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Monthly Archives: June 2021
Witness the landing Cryptocurrency – The Times of India Blog
Posted: June 2, 2021 at 5:39 am
With a combined market cap in the trillions, cryptocurrencies are a force to be reckoned with. Public confidence in crypto waxes and wanes on a daily basis, as reflected in the volatility of the price. Cryptocurrencies are the ingenuity of technology. They are a new form of currency, but also a payment system, like credit cards. The users of cryptocurrency stored in their digital wallets can trade goods and services with it.
But this currency is very different from the familiar US dollar.
The dollar is printed by the US Mint. Cryptocurrency is generated within the currencys network, and for its users. The currency is digital, so it never leaves its network.
Unlike the dollar, which is backed by the US government, there is no centralized institution behind cryptocurrency to ensure the security of transactions, integrity, and dispute resolution. These are all built into the protocols of the network. Cryptocurrency is a far more efficient payment system, as a result.
The first cryptocurrency was bitcoin, the brainchild of its founder Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym) his real identity remains unconfirmed. He started the first trade on Jan. 3, 2009. Its price rose from pennies to $20,000/coin in 2017. Its market cap is $750 billion. It has no owners or spokesperson just like the internet.
Elon Musk has invested Teslas $1.5 billion cash in bitcoins this year.
There are over 7,800 different cryptocurrencies. Independent companies like Coinbase (COIN) are exchanges where one can buy cryptocurrencies for dollars. Coinbase went public this year and has a market cap of $50 billion.
This reveals the excitement of people who understand the crypto phenomenon.
The Business Model:
Starting a new cryptocurrency has become easy, but it is not a typical business because there is no profit-generating product or service. The originators of new cryptocurrency initially give themselves a large number of free coins. They publicly announce the new deal.
Then onwards the network runs by itself and the originators are out of the picture.
Independent entities set up nodes to verify transactions, by majority consensus. They are called miners. The miners deploy powerful computers to do the work.
Anyone can be a miner. Collectively, the miners are the new gatekeepers and managers of the network.
The miners get awarded newly minted coins and also get paid a commission by the seller for their work. They validate each new block of transactions by solving a complex mathematical problem whose solution requires high-speed power-hungry computers.
When irregularities happen, both unintentional and intentional, the miners take action to resolve the problem.
The Incentives:
The incentives of a cryptosystem are beautifully aligned and not based on mediation by a trusted third party. The originators, the users, the miners, and the disrupters can only benefit when the currency gains confidence and appreciates.
If a significant irregularity in the system is sensed, the miners can join hands to fork out to a new cryptocurrency path abandoning the old one while preserving older users wallets and transactions. This renders the loot of the new thieves worthless and deters cheating.
The Regulators:
Identifying and catching thieves of cryptocurrencies is non-trivial for normal law enforcement. But miners can derail the cheaters.
Is this sufficient?
The IRS also has problem collecting taxes on gains made by cryptocurrency sellers. The sellers buying price to compute gains is not always known, unless the seller bought it on a crypto exchange.
The Technology:
The technology behind bitcoin is blockchain. Transactions are grouped into blocks. Each new block is validated by a miner before it can be added to the blockchain. Every node maintains a full history of blocks in the ledger with timestamps, making the ledger tamperproof. Encryption ensures the anonymity of wallets. The internet and encryption have existed for decades. Satoshi added special protocols on top, for security, integrity, reliability, and dispute resolution.
What is the value of cryptocurrency if it is network generated?
Although the US dollar was initially backed by gold reserves, this is no longer true. The pieces of green paper have value because originally everybody thinks they have value initially, said Nobel Laureate in Economics, Milton Friedman.
Cryptocurrencies also have value if their users think they do.
A large percentage of cryptocurrency users are illicit business dealers.
However, many younger professionals are investing in it and witnessing a huge appreciation in value. The entire community is incentivized to keep the system kosher this is the belief.
There are many cryptocurrency billionaires typically the founders of these networks. That has created an interesting market of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) a blockchain-enabled technology proving unique ownership of digital assets a video clip of NBA superstar LeBron James dunking reportedly changed hands in April for $387,000.
