Author: admin

How remote work helped us move past old-school ‘professionalism’

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Over the past year, much has been made of where, when, and how we work. But the sweeping shift to working remotely has raised a deeper question that we’re still not sure how to answer: Who are we at work?   The pandemic has scrambled so much of the “normal” professional experience—commutes, workspaces, business hours, childcare, business travel—that it’s also rewiring our concept of professionalism itself.   For me, “professionalism” began 18 years ago when I started as an intern at Microsoft. Today, I lead a team of more than 500 designers and researchers creating the next generation of communication and creation experiences for Microsoft 365, across both work and life. As you can imagine, design at Microsoft has changed dramatically over the years, and that includes how people collaborate.   When it comes to traditional modes of expression, both Microsofties and our customers typically drew a clear line between work style and personal style. Take emoji or reactions as an example. I use them freely in texts or on social media, but on a productivity platform like Microsoft Teams? As much heart as I put into my work, I never thought I’d “heart” things there. I do that at home, where my guard is down. But now that the office is my home, there are hearts all over the place. I heart everything (unless I’m giving it a thumbs down). Read More …

This iPhone app lets anybody mint an NFT for anything—for free

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Musicians and visual artists have long registered their work with the U.S. Copyright Office to prove it’s theirs. But doing so is really little more than a person in a government office “witnessing” that a creation is associated with a person’s name on a certain date. And the process takes weeks or months to complete. In the 21st century, creation happens on digital platforms. It happens far faster than ever before, and in many ways. Inspiration for a vocal line or a beat can happen spontaneously during a TikTok duet, for example. A GIF can be created on a phone and uploaded to social networks. It’s a good thing, then, that the blockchain can also “witness” the creation—and the creator—of a digital thing, and record it for perpetuity. A new, free app called S!ng lets pretty much anybody do this in a few seconds by minting an NFT ( nonfungible token ) of a work on the Ethereum blockchain. An NFT is a type of cryptographic token that signifies true ownership of a digital asset, such as a piece of digital artwork. Creators can upload images (JPEG, BMP, or TIFF files) or audio (WAV, MP3, MIDI, PTX, PTF, or M4A) to the S!ng app, or record audio directly via the phone’s microphone. Once creators have minted an NFT for their work, it can be sold or licensed to others online if there’s a market for it. Read More …

Apple sidesteps bias debate by leaving Siri’s gender up to you

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For a long time, Apple’s Siri voice assistant used a female voice. It was originally the voice of the voice-over artist (and former Roy Orbison backup singer) Susan Bennett. Later, Apple began adding both male and female voice options that the user could select, and in some countries the default was male. But in the U.S., the default has always been female–until now. In a new beta version of iOS, Apple leaves it up to users who are setting up Siri to decide what gender and accent they’d like in their assistant, reports TechCrunch ‘s Matthew Panzarino. This move could deftly sidestep the debate about the inherent gender bias that the default-female Siri has stirred up in the past. (The UN called the default-female Siri “sexist” in a 2019 report called “ I’d blush if I could .”) Why have Siri and other assistants defaulted to a female voice? Fast Company ‘s Katharine Schwab explored the subject in a  2019 article . Among other reasons, AI assistants may have originally used female voices because the available synthesized female voices were of higher sound quality. But that hasn’t been true for years Read More …

I run Google TV. Here are my secrets for leading a team remotely

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Even before COVID-19 led people to turn their dining rooms into makeshift offices, remote work was on the rise. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many businesses have found that remote work makes it increasingly difficult to preserve their company culture. After all, perks such as childcare, happy hours, and social lunches don’t mean much if you’re not on-site. What’s more, remote work has the potential to throttle the kind of free-flowing collaboration and brainstorming that happens when people are in the same space. That said, remote work is not without benefits. In fact, when done right, it’s a win for companies and employees Read More …

Why it’s the perfect time to learn to be an engineer or data scientist

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COVID-19 has led to widespread layoffs and job losses across industries, with hospitality, travel, and retail hit especially hard. After the pandemic, many of those jobs are not expected to come back. At the same time, hiring for technical roles in software engineering and data science has skyrocketed: Remote interviews for technical roles grew by 370% on HackerRank’s platform from 2019 to 2020 as companies pivoted business online. The shortage of talent to fill those roles continues in 2021—hiring managers are worried about recruiting enough developers this year. With the right infrastructure, these are ideal conditions for a unique, more diverse generation of tech employees to emerge and fill the open positions. This can come to fruition in two main ways: companies offering technical reskilling programs for their own employees and outside talent, and people embracing nontraditional technical education options such as coding boot camps and self-teaching. Internal reskilling programs thrive in a remote-first world During COVID-19, most companies have found themselves needing more software developers and fewer employees on the ground or in service roles. They can use remote training tools to transition nontechnical employees into technical roles. With intuitive virtual tools, companies can still assess and train workers remotely during the pandemic. Amazon’s Tech Academy is a great example. The program, part of Amazon’s $700 million investment in upskilling , is open to any nontechnical employee (such as truck drivers and warehouse maintenance staff). It provides intensive reskilling with the goal of hiring students as Amazon software developers Read More …