The Harvard Business Review Slack bot gives free business and
career advice
The Harvard Business Review has made a Slack bot
to serve up advice for business leaders, startup founders, and everyone
else working with a team or in an office setting.
The HBR bot,
which became available last week, draws on more than 200 HBR articles about best
practices, from how to bounce back from a failed negotiation to the best
ways to give team feedback.
Each piece of advice comes with an article and a bullet
list of do’s and don’ts for the TL;DR
crowd.
… HBR bot is made
with Slackbot, a customizable bot made by Slack.
The bot is free, but the HBR paywall limits reading to
four articles per month.
Should my Computer Security students plan for this? What evidence to gather and how to present
it?
Department Releases Intake and Charging Policy for Computer
Crime Matters
… In the course of
recent litigation, the department yesterday shared the policy under which we
choose whether to bring charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: the 2014
Intake and Charging Policy for Computer Crime Matters. This document guides federal prosecutors in
determining when to open an investigation or charge an offense under the
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Is AI the next tool for IBM to rule the world? Do we have a choice?
IBM: In 5 years, Watson A.I. will be behind your every
decision
… The Watson
system is set to transform how businesses function and how people live their
lives. "Our goal is augmenting
intelligence," Rometty said. "It
is man and machine. This is all about
extending your expertise. A teacher. A doctor. A lawyer. It doesn't matter what you do. We will extend it."
… Watson
technology will touch hundreds of millions of people by the end of this year
alone, IBM's CEO said.
And in many cases, its user may not know it.
… With Watson
working behind the scenes on OnStar Go, drivers could get help avoiding traffic
when they're low on gas, have a cup of coffee ordered and paid for before they
get to their favorite café and get a reminder to get off the highway two exits
early to make it easier to stop at the pharmacy after work.
According to Barra, the Watson-based OnStar Go will begin
rolling out in cars in early 2017, and by the end of that year "millions
of vehicles" will have it.
"We believe in the auto industry, in a period of five
years, we'll see more change than in the last 50," Barra said.
A tool for disintermediation? (Surprised I knew such a big word, aren’t
you?)
Scotland to Start Own Stock Exchange Using Blockchain
Technology
Scotland may get its own stock exchange using the latest,
if unproven, technology to underpin the system.
Scotex is seeking to raise as much as 15 million pounds
($18.4 million) to start a regulated equity market next year, according to a
statement on Thursday. Executed trades
will be processed by the type of distributed-ledger technology that drives
bitcoin.
… On Wall Street,
blockchain tech is being hailed as a way to reduce payment times from days or
weeks to real time, freeing up billions of dollars in capital that’s now tied
up until accounts are verified.
Scotex says trades on its exchange will clear nearly
instantly and won’t require a clearinghouse, which collects collateral and
monitors risks between traders. The
company says investors and brokers will get their money within 15 minutes after
a trade is executed.
Insurance by the drink, and other innovations.
Some cool insurance products are finally on the horizon
Trōv: In Australia you can buy on-demand
insurance for belongings through Trōv. You pick an item you want to insure, such as a
laptop or camera. Using a cellphone app,
you swipe the coverage on when you need it and off when you don’t.
Fluo: In France, Fluo analyzes the travel
insurance you may already have through your credit cards and sells you
additional travel coverage to fill the gaps. You request an analysis and get an answer in
two minutes through an app. The company
says it soon will be able to analyze customers’ homeowners insurance policies.
Bought by Many: In the United Kingdom and
China, London-based Bought by Many lets you join others with similar needs and
challenges to find affordable coverage. The
company negotiates with insurers to get the best rates for the group on various
types of insurance. Examples of U.K.
groups include bearded-dragon owners seeking pet insurance, people with Crohn’s
disease shopping for travel insurance, and art collectors seeking home
insurance. The bargaining power saves
members an average of 18.6%, the company says.
… One reason the
U.S. lags behind other countries is how insurance is regulated. Here, each state regulates insurance, so to
roll out a product nationwide, insurers have to get approval from 51 insurance
departments representing the states and the District of Columbia. Launching a product elsewhere is often simpler
because a company gets approval from a single governmental authority.
I wonder who programmed the “back your semi up to this dock”
part?
Uber has quietly launched its own 'Uber for trucking'
marketplace called Uber Freight
The plan builds on Uber's acquisition of Otto, a
self-driving trucking company that Uber bought in July for $65 million.
… The first
product from Uber Freight is a marketplace to connect a shipper with a truck,
much like the Uber app connects drivers and riders.
The way most shipping works for most companies today is by
going through a brokerage firm,
[There’s that disintermediation again.
Bob] which makes calls to trucking companies and arranges the
best deals for its customers. The broker
takes a commission of between 15 and 20%.
To start, the Uber Freight marketplace will eliminate that
middleman and offer shippers real-time pricing of what it will cost to move
their goods based on supply and demand. And yes, that might mean there's even surge
pricing for trucks, although a lot of the marketplace details are still being
worked out.
Make your life better?
Gathering good reading material from around the internet
is hard. You can't trust your friends on
Facebook. Twitter is too noisy. And even if you're a master of RSS, you
probably spend too much time sorting through filler.
This is where Pocket hopes it can make a difference. For the last nine years, the company—originally
called Read It Later—has essentially run a glorified bookmark service, letting
people save articles into a slick reading view on mobile devices and the web. To date, Pocket's 25 million registered users
have stashed more than 3 billion links for later perusal.
Now, Pocket is turning all those saved stories into recommendations,
helping people find reading material regardless of whether they do any
bookmarking themselves.
Perhaps it is not as dumb an idea as I thought.
Amazon reports huge growth in Dash Button orders, adds 60 new
brands from PoopBags to Pop-Tarts
… Amazon said
Monday Dash Button orders are up five times over the last year. The company has added Bai, Cheez-It, Folgers,
Fresh Kitty, Meow Mix, Milk Bone, PoopBags, Pop-Tarts, Powerade, Purrell Hand
Sanitizing Wipes, ZonePerfect and others to its lineup of more than 200
buttons.
… For some brands,
like Hefty, Peet’s Coffee, and Arm & Hammer, the majority of orders are coming from people using their Dash Buttons
for quick refills, Amazon said.
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