People are flocking to live in cities at an increasing rate

Adiona

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Multilingual Coarse Political Stance Classification of Media: Acknowledgments and References

মিডিয়ার বহুভাষিক মোটা রাজনৈতিক অবস্থানের শ্রেণীবিভাগ: স্বীকৃতি এবং উল্লেখ

Mehrsprachige grobe politische Haltung Klassifizierung von Medien: Danksagungen und Referenzen

Clasificación multilingüe de posturas políticas generales de los medios: reconocimientos y referencias

Classification multilingue grossière des positions politiques des médias : remerciements et références

बहुभाषी असभ्य राजनीतिक रुख मीडिया का वर्गीकरण: आभार और संदर्भ

多言語メディアの粗い政治的立場の分類: 謝辞と参考文献

미디어의 다국어 거친 정치적 입장 분류: 감사의 글 및 참고 자료

Classificação Multilíngue da Posição Política Grosseira da Mídia: Agradecimentos e Referências

Многоязычная грубая политическая классификация СМИ: благодарности и ссылки

Medyanın Çok Dilli Kaba Siyasi Duruş Sınıflandırması: Teşekkür ve Referanslar

Phân loại quan điểm chính trị thô sơ đa ngôn ngữ của phương tiện truyền thông: Lời cảm ơn và tài liệu tham khảo

多语言媒体粗略政治立场分类：致谢与参考文献

Revolutionizing Creative Text Generation with Quality-Diversity through AI Feedback

Back in 2019, I made a plea: “ .” In some circles, at least, the argument quickly caught on. This is because, for startup companies, an exit through an acquisition or public offering is the goal that all else points toward. It is the payoff for founders, investors, and early employees. I contended that the roots of the exit as we know it are rotten. Exits turn companies into commodities, and exits often turn those companies against the people who rely on them most. We need a different kind of exit that is just and accountable, an exit to community. Startups Need a New Option: Exit to Community As the E2C meme first spread, I heard from founders and others looking to do a community exit themselves. But I didn’t have a model or a blueprint to offer—just a vision and a story that I hoped we could learn to tell together. To develop the idea, I teamed up with my longtime collaborator . Years before, we had tried to turn Twitter toward community ownership, with that appeared on the company’s 2017 ballot and . (If we had won, perhaps Twitter would still exist.) In early 2020, we started and joined with to run a for founders interested in the idea. We published and , and E2C was featured in . Danny also co-founded the , a group of journalists, marketers, stakeholder engagement specialists, and academics working to advance E2C in practice. In the years since, we have quietly supported and learned from a variety of experiments, helping entrepreneurs push the limits of what is possible. Memes, we believe, will only take us as far as they are backed up by the hard work of courageous pioneers. Danny Spitzberg a provocative shareholder proposal made news worldwide an E2C webinar series Zebras Unite cohort program a zine a trailer video a special on PBS Exit to Community Collective Our “snapshots” are brief, structured case studies that give a taste of the many diverse ways that startups have been trying to grow into community ownership and governance, albeit with mixed results. As a new year arrives, I am thrilled to announce the release of a new library of E2C stories that the E2C Collective has created at . E2C.how The snapshots range from my Colorado neighbors and , which converted to employee ownership, to major open-source software projects like and , which are mini-democracies accountable to their developers. There is , a Chinese electric car company whose founder set aside a chunk of stock for car-buyers, and , a co-op founded by employees who quit their previous job in protest. There are also blockchain-based efforts, like and , that have tried to make good on a new technology’s often-betrayed promises for making a more inclusive economy. Namaste Solar Trident bookstore Debian Python NIO Defector Media Gitcoin SongADAO I have taken two main lessons from these snapshots so far. 1. Entrepreneurs, investors, users, and workers alike are all recognizing the need for a new approach, and they are trying lots of different ways to get it. They are relying on old technology and the latest innovations. They are using many different legal structures and techniques for empowering communities. The resourcefulness is pretty astonishing, really. 2. In just about every case, E2C attempts have faced profound challenges. They are often working at the very edge of what the law allows, because many of our laws were written to serve profit-seeking investors, not communities. Much of what communities wanted was simply not possible. Truly changing the landscape of exits will mean policy change that takes communities seriously as sources of innovation and accountability. There is widespread craving for a better kind of exit—and the creativity to back it up. Better exits need to be easier—and this will require structural change. I want to stress this second point. It first became clear to me when working with collaborators at Zebras Unite on the idea of . The founder wanted it. The business model made perfect sense—a rare platform whose users actually pay for it. The company was up for a fire sale. But we simply could not find investors or lenders prepared to back a deal like that. This is a problem I have seen with many other co-op efforts, over and over. Policy is the most powerful shaping force for where capital can aggregate, and there is no adequate policy to support capital for large-scale community ownership. This is also the reason we have lost many community-owned companies in recent years, from to —the most successful community-owned companies too often can’t access the capital they need to flourish. turning Meetup into a user-owned cooperative New Belgium Brewing Mountain Equipment Co-op I’ve seen the same pattern repeat itself with blockchains, where the E2C idea has taken hold more than anywhere. Blockchains can enable organizations that are collectively owned and governed by their users, and millions of people have been attracted by possibility. But what has happened in practice? Any time a new project started gaining traction, it would become drowned in investment from the same venture-capital firms that fueled earlier kinds of startups. The driving force became not the tech or the communities but the investors, once again. This pattern is not inevitable. History has demonstrated that, with the right policy in place, large-scale capital access for community ownership is possible. That’s what happened after 1936, when the US government passed the Rural Electrification Act; thanks to a (revenue positive!) loan program at the Department of Agriculture, cooperatives now operate nuclear power plants and deliver high-speed Internet in once-underserved areas. In 1974, a relatively small change to the federal tax code unleashed the employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, which has enabled millions of workers to become co-owners of the companies where they work. Today, most policy that governs taxation and finance is built on the assumption that investor profits at all costs is the norm and the ideal. , this assumption is intolerable. We need to demand changes that reorder how capital is able to be organized and deployed. These changes can be relatively small to make a difference—tweaks to tax codes and securities laws, for instance—and they can win support from diverse constituencies. As Marjorie Kelly powerfully argues Too often, I have come to believe, advocates of cooperatives and community ownership have put their energy downstream of the real policy problems. They focus on gaining access to small loan funds and technical assistance for small companies. But they neglect the upstream challenge of exits—and other endgames for the most successful companies in the economy. Unless we change the options available at the highest levels, any gains that communities make for early-stage companies can be erased once companies grow and need capital at the highest levels. On the other hand, when community ownership flourishes at large scales, that’s an attractor — something the whole rest of the economy can start moving toward. Rather than fighting over crumbs, advocates of community ownership should be asking: What change will we win for community ownership that does for future generations what our predecessors won for us? Historically, major structural change for community ownership has involved a three-step process. First, the experiments: creative, path-breaking people demonstrate the need and the possibility of something better. This is where E2C is right now, and our snapshots portray that experimentation beautifully. Now we need to learn from those experiments, identifying what works and where the barriers lie. Second, the policy: Here’s when we build on the experiments, which hint at what is possible, and try to break down the biggest barriers in the way of unleashing economic justice. We assemble broad coalitions to advocate for achievable change, grounding our stories in the experiences of people who need change the most. And we win. Third, the practice: Policy is only the beginning. What matters more is what we do with it. Here, we need to grow our movements and our culture to use the new policy in the best ways, and we watch out for those who want to exploit our policy—as any policy can be exploited. We spread, and community ownership becomes a new normal. I have hunches about the kinds of policy E2C needs, but above all I am interested in learning from a shared conversation. What paths should we be organizing around? The tax code? Public loan guarantees? Securities exemptions? What would have the greatest effect for community ownership at the most achievable political cost? Four years after first calling for E2C, I have become more convinced than ever that focusing on the exit—the goals the economy sets, not just its entry-points—is the right place to be. I hope more people recognize how vital it is to rethink what startups aim for. Meanwhile, I am grateful for all those who have worked together to make this new phase possible through the E2C Collective. That includes, currently, Hazel Devjani, Adina Glickstein, Valentine Erokhin, Nanz Nair, Marisa Rando, Sheba Rivera, and Eli Zeger. Danny Spitzberg kept the Collective moving when no one else did and. The team is continuing to create resources and support teams exploring their own community exits. These people are weaving a fairer kind of economy into being. Please consider (which is also a company ). supporting their work through Open Collective pursuing an E2C I published my initial call to “exit to community” here because Hacker Noon is a Colorado-based, family-led company; it used an equity crowdfunding campaign to remain independent of conventional venture-capital pressures. Now it is one of our snapshots. Everyone doing E2C today has had to go against the grain of mainstream startup culture, facing unique challenges as a result. Someday, I hope that what Hacker Noon and others have struggled to do will be easier, that building with and for community will be the obvious thing to do. This, we now know, is possible. Artwork by Marcos Osorio, , a worker-owned co-op. via Stocksy

Now We Know: Exit to Community Is Possible

এখন আমরা জানি: কমিউনিটিতে প্রস্থান করা সম্ভব

Jetzt wissen wir: Der Austritt aus der Gemeinschaft ist möglich

Ahora lo sabemos: la salida a la comunidad es posible

Nous savons maintenant : la sortie vers la communauté est possible

अब हम जानते हैं: समुदाय से बाहर निकलना संभव है

今わかったこと: コミュニティへの退出は可能である

이제 우리는 알고 있습니다: 커뮤니티로의 이탈이 가능합니다

Agora sabemos: a saída para a comunidade é possível

Теперь мы знаем: выход в сообщество возможен

Artık Biliyoruz: Topluluğa Çıkış Mümkün

Bây giờ chúng tôi đã biết: Có thể thoát khỏi cộng đồng

现在我们知道：退出社区是可能的

Gemini - A Family of Highly Capable Multimodal Models: Discussion and Conclusion, References

