DIGITAL ANIMO – Berättelser om människorna bakom fasaden i den svenska IT-branschen

Hur påverkar den digitala utvecklingen oss människor, på riktigt? Hur kan den förbättra vår vardag samtidigt som man undviker att den äter upp all vår tid? Kan AI funka som i kultfilmen Her; en ledsagare genom ens egna känsloliv? Och kan VR verkligen vara bra för något annat än spel? Digital Animo är en ny storydriven podcast producerad av Soundtelling på uppdrag av IT-konsultbolaget One Agency. Det första avsnittet släpps söndagen den 11 juni och säsongen innehåller totalt fem avsnitt som kommer ut veckovis. I poddens första säsong får ni höra bland annat Zakaria Hersi som fick det på pappret omöjliga uppdraget att etablera en webbmarknadsplats i Nigeria, Faviana Vangelius, VD på SVRVIVE Studios och Johan Lundström chef vid sensoriska laboratoriet på KI berättar om hur VR kan göra det möjligt att förstå människan på ett helt nytt sätt. Hoa Ly berättar om hur en resa i Tokyos tunnelbana fick honom att se in i framtiden, en framtid där vi levde av och med våra telefoner och ambulansföraren Axel Moberg berättar om drömmen att hjälpa barn till ett tryggare hem.

One Agency är ett värdebaserat IT-konsultbolag som tror på att våga göra saker annorlunda. Genom podden Digital Animo vill de inspirera omvärlden till att reflektera över vad som händer med oss människor i en värld som fokuserar mer och mer på Tech, och samtidigt hur vi som människor kan använda denna framfart till att göra något bra och spännande. Elise Lilliehöök, programledare:

— På One Agency är vi övertygade om att även inom tech-branschen så börjar och slutar det med människan. Det är extra viktigt när vi arbetar inom IT att komma ihåg att det faktiskt är människor vi jobbar tillsammans med. Att använda ljud och berättande som ett verktyg att skapa fina berättelser om just människan bakom alla trendiga techiga buzzwords kändes äkta, spännande och jätteroligt!

— Genom stories som kommer nära inpå individen kan vi få våra lyssnare att inte bara se den teknologiska utvecklingen på ett annorlunda sätt, utan även sig själva. För bakom appar, kognitiva agenter och användargränssnitt – precis som med allt som skapas av människor – så finns det drivkrafter som är allmänmänskliga, oavsett var man kommer ifrån eller vem man är. Alla kan vi uppleva känslan av rädsla, nervositet eller ångest innan vi vet om vi klarar av det vi förutsatt oss att göra. Men sedan också känslan kraft och mod, när vi vågade göra det vi inte trodde att vi skulle våga. Det är det Digital Animo handlar om.

Det första avsnittet handlar om Zakaria Hersi’s vision om att ge människor ute i förorten chansen att förverkliga sina drömmar, en osannolik resa som tagit honom till Nigeria och tillbaka. En resa som handlar om allt från att lära sig värdera vad som är viktigt i livet till att prova sina McGyver skills, men också passionen och modet som krävs för att skapa något fantastiskt ur nästan ingenting.

Digital Animo producerades av contentbyrån Soundtelling, som bland annat drivs av den flerfaldigt prisbelönta radioproducenten Martin Johnson, den ena halvan bakom succépodden Spår. Soundtelling producerar storydrivna podcasts, bland annat för ASICS och KTH OpenLab.

För pressbilder, se One Agency’s Mynewsdeskkonto: http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/one-agency
För frågor One Agency, kontakta Elise Lilliehöök: 0704207531
För frågor Soundtelling, kontakta Martin Johnsson: 0739261927

The hype of Blockchain; Part #2

Back to the roots

To at least moderately understand the concept of Blockchains you need to understand how and why the technology was invented in the first place.

The concept of a Blockchain was introduced when the cryptocurrency Bitcoin was founded by an anonymous person or group of persons under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. In the ashes of the financial crisis of 2008 Satoshi sent an email to a mailing list in December of 2008, claiming to have solved the problem of finally have developed a decentralized currency which would not require trust of a third party in order to send and receive transactions. Soon thereafter (January of 2009) Satoshi released a paper explaining how the currency would function and along with functioning source code. Satoshi called the invention Bitcoin. In the first block added to the Bitcoin Blockchain, Satoshi included a message citing the headline of the UK based newspaper The Times. The message was as follows:

”The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”

It is very clear that the inventor of bitcoin was very skeptical to the current financial systems in the world, and wanted to invent an alternative that was completely open and inclusive which would allow any participant on the network to make transactions without asking for permission, and allow every transaction to be recorded for all future without the possibility to tamper the record.