But cryptocurrency systems remain hard to get our arms around. And because of the anonymity of its users, it is looked at with suspicion.
Cryptocurrency is legit in my opinion. Its landscape is evolving. It would be wise to invest in understanding it, to see where it lands. The technology is compelling enough to revolutionize fintech.
Views expressed above are the author's own.
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Top Cryptocurrency Prices Today: Bitcoin, Dogecoin and others retreat – Economic Times
Posted: at 5:38 am
NEW DELHI: Major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ether gave up their gains on Thursday as environmental concerns rose due to cryptocurrency mining. Iran put a blanket ban on cryptocurrency mining for the next four months as widespread power outages stirred public dissatisfaction across the country.
Randal Quarles, Vice chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, laid out on Wednesday, some of the major questions US financial regulators will need to tackle as they figure out how to best monitor the rapidly changing cryptocurrency landscape.
Cryptocurrencies are capable of "potentially much broader use" now, thanks in part to the introduction of so-called "stablecoins," which are pegged to more traditional currencies, he added.
Bitcoin is still down about 30 per cent so far this month while rival cryptocurrency Ether is about 42 per cent below its record. However, overall volume in the crypto market have been affected, analysts say.
"We are currently in a phase of consolidation and markets seem to have corrected slightly today. Overall, markets dipped by 4-5 per cent across the board. But this dip is not supported by volume, hence expect it to be temporary. This choppy behavior will continue for the next few months as we see the euphoria in the markets stabilize," said Edul Patel, CEO and Co-founder, Mudrex.
As leading cryptos by market capitalization start to show signs of recovery, historically, altcoins have also followed suit in quick succession. Analysts advise investors to remain cautious, despite the belief that the market is likely to ride an upward trend over the next few days and potentially weeks.
While Bitcoin can process around six transactions per second, and Ethereum does around 25, the TRON network claims to have a capacity for 2,000 transactions per second (TPS). This project aims to become the leading decentralized platform, which is specialized in the domain of content sharing and entertainment. In 2018, it made its biggest acquisition when it took over BitTorrent.
Market capitalization and rank: $8.2bn (24)
For TRX to go further up, it needs to break and sustain above the resistance level of $0.096 whereas $0.069 should act as a crucial support level. The asset currently trades at $ .0782.
Time is in UTC and the daily time frame is 12:00 AM - 12: 00 PM UTC
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Top Cryptocurrency Prices Today: Bitcoin, Dogecoin and others retreat - Economic Times
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Is Society Moving In The Right Direction With Technology Rapidly Taking Over The World? – Forbes
Posted: at 5:38 am
Over the last centuries, society witnessed technological advancements gradually making everyday lives easier, more convenient, and well, more interesting. In the 21st century, however, technology made a true quantum leap, with augmented reality, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and 3D printing being just a few examples of the most recent inventions.
Though we are getting used to advancements of any kind, is the development of technology really good for society?
Advancements in technology have already tapped into every area of life, with its impact particularly notable in these segments:
It is indisputable that thanks to technology, we get a chance to live a life our predecessors could not even dream about. But do all tech advancements bring sole good to our lives? Or, maybe, the impact of tech innovations is quite ambiguous.
When all areas of human activity get rapidly digitized, its easy to become desensitized to the importance of innovations and advancements for the overall progress of society. But technology helps us immensely, for instance:
How to Get the Most out of Technologyo remain empowered, not distressed, by the modern technological advancements, everyone should use them where and when needed.
For instance, you can make use of productivity and time-tracking apps available for smartphones or PCs when feeling a lack of concentration or self-discipline. Similarly, if you are concerned with your health and lifestyle, you can choose from a wide range of wearable devices and fitness apps.
Most of the digital tools can be downloaded free of charge, which makes it even easier to use them.
On the downside, some technological developments prove to be a curse rather than a blessing. Here are a few examples:
How to Reduce Negative Effects of TechnologyExcessive use of technology can do more harm than good, and we should bear this in mind before we rush into digitizing our lives.