Let me tell you how I came up with the idea of writing this article. “I woke up early last week, grabbed my cup of coffee after a quick shower, and opened up the window to watch the amazing sunrise. At that moment, I asked myself, Why don’t I write an article about B2B content ideation?” That’s it, Wait a second. You don’t seem to believe this story. Well, yeah, you are damn right. I made it up—it is a lie because first of all, I’m not fit for the 5 AM cold-shower club. Plus, there is no way on earth for any content marketer to come up with ideas just with imagination and even brainstorming. The pain of staring at an empty Google Doc with no clue of what to type down is what actually pushed me to write this piece. The idea for this article materialized as a result of me knowing that many content marketers: struggle to come up with content ideas that resonate put themselves in a loop of sharing the same 2015-fashion type of articles spend hours looking for analytics tools instead of jumping on a half an hour call with customers blindly copy competitors’ strategies and messaging search for sales-related-stats instead of recording a sales call think that TOFU content is all about tips and tactics think that content marketing is nothing but keyword research heavily rely on Gen AI and so on… So yeah, that’s what actually made me write this article. I can make this list longer, and I bet you also have something to add, but we won’t be giving a holistic look at the content marketing field in this article. We are going to talk about the way you should think before working on content - the function you should apply to ideate product-led topics and match the points by being intentional with your content. But hey… Why would you listen to me? I’m just a writer who is just getting a foot in the industry. B2B Yes, I have a decent grasp of knowledge on the topic, but it is what experts shared with me that brought on Aha! moment. I will be sharing all of that today. Let me step aside and introduce the experts to you: Lauren Lang, Director of Content and Brand Communications at Constructor 13+ years of experience in the content field LinkedIn- Here Tom Bangey, Senior Director of Content & Community at Juro 6+ years of experience in the content field LinkedIn- Here Content Lead at Eric Doty, Dock 8+ years of experience in the content field LinkedIn- Here Head of Content at Adima Timar, Userpilot 8+ years of experience in the content field LinkedIn- Here Content Marketing Manager at Tamara Omerovic, Databox 7+ years of experience in the content field LinkedIn- Here Former Content strategist at Elise Marion, system1 6+ years of experience in the content field LinkedIn- Here CEO& Founder at Vince Moreau, ScaleCrush 7+ years of experience in the content field LinkedIn- Here Enough of me, let’s see what experts have to say about their experience. Note: This article is nothing more than real-life experiences gathered for you to improve your thinking and help with planning your next steps. There are no tips. no tactics, and definitely no freaking hacks or shortcuts. Enjoy! On B2B SaaS Content Ideation What is your number 1# source of content ideas and how do you leverage it? Talk to your customers and sales prospects. All the tech tools and AI and competitor analysis can’t beat spending half an hour with a customer finding out about their problems at work. I would try and turn the notes from that conversation into thematic analysis, and also break down the projects and problems they talk about into disaggregated tasks that can be targeted individually or collectively in content. Tom@Juro: Sometimes it’s difficult for marketing to interact with customers for a variety of reasons. In that case, I’ve found the sales team to be my biggest source of content ideas, especially for product-focused content. They are the closest to understanding customer objections, pain points, and questions that influence the purchase decision, and they are used to thinking strategically about how to use whatever tools are at their disposal (including content) to close the deal. Lauren@Constructor: Here is a graphic, CMO&Founder at - shared with me once for an article, which is relevant to Lauren’s last insight: Andy Crestodina - Orbit Media The easiest source of content topics is starting with problems the product solves directly. For example, how to make a sales proposal, how to create a price quote, and why you should use a mutual action plan instead of a spreadsheet. Eric@Dock: Beyond those product-led sources, I also source ideas from: Topics frequently mentioned by guests on our podcast (it’s a good indicator of a trending topic that may not show up in keyword tools yet) Recorded sales calls, customer support tickets, and discussions with our founder Keyword research On Content ideation, Competitive analysis Does your competitive analysis affect your content ideation process? Yes, we analyze competitors and understand what topics they are strongest with and where they are lacking. We also look at content gaps and prioritize keywords based on buying intent, the possibility of showcasing the product in a contextual way, and pillars (we have months when we focus mostly on one or two pillars) Adina@Userpilot: Absolutely. Knowing the strategies and tactics that our competitors are using is critical to finding the places where we can differentiate ourselves in the market. In AI, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors, and there are even more tech buzzwords. Being able to educate customers and help them separate the signal from the noise is incredibly important, but first, you have to understand where your competition is coming from. Lauren@Constructor: Yes and no. Sometimes competitors have good ideas, sometimes they have terrible ideas. When they have good ideas, you can use them. When they don’t, discard their stuff. Vince@ScaleCrush: We do leverage competitive analysis, simply as a shortcut - if they’ve won some valuable traffic for a particular keyword, we can skip the keyword research and planning phase and just create content to target that keyword. Note of caution: a competitor ranking for a keyword is just evidence that they have traffic - not that the traffic itself has any value. Vanity traffic is vanity traffic, even if you take it from competitors! Tom@Juro: I don’t pay too much attention to competition in the ideation process itself. I look at the competition to prioritize my idea to-do list (i.e. what’s most unique). Eric@Dock: On SEO Content Ideation How do you incorporate SEO into your content ideation process? We have a highly focused and ROI strategy. Our blog is responsible for over 80% of the MRR so the focus is on producing BOFU content first and then choosing keywords that help build topical authority around our main pillars. Adina@Userpilot: SEO For any idea or keyword I’m toying with, I’ll normally spend some time in Ahrefs looking at related keywords. I’ll keep my eye out for underserved or low-difficulty keywords. Eric@Dock: But again, SEO plays a bigger factor in how we prioritize which ideas to work on rather than how we come up with ideas. I attach a handful of keywords to each content idea to come up with a rough SEO potential for each idea. I weigh that against other factors like relevance to our product, trendiness or timeliness, and overall just how excited we are about the topic. For our organic channels, we segment our content ideas longlist into high, mid, and low-intent keywords. If you only target high-intent then your website looks a bit spammy, so we mix it up a bit; and then the only logical thing to do is work through the backlog, prioritizing based on search volume, keyword difficulty, and funnel performance of similar pages. Tom@Juro: We do customer & market research, competitive analysis- and existing content audits. That gives us enough to determine overarching topics, which we then do keyword research for. Keyword research is the last step in the process Vince@ScaleCrush: :). We try to keep an eye on SEO, but in retail tech, we’re in a very saturated market where SEO simply doesn’t make sense as our primary distribution channel. We typically create content ideas based on customer needs and then do SEO research to find search terms with similar intent that we can incorporate into the pieces. But customer needs come first. Lauren@Constructor: On Content ideation, Team collaborations Do your teammates in Sales, Customer success, or product development work on content ideas with you, if yes, in what manner they do contribute? We typically collaborate via our preferred project management tool where the dedicated team simply shares their insights in the form of a task. We also have an initiative called “Customer Insights” where the Sales, Account Management, and Onboarding Teams share raw and verbatim insights on things customers say about their use cases, experience, and questions about using the product. Insights are captured through emails, chats, call snippets, and full calls and are available to anyone for product development, content ideation, and more. Tamara@Databox: I would also like to mention that Product Development teams at Databox not only share content ideas with us but also build additional features and tools like online calculators and performance scores to help marketing with lead generation activities directly. Yes — working cross-departmentally is so important in content ideation. You get to use the knowledge accumulated across the customer journey to identify any pain points that may be challenging your customers. You can also focus on important areas of your product that customers may need to be more comprehensively educated on. Using the topics gathered from my team, I use the cumulative knowledge to research keywords that align with those pain points and craft content based on that research. Elise@System1: Yes! Content creation is a team sport. When you’re dealing with enterprise software and a variety of user personas, it’s impossible for content marketing to get as granular as some of the other teams. But it’s in that granularity where the best ideas for content come from, so we often ask our product, sales, and CS teams for ideas and contributions. I’m very intentional about building a collaborative content culture. Lauren@Constructor: Yes, we do also leverage internal knowledge, but you need to take everything with a grain of salt. People have lots of assumptions about the market and sometimes they’re wrong. Vince@ScaleCrush: Our founder wears many of those hats, so most of our ideation takes place as ad hoc casual chats between the two of us. I also meet with our one account executive regularly just to chat about what content would be useful for him to do his job. For example, he might flag that he needs a case study for a particular customer vertical. Eric@Dock: Content strategy is derived from our company master plan and ICP, so there’s no risk that content isn’t aligned with other teams. However, if we’re targeting a specific persona we will sense-check the content by utilizing colleagues who talk to them all the time. For example, when we produce new contract templates for our website- part of what we do at Juro-, we’ll work with our colleagues in CS to make sure they fit with customers—for example, a is one of the most common contracts in Juro, according to customer data, which validates it as a priority for us. If no customers managed SOWs in Juro, it might not be worth ranking for. Tom@Juro: template statement of work On Content ideation, ( Not-to-do’s) What is your not-to-do thing while trying to come up with content ideas? If you need to ask ChatGPT for content ideas then perhaps you don’t know your ICP as well as you think you do! Generative AI can be enormously helpful in parts of the content workflow. Still, top-ranking organic content needs (by definition) to be in the top 0.1% of content, which means it probably can’t be written by a predictive model. Tom@Juro: Don’t blindly rely on keyword research or SEO tools during your content ideation process. The best SEO tool you can use to create powerful and engaging content is actually your brain. Your brain can comprehend the intent behind user search queries better than any tool and come up with creative ideas, unique perspectives, and compelling narratives that resonate with readers, which is a crucial aspect of SEO. Therefore avoid relying too heavily on SEO tools in a way that may stifle creativity or lead to a "copycat" mentality, where you mimic your competitors' content strategies without considering what truly sets your brand apart. Tamara@Databox: The biggest thing is to leave yourself time to come up with ideas. Once you’re on the content flywheel, it’s easy to get stuck in a heads-down production schedule where you never take time to lift your head up and look around for more creative ideas. Eric@Dock: From an SEO perspective, avoid the trap of trying to rank for high-volume, top-of-funnel keywords that don’t relate directly to your product for as long as you can (or at least early in your company’s lifecycle). Start with all the mid-funnel searches your product solves directly. They’ll be easier to rank for and better for lead generation. Too many thought leadership articles that might just bring a bit of traffic in the month but no conversions. Adina@Userpilot: Avoid posting content for the sake of posting it. Content should align with a strategy. Don’t start with keywords in mind - don’t look at search volume too much, and don’t write about something if you don’t think you have expertise. Vince@ScaleCrush: My company is an AI company, so I’m actually very bullish on AI. But I would advise against using ChatGPT to help you come up with original content. By its very nature, ChatGPT is going to rehash only what already exists, which is exactly what you likely shouldn’t be creating in most cases. Great content comes from innovation and creativity, from seeing and filling the gaps in what already exists. Treating content like a commodity will give you commodity content – and commodity content doesn’t stand out or drive conversions. Lauren@Constructor: The bottom line As I told you, no tips and tactics here. Your approach to content ideation is your own tips and tactics. Some articles out there on the SERPs will pull up some stats and facts and tell you to do this and that. although they might be right sometimes, it is none of their goddamn business, it’s yours, your product, and your audience, you decide what works better. There are no plans and standards in the content field anymore, everything is subjective. Rethink and adapt, rethink and adapt, rethink and adapt. And hey! If there is one thing to consider doing from this article, it is 100 percent, talking to your customers. Cheers

