How Can We Create A Smart City?

Society of Internet Professionals "How Can We Create A Smart City?"

This article, authored by Cory Popescu was first published on the blog of the Society of Internet Professionals (SIP). SIP is a not-for-profit, Toronto (Canada) based International organization to connect, learn and share. Our Vision is to provide the opportunity to leverage technology to have an inclusive future for everyone. Since 1997, SIP has spearheaded many initiatives, educational programs, and networking events.

Futuristic city might be closer to becoming a daily life sooner than we think. There have been a great number of projects calling for the creation of smart-city. Although plans have shown big and at first instance easy to handle, many ran behind the schedule, lower their initial designs and involved lots more resources than planned. None was created so far, leaving us to ask for a better living, desiring to spend our work and leisure time in more affordable and environmentally friendly urban areas.

One project on creating the smart city which seems to approach its goals faster is promoted by the New York company Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet. The project is aimed to reshape the Toronto Waterfront former industrial area to successfully integrate state-of-the-art digital technology with advanced urban design. This Quayside project will build the whole Toronto neighbourhood from the bottom up while rethinking the urban strategies of affordable and good living in the same time making use of the latest high-tech.

The Quayside was announced in October 2017 and work is aimed to start in 2019. This ingenious project targets their decisions about policy, design, and application of technology on information from a broad and comprehensive network of sensors. They are designed to intensively collect data from a variety of sources, including people’s activities, noise levels, air quality, public infrastructure.

Sidewalk Labs intends to open access to the software and its own systems and then other companies would build services based on their infrastructure. This seems similar to building apps for mobile phones.

The design of the smart city includes daunting ideas such as all vehicles shared and autonomous. Underground robots will do different routine jobs like delivering the mail.  One of the key components of the rebuilding this urban area using innovative high-tech represents close monitoring of public infrastructure. While this could be intruding in data and privacy, the concerns can be alleviated by open communication and public support.

Sidewalk Labs firmly supports communication and open cooperation with the community and the local government to seamlessly make the transition from the current low-tech old infrastructure area to a thriving community embracing a combination of latest digital technologies and leading metropolitan design.

Sidewalk Labs’ executives also bank on Quayside project sense of humility backing the urban-systems planning. They believe that this humility may help the success of this project compared to others that doomed past smart-city initiatives.

One successful project certainly opens incredible avenues for more developments regarding neighbourhoods which base their living on continuous and progressive yet enlightened sensing.

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:
Can Cloud-based AI Boost the Economy?
Is It Possible To Get 100% Privacy On The Internet?
Why Incorporate Blockchain in Your Business?

Related Video:

youtube video: Inside Sidewalk Labs' Toronto HQ
ITWC got a tour of Google's sister company Sidewalk Labs' Toronto headquarters.
Published by ITWC on Nov 7, 2018

Can Cloud-based AI Boost the Economy?

Society of Internet Professionals "Can Cloud-based AI Boost the Economy?"

This article, authored by Cory Popescu was first published on the blog of the Society of Internet Professionals (SIP). SIP is a not-for-profit, Toronto (Canada) based International organization to connect, learn and share. Our Vision is to provide the opportunity to leverage technology to have an inclusive future for everyone. Since 1997, SIP has spearheaded many initiatives, educational programs, and networking events.

Currently Artificial Intelligence (AI) penetrates faster in the tech industry, since it has increased the volume of new products and services in an efficient way and the structure of development, production, and delivery seems suitable to the implementation of this cutting-edge technology. Still plenty of other businesses and industries have yet to take advantage of the advances in this relatively novel application field. In medicine, energy or manufacturing sector, a more intensive and comprehensive application of AI could dramatically transform these fields while boosting the economic productivity.

Not only AI enters a particular sector, high-tech, also within it only a few major organizations make use of it to create expansion through volume and efficiency at unbelievable higher speed. Companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Baidu and some startups engage AI in their matrix since it may be acceptable price-wise, while for the most part and all the rest of our economy, this novel technology proves difficult to implement and extremely costly.

Therefore, companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google aim to create cloud-based AI to make the technology cheaper to be implemented and used effortlessly. This leading-edge cloud-based AI is available now and by expanding it to lots of organizations it could trigger more economic development. Therefore, the solution is to bring AI and cloud-based machine-learning tools to large audiences.

In this pursuit, Microsoft has Azure, its own cloud platform and by cooperating with Amazon they are working to offer an open-source machine learning library called Gluon. This is created to engage building neural nets to become a core AI technology to copy and apply the processes of learning exposed by the human brain.

Although at this time, Amazon dominates cloud machine learning with AWS, Google is following suit with an open-source AI library named TensorFlow. This library proves powerful since it can develop and build further machine-learning software. Also, on designers’ table a priority represents the simpler use and implementation of AI, and the recent Google pre-trained system suit Cloud AutoML, promises to do just that. Both organizations start preparing consulting services to cover the shortage of cloud-based AI specialists who can spread the knowledge of the leading-edge AI.

