Trading places the high tech way

A high tech approach to barter promises to make getaways more affordable. That’s the concept behind Nightswapping.com. It allows you to offer your home in exchange for staying at someone else's without limiting you to staying in the town of the specific person who wants to come to yours.

The business was founded in Lyon, France in 2012, though it also has offices in New York, London, and Sydney. The listings on the service extend much further, with accommodations in 160 countries.

In a way, the service mirrors the monetary solution to the problem of barter. What if you don’t want the eggs your neighbor offered in exchange for your wheat? Likewise, perhaps you don’t want to go to London on the same dates the person in London wishes to come to your hometown. Through Nightswapping, all parties get a consistent medium of exchange, measure of value, and store of value through points. Points are earned by giving nights in your home, and redeemed by staying at another’s place. The service brings the two together and provides some information in the form of reviews from visitors and its own scale of ranking.

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Credit: Pixabay

The price for each night’s stay is determined by Nightswapping’s scale that ranges from 1 to 7. The number on that scale is based on the Nightswapping algorithm, which takes into account the popularity of the area, the square footage, the number of bedrooms, the comfort level, and the type of accommodation -- there’s more value in having a whole apartment than a bedroom within a house. A shorter stay at a place with a higher standard can cost the same number of points as a longer stay at a place closer to the bottom of the scale.

Read more in Swipe to Swap and Go

 

German clouds on the horizon

The possibilities inherent in applying digitization to industry has earned a name of its own, Industry 4.0, with modified spelling when applied to Germany. In Europe, Germany is the leading star of this fourth industrial revolution. Progress on that front has not been as rapid as some had hoped due to some obstacles identified by a Mckinsey and Co. report published in March 2016.  But that is set to change now with the arrival of clouds built in Germany to meet the needs of Germany’s Industry 4.0.

The Mckinsey report, “Industry 4.0after the initial hype” (PDF download )  looks at perception, progress, and problems faced by the evolution of manufacturing in a digital age. It is based on survey responses from 300 industry experts in Germany, the US, and Japan.  In a nutshell, the anticipation raised a few years ago has resulted in some disappointments, as some businesses did not come up with a clear plan and timeline for implementing a digital strategy.  At this point, 60 percent of those surveyed said that they have come up against obstacles to executing digital strategies.

A fundamental problem for some of the companies was finding a way to integrate the data that comes in from various sources, something that is essential to extracting a comprehensive picture of the process to maximize efficiency that doesn’t compromise the data security or ownership when it passes into “third party technology and software providers.”   For the companies in Germany, there’s the additional concern of being certain to comply with the data privacy regulations in place and the distrust of datacenters located outside the country. 

Read more in 

New IoT Clouds on German Horizon

From your ears to your feet, there are more ways to wear wearables

Wearables were one of the main features at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). While many conformed to the traditional mold of plastic bracelets, there were some new options that could make them attractive even to those who prefer something more fashionable, versatile, or less encumbered. Now those in the market for wearables can select the sensors that fit their personal style choices.

Research from market research firm Mintel forecasts that this year’s sale of wearables in the US will nearly double, increasing 186 percent over last year. Women make up more than half that market for fitness trackers. About 14 percent of women possess some form of fitness tracker as opposed to 10 percent of men.

GlamFit Ring

That percentage could be even further boosted by the new wearables designed specifically for women in the form of pendants, rings, and bracelets that look like fashionable jewelry. That is the concept behind the fitness, calorie counters, and sleep tracking wearables fromGlamFit Jewelry by Liberty

Read more in 

Wearable Tech Finds Its Style

Shopping with Watson

Over the past decade and a half, successful web retailers have been able to tailor their

marketing toward the individual consumer, providing a level of personalization all shoppers—both offline and on—have come to expect as standard across the industry.

Shoppers have come to expect the tailored marketing that algorithms can deliver to them when shopping online in physical stores. However, that kind of personalization is only possible with sales staff that knows the customer and the merchandise very well. Even in the e-commerce space, customers often are frustrated by an overwhelming number of irrelevant search results that steers them away from their intended purchase. 

read more in Using targeted marketing to improve the shopping experience

Software a food bank can bank on

We've recently come off the holiday season—a time when most people are more likely to be charitable. While that's a boon for charities in general, it does create headaches for organizations like Second Harvest, which can be inundated with food donations in a relatively short span of time.

