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3DLook launches a smartphone body scanner to help apparel retailers

6/30/2017

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3DLook launches a smartphone body scanner to help apparel retailers

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EXCLUSIVE:

Buying clothes and apparel over the internet is still a tricky business, but it is hugely lucrative. And increasingly, smartphones are driving retail growth.

In 2016 — as noted in VB Insight’s latest research — mobile devices influenced $500 billion in sales; $140 billion of that was driven directly by mcommerce.

The problem with online apparel: Accurate sizing, and the returns process that comes along with that. Consumers regularly purchase three of everything to send two back, and that cuts directly into profits.

Today, 3DLook has announced SAIA, an AI-powered smartphone body scanner that can be easily added to existing apps and mobile websites.

Here’s how it works.

The consumer uses their smartphone to take a front-facing photo. They then take a profile view. From those two images, SAIA calculates an accurate body profile, which is used to match the size of the consumer to the retailer’s products. Because SAIA can be connected across multiple labels, it is possible to get an exact match despite the sizing differences that exist between manufacturers. For example, a medium on one retailer-owned label might be an small on another.

So how do retailers incorporate SAIA into apps and websites?

“SAIA is easily installed into apparel e-commerce websites via a JS tag and into mobile applications with our SDK,” Vadim Rogovskiy, CEO and cofounder at 3DLook, told me. “Customers then will be offered to scan themselves with two photos from a smartphone camera without leaving the app or website.”

The store can then automatically suggest items based on both body measurement and shape. That helps to avoid the “order three, return two” process consumers are getting used to.

“It will not only make online shopping more personalized and effective for customers but also will save them time because they will be offered only the particular set of clothes that fit them,” Rogovskiy said.

SAIA can be integrated with an existing recommendation engine, ecommerce platform, or CRM system. Once implemented, the system provides analytics back to the retailer.

“Apparel stores and brands will get access to their personal accounts at SAIA platform, where they can track how many of their customers have scanned themselves in a given period of time,” Rogovskiy said. “They can also use a reporting API to pull all the required data from SAIA to their CRM or analytics tools. For example, they can get data about size and body shape distribution among customers, insights about their body parameters, and other important data points, and then match them with their purchase histories.”

SAIA is available to retailers via a monthly subscription with additional per scan charges. An enterprise plan exists for the largest retailers.

So what’s next for this technology, and is 3DLook investigating applications beyond the apparel retail market?

“Right now we are focused on our solution for the apparel industry, but our plans go far beyond that,” Rogovskiy said. “We see a strong interest from the health and fitness industry as well, and we plan to create a vertical solution for this soon. We are not planning to focus only on body scanning — we want to make maximum use of the data that clients will gather using our platform to create more personalized recommendations for their customers.”

3DLook’s SAIA is available from today for apparel retailers.





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via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com

June 30, 2017 at 06:46PM
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Indie dev turns Wikipedia into a text adventure game

6/30/2017

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Indie dev turns Wikipedia into a text adventure game

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Like a lot of people, I’ve spent hours clicking from link to link, sucked into Wikipedia’s endless void of information. Indie dev Kevan Davis apparently has as well — except he came out on the other side with a game. Wikipedia: The Text Adventure is a free-to-play piece of interactive fiction that uses real entries to create a virtual world to explore.

There are already a few informal Wikipedia challenges floating around out there, such as Wikirace. It also goes by The Wiki Game, WikiLadders, or the cheekiest name yet, Wikispeedia, and you play it just by applying certain rules to Wikipedia pages. A page serves as “home base.” Players then start on a random page and try to reach home base by leapfrogging from one page to the next. The person who reaches it in the fewest clicks or fastest time wins.

Davis’s game is different — a slow, contemplative, curated travel guide to what at first appears to be a truly lonely planet. It expands on some of the experiments and themes in one of his previous works, Around the World in X Wikipedia Articles, a 117,000-word novel based on Around the World in 80 Days and generated with excerpts from Wikipedia using software.

