Forum Replies Created
-
April 7, 2020 at 19:59 #12046
Hi everyone!
The past weeks have been truly motivational, fascinating and inspiring! I have personally learned so much from our debates; not only from the conferences we participated in but also from all the articles, videos and different insights shared among us that have been precious and stimulating. I started this rather small journey without really knowing what I was going to get myself into; we were able to create our own ecosystem, we found a balance between ourselves and the results, as also @paolomarenco pointed out today, were outstanding.
I really enjoyed today’s conference and I found the work carried out Plug and Play extremely interesting; furthermore, being able to witness such a young successful woman, such as Arianna Maschietto, talking about her achievements and sharing essential knowledge on her work with us was truly inspirational. Every single speaker from the conferences has uniquely contributed, sharing their precious points of view, opinions, and experiences, to this valuable opportunity I am really thankful for.
I want to personally thank @paolomarenco, @robertarabellotti, and @ismaelepaolo for offering us this amazing opportunity, but most of all thanks to anyone that has participated to this forum, without you this could have never been possible! As Mr. Lotito said: “happiness for the success of others is the base of any ecosystem” and I hope this is not less true than for ours!
Gabriella
-
This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by
Gabriella.
April 7, 2020 at 16:14 #12032Hi again!
The article from @marco-canciani latest comment is enlightening, thank you for sharing it with us!
It’s extremely interesting to understand the shift in trust habits that characterized our own country; it is also helpful to acknowledge that, what I am experiencing first hand, has actually been a larger scale trend. It is remarkable how 96,6% of the interviewed sample believes its individual collaboration to be essential for society and its public health. It shows self-motivation from our side, and it supports what I have mentioned in my latest comment. It is also encouraging the level of trust put in personalities from the scientific community and its institutions. Concerning the trust toward the scientific community, I must disagree with @niccolopuppo as I believe our country has had, in the previous decades as for the present, high consideration towards it. However, if the trust put in our political institutions is simply the direct effect of a shift of our needs as pointed out by Professor Rino Falcone, I believe the chances for this collective sentiment to be long-lived, to be scarce.
To answer the latest questions posed by @andreastroppa I think, for what concerns Italy, our community will push toward a reform of public health services; we probably would have responded more promptly to the crisis if only our services would have not undergone the budget cuts imposed by previous governments. I agree completely with you in saying that we need to predict and prevent the consequences of the crisis, we will have to focus on rebuilding our economy, focusing on not leaving anyone behind in addition to avoiding a second wave of outbreak. The balance that needs to be achieved is a very thin line and we only can hope our government will be able to live up to such task.
As one of the countries hit most heavily and as one of the first to institute a general lockdown, the eyes of the world are directed upon us. How we have been coping with the outbreak but mostly how we will rise again once the epidemic crisis will be over is fundamental given that, other countries will draw conclusions and direct their own conduct from our very achievements.
See you soon!
Gabriella
April 7, 2020 at 14:06 #12024Hi guys!
I believe many of the issues recently introduced in the forum have been beautifully and widely debated upon, therefore I won’t linger on them anymore as it would be a little redundant; however, I will focus on a few topics still worth mentioning.
Firstly thank you @serenagabbetta for drawing attention to the psychological effects of quarantine, I think they are often overlooked by our community; I also wish to point out that, concerning the domestic violence surges, in our country, victims have now the opportunity, through an app called “YouPol”, originally created to allow to warn law enforcement officials about drug dealing and bullying, to alert authorities without the need of making a call; in addition, in Spain authorities launched a WhatsApp chat for people in the same difficult situation, the chat has witnessed a 270% increase in consultations in the past month. It is essential that we find means through which keep safe that part of our society most vulnerable at the moment.
Secondly, I completely agree with @marco-canciani, that wonderfully clarified the concept of Cookies, and pointed out that “by now the “accept and continue” automation has taken over”. I previously clarified how important I consider cyber education, however, it is worthless if users do not set aside our automatism. We should be more conscious of our behavior on the net. We must be aware of the risk of sharing data online. As @giorgiaamatemaggio diligently pointed out, we are in no position to lower our guard down, as dangers are always lurking around, especially for women. “The diffusion of personal intimacy photos shared and commented”, occurring at the moment, hideous and abominable, has struck many in our community, and although I am hopeful the offenders will be convicted, the parties concerned will forever be affected by it, mostly psychologically. When there is no protection and prevention, one must take matters in its own hands and protect him/herself, however unjust it is.
Concerning the article shared by @noemiscifo17, I find myself in agreement with @giorgiaamatemaggio, who has, in addition, already dwelt on the essential points of the text; I believe that we should not decide between privacy or health, both are fundamental rights of our society and there should be no space for a tradeoff. Said that, I really doubt it will come down to imposed biometric bracelets that monitor temperature and heartbeat, as many are already highly uncomfortable with tracking policies. My attention was especially drawn to this sentence of the article: “a<span style=”font-weight: 400;”> self-motivated and well-informed population is usually far more powerful and effective than a policed, ignorant population” that illustrates a concept that cannot be stressed enough. I think the majority of Italians have deeply understood the severity of the crisis and acted upon it with diligence and consciousness, perhaps with the aid of an incentive or two, but always willingly. The response to our government requests has been extremely positive for the majority of the time. I believe that our conduct already shows trust in scientific facts and government, (or is it just driven by fear? What do you think?). Anyhow a level of compliance as such must be built, even in the smallest part, on trust, and this trust is what has most surprised me in the past month. We have shown self-motivation. I consider myself to be highly distrusting of Italian political personalities, however, the reactiveness and level of resolution our government has shown in the past months might have created that small trust required. </span>In response to Giorgia’s question, I believe this might be a starting point in the trust-building process in our nation; to re-building trust in one’s country, honesty and good intention from the leadership are key. It is indeed a very slow process, but building a sustainable ground for it, is essential and we must take advantage of these circumstances.
See you at the conference!
Gabriella
April 5, 2020 at 20:36 #11972Hi guy!
Firstly, thank you @fabianadurso for sharing your opinion with us! It can only be positive to have a different insight on the subject, however, I personally think that comparing the situation we find ourselves to a pseudo-dictatorship is a bit of an overstatement. We must realize that the decisions our government has to take aim to restrict the spread of the contagion, furthermore their policies are based on constitutional ground, therefore legitimized. @chiarasperto pointed out that we are not asked to go off to war, however, I must agree with Fabiana admitting that being confined in our houses is more stressful and tiresome than expected; said that, I also want to say that I do not consider such restriction as something imposed on me but rather as a contribution each of us is willingly giving to our community. I would rather describe as Orwellian the sequence of events occurring in Hungary at the moment than the ones in our country.
In favor of this rather invasive method, one must acknowledge that “the current state of tracking in the West is built around two core pillars—data should be anonymous and aggregated. […] no data records should link back to an individual and the data should be viewed en masse. These are patterns and trends, not finger pointing.” Therefore, governments such as ours are not given access to the wholeness of the data, and that is per se, encouraging and reassuring. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/04/05/coronavirus-phone-tracking-now-impacts-all-of-us-what-happens-next-is-critical/#452b6881333a)
Furthermore, I realize that many might be uncomfortable and contrary to such methods but I believe that it is not just caused of vexation and problems; in fact, understanding the trend of an epidemy and tracing it, is a key asset to our governments and our society must rely on. What has changed is the method through which we receive information since the traditional public health tracing approach has appeared to be incomplete and therefore ineffective to keep up with the outbreak. To understand, forecast and prevent the outbreak is an equally essential strategy and, at the moment, our main one, at least until a vaccine won’t be ready for use and it will allow governments to make critical decisions.
Regarding Fabiana’s questions, I believe our identities to be protected, at the moment. I think, however, that our identities might be disclosed perhaps if the necessity surges to prevent an asymptomatic patient to further spread the virus and to initiate a formal quarantine. Nothing is really intrinsically anonymous, the issue stands on how difficult is the reidentification of said data; essentially, “it’s mostly a question of the controls you have in place to ensure the process that leads to generating those aggregates does not contain privacy risks” as points out an expert in data reidentification interviewed by TechCrunch.
Have a good evening,
Gabriella
April 4, 2020 at 22:18 #11959Hi guys!
The peculiarity of the circumstance in which we find ourselves can be traced back to the legitimacy of the extraordinary<span style=”font-weight: 400;”> powers </span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>that</span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”> our governments have obtained consequently to the magnitude of the public health crisis, therefore built on a legal ground;</span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”> as the article shared by @marco-canciani points out, is important to keep in mind that these measures are</span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”> “only to be used temporarily in emergencies”. </span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>In Italy, for instance, the Constitution stipulates restriction of rights can be imposed “due to safety or health reasons“, legitimized by the principle </span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>that indicates the right of health as not an individual right but as a collective heritage that must be safeguarded and preserved also through the limitation of rights temporarily not compatible with it. This principle guarantees </span>highly legitimization to the<span> usage of said data, at least in our country; however, </span>the deployment of such measures must be regulated, controlled and most of all proportionated and based on advice from experts and scientists.
However, my concerns, stand on different but equally relevant issues; firstly I would like to dwell on a more technical problem: to what extent are these tracking methods effective on a population such as ours? Does such approach take into account the homeless or the irregular immigrants that are part of our community? The article shared by @ismaelepaoli focuses, at one point, on a statement given by Nick Ruktanonchai:” With the location data, we are testing different scenarios and simulating what might happen if countries don’t end their lockdowns in a coordinated way. It’s about buying time. We want to make sure a big second epidemic doesn’t happen months down the line.” The epidemiologist draws attention to the concerns of the possibility of the second wave of the epidemic. After all, a second circle of outbreak can spark from a singular unidentified positive patient, an untraced patient. I believe that the tracking methods fail to recognize that not the entirety of our population owns technological means from which to be traced. I am referring to a small percentage that however, represents a major risk. How do you think we are going to overcome this first issue?
The second concern worth debating on, is the fact that allowing our governments to access and analyze location data can set a precedent on mass surveillance; in order to avoid said risk, our legal apparatus has to make haste to fill the legislative void, often present in cyberspace regulation. Furthermore, as @ismaelepaoli pointed out, the ongoing crisis might cause many future scenarios, one of which could lead to the risk of sensitive data leaks. Personal data leaks can include information such as political view, and sexuality; disclosure of such knowledge can fuel discrimination in countries where the leadership is not necessarily distinguished for its democratic values but more for its restrictive and oppressive policies. In addition, one also has to acknowledge ” the fact that the majority of people lack cybersecurity education to evaluate the potential consequences of sharing their data” as stated by Naomi Hodges, a cybersecurity adviser. The topic, therefore, raises public safety concerns that are not necessarily inherently bound to us and to our country.
With all this in mind, I am personally supportive of such measures for what concerns Europe; in regard to other countries, I think one should make a thorough analysis based on past governmental trends and conduct as well as the range of compliance of standard rights to deeply understand future risks and consequences of such measures on different populations. We must try, nevertheless, to legislate and limit the usage of such data and ensure that this rather invasive, localization tracking system remains at any rate, anonymous. After all, we have to rely on the goodwill of tech companies and of our government, which has shown to be keeping the population’s interest in mind in the past months. There is nothing left than to find the right balance between public safety and governmental action. I also think that the information provided, through the analysis of the data, will only be beneficial to the population as the awareness of the magnitude of the crisis might help people realize the gravity of the disease and give further legitimacy to the governmental policies, therefore boosting compliance towards them.
I hope I made myself clear enough! Thank you all for sharing interesting videos and extremely updated articles, I’ll leave you this article that focuses the attention on surveillance policies in China during the crisis and raises concerns on the current issue. (<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>https://www.ft.com/content/760142e6-740e-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca) </span>
I wish you a good evening,
Gabriella
April 2, 2020 at 23:24 #11926Hello guys!
First of all, thank you @marco-canciani for sharing this comforting news! I also hope you and your family are safe. Hopefully, more hospitals will soon be able to benefit from such devices.
In addition, I would love to share with you another pleasant news: at the moment many companies are offering their contribution to respond to the shortage of supplies of masks, ventilators, health workers clothing, and many other essential items; Dyson, a company that designs and manufactures household appliances “has already designed a new ventilator and plans on creating an additional 5,000 to donate internationally“. Many other companies, such as General Motors and Ventec Life Systems, are partnering up to produce ventilators to address the severe shortage. (Here’s a more in-depth article https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-companies-helping-meet-shortages-of-ventilators-gowns-masks-hand-sanitizer-healthcare?IR=T#general-motors-and-ventec-life-systems-are-partnering-to-build-ventilators-and-the-car-manufacturer-will-soon-start-producing-more-than-50000-face-masks-per-day-59)
Furthermore, Sonovia, an Israeli start-up company, has developed a fabric that “mechanically infuses antiviral, antimicrobial zinc and copper oxide nanoparticles into textiles for facemasks and other protective products“. Masks and products made of such anti-pathogen fabric, are able to destroy airborne bacteria and are able to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The company has partnered up with other businesses in order to supply Israel’s hospitals and health centers in other countries with their products. I find the technology behind this fabric extremely fascinating; it certainly is one of the many innovations that will continue to be implemented beyond the present pandemic. What’s your opinion on the subject? https://www.jns.org/israeli-startup-to-donate-120000-face-masks-to-hospitals-medical-personnel/
It is refreshing to witness many companies and countries joining forces, showing solidarity one to the other. Through challenging and daunting times we have been able to display our real strength, that is our unity. Acts of altruism such as the aforementioned are just a few examples of a larger scale collaboration established world-wide. We are first-hand witnessing what collaboration and solidarity can attain through technology and innovation. I believe this to be a real positive note we should hold on to; We should never forget what we are really capable to achieve altogether.