Some of the food donations—particularly cans and boxes of dry goods—can be kept for quite a while and distributed at times when donations are lighter. But some of the food is near the end of its shelf life, so it must be identified quickly so that it be given to people before it spoils. That's where accurate real-time tracking can make all the difference.

- Read more at A Food Bank Banks on Logistics Software

Security at the Core and More

We're growing more connected every day. In fact, Gartner's latestforecast says that in 2016, we'll see 6.4 billion connected things, and that number will to jump to 20.8 billion by 2020. While all these points of connection and data in transit hold great potential for business applications, they also open up new security challenges.

To get some insight into the direction security is taking in 2016 and beyond, I checked in with Stephane Ibos, co-founder and CEO at Maestrano, a cloud-based platform that provides enterprise applications like data sharing, dashboards, guided tutorials and more.

Ibos believes that the cloud is proving itself as a secure environment for business but that the risks of the Internet of Things (IoT) are only starting to come to light. Securing those many points of data transfer will require innovative solutions. Based on past experience, he is certain that those innovative solutions will emerge, particularly from agile companies, but there are still challenges to overcome as outlined below.

Read more in 

Security Innovation & the Shifting Mindset

Supply Chain Transparency to Combat Slavery: the UK's Plan

Most people would make a point of refusing to buy something known to be a product of slave labor. The problem is that sometimes consumers have no way of knowing that, particularly if the items includes a component made from by workers trafficked in and enslaved by the factory. The only way to effectively stop the sale of the products of such labor is to track all the parts used in the supply chain.

Now, the United Kingdom (UK) has set out its own guidelines, titled The Transparency in Supply Chains, etc: A Practical Guide, to help businesses to keep informed about labor sources. The guide help businesses be sure they in compliance of the Modern Slavery Act of 2015.  ...

Rather than government regulating what businesses should do, they rely on the free market forces to have a positive effect. The requirement to publicize what they do or do not do will motivate businesses to do whatever they can to reduce the market for slave labor. In the words of the guide, it would "create a race to the top by encouraging businesses to be transparent about what they are doing, thus increasing competition to drive up standards."

Read more in 

UK Plans to Use Supply Chain Transparency to Combat Slavery

Save me from resume advice

pic from https://www.flickr.com/photos/124247024@N07/13903383190

 Most of us do seek advice from others at some point in out lives, particularly when looking for new job and preparing a resume. Once in a while I read such articles which never fail to disappoint. Anything of any value I already know, and anything else brought up is usually ridiculous.Here's one example, and I admit I am at fault here for having any expectations whatsovever.

 The listicle format should have tipped me off to the fact that this is a superficial piece like  most listicles I've read before. It appears in Inc., though the writer,  is identified as being associated with Monster. The title is 7 ASSUMPTIONS RECRUITERS MAKE ABOUT YOU BASED ON YOUR RESUME

I'm going to jump to my personal favorite on the list and work from there:

School Stereotype: YOU'RE A PARTY aNIMAL/ELITIST/TREE-HUGGERYes, this is horrible, but I’ve seen certain hiring managers express biases based on the school someone attended.Solution: There’s not much you can do on this one, except to be aware of the biases that might exist regarding your school.

Did you notice the same thing I did here? Where the solution is supposed to appear, you get what amounts to: there's no solution to this problem, but at least you can be aware of it. Fantastic!

As the writer didn't offer you any solutions, allow me to offer some possibilities. You can highlight what you did that counters those stereotypes. Say your school is considered a place for parties, you can stress that you held down a job or did volunteer work on your time off from classes to make it clear that you were not just there for a good time. Obviously, though, you should only do this if you really did. If you really went to that type of school because you wanted that kind of experience, then the picture the recruiters will form of you would be quite accurate, and misrepresenting yourself can only backfire in the long run.


Where you live

Speaking of not misrepresenting yourself, there's a bit of problem with the first piece of advice. It tells you to leave off where you're living so as not to be eliminated from jobs that are out of your state because most companies don't wants to pay for relocation.  The thing is this: if you truly do want to relocate, and some people really do, particularly if they have just completed their degree, then that's fine. But if you are somewhat rooted to where you live because, say, you have kids happy in their schools and the like, then you have to be honest with yourself and others in considering how willing you are to move. Also many places have their own forms for job applicants that require full addresses, so you aren't fooling anyone by leaving it off of the resume.