The future will tell who is going to spread more and what quality of AI. It certainly represents a huge business opportunity for those involved. The cloud-based AI technology has great chances to expand and comprehend various sectors untouched so far. We can only realize the true benefits… and the downsides of AI once the cloud-based is ready to roll and found at almost everyone’s fingertips.

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:
Is It Possible To Get 100% Privacy On The Internet?
Why Incorporate Blockchain in Your Business?
Blockchain: Unbelievable Transactions Blockchain Can Promote!

Is It Possible To Get 100% Privacy On The Internet?

Society of Internet Professionals "Is It Possible To Get 100% Privacy On The Internet?"

This article, authored by Cory Popescu was first published on the blog of the Society of Internet Professionals (SIP). SIP is a not-for-profit, Toronto (Canada) based International organization to connect, learn and share. Our Vision is to provide the opportunity to leverage technology to have an inclusive future for everyone. Since 1997, SIP has spearheaded many initiatives, educational programs, and networking events.

The developers at Zcash consider that this method can become reality as they have been working and developing it. Its name is zk-SNARK which stands for "zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge". The protocol allows users to execute transactions anonymously. Zcash are themselves crypto currency creators. They also create the zero-knowledge proof cryptographic protocol which can prove no doubt existence of something without revealing the actual information and thus keeping it private.

While Zcash develops their own crypto currency they also find extremely useful and practical to perfect the emerging tool called a zero-­knowledge proof. It seems that science researchers have worked on this technology for a while and it hasn’t become so desired until today when the crypto currency transactions industry experiences high growth and most of the crypto currencies are not private.

What is the application of this tool? If you need to do something online that requires sensitive information, like your date of birth, and the bank account balance so the transaction can be successfully closed, this becomes possible since the new protocol allows the subject to prove these requirements without revealing sensitive personal information which could expose them to identity theft or risking their privacy.

The tool is available now for the increasing economy demands. Important key companies developing and/or using this remarkable tool are: Zcash, JP Morgan Chase and ING. As seen, some major financial institutions keep interested in this, as it could allow them to use blockchains in payment systems and in the same time protecting their clients’ privacy. Just recently JP Morgan Chase implemented the protocol called zk-SNARKs to its blockchain-based payment system to enhance the privacy of their transactions. For instance, most public blockchain systems including Bitcoin expose their transactions to the public and certain parameters within including users can be identified even though these transactions are considered anonymous.

As normal with the first appearance of such complex and novel tool, the computation seems slow and convoluted. The initial setup involves the implementation of a “trusted setup,” which generates a cryptographic key still vulnerable to system breach when used involving the wrong intentions. Even having barriers of this sort, the scientific research continues to improve this tool. They are looking at more efficient alternatives to implement and execute zero-knowledge proofs without using the compromising cryptographic key. Even with all obstacles intrinsic to new-born technologies, the zero-knowledge proof is described by Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum as an "absolutely game-changing technology."

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:
Why Incorporate Blockchain in Your Business?
Blockchain: Unbelievable Transactions Blockchain Can Promote!
Blockchain: Growth and Limitations

Why Incorporate Blockchain in Your Business?

Society of Internet Professionals Blockchain SIP Talks

Wake up and Touch Blockchain: March 22, 2018 at ThatChannel, Toronto

This article, authored by Cory Popescu was first published on the blog of the Society of Internet Professionals (SIP). SIP is a not-for-profit, Toronto (Canada) based International organization to connect, learn and share. Our Vision is to provide the opportunity to leverage technology to have an inclusive future for everyone. Since 1997, SIP has spearheaded many initiatives, educational programs, and networking events.

Blockchain, the database (underlying the bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies) transactions is shared by all nodes present in a system. During the transaction, every connected computer receives an instance or copy of this chain with data records.  They provide proof of every transaction which takes place at every network location and address with their corresponding costs and benefits.

So, why would a business incorporate blockchain? Since it presents several powerful features, as described below, this progressive technology opens extraordinary ways to develop new fields and solve current matters.

Simplifying Operations
Being a distributed database, blockchain operates as an open electronic ledger. It contains the records at each location allowing transaction transparency and ease of processes. Consequently, it leads to simplifying business operations for the parties involved in each transaction. Thus, one can evaluate the returns based on the values committed to every particular location of the blockchain database.

Abiding Transactions
When during the existence of a transaction many steps exist and data records prove necessary to synchronize with the company or industry business model, blockchain supports creating unchangeable and permanent records in the chain. They are easily viewable depending on the security access model used. They are not dependent upon a centralized hub and the blockchain permits the generation of immutable records for every transaction passing through different states within the database.

Problem Solving putting Business and Organizational change First
Due to its flexible, dynamic and powerful structure, blockchain allows change in your business and organizational models to successfully complete the expected goals.  By using the right approach to analyze and act first and foremost on the business and organizational structures in order to change aiming for improvement, this avant-garde technology can be engaged with outstanding results in resolving current industry issues.