“At the time I experimented with autogenerating a standalone text adventure along the same lines, but even a single small city quickly ballooned into enough articles to overload the compiler,” said Davis in an email, comparing the two works. “Today’s game generates itself piece by piece, instead, as the player moves around.”

In my first playthrough, I felt an almost off-putting sense of distance to the descriptions of places. The start screen offered me a few different options for where my trip could begin. When I clicked on Austria, I got a dry description of its famous ferris wheel, a recitation of facts such as its height (it’s 64.75 meters tall) and its exact location (Leopoldstadt, the second district in Vienna). I then had a few options to go to different locations, each as plainly described as the last.

It didn’t feel like the kind of experience that tries to make itself approachable or comfortable; instead, each location I visited felt cold and alien. But on the second playthrough, I noticed that there was a terminal prompt at the bottom and realized I could interact with it beyond just shuffling from city to city.

On Easter Island, I typed: “Examine statues.” The game responded with more information — still generated from Wikipedia, still dry — but it was something.

Twitter tells me that there’s further interactions available if only I had thought to try them:

and talk to people

— ⣝⣵⡎⣵⢗⣿⣫⢗⡎⣵ (@zarawesome) June 30, 2017

Some descriptions are accompanied by a staticky pixel art image, which Davis said is inspired by the 1980s text adventures of his childhood. “It’s also nice for making some of the bad photos and boring architecture look a bit cryptic and fantastical instead,” he said.

The low-fi art also fits the feeling of the game, since it almost looks like the details have been smudged out and all that’s left is a vague outline of this landmark or that monument. While at first, I felt like the game was about stripping away all the usual human elements of travel, the interactions made me think that maybe the point of Wikipedia: The Text Adventure is that it takes an effort to make any real sense of a place while traveling. Davis said that the game is about players setting their own challenges, defining their own paths.

“I always enjoy how different the same data can feel when you look at it from a new angle, or fit it into a framework that it wasn’t really intended for,” said Davis. “Wikipedia is always a magnificent rabbit hole of links, and the text adventure adds a few that weren’t quite there, a way to stumble into bits of history that were right next to something familiar, without otherwise having any connection to it.”

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via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com

June 30, 2017 at 06:46PM
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Germany Now Allows Up To $57M In Fines If Facebook Doesn't Remove Hate Speech Fast

6/30/2017

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Germany Now Allows Up To $57M In Fines If Facebook Doesn't Remove Hate Speech Fast

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Facebook logos are pictured on the screens of a smartphone (R), and a laptop computer, in central London on November 21, 2016. (Credit: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Following months of European scrutiny over the impact of major tech firms, Germany has passed a controversial law that could hold Facebook and Twitter highly accountable for the content they host.

Today, lawmakers in Germany passed a hotly debated law enabling the country to issue heavy fines to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms which leave up content that violates its laws governing hate speech. Known as the "Facebook law" among Germans, the approved Network Enforcement Act provides for fines of up to $57 million, or €50 million, to companies which fail to take down "obviously illegal" content within 24 hours, and will go into effect in October.

As The Verge reported today, Germany's definition of such content includes hate speech, incitements to violence, and defamation--all of which have found their way onto Facebook in Germany, and virtually everywhere else. Under the new law, social media companies could face an initial fine of €5 million for continuing to host content considered illegal (not necessarily on the first offense), and see those fines rise as high as €50 million depending on subsequent steps and previous infractions. 

Social media companies will also be required to publish semiannual reports on how many related complaints they've received about their content, and what was done about them. The Guardian noted that the new law also allows German authorities to issue fines of up to €5m to each company's designated point-person for the issue if the company's complaints procedure isn't up to regulation. 