Email makover
Not only do you have to be concerned with what your physical address says about you but with what your email address says about you. If you have an AOL or hotmail address, according to our writer,  "you’re sending the message that your understanding of technology is stuck in 1999." Here's my take on this: I have to admit that I am surprised at times to see people are still using such addresses. But that doesn't mean that they are stuck on old technology. They could very well have the very latest iPhone in their pockets and a whole wardrobe of wearables to boot. It's just that it shows they likely have stuck with the same email they set up about 20 years ago, which is more an indicator of age that some people may wish to avoid.

 Her advice is to set up a domain email or a Gmail account. The latter really is virtually effortless and free. I'd say it can't hurt unless you are setting up the email solely for the job search. If so, you may forget to check that email, and that can hurt. So if you do adopt a Gmail account, be sure you check on it and be sure you check the settings you want for its syncing with all related Google services. Now if you go the more expensive domain route, be aware that you have to continue paying for the services if you want the email to remain accessible to you. That can be a drawback if you decided to drop the domain, and recruiters still have only that email as your primary contact.

One other point: if you really want to appear technologically with it, it's not enough to have an email account. At the very least you should have a LinkedIn profile. Depending on the type of work your are pursuing, you may also be expected to have a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, and or your own website or portfolio.

Choppy job history
This is an old truism about experience. It used to be considered a good sign to stay with a place for years and not to jump around. That's where the warning about many short stints in this article comes from. Today more jumping around is the norm, and I'm told that people who have stayed at one place for 5 years or more may actually be considered less employable elsewhere because they don't show the initiative of looking around for more opportunities. Nevertheless, staying at a job that is not defined as a freelance or contract position for just a few months is a sign of someone who either doesn't get along with anyone, get bored too easily, or just doesn't know what s/he is signing up for each time.

 I don't agree that explaining it away as being too difficult a commute would work for you -- unless the job you seek is really just a short walk from your home. You're supposed to be grownup who can project what it would be like to have to get to a job that requires two subways and a bus and not a kid who just finds it too much trouble once you start. If this has been your work history, I'd suggest ta different solution. Offer the employer to come on temp to perm or delay benefits for 90 days (many workplaces already have such a setup) so that they won't fear investing too much in you just to have you hop away.

Drop a few years, degrees, jobs

This is a dangerous course of action offered in the third piece that the writer puts under the heading "You're going to be expensive." That's the conclusion, some will draw, she argues from a PhD or a certain number of years of experience. The simple solution is cut (no paste). She further justifies this by saying, after all a resume should not exceed two pages. As in the address, the problem of trying that approach is that companies have their own forms that ask for a complete work history and education history. They then ask you to affirm that it is true. Obviously, you can drop some work history that is ancient like the summer jobs you held in school or some part time jobs you picked up alongside your main job. But I wouldn't try to cut out several solid years of work history. Even if you attempt to disguise your age on your resume, it will likely come across in an interview, and you would have to account for that time.

Wrong assumption on degree 
What about dropping the  PhD degree from your resume.  I'm  someone who  has been there, done that as a job applicant. I have been advised to leave it off when applying for regular jobs in corporate settings not because the people assume the PhD is expensive but because they assume they are too intellectual to be practical. They have a stereotype in mind of an academic type who is out of touch with the real world. I happen to be an extremely practical person, and what my degree does show is being able to pursue a project until the end even when it involves a lot of work and a number of years. As one of my undergraduate professors said, it's not so much a mark of intelligence as persistence.

 Persistence is a huge asset to just about any job. If the recruiter can't recognize that, then the recruiter is too much of an idiot to be of much use to a person like you. I mean that seriously. You wouldn't want to have to pass as white to get a recruiter biased against blacks to work with you or pass yourself off as a nonJew to get to work with anti-Semite. Don't work for or with someone who looks down on you for what you are and what you've accomplished.

Related post: http://writewaypro.blogspot.com/2015/12/now-for-something-little-different.html