Adding Value
In current economy one finds numerous business processes which carry the burden of costly intermediaries who provide no value. Blockchain technology provides fertile place for introducing and utilizing it eliminating steps which do not add meaningful value and which benefit the industries currently requiring intermediate channels.

With above-mentioned aspects suitably applied in various circumstances the blockchain technology that provides the base for cryptocurrencies transactions inaugurates and could successfully expand in all fields and industries while having a profound and prevalent impact.


References:
Techloyce LTD: Blockchain Technology Explained to Understand it
Fundera Inc.: Entrepreneurs: Here’s Blockchain Explained Just for You

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:
Blockchain: Unbelievable Transactions Blockchain Can Promote!
Blockchain: Growth and Limitations
Efficient Action Lists: Your Effective Time Management Tool

SIP Talks panel discussion Wake up and Touch the BlockChain!

If you found this article of interest and would like to learn more, please consider attending SIP Talks panel discussion Wake up and Touch the BlockChain on March 22, 2018 to explore what is blockchain and how it will affect your life....very, very soon!
Read more and register here: https://sipgroup.blogspot.ca/2018/03/wake-up-and-touch-blockchain.html

Blockchain: Unbelievable Transactions Blockchain Can Promote!

youtube video: Introduction to Bitcoin
Presented at the Singularity University's Innovation Partnership Program (IPP), this is an entry level talk about bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos.
Published by aantonop on Sep 24, 2016

This article, authored by Cory Popescu was first published on the blog of the Society of Internet Professionals (SIP). SIP is a not-for-profit, Toronto (Canada) based International organization to connect, learn and share. Our Vision is to provide the opportunity to leverage technology to have an inclusive future for everyone.  Since 1997, SIP has spearheaded many initiatives, educational programs, and networking events.

Since cryptocurrencies' birth, flowing them across the markets have not been easy partly because of their volatility which does not make it suitable to pay for goods and services. Therefore, blockchain transaction and traditional financial economies keep separate ledgers without cooperation between these systems.

In order to grow, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies need larger markets to carry out their transactions of goods and services. Unless used in large cryptocurrency markets, for example bitcoin, it would not be able to expand. And bitcoin cannot expand until it trades in its own currency markets. With this paradigm, we can think of expansion utilizing the cryptocurrencies in specific trade finance transactions, meaning buy and sell products between two companies in different countries and use a bank to guarantee, which for centuries are controlled and guided by traditional financial and banking system.

Having been presented in a previous blog post Blockchain: Growth and Limitations, some of blockchain features relates to the transactions' performance efficiency which take place with high security. The speed and simplicity of blockchain operations lure, and not only, top bankers to conclude trade finance exchanges which otherwise can last weeks or even months even using correct data. As an amazing medium of transfer, the cryptocurrencies can be used with small fees to conclude small – for instance, six figures - transactions in only a few hours.

This is the case of Barclay's facilitating a $100K deal – more info in the references – of cheese and butter between an Irish food company and a trading company. The transaction finalized in four hours and with a high level of security because of the following reasons:

• The blockchain made available from Barclay's consisted of digital ledger that is temper-proof, meaning that no party in the deal have the power alone to change the transaction books.
• Blockchain has a built-in transaction system and digital record-keeping.
• Secure network to transmit all documents between parties.

Using the traditional financial system, this considered small transaction would conclude in weeks with considerable higher costs including the intermediary costs. Using the new technology eliminates the need for the middlemen providing significantly more efficiency dealing in smaller transactions as there are no more steps added to the supply chain or long supply chains are irrelevant for the open, decentralized networks.

With such success in trade finance, new favourable opportunities manifest and are related to more efficient transactions between small companies from different countries regardless of the countries' levels of development.

References:

MIT Technology Review: Why America’s Biggest Bank Digs Anonymous Cryptocurrency

Casey Research: This One Trade Changed 400 Years of History in Just Four Hours

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

You can also read this article here:

sipgroup.org: Blogs: Unbelievable Transactions Blockchain Can Promote!

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:

Blockchain: Growth and Limitations
Efficient Action Lists: Your Effective Time Management Tool
What are the Industries that Most Use Internet of Things?

Blockchain: Growth and Limitations

youtube video: How the blockchain is changing money and business | Don Tapscott

This article, authored by Cory Popescu was first published on the blog of the Society of Internet Professionals (SIP). SIP is a not-for-profit, Toronto (Canada) based International organization to connect, learn and share. Our Vision is to provide the opportunity to leverage technology to have an inclusive future for everyone.  Since 1997, SIP has spearheaded many initiatives, educational programs, and networking events.

The past several years have been making the bitcoin, the first digital currency in the world, a rampant success. The reason for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies existence is the overwhelming need to speed up, reduce fees and increase trust while performing online financial transactions across the entire world bypassing government control of currency.

The use of cryptocurrencies such as: ETH - Ethereum, BTC - Bitcoin, STQ - Storiqa, LTC - Litecoin, XRP - Ripple in the financial transactions would not be possible without blockchain which is the underlying leading software platform to support the single shared ledger, an accurate history of recorded transactions for digital assets.

Blockchain stores and transacts the cryptocurrency over the open and public networks. Blockchain has emerged as a dramatically improved platform to support financial transactions for the following reasons:

• Tamper-evident because a single shared online ledger allows accessing records of each transaction and which cannot be altered. If in error, it can only be reversed and viewed by all parties in the transaction.
• Transparency which means consent from all parties before the transaction takes place.
• Reduction or elimination of papers and overhead costs leading to cost efficient transactions.
• One-time recording a transaction viewable to all parties which leads to minimizing duration of financial transaction and increased efficiency.

Due to its novel features, blockchain presents essential benefits to enterprises:

• Distribution takes place over the open business networks, enables seamless peer-to-peer communication through sharing the single system of records among them by eliminating the need to reconcile multiple ledgers used previously by old systems to perform online financial transactions.
• Enables secured validated transactions because once all the parties consent to the transactions, they are recorded, validated and cannot be deleted by any party.
• Allows permission based on accessing rights of each network member to confidential information on a need-to-know basis.

Ironically, the blockchain benefits seem to display important limitations, such as:

• Restricted use because it is mainly designed for cryptocurrencies
• Open, public, anonymous meaning that anyone can join the network and view records, which results in breach of confidentiality and does not allow to know the identity of the parties in transactions.
• Significant computing power necessary to build highly encrypted software to overcome the limitations above-mentioned and stop forging activities.

During its blossoming years, cryptocurrencies and blockchain incurred wide criticism mainly due to the following factors:

• Price fluctuations –solution: new applications that lock the value of bitcoin to dollars, euros or gold
• Necessity to upgrade blockchain software as we similarly do for the software installed on laptops or iPhones.
• Possibility to be used by drugs or weapons dealers, smugglers although here the opinions are divided – see References below.

Meanwhile, over the time, cryptocurrencies continue to grow and so does blockchain showing that at least for now fulfilling necessities outweigh the issues related to using it. Broad opportunities arise from the use of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, on one hand and concerns, as well as the likelihood of government specific regulatory policies on the other hand. Although the current times foresee a triumph of this way of business and life, only the future will tell if the humans are willing to take charge to expand this crucial technology in a highly efficient manner while elegantly solving its limiting matters.

If you found this article of interest and would like to learn more, please consider attending SIP Talks premier panel discussion Wake up and Smell the BlockChain! on January 25, 2018 to explore what is blockchain and how it will affect your life....very, very soon!

Read more and register here: http://www.sipgroup.org/wake-up-and-smell-the-blockchain/

References:
Blockchain: Bitcoin Developer APIs

Harvard Business Review: The Truth About Blockchain

Toronto Star: What you need to know about blockchain technology

IBM: Blockchain 101 Infographic

Newsweek: Bitcoin: Too Big to Fail

HM Treasury: Digital currencies: response to the call for information

thegardian: Bitcoin: UK and EU plan crackdown amid crime and tax evasion fears

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:
How to Efficiently Set Up Priorities
Efficient Action Lists: Your Effective Time Management Tool
What are the Industries that Most Use Internet of Things?
 

How to Efficiently Set Up Priorities

Image: Make priorities clear using colour-coding ideas

This article, authored by Cory Popescu was first published on the blog of the Society of Internet Professionals (SIP). SIP is a not-for-profit, Toronto (Canada) based International organization to connect, learn and share. Our Vision is to provide the opportunity to leverage technology to have an inclusive future for everyone.  Since 1997, SIP has spearheaded many initiatives, educational programs, and networking events.

Setting up priorities in a tasks list is crucial to organized work and to its completion in due time. Establishing correct priorities means that you are in control of your time and of the results of your projects. By organizing your plans and tasks lists appropriately, you gain more time and consequently can use it to grow your business, career or life.

In order to attain increased work efficiency, you would establish the priorities in the following way:

•    The action list for the next day is conceived and released the afternoon before you leave the office. This translates into an efficient start point for the next day.

•    Categorize your tasks by priorities, so you can act upon them accordingly:

     Priority #1: crucial and prompt, to be done immediately.
     Priority #2: to be done today, however not critical, may be delegated.
     Priority #3: important tasks, minor delays may be accepted.
     Priority #4: routine, not essential tasks which can be performed casually.

•    Respect firmly your action lists, their priorities and deadline. Defend them in front of your peers or bosses if necessary. The successful completion of your task lists lead to achieving your ultimate goals.

•    Be relentless about receiving un-planned extra tasks even for short term, as one day completion. Analyze thoroughly, communicate, if applicable with your co-workers, negotiate on deadlines and task approach before committing to additional work. If you think it is jeopardizing your current assignments and you do not get extended deadlines or more resources, just say nicely “it can wait” and recommend redirection to a less loaded team/person.

•    Watch you deadlines earnestly and observe them enthusiastically. Should you miss, use your failures to set up more realistic deadlines for new and urgent tasks. When you foresee that a deadline cannot be met, contact parties involved and explain the issues, attempt to establish together a new attainable deadline. Keep an electronic or any kind of agenda with you to monitor closely your tasks and especially your deadlines.

Keeping your tasks lists accurately and sharing them with your co-workers, managers and subordinates could also prepare you to prevent unexpected developments. When you are out of the office, things can still get accomplished due to your meticulous plan. Therefore, work stops chasing you, and you are in control of the events making stress a fact of the past.


Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:
What are the Industries that Most Use Internet of Things?
The New Thought Process of Machine Learning 
Can IT Professionals Become Savvy Networkers?

Efficient Action Lists: Your Effective Time Management Tool

Image: Make priorities clear using colour-coding ideas

This article, authored by Cory Popescu was first published on the blog of the Society of Internet Professionals (SIP). SIP is a not-for-profit, Toronto (Canada) based International organization to connect, learn and share. Our Vision is to provide the opportunity to leverage technology to have an inclusive future for everyone.  Since 1997, SIP has spearheaded many initiatives, educational programs, and networking events.

Every day we receive lots of tasks to do, and sometimes they have insane deadlines. Tasks stack up in plan lists, action lists in all our “extended” memory tools, such as computers, iPhones, electronic calendars and hard-copy agendas. In order to not get swamped by them, and to fulfill them successfully we need to organize them to bring us the most efficient results.

Structuring these lists in an organized way implies performing the following:

•    Synchronize all tasks lists. If you have several lists, and they are not synchronized, it means that you would find tasks in a master list that are also part of another master list for the same objectives.
•    Define the priority for each task and create four different action lists reflecting the priorities for each task category, as per below.

1. Priority #1 list contains tasks which are “important and urgent” and require immediate attention and completion.
2. Priority #2 list contains tasks which are “urgent and not important”. You are compelled to work on these because they bear the “urgent” flag, however, if applicable and possible, you can delegate them to someone else. Nevertheless, they must be performed and completed immediately. Complete these tasks based on the order of priority and urgency.
3. Priority #3 list contains tasks which are “important and not urgent”. These tasks can be postponed for a few days. Beware with this list because endless postponement leads to glitches in project development and completion and it may lead to failure of the entire project.
4. Priority #4 list contains tasks which are “not important and not urgent” and which may be resolved in between the timing of other tasks or when you have spare time. These are the fittest to delegate.

•    Write all the tasks in your agenda and do NOT perform any task if it is not part of the list.
•    Combine performing tasks you like with tasks that you do not like. Start with one which you do not like and keep intertwining with pleasant tasks to keep your productivity up.
•    Define the best time to perform the tasks. For example, given that the task of prioritization into the four categories already took place, and there are priority #4 tasks to be done, it might be the best to perform them at the end of the working day when your attention is not the sharpest.
•    Keep an eye on the status of each task. Some tasks may “transform” status from “not urgent” to “urgent”. So, keep doing the tasks from all categories diligently not to find yourself in a time crisis.
•    When a new task appears, write it in your agenda and prioritize it with a deadline.

Prioritizing your tasks well gives you a good idea to start your projects efficiently.  Setting-up priorities and knowing how to combine the performance of different tasks will considerably reduce your stress levels and give you more control on the projects and on the management of all your resources to produce the desired results.

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:
What are the Industries that Most Use Internet of Things?
The New Thought Process of Machine Learning 
Can IT Professionals Become Savvy Networkers?
 

What are the Industries that Most Use Internet of Things?

youtube video: Marco Annunziata at TED@BCG San Francisco: Welcome to the age of the industrial internet

This article, authored by Cory Popescu, SIP Writers Forum, is for the IT / Internet professional, but it is equally applicable to anyone, as we use computer and mobile devices in all aspects of our lives regardless of our profession. 

Internet of Things (IoT) using machine learning as a powerful tool has spread in various industries to observe and predict behaviour patterns. This helps organizations to increase their revenues, improve utilizing their resources including their workforce, help them become more proactive to market dynamism.

IoT applications are used in a variety of industries and they started being developed and implemented over 15 years ago and earlier. Some of these applications are mentioned below.

Healthcare
The power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning is harnessed in a field of paramount importance for humans: healthcare. Devices which incorporate new technology remind the patients to get important diagnostic tests to take their medication at prescribed time, to eat properly, and to keep them in reasonable health by not needing hospital services. Other devices can be used to predict infection and provide health analysis.  Predicting the probability of contracting a disease through sequencing of genomes and making comparisons with elements of large databases represent other important applications in medical services. This allows doctors to use optimum treatments for those diseases. 

Manufacturing
In the early days of AI, industrial robots have been introduced to assemble and ship products in manufacturing. Nowadays, new versions of robots perform more complex tasks in the electronics, automotive and home industry. Preventative maintenance in operations management is increasing the number devices which use machine learning. These devices are used to predict which parts become faulty so that they can be replaced with minimum downtime and costs.

