Monthly Archives: March 2020

There are no atheists in foxholes, and there appear to be no capitalists in a global pandemic either. The head of Honeywells billion-dollar GoDirect Trade platform, which uses a permission-based blockchain to buy and sell aviation parts, declared on March 20 that American corporations had a walled-garden approach to data. They need to start sharing data, a huge paradigm shift, said Lisa Butters. Only a couple of weeks ago, Honeywell had been defending the virtues of a permission-based system, saying enterprises needed some constraints to operate in.

What a difference a few days can make.

Historically, the aviation industry has been one of the most secretive among Big Tech sectors, with its evolution tied intimately to the Second World War, and the US-Soviet Cold War rivalry that followed soon after. Concerns around Chinas theft of aerospace IP was among the foremost drivers behind the Obama administrations negotiation of the 2015 agreement with China to prohibit economic espionage.

It is the ultimate winner-takes-all market but Boeing, its lynchpin, has now approached the US government for an existential bailout. Honeywells call for a paradigm shift is proof that the sector is not thinking in just hand-to-mouth terms. The aviation sector may get a lifeline for now, but as an industry forged by a global war, it knows more than most that a transformational moment for technology is upon it, which needs to be seized.

As the economist Branko Milanovi has highlighted, the correct metaphor for the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing crisis is not the Great Recession of 2008, but the Second World War. To win WWII, and retain its military superiority, the United States pioneered technology complexes that placed innovation at the trifecta of university lab, government, and market. (The blueprint for this model was drawn up in 1945 by Vannevar Bush, founder of Raytheon and director of the Office for Scientific Research and Development, and presented to the US government. The document was titled, Science: The Endless Frontier.) This was by no means a Western endeavour alone. Several countries, including India, followed suit, trying to perfect a model of organised science.

In India, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research was the totem for this effort, and created a centralised network of national labs. The primary difference between Western models and ones in developing countries like India was the role of the state. In the US, the state retained regulatory agency over the process of technological innovation, but gradually ceded into the background as the Boeings, Westinghouses, GEs, Lockheed Martins, and IBMs took over. In India, the state became both the regulator and purveyor of technology.

Indias attempts to create national champions in frontier technologies (think Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd, Electronics Corporation of India Ltd., Defence Research and Development Organisation, etc) failed because the state could not nimbly manufacture them at scale. Even as India pursued moonshots, those businesses in the United States that were incubated or came of age during the Second World War, began to occupy pole positions in their respective technology markets.

Once those markets matured, it made little sense for America to continue creating organised technology complexes, although research collaborations between universities and the federal government continued through the National Science Foundation. The banyan-isation of the internet and Silicon Valley both seeded by generous assistance from the US Department of Defence into a market dominated by the FAANG companies affirms this shift.

The United States has often sought to repurpose private technologies as public utilities at key moments in its history. Communications technology was built and moulded into a public good by the American state. It was US law that enabled patent pooling by Bell Labs in the 19th century, leading to the creation of a great new corporate power in telephony. A few decades into the 20th century, American laws decreed telephone companies would be common carriers, to prevent price and service discrimination by AT&T.

Meanwhile, both railroads and telecommunications providers were recognised as interstate services, subject to federal regulation. This classification allowed the US government to shape the terms under which these technologies grew. It is precisely this template that Trump has now applied to tele-health technology in the US. Tele-medicine services could not previously be offered across state lines in the US, but the US government used its emergency powers last week to dissolve those boundaries.

And on March 18, President Trump invoked the Defence Production Act, a legislation adopted during the Korean War and occasionally invoked by American presidents, that would help him commandeer private production of nearly everything from essential commodities to cutting-edge technologies.

Invoking the law is one thing, executing it is another. Rather than strong-arming businesses, the Trump administration is now trying to bring together private actors to create multiple playgrounds with an underlying public interest. The Coronavirus Task Force was the first of its kind. The Task Force brought together Walmart, Google, CVS, Target, Walgreens, LabCorp and Roche, among others to perform singular responsibilities aimed at tackling the coronavirus pandemic. Walmart would open its parking lots for testing, Google would create a self-testing platform online, Roche would develop kits, LabCorp would perform high-throughput testing, and so on.

The COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium, created on March 23, is another such playground. It includes traditional, 20th century actors such as the national laboratories but is doubtless front-ended by Microsoft, IBM, Amazon and Google Cloud. The Consortium aims to use its high computational capacity to create rapid breakthroughs in vaccine development. Proposals have been given an outer limit of three months to deliver.

In some respects, the United States is turning to an approach that India has advanced. To be sure, we may not currently be in a position to develop such a playground for vaccine R&D and testing at scale. But India is well-positioned to create the digital playgrounds that can help manage the devastating economic consequences of the Covid-19 epidemic.

