A range of solutions is needed to cure overall security ills
By Irving Wladawsky-Berger
Cybersecurity threats have significantly increased since March of 2020 when much of the economy was forced online to help us cope with the COVID-19 crisis, including a number of high profile attacks by international criminal groups and adversarial governments. This past June, FBI Director Christopher Wray compared…
MIT professor Nicholas Ashford considers proposals to counter the rise of misinformation
By Paula Klein
Fostering critical thinking, reviving the Fairness Doctrine, and creating truly independent oversight of media are all effective ways to deter misinformation while safeguarding freedom of speech. …
The right people, as well as processes, are key for data-driven business models to succeed
By Tom Davenport
I recently moderated a webinar roundtable on behalf of Domino Data Lab called “Unleash Data Science for the Model-Driven Business You Expect.” I don’t know that everyone expects a model-driven business, but some people clearly do, and many would benefit from it. …
Most businesses fall far behind the digital curve, survey shows
By Irving Wladawsky-Berger
The dramatic acceleration of tech adoption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely reported. But a recent survey shows how much still needs to be done for most businesses to thrive and survive in the next decade.
Better information policies can blunt the next pandemic’s economic impact
By Paula Klein
It’s not surprising that an economist would view the COVID-19 pandemic through an economics lens. But Professor Joshua Gans of the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, takes his vision a step further: He’s seeking to correct COVID-19 response failures by bridging gaps in information dissemination…
As hardware gains diminish, algorithms are on the rise
By Rachel Gordon, MIT
Algorithms are sort of like a parent to a computer. They tell the computer how to make sense of information so they can, in turn, make something useful out of it.
The more efficient the algorithm, the less work the computer has to do. For all…
Don’t count it out, yet. Despite huge pressures, McKinsey sees technology and process improvements boosting U.S. factories
By Irving Wladawsky-Berger
In today’s service economy it’s easy to forget that manufacturing jobs helped build the U.S. middle class after WWII. In the 1950s, it accounted for roughly 30% of employment and close to 30% of GDP. Manufacturing has significantly declined in the intervening decades, now comprising only 8%…
MIT’s Andrew McAfee advocates for permission-less innovation to encourage the flow of breakthrough ideas
By Andrew McAfee, courtesy of FT.com
While some of us under lockdown churned through streaming services and sourdough starters, others decided to use the time for a little self-improvement — taking up Dutch or Danish, Swahili or Esperanto.
Duolingo, the free app many downloaded, has become the world’s most popular…
Researchers analyzed communication patterns among at-home Microsoft employees during the pandemic and found that collaboration suffers when everyone works remotely.
It may seem that Zoom has elegantly replaced other forms of business communication, but new research shows a different scenario.
As companies debate the impact of large-scale remote work, a new study of more than 61,000 U.S. Microsoft employees found that working from home (WFH) causes workers to become more…
We need to set digital standards for a stable world economy
By Alex Pentland (courtesy of IEEE Spectrum)
The next big thing in global commerce is “trust chain” digital platforms. Nations are now creating such platforms to allow businesses to execute transactions from anywhere on the planet securely and irrefutably. These platforms — which combine open alliance legal agreements (like Visa…
