What does it say when a legal blockchain eBook has 1.7M views? — from legalmosaic.com by Mark A. Cohen

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Blockchain For Lawyers,” a recently-released eBook by Australian legal tech company Legaler, drew 1.7M views in two weeks. What does that staggering number say about blockchain, legal technology, and the legal industry? Clearly, blockchain is a hot legal topic, along with artificial intelligence (AI), and legal tech generally.

Legal practice and delivery are each changing. New practice areas like cryptocurrency, cybersecurity, and Internet law are emerging as law struggles to keep pace with the speed of business change in the digital age. Concurrently, several staples of traditional practice–research, document review, etc.– are becoming automated and/or no longer performed by law firm associates. There is more “turnover” of practice tasks, more reliance on machines and non-licensed attorneys to mine data and provide domain expertise used by lawyers, and more collaboration than ever before. The emergence of new industries demands that lawyers not only provide legal expertise in support of new areas but also that they possess intellectual agility to master them quickly. Many practice areas law students will encounter have yet to be created. That means that all lawyers will be required to be more agile than their predecessors and engage in ongoing training.

 

 

 

A Year in Review: Privacy Law in 2018

A Year in Review: Privacy Law in 2018A Year in Review: Privacy Law in 2018

2018 has been a transformative year for privacy law. Due in large part to the passing of The General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) on May 25, 2018, the privacy law landscape in the U.S. and around the world changed forever. Many companies were left wondering what the new laws meant for their daily operations and how far-reaching the noncompliance penalties would ultimately be.

 

 

A Year in Review: Privacy Law in 2018 — from Thomson Reuters & Above the Law

Excerpt:

Privacy law has become one of the hottest practice areas in the legal industry. In partnership with our friends at Thomson Reuters, we present A Year in Review: Privacy Law in 2018. This free eBook offers a comprehensive overview of trends and developments in privacy practice, including:

  • Insights About GDPR Compliance
  • How The Cloud Act May Rain On The Privacy Of Your Data
  • Why Blockchain And The GDPR Collide Over Your Personal Data
  • Attorneys’ Duties to Protect Client Data

In addition, our Year in Review includes a look at the The ATL Top Law Firm Privacy Practices, a round-up of the most active and relevant major law firms in this complex and rapidly evolving practice area.

 

 


Also see:


 

 

What Blockchain Could Mean for the Future of Journalism — from mediablog.prnewswire.com by Julian Dossett

 

Excerpt:

The digital era has utterly changed the way readers interact with the news.

Traditional news outlets struggle to remain relevant as the media sector’s influence is refocused online.

Journalism in the U.S. faces a number of challenges that blockchain technology has the potential to address and possibly solve — if the technology actually can achieve what it promises.

2018 itself has seen journalism move into uncharted waters as the industry comes up against issues, stemming from the continued digital migration of news organizations.

 

Because blockchain functions as a platform to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions, there are a few news organizations that believe blockchain technology finally will enable micropayments to be widely adopted in the U.S.

 

 

 

 

Why blockchain is quickly becoming the gold standard for supply chains — from datafloq.com

Excerpts:

Global supply chains are complex processes. Different companies, with distinctive objectives, are working together to achieve a common goal; to bring something from A to B. For a supply chain to work, partners have to trust each other. To do so, there are multiple checks-and-balances, extensive documents and different checkpoints all interacting in a web of bureaucratic processes. Knowing the amount of paperwork required to send a product from farm to plate, it is remarkable that we have managed to develop global supply chains.

However, the processes in place are time-consuming, expensive and they don’t always prevent growing problems such as counterfeit products, fragmentation and falsification of data, lack of transparency, extensive settlement times and incorrect storage conditions.

Especially the availability of counterfeit products is an extensive problem. Research showed that 20 out of 47 items audited from renowned retailers such as Amazon or eBay turned out to be counterfeit. This results in annual damages of $1 trillion of missed income by retailers and manufacturers.


Three use cases of improved supply chains

  1. Beiersdorf – developing an open pallet exchange
  2. Bayer – total recall of pharmaceuticals
  3. Kellogg’s – food quality and safety first

 

 

The rise of crypto in higher education — from blog.coinbase.com
Coinbase regularly engages with students and universities across the country as part of recruiting efforts. We partnered with Qriously to ask students directly about their thoughts on crypto and blockchain — and in this report, we outline findings on the growing roster of crypto and blockchain courses amid a steady rise in student interest.

