A county executive in New York is suing state Attorney General Letitia James (D) to block her from stopping an executive order that bans transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports · To recap, on Friday, Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James sent a cease-and-desist letter ...

Letitia James Went After a County for Protecting Women’s Sports. Here’s What Happened Next.

Far-Left group Code Pink ambushed a group of GOP lawmakers during a press conference who were demanding President Joe Biden take Cuba off the terror designation list · Reps. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.), Nicole Malliotakis, (R-N.Y.), Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) confronted ...

GOP Lawmakers School Pro-Communist Activists On Capital Hill

An “all-inclusive” online bookstore committed to carrying all books, is banning conservative literature from its shelves · Television host and queer-conforming activist RuPaul co-founded the bookstore Allstora, hosting books ranging from Gender Queer to Mein Kampf to “support all voices ...

'All-Inclusive' Queer and Gender-Affirming Friendly Bookstore Bans Conservative Titles

President Joe Biden did it again. He embarrassed the country and reminded us yet again why he needed to go · Following his State of the Union address, Biden was caught on a hot mic while revealing a private “come to Jesus” conversation he had with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Joe Biden Caught on Hot Mic Saying That Netanyahu Needs to 'Come to Jesus'

President Joe Biden was asked by a reporter on Friday if he regrets using the term “illegal” to describe the immigrant who murdered 22-year-old Georgia nursing student Laken Riley during his State of the Union address · “Do you regret using the word ‘illegal’ to describe immigrants ...

Biden Malfunctions When Asked If He Regrets Using the Term 'Illegal' to Describe Immigrants

According to a new report, the terrorist-backed group Hamas is seizing food supplies from Gazan civilians and selling it on the black market for extraordinary prices · The editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post Zvika Klein told a senior Israeli defense official that Hamas is exaggerating the ...

Hamas Is Seizing Food Aid Meant For Gazans and Selling It on the Black Market

I was unable to watch Biden’s State of the Union speech live in Thailand, but I did listen to parts of it afterwards. And best I could tell, J. D. Vance had the right idea—boycott it because listening to lies can make one immune to them · But that’s not really the main point here.

Joe Biden is Just a Bitter, Hate-Filled Old Man

“First lady Jill Biden hosted a White House ceremony on Monday for “women of courage” who have fought political repression, sexual violence, economic hardship and gender discrimination around the world” reported PBS this week. “Twelve women received the awards, which were distributed ...

Actions Speak Louder than Words, Jill Biden

On March 7, President Joe Biden did not perform his duty to inform the American people about the actual state of America; instead, he chose to mock and ridicule nearly half of the nation while giving a hackneyed campaign speech full of half-truths and “misinformation.” · Biden began his ...

‘Dark Brandon’s’ Angry State of the Union Address Reveals Desperation

During President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, he boasted all about his administration’s so-called “accomplishments” while failing to take accountability for the havoc the United States is facing under his policies · As America becomes more expensive, Biden used his SOTU ...

Critics Point Out Irony of Biden's Comment About How Expensive Housing Is for Americans

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In Our Innovation Era: Seamless Messaging, 77 Language Translations, Tag Search, and More

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Di Era Inovasi Kita: Perpesanan yang Sempurna, 77 Terjemahan Bahasa, Pencarian Tag, dan Lainnya

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혁신 시대: 매끄러운 메시징, 77개 언어 번역, 태그 검색 등

Биздин инновация доорунда: үзгүлтүксүз билдирүү, 77 тил котормосу, тэг издөө жана башкалар

Na eleko na biso ya bokeli ya sika: Nsango ya kozanga boyokani, 77 Mabongoli ya nkota, Boluki ya bilembo, mpe mingi mosusu

ໃນຍຸກນະວັດຕະກໍາຂອງພວກເຮົາ: ການສົ່ງຂໍ້ຄວາມແບບບໍ່ມີຮອຍຕໍ່, ການແປ 77 ພາສາ, ການຊອກຫາແທັກ ແລະອື່ນໆອີກ.

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Во нашата ера на иновации: беспрекорно испраќање пораки, 77 преводи на јазици, пребарување ознаки и повеќе

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Dalam Era Inovasi Kami: Pemesejan Lancar, 77 Terjemahan Bahasa, Carian Teg dan Banyak Lagi

हाम्रो नवप्रवर्तन युगमा: सिमलेस सन्देश, 77 भाषा अनुवाद, ट्याग खोज, र थप

In ons innovatietijdperk: naadloze berichtgeving, vertalingen in 77 talen, tag-zoekopdracht en meer

Mehleng ya Rena ya Boitlhamelo: Melaetša ye e se nago Seam, Diphetolelo tša Maleme tše 77, Patlo ya Dithegi, le tše dingwe

W naszej erze innowacji: bezproblemowe przesyłanie wiadomości, tłumaczenia w 77 językach, wyszukiwanie tagów i wiele więcej

زموږ د نوښت په دوره کې: بې سیمه پیغامونه، د 77 ژبې ژباړې، د ټاګ لټون، او نور ډیر څه

Em nossa era de inovação: mensagens contínuas, traduções em 77 idiomas, pesquisa de tags e muito mais

Musuqyachiy pachanchikpi: Mana llamkanayuq willakuy, 77 Simi tikray, Etiqueta maskay, hukkunapas

În epoca noastră de inovare: mesagerie fără întreruperi, traduceri în 77 de limbi, căutare de etichete și multe altele

В нашу эру инноваций: бесперебойный обмен сообщениями, переводы на 77 языков, поиск по тегам и многое другое

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අපගේ නවෝත්පාදන යුගයේ: බාධාවකින් තොරව පණිවිඩ යැවීම, භාෂා පරිවර්තන 77, ටැග් සෙවීම, සහ තවත් දේ

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I vår innovationsera: sömlösa meddelanden, 77 språköversättningar, taggsökning och mer

Katika Enzi Yetu ya Ubunifu: Ujumbe Mzito, Tafsiri za Lugha 77, Utafutaji wa Lebo, na Zaidi.

எங்கள் கண்டுபிடிப்பு காலத்தில்: தடையற்ற செய்தி அனுப்புதல், 77 மொழி மொழிபெயர்ப்புகள், குறிச்சொல் தேடல் மற்றும் பல

Дар давраи инноватсионии мо: паёмнависии бефосила, 77 тарҷумаи забон, ҷустуҷӯи барчаспҳо ва ғайра

ในยุคแห่งนวัตกรรมของเรา: การส่งข้อความแบบไร้รอยต่อ การแปลภาษา 77 ภาษา การค้นหาแท็ก และอื่นๆ อีกมากมาย

ኣብ ዘመነ ምህዞና፡ ስሉጥ መልእኽቲ፡ 77 ትርጉማት ቋንቋ፡ ምድላይ መለለዪን ካልእን

Innowasiýa döwrümizde: üznüksiz habarlaşma, 77 dil terjimesi, bellik gözlegi we başgalar

Sa Our Innovation Era: Seamless Messaging, 77 Language Translations, Tag Search, at Higit Pa

Yenilik Çağımızda: Kusursuz Mesajlaşma, 77 Dilde Çeviri, Etiket Arama ve Daha Fazlası

Eka Nguva Ya Hina Ya Vutshila: Mahungu Lama Nga Riki Na Swirhalanganyi, 77 wa Vuhundzuluxi bya Tindzimi, Ku Lavisisa Tithegi, na Swin’wana

У нашу еру інновацій: безперервний обмін повідомленнями, переклади 77 мовами, пошук за тегами тощо

ہمارے اختراعی دور میں: ہموار پیغام رسانی، 77 زبانوں کے ترجمے، ٹیگ تلاش، اور مزید

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KwiXesha lethu lokuYila: iMiyalezo engenamthungo, iinguqulelo zoLwimi ezingama-77, uPhendlo lwethegi, kunye nokunye

在我们的创新时代：无缝消息传递、77 种语言翻译、标签搜索等

Enkathini Yethu Yokusungula: Ukuthumela Imiyalezo Engenamthungo, Ukuhunyushwa Kwezilimi ezingama-77, Ukusesha Umaka, nokunye

