$1 billion for Briny Breezes? Real estate broker thinks Trump would buy… and residents are listening – Palm Beach Post

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A plan being pushed by a Briny Breezes resident would sell the 43-acre town for $1 billion to Donald Trump as a potential site for a presidential library.

BRINY BREEZES A Palm Beach County trailer park could be the site of a future Donald J. Trump presidential library.

Thats the vision of James Arena, a real estate broker and resident of Briny Breezes, the 43-acre coastal town just south of Boynton Beach thats made up entirely of a mobile home park.

Arena, an avid Trump supporter, says he thinks he can convince the president to buy the land and turn it into a personal monument. Arena said he has the ball rolling by reaching out to his friend, rapper and Palm Beach County resident Vanilla Ice, who is close to the Trump family.

"Vanilla Ice ran it by Donald Jr.," Arena said of the presidents eldest son. "He called me back and said, Man, I think theyre really into it."

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The projected listing price to buy Briny Breezes, which is sandwiched between the ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway and is made up of nearly 500 property owners?

$1 billion.

"Trump is not my favorite and I would hate to see Briny disappear, but Im a realist," said Dana Littlefield, who has lived in the town since 1955. "Ive got 10 grandchildren and were talking 10 college educations. If Briny can be sold for a billion dollars, its like a no-brainer. Thats a lot of money."

Thats significantly higher than in 2007 when a Boca Raton-based developer offered $510 million to buy the town, a deal that would have made nearly all of its residents millionaires overnight. Littlefield said he stood to make $1.3 million from the sale, which eventually fell apart.

>> RELATED: Trump showed interest in Briny Breezes land in 2007

For Briny - as it is known by residents - to be sold, it would have to be approved by property owners representing 67 percent of the towns shareholders. Thats because Briny is also a corporation run by a board of directors, with the property owners holding corporate "shares." The better the location of an individuals property, the more shares that person owns.

Arena said the towns land owners have little choice but to sell because of major infrastructural issues involving the towns seawall, fresh water pipes and sewer system that are prohibitively expensive for residents to fix.

"We have to plan for the future of Briny and, unless we have a tremendous amount of money that I dont know about, that plan needs to include selling Briny on our terms," Arena told residents during a meeting on Thursday. "If we get caught with our pants down, were going to get much less money and were going to be told what to do."

The best candidate to buy the town, Arena said, is Trump. The president and wife Melania filed paperwork in October changing their primary residence from Manhattan to Palm Beach County, specifically Mar-a-Lago.

Every president since Herbert Hoover has established a presidential library in his home state. The president or his representatives are responsible for construction costs, usually paid for by non-profit foundations.

Arena said Trump could develop the land by building a hotel, marina and restaurants along with the presidential library and make the site a major tourist attraction.

"It makes a lot of sense for him to do something like that here," Arena said.

Its not the first time Trumps name has been linked to Briny Breezes. In 2007, Trump showed interest in the land, possibly teaming with The Related Group at the time. "We may do that together," Trump said then. "Its a great job, a wonderful location."

If Trump did buy Briny Breezes, he could change the name to "Trump Town," Arena suggested.

But some Briny townies arent so sure.

During Thursdays meeting, a woman asked Arena why the town would want to sell to Trump, who she said "lies, has bankruptcies and doesnt pay people back."

"I dont think hes a particularly good risk," the woman said.

Steve French has lived in Briny for eight years and owns two properties. His fellow owners, he said, must develop a plan "before disaster happens," pointing to Hurricane Dorian, the Category 5 storm that menaced Palm Beach Countys coastline in September.

Getting $1 billion for the town, French said, is "totally legitimate."

"Look at the stock market today," said, French, whose permanent residence is in Jupiter. "Everybodys stocks are going up. Real estate is starting to pop a little bit again. Interest rates are low. This is the time for someone to grab this place. Why not Trump?"

At Thursdays meeting, Arena urged property owners to sign a petition outlining the terms of any potential sale, including the listed price, that would be codified in the towns bylaws.

Maria Santa Cruz, 60, said she didnt sign the petition. Santa Cruz said she moved into Briny Breezes 20 years ago because she wanted "a simple life and it doesnt get any more simple than here."

Santa Cruz owns two properties and controls 54 shares. If Briny was to sell for $1 billion, each share would be worth $65,000 and Santa Cruz would receive more than $3.5 million. Not bad considering shes invested around $200,000 in the two properties.

Santa Cruz said shes not averse to selling, but is taking a "show me the money" approach.

"Bring us a solid offer and we can talk about it," Santa Cruz. "Without an offer, people are not going to accept this as real."

Santa Cruz voted for Trump but said the timing of raising the president as a potential buyer "was off." Trump was impeached in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday night.

A neighbor of Santa Cruzs who has lived in Briny for four generations and did not want to be identified said she would not attend the meeting or sell at any price. The thought of selling to Trump, she said, was particularly distasteful.

But Littlefield, who is no fan of the presidents, said his familys future well-being and not politics would be decisive.

"As crazy as Trump Town sounds and I dont like the idea, on the other hand I do like the idea," Littlefield said. "Its a wild thought but something we should think about."

jmilian@pbpost

@caneswatch

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$1 billion for Briny Breezes? Real estate broker thinks Trump would buy... and residents are listening - Palm Beach Post

‘We’ll never forget this’: Loved ones pay tribute to couple killed in Mastic Beach crash 1 year ago – News 12 Long Island

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Loved ones gathered for a somber vigil Sunday to remember the couple killed in a Mastic Beach crash that happened just ahead of the holidays last year.

Prosecutors say the driver, Patrick Poillon, was going more than 70 mph when he ran a stop sign on Dec. 22, 2018. His car slammed into the vehicle carrying Jean and William Molnar.

The Mastic Beach grandparents were killed.

Authorities say Poillon left the scene after the crash, but he was later arrested and hit with multiple charges, including manslaughter.

The Molnars' grieving friends and family members returned to the crash site Sunday to honor their memories.

"How do you celebrate a Christmas when you have such a tragic loss?" says Christine Fudenski, the mother of Jean Molnar. "It's just not the same anymore."

"I just wish I could hear my brother's voice one more time," says William Molnar's sister, Joanne. "I miss him everyday. We'll never forget this, ever."

The family says a neighbor who lives in the house next to where the crash happened has hand-painted a sign. It contains with words of remembrance for which they are forever grateful.

And while the crash site is a painful place for the Molnars' family and friends, they say they had to return there to let people know that the Molnars' lives mattered and they don't want them to be forgotten.

Poillon pleaded not guilty to the charges against him stemming from the crash. He was released from jail and is due back in court on Jan 6.

MORE COVERAGE: Suspect in deadly Mastic Beach crash charged with manslaughterPolice: Driver left scene of crash that killed husband and wife

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'We'll never forget this': Loved ones pay tribute to couple killed in Mastic Beach crash 1 year ago - News 12 Long Island

Daytonas downtown has another major development brewing – Daytona Beach News-Journal

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Daytona Beachs downtown could get another big retail and housing project on property bordered by Beach Street, Palmetto Avenue, International Speedway Boulevard and Bay Street.

DAYTONA BEACH For decades, the Beach Street corridor suffered through an epidemic of high storefront vacancy rates and the taint of being a persistent homeless hangout.

Then along came the new $65 million Brown & Brown headquarters building that will create space for hundreds of new employees, the $18 million Riverfront Park remake that will bring picturesque landscaping, and the Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. development with hundreds of new luxury apartments and a grocery store that together promise to create a dramatic turnaround along the Halifax River downtown.

Now theres a fourth project.

Burgoyne Properties is delving into a plan to transform the block it owns along Beach Street between International Speedway Boulevard and Bay Street into a dense cluster of new development including a hotel with a rooftop pool, plaza, parking garage, shops and multifamily housing.

In addition to that new development that would push west to Palmetto Avenue, Burgoyne is also looking at more housing, retail and another parking structure on its property at the corner of Beach Street and Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard that currently is home to Indian Motorcycle. That north Beach Street property is across from the new Brown & Brown headquarters building slated to open late next year, and its beside the county-owned site that has been targeted as the possible future home of a new courthouse and county offices.

Details are still being worked out, but the Daytona Beach attorney representing the Jacksonville-based property owner gave city commissioners a general sneak preview at their meeting Wednesday night.

"You have a 100-year property owner ready to re-phase this whole block," said Cobb Cole attorney Rob Merrell.

In the early 1900s, self-made commercial printing tycoon Charles Grover Burgoyne had a grand Queen Anne-style mansion that sprawled across the Beach Street block, and across the street he had his own dock and boathouse for his yacht. He died in 1916, and his widow remained in the home until the mid-1940s.

Mary Burgoyne sold the property to the current owner, whose holdings on the block begin at 116 N. Beach St. where the Kale Cafe is currently located. The cafes owners, Camille and Omar Brown, are feeling a mix of excitement and worry over the plans.

"A lot of people on Beach Street are uneasy," Omar Brown said. "Will we be gentrified and not be able to afford anything? I think were going to tough it out. Weve endured all these slim years and we want to see what happens."

Conceptual renderings drawn up by Jacksonville-based ELM architects show a new roadway carved into the middle of the block between what could be a hotel and new housing above street-level shops. The thoroughfare would be across from the veterans memorial in Riverfront Park, and it would run through the area now covered by a row of buildings.

"One thing we really tried to do with our design is create continuity from the park to our property," said William Colledge, vice president of Burgoyne Properties. "We want to make sure everything feels connected."

The new road would push west and wind around toward the Consolidated-Tomoka development that would extend out to Ridgewood Avenue.

The renderings show a plethora of new buildings, but Merrell said decisions have yet to be made about which of the existing buildings which mostly went up in the late 1940s and 1950s could be renovated and which could possibly be demolished and replaced with new structures built at higher elevations to handle flooding the area is prone to during hurricanes.

Merrell said people shouldnt take the renderings too literally. Burgoyne still has to finalize its plans, and the companys proposal needs a rezoning to a planned development that will need to get past the citys Downtown Redevelopment Board, Planning Board and City Commission over the next six-nine months.

"Some of this is not fully cooked yet," Merrell said. "Theyre not sure how much retail there will be. This is the beginning of a conversation."

He said he couldnt yet share the figures being discussed for the possible number of new housing units, parking spaces and square feet of commercial space. He said there is no developer on board yet for the blocks future ventures.

Colledge said hell talk to "a lot of different developers" as well as the key players involved in the other big downtown projects. On Thursday afternoon he drove to Daytona Beach to have some of those conversations.

"Were certainly excited about everything thats going on downtown," Colledge said Thursday. "For us it seemed an ideal time to do future planning and see what our property could evolve into."

The Consolidated-Tomoka project, planned to include a 400-space parking structure and 300 apartments along with new shops and restaurants, is what sparked the idea for Burgoyne to also recreate its downtown block, Colledge said.

Colledge said hes trying to be "really transparent" with the project, and met with impacted business owners a week ago.

"We want to assure them that for at least the next couple of years we have no immediate plans to tear those buildings down," he said.

The new development could be added in pieces, with a gradual turnover of building stock, he said. In the meantime, Burgoyne is "in discussions" for new pop-up retail uses and is renewing leases for existing businesses for up to three years.

It could be three to five years before changes happen on the Burgoyne property, he said.

"It depends on market conditions," Colledge said.

City commissioners are typically debriefed on new projects behind the scenes before theyre presented at commission meetings. But Wednesdays presentation inside City Hall was the first commissioners had heard about Burgoynes ideas.

City Commissioner Rob Gilliland called it "amazing," and said hes "astounded" by everything happening downtown.

