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Everything We Know About Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2: Gameplay, Story, Latest News

A Roadmap for User Empowerment in the Dark Pattern Landscape

A Short History of the World, by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT ALEXANDRIA THE MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT ALEXANDRIA Before the time of Alexander Greeks had already been spreading as merchants, artists, officials, mercenary soldiers, over most of the Persian dominions. In the dynastic disputes that followed the death of Xerxes, a band of ten thousand Greek mercenaries played a part under the leadership of Xenophon. Their return to Asiatic Greece from Babylon is described in his Retreat of the Ten Thousand, one of the first war stories that was ever written by a general in command. But the conquests of Alexander and the division of his brief empire among his subordinate generals, greatly stimulated this permeation of the ancient world by the Greeks and their language and fashions and culture. Traces of this Greek dissemination are to be found far away in central Asia and in north-west India. Their influence upon the development of Indian art was profound. For many centuries Athens retained her prestige as a centre of art and culture; her schools went on indeed to 529 A.D., that is to say for nearly a thousand years; but the leadership in the intellectual activity of the world passed presently across the Mediterranean to Alexandria, the new trading city that Alexander had founded. Here the Macedonian general Ptolemy had become Pharaoh, with a court that spoke Greek. He had become an intimate of Alexander before he became king, and he was deeply saturated with the ideas of Aristotle. He set himself, with great energy and capacity, to organize knowledge and investigation. He also wrote a history of Alexander’s campaigns which, unhappily, is lost to the world. Alexander had already devoted considerable sums to finance the enquiries of Aristotle, but Ptolemy I was the first person to make a permanent endowment of science. He set up a foundation in Alexandria which was formerly dedicated to the Muses, the Museum of Alexandria. For two or three generations the scientific work done at Alexandria was extraordinarily good. Euclid, Eratosthenes who measured the size of the earth and came within fifty miles of its true diameter, Apollonius who wrote on conic sections, Hipparchus who made the first star map and catalogue, and Hero who devised the first steam engine are among the greater stars of an extraordinary constellation of scientific pioneers. Archimedes came from Syracuse to Alexandria to study, and was a frequent correspondent of the Museum. Herophilus was one of the greatest of Greek anatomists, and is said to have practised vivisection. For a generation or so during the reigns of Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II there was such a blaze of knowledge and discovery at Alexandria as the world was not to see again until the sixteenth century A.D. But it did not continue. There may have been several causes of this decline. Chief among them, the late Professor Mahaffy suggested, was the fact that the Museum was a “royal” college and all its professors and fellows were appointed and paid by Pharaoh. This was all very well when Pharaoh was Ptolemy I, the pupil and friend of Aristotle. But as the dynasty of the Ptolemies went on they became Egyptianized, they fell under the sway of Egyptian priests and Egyptian religious developments, they ceased to follow the work that was done, and their control stifled the spirit of enquiry altogether. The Museum produced little good work after its first century of activity. Ptolemy I not only sought in the most modern spirit to organize the finding of fresh knowledge. He tried also to set up an encyclopædic storehouse of wisdom in the Library of Alexandria. It was not simply a storehouse, it was also a book-copying and book-selling organization. A great army of copyists was set to work perpetually multiplying copies of books. Here then we have the definite first opening up of the intellectual process in which we live to-day; here we have the systematic gathering and distribution of knowledge. The foundation of this Museum and Library marks one of the great epochs in the history of mankind. It is the true beginning of Modern History. ARISTOTLE From Herculaneum, probably Fourth Century B.C. Photo: Dr. Singer Both the work of research and the work of dissemination went on under serious handicaps. One of these was the great social gap that separated the philosopher, who was a gentleman, from the trader and the artisan. There were glass workers and metal workers in abundance in those days, but they were not in mental contact with the thinkers. The glass worker was making the most beautifully coloured beads and phials and so forth, but he never made a Florentine flask or a lens. Clear glass does not seem to have interested him. The metal worker made weapons and jewellery but he never made a chemical balance. The philosopher speculated loftily about atoms and the nature of things, but he had no practical experience of enamels and pigments and philters and so forth. He was not interested in substances. So Alexandria in its brief day of opportunity produced no microscopes and no chemistry. And though Hero invented a steam engine it was never set either to pump or drive a boat or do any useful thing. There were few practical applications of science except in the realm of medicine, and the progress of science was not stimulated and sustained by the interest and excitement of practical applications. There was nothing to keep the work going therefore when the intellectual curiosity of Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II was withdrawn. The discoveries of the Museum went on record in obscure manuscripts and never, until the revival of scientific curiosity at the Renascence, reached out to the mass of mankind. Nor did the Library produce any improvements in book making. That ancient world had no paper made in definite sizes from rag pulp. Paper was a Chinese invention and it did not reach the western world until the ninth century A.D. The only book materials were parchment and strips of the papyrus reed joined edge to edge. These strips were kept on rolls which were very unwieldy to wind to and fro and read, and very inconvenient for reference. It was these things that prevented the development of paged and printed books. Printing itself was known in the world it would seem as early as the Old Stone Age; there were seals in ancient Sumeria; but without abundant paper there was little advantage in printing books, an improvement that may further have been resisted by trades unionism on the part of the copyists employed. Alexandria produced abundant books but not cheap books, and it never spread knowledge into the population of the ancient world below the level of a wealthy and influential class. STATUETTE OF MAITREYA: THE BUDDHA TO COME A Græco-Buddhist sculpture of the Third Century A.D. (From Malakand, N. W. Province, now in the India Museum) So it was that this blaze of intellectual enterprise never reached beyond a small circle of people in touch with the group of philosophers collected by the first two Ptolemies. It was like the light in a dark lantern which is shut off from the world at large. Within the blaze may be blindingly bright, but nevertheless it is unseen. The rest of the world went on its old ways unaware that the seed of scientific knowledge that was one day to revolutionize it altogether had been sown. Presently a darkness of bigotry fell even upon Alexandria. Thereafter for a thousand years of darkness the seed that Aristotle had sown lay hidden. Then it stirred and began to germinate. In a few centuries it had become that widespread growth of knowledge and clear ideas that is now changing the whole of human life. THE DEATH OF BUDDHA Græco-Buddhist carving from Sivat Valley, N. W. Province, probably A.D. 350 India Mus. Alexandria was not the only centre of Greek intellectual activity in the third century B.C. There were many other cities that displayed a brilliant intellectual life amidst the disintegrating fragments of the brief empire of Alexander. There was, for example, the Greek city of Syracuse in Sicily, where thought and science flourished for two centuries; there was Pergamum in Asia Minor, which also had a great library. But this brilliant Hellenic world was now stricken by invasion from the north. New Nordic barbarians, the Gauls, were striking down along the tracks that had once been followed by the ancestors of the Greeks and Phrygians and Macedonians. They raided, shattered and destroyed. And in the wake of the Gauls came a new conquering people out of Italy, the Romans, who gradually subjugated all the western half of the vast realm of Darius and Alexander. They were an able but unimaginative people, preferring law and profit to either science or art. New invaders were also coming down out of central Asia to shatter and subdue the Seleucid empire and to cut off the western world again from India. These were the Parthians, hosts of mounted bowmen, who treated the Græco-Persian empire of Persepolis and Susa in the third century B.C. in much the same fashion that the Medes and Persians had treated it in the seventh and sixth. And there were now other nomadic peoples also coming out of the northeast, peoples who were not fair and Nordic and Aryan- speaking but yellow-skinned and black-haired and with a Mongolian speech. But of these latter people we shall tell more in a subsequent chapter. 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. H. G. Wells (2011). A Short History of the World. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11870/11870-h/11870-h.htm 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 www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

THE MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT ALEXANDRIA

The Opinion Economy

The motivations for a decentralized social network have roots in the restrictions laid by contemporary platforms on what users and developers can do to build a healthy ecosystem. For a detailed analysis of these motivations and resulting architecture choices, the essay by Varun Srinivasan is a good starting point. The following wish list is inspired based on what an open protocol for a sufficiently decentralized social network, like Farcaster, can enable for users. “Sufficient Decentralization for Social Networks” 1. Grain of control in content curation We live in a world that is getting increasingly polarized. As a direct consequence, our online social experiences are becoming radically binary, where we seek inspiration and learn only from identities that fit our limited worldviews. Context: Why do we have to choose between putting a person on a permanent pedestal for their noblest deeds or canceling their entire identity for their worst choices? How may I be able to curate content from a person for topics I trust them with versus consuming everything the person has an opinion on? How may I staunchly disagree with the political views of a sportsperson, but still be able to curate and consume their views on my favorite game? Rather than following a user account in its entirety for the content it might share, the app offers customization on topics I can choose to see from that account. Thus, I can enrich the quality of content I consume on topics that matter to me from people who inspire me the most, even though I may disagree with the same people on topics outside my core focus. Feature: 2. Plurality of content formats and user engagement What we share on our social networks and who we share it with has been hardwired to each platform’s native content format with limited to no ability for creators to customize how we share content and with whom. Besides, Context: there is little to no support for a creator to define varying levels of user engagement (e.g., the granularity of content) with a goal for monetization. Enable the creator to seamlessly cast content at varying levels of granularity and formats that get personalized to the user based on their relationship with the creator. The same cast might appear as a textual summary for a new follower, whereas as premium long form content for another paid user. Feature: 3. Unique digital user accounts Bad actors with tools to deploy automated bots can control and swing the narrative on a social network. Worse, Context: centralized for-profit companies who own the platform have very little incentive to remove fake accounts. Integrate accounts with a proof-of-personhood protocol such as or to ensure the uniqueness of digital user accounts without compromising user privacy. Users can then make an informed choice on who they interact with and at what levels of trust. Feature: Proof of Humanity BrightID Conclusion In the long run, the ultimate beauty of an open protocol is that no single team has to bear the mantle of getting things right all the time. None of the features above might be critical for a product-market fit. However, the fact that designers and engineers can take a shot at building similar features and letting the user community be the ultimate judge of what is relevant is where the future will be different compared to the times we live in today.