If you're building or considering founding a company in the industries demanding intricate technologies – think Deep Tech, Space Tech, Bio Tech, or groundbreaking hardware – the involvement of scientists is non-negotiable. It's ideal to onboard such experts within your in-house team. However, even if circumstances don't allow for this, you'll still need to engage, consult, and collaborate with external top-tier specialists. This necessitates establishing a shared understanding with the research and development team, so-called R&D. In this relationship, there's a common problem: development and business have completely different mindsets and patterns of thought. R&D frequently involves the embrace of more contemplative processes, resulting in the pursuit of scientific discoveries and the fulfillment of scientific curiosity. In contrast, behind every business in such fields, there lies the idea of bringing value to humanity through the creation of great products as soon as possible, which, if executed correctly, will consequently lead to an increase in the company's revenue and capitalization. As a founder of a Deep Tech startup with an in-house team of 30+ researchers and developers, I will share my advice for the founders to simplify yet preserve the quality of connection between these different parts of a company. Create a Mutually Beneficial Partnership From the Outset According to , lack of communication is among the ten main reasons why startups fail. In complex environments where development is involved, this pitfall may be even more dangerous. CB Insights Imagine this situation: product managers desiring to expedite the development of the final product present unrealistic requirements to the R&D, which might border on the unattainable. Worse yet, instances arise where business executives seek solutions that are ultimately unfeasible within the laws of physics. All of this may ultimately lead to a situation where, even if these demands are achievable, the development team might be hesitant due to personal preferences or a perception of incongruity. To effectively navigate these complexities, the key is to establish a partnership that is not only perceived by leaders but is experienced by every team member. This partnership should be founded on principles of equality, mutual respect, and a deep recognition that the responsibilities of your colleagues in research, as well as those engaged in business-related tasks, are equally significant to the overall mission. the uncomplicated method to realize this vision is by offering an even-handed share of ownership to each stakeholder, both from the business and science side. In our case, the shares of the co-founders responsible for both sides are completely equal. In the case of the company’s leadership, , it is the task of founders to address both short-term and long-term motivations to prove that reaching the collective goal will be more beneficial for them than individual justifications. It's essential to sustain their confidence in your product and vision, which can be only achieved with regular meetings and open communication. In the case of each other representative of the team The role of the founder is to continuously prove to employees that what you're doing is not just “cool” but also meaningful, something that truly matters to people. In other words, follow the Y Combinator's famous mantra and show how you "Make something people want." For long-term motivation, the company should offer an honest and transparent system of options. While this may primarily come into play during a company sale or IPO, each employee, starting from junior positions to the C-levels, should know that they're not just contributing to something great for the sake of history. In contrast, the whole team will directly benefit from it if they succeed in creating something extraordinary. This combination of short-term enthusiasm and long-term rewards is the formula that will keep our team engaged, driven, and inspired. Articulate a Clear Product Vision for the Future Another significant danger when working with scientists lies when they operate solely within their academic framework. This can potentially lead to stagnation characterized by the constant pursuit of numerous research topics but the lack of progress toward creating a specific product. To address this, the business team needs to create a solid step-by-step plan for reaching the final product and decomposing each step. To make it possible, a systematic approach is essential: . Ask yourself clear questions to catalog all creative fantasies of what your product is like: Generate and refine the idea of the final product How is the future altered with your product in existence? How does it make people’s lives easier? What are its use cases, functions, and features? How is it operated? The best approach to do it is when ideas organically emerge from specific demands and challenges, and the inspiration can be found in a variety of sources, starting from research papers and all the way through the Netflix series. The next essential step of decomposing the product is filtering your ideas through the lens of market analysis together, you will experience product managers and future target audiences. They should help you ascertain whether your bright ideas are in demand and assess their potential market volume. Moreover, it’s vital to determine whether your innovation aims for near-term realism or envisions a role in a global future landscape. Align your ideas to market needs. . At this point, the development team should state which of the functions needed for the product are the most realistic in terms of development. Implement timelines and priority of the development together with the R&D team Of course, some startups explicitly state their aspiration to change the world in the far future, but if you want to build a product from a closer perspective, you should rank each idea in terms of being possible at this point of technical development. This may even lead to your dream product being divided into several intermediate products that are all potentially sellable and reachable in the near future. This systematic progression culminates in segmented into numerous short time intervals, each culminating in a predicted outcome. It should encompass key milestones, enabling you to evaluate each result within a decent amount of time, suitable both for the speed of your R&D process and your business needs. This approach was formulated by American Investor Ray Dalio in his book “Principles’. His methodology encapsulates five essential steps: a thoroughly structured product roadmap Defining clear goals Confronting and addressing problems Uncovering root causes Crafting detailed plans Executing these plans diligently for effective decision-making and goal achievement. This process, performed at least monthly, combined with regular assessment and updating your goals on a basic level, ensures that innovation remains an ongoing endeavor. Empower Your Team Once your strategic objectives and pathways are clear, the most prudent approach is to facilitate individual team members' dedicated focus. The founder plays a pivotal role as an executive leader, wielding both the force of determination and the authority needed to guide the team toward necessary actions. However, it's vital to avoid excessive pressure or becoming overly persistent. A poignant lesson arises from Steve Jobs' interactions with Steve Wozniak, who was too suppressive towards the great engineer, which led to the latter leaving the company. To not let anything like this happen to you: , and their valuable expertise is supported by time, authority, and respect. To start, it's essential to create an optimal working environment, such as having an office located conveniently for the scientists, a well-equipped laboratory, and a higher salary. Create an atmosphere where the brilliance of each R&D team member is acknowledged In our case, our office is literally a minute away from the university with which we collaborate, which provides easy access to the necessary resources and materials. Moreover, it's equally important to ensure that R&D representatives receive genuine recognition and rewards for their hard work. Founders of Deep Techs should actively celebrate and support brilliant ideas and achievements. This means facilitating patent applications where all the participants are mentioned fairly and providing opportunities for scientists to showcase their ideas at prestigious conferences and events. It's all about fostering an environment where innovation and dedication are not only acknowledged but also encouraged. . The groundbreaking development process can be easily stifled by someone else’s obsession with efficiency, accountability, and immediate returns. So, to provide a nurturing environment for the breakthrough, you should make sure that they don’t have to bother about anything but their research. This includes operational, legal, and business matters, as well as pressure from the outside world, such as the market, your own investors, your business team, and sometimes even yourself. Safeguard the R&D team from all external disruptions . Founders should make persistent daily efforts to bridge the gap between the worlds of business and science by regularly and equally highlighting the accomplishments of all teams. One effective way to achieve this is by organizing a monthly one-hour meeting, so-called “Townhalls.” Help business team members to gain respect in the eyes of the researchers During these gatherings, representatives from both the R&D and business teams can share their achievements from the past month. This approach not only emphasizes the progress made by each team but also illustrates how their collective efforts drive the company toward its ultimate goal. Overall, it’s ideal to reach a consensus that all team members are professionals whose responsibilities impact the company’s success as significantly as research and development. By embracing these principles, you will cultivate a harmonious atmosphere for advancing the product that will become a scientific milestone.

