Technology consultants reduce risk as businesses adapt, grow

Posted by & filed under Career.

ATG  Missoula, a technology consulting firm, recently announced in the Missoula Current that it is moving to the Old Sawmill District.

ATG Missoula started a little over seven years ago with just two employees in a conference room near Red’s Bar. Today, it has over 135 employees who need their own building.

A recent search of LinkedIn showed that more than 100 University of Montana students have worked or are working in some capacity at ATG Missoula over those years. A study by UM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research found that ATG provides $18.4 million in economic impact to Missoula each year, and pays average salaries in the $85,000 range.

But what is “technology consulting”?

Source: MIssoula Current

Date: June 6th, 2018

Link: https://missoulacurrent.com/opinion/2018/05/technology-consultants/

Discussion

1) Technology consulting is a major career outlet for my MIS students.  What technology consulting opportunities are available to you?

2) Many of my MIS majors go to national technology consulting firms, not local ones like ATG Missoula covered in this article.  They go to FAST Enterprises, KPMG IT Advisory and PwC Risk Assurance.  Look up these specific opportunities and see what others are available to you outside the area where you live.

A Swiss weedkiller robot could curb our dependence on herbicides

Posted by & filed under Automation, Robotics.

 

Some $26 billion is spent on herbicides each year. These chemicals are often indiscriminately sprayed over entire fields of crops that have been genetically modified to resist the chemical onslaught. And it’s agrochemical giants like Bayer, DowDuPont, and Syngenta that usually create both the genetically modified seeds and the chemicals that are sprayed on them.  The ecoRobotix weeder could undercut the agrochemical complex by spraying herbicides more precisely.

Source: Digital Trends

Date: May 30th, 2018

Link to article: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/ecorobotix/

Discussion

1) What other sorts of applications could a machine like this have?

2) How might a machine like this be used to improve potholes in city roads?

How to make sure your Amazon Echo doesn’t send secret recordings

Posted by & filed under Amazon, App Economy.

It was Alexa’s equivalent of a pocket dial.

A woman in Portland, Oregon, claimed her Amazon Echo smart-speaker secretly recorded a private conversation, then sent the audio file to an acquaintance. She told her story to a local news outlet and it spread, stoking fears about always listening devices invading privacy.

Amazon confirmed the incident and claimed it was caused by an extremely rare series of events. The Echo misheard four different commands causing it to turn on, record a voice message, and send it to a contact.

Source: CNN Technology News

Date: May 29th, 2018

Link: http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/25/technology/amazon-alexa-stop-recording/index.html

Discussion

1) “When you first set up an Alexa device on a smartphone, you give the app permission to access the contacts saved on your phone.”   This is exactly the issue with the app developed by a Cambridge professor on Facebook, who sold that contact list to Cambridge Analytica, who then supposedly used that to create adverts to influence the U.S. election.  Why is this not such a big issue for Amazon as it was (is) for Facebook?

2) Why do people ever click the “yes, it is okay for this app to have access to all my contacts” button?

Tomorrow’s cities: Google’s Toronto city built ‘from the internet up’

Posted by & filed under Google.

Robots underground

Sidewalk Labs promises to transform the disused waterfront area into a bustling mini metropolis, one built “from the internet up”, although there is no timetable for when the city will actually be built.

Dan Doctoroff, the company’s head and former deputy mayor of New York, told the BBC the project was “about creating healthier, safer, more convenient and more fun lives”.

“We want this to be a model for what urban life can be in the 21st Century,” he said.

The area will have plenty of sensors collecting data – from traffic, noise and air quality – and monitoring the performance of the electric grid and waste collection.

Source: BBC Future

Date: May 29th, 2018

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41414872

Discussion

1) Should companies be responsible for building cities “from the internet up”?

2) What are some issues with starting a city “from the internet”?

YouTube stars’ fury over algorithm tests

Posted by & filed under Entertainment, Ethical issues, YouTube.

YouTube

Some of YouTube’s most popular stars have criticised the website for “experimenting” with how their videos are delivered to their fans.

Unannounced, YouTube started testing an algorithm that changed the order videos appeared in users’ subscription feeds.

The experiment came to light when some users complained on social media.

One YouTube star said it was the worst decision the website had made for years. But YouTube defended its experiment.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: May 29th, 2018

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44279189

Discussion

1) YouTube provides its services for free and allows people to monetize that free service for their own personal profit and enrichment.  Is it appropriate for someone who does this to complain about how YouTube operates?