There is universal acknowledgement that Indias social safety nets need to be strengthened to mitigate the fallout. One analyst recommends a direct cash transfer of 3,000 a month, for six months, to the 12 crore, bottom half of all Indian households. This will cost nearly 2.2-lakh crore and reach 60 crore beneficiaries, covering agricultural labourers, farmers, daily wage earners, informal sector workers and others. The same estimate suggests a budget of 1.5- lakh crore for testing and treating at least 20 crore Indians through the private sector.

The digital public goods India has created Aadhaar, UPI and eKYC offer the public infrastructure upon which these targeted transfers can be made. However, cash transfers alone will not be enough: lending has to be amplified in the months to come to kickstart small and medium businesses that would have been ravaged after weeks of lockdown. Indias enervated banking sector will have meagre resources, and neither enthusiasm or infrastructure to offer unsecured loans at scale.

Playgrounds offers private actors to realign their businesses towards a public goal, and for other new ones to come up. Take the example of Target, which is an unusual addition to the Coronavirus Task Force, but one whose infrastructure and network makes it a valuable societal player. Or Amazon Web Services in the High-Performance Computing Consortium, which has been roped in for a task that is seemingly unrelated to the overall goal of vaccine development.

In the Indian scenario, a lending playground would have UPI players, account aggregators, lending service providers, technology providers and underwriter modellers, among others. Of course, it will also feature traditional interlocutors like lenders and credit bureaus, but they are the only actors who exist in this framework today! The rest of the playground is waiting to be built, but there is no need for a paradigm shift as Honeywell has sought in the US, because these digital playgrounds are not winner-take-all markets.

Account aggregators are cast as fiduciaries in India, empowered by the user to share data with other actors in the playground. The Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) of India Stack animates the Cash Flow-based Lending playground as well. Those who bring the players to the market by tethering them to the underlying digital infrastructure should be treated as public utilities, and their profits capped. If a Target can be part of a Coronavirus Task Force, why cant a Swiggy be a Lending Service Provider, offering low-value, short-term loans?

If digital playgrounds are so obvious a solution, why has India not embraced it sooner? None of this is to discount the deficit of trust between startup founders and the public sector in India. Founders are reluctant to use public infrastructure. It is the proverbial Damocless sword: a platform or business association with the public sector brings it instant legitimacy before consumers who still place a great deal of trust in the state.

On the other hand, reliance on, or utilisation of public infrastructure brings with it added responsibilities that are unpredictable and politically volatile. To illustrate, one need only look at the eleventh-hour crisis of migrating UPI handles from YES Bank in the light of a moratorium imposed on it earlier this month. On the other hand, the government retains a strong belief that the private sector is simply incapable of providing scalable solutions. In most markets where the India government is both player and regulator, this may seem a chicken-and-egg problem, but cest la vie.

Nevertheless, there are milestones in history where seemingly insurmountable differences dissolve to reveal a convergence of goals. India is at one such moment. A leading American scientist and university administrator has called the pandemic a Dunkirk moment for his country, requiring civic action to step up and help. By sheer chance and fortitude, Indias digital platforms are poised to play exactly the role that small British fishing boats played in rescuing stranded countrymen on the frontline of a great war: they must re-imagine their roles as digital platforms, and align themselves to strengthen the Indian economy in the weeks to come.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

How has the coronavirus outbreak disrupted your life? And how are you dealing with it? Write to us or send us a video with subject line 'Coronavirus Disruption' to editorial@yourstory.com

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The history of technology is about to change radically. India must seize the moment. - YourStory

Dell Technologies World 2020, which was changed to a virtual event due to the coronavirus pandemic, will move from May to October in order to focus on helping customers in this time of need.

Three weeks ago, with the information we had at the time, we made the decision to take Dell Technologies World virtual. Much has changed in those three weeks, said the company in a blog post on Friday. And its clear to us that we need to stay focused on supporting our customers and partners with their most immediate needs.

The $92 billion Round Rock, Texas- based infrastructure giants flagship virtual event will be held in October, although a specific date has yet to disclosed. Dell Technologies said customers and partners should still expect news from the company to be released over the coming weeks and months.

[Related: Dell Donates Millions To Fight Coronavirus: We Are All In This Together]

Our innovation engine, portfolio development and services capabilities will press on to ensure we meet those needs, said Dell. Our top priority, in addition to the health and safety of our team members and communities, is to ensure we meet customers needs in this moment.

Dell Technologies World 2020 was initially scheduled to take place in Las Vegas from May 4 to7 but shifted to a virtual event due to the coronavirus outbreak that is having a dramatic impact across the IT world.

In terms of the virtual Dell Technologies World event in October, all registrants will automatically be registered for the virtual experience at no charge. However, registrants also can choose to roll over their conference pass to Dell Technologies World 2021 or request a full refund.

In an interview with CRN this month, founder and CEO Michael Dell said it is the first time in the companys history that Dell Technologies World will be a virtual event.

The show must go on, said Dell. What we do know from internal events that we move from physical to virtualand weve learned a lot about that just in the last few weekswell make it incredibly compelling and engaging.

In addition, this week Dell Technologies and VMware withdrew their initial fiscal year 2021 guidance because both are unable to predict the extent of the coronavirus that could adversely impact business.

Dell Technologies is providing millions of dollars to fight the coronavirus on several fronts including donating IT infrastructure valued at more than $850,000 to the Hubei Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China to help upgrade its technology to enable the center to respond to the epidemic more effectively. Dell Technologies has also set aside $3 million in funds and technology to help meet the greatest needs of our communities and front-line organizations working to treat and contain coronavirus across the globe.

We must protect each other and especially our most vulnerableour elderly and those with underlying conditions, said Michael Dell. At the same time, we are managing the impact on our own business and supply chain operations, so we can take care of you. Whether enabling a remote workforce, ensuring business continuity, powering the technology for infectious disease prevention and control, or providing simple, human advice, support and friendshipwe are here to help.

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Dell Technologies World 2020 Rescheduled To This Fall - CRN: Technology news for channel partners and solution providers

Moving is among the most stressful of life events, and that goes double for moving offices. In a survey,more than three-quarters of leaders of small and midsized businesses said they found the idea of moving offices so stressful that they have been delaying the process, 78% of managers said they prefer staying in a cramped space to avoid the hassle.

Jim Durfee knows that many people believe that the office moving process is invasive, disruptive and time-consuming, but he also believes he has a solution: technology.

One of the greatest fears in life is the fear of the unknown, and that is especially true during moves, said Durfee, who is vice president and general manager at Office Movers Express, styled as OMX. Were using newly developed technology to stay connected to our clients and remove that fear, they always know where we are, what were doing and where their items are at all times."

Durfee and his team at OMX have been using technologies like tablets, GPS and tracking software to make the moving process more efficient and give clients peace of mind. Bisnow recently sat down with him to learn more about how OMX plans to take the stress out of one of the most infamously stressful parts of life.

Bisnow: How have office moves changed?

Jim Durfee:Office moves used to be a big deal in terms of volume, furniture and general 'stuff.' To move an office was a huge undertaking requiring vast resources of labor and time. But that world has changed, and the modern office is more efficient. The main focus is on technology and keeping it safe, both the equipment and the information stored inside of it.

Bisnow: How are you using technology to change how you move offices?

Durfee: In both small and large ways. Take note-taking, for example. A mover 10 years ago might have just written down that one conference room had five tables, but we have higher-touch service. We record it on our tablets and take pictures to corroborate the number and keep track of the conditions of the tables.

We also track everything on tablets on the day of the move, from when the crew arrives, to when they left, to what they charged, so everything remains transparent and at the clients fingertips.

Bisnow: How do you use technology to keep clients' items safe throughout the move?

Durfee:The first step is taking an inventory using a portable, handheld device, which is faster and more accurate than previous methods. We are able to capture images, assess volume and organize the process in a manner that helps develop a sensible and logical move plan. When the move actually occurs, additional technology allows us to identify and tag key items and assure they receive special attention or priority status. We can include critical information to identify information such as value, function, departmental assignment and final placement.

For highly sensitive items, we have access to digital locators that allow us to track them from origin to destination. A client could be sitting on the beach viewing the item on their cellphone as it exits its current space and arrives in the new office. All of this helps us maintain the chain of custody, tightly control the relocation process and assure a positive experience.

Bisnow: What are the benefits of working with a mover who only handles commercial moves?

Durfee: It all comes down to business continuity. When youre moving a household, you usually have a large window of time to complete the move. Office moves need to happen as seamlessly as possible so that a business only experiences minimal downtime.

Another major difference is the handling of technology. While a household may have a few laptops and one computer, offices have whole server rooms that need to be handled carefully. Office movers are specifically trained to handle the types of materials you only find in a business environment, like large pieces of technology that carry sensitive information.

Bisnow: What are some preparations you wish more company owners would make before a move?

Durfee: I wish they would do a little extra homework to find out what they can expect. People can contact us in advance and we can offer them a budget figure and tips for how to go about preparing for the day. Company owners should also contact building management to learn what they can do to help, and also ask their movers if they have any experience with their new building and can offer any strategic moving advice ahead of time.

As it gets closer to the moving day, things tend to change. Often, these changes are not communicated to movers until the day arrives, which can lead to delays, so I always recommend that people err on the side of over-communicating with their movers and providing them with every last detail.

This feature was produced in collaboration between the Bisnow Branded Content Studio and Office Movers Express. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

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Office Movers Now Come Strapped With Tracking Technologies - Bisnow

It's now over two weeks since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Financial services hiring has slowed, but there are still windows of recruitment activity. Technology is one of them.

Two weeks ago, there was little indication that the virus had reduced banks' appetite to hire. - Figures fromThinknum Alternative Datashow that Citi, Goldman and Morgan Stanley posted more U.S. jobs overall on the average day between March 1st and 13th 2020 than on the average day in all of March 2019. The same held for Morgan Stanley, Goldman and Citi in the UK.

In the past week, however, things have slowed. Anecdotally recruiters say there's less recruitment, particularly in the front office."The only hiring that's happening is the stuff that was approved before the lockdown," says one fixed income recruiter. "- Everything else has been iced." In technology, though, it's a different story: tech recruiters are bullish.

Ahsan Iqbal, director of technology at recruitment firm RobertWalters in London, says banks' tech recruitment dropped off initially this month, but has since crept backagain. "We're not seeing increased demand from finance clients for people in software development, security, devops, cloud, and digital platforms," saysIqbal. "There was a pause, but now hiringis back."

Adam Francis at recruitment firm Experis in London agrees: "In financial markets technologyhiring terms, the software engineering market seems to be extremely resilient so far," he says.

If technology recruitment remains comparatively robust, recruiters say it's because the nature of many roles in the space makes it easier to interview and to onboard people remotely.

"Previously an experienced software engineering interview may have consisted of 1) a telephone interview b) an online code exercise or techncial test and c) in-person interviews. The only change now is that remote video-conference-based interviewing has taken the place of in-person interviews," says Francis. If anything, the fact that management and staff are now based at home has freed-up spacefor hiring, he adds: "There's much more quiet and undisturbed time in which to plan and execute interviews and make offers."

Iqbal confirms this. "Being out of the office doesn't seem to have made much difference - companies are simply interviewing and onboarding via Zoom or Skype and posting out the kit to candidates at home so that they can start work." One finance client has made 10-15 technology hires in the past few weeks, he added.

Not everyone is as bullish. At JPMorgan, new joinershave been delayed (on full pay) for at least a month. One technologist at the banksaid they're still interviewing both internally and externally but that it may be hard to get actual offers over the line. At Goldman Sachs, technology jobs now accountfor 40% of the total live on the bank's website - down from 44% last time we looked in January.

If lockdowns become the temporary new normal, this may change. Francis says technology recruitment could increase further still in the coming months: "Cyber Security and IT risk and audit recruitment arelikely to surge in demand given the additional risks involved with having a 100% remotely-based workforce, as well as with a notable increase in COVID-19 specific scamming by fraudsters," he suggests.

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Banks are stepping up technology recruitment despite the virus - eFinancialCareers

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) A local organization wants to help save lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Greater Topeka Partnership is collaborating with Plug and Play, a tech company based in Silicon Valley.

Theyre looking for startups that may have the technology to help communities across the world during this crisis.

Katrin Bridges, a representative for GTP, said that technology has the potential to help get needed medical equipment and help speed up testing for people who cant go to a hospital.

There are ways and technology where you can use your cell phone and those are being developed to actually get a first screening of risk factors that you have, Bridges said.

If you are a business, innovator, or entrepreneur who would like to contact the Greater Topeka Partnership, click here.

If you have an existing technology that is ready to scale, apply here.

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Local organization hoping technology will offer answers to coronavirus pandemic - KSNT News

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (WSAZ) -- Officials in Scioto County have worked for years to help their community heal from the effects of the opioid crisis.

"We're able to get them off the drugs but also instill some employment in them and totally turn their life around," said Shawn Davis, Chief Probation Officer.

Probation and Drug Court programs serve about 1,200 people in the county.

Concerns over COVID-19 have shut courthouse doors temporarily for most legal proceedings.

Six officers are now working from home, tasked with managing their cases through a computer system called OCSS.

The program allows officers to virtually connect with people.

"They're nervous they're anxious about what's going on," said Davis. "Once we make contact with them, we seem to be able to calm them down. They see now there's a way through this program they can communicate with us."

The system was launched March 1st. People on probation can now self-report, video chat and text.

Two counselors are also available for guidance during an anxious time for many.

"This week we put a couple of people in in-house rehab," said Davis. "There's still a couple here still accepting people from us. That we're able to get them that help that they need."

The department is still able to handle emergency situations. They're hoping the community will also do their part and reach out with any concerns so they can intervene.

"That is a concern," said Davis. "Luckily through technology, we're able to do some. we're not able to do everything that we want to do. We're afraid that we're going to lose some. We just hope that before those people cross that bridge that they'll reach out to us and allow us an opportunity to help them."

Scioto County Drug Court is expected to host its first virtual meeting in early April.

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Probation officers use technology to stay connected with people - WSAZ-TV