3 Key Rules for Building Deep Tech

গভীর প্রযুক্তি নির্মাণের জন্য 3 মূল নিয়ম

3 Schlüsselregeln für den Aufbau von Deep Tech

Tres reglas clave para desarrollar tecnología profunda

3 règles clés pour créer une technologie profonde

डीप टेक के निर्माण के लिए 3 प्रमुख नियम

ディープテックを構築するための 3 つの重要なルール

딥 테크 구축을 위한 3가지 핵심 규칙

3 regras principais para construir tecnologia profunda

3 ключевых правила создания глубоких технологий

Deep Tech Geliştirmenin 3 Temel Kuralı

3 quy tắc chính để xây dựng công nghệ sâu

构建深度技术的 3 个关键规则

Let’s say, you are a hacker with a plan. You have it all figured out. You feel invincible and untouchable. Why? Because you believe you’re invisible and untraceable. You’re betting on Bitcoin as your ransomware ticket to the “cyber gangsta’s paradise.” But, there’s a catch. Two things that define not just Bitcoin, but all cryptocurrencies, and are working against your cybercrime masterplan. Here are some real-life examples. volatility transparency You know that the sh*t has hit the fan when Reuters has to use the cheesy phrase “in history.” A leak of personal data from the Shanghai National Police (SHGA) database has exposed one billion Chinese citizens in the worst way imaginable. We are talking about the billions of names, addresses, birthplaces, national ID numbers, mobile numbers, including all crime/medical details (?!). The timing couldn’t be worse because, “last year, China passed new laws governing how personal information and data generated within its borders should be handled.” Then a hacker with a lazy nick “ChinaDan” and a nice avatar (sue me, but I’m a helpless cyber-aesthete) posted this: Hey, you can even get a “small” sample of 750K people. ChinaDan is a businessman. Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the post. You know what they say, where there's smoke, there's fire. Weibo (the Chinese version of Twitter) didn’t have time to waste on the news verifications, and before you knew it, the hashtag “data leak” was banned. There’s one thing that is authentic and proved beyond any doubt, though. The Hacker, AKA “ChinaDan,” Sucks At Math! Is this a joke? First, you steal more than 23TB of personal data, and then, you ask 10 (ten) BTC for it. Is this the most expensive typo in the history of hacking? How much is that? Around $200K, give it or take. We are in a recession, alright. I wasn’t the first one on Twitter to connect-the-dots between this “outrageous” ransom(ware) crypto-amount and Dr. Evil’s inflation problems. So, all credits for my story’s meme to this Twitter user: This guy, ChinaDan or whatever, obviously hasn’t seen “ .” Learn how to negotiate from the best, buddy: Armageddon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0vy33Br_3s Is There No Honor Among Cyber Thieves? This was a rhetorical question. Somebody hated school, and later, learned how to code. “Netherland-based Maastricht University (UM) is set to recover nearly €500,000 ($512,150) worth of Bitcoin (BTC) after in December 2019.” the police authorities managed to solve the infamous ransomware attack The invaluable research data was at stake. In this particular case, the timing was volatile. In 2019, the hackers asked and got €200,000 in Bitcoins, during the crypto winter, if I’m not mistaken. Then, the university got back with the help of the authorities two times more, and some “change,” in 2021 thanks to the bull run. The executive board of the university has decided to utilize the recovered funds to help students in financial need. Crime doesn’t pay, does it? And, while we’re at it, let’s destigmatize Bitcoin’s “association” with shady transactions, once and for all. “While critics often portray crypto as an opaque and anonymous system preferred by criminals, research data indicate that less than 1% of current crypto in circulation is associated with illicit activities.” Here’s a chart worth a thousand Bitcoins (not to be mistaken for the NFTs): Even the Colonial Pipeline Will Be Fine The Justice Department's shows that cryptocurrency may not be that untraceable after all seizure of ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline to hackers I already wrote about . I didn’t know that almost 85% of the ransom was recovered in the meantime. the Colonial Pipeline hack Who wouldn’t agree that this number, “highlights how successful U.S. law enforcement has been in developing the capacity to execute this sort of complex operation using blockchain analysis in real-time,” , a provider of risk management systems for the cryptocurrency industry. “It also points to the underlying traceability of crypto, which can be used as a powerful tool and asset against criminals. Law enforcement are becoming very adept in their use of blockchain analytics capabilities to disrupt illicit activity, and this is one of the best examples of that we’ve seen to date.” said David Carlisle, director of policy and regulatory affairs with London-based Elliptic Now, there are some “technicalities,” which don’t undermine the success but raise some “interesting” questions. For example, how did the FBI get in possession of the private key(s) to unlock the bitcoin wallets linked with the ransom? Also, the timing was worth paying attention to. Not only did the FBI know how to access these crypto funds, but also when. Meaning, when the price was the best one you could get on the crypto market. The Last Station for Ransomware Nation Isn’t Bitcoin The cybercriminals got the message. Even if they start with and use Bitcoin to achieve their ransomware initial plans, they know that the good old cash is the final stop. Money doesn’t grow on trees, but it can be buried in the ground. Yeah, no joke. The modern cyber-pirates have to go back to the treasure island times, and rely on a good memory. “Narcos” season two offers more practical pieces of advice on “farming” dirty money compared to “Breaking Bad.” “Despite his best efforts, however, even Escobar couldn’t spend all that money, and much of it was stored in warehouses and fields. According to his brother, or destroyed by the elements. In some cases, it was simply lost.” about 10%, or $2.1 billion, was written off annually—eaten by rats I’m convinced that crypto-ransomware payment demands in Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency are already or will pretty soon become a thing of the cybercriminal past. What do you think? Let me know in the comments. All of my stories’ comments are in the “Townhall Mode,” so shoot. Wait! Wrong word. Type. Peace!

Why Bitcoin is Not an "Ideal" Ransomware Currency

Pictured story, https://hackernoon.com/the-joy-of-using-single-purpose-tech Anyone can comment on ! All comments are reviewed by the individual writer or staff editor before publication on the story page. We hope this moderation approach will encourage high-quality human discussions about technology or whatever it is that is driving our collective futures. HackerNoon This publishing approach does ask for something from you - that in today’s overloaded internet, you rarely get asked for - . There is a and she or he or they will read and review your human words. IMHO internet comments too often and/or instant gratification instead of thoughtfulness about how to help the next visitor. patience second human on the other side of the screen favor bots At , we’ve learned a lot in and have tried a number of different commenting systems (discourse / medium / disqus / gun)… Naturally, we reached the conclusion to start over with one that is more native to our core product, the content management system that powers . The text editor itself is the - it’s a clean typing experience with a few extras like bullet points, breakout quotes, and code blocks. HackerNoon publishing tens of thousands of stories HackerNoon 3.0 text editor build with outline open source This is HackerNoon’s first native story commenting system, we are very open to comments below about how it could work. if you think all this second human rule quality curation is bullshit, or just think you have a story/AMA/real-time-words-craving  - anyone can instantaneously comment on your story if you toggle YES to in your story settings. Sidenote: Townhall Mode Right now (in QA), and .  All HackerNoon accounts can . writers can review submitted and published comments on their stories here manage comments settings here find their published comments on their profile pages And one of the great things about comments is that they extend to words and code, creating extra value for our users. So what do you say - how should our internet comments work tomorrow?

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Don Norbury is the head of the studio at Shrapnel, a blockchain-enabled FPS game that is redefining how we play and own our games. Don has worked on many genre-defining video games including Bioshock and Sunset Overdrive. We had the pleasure of hosting a slogging AMA for Don and his community. Jack Boreham Apr 13, 2022, 2:53 PM Hey @channel, please join me in welcoming our next AMA guest, Don Norbury. Don Norbury is Head of Studio at , the first blockchain-enabled moddable FPS game. From the genre-defining franchises of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Bioshock, Sunset Overdrive, and Crackdown, to the sports superstars Madden NFL and NASCAR, Don has redefined creative boundaries across platforms and player experience for over a decade. You can ask him anything about: http://www.shrapnel.com Shrapnel’s plans for the game Shrapnel’s development cycle True ownership in gaming Blurring the lines between developers and players Modding and creator tools Jack Boreham Apr 13, 2022, 2:55 PM Hi, Don Norbury, so great to have you with us! I would love to start by knowing more about your background and story! Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 3:42 PM Hey Jack Boreham - thanks for having me! Always a pleasure to share the story and vision for Shrapnel with curious minds. My story started back in the late 80's with a game called Think Quick that let you build your own maps and puzzles - but it wouldn't be until much later after studying computing in college that I would formalize that creative desire into a career and landed at EA Tiburon working on Madden NFL and starting my interest in gameplay and A.I. systems. I had been building my own game campaign using the Neverwinter Nights toolset at the time and they were apparently impressed enough to let me in the door. Over the following 17 years I moved across the industry from building teams and studios and into Publishing leadership. After sports games at EA I moved to film franchises at Lucasarts working on Indiana Jones and Star Wars primarily focused on A.I.... then built the team and architecture from the ground-up for Bioshock Infinite (I think I was team member #6 or so for that project) at Irrational Games in Boston. I spent the following 6 years in Global Publishing at Xbox within Microsoft - which was a fantastic way to gain business acumen and learn to juggle multiple titles. I was the lead for Sunset Overdrive and Crackdown 3 - but also assisted where necessary on titles like Ryse, Quantum Break, and Age of Empires. Finally - life somehow put me in front of some very talented people from HBO's Interactive and Immersive Experiences team - which is where I met and worked with the people who are now the founders of NEON. We did both publishing and R&D in that organization - and when AT&T acquired Warner Media we started planning our exit and what we were going to do next. We had the genius timing of founding NEON right before the pandemic - but as you can see: our amazing team held to that challenge. We did some virtual production work and had working products from HBO on the slate - and about a year ago was the inception of what is now the Shrapnel studio and project. matveyola Apr 13, 2022, 4:35 PM Do you have any specific plans for near future? Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 4:41 PM We have a ton going on right now - primarily focused on delivering the phases outlined in the Roadmap on the site and in the whitepaper. The team is operating in distinct swimlanes with crossovers that are: Game, Platform, Economy, Marcom, Experience, Creator Tools, and Partnerships. Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 4:43 PM Our desire is to get creator tools into the community hands as quickly as possible - so much of the prioritization (including team structure and hiring) has been focused on how we make that happen properly. You can see the roadmap phases here: https://www.shrapnel.com/roadmap LORDGUZLIK Apr 13, 2022, 4:45 PM When is the game expected to release? For the gameplay itself - we're preparing a playable experience for the community to engage with and give feedback on - which will include incentivization rewards for playing. Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 4:45 PM We're not announcing a specific release date yet. And really - we'll be releasing in incremental phases in a program called Shrapnel Operator Qualifier Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 4:50 PM Our game and platform is based on the ethos of community ownership, creation, and participation. The goal of Shrapnel is to eventually be entirely governed and operated in a decentralized manner. The development, iteration, release, and evolution of Shrapnel will adhere to that ethos as well, matveyola Apr 13, 2022, 4:53 PM As I understood, players will have an opportunity to create equipment for operators. That's why, I have a question - won't it be bad for balance in game? Maybe some guys can create enormous cool weapon. Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 4:54 PM A.I. systems primarily. I'm also a fan of all things Lucasfilm - so it was a walking dream to be surrounding by all the film memorabilia every day. Concept plates... original costumes... the compositing camera they used for Empire... it was kinda nutty. Internetdough Apr 13, 2022, 4:54 PM What progress have you guys made on the game and the back end LORDGUZLIK Apr 13, 2022, 4:56 PM Will you ever arrange a community call? Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 4:57 PM They will not be able to modify gameplay-affecting intrinsic attributes that would imbalance the game. Gameplay tuning is an extremely hairy space and we will be maintaining balance as an ongoing effort based on analyzing telemetry from session data and making calls about necessary changes in what we refer to as a "War Room" every day. 🔥 2 Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 4:59 PM We are in early development - ensuring elements like ballistics, traversal, TTK, session-loop, meta, etc. are in a fun place before we drop the client on the community and start gathering feedback on the game itself. We're also working on a gameplay trailer so the community can have a more tactile idea of the pace, style, etc. previous to that point. Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 5:00 PM - Sorry I don't follow - do you mean like a townhall in our discord? LORDGUZLIK Apr 13, 2022, 5:03 PM Something like meeting in voice chat, where founders talking about their progress Warbeast - Shrapnel Apr 13, 2022, 5:03 PM I have a question about modding and tools. Do we need a specific skillset or can anyone do it? And to what extent can we modd maps? Don Norbury Internetdough Apr 13, 2022, 5:04 PM I think what lordguzlik meant was that will you arrange an ama that is voice based? LORDGUZLIK Apr 13, 2022, 5:05 PM Yep, something like that. Fractal Apr 13, 2022, 5:09 PM On the idea of ownership, do we have IP rights on items and maps we make using the creation tool? And in addition, will there be IP rights associated with any characters? matveyola Apr 13, 2022, 5:09 PM Will enemy NPC be in a game or we will just PVP with other operators? Internetdough Apr 13, 2022, 5:10 PM Think they addressed that in the whitepapers Internetdough Apr 13, 2022, 5:12 PM My second question is, will you drop like a male collection first and after that a female collection? Or is it just like all the genders in one collection. Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 5:12 PM Yes! We'll be starting regular townhalls very shortly for the Discord community to get regular updates (and ask questions) Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 5:14 PM Fractal - You'll have IP rights to your own creations. "Characters" are a combination of a base avatar plus gear/vanity. The piece that's creator-tool-based is the vanity/adornment part - so not the "character" all up per say, but instead the individual components on them. Fractal Apr 13, 2022, 5:18 PM Don Norbury thanks, sounds good. Also, what can you tell me about the comic book series being made? Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 5:19 PM There are non-player enemies. We're currently playing with the scope of these. I spent about 6 years as an A.I. lead in gaming so I have... opinions. 😆  But ultimately the call on the initial form of these combatants and how they evolve over time will be determined by our game team and production. We're actually talking with a couple behavior capture companies that can essentially enable something like "drivatars" but for shooter NPCs so we can enable extremely believable A.I. combatants with player capabilities. But ultimately - IMO - most of the really interesting A.I. is crafted entirely for the player experience (as of the experience instead of just something like a player) with movement, abilities, etc. that are unique and interesting. part 👀 1 👍 1 Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 5:29 PM Fractal and  - I think I can answer both your lines of questioning at the same time (if I'm interpreting properly).  Our team comes from a transmedia background - so we're deeply involved in world, story, and character building across all available forms of media from the very beginning of the project. We've laid out the kernel of Shrapnel to the community on the site and in the whitepaper - but there is obviously much more story to tell (and the community will eventually become an enormous part of that story). The comics series tells the stories of 5 individual characters from different parts of the world around the time-frame of the actual Shrapnel lunar impact event from their perspectives and intertwined with their own personal drama. The Operators NFT series is  tied to the comics - with each character represented as a limited-run series to be released with a bundle of utility related to community, the game, and the comics themselves. The exact details around release timing and cadence will be revealed soon! Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 5:31 PM Warbeast - Shrapnel - Fantastic question. The tools will span a range from extremely accessible to more complex/professional grade - depending both on what type of content you're making and how deeply you want to get into the creation process. The tool capabilities are also tied to your Shrapnel Reputation - with tiers of unlocked capabilities provided to players/creators who have established themselves within the Shrapnel community. 👍 1 Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 5:34 PM You'll be able to easily create - for example - your own Patch with your own brand and set of material expressions in an easy-to-use interface that you can wear (or trade)... with extra tooling and materials unlocked as you progress with creation. Likewise with maps - you can build more chunky modular pieces until graduating to more granular control over placement and prefab options - with the highest tier of creator being able to import custom prefabs for the rest of the community to use/trade/etc. 👍 1 Warbeast - Shrapnel Apr 13, 2022, 5:35 PM Don Norbury what would you suggest for tools to learn so that we can be ready to be content creation in the future game? Also, how would you control that? Can I create, for example, cover for my operator or remove cover so it's more of an open map? Or is it not that specific ? Warbeast - Shrapnel Apr 13, 2022, 5:37 PM Can I add physical obstacles for example? Or is it more of a skin creation and more on the aesthetics of things and how they look ? Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 5:38 PM Warbeast - Shrapnel - Learning just typical map creation in Unreal is probably the most useful thing to do unless you're looking to get into art (in which case you'll want to pick up something like Blender and importing content into Unreal). For many of our asset classes you won't need any sort of professional skill... think Livery Editor from Forza. 👍 2 Don Norbury Apr 13, 2022, 5:39 PM Warbeast - Shrapnel - It's both. Maps need to be differentiable from a gameplay/flow/lanes/no-mans-land/etc. perspective. 👍 2 Warbeast - Shrapnel Apr 13, 2022, 5:41 PM Don Norbury Thank you for the answers. This is awesome Limarc Ambalina Apr 14, 2022, 3:05 AM This is super cool and I'm loving the art design. I'm very much into FPS games. I'm a fan of the bioshock series so I just have to ask: what was it like working on Bioshock Infinite? What lessons do you take from your time on such projects that have helped you with developing Shrapnel? Don Norbury Apr 14, 2022, 4:44 PM Limarc Ambalina Thanks for the kind words! My time on Bioshock was formative in every way imaginable - creative and production process, architectural challenges, team building, etc. I could probably dedicate an AMA itself to the journey through that project. I'll talk about one creative (and team) element and one technical element. I would say I learned that a successful creative process involves continuously questioning your own vision and quality bar, destroying what you made, and rebuilding it again. If you read anything about the Pixar process you'll see something similar there. We built that game 10 times over again - and as a result the tools and process had to be to accommodate rapid iteration. Also you learn to pivot quickly... identifying which ideas are precious and which are tertiary (that you maybe though were critical) and leave your ego out of it. I learned how to do this myself and then how to guide others through that journey. As an example: we had an entire PvE multiplayer mode that we had to cut to ensure single-player shipped. Going through that process personally (and quickly) and then supporting others through that same adventure was an enormous growing experience for me. From a technical perspective, I learned that you only get to make about one big technical bet per year. You make tons over the course of the project - but only one BIG one - so you better make sure it's an absolute PILLAR for the game. For Bioshock Infinite, the first big bet was the floating world's technology. On the generation of console hardware we were developing for - you couldn't have giant pieces of moving geometry with gameplay on them (i.e. - needing to be physics integrated, have gameplay logic, etc.). So we basically built a system where everything was actually static and the movement transforms handled separately. On the rendering side that transform was applied and then there were hooks into gameplay and A.I. logic that allowed the rest of the game to understand what was "happening" movement wise. We extended the coordinate/vector/etc. system in the game so instead of (X,Y,Z) you had (X,Y,Z,R) - where R was the "frame of reference" you were in (the floating island or attack ship/barge or whatever). It was technically clever - but took about 6 months to implement and then tons of fallout bugs afterwards. Obviously: this was a PILLAR for the game and in retrospect completely worth it and the right call for that year's big bet. very slick amazing Jack Boreham Apr 19, 2022, 7:31 AM Don Norbury, thanks so much for joining us on this AMA. Any final thoughts to wrap up this AMA? Don Norbury Apr 19, 2022, 6:01 PM Jack Boreham Thanks for having me and allowing me to share our vision and plans for Shrapnel as a game, platform, and blockchain protocol for creation, discovery, and performance. If anything in here interested, you then check out our site at or come join the community at and keep up-to-date with the latest on our Twitter at .  I'm always happy to chat and answer questions myself as well. I'm in Discord as Don | Shrapnel, and you can find me on Twitter at . Thanks all! https://shrapnel.com https://discord.gg/shrapnel https://twitter.com/playSHRAPNEL https://twitter.com/DonNorbury Don Norbury Apr 19, 2022, 6:01 PM Additionally, if you're looking to sink your teeth in a more detailed level, you can read our whitepaper here: https://www.shrapnel.com/Shrapnel-White-Paper.pdf

Redefining FPS Games with Shrapnel Head Don Norbury

Bayo 'Lion' Adedeji is the current CEO of Wakanow. Wakanow is Africa's one-stop shop for cheap flights, hotel reservations and airport pickups. Prior to joining Wakanow, Bayo was a Senior Finance Manager at Amazon, in charge of fulfilment supporting product teams in 16 countries. Before that, he served as a senior finance professional in the consumer retails sector, including with Petsmart and Walmart Stores. Bayo is also a serial entrepreneur; he is the founder of Dundu Nation ( ), a food truck business that can provide local fried yam and plantain in a clean and hygienic environment. In addition, Bayo is also the founder of Wave Beach Lagos. https://dundunation.com Watch the Video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifbJMZiuhgI Video timestamps 1:30 - Bayo shares his background, growing up, University, etc. 8:07 - Insights from Grad School 12:43 - Bayo's Mega Shoe sale 13:20 - His experience working at Walmart 14:19 - Went to Petman to sell snakes, fish, crickets, etc. 15:26 - Working at Amazon 18:18 - Leaving all the stocks in Amazon 19:59 - What was the change with deciding to come to Wakanow? 22:48 - Why do you quit and what makes you come back? 24:21 - The 5 Ps 26:21 - When you came in to Wakanow as the Chief Transformation Officer, what were the first two things you decided to focus on? 28:03 - You do Townhalls every month at Wakanow, something you learned from Walmart; what other things did you learn from previous jobs that you have implemented in Wakanow? 30:18 - What has been the biggest mistake so far in your career? 33:14 - Tell us about Wave Beach 36:19 - What is your recipe for success? 38:31 - Pivotal moment? 40:38 - What is your advice for people that want to build a career?

#FoundersConnect - Bayo ‘Lion’ Adedeji: CEO, Wakanow & Founder, Dundu Nation & Wave Beach

Clubhouse is an audio-based social media app that allows people everywhere to talk, develop ideas and friendships, and meet new people worldwide. In this AMA, we had the pleasure of chatting with Clubhouse's Android and iOS engineers, Mopewa Ogundipe and Kate Findlay. We covered everything from their programming background, how it was to develop Clubhouse and the app itself. slogging This Slogging thread by Mónica Freitas, Kate Findlay, Mopewa, Jack Boreham, David Smooke, Limarc Ambalina, SuperSaiyanProgramming and Sara Pinto occurred in slogging's official #amas channel, and has been edited for readability. Mónica Freitas Jan 18, 2022, 8:00 PM Hey @channel, please join me in welcoming our next AMA guests, Mopewa and Kate Findlay. Mopewa is Clubhouse's Android engineer, and Kate is Clubhouse's iOS engineer. Clubhouse is an audio-based social media app where you can listen in on fascinating conversations, talk with people around the world, and make new friends. Please feel free to ask Mopewa and Kate anything about: Career and experience backgrounds; Their focus at Clubhouse and the area they operate in; Why Clubhouse was started and how the platform has grown since; Developing the platform for both Android & iOS - the challenges faced, adapting the app and its new features for both operating systems; Lessons learned from scaling Clubhouse during its rapid growth in the U.S. and internationally; Pioneering social audio and new tools for creators to help them earn money and grow their audience and developing them to scale globally on both platforms. Includes , , , , and more, and provides key metrics on room attendance, downloads/shares, etc. https://www.joinclubhouse.com/introducing-payments https://blog.clubhouse.com/introducing-pinned-links-so-many-new-ways-to-use-rooms/ https://blog.clubhouse.com/spatial-audio-clubhouse/ https://blog.clubhouse.com/music-mode-hallway-search/ https://blog.clubhouse.com/clubhouse-replays-room-recording/ Mónica Freitas Jan 18, 2022, 8:02 PM Hi Mopewa and Kate Findlay, thank you for joining us. It's a pleasure to have you with us! To start, can you talk a bit about yourselves and how you got into the world of app development? Kate Findlay Jan 18, 2022, 8:22 PM Thank you for having me! A little bit about myself - I'm Kate and I've been working as an iOS developer since I graduated from college. When I started school at theUniversity of Michigan (Go Blue!), I went in as pre-med. Turns out I actually hate science, so I switched my major over to Informatics. My mom, stepdad, and dad are all software engineers, and I thought what they did was so boring. All I knew about their jobs was working in a cubicle all day - I vowed never to do that. Low and behold, turns out I loved all of my coding classes, so I ate my words and decided to pursue it as a career (albeit without the cubicle life 🙂). I had no idea what kind of engineering I wanted to go into, but I was part of a professional fraternity called KTP that got me a lot of great exposure. I toyed around with iOS development and realized I loved the nature of building apps. It's so gratifying to me to see my work visually and know that I can directly impact users with the things I build. From then on, I was pretty hooked, and I've worked as an iOS engineer at a variety of companies. 👋 3 Mopewa Jan 18, 2022, 9:40 PM Hello all! Glad to be here 🙂 I'm Mopewa. I'm an Android engineer on the Clubhouse team which I joined in Feb 2021. I was previously also an Android engineer at Medium and Khan Academy. I was born in Nigeria and grew up there until I was 10 when my family immigrated to the U.S. and I spent my teenage years in Maryland. I have two older brothers who are engineers so I've been interested in science and engineering from a pretty young age. I started Android development in high school; my brother got me my first smartphone as a birthday gift and I had a free period in school so I started trying to build an agenda book/homework tracker app. I was cobbling the app together using tutorials I would find online but I loved the immediate feedback of being able to build my app and play with what I was building. From that experience and also from participating in the FIRST Robotics competitions in high school, I decided to major in computer science and robotics in college. And to make money in school, I kept building apps and doing android focused software engineering internships which eventually led me to my full-time jobs and where I am today! 👋 3 Jack Boreham Jan 18, 2022, 9:50 PM Mopewa, Kate Findlay, great to have you here, guys. So why did you decide to start clubhouse? What were your influences? 😄 Mopewa Jan 19, 2022, 5:37 PM Jack Boreham, I joined Clubhouse because the opportunity and challenge was too exciting an opportunity to pass up! I joined in Feb 2021 as the first android engineer as we were looking to bring the app to the Android platform. I had never worked on a project on that kind of scale before and both personally and professionally, it was a challenge I wanted to give a go. Kate Findlay Jan 19, 2022, 11:25 PM Jack Boreham, I got introduced to Clubhouse in the summer of 2020 - and I was immediately hooked. It was unlike any experience I'd had on an app before. I was creating real bonds with people I met on the app. I had to opportunity to interview to be the second iOS engineer - and just like Mopewa said, it felt like too good of an opportunity to pass up. I was ready to move to something more fast-paced and challenging than my current position, and it's been a wonderful learning experience for me. David Smooke Jan 18, 2022, 10:27 PM Cool! Thanks so much for spending time typing with us. A couple of product questions (feel free to skip any ;-): With Clubhouse Payments, what currencies do you support? Which fintech is essential to the tech stack? How are you keeping the cost per transaction down? With Pinned links, what metrics did you use to measure the success of the feature? What was the discussion like in terms of choosing to lead with the phrase "spatial audio"? In making "music mode" what were the critical technical updates that most improved the sound quality? Props on replays! Was curious how the library would become discoverable in the long term. Are many people going back and listening to older conversations? How will conversation curation evolve over time at Clubhouse? The marketing of ClubHouse has been impressive! And the name fit the invite-only rollout. How will the product use or not use the idea of exclusivity in the future? What's your favorite language and why? How is the weather in your location? Looking forward to hearing from you Mopewa and Kate! Mopewa Jan 19, 2022, 5:39 PM David Smooke, we were invite-only in the early days as a way to control our growth in a measured way to scale our community and systems. We’re not about being exclusive for the sake of being exclusive. However, as a way to support our creators, our team is exploring ways to allow creators to host exclusive conversations that can be accessed through payments. My favorite programming language is definitely Kotlin (it took me a while to get onboard after Google announced it as the preferred language for Android development but very glad I did). Especially coming for Java, my favorite things about it are its conciseness, type inference, and the built-in null safety! The weather is much too cold where I am! To be fair though, growing up near the equator, most seasons in the U.S are too cold for my liking, haha. Kate Findlay Jan 19, 2022, 11:39 PM David Smooke, pinned links: Pinned Links has actually been one of our most impressive engagement features yet, I think because it's so versatile. From buying books to purchasing tickets to a creator’s show, it gives our creators a great way to connect with their audiences. Any conversion rates above 10% are impressive and we’re consistently seeing numbers exceed that. Spatial Audio: We’ve seen spatial audio being used in various use cases and were excited about the idea of a feature that could really enhance the listener experience in a unique way. This allows the listener to differentiate voices by placing them around them, and lends to a much more immersive experience while in a room. Replays: Yes, people are definitely coming back to listen to older conversations! Oprah popped in to talk about her Adele interview and received over 40,000 total listens. We also recently hosted a live watch party of “Don’t Look Up” with director Adam McKay had 13,400 people listen live and are now at 26,000 total listeners. We're hoping to experiment with different ways of Replay discovery, but for now, replays can be found on the user profile, search, and in your hallway! Favorite language: Swift 🙂 naturally as an iOS engineer I'm a fan. I just love how readable it is (and so much less verbose than obj-c). Similar to Mopewa's sentiment on Kotlin, I also appreciate the type of inference and explicitness with nullable. Weather: It's cold right now! I'm in Denver, but I do generally love the weather here. I'm a fan of winter because I love snow and seasons. Denver generally has a pretty mild winter with many warm days scattered throughout but also has a ton of snow. So it's the best of both worlds for me! Limarc Ambalina Jan 19, 2022, 7:41 AM Hey, Kate Findlay and Mopewa, glad to have you here!! With a myriad of audio call apps, and audio call features of messaging apps, can you comment a bit on what part of the market Clubhouse capitalized on that made it grow so large? Limarc Ambalina Jan 19, 2022, 7:42 AM Scaling up is the biggest hurdle for all startups. What biggest lessons did you learn when scaling Clubhouse during its rapid growth in the U.S. and internationally? What tips would you give or do you have quick thoughts on common mistakes to avoid? Kate Findlay Jan 19, 2022, 11:51 PM Limarc Ambalina, Clubhouse created an entirely new market by pioneering the social audio space and creating a platform that allows communities to connect, talk, listen and learn from each other in real-time. Clubhouse has particularly done a good job at creating a community around its users and allowing creators to invest in their communities. We also love being involved and getting people excited about Clubhouse through things like the Weekly Townhalls and New User Onboarding rooms. Users have been drawn to Clubhouse for its authenticity and for being a place where people can feel comfortable being themselves, not focusing on image or video. There are a number of new platforms now that are integrating audio into their features, and honestly, we are thrilled to see more people enhance social audio! SuperSaiyanProgramming Jan 19, 2022, 7:45 AM Hey! I think giving content creators monetization options is one of the most important things for widespread adoption. What have been the most effective monetization paths Clubhouse has given to users? Mopewa Jan 19, 2022, 5:42 PM SuperSaiyanProgramming, we agree - 100% of Payments go to the creator. After payments launched, we wanted to give creators other avenues to make money and promote their shows. Pinned Links has been very effective - it gives creators the ability to pin to better monetize their efforts (i.e. can pin links to their books, ticket sales, etc). Sara Pinto Jan 19, 2022, 12:37 PM Hi, Kate Findlay and Mopewa, it's great to have you here! I see that both of you are engineers but for different operating systems. Why iOS/Android and not the other one? Do you find many challenges when adapting the app to each system? Mopewa Jan 19, 2022, 5:41 PM Sara Pinto, I think I ended up doing Android instead of iOS just by the circumstances in which I started coding rather than as a superconscious choice. My brother had happened to get me an Android smartphone, I didn't have a Mac, and the fee at the time to publish to the Google Playstore was I believe only $25 so I just defaulted to Android development. I did end up giving iOS development a go for a summer during an internship but objective-C and I ended up not getting along haha. Swift is much more like Kotlin (my favorite language) though so I might be willing to give it another go. Kate Findlay Jan 19, 2022, 11:44 PM Sara Pinto, similar to Mopewa, it was just kind of happenstance that I got into iOS. I had a mac and an iPhone already, and a few of my friends in my professional fraternity were already familiar with iOS development. My first project was actually working with them to build a simple membership app for our fraternity, and I had so much fun building the views out. From then on I just decided that would be the path I would follow because I enjoyed it! I tried Android development briefly while I worked at Spotify, and while I didn't hate it, I really appreciate the flexibility that iOS presents in terms of UI and animations. Mónica Freitas Jan 19, 2022, 2:37 PM Mopewa wow! So, you've always had a passion for programming. How hard was it to develop an app like Clubhouse? Mopewa Jan 19, 2022, 5:43 PM Mónica Freitas, launching the Clubhouse Android app was a challenge but a very fun one! Definitely the largest challenge of my career so far. I think the biggest challenges were 1) trying to move as quickly as possible while still making sure to release a quality product and set our future selves up for success in terms of growing the codebase and 2) having to assemble/grow the team to do #1 as we went along. I wrote more about it as well. https://blog.clubhouse.com/shipping-clubhouse-on-android-in-10-weeks/ 🔥 1 Mónica Freitas Jan 19, 2022, 2:33 PM Kate Findlay, that's awesome! Following in the family's footsteps. I bet your parents made a whole celebration after knowing you had changed your mind. How was it for you to develop a platform like Clubhouse? Kate Findlay Jan 20, 2022, 12:04 AM Mónica Freitas, developing Clubhouse is truly like nothing I've ever done before - but that's exactly what I was looking for. I really wanted to be out of my comfort zone. Some of my biggest challenges personally were having to get familiar with parts of iOS development that had always been taken care of me by other teams/frameworks at larger companies (like experimentation, build scripts, app submission and release cut process, etc). Also just having to trust my technical knowledge and make decisions! Mónica Freitas Jan 24, 2022, 11:35 AM Mopewa, Kate Findlay, thank you for answering our questions. That's a wrap on the AMA. It was a pleasure having you here with us! Any closing thoughts? Kate Findlay Jan 25, 2022, 5:53 PM Nothing I can think of 🙂 Thanks so much for having us!

How Clubhouse Pioneered the Social Audio Space

€158.5 million… That’s the total penalty imposed on organizations that violated General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements in just 2020. Shocking, isn’t it? GDPR came into effect in Spring 2018, but many organizations still haven’t taken appropriate measures to meet these requirements. So, you are definitely not alone in this struggle! Now, you might be wondering how solutions with data segregation capabilities can help you meet GDPR requirements? Why was GDPR introduced? Before diving into what exactly data segregation is, let’s first understand the aim of GDPR. Rather than looking at GDPR as a looming giant, we should reel back in a little and try to look at it from the perspective of the general public, which every one of us is a part of. GDPR was imposed with the intent of establishing a “privacy-first” culture in the EU and EEA areas. Hence, organizations will be held accountable for how they collect, store and process data containing personally identifiable information (PII). This regulation has encouraged other regulatory bodies worldwide to bring effective laws for personal data protection; for instance, CCPA came soon after GDPR in June 2018 to enhance privacy laws for California residents. Fulfill GDPR Requirements by Managing Access through Data Segregation Capabilities: Moving on to the topic at hand, organizations can opt for processing systems with access management features working alongside data segregation features to ensure that only authorized personnel gain access to the data being processed. Wondering why access control through data segregation is important for GDPR compliance? Minimizing data exposure and ensuring that the data is only accessed by authorized personnel is a core part of maintaining personal information privacy. This is especially detailed in GDPR’s Article 32, which sheds light on the aim behind the need for access controls and data segregation. GDPR Article 32 – Security of Processing: specifically enforces organizations to have resilient processing systems with security measures to prevent security breaches and unauthorized access to the data. Its clause 1(b) states: Article 32 “The ability to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of processing systems and services.” Clause 2 further exemplifies the importance of data segregation and access controls: “In assessing the appropriate level of security account shall be taken in particular of the risks that are presented by processing, in particular from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.” What is Data Segregation? To fulfill the requirements of GDPR’s Article 32, your organization must first evaluate all the various types of data it handles. Some examples could include: Data collected through website cookies Credit card information Recorded online meetings Video surveillance footage Your organization should evaluate the sensitivity of each type of personal data and the risks associated with these. Based on this evaluation, data can be stored in a segregated form as advised by GDPR. This can be done in two main ways: can be created within your processing system. This could be groups created based on the organization’s departments or teams created for special projects. Data related to each group can be restricted to that specific group. Segregation based on user groups The second way of implementing data segregation is to in your processing system, for instance, “training category” or “finance category”. It might also be possible to create multiple autonomous portals for data segregation. This can be created in case your organization has to handle highly sensitive data like surveillance footage. Access to only relevant user groups, user roles, or specific users can be given based on the different requirements. create separate data categories Utilizing Access Controls with Data Segregation Organizations must have data processing systems with appropriate access controls to fulfill GDPR requirements. As stated earlier, access can be assigned to user groups directly for each category or directly sharing relevant data with relevant groups. Another method of swiftly managing access is by dividing all users in your system into different roles based on their job seniority or trust level. These user roles can then be utilized for maintaining role-based access controls for the data stored in your processing system, which is not restricted to a certain group, category, or portal. Identity Management Is the Last Piece of This Puzzle Managing access in combination with data segregation will be in vain if your processing system doesn’t have strong authentication management. This is to ensure that only authenticated users get access to your organizational data. This can be done through single sign-on integration with different types of identity providers based on your needs. Finally, let’s explore some important tools to help you implement these solutions with ease based on your specific data needs. Content Management System (CMS) Organizations typically use simple CMS to create, edit, and store digital content while maintaining security. SharePoint SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform for enterprise content management while meeting your security needs. Content on SharePoint can be easily segregated into different folders and within different teams. Users can also be assigned various roles as well. Users can then be added to relevant teams and permissions can be assigned to each user role. SharePoint also supports multiple authentication methods and providers for Windows authentication, forms-based authentication, and SAML token-based authentication. Laserfiche Laserfiche is another enterprise CMS that excels in workflow automation to capture, secure, and organize content swiftly. It has access management capabilities with guidelines to mark the sensitivity of each data type. User roles can be defined with different pre-set responsibilities and permissions. Content folders, as well as user teams, can be created for seamless data segregation. Users can be registered through 3 types of identity providers for single sign-on: Active Directory, Active Directory LDAP, and SAML. Enterprise Video Content Management (EVCM) System EVCM systems are one step ahead of simple CMS. These tools are designed for handling larger data. They are specifically made to handle videos with powerful features like video library creation, limited sharing and social sharing options, AI capabilities to improve searchability and analytics, detailed branding, and content organization features. VIDIZMO From recorded virtual meetings to company-wide townhalls to marketing videos and HR training, video has taken over the business world, with its storage and distribution requiring compliance with GDPR. This is where VIDIZMO comes in. VIDIZMO’s enterprise content management system is a central solution for publishing, analyzing, searching, and sharing all your videos and other digital media content in a secure platform with comprehensive role-based access management options that work alongside . data segregation to help you meet all your GDPR requirements Role-based access controls are available with both pre-defined and custom role creation available. For content segregation, categories and completely autonomous content portals can be created to segregate sensitive content. VIDIZMO also has single sign-on integration with various identity providers, including directory services like Azure AD, identity access management services like OneLogin, and third-party services like Google and Facebook. Integrating with your company’s pre-existing ID directory will also give you a group synchronization option to import your current team groups rather than creating them from scratch. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tool With the prevalence of online sales and digital marketing, CRM tools are critical for storing, categorizing, and reaching out to contacts and managing online campaigns like email. These tools are perfect for handling analytics and other types of numerical data securely. HubSpot HubSpot is one of the most well-known CRM tools. It supports inbound marketing, sales, and customer service for lead generation and customer retention. For different organizational units and reporting purposes, organizations on HubSpot can create user teams. User roles can also be created with different permission sets. Assets on HubSpot can be segregated into these teams with access given to users with appropriate permission levels. HubSpot also integrates with single sign-on providers that use SAML 2.0.

