7 surprising things that could change the job market by 2030

Posted by & filed under 3D Printing, Digital Detox.

Everyone expects automation and other tech advances to eliminate some jobs and create others. But in a new report, Canadian futurists say there’s a far wider range of trends that could influence the types of skills that are likely to be in demand — or not — in the future.

Focusing too closely on the impact of technological change alone could create blind spots that leave Canadians unprepared to handle changes to the labour market, says the report, released Wednesday and entitled Turn and Face the Strange: Changes Impacting the Future of Employment in Canada.

The report was written by researchers at the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship, a non-partisan policy institute housed at Toronto’s Ryerson University. It was set up to help Canadian policy-makers navigate the growth of Canada’s innovation economy.

Source: CBC News

Date: April 12th, 2019

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/change-job-market-2030-1.5086022

Discussion

  1. “Digital Detox”.  What sort of company could you build around this?
  2. “3D Printing”.  I feel like this is old news, but this futurist report says “The technology could also be set to transform the health-care industry, as scientists work to develop new methods to 3D print living tissue, potentially creating a new industry around providing organs and tissues for transplant.”  What could you do around this?

Amazon reportedly employs thousands of people to listen to your Alexa conversations

Posted by & filed under Amazon, Civil Liberties, Privacy.

Image result for amazon alexa
Not only is Alexa listening when you speak to an Echo smart speaker, an Amazon employee is potentially listening, too.Amazon (AMZN) employs a global team that transcribes the voice commands captured after the wake word is detected and feeds them back into the software to help improve Alexa’s grasp of human speech so it can respond more efficiently in the future. Amazon reportedly employs thousands of full-time workers and contractors in several countries, including the United States, Costa Rica and Romania, to listen to as many as 1,000 audio clips in shifts that last up to nine hours. The audio clips they listen to were described as “mundane” and even sometimes “possibly criminal,” including listening to a potential sexual assault. Source: CNN Technology News Date: April 12th, 2019 Link (includes video): https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/11/tech/amazon-alexa-listening/index.html Discussion
  1. If the audio clips don’t come with a name and address, is this even a privacy issue?
  2. Why does Amazon need to have humans listen to what Alexa is hearing?

Vendor Risk Management – the Importance of Vendor Vetting

Posted by & filed under Amazon, FaceBook, Google, IT Infrastructure, IT Trends, microsoft.

Most of us wouldn’t trust just anyone to watch our children, home, or pets, right? And we typically don’t hire just anyone who applies for employment, do we? What about the guy living out of his van offering low cost tax prep? Probably not your first choice this tax season. It’s our instinct to take the time to look into these people and perform the due diligence and oversight necessary to assure us that we’re entrusting the right people with our assets. A similar approach needs to be taken when it comes to entrusting vendors with your organization’s systems and data, as well as your clients’ data Source: LMG Security Date: April 12th, 2019 Link: https://lmgsecurity.com/vendor-risk-management-the-importance-of-vendor-vetting/ Discussion
  1. What sort of technology vendors might an organization like Nike, or Starbucks have?
  2. For many small, medium and large organizations, Google, Microsoft and Amazon are technology vendors. Do these companies need to be “vendor vetted” too?

Is Your Job Safe?

Posted by & filed under Emerging Technologies, Future of Work, Tech-savvy.

The world of work will be radically different in the future. From hyper-surveillance of staff to digital nomadism to robots taking jobs—how, where and why we work is changing beyond all recognition. This is the workforce of the future. Technology is transforming the world of work beyond all recognition creating groundbreaking opportunities. But it’s also eroding the rights of workers. Some even fear a dystopian jobless future. But are these anxieties overblown? How we react to this brave new world of work today will shape societies for generations to come. What are the forces shaping how people live and work and how power is wielded in the modern age? NOW AND NEXT reveals the pressures, the plans and the likely tipping points for enduring global change. Understand what is really transforming the world today – and discover what may lie in store tomorrow. Source: The Economist Date: April 9th, 2019 Link to 19 minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=gUc5oN_ffRo The discussion here should be about how technology is transforming work and who does that work, and most importantly what is the student doing to prepare themselves to be productive in this transformed world. I use the phrase “tech-savvy” a lot during my discussions to get away from “coding”, “databases” and other highly technical topics. “Everyone needs to be tech-savvy” in this new world.

Work it out: Jobs that will emerge over the next decade

Posted by & filed under data analytics, Future of Work.

