Monthly Archives: January 2022

US retail giant Walmart is the latest company to step into the cryptocurrency bandwagon. Based on trademark documents the retail giant filed in December 2021 with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Walmart appears to be venturing into the metaverse with plans to create its own collection of non fungible tokens (NFTs).

An NFT is a digital asset that uses blockchain technology to record who owns a digital object such as an image, video, or in-game item. While anyone can view the asset in question, only the buyer can say they are the official owner.

According to a report by CNBC, Walmart filed at least seven trademarks in late December 2021 that indicates the retailers intent to both create and sell virtual goods while a separate filing indicated that the company would be offering users cryptocurrency and NFTs. The documentation states that Walmart may launch financial services, namely, providing a digital currency and a digital token of value for use by members of an online community via a global computer network.

In a statement, Walmart said it is continuously exploring how emerging technologies may shape future shopping experiences. We are testing new ideas all the time, the company said, adding that some ideas become products or services that make it to customers. And some we test, iterate, and learn from.

This development comes after Meta (formerly Facebook) signaled its intention to foster metaverses, since then there has been a rush among major brands to enter the space with currencies, NFTs or both.

Adidas, Nike, Gap and many other well-known names have started selling NFTs and hinted at intentions to create virtual spaces. Just few weeks ago, sportswear giant Adidas Originals earned $23.5 million by selling 30,000 of Adidas Into the Metaverse NFTs within a matter of hours of going on sale.

Meanwhile, people are bidding thousands to own these collectibles, and some are even selling for millions. A recent report by Cointelegraph revealed that people have spent over $9 billion in NFT sales so far.

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Walmart could soon begin offering NFTs and cryptocurrency: Report - The Indian Express

RateGain Travel Technologies, a global provider of SaaS solutions for the hospitality and travel industry, today announced that it has been awarded in four categories at the recently concluded 2022 Hotel Tech awards organized by Hotel Tech Report.

In Hotel Tech Awards' most competitive year yet, RateGain continues to maintain the #1 position on social media with BCV, while its rate parity product Parity+ and rate intelligence product OPTIMA finished as first runners' up in their respective category by a very thin margin. RateGain's channel manager, RezGain, ended up as second runner up in one of the most competitive product categories in the competition.

The Hotel Tech Awards selects winners from more than 1000 of the top hotel technology products around the world. This year 513,609 hoteliers across 127 countries visited Hotel Tech Report and contributed 11,622 verified hotel software product reviews to decide the winner.

Winners are decided based on usability, customer support, likelihood to recommend, partner network strength, and integration compatibility. In addition, winners of the Hotel Tech Awards are determined based on verified client feedback and highlight best-of-breed companies across key categories of the hotel tech stack.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, hoteliers are now more than ever looking at adopting digital solutions that can help them deliver a perfect guest experience and optimize their processes to improve profitability. However, to evaluate products and processes, most hoteliers require an independent authority to provide them with the right metrics to compare, and that is where Hotel Tech Report fills a critical gap for the industry.

"Winning a Hotel Tech Award is the highest achievement in the hospitality industry because it's based on actual customer inputs. The authentic voice of the customer decides the winners of the annual HotelTechAwards - ranking hotel software solutions based on users' experience in buying, implementing, and using those solutions," said Jordan Hollander, CEO of Hotel Tech Report.

Thanking RateGain's customers, Bhanu Chopra, CMD, RateGain, added, "This recognition is a true validation of the value we add every day to the thousands of hotels that use our products and also reflects on our commitment to our customers, investors, and employees to build bestin-class SaaS products for the industry."

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RateGain Amongst The Best Technology Products At 2022 Annual Hotel Tech Awards - Travel Trends Today

By Tanimola Oyewole

Citizens involvement and active participation in civic and political matters are cardinal to democracy. It, therefore, means that citizens involvement in governance and decision-making at all levels is a necessary tool to sustain a democracy. But this is not the case in Nigeria.

Since its return to democracy in 1999, Nigerias elections have been characterised by voter apathy. A small percentage of the population actually votes, in negation of the ideals of majority rule; one of the basic tenets of democracy. The voter apathy situation becomes awful when one considers the declining numbers that vote with each elections.

This appalling situation has thrown a challenge to the Nigerian technology community. It is indeed time to address voter apathy by adopting a mobile voting app that allows registered voters to vote with their National Identification Number-registered phone from the comfort of their homes including foreign based Nigerians.

The effort would start off by engaging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to get the requirements that the app must meet in order to qualify for the intended use. With those requirements in hand, an open invitation would be thrown out to the technology community for the development of the app and a panel of judges, including INEC, set up to assess the submissions.

The developers of the winning app would be allowed to run limited in-app advertising to recover their cost of development. The winning app would be presented to INEC and the National Assembly for legislation enabling its usage for the 2023 election. Every step taken in the process should be accompanied with massive publicity to build an all- inclusive support.

The ability of the internet to create new participative spaces as well as expand existing ones suggests it has the capacity to improve accessibility to voting for many electors. Besides, its influence on other aspects of elections and government in other climes, such as campaigning, fund raising, membership recruitment, lobbying and access to information for media and citizens, suggests that it has a progressively important relationship with electoral politics and will likely continue to have a considerable impact on the character of democracy. The newly emergent concept of electronic democracy suggests it may be useful to further explore the potential of the internet to improve the electoral process for parties, groups, election administration, and of course, citizens.

The app, when fully deployed, has the potential to make the voting process easier and more accessible for electors. This is especially true for remote internet voting and telephone voting given that ballots can be cast from any computer with internet connectivity or telephone. These latter methods substantially lower the cost of voting for many electors by creating many more access points from which they are able to vote. There is the potential to eliminate long queues at polling stations and better address accessibility issues for persons with disabilities, those suffering from illness, those serving in the military or living abroad, those away on personal travel, snowbirds and other groups of citizens such as single parents who may find it difficult to visit a traditional polling station.

Additionally, remote methods of internet voting, and in some cases kiosk internet voting, afford electors the opportunity of being able to vote at any time, a feature that further encourages an elector to cast a ballot. With regard to special populations of electors, internet (especially remote) and telephone voting may also be methods of engaging those voters who are considered the hardest to reach, particularly young people aged 18 to 30. These voters most familiar with the technology, are the most frequent reported users and would likely benefit the most from the extension of remote types of electronic voting.

It could also allow greater secrecy for special populations of electors with disabilities (including visually or hearing impaired). By voting electronically and therefore unassisted, these electors are afforded a greater degree of anonymity when casting a ballot. Enabling secrecy for these groups enhances the equality of the vote. Furthermore, enhancing accessibility and creating more participatory opportunities for electors holds promise to positively impact voter turnout.

The models could enjoy success if it is tailored to meet the specific needs of a larger segment of the voting population. The development of such apps should be based on the requirements of the electoral process as well as the specific needs of electors and other affected parties. Furthermore, the basis for a legal framework that supports internet voting and a government mandate to conduct internet voting research are important facilitating factors.

Various measures need to be considered before the next steps are taken for adopting the app for voting. These could include the gathering of additional data to measure public attitudes and those of political parties and candidates towards electronic voting. Consideration should also be given to establishing clear requirements that an additional method of voting would fulfil, as well as creating and consulting with an interdisciplinary committee of experts.

This would lay the groundwork for designing an initial small-scale trial and then progressively increasing the number of electors who vote electronically with each additional trial. These are important aspects of the process which, based on the experiences of other jurisdictions, appear to be both relevant and necessary toward creating a successful framework upon which such app can be effectively developed.

Oyewole is a development strategist in Lagos

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Time to deepen democracy with technology - By: . . - Daily Trust

Brockenhurst College has secured a share of 120m in additional government funding to help create a Maritime Engineering and Digital Institute of Technology that will span the Solent region.

The College will receive 400,000 to develop learning and progression opportunities for Level 3 Sixth Form students at its Marchwood Construction and Marine Technologies Training Centre.

This money will be invested in new learning equipment including diesel engines, generators, mills and lathes to help learners prepare for industry progression.

A new Merchant Navy Pre-cadetship course and a Level 3Marine Engineering course will also be introduced.

The 13m Solent region Institute of Technology project is designed to meet the Solent regions workforce needs in the maritime, engineering and digital technologies sectors.

It is expected to connect learners across the educational partners through innovative learning opportunities and an employer-led curriculum.

The bid was led bySolent University, which worked closely with lead Further Education partner Fareham College and employers including Associated British Ports and The Royal Navy.

Other partners comprise Eastleigh College, Havant and South Downs College, the Isle of Wight College and the University of Portsmouth.

Institute of Technology centres are expected to be operational at each institution by 2023.

Brockenhurst College Vice Principal, Limor Feingold, said: We are absolutely delighted to have been selected to help create one of the additional nine Institutes of Technology across the country.

The Solent project will leveragethe strong co-operation betweenFurther Education and Higher Education institutionsand employersin the region.

It will also provide important resources to inspire learners and support employers in the key local sectors of Maritime Engineering and Digital Technologies.

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Brock to receive 400000 extra government funding under collaborative Institute of Technology initiative FE News - FE News

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The global pandemic continues to challenge us, with variousmeasures ranging from further lockdowns to restrictions onin-person meetings. The judicial machinery, including that in thearbitration world, has continued to function throughout thepandemic notwithstanding the difficulties of embracing innovativeprocesses and new technology.

In January 2021, Vijay Bange wrote an article examining thechallenges of using technology in formal dispute resolutionproceedings. Whilst technology has of course been used ininternational arbitration and high court litigation (particularlyin the Technology & Construction Court) for quite some time,that use has been somewhat limited with parties, their legalcounsel, and the tribunal often preferring in-person hearings andhard copy papers. 2021 however saw a dramatic rise in the useof technology in dispute resolution proceedings. This wasalmost certainly borne out of necessity as a result of the COVID-19pandemic, rather than necessarily by choice or organicprogression. If disputes were to continue to be resolved,parties had no option but to get to grips with remote hearings,electronic bundles and virtual breakout rooms. Whilst someinevitably faced technological and logistical stumbling blocks, themove to virtual hearings and electronic working proved largelysuccessful with many disputes being resolved expeditiously alongthe way. In fact, the move towards technology was sosuccessful that many people are now opting to use technology out ofchoice and not simply out of necessity.

In person hearings remain the gold standard, atleast in the courts. However, the use of technology andremote hearings has largely been welcomed as it has allowed thebusiness world to have proper and timely recourse to justice toresolve disputes and differences. Many may also benefit fromcost economies as a result of some of the technological processesadopted. Furthermore, these practices will likely result in theadoption and implementation of lean thinking working habits andconcepts. That said, there will inevitably be issues thatarise as a result of the introduction of technology and remotehearings. Can remote hearings ever completely dispense within-person ones? Arguably, there will probably be good reason tohave certain interlocutory matters dealt with remotely, and moresubstantive matters in-person. It will vary from case to case.There is then the issue of natural justice and fairness, andwhether a disgruntled party can insist on its right to have inperson hearings. Is cross-examination more or less effective viaremote or in-person hearings? Can the arbitrator really form a viewof the credibility of a witness of fact, absent the observations ofbody language and behaviour that will be a metric used, albeit bythe subconscious thinking process.

Regardless, remote hearings and technology usage will be moreprevalent going forward. That said, to alleviate at least some ofthe concerns, it makes sense to have regulatory guidance in placefor the arbitrator and parties as to the dos and don'ts ofremote and electronic working.

The CIArb has been quick to react to this changing landscape bypublishing the CIArb Framework Guideline on the Use of Technologyin International Arbitration. This two part guidelineprimarily addresses two matters.

First, the powers and duties of arbitrators in respect oftechnology and ensuring fairness and proportionate use oftechnology. Some key points to note are as follows:

Second, best practice on cybersecurity and avoiding databreaches. The guidance recommends:

As we use and adopt remote hearing processes more often, andindeed rely more on technology, there will be wrinkles that needironing, and the various arbitral institutions will no doubtreview, revise and update best practice guidance. We applaud theCIArb for the guidelines produced, and all those in the arbitrationfamily that have contributed.

Disclaimer: This Alert has beenprepared and published for informational purposes only and is notoffered, nor should be construed, as legal advice. For moreinformation, please see the firm's full disclaimer.

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Using Technology In Arbitration: Necessity Or Choice? - Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration - UK - Mondaq News Alerts

So the lockdown, for all practical purposes, is here again; lockdown for the office-going, law-abiding, and such other people. The protocols issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) have put the shackles and one is back to doing what one does best in such a situation scroll up and down on the screen of the phone.

This being the festive season of polls, pop-ups on the screen is full of political messages. And it would not be out of place to say that technology-enabled history rewriting is playing the biggest villain of Indian society, including politics.

Howsoever you may not want it, one ends up being a member of WhatsApp groups that have roots in the caste, region, and language. And there start the lessons in Indian history from ancient, to medieval and modern. Given the reporters itch, the writer habitually ends up reading these discourses and if nothing else pulls his own hair with dismay and disgust.

By the way of being a born Brahmin, in recent times one has received a video clip of how Akhilesh Yadav badmouths Brahmins. It is related to probably his days as chief minister where he is shown reprimanding a doctor, who happens to be a Brahmin. Source of the video needs no guessing, and soon there were counters and counter-counters, and then one lost the count of the Brahmin-bashing videos of every hue. There must be persecution stories floating for other castes too.

Then came a forward from a Delhi University college professor. It said Brahmins have been at the receiving end for no fault of theirs. To endorse his, the forward went on to mention that concept of caste was created by Ved Vyas, who was not born of Brahmin parents. Now, who would check on Ved Vyas birth certificate!

Then came the advice on where should honeymooners pose for photographs. Goes without saying that it was targeted against the medieval monument of the Taj Mahal. It said that the white marble structure did not deserve the stature it enjoys worldwide as there was another monument Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai which Sir Dorabji Tata built in the memory of his wife Lady Meherbai Tata, who died of leukemia. No denying the service which Tata Memorial Hospital has done for humanity especially the poor patients suffering from cancer, but isnt it asking for too much from honeymooners to opt for a photo outside Tata Memorial instead of TajMahal?

Given the state of lockdown, advisories on the use of medicines from common cold to curing of Omicron too are arriving in a torrent. Well, WHO would be wondering about the resource base of the progenitors of this information.And of course the forward on the breach of Prime Ministers security during a visit to Punjab. Some of these forwards have attributed such astute planning to the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi that the top honchos of the Pakistan Army would be wondering about their capabilities.

Now talking of Punjab polls, which find a lot of space on the city pages of Delhi papers. The news largely is about Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwals campaign. But an IITian like Kejriwal too would be cursing technology for the rerun of the videos of his activist days, preaching a Spartan lifestyle, which he doesnt follow, going viral.

With the Election Commission extending the ban on public rallies till January 22, and with the Delhi Government in no mood to relax the Covid-related norms, one may be assured another week of absurd lessons from history to medicine. And unfortunately, there is no escape from it.

Sidharth MishraAuthor and president, Centre for Reforms,Development & Justice

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Technology roasted in lockdown as we scroll up & down the screen of phone - The New Indian Express