See also: Experts: Massive 'Petya' Attack Looks More Like State Cyber Warfare Than A Data Heist

Lawyer Chan-Jo Jun (R) and the Syrian refugee Anas Modamani (C) speak to media after the court session over Modamani's lawsuit against Facebook on February 6, 2017 in Wurzburg, Germany. Modamani is suing Facebook over selfie photos of himself with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he says were misused by Facebook users accusing him of being a terrorist or guilty of other crimes and which Facebook refused to remove. (Credit: Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)

Digital rights and free speech activists have criticized the law for its restrictiveness, and argued that it places too large a burden on social media companies to tackle the issue. German Justice Minister Heiko Maas argued today the ability to bring big consequences for companies was necessary in combating hate speech and radicalized content online. He commented in an address, “Experience has shown that, without political pressure, the large platform operators will not fulfill their obligations, and this law is therefore imperative ... freedom of expression ends where criminal law begins.”

In an emailed statement, a Facebook representative told the Verge, “We believe the best solutions will be found when government, civil society and industry work together and that this law as it stands now will not improve efforts to tackle this important societal problem ... We feel that the lack of scrutiny and consultation do not do justice to the importance of the subject. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure safety for the people on our platform.”

As The Guardian reported, the law has seen a few softening changes since Maas and other lawmakers began promoting the legislation. Companies will now have a week to consider flagged posts which aren't as clearly illegal or protected, and can enlist outside vetters of content or even create shared vetting facilities. Users will also be able to appeal the decision if their content is removed.

Germany's leading Jewish organization, the Central Council of Jews, told the Guardian that the law provides a "strong instrument against hate speech in social networks," where Jews are being "exposed to antisemitic hatred [on] a daily basis." Meanwhile, human rights experts have warned against potentially privatizing the censorship process and limiting free speech, and Germany's leading nationalist part has announced it may challenge the law all the way to the top.

See also: Report: Facebook's Content Rules 'Favor Elites And Government' Over Activists, People Of Color 

Janet Burns covers tech, culture, and other fun stuff from Brooklyn, NY. She also hosts the cannabis news podcast The Toke.





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June 30, 2017 at 06:43PM
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10 Business Books Every Freelancer Should Read In 2017

6/30/2017

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10 Business Books Every Freelancer Should Read In 2017

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2017 is already in full swing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t plan to read a few business books before the end of the year. Being a successful freelancer requires a solid plan and the right mindset. Here are 10 business books every freelancer should read to help them grow their business in 2017 and beyond.

1. Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss is an entrepreneur and professional strategist. In Tools of Titans, he shares the stories of over 200 world-class performers he has interviewed and how they stay productive. By exploring the daily routines of business executives, celebrities, professional athletes and more, Ferriss illustrates what it takes to become a billionaire. Freelancers who struggle with productivity can get some actionable advice from this book.

2. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz

If you’re hoping to scale your freelance business and one day run your own agency like I do mine, then The Hard Thing About Hard Things is for you. Horowitz is a big name in Silicon Valley, and uses anecdotes from his own career to help you navigate the difficulties of managing others (demotions, firings, etc.).

3. The Four Hour Workweek -- Tim Ferriss

The Four Hour Workweek is a classic if you want to really reap the benefits of running a freelance business. In it, Ferriss illustrates how working online doesn’t have to be a one-man show. You can actually gain a competitive advantage by outsourcing tasks at little cost to you. Play all your cards right, and you could end up working mere hours a week.

4. The Content Trap: A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Change by Bharat Anand

The Content Trap explores the two major challenges that face businesses today: getting noticed and getting paid. As a freelancer, you can probably relate. Anand draws on stories of successful businesses around the world as well as the latest research in economics and marketing to offer important lessons to overcome these obstacles.

5. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber

The E-Myth was first published in 1985 and has become a must-read for business success. It has since been updated for the modern business world. In it, Gerber cracks open a common myth: how entrepreneurs take advantage of technical knowledge to achieve success. Instead he suggests that entrepreneurial techniques are more important than technical expertise in the first place.

6. Here Comes Everyone: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky

Here Comes Everyone tackles a business game changer: crowdsourcing. Everything on the internet from Wikipedia to social media is open access, which is changing the way people do business. Freelancers need to heed Shirky’s message in this book and look for opportunities to make the most of the amplification of group effort online.