3 Features I Would Pay For in a Decentralized Social Network

Introduction I wrote this article an attempt for a prequel to the book . The book by is . Greenpilled Kevin Owocki “designed to teach the ethos & game theoretic concepts behind regenerative cryptoeconomics to the next generation of dreamers, builders, and internet citizens” If you are new to Web3 and Crypto, I hope this article serves as a stepping stone to then deep dive into the vision Greenpilled has to offer to sustain and thrive our public goods. What is broken? Our public goods are withering. In the context of India, there is a systemic apathy from those who grab power and consistent disinterest from those who have extracted wealth to sustain the infrastructure on which communities thrive. Our public health system and primary care infrastructure in the rural areas is being intentionally dismantled at the behest of lobbying from the private sector. My interview notes from last year with on this topic in context of COVID-19 are . Dr. Sylvia Karpagam here The state-run public education system in India, especially in non-urban areas, leaves a lot to be desired even on the basic attributes of facilities, quality, and rigor, let alone the ability to create the workforce of the future. Our artisan economy supports 200 million people (see the report, , by ). It is, however, one of the most neglected sectors even though it plays such a crucial role in local culture, employment, sustainability, heritage preservation, let alone the role the craft plays as a , as articulated by . Business of Handmade 200 Million Artisans central piece of democracy Nathan Schneider This is just the tip of the iceberg. The environment we live in, the infrastructure in our cities, social security for the neediest, access to unbiased news, and even the missing library in the neighborhood are all examples of public goods that need a revival. Why does any of it matter? Because nothing worth being proud of can coexist with the ruins of an inequitable society. Why the current systems aren’t enough? Inherent design flaws incentivize individual success at the expense of community harm. Most complex problems impacting communities at a large scale are a result of coordination failures in sustaining and thriving public goods. These are failures in design, like missing incentives for involved stakeholders to drive a concerted action. These are failures in execution, such as information asymmetry, unchecked corruption, and lack of measures of effectiveness. In game theory, Schelling point is a solution that people tend to choose by default in the absence of communication. The concept was introduced by the American economist Thomas Schelling in his book . The Strategy of Conflict Schelling theorized that people often concert their intentions or expectations with others if each knows that the other is trying to do the same, in a cooperative situation, so their action would converge on a focal point which has some kind of prominence compared with the environment. The current political landscape, welfare structures, financial systems, and philanthropic initiatives have not been able to create a prominent Schelling point to overcome the failures in coordination. With the current systems, we keep losing the game over and over again. What can lead to an equitable future? “There is no reason to believe that bureaucrats and politicians, no matter how well meaning, are better at solving problems than the people on the spot, who have the strongest incentive to get the solution right.” - Elinor Ostrom For centuries, we have been designing our social, industrial, and political institutions with a “control-first” mindset. This leads to disenfranchisement at the edges where there is most potential to deliver the greatest impact. The fundamental change to empower those who can solve the problems on the spot needs to start with the dissipation of power from the center to these edges. There has never been a better time to re-think entrepreneurship as a pursuit to bring change at scale with and for those impacted. We need collaborative ways to work with each other in the form of protocols, infrastructure, and tools for building “transparency-first” organizations. The decentralized structures designed with careful deliberation can unlock this by dissipating the power to decide how to extract value and where relevant, automating the ability to extract it, thus drastically reducing historically prevalent sources of information asymmetry, corruption, and ineffectiveness. How can crypto fix any of this? “With programable money, we can program our values into our money”. - Greenpilled There is an entire spectrum of emerging structures with design decisions for governance and financial sustainability unique to the problem they are attempting to solve. Here are some shared characteristics of these cryptoeconomic building blocks. In other words, Web3 allows the ability to program our values into our money. Blockchain can codify incentive design that encourages action towards socially beneficial outcomes at scale. These incentives drive collective action to overcome common failures of coordination. The atomic unit of this transformation is an — a collective action that has a net positive impact on building and sustaining public goods. Related Impact DAOs stack over each other to replace existing centers of power and build transparent systems of tomorrow. Impact DAO These structures focus on outcomes that: cultivate regenerative versus extractive economy drive sustainable longitudinal transformation versus short-term wins are designed for shock resilience What will it take? Now that we have ways to embed transparency and automation with greater finesse, what do we do about it? We need more conversation on how we can design institutions and build governance ground up with a transparency-first mindset. Technology alone can’t solve this. In addition to the technologists, will the builders in the physical world, the community organizers, the coop founders, the bureaucrats shaping government policies, the volunteers on the ground, the creators, the artists, etc. embrace and push for the change? It just feels the technology is overshadowing conversations vis-a-vis the use cases that might make a meaningful difference using decentralization e.g. implications for coops for continuous finding, transparency in government operations, creative ownership, etc. are huge. We need system designers, sociologists, behavioral scientists, community builders, and more to shape this, in addition to technologists. The conversation we need en-masse isn’t only blockchain or tokens or NFTs. Those are the tools. They will hype, evolve, be embraced, and be replaced. Now that we have ways to embed transparency and automation with greater finesse, what do we do about it? At a minimum, an Impact DAO will need to crack the trifecta of: building a sustainable community invested for reasons beyond economics using a harmonious blend of culture, organizational design, and decentralized tech to create a regenerative micro-economy About Greenpilled Authored by , this book is about cryptoeconomic systems that create positive externalities for their neighbors and for the world. Kevin Owocki The book explores the intersection of programmable money, game theory, and mechanism design. The concepts introduce powerful new ways to fund, design, develop, and market regenerative web3 era applications and digital assets. Most importantly, the book launches the meme of regenerative cryptoeconomics into the world. To buy the book, subscribe to the podcast, or join the conversation, check out https://greenpill.party/ IMPACTDAOs — A soon-to-be-released book that captures the empirical knowledge on how crypto is regenerating the world, a that complements the theory in Greenpilled. What’s after Greenpilled? map of Impact DAOs Also Published Here

