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When you take a (paid) course in Coursera, you can earn a certificate. To do that, you need to take a series of tests. At this point, some problems arise. One of the most important ones is the fact that Coursera is unable to tell who is taking the test. Or can they?

As Maas et al. (2014) point out in their publication on identity verification in MOOC’s, this is a problem that is very unique for this specific field, in that it is the only case where someone can benefit from someone else having their credentials. Online banking, for example, does not have this issue.

So, how do they do it? There are two main mechanisms Coursera uses. The first is using face photos. The second, more interesting mechanism, is typing patterns. Let’s look at it in a bit more detail.

As it turns out, the way we type is like a fingerprint: unique and therefore a very good way to identify someone. On certain points during the Coursera learning process (when identity authentication is needed), Coursera will let the user type a small sentence. A Javascript tool then records the time between the press of each key. Other data such as overall typing speed and the shift key used (left or right) might also be used, although this is not verified in the mentioned document. This data is optimized for the verification system, by removing uninteresting or highly variable information such as interruptions or typos. Finally, a series of checks for intentional mimicking of someone else’s pattern is performed.

This analysis gives a pretty accurate idea of whether the person is who he/she pretends to be. Looking at the scatter plot below (Maas et al., 2014), we see just how close together 5 samples from 2 different students (blue/red) are. The system also uses machine learning techniques to continuously increase accuracy, which is possible through the large number of participants.

Although the actual accuracy of this system can be questioned (e.g. the other person could be nearby/how well is the technology applicable to touch devices), it is good to see that, in a time where MOOC’s appear to become more serious equivalents of traditional education, there are ways to identify someone remotely. This technology may need some enhancements and refinements, but could become very important nonetheless.

 

Sources:

Click to access amaas_mooc_verified.pdf

https://www.quora.com/How-does-Coursera-verify-validate-a-user-by-the-way-they-type

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Net neutrality is a ‘hot topic’, albeit perhaps not the sexiest one. It simply means that all traffic on the internet should be treated in the same manner, thus not discriminating between, for example, music data and video data. When you start to think about it, you might conclude that it is one of the most important foundations for the internet as we know it. Let’s first look briefly into the idea of net neutrality, and at why it is important thereafter.

Net Neutrality in a nutshell
The basic idea is that, on a neutral internet, the Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) do not control the traffic that flows through their servers. Why is this a big deal? Well, first of all, the internet has become a very free place because of it. No matter what you are sending, whether it is a picture of your cat, a movie, or some form of criticism on an influencial person or strong political party, all traffic is treated the same, and no traffic is deliberately being slowed down or blocked (with the possible exception of illegal content).

Also, it has led to a place where ‘everybody is equal’, whether it is a huge corporation or… well, you and me. There is no way for big players to hinder traffic to smaller players, thereby creating a more and more monopolistic position for themselves.

Effects on competition
(The absence of) net neutrality is actually a regular news item, but almost always in a seemingly unharmful way. Providers for instance state that Spotify traffic will no longer be substracted from your MB bundle. Although this sounds as something purely positive, it is actually, from the industry point of view, ruining the free market forces and the competition, as the position of Spotify among the streaming music platforms becomes stronger.

Regulation
Fortunately, there are regulations to make sure network neutrality is not infringed. The European Parliament recently adopted new EU wide rules, and experts have recently published the actual implementation guidelines thereof. Also recently, the USA adopted a ‘strong’ version of net neutrality, strong meaning that not only restriction of traffic is not allowed, but charging an extra fee for letting through certain services (such as YouTube, for instance) is not allowed either.

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Sources

http://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/What-is-net-neutrality-and-why-it-is-important/articleshow/46902071.cms

http://www.nu.nl/internet/2648176/europarlement-benadrukt-noodzaak-netneutraliteit.html

https://tweakers.net/nieuws/111407/streamen-zonder-data-in-rekening-te-brengen-blijft-strijdig-met-netneutraliteit.html

http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/30/12707590/eu-net-neutrality-rules-final-guidelines-berec

https://www.whitehouse.gov/net-neutrality

Strong versus Weak Net Neutrality

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The music industry doesn’t look much like it did 20 years ago. No longer do album sales define the success of an artist, no longer are they the main source of income for the artist and no longer is the listener relatively limited in the location where he can enjoy his music. Streaming audio disrupted the music industry. In this video we have a look at what happened, why it happened and what may happen in the near future. The main focus is on Spotify as a platform.

The effects Spotify has had on the music industry are substantial. The fact that the revenue model has become completely different, is only the tip of the iceberg. Spotify – and competing services – have made discovering new music incredibly easy. For the first time in history the music collection isn’t limited to shelf space. Also, much more than some decades ago, the social aspect is far more present. Sharing tracks and playlists and discovering new music together are important aspects of Spotify.

Spotify is a platform mediated network with two sides: on the supply side we find the content creators, the artist, and on the demand side the listeners. The exponential growth of Spotify has taken place through network effects: the accumulation of more artists led to more users, and vice versa. The value for one side of the network depends on the amount of users on the other side. These effects are known as cross-sided network effects. With over 100 million users and over 40 million songs, Spotify is one of the largest streaming providers in the world.

One of the biggest issues for Spotify is the fact that it is having great difficulties in making profits. It is normal for a start-up to make losses for a couple of years, but the losses Spotify is reporting are serious: 200 million dollars over 2014.

The reason for this is a difficulty that is present in many platforms: pricing. One side of the network usually has to be subsidized in order to gain popularity from the other side. Clearly, Spotify is spending more on payments to artists than is it earning through its premium account sales and through advertising.

Solving this and becoming profitable is likely to be the main objective for Spotify right now. This may involve drastic measures, such as raising the premium subscription fee, showing more ads, lowering the royalty rates, or significantly increasing the number of subscriptions. Of course, these ‘solutions’ adversely affect each other, making it a bit of a nightmare to find the optimal strategy.

We think the best way to move forward is to start by further increasing the value Spotify offers to the user. This will justify a higher premium subscription fee, and lead to more free users, thus increasing the advertisement cash flows. Raising the value can be done in many ways, but two important ones are by further improving the prediction algorithm, which is often criticized, and by attracting even more artists to the network.

– Team 56