7. Remote by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Remote is about building functioning, profitable teams of people from around the globe. Written by the founders of 37 Signals and Basecamp, this book explores the pros and cons of remote working. As a freelancer, you can learn how to embrace communication and run a business with a widely distributed team.

8. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

One of the biggest challenges of freelancing is managing your income and expenses. It’s hard to tell how much you’ll earn month-to-month. The Richest Man in Babylon is a classic personal finance book that teaches you the secrets to success: pay yourself first and live within your means. Keep these concepts in mind with your clients and finances to succeed with freelancing.

9. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

Scatter brains have the hardest time succeeding at freelancing. You need to learn how to prioritize your work obligations and tackle them accordingly. This book can help with that. In Getting Things Done, Allen illustrates his strategy for getting the most work done in the smallest amount of time, all through structured analysis and sorting.

10. The Freelancer’s Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Have the Career of Your Dreams-- On Your Terms by Sara Horowitz

As the founder of Freelancers Union, Sara Horowitz helps new freelancers get on the road to success all the time. The Freelancer’s Bible is a synthesis of her knowledge, offering practical advice on every aspect of the field. If you’re just starting out or want to get more organized as a freelancer, this book is for you.

Freelancing is a learning process. You always wish you knew before what it took you years to find out. But if you take some wisdom from the most successful people out there, you can avoid a lot of struggle.

Follow me on Twitter and visit my website for more resources to market and grow your business online.





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June 30, 2017 at 06:43PM
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Beating a 100-Year Curse: 2 Qualities You MUST Have to Thrive on Adversity

6/30/2017

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Beating a 100-Year Curse: 2 Qualities You MUST Have to Thrive on Adversity

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The 2016 Chicago Cubs are a great example of mental toughness. The Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians in seven games to win the first World Series for the franchise in over 100 years. In fact, this was the longest World Series championship drought in history.

Undoubtedly, they showed the world last year what it means to thrive on adversity. Theo Epstein, the Cub's General Manager, recently did the commencement speech at Yale University and spoke of the fact that adversity and tough times are nothing more than a part of life. Having the odds stacked against you at times is to be expected, and no excuse to roll over.

My official definition for mental toughness is the mind's ability to focus on solutions, especially in the face of adversity. It doesn't take much between the ears to handle life when you are already winning on the scoreboard. When you are down to your last strike, and you are losing by three runs, that's when you really need your mind to be strong and ready. You know you are mentally tough when you can thrive on adversity.

The mentally tough and highly successful thrive on adversity by owning these 2 qualities:

1. They Expect Difficulties. Mentally tough people are not surprised when they experience tough times. They expect them to occur.

You must realize that not all days will be sunny and cloudless. The reality is that there will be storms throughout life, and some of those storms will be major. Don't be afraid or surprised by them. There is an old saying: "Be prepared for the worst. Plan for the best."

When the possibility of trouble arises, allow yourself 60 seconds to think through the worst that could happen. Take another 60 seconds to figure out what you will do to get through the worst if it occurs. After doing so, realize you are prepared.

Now the trick becomes to focus on how you want things to go. Force all thoughts moving forward to remain on the potential positive outcome and result. If trouble shows up, you will deal with it. Otherwise, enjoy life's blessings.

2. They Control What They Can Control. I heard the great coach John Wooden say that one of the most important things he learned was that "true success is defined with effort and process...not with results." Most people get caught up in defining success with things they ultimately can't control.

When faced with adversity, take a moment to make a list of what you can NOT control about the situation. For each item on the list, write down one aspect that you CAN control. Then get to work on these things. Keep your mind and your actions focused on what you can control, no matter how small a piece of the pie that represents.

The mind can only fully focus on one thing at a time. If you are allowing your mind to focus on results, you cannot in the same moment be concentrating on what causes those results. This is known as the "paradox of the product goal." The more you focus on results, typically the further you become from achieving them.

The longtime-losing Cubs had a great excuse to not perform during the 2016 World Series. With the pressure of 100 years on their shoulders, they remained relentless about their journey. Emulate the qualities of the highly success to not just survive adversity, but to THRIVE.





