December 8, 2017

Wozniak Opens Woz U; Train New Tech Hires

Posted on December 8, 2017February 19, 2024 by Staff Writer

Steve Wozniak, also called “The Woz” and co-founder of Apple, recently launched Woz U, a tech learning platform for students and companies. The company has offices in Scottsdale, AZ and will focus on getting students hired by companies. Initially, the curriculum is for training computer support personnel and software developers. The next phase will include courses in data science, mobile app development and cyber security. The overall plan is to put up physical locations in 30 cities located all over the world.

Some of the most popular free online courses are in computer programming, computer languages, and mobile app development. Anyone from across the globe can enroll in these courses.

The concept lies in getting people trained in technology and then hired by companies. Woz U includes other platforms for companies and other enterprises to recruit people for their tech needs, train them to fit individual corporate needs, and retain the workforce via on-site programs customized for the individual corporate requirements, as well as subscription-based curricula. According to Wozniak, the company goal is educating and training people for employable skill in tech and IT without the heavy debt usually associated with a college course.

There are many online coding schools, including Udacity and Coursera, which aims to develop seasoned tech personnel out of ordinary non-tech people. However, critics have noted that companies prefer graduates of 4 year college courses instead of boot camp graduates or those who studied in vocational schools. The reason behind this is the quality of skills acquired from boot camp falls short of company requirements.

Having worked as an elementary school teacher, Wozniak believes that people are afraid of taking science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) tracks because they think they cannot do it. He believes otherwise and wants to show self-doubters how to do it. The startup will also have programs called Woz U Education for K-12 to pursue STEAM courses, as well as accelerator programs called Woz U Accelerator aimed to develop top tech talent. Woz U Accelerator, to launch in 2019, is a 12-16 month program. A mobile app rounds out the offerings, where potential students can choose which program best fits their needs.

Woz U Online

Woz U partnered with Southern Careers Institute, based in Austin, TX. It is a for-profit school with seven locations across Texas. The Woz U website has not yet posted any prices for its courses.

Online schools have a large following. Some online schools partner with established universities, or are part of the university’s Open University initiative. Like other sites on the internet, there are schools which offer free courses, and others which offer a degree course complete with diploma and accreditation. Usually these degree course offerings are for a fee. In 2015, LinkedIn bought subscription-based online education site Lynda.com. Lynda has been teaching professional development courses for more than 20 years. The acquisition was a cash-and-stock deal worth $1.5 billion, $780 million in cash and $720 million in Class A stock. LinkedIn is a free site with a premium-membership subscription model, while Lynda uses a multi-tier subscription model for its courses.

Some of the most popular free online courses are in computer programming, computer languages, and mobile app development. Anyone from across the globe can enroll in these courses. Free courses usually do not have any certifications. Certification classes have multiple modules prior to getting a certification. Most classes have a start and end date, as well as deadlines for submission of requirements. Although a student may be proficient in the course, there is still no guarantee of employment. It is up to the students to get experience on their own and get seasoned.

Zomato Ratings for Restaurant Food Hygiene

Posted on December 8, 2017January 9, 2024 by Staff Writer

A recent study posted on Zomato showed that 86% of respondents prefer to dine at a restaurant which had transparent food hygiene standards. It also added that if they had a choice, 93% would prefer a restaurant that is clean and hygienic, rather than another which serves great food but had poor hygienic practices.

The latest feature to come out of social media is a bold idea and a game changer. As a new feature, Zomato is now putting up food hygiene ratings for restaurants. The feature will start in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia, and rolled out to the rest of the world in due time. It will start out with more ratings for 1,000 UAE restaurants and another 3,000 Australian restaurants.

Social media is no stranger to food-related posts, and eventually led to various sites showcasing either a photo or video of a person’s meal, or a tag or pin indicating that person was present in a specific restaurant. Other websites like Zomato allow people to comment, letting users act like food critics or food snobs. In some cases, people would even exact some sort of “food revenge” instead of actually leaving proper critique to the service or food.

Zomato Feature in UAE and Australia

As a matter of practice, government agencies which hold safety and cleanliness inspections do not divulge their findings. Usually, the only way diners would know that a restaurant did not pass was if the restaurant closed with a sign at the entrance saying that it has been padlocked by the health inspection board.