 

Key Findings

  • 42 percent of the world’s top 50 universities now offer at least one course on crypto or blockchain
  • Students from a range of majors are interested in crypto and blockchain courses — and universities are adding courses across a variety of departments
  • Original Coinbase research includes a Qriously survey of 675 U.S. students, a comprehensive review of courses at 50 international universities, and interviews with professors and students

 

Also see:

 

On the downside of this are of technology:

 

 

Academics Propose a ‘Blockchain University,’ Where Faculty (and Algorithms) Rule — from edsurge.com by Jeff Young

Excerpt:

A group of academics affiliated with Oxford University have proposed a new model of higher education that replaces traditional administrators with “smart contracts” on the blockchain, the same technology that drives Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

“Our aim is to create a university in which the bulk of administrative tasks are either eliminated or progressively automated,” said the effort’s founders in a white paper released earlier this year. Those proposing the idea added the university would be “a decentralised, non-profit, democratic community in which the use of blockchain technology will provide the contractual stability needed to pursue a full course of study.”

Experiments with blockchain in higher education are underway at multiple campuses around the country, and many of researchers are looking into how to use the technology to verify and deliver credentials. Massachusetts Institute for Technology, for example, began issuing diplomas via blockchain last year.

The plan by Oxford researchers goes beyond digital diplomas—and beyond many typical proposals to disrupt education in general. It argues for a completely new framework for how college is organized, how professors are paid, and how students connect with learning. In other words, it’s a long shot.

But even if the proposed platform never emerges, it is likely to spur debates about whether blockchain technology could one day allow professors to reclaim greater control of how higher education operates through digital contracts.

 

The platform would essentially allow professors to organize their own colleges, and teach and take payments from students directly. “

 

 

 

Gartner: Immersive experiences among top tech trends for 2019 — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

IT analyst firm Gartner has named its top 10 trends for 2019, and the “immersive user experience” is on the list, alongside blockchain, quantum computing and seven other drivers influencing how we interact with the world. The annual trend list covers breakout tech with broad impact and tech that could reach a tipping point in the near future.

 

 

 
 

To higher ed: When the race track is going 180mph, you can’t walk or jog onto the track. [Christian]

From DSC:
When the race track is going 180mph, you can’t walk or jog onto the track.  What do I mean by that? 

Consider this quote from an article that Jeanne Meister wrote out at Forbes entitled, “The Future of Work: Three New HR Roles in the Age of Artificial Intelligence:”*

This emphasis on learning new skills in the age of AI is reinforced by the most recent report on the future of work from McKinsey which suggests that as many as 375 million workers around the world may need to switch occupational categories and learn new skills because approximately 60% of jobs will have least one-third of their work activities able to be automated.

Go scan the job openings and you will likely see many that have to do with technology, and increasingly, with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, deep learning, machine learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, big data, cloud-based services, robotics, automation, bots, algorithm development, blockchain, and more. 

 

From Robert Half’s 2019 Technology Salary Guide 

 

 

How many of us have those kinds of skills? Did we get that training in the community colleges, colleges, and universities that we went to? Highly unlikely — even if you graduated from one of those institutions only 5-10 years ago. And many of those institutions are often moving at the pace of a nice leisurely walk, with some moving at a jog, even fewer are sprinting. But all of them are now being asked to enter a race track that’s moving at 180mph. Higher ed — and society at large — are not used to moving at this pace. 

This is why I think that higher education and its regional accrediting organizations are going to either need to up their game hugely — and go through a paradigm shift in the required thinking/programming/curricula/level of responsiveness — or watch while alternatives to institutions of traditional higher education increasingly attract their learners away from them.

This is also, why I think we’ll see an online-based, next generation learning platform take place. It will be much more nimble — able to offer up-to-the minute, in-demand skills and competencies. 

 

 

The below graphic is from:
Jobs lost, jobs gained: What the future of work will mean for jobs, skills, and wages

 

 

 


 

* Three New HR Roles To Create Compelling Employee Experiences
These new HR roles include:

  1. IBM: Vice President, Data, AI & Offering Strategy, HR
  2. Kraft Heinz Senior Vice President Global HR, Performance and IT
  3. SunTrust Senior Vice President Employee Wellbeing & Benefits

What do these three roles have in common? All have been created in the last three years and acknowledge the growing importance of a company’s commitment to create a compelling employee experience by using data, research, and predictive analytics to better serve the needs of employees. In each case, the employee assuming the new role also brought a new set of skills and capabilities into HR. And importantly, the new roles created in HR address a common vision: create a compelling employee experience that mirrors a company’s customer experience.

 


 

An excerpt from McKinsey Global Institute | Notes from the Frontier | Modeling the Impact of AI on the World Economy 

Workers.
A widening gap may also unfold at the level of individual workers. Demand for jobs could shift away from repetitive tasks toward those that are socially and cognitively driven and others that involve activities that are hard to automate and require more digital skills.12 Job profiles characterized by repetitive tasks and activities that require low digital skills may experience the largest decline as a share of total employment, from some 40 percent to near 30 percent by 2030. The largest gain in share may be in nonrepetitive activities and those that require high digital skills, rising from some 40 percent to more than 50 percent. These shifts in employment would have an impact on wages. We simulate that around 13 percent of the total wage bill could shift to categories requiring nonrepetitive and high digital skills, where incomes could rise, while workers in the repetitive and low digital skills categories may potentially experience stagnation or even a cut in their wages. The share of the total wage bill of the latter group could decline from 33 to 20 percent.13 Direct consequences of this widening gap in employment and wages would be an intensifying war for people, particularly those skilled in developing and utilizing AI tools, and structural excess supply for a still relatively high portion of people lacking the digital and cognitive skills necessary to work with machines.

 


 

 

Just released from the Future Today Institute:
The 2019 Journalism, Media and Tech Trends Report 

Launched at the Online News Association conference in Austin, Texas, the Future Today Institute’s new industry report for the future of journalism, media and technology follows the same approach as our popular annual mega trends report, now in its 11th year with more than 7.5 million cumulative views.

Key findings:

  • Blockchain emerged as a significant driver of change in 2019 and beyond. The blockchain ecosystem is still maturing, however we’ve now seen enough development, adoption and consolidation that it warrants its own, full section. There are numerous opportunities for media and journalism organizations. For that reason, we’ve included an explainer, a list of companies to watch, and a cross-indexed list of trends to compliment blockchain technology. We’ve also included detailed scenarios in this section.

 

  • Mixed Reality is entering the mainstream.
    The mixed reality ecosystem has grown enough that we now see concrete opportunities on the horizon for media organizations. From immersive video to wearable technology, news and entertainment media organizations should begin mapping their strategy for new kinds of devices and platforms.

 

  • Artificial Intelligence is not a tech trend—it is the third era of computing. And it isn’t just for story generation. You will see the AI ecosystem represented in many of the trends in this report, and it is vitally important that all decision-makers and teams familiarize themselves with current and emerging AI trends.

 

In addition to the 108 trends identified, the report also includes several guides for journalists, including a Blockchain Primer, an AI Primer, a mixed reality explainer, hacker terms and lingo, and a guide to policy changes on the horizon.

The report also includes guidance on how everyone working within journalism and media can take action on tech trends and how to evaluate a trend’s impact on their local marketplaces.

Download and read the full report here.   |   View it on Slideshare.

 

 

 

 

25 skills LinkedIn says are most likely to get you hired in 2018 — and the online courses to get them — from businessinsider.com by Mara Leighton

Excerpt:

With the introduction of far-reaching and robust technology, the job market has experienced its own exponential growth, adaptation, and semi-metamorphosis. So much so that it can be difficult to guess what skills employer’s are looking for and what makes your résumé — and not another — stand out to recruiters.

Thankfully, LinkedIn created a 2018 “roadmap”— a list of hard and soft skills that companies need the most.

LinkedIn used data from their 500+ million members to identify the skills companies are currently working the hardest to fill. They grouped the skills members add to their profiles into several dozen categories (for example, “Android” and “iOS” into the “Mobile Development” category). Then, the company looked at all of the hiring and recruiting activity that happened on LinkedIn between January 1 and September 1 (billions of data points) and extrapolated the skill categories that belonged to members who were “more likely to start a new role within a company and receive interest from companies.”

LinkedIn then coupled those specific skills with related jobs and their average US salaries — all of which you can find below, alongside courses you can take (for free or for much less than the cost of a degree) to support claims of aptitude and stay ahead of the curve.

The online-learning options we included — LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, Coursera, and edX— are among the most popular and inexpensive.