Mastering B2B Content Ideation: Insights from 7 Industry Experts

Online advertising has become crucial for a business to thrive in today's digital age. With the ability to reach millions of potential customers through targeted ad campaigns, businesses are investing heavily in their advertising budgets. However, a looming threat can undermine these efforts: ad fraud. In this article, I'll delve into the complex issue of ad fraud and explore its three main types. I’ll teach you to recognize them and guide you on what to do when you suspect any fraudulent activity. Additionally, we'll discuss various ad fraud prevention techniques that businesses can implement to protect themselves and their campaigns. Understanding Ad Fraud Ad fraud refers to any activity that generates fake ad impressions or clicks, tricking advertisers into paying for non-existent or ineffective ad campaigns. The impact of ad fraud on advertising budgets can be devastating, resulting in wasted resources, lost revenue, and damage to brand reputation. Ad fraud is estimated to cost the advertising industry billions of dollars annually. With online marketing becoming increasingly sophisticated and diverse, ad fraud has grown in both scope and complexity. Let’s take a look at the three primary types of ad fraud to watch out for. Click Fraud What is click fraud? Click fraud is a type of ad fraud that involves interfering with user interactions with ads. One typical example is click-spamming, where a fraudster intercepts a real user's click from another source (such as an organic or advertising click) and assigns it to themselves by generating multiple automatic clicks. The user may then install the application, but the analytics system will attribute the installation to the fraudulent partner and not the source. How can you detect it? Fortunately, detecting this type of fraud is easier than the others. One way is by analyzing statistics. Unlike a real user, a fraudster does not download the application, so fictitious actions will show in the numbers. Abnormally frequent user clicks, short intervals between a click and an install, a sharp one-time increase in installs, and, of course, a low conversion rate should alert you. Usually, the figures are compared with the average for the last few months. You can also analyze the source of the traffic to make sure it's diversified, with no single authority responsible for a significant portion of the traffic. However, Apple's privacy policy , which allow users to restrict access to ad interaction data in AppStore apps, have made detecting click fraud more difficult. This means that some data for analysis and fraud detection may not be available. updates Hardware Fraud What is hardware fraud? Fraudsters can use bots that imitate app installs, and I classify this type of fraud as hardware fraud. It is commonly found in gaming apps on Android, as there are many pre-built emulators available. Another way fraudsters engage in hardware fraud is by using virtual machines or cloud servers to simulate multiple devices and generate fake installations. In this case, the fraudster may use different IPs and locations to create the impression that the installs come from different devices and users. How can you detect it? To detect hardware fraud, you can use an anti-fraud system to automatically check the device settings during installation. The system can flag inconsistencies such as incorrect device models or operating systems that don't match the real device. For example, a fraudster may indicate a priority phone or browser model that does not match the device. Detecting the second type of hardware fraud can be more challenging since fraudsters can make the device's characteristics and location appear legitimate. In this case, you might need to run a more thorough analysis of behavior patterns to detect inconsistencies in the data. Behavioral Fraud What is behavioral fraud? This is a rather sophisticated form of ad fraud where bots mimic human behavior and engage with the app. These can also be real people who are paid to perform simple tasks, for example, in dating apps, where ad budgets are spent not only on installations but also on user activity. Another example of behavioral fraud is incentivized traffic, where users are offered rewards or incentives for downloading and using an app. Since these users are only motivated by the reward, this creates a low-quality user base that is unlikely to generate revenue for the advertiser. Numbers of installs and user engagement skyrocket, but there’s hardly any value in them. How can you detect it? Start by analyzing user activity statistics. If user sessions are abnormally frequent, long, or too short, this might be a tell-tale sign you’ve become a victim of fraud. Again, compare these indicators with the last few months’ average values to identify anomalies. Additionally, analyzing the quality and attention of users to the app over time can help to detect incentivized traffic fraud. Platforms Most Affected by Fraud Web First and foremost, there’s web fraud. In essence, it involves generating fake traffic on websites to artificially increase the number of ad impressions, clicks, and conversions. Advertisers pay for this non-existent or low-quality traffic, leading to wasted advertising budgets and decreased ROI. Research shows that web fraud is more prevalent than other forms of online ad fraud, with websites being targeted 25% more often than mobile apps. All types of websites, from news and entertainment to e-commerce and social media, can be affected. However, websites with low traffic volume or lower quality control in their ad networks are more prone to fraud. Video ads are a prime target for fraudsters, accounting for almost of all ad fraud.   A common tactic here is to pass off banner ad space as video placement and sell it at a higher price. 64% Mobile Mobile app fraud is a significant issue in the programmatic ecosystem. , exposure to fraud has skyrocketed by 157% to $5.4 billion worldwide. Unlike desktop fraud, mobile app fraud often operates through downloads from trusted marketplaces such as the App Store or Google Play, making it difficult to detect and prevent. The traditional web fraud tracking model simply wouldn’t work. According to McKinsey One of the most common types of mobile app fraud is click injection. Fraudsters use malware to trigger fake clicks just before an app is installed or updated. The worst part is, these clicks can look like they're coming from real, legitimate users, making it hard to recognize them as fraud. iOS vs Android In 2020, in an effort to combat ad fraud and disruptive advertising, Google removed around 600 Android apps and banned their developers from the Play Store. Naturally, the problem of fraud in mobile advertising affects both iOS and Android platforms, but scammers tend to target Android devices more often because they make up a larger portion of the market. As much as 90% of all mobile ad fraud affects Android. Also, Android devices have higher levels of hardware fraud than iOS devices ( )—they are easier to emulate and have an open-source architecture that makes it easier for fraudsters to generate fake traffic. 37% vs 24% When it comes to the iOS advertising ecosystem, fraudsters find it attractive for different reasons, particularly due to the higher CPM (cost per thousand) rates compared to Android devices. iOS devices actually have a greater share of post-install fraud than Android devices— . The loss of user IDs on iOS can also lead to a rapid increase in fraudulent activity in mobile applications. 55% compared to 34% Non-Gaming Apps vs Mobile Games It appears that non-gaming apps are particularly vulnerable to fraudsters, with financial, travel, and shopping apps being the most targeted. Fraud in non-gaming apps is often carried out by bots, which go unnoticed and target less visible elements of apps and user engagement. In contrast, gaming apps appear to be more immune to fraud, with only 3.8% of game downloads being fake, . This might be because mobile games typically use the CPA (pay-per-action) model for advertising. Yet, click spam and attribution hijacking can still be an issue in gaming apps. according to AppsFlyer CTVs Connected TV ad fraud has emerged alongside the growing popularity of streaming services. One common type of fraud is spoofing, where scammers copy real audiences watching ads on CTV devices. They use techniques like IP, device, SDK, and Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) spoofing to steal ad revenue. According to , the global CTV ad fraud rate rose from 14% in Q2 2021 to 19% in Q2 2022. To combat CTV ad fraud and improve their return on ad spend, advertisers must focus on precise audience targeting, which can help them detect fraudulent activity. Pixalate's research Preventing Ad Fraud Machine Learning in Antifraud Systems Machine learning, with the ability to analyze enormous datasets in real time, is changing the game when it comes to preventing app fraud. One of its key applications is anomaly detection, which means identifying unusual or suspicious activities in an ad campaign. If you train the algorithm over historical ad data, the system will establish a baseline of normal behavior and then spot deviations from this norm. For example, if there's a sudden spike in click-through rates or a disproportionate number of ad impressions from specific geographic locations, it can be flagged as potential fraud. Even more impressively, these advanced algorithms can recognize more subtle forms of fraud, such as click farms and bot traffic, which can easily go unnoticed if traditional detection methods are used. To make anti-fraud systems even more powerful, companies can use a mix of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques. Supervised learning involves teaching the algorithm using labeled data, where fraud instances are explicitly identified, helping the model recognize similar patterns in the future. SML-based systems demostrate good results at detecting already known types of fraud. On the other hand, unsupervised learning doesn't need labeled data; the algorithm autonomously identifies clusters or patterns in the dataset. Such algorithms are more adept at identifying new types of fraud. By combining these two methods, organizations can build resilient and comprehensive anti-fraud tools. Impression Tracking Merely relying on validation methods to ensure that the ad impression is genuine may not always be sufficient—fraudsters can manipulate the system by selectively removing validation pixels from fake impressions while retaining the advertiser's pixels. This is why it's crucial to compare your ad impressions against third-party validator stats and analytics. Also, it's important to use a unique validation pixel for every impression. Some may choose to check every second or third impression to save the budget on monthly limits, but scammers can detect and mimic this frequency, rendering it ineffective. Here's a real-life example that shows how crucial it is to remain vigilant when combatting fraud. I personally know a team that works closely with validators to keep track of discrepancies in ad impressions. When they changed the validation frequency from every second impression to every impression, they noticed a significant surge in invalid traffic coming from a particular publisher, indicating that the previous frequency was intercepted by scammers. Blocking Multiple Requests Rate limiting is an extremely effective way to mitigate bot activity. Essentially this strategy involves monitoring the number of requests and blocking duplicate ones. First, the system tracks the IP address and time between individual requests, which helps to identify the source of a request and restricts processing when a specific IP generates an excessive number of requests within a given time frame. This technique helps prevent DoS and DDoS attacks, web scraping, and botnets. It also reduces the load on web servers and prevents API overuse. Blocklists Another way to combat fraud in advertising is by creating blocklists of vendors and platforms known for spreading fraud. Implementing these lists effectively stops fraudulent traffic from entering the system. Many systems maintain internal blocklists that are updated frequently; also, developers often rely on third-party data. They check databases for parameters such as IP addresses, device information, application IDs, domains, and potentially harmful applications. Real-Time Bidding Real-time bidding allows advertisers to bid on individual ad impressions in real time, ensuring their ads are served to the most relevant users. This increased control minimizes the chances of their ads being displayed on fraudulent websites or being viewed by non-human traffic, e.g. bots. Furthermore, RTB platforms often incorporate advanced security measures and fraud detection tools that help identify and block malicious activities. They constantly monitor and analyze bid requests, capable of promptly detecting patterns indicative of ad fraud, such as abnormal click-through rates or unusual traffic sources. This makes it more difficult for fraudsters to exploit the system. Conclusion The economic impact of fraudulent advertising is staggering. A few years ago pointed out that damages due to ad fraud and spending on bot traffic were expected to rise from $35 billion to $100 billion between 2018 and 2023, reaching over $80 billion in 2022. More recently, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) reported that the cost of ad fraud has reached an astounding $120 billion annually—the number has already topped Statista’s grim forecast. Advertisers in the United States suffer the most significant financial losses, amounting to $23 billion.__ __Research by indicates that 24% of traffic is generated by bots used for scams and theft. found that 31% of iOS app installs and 25% of Android app installs are fake, while TrafficGuard and Juniper concluded that one in every 13 app installations worldwide is fraudulent. Statista Juniper Interceptd This 2022 data highlights how important it is for businesses and marketing teams to timely detect advertising fraud. Otherwise, they risk spending budgets on bots and fake traffic instead of potential customers. We also need to keep in mind that since programmatic advertising is developing rapidly, effective detection processes for fraudulent traffic may take time to catch up. Let's recap the strategies advertisers can use to combat fraud: Use systems powered by a combination of supervised and unsupervised ML. Install advanced analytics and traffic inspection tools to get more data for attribution analysis. Cross-reference data from different sources, e.g. verify proprietary data against that of third-party validators. Implement rigorous screening processes using blocklists of fraudulent and suspicious traffic, regularly updating and cross-referencing these lists with third-party vendors. Employ impression tracking and filters to ensure the safety of advertising traffic. Sources BotFAQtor Blog, 3 Reasons to Protect Your Ad Campaign from Fraud in 2023, https://botfaqtor.ru/blog/3-dovoda-v-polzu-zashchity-reklamy-ot-onlayn-moshennichestva-v-2023-godu/ VC.ru, Top 10 Tools to Combat Click Fraud by Maksim Kulgin, https://vc.ru/services/617098-top-10-servisov-pomogayushchih-borotsya-so-sklikivaniem-v-reklame Admon.ai for VC.ru, Everything You Wanted to Know about Web and Mobile Ad Fraud But Didn’t Dare to Ask, https://vc.ru/marketing/446864-moshennichestvo-v-onlayn-reklame-vse-chto-vy-hoteli-znat-o-frode-v-vebe-i-mobayle-no-boyalis-sprosit VC.ru, How to Recognize Ad Fraud, https://vc.ru/promo/467877-fraud-online OneSpan Blog, Preventing Fraud, https://www.onespan.com/ru/topics/predotvrasenie-mosennicestva My Tracker Blog, The Ultimate Guide to Identifying and Preventing Mobile Ad Fraud by Ivan Mazharov, https://tracker.my.com/blog/216/the-ultimate-guide-to-identifying-and-preventing-mobile-ad-fraud?lang=en#:\~:text=SDK Spoofing,or%2C potentially%2C engagement signals VC.ru, A Guide to Preventing Ad Fraud: How to Run Secure Advertising Campaigns?  by Yaroslav Kholod, https://vc.ru/marketing/159440-gayd-po-borbe-s-reklamnym-frodom-kak-obezopasit-kampanii-ot-moshennichestva PWC, PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2022, https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/forensics/economic-crime-survey.html Apple Developer Support Articles, User Privacy and Data Use, https://developer.apple.com/app-store/user-privacy-and-data-use/ Business of Apps, Ad Fraud Statistics (2023) by Artyom Dogtiev, https://www.businessofapps.com/ads/ad-fraud/research/ad-fraud-statistics/