Marketing
Customers are already used for quite some time to receiving reports and alerts about “what else” they might like after their online purchases. To understand customers better, organizations use IoT to scan customers preferences based on their transactions and offer them the “next best” product or service.  Monitoring the historical purchases for segments of customers, the machines learn how to respond to customers' demands in order to up-sell or cross-sell. Customers can make informed purchase decisions based on the IoT devices recommendations.

Customer Service
Developments in IoT devices help personalize machine and human interaction, making AI more efficient in customer service. Through digital devices, IoT applications generate questions and text response messages to accommodate chats with customers. The automation of the personalized interactions with customers and prospects significantly contributes to reducing administration costs and improves the net efficiency of the organizations.

Essential IoT machine learning developments manifest among others, in the fields of: transportation, network security, financials. Readers are welcome to provide comments of additional IoT applications that they know about, with proven capabilities as the industry of developing intelligent devices based on machine learning is continuously evolving.

References:
The FOW Community blog: Future Of Work: 5 Industries Being Most Affected By Artificial Intelligence by Connie Chan

Forbes: Tech: 3 Industries That Will Be Transformed By AI, Machine Learning And Big Data In The Next Decade by Bernard Marr

EngineersGarage: Top 10 Industrial Applications of Artificial Intelligence by Neha Rastogi

MIT Technology Review: Business Report: AI Hits the Mainstream by Nanette Byrnes

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:
The New Thought Process of Machine Learning 
How Internet Helps Machine Learning
Can IT Professionals Become Savvy Networkers?
 

The New Thought Process of Machine Learning

Photo: @artjunctionto: What would you like to make?

This article, authored by Cory Popescu, SIP Writers Forum, is for the IT / Internet professional, but it is equally applicable to anyone, as we use computer and mobile devices in all aspects of our lives regardless of our profession. 

For some time, businesses have been looking to build tools to understand their customers better, to improve operational processes, to provide higher quality deliveries. To accomplish this, businesses start using the services of data scientists mining into large databases, and seek upgrades to insight analysts' skills.

The labour dedicated to building business intelligence (BI) mechanisms to incorporate in current businesses is involved at higher degree while creating those tools and to a much lower extent when these devices become functional as expected. When employing the newly built devices embedding machine learning, the organizations gain awareness and powerful observations while decreasing time to respond to change.

Developing intelligent devices require an unconventional thought process to obtain enhanced results since the outcomes of data processing are not known or may only be vaguely imagined at the time of starting the application software. Some of the thought process aspects described below show significant differences between approaching development for traditional versus predictive BI.

A crucial aspect of the thought processes used to create applications involving machine learning is represented by building models with a proactive mindset. The modeller asks questions based on predictive thinking which relate to various business facets, for instance: what benefits emerge from using this data, how to quantify them, how to resolve frequent business issues, such as manufacturing faulty parts.

A predictive approach to modelling also formulates questions regarding the requirement for and the degree of technical skills involved when using the applications based on machine learning, how to present outcome in clear format, how to create groups of users who participate in building the models and what flexibility the predictive models have to generate and validate new models on demand.

Another aspect related to the thought process involved in machine learning refers to calculating for example the number of product offerings versus deriving a solution which predicts the payback on each product offering. Supplying a better view of the customer base, the predicted dollar payback along with tracking key financial variables provide opportunity for increasing company's efficiency and improving their bottom line.

Predicting events and trends become a necessity of the economy with large, expanded datasets which contain relationships and patterns extremely difficult to categorize and make assumptions based on the data. The use of hypothesis and predefined routes represent the foundation of conventional application software development and requires excessive efforts to apply to existing elaborated and complex databases. Leaving this data untapped by the machine learning applications built on the new thought processes would be a total oversight. 

References:
University of California, Berkeley: Department of Statistics: Statistical Science: To Explain or to Predict? by Galit Shmueli

Smart Vision Europe: Top ten predictive analytics questions by Rachel Clinton


Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:
Health Concerns of IT Professionals
How Internet Helps Machine Learning
Can IT Professionals Become Savvy Networkers?

Can IT Professionals Become Savvy Networkers?

Photo: Society of Internet Professionals presents: eMarketing Optimization, March 2011

This article, authored by Cory Popescu, SIP Writers Forum, is for the IT / Internet Professional, but it is equally applicable to anyone, as we use computer and mobile devices in all aspects of our lives regardless of our profession.

In many world economies, relationships are crucial to interact and to integrate in the society. One of the most used means to integrate in the society is by obtaining a position to contribute to the economic and social development as: employee, employer or investor in all their types and forms. Obtaining those positions may require networking with people.

Networking with different professionals for any purpose might seem difficult for Information Technology persons who by the nature of their work may generally appear reserved, quiet, reclusive.  However, solutions exist to provide the IT professionals with amazing tools to find their new work place.

