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Dehradun: Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) XI thrashed A&S Cricket Academy, Kolkata, by 101 runs to register their third consecutive win and enter the quarterfinals of the Uttarakhand Gold Cup here on Wednesday. KCA XI made 241/7 in 40 overs after opting ...

Uttarakhand Gold Cup: KCA XI storm into quarterfinals

onmanorama

Kenya Broadcasting Corporation

CGTN Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the protection of the country’s rich cultural heritage in a speech he made Friday during a visit to the Chinese Academy of History. He also visited the China National Archive of Publications and Culture on Thursday afternoon.

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Xi calls for protection of Chinese civilization, culture and heritage

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Xi Jinping

Henan

Inspiration of Ellen G. White

The remarks made by Chinese President Xi Jinping at a meeting on cultural inheritance and development last week received an enthusiastic response from all sectors of the Chinese society. Experts and scholars in the relevant fields said that under the guidance of the speech by Xi,

Xi focus: Nation inspired to foster modern Chinese civilization

en.dahe

Zapata County

Delaware

Smyrna junior Desiree Zapata is the Player of the Year and leads the All-State girls soccer team selected by the state's coaches.

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Football

Goal-scoring star from Smyrna leads All-State girls soccer team

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The News Journal

Saint Mark’s fends off Wilmington Friends in DIAA girls soccer Division II semifinal

The vision put forward on Friday by President Xi Jinping to build a modern Chinese civilization will empower the nation on its own pathway to modernization and build up national unity in the face of various risks and challenges,

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Nation urged to build strength from traditions

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中国日报网

BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Tuesday stressed the unique role of auditing in the Party's self-reform and called for efforts to promote the high-quality development of ...

Xi stresses unique role of auditing in Party's self-reform

CCTV

Tibet

BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to a forum on the development of Tibet that opened on Tuesday in Beijing. "People's happiness is the ultimate human right, while development holds the key to delivering better ...

Xi sends congratulatory letter to forum on development of Tibet

Challenge X

Surveillance

The ACLU represents Xiaoxing Xi, a Chinese-American physics professor at Temple University, who is suing the government over its dismissed prosecution of him for supposedly sharing sensitive technology with scientists in China. The lawsuit, filed in 2017 ...

Xi v. United States – Challenge to Warrantless Surveillance

Aclu.org

Get the most recent info and news about Academy Xi on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

Academy Xi

This article is Part 1 of the ongoing series From Zero to Product Manager. A set of articles that help you transition to a Product Management role. In this post I explain what a Product Manager (PM) is and how the role can differ across companies, I describe the best qualities of an excellent PM. You are aspiring to a switch into a Product Management career but don’t know where to start from: this article is for you. Product Management roles started rising less than 20 years ago, it’s normal not having a clear understanding of what the role encompasses. I found this great definition from Atlassian that provides a fundamental understanding of the role. A product manager is the person who identifies the customer need and the larger business objectives that a product or feature will fulfill, articulates what success looks like for a product, and rallies a team to turn that vision into a reality. ( ) Sherif Mansour on Atlassian In this article, I provide simple steps and tools to step up in this thrilling career path. What you will find in this article: A complete understanding of what a PM is and is not The four types of Product Managers: Consumer, Internal, B2B, Technical The four qualities of a great PM: Communication, Technical knowledge, Problem-solving mindset and leadership Image source: paperblog Defining the role of a Product Manager (PM) 1) Product Manager roles are trending As this great from Productboard states, article “We are in the Golden Age of Product Management”. What was not a long time ago an obscure job title that none would know how to define is now one of the hottest roles in the Market. Product Management roles in the US have grown an astounding 32% from August 2017 to June 2019, which is five times more than the growth for overall jobs. ( from Neal Iyer from Product Management Insider). With some specific roles like Growth Product Manager showing a 425% increase in average monthly interest over the last 5 years in Google Trends ( ). Study ProductLed Image source: Neal Iyer on Medium Product Management roles in the US have grown 32%, which is five times more than the growth for overall jobs. Before getting tips on how to transition to a Product Management position, let’s define its role. 2) What a PM is not: 2.1) A PM is not a Manager. Let’s start with the least obvious, as the job title doesn’t say, a PM is not a manager (in the traditional term). His primary responsibility is not caring for a team and their growth but Product. As scrum.org put it, the Product Owner role is to maximize the Product Value. If you work as a PM, you quickly realize that if, of course, it implies having a motivated, high-performing team, so it’s in your best interest to having everyone feeling fulfilled about their job and passionate about their mission. 2.2) A PM is not an engineer. This misconception comes from the fact that most recruiters and most job posts require you to have a computer science degree. It’s particularly true for a specified type of PM that I outline later. Having a strong technical background is an excellent advantage for your job, helping you understand more how the Product is going to be implemented, and the limitation you could face. However, the PM is not an engineer as he decides on the What, not on the How. The PM determines what Product do we want to implement to maximize value for our users. The development team decides how to implement the Product and with which technology. The PM is not an engineer as he decides on the What, not on the How 2.3) A PM is not a designer. A good PM needs a good understanding of customer needs. Having a substantial User Experience (UX) background helps you tailor a product closer to the requirements of your users. However, as a PM, you don’t need to be proficient in Design and a pro of Adobe and Sketch. Depending on the organization and your role, you can delegate those responsibilities to UI and UX designers. Image source: Altexsoft : Digression — The difference between PM in FGMC vs Software company Haircolor — L’Oréal Paris) L’Oréal Paris In this section, I want to clarify the confusion with the traditional PM role of FGMCs which belong within the Marketing Department. You might have one friend working at L’Oréal as a PM of a Shampoo line who has no idea about Agile, UX, or the concept of maximizing value for the user. However, they can tell you all about the shampoo market, their last marketing campaign, and their retail strategy. This PM usually evolves as Product Line manager ( and then finally promoted to a Brand manager ( ). It’s a career path within Marketing, and although the PM shares the same job title, the role differs a lot from the Agile Product Manager, most frequently from Software companies, that we are focusing on in this article. 3) What is a PM: The PM is the person responsible for the success of the Product. Note that the Product can be an app, a line of products, a subsection of a product (a section of a website). What are some Product Manager Responsibilities: User Research Roadmapping Data analysis Project Management Strategy Stakeholder Management Cross-functional management Image source: Productcoalition 4) The four types of Product Managers There are four types of Product Managers roles. They differ according to the type of organization and Product. 4.1) Consumer PM He builds products for the general consumer. One example could be TickTock. His primary responsibilities are: Ideation Testing Data Analysis User research to prioritize work for new features 4.2) Internal PM: He builds products for users within their own company. For example, software used by Customer Service. His primary responsibilities are: Project Management Execution Not much design as it’s internal : 4.3) Business to Business (B2B) PM He builds products for use at another company. For example, a PM at HubSpot, an inbound marketing automation tool. The principal characteristics of B2B products are: Low volume, high cost, sold by sales teams There is a smaller number of end-users (compare to consumer products), although, for some successful companies like SalesForce, this number is still huge Execution focus The main challenge is that the product end-user (e.g., Sales) is different from the purchase decision-maker (e.g., Finance) : 4.4) Technical PM He focuses on technical product manager. For example, Google Product manager working in the search algorithm. Specificities of a Technical PM are: Can be a subtype of any of the other types Solving complex technology challenges I include an infographic from Mckinsey that offers a different categorization: Image Source: 5 Academyxi The four qualities of a great Product Manager We previously saw that there are different types of Product Manager, and each type requires different skills and backgrounds. However, some broads qualities considerably help to switch to a Product Manager position. : You can communicate via email, phone, or in-person meetings. As a PM, you have to talk with internal and external stakeholders frequently to gather feedback and express your vision. And remember the best communicators are the best listeners, or as the saying goes, “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood. Communication : Having an engineering degree is not mandatory, but the more technical knowledge, the easier. As a PM, you need to understand the technology and to be able to talk to it with your team. Technical knowledge : A PM is a problem solver. He loves having complex challenges that require thinking outside the box. Being flexible and create is not a set of skills but a mindset. Problem-oriented : A PM is not a manager, but he is a leader. And a good leader makes sure to listen to the team and address concerns. He is open to criticism, always looking to improve his role and the Product. He practices transparency within the team and for the entire organization. He is accountable for the Product. He makes sure to give credit to others to create a motivated team. Leadership Image source: kent-teach Congratulations if you made it this far! I hope this article helped you to switch to a Product Manager position. If you are interested to learn more make sure to read Part 2 and Part 3 of the From Zero to Product Manager series. Please let me know in the comment section if there additional tips that you would find useful. And don’t forget to check my other posts about Product Management and Agile Methodologies.

What Product Managers do and How to become one [Part 1 — From Zero to Product Manager]

Want to know what it takes to make it in UX design? We recently asked four awesome women in UX about their own experiences in carving out a career in this exciting field. They offered a refreshingly honest and insightful look into the world of UX, with each taking a unique journey to get to where they are now. UX design, or user experience design, is all about taking a customer on a journey through a given medium — be it audio-visual, an interaction with an AI, or navigating a web page. It’s about invoking feelings from a user, and creating targeted stories for brands. It’s about unleashing your creativity to realise tangible, measurable results. What led Sharni Allen, Luisa Lombardo, Bettina Marson and Hannah Heffernan into a career in UX? What were their personal hurdles along the way? And what tips do they have for girls ( ) looking at a future in UX design? and guys Let’s find out what leading women in UX Design have to say. Sharni Allen — UX Designer & Service Designer, Freelance Sharni Allen is a former Academy Xi instructor who currently freelances as a leading UX and service designer. She describes herself as a ‘UX generalist’ who is comfortable facilitating client workshops as well as creating user journeys and wireframes. Sharni has worked as a UX lead at agencies such as whiteGREY and Webling Interactive . What’s your background, and how did you get into UX design? I had worked my way up through the digital production ranks for over 10 years, culminating in an executive producer role where I was overseeing large scale digital transformation projects. About six years ago I started to see a shift in the marketplace — businesses were demanding more expertise from agencies in user-centred design. They not only wanted to see the research behind our solutions, they wanted to be involved in the process. Coming from a traditional waterfall background, the opportunity to work in a more lean and agile way with multidisciplinary teams who were producing results backed by actual research and testing was too good to pass up. I took the skills I had already refined as a producer, such as personas, empathy maps and wire-framing, and put myself on the market as a UX architect. The rest is history. What did you study to get into UX? I did a back in the days when we were still burning CDs and designing websites in 256-colour palettes. The foundations of user-centred design have not changed; the were the industry leaders back then, and are still at the top of the reading list of every UX practitioner around the world. Bachelor of Multimedia Nielsen Norman Group My years in digital production gave me a lot of experience in researching and developing the artefacts required for problem definition and solutions. The other soft skills I needed to succeed came naturally; confidence in public speaking, backing up my decisions when challenged, collaboration and empathy. What are the biggest hurdles you’ve found in adapting to the world of UX design? Getting client buy-in on the process and committing the required amount of time to work collaboratively. Enthusiasm is always high at the start of the project discovery. But continuing through the research, empathy and ideation phases of a project can require an incredible commitment of time from client stakeholders, who may become more hands off and ‘trust us’ — we’re the experts, aren’t we? Decisions can’t be made in silos. There needs to be a consensus on decisions made continuously through the project. Ensuring your decision-makers (product owners, SMEs, etc.) are taken on the journey with you is critical to project success. What do you wish you knew when you started? What would you do differently if you had your time again? I’d buy more Bitcoin! But seriously, taking a step back from the digital tools available and putting things up on a wall is the best way to start every single day. Having a project Kanban (Agile tool) and a daily stand up with the team can raise problems early and often. It fosters team spirit and and an understanding of the project as a whole, rather than the small piece each team member may be working on. Any tips for people interested in pursuing a career in UX design? The hard skills can be taught, the soft skills must be learned. The UX business is not for the shy or timid. It is all about the user — getting out there and talking to the audience, empathising with their needs and wants and then presenting back your findings is a big part of the job. You may be questioned by those who demand answers, challenged by those who don’t believe your findings, and proved completely wrong about your assumptions. UX is a learning exercise in itself, and without those lessons we can’t learn from the mistakes of the past and deliver useful products and services. Luisa Lombardo — Product Designer, hipages Luisa Lombardo is currently engaged as a product designer at hipages , a revolutionary Australian home improvement marketplace. Luisa made her start as a graphic designer in Sydney, before enjoying adventure and career-growth in the UK, and finally returning home as a senior. A switch to UX design came next, as it offered a fresh professional challenge while reinvigorating her passion for design. What’s your background, and how did you get into UX design? My background was in graphic design, where I focused on branding, advertising and print. Although I loved this space, I felt I needed a new challenge in my career and saw an opportunity to improve my skill set and move into UX design. What did you study to get into UX? Most of my UX learning has been on the job with hands-on experience. I have been very fortunate to work with some great UX designers who have been great mentors for me. I also completed a digital design program at Tractor Design School (now sadly closed) to help me make the transition. What are the biggest hurdles you’ve found in adapting to the world of UX design? Having the confidence to get into UX sooner! It’s always daunting making that first big leap in changing careers and starting from the beginning. What do you wish you knew when you started? What would you do differently if you had your time again? I wish I knew that my skills as a graphic designer would give me a great foundation in the UX world. It has made the change easier than I thought. Any tips for people interested in pursuing a career in UX design? Never stop learning. Read UX articles from sites like and . I like to start my day by reading the latest blog post and getting inspired by the work that others are doing. Also get out there and meet people in the UX community. Having contacts in the industry is a great way to build your career. Medium Muzli Bettina Marson — UX Specialist, Telstra Bettina Marson is a multidisciplinary creative. An award-winning artist and writer, she has more recently put her talents to work in the field of UX. Bettina is currently a UX & UI designer in the digital products & services department at Telstra , working in customer success management in the rapid delivery automation team. What’s your background, and how did you get into UX design? I’ve always been attracted to creative pursuits and technology. Initially I studied a , which led to a career working as a concept artist and environment designer. During that time I cultivated an interest in working closer with technologies to improve the lives of other people — both creating engaging experiences and solving real world problems. Bachelor of Game Design This led me to enroll in my master’s degree to fine-tune my focus and pursue user experience and interaction design as a career. What did you study to get into UX? I studied a . During my studies I created interactive prototypes and user experiences for use in the health, education, communication and lifestyle industries, which I found to be incredibly rewarding. Master of Interaction Design at Monash University What are the biggest hurdles you’ve found in adapting to the world of UX design? With the rate that technology is being developed and adopted, one of the greatest challenges I’ve found is that you need to not only be knowledgeable in UX practices, but also in the latest technologies and their limitations. What do you wish you knew when you started? What would you do differently if you had your time again? When you think of user experience design, you immediately think of interfaces and excellent customer service. User experience design is more diverse than that; we live in a world with many different technologies that allow for many different kinds user experiences, such as virtual reality and voice-based interaction as seen in products like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home. User experience is not purely visual, and we must remember that people interact with technology in different ways. It’s important to not only keep up to date with the rapidly changing world of technology, but to ensure that the experiences you are creating are inclusive, intuitive and a delight to use. Any tips for people interested in pursuing a career in UX design? If you’re interested in this rewarding and challenging field, I definitely recommend attending a workshop or meet-up to find out first-hand what it’s like to work as a UX specialist. There are also many fantastic online resources to upskill in UX design if you’re looking to bring user-centric practices into your existing work. Hannah Heffernan — Product Designer, Canva Hannah Heffernan loves to create, and has managed to make a successful career out of this passion. During a stint in Berlin she also obtained a taste for startup life. And where better to be a startup loving creative than Australia’s billion dollar startup baby, Canva . What’s your background, and how did you get into UX design? I started out in advertising agencies, working first as a illustrator and designer, then as an art director. I came to UX while living in Berlin five years ago. My limited German didn’t get me far in traditional agencies, but the tech and startup scene was really strong. That’s where the demand was, plus tech tends to look further for talent so naturally the teams are very international and English becomes the default for everyone. My first role was as a real generalist in a small start-up. This is where I got the bug for designing for products. What did you study to get into UX? Like many of us, I didn’t. I studied and majored in illustration. My illustration background has definitely helped me design products. communication design What are the biggest hurdles you’ve found in adapting to the world of UX design? I made the shift to UX with a new job in a new company after maternity leave. That was a hurdle in itself! I found the biggest challenge was shifting from designing intuitively to having to inform my decisions with data. Design has always been emotive for me, and I guess my decision making is pretty gut-feel as well. Having the discipline to make more objective decisions and validating my hunches has taken practice. It is still something I have to practice! What do you wish you knew when you started? What would you do differently if you had your time again? I wish I knew that I already had all the skills, I just needed to apply them differently! Art direction and designing for advertising is about distilling an idea down to its simplest form, empathising with consumers and getting to the heart of what they’re trying to achieve in their lives and how your product can help them. To me, this is UX. Just the output is different. As women, we’re often not very good at selling how awesome we are! If I could go back to before those first terrifying UX role interviews, I’d practice being a better salesperson! It felt like this new scary industry that I knew nothing about, but I actually had 10 years of really relevant experience. My thinking was that I had to find a company willing to give me a break, but they actually would have been lucky to have me! Any tips for people interested in pursuing a career in UX design? If you already work in a creative field, or have any problem-solving element to what you do now, you’re probably already doing some UX! Find opportunities to apply tried and true UX methodologies and processes to projects you’re working on now. Then, when you make the leap to a UX role, you’ll already have the tools to get going. Is it time you made your start in the world of user experience design, just like these trailblazing women in UX? Check out The Martec’s other UX articles or for more info. The Future of a Career in UX The Pros and Cons of Bootcamps for UX Designers