2) Should platforms like YouTube have to inform users of the platform when they are experimenting with algorithms?

 

Can this robotic fish fool real fish into revealing their secrets?

Posted by & filed under AI/Artificial Intelligence, Biomimicry.

SoFi isn’t like other fish, but they don’t seem to notice.

Pale and plump with a tail that swishes side-to-side, the one-eyed robotic fish was built by scientists at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

It is designed to swim naturally alongside other fish in open water and spy on them without raising suspicions or disturbing their natural habitat.

The un-tethered robot can use its camera to record behaviors of anything from sharks and whales to schools of tiny damselfish.

Source: CNN Technology News

Date: May 22nd, 2018

Link: http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/21/technology/mit-fish-robot/index.html

Discussion

1) How might you put SoFi to other applications underwater?

2) This is an example of biomimicry, where scientists copy nature.  Do you know of any other examples of biomimicry?

The first holographic smartphone will be released later this year

Posted by & filed under 3D, Consumer Technology, Emerging Technologies.

Red Hydrogen One

AT&T and Verizon announced this week they will start selling a holographic smartphone later this year. The Red Hydrogen One smartphone is the first phone from video equipment company Red.

The Android phone’s killer feature is a “holographic display” that projects 3D images that can be viewed without special glasses. You will be able to view the images from the sides and behind, and interact with them using special hand gestures. It will also include cameras for capturing the custom 3D images.

Source: CNN Technology

Date: May 22nd, 2018

Link: http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/18/technology/holographic-phone-red-hydrogen-one-release/index.html

Discussion

1) Is 3D holography a “killer app”?

2) For what sorts of things might 3D holography be really useful?

Civil Rights Group Criticizes Amazon Over Facial Recognition

Posted by & filed under AI/Artificial Intelligence, Amazon, Civil Liberties.

Amazon.com Inc. drew the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday over a facial-recognition system offered to law-enforcement agencies that the advocacy group says can be used to violate civil rights.

In marketing materials obtained by the group, Amazon Web Services said its Rekognition system uses artificial intelligence to quickly identify people in photos and videos, enabling law enforcement to track individuals.

“Amazon’s Rekognition raises profound civil liberties and civil rights concerns,” the group said in a statement. “Today, the ACLU and a coalition of civil rights organizations demanded that Amazon stop allowing governments to use Rekognition.”

Source: Bloomberg Technology News

Date: May 22nd, 2018

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-22/amazon-criticized-by-civil-rights-group-over-facial-recognition

Discussion

1) Does Amazon have a duty to protect individuals privacy for every piece of software it develops and sells?

2) What sorts of services could you sell using Amazon’s Rekognition system platform?

Behind Seattle’s Amazon Tax: Seething Tensions, Livid Neighbors, and Rising Rents

Posted by & filed under Amazon, IT and Politics.

It was, as the local public radio station said, the day “Seattle Nice” died. On May 2, the residents of Seattle were hit with a one-two punch. For months, the city council had been debating a new tax on large employers to raise $75 million for new affordable housing and services for the homeless, whose growing population had burst out of shelters and into tents around the city.

In the late morning, just before a council hearing, a columnist for the Seattle Times broke the news that Amazon.com Inc., the city’s largest employer, was playing hardball. The typically hermetic company said it paused expansion plans for buildings that would house about 7,000 employees pending the outcome of the upcoming tax vote.

Source: Bloomberg Technology News

Date: May 16th, 2018

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-15/behind-seattle-s-amazon-tax-seething-tensions-livid-neighbors-and-rising-rents

Discussion

1) “each new tech job creates four to five non-tech jobs over the next decade.”  Why do tech jobs help the economy so much?

2) Does it make sense to levy an additional tax on tech companies that create so many jobs?

I tried to get a date using augmented reality

Posted by & filed under App Economy.

“I open the app on my phone and scan the camera across the busy London street. Like in Pokémon Go, I’m looking at the scene in front of me through my phone, and bubbles are popping up in real-time.

But these aren’t Pikachu or Poké Balls – they’re single, attractive strangers who are using the same augmented reality app as I am. Their faces are circled on my screen as I pass them physically in the street.”

Source: BBC Technology Insights

Date: May 16th, 2018

Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/d342e05c-58a4-493d-92c7-c77bbc872ab5

Discussion

1) What might be the ethical issue of using or deploying this sort of app?

2) How might you use this sort of technology more usefully than just for dating?