Blockchain for Public Good

Exit to Community with Curve Bonded Crowdfunding The following is a thought experiment to explore how Open Collective can . The goal here is to “transition from a privately owned company to a structure that allows us to share power and revenue” with its community comprising of employees, Fiscal Hosts, Collectives, funders, investors, and individual contributors. Exit to Community You can read about Open Collective and its pursuit to exit to the community . here This proposal is based on how has approached realigning incentives around public goods. The incremental changes take the company from a privately held start-up to a self-governing and continuously funded community. Commons Stack In summary, the article proposes for the platform to be treated as a public good. The result is a continuous organization² powered by a self-sustaining funding mechanism to preserve it as a public good. The setup relies on a token bonding curve to align incentives to produce socially-beneficial behaviors and outcomes.³ Open Collective as a Public Good Powered by Curve Bonded Crowdfunding One of the key questions raised in the article, , is as follows: Early musings on “Exit to Community” for Open Collective How can we future-proof Open Collective Inc. for the thousands of communities around the world that rely on it? The article proposes achieving this by treating the Open Collective platform as a global public good. The platform is already non-excludable, allowing all kinds of groups to raise, manage, and spend money transparently. It also meets the criteria for being non-rivalrous where use by one person neither prevents access of other people nor does it reduce availability to others. While the limitations of the capitalistic markets to create and preserve public goods is well established, there is growing research to support public goods using crypto-economic incentive design⁴. Specifically, the next order question is: Can we define the socially and financially desirable outcomes for Open Collective and work backward to codify rules that incentivize a vested community towards those outcomes? Here is a set of outcomes to start this exercise with: Enable inclusive of a variety of stakeholders across the globe community governance Preserve the by granting control to those who care about it the most core purpose Build to allow existing investors to exit and fund future operations self-sustaining liquidity Incentivize who can help meet future needs of the community long-term contributors Here’s a conceptual view of the building blocks to achieve these outcomes. The focus of this article will be on mechanism design. It is a sub-discipline of economics that deals with designing protocols that incentivize rational actors to behave in socially desirable ways⁴. The as a mechanism design provides continuous funding to establish and maintain a shared public good. It incentivizes group behavior around the collection and prudent use of shared community resources. Augmented Bonding Curve For brevity, the rest of the article does not delve into the technical design¹ of the bonding curves to codify these incentives. Also, the design allows optionality for the specific types of governance to apply on top of the mechanism design. This enables the community in essence to BYOG or “Bring Your Own Governance”² and is not a topic that is addressed at this time. Each of the subsequent phases outlines the desired outcome, exit criteria, and assumptions that progressively take Open Collective closer to its goal to exit to community using Augmented Bonding Curve. For a technical description of how Augmented Bonding Curves work, see article. this Identify trusted community members using a reputation system who earn the right for future governance and ownership. This is accomplished pending a precise definition of associated economic gains. This is by design. Seed Phase: This is an invitation for the seed members to bootstrap the community with a pre-determined goal of funds. In return, the member tokens offer a stake in ownership and control. The outcome is a system for funding “labor” i.e. actions that have a positive impact on the community. Hatch Phase: This phase extends the capital contributions to investors who may not be directly associated with the commons. In exchange, the investor members receive a stake that enables financial returns but not control. Open Phase: Seed Phase: Setting the Foundations for Self Governance Objective: Identify the initial group of value-aligned seed members in the community. They will become eligible for the economic stake and control rights in the next phase. This is based on their proof of participation i.e. qualifying contributions in the community. Why: The rest of the article remains bullish on the ability of judiciously coded contracts to build a community. Yet, the proposal also recognizes the limitations of relying only on “economic incentives as institutional glue”.⁵ How can a community exploit the possibilities of self-governance without entirely relying on economic incentives? It is important to seed the effort with value-aligned members to be the vanguards in this journey. How: Establish processes and systems that recognize members based on their qualifying contributions. These members earn the right to take part in the Hatch Phase. For example, invite proposals from the community to improve the platform during the seed phase. Authors of the qualified proposals get recognized and gain their standing. Additionally, members who participate with valuable inputs for these proposals also get recognized. An exercise like this sets in motion the cultural foundations needed to pivot to community-led governance. Exit Criteria: This phase identifies a diverse set of trusted community members with representation across the different stakeholders of Open Collective. Assumption: Different stakeholders of Open Collective may have varying levels of interest in actively owning and governing the new decentralized entity. These stakeholders include employees, Fiscal Hosts, Collectives, funders, investors, and individual contributors. The Seed Phase allows each constituent to make an informed choice for the role they seek to play in Open Collective’s future. These roles may vary between control-and-ownership (outlined in the Hatch Phase), ownership-only (outlined in the Open Phase), or neutral (no change to the current state). Hatch Phase: Bootstrapping the Community Objective: Bootstrap the community by funding an initial goal from the qualified community members from the Seed phase. In return, the community members receive tokens locked in a vesting period. However, the tokens can be used to drive governance and fund operations. These initial funds are placed in two separate pools — a Reserve Pool and a Funding Pool. This is the point of transfer of active governance to the token holders from the Hatch Phase. Why: The two pools work together to create a self-sustaining funding mechanism. The distribution of tokens to qualified community members pairs incentives with intrinsic motivation. The vesting period prevents any actions to drive speculative returns. There are now opportunities to assess governance mechanisms to fund initiatives and resources. How: From a conceptual standpoint, a bonding curve is an interface between the internal economy of the community and the outside world. It creates liquidity to provide incentive-aligned funding for what matters most to the community while putting multiple safeguards for manipulation and speculative activities. The capital in the Reserve Pool is bonded to the curve The newly minted tokens are locked in a vesting period to allow Reserve Pool to be stable The capital in the Funding Pool remains un-bonded as a floating source of capital The tokens are slowly unlocked in correlation to how much capital has been allocated to fund “labor” within the community With the vesting process and introduction of a governance model, the token holders are economically incentivized to allocate funding to curated proposals Exit Criteria: Initial funds are raised and distributed between the Reserve Pool and Funding Pool. Assumption: Community members are familiar with managing crypto wallets to receive tokens and use them to participate in active governance. While this may be a challenge today, with an ever-growing interest in enabling community tooling for crypto-enabled governance, user-friendly solutions will soon be on the horizon for adoption at scale. Open Phase: Decentralization at Scale Objective: Attract new investors and qualifying members that see the impact of the community and want to be a part of the movement so that the Funding Pool can grow. The investor tokens enable financial returns but investors cannot participate in the governance. Why: The system reserves control for the most direct value creators. Thus, the qualifying members keep long-term control of the organization. The liquidity by attracting investors makes the organization more resilient. How: Interested new investors can mint tokens by contributing funds into the curve in return for “investor tokens”. New qualifying members identified by the reputation system can also buy member tokens. Both contributions go into the Reserve Pool.⁶ Hatch Phase members can liquidate their tokens based on: a predetermined vesting period, and the extent to which funds from the Funding Pool are allocated to projects based on a governance structure With this vesting process and the introduction of a governance model, members are economically incentivized to allocate funding to curated projects that have the most beneficial impact. Lastly, whenever members liquidate their tokens, a small percentage of their returns go into the Funding Pool as “Exit Tax”. This activates funding of the commons while members are earning returns. Open Collective as a Continuous Organization So what do we have so far? Let’s revisit the outcomes we started with: Enable community governance inclusive of a variety of stakeholders across the globe The Seed Phase identifies value-aligned community members to bootstrap the funding Friction-less stake in ownership and control for qualified members at a global scale The tokens in themselves don’t enforce any particular type of governance. This enables the community to design governance processes appropriate to what’s at stake Preserve the core purpose by granting control to those who care about it the most New non-member investors are prohibited from participation by design in the Seed and the Hatch Phase Open Phase investors only receive a stake in ownership but do not have governance rights The qualifying members from the Hatch and Open Phase keep long-term control of the organization Build self-sustaining liquidity to allow existing investors to exit and fund future operations The Augmented Bonding Curve offers a continuously open primary market If the demand exceeds supply, tokens are minted providing ongoing funding Enables investors to sell at market price and at a pace they want Incentivize long-term contributors who can help meet future needs of the community Community members get a share of the value if the organization is successful This enables the same long-term financial benefits as employees The liquidity enables the community to be less distracted and focus more on the execution Other Considerations How can the existing investors exit as part of this transformation? Existing investors could choose between the following alternatives: The community can use the initial funds from the Reserve Pool to pay investors who want to exit Investors could choose to receive investor tokens during the open phase and sell at the market price at the pace they want How can the structure be inclusive to respond to the needs of various types of stakeholders for Open Collective? This will require outreach and education in the Seed Phase. The intent is to encourage all types of stakeholders to participate in qualifying activities to be eligible to receive member tokens. If the diversity of the members is inadequate in the Hatch Phase, the process will need a manual reset or intervention before adequate representation is reached. How are profits treated in the model? Surplus cash flow and donations can be distributed as follows: A fraction could be used to mint new tokens and distribute them to current (investor and member) token holders The rest could be directed to the Funding Pool to invest in projects and resources deemed beneficial to the group No Silver Bullets To see the world’s first , check out building token engineering public goods without donation. Bonding curves are helpful in low-liquidity environments and an efficient primary market maker. Augmented Bonding Curve in action Token Engineering Commons At the same time, tokens alone don’t build communities — a sense of belonging rooted in a shared value-driven purpose does. As we apply the construct of bonding curves to Open Collective, it would be shortsighted to ignore potential challenges in enabling governance using cryptoeconomics in the context of Open Collective’s roots, culture, and aspirations. Here’s is a preliminary list of topics that need further exploration to avoid narrow incentives overpowering the common good⁷. 1. Personhood of Participants Implementing a reputation system to identify qualifying contributors and their proof of participation is a high-cost activity and increases friction for new members for Open Collective. The investor members in the Open Phase do not have governance rights similar to the current investors in Open Collective. However, with obscured identity, there is a risk of a single actor masquerading as many users. 2. Holistic Representation of Community Interests The reputation system is intended to avoid voter apathy and bring the most committed members into the fold for making decisions that matter. However, it also implies only a subset of the globally diverse Open Collective community can get involved in token ownership. How can the governance structure be designed so as to respond to the needs of: the community members not included in the economic relationship? future members who did not have a chance to participate in the initial design? 3. Technical Complexities of Bifurcating Ownership and Control Tokens belonging to qualified community members identified by their proof of participation have a stake in ownership as well as control in decision making. Investor tokens only offer ownership. The implementation details to mint and burn the dual-natured tokens on the same bonding curve need to be assessed for feasibility. Wrap up Coin voting governance is still in its infancy and the current forms of coin voting are far from being “safe defaults”⁸. At the same time, the mechanism design proposed in the form of Augmented Bonding Curves is not hard-wired to specific forms of governance. This offers an opportunity to further study if the incentive alignment and funding enabled by the bonding curve can be paired with a tailored governance setup for Open Collective’s aspirations. About is a platform where communities can collect and disburse money transparently, to sustain and grow their projects. The platform provides tools for legal entities to fiscally sponsor Collectives under their umbrella, empowering people to create associations without friction. It’s like an API between the legacy world of banks and taxes and the emerging future of digitally powered distributed collaborations. Open Collective is building commons-based microeconomies to sustain public goods through incentive alignment, continuous funding, and community governance. The library of open-source, interoperable web3 components will put effective new tools in the hands of communities, enabling them to raise and allocate shared funds, make transparent decisions, and monitor their progress in supporting the Commons. Commons Stack is a project of at the University of Colorado Boulder and . It’s a different kind of story, one that connects the founders, workers, users, investors, activists, and friends who have been trying to feel their way toward a better kind of startup. Its endgame is to be a long-term asset for its community, co-owned and co-governed by those who give it life. Exit to Community (E2C) MEDLab Zebras Unite Additional References: ¹ Michael Zargham, Jamsheed Shorish, and Krzysztof Paruch, 2019, From Curved Bonding to Configuration Spaces ² Thibauld Favre, 2018, , HackerNoon Introducing Continuous Organizations ³ Jeff Emmett, 2018, , Good Audience (Medium) Rewriting the Story of Human Collaboration ⁴ Laina Emmanuel, 2018, , Medium Crypto-economic incentive design for public goods ⁵ Nathan Schneider, 2021, , The Reboot Beyond Cryptoeconomics: Platform Cooperativism and the Future of Blockchain Governance ⁶ Nathan Schneider, 2022, , HackerNoon Policy Proposals for Crypto Protocols to Make Them Less Dystopic and More Inclusive ⁷ Nathan Schneider, 2022, (DRAFT v.20220121) Cryptoeconomics as a Limitation on Governance ⁸ Vitalik Buterin, 2021, Moving beyond coin voting governance Photo by from Pixabay Pexels Also Published Here