Most people within the space agrees though, that despite how genius the solution was, when it comes to user design choices of the initial solution was very flawed. This has led to much misunderstanding of what the bitcoin actually is. One clear example is that the name bitcoin is very misleading as the general understanding of the word coin is that it is a physical object representing value, and that bitcoin is just an attempt to mimic this feature. However, the true function of bitcoin is that it’s a decentralized network where computers can independently agree on certain states in the network (that events have occurred, hence that value has been transferred) without the need to trust any other party on the network.

With the invention of Bitcoin Satoshi solved a known problem within computer science that was previously unsolved called the ”The Byzantine Generals problem”, which by most experts was believed to be unsolvable. The problem within computer science can be translated to define: How a network of decentralized computers can agree on states within the network without trusting the other computers in the network. The Byzantine Generals problem is a generalization of a similar problem called the ”Two Generals’ Problem”. More importantly the Two Generals’ Problem has actual mathematical proof that proves that the problem is unsolvable. As the Two Generals’ Problem is unsolvable, any generalization of the problem (like the Byzantine Generals’ problem) is also unsolvable.

So how can bitcoin solve The Byzantine Generals’ problem despite the fact that there is mathematical proof that any generalization of the Two Generals’ Problem is unsolvable? The is because Satoshi’s solution is depending on a concept that mathematics can’t take into calculation: Incentive.

For all major functioning public Blockchains, the security of the Blockchain is withheld by rewarding the decentralized parties of the Blockchain network with a native value token for risking their own resources to reassure that the transactions in the Blockchain is valid. There are different concepts and algorithms to achieve this goal, but all of them have the one thing in common that the parties are incentivized with a native value token (which in the Bitcoin Blockchain is bitcoins).

It is simply not possible to create a secure public Blockchain that is not depending on securing the information on a Blockchain with a native value token, as this is a key element to solve the Byzantine Generals Problem. Hence for organization to believe that they can create their own Blockchain, and then cherry pick that the security of the Blockchain can be withheld without the need secure it the with a Blockchain with a value token is simply false.

Another common approach is that businesses believe that they can create a secure Blockchain by not allowing anyone to add information to the Blockchain, but by selecting the ”trusted” parties that can add information to the Blockchains record. This approach leads to tremendous security risks, as we have seen time after time that no party is resistant to attacks. Every centralized party is vulnerable to malicious attackers both from outside the organization but also from within the organization. If successful attack happens in a Blockchain with this approach, all security in the Blockchain is gone, as the attacker now controls which information can be added to the ledger.

Lastly another approach many companies try is to secure that the information in the Blockchain is correct by having ”trusted parties” that validates that all information in the Blockchain is correct. This approach fails for the same reason as the last approach.

So how should businesses use Blockchains?

I hope that when you have come to this point you have had a realization that the concept of Blockchains are incredibly powerful, and truly has the power to bring many new concepts into existence. However, I also hope that by this point you have realized why building your own custom Blockchain without crucial features of other big public Blockchains, to make your custom Blockchain fit your business models, simply will not work. So do not invest in such propositions.

Note though, that if you’re working within an organization which core function in its essence is to be an authorizing middle man, the time to act is now. If your organization does not, you are likely to sooner or later be the next Kodak.

Many of the current suggested use cases for Blockchains for businesses is to store information on a Blockchain that is a permanent record. This is a very valid use case if the Blockchain has all the features I’ve discussed. If this is the use case your organization is looking in to explore right now I strongly suggest that you store the information in one of the large public Blockchains, such as the Bitcoin’s Blockchain as this currently is the most secure way to store the information. If the information for the use case is not valuable enough to pay the high fees of storing the information in Bitcoins Blockchain I would strongly suggest that you build a solution that at least regularly pegs a hash of the information into the bitcoins Blockchain (One example of a project that is experimenting with such a solution is Factom). This approach makes it possible to use the security of the large public Blockchain you have chosen, while still not requiring that you add the information directly into the Blockchain and therefore minimize the amount of fees to store the information. This secures that you can prove the exact content of the information at the time its hash being pegged into the public Blockchain. However, this approach still leaves security vulnerabilities such that an attacker could take over which new information is pegged into the Blockchain, and it also requires that copies of the information are distributed as the hash of the information’s content can only prove that the content is corresponding to the hash, but be used not recreate the information.

Whether this is the business use case your organization is considering at the moment or not, my suggestion is the following. If you are presented with a solution that is said to be a Blockchain but has any of the following features:

• The Blockchain is not public
• The record is not permanent and can be tampered
• Not everyone is allowed to add information to the Blockchain
• The Blockchain is not secured by an incentive model for decentralized parties to keep the validity of the information in the record

Then the advice is simple: Do not invest. There’s a saying within the Blockchain space that if you are presented a proposal claiming to be a Blockchain but without these features, you’re not presented with a Blockchain, you’re presented with a fancy database but with a hefty price. So, do not fall for the hype.