Ad Fraud Prevention: How to Protect Your Online Advertising Budget

As states rush to enact laws criminalizing abortion-related care in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade, health advocates and civil rights groups are warning that school surveillance software can be weaponized against teens who seek reproductive care. In tens of thousands of schools, every message students send or term they search on their computer is algorithmically monitored by software from companies like Bark, Gaggle, GoGuardian, and Securly. These tools monitor many students even outside of school hours and can send automatic alerts to school administrators, parents, or police when they detect dangerous behavior, which may range from imminent suicide threats to “sexual content.” By adding a few keywords to a watchlist, civil rights experts say, schools could easily instruct the programs to flag students looking for information about abortions or other . newly illegal health care services “School admin, staff, parents, or other adults who have access to the admin consoles are able to see everything,” said Daly Barnett, a staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “The way these applications can be deputized to specifically gather information around searches for reproductive health is alarming.” The way these applications can be deputized to specifically gather information around searches for reproductive health is alarming. Daly Barnett, Electronic Frontier Foundation Nicole, a high school student in Austin who asked that her full name not be used, told The Markup that much of her knowledge about abortion and reproductive health was self-taught online. “Regardless of whether or not I live in Texas, [the internet] gives me a little bit of access,” she said. Websites that discreetly ship medication are —albeit still illegal—ways to access abortion in the state, which has not only criminalized abortion but has also enacted a law that against anyone who helps another person end their pregnancy. one of the few allows private citizens to file civil lawsuits Nicole said her school gives a computer to each student who needs or wants one and that each device comes pre-installed with GoGuardian. The software allows teachers to view students’ screens in real time, access their search histories, and monitor their messages. GoGuardian sends email alerts to administrators when it detects content related to drugs, alcohol, or harassment, according to the . Other alerts, including those for “sexual content,” go directly to the district’s police department. Austin Independent School District’s policy The policy doesn’t define sexual content, and Anastasia Drabicky, a spokesperson for Austin ISD, said the district was closed for the week so staff could not respond to questions. Last year, the algorithmic filters used by the student monitoring company, Securly, were found to be as pornography, adult content, and hate speech. mislabeling sexual health resources Nicole told The Markup that she hadn’t known GoGuardian was sending alerts to the district’s police. Digital evidence trails were a concern for reproductive rights advocates even before the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In 2015, a jury convicted an Indiana woman of feticide through self-induced abortion, based in part on text messages she sent to a friend. Her conviction was on appeal. eventually overturned In 2017, prosecutors charged an Ohio woman with killing her stillborn baby, using her as evidence. A jury acquitted the woman of the most serious charges. internet browsing history And In 2018, a Mississippi grand jury indicted a woman for the murder of her stillborn baby after the her Google search history for abortion pills. Those charges were eventually dropped after civil rights groups rallied to the woman’s defense. prosecution presented But with states now free to enforce , the bar for securing convictions in future cases may be lower. punitive abortion laws Tech companies about how and when they’ll turn over user data to police in abortion cases, adding to to data from tools like period trackers. have been largely silent fears about who will be given access Kendra Albert, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, said but that the greater legal threat is likely to come from surveillance systems that are already in place and can easily be adapted to the new laws—like student monitoring software. those fears are not baseless We have seen … school districts that consider it their mission to police and out students. Kendra Albert, Harvard Law’s Cyberlaw Clinic “I’m always more worried about times when you just add more keywords to the system compared to times when you have to build the whole system from scratch,” Albert said. “We have seen, especially in red states, school districts that consider it their mission to police and out students, and there can be school-to-prison-pipeline consequences to that.” The Markup reached out to popular student monitoring companies Bark, Gaggle, GoGuardian, and Securly with questions about how they monitor sexual health content and share information with law enforcement. Bark was the only company to respond. “Our AI flags and alerts the content then forwards it to the appropriate contact at the schools,” Adina Kalish, a spokesperson for the company, wrote in an email. “Bark serves to detect and alert only, and cases that require further involvement from law enforcement are handled by the schools directly.” “Bark does not supply student information to law enforcement,” Kalish added. “Schools handle this directly when an issue of concern is identified.” However, according to , the company reserves the right to turn over users’ data “if the information is provided to comply with the law, applicable regulations, governmental and quasi-governmental requests, court orders or subpoenas.” Bark’s privacy policy The fear is very much there that anything we do has to go through a legal lens. Z Zenobia, student organizer, URGE Z Zenobia, a student organizer with the nonprofit Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity (URGE), said young people are experienced at adapting to unsafe online spaces—using coded language and finding other ways to subvert technology. But they need to know they’re being surveilled in order to do that, and Zenobia said they fear that the sheer ubiquity of surveillance in schools will scare some people away from seeking health information entirely. “A lot of people don’t know that Plan B doesn’t work for people over 180 pounds,” Zenobia said, referencing the drug’s . effective weight limit “Anyone trying to access that who is being surveilled is basically in danger at this point. The fear is very much there that anything we do has to go through a legal lens.” Written by Todd Feathers Also published here Photo by on MChe Lee Unsplash

Could School Surveillance Tools Put Teens at Risk?

The Evolution of Modern Medicine, by William Osler is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . here CHAPTER II — GREEK MEDICINE OGRAIAE gentis decus! let us sing with Lucretius, one of the great interpreters of Greek thought. How grand and how true is his paean! Browning's famous poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," is an allegory of the pilgrimage of man through the dark places of the earth, on a dismal path beset with demons, and strewn with the wreckage of generations of failures. In his ear tolled the knell of all the lost adventurers, his peers, all lost, lost within sight of the dark Tower itself— lost in despair at an all-encircling mystery. Not so the Greek Childe Roland who set the slug-horn to his lips and blew a challenge. Neither Shakespeare nor Browning tells us what happened, and the old legend, Childe Roland, is the incarnation of the Greek spirit, the young, light-hearted master of the modern world, at whose trumpet blast the dark towers of ignorance, superstition and deceit have vanished into thin air, as the baseless fabric of a dream. Not that the jeering phantoms have flown! They still beset, in varied form, the path of each generation; but the Achaian Childe Roland gave to man self-confidence, and taught him the lesson that nature's mysteries, to be solved, must be challenged. On a portal of one of the temples of Isis in Egypt was carved: "I am whatever hath been, is, or ever will be, and my veil no man has yet lifted." The veil of nature the Greek lifted and herein lies his value to us. What of this Genius? How did it arise among the peoples of the AEgean Sea? Those who wish to know the rock whence science was hewn may read the story told in vivid language by Professor Gomperz in his "Greek Thinkers," the fourth volume of which has recently been published (Murray, 1912; Scribner, 1912). In 1912, there was published a book by one of the younger Oxford teachers, "The Greek Genius and Its Meaning to Us,"(1) from which those who shrink from the serious study of Gomperz' four volumes may learn something of the spirit of Greece. Let me quote a few lines from his introduction: "Europe has nearly four million square miles; Lancashire has 1,700; Attica has 700. Yet this tiny country has given us an art which we, with it and all that the world has done since it for our models, have equalled perhaps, but not surpassed. It has given us the staple of our vocabulary in every domain of thought and knowledge. Politics, tyranny, democracy, anarchism, philosophy, physiology, geology, history—these are all Greek words. It has seized and up to the present day kept hold of our higher education. It has exercised an unfailing fascination, even on minds alien or hostile. Rome took her culture thence. Young Romans completed their education in the Greek schools.... And so it was with natures less akin to Greece than the Roman. St. Paul, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, who called the wisdom of the Greeks foolishness, was drawn to their Areopagus, and found himself accommodating his gospel to the style, and quoting verses from the poets of this alien race. After him, the Church, which was born to protest against Hellenism, translated its dogmas into the language of Greek thought and finally crystallized them in the philosophy of Aristotle." Whether a plaything of the gods or a cog in the wheels of the universe this was the problem which life offered to the thinking Greek; and in undertaking its solution, he set in motion the forces that have made our modern civilization. That the problem remains unsolved is nothing in comparison with the supreme fact that in wrestling with it, and in studying the laws of the machine, man is learning to control the small section of it with which he is specially concerned. The veil of thaumaturgy which shrouded the Orient, while not removed, was rent in twain, and for the first time in history, man had a clear vision of the world about him—"had gazed on Nature's naked loveliness" ("Adonais") unabashed and unaffrighted by the supernatural powers about him. Not that the Greek got rid of his gods—far from it!—but he made them so like himself, and lived on terms of such familiarity with them that they inspired no terror.(2) Livingstone discusses the Greek Genius as displayed to us in certain "notes"—the Note of Beauty—the Desire for Freedom—the Note of Directness—the Note of Humanism—the Note of Sanity and of Many-sidedness. Upon some of these characteristics we shall have occasion to dwell in the brief sketch of the rise of scientific medicine among this wonderful people. We have seen that the primitive man and in the great civilizations of Egypt and Babylonia, the physician evolved from the priest—in Greece he had a dual origin, philosophy and religion. Let us first trace the origins in the philosophers, particularly in the group known as the Ionian Physiologists, whether at home or as colonists in the south of Italy, in whose work the beginnings of scientific medicine may be found. Let me quote a statement from Gomperz: "We can trace the springs of Greek success achieved and maintained by the great men of Hellas on the field of scientific inquiry to a remarkable conjunction of natural gifts and conditions. There was the teeming wealth of constructive imagination united with the sleepless critical spirit which shrank from no test of audacity; there was the most powerful impulse to generalization coupled with the sharpest faculty for descrying and distinguishing the finest shades of phenomenal peculiarity; there was the religion of Hellas, which afforded complete satisfaction to the requirements of sentiment, and yet left the intelligence free to perform its destructive work; there were the political conditions of a number of rival centres of intellect, of a friction of forces, excluding the possibility of stagnation, and, finally, of an order of state and society strict enough to curb the excesses of 'children crying for the moon,' and elastic enough not to hamper the soaring flight of superior minds.... We have already made acquaintance with two of the sources from which the spirit of criticism derived its nourishment—the metaphysical and dialectical discussions practiced by the Eleatic philosophers, and the semi-historical method which was applied to the myths by Hecataeus and Herodotus. A third source is to be traced to the schools of the physicians. These aimed at eliminating the arbitrary element from the view and knowledge of nature, the beginnings of which were bound up with it in a greater or less degree, though practically without exception and by the force of an inner necessity. A knowledge of medicine was destined to correct that defect, and we shall mark the growth of its most precious fruits in the increased power of observation and the counterpoise it offered to hasty generalizations, as well as in the confidence which learnt to reject untenable fictions, whether produced by luxuriant imagination or by a priori speculations, on the similar ground of self-reliant sense-perception."(3) The nature philosophers of the Ionian days did not contribute much to medicine proper, but their spirit and their outlook upon nature influenced its students profoundly. Their bold generalizations on the nature of matter and of the elements are still the wonder of chemists. We may trace to one of them, Anaximenes, who regarded air as the primary principle, the doctrine of the "pneuma," or the breath of life—the psychic force which animates the body and leaves it at death—"Our soul being air, holds us together." Of another, the famous Heraclitus, possibly a physician, the existing fragments do not relate specially to medicine; but to the philosopher of fire may be traced the doctrine of heat and moisture, and their antitheses, which influenced practice for many centuries. There is evidence in the Hippocratic treatise peri sarkwn of an attempt to apply this doctrine to the human body. The famous expression, panta rhei,—"all things are flowing,"—expresses the incessant flux in which he believed and in which we know all matter exists. No one has said a ruder thing of the profession, for an extant fragment reads: ". . . physicians, who cut, burn, stab, and rack the sick, then complain that they do not get any adequate recompense for it."(4) The South Italian nature philosophers contributed much more to the science of medicine, and in certain of the colonial towns there were medical schools as early as the fifth century B.C. The most famous of these physician philosophers was Pythagoras, whose life and work had an extraordinary influence upon medicine, particularly in connection with his theory of numbers, and the importance of critical days. His discovery of the dependence of the pitch of sound on the length of the vibrating chord is one of the most fundamental in acoustics. Among the members of the school which he founded at Crotona were many physicians. who carried his views far and wide throughout Magna Graecia. Nothing in his teaching dominated medicine so much as the doctrine of numbers, the sacredness of which seems to have had an enduring fascination for the medical mind. Many of the common diseases, such as malaria, or typhus, terminating abruptly on special days, favored this belief. How dominant it became and how persistent you may judge from the literature upon critical days, which is rich to the middle of the eighteenth century. One member of the Crotonian school, Alcmaeon, achieved great distinction in both anatomy and physiology. He first recognized the brain as the organ of the mind, and made careful dissections of the nerves, which he traced to the brain. He described the optic nerves and the Eustachian tubes, made correct observations upon vision, and refuted the common view that the sperma came from the spinal cord. He suggested the definition of health as the maintenance of equilibrium, or an "isonomy" in the material qualities of the body. Of all the South Italian physicians of this period, the personality of none stands out in stronger outlines than that of Empedocles of Agrigentum—physician, physiologist, religious teacher, politician and poet. A wonder-worker, also, and magician, he was acclaimed in the cities as an immortal god by countless thousands desiring oracles or begging the word of healing. That he was a keen student of nature is witnessed by many recorded observations in anatomy and physiology; he reasoned that sensations travel by definite paths to the brain. But our attention must be confined to his introduction of the theory of the four elements—fire, air, earth and water—of which, in varying quantities, all bodies were made up. Health depended upon the due equilibrium of these primitive substances; disease was their disturbance. Corresponding to those were the four essential qualities of heat and cold, moisture and dryness, and upon this four-fold division was engrafted by the later physicians the doctrine of the humors which, from the days of Hippocrates almost to our own, dominated medicine. All sorts of magical powers were attributed to Empedocles. The story of Pantheia whom he called back to life after a thirty days' trance has long clung in the imagination. You remember how Matthew Arnold describes him in the well-known poem, "Empedocles on Etna"— a quotation which will give you an idea of some of the powers attributed to this wonder-working physician. But of no one of the men of this remarkable circle have we such definite information as of the Crotonian physician Democedes, whose story is given at length by Herodotus; and his story has also the great importance of showing that, even at this early period, a well-devised scheme of public medical service existed in the Greek cities. It dates from the second half of the sixth century B.C.—fully two generations before Hippocrates. A Crotonian, Democedes by name, was found among the slaves of Oroetes. Of his fame as a physician someone had heard and he was called in to treat the dislocated ankle of King Darius. The wily Greek, longing for his home, feared that if he confessed to a knowledge of medicine there would be no chance of escape, but under threat of torture he undertook a treatment which proved successful. Then Herodotus tells his story—how, ill treated at home in Crotona, Democedes went to AEgina, where he set up as a physician and in the second year the State of AEgina hired his services at the price of a talent. In the third year, the Athenians engaged him at 100 minae; and in the fourth, Polycrates of Samos at two talents. Democedes shared the misfortunes of Polycrates and was taken prisoner by Oroetes. Then Herodotus tells how he cured Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus and wife of Darius, of a severe abscess of the breast, but on condition that she help him to escape, and she induced her husband to send an expedition of exploration to Greece under the guidance of Democedes, but with the instructions at all costs to bring back the much prized physician. From Tarentum, Democedes escaped to his native city, but the Persians followed him, and it was with the greatest difficulty that he escaped from their hands. Deprived of their guide, the Persians gave up the expedition and sailed for Asia. In palliation of his flight, Democedes sent a message to Darius that he was engaged to the daughter of Milo, the wrestler, who was in high repute with the King.(6) Plato has several references to these state physicians, who were evidently elected by a public assembly: "When the assembly meets to elect a physician," and the office was yearly, for in "The Statesman" we find the following:(7) "When the year of office has expired, the pilot, or physician has to come before a court of review" to answer any charges. The physician must have been in practice for some time and attained eminence, before he was deemed worthy of the post of state physician. "If you and I were physicians, and were advising one another that we were competent to practice as state-physicians, should I not ask about you, and would you not ask about me, Well, but how about Socrates himself, has he good health? and was anyone else ever known to be cured by him whether slave or freeman?"(7a) All that is known of these state physicians has been collected by Pohl,(8) who has traced their evolution into Roman times. That they were secular, independent of the AEsculapian temples, that they were well paid, that there was keen competition to get the most distinguished men, that they were paid by a special tax and that they were much esteemed—are facts to be gleaned from Herodotus and from the inscriptions. The lapidary records, extending over 1000 years, collected by Professor Oehler(8a) of Reina, throw an important light on the state of medicine in Greece and Rome. Greek vases give representations of these state doctors at work. Dr. E. Pottier has published one showing the treatment of a patient in the clinic.(8b) That dissections were practiced by this group of nature philosophers is shown not only by the studies of Alcmaeon, but we have evidence that one of the latest of them, Diogenes of Apollonia, must have made elaborate dissections. In the "Historia Animalium"(9) of Aristotle occurs his account of the blood vessels, which is by far the most elaborate met with in the literature until the writings of Galen. It has, too, the great merit of accuracy (if we bear in mind the fact that it was not until after Aristotle that arteries and veins were differentiated), and indications are given as to the vessels from which blood may be drawn. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved April 2022 from Osler, William. 2006. The Evolution of Modern Medicine. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1566/1566-h/1566-h.htm#link2HCH0002 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html Photo by on National Cancer Institute Unsplash