I wish everyone a nice evening!
Gabriella
April 1, 2020 at 23:13 #11915Hello guys!
To answer @marco-canciani latest question I would love to point out what Mr. Lotito himself stated during the conference: “to be innovative you don’t have to be 22 years old living in the Silicon Valley. Why should a student from Bari, Milan, Turin or Naples consider himself less talented and intelligent compared to a student from Stanford or MIT? He simply has a disadvantage that is his ecosystem.”
Therefore, in light of yesterday’s conference, I would love to rephrase the question: “why wouldn’t Italian students be able to compete with the high expectations and standards of international markets today?”
My answer then would be that there is no reason not to be. We certainly are no less eager to learn or to make changes than any other student from the rest of the globe. We benefit from the oldest and most renowned universities ever established. Italy also counts for the finest minds to ever wonder our Earth and, I am positive our younger generations will offer no less, that we will offer no less. Furthermore, we are willing to get involved with many innovative projects; this very forum, for instance, is one of the best examples I could offer you to answer the question. We just spent the last week drawing attention and debating about a rather complicated subject: what makes the thrift of business usually harder in Italy than in the rest of European countries (lack of investors, our very mindset and the governmental and legal apparatus around businesses); in three weeks we were able to retain, process and share so much critical knowledge on different current issues and offer various points of view and solutions, each of us uniquely contributing to this experience. This is the first of many steps for the majority of us, and yet we are already showing what we are capable of. This inferiority complex, in addition to the fear of failure, are concepts that are gradually wearing out from our society as we become more confident about our abilities, what better proof I can give you than ourselves?
Hence, the right question we should inquire about would be: If not us, then who?
Gabriella
March 31, 2020 at 22:27 #11902Hi guys!
The conference participate to, was truly inspirational. To answer @giorgiaamatemaggio (perhaps rhetorical) question, I think the reason many among us had never heard of Facility Live before, is the fact that at the moment individuals cannot directly benefit from this innovative research engine; as pointed out by Mr. Lotito, they are under the process of migrating the platform to the Cloud, in order, in the near future, to allow each and everybody to access it. Hopefully, once available to the ordinary user, the platform will gain popularity and become widely acknowledged.
What I find extremely fascinating about this research engine is that, as Mr. Lotito emphasized during an interview for “Politico”, “the cultural approach [of the engine] is different, because we are European. We belong to the culture of choice. To choose is important in our lives. We are not so prone to be driven too much with an algorithm that decides which is the best information for you”. The core of the platform is indeed, cultural diversity. As also highlighted by @andreastoppa, the European mindset is very different from the one in other continents, this very fact is at the root of Facility Live, which takes into consideration this very basic divergence exploiting it by managing information in a completely different way. In addition @tommasogagliardi rightfully previously stated, that we have to build an “efficient personal alternative to the SV”, this very platform might be the first of many steps towards achieving said goal, since it takes into consideration the peculiarity and uniqueness of our culture.
Furthermore, Mr. Lotito effectively shared his point of view on many topics dealt with in this forum; I personally consider very interesting the SEMED, a digital platform that aims to create a network among “innovation ecosystem of the Mediterranean”. As I previously mentioned, in order for the tech and innovation market to thrive in Europe, major tech hubs have to create a wider network from which all can benefit, instead of isolating themselves; this is exactly what the project will hopefully achieve, perhaps the platform will expand, ultimately connecting every European region. I truly cannot wait to witness how this project will evolve in the next decade.
Finally, as pointed out by Andrea Stoppa, the seminar was truly motivating, being a Political Science student I felt a little out-of-place at the beginning of this series of conferences; however, I came to realize, as Mr. Lotito also reaffirmed, that one is not necessarily required to have a significant technological background in order to have innovative ideas or to be involved in this forum. It was very meaningful. I also hope you enjoined the conference as much as I did.
Have a great evening,
Gabriella.
March 29, 2020 at 23:28 #11870Hi everybody,
I completely agree with @serenagabbetta, the environment we have been creating in this forum is extremely stimulating and a positive note in such difficult times.
As pointed out by the article shared by @ismaelepaoli, the conditions required in order to create the Silicon Valley were extremely unique, one could also argue that it is a one-of-a-kind ecosystem; attempting to mirror such model in Europe is quite a delusional quest from my point of view, as we would have to establish it taking into account many parameters that characterize our society but that differ from the one of origin.
Europe is becoming home of the tech sector’s biggest names, take the Stockholm based startup Spotify, BlaBlaCar or Deliveroo as few example proof of our continent access to an extremely large pool of talents, also backed up by various notorious intellectual hubs.
As pointed out by the article, one of the many key factors that allowed the Silicon Valley to flourish into the technological Eden it is today, is the “legal apparatus” from which it benefits. I agree with @tommasogagliardi in pointing out that our legislation is quite ill-equipped to effectively support new business; In order to allow startups to flourish in our continent and most importantly in our country, governments need to shift toward an entrepreneur friendly regulation, flexible labor conditions, fast-track work visas and business friendly policies. This so needed shift has been gradually taking place around Europe, President Macron, for instance has announced, last September, 5 billion euros in VC funds in order to aid foster French startups growth. The French government had already paved the way by providing fast-track visas to lure in foreign workers and furthermore by granting tax cuts and subsidies to help startups. As @marco-canciani mentioned, many similar policies have also been implemented in the UK, and are often cause of brain-drain for and from our country, hence implementing them in Italy, at an adequate scale, would supposedly facilitate the thrift of new business as well as tackle the emigration issue of highly skilled professionals.
Furthermore, many Silicon Valley venture capital firms are opening new offices all around Europe lured by the opportunity to expand their portfolios, as a matter of fact, European tech startups faced 40% surge in VC funding in 2019 alone; European startups could benefit from the high level of investments and I believe that a new rivalry might awake in Italian investors a slightly higher sense of competitiveness, therefore our country might profit from it as Italian business costume might evolve and overcome its flaws, emerging from its present overly cautious attitude.
In addition, it is important to point out that many cities across Europe are trying to thrive as the next major tech hub (as @giorgiaamatemaggio righteously stated, Milan is the perfect example of such environment in Italy); anyhow, these tech capitals are competing one against each other in complete isolation, therefore fragmenting the tech market. I am convinced that competition is another great source of drive from which our countries should benefit, however we need to connect funders and startups in order to built a fertile soil for innovating businesses and new companies. Europe’s unique challenges and unique demands should be the starting point of a new tailor-made model that differs from the one of the Silicon Valley, not one that mimics it. Our country and our continent’s diversity, may be viewed as source of fragmentation but I prefer to consider them priceless assets that will allow us to thrive and evolve toward our own, new tech Renaissance. Do you agree?
Have a nice evening,
Gabriella
March 25, 2020 at 22:53 #11837Hello guys,
the COVID-19 outbreak is demonstrating that, as mentioned in the article from the “Internazionale” shared by @elvira-dimascio, rapidly cutting CO emissions is a feasible deed, although predictions suggest that, in the near post-crisis future, carbon dioxide emissions will increase swiftly bringing us back to the starting point if not even farther than ever from our goal.
During the last conference, I was particularly struck by a comment made by Ms. Bonomo: she said something along the lines of “investors will not put money or time into green energy innovation as far as it will not be convenient”. Our real issue stands in the willingness to commit to these kinds of policies and technologies, that at the moment and in the short run, are not as advantageous.
Furthermore, entities such as our government are attempting to minimize the climate change afterward impact, investing in technologies such as the dams in Venice, instead of fixing the problem to the root. (If you wish to further discuss this topic I will share with you this link, let me know what is your opinion) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/10/venice-floods-sea-level-rise-mose-project
Have you ever heard of CCUS? It encompasses various methods and technologies that aim to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Canadian-based clean-energy company Carbon Engineering,for instance, is using direct air capturing processors, installations comparable to “synthetic forests”. The company is now “working to build industrial-scale Direct Air Capture facilities that will each capture one million tons of CO per year” quite an impressive goal considered that it amounts to the CO: absorbing ability of 40 million trees. (Here’s one of their facilities and the TED Talk of Chemical engineer Jennifer Wilcox further explain its usage and purpose) https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_wilcox_a_new_way_to_remove_co2_from_the_atmosphere
How can we make sure people will invest in such technologies and startups then? We surely cannot guilt trip every human being into making such investments in order to save the planet (as we did with Jeff Bezos. However, there might be a way to turn to opportunity and profit our need to remain within 1.5° C, by capturing CO each year. We already know that carbon dioxide has a range of various potential applications across a number of industries. We can take as an example CarbonCure for instance, a Canadian company that recycles CO into fresh concrete (concrete is responsible for up to 7% of carbon dioxide emission each year). Another company worthy of notice is Opus 12, a Silicon Valley based startup, which implements water and electricity in order to recycle carbon dioxide into chemical products and fuels such as synthetic gas, methane, and ethylene. The co-founders (whom two out of three are women) have managed to partner up with impressive leaders in the industry their products aim to. https://www.opus-12.com/
Although “carbon conversion is one piece of a much larger puzzle for dealing with the ongoing climate crisis as pointed out by Opus 12 co-funders, I believe it represents a huge step toward securing a better future for our next generations. Such companies fully impersonate the old saying “necessity is the mother of invention” don’t they? Do you think such startups will allow the carbon market to thrive throughout the next decades?
As to answer @giorgiaamatemaggio, if one day I would possess the expertise and means needed in order to be a business angel, I would more than certainly invest in startups that work along the lines of ones such as Carbon Engineering or Opus 12, I think it would certainly be a challenging adventure from which I could profit from as an individual. However, I fail to believe that I would have the creative drive to be able to set up a company from scratch.
Have a nice evening,
Gabriella
March 24, 2020 at 23:30 #11824To answer to Ms. @robertarabellotti,
it was a pleasure to attend today’s conference! Ms. Bonomo and Ms. Falautano were extremely concise and straightforward. The thematic addressed was not one of the easiest to understand especially if the subject discussed was a new one; The conference was very substantive and concrete. Furthermore, I believe that the speakers were both clear and at the same time effective, providing evidence and data in order to aid us better understand the context of the given information.
In addition, I want to stress out how much I am particularly appreciating the line of work that the conferences are following; today we addressed and discussed a very serious issue affecting the society we are living in, which is to say “gender gap”. It is inspiring to be able to see other women thrive in many different sectors and be able to be represented in such a manner. I found a great source of interest in becoming acquainted with the Italian organization “Angels 4 women” distinguished by its female empowerment; Ms. Bonomo and Ms. Falautano are largely contributing to address what has actually been a long-overdue issue in our country. I was also surprised by how recently the organization was established and how much it has evolved in just a year.
As for the debate, I think, despite having to communicate through an application, we managed pretty well to try to stimulate a dialogue with the speaker and to provide her and each other with thought-provoking questions.
I wish everyone a nice evening!
Gabriella
March 23, 2020 at 19:29 #11810Hello everybody,
As the epidemic is spreading at an alarming rate, our country, as many others, have been equipping themselves through technological means to respond to the crisis.
Telehealth is now on the rise as public health officials are pressing the healthcare systems to expand their telemedicine through smartphones and other technological means. In times where seeking treatment in medical facilities, perhaps overcrowded, means risking contagion, technology can aid medical personnel to triage and diagnose patients from a safe environment, exponentially limiting contact.
Technology is reaching out on us, in such rough times, by helping the most vulnerable among our society. Take “Ninja robots” for instance, designed by an engineering team in order to assist medical crew in different medical facilities in Bangkok; they are able to take patient’s temperature and also permit staff to communicate with patients through videos while safeguarding the health the already heavily burdened doctors and nurses. They were designed, initially to monitor stroke patients, but were quickly repurposed in order to respond to the health crisis. The team is working to create new robots and also to upgrade them to perform tasks such as cleaning infected wards or deliver food to sick patients. (Here’s an interesting article on the subject).
https://nypost.com/2020/03/20/thailand-hospitals-use-ninja-robots-to-fight-coronavirus/
Furthermore, as we are all aware of, the elder portion of our society is one of the most vulnerable to the virus; although surely not a lighthearted decision, many countries decided, during the last months, to close nursing home from all kinds of visitors.
The robotic company “Zora Bots” has deployed roughly 70 robots to retirement houses in Belgium in order to aid elders fight or at least alleviate loneliness by getting in touch with their friends and family. The robots, named nicknamed “James,” help elders communicate with the outside world amidst the social distancing sparked by the Covid-19. The company realised that they were not going to use any of the robots among the pandemic disaster and offered, free of charge, to lend their technology to those in need, in a gesture of great empathy and generosity. Mr. Goffin, co-chief executive of the company, has also assured that approximately 700 more robots are being requested from its Chinese manufacturer to be thereafter lent to nursing homes all over Europe.
(here’s another link concerning the discussion)
So now, what’s your impression on the implementation of these technologies? Do you consider them an useful addition?
To provide my point of view to ongoing discussion on how our society will alter its behavior once returned to normality, I think that, besides the changes in small/medium sized businesses already mentioned by @marcocanciani, our community will probably benefit by a change in misconception regarding work from home.
In addition, I believe that we will face a major evolution regarding voting systems around the globe as many countries as USA and France find themselves in the middle of a presidential election. I strongly believe that we will move forward electronic voting very soon. Once the first step will be taken our governments will not be able to step back and we will be able to benefit from a easier, voting method.
Furthermore, I think that we will come out of this experience equipped with a healthier digital lifestyle; take for instance the numerous live video concert shared by musicians, or poetry/prose readings promoted through the web by authors or simply by groups of people with a passion for literature. Our community has found innovative ways to spread human generosity and empathy. Digital solidarity will remain a singular trait of our social lives.
Finally, to answer the question about the continuity of our learning activity, as far as I am concerned I am taking my classes using an online platform, named “Kiro”;The platform has gone under various improvements in the past weeks, since it has never faced such influx, in order to allow continuity in the learning process of the students. Few courses, such as the linguistic ones or the conferences we are following for this project, are being, rather successfully, held on “Google Meet”. I do believe that our university tried to tackle as fast as possible the issue, however many professors were not able to adapt as fast since many of them lack the technological abilities and very few of them decided to implement the usage of this platform in the past; this is another reason why I too, as both @marcocanciani and @giorgiaamatemaggio highly prefer live lectures.
Nonetheless, considering that I am a commuting student, I value online courses as extremely useful, a real source of relief, that might help me go through busy days. I also believe that if every professor was given the opportunity to lecture through “Google Meet” app in an efficient way, the differences in the types of didactic would be minimum. In my opinion our university still has to go along way an optimize the level of integration and response to the crisis taken into account the response of other universities. However the way our educational system has adjusted in the last month is great source of praises.
What’s your opinion on online learning? How can it be enhanced?
Gabriella
March 21, 2020 at 14:04 #11798Hey guys!
First things first, welcome @martaspacca, I look forward to reading your contribution to this forum!
To continue, thank you @giorgiaamatemaggio for sharing your insight; the connection we benefit from thanks to technology is something I deeply value as a powerful instrument to bridge the existing social gap. One can also consider that, technological innovations, that have evolved throughout decades, enable us to establish, maintain and further our social network. We can keep contact with people with whom we have not spoken for years and benefit from her extended social system as @stefaniatibiletti has mentioned during the first conference.
However, I wish for all of us to take a step back and analyse the topic from another angle; as a matter of fact, technology might as well widen the social gap rather than bridge it. Nowadays we take for granted that every household disposes of technological devices, although that might not always be the case. Many families around the globe do not have access to wifi or to technological means such as computers or telephones. Take Italy for instance, we are currently under what would be called a “general lockdown”, however our universities decided to either establish online classes, or to share information (Pdf, slides, articles etc.) through platforms such as Kiro. The entire education system was able to mobilize itself and evolve in order to overcome the difficult situation we find ourselves in. With this in mind, I must draw attention to the fact that as a society we often fail to realise that there may be people that are not able to access to technological devices at all; perhaps a household disposes of a singular device that is needed by a parent in order to work from home, or maybe two kids share the same device and struggle to follow online-classes due to schedule overlap, access to wifi may be another issue as well. In this particular scenario, technology represents a “digital divide” that is to say, a digital disparity that takes also the form of differences in ability and participation in the digital world as well ast just a lack of Internet access. Although, through technology mediated learning, students are provided with the opportunity to search for or to analyse information, communicate and collaborate, we must take into account “accessibility” and tackle the unequal distribution of social resources (that also includes the fact that many people lack of skills to thrive in digital age).
In addition, widely spread misinformation and different level to access that may vary from country to county (censure in China) are issues that must be taken into account and dealt with in order to bridge the social disparities. Technological means, if adequately used, and through the proper degree of inclusion can and ought to be employed to overcome existing inequalities rather than creating new ones.
If you are interested I will leave you the link of a very stimulating article I read on the subject:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/upshot/how-technology-could-help-fight-income-inequality.html
Gabriella
March 19, 2020 at 21:12 #11792Hello everyone!
I want to thank you guys, especially @giorgiaamatemaggio and @jacopotirintilli, for raising awareness about the development and implementation of technology applied to museums, they are very often discredited; however, one must acknowledge as @elviradimascio mentioned, that this is, indeed, a valuable tool for whoever due to an illness, a disability or lack of opportunity to travel to different places and cannot benefit from them. As a matter of fact, a couple of years ago I returned to the U.S. and had the chance to visit, what up to date I consider the most beautiful museum I have ever had the opportunity to visit: the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I fell in love with its galleries and I have the chance to keep visiting them, although not in real life, but through my computer. I value incredibly and will always consider myself immensely grateful for the opportunity to explore once more such places.
On that note, have you ever heard about Google Arts and culture? I discovered it a few years ago reading an article for one of my high school classes; It is an ongoing, almost decade long, project; it allowed the creation of an online platform, that not only provides a series of museum tours and online interactive exhibition but also offers high resolution images of many masterpieces. One can zoom into a particular artworks and analyse brushstrokes and details with great specificity. In addition it offers the opportunity to explore various cultural sites online, such as Versailles, the Colosseum or Stonehenge to name a few. Furthermore, it has recently launched a program that will allow to explore Unesco world Heritage sites under threat due to climate change.This astonishing platform has expanded incredibly throughout the years and provides artworks from over 12000 museums all over the globe.
It is accurate to draw attention to one of the downsides that is the selectiveness and soggettive connotation of the platform, not every artwork is included, only the ones our society considers most lustrous. Even technology takes its own time to further refine itself and with time, I am positive, we will get to benefit from a broader number of art pieces and further fill in this existing gap. Another gap filled by technology is the social one, development and innovation allow us to tare down social barriers like never before.
I will leave you with a question that may open a really interesting discussion: “in which other ways has technology smothered social differences in our population?”
Gabriella
March 18, 2020 at 7:44 #11746Hello!
Being the honest person that I am, I must say that I have not had much direct experience with technology, not any further from the amount of contact that the majority of us has ever had with it ( telephone, computers, etc.). As a matter of fact I have never built from scrap a computer (although I’m really impressed by anyone who might have these type of abilities)or used a 3D printer; I have only recently developed a shy appeal towards the subject.
Nonetheless, I can vividly recall, as blatant as it may seem, the first time technology struck me as something tangible, something made by humans to ameliorate others lives, to upgrade ourselves: it was the first time I laid eyes on solar panel. I was very young back then and I had absolutely no idea that one could power a house, even a neighbourhood by converting sunlight into electricity. From that moment forward I found great source of interest in reading and discussing about alternative energy’ technologies. To date, it never fails to amaze me how humans discovered ways to exploit natural resources, especially green ones, and produce energy out of it.
Nowadays, this so much rooted interest combined itself with a newfound curiosity for the question:“how can technology and its discoveries be implemented or channeled into saving our own planet from the threats of global warming?” This extremely “au courant” topic is one of the most debated at the moment. Journalist and writer David Wallace-Wells stated that “the climate crisis is the work of a single generation” notwithstanding, I also believe that in one generation time, with the help of technology, we might be able to secure ourselves new, brighter future.
According to the “Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations” cattle are the animal species responsible for the most emissions, representing about 65% of the livestock sector’s emissions.” that means that the livestock carbon footprint amounts to “14.5 percent of all anthropogenic GHG emissions”. For this very reason several industries,(such as Californian based “Memphis Meats” or ”Artemis Foods”) have embarked into the quest of growing meat from animal stem cells, without the actual slaughter of the animal itself.Thanks to technology we are now starting to develop “clean meat” which aims towards a sustainable alternative for meat production. Many companies around the globe are working towards producing cruel free meat that can also spare our planet .1 Gigatonnes of Co2 each year.
I feel like I have been going on for too long. Perhaps we can discuss this topic more thoroughly shortly, in the meantime I leave you with some links that you might find interesting about “cultured meat”.
Gabriella
-
This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by
-
AuthorPosts