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In October 2019, the BBC made its news site available via the TOR network, free and open-source software for enabling anonymous communication. The TOR browser is privacy-focused software used to access the dark web (those many layers of the internet that cannot be found using a search engine).
Here is an interesting and thought-provoking article on big data and social credit systems as we see manifesting in China. China says a social scoring system is useful in managing is large population but globally this has triggered concerns and questions around the ethics of big data.
An article in Leader (www.leader.co.za) provides the context to how the hospitality industry and in particular the tourist accommodation scene has changed with the advent of Airbnb.
Bloomberg News carried a report on 5 march 2019 of a KFC owner in China who is continuing his expansion plans, opening two stores a day in China, the world’s biggest consumer market while looking at technology to keep costs low.
A report by Sarah O'Connor published on ozy.com on 19 February 2019 says the soft skills that women typically have are bot-proofing them. “As machines become better at many cognitive tasks, it is likely that the skills they are relatively bad at will become more valuable,” she says.
Consumers are creating the future of retail driven by the need for greater convenience and bang for their buck value and chasing aspects such as excitement, meaning, status, relevance, authenticity, social connection and more.
Businesses and industries are constantly changing. Without stating the obvious this is also true for the movie theatres. One blogger said, “the industry needs to rethink what a cinema experience is…and it isn’t about how comfy the seats are.”
In an interview between David Graeber, an anthropologist at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Economist Graeber shares his views on pointless jobs like “one that even the person doing it secretly believes need not, or should not, exist.
Further on the report on skills that humans have and robot / bots not, much is being written and discussed re job security on the future, skills for the future, and how robots will impact on current jobs.
Trendwatching reports that Emirates Group will open the world’s largest indoor vertical farm to produce better airplane food by investing USD40 million in the 900-acre establishment.
Terahaku (www.terahaku.jp) , a website allowing tourists to book stays in Japanese temples, debuted in July 2018. The platform’s launch coincides with Japan’s new minpaku law, which lowers legal barriers to renting out properties as short-term lodgings.
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