Merrell presented it to city commissioners Wednesday night because they were slated to vote on a project that would be complementary to Burgoynes plans. Before commissioners was a contract for P&S Paving to revitalize Beach Street between Orange Avenue and Bay Street.

Commissioners hired P&S Paving to handle the $4.48 million Beach Street project scheduled to begin next month and wrap up in October 2020. The project will involve reducing the four traffic lanes to two, widening sidewalks, making utility improvements, and adding new street lighting and landscaping. Plans also call for reconstructing the decorative arches damaged by Hurricane Irma and creating an additional 43 parking spaces along Beach Street.

Some residents spoke out against the Beach Street road project, saying it was too expensive and was needlessly being rushed. Other residents, such as Beach Street coffee shop owner Tammy Kozinsky, welcomes the coming changes.

"Please dont look at it as just changing the street," Kozinsky said. "Youre creating a destination."

City Commissioner Paula Reed is concerned about the money being spent, and said Daytona Beach needs to take another look at the failed half-cent sales tax to find money for road and bridge projects. City Commissioner Ruth Trager cast the lone no vote against the road project, saying "we have to balance our wants with our needs."

Al Smith, whose family owns downtown property, said more than $200 million is about to be invested in the riverfront area, more than enough to justify the city spending $4.48 million on Beach Street.

Mayor Derrick Henry said the downtown projects cant be put on hold.

"We have a destination for our future," Henry said. "We cant keep kicking the can down the road."

The road project also inspired Burgoyne Properties to rethink its downtown Daytona holdings.

"When I started sharing the Beach Street plan, Burgoyne got very interested in re-purposing their buildings," Merrell said. "Theyve done it in Jacksonville."

Before commissioners voted on whether to hire P&S Paving to handle the road project, J. Hyatt Brown told them what would happen in Riverfront Park if the plan to improve the three blocks of Beach Street and pare the traffic lanes to two in that stretch was scrapped.

Brown, chairman of insurance broker Brown & Brown, is personally donating $18.3 million for dramatic improvements planned for Riverfront Park. If the Beach Street road project had been derailed, Brown said the $750,000 splash pad planned for the park would be eradicated from designs because "according to all of the professional advice that we have mothers and young children won't bother crossing four lanes."

And that would take away a new source of revenue from Beach Street businesses with mothers who could take their kids to shops for "candy, and cookies and Cokes and all those good things," Brown said.

"What we're looking to do is to create a situation where people come downtown and spend money downtown," he said.

He said the park is also envisioned to hold events at night because it will become "a great place to be." He said that will draw people from all over, including those who live nearby between Nova Road and the ocean but have been hesitant to come to the riverfront in recent decades because of crime problems.

"Think about the number of people that are in that area who would like to come to events and would now feel safe in a beautiful place," Brown said.

"We don't view the $18.3 million as a gift, we view it as an investment," Brown said. "We feel an obligation to try to have the boats rise here, and the boats mean more people who have more good-paying jobs so they'll be happy with themselves and their family and be here forever."

Mori Hosseini, CEO of ICI Homes, spoke in support of the upcoming downtown projects.

"You have to do whats right for the city," Hosseini told commissioners before they voted on the road project. "When its done everyone will benefit and everyone will remember you for the good work you did."

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Daytonas downtown has another major development brewing - Daytona Beach News-Journal

Baghdad’s ‘Tahrir Beach’ where the revolution takes a break – Yahoo News

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Baghdad (AFP) - Close to Baghdad's protest hotspot of Tahrir Square, a sandy Tigris River bank offers some relief from the revolution: youths kick around footballs and smoke shisha pipes to booming hiphop music.

It is on this half-kilometre (500-yard) stretch where the post-Saddam generation celebrates its uprising on the beach, escaping the teargas and bullets for a fun and festive atmosphere.

"Our leaders have deprived us of everything -- our rights, our money, our dignity," says Ammar Saleh, 20. "Here we simply discover the taste of freedom."

Unemployed and penniless, another man here, Ali, is intoxicated by the wind of revolt that has swept through Iraq since early October in the biggest wave of street rallies since the 2003 US-led invasion.

"We have nothing left to lose, we will not move as long as the thieves in power don't leave office!" he says with fervour, then returns to his football game.

"Tahrir Beach", as its occupants call it, has maintained the carnival-like atmosphere of the protests before they were marred by bloodshed and fear.

"This is where you find the magic of the early days of the movement," says journalist Ali, a regular visitor.

In the almost three months since the rallies started, about 460 people have been killed and 25,000 wounded. The initially self-managed camps at Tahrir Square have become more strictly organised and the carefree spirit has gone.

"There is less mobilisation, leaders have changed, militiamen and spies have infiltrated the demonstrators," said Ali, who pointed also to the growing influence of supporters of Shiite populist leader Moqtada Sadr.

- 'We want joy' -

Tahrir Beach lies on the east bank of the Tigris, between the Al-Sinek and al-Jumhuryiah bridges, where security forces guard access routes into the locked-down "Green Zone" government and embassies district.

Along Rashid Street, centuries-old brick houses with elaborate wooden balconies, now mostly dilapidated, tell the story of the capital city's past glory.

Bland modern buildings now mar the cityscape as do the concrete blast walls, covered with protest graffiti.

Story continues

Red and yellow tuk-tuks - the three-wheeled taxis that have become a revolutionary emblem - pour their smiling passengers onto the stretch of river-front, to be greeted by rows of shisha water pipes.

Everywhere there are reminders of the "martyrs" who fell on the barricades: improvised mausoleums adorned with now wilted flowers, a construction helmet, a bloodied t-shirt.

Black, red and white Iraqi flags flutter in the breeze, alongside the inevitable FC Barcelona logo.

"Dumping garbage is forbidden," reads a sign suggesting the civic-minded spirit of the "new Iraq", even if litter on the ground suggests not everyone is on board yet.

Under Saddam Hussein and the civil war that followed it was unthinkable to wander around here, so close to the dictator's palaces and then the headquarters of the US occupation.

"It was too dangerous! There were no people, just dogs at night," recalls Ayman, a former resident of the area.

Now a new generation is reappropriating the river bank, as expressed in a slogan daubed on a wall: "We have cried so much, now we want joy."

- Downward-facing dog -

Indeed, even though it's a short walk to Tahrir Square, the violence seems far away.

Three teenagers try to free a scooter stuck in the beach, the rear wheel spraying up sand. Youths with pulled-up pants play volleyball.

A temperamental sound system spits out Iraqi techno and the rap hit "I Got Love", while a piece of linoleum serves as the stage for a hip-hop dance contest.

Bandanas wrapped around their heads, two guys pumped up with testosterone twirl and spin to the crowd's applause.

The day before, a yoga class here produced photos of bulked-up and beared men performing the one-legged downward-facing dog pose, sparking delight on social media.

The crowd remains predominantly young and male -- and poor.

One young man, 26-year-old Sofiane, his arm deformed by polio, says he has "never received the slightest allowance" but expresses hope the demonstrations will "change everything".

A group of girls stroll past, their long black hair blowing in the wind. They receive discreet glances but no one bothers them.

The young ladies sip soft-drinks while squinting at guys with slicked-up hairstyles who are shaking their hips to the rhythm of a song that decries the "rotten politicians".

As teenagers splash in the brackish river water and toddlers build sand castles, some incredulously film the relaxed scene with their smartphones.

"These scenes were unimaginable just a few months ago," Ali marvels. His voice darkening slightly, he adds that he is "not sure it will last".

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Baghdad's 'Tahrir Beach' where the revolution takes a break - Yahoo News

Dead whale found on Midland Beach; carcass will be buried there – SILive.com

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A dead whale was found at Midland Beach along Father Capodanno Boulevard on Friday morning.

Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (AMSEAS) received a call about the whale around 7:40 a.m. and sent a team to respond to the call.

The whale has been identified as a minke whale.

The whale has been barricaded off on the shore. (Photo courtesy Susan Somma)

Minke whales are currently ongoing an unusual mortality event. The elevated minke whale deaths have occurred along the coast from Maine through South Carolina, according to NOAA Fisheries.

According to preliminary examinations of beached minke whales, there has been evidence of human interaction or infectious disease. Samples are not consistent among all of the whales.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation and the city Parks Departments Staten Island borough office were on site in the morning and moved the whale out of the surf in preparation for the AMSEAS necropsy examination.

While the necropsy is ongoing, AMSEAS has dug a hole to bury the whale on the beach, according to an AMSEAS spokeswoman. She told the Advance that burial on the beach is the most natural way to dispose of large, deceased whales.

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Dead whale found on Midland Beach; carcass will be buried there - SILive.com

Wildwood to host 3-day country music festival on the beach – WHYY

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A three-day country music festival will be held on the beach in Wildwood in June, officials announced.

The inaugural Barefoot Country Music Fest is set for Friday, June 19 through Sunday, June 21 on the Lincoln Avenue beach, according to a news release.

The family-friendly festival will feature more than 30 of country musics biggest stars and up-and-coming artists on multiple stages across 27-acres. Event organizers expect it to be the northeasts largest outdoor country music festival.

Organizers will announce the artists at Wildwood City Hall on Jan. 7, with tickets on sale beginning on Jan. 10.

In a prepared statement, Greater Wildwoods Tourism Authoritys John Siciliano said the festival will be a boon for the Wildwoods.

The Barefoot Country Music Fest will be one of the most exciting events ever held in the Wildwoods, bringing thousands of new visitors to the Wildwoods at the very start of the summer tourism season, he said. The economic impact on the Wildwoods and Cape May County should prove to be enormous, filling our hotels with overnight visitors, increasing restaurant covers and retail expenditures and generating increased revenue for all our attractions.

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Wildwood to host 3-day country music festival on the beach - WHYY

What You Can Do to Build an Innovative Ecosystem – CMSWire

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PHOTO:Christina Morillo // wocintechchat

Innovation and research are no longer restricted to laboratories and research centers. Today, new ideas and innovative approaches emerge every day from people working on customer-facing situations and dealing with real-life issues. It is therefore essential to not only collect these ideas, but to encourage and reward them as well.

Companies such as Apple, Google, Samsung, 3M, Virgin Group, Nokia and Procter & Gamble have brought about significant changes in the nature of innovation itself. For these top performers, the winning equation is unassailable: Innovation equals growth. Innovation has evolved and taken many different forms over the last 50 years. The famous, patented 3M post-it was one such innovation. Since its invention, 3M has given creative time off to its employees, a concept many companies have embraced in recognition of the need to take a break in order to invent or re-invent an idea.

As Thomas Kuczmaski puts it,

There are inventors and there are innovators. One is creating a product with the dream of success. The other brings a product to market knowing with certainty that there is a need to be met. Understanding the difference and acting on it can provide an important stimulus for the economy in the challenging years ahead

The profligate and competitive society we live in means the ability to dictate changes and transformation provides a competitive advantage. Managing innovation and creativity is the key to this ability. Any organization that has resolved to tap the innovation potential of its employee base is halfway towards re-inventing or potentially producing some truly exceptional solutions.

Though many theories discuss organizational innovation, below are five simple steps to building an innovative ecosystem within the workplace. These strategies could be categorized into resource-based, organizational strategies as each of these elements includes resources as well as management strategies to encourage and inculcate innovation in employees, such that the entire organization works as an innovation platform, generating and capturing new ideas.

Generate an environment where creative ideas flourish, not just in R&D but throughout the organization, at every level. Consumers and frontline staff are in the best position to know what is needed and the ubiquitous availability of technology is creating innovation ecosystems out of the control of large corporations. Transformational leadership rebuilds traditional organizations to create innovative organizational climates, encouraging the creativity and innovation of its employees. Methods to create such an environment could be as simple as introducing dual career ladders, mentoring programs, technical conferences, jam and think sessions, brainstorming workshops, webinars and brown bags, and think tank events. All of these could be characterized as innovation events or workshops organized for the sole purpose of collaborating and generating ideas.

Related Article: Don't Wait for the Innovation Lottery: A Deliberate Approach to Ideation

Provide an opportunity to prove the idea and surface the innovation to those who can make the change. Research has found that creative people demonstrate high performances under personal autonomy. It is important to create this opportunity by providing autonomy to employees to process their thoughts and present their ideas. Some companies have instituted "Think Fridays," an excellent example of making space for creation.

Connect the innovator to the sponsors and the implementers. Fast connections between senior leadership and grassroots have proven to be the most important enabler for an innovative organization. Collaboration across the lines of hierarchy is one of the key elements in capturing new ideas and taking action. Building networking into the culture sparks communication across the silos and encourages and inspires new ideas, with the right cultural mindsets in place.

Related Article: DevOps and the Culture of Inclusion

Encourage diversity of thought and remove limiting assumptions. All organizations need to dispel and discourage the belief that disenfranchised groups cannot innovate. All groups need to be included in decision making so they can demonstrate their ability. Lack of diversity leads to two limiting assumptions: The dominant group is superior and so everyone should be (think) like them. Because of this superiority, it should naturally have power over the others.

Some examples of limiting assumptions in information technology are:

Related Article: IT Needs to Face Its Isms

Focus on the goal and dont measure the performance. Measuring innovative performance is perhaps the best way to stifle it. Research has shown that evaluating the innovation performance of organizations primarily based on positive outcomes may stifle the risky experimentation necessary for progress in difficult and unpredictable environments. A very high percentage of nonprofit and government innovation occurs in spite of the odds. Pushing innovation success while disregarding prevailing organizational hurdles may create negative outcomes and stifle innovation performance.

As Alan Kay puts it, The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Inventions happen in a culture where innovation is encouraged through culture rather than institutionalized in a process. Technological advancement and rising competition in the industrial and service companies have made innovation central to competitiveness. Organizations particularly technologically-driven ones need to be more innovative and pioneering than before to lead, to grow, to compete and to endure. Commercial organizations need to be efficient to survive in the short-term and encourage innovation and experimentation to survive in the long-term. With the advent of social media and technological advancements, customers have changed from being passive consumers to consumers as active participants. Organizations that have encouraged an all-round culture of innovation have seen the simultaneous emergence of new capabilities from technologies, to skills, to global scale and new disruptive business models and of new ways in which innovation happens. There are many theories of encouraging innovation across organizations. However, taking specific factors and specific steps to create a culture of independent thinking is critical for greater creativity and novelty at the organizational level.

Geetika Tandon is a senior director at Booz Allen Hamilton, a management and technology consulting firm. She was born in Delhi, India, holds a Bachelors in architecture from Delhi University, a Masters in architecture from the University of Southern California and a Masters in computer science from the University of California Santa Barbara.

The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of her employer.

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What You Can Do to Build an Innovative Ecosystem - CMSWire

Time to stop playing with acronyms and create vibrant eco system in North East – Economic Times

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Christmas and the run up to it, with string of cultural festivals like Hornbill in Nagaland and Sangai in Manipur, is opportune time to be in the North East (NE). There was a very meaningful seminar by Assam Rifles on Act East policy at Imphal. Unlike earlier deliberations, innovation of hosting it in city convention centre with large number of academia and student invitees was very welcome. For some, with abiding interest in region, having spent defining years of our career there, it is time to repay part of debt of gratitude and reconnect. Every visit adds fresh perspectives. Unfortunately, during this outing, palpable fear, paranoia and mistrust seemed to be all pervasive. While it was interesting to meet officials from Delhi on their yearly sojourns, yet most do not realise that Yuletide is family and festivity time.

The famed Act East policy with so much of promise seems to be getting derailed even before the take-off. This initiative must be appraised on criteria like intent (mind set), enabling environment, bandwidth (capacity), road map, feedback and accountability. Intent was more than reiterated, with repackaging of Think East policy into Act East in 2014. It is pertinent to highlight that policy, first promulgated in 1991 by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, was carried forward for 23 years by regimes of Deve Gowda, I K Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. The policy with much hype has been re-packaged yet again, Act East 2.0, as extension of SAGAR and Neighbourhood First articulations. With East Asian economies galloping away and SAARC blocked, Act East is undoubtably the most promising instrument in our foreign policy. To put it bluntly, three decades down the NE lane, with stalled Kaladan project and yet to take off Trilateral highway, we have really nothing to show.

The enabling environment, prima-facie seemed right for operationalisation of policy with entire NE, politically aligned with central government. The only stumbling block is resolution of Naga problem, which has the potential of unleashing domino effect, catalysing possible resolution of other low-order insurgencies, specially in Manipur. Coupled with this is the inescapable need for dismantling all pervasive extortion economy, which everyone accepts as the stark reality. Euphoria generated on impending Naga peace accord seems to have evaporated. There are reports that some insurgent leaders have crossed over to establish sanctuaries across borders and even taken refuge in China. Revocation of Article 370 has stoked suspicion on probability of similar fate for protective clauses like Article 371. Notwithstanding repeated assurances, mistrust has been reinforced by recent move to shift citizenship cut off in Assam from 1971 to 2014, disregarding Assam accord. It is clear that government is currently on back foot in perception battle.

On hind sight, it appears that sequencing of priorities has gone awry. Would it have been better to first resolve Naga problem, described as low hanging fruit, after Framework agreement in 2014 to kickstart Act East? In any case, citizenship issues could have been deferred, giving priority to economic agenda. Is it becoming case of stoking too many fires concurrently? It is earnestly hoped that government can reassure people and douse these fires as we cant afford to miss this opportunity. It is rather unfortunate that despite meticulous preparations, specially by Japanese, (their preparatory delegation was at Imphal), Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had to call off his visit to Guwahati and Imphal.

NE experts ensconced in Lutyens need to abide with seminal wisdom across Brahmaputra, it is- Lahe-Lahe (slow and slower), yes one can make hurry but only slowly. The second reality is that it is easy to get central fund seeking compliant political leaders to switch sides but with their very poor credibility, it is no guarantee of people being on board. Realistically, saffron NE, as yet, is only imaginative cartographic construct. It is also rather unfortunate that relevant lesson of language and culture overriding religion, as evidenced in liberation of Bangladesh, seems to have been forgotten. Across Siliguri corridor, ethnicity and language take precedence over religion. The main bone of contention is between Assamese and Bengali speaking populace cutting across religious divide. Consequently, two adjoining valleys of Barak and Brahmaputra have diametrically opposite reactions to influx of migrants. Chakma refugees, besides Mizoram and Tripura, are unwelcome even in Arunachal, despite religious affinity. Unique form of land holding laws with ownership vesting in tribal and village councils, further exacerbate the problem.

Despite high literacy rate, the region has abysmal record in skill building as education is skewed in favour of non-vocational streams. It is common to find PhDs, albeit in Theology, funded by foreign Baptist institutions. Functional rungs of economy are effectively serviced by migrant labour Bangladeshis and Biharis. Migration has economic dimension propelled by skill deficit and local reluctance for blue collar jobs. Fed up with addicted, lazy and abusive men folk, many Sema women prefer Miya husbands spawning new Semiya tribe. The only silver lining, in current impasse is another opportunity to review proposed plans and consider inclusive people-centric, bottom-up approach. Empirical study by Prof Gurudas Das of Silchar University questions financial viability of much-touted transportation projects. DONER needs to shed patronising donor attitude and shift focus from road-connectivity-based strategy to focus on holistic livelihood- oriented skill building, entrepreneurship and creating vibrant local eco system. In this game of repackaging and tokenism, replete with new acronyms, it is time to realise that it is- Now or never North East.

The writer is former ArmyCommander, Western Command

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Time to stop playing with acronyms and create vibrant eco system in North East - Economic Times

The Unter-class is the Whole Ecosystem – Fairplanet

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Long before global warming entered public consciousness, they considered its effects through maps, talks, and various other artistic means. They collaborated with biologists, historians, architects, and urban planners to initiate dialogues on biodiversity, climate change, and community development. Their artworks pushed the boundaries of what constitutes art. A conversation on the state of affairs.

FairPlanet: Is your home yourstudio space?

Newton Harrison: Yes, I actually designed my house in a way where every room is a thought-producing site.

You recently gave a lecture on your work in Berlin. Whats your connection to Europe?

Helen and I lived in Berlin while the wall was still up. We did work for documenta 8 during the 80s, which was called Kassel Works. The work was meant as a critique of documenta itself, and Kassels history, with the Gestapo headquarters that used to be located there. It was an out-front attack on the Hitler generated planning that shaped the rebuilding of Kassel after firebombing. When then President, von Weizscker saw this work, he immediately understood what we were doing and why and asked us to come work in Berlin. Thats how we ended up there. And thats when we started working in Europe much more heavily.

What projects stood out for you during this time?

We did Peninsula Europe, which was funded by the EU and the German government and took up about 300 square metres of museum space. The work addresses the high grounds of Europe from the perspective of its drain basins, its ecosystems and waters. At the time the work was done, in 1999, we believed that Europes water supply was going to get badly affected, partly by drought, partly by profound misuse of waters. So we argued that a new kind of forestry running across the central massive right into Portugal needed to happen. We proposed concrete reforestation and created a first map, which was basically re-mapping all of Europe. We designed new continental high grounds, however not along the outlines of Europe, but from where all the rivers began. Every map we designed is a complex narrative, and it is almost always about biodiversity.You need to understand: every regular map is almost always about how to get from here to there, and thereby places here and there. What we did was to create a new ecologically-driven narrative.

How would this narrative map influence Europe as a whole?

If applied, Europe would basically change into a large number of city-states. We yank out the roads, intensify the rivers, intensify the high grounds, take out all national boundaries. As simple as that.

What was the thought process behind this idea?

When you look at Portugal, you see water retention landscapes, that let you produce food in dry climates. We propose that something like 100,000 of those landscapes would be made. They would basically function like small villages. Eventually, this would eliminate monocultural farming and reinstate biodiversity in the countryside, while creating a new kind of farming. Thats the kind of transformation were looking at, one which not only fixes temporary problems, but looks for a transformation of the whole system.

You and Helen both used to work as scientists. At which moment did you move to art?

We were the first couple that ever shared a single professorship at a university. That was in the early sixties, and we were both very active in the peace movement. But we were looking for deeper ways of encounter and political action. Helen read this book, Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, which influenced her greatly, and me, too. By 1969, we understood that extinction was an actual possibility and that global warming would happen. It was right in our faces! Any smart person who studied the figures could see this by 1970. So we decided to do work that benefited the ecosystem.Also we were not scientists, but artists able to do science when needed.

And how was that work received at the time?

Well, once we were asked to do a piece on endangered species for a show in New York, and we said, look, the most endangered species isnt actually the lion, tiger or the hippopotamus that everyone is so romantic about. The most endangered species is topsoil. About 12 million square miles of topsoil across the planet are being ruined because of all the carbon released to the atmosphere and the so-called green revolution which from the perspective of agri-business has turned into the green devolution. So, as one of our first projects, we made earth. We started these urban farming projects as art pieces. Its a hard process. In order to make rich topsoil, it takes three full months, about 2.000 earthworms, four tons of shit, leaf mould, little clay, little sand, and pissing on it from time to time.

How did this become art?

Everything I do or we did is art. We understood we had to change our field and become what I would call public service artists. Galleries started showing urban gardens, transplanted meadows and plantations of ours. But our research process was equally important. We could foresee almost everything were facing today. We created a map of the world in which the rising of ocean levels is predicted precisely.

Why is it so hard to change peoples mind on this issue?

Well, somehow, people back then in the early 70s, like people today, seem to prefer death and total transfiguration to the loss of capital. What does this tell you? Theres something deeply wrong with capitalism itself. You heard of Herbert Marcuse? He used to be at my university back in the days. In the early 70s he and I had a meeting, we were talking and he says to me: Newton, your work is as useless as the womens movement. And I said, Oh, really?. He said, Yes, its a form of regressive de-sublimation.Which was code for: Youre working on less important things than the class struggle. I lost my temper at him, I said Herbert, the Uber-class is the whole human race. The Unter-class is the whole ecosystem. Anybody can screw the Unter-class with a shovel.A few years later he came over and admitted I might have had a point here.

There was a point where your art projects were taken up by city planners, like in A Vision for the Green Heart of Holland project. Can you tell me about this?

Sure, they were going to put 600,000 houses, farming units, schools, etc. right into the centreof the so-called Green Heart. The Green Heart is a huge diverse farming operation centering a ring of cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and others. Its landforms represent the very history of Holland and formation of democracy. Its about 800 square kilometres, consisting of mainly small villages and windmills. They were going to give it up. Also, its the great central park of Holland. So we got called up to create a plan for the Green Heart, which we did, by generating a new plan. And by pointing out other areas where they could easily put 600,000 houses while still encouraging biodiversity in the urban, suburban and agricultural communities.

For a 1971 exhibit in Boston you created Hog Pasture, in whichyoucreated an actual pasture indoors hoping to have a real hog root in it, but the museum refused. In 2012, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles allowed you to re-create the work with a real pig.

Yes, the pigs name was Wilma. It turned out that Wilma had never been in a natural environment before. She didnt know what to do with that hog pasture! Usually, pigs just walk around and eat the roots. So I had to push Wilmas nose into the ground, into the roots, and suddenly her tail started to wag 100 miles an hour. She dug up the whole artwork. Its an interesting thing to observe, a really, really happy pig.

What do you think is our most pressing challenge for the future?

Look, in America today, oil lobbyists are buying politicians for whatever purposes they want. Its not a democracy anymore. As long as the system keeps operating as it currently does, we will mostly die. Only small groups in small villages maybe near the north pole maybe can survive this. The last time planet earth underwent such a change from cold to warm, it took about 2,000 years, so there was relatively lots of time to adapt. Today itll take about 100 years. There simply is no time to adapt. Most of the conversations that have to happen, and that Helen and I tried to push for decades, is need to focus on what I call paleo-botanical research. We need to find out more about species that used to live in much warmer conditions and conducted a sort of migration not through space, but through time. With this knowledge one might slow down extinctions, so that there would be a fair survival rate. If we dont invest in such research, there wont be any increase of survival rate, civilisation will simply collapse. Or do you have a better idea?

Certainly not. In recent years, especially over this and last year, there is growing attention to the topic. Climate issues have driven elections. Whats your thoughts on this shift?

We have think about those issues in a long-term scale. Basically, what we have to do everywhere to help the climate today is take care of about 10.000 hectare of forests for about 200 years, and youll have an ancient forest, It generally takes 200-400 years. But in 20 years from now, its already going to get so much hotter that species will have to move and entire ecosystems will need to regroup at best. At worst, they will fail.

What are you working on at the moment?

Im working on a number of projects. One of them includes an idea for the borderline between North and South Korea. If they created a giant biodiversity corridor between their countries, this area could teach them how to rehab their countries ecologically as this becomes a greater necessity in the future.

Could this translate into politics?

Of course. In order to realise this idea, they would need a kind of giant central park between their countries. If you look at North Korea today, theres rarely a single tree standing. They did such bad farming and treated their people so bad when it got cold, so now theres hardly any trees left.

How does the ideal future look like for you?

I dont have one. But the things Id like to see happen are these: a complete revision of capitalism, so thats its understood that the ultimate capital is not money, but the overproduction of the life web itself. Look at crabs: the mother crab produces three million eggs. She expected, maybe, 30 eggs to live. So why did she make millions of eggs for few to live? Its a survival package that constitutes food for many other species which eat the eggs. Every species overproduces in this way to ensure their own survival. That is what our future capital needs to be. The human condition is not the most important thing in the world. The life web itself is the most important thing. All the philosophy that centres humans at its core, is wrong. We need a new Copernican revolution. Science can no longer be human-centric.

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The Unter-class is the Whole Ecosystem - Fairplanet

OKEx Research: Ecosystem, and Innovative Products – newsBTC

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OKEx is currently one of the biggest digital assets exchange and trading platforms that has achieved significant progress since its inception. The platform is known for its constant innovation, characterized by the introduction of new features for users at a regular frequency. In this post, OKEx gives a brief overview of their companys journey in recent days and the ecosystem they are creating.

Highlights

I. Correlation of OKEx Major Tokens

Overall relationships with each other became positive.

II. Microscope on Correlations

III. One step further with a new product: OKEx USDT margined future

After conducting simulation and beta testing,BTC futures contracts that are margined with the Tetherlaunched successfully on Nov 14th. Started with less than 1% of original BTC futures volume (coin margined) on day one, now shows more than half of daily volume to its brother, and still growing and getting attention from the market participants.

Here we put some figures for information and will integrate this into monthly correlation analysis, with other USDT margined futures.

As shown above, volatilities are moving almost together, however, the relativeness and crossing the other requires our attention.

Disclaimer: This material should not be taken as the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation to engage in investment transactions. Trading digital assets involves significant risk and can result in the loss of your invested capital. You should ensure that you fully understand the risk involved and take into consideration your level of experience, investment objectives and seek independent financial advice if necessary.

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OKEx Research: Ecosystem, and Innovative Products - newsBTC

Driving up the value of AI starts with building an ecosystem – CIO Dive

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NEW YORK Driven by a desire to boost efficiency, a manufacturing customer once tapped General Electric subsidiary GE Digital to infuse its facilities and supply chain with artificial intelligence.

Involved in the existing tech stack was a cloud computing provider. But as GE entered the design stage of the project, it ran across a barrier: The cloud company wanted to be the one to extract data from the manufacturing equipment, saying its methods were faster than GE's.

"We argued for three months over that," said Rachel Trombetta, principal enterprise architect of GE Digital, speaking on a panel at The AI Summit in New York Wednesday. "And during that time we were not able to provide any value."

Stepping back and allowing GE to take point onthe data extraction element of the project, while the cloud provider focused on the supply chain side, would have been a more collaborative approach to the project, Trombetta said.

To navigate the complexities of AI at the enterprise level, companies stand to benefit from taking an ecosystem approach to AI deployment, one which leverages industry strengths and seeks cooperation between multiple stakeholders. In this framework, customer needsshape the priorities of the parties involved.

Given the talent deficit in the AI field as well as tech as a whole there's often "not enough people" to deploy large-scale projects, which further marks the need for an ecosystem approach,Trombetta said.

Though AI deployment is a complex endeavor, its potential lures even the most conservative industries.

Precisely because of its complexity, AI is the ideal spacefor an ecosystem environment that steps past individual limitations, according to Gauthier Vasseur, executive director of the Fisher Center for Business Analytics at the University of California, Berkeley,speaking on the panel.

"In an AI project, everything is thrown at us at the same time," Vasseur said. "Our firepower to look at problems holistically is limited if we're by ourselves.It's the ultimate partnership playground."

As talks and panels unfolded at The AI Summit, dozens of vendors pitched their platforms on a crowded showroom.

Seeing clearly where the highest value lies in the swarm of platforms and products the market can offer is "the most challenging job of the 21stcentury," saidIgor Taber,SVP of corporate development and strategy at DataRobot.

"Industry doesn't make it easy tofigure out what's what," said Taber. In that context,partnershipscan ease the burden of understanding which providers to select.

In certain cases, though, the roles are reversed: AI and machine learning platforms can help companies determine which vendors to select, based on who can provide the products that most closelyalign with business needs and strategies.

Stepping past individual priorities and ceding ground on projects can be an uphill battle given tech's cut-throat competitiveness.

But larger rewards can await providers who adhere to an ecosystem framework. In the case of GE, a $3 million dollar project became a $5 million one after additional partners were brought in to address the needs of an Australian mining company.

Deloitte, one of the partners, had an existing business relationship with the client.GE was brought into the fold because of its industrial expertise and the AI that capabilities it could deploy at that layer.

"One of the things we suffered with was everyone wanted access to the data to prove their hypothesis first," Trombetta said. A valuable step was to collect the data and normalize it for its joint use across the project.

The result was a system that allowed the company to move minerals from a mining facility through manufacturing and to a nearby port on the day the mineral's pricewould be most beneficial.

Identifying ideal use cases for a partnership requires a customer-first approach. Though it may sound trite, customer interest isn't always the main driver for partnerships,Taber said.

"Taking AI for AI's sake is the first mistake we will do," said Vasseur. If stakeholders within a partnership lose sight of why AI is being deployed "then you'll be in big trouble."

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Driving up the value of AI starts with building an ecosystem - CIO Dive

TrueFort Expands Fortified Ecosystem with Infoblox and Others – Business Wire

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WEEHAWKEN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TrueFort, the application detection and response company, today announced the continued expansion of the TrueFort Fortified Ecosystem. The company is building upon its previously announced partnership with CrowdStrike, and now adds Infoblox to the program.

To protect applications and enable organizations to achieve full, 360-degree understanding of their behavior and context, the TrueFort Fortress XDR platform has been optimized to consume vast amounts of real-time telemetry into its advanced analytics engine to be able to accurately identify internal and external threats across all vectors.

Without open integration and information sharing between the various security controls available today, malicious actors will continue to have great success attacking enterprises, said Ed Amoroso, CEO of TAG CYBER and former head of cybersecurity for AT&T. Ask any Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) today what risk they are most concerned about and the majority will point to threats that target business applications.

Todays announcement reinforces the companys commitment to its ecosystem approach, and in also helping customers extract maximum value from the TrueFort platform, and from their existing deployed investments in third-party products and data via open APIs and especially, bi-directional information sharing.

Through the Ecosystem Exchange model, Infoblox customers now have yet another way to extend the value of our Core Network Services data, said David Barry, Senior Director of Business Development at Infoblox. The TrueFort Fortress XDR platforms ability to consume our telemetry enhances its application profiling for better policy management, while providing increased insight into unmanaged systems to fast-track application-layer threat detection.

TrueFort also announced today its membership in the Center for Internet Security SecureSuite which provides organizations access to multiple cybersecurity resources including the CIS-CAT Pro configuration assessment tool, build content, full-format CIS Benchmarks, and more. In addition, TrueFort Fortress XDR is expanding its footprint of protected application environments with a new listing on the VMware Solution Exchange as a data center and network security solution.

To improve our customers security posture while reducing operational overhead, as vendors we need to ensure smooth integration and information sharing between toolsets, while following industry best practices like the CIS benchmarks, said Sameer Malhotra, CEO and Founder, TrueFort. Through initiatives like the TrueFort Fortified Ecosystem, we look forward to promoting industry collaboration in 2020 and beyond.