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via Inc.com https://www.inc.com/

June 30, 2017 at 06:34PM
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These 15 photos show Hong Kong's journey from British rule to today

6/30/2017

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These 15 photos show Hong Kong's journey from British rule to today

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Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereigntyReuters

Hong Kong will celebrate the 20 year anniversary of its reunification with China following British rule this weekend.

The city has a seperate political and economic system under the "one country, two systems" constitutional principle, which has at times lead to pro-democracy protests during clashes with Beijing.

These historic images show 20 years of Hong Kong's fraught – and incredibly politicized — relationship with Mainland China.

The handover of Hong Kong from British rule to Beijing began officially with the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 by Premier Zhao Ziyang of the People's Republic of China and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom.

AP Images

Source: The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region



In 1989, the Tiananmen Square protest crackdown sent shockwaves throughout the country. The annual candlelight vigil held in Hong Kong to mark its date is symbolic of the rift that remains between the island city and Beijing.

Reuters

Source: The Washington Post



As the late 1990s brought increased instability, thousands of Hong Kong natives left their homeland for countries such as the UK, Canada and the US.

Reuters

Source: Time



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

  • Here are the companies and government agencies affected by the cyberattack sweeping the globe
  • The US may be on the verge of striking Syria — here's a look at its firepower in the region
  • These are all the tanks in Russia's arsenal

SEE ALSO: China's president arrives in Hong Kong to mark handover anniversary





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June 30, 2017 at 06:30PM
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5 Hacks To Proactively Prevent Late Payments Instead Of Fixing Them

6/30/2017

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5 Hacks To Proactively Prevent Late Payments Instead Of Fixing Them

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Dealing with late payments is one of the most annoying parts of running a freelance business. You did your part, now you just need clients to do theirs so you can balance the books and move on with new projects.

The problem is a common one. According to the Atradius Payment Practices Barometer survey, more than a third of B2B invoices aren’t paid on time.

Instead of finding ways to convince clients to pay their overdue bills, it’s better to prevent them from happening in the first place. Here are five hacks that can help.

1. Ask for a down payment

When you work as a freelancer, you’re very vulnerable to nonpayment. People pay their credit card bills because they fear collection services (and a damaged credit score). Hiring a freelancer online gives them a certain amount of anonymity. And unfortunately, many people take advantage of this and don’t pay their invoices after you’ve done your work.

Probably the best way to avoid this problem is by requiring a down payment for every project. This will scare away the potential clients who never had any intention of paying you in the first place. Before starting work, ask all clients to provide a 25% down payment on the project. Once you’ve submitted the work and they approve it, then issue an invoice for the remaining 75%.

2. Make it easy to pay

It’s in your best interest to eliminate all barriers to payment for your clients. Make it easy to pay, and they’ll feel a lot less put out about doing it.

Gone are the days of mailing checks for freelance services. Online payment is a must. PayPal is the standard method to transfer money for most people today. You can use other services as well, but make sure you offer a variety of options to make it easy.

You also might consider accepting credit cards as part of your business. Sure, there’s a fee, but that’s the cost of doing business. You can always cushion your rates to make up for online transaction fees.

No matter what accounting system you use (QuickBooks, Harvest, NetSuite, etc.), all of them give you options to send invoices via email. Figure out what invoicing method your clients prefer and cater your invoices to their needs. You’ll end up with much fewer overdue invoices in the process.

3. Establish a credit limit at the beginning

Some people don’t pay their invoices because they’re busy or careless. The PayPal invoice email slipped through the cracks of their inbox, and you have to send them reminder after reminder to pay up.

Ultimately, that’s lost time and value for you. B2B businesses lose almost 52% of the value of their receivables when not paid within 90 days of due date.

So what can you do about it?

Establish a standard credit limit at the beginning of your working relationship. Use wording like this: “I cannot extend more than $200 of credit to any one client, and am unable to move forward with future projects until outstanding debts are paid.”

This simple clause protects you from clients who are chronically late on their invoices. If someone wants you to start another project but still haven’t paid their invoice from last month, they’ll have to pay up!





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June 30, 2017 at 06:29PM
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Get ready for serious games that improve your judgment

6/30/2017

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Get ready for serious games that improve your judgment

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GUEST:

For years, video games have provided useful imitations of real-world scenarios. From flight simulations to military training, video games offer a low-risk environment to develop necessary experience. Now, a recent government intelligence program has taken that a step further, creating video games to improve cognitive skills.

The recurrent errors in our decision-making

In psychology, heuristics are the simple, efficient rules that people use to form judgments and make decisions. These classifiers are the effortless, intuitive thought processes that we have encoded into every facet of our daily lives for acts like forming sentences and recognizing faces,. And they serve a crucial purpose. Unlike newborn children, we aren’t paralyzed in thought from every stimulus we encounter. We instead utilize millions of split-second mental shortcuts, accumulated over a lifetime, that allow us to function at a high level.

But our heuristics sometimes lead us astray. Here’s a quick thought exercise: a baseball bat and a baseball cost a combined $1.10. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the bat cost? If you’re like most people, your first thought was “the bat costs $1.00!” In fact, over 50 percent of Harvard, Princeton and MIT students gave the same answer. But that answer is actually incorrect. The bat costs $1.05, 1 dollar more than the 5-cent ball.

Heuristic errors comes in a variety of forms, and academics like Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman have devoted a substantial amount of work to identifying and categorizing these cognitive biases. The basic mechanics inherent in all cognitive biases, however, are mostly similar: we observe a challenging problem, substitute in a much easier problem, and then answer the easier problem. For the bat and ball problem, we know that the combined cost is $1.10, and that $1 + $.10 = $1.10. However, we ignore the more challenging criteria — the bat has to be exactly $1 more than the ball.

IARPA and the search for good judgment

In 2006, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence created IARPA, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. IARPA was modeled after DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), an organization responsible for the invention of revolutionary technologies like GPS, voice recognition software, and most notably, the internet. IARPA is structurally similar, and provides research contracts to projects at the cutting edge of science, technology and engineering, with a singular goal–generating revolutionary capabilities for the U.S. Intelligence Community.

IARPA soon recognized the opportunity for cognitive skill training. Intelligence analysts have to interpret ambiguous information on a daily basis, and then make recommendations with significant downstream consequences. If the judgment of intelligence agencies is clouded by cognitive biases, such as groupthink, confirmation bias, or anchoring, the ramifications could be severe. IARPA sought a solution, and in 2011, they funded a program that offered a novel approach: ‘serious’ video games.

‘Serious’ video games helped analysts fast-track the experience curve by offering a training environment that was immersive, interactive, and without the fail risk. Skills like information assessment and cognitive bias mitigation could be practiced and developed in short training sessions, instead of real-life trial-and-error.

IARPA’s five-year game contest

To create the games, IARPA’s SIRIUS program developed a five-year contest. They invited six academic and industry teams to develop debias training video games, and challenged them to target six well-known biases (see table below). These six biases were chosen because of their impact on intelligence analysis, but they also impair decision-making in a variety of other fields, including business, policy, medicine, and education.

Once the games were complete, IARPA scored the teams based on a series of controlled experiments involving hundreds of participants. Some participants played the video games, while a passive-learning control group watched instructional videos. They tested participants on their bias mitigation skills before, immediately after, and eight-12 weeks after the experience. The winning team was determined based on the percentage point improvement in bias mitigation score.

The results were profound. Measured based upon percentage point improvement over their base score, the video game players showed significantly stronger persistent bias reduction effect on the test population, as much as three times larger than the effect produced by the control group. Moreover, when tested for information retention eight-12 weeks later, the video-watching control group reverted close to their pre-experiment levels, while the game players retained their skill. In fact, in some studies, the gamers’ bias mitigation skills actually improved during the interim period! The video games had provided a decision-making skill set which was then reinforced by real-world experiences.

One of the top performing teams was led by Tomek Strzalkowski, a computer scientist at the University of Albany, and also included researchers from Syracuse University, Colorado State University, University of Arizona, and Temple University, as well as the game development company 1st Playable Productions. Commenting on the success of his team’s strategy, Professor Strzalkowski remarked, “A key takeaway was that we did not need a game that also teaches bias mitigation; instead, we needed a teaching strategy that was a game.” This is a major insight for any serious game developers. First, find the best teaching mechanism. Then, support it with gameplay.

In recognition of their accomplishment, Professor Strzalkowski’s team earned a gold medal at the International Serious Play Awards competition. The team has since partnered with Correlation One, my talent solutions technology company in New York City, to repurpose the games for commercial use.

Applications beyond the intelligence community

Beyond the intelligence community, the applications for cognitive games are vast. Cognitive biases impact decision-making in a variety of disciplines and industries, and so technology that trains employees to improve their judgment could create an enormous value opportunity. Consider a financial trader whose job requires her to digest a constant stream of information, and use that information to make impactful, time-sensitive decisions. Or a hiring manager, who wants to ensure that each candidate is given a fair, objective screening process. Even in the emerging world of artificial intelligence, where algorithms increasingly make decisions in place of humans, bias mitigation is extremely important. An algorithm that isn’t well-calibrated can lead to sub-optimal decisions across the board, so the AI developer must be especially aware of potential biases.

The SIRIUS program also strengthens the argument for wider adoption of ‘serious’ video games. U.S. companies spent over $70B on training last year, but only 16% looked to games or simulations for their solutions. Yet video games have a proven efficacy for training purposes. They provide a low-risk, high-repetition environment to gain necessary skills and experience, and are being deployed in an increasing variety of use cases. With a younger generation that is already familiar with gaming technology and rapidly entering the workforce, one should expect ‘serious’ training games to become more prevalent in the future.

Andrew Strong is Head of Decision Solutions at Correlation One, a NYC-based technology startup.

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via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com

June 30, 2017 at 05:49PM
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Don't Like Your Job? LinkedIn Now Lets You Secretly Tell Recruiters You're Looking

6/30/2017

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Don't Like Your Job? LinkedIn Now Lets You Secretly Tell Recruiters You're Looking

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There is an awkward moment between when you're considering leaving your job and when you actually do. It's a vulnerable time, a period of questioning and reflecting on who you are and what you truly want.

It's also a time when it'd be really nice to see what's out there and get attention from recruiters ... without alerting your boss.

LinkedIn, as it turns out, makes it easy to do this. The feature is called Open Candidate, and it does just what it sounds like: it lets recruiters know you're looking, while keeping that information private from your company.

When you select the option of Open Candidate, you input some specifics about what type of job you're looking for, and in which location. You can even write a short note to recruiters.

LinkedIn then does its best to keep this information from being shown to recruiters at your company or those affiliated with it. As LinkedIn's VP of Talent Solutions and Careers Daniel Shapero says, "It's really a way for a person to signal to the recruiting community that they're on the market and share a few things about what would be compelling to them."

He also acknowledges that nothing is perfect and LinkedIn can't guarantee that you won't be seen in your desiring-a-new-job state (after all, we're still talking about the internet). But the chances drop dramatically.

Just make sure that before you begin the process, you update your current company so that it's accurate. If not, LinkedIn will be hiding the information from the wrong people.

To take the feature for a test drive, open your account and click the Jobs tab at the top. Just below "Jobs you may be interested in," click "Update career interests." You'll see a slider at the top that says, "Let recruiters know you're open." (Note that you can only access Open Candidate on desktop for now. It doesn't work from the LinkedIn app.)

Testing of the feature has been shown to be successful thus far: Those who've used Open Candidate are more likely to be contacted by recruiters, and the interest is mutual -- recruiters themselves are more likely to get responses from Open Candidates.

That just goes to show how motivating being in the wrong job can be.

Happy hunting, everyone.





Business

via Inc.com https://www.inc.com/

June 30, 2017 at 05:44PM
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A Millennial Life Stage 'Reality Check' For Marketers

6/30/2017

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A Millennial Life Stage 'Reality Check' For Marketers

http://ift.tt/2tvjuTK

“I’m sick of reading about Millennials,” says my Millennial colleague. I have to laugh. We all know that not a minute can pass without an article being written about the complexities of this generation. And yes, here is another one, though in my defense (I say with a smile) this article addresses an aspect of the Millennial story that's often missing, yet extremely important to marketers: the subject of how Millennials are approaching life stages differently than previous generations.

Photo Credit: BigStockBigStock

Life stage is typically a more accurate predictor of people's needs and purchasing decisions than their birthdates (with the exception of healthcare-related categories). Millennials often defy the stereotypes traditionally associated with the transition to adulthood, which makes this an area of study with serious economic implications.

Until recently, traditional milestones for moving from youth to adulthood included experiences such as full-time employment; living independently; marrying; and having children. These markers are changing fast, as many Millennials (and older generations, for that matter) remain childless; embrace singlehood; define relationships more broadly than marriage alone; take "gig economy" jobs; and live with their parents or other people well into adulthood. In our work at Female Factor, we study these changing milestones and the impact they have on women's consumer spending.

A comprehensive new report from the U.S. Census Bureau, The Changing Demographics of Young Adulthood, sheds light on these dynamics:

  1. Traditional adulthood milestones generally happen later for Millennials than for previous generations — and often not in the same order, and sometimes not at all.

For example, according to Pew, more than a million Millennial women are becoming mothers each year.¹ Does this mean that these parents are married before their baby's birth — or ever? Not necessarily. Nearly 40 percent of all births in the U.S. are to unmarried parents. There are multiple reasons for this, including the fact that living together is more socially acceptable than in the past, and so is staying single longer and marrying later. Millennials are tying the knot later than any generation before them, and are often waiting to achieve educational goals and financial stability before walking down the aisle (if they choose to do so at all). Today, the average age of first marriage for a woman in the U.S. in 27.²

The lesson for marketers? Create broad depictions of families and relationships in marketing elements such as visuals, copy, questionnaires and forms. If you don't think stereotypes still exist, think again. Just yesterday I filled out an online form to buy something from a consumer brand, and there were exactly two titles to choose from before my name: Mr. or Mrs. I had to check my watch to make sure it wasn't still 1980.

  1. There are now more young women than young men with college degrees.

Women now earn the majority of bachelor degrees, master degrees and doctorates.³ The Census report shows that young women's economic gains have outpaced young men's over the last four decades. Consider that twice as many single women as single men own their own homes, according to Bloomberg. Outside of the beauty and fashion industries, the economic power of young women is often underestimated and overlooked. Clearly, this is a missed opportunity for many businesses — especially those in the category of considered purchases. Women in this generation aren’t waiting to get married before investing in themselves.

Lesson for marketers: Lean toward portraying young women as active drivers of their own destiny, and not passive observers of other people. For example: consider the number of automotive commercials that consistently feature a male driver behind the wheel of a car, driving past a woman who looks on in admiration. These types of images often feel out of date in a world of educated, employed women who buy their own cars.

  1. Getting a job doesn’t necessarily mean moving out of your parents’ house right away.

More young adults lived with their parents than with a spouse in 2016, according to the Census report. This is due to many factors, including widespread student debt and financial instability, the latter of which may continue as the “gig” economy grows and full-time jobs with generous benefit packages become more scarce. Many immigrant families also bring a tradition of multi-generational households to the U.S. Does this mean that young adults who live at home don’t have spending power? Not necessarily. In fact, some may have considerable disposable income if they're earning a good income but not paying rent. This is a demographic group that deserves more study.

The bottom line is that progression into adulthood for Millennials is not always linear: they are taking a variety of paths and longer routes to reach some -- though not all — of the destinations set by previous generations. Inevitably, Millennials will create new milestones and new destinations along the way. Marketers, take note: by paying close attention to their life stages and meeting their needs, you have an opportunity to help create this generation's new milestones right alongside them.





Business

via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://ift.tt/dTEDZf

June 30, 2017 at 05:39PM
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