 

 

Also see:

 

 

 

Crypto Guides | Learn About Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency & Blockchain — from upfolio.com with thanks to Simon Saval for the resource

 

Crypto Guides | Learn About Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency & Blockchain on upfolio.com

 

Also see:

  • Blockchain in Education West
    Excerpt:
    There are numerous ways blockchain technology can be utilized in education, including, but not limited to:
    Digital transcripts
    Cybersecurity
    Online learning
    Blockchain-based essays
    Connection between students and employees

 

 

Why higher ed should do more with blockchain tech — from by Dian Schaffhauser
Oral Roberts University recently held a conference to persuade higher education institutions that it’s time to get on board the blockchain train. Its recommendations: Learn about the technology’s potential, test it out and collaborate.

Excerpt:

As CIO Michael Mathews, the event’s organizer, explained, blockchain will be as important to transforming education as the internet was. He said he believes those colleges and universities that jump on the secure public ledger concept early enough and begin testing it out will be the ones who could see the biggest benefits.

Mathews believes blockchain will have the “biggest payback” within an organization’s processes where trust is essential as part of a “value chain”: student application processing, transcript evaluations, articulation agreements. Blockchain “templates” that run in the cloud could replace “entire cumbersome processes”…

 

 

From DSC:
It could easily be that blockchain-based technologies and processes feed into cloud/web-based learner profiles in the future. That’s one aspect of the next generation learning platform that I’m pulse checking — I call it Learning from the Living [Class] Room.

 

Blockchain could be involved with cloud/web-based learner profiles in the future

Blockchain -- something to keep on our radars in higher education

 

Also, from a while back…

Oracle to Launch Blockchain Products This Month — from investopedia.com by Shobhit Seth

Excerpt:

Tech corporations are seeing big opportunities in the blockchain space, and are now in a closely contested race to seize them sooner rather than later.

Oracle Corp. has announced that it will unveil its blockchain software later this month, reports Bloomberg. Oracle will launch its platform-as-a-service blockchain product later this month, which will be followed by launch of the decentralized ledger-based applications next month.

The Redwood City, California-based software giant is already having clients on board for its blockchain offerings. Santiago-based Banco de Chile is one of the early clients that Oracle is working with to record inter-bank transactions on a hyperledger. The world’s second-largest software company is also working with the government of Nigeria, which is aiming to document customs and import duties on a blockchain. Oracle is also hopeful of offering solutions to a large number of pharmaceutical companies to efficiently track and locate batches of drugs to help them reduce the number of recalls. Thomas Kurian, president of product development, said that Oracle’s products will be compatible with other platforms.

 

 

 

 

 

Augmented & Virtual Reality in Education
May 17th, 2018
In partnership with Oral Roberts University
Tulsa, OK

 

Description:

Over the past 12 months, Augmented and Virtual Reality technology has advanced in all sectors – with applications revolutionizing the interactions between human and machine, and humans and virtual reality.  In education in particular, AR and VR applications are rapidly changing the way we are learning, providing experiential learning by simulating real-world environments. AR and VR increases student engagement levels, and provides insights into what they will experience in various environments when they enter the workforce. The technology is particularly interesting for visual learners and students with learning challenges – providing alternatives to more traditional teaching methods.

A recent study shows that “93 percent of teachers say their students would be excited to use virtual reality and 83 percent say that virtual reality might help improve learning outcomes.”

Oral Roberts University and the Education Conference Network are pleased to partner on this exciting event – held at Oral Roberts University’s Global Learning Center, which is a world innovator and leader in AR/VR learning. The conference will provide delegates with a great opportunity to interact with the latest technologies, and see how they can be integrated within curriculum.

 

 

Also see:

Blockchain Essentials in Education
May 16th, 2018
In partnership with Oral Roberts University
Tulsa, OK

Description:

The Blockchain in Education Conference will enable education professionals to understand how blockchain technology such as cryptocurrency, smart contracts, distributed databases, and public ledgers are, and will continue to transform their sector. We are now seeing start-ups focusing on blockchain – whilst existing technology businesses are integrating blockchain technology into their overall offerings – building pilots and working with customers to develop roadmaps forward. The first blockchain was theorized by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 and applied the following year as a key component of the digital currency bitcoin, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. A secure public ledger concept can be applied to almost all aspects of doing business whilst removing slow and outdated workflows. Using a peer-to-peer network and a distributed timestamping server, a blockchain database can be managed autonomously. Blockchain is the future business model of supply chain and can be applied to the entire education value chain. Are you ready to harness the capabilities of blockchain technology in education?

 

 

 

 

 
 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian