A better outlook for all? How modern innovations are empowering the visually impaired

12

September

2024

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The presentation in our lecture of how AR glasses can help hearing impaired persons communicate better with their peers really inspired me to look into further cases where technological innovations have improved the quality of life for others – with a focus on visually impaired persons. Being able to “see” ones environment and interacting with it is a huge contribution to independence, which leads to a better quality of life. I would know, as I am completely dependent on my glasses!

I have compiled a few examples that I found very interesting – however there are many more out there!

Envision Glasses

Envision Glasses are AI powered smart glasses that use ChatGPT, Google glass Hardware, 5G connectivity to allow blind people to read printed text and process visual information by converting speech to text. While this Amsterdam based company was mentioned (but not yet discussed in class) I still wanted to highlight it here anyway, as their technology is really impressive. (Wie, 2023)

HearSee Mobility

HearSee takes a well known aid to the visually impaired – a cane – and improves it by using navigation tools to help the blind navigate to their destination. The users can press a button and say “Navigate to XY”. The cane sends signals to an App which in turn gives the user audible instructions on how to get to their destination. (Johnson, 2022)

.Lumen

This German start-up claims they “digitized” the guide dog that pulls blind people safely through different environments. The device, which is worn like a headband, scans and maps the surrounding area by using the same tech that self driving cars are using. If the glasses detect an obstacle, they send haptic feedback to the user, thereby “pulling” them away, just like the guide dog would. (Acces Tech Live, 2024)

Closing thoughts

Seeing how much development is already happening makes one optimistic about the future. I think it is especially fascinating that these technologies all tackle the same task (helping the visually impaired) very differently using different tech and hardware, giving users the freedom to choose what would best help them. As mentioned above, this list is by no means exhaustive and I can only encourage anyone to look up some of the amazing products that are being developed.

I wrote this blog post before knowing that we would be having a guest lecture from Envision glasses – I am really looking forward to the next lecture now, especially to see how my impression and the impression of my colleagues of this type of innovation will be in real life!

Resources used:

Access Tech Live. (2024, February 26). .Lumen Access Tech Live Talks Lumen Glasses for the Visually Impaired [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFkCkACbrJw

Johnson, M. (2022, July 1). Three Technologies For The Visually Impaired. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2022/07/01/three-technologies-for-the-visually-impaired/

Wie, W. (2023, December 15). Envision glasses use ChatGPT and Google Glass to help blind and low vision [Video]. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/envision-glasses-chatgpt-google-glass-help-blind-visually-impaired-2023-12?international=true&r=US&IR=T

All images used in this blog post were generate by ChatGPT

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NS introduces pay-as-you-go method “OVpay”

28

September

2022

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In 2002, the OV-chipkaart was introduced in The Netherlands as a nationwide infrastructure for public transport payments. Ever since, it has been widely adopted: in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the public transport massively, Translink Systems, the organization behind the OV-chipkaart, reported a total of 2.83 billion transactions and 15.3 million (against a population of 17.28 million (CBS, 2022)) smartcards in use (Translink Systems, 2020). This so-called “closed-loop” infrastructure that the OV-chipkaart uses dedicated smartcards that users can top up with funds. The major disadvantage of this: the funds remain on the card and are lost whenever the card is lost. Recently, the NS (Nationale Spoorwegen, or the Dutch National Railroads organization) announced the introduction of the OVpay testing program and accompanying OVpay bèta application. This new and popular method enables travelers to tap their contactless debit/credit card or Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc. enabled mobile phones on the already existing sensor-gates at all stations in the country. This brings many advantages to both travelers and the transport company. This new so-called “open-loop” infrastructure uses a “pay-as-you-go” method, which brings more flexibility. The traveler will always pay the lowest price because the fare is calculated after check-out. Before, the “OV-chipkaart” would deduct a certain amount from the card as a deposit and return the amount that was deducted too much after check-out. If one forgot to check-out, this whole amount had to be paid by the traveler; with OVpay this won’t be the case anymore. In addition, the compatibility with mobile payment methods means one less card in the traveler’s wallet, making the wallet even more obsolete. 

For transport companies, benefits include minimal adjustments to the current infrastructure (NS only reported some sensor-gates not optimally working as of now), no more ticket machine investments, improved performance of stations and trains, and minimal adoption effort resulting in a higher customer satisfaction. 

NS believes that the future lies with the “pay-as-you-go” system, which has already been adopted in major metropolitan areas such as New York, London, and Tokyo. When all the testing results in positive feedback, NS will slowly start replacing the “OV-chipkaart” with OVpay (Ocampo, 2020) (OVpay, 2022).

CBS. (2022, September 28). Bevolkingsteller. Opgehaald van Centraal Bureau voor Statistiek: https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/visualisaties/dashboard-bevolking/bevolkingsteller

Ocampo, S. Z. (2020, May 4). Contactless payment: the future of public transport. Opgehaald van Computop: https://computop.com/payment-insights/en/mobility-en/contactless-payment-the-future-of-public-transport/

OVpay. (2022). Opgehaald van OVpay: https://ovpay.nl/nl

Translink Systems. (2020, April 23). Translink ziet resultaten in 2019 verder verbeteren. Opgehaald van Translink: https://www.translink.nl/newspost/translink-ziet-resultaten-in-2019-verder-verbetere

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Future predictors: tech and innovation in TV series

4

October

2021

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Imagine yourself on a Friday night turning on your television for a new episode of your favorite show. Almost everyone has had that moment when the story develops and shows some incredible innovation that you wished you had in your own life. Everyone fantasized a bit and drifted away in the moment.

Technological innovations that were impossible at the moment of production in series is a phenomenon that has occurred on multiple occasions. The original Star Trek franchise showed spaceships with capabilities that are possible now but were just imagination at production. One could even argue that the creative minds that made up the idea could have inspired innovators in their development.

More recent examples are in the popular Netflix series Black Mirror where a society is based on likes, online platforms and that currency and status is completely based on your personal branding on such a platform. A shock went through Europe when newspapers revealed that this could be the truth and such a platform was developed in China and it wanted to organize its society based on Big Data.

In the last 2 years we were all front row spectators of an innovation process one would have expected to take multiple years: the development of Covid-19 vaccines. Whereas the fight against other diseases like HIV/aids or Alzheimer’s are still in process and have been for decades, the development of this specific vaccine got fast tracked due to determination. 

If tech specialists and innovators would decide to put their shared focus on one of the proposed technologies, the development of that would be in reach. This is helpful as a solution to many problems, but also comes with a darker side. This is perfectly depicted in the trailer of the new Dutch movie “De Sterfshow”.

With the rise of technology, we also see the dark side of development and innovation in tech. Online criminals using phishing or other scams or hackers trying to access data. We are at a certain point where basic knowledge just is not enough anymore to be safe on the web. With so many new possibilities it is time for a lot of people to wake up and be aware. More than ever legislation is behind technological development and technological innovation has a free pass and can only be kept in check in hindsight. We should be aware of the benefits that Big Data brings, but also wake up to the possibilities of the downside and the slippery slope we are on. Before you know it, something we held as impossible will be released soon and available for all. Social norms could change and something that sounds terrifying could be just one decision away from reality.

https://nypost.com/2018/09/19/chinas-social-credit-system-is-a-real-life-black-mirror-nightmare/

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The Sustainable Urban Delta as a holistic solution

4

October

2021

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Singapore as an example of the Sustainable Urban Delta

Rainfall floods in the Benelux, storms in America and more alarming messages in the latest climate report from the United Nations. An increasing population pressures the earth and its natural resources and the current technologies and demands of humanity demand more from the earth than it could provide.  Climate change is getting real for a lot of people. 

RSM alumnus Meiny Prins was faced with the same problems a couple of years ago and decided to use her family business (PRIVA) to be a force for positive change. Her answer to tackle one of the problems surrounding the provision of food: The Sustainable Urban Delta.

To cope with the urbanization and provide a holistic solution for the problems that come with urbanization, Prins learned from the integrated approach in business and wanted to apply that. With her new business idea, she created a multipurpose solution for a multipurpose problem.

Nothing of this would be possible without the application of artificial intelligence in combination with smart cities and the internet of things. By using real-time data, the artificial intelligence systems can use the limited available resources in the most circular way as possible. This means optimal use of energy, water and most important: space. An integral way to combine city life while determining the best moment and place close by to provide in food and clean water. Using the benefits of one process to prevent problems of other systems. For example, by using vertical farming in city centers, cities can cool down the temperature by providing a green oasis. All of this combined in a perfect harmony and totally data driven.

However, one could argue the feasibility of this plan. Prins’s plan is to design total ecosystems in large cities to bring back the so-called green belt to create a livable future. However, to what scale do we need to develop these delta’s. And how is one able to create that on a large scale with the current state of urbanization? Even though that every 3 months a new 9 million people city rises, the current degree of urbanization will not allow the Sustainable Urban Delta to develop without a massive change in current civilization.

The vision of Prins is vivid and inspires people to do good. It is however the question to what scale PRIVA can provide impact with their digital solutions in agriculture and smart cities. But maybe by looking around, we can conclude that the Netherlands is one of the first urban delta’s on a national level.

https://sustainableurbandelta.com/casestudies/

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Quality Data is Quality Care

8

October

2020

No ratings yet. Big Data has changed the way we manage and analyse data in any industry. The healthcare industry is a promising area where data analytics can be applied as it not only reduces costs, it can prevent diseases, predict epidemic outbreaks and improve overall life quality. The future of healthcare will therefore be driven by data analytics and digital transformation. In this blog post I will address why big data in healthcare is important and in what ways it can be applied.

Big data refers to vast quantities of information created by the digitization of everything that gets analysed by specific technologies. Data collection is critical in the healthcare industry. Doctors need to understand as much as possible about patients, as early as possible. Treating diseases at early stages is simpler and less expensive (Lebied, 2018). For years, health data collection has been very costly and time consuming. With today’s innovative technologies, it becomes easier to collect data and translate it to useful insights for better care. This not only reduces costs; it also makes a patient’s health situation more predictable (Lebied, 2018). This in turn enables insurance companies to tailor their packages based on this information.

Healthcare analytics can provide support in asking critical questions such as ‘What is the probability that this patient will recover within 6 months?’ or ‘How likely is this patient to suffer from complications if we perform this surgery’? Driven by the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as machine learning and robotics, we now have algorithms that can help us answer these questions (Philips, 2020). According to a 2019 survey, 60% of health executives recognize the benefits of healthcare analytics, and 42% of them have seen improved patient satisfaction (Kent, 2019). Below we see how healthcare organizations are using predictive analytics (Dé, 2019).

BlogpostIS

So in what ways do healthcare organizations apply analytics? Here are 3 examples of innovative technologies driven by healthcare analytics.

  1. Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

An EHR is a digital record of a patient’s demographics, medical history, allergies and more. These records are shared via secured systems and are available for providers from the public and private sector (Lebied, 2018). Leading healthcare organizations have integrated next generation analytics platforms into their EHR, such as algorithms and machine learning. This enables predictive, analytics- powered patient risk assessment. EHR can, for example, generate warnings and reminders when a patient should get a new test or when a patient is not following prescriptions.

  1. Precision Medicine

Precision Medicine (PM) is the most common application of machine learning in healthcare. It predicts what treatment protocols are likely to succeed on a patient, based on various attributes and the treatment context (Davenport & Kalakota, 2019). PM requires a training dataset for which the outcome variable is known, which is called supervised learning. Philips, the global leader in healthcare, for example applies PM to the field of oncology. PM will enable treatments to be tailored to genetic changes in each individual’s cancer (Philips, 2020). Cancer patients currently may receive a combination of treatments, while with PM, information about genetics can help doctors decide which treatment is best for each individual patient (Davenport & Kalakota, 2019).

  1. Real-Time Alerting

The traditional way of analysing medical data is facilitated through software that is only used in hospitals (Lebied, 2018). However, as in-house treatments are expensive, doctors want patients to stay away from hospitals as much as possible. To track patient data anytime and anywhere, real-time alerting is applied to wearables. These wearables collect the patient’s data continuously and send this data to the cloud (Knapp, 2018). An example is a blood pressure tracker, which alarms doctors when a patient’s blood pressure is too low or too high, so that appropriate action can be taken. This not only reduces in-house treatment costs; it also makes sure doctors can treat a patient as early as possible. What is more, it allows health executives to access the cloud with collected data to compare data in socioeconomic context and translate the data to useful insights (Lebied, 2018).

Evidently, the opportunities arising from healthcare analytics are very promising. Yet, as predictive analytics can be, their impact eventually depends on their knowledgeable use by health executives. The development of applications empowered by data analytics relies on the expert input. Another important note is that the issue of data privacy arises from the data driven nature of healthcare analytics. What will happen when data is shared seamlessly between different stakeholders? Should patients have control over what data is shared and with whom? The debate of how data can be shared without breaching patients’ trust is still ongoing.

 

References

Davenport, T., & Kalakota, R. (2019). The potential for artificial intelligence in healthcare. Future healthcare journal, 6(2), 94–98. https://doi.org/10.7861/futurehosp.6-2-94.

Dé, A., (2019). Why Healthcare Analytics Will Deliver More Results In 2019. [online] Biplatform.nl. Available at: <https://biplatform.nl/1826849/why-healthcare-analytics-will-deliver-more-results-in.html> [Accessed 7 October 2020].

Kent, J., (2019). 60% Of Healthcare Execs Say They Use Predictive Analytics. [online] HealthITAnalytics. Available at: <https://healthitanalytics.com/news/60-of-healthcare-execs-say-they-use-predictive-analytics> [Accessed 5 October 2020].

Knapp, J., (2018). Real-Time Healthcare Analytics: Monitor, Predict, Nudge, Act | Vocera. [online] Vocera.com. Available at: <https://www.vocera.com/blog/real-time-healthcare-analytics-monitor-predict-nudge-act> [Accessed 7 October 2020].

Lebied, M., (2018). 12 Examples Of Big Data In Healthcare That Can Save People. [online] BI Blog | Data Visualization & Analytics Blog | Available at: <https://www.datapine.com/blog/big-data-examples-in-healthcare/> [Accessed 5 October 2020].

Philips. (2020). Predictive Analytics In Healthcare: Three Real-World Examples. [online] Available at: <https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/features/20200604-predictive-analytics-in-healthcare-three-real-world-examples.html> [Accessed 6 October 2020].

 

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BIM, Meet Gertrude!

6

October

2020

Gertrude enjoying a well deserved drink during her performance. 

In August 2020, famous tech entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed his latest technological project: a pig called Gertrude. On first sight, Gertrude looks like an ordinary Pig. She seems healthy, curious, and eager to taste some delicious snacks. When looking at her, it is hard to imagine how she managed to get one of the world’s most radical and well known tech entrepreneurs so excited. Gertrude just seems normal.

This is exactly the point!

ElonMuskGotcha

Elon Musk “Gotcha”

Gertrude is no ordinary pig. She has been surgically implanted with a brain-monitoring chip, Link V0.9, created by one of Elon Musk’s latest start-ups named Neuralink.

Neuralink was founded in 2016, by Elon Musk and several neuroscientists. The short term goal of the company is to create devices to treat serious brain diseases and overcome damaged nervous systems. Our brain is made up of 86 billion neurons: nerve cells which send and receive information through electrical signals. According to Neuralink, your brain is like electric wiring. Rather than having neurons send electrical signals, these signals could be send and received by a wireless Neuralink chip.

To simplify: Link is a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires

The presentation in August was intended to display that the current version of the Link chip works and has no visible side-effects for its user. The user, in this case Gertrude, behaves and acts like she would without it. The chip is designed to be planted directly into the brain by a surgical robot. Getting a Link would be a same day surgery which could take less than an hour. This creates opportunities for Neuralink to go to the next stage: the first human implantation. Elon Musk expressed that the company is preparing for this step, which will take place after further safety testing and receiving the required approvals.

The long term goal of the Neuralink is even more ambitious: human enhancement through merging the human brain with AI. The system could help people store memories, or download their mind into robotic bodies. An almost science-fictional idea, fuelled by Elon Musk’s fear of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Already in 2014, Musk called AI “the biggest existential threat to humanity”. He fears, that with the current development rate, AI will soon reach the singularity: the point where AI has reached intelligence levels substantially greater than that of the human brain and technological growth has become uncontrollable and irreversible, causing unforeseeable effects to human civilization. Hollywood has given us examples of this with The Matrix and Terminator. With the strategy of “if you cannot beat them, join them”, Elon Musk sees the innovation done by Neuralink as an answer to this (hypothetical) catastrophical point in time. By allowing human brains to merge with AI, Elon Musk wants to vastly increase the capabilities of humankind and prevent human extinction.

Singularity
Man versus Machine

So, will we all soon have Link like chips in our brains while we await the AI-apocalypse?

Probably not. Currently, the Link V0.9 only covers data collected from a small number of neurons in a coin size part of the cortex. With regards to Gertrude, Neuralink’s pig whom we met earlier in this article, this means being able to wirelessly monitor her brain activity in a part of the brain linked to the nerves in her snout. When Gertrude’s snout is touched, the Neuralink system can registers the neural spikes produced by the neurons firing electronical signals. However, in contrast: major human functions typically involve millions of neurons from different parts of the brain. To make the device capable of helping patients with brain diseases or damaged nervous system, it will need to become capable of collecting larger quantities of data from multiple different areas in the brain.

On top of that, brain research has not yet achieved a complete understanding of the human brain. There are many functions and connections that are not yet understood. It appears that the ambitions of both Elon Musk and Neuralink are ahead of current scientific understanding.

So, what next?

Neuralink has received a Breakthrough Device Designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the organisation that regulates the quality of medical products. This means Neuralink has the opportunity to interact with FDA’s experts during the premarket development phase and opens the opportunity towards human testing. The first clinical trials will be done on a small group of patients with severe spinal cord injuries, to see if they can regain motor functions through thoughts alone. For now a medical goal with potentially life changing outcomes, while we wait for science to catch up with Elon Musk’s ambitions.

 Neuralink-Logo

Thank you for reading. Did this article spark your interest?
For more information, I recommend you to check out Neuralink’s website https://neuralink.com/

Curious how Gertrude is doing?
Neuralink often posts updates on their Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/neura.link/?hl=en

Want to read more BIM-articles like this?
Check out relating articles created by other BIM-students in 2020:

Sources used for this article:

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How the pandemic is transforming the global luxury sector

5

October

2020

No ratings yet. Due to the rapid spread of the Coronavirus many luxury retailers and wholesalers had to close doors during the lockdowns. The implications for the industry are brutal: In the best-case scenario global luxury sales will decline by 18%. However, the worst-case scenario ranges around 35% (Bain & Company, 2020). This implicates a loss of around $50 billion to $100 billion for the industry, which has been growing around 3% (CAGR) annually (PRnewswire, 2020). In a market where only around 10% of sales are made online, the impact of the pandemic was particularly dire. The dependency on wholesalers and physical shopping experiences are only some of the challenges that the industry faces now. The reluctance and inability of the large chinese customer-base to travel is particularly problematic, as they make up 35% of global demand and half of chinese customers make their purchases abroad. While these tough environmental conditions certainly imply bankruptcy for many beloved luxury brands, they also embrace creative flexibility (McKinsey & Company, 2020). As many luxury retailers were forced to close physical doors, many opened new virtual sales channels. The following will highlight some of the most promising and creative digital sales strategies luxury companies have adopted amid the pandemic.

 

The main goal of many new digital strategies was to reproduce the luxury sector’s most important feature: personal and emotional experiences. Many brands such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci launched livestream selling experiences, where goods are presented and customers have the opportunity to interact directly with a salesperson. Furthermore, many companies focused on serving the top 1% customers, sending free samples to their most valuable customers and arranging personal video chat meetings to showcase the products (Lazazzera, 2020). Recreating personal experiences and delivering valuable content online will definitely be a key criteria in defining which brands will sustain the new challenges (McKinsey & Company, 2020).

 

The global watch industry has been hit especially hard from the pandemic’s impact. As only 5% of sales happen online, many luxury watch brands became creative. For instance, Omega and Zenith launched new social media campaigns to stay in touch with their communities. The fondation de la Haut Horlogerie, which is an organiser of watch fairs, built a new digital platform to host online watch fairs. According to them, it was a huge success with more than 44,00 visitors on the first four days. While the digital pattern of these new strategies is striking, many also engaged philanthropic pursues, such as giving away watches for front-line workers and volunteers in the pandemic (Lazazzera, 2020).

 

How do you think brands will overcome customer’s hesitancy to buy luxury goods amid the pandemic?

Sources: 

 

Bain & Company, 2020, Global personal luxury goods market set to contract between 20 – 35 percent in 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.bain.com/about/media-center/press-releases/2020/spring-luxury-report/

 

Milena Lazazzera, 2020, How virtual stores became a reality in the world of luxury Financial Times. Retrieved from: https://www.ft.com/content/ca6bb85f-9af7-4df7-a606-828ceeea5a97

 

Alicia Esposito, 2020, How Luxury Brands Are Responding To COVID Tension With Innovation. Retrieved from: https://retailtouchpoints.com/topics/retail-innovation/how-luxury-brands-are-responding-to-covid-tension-with-innovation

 

McKinsey & Company 2020, The State of Fashion 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-state-of-fashion-2020-navigating-uncertainty

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COVID-19 – Economic Disaster or Catalyst for Digital Transformation?

29

September

2020

No ratings yet. Innovating established business models and bringing them to the digital era – something most companies are well aware of. However, the COVID-19 outbreak has shown that digital transformation has not progressed to a level where working from home and digital business models are the norm. Whereas digital offerings received extraordinarily high demand, many physical businesses had to close temporarily and experienced declining revenue. In Italy, the online sale of groceries grew about 20% from February to March 2020, and JD’s China sales at the beginning of February 2020 were up more than 200% compared to the prior year (Callaghan et al., 2020).

Firms with non-digital business models were forced to adjust to the circumstances and invest quick and heavily into digital initiatives. According to a report published by Twilio, 97% of the participating executives stated that the pandemic had accelerated their digital transformation (2020). Almost four out of five executives said that COVID-19 has led to an increase in their budget for digital transformation (Twilio Inc., 2020). At the same time, the pandemic required many companies to implement WFH for the first time with doubts whether this will lead to a sharp decrease in productivity. However, a majority of the firms found themselves in a situation where 67% of the participants expect remote work opportunities after COVID-19 (Twilio Inc., 2020). The flexibility that comes with WFH could help companies to attract necessary talent, which allows capitalising on their digital strategy.

As we can see, COVID-19 and its consequences started a process for non-digital businesses. The question of their future remains unchanged and whether this process will finally bring to the digital era. Do you think COVID-19 could serve as a catalyst for non-digital companies and help them to innovate successfully? Or will it will the pandemic only accelerate their decline?

References:

Callaghan, S., Loesch, M., Rickert, S. and Teichner, W., 2020. At the heart of a crisis: How consumer-health companies can lead in the time of coronavirus. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/at-the-heart-of-a-crisis-how-consumer-health-companies-can-lead-in-the-time-of-coronavirus [Accessed 29.09.2020].

(Picture) Morgan, B. 2020. Is COVID-19 Forcing Your Digital Transformation? 12 Steps To Move Faster. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2020/04/05/is-covid-19-forcing-your-digital-transformation-12-steps-to-move-faster/ [Accessed 28.09.2020].

Twilio Inc. 2020. COVID-19 DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT REPORT. Available at: https://pages.twilio.com/rs/294-TKB-300/images/UPDATE_Aug_Twilio_COVID-19_Digital_Engagement_Report.pdf [Accessed 29.09.2020].

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Professors! Get online or get out!

16

October

2019

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As a BIM master student, I was quite surprised when I heard that none of the courses were recorded and therefore available online. Everyone I ever spoke about it was enthusiastic about recorded lectures. Maybe all of my friends are just lazy students (like me), who prefer to stay in bed rather than going to a 9 am lecture, but I genuinly think it offers more convenience than it has disadvantages. Me wondering this was the main reason for me to write on this subject.

MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses, and are (often free) courses that are available to the public through online lectures and assignments (EdX, 2019). It provides great advantages as you can enroll from anywhere around the world, as long as you have access to a decent internet connection.

First of all, and maybe the most obvious advantage of MOOC’s, it that the internet knows no borders. Of course we all know the Great Chinese Firewall, but someone from South-Korea is able to enter a website from a Colombian local bee farm. Therefore, people from more abandoned areas, like sub-Saharan Africa are able to enter these courses as long as there is a decent internet connection and a streaming device. According to UNESCO (2016), sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of education exclusion in the world. Almost 60% of all youth between 15 and 17 there are not in school. Yes, they still require a streaming device, but a phone screen is in theory enough, and video projectors can be installed in classrooms.

This brings us to another advantage of MOOC’s, there is (in theory) no maximum student capacity. As it is a digital product, it can in theory be copied infinitely without reducing in quality. This means an enormous amount of people could follow the course of a single professor. This seems like a situation that only has benefits, but there are some risks. If a single professor is enough to educate a massive group of people, then I foresee a decrease of the need for professors. This may lead to many professors losing their job, and having to seek other ways to earn a living.

MOOC’s being a digital good also brings a major risk, the risk of the course content being copied and spread without consent and compensation. Screens can be recorded and assignments being copied. Websites like The PirateBay that provide a lot of illegal content are nowadays still available, whether it is through a proxy server or not). A solution must be sought to prevent piracy, because a single pirate is enough to create a lot of damage.

 

Another advantage of MOOC’s is that it provides an opportunity to gather data about its students. It can be tracked how much and when students spend time on the website, and which classes and courses are more and less attractive. Students may be able to provide a rating and a comment after every course. A risk of having too many students enrolled, is that a single professor may not be able to answer all questions or analyze feedback. This proves that a MOOC is not simply a professor with a webcam, but really requires a well-structured team or organization.

I would advise professors and universities to brainstorm about threats and opportunities in the increasingly digitized society. I believe that it’s very important not to miss the boat and to exploit first-mover advantages. Otherwise, you will remain the incumbent, while others become the disruptors.

 

References

EdX. (2019). mooc.org. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from http://mooc.org/.

UNESCO. (2016). Education in Africa. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from http://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/education-africa.

 

How did porn shape the digital space?

16

October

2019

No ratings yet. Welcome to the weird side of the internet again! That’s what you get for enabling auto-play…

In this piece I’d like to highlight just how much of our modern digital world owes its existence to porn. Why? Because it’s both funny and true. So to really figure out what porn has done for digital progress, we need to start at the beginning:

What have they done so far?

Long ago, in a little unknown country called the United States of America, the internet was born. This internet was unwieldy, slow, confusing and in desperate need of life support. The adult industry is one of the biggest reasons why the early internet retained enough users for its continued development by keeping people hooked and coming back for obvious reasons. They were the ones to pioneer streaming, pop-up ads, online transactions, tracking devices and are one of the reasons e-commerce is so large in the current day. They even were the driver for increasing the bandwidth of the internet to facilitate more porn, and all the other services benefited (Benes, 2013: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-porn-drives-innovation-in-tech-2013-7?international=true&r=US&IR=T).

What are they doing now?

The adult industry’s influence on innovation is less prominent nowadays due to its nature as the first to capitalize on technologies and trends. They do, however still contribute (Gross, 2010:http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/23/porn.technology/index.html)! Deep fakes, AI and haptic feedback aren’t innovations made by the porn industry specifically, but industry is the one driving their practical application far earlier than others.

  • Deep fakes are already being used to fake celebreties for porn but the industry is advancing the tech regardless, and getting better all the time.
  • AI is being tested to create an interactive porn experience which will likely be translated to other applications if succesful.
  • Haptic feedback is being used to create sex toys that can accurately simulate sex between long distance partners or a porn video, but has multiple applications in interface and product design.

If someday Siri and Alexa become sentient, you can thank porn for that!

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