UX Design Insights from 4 Women in Tech

. There’s an argument to say that collecting experiences is the meaning of life; that seeing new sights and feeling new feelings allows an individual to understand the breadth of the human experience, and to thus live life to its fullest. Human experiences It’s from this lofty (and perhaps ) perch that we’re going to survey the world of UX design, because it is the role of the UX designer to craft the experiences of a digital product’s users. They control the usability, accessibility and enjoyment of the UX (user experience), and have the final say on whether it is to be one that is pleasant, fulfilling, jaw-dropping, or indeed . slightly conceited terrible Sculpting a digital world is an exciting prospect, and has seen the role of UX designer becoming ever more desirable in recent years. And while we at have previously spoken about and , we are yet to guide UX designers through that middle period of the role — the crucial developmental stage that sees many a fresh-faced UXer either sink or swim. The Martec how to kick off a career in UX how to navigate the very top rungs of the profession In search of answers we spoke to three UX design — , a UX Specialist at , a Product Designer at , and , Lead UX Design Instructor at — to hear how they managed to navigate these often choppy waters. dab hands Bettina Marson Telstra Hannah Heffernan Canva Robert Williams Academy Xi What do the pros have to say about forging a path in UX design? Let’s find out. Understanding whether a UX design career is right for you Many a budding UX designer has been surprised at what the role entails once the choice was made to pursue the career. Understanding whether you’re a good fit for the role is the first step on the road to UX design success. “I’ve always been attracted to creative pursuits and technology,” says Marson. Her entry into the UX space wasn’t particularly conventional, but it was one that seems to have set her up for success. “Initially I studied a Bachelor of Game Design, which led to a career working as a concept artist and environment designer. During that time I cultivated an interest in working closer with technologies to improve the lives of other people — both creating engaging experiences and solving real world problems. This led me to enrol in my master’s degree to fine-tune my focus and pursue UX and interaction design as a career.” While Marson evolved a passion for all things UX, for others this enthusiasm is inherent. So, are you a natural-born UX designer? One way to find out is to look at the skills that separate UXers from other professionals, and see if your strengths align. The key skills that make a UX designer exceptional So what do our experts see as the talents shared by the top UX designers? As a UX professional at design software provider Canva, Heffernan feels that being able convey your ideas through sketching is a skill that separates the best UX designers from the rest. “I may be biased as someone with a background in art and illustration, but being able to visually share an idea in seconds with a scribble has helped me immensely. With just pen and paper I can jam with my product manager or an engineer and figure out an idea together. It’s so much more collaborative than making wireframes or mock-ups on my computer.” “Communication,” Heffernan adds when pressed for more skills. “I’ve worked with some otherwise brilliant UX researchers and designers who struggled to get key people on board because they didn’t know how to [communicate]. You can’t operate as this elite theoretical specialist and expect others to agree when you present your recommendations. Get people invested in UX early, and make it accessible, practical and inclusive for people who may be new to it.” Williams agrees. “In UX design, soft skills have a huge role. The ability to communicate well — to facilitate, to organise and to collaborate — are hallmarks of an exceptional UX designer.” He also suggests that an exceptional UX designer needs to be good at identifying what creates a better world for the customer, and must understand that it takes courage to create change. Rather than focusing on learnt skills, Marson instead identifies the key traits of an A-grade UX designer. She sees adaptability and drive as the two most important qualities that the best professionals in the field share, as it’s . “With the rate [at which] technology is being developed and adopted, one of the greatest challenges I’ve found is that you need to not only be knowledgeable in UX practices, but also in the latest technologies and their limitations.” a profession that is constantly evolving Which seamlessly brings us to the next chapter of our pro’s guide to UX design… Approaches to upskilling, and resources that help “There are so many schools of thought and methodologies [in UX design] to pull from,” notes Heffernan. In such a diverse field it’s impossible to stay abreast of everything. She recommends that you instead update your skillset in response to project needs. With that in mind, Heffernan advises the following upskilling approaches and resources for UX designers who are looking to be the best that they can be: Become a part of product communities with . These events really helped when I was new to Sydney’s tech space, and often cost no more than a glass of wine! meetup.com I read years ago, but it really stuck with me. It was my first introduction into design thinking, before it was a term that I’d come across. Glimmer by Warren Berger by Don Norman is a really interesting study of usability, also a great read if you’re just a nerd for beautiful design. The Design of Everyday Things by Robert Hoekman Jr. was a book that (Canva founder) Mel recommended when I first started. It taught me some useful things about how Canva thinks about product design. Designing the Obvious by Steve Krug is a favourite. I always revisit it for practical tips — monthly at least! Krug’s website also has some really great downloadable resources. Don’t Make Me Think! Advanced Common Sense In the same vein, Williams warns against the urge to be a jack of all trades, and recommends that you instead become a master of one (or perhaps a handful). “Know what you do well. We have so many opportunities to flex our talent in different directions, so it’s worth recognising your specialty. Are you a brilliant researcher? Take your insights into forming a series of objectives within a prototype! Are you fantastic at designing and creating user journeys? Head out with the research team sometime to hear the customer voice directly!” For those into literature, Williams echoes Heffernan’s sentiments on Steve Krug, and also lists the following books as required reading for UX designers: by Eric Reiss Usable Usability by Jesmond J. Allen and James J. Chudley Smashing UX Design by Andy Polaine Service Design: From Insight to Implementation by Jeff Gothelf Lean UX Williams also advises that budding UXers check out the online resources provided by the organisation that he calls ‘the founders of UX’ . — Nielsen Norman Group Lessons from those who have done it all before What else should UX designers know about their profession? Having spent years in the field, our experts have seen it all before. So what learnings and advice would they pass on to those who are trying to make it in the world of UX? Marson goes first. “When you think of user experience design, you immediately think of interfaces and customer service. But UX design is more diverse than that. We live in a world with many different technologies that allow for many different kinds user experiences, such as virtual reality and voice-based interaction as seen in products like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home. User experience is not purely visual, and we must remember that people interact with technology in different ways. It’s important to not only keep up to date with the rapidly changing world of technology, but ensure that the experiences you are creating are inclusive, intuitive and a delight to use.” What has Heffernan learned about UX design over the course of her career? “That it means something different in every company! Some businesses require a more research- and strategy-based specialist. Other roles I’ve had or interviewed for might talk UX, but then you figure out it’s mostly a UI design position.” In short, she says, you need to be prepared for anything — “it just covers such a broad set of skills.” “In my experience, I’ve seen that the majority of our work is intangible, and often invisible to the end user,” notes Williams. “The user may only see a view of the outcomes in a single feature, button or tool we provide to them.” So as a UX designer, he says it’s not ‘what’ is created, but ‘how’ — “ we work within a project group, we collaborate with others and communicate our findings and deliverables” — that is most important. how how A role on the rise The demand for UX designers isn’t going to decrease any time soon. With so many human experiences now turning digital, organisations are always going to need specialists to help bring their UX dreams to reality. Those charged with crafting user experiences need to give themselves the best user experience too, only in a professional sense. Gain guidance from more experienced contemporaries. Learn from their mistakes. Identify your strengths and play to them. Motivate yourself to upskill. Do all this and you’ll be well on your way to becoming one of the most exceptional UX designers in your field. Are you looking to take the next step in your UX design or tech career? Great news — the biggest names in Australian and international tech are looking for talent right now! Check out our for the latest open positions. job boards

The Pro’s Guide to UX Design

Taproot. Source: https://academy.binance.com/ I was never a huge fan of Bitcoin. In fact, I actually it. disliked Although I really resonate with the values of decentralization and privacy that Bitcoin was created for in the first place, it has so far been unable to achieve them at all. The large amount of computational power required to solve the preimage hash puzzles renders it so that . The ability to verify transactions in the network will only ever be available to those who have the means to own a large quantity of the very powerful and expensive ASIC mining machines (that are used to solve said puzzles). true decentralization in Bitcoin will always be a mere pipe dream We see that very clearly today, with most network hashing power coming from only a few of the largest mining pools. In short, there is no true decentralization of power when it comes to the Bitcoin network. Moreover, transactions on the Bitcoin network will also never truly be anonymous. Sure, the only thing you’ll actually reveal when transacting on the Bitcoin network is your public address. Since this address has been hashed by a cryptographic function and a digital signature algorithm (SHA-256 and ECDSA respectively) to prevent reverse-engineering, surely it provides full anonymity, right? Wrong. In actuality, it is easier than most people think to connect a public address on the digital Bitcoin ledger to a real world identity. You may not even need programming skills to do that! Many organisations — even individuals — have successfully done so before. Here, we come to the realisation there is also no true privacy when we transact on the Bitcoin network. In sum, Bitcoin was born out of fantastic principles, but has failed to live up to them due to the difference between theoretical musings, and real-world application. This is why I have never really liked Bitcoin, and have always hoped that its immense market dominance will one day be flipped by a substantively more useful project like Ethereum. Bitcoin’s reign as the ‘big brother’ of the blockchain and cryptocurrency world must surely be coming to a swift end due to its many limitations and inability to live up to its founding principles. Or so I thought. Now with the Taproot update in the works, . everything has changed Taproot’s Background Story Before I dive into its exact details, let me first give you a better idea of the contextual background that the Taproot update is set against. In January 2018, Bitcoin Core developer Greg Maxwell formally released the Taproot Update proposal. On June 12 2021, 3.5 years later, Taproot officially gained enough mining support to lock in activation. To elaborate, at least 1,815 out of the 2,016 blocks mined within the most recently designated two-week difficulty period (or most recent ‘voting’ round) have been found to include information that points toward the miners being in collective favor (90% or more) of the Taproot upgrade. During this particular difficulty period, and at block 687284, this 90% threshold was finally met. In fact, by the time this two-week difficulty period ends on Sunday, it is likely the Taproot upgrade will have locked in with over 99% of blocks signaling decisively in its favor. This is in sharp contrast to Bitcoin’s most recent upgrade in 2017, sometimes referred to as the ‘Civil War’, where an ideological split within the Bitcoin community itself led to a hard fork, culminating in two distinct projects, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin. Adherents who followed the former wanted to improve transaction speeds by increasing the maximum block size to 8mb, whilst the latter deployed the Segregated Witness (SegWit) upgrade that separates Digital Signatures from transaction metadata in order to reduce storage load, to do so. This time, however, Taproot has near universal support. This rare moment of collective consensus is largely due to the fact that the proposed changes represent monumental improvements to Bitcoin’s protocol that will radically increase its capacity to push forth several key functions that are principal to Bitcoin’s very existence (and that I will be discussing later). The ‘voting’ results. A green block means that it signaled readiness for Taproot activation. A red block means that it did not. Transparent blocks represent upcoming blocks within this difficulty period. Source: Taproot.watch What is Taproot, and what improvements will it bring? The Taproot upgrade will bring about two main improvements to the Bitcoin network: Increased Privacy for Multisig transactions Potential for Smart Contracts (Scalability) Before I elaborate on these improvements however, it is pertinent to look at extant protocols within the Bitcoin network first, for you to get a better idea of how Taproot constitutes an improvement over them. Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) ECDSA curve. Source: https://metamug.com/ Currently, Bitcoin utilises the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) to derive public keys from randomly generated private keys (by using elliptic curve point scalar multiplication by n), and subsequently — the public Bitcoin addresses (after hashing the public key with the quantum-resistant SHA-256, and RIPEMD160). What is special about the ECDSA is that it ensures that the aforementioned hashing process cannot be reverse-engineered. That is to say, ECDSA renders it such that it will be mathematically impossible to derive someone’s private key from his/her Bitcoin address or public key (because secp256k1, Bitcoin’s elliptic curve, ensures a trapdoor, or one-way function). This is to protect and enforce ownership rights within the Bitcoin network because your private key is your passport to the Bitcoin network. It’s what allows you to generate an address for receiving coins, and what later allows you to spend them. If someone is able to derive private keys from your addresses, the Bitcoin network will not even be functional. The ECDSA (and SHA-256) makes sure that this does not happen. Now, let’s say an individual — Alice, wants to make a transaction to another individual — Bob, on the Bitcoin network. She will have to sign on her message (dictating the transaction; ie. ) with her ECDSA-generated private key. This will generate a unique digital signature that proves that Alice created the message as it is. ‘I am sending you these coins that have been previously sent to me’ She then sends her signature along with her original message to Bob. The idea is that the message is the main payload, and the digital signature is used to prove that Alice was truly the one who created that exact message. Bob is then able to easily verify that the digital signature is valid, given Alice’s public key and the original message. And if the signature is valid, that means the message wasn’t tampered with. Therefore, this is how digital signature schemes make messages tamper evident. Another key point is that Bob or anyone else should not be able to guess Alice’s private key, given just her public key. Otherwise, Bob or anyone else would be able to recreate Alice’s signatures and thus fake her identity. This is why the ECDSA is of utmost importance for transactions on the Bitcoin network. Downsides of ECDSA However, even though the ECDSA scheme has been working well for the network for more than a decade now, it also has its drawbacks. For one, it is not the best scheme for especially for users who transact using complex functionalities like Multisig (multi-signature) transactions. privacy, For another, it is also not the best scheme to use if the Bitcoin network wants to because for users who transact using the aforementioned complex functionalities, their transactions will take up a lot of bandwidth and storage space on the network. scale, This is where Taproot, and specifically — the Schnorr signature scheme it brings along with it — comes into play. The Schnorr Signature Scheme The Schnorr Signature scheme operates similarly to ECDSA in that it allows for the generation of private and public keys in a safe and reliable manner. However, and for all intents and purposes, the former is over the latter. vastly superior So the question that should be on all your minds right now — why didn’t Satoshi Nakamoto just use Schnorr signatures from the very beginning then? This is mainly because the creator of Schnorr signatures, Claus P. Schnorr, actually them. As a result, Schnorr signatures were rarely used, if at all. Therefore, Satoshi decided to go with the more proven, more widely-accepted and open source (therefore possessing more ostensible longevity) ECDSA scheme. patented Claus-Peter Schnorr. Source: https://owpdb.mfo.de/ However, now with the Taproot upgrade all but an eventuality, and assuming all nodes will adopt the software upgrade — every user on the Bitcoin network will switch over from the ECDSA scheme to the Schnorr Signature scheme by the end of 2021. At this juncture, it should be pretty clear to you that Schnorr signatures are at the very heart — if not the heart — of the benefits that Taproot will bring to the Bitcoin network at large. So if anyone were to ask you about what Taproot brings to the table, just tell them about Schnorr signatures! already Benefits of Schnorr Signatures If you recall, I mentioned above that the Taproot upgrade will bring about two main improvements to the Bitcoin network: Increased Privacy for Multisig transactionsPotential for Scalability Both these improvements are only possible because of Schnorr signatures. Increased Privacy for Multisig transactions With ECDSA, it will always be very obvious whenever a or Multisig address initiates a transaction on the network due to the simple fact that all such addresses will begin with a number ‘3’. Therefore, transactions from any given Multisig address will be distinctly recognizable for anyone who just bothers to look at the ledger. m-of-m m-of-n Visual representation of a m-of-n (1-of-2) Multisig transaction. Source: https://docs.symbolplatform.com/ This isn’t great at all from a privacy standpoint, especially since Multisig transactions are meant to enable greater security for all the users involved. Schnorr signatures counteract this problem by allowing for a very important function — This signature aggregation function allows for the combining of multiple signatures into one singular signature, or what is termed as the ‘master’ signature. This master signature will make it a lot more difficult, or even impossible, for an observer to determine who signed (or didn’t sign) in any given or Multisig transaction. signature aggregation. m-on-m m-of-n Signature Aggregation in Schnorr signatures. Source: https://www.dcforecasts.com/ Although Schnorr signatures, and Taproot by extension, won’t provide any greater anonymity or privacy for your individual bitcoin addresses, it will certainly make simple transactions indistinguishable from those that are more complex and composed of multiple signatures. This will benefit the latter group to no end in terms of privacy — something that the ECDSA scheme currently does not help with. Potential for Scalability Moreover, with ECDSA, large-scale Multisig transactions will take up a lot of space and bandwidth on the Bitcoin network as everyone involved in such a transaction will have to provide their valid digital signatures and public keys to the network. For example, if a 7-of-7 Multisig address wants to make a transaction, this would mean that 7 pairs of digital signatures and public keys will have to be generated to the network. Schnorr signatures’ aforementioned function thus enables significant space savings due to the fact that the master signatures generated will be of the same length as regular, one-person signatures. signature aggregation If we were to use the 7-of-7 Multisig address transaction analogy from above — there is no longer a need to store 7 pairs of digital signatures and public keys on the network with the Schnorr Signature scheme. These smaller and faster signatures are absolutely a huge game changer when it comes to the scalability of the Bitcoin network. There has even been talk of an implementation of complex on the Bitcoin network due to Schnorr signatures’ enablement of more flexible and accessible discrete log contracts (DLCs). smart contracts Additionally, Schnorr signatures have also been theorized to allow for something called a “batched validation”, wherein Bitcoin full nodes will be able to validate 1,000 Taproot signatures in nearly the same time it takes to validate one ECDSA signature. This Schnorr signature-empowered scaling solution would thussignificantly shorten the time it takes a node to verify all signatures in a block, potentially increasing transaction speed and throughput exponentially. Further, Schnorr signatures could also potentially help scale related layer-2 blockchain platforms like the Lightning Network (a payment channel built on top of the Bitcoin network that enables instant transactions) too. Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Source: https://blog.blockonomics.co/ They can do so by introducing to Lightning as a notable upgrade on the extant . This will ultimately allow for more private and efficient smart contracts to be built on Lightning, potentially resulting in significant increments in transaction speed and throughput. Point Time-lock Contracts (PTLC) Hash Time-lock Contracts (HTLC) Final Thoughts on Taproot In all, the Taproot upgrade is a very promising one that has made me change my mind a little with regard to Bitcoin; it may just be the very spark that brings Bitcoin back to the core principles upon which it was so nobly founded upon by Satoshi Nakamoto, and that I fell in love with. However, and as with everything in life — theory and real-world application are two very very different things. Taproot can sound perfect on paper; how it is implemented remains very much to be seen. If Taproot can even deliver on 50% of what it promises, the moon (or even beyond) will become the literal limit for Bitcoin. Who knows, it may even venture into the fabled DeFi space and become a juggernaut there. When all is said and done, and the upgrade is finally rolled out in November 2021, I may just become the biggest Bitcoin fan yet. Only time will tell.