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Each paradigmatic shift in the workspace has always been accompanied with a restive period in human history. In the early 19th century, as the first Industrial Revolution took root in the UK, and mechanisation came to replace the predominantly agrarian economy, a group of workers took to violent protests smashing machines that deprived them of their livelihood. Called the ‘Luddites’, they gave anti-mechanisation an identity that transcended centuries and came to be associated even with the likes of Ted Kaczynski, a Harvard math prodigy who parcelled 16 bombs to universities and airlines to halt the relentless march of technology in the 1970s and ’80s. Source: Forbes India Date: April 9th, 2019 Link: http://www.forbesindia.com/article/future-of-work/work-it-out-jobs-that-will-emerge-over-the-next-decade/50933/1?sf100994744=1 Discussion
  1. “Technology will actually democratize opportunity. When the new 5G network is implemented and the next billion goes online, opportunity will be in the hands of everyone with a good idea. It’ll be the age of betapreneurs, entrepreneurs who, enabled by technology, can rapidly test and scale ideas, and bring them to market.” What does it mean to “democratize opportunity”?
  2. “Data detective/data broker ” is listed as the top “new job”. What are you doing to improve your data skills?

Why you can expect more spam text messages from politicians

Posted by & filed under Cybersecurity, Privacy.

Many Canadians were surprised this weekend when their phones were buzzed by an incoming spam text from an unexpected political source.

The Conservative Party of Canada mass-texted millions of randomly generated phone numbers in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick, telling recipients that gasoline prices were about to spike and they should fill up. The texts were meant to drum up political opposition to the Trudeau government’s carbon tax, which came into effect Monday in the four provinces that didn’t come up with carbon pricing plans of their own.

Source: CBC News

Date: April 5th, 209

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/text-spam-andrew-scheer-1.5079957

Discussion

1) “such messages do carry privacy and security risks. There may be ways to opt out of them as well.”  What sort of privacy risks are there here?

2) “such messages do carry privacy and security risks. There may be ways to opt out of them as well.” What sort of security risks are there here?

Why Accenture Bought a Digital Ad Agency

Posted by & filed under Careers.

A conversation about where the smart money is and how investors should bet on the newest tech in the health care space at Fortune's Brainstorm Health 2019.
Never has the notion of swimming outside one’s lane been so exciting. Accenture, the spawn of Arthur Andersen turned consultant turned marketing guru, is buying Droga5, a buzzy advertising agency. Odd fit? Maybe. But consultants increasingly have been veering into the business of marketing. Clients that need IT strategies need marketing strategies that happen to be IT strategies these days. Source: Fortune Magazine Date: April 5th, 2019 Link: http://fortune.com/2019/04/05/accenture-droga5-consulting-advertising/ Discussion
  1. Are you thinking of becoming a Marketing major? What are you doing to become tech-savvy now that marketing needs you to be?
  2. Macdonalds just bought a data-analytics firm, and Starbucks launched a payment system? Why is it that most companies are becoming more and more tech-enabled?

Samsung warns its profits will drop 60% as smartphone demand slumps

Posted by & filed under smartphones.

Image result for galaxy fold
Samsung is feeling the chill from cooling global demand for smartphones.The South Korean technology giant said Friday that it expects operating profit for the first quarter to plunge by 60% compared to the same period year ago.Samsung (SSNLF) warned last week that its earnings would be hit by slowing demand for memory chips and display panels, a sign that device makers and their suppliers are coming under pressure.The company estimated Friday that operating profit for the first three months of 2019 will total 6.2 trillion Korean won ($5.4 billion), lower than analysts’ already downbeat expectations. Source: CNN Technology News Date: April 5th, 2019 Link (included video): https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/05/tech/samsung-profit-warning-smartphones/index.html Discussion 1) What do you think is behind the “cooling demand for smartphones”? 2) What influences your decision to purchase a new smartphone, and how has that decision making process changed over the last 3 years?

Let the 5G battle commence

Posted by & filed under 5G.

A woman on her smartphone
South Korea was long expected to be first with 5G. It is a technological powerhouse with ultra-fast broadband, home to giant firms such as Samsung and a government that sees leading the world in connectivity as a matter of national pride. Three networks were due to launch commercial 5G services on Friday when news emerged that an American operator was trying to steal their thunder. With quite a fanfare, Verizon launched its service on Wednesday in very limited areas of Chicago and Minneapolis. So the South Korean operators moved their launches forward to the same day, although it appeared that only a handful of celebrities were able to use it on the first day. In both South Korea and the US, these are largely symbolic launches because just about nobody has a 5G-enabled mobile phone yet. Source: BBC Technology News Date: April 5th, 2019 Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47826948 Discussion 1) What is 5G? 2) Why might 5G completely transform how we get our internet services?