The Evolution of Modern Medicine: Chapter II - GREEK MEDICINE

So let’s start! Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests. Hello HN folks! I am , a long-time . After 10+ years in enertech, I am now building up , my own company. Carlo Occhiena Hackernoon writer Aziona Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about? I just wrote about the Metaverse and its connection to tech and blockchain. Read the story here: https://hackernoon.com/metaverse-and-blockchain-will-have-a-parallel-future?source=rss Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about? I really like writing for Hackernoon because it allows me to write on many different topics - as long as they’re tech-related! I am enjoying this freedom at the moment. I wrote about programming, Agile methodologies, blockchain, Python, and more! I feel like the main advantage of Hackernoon over its competitors it’s the fact you may find a lot of very good and also very different stories here! Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?) I have a notepad where I track all the inspo and sources I stumble upon. And then, connecting the dot, I try to craft a story out of them. It’s like putting a lot of different ingredients in a blender and then, once in a while, let them mix up and see what is coming out. I like this approach cause it allows you to have a lot of ideas and inspiration and in the meantime to write something interesting and quite fresh. The risk otherwise is to write and same old and trite story over again. Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing? I feel like the main issue is being consistent. Trying to be focused enough to develop an expertise, but at the same time have a decent variety of topics - otherwise, you’ll be just writing over yourself. But in the end, I don’t want to overcomplicate the task. It’s basically a matter of practice and exercise. Doing it over and over again until it starts happening - if not easy, then natural, at least to you. As you said, also time is quite a challenge. A lot of us Hackernoon writers have to deal with stressful tech jobs in big companies or startups. Writing then is on top of it all and it’s not too easy to always be able to carve out some time to do it decently. Keep also in mind that for non-native English writers such me (and many other Hackolytes), the task of writing is even harder, you have to double-check grammar and verbs. It’s not an easy task, definitely :) What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career? Since I just founded my startup, , I am very focused on making it grow and prosper. Aziona But other than that, my last ten years of work have been incredible and I never thought I would be able to achieve all these milestones. So now running my own company is "just" yet another challenge. Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice? I am quite basic. Sitting in front of my computer is my day-to-day job but also my pleasure. I am really enjoying what I am doing. To unwind a little I usually watch some or some videogame stream on Twitch. The Big Bang Theory But, really, if there’s something you like doing, you should never feel “guilty” about doing it. Isn’t it? :) Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it? Not really. I am addicted to sports (running, crossfit) but those are not really hobby to me. I am not the kind of guy that says, “hey, I really need to stop sitting in front of the computer”. It’s something I like a lot. I also love to study and learn new things, but this is not a hobby either and it’s again tech-related, so, I am sorry: not the right question for me :D What can the Hackernoon community expect to read from you next? I don’ really know (my last article has been published just yesterday!). I’ll see where the inspiration will lead me! I also like a lot to interact in the HN community, read other stories and such, so, I’ll just be enjoying the moment. Thanks for taking time to join our “Meet the writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words? Work hard, but have fun along the way! Cheers.

Writing is Like Putting Different Ingredients in a Blender and Seeing What Comes Out, says Carlo

The metaverse is quite possibly the future of the internet. To help our readers learn more about it, we've started this metaverse interview series. These are the questions we've compiled to ask experts in blockchain, DAOs, NFTs, and game development, within the HackerNoon community. The series is intended for tech professionals to contribute their insights about the current state and the future of the metaverse. If you too would like to start contributing to Hacker Noon, you can do so here. If you also want to publish your thoughts about the metaverse, answer the template here. HackerNoon Interviewer: So let’s start! First, tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests. Hello HN folks! I am Carlo Occhiena, a long time . After 10+ years in enertech, I am now building up , my own company. Hackernoon writer Aziona Please sum up what the metaverse is in 1 to two paragraphs. First thing first, Metaverse originates from Cyberpunk subculture. This is something we should keep in mind. Metaverse is an expanding parallel universe (or meta-universe) where people can access via web and create identities and avatars and impersonate them to create relationships or interact with this virtual universe. Today the term is often associated with VR or AR, implying a physical connection to the metaverse. Are you currently, directly or indirectly, working on building a metaverse? I’d like to! But nope, I am pretty far from this kind of business atm. In your opinion, is the metaverse inevitable, or is it just another passing trending tech topic that'll lose hype? I would say neither. I believe nothing is strictly inevitable, as history is still to be written (and, otherwise, I would have invested in the metaverse a long ago!). On the same side, it is far from being a fad. If you’re familiar with gaming you already know that the concept of the metaverse is not new at all. Actually is like 30 years old and it has been deeply explored in many movies, books, applications, and companies. To me, it will be the main topic of the next 3-5+ years. Why is the metaverse such a revolutionary concept? The metaverse is the perfect union of different worlds. Of different applications. Web, internet, immersive technology, CGI. It also combines different needs: entertainment, relationships, exploration, education.
It's like a social network, but to the nth power. The opportunities there are really great. Have any of you seen Ready Player One? :) What can people build in the metaverse that we can't build on the Internet, or in virtual reality today? What limitations of our current technology does the metaverse free us from? It is not an easy question atm. But I personally see great opportunities from a safety, accessibility, gender equality perspective. However, I can't see it as a breaking point with the current tech scenario, but rather an evolution. A place where I can not only purchase services and experiences, but also enjoy them contextually. Where I can meet people and not need to know anything about their identity IRL. A self-consistent place. This is why for example I think of the points mentioned just above. Certainly, for the same reasons, it can be a double-edged sword. How are the metaverse and blockchain related? Can we build a metaverse without blockchain technology? I think at this point the decision has already been made. We agree that metaverse and blockchain will have a parallel future. We're thinking about everything related to on-platform transactions. We think about all the items that can be purchased during the metaverse experience. I struggle to think of a tracking system that is more consistent and transparent than blockchain. The concrete cases we're seeing these days confirm this hypothesis How quickly do you think the metaverse will be developed? How much can we expect metaverse tech to grow in the next 5 to 10 years? I'm a big proponent of exponential technologies and a tech-optimist. So I think we're going to see a huge acceleration, and that the metaverse will be a reality in the next 3-5 years. Likely in 5+ years, we'll be talking about something completely different, and the metaverse will be something that is fully established. Speaking of technologies, I think a key theme will be getting rid of hardware limitations. Keyboards and mouses do little to fit that context, and VR visors are still somewhat in progress. What is your hope for the metaverse? Do you have any worries or does the concept pose any threats? Today we are essentially talking about the metaverse for gaming and the social networking world but I think this will have great potential for the B2B world and the world of business in general. Let's think about the possibility of having a virtual office where you can welcome clients and colleagues. Where you can make pitches and presentations. Where we can also use cloud resources as if they were extensions of our work environment. This fascinates me a lot. I believe - but they are my thoughts - that among all the various players, Microsoft is more focused on this particular evolution. Apart from that, I am optimistic and I welcome this new evolution. As for the rest, like all technologies, it should be handled with care. Even a corkscrew can cause damage if used improperly, I mean :) Thanks for your time! Any final words? Nothing in particular! it felt good to do this piece, see you in the metaverse! Lead image via Ready, Player One film. This article is part of The hosted by HackerNoon in partnership with Gaming Metaverse Writing Contest . The Sandbox Submit your today for your chance to win up to $2000. #gaming-metaverse story