Nowadays one of the most used equipment at least in the developed and emerging economies is represented by the devices which run a variety of software applications for different aspects of our lives. The existence of a plethora of social media sites benefit networking between people of all walks of life. For the IT and Internet professionals these ways of communication appeal because they offer the capability to:

• Reach others effortlessly and conveniently. Accessing computers, laptops, iPads, iPhones and other electronic devices becomes easier than ever and it can be done from anywhere worldwide.
• Use devices and tools that the IT professionals know the best.
• Do networking with a higher degree of comfort. The IT professionals hone their networking skills by accessing first what they are most familiar with: technical equipment and software.
• Do networking at their own pace. Especially when they become part of an event, depending on the person, the technical people think that they would have to keep up with the activities of those occasions which most of the time involve personal interaction. That might be an inconvenience for the IT professionals who might withdraw themselves in the middle of the networking opportunity or interact with only one or two participants. Conversely, while accessing the social media they might simultaneously get several new acquaintances involved to engaging conversations and to obtain a desired result.
• Higher degree of freedom during their networking conversations with other people over the Internet. Since the IT professionals feel highly comfortable accessing software, they could keep that level of self-assurance to communicate with new people through the very software that they have just connected to. Thus, they have the ability to develop challenging conversations, enhance the ideas expressed and comfortably influence the outcomes of those conversations.

While the IT professionals use the social media and the Internet to network for endless opportunities, they develop the skills to contact and maintain valuable new relationships. Consequently, and contrary to popular belief, using what they know the best the IT professionals can become proficient at networking and part of a new and lucrative opportunity exclusively through internet interaction.

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:
Health Concerns of IT Professionals 
How Internet Helps Machine Learning

How Internet Helps Machine Learning

Collage: Vassily Kandinsky, Soft Hard /machine learning

Credit: wikipedia.org: Vassily Kandinsky, Soft Hard, 1927 - Molle rudesse

This article, authored by Cory Popescu, SIP Writers Forum, is for the IT / Internet professional, but it is equally applicable to anyone, as we use computer and mobile devices in all aspects of our lives regardless of our profession.

As humans delegate more tasks and responsibilities to machines, machine learning becomes integral part in structuring and remodelling daily business while combining both novel and traditional business approach. Generally, machine learning represents an application of rules and algorithms which delivers meaning to the analyzed data proposing a solution for the end user.

The Internet presents numerous and robust possibilities for the new programs, apps, devices that embed machine learning allowing the accessing of both data and the tools needed to generate the proper solutions to specific audiences.

Depending on the strategy selected, the machines with learning capability can employ unsupervised learning which allows the devices to use different types of algorithms and receive no feedback.  These algorithms can also be relatively easier to find on the Internet collections of algorithms and /or structures.

The Internet can help machine learning connect with the Internet data-sets in an effortless manner due to a variety of reasons, such as:

•  Direct communication through networks and not a central hub: as inherently known, communication across the networks and between two points becomes possible forthright and open using the internet. In some cases, web sites protection disallows contact. However the connection can be established through sets of privileges and permissions and the end result enables the findings of relevant and specific data.
•  Extensive volume of data and high amount of players on the internet who generate and create large databases. These data sets can be accessed either randomly or non-randomly through a variety of devices which include collections of complex algorithms. The algorithms applied in machine learning are data-driven. Through machine learning, the devices access and examine huge databases so that, for example, they can monitor and optimize the performance of industrial equipments.
•  Particular processes of machine learning, from non-random examples, based on cases exposed on the internet. The more cases, the better, therefore more adequate solutions appear. Since the processes include the use of algorithms, it implies operational accuracy to analyze and interpret the data. Being processed by machines, the huge batches of data do not represent an issue in part due to dramatically increased computational speeds and also due to the approach to data selection.
•  Complexity and diversity of internet searches and novel ways to find the appropriate tools required. Through the machine learning, series of algorithms and methods apply to representative data sets in order to derive relevant meaning for specific results. The internet searches have improved continuously and significantly. One criteria is represented by how fast Google indexes web site pages and updates the additional information found in these indexes. For the past several years this indicator has increased more than 50,000 times. Another criteria represents how fast the visitors can get their responses when accessing the web pages. Over the recent several years, this has increased at least seven times which implies that faster responses, more performant and more computers exist in the Internet's networks. 

The few features provided by the Internet and enumerated above enable the machines to employ the crucial task of learning to deliver reliable, accurate and rapid solutions within the Internet of Things. In many areas of the economy and in the society in general, combining machine learning, traditional business and data analysis techniques to provide such solutions unquestionably stand within reach.

References:
UCLA: Center for Digital Humanities: Machine learning, stories and the Internet

KDnuggets: The 10 Algorithms Machine Learning Engineers Need to Know

Google: Search Console Help: Webmaster Guidelines

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Health Concerns of IT Professionals

Screenshot: Google Search special featured snippet: Health Concerns of IT Professionals

This article, authored by Cory Popescu, SIP Writers Forum, is for the IT / Internet professional, but it is equally applicable to anyone, as we use computer and mobile devices in all aspects of our lives regardless of our profession.