Inside Open Collective's Effort to Become Decentralized for Global Public Good

The inevitable redistribution of power Every generation has a seminal fight or two that define its years of existence. The memorable ones include people joining hands for the greater good in spite of individual sacrifices. The most memorable ones are rooted in defending the lines for equity and justice. As with earlier efforts in decentralization, whether its labor unions or cooperatives, the building of decentralized Web will see its chapters of resistance. It just might not look like the battlegrounds of the past, but make no mistake, this is about redistribution of power. As Pete Seeger would have put it, at some point in the future, you will have to choose, "Which side are you on?". Except, the world of the future may not be as black and white as the past and there will be many sides for you to choose. Fasten up, here's why I say this: Understanding the nature of control today - A scaled tilted for the few There is an emerging pattern in multiple industries where the setup now is skewed for the few who scale at the expense of many who got them there. If a need for change arises, the control in these organizations stays centralized with the board members, or at best with shareholders, both of which could have economic incentives at odds with the greater good. I am a pessimist when it comes to any company board's capability to look beyond its fiduciary duties to maximize shareholder gains. And it is even far-fetched when that board has VCs optimizing for a rocketship. It is not about right or wrong. It is what the board is for. A global cab aggregator will optimize for efficiency in operations at the expense of the well-being of their driver "partners". Large food delivery businesses will have no qualms making lucrative but unhealthy meal options easy to find on the site. Even considering the possibility of a few inadvertent fallouts from benign intent, centrally controlled organizations or environments operated by closed intermediaries are growing their hold of unreasonable power over the impacted community. Worse, the same powers also have access to influence the future without direct accountability to its constituents from whom they derive value, like letting insurance lobbyists draft healthcare law, or having social media companies set standards for privacy. Shouldn't a board of a product company go beyond the comfortable definitions of fiduciary responsibility for legacy stakeholders? Shouldn't they be also directly accountable to users or "partners" who are the builders of the business? Where are the emerging fault lines? A case of disenfranchised edges To evaluate what institutions are ripe for disruption through decentralization, assess where the stakeholders or communities impacted by the institution are most removed from the process today. Today, how strongly are the gains correlated for those who are in control of decisions versus those impacted? (e.g. there is a weak correlation between policy holders' financial well-being and margins of a health insurance company) ALIGNMENT of financial incentives: Today, how much change is driven by those impacted versus those in control? (e.g. the most vulnerable in our societies have little say with how effectively social welfare is implemented by the government) REPRESENTATION of the community: Today, how much of the value created by the institution is a direct result of the community's effort? (e.g. most gig economy platforms are efficient intermediaries at best for the work put in by partners) INFLUENCE in the outcome by the community: Today, how much of the day-to-day interactions between the community and the institution have the potential to be codified by a ruleset? (e.g. most of the needs of a retail banking customer can be confined within a series of predictable steps) ENABLEMENT by automation: Today, how deep are the requirements for human subject matter experts to be at the helm for managing exceptions and out-of-ordinary situations? (e.g. most social media platforms need humans in the loop to address hate speech) SENTIENT specialist expertise needed: You will sense a pattern emerging that spans across a significant portion of the world we know in Web 2.0, across social media giants, insurance companies, gig economy platforms, and might I say, even social security and welfare. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. What does the alternative look like? A transparency-first mindset For centuries, we have been designing our social, industrial, and political institutions with a "control-first" mindset. Web 3.0 provides the protocols, infrastructure, and tools for "transparency-first" orgs. Does this mean our democracies and markets are broken? The concepts are probably still fine, but the tweak needed is in the execution to pivot from control-first to transparency-first setup for some of the underlying institutions, especially those who fit the bill above. There has never been a better time to re-think entrepreneurship as a pursuit to bring change at scale with and for those impacted. This is best enabled at the intersection of community building, technology innovation, and behavioral economics. The decentralized structures can unlock this by dissipating the power to decide how to extract value and automating the ability to extract it, thus drastically reducing historically prevalent sources of information asymmetry, corruption, and ineffectiveness. This feels aspirational now but will soon become table stakes. The transparency-first mindset will redefine the relationship between the governing and the governed. Institutions that owe access to operations and data to their constituents will have to be redesigned. What will it take? The politics of Web 3.0 There is potential in the underlying Web 3.0 constructs to "unionize" those who have been kept away from the gains of capitalism by select intermediaries through control and power. Once technology is sorted, the fight will turn political. The biggest challenge in this transition isn't the decentralized democratic setup of the social layer in a DAO, nor is it the complexity in the technology to automate the self-enforcement of the governance. Those problems are a function of effort and will get solved. The biggest challenge is going to be in navigating the conversations with those in power to be willing to let go of their share of control for the greater good of the community. In the commercial sector, the markets will force the move in the long run as intermediary-less structures reap the benefits of newer models of value creation. In the public sector (governance led by governments), the road is steep and uphill. How do we get there? Technology alone won't cut it We need more conversation on how we can unlearn years of brainwashing and instead design institutions and build governance ground up with a transparency-first mindset. In addition to the technologists, will the builders in the physical world, the community organizers leading coops, the bureaucrats driving government institutions, the creators, the singers, etc. embrace or push for the change? It just feels the tech is overshadowing conversations vis-a-vis the mainstream use cases, e.g. implications for coops to mobilize, transparency in government operations, creative ownership, etc. are huge. We need designers, sociologist, community builders, etc. to shape this. The conversation we need en-masse isn't only Blockchain or Tokens or NFTs. Those are just the tools. They will hype, evolve, be embraced, and be replaced. Now that we have ways to embed transparency and automation with greater finesse, what do we do about it? What does this mean for me? What transpires could be our generation's defining cause - a fight for transparent governance. From profitable communities that share gains amongst the builders of the business to restructuring government institutions that balance performance and equity. Which side are you on? Also published . here

The Decentralized Internet and Redistribution of Power

I no longer assume I know what someone actually does when they say they are a Product Manager. This year, I had a chance to have over 40 or so 1:1s with folks from outside of work in different stages of their product management journey. No two roles were the same. I distilled our conversations into one picture in an attempt to put a unifying model to the various flavors of product management discipline out there. The Approach A significant amount of work that product managers do oscillates between two key questions: Are we building the right product? Are we building the product right? Once you start plotting activities on a graph where these two questions form the axes, you observe a few organic clusters of tasks take shape. 1. The Problem Space These activities are about the pursuit to find a problem worth solving, discovering the competition, defining what success would look like, and identifying ways to market the product once it is successfully built. 2. The Solution Space The guardrails to execute to plan are established in the solution space by a creating predictable process to build the product, even if the end-goal may keep evolving over multiple iterations. 3. The Flywheel Space Like a flywheel that may need a few initial turns before gaining momentum, any product team coming together for the first time needs to establish the rigor of execution in this space before scaling to deliver meaningful outcomes. 4. The Assurance Space The Assurance Space integrates the problem defined in the product strategy with the process to build the solution. The intent is to assess progress for building a quality product experience over a pre-meditated roadmap. Putting It All Together The following view represents some familiar sets of tasks that help answer the questions discussed so far. Depending on the context some of these activities will be more critical than others. Also, the intent here is to show the impact a product manager needs to have, directly or indirectly. In a sufficiently complex environment, the product manager should ensure the right mix of support system in the form of business analysts, product analysts, scrum masters, and even project managers who can be responsible for some of the day-to-day operations. However, the product manager should be the person accountable for the eventual outcome. For example, if the user experience is disjointed due to lack of usability testing, or if the product negatively impacts the business KPIs, or if overheads in design to engineering workflow lead to slippage in a market release, the product manager is the accountable person. How do you use this information? If you are trying to break into a product management career: Start with one of the quadrants and go deep before going broad. I would suggest the flywheel space — early hands-on experience to plan and run design and engineering iterations will make you a better product strategist later. No matter how great the product strategy is or how awesome the engineering stack is, the foundations of a scalable product are laid in the trenches by collaboratively ensuring a transparent, predictable, and repeatable workflow from conception to design to engineering. If you are attempting to switch your role from a project manager to product manager: Shift your focus from the ceremonies and rituals of project management to the rigor of product thinking. This implies a relentless focus to use research and data in the context of the user’s mental model, stated and often, unstated needs. It includes the responsibility to define and execute a research-first, human-centric, and iterative approach for a well-defined user need combined with a drive to measure success against a business metric. If you are a leader owning a portfolio of products: The same grid can be extended at a higher granularity at a portfolio level for taking steps to harmonize a group of products. In theory, an iterative methodology that allows for progress using known inputs and creates windows of opportunity to course correct when new information is available is conducive to building a product portfolio. In reality, agile has become the rug underneath which transformation programs hide the delayed decisions that are critical for the experience, business, and technology scaffolding needed to support the implementation. If you are an employer posting a job for a product manager: Define the title as it may fit your organization, but you owe clarity to the candidates in the job description of what areas of product management you are seeking to have an impact. Also published here.

What Do Product Managers Do?

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are volatile. They are hard to transact and even harder to understand. Most people wouldn’t consider them an asset class, never mind a viable form of money. So what does it tell us that a debate has begun as to whether crypto is a good hedge against everything else? It tells us that something is not right with “everything else.” Not as measured by the economy, which is doing fine, by the way, but by the policymaker response. Here in the US, second quarter GDP grew at a respectable 2.1 percent. The latest core inflation numbers came in hot above 2%. Unemployment is at an all time low and the stock market is near an all time high. And yet, the Federal Reserve cut rates earlier this summer for the first time in a decade, at the time calling the action a “mid-cycle adjustment” and indicating that it would be a one and done. The markets and the President were , so the central bank went ahead and “mid-cycle adjusted” again shortly thereafter. not pleased Over in Europe, interest rates have already been negative for years with dubious results, but the European Central Bank recently took them down even further. Their actions have driven yields on German bonds so deep into negative territory that based on the formulas taught in high school economics you’d think Deutschland is in the grips of a horrible deflationary winter. The actual German inflation rate? A serviceable 1.4% If a time traveler visited us from the depths of the financial crisis and saw the level of economic policy panic they’d think things are somehow worse today than a decade ago. But then Marty McFly would see that unemployed has halved, stocks have quadrupled and real estate prices are way up and be thoroughly confused. How could an economy so copacetic warrant a response so acute? One explanation is that policymakers know something that we don’t, a rather unlikely scenario given their track record of knowing little. Another is that they are more confident in their abilities than ever before, particularly when it comes to printing money and setting rates. Money and interest used to be sacred. As far as policy tools were concerned, they used to have a glass cover with “break only in case of emergency” on them. There was a time, not that long ago, when any kind of rate cut or quantitative easing action was referred to as “extraordinary policy.” But that sanctity is no more, and interest rates and currency values are today nothing more than variables meant to be manipulated by bureaucrats. Doing so is so very ordinary Growth slowing slightly? Throw a trillion Euros at it. British voters not doing what you’d hope? Cut rates. The President tweeting that rates are too high? Pretend you are independent then do exactly as he demands. losing money on her carry trade? Print a gazillion more Yen. Mrs. Watanabe Economic policymakers increasingly resemble an amateur DJ who doesn’t know much other than the fact that he wants to be famous, so he keeps upping the gain and adding more bass. There are knobs and levers to be manipulated, and success is only a question of trial and error. If two years of negative rates in Europe haven’t accomplished anything (other than Deutsche Bank) then clearly they weren’t negative enough! Thankfully for the ECB, the NIRP knob . cripple goes to 11 Gone is any pretense of respect. The more you are willing to tweak, turn, manipulate and maul something, the less respect you have for it, and by that standard, few people have less respect for traditional fiat money than the folks in charge. Bitcoiners, for all their faults, are the opposite. Money to them is sacred. So sacred that inflation is handled by an algorithm and even the slightest technical changes need almost universal acceptance to be adopted. A few years ago, an almost comical debate over something as trivial as the size of a block led to a total schism. You can call those people a lot of things, but disrespectful is not one of them. Back in fiat land, the most controversial debate is not, as you might think, whether positive interest rates — an idea that predates the Bible — should be abandoned. That bit was decided with surprisingly little disagreement. The only remaining controversy is what you, the little plebeian who is nothing more than an entry in an economist’s spreadsheet, should do with your hard earned money now that saving is a punishable offense. Should you buy a bunch of crap you don’t actually need, or invest in a tech company that will never make money? Critics of cryptocoins often claim they are not backed by anything, but that’s a misnomer. Every currency is backed by the same thing: the collective faith of its users that it will preserve purchasing power and be widely accepted in the future. With crypto, that faith is hard coded in software and preserved by math. With legacy money, it’s maintained by constantly calling for panicked paisanos “more cowbell.” The English word respect originates from the Latin respectus, which means “to look back at, regard.” Looking back over the past decade, one kind of currency has been turned into nothing more than the preferred tool of the incompetent, while the other has not only survived but arguably even thrived despite constant critique and ridicule from those who probably don’t get it, definitely don’t own it and possibly fear it, which is almost everyone. Which currency would you rather own?

Money That You Can Respect

AWS EKS + Terraform + Cloudskiff do the job In this article I explain how to spin up an AWS EKS cluster in 1 min of work, and get Terraform code out of it for reproducibility and easy cleanup. That’s done with Cloudskiff, a CI/CD for infrastructure as code. Setting up new environments in EKS is a little tedious, and requires a lot of point and click work if you do it through the console. Plus if something messes up, or you just want to shut it all down, you end up with a shitload of work cleaning up your AWS account and getting rid of now useless services. And AWS didn’t make that simple (who designed that CLI again? And , you can’t delete your VPC, there’s a NAT gateway attached to it. And again there is automated cleanup function). no no no The AWS team doesn’t really want to add easy cleanup functions :) https://github.com/aws/aws-cli/issues/1721 . Describe everything as Terraform code, and you get a really easy way to deploy your new dev environment, a way that is reproducible and easy to clean up. And it makes it simpler to do things cleanly, with your environment neatly set up in a VPC for isolation. Enters Terraform Writing, optimizing and running Terraform code is a little tricky, and if you have your infra described as code, you might as well manage it in a CI/CD system like any other code. Right? That’s why that: Cloudskiff is building a CI/CD for infrastructure as code Day 1: makes getting started with infrastructure as code more approachable. Day 2+: streamlines versioning, acts as the central place for automation, and enables collaboration around your templates and deployments . We’re talking about AWS here, but Cloudskiff connects to other cloud providers too. So let’s dive into it. Start the timer, and let’s see how we launch a small dev cluster in 2 min of work. Cloudskiff will also generate basic but clean Terraform code for you, that you can then reuse and upgrade to evolve your environment. 1. Create a Cloudskiff account Easy, it’s . here 2. Create a Cloudskiff IAM user in your AWS account Sign into the AWS management console, then user for cloudskiff. I called mine create a new aws IAM cloudskiff. Hit then select Add user programmatic access We will create a new set of policies for this user to secure things up. Cloudskiff needs access to EKS, EC2 and IAM. I created an easy, copy paste friendly permission set right there. [ ]. regularly updated permissions here { : , : [
        { : , : [ , , ], : },
        { : , : [ ], : [ ]
        }
    ]
} "Version" "2012-10-17" "Statement" "Effect" "Allow" "Action" "ec2:*" "eks:*" "autoscaling:*" "Resource" "*" "Effect" "Allow" "Action" "iam:*" "Resource" "*" You don’t need to add tags. Let’s create this user now. Once you’ve created your user, save your access key and secret key, we’ll need them soon. 3. Add AWS to Cloudskiff Great! We’ve created a new IAM cloudskiff user. Now let’s grant the Cloudskiff platform access using that user. Open the Cloudskiff app Navigate to the on the left Integrations tab Select AWS Enter your credentials, select your favourite AWS region Save. Keep the keys handy, we’ll need them later to configure our local AWS profile. 4. Add permissions on a new infra as code Github repo Cloudskiff will generate Terraform code for your infrastructure and save it in your repo. So we need to create a github repo that we want it to push to. Create a new Github repository. Let’s call it private cloudskiff-dev-eks Go to Cloudskiff’s and select integrations tab Github Connect your Github account Note: Cloudskiff only needs access to the specific repo where you Terraform code will be stored. 5. Cool. Let’s deploy an EKS cluster The setup is complete. You’ll only have to do steps 1, 2, 3, 4 once. Now let’s see how we can launch an EKS cluster. Move to the Cloudskiff dashboard. That’s where you will monitor all your clusters, and launch new ones. Hit New Project. Select . Templates are preconfigured EKS cluster that help you get started. You still have access to the behind it. Templates Terraform Pick a name for your project Select as the provider AWS Select your usual region We’ll deploy a small cluster of scaling between 1 and 3 machines. You can always come back to it and launch something more serious afterwards :) t3.nano Enter your ssh public key ( to get it real quick on most systems). It should look like . cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ssh-rsa BLABLABLA Select your brand new cloudskiff-dev-eks repo Hit Save You should land back to your dashboard, and tadaaaam: our project is there. 9. Hit Deploy! Our project will start, and we can monitor the progress in the Logs. 5. Relax and check out the Terraform code we’ve generated See that github logo? Hit it and you’ll land on your repository. The Terraform code that is executing right now has been stored on that repo. That means it is versioned, traced, and in case there is trouble you can roll back to older versions. GitOps become easier. cloudskiff-dev-eks Meanwhile, AWS is doing its thing, starting the EKS cluster, VPCs, autoscaling groups described in this Terraform. I am guessing you already are using AWS routinely, and you have the AWS CLI setup. If not,  Let’s take a look at that. 6. Setup your local environment All you need to do is : 1. Create a Cloudskiff profile in your AWS credentials file, so that you can access your machines with your IAM. cloudskiff aws_access_key_id = .. aws_secret_access_key = [cloudskiff]
aws_access_key_id = .. 
aws_secret_access_key = .. #you probably already have something here #here too #Create this # told you we'd need that later 2. Set your local environment variables and . should contain the path to your file. We will download it from Cloudskiff later, so let’s just prepare a folder to save it, for example and define the to point to the . $KUBECONFIG $AWS_PROFILE KUBECONFIG kubeconfig $HOME/code/cloudskiff/config/aws KUBECONFIG file AWS_PROFILE=cloudskiff; KUBECONFIG= /code/cloudskiff/config/aws/kubeconfig-dev-cluster; export #the path to where you will store your kubeconfig file export $HOME 7. Connect Wait a few minutes (10–15) for AWS to assign resources. At some point, your project will be deployed (you will see a green ball in the UI). 1. Get the kubeconfig from the Cloudskiff dashboard 2. Rename it to .Then move it to or the place of your choosing, as long as it matches your kubeconfig-dev-cluster ~/code/cloudskiff/config/kubeconfig-dev-cluster $AWS_PROFILE 3. Check: . It should output something like that: echo $AWS_PROFILE; echo $KUBECONFIG AWS_PROFILE: cloudskiff
KUBECONFIG: ~/code/cloudskiff/config/aws/kubeconfig-dev-cluster 4. Now run , or if you prefer. You’re in! Cluster deployed! kubectl get nodes k9s (8. Destroy) To destroy your cluster and cleanup everything, well: just hit the button on Cloudskiff. Everything will be cleaned up automatically and ready for a re-deploy! Destroy Debrief Reading this, you might think I took more than 2 min, because I sprayed screenshots everywhere. Thinking about it, most of the things I did were just one-off for setup: (only once) Create a Cloudskiff account (only once) Create an IAM (only once) add it to Cloudskiff (only once) add permissions on a new infra as code Github repo Select 5 options Press a Deploy button (only once) make sure my local AWS profile was configured Get a kubeconfig Connect! Only 5, 6, 8, 9 are steps you need to do for each deployment, and they are mostly buttons to press or single lines of command. I hope you liked that! We haven’t looked in detail in the terraform code together, so I will keep that for an upcoming post. Don’t hesitate to reach out about this tutorial! , and . I am a Product Manager at Cloudskiff, and write about infra in my spare time. You can find other posts on Venturebeat Twitter To contact me, use <my-weird-first-name>@cloudskiff.com Previously published at https://www.cloudskiff.com/how-to-launch-eks-cluster-terraform

I Got a New EKS Cluster Running And Terraform Code in 2 minutes

Pecan.ai has just come out of stealth, , to enable business analysts to build machine learning models automatically. Dell Capital led the round, joined by S capital and bringing the total funding of the company to $15M. raising an $11M Series A The startup was founded in 2016 by Zohar Bronfman and Noam Brezis, two PhDs in computational neuroscience. The company now counts just under 30 employees and is opening offices in New York. Pecan.ai’s product is a platform targeted at business analysts, enabling them to automatically build predictive models. Their software connects to data sources, cleans up data, and automatically trains a model. A catalog of templates is available to get started, then advanced users can build their own. Right now, the catalog features templates such as fraud detection and churn use cases. This appears to be part of a second wave of companies bridging the technical gap between non-technical staff who know the business needs well, and machine learning capabilities. "It is about supply and demand. A lot of smaller companies are not in a position to hire data scientists because the good ones are expensive and rare. So we need to understand what other human capital is available", says Boaz Amidor, a strategic advisor to Pecan. The problem is not new, and some of the first wave of startups have already reached scale. Dataiku, the collaborative data science platform, was founded on somewhat similar claims of helping business intelligence staff collaborate with data scientists. Its drag and drop model building interface made it quite popular with less technical people. 7 year after inception, Dataiku is now following a secondary round by CapitalG, Google’s growth equity fund. Other platform companies in the space include DataRobot, who announced a in September, bringing its total funding to date $431 million. worth $1.4B $206 million series E Pecan will have to differentiate vs those more established players. I had a call with CEO Zohar Bronfman. When asked about differentiation, he pointed out to a higher level of automation of the data preparation stage: “we automate the entire data prep and engineering required for the autoML”. Indeed, data preparation and engineering is notoriously expensive and time consuming, . taking up to 80% of data scientist time That is true both for Pecan.ai’s business analyst target user, but also for machine learning engineers. Cleaning up data and selecting the right features efficiently is a topic that has attracted a lot of attention in the machine learning community. Some large, world-class machine learning teams noticed that individual contributors were all rebuilding the same, low-value add, data extraction pipelines for their own needs. Platforms targeted at technical users, such as , now incorporate Feature Stores to help save feature extraction pipelines for future reuse. Startups such as Logical Clocks are following suite, . Uber’s internal tool Michelangelo making this approach commercially available The key question here is to what extent extracting, cleaning and preprocessing data can be automated in general. Even automated predictive tools like Salesforce Einstein gave disappointing results to the users I talked to. How can a tool yield better results, across use cases, in an automated way? I dug deeper to understand Pecan's approach. specialized "What we do is we build [use-case specific] templates that guide business analysts through the data preparation stages. With a solution like Dataiku, you still need data scientists involved in some part of the process.  Pecan built this templating system so that business analysts can operate alone."  said Bronfman. As often, fancy technology is not the sole component: here Pecan's approach relies on mapping out data science processes, and building wizards that guide users through the data science process. Pecan.ai is entering a competitive space, with established players, but it is surfing two massive trends: bringing machine learning to less technical users, and automating the data preparation pipelines. It focuses on guiding business analysts through processes that previously required data scientists input. Doing so, it empowers companies without a dedicated data science team to build machine learning models. Pecan's template catalog approach might force it to expand slowly at first, focusing on use cases that are already covered. But this funding round gives it fuel to start aggressively expand sales.

Pecan.ai Raises 11 Million to Bring Machine Learning to Business Analysts

With the aim of promoting diversity, inclusivity and education in Web3, Unstoppable WoW3 launched a better approach for women to learn about Web3, which is going to be totally free for the members of the community. In this slogging thread, our community discussed the importance of diversity, inclusivity and education for women in tech. Moreover, we discovered how astrology and technology connects. This Slogging thread by Daniela Gerardo, Mónica Freitas, Valentine Enedah, Alokam Chinenye Augusta and Egwumba Esther occurred in slogging's official #technology channel and has been edited for readability. "Reliable and accessible Web3 education is not just about making sure women don't fall behind again. It's about giving them tools to lead the new generation of internet users," said Alina Bajars, who is the Head of Partnerships at BitDegree, during the launch of Unstoppable WoW3. Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 3:29 PM https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/unstoppable-women-of-web3-launches-new-education-streams-301633599.html The community was founded on March 8, 2022, and so far it has been researching how people are gaining value from engaging with Web3, the metaverse, and blockchain education. Due to this research, Unstoppable Wow3 is adding different batches of this education with a major focus on fundamental topics and real-world examples to improve the learning experience. This essentially encourages more women to join the web3 space and also, improves diversity within the Web3 space. Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 3:29 PM This launch caught my attention as I believe it is a great step in making sure that the women in Tech (which, as we know, aren't many) don't fall behind and ensure more women will be part of what is considered the future of technology. 1. What are your thoughts on this piece? 2. Do you know of any other initiatives that promote inclusion in Tech? 3. What would be a good strategy to promote inclusivity? Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 3:59 PM Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 4:59 PM Daniela Gerardo, I LOVE this! We definitely need more initiatives promoting inclusion, especially while we're in an early stage of web3. I think we need to change the stigma around women not understanding tech - by now we know that's not true. Daniela Gerardo, a good strategy would be to create projects with schools that get children involved in tech early on - that would probably get more attention from students across genders. Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 5:03 PM Daniela Gerardo, inclusivity goes hand in hand with what the market offers - if companies follow a fair hiring policy, where the best candidate wins, regardless of gender...that'd be great. Or even a policy where we try to balance the number of men and women hired - though I realize that we may not be able to do that yet as the majority of people in tech are men. Valentine Enedah Oct 3, 2022, 5:07 PM Daniela Gerardo, I totally agree with Mónica Freitas. In Africa, women are still underrepresented. This is a good way to encourage more women to get into technology. This also promotes the quick adoption of Web 3 and also in the long run, supports the democratization of technology. I believe Technology is a proponent of change. 🔥 2 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 5:15 PM Mónica Freitas, we have seen technology being integrated into schools' curriculums on a larger scale recently, so the implementation of programs such as this one could very well be a reality soon! It's very interesting to think of how different schools could become by the time our grandchildren enroll. 🔥 1 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 5:22 PM Mónica Freitas, YES DEFINITELY! Hiring policies is a great place to start! Yes, absolutely the best candidate for a job should be the one hired but sometimes organizations will focus on the wrong factors in choosing who to hire. For example, they might think it is better to hire a man over a woman because if a man decides to start a family he will not need recovery time after the child is born and is less likely to take maternity leave. To combat this is important to continue the minority quotas where a company is required to have diversity in their staff. This ensures that everyone is offered a change. Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 5:25 PM Valentine Enedah, absolutely it's a win-win! Hopefully, this way women will also pioneer in the future of technology! 💚 1 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 6:46 PM Daniela Gerardo, the pregnancy factor is quickly losing strength as maternity/paternity leaves impact both parents. So, companies will have to spare that time regardless of hiring a man or woman. I do believe however there's still this misconception that every woman wants to have a child and get pregnant, so that's a part of the reason why we're so behind on it. 💚 1 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 6:48 PM But isn't it funny how even though by law you're not allowed to ask these types of questions, people still do?! And don't get me started on people hiring based on astrology signs. 😪 😂 2 Valentine Enedah Oct 3, 2022, 6:49 PM Mónica Freitas, astrology? No way! That doesn't even make sense. Alokam Chinenye Augusta Oct 3, 2022, 6:51 PM This is really an interesting conversation. I believe conversations and encouraging women would really drive this success of this. 💯 1 Valentine Enedah Oct 3, 2022, 6:56 PM Mónica Freitas, there's very little scientific proof that astrology is an accurate predictor of personality traits. So why would someone be hired based on that? That should be illegal. Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 6:58 PM Mónica Freitas, the fact still remains that men MIGHT take maternity leave whilst most women HAVE to take it because of the stress their bodies go through in labor. I am definitely not saying this is a good factor to be considered, but it is something that I have heard other people use as an excuse. In the misconception of all women wanting kids, I have to agree with you completely as nowadays more and more women are discovering they don't want to be mothers or start a family. 💚 1 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 7:02 PM Mónica Freitas, I heard about that! It is ridiculous that they would break the law by asking you what your star sign is, but I don't see how that could be an influential factor, do they believe there is a sign that would be a better employee than the others? If so which one do you think would be the best? Capricorn? 💚 1 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 7:06 PM Valentine Enedah, that's exactly it! It is illegal to ask those questions, as it is illegal to ask about politics and sexual orientation, but still, people choose to ask about these things maybe in an attempt to know about their characters without invading privacy..? We can only guess what is going on in those hiring departments. ✅ 1 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:11 PM Daniela Gerardo, I guess it depends on the country you're in but aren't there mandatory paternity leaves? 💯 1 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 7:11 PM Valentine Enedah, although there's no scientific proof that zodiac signs can accurately predict character and personality I have seen posts about landlords excluding applicants based on astrology. Astrology is no longer a "girly thing" and it has become more popular nowadays and is more commonly used by a lot of people in situations of power apparently. ✅ 1 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:11 PM Daniela Gerardo, hi, I'm women who don't want kids.😂 :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing: 3 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:15 PM I guess it's just another preconception/prejudice. Kinda like me not dating Pisces men 😂 but it makes zero sense to determine one's value and skill based on the day they were born. More so, the gender, colour, and country they were born in... When put next to each other, we can really see how nonsensical these categories we use are, Daniela Gerardo. 💯 1 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 7:15 PM Mónica Freitas, I think it depends on company policy. But making paternity leaves mandatory is a great way to ensure equality on this matter. Valentine Enedah, it's like the 16 personalities test - INJs something. Technically these haven't been proven as accurate and still, people use them. I think since we've mentioned it, we should all share our sun signs here, for posterity. 😂 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:17 PM 💯 1 Alokam Chinenye Augusta Oct 3, 2022, 7:18 PM Lol we should! 😆 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:18 PM Sara Pinto, I need you to exude your Virgo energy in this thread. 😂 Alokam Chinenye Augusta Oct 3, 2022, 7:19 PM I hope Geminis are allowed to the party? 😋 💚 1 Valentine Enedah Oct 3, 2022, 7:20 PM Mónica Freitas, I actually tried the 16 personalities test. It showed Advocate so I guess I'll start advocating for women' rights.🙂 👏 1 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:20 PM Alokam Chinenye Augusta, get out of here! I was about to write: Gemini vibes from you! 😂 1 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 7:21 PM Mónica Freitas, I will admit I am an Aries, but I don't want any judgment. 😅 💚 1 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:21 PM Valentine Enedah, omg! Welcome to the advocate group chat! It's our job to give big, meaningful speeches!😬 💯 1 😅 1 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:22 PM Daniela Gerardo, so we just need a water and earth sign to have an Avatar remake. Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 7:23 PM Valentine Enedah, more advocates should have your motivations and advocate for women. 👏 💚 1 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 7:24 PM Mónica Freitas, let's try and make it happen! Last time, when the world needed him the most, he vanished! 😂 🔥 1 Egwumba Esther Oct 3, 2022, 7:24 PM Daniela Gerardo, I'm Aries as well, but I've had quite the difficulty understanding the significance of zodiac signs. 👍 1 Valentine Enedah Oct 3, 2022, 7:27 PM Alokam Chinenye Augusta, I heard Geminis have two-sided personalities. What do you say? 😂 1 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 7:29 PM Egwumba Esther, I believe astrology helps people find other ways to self-discover and accept themselves, but in no way should it be used in such important things as a hiring factor. I actually know a lot about astrology if you ever want a birth chart reading hit me up!😅 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:29 PM I'm a Scorpio... do with that what you will, ahahah! 👀 1 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:30 PM And I live with 2 Geminis and an Aries... this thread feels like home. 💯 1 :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing: 2 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:30 PM Valentine Enedah, you're talking the big talk but haven't told your sign yet. 😂 1 Valentine Enedah Oct 3, 2022, 7:31 PM Mónica Freitas, I'm Aries as well. 😎 🙌 1 :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing: 1 Egwumba Esther Oct 3, 2022, 7:31 PM Daniela Gerardo, I'll be taking up your offer real soon. :handshake: 2 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 7:32 PM Valentine Enedah, Alokam Chinenye Augusta, the Aries energy is strong in here! Valentine Enedah Oct 3, 2022, 7:33 PM Daniela Gerardo, yes. We are elite and always up for a challenge! 💯 1 Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:35 PM We went from astrology is fake to yay Aries real fast... suspicious! :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing: 1 Valentine Enedah Oct 3, 2022, 7:36 PM Haha, Still not a firm believer. I just know I'm Aries.😭 🐏 2 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 7:38 PM Mónica Freitas, we have to celebrate what connects us.😄 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 8:04 PM

If You’re an Aries, I Bet You Support Women in Tech

After purchasing small gaming companies, such as Oxenfree developer Night School Studio, Netflix plans to launch its own video game studio, thus intensifying its efforts to establish itself in the gaming industry. Based in Helsinki, Finland, Netflix's studio will be led by former Zynga and Electronic Arts executive Marko Lastikka. In this Slogging thread, our community discussed Netflix's move and how that'll impact the gaming industry. This Slogging thread by Mónica Freitas, Manas Goel, Valentine Enedah, Teri, Ashish Kushwaha, Hamza, Daniel Yerimah, Daniela Gerardo, Alokam Chinenye Augusta and Sara Pinto occurred in slogging's official #gaming channel, and has been edited for readability. Mónica Freitas Sep 29, 2022, 1:29 PM Netflix plans to launch its own video game studio https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63048019 🔥 1 Mónica Freitas Sep 29, 2022, 1:30 PM Based in Helsinki, Finland, it will be led by former Zynga and Electronic Arts executive Marko Lastikka. Netflix has previously purchased small gaming companies, such as Oxenfree developer Night School Studio. But the streaming giant is now going further and creating a studio from scratch. Lastikka is an established figure in gaming, having co-founded Zynga studio - also in Helsinki - which worked on FarmVille 3 under his leadership." "Netflix is setting up its own video game studio, as it intensifies its efforts to establish itself in the gaming industry. Mónica Freitas Sep 29, 2022, 1:31 PM "Amir Rahimi, Netflix VP of Game Studios, announced the "vision to build a world-class games studio" . "[It] will bring a variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games, with no ads and no in-app purchases." https://about.netflix.com/en/news/building-our-internal-games-studios Mónica Freitas Sep 29, 2022, 1:31 PM "Netflix has had a growing interest in the gaming industry in recent years. It has released several series based on games, such as Arcane (based on League of Legends) and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (based on Cyberpunk: 2077). Netflix is also working closely with Ubisoft, which will see both a live-action Assassin's Creed television series developed, and a Netflix-exclusive mobile game. It is unclear whether the Netflix studio intends to develop games exclusively for mobile, or if it will also target the home console market." Mónica Freitas Sep 29, 2022, 1:33 PM I didn't see this coming! What do you think of this Netflix move? Will it be enough to compensate for the many many canceled subscriptions? Is it a new opportunity for success? Manas Goel Sep 29, 2022, 2:00 PM I think this is just the finest move. I mean who could expect an OTT platform to launch video games?! A few months back, YouTube was on higher precedence than Netflix. And that was because of podcasts. Now I know that I have the potential to finish a series in, let's say 3 hours and that keeps you engaged for one day in your leisure time. Obviously, YouTube does the same for you, but only this time, it keeps you preoccupied every day. Netflix could not compete. But now with video games comprised, I think this little sliver can turn out to be a real game changer for Netflix. Plus what could be more engrossing than sitting around playing with your favorite fictional characters? Valentine Enedah Sep 29, 2022, 2:08 PM Mónica Freitas, I know for sure, they will excel. They might even come close to Sony and of course their greatest project of all time, The God of War. 🔥 1 Teri Sep 30, 2022, 1:30 PM I never tried Netflix but launching this kind of service would make sense for people who love to immerse themselves in the reality of gaming and enjoy the thrill. There are exciting times ahead. Ashish Kushwaha Oct 1, 2022, 2:48 PM I think it's just a way to increase their business. The gaming industry is going to boom even more in the future because of technology like VR, AI, etc. Also, gaming falls into entertainment which may attract people who enjoy movies towards video games and vice versa. Hamza Oct 1, 2022, 4:11 PM I am not a big fan of games but I think is a welcome development in the gaming industry. 🔥 1 Daniel Yerimah Oct 3, 2022, 1:24 PM While this could be a great move by the Netflix team, it's yet to be seen. Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 5:25 PM Manas Goel, Valentine Enedah, Teri, great points! What movies/series would you like to be transformed into video games? Valentine Enedah Oct 3, 2022, 5:34 PM Marco Polo, Red Notice, Gray Man🔥🔥 🔥 1 Daniela Gerardo Oct 3, 2022, 6:16 PM Mónica Freitas, Netflix has often been in the hot seat for some of its decisions. The decision to raise prices and some of the original content they have sent out. Maybe they are trying to change the attention from one place to another. They certainly are titans in their industry and changed the game once, we'll have to wait and see if they can do it again. Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 6:36 PM Daniela Gerardo, I don't see this as a "look over there" distracting move - I see it more as they taking advantage of the titles they already have and using them to enter the gaming universe and make more money. Wouldn't you like to see some movies or tv shows turned into games? Alokam Chinenye Augusta Oct 3, 2022, 7:14 PM I am not sure if it would help Netflix get back their lost subscriptions, but it would be something I would enjoy personally. Mónica Freitas Oct 3, 2022, 7:19 PM Alokam Chinenye Augusta, what shows would you like to see turned into video games? Teri Oct 3, 2022, 8:00 PM I don’t know much about movies but if Prison break can be converted into a video game, that would be cool. That was the only series I watched from the beginning to the last season. 🔥 2 Sara Pinto Oct 4, 2022, 1:36 PM Entering the game industry seems exciting! I think it's an interesting way to fight the growing number of canceled subscriptions. Seems like it's something they've had their eye on for quite ome time, and if they already are into it, it can be a smart investment, Mónica Freitas. s Sara Pinto Oct 4, 2022, 1:37 PM Mónica Freitas, do we know what type of games they are interested in producing? Mónica Freitas Oct 14, 2022, 12:23 PM Sara Pinto, no idea, but I assume it relates to their shows.

Netflix Plans to Launch its Own Video Game Studio

Netflix planea lanzar su propio estudio de videojuegos

Netflix prévoit de lancer son propre studio de jeux vidéo

नेटफ्लिक्स ने अपना खुद का वीडियो गेम स्टूडियो लॉन्च करने की योजना बनाई है

Netflixが独自のビデオゲームスタジオを立ち上げる計画

Netflix planeja lançar seu próprio estúdio de videogame

Netflix có kế hoạch ra mắt Studio trò chơi điện tử của riêng mình

Netflix 计划推出自己的视频游戏工作室

I will focus on twitter in this article. In a future post, I will cover . Disclaimer: linkedin Introduction I decided to write a simple and practical guide about personal branding for . I will talk about what I am doing right now to create and improve my personal brand as an Android developer. I hope you will find something useful in this article. developers What is personal brand ? A personal brand is the reflection of your identity, it is the intersection between reality, perception and you. Your identity is about your true and your . WHY core values You need to be consistent and congruent about your , your . message why What do you believe ? My answer: I believes that one experience, one blog, one book, one speech, one sentence or one word can change life forever. Let me tell you one story. In 2011, I accepted the challenge to It was interesting, I got in the zone by creating a to document my journey. But after 2 years of hard studying and sacrifice, I had some doubts about finishing my master degree. I actually had burnout and mental depression. I try to search motivation to get up again and continue my challenge. I found inspiration from my virtual mentors ( Robbins, Tim Ferriss and Eric Thomas). I created a strategy and I began to study smart instead of hard. I was back in the game. Finally in 2017 I graduated and I am really happy. graduate while working full time. blog Tony Gary Vaynerchuk One of the reason I succeed is this: My manifesto Why do you need a personal brand as a developer ? They are a lot of reasons to have a personal brand. I will give four that are really important for me. Build your reputation Share your skills and passion Become visible on the map Engage with people in your industry Step 1: Follow your mentors The first thing to do is create the list of people you admire and you want to connect with. I call them mentors because they are the best at what they do. If you are like me, you want to become better by following the path of the best. Let’s create a list of the in the world who use twitter. best android developers This is my list: twitter.com @ewilly1/Droid_Mentors on Twitter Step 2: Define your brand The second step is choosing your topics. 1 to 3 topics is enough to begin. You will focus on your topics for enough time to build a reputation. My topics are Android development and . Firebase Step 3: Craft your profile 1-Profile foto Choose a beautiful foto of you or choose an illustration of you. From to old profile foto new profile foto 2-cover foto You can put some photo of you when you’re doing interesting stuff (coding at work, speaking at conference …) Example from Rebecca Franks You can put something related to your blog Example from @ ‏ valokafor You can promote something you have done (book, android apps …) Example from Andrew Orobator This is what I did from old to new cover cover 3-bio Your bio has to be original. Describe yourself using these elements : job (what do you do?) accomplishments lifestyle or mantra hobbies hashtag This is what I did: Senior Android Engineer and public speaker. Born in Africa, living in Europe. Work hard, play hard, rest hard #Firebase learner #CoffeeLover and #TvShow addict Step 4: Engage daily The next step is commit to participate to the conversation in twitter. this means tweet daily, retweet a lot, follow and answer. Example: One of my tweets: One of my retweets One of my answers One tweet I loved Bonus: My Worflow on twitter. I use to read android related blog post and then I tweet the best posts on my twitter account. feedly If you have some tips to improve personal brand on twitter, you can write it in a comment below. Conclusion I think developing a personal brand is a long journey and I just began mine. I will make experiments, I will sometimes make mistakes and I will learn along the way. This is not a blueprint, it is my process. If you don’t have a personal brand, I invite you to create one following my example. See you for the {part 2}, until then my friend! may the {code} be with you ← BEFORE Documenting My Android Adventure NEXT → Personal branding 101 for developers {part 2} A big thanks to everyone involved in proofreading this post! If you enjoyed this post, you will love to to my newsletter. Get my cheat sheet: “ Before you go… subscribe Android Studio keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet”. Resources: _There are as many different strategies for growing a Twitter profile as there are Twitter marketers out there. What do…_follows.com 42 Expert Tips on How to Grow Your Twitter Profile _Here's the situation. You're trying to grow your personal brand, and Twitter is a necessary part of that for digital…_marketingland.com How To Grow Your Personal Brand On Twitter In Only 10 Minutes A Day _Ah, Twitter: Everyone's favorite character-count taskmaster. If you've been using this most confining of social…_blog.hootsuite.com Twitter Bio Ideas to Increase Your Follower Count

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