About TrueFort

Applications are the lifeblood of business. TrueFort helps organizations align application security policy with operational reality via Fortress XDR, the industrys first application detection and response platform. Fortress XDR reverses the traditional infrastructure approach to security by comprehensively tracking application behavior to unify cloud workload protection and AppSec in a single console. Using real-time telemetry, patented advanced behavioral analytics and policy automation, enterprises can now visualize, microsegment, protect, hunt and investigate from the application layer. Founded in 2015 by former Wall Street senior IT executives, TrueFort offers unparalleled application visibility, control and protection with the shortest time-to-value through the TrueFort Fortified ecosystem and our unique bring-your-own-agent approach. For more information visit http://www.truefort.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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TrueFort Expands Fortified Ecosystem with Infoblox and Others - Business Wire

Are Apple Macs worth the money? – scallywagandvagabond

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Should you buy an Apple Mac? Image via Unsplash.

If youre in the market for a new computer, you might well have glanced over at those shiny Apple Mac desktops and laptops at the store. Lets face it; they are designer technology, but are they also practical too? And, are they even worth the price premium compared to Windows-based systems?

You might think that Apple Macs are overpriced and seldom-used by most people. But youd be wrong! Believe it or not, they are worth the money, even if the price ticket leaves you feeling somewhat shocked! Heres why it makes sense to put some serious consideration into buying an Apple Mac:

One of the brilliant things about Apple technology is that it all works seamlessly well in its ecosystem. For example, if you had an iPhone and Mac, and youre working at your Mac, it will alert you when you get a call or message on your iPhone. Its quite a handy feature to have, especially if you tend to leave your phone on silent! You can also write and reply to text messages on your Mac, and even take calls on it too if your iPhone is nearby.

Because they are all part of the same Apple ecosystem, sharing content between the devices is simple. That means you could, for instance, open up an image on your Mac that was taken with your iPhones camera.

The shared ecosystem concept is something Microsoft finally got around to mimicking but without much system. Google, to some degree, has attempted to achieve a similar idea with Android and the Google account. But, there isnt a high takeup of Googles Chromebook devices compared to regular tablets and laptops.

Apple Mac computers dont use Microsoft Windows, but rather an operating system called macOS (formerly OS X), a hybrid version of UNIX. As with Windows, macOS is a closed operating system meaning Apple doesnt share much of the source code to it. Because of that fact, they are solely in charge of issuing software updates and bug fixes to macOS.

Historically, the same cannot get said for Microsoft Windows when it comes to quick updates and bug fixes. So, if you want a computer that has an up-to-date operating system, youre better off choosing a Mac.

Believe it or not, the majority of Apple Mac desktops and laptops will outlive their PC equivalents. There are several reasons why that is so:

Many PC users dont like to admit it. But, theres always the thought in the back of their minds of whether their computers will operate as expected each time they use them. Fortunately, with an Apple Mac, you dont need to have such a lack of confidence! Thats because they do exactly what is expected of them, making you feel confident that you can continue your work on them without issue.

On the rare occasion that your Mac has a technical hiccup, its pretty easy to diagnose the source of the problem and get it sorted. With a Windows-based system, the issue could be down to virtually anything! As such, racking down the culprit can sometimes take a long time.

Lastly, if youve never used a Mac before, one thing you will notice is that it doesnt feel cheap and plasticky! Yes, they are expensive machines, but they are high-end premium products. If you owned a Mac from new for five years, it would still feel reliable and durable just like it did the first day you used it.

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Are Apple Macs worth the money? - scallywagandvagabond

Rakshit Shetty talks about ‘Avane Srimannarayana’ and the eco-system that enables his work – The Hindu

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In the nine years he has been in the Kannada film industry, Rakshit Shetty has been called an innovator, game-changer and part of the Kannada new wave, among other things. All these sit lightly on the Udupi-born actor, who has powered ahead, doing the films he likes, creating content that is deeply rooted, and not letting talk about the gap between films get to him.

For three years now, Rakshit has been dreaming only about Avane Srimannarayana (ASN), the mega-budget film he has co-written, which is produced by Pushkara Mallikarjunaiah and HK Prakash. The film is directed by Sachin Ravi and stars Shanvi Srivastava in the lead. I do not worry too much about the gap that everyone is talking about. I dont allow the tags associated with me to influence or pressurise me either. I only do films that I love, and it so happens that they are different, he says.

Rakshit gives credit to his growing-up years in Udupi for shaping him into what he is. Most films I write are based on what I have seen growing up, and I could write Ulidavaru Kandanthe because of that familiarity. Likewise, Kirik Party drew a lot from my engineering days. This connection to my roots has helped me tremendously as a writer. I believe writing is where it all begins; you can not make a film look different, you have to write it differently. And there is a little bit of the real me in every character I write, be it Richie (Ulidavaru...), Karna (Kirik Party) or Narayana (ASN).

The actor is among a handful of multi-taskers, who also writes, directs and produces films. If I had to rate them in order of preference, it would be writer, director, actor and then producer, he smiles. Rakshit took on that last role, because he believes it is his way of giving back to the industry and to keep the circle of kindness going by helping an emerging talent.

ASN has been trending on social media with its innovative promotional campaigns, featuring puzzles and number games. The first teaser released 18 months ago, the second six months ago, and recently the trailer. And, there was a connecting link that audiences were asked to guess. As an artiste, I like things to be interactive and like the audience to get involved in cracking the code, as it were. I like to show them my art, but hide a few golden eggs, laughs Rakshit, who cant not finish a puzzle, especially if it has to do with math and science. He also loves gaming, as is evident in the contests. When I get a day or two off, or when my nephew and niece visit me, I settle down with my PS4. My favourites are Assassins Creed and Far Cry.

In promotional interviews, Rakshit speaks little about the plot of ASN. I believe your content is the biggest publicity. If it is strong, you do not have to spend money to promote it. This is what I followed with Ulidavaru... and Kirik Party. I, however, work to ensure the audience emotionally connects with the film before release.

Ask Rakshit how he keeps his energy levels up when a project is spread over time ASN releases three years after Kirik Party and he says that it does not require effort, only a high degree of attachment. My stint in the industry is a dream. I have been given the privilege of living this dream and love it. After ASN, I will probably think of something bigger. When you are involved, you forget the concept of space and time and live in the now. I dont allow any other thoughts to enter my head the number game or who is doing what. This is not a competition and I like to have fun and be happy even as I work.

Helping Rakshit run his own marathon is his immediate creative eco-system, which is made up of like-minded people. I am clear that even if it is a friend, only those who are in sync with the film will work on it. It is difficult to give it your all, if you dont believe in what is being made. This is why I began Paramvah Studios too, because I thought it was unfair to ask producers to back a film they did not believe in. I wanted a Plan B so that, irrespective of what happens, the film will get made. I am comfortable working with Pushkara, because he is as passionate about his projects. Rishab Shetty is part of my team, then there is Hemanth Rao, whom I completely trust. Kiranraj (who directed Sagara Sangama in the anthology Katha Sangama) is directing Charlie 777; we have worked together for long, and when he narrates something, I know how he will direct it.

On sets with younger directors, Rakshit does not see himself as a mentor, but as a team player. For me, all this is part of a never-ending education. I read a lot and love to share what I read. I never went to a film school or worked under a director. I learnt filmmaking reading books and making short films. When I share what I learn, it is reinforced and results in a lot of discussion. We all learn, and that is paramount, says Rakshit, who is now writing his dream project Punyakoti, and awaiting the scripting of Richie.

All about dialects

Rakshit is part of the small group of filmmakers who are drawing attention to the lyrical, sing-song Kannada of Dakshina Kannada region. In my initial days in Bengaluru, I realised that everyone loved my Kannada, though I spoke the same content as them. I also believe that tinge of humour we have in Mangaluru Kannada can not be found elsewhere. I know this language, and use it on screen when I can. But, it is important to know a culture before one presents it. North Karnatakas Kannada is very different, and only someone from there can do justice to it in a film. Films are a documentation too, and I believe every dialect has to be explored in some way in cinema.

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Rakshit Shetty talks about 'Avane Srimannarayana' and the eco-system that enables his work - The Hindu

Dotscience Gains Momentum in the MLOps Ecosystem and Accelerates Deployment of Machine Learning Models into Production with New Technology…

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LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Delivering on its vision that ML engineering should be just as easy, fast and safe as modern software engineering when using DevOps techniques, Dotscience, the market leader in DevOps for Machine Learning (MLOps), today announced new partnerships with GitLab and Grafana Labs; deep integrations to include Scikit-learn, H2O.ai and TensorFlow; expanded multi-cloud support with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure; and a joint collaboration with global enterprises to develop an industry benchmark for helping enterprises get maximum ROI out of their AI initiatives.

MLOps is poised to dominate the enterprise AI conversation in 2020, as it will directly address the challenges enterprises face when looking to create business value with AI, said Luke Marsden, CEO and founder at Dotscience. Through new partnerships, expanded multi-cloud support, and collaborations with MLOps pioneers at global organizations in the Fortune 500, we are setting the bar for MLOps best practices for building production ML pipelines today.

Developing MLOps Gold Standard with Global Enterprises

AI-derived business value is forecast to reach $3.9 trillion in 2022. However, many businesses continue to struggle with deploying ML models into production, posing challenges around the value of AI in the enterprise. To address this challenge, Dotscience is collaborating with global enterprises to help them get the most from an early investment in AI.

"Dotscience not only gives productivity benefits to data scientists but also gives those in governance roles assurance that the firm is doing all it can to mitigate risk from AI," said Charles Radclyffe, head of AI at Fidelity International.

This collaboration builds upon the recently announced joint efforts with S&P Global to develop best practices for collaborative, end-to-end ML data and model management that ensure the delivery of business value from AI.

Dotscience Expands Partnerships to Help Enterprises Accelerate the Path to AI

Grafana Labs, the open observability platform, and Dotscience are partnering to deliver observability for ML in production. With Dotscience, ML teams can statistically monitor the behavior of ML models in production on unlabelled production data by analyzing the statistical distribution of predictions. The partnership dramatically simplifies the deployment of ML models to Kubernetes and adds the ability to set up monitoring dashboards for deployed ML models using cloud-native tools including Grafana and Prometheus, which reduces the time spent on these tasks from weeks to seconds.

At Grafana, we believe AI is a big growth opportunity for observability, said Tom Wilkie, VP of Product at Grafana Labs. With Dotscience, the process for training AI models is simplified. The integration with Grafana enables data science teams to monitor these trained models in production continuously. By bringing DevOps practices to ML, data science and ML teams can eliminate silos, maximize productivity and minimize MTTR if there are issues with a model that is being observed.

In a separate press release today, Dotscience also announced a native GitLab integration. As a GitLab Technology Partner, Dotscience is extending the use of its platform for collaborative, end-to-end ML data and model management to the more than 100,000 organizations and developers actively using GitLab as their DevOps platform.

Dotscience Increases Accessibility to Growing MLOps Ecosystem with Added Multi-Cloud Support

The Dotscience platform is available as SaaS or on-premises and empowers ML and data science teams in industries including fintech, autonomous vehicles, healthcare and consultancies to achieve reproducibility, accountability, collaboration and continuous delivery across the AI model lifecycle.

Dotscience is now available on the AWS Marketplace, enabling AWS customers to easily and quickly deploy Dotscience directly through AWS Marketplaces 1-Click Deployment, and through Microsoft Azure.

Finding the right software to meet your specific business needs can be challenging, particularly for data scientists and machine learning teams for whom the options have been limited, said Marsden. Extending the installation possibilities of Dotscience to include AWS and Azure gives more companies access to an integrated ML platform that provides the unified version control and collaboration these teams need to simplify, accelerate and control AI development.

Dotscience Expands Frameworks in Which Data Scientists Can Deploy ML Models

Dotscience has expanded the frameworks in which data scientists can deploy tested and trained ML models into production and statistically monitor the productionized models, to include Scikit-learn, H2O.ai and TensorFlow. These new integrations make Dotsciences recently added deploy and monitor platform advancementsthe easiest way to deploy and monitor ML models on Kubernetes clustersavailable to data scientists using a greater range of ML frameworks.

A key principle for Dotscience is that it has always been agnostic in terms of the exact framework data scientists can use for ML development, continued Marsden. As a next natural step in our product progression, we are enabling data scientists to deploy on their preferred ML framework.

In a separate press release today, Dotscience announced that leading open banking API provider, TrueLayer, has deployed Dotscience to enable reproducibility, provenance and metric tracking of AI models.

Additional Resources

About Dotscience

Dotscience, the pioneer in DevOps for machine learning (MLOps), brings DevOps principles followed by high-performing software teams to ML and data science. The Dotscience software platform for collaborative, end-to-end ML lifecycle management empowers ML and data science teams in industries including fintech, autonomous vehicles, healthcare and consultancies to achieve reproducibility, accountability, collaboration and continuous delivery across the AI model lifecycle. Founded in 2017 by container storage veteran Luke Marsden, Dotscience is headquartered in the UK with offices in the US. Its mission is to accelerate and unlock the true value of data and analytics assets through AI.

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Dotscience Gains Momentum in the MLOps Ecosystem and Accelerates Deployment of Machine Learning Models into Production with New Technology...

Paige Raises $45M to Expand AI-Native Digital Pathology Ecosystem to Accelerate Biomarker Discovery – HIT Consultant

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Paige raises $45M in Series B funding led by Healthcare Venture Partners with participation from Breyer Capital, Kenan Turnacioglu, and others.

The funding will be used to accelerate commercial efforts of its AI-native digital pathology ecosystem in the U.S., Europe, Brazil, and Canada.

Paige, a NYC-based leader in computational pathology transforming the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, today announced it has closed its Series B funding round of $45 million, bringing the Companys total capital raised to over $70 million. Healthcare Venture Partners brought the largest contribution to the round, with Breyer Capital, Kenan Turnacioglu, and other funds participating. Paige will use this new capital to drive FDA clearance of its products and expand its portfolio, delving deeper into cancer pathology, novel biomarkers, and prognostic capabilities. Additionally, the Company will accelerate commercial efforts in the U.S. and expansion in Europe, Brazil, and Canada.

Impact of Pathology on Cancer Diagnosis

Pathology is the cornerstone of cancer diagnoses. The field is on the cusp of a revolution towards digital, augmented clinical analysis. Paige aims to leverage cutting-edge AI and a vast, proprietary dataset to provide powerful new insights to pathologists, researchers, and pharmaceutical development teams.

Transforming the Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer

Founded in 2018, Paiges mission is to revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of cancer by providing pathologists, clinicians and researchers with insights drawn from decades of data diagnosed by world experts in cancer care. Spun out ofMemorial Sloan Kettering, Paigebuilds powerful, clinical-grade computational technologies to transform the diagnosis, treatment and biomarker discovery for cancer. With AI positioned to open a new future of pathology, Paige has created an AI-native digital pathology ecosystem that enables the Pathologist to achieve higher quality, faster throughput, and lower cost diagnosis and treatment recommendations. Additionally, Paige accelerates new biomarker discovery and is built to generate new insights into pathways and drug efficacy.

Medical AI at an Unprecedented Scale

The company plans to deliver the powerful technology via partnerships, such as the recently announced Philips deal and Paiges own AI-native platform. Paige has a comprehensive license with MSK and exclusive rights to its library of 25 million pathology slides one of the largest tumor pathology archives. Paige plans to build on to MSKs efforts and digitize millions of archived slides. This digital treasure, along with anonymized clinical data, allows them to train models at scale, and uncover new connections between Pathology, genomics, treatment response, and patient outcomes. In addition, Paige offers custom solutions for drug development teams: from pre-clinical modules to automated pathology analysis for clinical trials, and biomarker development, we are creating new possibilities to expedite and better inform teams bringing new therapeutics to the market.

The funding comes on the heels of a milestone year: Paige achieved the first FDA breakthrough designation for AI technology in Pathology and Oncology and later received the first CE mark in the space, added Thomas Fuchs, Founder of Paige and a researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). The Company also grew its digital slide archive to more than 1.2M images and is developing systems to combine digital slides with genomic, drug response and outcome information to create powerful new diagnostic solutions.

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Paige Raises $45M to Expand AI-Native Digital Pathology Ecosystem to Accelerate Biomarker Discovery - HIT Consultant

Transforming the insurance sector to an Open API Ecosystem – Finextra

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1. Introduction

"Open" has recently become a new buzzword in the financial services industry, i.e.open data, open APIs, Open Banking, Open Insurance, but what does this new buzzword really mean?"Open" refers to the capability of companies to expose their services to the outside world, so thatexternal partners or even competitorscan use these services to bring added value to their customers. This trend is made possible by the technological evolution ofopen APIs(Application Programming Interfaces), which are thedigital portsmaking this communication possible.

Together companies, interconnected through open APIs, form a trueAPI ecosystem, offering best-of-breed customer experience, by combining the digital services offered by multiple companies.

In thetechnology sectorthis evolution has been ongoing for multiple years (think about the travelling sector, allowing you to book any hotel online). An excellent example of this trend is the success story of Uber. In just a few years this company has acquired a market capitalisation larger than that of BMW. This while Uber mainlycombines multiple API services offered by other companies, i.e.

Positioning is done by the operating system (iOS, Android)

Route calculation and maps are provided by MapKit and Google Maps

Twilio sends real time text messages to the customers

Payment is handled by Braintree

The receipt is sent via Mandrill

The services are hosted in the cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Combining these best-of-breed API services allows start-ups like Uber to deliver anexcellent and innovative user experiencein a very short time frame, thusfacilitating rapid growth.

Afterwards these start-ups will typically deliver their own APIs, which in their turn are integrated in the offering of other companies. E.g. the API of Uber is also integrated in the application of United Airlines.

These examples show themutual benefits of such an open API ecosystem, i.e. the customer-facing company can deliver additional services to its customers, while the service-providing company can profit of an increased usage (and monetization) of its APIs (and underlying products/services). This leads for both companies to increased revenues.

The example of Uber is certainlynot an isolated case, e.g. UPS has successfully increased its market share by integrating its APIs in online webshops or eBay generates already 60 percent of its revenues via its APIs (e.g. API to submit item for listing on eBay).

The insurance industry, traditionally quite slow in integrating new technologies, will also be more and more impacted.Open Insuranceis becoming an emerging trend, pushed by increased and changing customer needs and InsurTech competition.

This article describes theimpactsof this trend on theinsurance industry.

2. Drivers

While Open Banking has been a hot topic for a while, the trend towards openness has also exponentially increased in the Insurance Industry (i.e. Open Insurance or API insurance). Just as for Open Banking, this is driven bymultiple evolutions in the insurance industry:

Customer needs are increasing and changing: customers are demanding a multi- and cross-channel experience, which is real-time and 24/7 available. Furthermore, the experience should be customer-centric, rather than the product-oriented approach that most insurers currently offer. E.g. customers no longer want to buy a standardized insurance product, but instead want to input the risk for which they want to get insured and receive a tailor-made offer of their insurance company.Typical examples of this trend are micro-insurances (i.e. small amount insurances only applying to 1 object and/or for a short time period), peer-to-peer-insurances, usage-based insurances (UBI) and the rise of super-apps (i.e. apps of large tech giants which act as a central platform to initiate any customer journey) and the request of customers demanding a stronger customer engagement with their insurer. While in the past customers only met with their insurer when opening an insurance contract and when filing a claim, insurance companies now realize they should significantly increase the number of contact points with their customers. This will force insurers to evolve to a service-company, offering different tools, typically linked to the prevention of the insured risk (i.e. preventing a claim).

Regulatory pressure: a continuous flood of new regulations makes that insurers IT and operations departments are overloaded with making existing processes compliant with regulations. This makes that very little resource capacity and budget remains to work on innovative services, especially as most insurers also have several digitalization and operational excellence projects to reduce operational costs (vital as revenues are dropping due to increased competition and low interest rates). Insurance companies that wants to innovate need therefore to work out partnerships with other parties.

InsurTech competition: new - so called InsurTech - entrants, which can deliver innovative customer services faster and cheaper, are disrupting the market (in 2018 7.6 billion U.S. dollars was invested in the InsurTech sector). Following the example of the banks, insurance companies have learned its far better to partner up with a few well-chosen InsurTech companies to deliver attractive services to their customers, than to compete head-on with them. This approach enforces insurers to setup an open API architecture, which facilitates the rapid integration (plug-and-play) of the insurers and InsurTechs service offerings.

Hungry for data: Insurance companies are hungry for data. The more data an insurance companies has about the customer and the object to be insured, the more accurate the insurer can fine-tune its actuary risk models and consequently its insurance pricing (dynamic pricing model). Insurance companies should therefore integrate a maximum with external providers to get the most accurate view on the insurance risk. Especially with the rise of Big Data and AI, insurance companies are now in the capacity to process and analyse this inflow of data and transform it into actionable results.

Rise of digital brokerage: until recently most insurances were sold via brick and mortar insurance brokers. Today more and more insurances are being sold over the internet, via digital insurance broker platforms (i.e. online aggregators, providing a comparison of different insurances) and via e-commerce platforms, which forces insurance companies to integrate in a very cost-efficient way with these different distribution platforms.

New technologies: the rapid technological evolutions in the industry (IoT, big data analysis, real-time customer analytics, AI, block chain) make it almost impossible for an insurance company to invest (and be at the top) in every new technology. Partnering with specialist companies (integrated through an open API architecture) is therefore almost a necessity to stay ahead of all those technological evolutions.

New architectural design principles: historically the application architecture in the insurance industry is composed of several large, very closed, monolithic legacy systems. This traditional architecture is reaching its limits in the current digital and fast-moving world. Insurers are therefore taking their first steps in the migration to a microservices based architecture. Since microservices communicate with each other through well-defined APIs, this architecture can be exposed to the outside world much cheaper and quicker than a traditional architecture.

3. Impacts on the Insurance industry

The insurance landscape is undergoing its most fundamental transformation in decades, driven by the fast digitalisation in the sector. Just like the entertainment, media and retail industry, the internet has changed the way of doing business completely. Insurers should not only open their services, but also build their own digital ecosystems and participate in external ecosystems. Insurers therefore need to transform themselves to an "Open Insurer", offering "Insurance as a Service (IaaS)" (i.e. white label insurance products).

Ultimately insurers shouldshift from building full end-to-end insurance solutions to assembling best-of-breed insurance servicestailored to meet the customer needs. This means that the traditional product-centric distribution should be transformed to services providing deep financial insights and integrating services of other sectors. This can only be achieved by creating anopen API ecosystem, which is beneficial for all involved parties.

In practice, this API ecosystem digital platform would resemble an "App store" with services offered by the different parties involved in the ecosystem. Thecustomerwould be in thedriving seatto choose the functionality/service and user interface that suits him best. Once having made this choice, the customer would give a consent to the party to use specific data present in the ecosystem. Since the customer can easily switch from one service to another, this willboost innovationconsiderably and result in new service offerings which are superior in terms of cost, performance and convenience.

Open Insurance will also have a substantial impact on the insurers organisation wherebridges between business and IT departments will be alleviated, as decisions will need to be made quicker due to the faster evolving technologies and customer expectations. Thanks to Open Insurance, business and technology needs will become further aligned urging business analysis and software assembly and implementation to run in coexistence.

4. Opportunities and Threats for the Insurance industry

The creation of open API ecosystems offers severalopportunities, but also significantthreats, to the insurance industry.

Insurance companies not opening their architecture and not participating in these API ecosystems are expected to lose the most. Interesting to quote the BBVA bank here: "A company without an API is like a computer without internet".

Even when insurance companies build out more engaging services, it is unlikely that customers will choose the app of an insurance company as a central access point to other services and products.

Insurance companies will therefore profit most of the API ecosystem by:

Utilising more datafrom a broader external ecosystem

Sharing their own data and algorithmswith the rest of the world

Sharing their product stackwith the rest of the world

In the next chapters, we will present a few examples of how these 3 approaches can benefit insurance companies.

4.1. Utilising more data from a broader external ecosystem

As mentioned above, the business of insurances is adata-intensive business. Collecting large amounts of data and transforming them into actionable results is a core business of an insurance company. Thanks to the digital revolution insurance companies have now access to an almostunlimited supply of data, so choosing the right data sources and setting up in a cost-effective way, the data pipelines to capture, transform and process this data will be a key challenge for each insurer.

Some examples of data sources which could result in valuable insights for insurers:

Open Banking data: Thanks to the EU PSD2 initiative and the Open Banking directive in the UK, customers account data is now available to be accessed by TPPs (Third-Party Providers). This will allow insurance companies to get information about the financial situation of its customers, but also to get valuable insights in the type of income and expense transaction the customer executes.

IoT data: the rise of "Internet of Things" (IoT) can revolutionize the insurance industry, as it facilitates usage-based insurance (UBI), dynamic risk modelling and dynamic insurance pricing. Typical examples of insurances linked to IoT are:

Car insurance: via a continuous monitoring of the drivers behaviour and driving habits, car insurances can be dynamically adapted. This monitoring can be done via an onboard diagnostics (OBD) device installed in the drivers vehicle or via the drivers smartphone. Based on this data collection several services and enhancements can be offered:

Flexible pricing: reward safer driving through lower premiums.

Improved fraud detection: identify on which spots the car is parked (during the day and at night), if a personal vehicle is not used for professional services (like driving a delivery route), how many kilometres is actually driven with the car and if no claim insurance fraud is committed by comparing the car data with the data entered in the claim report (e.g. check if car was actually present and had a strong break at the report crash location).

Inform customersof risky situations for the car, e.g. notify customer about bad weather expectations in the neighborhoud of the car (e.g. hail), notify customer when he parks car in a neighborhood with a high amount of reported thefts

Provide customer (a game-like) overview of his driving statistics, like speed, kilometres, with support tools like simulating future gasoline cost

Support the customerin case of car breakdown, accident or theft. E.g. insurance company can pro-actively contact the client and arrange emergency support (in case of injuries) when it detects an accident, automatic pre-filling of a digital claim (based on the collected data) in case of an accident, support in arranging car assistance (e.g. Touring assistance) when car breakdown is identified, identify theft of a car when unexpected (deviating) driving behavior is recognized

Allow parents tomonitor(track) their teenagers when they use the family car

Supportshort-term car insurances, allowing policyholders to insure themselves on a friends vehicle for a short period or allow drivers to buy a short period covering on their own vehicle

Home insurance: Improve the protection of insured houses against threats (fire, leak, flood and theft), thus reducing the risk for insurance claims.

Life insurance: wearable sensors (e.g. Fitbit) can be used to monitor health activities and communicate the results back to the company for lower life insurance premiums. Different biometric readings can be collected, like heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, movement, calorie burn-rate, alcohol consumption., which can be used to gamify healthy habits into a point system. Furthermore, insurance companies can provide services for elderly (assisted living) for safety and care (e.g. check if customer is properly taking his required medication).

Location data from mobile phone: sending location data from the mobile phone to the insurer, can not only allow insurers to get a better idea of the risks a specific customer is taking, but also allows to provide extra services and cross-selling opportunities to the customer. Some examples:

When customer is driving to the airport or is located abroad, but does not have a travel insurance opened yet, the insurer could propose him to open a travel insurance.

When customer is driving to the hospital, the insurance company could inform the customer about the modalities of his hospital insurance.

Based on the combination of climate data and customer geolocation data, the insurer can offer hurricane alerts

When customer is abroad and from other data, it can be derived that customer is abroad for holiday, this info could be used to send customer a "Happy holiday" card and to make sure the customer is not contacted at that moment.

Social media: insurers can obtain valuable data about their customers from social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Customer referential data: when insurers can be informed about changes in customer data well upfront (by integrating with postal service, social media or governmental services), this provides a lot of opportunities to insurance companies:

Achange in addresscan be an interesting sign to contact a customer to sell new or revise existing policy(ies). Not only for a home insurance, but also for other policies like a car insurance (change in address can result in different transportation habits, if e.g. less access to public transports) opportunities exist. It can even be a sign of a relationship break-up or a child leaving the parental house, in which case a full revision of the insurance portfolio is required.

Thebirth of a childis also a moment for revision, typically for family liability insurances or hospital insurance. Same applies for achange in civil status.

Valuation services: in order to properly assess insurance risk, a correct valuation of the insured object is also required. Most insurance companies have good models for this, but external services can also be used to provide an accurate initial valuation, but also to review regularly the current valorization. Some examples:

Car insurance: call external services to determine value of a car to determine the insurance premium, but also valorization of damage in case of a claim. Examples of such services are "cars.com", "vinaudit.com", Edmunds, Informex

Real estate: allow to valuate a real estate property, e.g. Rets.ly, SimplyRETS, Rets Rabbit, Property API, Zillow

Art: valuation of art objects, e.g. "artnet.com", "artprice.com", "valuemystuff.com"

4.2. Sharing their own data and algorithms with the rest of the world

Insurance companies that collect (some of the) above data from external sources and combine it also with the rich internal data sets (customer referential data, policy details, claims data) and process it an efficient way, hold valuable insights which can also be commercialized to other (commercial) parties. This chapter provides a few examples how insurance companies canshare their data and algorithms with other parties:

Insurers have worked outsophisticated models for fraud detection, customer risk assessment and valorization of insured objects, which can be exposed (and monetized) to 3rd parties.

Competitors taking over a car insurance, will be very interested in obtaining the claim history of the customer

In order to properly insure a car, insurance companies could request customers to provide thename of the driverfor any drive (especially for company leasing cars, rental cars and car sharing services). This information could be useful for the police and parking companies, to send fines and bills directly to the right person.

Instead of the traditional Green Card, insurance companies can provide adigital Proof of Insurancevia an API. This would allow the police, ANPR cameras and technical inspection companies to directly check all details of a car insurance policy and its holder.

Aggregated views of customers assets, liabilities and off-balance positions, like PFM tools, financial or pension planning tools, account aggregators, aim to provide a holistic view of the customers wealth. Those tools are very interested in obtaining (after customers consent) a view on the customers policies and outstanding balance for life insurances.

Insurance planning and aggregation tools, which allow customers to assess risks and open automatically insurance policies to protect against (e.g. UnderCover from Ensur)

When insurance companies collectdriving dataabout customers, this data could also be shared with other interested parties, like for road pricing (road tolls, distance or time-based fees, congestion charges), car sharing and rental services, fleet managers

4.3. Sharing their product stack with the rest of the world

Of course, the most interesting of the 3 categories is where an insurance company opens its product stack to the outside world, as this can directly generate revenues for the insurance company. We identify 2 categories here: integrations for origination of new insurance policies and integrations for servicing existing insurance policies. Some examples:

Origination of new insurance policies: by providing APIs to other industry apps, an insurance company can obtain new customers who were not even thinking about the related insurance aspects:

Car dealer apps: sell car insurances

Luxury good dealer apps: sell policies to insure specific object or allow to review home insurance

Real estate apps: sell home insurances

IT protection websites like firewalls, virus-scanners: sell cyber-security insurances

Travel apps: sell vacation/travel insurances

e-Commerce apps: sell insurances for delayed or no delivery (insure the company selling product or customer receiving the product)

Apps that sell (perceived) risky activities, like extreme sports, parachute jumping, flying, travel to dangerous area: sell short-period life insurances (e.g. Sure provides micro-duration life insurance coverage during air travel)

Insurance comparison tools, e.g. BusinessComparison, Moneysupermarket, Confused, Compare the Market, MoneySavingExpert

Servicing existing insurance policies: provide different APIs to act upon existing insurance policies:

Apps for "safe driving courses", "stop smoking therapy", "sport/fitness clubs" could provide a service to directlyreview insurance premium pricing(of car, hospital, life insurance)

Automatic filing of a claim, e.g. when travel is cancelled, when a package ordered on the internet can not be delivered, when a plane is delayed

Block (and unblock) an investment insurance policyas collateral for a credit sold by a bank (cfr. LABL product of Capilever). This could allow a customer to open a cheaper consumer credit, as it is backed by the money of an insurance policy. This could also be used for mortgage credits, backed by a group insurance acting as debt balance insurance.

Pay-out a life insurance: bank or notary receiving info of a decease could provide automatic instruction to pay-out life insurance.

Adapt details of an insurance policy, e.g. fleet managers or car rental/sharing services automatically adapting the driver linked to an insurance or social secretariats, which can automatically add extra employees to group insurances or add/remove partner or children of an employee to/from a hospital insurance

5. Success Stories

Even though the insurance sector is only in the beginning of its transformation to an Open Insurance API ecosystem, several examples ofsuccessful API ecosystemscan already be identified today:

In 2008, PolicyBazaar was founded in India, as an online platform that aggregates insurance plans and serves as a marketplace for policies.

In 2013, Ping An, Tencent and Alibaba joined forces to launch Zhong An, which is an online-only property insurance company, selling high volumes of low cost micro-insurances (e.g. cracked screen insurances, flight delay insurances, shipping return insurances), via China' biggest tech companies. With over 630 million insurance policies and 150 million clients serviced in its first year of operation, this is definitely a success story.

In 2014, Ping An (largest insurance company in the world) created Ping An Good Doctor, which is a healthcare ecosystem for the Chinese market. With 265 million registered users, it is the largest mobile medical application in China.

In 2016, AXA partnered with Silicon Valley InsurTech Trv to attract the British millennials. Trv allows customers to buy flexible, short-term insurances for single items via their smartphones. For example, a customer can open a temporary insurance for an expensive camera, when he wants to use it.

In 2016, American InsurTech company Lemonade launched its online-only insurance app for renters and home insurance policies. Currently valued at more than $2bn, the company disrupted the American insurance industry, via fully digital and cheap insurance policies.

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Transforming the insurance sector to an Open API Ecosystem - Finextra

Silicon Labs and Z-Wave Alliance Expand Smart Home Ecosystem by Opening Z-Wave to Silicon and Stack Suppliers – PRNewswire

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Expected to be available in the second half of 2020, the opened Z-Wave Specification will include the ITU.G9959 PHY/MAC radio specification, the application layer, the network layer and the host-device communication protocol. Instead of being a single-source specification, Z-Wave will become a multi-source, wireless smart home standard developed by collective working group members of the Z-Wave Alliance. With more than 100 million interoperable devices deployed, more than 3,200 certified products and over 700 member companies, Z-Wave has the most mature and pervasive smart home ecosystem in the market.

Alliance members and smart home consumers will benefit from the hallmark features of Z-Wave, including interoperability, backwards compatibility, the S2 security framework, easy installation with SmartStart, low-power functionality with a 10-year battery life and long-range with sub-GHz mesh. The Z-Wave Alliance will maintain the certification program and expand the offering to provide technology vendors with both hardware and stack certification and product manufacturers with application layer certification.

"As a standards organization, the Z-Wave Alliance will help solve the interoperability challenges hindering the adoption of smart home devices," said Mitch Klein, executive director for the Z-Wave Alliance. "Members will work together on a single sub-GHZ connectivity solution that guarantees the forward-and-backward compatibility, interoperability, security and robustness needed to grow the IoT. The Z-Wave Alliance will collectively advance a fully realized smart home standard."

Silicon Labs is committed to IoT standardization. By expanding access to Z-Wave as a standard supported by multiple vendors, the smart home ecosystem will benefit both from broader technology support as well as accelerated market adoption.

"Silicon Labs has worked to create positive alignment across the industry with the goal of advancing both security and compatibility in smart home devices," said Jake Alamat, vice president and general manager of IoT home and consumer products at Silicon Labs. "Future success for the smart home industry relies on ecosystems getting closer, not farther apart. The smart home market opportunity is tremendous, and we want to help drive its success. When the ecosystems work together toward a common goal, the entire industry including manufacturers, developers, retailers and consumers benefits from this open collaboration."

"As an early adopter of Z-Wave technology, we welcome this move by Silicon Labs,"said George Land, Z-Wave Alliance board member and general manager of digital products at Trane. "Enabling an even broader ecosystem of interoperability will bolster both consumer and manufacturer confidence, driving overall growth of the industry."

Silicon Labs will continue to invest in Z-Wave technology and contribute to its future growth, collaborating with new suppliers through the expanded Z-Wave Alliance. Development on the opened Z-Wave Specification will be managed by the new working groups in the Alliance in Q3 2020, and details on the silicon and stack platform certification program also will be announced in Q3.

To learn more about Z-Wave technology, please visit silabs.com/z-wave. For more information about Z-Wave Alliance membership, please visit z-wavealliance.org/z-wave-specification.

Companies interested in joining the Z-Wave Alliance can also visit the organization's booth at CES 2020, Sands #41917.

About Z-WaveZ-Wave technology is an internationally recognized ITU standard (G.9959). With more than 3,200 certified interoperable products worldwide, Z-Wave is the leading wireless home control technology in the market today. Represented by theZ-Wave Allianceand supported by more than 700 companies around the world, the standard is a key enabler of smart living solutions for home safety and security, energy, hospitality, office and light commercial applications.

Silicon LabsSilicon Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB) is a leading provider of silicon, software and solutions for a smarter, more connected world. Our award-winning technologies are shaping the future of the Internet of Things, Internet infrastructure, industrial automation, consumer and automotive markets. Our world-class engineering team creates products focused on performance, energy savings, connectivity and simplicity.silabs.com

Connect with Silicon LabsSilicon Labs PR Contact: Dale Weisman +1-512-532-5871, dale.weisman@silabs.comFollow Silicon Labs at news.silabs.com, at blog.silabs.com, on Twitter at twitter.com/siliconlabs, on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/siliconlabsand on Facebook at facebook.com/siliconlabs.

Z-Wave Alliance PR Contact: Caster Communications +1-401-792-7080, zwave@castercomm.com

Cautionary Language This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on Silicon Labs' current expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. For a discussion of factors that could impact Silicon Labs' financial results and cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Silicon Labs' filings with the SEC. Silicon Labs disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Note to editors: Silicon Labs, Silicon Laboratories, the "S" symbol, the Silicon Laboratories logo and the Silicon Labs logo are trademarks of Silicon Laboratories Inc. Z-Wave is a registered trademark of Silicon Labs and its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All other product names noted herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.

SOURCE Silicon Labs

http://www.silabs.com

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Silicon Labs and Z-Wave Alliance Expand Smart Home Ecosystem by Opening Z-Wave to Silicon and Stack Suppliers - PRNewswire

Apple Issues New Blow To Google With This Bold Security Move – Forbes

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Apple is cementing its place as the company of choice for those who care about security and privacy ... [+] with a bold move that hits out at its biggest smartphone rival Google.

Apple has already been very vocal about the security and privacy built into its iOS 13 operating system update, which hits out at firms such asGoogle and Facebookby limiting the data they can collect. After making abold privacy movea month ago, Apple is now doubling down on security, by launching a newPlatform Security Guidedetailing how its iPhones, iPads and Macs are more secure than Googles Android devices, because the firm owns the whole ecosystem.

Apples devices have always been regarded as more secure, because Apple owns the hardware, software and apps. In contrast, although its biggest smartphone rival Google does make some of its own Android phones and has a level of control over its app store, the often separated hardware, software and platforms can make things very fragmented and posesecurity risks.

Apples security guide for Fall 2019 doubles down on how Apple keeps your devices and data secure across iOS and MacOS. It covers hardware security and biometrics such as Face ID and Touch IDwhich isthought to be returning with the iPhone 12next yearamong other areas.

The Platform Security Guide reads: Every Apple device combines hardware, software, and services designed to work together for maximum security and a transparent user experience in service of the ultimate goal of keeping personal information safe.

Custom security hardware powers critical security features. Software protections work to keep the operating system and third-party apps safe. Services provide a mechanism for secure and timely software updates, power a safer app ecosystem, secure communications and payments, and provide a safer experience on the Internet.

Apple devices protect not only the device and its data, but the entire ecosystem, including everything users do locally, on networks, and with key Internet services.

As part of the guide, Apple emphasises its commitment to securitywhich could be seen as a direct swipe at Google andFacebookas companies that have seen their own share of data and security scandals. Apple points to its bug bounty program, which is now open to all ethical hackers, and dedicated security team as reasons it is more secure.

But at the same time, its important to note that Apple isnt perfect: it cameunder fire from lawmakersrecently after it emerged that the firm wasnt applying the same controls to its own apps that it applies to others. With this in mind I created a useful guide tosecuring your apps in iOS 13, including Apples.

Anothercool new feature in iOS 13.3is the ability to use security keys with your iPhone in Apples Safari browser. I wrote an article includingmore information and a video demoon how to use it.

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Apple Issues New Blow To Google With This Bold Security Move - Forbes

Why the $52K Mac Pro is important for everyone who cares about the survival of the Mac ecosystem – ZDNet

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Let me be clear here. I don't ever see myself buying the new Mac Pro. That's not only because trying to justify buying a computer that would cost more than putting an extension on the house wouldn't be possible, it's because I don't actually need it. Even so, I'm very, very comforted by the knowledge that it exists.

In fact, I'm quite content with my new Mac mini and my well-equipped repurposed 2013 iMac which now lives in my family room as a development machine. That's because I need 32GB of RAM to run my development system, video editing environment, and gaggle of virtual machines. I don't need 1.5TB.

And yet, the existence of a $6,000-$52,000 Mac Pro adds to my sense of existential security -- and if you're a Mac user, it should add to yours as well. Here's why.

Everyone reading ZDNet clearly understands the concept of a computing platform. It's a hardware/software environment that we build solutions on top of. iOS and Android are platforms, and they support (more with Android, of course) a variety of mobile solutions.

Linux (and, to some extent, BSD), Windows, and MacOS are platforms, and they support general purpose computing, ranging from running little point-of-purpose Raspberry Pi servers up to all our desktops and laptops, up through the giant server farms at Google, Amazon, and Facebook.

Now, the fact is (with a few limited exceptions), no one is going to run a Facebook-scale server farm on Macs, not even Apple. But desktop and workstation computing? That's definitely the domain of Macs.

As we all know, the desktop computing market has changed considerably in the past decade. Many consumers who need mostly to communicate and consume data have moved off traditional desktops and laptops to smartphones and tablets.

But even as the needs of many consumers have been met by simpler-to-use mobile-centric devices, the needs of workers and professionals have continued to grow.

As recently as 2013, I said I didn't need the then-Mac Pro, because I didn't see myself needing to do video editing or 3D modeling, two tasks that require a lot of computing resources. Fast forward six years, and a huge portion of my workload involves video editing and 3D modeling.

When buying a computer for business use, perhaps the single most important factor is understanding the intended workload. If you're traveling all the time and you want to be able to write and respond to email, a tablet or a small MacBook Air-sized machine is fine. If you're doing animation for a big-budget blockbuster movie, a MacBook Air or a Microsoft Surface would simply melt under the load.

In business, we choose the computer we're using based on our expected workload over the next 2-3 years. We choose the computer platform based on our expected workload over the next 5-10 years.

This is a critically important distinction. When we choose a platform, whether that's Windows, Mac, or Linux, it's because we're planning on investing in software and skills that we expect will stand the test of time. It's fine to upgrade a machine, but if you have to migrate a software platform, that's a lot more work, if it's even possible.

Changing from one machine to another on the same platform is a day or two of work. Migrating from one platform to another is a staged battle that could take a year or longer.

It's the platform migration problem that makes the Mac Pro, especially at it's ear-bleedingest high end, so important to Mac users. Put simply, the Mac Pro future-proofs the platform when it comes to workload demand.

It's all about headroom. When we choose a platform, we're not just thinking about the machine we're using now, but whether that platform can service us throughout our scope of work and beyond. Building a piece of software can take a few years. Making a big-budget movie can take three to four years. Designing a new car can take a decade.

When we choose a platform, we want to make sure it will work for us throughout all that time. That means it's important to know that as our needs grow, our platform can meet those needs.

Before I go on, it's important to say that many of us use two or more platforms. I regularly switch between Mac, Windows, and Linux. I use Mac for most of my daily work, particularly my heavy workloads. I use Linux on all my servers. And I use Windows for some business applications that don't have Mac implementations. And let's not forget the cloud. The cloud is its own platform and turns desktop platforms into engines that run browsers.

So, it's not just about choosing between Mac, Windows and Linux. It's about whether the platform you're using for a specific workload can scale with that workload. For me, the Mac needs to scale for my development environment and video production needs, while Linux needs to scale with the load on my servers. Windows just needs to keep running all that Windows-only software.

From about 2014 to about 2018, it was completely unclear whether or not Apple cared about providing its Mac customers with that headroom. Machines generally went un-updated. It took six years for a new Mac Pro, for example. It was unclear that pro users would have enough power in the Mac platform to take us where we needed to go.

This was an existential question. If the platform wouldn't grow with our professional needs, then the platform would have to go. The gotcha, at least for me, is that there are applications on the Mac platform that don't exist elsewhere. While I can do the same work on Windows and Linux as on Mac, I can't do it as quickly. In fact, I save two-to-three days a week using Mac apps. That's measurable.

But if Apple was abandoning Macs -- and it sure looked that way in 2017 -- then I and many other Mac-using professionals would have had to begin looking at a long migration process.

That all changed in 2018. The company finally introduced a laptop that had more than 16GB RAM. The iMac Pro was in active use by many pros. The Mac mini got a very long-overdue overhaul. And Apple announced the new Mac Pro.

This was big, not because we all just wanted to spend money, but because it meant that we had more runway with our workloads. Those of us relying on the Mac platform did not have to begin developing a migration strategy.

Key to this was the high-end Mac Pro, which tops out at a whopping $52,000. It's not, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, that I have a need for it. Most business users won't. But you don't choose a platform based on what you need now.

Some folks, today, need a machine with 1.5TB of RAM. Others need to know that such a machine is available, even if we never expect to use one. The creativity, software support, market engagement, and robust project environments that will result from the high end machines and their users are of big benefit to all Mac users. The Mac Pro promises that those who will need to go there in the future actually can.

Oh, and for those who think that $52K is at the top of the dollar spectrum for PCs, you'd be wrong. For kicks, I just spec'd out a $162K (and that's after $69K in discounts) Dell 7920 Tower Workstation. While you and I might never spend that on a single PC, some folks need all that capability for their workloads.

That said, the four hundred dollar upcharge to add wheels to the Mac Pro is just rubbing it in.

You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.

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Why the $52K Mac Pro is important for everyone who cares about the survival of the Mac ecosystem - ZDNet