'Metaverse and Blockchain will Have a Parallel Future'

the , a portable speaker to remix, customize tracks and isolate stems from audio. Initially, the speaker was designed as a creative way to interact with Kanye’s new album, but it turns out that it’s a creators tool on its own. The idea is to mix and match different songs and parts from the new Kanye’s album and listen to new tracks each time you press play. Kanye West has recently dropped Donda Stem Player You can also upload your own tracks to the Stem Player. As a creator tool, Donda Stem Player allows for remixing any recording, which makes it a game-changer in the music industry. Stem Splitting Is A Game-Changer In Music Industry The whole idea behind Donda Stem Player is not entirely new. Stem splitting tools such as , , , and others took the music consumption and creation to the next level allowing to split songs into two, three, five or even to make the music experience flexible. LAL AL.AI Audioshake Spleeter Audionamix seven stems With such technology, everyone is not just a consumer who is able only to behold but a creator too: even a couple of clicks or a finger swipe is enough to create your own loop or a mashup and change the music consumption experience to the one that suits them best at the very moment. opens new creative horizons not just for those who used to be consumers but for world-renowned artists as well. Kanye West showed this right: he didn't just record an album and called it a day; he made it something more profound than that allowing his fans to enjoy it whatever they like. Stem splitting Everyone Is A Creator With stem splitting technology available to everyone, music production is no longer a privilege of pros. Now, every teenager making TikTok videos, YouTuber or Instagram influencer can produce their own sounds and even monetize them. For Gen Z, especially, music is no longer a consumption but expression and participation. This new generation of listeners and creators will definitely reshape the meaning of music and its consumption. And the demand for such technology shows that consumers want to be creators, too. It’s no longer surprising that users love creating photo content using multiple photo-editing tools or shoot videos. Otherwise, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and all other social platforms wouldn’t be so full of versatile content. Photo and video are old news. Now audio has its turn. AI-based stem splitting technology pushes boundaries of content creation and makes the music flexible and dynamic. Just as streaming services and MP3s once did. LALAL.AI - The Next-Gen Stem Splitting Technology And though Kanye’s mixing and stem-splitting device is truly unprecedented portable technology, the stem splitting solutions are numerous. Not all of them can be versatile enough, though. One of, or rather the first-in-the-world tool splitting audio and videos into seven stems, is LALAL.AI. LALAL.AI is powered by the enabling high-quality stem separation by tracking the input and output signal phase components. This AI network was trained, among other audio separation solutions. artificial intelligence algorithm Cassiopeia tested and proven to be superior With LALAL.AI, creators and music lovers can isolate not only vocals, backtracks, bass, and drums, but piano, acoustic and electric guitar alike! And it’s available for creators all over the world. To split any music source, you only have to visit the LALAL.AI website, upload any song or video you want, choose the stem splitting option ( , acoustic or electric guitar) and select the : Mild, Normal or Aggressive. vocals, instrumental, bass, piano, drums audio processing level LALAL.AI supports all popular audio formats, such as MP3, OGG, WAV, FLAC, AIFF, AAC and some , including AVI, MP4, MKV, and MOV. video formats Thus, LALAL.AI is a hassle-free yet powerful tool for precise source stem separation used by professional musicians and novice creators alike.

Kanye West Donda Stem Player? How About LALAL.AI Instead

Today on Hacker Noon —We Have Questions: Will this pandemic finally usher in the era of post-humanism that techno-utopians have been predicting for decades? What do we need to know about this recession? WTF Is A Transaction Relayer And How Does It Work? PRODUCT It’s Launch Day. How Good is Your Inner Game? from for a reminder of the importance of going inwards before launching your sh1t out into the world. Read this great short post PM Tyler Mahoeny In , explores two philosophical approaches to product design⁠—as a result of a twitter poll he conducted on why people buy products. In short: 95% of new products fail because their makers adopt a “builder behavior” mindset, as opposed to a one. If you’re in product, what’s your go to approach for discerning the viability of a product? 53% of My Followers Think We Buy New Tech, Not Progress. Here’s Why They’re Wrong @josberco problem-solving Add your point of view in the comments. Apparently we’re as reluctant to talk about money in Product Management as we are at the dinner table. As points out in @tanayagrawal Make it Sticky, then Acquire: 4 Pricing Lessons From My First 0-100 Users , "Pricing conversations usually happen later in the product development lifecycle, and PMs often wait for the product to gain some traction before discussing a robust monetization strategy. I have made those same mistakes, and my career as a product manager has taught me that monetization is something that needs to be thought of from day 0." — @tanayagrawal FUTURE OF WORK The Tech Worker’s Pandemic Advantage TL; DR: "Were you thinking about learning to code? Hurry up! If you are a tech worker already experiencing this extremely positive blessing, be generous ." — Anthony Watson , coder Staying with future-facing stories : argues that ; and @swati-sharma Business Process Automation Is Key to the Success of the Future Workforce ’s contains a kernel of simple truth also applicable far beyond the software engineering realm: @adinam Why Low-Code Will Never Replace Developers " It’s all about collaboration. " SELF-IMPROVEMENT Practice This Second Order Thinking Hack to Start Making Better Decisions Nice mental-model explainer post from . . @vinitabansal Click through for the decision-making template you may’ve been longing for BEFORE WE GO… Have You Added Hacker Noon’s Top Tech Stories Tab to Chrome Yet? . Do yourself a favour

The News According to Hacker Noon — Tuesday, 30 June 2020

I’m thinking of you, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as I write this. Not actually you, more like the mental image I have based on reading Mr. Levy’s book “In The PLEX.” So what’s the point of this letter? I want Google to transform education in the most fundamental way. Former Googler Katie Stanton is quoted as having said “working in government, is like running a marathon. Blindfolded. Wearing sandbags,” after having served in the Obama administration. I believe we can deliver a free tool for union members which unites them as a network of professionals, fostering innovation and collaboration and reinvigorating collective bargaining from the bottom up. This would go a long way to reduce the burden on educators, allowing them to run without much of the political baggage described by Ms. Stanton. Of course, when you read this, the obvious next step would be to leave this inquiry in the hands of staff like the esteemed Jonathan Rochelle. What I am envisioning here is not so much at the level of Google Classroom or even G Suite for Education, it’s more about creating a tool to redefine unions as decentralized networks of professionals, using educator unions as a first use case and subsequently applying to independent contractor unions, adjunct university processors, and so on. The recent Janus case, while supported by interests intending to kill public sector unions, could instead re-launch a new generation of decentralized unions, built on Google technology. The Janus ruling provides an opportunity to empower the previously inaccessible union space. I don’t intend to disrupt unions, rather, I hope to provide a tool that attracts union members and empowers them in their professional pursuits. But I need engineering talent and an organization willing to think big to make this a reality. To be honest, I’m not even sure that I should be involved at all. I see a huge opportunity to support educators and offer an authentic education to public school students and I can’t ignore what I see. My hope is that someone who can think big will read this and will run with it. My role should be limited to my areas of experience in producing actual results. There is no way I could develop this tool myself. My skills are grossly deficient in some required areas. I have seen significant success in education reform, so let me digress and share a bit about where I come from. I was born in Israel, grew up in inner city Chicago, attended a public International Baccalaureate (IB) program in high school after nine years at the nascent Chicago Waldorf School. I worked for DEC for their dual-core 64-bit Alpha architecture in 1997, after earning my BA in physics from Brandeis. I worked at Great Place to Work(r) Institute, Inc. and then Quigo (“AdSonar”) in the age of AdSense, and then I went into education where I brought an to improve student (and staff) experience. Burning Man and similar intentional communities have had an ongoing influence in my life. Just last year I took my eight-year-old daughter to Burning Man for the first time. obsession with data As a teacher I was honored to run an , looking to implement Dean Kamen’s vision in my school. We became the top nationally ranked team of all minority, inner-city kids. Of the twenty-three male students in my program (we also started an all-girls robotics team) not a single one of them had a father active in their lives. Subsequently, as the principal of an alternative high school for students who had been expelled from other schools, I would stand outside of the school building as students turned the corner from Madison Avenue onto 128th street in Central Harlem where the school was located. You could see from their faces as they arrived whether our school building was pulling them in or pushing them away. Student experience was my ultimate focus. award winning FIRST Robotics team In terms of data, I analyzed weekly grade data to look for changes so that I could identify a student who had a life event (family illness, for example) by a drop in their performance. In that way we could pull the student into a private space and ask what happened. To them it was like we were clairvoyant. The boys in particular, who were reluctant to share, would be caught off guard and tears would flow, a connection would be formed. Similarly the analysis of week-to-week grade deltas showed me students who suddenly were making an effort. A student may have an overall average of 35% but if you looked at just the past five days their average was 95% — a potential inflection point in their academic career! We would call those students out in front of their peers and ask them how they did it, make them the resident expert in academic transformation, thus helping to extend their new efforts by acknowledging them publicly. For many this was the first time in many years that they were seen as academic superstars. We also and audio recordings because I saw that when these students were in front of a camera they showed up with metacognitive skills that they wouldn’t share otherwise. I think that was a result of their having grown up with YouTube. led to and our school in less than two years, taking us from being one of the of nearly 2000 schools to earning the top ratings on city performance reports (“Well Developed” on School Quality Review 2014–15 and “A” Grades on School Progress Reports 2012–2015 after which letter grades were no longer given). produced hundreds of videos These efforts a prestigious award data turning around 24 worst schools in a city Despite these successes, in 2017 I was “taken down” by old time political bosses. They got behind a teacher who didn’t like my demanding leadership style and began attacking me with lies in the tabloids. Kate Taylor wrote a , doing a good job telling the story as best she could, given the limited space afforded in the newspaper. Many remarkable details could not be included in her piece, which I partially articulate in . front page New York Times article this article What I am proposing is a tool that would establish a decentralized network of innovative educators, protecting them from the type of take down (or threat thereof) that I experienced as a principal. The fact is that the way I was attacked is used much more frequently against teachers who have less power to fight than does an administrator like myself. With a modest budget and just a few engineers I believe we can design a tool which helps to identify effective and innovative professionals and establish them as thought leaders among their peers, regardless of their tenure. Whether they are implementing mindfulness practices, teaching science through social justice, engaging history in ways suggested by experts like James W. Loewen, or deploying mobile applications into their classroom, this tool would become the go to source for teachers to design an engaging learning environment for public school students. At the same time this tool would focus singularly on data from student work products to measure impact, shielding educators from artificially charged politics which tend to avoid controversy rather than introduce students to relevant topics which have no simple answers. I am inviting Google to become the agent of transformation of our public schools, empowering a new generation of teacher unions to innovate in ways that have not been seen in more than 150 years and subsequently launching a new decentralized union movement. Let’s replace the SAT and ACT and even college essays with the crowd intelligence of our best teachers. Sound improbable? Read and see if I can’t convince you otherwise. my upcoming book Unlikely to receive your response, Nadav Zeimer P.S. to help distribution of this letter and forward to people you know who works at Google or even at one of their competitors who are ready to think big. Please click and hold the clap button

An Open Letter to Google

Being a girl is a full time task! You are strong, courageous, hard-working, kind, fearless, caring…all rolled into one. Girls deserve and an ideal from the hustle-bustle and the men of their life. So, I suggest you take that over-due, much needed break with your group of girls or simply with your own-self. The traveler has taken the liberty of listing a variety of places from across the globe that can be your perfect escape. With pampering getaway Hop on Ladies & book your Trip! FROGO Here’s a combined list for both spiritual and shopaholic travelers: 1. NAINITAL, UTTARAKHAND Attractions: Snow View, Tiffin Top, China Peak, Bhimtal, Naukuchiyatal, Saattal, Lover’s Point, Himalaya Darshan, Ropeway (Cable Car), Nanda Devi Temple, Jama Masjid, Pangot, Corbett National Park, Cave Garden, Boat House Club 2. SHIMLA, HIMACHAL PRADESH : Attractions Viceregal Lodge, Town Hall, Jakhu Temple, Gaiety Museum, Christ Church, State Museum, Kali Bari Temple, Himalayan Bird Park and Kufri 3. RISHIKESH, UTTARAKHAND Attractions: Swarg Niwas Temple, Shri Trayanbakshwar Temple, Swarg Ashram, Lakshman Jhula, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Asharam, Neelkantha Mahadev Temple, Neergarh Waterfall. 4. LADAKH, JAMMU & KASHMIR : Attractions Leh Palace, Pangong Lake, Lake Tsomoriri, Nubra Valley, Zanskar Valley, Markha Valley, Lamayuru Monastery, Hemis Monastery, Tso Kar, Alchi Monastery, Shey Monastery, Phutkal Monastery, Diskit Monastery, Hemis National Park, Stok Palace, Wanla Gompa, Likir Monastery, Sham Valley, Thiksey Gompa, Phyang Monastery, Rizong Monastery, Sar — Zung Temple, Khardung La, Namgyal Stupa 5. UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN : Attractions Lake Palace, City Palace, Lake Pichola, Ahar Museum, Sajjan Garh/ Monsoon Palace, Bagore ki Haveli, Sunset Point & Machla Magra, Fateh Sagar Lake, Jagdish Temple, Saheliyo ki Bari and Jag Mandir 6. JAISALMER, RAJASTHAN Attractions: Jaisalmer Fort, Bada Bagh, Patwon-Ki-Haveli, Sam Sand Dunes, The Thar Heritage Museum, Gadisar Lake, Desert Nation Park, Silk Route Art Gallery 7. VARANASI, UTTAR PRADESH Attractions: Vishwanath Temple, Assi Ghat, Dashwamedh Ghat, Manikarnika Ghat, Ramnagar Fort and Museum, Gyan Kupor Well, Tulsi Manas Temple, New Vishwanath Temple, Durga Temple, Bharat Mata Temple . 8. KHAJURAHO, MADHYA PRADESH : Attractions Lakshmana Temple, Kandariya Mahadev Temple, Old Village, Lakshmi Temple, Matangeshwar Mahadev Temple, Parshwanath Temple, Lord Mahavira Temple and Adinath Temple 9. DESERT NATIONAL PARK & REMOTE VILLAGES, RAJASTHAN Attractions: Churu, Barmer, Dausa, Dundlod, Nathadwara, Shekhawati 10. GREAT RANN OF KUTCH, GUJARAT Attractions: Little Rann of Kutch, Bhuj, Prag Mahal, Aaina Mahal, Mandvi Beach, Dholavira, Kala Dungar, Narayan Sarovar, Handicraft Villages 11. KANHA NATIONAL PARK, MADHYA PRADESH Attractions: Kanha Tiger Reserve, Kanha Museum, Bamni Dadar, Kawardha Palace, Medicinal Plantation 12. DARJEELING, WEST BENGAL Toy train ride, Himalayan Zoological Park (home to the popular Red Panda), ride the Himalayan Railway and experience the serenity of the Peace Pagoda Attractions: 13. ANDAMAN ISLANDS Attractions: Radhanagar Beach, Jolly Buoy Island, Cellular Jail, Ross Island, Elephant Beach, Makruzz, Kaala Patthar Beach, Laxmanpur Beach, Limestone Caves 14. KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK, ASSAM Attractions: Leopard, Fishing Cat, Large Indian Civet, Small Indian Civet, Sambar Barking deer, Hog deer, Gaur, Hog Badger, Hoolock Gibbon, Capped Langur, Assamese Macaque, Rhesus Macaque, Sloth Bear, Gigantic Dolphin and many more. 15. ZIRO VALLEY, ARUNACHAL PRADESH Attractions: Hong, Hija, Hari, Bamin, Dutta, Ziro Putu, Tarin Fish Farm, Talley Valley, Tapyo Salt, Dolo Mando, Kile Pakho, Dilopolyang Maniipolyang, Shiva Lingam at Kardo Forest 16. MUNNAR, KERELA : Attractions Mattupetty, Pallivasal, Tea Museum 17. PUDUCHERRY : Attractions Sri Aurobindo Asharam, Churches, Puducherry Museum, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Temple, Notre Dame des Anges, Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Botanical Garden, Sacred Heart Basilica,Goubert Ave/Beach Road 18. HAMPI, KARNATAKA Attractions: Vittala Temple, Virupaksha Temple, Zenana Enclosure, Sule Bazaar and Achyutaraya Temple, Nandi Statue, Elephant Stables, Hemakuta Hill, Underground Shiva Temple, Queen’s Bath and Royal Centre 19. ALLEPPEY, KERELA Attractions: Alleppey (Alappuzha) 20. SHILLONG, MEGHALAYA Attractions: A glimpse of what all the Seven sisters provide in regard to all of that you seek on an ideal trip; nature, peaks, culture, waterfalls etc If you liked it then you should check out our Frogo Mobile App where you can book various tourist destinations, experiences and fun filled choices.

20 Awe-Inspiring Solo Trip Destinations For Girls In India

Covid-19 has brought out the worst in us, with of cyberbullying and harassment online. The cases have expanded from social media to a newly adopted “Remote-working” environment. an increase in reported incidents The immediate dispersal of employees as the pandemic hit a peak left people with little to no time to set up a proper work station in their home. Work-place harassment has sadly always been there for as long as one can remember. But harassment while working remotely poses a much more significant threat to the well-being of the person and their family. Work from home has given outsiders an in-let to your personal lives. It can be in the form of video-surveillance or . It seems normal, but the problem arises when you have a whole different life exposed at the back. Not everyone is comfortable with it. zoom meetings Predatory eyes can find anything to target, and while it is never the victim’s fault. Awareness and precautions are necessary and vital for . internet safety of women What Does Harassment in a Digital Space Look Like? We are all aware of the harassment that takes place physically. From unsolicited touches to sexual advancements. And work-from-home may come as a relief for most women who had to deal with it daily. The index for sexual misconduct may have decreased now, but a maybe its cause. It may also suggest that a sense of fear has gripped most women who are afraid to lose their job in the middle of a if they spoke up about being harassed. rising number in unemployment deadly pandemic But the lack of physical human contact amongst employees, resulting in almost no physical-sexual misconduct can also justify it. But that’s the thing about harassment; it just doesn’t end there. There are numerous forms to it, cyberbullying being the highest of them that always finds its way back. Most predators manage to seep through and misuse the tools required to work remotely, including emails, instant messaging applications, and video conferencing. These applications manage to give a glimpse of a person’s personal life. Images, clothing of choice, or the events that are happening behind during a video conference can become a subject of and harassment. discrimination You need to be vigilant when encountering harassment while under remote working conditions to identify and deal with it accordingly. Types of Harassment taking place Digitally Personal Harassment are where a person encounters offensive jokes, crude remarks, personal humiliation, and comments that create a hostile work environment. Personal Harassments It can occur during a video conference, where you are exposing your home life to your co-workers. While it is normal for others, some might try to comment on your lifestyle, home life, etc. While many of us know how to handle it, this can become a sticky situation for those who have a hard time letting their guard down. Power Harassment is using your power to bully your staff who report to you directly. It can range from verbal to physical violence or elaborately intimidating subordinates through crude remarks on them and their work. Power Harassment Misuse of authority occurs when they demand work that is too advanced for an employee or makes them do the impossible while holding their job at stake just because they can. Work-from-Home is a tough task, but being asked to neglect the house for work is also not the right thing to do, especially when everyone, from kids to parents are in those households. Not only that, unnecessary interference in an employee’s life and personal decisions also come under this. Exposing your household conditions during a zoom meeting does not invite the other person to comment on it. Psychological Harassment is close to messing with the victim’s mind by creating a negative impact on their account, either by targeting them personally or creating gossip or rumors that are false and would pose a threat to the victim’s mental well-being. Psychological harassment These can come in the form of sarcastic comments and deter one’s work or the person. Employs are encouraged to get a thick skin and ignore such remarks, but it only promotes a toxic work environment. These things tend to increase while working remotely, precisely due to a significant communication gap building up with each passing day. A difference in tone during emails and misunderstood skype messages is enough to create an awkward situation due to an absolute misunderstanding. All these things become a cause of stress and anxiety. And if you feel this way when you receive an email from your boss or your co-worker, it is a significant sign that the person is taking a toll on your mental health, which might have lasting effects and deteriorate your work quality. Sexual Harassment doesn’t always mean physical, sexual encounters, or advancements. It talks more about exertion control and against the “weaker” being, from sharing sexual and pornographic images to, making fun of someone’s sexuality. Sexual harassment power Objectification of someone’s body through explicit emails and messages. Suggesting sexual advancements in those texts and calls. It is , but it’s far from that. If it makes you uncomfortable and disturbed throughout the encounter, it’s not an attraction. And you need to get away immediately, no matter how manipulative and persuasive the harasser is. mistaken as sexual attraction Unwanted sexual advances are always inappropriate, primarily occurring at your work-place. Discriminatory Harassment When talking about , we talk about numerous things here. From harassment based on someone’s religious belief, race, gender, or , they all classify under this banner. Discriminatory Harassment sexual orientation You are held against your personal choices (or not), or based on the difference of opinion are forms of discrimination. Being verbally and mentally abusive about it, creating problems for your colleague or employee based on these terms is highly unethical and labeled harassment. Prevention The ongoing pandemic has already caused a lot of strain. Living in lockdown while working full-time and managing household chores is a hectic and stressful task. Harassment in this situation is like adding fuel to the fire. But it is preventable with a set of rules that we can follow. Starting with the remote hiring process that some companies are observing at a rapid pace. While it is good to see opportunities out there during COVID’19, a proper code of conduct must be established and followed. Companies need to re-evaluate their policies and accommodate their employees because it’s about time we all agree that COVID’19 is here to stay. The renewal of such policies should be after close consideration of all their employees and their living conditions. Many people have relocated and are in the process of moving in their families to save rent money, etc. There needs to be no room for any sort of discrimination based on one’s living condition. An initial virtual orientation covering the basis of the new policies can be conducted. It would include the basis of all types of harassment that can occur remotely, along with effective and immediate ways to report them. If, despite all these rules, you are harassed by a co-worker, report to your HR department immediately. File a proper complaint with all the proof and report it immediately, do not ignore or wait for it to escalate. If your company fails to assist you, you can file a case against the abuser as offers protection against harassment at work, which may cause disturbance and a hostile work environment. federal law To create a sense of formality in the meetings, a generalized yet straightforward dress code should be the norm for video conferencing with the team or other employees. Leaving no excuse for any casual comments passed around on anyone’s visual appearance. A strict policy revolving around the mode of communication, i.e., Emails, Video Meetings, Screen sharing, and instant messaging, should emerge. The idea of recording a one-on-one video-meeting is still being tossed around the table. But if you do it with consent and as per your company’s guideline, it is possible. Or turn it into a group meeting by involving your colleagues, preventing the harasser from acting. You can also block the potential harasser when office hours are over, and on weekends, it is essential to not engage in any conversation outside of working hours. Even if you do, it has to be through your official email. While Addressing the Situation Everyone mentions ways to protect yourself and all the right rules to follow. But no one says how to behave during this stressful time. Despite it being virtual, it can easily take a toll on one’s health and can lead to rather toxic events. To stop yourself from drowning in the pit, you need to make sure of the following things. Stay strong and confident. Find the right support system to confide in. Be it, your friends, family, or support groups like . They will help you get the closure you deserve and need. HeartMob Proper medical guidance is always encouraged in times of distress. There is no shame or harm in visiting a therapist. If things get tricky and life-threatening for you and your family, seek the . Gather up all the necessary information and report. right authorities If your indifference is the solution, then continue that. No harasser or abuser is worth wasting your precious time and health. Bystander Intervention Having a reliable support system or a good team at your work-place is necessary. Good friends are not only there to make work bearable, but also to help you out in times of distress like these. Having proper knowledge of and helping out is equally necessary for others as well. bystander intervention Victims reach out to their co-workers most of the time when they have been a subject of harassment, or something goes wrong at work. If someone reaches out to you, or you happen to witness a violation of someone’s privacy or harassment, that you know is wrong in all terms, Speak up! Being left alone to deal with a tough situation like this will only make things worse for the victim, and the harasser will quickly get away without any consequences to his actions. And you might be equally responsible for turning a deaf ear towards it all. If you are a bystander, intervene. Call out the harasser or report them, you are a witness, use your place wisely. You can save someone from years of trauma and mental health issues. Help your co-worker out in reporting the case to HR. In the End Harassment is a tough thing to deal with, but you must know this isn’t the end. There is more to life than all this. And no matter how hard it may seem at the time, it too shall pass. With the right guidance and support, you can always fight back. It is your life, and you should be in control of it. No one can disrupt it for you. And the most important thing is, it’s never your fault!

Addressing Digital Harassment of Women in Remote Working Conditions

Simply put, psychology defines our decisions (professional, personal) as being fear-based or love-based. We either choose something out of enjoyment, for making us feel good, rewarded (all under the umbrella of love) or out of insecurity, FOMO etc. (fear-based). In , until 2012-2014, things were pretty predictable and secure: developers and their skills were vital to any business irrespective of being a bank, a SaaS platform, they all required technology. the realm of software engineering The state of the low-code job market Starting with the democratization of software development, this power was not anymore solely in the hands of engineers. The need for digital transformation, brought along the need for faster delivery of business applications. This forced companies to search for solutions outside of this department that by then proved to have the experience, possessed the needed skills to come up with a solution: that’s how the first low-code platforms appeared. It’s been 6 years since Forrester officially coined this term. In this time both businesses and the software engineering job market transitioned from a trend to strong demand, from something exciting, rather cool to something mandatory. ( Questions sourced from Quora) As for the last 2-3 years, the interest and concern is for sure there: software engineers are wondering if they should switch to low-code or if this is only a trend that will pass in a couple of years. Like any dilemma,  rather than being a black and white answer, the healthy answer lies in nuances and all the grey hues. Transition periods can seem confusing and hard to navigate and some people will find themselves in a crisis: actors from silent films when the era of sound came, artisans when industrial revolution hit, they all somehow reiterated the same feeling. It did not mean everything they knew by then was completely taken out of the picture but used as a launching pad for evolution, progress, it pushed people and society for better. The exact same thing is happening with low-code engineers. They will always be vital within any company, but the way they work will witness big changes. What’s irreplaceable about developers Without knowing the graphical symbols of a letter from a language, one won’t be able to write, nor read. The same goes with coding: among US companies this skill is considered as literacy. Essentially, low-code exists thanks to developers. Before there was low-code there were developers with a strong set of hard coding skills. And they are not only responsible for its genesis, but for its maintenance. Any extension a low-code platform might need is dependent on their experience and knowledge. A second aspect where engineers perform best is for example in the case of delivering business applications: low-code does an excellent job at making everything more efficient about that, but without being able to understand complex rules and logic (for business transactions for eg.) you don’t know how to simplify them. Being able to architect and build APIs which can be used by this new breed of application will eliminate the risk of a whole array of issues. What a low-code engineer basically does is short-circuiting a process (which is awesome since it saves so much time), but it can also become a burden. This is for sure the case of complex situations, where traditional developers will play a key role, but for simpler situations, low-code engineers with no previous traditional coding experience have no reason to worry. If given basic training, any non-technical employee can rapidly assemble software tools. Focusing on strategic work will also be part of software engineers irrespective if they will possess low-code skills on top of their traditional ones or not. Low-code will only give them the means to eliminate the need of writing repetitive lines of code, but when it comes to a higher vision and if a solution is feasible from a technical standpoint, that will be their call. And their experience with hard coding will have a strong say in this. A third aspect is that at currently there’s no one-stop low-code platform that will cover all the application needs on the market. Some are working great for e-commerce, others are doing a great job for back-office work, but if you want that will cover different needs altogether, you’ll need a software engineer to take charge of that. Afterwards, this can be easily tackled by a low-code developer. Which leads to the last, but not least important aspect: teamwork! A healthy perspective: collaboration A revolution does not come to destroy everything that was built by then, it is born out of a pressing demand on the market. Low-code did not come to threaten the old ways of coding, but to make it more efficient, faster and definitely more exciting both for engineers and companies. Low-code pushes software engineers towards collaboration, it forces them to improve their communication skills, to better translate business needs, getting closer to clients, being in tune with their needs. Low-code brings at the same table both the business owners, those with solely engineering skills and those who possess both of them. Low-code is an invitation for teamwork, it blurs the lines between departments and at this table, there’s plenty of room for everyone. To recap, why there's no need to fear the future of developers, but rather see it as an opportunity: Low-code started thanks to developers and they will contribute to its evolution. Complex situations can be broken down into simple ones due to strong software engineering experience. It's all about collaboration: low-code can not exist without hard code, hard code wouldn't have progressed without low-code, same goes when it comes to teamwork, the interdependence is there. Is this something you’ve dealt with as a software engineer? Were you worried about your future or simply confused if you should invest in this new set of skills? Let's talk about it in the comments!

Why Low-Code Will Never Replace Developers

On average, organizations admit they have identified around three major time wasters inside their companies: Inefficiencies in business processes (3 or more) that could be automated; Poor communication; Around 8 hours per week are spent on administrative tasks over strategic work (based on a survey taken by nearly 300 managers and directors across various industries). Any manager will admit that workflow automation tools could easily eliminate all of these and instead they could gain valuable time to focus on the big picture. But from wanting to adopt such a solution, to actually implementing it, decision-makers get stuck in the process due to lack of time to implement the technology, in spite of them claiming to love it. And this observation comes from us at , too, a low-code platform where the amount of coding is considerably minimized, while the environment itself relies mostly on a visual way of building apps. Plant an App So where should any manager, CEO or in general a key decision-maker should start with  building end-to-end digital onboarding workflows? With two essential questions: 1. Who are you onboarding? Are you onboarding all your employees? Maybe clients, partners? Or a combination of these? Define them. 2. Why are you doing digital onboarding? What do you want to obtain? Have in mind the final result, the outcome, then go back and break it down into smaller steps. Having these two questions answered, here are some aspects you should keep in mind when considering digital onboarding workflows: No need to go for complex workflows right from the start, keep it as simple as possible. The aim is to reduce churn, errors, repetitive tasks, so list all of these and take them one by one. Start small, but keep it simple In itself automation means less manual work. If you’ll keep having the same flow of paper, you haven’t done any major change, go a couple of steps back and see first what needs to be decreased or completely eliminated when it comes to this aspect before you move on. Significantly decrease the flow of paper Apply business rules with more assertiveness Accelerate processes and reduce the time between tasks Eliminate errors, inefficiencies Define indicators and get consolidated reports Without measuring, there can’t be progress, monitor everything right from the start. Integrate databases and monitor in real time How exactly does a digital onboarding workflow work using low-code? To make this more applicable, we’ll use our low-code platform, as an example. Before you move on to the actual creation of onboarding workflows, we’ll ask you to add all your information on our . Immediately after that you’ll get two emails: a partner request and a NDA to be digitally signed by you (you can still correct your information in this step, yoo) plus we’ll ask you to book a meeting. Plant an App partners page When you’re done with this step, you’ll gain access to Plant and App Partners, which essentially is your lab for onboarding workflows. Here you can see and manage all your activities, partners, contacts and documents. We’ll ask you to start by adding all your contacts and your partners’ role. In this guided by Reza G., in charge with Strategic Delivery at Plant an App, you’ll see exactly how to set up these step by step. webinar One you’ve added this information, it’s time to move on to the actual workflows. What exactly do you want to eliminate, automate or reduce and what’s the persona you have in mind for each one of these? For eg. maybe you want to put in place a workflow that automatically generates an NDA or you want to have an SMS sent to a client after a certain action. Is it a recurring payment? From simple to complex workflows (like signing an NDA) there’s no limit. For eg. in the Reza takes you through a ‘’Request NDA’’ workflow creation to see how easy it is. webinar, Starting with minute 47:00 you can follow the whole process step by step. This is an example of a more complex workflow; initially it starts with a simple one, but then it's split into two different end goals. Curious if anyone started building onboarding workflows using low-code and how the process went! Previously published at https://www.plantanapp.com/blog/article/How-to-Build-End-to-End-Digital-Onboarding-Workflows-with-Low-Code

Building End-to-End Digital Onboarding Workflows Using 
Low-code

Like any other story, they all start with a point in time. Mine? In 2015 when I met team (DNNSharp at that time) over a simple AngularJS interview. Plant an App Long story, short: I've got the job, working part-time as a front end developer, part of an 8 person team that was tasked with fixing bugs. Just to clear some things before I go any further: I studied AngularJS and Bootstrap 3 for two days until the moment I got employed. Now, looking back I  don’t think I was nowhere near skilled or prepared for this job. But there I was struggling to deliver the only code I knew how to write: Spaghetti Code. Now it all went like this for a while, mainly because I wasn’t working full time and the only work I was getting were side jobs no-one wanted to do. And the reality was you will never see a  Senior developer modifying the color of a text box. That was a task for me. When things started to change With great power comes great responsibility and with great products comes a need for support. Long story short I was the chosen one to build a new Help Center solution for the company. 20 years old in charge of building a ticketing solution all by myself. Did I mention I had no experience in delivering this kind of solution? So I've started with the tools the company had. The plan was simple: have a Form builder to submit a request and a Grid to list the comments. After two months  I came up with a solution so overly complicated that I wasn’t even able to explain why I did it in that manner,  BUT a working one. In those two months I learned SQL to perfection (at least this was my feeling, definitely my skills could be improved), my CSS HTML JS got also better. I was feeling so happy and full of joy for the first time that something I have done by myself was going to be used in production with real Customers. A full-time job? I think at this moment I was two years already with the company, I graduated college, I was a full-time employee and after the Help Center Solution success I became more confident in the capability of the products to deliver what you need when you need and I think other people felt the same. The idea was simple: My main job was to implement Solutions for customers who didn’t have the skills or the time. This was actually the tipping point when I had this feeling that being a programmer doesn't necessarily mean to code on a daily basis. And I was struggling with that: What is the job title of someone that codes by not coding? Funny problem to have when you think about it because somehow I was thinking all my friends are coding in  C# and Java and dreaming of working for Google and Oracle. On the other side, I found something that was making me happy and was easy and impactful. F#ck that! I kept going on even, to be honest, I still had these mixed feelings but why not? The full-time job After 2 years of delivering solutions alone, a decision was made by the team. We had to expand the implementation team. Implementation and Team in the same sentence?  Well, you know what that means? Interviews for what it became known today as low-code, training and being a leader for people that their entire life trained for only one thing: be a good coder. And in a time frame of 1 year, we got six new colleagues and one left, in total five new people joining the Implementation Team. Not only that those numbers made my mixed feelings disappear because I could validate the fact that people really enjoy doing low-code but now I knew this is what I want to do and I want to build as a career path. How do I feel today? I know coding supports the fact I don’t need to code today. The code is for complexity and Low-Code is speed. The issue (and this is me being subjective) is coders don’t want to take a look at low-code because it seems like a toy and low-code engineers just don’t want to code anymore looking at the horizon. I think today being apart of the low-code movement is part of keeping up and it became a necessity like a car. You still can walk to the destination but the car will be faster. The car is not designed and assembled by you but in the end what are you trying to achieve: complexity or speed? - Radu N. , Customer Success Manager @ Plant an App (Mar 2020) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In hindsight, Radu was mainly led by curiosity and by an insatiable hunger to always strive for more, to adapt fast. And this is exactly where a can step in both in the benefit of a company and a developer: for the first one it offers agility, faster delivery of projects and for the latter, it eliminates the need for writing the same old lines of code, investing the energy in what really matter and moves the needle at the end of the day because we all have got only 24 hours. low-code platform

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