Failure
in architecture? Perhaps just politicians who thought they
understood computing?
What
the Iowa Caucus Tells Us About Cavalier Approaches to Technology
As
details emerge about the tech issues that have delayed the results of
the Iowa caucus and thrown the public into states of confusion and
frustration, I marvel at the familiarity of the story to anyone who
has spent long enough working on the front lines of enterprise
technology.
… reports
so far focus on the haphazard roll-out of a new voting app designed
to facilitate (ostensibly) the transmission of results from caucus
locations to centralized election monitors. A number of problems
appear to have occurred with this process – ranging from
caucus-site volunteers being unable to log-in to report results to
rumored compromising by outside parties to scramble the
results-logging process. Whatever the final assessment, it’s
certainly not too early to call this a disaster, with a bungled
roll-out as catalyst.
(Related)
Elections come every two years. The Census had 10 years to prepare.
Watchdog
Warns Census Faces Cybersecurity, Hiring Risks Before National
Rollout
… The
bureau recently discovered during testing that its main IT system for
collecting online census responses was not able to allow enough users
to fill out census forms at the same time "without experiencing
performance issues," according to the
GAO report released to the public on Wednesday during a House
Oversight and Reform Committee hearing. Bureau officials have
decided to switch to a backup system that they say will allow as many
as 600,000 users to respond to the census online simultaneously.
A
worry for my Architecture students.
Telltale
signs of IT dysfunction — and how to fix it
The role of IT is evolving, and digital
transformation has brought with it a new set of responsibilities and
assumptions that can lead to IT dysfunction. An explosion of new
initiatives, the need to produce more quickly, constant interaction
with the business, managing third-party cloud environments instead of
traditional data centers — with so much coming at IT these days,
it’s little wonder that organizational tensions and challenges are
rising.
Despite the focus on technology, some industry
analysts say the root of today’s dysfunction can be traced to
lingering silos in the business, organizational structures that
measure performance vertically instead of horizontally, and an
unwillingness to collaborate, which is fundamental to a
corporate-wide, shared digital strategy.
Washington tries again.
A New U.S.
Model for Privacy? Comparing the Washington Privacy Act to GDPR,
CCPA, and More
… In
Washington State, a new comprehensive privacy law is moving quickly:
last week, the Washington Privacy Act (SSB
6281 )
was
voted out of the Washington Senate Ways & Means Committee, and
appears likely to be voted on by the Senate. If approved, it will
reach the House, which is currently considering (and amending) an
almost identical companion
bill.
The deadline for the bill to be voted on by both Senate and House
(including, if applicable, resolving any differences) is March 12,
2020.
Privacy more than pays for itself? What a
concept!
Companies
With Data Privacy Practices Enjoy Big Financial Benefits
Businesses
investing in their privacy experience pronounced financial benefits,
a new Cisco
study suggests.
According to the paper, entitled ‘Cisco Data Privacy Benchmark
Study 2020’, businesses see an average return of 2.7 times on their
original investment when they bankroll data privacy practices —
confirming for the first time what had long been suspected by privacy
advocates.
Computers and the Law, not just laws that include
the word ‘computer?’ Should I encourage my Computer Science
majors to go to Law School?
Why are
Lawyers writing code?
British
Legal Technology Forum:
“We find ourselves in the midst of the 4th Industrial Revolution,
and this digital transformation brings with it a need for change in
our working practices. There is a shift towards a more innovative,
fresh and connected way of doing business. Organisations that are
digitally savvy, in every sector, are leading the way and growing
exponentially. The legal sector is no exception – indeed in many
ways, lawyers are ahead of the game. Legal firms are embracing
digital legal software – reimagining their business, streamlining
processes, integrating real-time systems, providing mobile access and
automating routine tasks. As part of this, increasing numbers of
lawyers are choosing to find out more about what is going on behind
the technology that is transforming the way they work. Some want to
become more familiar with technology ‘buzz words’ so they can
converse knowledgeably with suppliers and optimise the use of their
software. Others are learning to code for themselves. With apps and
Artificial Intelligence (AI) becoming a lynchpin in the way
forward-thinking legal firms now operate, and with these technologies
so heavily reliant on coding, it is clear to see why lawyers are
taking an interest… and why on Twitter #LawyersWhoCode is on the
rise…”
More
contact is probably good.
Nextdoor
Wants to Be a One-Stop Shop for Police
… The
new Nextdoor for Public Agencies app, which launched
publicly on February 12,
enables police and fire departments, public schools, and City Hall
agencies to post updates, push out alerts geo-targeted to reach
specific neighborhoods, and read their messages on the go.
I like it, but it’s not for everyone.
This App
Automatically Cancels and Sues Robocallers
DoNotPay, the family of consumer advocacy services
meant to protect people from corporate exploitation, is launching a
new app aimed at helping end our long national nightmare surrounding
robocalls by giving you a burner credit card to get their contact
details then giving you a chatbot lawyer to automatically sue them.
I might have to try some of these.
How To
Teach Artificial Intelligence
… A
World Economic Forum report
indicated
that 89% of U.S.-based companies are planning to adopt user and
entity big data analytics by 2022
… First,
everyone needs to be able to recognize
AI and
its influence on people and systems, and be proactive as a user and
citizen. Second, everyone should have the opportunity to use
AI and
big data to solve problems. And third, young people interested in
computer science as a career should have a pathway for building
AI.
Recognizing
AI. AI4K12
is
an initiative of leading computer scientists that have identified
five big ideas that every student should know about AI:
- Computers perceive the world using sensors.
- Agents maintain representations of the world and use them for reasoning.
- Computers can learn from data.
- Intelligent agents require many types of knowledge to interact naturally with humans.
- AI applications can impact society in both positive and negative ways.
… The
MIT
Media Lab developed
a middle school AI+Ethics
course
that hits many of these learning objectives.
… For
high school students interested in AI, data science and more broadly
in computer science, a dedicated pathway or academy is a great
option. A recommended course sequence includes:
… A
new college credit option is the MicroBachelors Program in Computer
Science Fundamentals from
edX (the three courses are free; the credit costs $500).
Industry
certifications are an increasingly popular supplement to (or even
replacement for) college credit courses. AWS
Educate offers
free cloud computing courses and stackable badges. Google also
offers cloud
training and
certification.
Microsoft
offers many training classes resulting in certificates.
They have bundled resources into Imagine
Academy,
a set of resources used by schools in 135 countries.
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