Conquer GDPR Article 32: Locking Down Data Segregation and Identity-Based Access

Wealth inequality today in the United States There’s been a significant hubbub about wealth inequality in the United States in the past few years, with various politicians and financial media discussing the issue. The issue has seemingly struck a nerve with many Americans; 1.7 million live viewers watched Vermont Senator Bernie Sander’s town hall on economic inequality. Townhall events don’t get that many views ever, except for presidential nominee debates. So what’s going on here? more than In my view, American citizens are beginning to realize how much more of an issue economic inequality is becoming. Market Watch that the top 1% of Americans haven’t controlled as much wealth as they do since before the great depression. Let’s take a look at some of the numbers. reports In 2015, the top 1% of Americans took home 22% of all the income in the country. In comparison, right before the Great Depression hit the top 1% of Americans took home 23.9% of all income. Meanwhile, top CEOs of tech companies continue to accumulate significantly more and more wealth. Jeff Bezos is personally worth more than $100 billion. It’s highly possible that within the next 50 years Jeff Bezos or another tech CEO of a publicly traded company could become the world’s first trillionaire (an amount so large that even my word processor marks “trillionaire” as not a real word). reportedly That’s not to say that Amazon and other large tech companies haven’t been a significant positive utility to people’s lives (although exactly how much is difficult to quantify). I’m also not saying that all wealth inequality should be eliminated. That’s what occurred in Venezuela, where everybody is equal. Equally poor. There will always be some level of wealth inequality — some people simply work harder, some people are more intelligent than others, some people are better at learning, some people are better at running businesses, some people stumble into luck, etc. My thesis is simple. I believe that biotechnology will lead to an unprecedented amount of wealth inequality in the United States, unless biotechnology is regulated. The rest of this essay will explore why I believe this, steps that can be taken to prevent such a scenario from happening, and final thoughts. How biotechnology can lead to massive wealth inequality Image from Pexels So how does biotechnology play a factor in possibly leading to unprecedented levels of wealth inequality? Let’s take a look at what is happening in the world of biotechnology, and what it will likely look like in the next 50 years. I’ll examine two factors of biotechnology: gene editing and general human longevity. For gene editing, I’m going to focus on the most recent development: CRISPR. Crispr stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, and it is a gene editing technique that has gotten a significant amount of press over the past few years. CRISPR can be used to change any chosen letter in the DNA of an organism. That all sounds good in theory, but what does this look like in practice? There’s strong evidence that certain human traits such as intelligence and strength can be attributed, at least in part, to genetics. For example, the myostatin gene put a limit on muscles growth by limiting the size and number of muscle cells within a certain range. of this gene causes hyper-muscularity. Deletion A boy was found without myostatin, and was found to have superhuman strength: at 4.5 years old he could hold 3kg dumbbells with his arms straight out to his sides. It’s not out of the realm of possibility within the next 10 to 20 years of scientists using CRISPR to remove the myostatin gene from humans to deliberately cause muscle growth. Now imagine that a CRISPR solution is created to edit the DNA of an embryo so that, when the person grows up, that person is guaranteed to be hyper-intelligent (>130 IQ) and hyper-muscular due to removal of the myostatin gene. Likely this will only be available to the rich in the beginning due to how much is involved. Let’s say at first it costs $50,000 for a person to reliably do this to an embryo. That means only people who have that much money saved or more will be able to use CRISPR to edit their children’s genes to create innate genetic advantages in them. People in third-world countries will simply not be able to afford this. This will likely cause the gap between people in first-world countries and third-world countries to widen, as well as increase the gap between those in poverty and the top 1% in the United States. In the future, It’ll be nearly impossible for a child born in a poor family to compete in entering universities or the job market when his competition consistently has an IQ that is 30 points higher than his and can memorize information and recognize patterns much more quickly. In sports, these poor children will also not be able to compete because the competition will consistently have a significant advantage to the removal of the myostatin gene, causing a level of muscle growth that is impossible for a person with the myostatin gene to compete with. This means children from richer families will be more likely to get scholarships in universities for sports such as Football or running. Let’s now look at the longevity aspect of biotechnology, which I believe wil also play a role in increasing wealth inequality. Scientists that it will soon be possible, through biotechnological innovations, to extend a person’s lifespan beyond 120 years old. Calico is a company created by Google that aims to now believe “devise interventions that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives”. Again, this longevity solution will likely be costly in the beginning. Let’s say in the next 10 years it costs $50,000 to be able to consistently and reliably increase a person’s lifespan by 30 years. The person will be able to continue to work within that additional 30 year time-period. Bob and Joe: A thought experiment I’ve given an overview of what biotechnology will be capable of. Let’s look at some hard numbers to see how this will look like in terms of actual wealth. I’ll explore this through the parable of two men: Bob and Joe. Bob did not have his DNA edited through CRISPR because his parents could not afford it. As a result, Bob has an IQ of 100, normal muscle growth, and a life expectancy of 75 years (the average life expectancy of a male in the United States today). Bob can reasonably work well up to age 65. Joe, meanwhile, did have his DNA edited with CRISPR because his parents could afford it. His parents spent $100,000 to have his DNA edited as an embryo, and now Joe has an IQ of 135, has unparalleled levels of muscle growth, and a life expectancy of 105. Joe can reasonably work well up to age 95. Both Bob and Joe begin consistently working and investing in a stock market index fund for the S&P 500 at the young age of 25. Over the past 90 years the S&P 500 an average annual return of 10%, so I’ll use that for my calculation. has had Bob makes $65,000/year in construction and can consistently put away $1,000/month into the index fund for 40 years until he becomes too old to work. Joe, meanwhile, makes $130,000/year as an investment banker (which he has access to due to his pattern recognition and memorization abilities) and can consistently put away $2,000/month into the index fund for 70 years. Let’s see how this plays out (you can put the numbers if you want to verify them): HERE Bob, 65 years old By the time Bob is old enough that he can’t consistently work anymore, he will have $5.8 million. Not bad. Joe, 65 years old At the same age that Bob retires, Joe will still be able to continue working at full capacity. At 65, Joe has $11.6 million Bob, 95 years old Bob won’t live to be this long, and there’s a very high probability that he will be dead by the age of 75 or before. Joe, 95 years old Joe is now getting to the point where he can’t consistently work like he used to. He still has at least another 10 years ahead of him that he can look forward to. Joe has consistently been putting away $2,000/month into the stock market for 70 years. At the ripe old age of 95, Joe will have… . $208.2 million It doesn’t take a genius to see the vast difference between $208.2 million and $5.8 million. These numbers are, of course, idealized. It’s not guaranteed that the S&P 500 will return 10% annually over the next 100 years. Maybe Bob works until 70 instead of 65. But the overall point still stands: biotechnology will provide a significant advantage to the already wealthy in the United States and will likely widen the wealth gap. Bob is a stand-in for the middle class person in the United States, and Joe is a stand-in for the wealthy. In fact, it’s highly likely that I’m the end results. Say, for example, that because of Joe’s intelligence he can consistently get an 11% annual return over 70 years instead of 10%. That extra 1% difference will lead to an end amount of $360.1 million, $160 million more than before. radically underestimating It’s not difficult to see how this, playing out over several generations, can lead to massive amounts of wealth inequality. The gap will grow largest, however, between first-world countries and third-world countries. For them, it’ll be nearly impossible to compete in the global marketplace in a future where almost all of manufacturing is automated, jobs require an increasing amount of cognitive ability, and your competition not only has significantly more money but also a significantly higher cognitive ability than you do. What to do about it? Hopefully I’ve demonstrated how, over only a few generations, innovations in biotechnology can lead to an ever widening gap in wealth inequality. Now you’re thinking, what is there that can be done about this potential future problem? There are several ways that we can avoid the massive wealth inequality through biotech scenario. Note that this is by no means an exhaustive list. Regulating use of gene-editing technology If, in the future, parents can use CRISPR to grant their children superhuman abilities it will likely cause an uproar among people who are not able to afford this. One step that should be taken is regulating the use of biotechnology so that it cannot be used to provide massive inherent unfair advantages to a child, such as a guaranteed high IQ or guaranteed 150 year lifespan. Of course, there is also some difficulty in defining what exactly will lead to a massive inherent unfair advantage or not. In the future CRISPR will likely be able to completely cure genetic diseases such as sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, and others. Is it an unfair advantage if some parents can guarantee that their child will never have a genetic disease and others can’t because of the cost? These are the questions that we will have to grapple with in the future. Quickly lowering the costs of biotech innovations If biotechnological innovations, such as increasing lifespan or guaranteeing no genetic diseases, are incredibly cheap then there is not as much of a need to worry about certain people getting inherent advantages and others don’t. If it costs, say, $500 to apply gene-editing to guarantee inherent advantages to a child a majority of people in the United States will be able to use this. There are several ways that this can be achieved. The first way is through research and development so that the costs go down over time. Perhaps scientists find a way to make it so that gene-editing method to guarantee no diseases is incredibly cheap. Another possible way to lower costs is for the national government to subsidize the costs of gene-editing. It is in a nation’s best interest for its citizens to have advantages over other countries, so this option is not off the table. However, there will likely be a ferocious debate about whether the government should be involved in financially supporting the biotech industry, or (either implicitly or explicitly) endorsing the industry. Final thoughts Hopefully you begin to realize the massive disruptive impact that biotechnology could have in the future. We should aim to limit the potential negative effects of biotechnology, while at the same time allowing innovation to occur. Biotechnological innovations will offer many benefits to people, and we should ensure that everybody has access to these innovations and not just a select few group of people.

How Biotechnology Could Potentially Lead To Massive Wealth Inequality

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