A Makeover that Changes Everything: The Bitcoin Taproot Update

The Bigger Pie is an organisation supporting women in blockchain that's filled with inspiring and fascinating women. "I'm the founder of The Bigger Pie, a global community of leaders and learners in the blockchain and emerging tech space. Its purpose is to: connect and support the incredible women who are already in the space; shine a light on the work they do to highlight these role models; make sure women have a platform to share their expertise at events; and enable them to learn and develop their careers together while attracting more women into the sector." - Bridget Greenwood This thread by Bridget Greenwood, Golda Velez, Akasha Rose, Alex Lakatos, Limarc Ambalina, Daniel Crowe, Anthony Watson, and Justin Roberti occurred in Slogging's official #amas channel and has been edited for readability. Slogging Bridget Greenwood May 12, 2021, 7:08 AM Good morning/afternoon/evening and thank you Akasha Rose for the kind introduction. I look forward to my grilling and discovering much more about you all too. Golda Velez May 12, 2021, 7:09 AM Hi Bridget Greenwood!  Thanks so much for sharing your time! I would love some advice on how to get attention to our upcoming token offering for equity in our real-world startup - we share equity with crypto and share food with neighbors! Akasha Rose May 12, 2021, 7:10 AM Hi Bridget, welcome. Who are some role models that you look up to in the Blockchain and crypto space? Bridget Greenwood May 12, 2021, 7:17 AM 💚 1 Well, it was your Telegram group, Akasha Rose, Women in Blockchain International Impact Group, which led me to meet many women whom I admire in the space when I joined in 2017/2018. Thank you so much for creating that, I still enjoy being a member of it today. There are too many for me to mention, and far too many I haven't met yet. - is blazing a trail and doing incredible work in Wyoming to set up legal frameworks for blockchain-friendly industry. She recognised the issues inherent with the traditional financial systems and has been pioneering in this space. - and are doing really great work in the energy sector. - & are just 2 of many in the legal sector - and in regulation and more - and for their social impact/sustainability work - for laying down rails for institutional money to come into the de-fi world - for her work in Agritech and her team at the Oasis Protocol - and for their work in stable coins - for her technical and leadership skills - for her all-round brilliance, knowledge and work she does in including and mentoring so many - for her straight-talking, full action approach to life and work - for her work in creating more female investment for and from women https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlin-long-/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-jo-hubbard-76bb7723/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemmagreen/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/alevinesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-ashley-klayman/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jannahpatchay/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynn-t-mcconnell-9331275/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-thompson-429a8495/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjaneleadershipfintechblockchainimpactstrategy/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sorchamulligan/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/amberghaddar/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/genevieveleveille/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-song-51586033/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/frida-tongxu-cai-9755449b/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-s-leaney-9a3076151/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zarazamani/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronicamihaid/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-levalley-hunt/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nisaamoils/ Bridget Greenwood May 12, 2021, 7:35 AM Golda Velez that sounds like a very interesting project. Who are you looking to raise funds from? Investors? Angels? The community? Have you thought through the token economics of it all? We recently had a conversation within The Bigger Pie community around token economics which you can request to watch if it's of value to you. Golda Velez May 12, 2021, 7:41 AM Hey Bridget Greenwood!  So we are looking to raise from both small angel investors (any level but must be accredited) and possibly larger investors who share our values - we are talking to one right now.  The most important thing to us is to be able to share equity with our team members in a very granular way.  We actually put our COOK tokens directly onto Trello tasks! We aren’t designing the smart contract ourselves since we are using the established Fairmint model, it came from a published paper by Thibault - so it's not so much that we have a new algorithm but we are pushing the boundaries of this one in terms of granular equity sharing. I am more a reader than a video watcher honestly but I will take a look!  thanks! https://github.com/C-ORG/whitepaper Golda Velez May 12, 2021, 7:42 AM (ours is also constrained in that it is also a legal securities filing, we have our secD etc in all states in the US) Bridget Greenwood May 12, 2021, 7:43 AM Reach out to https://www.linkedin.com/in/nisaamoils/ Golda Velez May 12, 2021, 7:46 AM Will do, thank you! Alex Lakatos May 12, 2021, 9:20 AM Hey Bridget Greenwood, thanks for doing the AMA! What resource would you recommend for people to learn how to develop for the blockchain? Limarc Ambalina May 12, 2021, 9:59 AM Thanks again for doing the AMA Bridget! Your org is made up of leaders and learners in blockchain and the "emerging tech space". At the moment, what constitutes emerging tech, other than blockchain? Bridget Greenwood May 12, 2021, 10:56 AM So that's IoT, AI, 5G etc, they don't operate in isolation. Bridget Greenwood May 12, 2021, 11:07 AM Alex Lakatos, our in house tech expert (another one to add to the list of women I admire in the space) has shared this: I highly recommend . I learned A LOT. It is very intense and the instructors review code very carefully. B9 Lab did the original Consensys training before Consensys started doing its own training. Ivan on Tech ( )  is also well-known, but I don’t have any first-hand experience with it. https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherswope/ https://academy.b9lab.com/ https://academy.ivanontech.com/ Daniel Crowe May 12, 2021, 11:16 AM What are your thoughts on IOTA vs. blockchain? Bridget Greenwood May 12, 2021, 12:34 PM I don't have the technical expertise to be able to give an answer worth listening to on that Daniel Crowe 🙂 anthony watson May 12, 2021, 1:38 PM I would be curious about an insider perspective of the coming ETH 2.0. Do you think Proof of Stake rewards the rich and well-off too much, breaking decentralization? Or do you think Proof of Work too expensive to continue? Do you think the miners will cooperate? Justin Roberti May 12, 2021, 2:29 PM Bridget Greenwood Nice to meet you. How has your membership grown since the 2020-2021 BTC bull run? Are women in leadership part of the mainstreaming of crypto? Do you find a qualitative difference in the goals and approach of female-led blockchain companies? Is the toxic bro-culture of crypto (tradeshows at strip clubs, etc.) a thing of the past? ty, Justin Bridget Greenwood May 12, 2021, 11:19 PM Justin Roberti thanks for your question, I think the pandemic has been more influential to our community growth than the bull run. A lot of  women are in this technology because they see the power it has and its ability to transform industries and solve problems. Not being allowed to travel, go to conferences and meet in person has meant that online interaction and communities have become more valuable. I've seen crypto trading groups (women-focused) attract a lot of newbies, and definitely much noisier than they were during the crypto winter, but those building the rails, the founders, the policy-makers, they're shaping the future and are in it for the long haul and our community is largely made up of those women. I would love to say the toxic bro-culture of crypto has disappeared, but there's still an element of that about, and I guess we'll really see when we can go to conferences in person again. Bridget Greenwood May 12, 2021, 11:20 PM Anthony Watson, I wish I had an insider perspective .... Akasha Rose May 13, 2021, 1:45 AM Hey Bridget, I am wondering what your thoughts are about how the emerging tech sector can do more to support women? Where quick wins are, and where the difficult work needs to be done? anthony watson May 13, 2021, 2:38 AM Bridget Greenwood given that finance and tech have hardcore "old boy" and "new boy" networks respectively, have you thought about blockchain implementations in healthcare where women are more prevalent in the C-Suite and their gravitas leveraged? Limarc Ambalina May 13, 2021, 3:39 AM In regards to women in blockchain and women in tech in general, what do you see as the biggest barrier to more women applying for and landing jobs in the space? What can companies do to help even out the playing field? Bridget Greenwood May 13, 2021, 6:53 AM Akasha Rose in regards to what can be done more to support women in the emerging tech sector here are some areas: Make the women in your organisations visible, and let them have a platform to share their insights and experience internally and externally. Don't attend a panel if it's a manel (men only) and if you hold panels, make sure you never hold manels. There are female experts in the space, find them. History has a bad habit of writing women, people of colour, LGBTQ out of the history books. Let's make sure we don't continue this Hidden Figures approach. At events make sure there is an inclusion policy and the event works consciously at creating a safe and welcoming environment for everyone. Women are often a small percentage of attendees, so make sure they can easily connect with one another ( a simple Telegram group for women as they register, or show an interest in the event, so they can connect, ask questions beforehand, and then easily meet up at the event) will go a long way. Work hard on your hiring processes to make sure you use language that is inclusive, there are tools out there to help you with the language. This site is a quick way to check whether a job advert has the kind of subtle linguistic gender-coding that has this discouraging effect. Check out for good examples of how roles are advertised and the information shared about the company as well as the role. People often recruit from their network, so if your network isn't diverse, your recruiting pool won't be, either. If that's the case, find and approach groups and networks that do have access to the female talent, like The Bigger Pie, Women in Blockchain International Impact Group, Women in Blockchain, Ada's List etc. If you hire for diversity but don't have an inclusive culture, your talent won't stay. Work on your culture. Make sure you don't fall foul of the gender pay gap. Have parental leave policies. The pandemic has been very damaging in a multitude of ways, but remote and flexible working has been forced upon us all, let this be something we foster and embrace. Focusing on hiring the best talent, not the talent closest to our offices, and working in time frames that allow great work to be delivered, and life to be better managed. A poor work-life balance is a major reason women leave tech. Learn how to be a good ally to women, call out bad behaviour when you see it. Give women a voice and listen to them, it's amazing the value you'll discover. Being inclusive in one area will allow you to open up a culture to inclusivity across the spectrum. This will foster a psychologically safe space for your team, and that's where creativity, innovation and magic happens. We need to see more female-led startups get the funding they need. Women get just 2.3% of global VC funding, down from 2.9% pre-pandemic. Having female-led companies does wonders for gender inclusion across senior positions and provides role models for the pipeline of up and coming talent. Above all, truly understand why diversity and inclusion is something worth doing & how having more experiences at the design, development and deployment tables will help you to shape better solutions for your customers, foster more engaged communities, create more innovation & drive more revenue and increase profits. I'd love to hear what others think, and where you've seen wins in this area. http://gender-decoder.katmatfield.com/ https://app.50intech.com/ Bridget Greenwood May 13, 2021, 6:55 AM Anthony Watson "have you thought about blockchain implementations in healthcare where women are more prevalent in the C-Suite and their gravitas leveraged?" In what respect might I have thought about it? Are you saying you see a greater number of women in the C-Suite in health care than other sectors? Bridget Greenwood May 13, 2021, 7:11 AM Limarc Ambalina "In regards to women in blockchain and women in tech in general what do you see as the biggest barrier to more women applying for and landing jobs in the space? What can companies do to help even out the playing field?" See above. We must remember also that it's not a case of fixing the women. There's an often quoted statistic that a woman won't apply for a job unless she ticks all of the required skills and experience (or at least 80% of them) and that a man will apply if they have just 20%, or in another way, a man will apply for a role 2 years before they're ready for it and a woman 2 years after they're ready. Imagine 4 years in emerging tech, what gets built in that time. So make sure you use language that is inviting for these people. As Keir Finlow-Bates said, if you have a cv that's exactly the same, but one is from a man and the other a woman. It's most likely the man has fallen into his career choice and path, but a woman has actively chosen hers and overcomes challenges that the man didn't have to. Based on that assumption, who would you prefer to hire? If the boy's network is still the best way to hear about roles, and get your foot in the door, then actively work to create inclusive networks. Actively go out to the networks where female talent are comfortable and hang out and become allies. Mentor women. Advocate for women. Recommend women. Create opportunities for women to connect with peers at the work place. If you don't have women, or only one or two women in your firm, reach out to other companies and communities for these women to have a number of ways to feel supported and part of a more gender balanced ecosystem, at least until such time as your company has that internally. What solutions and actions do you think could be taken Limarc Ambalina? Bridget Greenwood May 13, 2021, 7:12 AM Alex Lakatos cryptozombies has also been recommended for learning Solidity in a fun way :) Limarc Ambalina May 13, 2021, 7:17 AM Thanks for your thoughts, Bridget! "Actively go out to the networks where female talent are comfortable and hang out" I'm not in HR, so I don't have much experience with career networks, but in the companies I've worked for in the past and with HN, the most common places I've seen job postings go up are: LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed and of course shared on social media. Have you found any particular job board or social media platform more inclusive than others? Or when you say "networks where female talent are comfortable" are you referring to certain groups within social networks (like FB groups, subreddits, Linkedin groups, etc.)? Bridget Greenwood May 13, 2021, 8:05 AM 💚 1 I am referring to certain interest groups within social networks and stand alone networks - like The Bigger Pie, Women in Blockchain International Impact Group, Women in Blockchain, Ada's List. Girls who code - you can find a whole host by just googling 'Women in tech groups' for example. Same for Women on Boards if you're looking for board hires etc Alex Lakatos May 13, 2021, 9:35 AM 👏 1 Thanks Bridget! I went down the rabbit hole with the B9Lab resources around developing for ethereum, I'll give cryptozombies a look as well! anthony watson May 13, 2021, 3:29 PM Bridget Greenwood yes versus finance and tech, healthcare has more women in decision making positions. Blockchain has some real implications for healthcare I think. Sharing data anonymously about patients to find patterns without violating HIPAA for example Akasha Rose May 13, 2021, 10:49 PM Bridget is with us for just a few more hours, any final questions before wrap up? Bridget Greenwood May 14, 2021, 6:18 AM Anthony Watson do you know if that mirrors women in c suite in the traditional sectors? Bridget Greenwood May 14, 2021, 6:32 AM Alex Lakatos As mentioned the Cryptozombies is a great introduction . There's also the Eat the Block tutorials helpful . ... and the Consensys Developer course. https://cryptozombies.io/ https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbbtODcOYIoE0D6fschNU4rqtGFRpk3ea Akasha Rose May 14, 2021, 6:48 AM Thanks Bridget Greenwood for being our Slogging AMA guest, any final words before we close? Bridget Greenwood May 14, 2021, 7:00 AM Thank you so much for hosting me and for all of your questions. If anyone would like to connect with me please do so on LinkedIn , via email . You can discover more at . If you're a business looking to attract more women into your company, do reach out. If you're a woman in blockchain and would like to join our community, we'd love to welcome you. Do get involved in our events, and if there's anything I can do to support you, let me know. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bridgetgreenwood/ mailto:bridget@thebiggerpie.io http://www.thebiggerpie.io

Hungry for More | Supporting Women in Emerging Tech

In all my discussions and brainstorming sessions about crypto with others, I keep going back and forth on one particular aspect – reliable reading resources on various topics. Whenever something new comes up, the first thing on my mind is where to learn all about it. Where to read about vampire attacks in DeFi? What site to refer to for Austrian economics à la Bitcoin? Where to look at for tax filing guidance for capital gains in crypto? Where to get an ELI5 on yield farming ? And so on and so forth. The easiest way to solve this is to Google and read whatever comes up in the top search results, thereby leaving it to the SEO Gods to recommend the best study resources. Another way is to search for keywords in subreddits like . A downside of this is landing up on unrelated portals for learning about nuanced topics and having to go through unverified information. r/cryptocurrency If you are not mindful of your search term choices, you will probably end up getting a bunch of Twilight links like above Finding a single legit knowledge repository for, say, all-things-Bitcoin or, all-things-DeFi is difficult when there’s information overload and little oversight. So one of the first things I did when starting on my crypto journey and something that I continue to do even today is zero in on one portal for a topic like crypto taxation for all related reading. It usually takes a while to finalize on a reliable website because of initial cross-referencing, checking for author credentials etc. But once done, it saves a ton of effort and time for future research. Having said that, there will always be outlier topics that need Googling/referencing outside of these portals. But now that there’s a ready reckoner of top cryptocurrency guides available for me on various topics, I thought it would make sense to share these educational resources with others as well. A very meta list which I hope will turn out to be relevant for folks in crypto and blockchain. On Bitcoin – https://www.lopp.net/ by Jameson Lopp As I set off on my crypto quest, the first thing that I needed was a reliable archive for Bitcoin research material. After going through multiple repositories, I decided to make my primary Bitcoin reading library. The portal is authored and maintained by Jameson Lopp who is a software engineer focusing on Bitcoin. He has worked on various related projects like BitGo and Statoshi. Jameson is currently CTO at the crypto custody platform, Casa. lopp.net Lopp.net covers a wide gamut of topics ranging from bitcoin history, to operating a full node, to more advanced matters like using the bitcoin blockchain for data anchoring. It also hosts resources and outside links for setting up BTC wallets, free online courses, podcasts etc. I also got a lot of my Lightning Network reading material from lopp.net. For anyone starting from scratch, the best place to begin is at the page. Getting Started The sheer volume of BTC topics covered on lopp.net is mind boggling. This is just one of five resource categories there. On Taxation – https://accointing.com/en/taxes by ACCOINTING.com (+ Bonus I-Am-A-Noob Guide ) Crypto taxation is a biggie since regulation is unclear in many jurisdictions and more so in India where I am based out of. Plus, finding dependable info on crypto taxation is the hardest among the five topics here. All search queries result in standalone articles but no consolidated knowledge repo for FAQs or in-depth explanations on how to file crypto-related taxes with Indian authorities. So the next best thing was to look at guides for countries that have certain rules and regulations in place already, such as US, Germany, UK etc. For this, I found to be detailed and explained in simple terms. ACCOINTING.com offers crypto services like portfolio tracking and tax reporting. ACCOINTING.com's tax guides So far there are guides for , and taxes along with step-by-step resources for filing in US and Germany. There are also multiple options that explain how to either personally file reports or approach professional services. As a bonus, the site also has a for absolute beginners. This guide explains starter concepts in non-technical terms. Oh how I wish I had discovered one of these early on in crypto! US Germany UK guide section ACCOINTING.com's multi-country multi-language guides are expected to grow in scope On Blockchains and DLTs – https://bitsonblocks.net/ by Antony Lewis The blockchain-verse is dynamic and keeping track of developments is always a challenge. made this easier for me. It’s a blog focussed on blockchain technology which aims to cover the most important updates and the news worth knowing. From private blockchains to fintech applications to Hyperledger, the blog covers a lot of ground. The author, , believes that blockchains will make a notable difference in the lives of people and in the way businesses are run. He has been associated with crypto brokerage firm Paxos in the past, and now uses his knowledge about business, financial services and blockchains to “ ”. Bits on Blocks Antony Lewis distill it into something (hopefully) useful for you (the reader) Bits on Blocks also contains articles which explore different applications of blockchain technology. The posts there are suited for slightly advanced investors (and enthusiasts), who are well versed with the basics of blockchains and cryptocurrencies. With its focus on explaining the underlying technology driving various projects, tech-savvy investors will find this website educational and entertaining in equal measure. On General Crypto Topics – https://academy.binance.com/ by Binance The full scope of cryptocurrencies can be quite intimidating, especially for new entrants. With projects taking off every other day and technical jargons being coined constantly, even seasoned crypto veterans can have a hard time catching up. serves as an excellent go-to guide for understanding important topics related to crypto. An educational initiative by leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the Academy contains a repository of articles which explain a range of subjects in layman terms. From fundamentals of trading to technical concepts, the reading list covers all the bases. Binance Academy The prequalifying filters set Binance Academy apart from other guides in terms of ease-of-navigation There is also a handy list of sections which elaborately explain basic topics that beginners might find troublesome, such as setting up a Metamask wallet or trading on a decentralized exchange. For topics that aren’t covered yet, there’s a separate forum where readers can post their queries for other community members to answer. New articles are published at an interval of 2 or 3 days. Articles are marked as per their reading difficulty level, in terms of Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Whether you’re a newbie or an expert, there’s something for you in Binance Academy to simply read through at your leisure. On DeFi – https://finematics.com/ by Jakub Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has come up as one of the most exciting use cases of crypto and more so of Ethereum. Multiple DeFi platforms have mushroomed over the last few years, which allow users to deposit their crypto assets into liquidity pools (think of interest bearing products in banks) and earn handsome yields. The value of assets locked in various DeFi applications has already touched USD 15 billion, and is increasing day by day. It’s natural that any crypto enthusiast would want to dip his or her toes into the DeFi pie. is a convenient and well-documented source for all your queries related to DeFi. The site is maintained by Jakub, “ ” by his own admission. The Finematics’ website contains a host of articles which cover various aspects of DeFi. The content is arranged into 3 levels – Novice, Apprentice and Master – which helps the readers ramp up in a streamlined manner. Technical concepts are explained in a simple manner using recent news items as references, adding context to the topics being discussed and helping the readers relate more. Finematics a software engineer passionate about decentralized finance and cryptocurrencies It took me less than a week to read through the three DeFi levels on Finematics What’s unique about Finematics is that complicated technical concepts are presented through animated videos along with article explainers. When the site first started in 2018, Jakub used to post whiteboard animations to explain complex subjects. I am glad that he has continued that tradition. Anyone can use this site to learn about the latest news and developments from the world of DeFi, but I found it to be especially useful when beginning to learn new concepts in this space. With these 5 guides, you should have most of your bases covered in cryptocurrencies. However, it is an evolving space with new niches coming up every day. Let me know if you found more reading resources like these that helped you. Come say Hi at . Maybe I could add your reading recommendations to the list here or write about them in a follow up article. Telegram The author has no vested interest in any of the websites mentioned above. These are all reading resources and do not constitute any financial advice whatsoever. Disclosure:

The Ultimate Guide for Cryptocurrency Guides – No, This Is Not A Typo

There is no greater topic being discussed in the tech world today than Artificial Intelligence (AI), and there is a good reason for it. The technology is literally changing the world as we know it. While the nightmare scenario that involves what’s known as “singularity,” whereby super-intelligent machines take over and permanently alter human existence through enslavement or eradication is also a highly discussed topic, this really should not be the focus. Yes, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, among others, that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is one of the greatest risks to human civilization, but again, we need to focus on what benefits AI holds for us in the future and not on theoretical doomsday scenarios. has warned In 2018, MIT president L. Rafael Reif commissioned the . The purpose of the task force was to understand the relationships between emerging technologies and work, to help shape public discourse around realistic expectations of technology, and to explore strategies to enable a future of shared prosperity. MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future In a January 2022 , the task force’s David Autor, David A. Mindell, and Elisabeth B. Reynolds recommend “investing and innovating in skills and training, improving job quality, including modernizing unemployment insurance and labor laws, and enhancing and shaping innovation by increasing federal research and development spending, rebalancing taxes on capital and labor, and applying corporate income taxes equally.” article Ramón López de Mántaras, of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA), in Bellaterra, Spain, that the “final goal of artificial intelligence (AI)—that a machine can have a type of intelligence similar to a human’s—is one of the most ambitious ever proposed by science. In terms of difficulty, it is comparable to other great scientific goals, such as explaining the origin of life or the Universe, or discovering the structure of matter.” explains general He quotes Descartes who wondered whether a complex mechanical system of gears, pulleys, and tubes could possibly emulate thought. “Two centuries later,” writes de Mántaras, “the metaphor had become telephone systems, as it seemed possible that their connections could be likened to a neural network. Today, the dominant model is computational and is based on the digital computer.” De Mántaras focuses on weak and strong AI and notes that the distinction between the two was first introduced by philosopher John Searle in an article criticizing AI in 1980, “which provoked considerable discussion at the time, and still does today. Strong AI would imply that a properly designed computer does not simulate a mind but , and should, therefore, be capable of an intelligence equal, or even superior to human beings.” actually is one He also delineates the differences between symbolic and connectionist AI models. According to Ashok Goel at the Georgia Institute of Technology, “While symbolic AI posits the use of knowledge in reasoning and learning as critical to producing intelligent behavior, connectionist AI postulates that learning of associations from data (with little or no prior knowledge) is crucial for understanding behavior.” , the subtle and major differences between the various AI models, including evolutionary and corporeal, suggests that it is “increasingly important for businesses to understand how these models work and the potential implications of using them.” According to Nico Klingler In his titled, “How Artificial Intelligence Will Change the World”, author Mike Thomas explains how AI will influence our lives in a changing world. He describes how AI “has come a long way since 1951, when the was written by Christopher Strachey, whose checkers program completed a whole game on the Ferranti Mark I computer at the University of Manchester.” article first documented success of an AI computer program Thomas notes transportation, manufacturing, healthcare, education, media, and customer service as main benefactors of AI in the near future. These specific areas will be most affected in the immediate future by AI systems, career changes, and changing characteristics. According to De Mántaras, the road to truly intelligent AI “will continue to be long and difficult.” He quotes Gabriel García Márquez’s 1936 speech (“The Cataclysm of Damocles”): “Since the appearance of visible life on Earth, 380 million years had to elapse in order for a butterfly to learn how to fly, 180 million years to create a rose with no other commitment than to be beautiful, and four geological eras in order for us human beings to be able to sing better than birds, and to be able to die from love.”

An Academic Approach to the Future of AI

The HackerNoon editorial team has launched this interview series with women in tech to celebrate their achievements and share their struggles. We need more women in technology, and by sharing stories, we can encourage many girls to follow their dreams. Share your story today ! Gigi, I Met You at Dcentral Miami, and I Was Incredibly Inspired by Your Speech About Women in Web 3 and by Your Background. Can You Tell More About Yourself, Please? My name is Gianina Skarlett, and I'm from Venezuela. Most people call me "Gigi." I am the founder and CEO of CTW, the company behind Crypto Tech Women and W3 Learn Academy. I've always been passionate about technology, education, and creating inclusive environments for minorities, and that's exactly what we're doing at CTW through exciting online and in-real-life experiences, Web3 education, and providing job opportunities to our community. For my background, I began dabbling in the world of coding when I was 16 years old, but I had no idea this was a career I could pursue until I moved to Los Angeles. When I realized this was a possibility, I enrolled in a Software Engineering intensive BootCamp, and shortly after graduating, I became the Founding Frontend Engineer at Forethought, a Silicon Valley company that provides customer service solutions that transform the customer experience with human-centered AI. Why Did You Choose This Field in the First Place? As corny as it may sound, I was chosen by this field. I became interested in software development as a young girl who was always looking for new ways to learn and be creative after seeing the potential that technology had to make a positive impact on the world. Learning new skills that I could use to come up with creative solutions to problems kept me motivated to learn them. By pursuing a career in technology, I knew I could put my skills to good use and make a real difference in the world. What Tech Are You Most Excited/Passionate About Right Now and Why? I'm very passionate about Blockchain technology or Web3. Web3 is a new way of using the internet and owning your data; I also love the transparency provided by blockchain technology. Web3 has the potential to transform the way we interact with data and applications by making them more secure and giving users more control over their data. What Are You Most Worried About Right Now and Why? The economic and social consequences of COVID in underdeveloped countries! This worries me because it highlights the importance of increased investment in healthcare and infrastructure in these countries. Furthermore, the pandemic has had a significant impact on education in these countries, with many students unable to attend school or have limited educational opportunities as a result of this. As a result, a generation of students is not receiving the necessary education to reach their full potential, which could have long-term consequences for their lives and the future of their country. What Are Your Hobbies and Interests Outside of Tech? My hobbies include learning, creating content, working out, specifically boxing, and creating communities! Let's talk about breaking the glass ceiling. What were the biggest challenges you faced as a woman in tech, and how did you deal with them? One of the biggest challenges I faced at the start of my career was being dismissed or doubted because of my gender or appearance. This taught me the importance of standing up for myself and not letting others silence me. Just because I am a woman or do not conform to certain expectations does not mean I am not knowledgeable or skilled in my field. It is important to speak up and challenge ideas or propose better solutions when necessary. This is the same challenge that, by defeating it, accelerated my career as I became more vocal about best practices to follow, code enhancements, process enhancements, and encouraged me to take more ownership and lead the development of products from technical documents to development. Any questionable misogynistic story/situation you faced/handled, and you want to share with the HackerNoon Fam? I've encountered gender bias and discrimination at networking events. I've introduced myself as a founder only to be completely ignored or asked if I was an artist or filled roles traditionally filled by women, while the men I was with were given full attention, assumed to be in a romantic relationship with me, or treated with more respect. This is obvious misogynistic behavior and discrimination based on appearance. What Was the Biggest Setback/Failure That You Faced, and How Did You Manage It? One of the most significant setbacks in my life was my own fear of failure. I was always afraid of taking risks, and as a result, I passed up many opportunities. However, I eventually overcame this fear by focusing on the potential rewards of action rather than the potential risks. Rather than allowing my fear of failure to hold me back, I began to see it as an opportunity to learn and grow. Overall, overcoming my fear of failure necessitated a mix of self-compassion, action, and a willingness to embrace the unknown. By confronting my fears, I was able to overcome them and open myself up to new possibilities. What’s Your Biggest Achievement That You’re Really Proud Of? I'm really proud and humbled by the overwhelming support and success of our Crypto Tech Women NFT collection. It was an incredible feeling to see the collection sell out within 24 hours of its public minting, and I was absolutely blown away by the support from celebrities like Eva Longoria, Reese Witherspoon's company Hello Sunshine, and iJustine. I initially started this collection as a passion project to bring more education, diversity, and inclusiveness to Web3, and I'm so proud that it was able to make such an impact and reach so many people. Through W3 Learn Academy and our amazing IRL and online experiences with Crypto Tech Women (CTW), I'm immensely proud of the lives we've been able to touch and the quality Web3 education we've been able to provide. In Your Opinion, Why Do We See This Huge Gender Gap in the Tech Industry, and How Can We Reduce It? Let me explain why I believe the reason for this huge gender gap in the tech industry begins as early as your childhood and through the current educational model. Historically, toys for girls included cooking, cleaning, being a mother, being a nurse, and other similar activities. Toys for boys, on the other hand, include construction games such as building planes, race car tracks, being an astronaut, and so on. Girls are encouraged to be caregivers and to have children, whereas boys are encouraged to be interested in problem-solving skills, math, and science from an early age. Later in life, as we progress through school, the careers that are traditionally recommended for women are not technical ones. I believe we should begin implementing classes at a young age to expose children to skills they can later use in tech such as coding, finance, and others, as well as create gender-inclusive toys that encourage girls to build and problem-solve through their toys. Who Is Your Tech Idol? Why? Grace Hopper is my tech idol because of her innovative spirit and dedication to advancing the field of computer science while advocating for diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. She was a pioneer in the development of early programming languages, and her work laid the foundation for many of the technologies we use today. Do You Have Any Advice for Aspiring Girls Who Want to Join the Field? To girls aspiring to join the tech field, my advice is to just start. If you don't know how to begin, please reach out to me and I would be happy to help. The starting point can be intimidating, but preparation is key. Remember that you are welcome in this industry and you have the skills necessary to succeed. Don't be afraid to take that first step.

Women in Web3: Gianina Skarlett on Creating Inclusive Environments  and W3 Learn Academy

Mujeres en Web3: Gianina Skarlett sobre la creación de entornos inclusivos y W3 Learn Academy

Women in Web3 : Gianina Skarlett sur la création d'environnements inclusifs et la W3 Learn Academy

वेब3 में महिलाएं: समावेशी वातावरण बनाने पर जियानिना स्कारलेट और डब्ल्यू3 लर्न एकेडमी

Web3 の女性: 包括的な環境の作成と W3 Learn Academy に関する Gianina Skarlett

Mulheres na Web3: Gianina Skarlett sobre a criação de ambientes inclusivos e W3 Learn Academy

Phụ nữ trong Web3: Gianina Skarlett về việc tạo môi trường hòa nhập và W3 Learn Academy

Web3 中的女性：Gianina Skarlett 关于创建包容性环境和 W3 Learn Academy

With the blockchain craze showing no signs of stopping, we are beginning to see more and more proposals for applying this technology in academic settings. In fact, universities have already used blockchain to change or replace several important processes. Some academic institutions in the US, for example, have decided to issue to confirm the authenticity of their diplomas and online certificates. non-fungible tokens (NFTs) But what about academic writing? Can blockchain truly change the way that students approach writing and submitting their assignments? In this article, we intend to find out how blockchain technology could change plagiarism detection in modern academia. What Is the Mainstream Approach to Detecting Plagiarism? At the moment, plagiarism detection is a part of something called natural language processing ). Put simply, NLP involves using algorithms and software tools to parse and analyze text written by humans. (NLP Typically, an NLP algorithm divides texts into words, sentences, and paragraphs. Using built-in dictionaries and linguistic metadata, such an algorithm can also assign meanings to words and identify the key semantic components of phrases and sentences. If needed, automatic tools can also identify unique linguistic ‘ ’ including commonly appearing words or phrases, the overall tone of a particular document, or complex semantic networks. fingerprints From there, a plagiarism detection tool scans other documents available in its pre-loaded database. In general, these databases include the academic works of other students, empirical articles, and other material that could be referenced in a typical essay or dissertation. The databases used by plagiarism detection software are constantly updated by ‘crawler’ algorithms regularly searching for new relevant content. After that, plagiarism detection tools are usually able to output a numeric rating (typically measured as a percentage) indicative of the originality of a given work. The software can also highlight specific phrases or sentences that are borrowed verbatim from other works without providing a proper citation. Overall, the current approach to plagiarism detection is accurate and reliable, allowing universities to process large amounts of text data while making few errors in plagiarism assessments. So why would universities want to change to a blockchain-powered algorithm? For one, it can be pretty difficult to detect ‘non-verbatim’ plagiarism. If a student is adept at rewriting or finding synonyms, they can sometimes fool several existing plagiarism detectors (although this is not a given). Furthermore, plagiarism checkers can produce ‘false positives. Finally, without a valid timestamp, it can be impossible to determine who copied from whom, providing a possible ‘loophole’ for those accused of plagiarism. In addition, the results of plagiarism checks can be difficult to authenticate. What if a database used for plagiarism detection is outdated or inaccurate? Academic texts change all the time through resubmissions and revisions. Or what if an automatic web ‘crawler’ chooses to add erroneous or irrelevant text data? This would significantly reduce the accuracy of plagiarism checks and, possibly, increase the number of ‘false positives’ reported by plagiarism assessment tools. How Can Blockchain Be Integrated Into Plagiarism Detection? To answer this question, let’s briefly define what a blockchain actually is. In essence, a blockchain is a . Once an entry is added to a blockchain database, it contains hash data from all the previous nodes in a ledger, meaning that it cannot be changed no matter what you do. digital ledger in which each entry is immutable Blockchain, therefore, does not really offer an alternative to NLP. As an illustration, this technology cannot be used to improve the accuracy of detecting ‘non-verbatim’ plagiarism. However, in our opinion, blockchain can offer a valuable alternative to the traditional databases used by plagiarism assessment suites. How? Let’s consider some brief examples. For instance, imagine a situation in which an academic text is added as an entry in a blockchain database including a timestamp and authorship information. From that point on, it cannot be deleted or modified in any way. Its mere existence on a blockchain ledger authenticates both the time of its submission and its metadata. This means that blockchain eliminates the timestamp ‘loophole’ we have described above. In a blockchain-powered system, determining who copied from who is easy as all texts are provided with authentic timestamps. In other words, putting academic texts on a blockchain allows plagiarism detection algorithms to make credible claims about the accuracy of their results all without direct human supervision. Blockchains, in theory, also eliminate the issue of version control we have mentioned in the previous section. If all valid versions of an empirical article or a textbook are stored on a blockchain, there is no need for ‘crawlers’ to continuously expand their databases. Instead, all plagiarism checks would run on authentic and up-to-date data, greatly reducing the number of ‘false positives’ and positively contributing to the academic integrity of various universities. While blockchain technology offers meaningful advantages to universities, there are also many unknowns surrounding its implementation. For one, no one so far has actually used blockchain ledgers to store large amounts of academic text data. Moreover, no existing plagiarism checker is linked to a blockchain-powered database. As a result, it is a bit difficult to forecast the costs that could be incurred by using blockchain in plagiarism detection. Blockchain also constitutes a highly unregulated space that is not closely tied to any legal provisions. Subsequently, large-scale adoption of blockchain by respectable academic institutions may be faced with significant resistance from those distrustful of this technology. It is also unclear how exactly blockchain will change within the next five years, presenting another difficulty for academics wishing to experiment with the use of these digital ledgers. Blockchain does not constitute a metaphorical panacea to the issues in contemporary plagiarism detection. The usage of decentralized digital ledgers, for example, does nothing to eliminate ‘non-verbatim’ plagiarism. Nonetheless, blockchain technology offers some interesting solutions to timestamps and database authentication. We hope that universities take notice and make a real effort in making blockchain more accessible for regularly performed academic tasks.

Can Blockchain Technology Change Plagiarism Detection in Academia?

Academic paper reviews are a necessary civic duty for researchers in all fields, humanities, science, engineering, or anything in between. Coming from the inter-disciplinary field of natural language processing (NLP) and/or computational linguistics (CL), we have to deal with the humanities aspects of language use (social, political, psychological, communication) and mechanical descriptions of computation often hidden behind algorithmic pseudo-codes and mathematical formulas. This article is based on my experience reviewing NLP papers for conference and workshop papers that usually end up on the . purely an opinion piece canonical repository for NLP/CL publications on ACL Anthology Singing to the Chorus Before I proceed with my opinion, I must point out the numerous resources for good reviewing guides and empirical studies of reviews in the NLP field. -  from on Methods in How to write good reviews? Conference Empirical Natural Language Processing (EMNLP) organizers They used to be the conference that gives “Best Reviewer Awards” - from Association of Computational Linguistics (ACL) Rolling Review organizers How to review for ACL Rolling Review? There are a lot of related resources available in their repository. Primarily based on the study: What Can We Do to Improve Peer Review in NLP? Pre-review Googling Often, we are assigned a paper to review on a particular reviewing platform, , or . For now, there is no good way to track the “provenance” of the paper, i.e. how many times have the papers been submitted, revised, and re-submitted and to which conference. This is especially difficult in a review where both reviewers and paper authors remain anonymous. OpenReview, SoftConf EasyChair, Conferency double-blind Before reviewing the paper, I would usually google the title and abstract or conclusion to make sure that the content I’m going to review is indeed “fresh” or has made sufficient effort to improve from a related study. Often, this pre-review Googling also led me to gisting related papers that give me context on the topics that the paper writes about. And here’s a comeback line to a phenomenon that academic reviewers know too well, authors submitting to conference A, got me as a reviewer, getting a rejection, then re-submitting the paper to conference B, then got me again as a reviewer in conference B. Great minds think alike, not-so-great ones re-submit a rejected paper to another conference without making any revision/extension. Summary, Strength, Weakness When I first learned to write a review for an academic paper as a secondary reviewer, I was told to always start with a summary of the paper and what I understand the paper to be doing. I strongly encourage any mentors to nudge students/mentees to also take baby steps as a secondary reviewer. The summary not only helps you to better crystalize the main idea and contribution of the paper in a short paragraph, but it also acts as a communication to the author to say, “I get what you’re doing there”. A clear summary in the review, gives the author an assurance that you understood the content of the paper. Improvements and Suggestions Always catch any typos and awkward writing expressions and help out a fellow researcher to improve the paper. Even as a sort of native English speaker, I make mistakes in any sort of writing. With traditional commercial publications, I have had experiences where the article writing style looks like a 180-degree change from my writing style after an editor revision. But in an academic paper, the editorial effort is a luxury. My professor used to tell me to ask a friend, relative, spouse, kid, or neighbor to read the draft and pay them $0.10 for each error they catch =) As an author, I appreciated all the help I get in writing better papers and as a reviewer, I strongly encourage you to pay it forward to help catch those pesky errors. Not everyone is a native English speaker, even native English speaker makes writing mistakes. Be Nice! As a paper author, I am sure you hate it when a reviewer: obviously is clueless about your idea, esp. that reviewer #2 gives you that 1-liner review that translates to “It’s good” or “It’s bad”. has an inherent bias in the methods or content Stepping back as a paper reviewer, I try to always: do my best to understand what the idea is, even if it’s something too hard to understand due to the writing style or topic; worst case scenario, inform the area chair (the person co-organizing the reviewing duties) that the paper content is not-understandable and put a low confidence score for your review. never give that one-liner review; I try to give it at least a ~30 mins effort to review a paper and that’s already a lot more than what I spend on “ ” paper blitzing try my best to “remain neutral” as much as possible, and when I really can’t, I do what’s in the next section. Don't do unto others what you [as a reviewer] would not have done unto you [as an author]. Be Truthful! It’s important to “ ” as a reviewer but if something is technically wrong, you have to state the facts on what’s wrong with as little emotion as possible. be nice I totally understand that sometimes the lack of clarity, technical absurdity, or things that go against your technical belief drive you mad during the review process. Keep those words on the review first but don’t submit them, chill out, take a walk come back later/tomorrow to revise your review. … sometimes [paper] makes reviewer mad and [you] just wants to lash out in the review … chill out, take a walk come back later/tomorrow to revise your review. Reviewing as Shepherds Accepting/Rejecting a paper seems to be the primary utilization of reviewing conference papers, but what I find more important is feedback on the idea, experiments, results, and writing style. Sometimes as an author, we should approach paper submission less on scoring brownie points on Google Scholars / Semantic Scholar, but more on validating if the idea and experiments prove an interesting and/or important hypothesis. When it comes time to decide if a paper is an accept/reject in the review, I’ll encourage reviewers to go beyond your reviewing duties a little and try this. Put in the good words if the paper is really good, and encourage the authors in the reviews. Strong Accept: Point out places and give suggestions on how to improve the paper Accept: Provide suggestions that can move the to an Marginal: Marginal Accept Explain why it is a reject and how the work needs to improve, what can be added to make the work sufficient enough to make up content for the paper Reject: Keep calm, explain as neutrally as possible why it is a reject and what are the fundamental and technical issues; advise the author with the baby step to “restart" the main idea of the paper. Be nice! Strong Reject: Incentives of being a Reviewer Conference paper reviewing is a necessary chore. I’m not going to say “chores can be fun” but a chore isn’t necessarily boring or unrewarding. Often, paper reviewing gives your first-hand information on the latest technology/techniques. Sometimes it challenges your perceived limitations of a certain method, task, or problem. Occasionally, it gives you some satisfaction of “at last someone tried that and got it to work” or “phew, now I can skip that idea that I know didn’t work”. Altruism aside, if you want to submit a paper to a conference/journal, somebody’s got to review it. Concluding with a quote, as a reviewer and authors of academic conference, we have to remind ourselves, “I want to be necessary and do good works. I ain't here to waste nobody's time, because I don't want you to waste mine.” - Mos Def

What to do When Reviewing Academic Papers

Americans donated over $52 billion dollars to academic institutions in 2021, but where is that money really going? Today, US academic endowments control over $691 billion, however, the majority have limited transparency around fund management and spending. While donors may feel they are contributing to sponsoring students directly, often times their donation is tarnished by high overhead fees and the misuse of funds. Transparency and efficiency are vital for building trust in our institutions. Blockchain bridges these gaps in visibility and demands accountability from endowments. Today, most donations are tracked individually by private endowments with minimal public reporting. The processes around management and spending are opaque, leaving many donors uncertain about where their money is actually going. Blockchain changes this notion entirely. Blockchain, also referred to as a common ledger, is the backbone of cryptocurrency and web3.0. It is what allows for transparency and security in making donations. When donations are made using blockchain, transparency for the donor and institution becomes accessible through the secured transactional records kept in that digital ledger. Now, let’s investigate the intersection of academic endowments and blockchain. Academic endowments are collections of assets donated by private donors and partners of academic institutions that are used to fund academic operations including salary, facilities maintenance, and finance management. Blockchain is the core technology that tracks financial transactions, such as the transactions made between donors and institutions, and stores records of that data on-chain. This chain of data is immutable, which in turn allows for total transparency and enhances the level of security for the transactions made. The blockchain, or digital common ledger as some call it, keeps all the records safe from fraudulent activity as it requires authorization and recording transactions. Each transaction is validated and confirmed by a network of computers. This chain of data becomes a single source of truth and validates each transaction made. One needs to have the approval and consent of all parties involved to change the transactional records. Blockchain ensures transparency for the donors by tracking funds on-chain, from donation to disbursement. This allows the users to see the transactions, including money management and spending, that have been made and how the money donated has been spent. Having blockchain as a part of the process for academic endowments allows for trust to be built between donor and institution. Donors want to see where their money is going, and blockchain holds all parties accountable through the stored transactional record data. Academic endowments are often overlooked in our financial space, but one company has its eyes set on radically innovating academic charitable giving and scholarships. Sch0lar is a community-driven, end-to-end solution for assuring transparency in the allocation and expenditure of donations. Through the use of blockchain, donors, institutions, and enterprise partners will be able to view the record data for donations and money management. One of Sch0lar’s core principles is user-centricity, so the transparency blockchain delivers is key to building trust with its users. The team seeks to instill transparency, performance, and equity into its platform while helping alleviate the growing student debt crisis and serving those that need it most. Sch0lar offers donors to choose a purpose and mission they are most passionate about, the ability to choose how their donation is scaled, and most importantly, direct control over which students will receive their scholarships. Sch0lar provides complete visibility and control to the donors, whereas with traditional endowments, none of this is possible. : Vested Interest Disclosure The author is an independent contributor and is a part of the Sch0lar team. Thus, the author has a vested interest in the company mentioned in this story.  HackerNoon has reviewed the story for quality, but the claims above belong to the author. #DYOR Article written by , edited by . Cienna Lamoreaux Theodore Zipoy

Why Academic Endowments Need Blockchain

Greetings, and welcome to your second DeFi lesson from Elk Academy. Last time, we discussed , which we called “the backbone of DeFi.” That is true, but it is far from the whole story! As many veteran DeFi enthusiasts will tell you, yield farming is where a lot of the real action happens. liquidity provisions (LP) If you came to DeFi through the promise of mind-boggling annual percentage returns (APRs), yield farming is where those numbers come from. I pooled my tokens. Isn’t that yield farming? No, not yet. Both liquidity provisioning and yield farming generate income, but one is paid out as fees based on trades, while the other is a reward given by the trading platform in exchange for locking (or “ ”) your liquidity with them. staking Whereas the trading fees from depositing liquidity are paid back as a fractional percent of the underlying tokens, the rewards from yield farming are often given as a separate token related to the platform. Since you are earning new tokens simply for staking your LP tokens, is also sometimes referred to as “ .” yield farming liquidity mining You can think of LP and farms as nesting dolls for your tokens, which let you double-dip on your investment (there is actually a third layer possible, which involves something called “vaults,” but that is for another day). On , ELK is distributed as a farming token in exchange for staking your LP tokens. Since ElkDex only supports farms for liquidity pairs that include the ELK token, by farming on ElkDex, you are actually earning ELK tokens in two ways: as fees (given along with an equal amount of the paired token) and as farming rewards. ElkDex Isn’t that free money? What’s the catch? Sort of. But, yes indeed, there are some important caveats. First, it’s useful to understand why yield farming exists — in other words, why do DeFi platforms offer additional tokens in exchange for locking your LP tokens? The short answer is that . it provides an incentive for you to deposit your valuable tokens into their pools instead of those offered by competitors Liquidity providers typically earn a fraction of trade fees, but DEXs also generally take a cut for themselves too. (And here is a good time to note that Elk does not take a cut.) For DEX operators, it’s a volume game: the more volume, the more profits they generate. all trading fees on ElkDex are given to our liquidity providers! If two platforms are offering the same cut of trading fees (say, 0.3%), giving out an additional token can be a powerful incentive to attract and maintain precious liquidity. Hungry for APR!! For various reasons, yields are often much higher just after a project has launched, which has recently given rise to a phenomenon known as “ ,” where hungry investors will move their tokens en masse to a new project in order to capture the early returns. This dynamic, in turn, has resulted in a slew of new questionable projects cropping up that promise high yields but offer few details about their plans or operations. yield chasing As with anything in life, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, and it is important to do your due diligence before deciding to enter a yield farm. Sometimes, the farming tokens have no actual utility, meaning that their value is (through a circular logic) purely a function of the platform’s popularity. In fact, there are some platforms that do not have their own trading features but instead take deposits of LP tokens from DEXs. Such platforms, generating tokens through farming is their sole reason for existing. Usually though, platforms will create some sort of utility for their token. Often, this comes in the form of “ ,” which means that owning the tokens also gives you voting rights on the platform, which are weighted proportionally relative to the amount of tokens you own. governance tokens Whether it is governance or some other benefit, ideally there will be some added utility or to justify the token’s existence, or it is highly unlikely that it will maintain its value over time. use case The , which is distributed as reward on ElkDex farms, is a governance token, meaning that . But it also comes with multiple additional use cases, such as running a node on ElkNet. ELK token token holders are able to exercise influence over the future direction of the project Emissions For DeFi startups, yield farming is a means of distributing tokens in a fair way, providing an alternative to initial coin offerings ( ), which carry regulatory concerns in some jurisdictions and can often seem unequal in terms of access. ICOs Once tokens are distributed through farming, they can be freely traded with other tokens, which is how the value of the token is established on the open market. Projects are able to influence the price of the token in two basic ways: by controlling the overall of the token, and by controlling , which refers to the rate at which tokens are rewarded through farming. supply emissions Many projects reserve some portion of their overall token allocation for other purposes, such as funding operations, advertising, and paying team salaries. In that way, yield farming is a novel way for startups to secure funding without the need for venture capital or other outside investors. Understanding how a token’s supply, emissions, and distribution affect the underlying price is critical for determining whether or not it is a good investment. The study of these variables is referred to as , which will be the topic of our next lesson. tokenomics ’Til next time!

Yield Farming and DeFi Basics with Elk Academy: Lesson #2

Welcome to Elk Academy! This is the first in a new series of articles designed to give crypto beginners an introduction to the basic concepts behind decentralized finance (DeFi). These short lessons will give you the skills to navigate Elk — along with pretty much any other platform you might want to try. Newcomers to DeFi face a dizzying array of terms, tokens, and acronyms. In these articles, Professor Elkstein will demystify those concepts and show you how DeFi can be both fun and profitable. Remember, you should never invest in something you don’t understand. Whether your goal is maximizing yields, generating passive income, diversifying your traditional portfolio, or just being part of a global financial revolution, these articles will cover the core concepts so you can invest your money with confidence. Elk Academy Lesson #1: How to become a Liquidity Provider, for Fun…and Profit! What is a Liquidity Provision? A (often abbreviated as ), is an allocation of assets pooled on a decentralized exchange (DEX) that runs via an automated market maker (AMM) protocol, and which allows for trading of those assets. liquidity provision LP Okay, right. But really, what is LP? In short, LP is the backbone of DeFi and a key part of what makes it “decentralized.” In traditional financial markets, banks and large institutions act as (also called “liquidity provisioners”), supplying a pool of capital to allow for trading on an exchange. liquidity providers Basically, if you want to create a market for trading apples and bananas, first you need to gather together a lot of apples and bananas so you don’t run out of apples if there happens to be a run on bananas. In exchange for establishing this pool, liquidity providers typically take a small fee for every transaction, which is how they generate profit. The Great Big Idea at the heart of DeFi is that you (or rather, we) become the market maker. If you provide liquidity on , you will earn a 0.3% fee on each trade, proportional to your share of the pool. ElkDex People use the shorthand “ ” interchangeably to describe the liquidity provider (the farmer), their liquidity provision (the fruit), or the liquidity pool (the basket) it goes into. LP refers to the assets generally, but it can also be used to describe how easily one asset can be exchanged for another without causing large price swings in the price of the underlying assets. Liquidity if bananas become scarce, they become more valuable relative to apples. Fewer bananas means the price shift will be more severe each time one is removed. Again, think of price as a function of supply and demand: This shift in price is referred to as , or sometimes (PI). A pool with greater liquidity (i.e. more fruit) can handle more trades with less slippage, so typically the more liquidity in a pool, the better. slippage price impact On most DEXes, including ElkDex, providing liquidity requires depositing an equal value amount of a pair of two tokens into a pool, which allows other users to (i.e. trade) those tokens. When you add liquidity to an existing pool, the AMM will automatically determine the price ratio based on the current value of each token. swap What are LP tokens? When you liquidity by depositing your paired tokens, it enters a pool, which is a smart contract that includes the tokens of everyone else who has deposited. LP tokens are essentially a receipt of your deposit, which is used to keep track of how much you are owed when you decide to (remove) your liquidity. stake unstake It’s important to keep in mind that LP tokens are placeholders and therefore cannot be traded like regular tokens. Since they are just used for record keeping, exchanges typically do not display or track the value of LP tokens (this would be like asking “What’s the value of an apple and a banana?”). For this same reason, you may encounter LP tokens with odd looking values, such as 0.00000000567. They are, however, useful for , which we will tackle in the next lesson. yield farming LP tokens typically carry initials that indicate their source. On ElkDex, for example, all LP tokens are designated , which just stands for . ELP Elk LP Can I swap two tokens if there is no liquidity available? Maybe. There needs to be a path to connect two pairs. On ElkDex, all of the liquidity pools use the $ELK token as one of the base pairs (there’s a very important reason for this, which will be explained in a later article!). But for now, let’s say you want to trade your Apples ($A) for some Bananas ($B). On ElkDex, there will likely be an ELK-A pool and an ELK-B pool. You can therefore swap those two assets using ELK as a go-between, with a path of A>ELK>B. Sometimes there can be longer paths with three or even four tokens depending on what pairs are available on the DEX. Both ElkDex and ElkNet (which handles cross-chain swaps) are optimized with a , which finds the most efficient path between the two tokens in order to minimize the amount of slippage. smart router Can I create LP pools by pairing any two tokens? Yes, you can! But remember, you only earn fees on trades, so if no one is interested in trading your pair, you won’t earn anything. Pairs with higher trade volume generate more fees. If you do decide to create a new pool, it will also be up to you to set the initial price ratio between the two tokens. What are the risks of becoming a liquidity provider? There is some risk of a bug or vulnerability in the underlying smart contracts that could expose them to hacks or exploits. For this reason, it is always good to see whether the contracts have been audited by a third party security firm. (The contracts for ElkDex, which are based on Uniswap contracts, have been audited by HashEx). But aside from an exploit, which is a relatively minor threat if you are using a reputable platform, the primary risk that liquidity providers face is something called (IL), which happens when the price of the two tokens in the pair diverge. impermanent loss We will unpack this concept in an upcoming lesson, where we’ll also discuss one of Elk’s unique features, (ILP), which gives our liquidity providers insurance against impermanent loss. lmpermanent Loss Protection Next time, however, we’ll talk about and . Did you think you were already farming? Not yet. Yield farming lets you put your LP to work in order to earn tokens on top of trading fees. emissions yield farming Double dip!

Liquidity Basics with Elk Academy: Lesson #1

There comes a time in everyone’s career where we are faced with an opportunity to invest in ourselves and take the next step. Unfortunately for many (or probably most) of us, we either aren’t able to recognize it when it comes, or anticipate similar chances down the road that never present themselves. Don’t make that mistake. Introducing Cloud Marathon A 100-day commitment to learning facilitated by Cloud Academy, the begins on June 14, 2021. Sign up and complete the Full Marathon (60 minutes of studying per day for 100 days) or Half Marathon (60 minutes of studying for 50/100 days) and your education is free or half-off, respectively. Cloud Marathon They say luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. This is a chance to make your own luck. Transform your life and career by getting more of the right experience, more quickly, with Cloud Academy. Increase your earnings potential and open the door to new opportunities by improving your skills, gaining certifications, and outpacing your peers. How it works: 1. Start training You wouldn’t run a marathon without plotting your course and getting ready in advance, right? Sign up anytime before June 14th, create your account, and get early access to the Cloud Academy platform at no additional cost. Use this time to warm up, decide where you want to start, and get comfortable with all of Cloud Academy’s features! 2. Pick your marathon commitment : 60 minutes per day for 100 days + daily social share (100) Full marathon : 60 minutes per day for 50 out of 100 days + daily social share (50) Half marathon 3. Start your 100 Days of Cloud on June 14th Start your #100DaysOfCloud challenge anywhere in the Cloud Academy library. Pick whatever platform or skill(s) you’d like to improve on, enroll in a Learning Path or a Job Role Path, and let the daily cloud experience begin. 4. Share your progress on social media Keep yourself and your peers accountable by sharing your daily progress on Twitter or LinkedIn. We make it easy to share directly from the Cloud Academy platform, so once you’ve finished your hour of learning, it’s just 2 clicks of a mouse. Follow the hashtags #100DaysOfCloud and #CloudMarathon to keep tabs on what others are learning about. 5. Track your achievements Visualize how your skills are progressing and unlock additional rewards in real-time with Cloud Academy’s dedicated dashboard. The Cloud Academy team will send you a weekly leaderboard so you can see how you stack up against other marathoners. 6. Get your money back Complete your marathon commitment and your education is free (full marathon) or 50% off (half marathon). Additional Details The #100DaysOfCloud officially begins on June 14, 2021, so be sure to sign up in advance so you can get comfortable on the platform and plan for the skills you’d like to improve. Anyone who doesn’t have an active Cloud Academy subscription can register for the full or half Cloud Marathon. Your 100-day, marathon subscription provides unlimited access to Cloud Academy’s learning paths, courses, quizzes, exams, and hands-on labs in live cloud environments. You’ll be able to dive into a lab to practice your skills using our actual accounts on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Alibaba. Cloud Academy will also send regular communications throughout your marathon to help keep you motivated and on track. Get started today!

