Posts tagged gleonhard

What Google's Move Against Spotify Could Mean for Music - Businessweek

Of course, the music industry has a long tradition of separating a song’s profit from its creators. Still, wrote Krukowski, “the ways in which musicians are screwed have changed qualitatively, from individualized swindles to systemic ones.”

Google Now, Anticipatory Systems, and the Future of Big Data | MIT

If the last century was marked by the ability to observe the interactions of physical matter—think of technologies like x-ray and radar—this century, he says, is going to be defined by the ability to observe people through the data they share…”
Really not sure I am willing to extend the Faustian bargain that far (adds Gerd)

Big Data Gets Bigger: Now Google Trends Can Predict The Market - Forbes

Yesterday three economists, (Tobias Preis of Warwick Business School in the U.K., Helen Susannah Moat of University College London, and H. Eugene Stanley of Boston University) published an eye-opening paper that said Google Trends data was useful in predicting daily price moves in the Dow Jones industrial average, which consists of 30 stocks.

Gerd adds: yet another reason why the current form of stock markets won’t exist in 5 years;)

The Swiss Miracle? interesting piece on Switzerland (where I live)

At their root, Europe’s economic and political problems result from a crisis of legitimacy. In Europe, the common economic zone and currency were created without an accompanying federal government. And the union itself controls less than two percent of the combined national GDPs of the 27 EU member states and is thus largely inoperative. National governments have retained their legitimacy but are bound to a hapless and unpopular union…”

Gerd adds: some good points here. Sometimes, however, this idyllic stability also means incredible isolation;)

With Big Data, we are creating artificial intelligences that no human can understand (made me think)

Big data will require a new group of people to take on this role. Perhaps they will be called “algorithmists.” They could take two forms—independent entities to monitor firms from outside, and employees or departments to monitor them from within—just as companies have in-house accountants as well as outside auditors who review their finances.

All this talk about big data makes me feel uncomfortable (me too)

The second hurdle is the so-called averaging of data. This produces the phenomenon which you can call “I don’t know you, but I know your type”. It’s what cookies do. The end result is a sort of spurious intimacy, correct up to a point but ultimately wrong in that it fails to capture your real essence or soul - an essence that may never be captured because there is no data for that.

With 'House Of Cards,' Netflix Begins The Future Of TV (huffpo)

After crunching the numbers, the Atlantic Wire’s Rebecca Greenfield notes that Netflix will need an additional 520,000 subscribers to cover the $100 millon cost of the project — not a significant increase, percentage-wise, to its existing 33 million userbase. Netflix’s plan is to roll out at least five new shows a year, meaning they’ll realistically need a 10 percent increase in users to cover costs.

Beyond the hype: 5 ways that big companies are using gamification

The U.S. Army-developed America’s Army game has brought millions of potential recruits to the attention of the armed forces and has become its most cost-effective recruitment strategy (and one of the world’s most popular games on the way).

Christensen: We are living the capitalist's dilemma - CNN.com

Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen says we are now living in the capitalist’s dilemma
Investors continue applying doctrines that were appropriate when capital was scarce
Christensen says U.S. can no longer waste education, subsidizing fields that offer few jobs

Obscurity: A Better Way to Think About Your Data Than 'Privacy' - The Atlantic

Respecting Facebook users’ privacy settings is no small feature, due to the harm that can result when privacy settings are given too little weight in socio-technical design. Thanks to the soothing message and intuitive appeal of the “self-selected insiders” narrative, many reporters are spreading its gospel. Wired and CNN, among others, note Graph doesn’t expose any information that wasn’t already available on Facebook.

20 Game-Changing Technology Trends That Will Create Both Disruption and Opportunity on a Global Level | Flash Foresights from Daniel Burrus | Big Think

Gamification of Training and Education will fuel a fast moving hard trend of using advanced simulations and skill-based learning systems that are self-diagnostic, interactive, game-like, and competitive, all focused on giving the user an immersive experience thanks to a photo-realistic 3D interface.

Who Are MOOCs Most Likely to Help? - Good inout via The Atlantic

f you’ve become a true believer in the power of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other “disruptive” web-based programs to break the cost spiral of higher education, you should read the excellent analysis by two writers of the Chronicle of Higher Education, Scott Carlson and Goldie Blumenstyk, “For Whom Is College Being Reinvented?” They’re not against MOOCs, certificates, and other alternatives to conventional schools for students with solid secondary backgrounds. But they make the excellent point that these appeal most to the families that need them least and are best able to sort out the high-quality programs from the dubious ones.

Carlson and Blumenstyk’s sources agree that, for a growing number of students in colleges with minimal endowments, web-based courses just aren’t enough

Invasion of the Data Snatchers - NYTimes.com *good read

When it comes to privacy, we are all hypocrites. We howl when a newspaper publishes public records about personal behavior. At the same time, we are acquiescing in a much more sweeping erosion of our privacy — government surveillance, corporate data-mining, political microtargeting, hacker invasions — with no comparable outpouring of protest. As a society we have no coherent view of what information is worth defending and how to defend it.

Why Writing With Our Hands Is Still Important

And when I did, I found I was better able to focus on the task at hand, far away from the dinging notifications, crowded inboxes, social status updates and ever-proliferating browser tabs. Watching another digital citizen put a pen to paper and get things done just as effectively, if not more so, just confirmed what I already knew: Life wasn’t meant to be lived entirely in some company’s cloud. And when it comes to productivity, we need more than apps.

Gerd adds: very good point; I feel the same way. A question of age?

Invasion of the Data Snatchers - NYTimes.com *good read

When it comes to privacy, we are all hypocrites. We howl when a newspaper publishes public records about personal behavior. At the same time, we are acquiescing in a much more sweeping erosion of our privacy — government surveillance, corporate data-mining, political microtargeting, hacker invasions — with no comparable outpouring of protest. As a society we have no coherent view of what information is worth defending and how to defend it.