It is important to monitor the use of tech in every aspect of daily routine and, while it is not too late, limit the time spent in front of the smartphone screen.
Also, it's a good idea to use all-in-one apps to manage a complex of tasks (e.g., having all your email accounts and messengers integrated in one place) rather than switching between a dozen of smaller apps for each activity.
As an alternative to playing a video game or scrolling through social media, find a paper book that would interest you and spend time outdoors regularly. Instead of watching another Netflix episode in front of a TV set, talk to your family or take up gardening.
Spending more time outdoors, without electronic devices, promotes life-work balance and is generally good for a healthy lifestyle.
Though it may be tough to predict which advancements technology would bring next, some innovations are already changing our beliefs about the world around us.
For instance, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Something that people would have considered magic just a few decades ago is now gaining popularity in business, gaming, and team building.
Wearable screens and gesture-based computing, other recent innovations, are predicted to soon substitute the usual PC and phone screens.
Robots, another buzzword in todays business world, have already replaced humans in some workplaces robotic arms work at assembly or packing lines. Flying cars will soon address the issue of limited ground space and long traffic jams.
Well, people of Earth are even projected to use technological innovations to colonize other planets in the foreseeable future. The sky is no longer the limit!
Technology improves all aspects of human lives, making them easier and diverse. Though technological advancements are generally seen as a positive change, some people perceive them in a negative light.
Overindulgence in the use of digital apps and smart devices, overreliance on online tools may sometimes lead to tragic effects. Yet, if technological developments are used wisely, they bring nothing but good to society.
Clearly, technology by itself is neither good nor bad. It is only the way and extent to which we use it that matters.
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Top Technology Trends Redefining the Future of the Fintech Industry – Analytics Insight
Posted: at 5:38 am
Fintech, also known asfinancial technology, is a remarkable transformation in the finance sector. Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine the finance industry without the intervention of modern technology. Maintaining the social distancing protocols amidst the Covid-19 pandemic has also sped up the digitalization of the financial sector.India is considered one of the fastest-growingfintechmarkets on a global scale.
These recent technological innovations and growth in thefintech industryare accreditations to the government initiatives and the tech enthusiasts and startups coming up with innovative solutions to complex problems. Various innovations like mobile wallets, digitized money, paperless lending, and such others have sped up the growth of the fintech industry.
After anticipating the future of the Fintech industry, economists and policymakers are redefining the regulations and policy frameworks based on the new technologies. Here are the top technology trends that are reshaping thefintech industry.
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King County Council votes to ban use of facial recognition technology – KING5.com
Posted: at 5:38 am
The ordinance also bans county offices from entering into an agreement with third parties or obtaining facial recognition information.
KING COUNTY, Wash. The King County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ban the use of facial recognition technology by administrative offices, including the sheriff's office.
Theapproved ordinance, approved 9-0 during Tuesday's council meeting, prohibits the use of facial recognition software, except to comply with the National Child Search Assistance Act.
A spokesperson for the King County Sheriffs Office previously said they do not use facial recognition technology and support the measure.
A long list of nonprofits, including the ACLU, sent a letter to the council urging them to pass the ban.
The ban does not impact King County offices and not cities within the county.
The Seattle Police Department does not use facial recognition tools, a spokesperson previously told KING 5.
Of the concerns over the technology, accuracy, demographic biases, and encroachment on civil liberties are major ones.
"The use of facial recognition technology by government agencies poses distinct threats to our residents, including potential misidentification, bias, and the erosion of our civil liberties," said King County Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles, the legislations primary sponsor. "The use or misuse of these technologies has potentially devastating consequences which the new ordinance will help to prevent.
"I am very appreciative that my colleagues unanimously supported my legislation today banning its use in King County government agencies, and appreciate the overwhelming community support weve had. Our vote today makes King County the first county in the nation to pass this type of ban."
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Why banks differ in the pace of adoption of new technology | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal – voxeu.org
Posted: at 5:38 am
Why banks differ in the pace of adoption of new technology: The legacy of the past
Do all organisations in a sector adopt a new technology or business practice at a uniform rate? Or do we see different rates of adoption across organisation types in a sector, even if adoption seems generally worthwhile? What determines whether a certain organization adopts the new technology?
Questions such as these are important because they shed light on economic growth. As Mundlak (1961) and, more recently, Hsieh and Klenow (2009) note, economies operate below potential because some firms are less productive than others, and the productivity gaps persist. What explains these gaps? Over the last decade, the failure to adopt modern business practices has been identified as a key culprit (Bloom and van Reenen 2010).
It thus seems valuable to understand why some firms do not adopt new practices even if it seems useful to do so. In a new paper (Mishra et al. 2021), we examine this very question with microdata on lending, using as our setting the introduction of credit-scoring technology in retail lending.
Credit bureaus obtained legal certitude in India only around 2007 after legislation requiring banks to submit data to bureaus was passed. The act of incorporating bureau credit information into loan decisions is a clear marker of technology adoption. We examine the pace of adoption by the two dominant types of banks operating in India: state-owned public sector banks (PSBs); and new private banks (NPBs), which are modern banks licensed after India's 1991 liberalisation.
The process for checking credit is straightforward consisting of submitting an electronic request and paying a fee of between $0.15 and $0.30, about 0.04% of the average loan amount.Since the cost of requesting a score is negligible, and at worst the score can simply be ignored, it seems worthwhile for all banks to adopt scoring technology if at all useful.
Figure 1 illustrates the gap in adopting the new scoring technology across banks. Several years after the introduction of credit bureaus, the state-owned PSBs make a large number of loans without bureau credit checks. At the end of our sample period in March 2015, PSBs check credit scores for only 27% of all applications compared to 85% for NPBs.
Figure 1 Sharp difference in bureau usage across bank types
Far more interesting and stark relative to the baseline patterns is the variation in adoption across new and prior clients of banks (see Figure 2). For new applicants, PSBs inquired about 99%, that is, virtually all applications, just like NPBs in fact, the lines for the two are indistinguishable.Thus, PSBs are not incapable of, or averse to, using new technology. However, PSBs seem to be far less willing to check scores for loan applicants with whom they have a prior lending relationship. PSBs check scores for only 48.3% of these applicants compared to 90.3% for NPBs. Figure 2 illustrates this gap in adoption, which persists eight years after credit bureaus open.
Figure 2 Difference in bureau usage primarily for prior relationship applicants
Perhaps PSBs do not check credit scores because credit scores are not related to ex-post delinquencies. Figure 3 rules out this possibility. Credit scores are reliably related to delinquencies for both PSBs and NPBs, perhaps even more for PSBs. In a related test, we obtain the (unused) scores for a special sample of loans that PSBs made without checking scores. For a range of plausible policy functions on how the scores would have been used, we find that checking scores would more than halve portfolio delinquencies, a significant improvement in credit quality.
Figure 3 Credit scores and predict delinquency for PSBs and NPBs
What could possibly explain the aversion of PSBs to adopt scoring for their prior clients even though it is a clearly beneficial practice? Interestingly, the reason does not seem to necessarily reflect their state ownership: there is a class of privately-owned institutions, old private banks (OPBs), which are of similar vintage and thus operated in similar economic environments as PSBs.
Figure 4 shows that the pattern of technology adoption by OPBs is similar to that of PSBs they check scores for virtually all new borrowers but are reluctant to do so for prior borrowers. Whatever prompts this behaviour for PSBs, therefore, it is not just state ownership.
Figure 4Old private banks (OPBs) are similar to public-sector banks (PSBs)
To explain these patterns, we focus on the legacies shared by PSBs and OPBs, which are quite different from those of NPBs.
We conjecture that PSBs and OPBs may have traditionally given their loan officers more discretion because of the nature of their branching structure in the pre-1990s liberalisation era.In the 1970s, India required all banks to focus on branching in underserved areas away from the bustling metros. In this era, ICT was also underdeveloped.
Given the relative paucity of formal records and data, that is, hard information on potential borrowers in underserved rural areas (a lacuna which we show exists even today), banks may have optimally given more discretion to their loan officers in those areas. As Stein (2002) argues, this would incentivise loan officers to generate and use soft information, informal data, and subjective judgements about potential borrowers. If it is hard to fine-tune policies on discretion to specific branches, a bank may have optimally adopted a bank-wide policy of allowing loan officers more discretion if the banks business was more focused on semi-urban and rural branches.
With regulatory liberalisation in the 1990s, including the licensing of new private banks, the branching requirements were steadily done away with. Newly licensed NPBs could focus on metros, which they did, and with advancements in ICT and data availability, NPBs had much less need to offer loan officers discretion. So, the first leg of our explanation is that the older PSBs and OPBs had branch structures and policies on discretion that responded to historical regulations, which did not apply to NPBs.
The second leg of our argument is that legacy structures and practices acquired staying power. PSBs and OPBs have had to continue to maintain their legacy branch networks even today, the Reserve Bank does not permit banks to close branches in underserved areas. So PSBs and OPBs, with more of rural network than NPBs, would have had more reason to maintain their historical lending policies that relied on loan officer discretion. This would have been fortified, no doubt, by loan officer resistance in giving up discretion for new and unfamiliar credit scoring processes relying on hard information with unproven value. Loan officers would have more reason to use their discretion in the case of prior borrowers because they would have more soft information on them gleaned from the prior relationship. Moreover, they could use familiar processes for managing the bank-specific information flows. Finally, the social payoff would be greater to helping their old customers, shielding them from the possibly harsh pronouncements of a distant, albeit informed, credit bureau.
We present empirical evidence to supports the hysteresis hypothesis. We classify banks based on their non-urban lending focus based on a variable "NON-URB-SHR-LNS" or the percentage of a bank's business coming from non-urban areas. Figure 5 shows that banks with a greater non-urban focus inquire even their urban applicants relatively less while banks with a greater urban focus inquire their non-urban applicants relatively more. Interestingly, this effect is seen even in NPBs although it is, of course, stronger for PSBs and OPBs. The effect survives controls for other organizational characteristics of banks. The evidence suggests that the policy most suited to the predominant source of the banks business influences bank-wide policy. This policy has staying power, changing slowly even as the environment it is adapted to changes.
Figure 5 More urban-facing PSBs inquire more even in rural areas
To the extent that the greater non-urban focus of a bank drives its policy of allowing its loan officers discretion, and leads to lower inquiry, this should be associated with higher delinquency rates. This is indeed what we find. Figure 6 illustrates this relationship. The regression evidence is supportive. The variable NON-URB-SHR-LNS remains significant in regression that include full sets of controls with a number of interaction effects, and in reduced form as well as instrumental variables regressions. The policy of continuing to allow discretion is costly. Indeed, this realisation and the steady process of taking away discretion from empowered loan officers may explain why even PSBs and OPBs are moving to inquire more.
Figure 6 Delinquency rates versus non-urban orientation
In sum, we show that there are differences in technology adoption across banks. Interestingly, the variation is also within banks. Thus, slow adoption may not emanate from unfamiliarity with technology use but hysteresis due to legacy management practices set in earlier years. These practices change relatively slowly even when technological possibilities change. The status quo bias created by relationships is eventually replaced with greater use of modern retail lending practices that permeate banks around the world. Technology dominates eventually.
Authors' note:The views expressed in this columnare the sole responsibility of the authors and not of the institutions that the authors were are or associated with. The views should not be attributed to the International Monetary Fund, its Executive Board, or its management.
Bloom, N and J van Reenen (2010), Why do management practices differ across firms and countries? Journal of Economic Perspectives 24(1): 203-224.
Hsieh, C and P Klenow (2009), Misallocation and manufacturing TFP in China and India, Quarterly Journal of Economics 124(4): 1403-1448.
Mishra, P and P Nagpurnanand, and R G Raghuram (2021), The relationship dilemma: Why do banks differ in the pace at which they adopt new technology? University of Chicago, Becker Friedman Institute for Economics Working Paper No. 2019-54.
Mundlak, Y (1961), Empirical production function free of management bias, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 43(1): 44-56.
Stein, J C (2002), Information production and capital allocation: Decentralized versus hierarchical firms, Journal of Finance 57(5): 1891-1921.
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1 Trillion Gallons of Water Being Recycled Using Xylem Technology – Business Wire
Posted: at 5:38 am
RYE BROOK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Xylem (NYSE:XYL), a leading global water technology company, is helping its customers re-use more than one trillion gallons (4.3 billion cubic meters) of water, according to its 2020 Sustainability Report, Solving Water for a Resilient World, released today. The companys technology also prevented 369 billion gallons (1.4 billion cubic meters) of polluted water from potentially flooding communities and entering local waterways. Water re-use and pollution prevention are two of Xylems signature sustainability goals, targeted for achievement by 2025.
Deployment of advanced water technologies is driving the dramatic sustainability gains, around the world. The City of South Bend, Indiana, optimized its existing wastewater network with artificial intelligence systems to deliver an 80% reduction in sewer overflows. A treatment plant in Cuxhaven, Germany, cut aeration energy use by 30% using Xylem technology. And a water utility in Malaysia identified more than 300 leaks in its network using sophisticated in-pipe sensors, helping dramatically reduce the loss of treated water.
Bringing access to sustainable, clean and affordable water to more people around the world while protecting the environment is both our purpose and our business, said Patrick Decker, Xylems president and CEO. The achievements detailed in this report show how, together, our colleagues and our customers are making a big difference in our communities. Technology can do a lot to make the world more sustainable and more resilient, but these results come from the commitment, dedication, and even heroism of the people were so privileged to serve and work with, every day. Its within our power to solve urgent challenges like water scarcity and affordability, now, and create a more water-secure world for future generations.
In 2020, Xylem made significant progress toward its sector-leading 2025 signature sustainability goals, despite the additional challenges of COVID-19. Through its advanced products and technologies, the Company helped customers reduce their carbon footprint by 0.7 million metric tons of CO2, equivalent to keeping 150,000 passenger cars off the road for a year. Xylem is now running almost half its major facilities on 100% renewable electricity, and has committed to transition its global vehicle fleet to electric and hybrid, targeting an initial 45% reduction in fleet CO2 emissions by 2023.
In addition to advancing its existing sustainability goals in 2020, Xylem made new commitments to address the pandemics impact, around the world. The Company doubled philanthropic investments and extended new support to employees, business partners and the communities they serve. It also expanded relationships with its global NGO partners, like Americares and UNICEF, supporting 4.1 million people in underserved communities to get access to water and sanitation and providing 3.6 million people with water education to raise awareness and improve their quality of life.
As a company, we recognize the opportunity we have to lead, given the breadth of our technologies and our global reach, said Claudia Toussaint, Xylems Chief Sustainability Officer. We navigate difficult times in ways that make us stronger and more resilient and support our customers and communities to do the same. With that mindset, we pulled together across our organization, and with our partners around the globe, to help mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 while continuing to deliver on our sustainability commitments.
If anything, the pandemic has made the economic and social value of water networks and other critical infrastructure more apparent than ever, continued Toussaint. We know they are always essential, but we all learned how critical they are in times of crisis. Theyre also a potential driver of economic recovery, and a pre-requisite for broad-based prosperity. The shocks of the last year have heightened everyones awareness of the need for greater resilience and equity, and the imperative of a sustainable future.
Among the actions and achievements from 2020 detailed in the GRI-compliant report, additional highlights include:
To learn more about Xylems sustainability progress, download Solving Water for a Resilient World.
About Xylem
Xylem (XYL) is a leading global water technology company committed to solving critical water and infrastructure challenges with innovation. Our more than 16,000 diverse employees delivered revenue of $4.88 billion in 2020. We are creating a more sustainable world by enabling our customers to optimize water and resource management, and helping communities in more than 150 countries become water-secure. Join us at http://www.xylem.com.
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1 Trillion Gallons of Water Being Recycled Using Xylem Technology - Business Wire
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What Is the Space Force’s Technology Vision? – FedTech Magazine
Posted: at 5:38 am
The Space Force, the newly minted service branch and the first to be born in the age of the internet, is charged with securing the heavens above. It now has a digital strategy to match that lofty mission.
Earlier this month, the nations sixth military branch issued a document called Vision for a Digital Service,which outlines the forces technology goals and the strategy. The Space Force aims to become the militarys first truly digital service branch, and take advantage of a lack of a legacy architecture and bureaucracy to be more agile than other branches.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond says in the introduction to the document that the nature of the threats in space, which cover a wide spectrum and are rapidly evolving, mean that the fore needs to be an innovative, interconnected and digitally dominant force.
We must act far more swiftly and decisively across all aspects of leadership, acquisition, engineering, intelligence, and operations in order to take up permanent residence inside the adversarys observe, orient, decide, act (OODA) loop, Raymond writes. In addition, given the relatively small size of the USSF, accomplishing this goal will require us to amass a technologically adept, digitally fluent space cadre more proficient, efficient, and agile than any other force in history.
MORE FROM FEDTECH:Learn how to use analytics to discover workers with hidden IT talents.
To be interconnected, the force envisions treating its digital infrastructure as a critical asset and having high-bandwidth networks that support the rapid sharing of data. The document notes that Space Force wants its shared data repositories visible and accessible to those who need it and secured against those who dont.
The Space Force also wants its guardians, as force members are known, to be able to operate in a way that is tied to a physical location.
This can give the USSF the flexibility to have Guardians operate virtually as digital nomads, seamlessly supporting a variety of missions from a range of locations as part of an intrinsically mobile force, the vision document states. We must pursue site-agnostic solutions, enabling service-based, distributed functionality regardless of the mission supported or the protection requirements of the data involved. All of these elements must also be fully linked and interoperable.
In terms of innovation, to adaptively respond to threats, the Space Force says it will position itself as an aggressive early adopter of cutting-edge, user-driven technologies, which represent the best capabilities industry has to offer. Guardians will also be empowered to act on their ideas, the document states.
RELATED: How will 5G help the military modernize?
USSF members must be granted the psychological safety and professional incentives to be assertive and take risks when appropriate, the document notes. To support this paradigm shift, we will modify our performance evaluation frameworks to recognize and value these traits.
Every Space Force member must be a change agent, able to contribute bold and imaginative solutions to hard problems, the document notes, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and personal growth.
It will be incumbent upon all personnel to constantly expand their digital fluency and hone their skillsets to keep pace in this highly dynamic digital environment, the document notes.
Being digitally dominant will require an empowered and digitally fluent workforce, the Space Force document notes. Having a digital-first mindset and being digitally dominant will require an extensive network of innovative, digitally fluent Space Force professionals who instinctively prioritize actionable knowledge over static products, it notes. Instead, guardians will be expected to be data-centric.
This approach will allow us to rapidly capture and exchange needed information and knowledge within the data space, to include generating streamlined, dynamic, synchronized outputs tied to mission-related actions and outcomes, the document notes. Ultimately, our Digital Space Force will make data-driven decisions to field and operate groundbreaking, space capabilities at velocities that seem inconceivable today.
The Space Force also wants to have a different approach to its workforce that incentivizes them to collaborate, empowers them to act and builds upon their strengths, the document notes. The Space Force will tap into and build upon each persons unique strengths to power interconnected high-performing teams. We will capitalize on the inherently selective nature of our small Service to attract and recruit technically proficient talent from all corners of the nation, and we will manage this talent within a fully integrated Digital Workforce.
The document also calls for the creation of a Digital Headquarters, and means that in terms of a function as opposed to an alternative to a physical office.
To make effective decisions, we will regard data as a strategic asset, harnessing it for digitally enabled management of uncertainty and to power agile, data-driven decision-making, the document states.
Instead of focusing on traditional, document-based communications, the Space Force will emphasize unvarnished collaboration to and among decision-makers directly in the data space. The force envisions using immersive visualizations and customizable dashboards that are current and accessible anytime and anywhere to help guardians sift through a deluge of data.
This is where were really zeroing in on how we can we leverage data and analysis tools to streamline the processes by which we make decisions, use automation to ensure that our processes can move faster, and eliminate manual steps in our processes, Maj. Gen. Kim Crider, the Space Forces chief technology innovation officer,tells Federal News Network.
How can we use collaboration tools to bring people together across multiple levels the organization in one single setting? By bringing people together, this is how were breaking the bureaucracy, Crider adds. Were not waiting for a problem to happen were being more proactive and were coordinating much more effectively and much more efficiently.
U.S. Space Force photo by Airman 1st Class Thomas Sjoberg
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Staying safe with technology | News | thenewsguard.com – The News Guard
Posted: at 5:38 am
How to protect your money, privacy, children and peace of mind when using online technology
Wednesday, June 2, 2021 6:30 8:30 PM
Faith Baptist Church (with spread seating masks are expected)
5750 N Highway 101, Lincoln City, Oregon
The purpose of this session is to help people understand and effectively protect themselves from the kinds of privacy, security and safety challenges when using technology online. This class has been offered previously and was well received.
Do you have a computer, tablet or cellphone that connects to the Internet? Do/Will your children have that kind of access? Do you get calls/texts/emails from people or companies you dont know, or that you do know and dont understand why they are asking for personal information? Would you like to avoid being scammed or extorted out of thousands of dollars? Would you like to know how to protect yourself from these and other types of online threats to your personal information and privacy? Would you like to know how to protect your children or grandchildren from the very real dangers and the bullying that online access can involve?
If interested please call Faith Baptist Church at (541) 994-9106 to ensure we have enough seating and handouts available.
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New technology put in place to stop wrong-way drivers is showing results – WCPO
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CINCINNATI New technology is aiding law enforcement in catching wrong-way drivers faster in hopes of preventing dangerous head-on crashes.
Just after 9 a.m. on Monday, May 31, 25-year-old Kelsey Peterson was driving south in the northbound lanes of I-71 dodging and weaving between cars for several miles before she was eventually stopped.
Sgt. Matthew Allard with the Ohio State Highway Patrol said a trooper on a different traffic stop heard the all-call on his radio.
It appeared to him that it was going to cause a head-on crash, Allard said. What this trooper did was put himself in danger (by) getting in front of oncoming traffic. Activating his lights to slow everyone down.
It was enough to slow Peterson down, turning what could have been a head-on collision into a minor accident.
This allowed us to put a plan in place actively, as it was happening versus being reactive to it, Allard said.
He said its a case of technology being used in the right way to save a life. Sensors installed on I-71, starting at the Lytle Tunnel and stretching north for 18 miles all the way to Fields Ertel Road, trigger wrong-way signs on exit ramps to alert drivers that theyre making a mistake on the road.
The signs are installed at three feet and seven feet high because studies have shown impaired drivers tend to look down more often. The signs are meant to attract the drivers attention before ever getting on the highway.
Once a car traveling the wrong direction passes the last sigh, a camera turns on and the transportation management system out of Columbus is notified. From there, an all-call is put out.
The cameras will notify the transportation management center which allows ODOT to position the cameras on the oncoming car, Allard said. Which allows us to view live where the vehicle is at.
The system is has been in place for two years, according to Ohio Department of Transportation press secretary Matt Bruning, prevented more than a dozen drivers from entering the highway in the wrong direction. Monday is the first time ODOT know of that it didnt deter a wrong-way driver. Before the updated technology, 911 calls were the only alert to emergency crews on the road.
It helps us by getting us real-time information on where that vehicle is, Allard said. A lot of times if it is a caller, and theyre going the opposite direction, we lost that real-time data. This allows us to attempt to intercept the vehicle prior to it crashing with another individual.
Currently, the I-71 corridor through Cincinnati is the only stretch of road using the sensor system.
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