IT people spend most of their lives at the office, sitting at the desk with the eyes on the pixeled screens. While IT work is only office work, many times stretching after regular business hours produces a significant number of health issues, whether related to physical or mental diseases. In essence, solutions to correct these health issues exist and this article presents some of the issues along with their possible remedies. The article is based on several actual cases from daily life and on the research described in the references of this article.

Some of the health concerns for people who spend long days, perhaps weekends and their entire working life in an office environment, could be related to physical and mental illnesses. In general certain areas of the body are affected and in particular it weakens the vital organs of the body.

Most common health issues, according to the research exposed in the references material below, seem to be the musculoskeletal disorders of wrists, arms, shoulders, neck, back, other ailments  such as cardiovascular disease related to vital organs, and others related to the mental state.

In the upper part of the body, eyes represent a crucial part to helping IT professionals succeed in their work. When eyesight gets weaker while intensively using the computer screens, the employees require eye protection and aids for reading earlier than workers in industries where the use of the computer screen is not so extensive. There are IT professionals undergoing vision improvement due to regular use of yoga exercises with a mix of mental alertness and relaxation techniques.

The vital organs that could be affected more refer to: liver, stomach, kidneys and heart. These ailments may be connected to eating significant amounts of junk food at irregular hours and to continuous loads of stress to meet the frequent deadlines. Due to longer hours at the office and sedentary lifestyle, healthy eating and healthy sleeping habits are often neglected. More so, in time, tight deadlines and constant top-down or sideways pressure to meet the requirements for customers, management, or other departments of the company  in the case of large corporations, lead to heart diseases found in a large percentage of IT professionals.

In order to heal the sickness, people visit the family doctors and/or the specialists in hope of a quick cure. Sometimes, it takes long before the body recovers, and sometimes it does not become completely healthy again. Some IT professionals have become acquainted with alternative ways to heal the body and keep it at a constant level of good health. These ways refer to easily accessible practices such as meditation and yoga which can even cure, if applied constantly and correctly under proper guidance, and they are favorably fit to prevent the ailments while developing your acute sense of awareness.

As we already know, it is far easier to prevent illnesses than to cure them. Therefore, the discipline to follow instructions to prevent musculoskeletal disorders and further on other illnesses is crucial to help your body cope with long hours at the desk using the computers. Some companies create special rooms for relaxation and exercise and some have included gym rooms in their buildings. Use these facilities at your will, consult with your management as a harmonious combination of physical workout and intellectual projects can only lead to effective results as concerns your health and work productivity.

References:
National Database of Indian Medical Journals: Prevalence  of  Occupational  Diseases  in Information  Technology  Industries  in  Goa

US National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health: Health problems and stress in Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing employees

Computerworld: Health hazards for IT workers -- how that desk job wears your body down

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Why Join SIP?

Society of Internet Professionals: Transforming IT Sphere

Connect, Learn, and Share Knowledge with the Peers in Technology Sector

This article, authored by Cory Popescu, SIP Writers Forum, will provide a different perspective about joining the Society of Internet Professionals (SIP) as a Member/Volunteer.

SIP is the Society of Internet Professionals which since its beginnings has found many ways of attracting and retaining respected members. The group has a strong leadership by the president of the Society running its activities for over 20 years, since its creation. He, and many other SIP members who regularly get involved in its activities, welcome new members, keep constant relationships with all members and fully support and encourage experience and ideas exchange between all associates.

Besides the other benefits that most associations would offer, SIP is unique due to a few common traits that you would rarely find elsewhere. When you are a member, not necessarily implicated in running this organization, you would not feel the stumbling blocks that sometimes exist between the leaders and the rest elsewhere. The way the persons leading this organization communicates with other associates or those to become is direct, authentic, and done in the simplest manner. Therefore, people can ask different questions related to this association and its business without being ridiculed or feel obstructed. They truly understand that the other person is listening and showing them the way to an organization that presents abounding opportunities.

A powerful corollary to this distinctive strength: the cohesiveness that exists between all levels of this special organization means that the Founding president, Max Haroon and the SIP long time associates work together towards a smooth welcoming for all future associates. They are open to receive questions and comments, opinions and remarks from the would-be members sometimes turning into stimulating discussions. These provide challenging, constructive ways to enhance the SIP group in many subtle ways from its structure to its activities and to each person's achievements, thus contributing to a dynamic model of the SIP institution. One way of representing this model is through the members benefits which can be found at http://sipgroup.org/membership/.

Some of the SIP members' benefits include:

• Affinity programs for auto, home, liability insurance;
• Group health and dental plans;
• Help posting your brand;
• Help finding your professional match whether you are an employer or an employee;
• Free subscriptions to some trade magazines;
• Free passes to some expositions;
• Wonderful networking opportunities;
• Exclusive invitations to SIP lunch and dinner;
• Free / discounted admissions to SIP events.

Remember that a crucial element of members' benefits represents the invaluable networking meetings with professional experts from the industry to whom you connect, who help you participate in provocative discussions, exchange pertinent ideas, and grow to an accomplished professional.

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed