Analytics have taken over the NBA and are completely revolutionizing the game. Analytics are helping teams develop strategies to become championship caliber. Teams are using analytics in every facet of the sport including rookie scouting, spotting undervalued players, calculating efficient shots, and to find different players who fit better into different roles. All in an attempt to bring a championship to the franchise. https://towardsdatascience.com/nba-data-analytics-changing-the-game-a9ad59d1f116
Fox News and Hyper-partisan politics: How did we get here?
At the time of Roger Ailes’ appointment to CEO of Fox News in 1996, CNN dominated American news networks. Often taking the position of neutrality, CNN was Americans’ source for unbiased news and stories. That impartiality may have all but fully dissolved by now, but how did we get here? An article from the BBC titled, “Roger Ailes and the dawn of hyper-partisan television,” takes a dive into just how divided Americans’ are over Ailes and Fox News.
Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born billionaire media tycoon, founder of News Corp, sought to disrupt the political landscape of America with his newly created Fox News network. In doing so, Murdoch brought in Ailes, formerly employed by the Regan, Nixon, and HW Bush administrations, to change the function of news from unbiased delivery of information to one aimed at spreading a particular ideology. As Ailes soon learned, evident by record-setting audiences, “much of the American public didn’t want information from their television news, they wanted confirmation.” This theme of vindication over wisdom has unfortunately found its way into the philosophies of many, if not all, American news outlets and is no more clearly demonstrated than by the intense period of political polarization we find ourselves in today. To learn more about Ailes, Fox News, and the alternate reality it paints for viewers on a near hourly basis, click the link below.
What Do I Need to Become an Instructional Designer?
Instructional Design is the process of formatting instructional content into a cohesive narrative to deliver to a specific audience. Like all occupations, certain dispositions and character traits of the designer will lead to more success in it’s field. Instructional Design requires a large understanding of communication, from understanding the audience from its demographics, understand the Subject Expert, and translating the content to an appropriate technical degree for said audience. Emotional Intelligence would also elevate the quality of the product, understanding how the information delivered relates, interacts, and influences the audience. Storytelling is another important skill, understanding how information in sequence interacts with each other, and how the delivery of the product affects the end result. Finally, a good foundation in computers, specifically in Web App Development and video production/editing, allows the designer to utilize resources that make the development process easier. There is variety of different software from video production and storyboarding specifically for Instructional Design.
Bellow are two articles about good qualifications employers look for in Instructional Designers: the first is about five hard career qualifications, and the second is about ten soft qualities desired form designers.
https://www.learndash.com/5-essential-qualifications-to-look-for-in-an-instructional-designer/
http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/10-qualities-of-the-ideal-instructional-designer/
Big Brothers Surveillance Power to Receive a Reform
On October 26, 2001, weeks after the infamous september 11 terrorist attacks, the 107th United States Congress passed the USA PATRIOT act (or the Patriot act for short), in response to these attacks. The bill increased national security and surveillance powers and even created the United States Department of Homeland Security. Some sections of the Bill even allowed the government to collect telephone data from millions of unsuspecting Americans, which proved to be extremely controversial. Some critics even said the bill was unconstitutional, infringing on the 4th amendment which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
Luckily a recently introduced bill, proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-WA) and Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), will look to reform section 215 of the Patriot act (expiring on March 15, 2020) which has been used by the National Security Agency to collect millions of American telephone records.
“The bill closes loopholes in vague language used by Section 215 for justifying mass surveillance sans warrant. For instance, while Section 215 originally stated that the government could collect telephone data if it was deemed “relevant” to an international terrorism, the bill cracks down on that broad language by limiting the types of criminal cases that are “relevant.” It also specifies how long data that’s been collected can be retained for and includes measures for more transparency around government data collection.”
Lindsey O’Donnel
Learn more here: https://threatpost.com/new-bill-proposes-nsa-surveillance-reforms/152183/
Google Doesn’t Just Win in Search, but in Adtech Also.
Google has slowly but surely been succeeding in it’s efforts to squeeze out the competition in Adtech as it sits at highest throne in this industry. With a such a strong and expansive infrastructure, publishers and advertisers are dealt with the battle of trying to provide adtech solutions without going through Google. Even though Google has solidified its dominance in this industry, advertising channels are constantly growing which opens up more opportunities for Adtech competitors. The internet is a vast space that only gets bigger and bigger, so although Google remains the king of Adtech now, we’ll never know how this industry will change in the years to come. Read more about Google’s dominance here:
It’s Hacking, but – legally
Hackers who are hacking, they’re horrible right? Not all of them actually! White hat hackers, or ethical hackers, use their expertise for good. They work with and for companies to identify vulnerabilities within their security infrastructure. Although companies may not full time hire a hacker they often contract them temporarily to identify an area of improvement and in return these white hat hackers are racking in millions of dollars. It is one of the most lucrative IT paths and is more lucrative than the latter of illegally hacking. Big name companies like Google and Amazon hire ethical hackers so it is definitely a field to consider when thinking about IT careers.
Time’s Up for Gender Inequity in Tech
In today’ modern society, the role of technology has played a vital role in our day-to-day tasks. Technology is all around us – from our mobile devices, to how we communicate with each other, to how we complete our work duties. Understandably, one may assume that all the benefits are there; that technology is absent of any shortcomings, but is it?
The gender disparity amongst companies has undoubtedly made its mark amongst our community. Fortunately, today more than ever – many executives have realized the importance of diversity and have already awakened the need for a more diversity work environment. The questions is, are their efforts great enough?
Establishing a more inclusive workplace is not only necessary, but very much rewarding for companies of all sorts. In fact, it is said that more female representation is indeed linked to better business performance. In addition, of nearly 22,000 publicly traded companies, those which had more women in their leadership roles were said to be more profitable.
All in all, if we want a future that belongs to all us – a future that has the ability to equally realize both a man and woman’s potential, then it is essential that we start acknowledging this changing world and taking into consideration the different possibilities. #LIS4022spr20
Week 3: Facial Recognition
Facial recognition technologies pose a major threat to our privacy. Like anything, there are legitimate uses, but the risks outweigh the benefits in this case. Facial recognition technologies are used by a many different companies and organizations including social media sites like Facebook, law enforcement agencies, and even governments. These technologies can be used to automatically identify people who are within sight of a compatible camera. All of this facial recognition data is stored digitally and often on the cloud. It’s worrying to think of whether the data is being stored securely or not. If data like this was to get into the wrong hands, the consequences could be catastrophic. But what about when it is used by the “right hands”? Mass surveillance efforts use facial recognition to track the activities and patterns of individuals. China’s social credit system relies heavily upon this. Faces of civilians are constantly scanned and their activities are assessed and they could receive consequences based upon their actions. No human intervention necessary. Most people likely would not be comfortable with this being brought to the US. Another concern is potential inaccuracies in the system. There are many documented errors made by facial recognition systems. Imagine if an innocent civilian was flagged and later punished by law enforcement just because they had a similar face to a criminal and were automatically flagged by a facial recognition system.
Racism on the Internet
According to BU sociologist Rob Eschmann through his study he reveals how students of color at a private University react to their peers anonymously posting racist messages online. He calls this “unmasking racism”. Racism is no becoming unmasked on various online sites revealing the ugly types of racism that still exist in society.
On a site called the Politically Incorrect Confessions Page, a site created for private University college students in the Midwest to talk about uncomfortable topics. After the site was published it became infamously known for its racist messages sent out anonymously written about specific people, places and groups. In response to this, students of color began to challenge their relationship with white students. “They became less trustful of their white peers, noting that anyone could have been behind the post”(Eschmann 2019).
The “Mid-U” isn’t the only place were racism and offensive remarks continue to exist. Many social media site/platforms have marketed products and advertisement with the subliminal racism and the intent to target a specific audience. This form of unmasking is only the beginning.
Careers in ICT
Before choosing your major, everyone asks “What do you want to do?” and you even ask yourself “What will I do with this degree?”. A lot goes into settling on one major, many even change majors multiple times. Information, Communication, and Technology being a newer field of study, going in you have to have a good idea of where you’re going to take this degree and work for it. In this article you’ll find a little background on the major, and find some broad careers fields you can take it to. https://ci.uky.edu/sis/ict/careers
LIS 4022 Spring 2020 