How to quit your job and be welcome back

Summer is coming and with that, thoughts of change… This article will help you soar across the finish line without stumbling; how to be welcome back if things don’t turn out to be as good as you hoped they would be at your sparkly new dream job.

For many of us, spring is a time to take action and implement change, resolving the feeling for something that isn’t right. For some, this means getting back on the treadmill, start eating healthy or finally step out of the comfort zone and find a new job. This article will cover the final step steps of that process – the process of leaving your current employer – the break up. Entering the room with a letter and arguments for giving your final notice. During my career, I have learned that it can end pretty much in one of two ways; good or bad.

Many of us have heard stories of colleagues who just left one day for lunch and never came back or had days where we carved out scenarios of yelling, doors slamming, finger flipping old management whilst high-fiving colleagues as one walks out the door. Truth to be told, the reality is that we often do not work with the employers from hell – it’s just time for change, a change you want to incur on good terms.

So – how do you quit your job without having it resembling a horrible break up where you burn pictures and throw out the piano through the window?

1. Make up your mind! Before you get face to face with your current employer be sure to know that that this is what you want to do. If you are good at what you do they will not want to let go of you, throwing everything from emotional blackmail to promises of change and glory trying to convince you to stay. Be prepared for this and know that things might only change in the short term, before they go to the way things were. From experience, I know that with the passing of time, the need and urge for making a change will yet again arise.
2. Leave no room for doubt or negotiation. Do not hand them reasons they can negotiate. If you are going from a smaller to a larger firm – stick with that benefits. If you are moving from an established player to a start-up – stick with that benefits. If you are moving to a country, they do not have an office in – stick with that benefit. The key here is to argue your case with reasons they cannot negotiate around. Although there might be a million little things that you are not happy with, this is not the time to present their dirty laundry.
3. Understand both sides. Know that change is quite scary and uncomfortable for most people. This move might be old news for you but fresh news for the person you are giving notice. Be professional and use positive language. Instead of badmouthing your current workplace speak positively about your feelings towards the new opportunity (keep referring to your arguments in point b).
4. Be professional. Even though the other person might react and return responses, stay professional and firm in your communication. Explain that you have enjoyed working there and that you have outgrown your current position. You are in need of change and excited about the new challenges of the new opportunity.

Remember that you are leaving, and that they are losing a talented person for which they are allowed to be upset about. This is your career and what better way to move ahead with your new opportunity than with a genuine good luck from yesterday’s old news?

Gästblogg Julia Liv: Inför Stockholm Marathon pt. #3; Veckan innan, samt under loppet

Så var tiden här. Tiden man aldrig trodde skulle komma och det är mindre än två veckor kvar till Stockholm Marathon 2017. Och då finns det ju ett antal sätt att förbereda sig dagarna innan maratonet, och även saker som är bra att tänka på under själva loppet. Här kommer tio-i-topp tips för ett hejdundrande bra maraton:

• Dra ned på träningen under maratonveckan. Spring ungefär två pass i ett lugnt och skönt tempo, och inkludera eventuellt någon fartökning i dessa för att hålla igång benen.
• Under veckan för maratonet är det viktigt att tänka på att äta bra. Kvällen innan loppet kan du med fördel dricka en sportdryck och äta en bra måltid, dock inte för stor. På maratondagens morgon; ät den frukost som du brukar äta och sippra lite sportdryck fram till start. Drick lagom med vatten, men för mycket är heller inte bra.
• Prova gärna sportdrycken de serverar under loppet för att se att magen klarar av den och träna även på att dricka när du springer.
• Planera vilka kläder du skall ha på dig. Spring i kläder du tycker är bekväma och trivs i. Använd de löparskor som du brukar springa dina distanspass i.
• Hämta ut din nummerlapp i tid.
• Säg till alla du känner att komma och heja på dig!
• Var i god tid till start innan loppet då det brukar vara trångt. Du behöver säkert besöka toaletten några gånger innan, lämna in kläder etc. och det är inte kul att vara stressad innan start.
• Starta lugnt, hitta ett tempo som känns okej och där du inte behöver ”ligga på” hela tiden. Du skall orka länge.
• Under loppet är det bra att dricka eller äta något litet för varje 5 km.
• Var beredd på att det kommer bli tufft, att det kommer göra ont och att du kommer vilja lägga av, men när du väl springer in på Stockholm Stadion så kommer ALLT vara värt det. Det kan jag garantera.

Kör hårt och stort lycka till nästa helg!

Har du frågor, funderingar eller är intresserad av personlig löpcoachning så får du gärna höra av dig till mig på 070-483 72 89 eller julia.gedin@itrim.se.