Complete #100DaysOfCloud for Free On Cloud Academy

Sony Entertainment Games has revealed a new mobile game based on the My Hero Academia franchise. My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero is due to arrive on iOS and Android as a global release later this year. Per , the title was first released last December in Asia. Gamespot In addition to the reveal trailer, Sony has also launched the , where players can pre-register for the upcoming game. It appears pre-registration will be a good way to get an early head start on special in-game bonuses and currency, such as Katsudon, Drones, Credits, Hero Coins and Recruit Tickets. official website My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero Gameplay Trailer From the trailer, it appears that The Strongest Hero will be a 3D action-adventure game, where players will be able to assume the roles of their favorite heroes from the anime and manga series created by Kohei Horikoshi. From the website and trailer, it looks like Izuku Midoriya (Deku), All Might, Shoto Todoroki, Katsuki Bakugo, Ochaco Uraraka, Denki Kaminari, Eijiro Kirishima and Tsuyu Asui will be playable down the line, and they'll be able to utilize their various quirks and abilities. Besides fast-paced action combat, the game will also have 3D city exploration and some type of sandbox elements. My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero will be hitting iOS and Android devices this spring in North America, UK, Latin America, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. You can view the gameplay trailer below: Other News in Gaming: Call of Duty: Mobile Season 3 Arrives with Tokyo Escap Godzilla Battle Line Receives New Gameplay Trailer & Key Art Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid Brings in Ryu & Chun-Li With the Street Fighter Pack

My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero Due Out for Spring Global Release, New Trailer

Blockchain has been receiving considerable attention from a score of industries and audiences due to its promises of immutable, decentralized, and verifiable data management. Despite these characteristics offering a substantial draw for both academia and other industries, it is the social benefits of a trustless system enabling seamless peer-to-peer interaction within a decentralized network, that academic institutions have latched onto. Is there a need for blockchain adoption within universities? Parasite, an oscar award winning film directed by Bong Joon-ho, spurred a global dialogue regarding the growing social divide in South Korea. An often forgotten detail highlighted in the film is the forgery of a Yonsei University diploma, one of the most prestigious universities in Korea and a letter in the renowned . , a black market for these still exists, showing some demand for these services. Not all employers go to great lengths to ensure a candidate is qualified, conducting half-hearted background checks and deeming an interview as satisfactory in assessing their eligibility. Digital diplomas secured on a distributed ledger (DLT) could directly tackle these concerns and streamline the review process. One of the many niches in academia where blockchain intervention could be valuable. SKY acronym Despite fake diplomas failing background checks , touted as the open standard for blockchain credential verification, has seen widespread adoption and utilization in civic records and license distribution, academic credential management, and workforce development. Blockcerts utilizes a standard data format easily read by any system and can be issued to multiple blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Sovrin, and or Hyperledger. Blockcerts Payments, Funding, and Smart Contracts One of the more thought-provoking and potentially transformative effects within academic eco-systems resides within the money transfer system. Scientists and researchers spend a great deal of time writing time-consuming grant applications, reports, and paperwork, with the intent to receive funding. Similarly, students will work tirelessly repurposing the same narratives for scholarship and grant applications. Additionally, the US government has recently reduced funding in the sciences, in the hopes that other firms and private foundations will pick up the slack. How could blockchain remediate these issues? Automating fund disbursement could reduce overhead costs and bring new efficiency to accounting processes within academic institutions, resulting in a more manageable paper trail and lower fees. With the implementation of smart contracts, grant money could be delivered when predetermined conditions are met, streamlining the funding process. An example of successful integration can be found in the public sector at the , where the Ethereum blockchain was employed to publish grants and funding data. National Research Council of Canada Despite these promising developments, the most influential change lies in experimentation with new grant and money distribution processes, evoking a cultural shift. This would give researchers an opportunity to receive funding from investors outside of universities, from individuals that may hold a different outlook from the researcher’s institution. In essence, crypto-economic tools could give academics new independence, eliciting a paradigm shift within universities and profound downstream consequences in society. International students' tuition payment is another area ripe for disruption. International money transfers can be expensive and slow and go through multiple intermediaries before they reach their proposed destination, Bitcoin changes hands — once. In 2013, the University of Nicosia (UNIC) began allowing students to pay . This was received positively and an increasing number of students welcomed this payment alternative with some professors vouching for their salary to be paid in BTC as well. Such developments ultimately save time and money for both individuals and universities. This expense isn’t specific to academia but ubiquitous across all verticals and rears its ugly head every time money changes hands across borders. tuition fees in Bitcoin Tokenization Of Degrees In addition to streamlining money-transfers and its inherent decentralization, blockchain also enables tokenization. Blockchain integration in higher education originally dates back to 2017, when the issued recipient owned blockchain credentials. Since then have followed suit, most notably, MIT, Harvard, and the University of California. These universities are collaborating on a shared and trusted infrastructure whereby sharing credentials, for either academic or professional reasons, has become a seamless process on a local or global scale. University of Melbourne over nine universities If you have had to share your academic credentials with a potential job or a university, you can likely appreciate how archaic this process feels and how easily it can be improved. Developing a wide-spread accepted blockchain infrastructure where individuals can access their digital diploma, could potentially eliminate the diploma black market and streamline the credential sharing process. Sentiment In Academia The social and economic benefits of blockchain implementation within academia are boundless, with great potential to drive a cultural change. Recent developments in the Blockchain niche can revolutionize our society and economy, eventually boasting a massive influence on education. Despite numerous applicatory benefits, there are some concerns for a premature adoption. raised concerns regarding ease of use and understanding. They worry that blockchain applications for academia are still in their infancy and adoption cannot continue until these applications are on par with “Facebook or Uber” — easy to navigate, download, and satisfying its user-bases wants and needs. Academics interviewed on this subject The price point is also of concern, with academics purportedly suggesting the team of developers required to develop and sustain the network, would demand a huge amount of resources. However, they fail to recognize that it is not a sudden implementation of new resources but a divvying up of current capital. Fees associated with large accounting departments and money transfer fees would be reduced and most likely stomach some of the financial burden accrued from onboarding a team of developers. the moral dilemma of firing accountants no longer required, academics concerned with royalty payments for their research, and requirements of universal adoption. There are more concerns including There are a wealth of benefits of DLT within academia and just as many concerns, some of which are more well-founded than others. Traditional academics may see this change as a threat to their current established structure they have enjoyed for centuries, and take immediate action to protect it. This is an inevitable cost of innovation. If however, it is viewed as an opportunity, they may become more deliberate and reasoned in their response. points towards an education gap in both the hows and whys of DLT implementation. These knowledge gaps will likely be spanned as blockchain further saturates across the post-secondary landscape and reaches maturity. Just give it time. Current research in this niche

Blockchain's Disruptive Potential in Academia is Massive

"Learn to program by creating working applications" that's the first thing you see when opening up the . And I would like to share my experience so far. (been pretty awesome in a nutshell) website Learn by Doing... a phrase I have come across countless of times in any technology I ever began to explore. The issue with learning a specific language or framework is I never quite understood where to stop and make a proof of work, a project to showcase what I learnt and given how vast a programming language can be and also not ending up seeing that new construct in use for my project that I just learnt. JetBrains Academy or Jetty does a very good job in addressing these issues I face and tops it up with a personal bias I have to learn something. Instead of video based tutorials, it has tons of learning material in a textual form. :D What you have is a choice of 4 tracks each with its own set of projects. I have only explored the Java track up to now and would keep my admiration and criticism centred there. One thing to point out is that these tracks are not strictly separable. More on this later. Each project has its own level of difficulty and selecting any in your destiny spawns this page. A study plan by Jetty :o Well, this is what's great about the platform. The project is divided in x number of stages and each stage has its own share of concepts. Each stage builds upon the previous stage and by the time you reach the last stage, you end up with a complete project to showcase. Like I said earlier, the topics in a track are intertwined, you might see some Web concepts in your Java track if your making something with Spring Boot. Or they will introduce some SQL in your stage if project ships with a database. My main point being is that you get a hands on development experience. You end up learning many things with Java but not restricted to the language itself if you chose that track. Some backstory about me. Before encountering Jetty, my interaction with Java was two years prior, Java as a college subject. I ended up reading Head First Java, one of my most favourite books because of its humour and lucid explanations but it ever taught me concepts in Java. I started with the Java track with the aim to code and revise my Java concepts.What it delivered was definitely many good things at once. Each concept has its own theory and set of questions (both quizzes and coding exercises as shown below). It has this cool UI as you can see, which is self explanatory, but I would like to mention it. At the side you generally have three labels. The eye catching two are 'topic is required for' and 'topic depends on' which connects each concept to others while making it easy to work through a single byte-sized topic. You will also notice a feedback and comments section. The feedback is a couple of cute emojis and the comment section is full of additional knowledge most of the times. That ends up being really helpful especially when the topic felt too vague or maybe you want to know.... "Hey what if x ?" The small comment community below each topic is definitely helpful and fun to read and always adds quite a bit to the amazing learning experience. The guys down there are definitely helpful and you always end up with more hyperlinks in case you desired more depth in the topic. But like every code we've written where we have some scope of improvement, the same goes for Jetty. The platform still has to put in more work on it's Algorithms section. Though it has a well written theory section, we still want some coding questions that are lacking. That's the only thing I guess. I did have a complaint earlier that the projects in the Java track were ideal for beginners but basic and rather not ideal on my resume. But seeing the newer ones come out, especially those in Challenging and some in Hard are definitely worth putting on your resume after some creativity of your own as suggested on Reddit. (still yet to implement my own creativity :c ) What's great about the platform is also that the Reddit community is very active and even the moderators are very active both on the website and the Reddit space. The platform keeps updating itself with new topics, projects and revisions in the previous material. (As I am writing this article, I think it would be great to highlight concepts with major revisions yellow instead of green so I could have a look at them again.) For me personally, since I have started using it, I have nothing but praise for the platform and its community, the little ways in which it has helped my developer life.I was happy to be part of the Early Access Program and hope to continue on the platform and complete its Java track and would recommend you to start your free trial too especially if your a college student looking to build a project easily (...easily because the stage stuff makes doing it pretty simple). It is an effective 2 month trial if you use it as stated on their but you can also use for a 3 months trial (I get gems in the barter). Also two of the tracks are currently free, being in Beta. The subscription is on the costlier side but they have spoken about rolling out special offers too . website my referral link here Thanks for the read 💙

My Experience with Jetbrains Academy So Far [Review]

Researchers at Delft University of Technology have secured another €3.3 million in funding for academic research into the ‘Internet-of-Trust’. The money will in large part be used to continue development on the Tribler BitTorrent client. Professor Johan Pouwelse, who leads the Tribler lab, hopes that the software and underlying technology will shake up the entertainment industry by shifting the balance of power. The has been around for nearly 15 years. During that time it has developed into the only truly decentralized BitTorrent client out there. Tribler client Even if all torrent sites were shut down today, Tribler users would still be able to new content. find and add The project is managed by dozens of academic researchers, which is a guarantee for continued development. In recent years alone, the Tribler team added a to the client, as well as that can function as an internal currency. built-in Tor network a blockchain This week Delft University of Technology that its research group has secured an additional €3.3 million to continue building an ‘Internet-of-Trust.’ A large part of this new cash flow will be used to improve the Tribler client. announced With financial backing secured for the years to come, project leader Professor Johan Pouwelse has set some big goals. With Tribler, he hopes to lay the groundwork for a new ecosystem that can replace the powerful multi-billion dollar companies that currently dominate the entertainment industries. Pouwelse wants to put the artists back in control. They, and only they, should be in charge of monetizing and distributing content. This idea isn’t new. Artists increasingly want to take back their rights. Taylor Swift, for example, spoke up when she learned that her former record label wanted to prevent her from performing her own songs. Meanwhile, Imogen Heap is trying to create a fairer music ecosystem powered by a blockchain. Professor Pouwelse has followed these developments closely and believes that artists should ultimately be in control of their own work. This means cutting out the middlemen. “Every artist should be self-published and self-promoted. Without profiteers, more artists will earn their living from their passion. Without profiteers, fans will get more content creation from their idols,” Pouwelse says. “The music industry is driven by intermediaries that keep the biggest slice of the pie to themselves. Pioneers such as Imogen Heap are creating new business models where artists receive fair compensation for their creativity.” The ideal to overthrow powerful entertainment industry companies sounds very much like The Pirate Bay’s message during the mid-2000s. However, while Tribler’s torrent client does list a lot of Pirate Bay content, its goal isn’t to advocate piracy. On the contrary, decentralization may be a step towards limiting piracy, as content can become much cheaper when artists distribute it directly. Right now labels, but also YouTube, Apple, Twitch and many other platforms, take a big cut. According to Pouwelse, that’s a waste of money. The professor sees a future where content storage and distribution are put back into the hands of individuals. It’s a world where people set their own rules instead of being dictated to by major companies, which also includes Google and Facebook, which often restrict what people can publish. While this all sounds very ambitious and promising, there is a major problem. In theory, it’s not hard for creators, or people in general, to store and publish everything themselves. The real problem is the exposure and adoption of decentralized alternatives. Tribler does indeed have all the crucial elements for an artist to release an album and keep 100% of the profits. But when there are only a few thousand users on the platform, these profits are minimal. In fact, they would likely make more if they only made 5% through the regular “middlemen” channels. This is a real dilemma. In order for decentralized alternatives to work, they need a substantial user base, one that can rival the existing options. Getting there at once will require a miracle of sorts. Pouwelse understands the challenges but firmly believes that change is possible, especially when BitTorrent and the blockchain work in tandem. “BitTorrent has not eliminated the golden profits that sit between the artist and your ears. BitTorrent and blockchain are perhaps the perfect mixture for change in the entertainment industry. “Blockchain might be powerful enough to break the corporate stranglehold on the business and set artists free,” Pouwelse adds. Whether this vision will eventually become a reality is uncertain. However, the Triber project does provide an excellent use case for what’s possible when it comes to decentralized publishing. In addition, it will also aid the development of other decentralized digital infrastructures. Originally published as “‘ Academic’ Torrent Client Hopes to Shake up the Entertainment Industry ” with the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) license

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