioning an NFT to raise money for Unicef USA.
However, the complexity of the space and lack of engineering knowhow to create tokens have been a barrier to participation — many people just don’t know where to start. I am a late adopter, but I am fascinated and decided I needed to learn much more.
A friend of mine told me about a community she was part of called Astro Girls Society. With a collection of 3,888 painted “Astro Girl” NFTs, it is an initiative to bring women into Web3 and is the perfect place to learn from other NFT owners. Of course, the first condition of joining was to purchase an Astro Girl NFT, which I did through NFT marketplace OpenSea.
As a member, I have access to learning sessions. More importantly, the artists who design the NFTs receive a portion of funds generated from their sale. But selecting an NFT is like picking out art — you won’t know if it will go up in value, so buy something you really like that grants you access to a community you value. Once I found the NFT I wanted (“Peaceful Saturn”, with purple hair and covered in stars), I bought it using MetaMask, a cryptocurrency wallet. I was then accepted into the Astro Girls Discord channel — an online group hangout. And so the learning began.
Continue reading: https://www.ft.com/content/f5e3bdb1-0ef3-4923-abd8-00e9297d3508

Earlier this year, news broke that a surprising 12% of purchasers had invested in and sold cryptocurrency to finance down payments. This more than doubled 2019’s number, 4.6%.  
This two-fold jump was part investor savviness, part lockdown-born boredom. “With extra time and a lack of exciting ways to spend money, many people began trading cryptocurrencies during the pandemic,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather.
The young were particularly restless. Millennials now account for more than half of new mortgages. This same age group – roughly ages 25-40 – has embraced crypto quicker than their elders. Nearly half (49%) of Millennials now feel comfortable trading crypto, and 12% see crypto not only as a solid investment option, but the best investment option. 
And while no reliable data exists on the frequency of cryptocurrencies being used to place down payments rather than merely fund them, most experts agree that such instances are rising sharply – with no ceiling in sight.
For the real estate community, the takeaway is that crypto’s part of the overall pie will continue to increase. Cyber-currencies once seen as playthings for the wealthy and ultra-tech savvy are now far more accessible. In fact, there are already companies selling tokenized NFTs of real property real estate in some US markets.
Crypto and the virtual world around it are here to stay, and the real estate community should lean into these trends enthusiastically. 
New Kid on the Blockchain 
Anyone who’s purchased a home understands the frustrating maze of records and documents homebuying entails. Worse, some details – including title histories, prior renovations and inspection records – are frequently inaccurate or incomplete. 
Continue reading: https://njbmagazine.com/njb-news-now/the-future-of-homebuying-block-by-blockchain/

Scalability is a constant issue in the world of crypto, and sharding could be the answer.
The cryptocurrency industry consists of a vast and complex landscape, where hundreds of little cogs work together to operate a well-oiled machine. There are so many things that can be done on or within any given blockchain, but blockchains themselves can also be split into multiple parts. This is called sharding. But how does blockchain sharding work, and what exactly is its purpose?
What Is Blockchain Sharding?
When many of us think of a blockchain, we imagine a long line or chain of information. So, let's apply this idea to better understand sharding. A typical blockchain consists of one chain of blocks and functions as an individual network storing data in a decentralized fashion. While this is by no means a highly flawed system, the increasing popularity of cryptocurrency and blockchains is posing a serious problem for decentralized organizations: scaling limitations.
As the number of transactions taking place on a blockchain increases, a backlog of un-validated blocks begins to form. This is a significant issue on the Bitcoin blockchain, wherein users have to wait a frustratingly long time for their transactions to process.
Bitcoin's scalability issues are partly the fact that its block sizes are quite small, along with the fact that the Bitcoin blockchain is so popular that developers and miners just can't keep up with the mammoth transaction volume. This is why blockchain companies are now looking toward scalability solutions so that they can better support their users and provide them with a more convenient experience. And, when it comes to scalability, sharding can certainly come to the rescue.
Continue reading: https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-sharding-in-crypto/

The world of crypto is complex and sometimes overwhelming. You may encounter a variety of differing arguments and opinions which can make it challenging to sort out the signal from the noise. Let’s sort out the five biggest misunderstandings when it comes to cryptocurrency.
Misconception #1: Crypto Is Always Great for Criminals
Crypto is often touted as a hideout for criminal activity. However, because crypto isn’t generally private, it’s a poor choice for concealing your financial transactions.
People might believe that crypto is the land of scammers and thieves because there are often hacks that make headlines in mainstream media. But the fact is that many of these hackers were unsuccessful in getting away with their plunder because their actions were broadcast to the world on public blockchains.
In reality, many of these hackers or criminals were unable to move their stolen funds—or were eventually caught. Blockchain networks and their transparency allows for crime to be spotted and rooted out in real time, making them a poor venue for illicit activities.
Misconception #2: Crypto Will Always Use Lots of Energy
There are different mechanisms used by blockchains to secure the network. The most common solutions are Proof of Work and Proof of Stake. Proof of Work uses complex math problems that require lots of computational power, meaning more energy is used to verify the chain.
However, Proof of Stake uses about 99% less energy than Proof of Work because users stake some of their tokens as a deposit for being a good actor in verifying transactions. There’s no complicated computation to validate the chain.
Continue reading: https://www.howtogeek.com/799924/the-5-biggest-misconceptions-about-crypto/

There are so many great applications of Artificial Intelligence in daily life, by using machine learning and other techniques in the background. AI is everywhere in our lives, from reading our emails to receiving driving directions to obtaining music or movie suggestions. Don’t be scared of AI jargon; we’ve created a detailed AI glossary for the most commonly used Artificial Intelligence terms and the basics of Artificial Intelligence. Now if you’re ready, let’s look at how we use AI in 2022.
BEST USAGES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN EVERYDAY LIFE (2022)
Artificial intelligence (AI) appears in popular culture most often as a group of intelligent robots bent on destroying humanity, or at the very least a stunning theme park. We’re safe for now because machines with general artificial intelligence don’t yet exist, and they aren’t expected to anytime soon. You can learn the risk and benefits of Artificial Intelligence with this article.
We’re nowhere near living in Westworld, but that doesn’t make AI’s possible impact on our future trivial. According to a recent poll, more than 72 percent of Americans are concerned about machines doing many human tasks in the future. Additionally, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has long pushed for government regulation of AI, recently compared AI to nuclear weapons in terms of its danger. It is reasonable when we think about the impact of Artificial Intelligence in industry 4.0, but we aren’t there yet. If you want, you can check the Artificial Intelligence trends in 2022.
Artificial intelligence is now part of our everyday environment, whether we are aware of it or not. AI lurks in the background every time we open our Facebook newsfeed, conduct a Google search, purchase a suggestion from Amazon, or book a trip online. There are also popular AI apps that help us. So, what is the best Artificial Intelligence app? If you ask what is the point of all these apps and wonder is Artificial Intelligence better than human intelligence, go to this article.
Continue reading: https://dataconomy.com/2022/05/artificial-intelligence-in-everyday-life/

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

AI is a tool that can be used to help organizations accomplish certain tasks more efficiently. For example, AI might be used to automatically fill out forms or answer customer service inquiries.
AI systems are often designed to mimic human behavior, and they can be difficult to distinguish from humans themselves. This is especially true for chatbots, which are computer programs that mimic the conversation style of a human. In some cases, it can be very difficult to tell the difference between a chatbot and a real person.
AI refers to general human intelligence exhibited by machines or software systems with varying degrees of autonomy in performing tasks requiring intelligence such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages without relying on prior programming or external data sources. In other words, AI systems are able to learn on their own and carry out complex tasks without needing specific instructions from humans.
There are many different types of AI, including deep learning, neural networks, and bot-based systems. Each of these types of AI works differently, but they all have one thing in common: the ability to learn and evolve over time.
How does AI is transforming digital marketing scenarios?
1 – Marketing that is specifically targeted
AI is changing how digital marketing works. In the past, marketers would purchase a list of email addresses or use cookies to track web activity in order to create targeted ads. However, this process was often inaccurate and led to irrelevant advertisements being shown to customers. With the help of AI, marketers can now target individuals with greater precision by analyzing data such as purchase history, location information, and social media activity.
Continue reading: https://techbullion.com/how-ai-is-changing-the-future-of-digital-marketing/

There is no disputing the privacy trend. It is here. It is unstoppable. And it is one of the few issues in American life that crosses party lines.
Data shows that 86% of people care about privacy for themselves and others — with 79% willing to act on it by spending time and money to protect their data. And to those cynics who say people moan about privacy and do nothing, the same study found that 47% have taken action because of a company’s data policies.  
What does this mean for the trillions of dollars that flow through the U.S. economy as a result of the very same privacy violations that are enraging consumers? It appears to be a tectonic conundrum; consider that Meta conceded that Apple’s change in its privacy rules has and will cost them billions.
But for companies suffering from the effects of Apple’s shift to opt-in from opt-out, artificial intelligence could be a solution.
Protecting privacy while allowing the economy to flourish is a data challenge. AI, machine learning, and neural networks have already transformed our lives, from robots to self-driving cars to drug development to a generation of smart assistants that will never double book you.
There is no doubt that AI can power solutions and platforms that protect privacy while giving people the digital experiences they want and allowing businesses to profit.
What are those experiences? It’s simple and intuitive to every Internet user. We want to be recognized only when it makes our lives easier. That means recognizing me so I don’t have to go through the painful process of re-entering my data. It means giving me information — and yes, serving me an ad — that is timely, relevant, and aligns with my needs.
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2022/05/08/5-ways-ai-can-help-solve-the-privacy-dilemma/

The year 2021 presented business leaders with plenty of catchphrases we all wish could be erased from memory, including The Great Resignation, global supply chain challenges, the pandemic, digital transformation acceleration, and the list goes on.
As we proceed further into 2022, learnings over the past two years should provide us with opportunities for growth, synergies and even reinvigorated company culture. Oftentimes, organizations look to technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to empower these journeys forward.
Capitalizing on opportunities for growth should not be done in a funnel for the sole purpose of faster time to market or employee efficiency. Instead, we should look through a broader lens when assessing the impact technology can bring an organization. Aside from business gains, there is growing evidence that certain technologies can bring positive, tangible change to team culture and morale.
Artificial Intelligence Can Impact Company Culture
A recent report from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group found that 79% of respondents who saw improvements in efficiency and decision quality because of AI also saw improvements in morale and other cultural areas.
Looking more deeply into the cultural impact of AI, the study found that companies using AI reported improvements across four key cultural elements: collaboration, collective learning, clarity of roles and team morale. This demonstrates that technology decisions are most effective long-term and widely beneficial when the “people factor” is taken into consideration during the decision-making process.
The question then becomes why? Why does technology like AI impact team culture? There are a few reasons.
Continue reading: 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/05/09/strengthening-company-culture-with-artificial-intelligence/?sh=6662248319b6

When talking about open source, people usually talk about software. Data may be part of the conversation as well. Hardware? Not so often. Especially when it comes to complex devices like microprocessors.
However, we’re starting to see significant projects that open up hardware to a large community of individuals and companies. Perhaps none is bigger than RISC-V.
What is RISC-V?
The first thing to know about RISC-V is exactly what it is – and what it isn’t.
When we recall historical open source processor projects, a design like OpenSPARC may come to mind. In 2005, Sun Microsystems released register-transfer level (RTL) Verilog code for its UltraSPARC T1 microprocessor under the GPL v2 license.
The problem with this approach in the words of RISC-V International CTO Mark Himelstein is that “When you hand something whole cloth as open source it's hard for people to really feel ownership around it. The one thing that Linux did was everybody felt pride of ownership. That was really hard to do.”
By contrast, RISC-V is an extensible instruction set architecture. Himelstein adds, “We're totally implementation-independent. We work with other sister organizations that are nonprofit like lowRISC, CHIPS Alliance, and Open Hardware who do specific things in hardware with RISC-V.” As of early 2022, about 300 institutions and corporations were participating in the RISC-V community.
Does extensibility imply fragmentation?
Extensibility and diversity have a flip side – fragmentation of designs. Is this a concern?
Part of the answer is that, with many RISC-V cores going into small, custom designs, some degree of fragmentation isn’t really a problem. That said, as Himenstein notes, “I have a bumper sticker statement that says, ‘Innovate. Don't duplicate.’ That's the only thing that keeps us together as a community. Why do you want to go ahead and implement addition and subtraction for the thousandth time?”
That said, RISC-V International recognizes that there is value in standards, especially as RISC-V starts to see increased usage in higher performance server roles. This is needed to attract off-the-shelf software development. The trick is to manage the optionality of the architecture while still proving well-defined compatibility. 
Continue reading: https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2022/5/4-things-it-leaders-should-know-about-risc-v