On the Zomato website and app, diners usually can give a comment regarding the food, service, cleanliness, and ambience. However, the cleanliness rating was subjective, and does not have a standard for judging. Diners also usually gloss over their comments. Ultimately, these comments are only used as guides by other diners in choosing if they would have their meals there or not. The worst comments about a restaurant’s hygiene is not a separate document; rather, it is used to compute the overall score or rating for the restaurant.

Foodpanda, a Germany-based global mobile food delivery service, earlier rolled out a similar feature on their site. The Food Doctor Program started in 2016, where it rated for hygiene and quality standards for establishments listed on the platform. It uses unannounced audits and cold calls.

Study Results: Diners Want to Know if a Place is Clean

A recent study posted on Zomato showed that 86% of respondents prefer to dine at a restaurant which had transparent food hygiene standards. It also added that if they had a choice, 93% would prefer a restaurant that is clean and hygienic, rather than another which serves great food but had poor hygienic practices. Foodpanda had the same conclusions when it surveyed its users, revealing that 65% of their respondents put more weight on good quality standards.

Zomato can conduct the inspection, but only when the participating restaurant is part of their network. The website itself does not have any official or public authority to do any inspections.

The food hygiene rating will add a new layer on top of the regular food and service ratings. Restaurant inspections would also be an immense public service when restaurants. The rating itself can be displayed on the page, and the overall grade for cleanliness can include ratings from users. This new innovation is expected create a bold impact in the restaurant and food industry and its consumers.

Telemedicine In Rural Areas Improves Health Service

Posted on December 8, 2017January 9, 2024 by Staff Writer

People in rural areas often lose when it comes to health care. There are few large-population centers or cities, and with fewer cities there are also fewer medical facilities and health providers. In addition, the hospitals do not have the advanced equipment to handle complex cases. Residents of rural areas also suffer from the long distances from their homes to the hospitals. Health providers in these areas have to create solutions to address these conditions in order to provide the health care services that they promise. That’s where telemedicine in rural areas comes in.

One advantage of transparency is that every stakeholder has the same data. They can communicate much faster and this leads to better individual health care. Sanford Health can also make use of the available data to study other methods and follow the best practices already in use by health providers.

A case in point is the Dakotas. Composed of North and South Dakota, the population is less than 1.5 million, spread over a little more than 148,000 square miles. To serve the medical needs of this area would require bold ideas and new technologies as well as different approaches. Sanford Health is one of the largest health care and delivery systems serving rural areas, including the Dakotas.

Sanford Health has an approach which adequately answers their needs to serve sparsely populated rural areas. Their bold solution involves the use of single electronic medical record (EMR), enterprise departments, remote medicine, and data transparency.

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)

Using single data for more than 45 hospitals and 300 clinics helped Sanford Health to support rapid dissemination of common decision making tools. This allowed medical staff to help in the diagnosis of possible problems which the patient already has, but has not consulted with. If while at the clinic the patient has a high blood pressure reading, nurses follow these Sanford Health standard procedures. The EMR platform enables the system to improve control rates for patients at over 90%. The standard treatment for hypertension extends all throughout the system. The EMR platform has become an active practice used by nurses as a matter of regular patient care procedure.

Standards of care for different concerns were setup to ensure that all patients would have the same level of quality and the same procedures. Multidisciplinary teams were set up along a specialization or for a single disease to establish the standards of care. This ensures that all patients have the same level and high quality care wherever they may be.

Remote Medicine (Telemedicine)

It is a condition of the environment, large tracts and long distances separate cities and major hospitals from one another. To bridge the gap, remote medicine (telemedicine) procedures were set up. Specialists connect to their patients via remote access tools and teleconferencing. Consults with other doctors in large cities or in critical-access hospitals bring the medical support to the individual. The patients already travel a long distance from their home to the hospital, so meeting with a specialist who has a practice miles away is inconvenient. Sending the doctors around the state is a waste of their time. Scheduling video consults is for critical-health care and specialists also help lower the cost health-care.

Transparency means that Sanford Health has opened their database to other health service providers. This gives the patient better health care as he moves from one provider to another, or from one hospital to another. The standards used include the Minnesota Community Measurement which measures and reports on tested metrics and quality of ambulatory-care setting. One advantage of transparency is that every stakeholder has the same data. They can communicate much faster and this leads to better individual health care. Sanford Health can also make use of the available data to study other methods and follow the best practices already in use by health providers.

Sanford Health has improved its performance in delivering health care to rural areas despite the distances between patients and hospitals or clinics. This system could be replicated and applied to hundreds of rural areas in the U.S. and eventually in depressed areas in the world. This life saving and bold move is a definite game-changer in the health industry.

Shazam for Fashion – Kardashian’s Newest Project

Posted on December 8, 2017January 9, 2024 by Staff Writer

Model and socialite Kim Kardashian West worked with New York City-based startup Craze to develop an app that helps people find clothes they like based on screenshots of their fashion inspirations. Dubbed the “Shazam for fashion,” ScreenShop helps its users identify shoppable pieces of clothing and accessories in a photo or screenshot. This bold idea has been in the works since last year, and the company released the free app in early November 2017.

“I’ve never seen an app where you can screenshot something and within seconds bring up a whole digital fashion store to be able to pick out from all range prices and sizes of similar things to what you’re wearing,” she explained. “I just knew right away that I wanted to be involved.”

The app works similar to its music counterpart Shazam. In Shazam, you use the app to identify a song currently playing, with much accuracy. In ScreenShop, the company’s world-class technology seamlessly integrates into the user’s phone, detecting any fashion-related items on screenshots.

“ScreenShop is our way of helping consumers actualize the fashion inspiration their social media feeds, providing them with an easy way to immediately shop the styles they see and love,” stated ScreenShop co-creator and co-founder Molly Hurwitz.

Kardashian West helped advise on creating the app since the beginning. “It’s not a secret that I love social media and the notion of being able to shop from my feed is something I could only dream about,” she said. She helped “define the concept and shape the user experience” for ScreenShop since 2016, and said she is very excited for this app to take off.

Co-founders, as well as private equity firms, pooled $4.5 million in funding, even partnering with top brands like Forever 21, ASOS, TopShop, Saks Fifth Avenue, Boohoo.com, and even Kanye West’s Yeezy.

Users simply take a screenshot of something they like, or take a photo of a look that interests them, upload it into the app, and let ScreenShop work its magic. In a few moments, a list of the same or similar products will display. Users can then take a look at those items through thumbnails with brand names and prices listed. Clicking further leads them to the appropriate sites to buy the items they want.

Niche but Inspirational Fashion

For fashion lovers, bloggers, and others who either work in couture or find that fashion plays an important role in their job and daily lives, this app is quite thrilling. Even Kardashian West herself describes the experience as useful and unique.

“I’ve never seen an app where you can screenshot something and within seconds bring up a whole digital fashion store to be able to pick out from all range prices and sizes of similar things to what you’re wearing,” she explained. “I just knew right away that I wanted to be involved.”

Creating the app came from a dilemma Hurwitz herself experienced – browsing through gorgeous fashion Instagram images and not knowing where to shop for such looks. “For me that process of being able to shop on Instagram on people’s looks and look on Google for it, that was extremely cumbersome,” she explained.

While some fashion influencers and celebrities would be kind enough (and are often paid) to manually tag brands they wear in a photo, Hurwitz said many of those would go beyond her budget. “I don’t want to spend $1,800 on a dress, but I do want the inspiration,” she said. “The idea is to be able to take your inspiration from anywhere, from watching a movie or browsing online or a magazine.”

Hurwitz sat down with a team of developers and investors to create an app that helps improve the fashion shopping experience for today’s generation. She, along with chief technology officer Jonathan Caras, Meir Hurwitz, Mark Fishman, Ari Bregin, and fashion adviser Kardashian West, went to work straight away.

“When users are on social media sites, they see products they would like to own, but they are not necessarily in the mindset to interrupt their social browsing to complete a point of sale,” the company explained. Kardashian West seconds that, saying she believes the app meets shoppers’ needs, especially when people prefer visual online shopping.

“I’ll see a photo of someone wearing something and just get inspired and want that,” she said, mirroring the thoughts of many shoppers and fashion lovers like her. With convenience in mind, she added, “…for shopping, I would rather have the technology we have where you just screenshot something and figure out how to emulate that.”

Day: December 8, 2017