Daily Archives: March 5, 2021

Digital Divide: Is Big Brother Trying to Control the Booming Internet Space? – TheLeaflet – The Leaflet

Posted: March 5, 2021 at 5:14 am

The attempt by the government to control news, online content and social media intermediaries through theInformation Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021smacks ofcensorship. Several requirements under the Rules are unconstitutional as they undermine the freedom of expression and right to privacy. They have excessivelydelegated powersto the executive, even though the government is not legally empowered to do so. But the Supreme Court has often heldthat the right to freedom of expression cannot be restricted,writesMD TASNIMUL HASSAN

RECENTLY, the government notified theInformation Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021through whichit seeks to control rather than regulate publishers of news/current affairs content and online curated content (including over-the-top platforms). The Rules also provide for due diligence mechanisms for social media intermediaries, failing which they would be penalised. BothOTTs and digital news mediawill have to inform the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting about the details of their entity and publish periodic compliance reports every month.

Earlier, the government through anotification dated November 9, 2020, amended the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, and brought specific categories of internet content (films and audio-visual programmes/news and current affairs) within the control of the Ministry.

There have been a number of controversies where the creators either pre-emptively removed the entire episode or deleted a few scenes, based on political malice (The John Oliver Show,Patriot Act,Madam Secretary) or invited confrontations because of religious backfiring (Tanishq,A Suitable Boy).

TheInformation Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, provide for due diligence mechanisms for social media intermediaries, failing which they would be penalised. BothOTTs and digital news mediawill have to inform the I&B Ministry about the details of their entity and publish periodic compliance reports every month.

Supporters of the regulatory regimearguethat it would level the playing field between OTTs and theatrical productions, whereas criticsexpressed concernsover the regulations as they may lead to potential censorship. Several requirements under the Rules arearguablyunconstitutional as they undermine the freedom of expression as well as the right to privacy. The Rules have excessivelydelegated powersto the executive, even though the government is not legally empowered to do so. Moreover, there already are several provisions to that effect and these Rules essentially fulfil the governmentsaimto control the booming internet space, which was otherwise partially free.

Digital content available on the web is subjected to several provisions under theInformation Technology Act, 2000. The government owns theinternet kill switchto remove any content that is objectionable and/or harms Indias interests under Section 69A of the IT Act. Further, as per Rule 3(2)(b), (c) and (e) ofInformation Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011, due diligence is to be observed by intermediaries in respect of the information being hosted or published on any computer resource; which may also be applied to OTTs as they qualify as intermediaries.

The censorship of films is undertaken by the Central Board of Film Certificationset up under theCinematograph Act, 1952,whichassigns various certificationsto films before their release.This Act along with theCinematograph (Certification) Rules, 1983and the ministrysGuidelines dated December 6, 1991, form the censorship laws for films.

Further, theCable Television Network (Regulation) Act, 1995enables the government to take certain channels off the air, as was seen in the case ofNDTV India and others. Theprogramme codeprescribed under this Act prohibits the broadcast of news that violates decency or attacks community or religious sentiments, and any violation of the code is investigated by an inter-ministerial committee.Moreover,the government controls the countrys telecommunications via theIndian Telegraph Act, 1885, and theIndian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933, which often causes internet shutdown.

Digital content available on the web is subjected to several provisions under theInformation Technology Act, 2000. The government owns theinternet kill switchto remove any content that is objectionable and/or harms Indias interests under Section 69A of the IT Act.

There is a lineardifferencebetween regulation and state-sponsored censorship, though regulation might often lead to censorship. Unlike censorship, where abuse, nudity or politically sensitive content is bleeped out by the platform either voluntarily or under some external pressure, OTTs are committed to ensuring there is no such content that disrespects the national emblem and flag or promotes and encourages disrespect to the sovereignty and integrity of India. IT Parliamentary Committee chairperson Shashi Tharoor in January 2019had arguedthat the CBFC should not have pre-censorship powers.

In February 2020, a group of OTTslaunchedthe Digital Curated Content Complaint Council, which required its members to censor content that promoted violence, contained child sexual abuse material or which was banned by a court, while providing for a consumer grievance redressal mechanism. In September 2020, OTTs, including Disney+Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, released a self-regulatory code titled,Universal Self-Regulation Code for Online Curated Content Providers,though it could not garner government support. The ministryhadmaintainedthat consensus on a self-regulatory model without the governments intervention is good enough for them to function.

The strong rights argument against censorship, which often comes in the guise of regulation, is that the content is on-demand, where viewers have the choice to pay and subsequently choose what they want to watch. Conversely, the arguments against self-regulation are that the platforms lack clarity when it comes to detailing all manners of regulation and that no one should be a judge in their own cause (there being a conflict of interest of OTTs with the complainants).

There is a lineardifferencebetween regulation and state-sponsored censorship. Unlike censorship, where abuse, nudity or politically sensitive content is bleeped out by the platform, OTTs arecommittedto ensuring there is no such content that disrespects the national emblem and flag or promotes and encourages disrespect to the sovereignty and integrity of India.

Nevertheless, there is no concrete argument that after censorship or possible certification or even regulation, there would not be opposition to it. For instance, films such asPadmaavatandUdta Punjabhad attracted considerable controversies even after they were certified by the CBFC.Tandav,a series aired over Amazon Prime Video, was another one which ran into controversy. The I&B ministrysummonedAmazon Prime officials and the makersthankedthe ministry for guidance and support while deleting the controversial scenes. Thisarguablyset a dangerous precedent for the OTT industry. Despitenot beinglegally bound to, OTTs have been self-censoring their content. Imagine what would unfold when they would be legally bound to so, with the government sitting in their backyard.

InShreya Singhalv.Union of India(2015), the Supreme Court ruled that online user-generated content cannot be censored until there is a direct incitement to violence, but delegated the question of on-demand content, like that provided by OTTs, to the IT Act.

Despitenot beinglegally bound to, OTTs have been self-censoring their content. Imagine what would unfold when they would be legally bound to so, with the government sitting in their backyard.

InLife Insurance Corporation of Indiav.Prof. Manubhai D. Shah(1992), as Doordarshan refused to broadcast Beyond Genocide, a documentary on the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Supreme Court agreed with the High Courts ruling that halting the documentary broadcast would curtail freedom of speech and expression.

Yet again, inBobby Art International & Ors.v. Om Pal Singh Hoon & Ors.(1996), the Supreme Court heldthat the producers right to freedom of expression could not be restricted.ReiteratingK.A. Abbasv.Union of India(1970), wherein M. Hidayatullah, C.J., held that, [t]he standards that we set for our censors must make a substantial allowance in favour of freedom thus leaving a vast area for creative art to interpret life and society with some of its foibles along with what is good, the Supreme Court inBobby Artheld that films dealing with socially relevant themes must be subjected to the least censorship.

Indian courts, more often than not, have taken a stance in favour of free speech, which is the second greatest constitutional right after that to life and personal liberty. The Karnataka High Court inPadmanabh Shankarv. Union Of India(2019) rightly pointed out that content aired over OTT platforms are not public exhibitions and should not be censored on the reasoning as absurd as social interests matter over individual freedom (SeeK.A. Abbascase).

Thus, as noted by the Bombay High Court inPhantom Films Pvt. Ltd.v.The Central Board for Film Certification(2016), The ultimate censorious power over the censors belongs to the people and by indifference, laxity or abetment, pictures which pollute public morals are liberally certificated, the legislation, meant by Parliament to protect peoples good morals, may be sabotaged by statutory enemies within.

Indian courts, more often than not, have taken a stance in favour of free speech, which is the second greatest constitutional right after that to life and personal liberty. The Karnataka High Court inPadmanabh Shankar v. Union Of India(2019) rightly pointed out that content aired over OTT platforms are not public exhibitions and should not be censored.

The Rules seek to override the existing provisions and establish a stronger big brother State to watch if citizens are subscribing to content that goes against the governments vested interests.Thus, the regulations have the tendency to create a Stalinist pre-censorship regime by limiting narratives that impact political gains of the government, asit revives the censorship framework prescribed under the 1995 Cable Television Act, in the digital broadcasting domain.

Censorship in the guise of regulation, which is what the Rules are set to do, will discourage political opinions and creativity. This may lead to the production of one-track-mind content that we usually see on TV or in theatres. The regulation will also have a chilling effect on free speech as creators would now refrain from depicting scenes attracting controversies even in a parallel world.

The Rules establish a stronger big brother State to watch if citizens are subscribing to content that goes against the governments vested interests.Thus, the regulations have the tendency to create a Stalinist pre-censorship regime by limiting narratives that impact political gains of the government.

A self-regulatory body would do the greater good to a greater number as the audience will have the option to watch diverse forms of artistic presentation instead of being fed propaganda through conservative portrayals and narrow sceneries. Nonetheless, OTTs should provide appropriate disclaimers and age verification mechanisms for any particular content.

(Md Tasnimul Hassan is a law undergraduate at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. He is a part of the first cohort of South Asia Students For LibertysFellowship For Freedom in India.The views expressed are personal.)

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I Helped Build ByteDance’s Censorship Machine Machine Learning Times – The Predictive Analytics Times

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Originally published in Protocol, Feb 18, 2021.

This is the story of Li An, a pseudonymous former employee at ByteDance, as told to Protocols Shen Lu.

I wasnt proud of it, and neither were my coworkers. But thats life in todays China.

It was the night Dr. Li Wenliang struggled for his last breath in the emergency room of Wuhan Central Hospital. I, like many Chinese web users, had stayed awake to refresh my Weibo feed constantly for updates on his condition. Dr. Li was an ophthalmologist who sounded the alarm early in the COVID-19 outbreak. He soon faced government intimidation and then contracted the virus. When he passed away in the early hours of Friday, Feb. 7, 2020, I was among many Chinese netizens who expressed grief and outrage at the events on Weibo, only to have my account deleted.

I felt guilt more than anger. At the time, I was a tech worker at ByteDance, where I helped develop tools and platforms for content moderation. In other words, I had helped build the system that censored accounts like mine. I was helping to bury myself in Chinas ever-expanding cyber grave.

I hadnt received explicit directives about Li Wenliang, but Weibo was certainly not the only Chinese tech company relentlessly deleting posts and accounts that night. I knew ByteDances army of content moderators were using the tools and algorithms that I helped develop to delete content, change the narrative and alter memories of the suffering and trauma inflicted on Chinese people during the COVID-19 outbreak. I couldnt help but feel every day like I was a tiny cog in a vast, evil machine.

ByteDance is one of Chinas largest unicorns and creator of short video-sharing app TikTok, its original Chinese version Douyin and news aggregator Toutiao. Last year, when ByteDance was at the center of U.S. controversy over data-sharing with Beijing, itcutits domestic engineers access to products overseas, including TikTok. TikTok hasplansto launch two physical Transparency Centers in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to showcase content moderation practices. But in China, content moderation is mostly kept in the shadows.

I was on a central technology team that supports the Trust and Safety team, which sits within ByteDances core data department. The data department is mainly devoted to developing technologies for short-video platforms. As of early 2020, the technologies we created supported the entire companys content moderation in and outside China, including Douyin at home and its international equivalent, TikTok. About 50 staff worked on the product team and between 100 to 150 software engineers worked on the technical team. Additionally, ByteDance employed about 20,000 content moderators to monitor content in China. They worked at what are known internally as bases () in Tianjin, Chengdu (in Sichuan), Jinan (in Shandong) and other cities. Some were ByteDance employees, others contractors.

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As censors tighten grip, Indian art is becoming more mediocre – The Times of India Blog

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While president, Ronald Reagan once joked, Politics is the second oldest profession. And then added, I didnt realise how much it is like the first. Reagan, who began his career as a Hollywood actor, was a master at self-deprecating humour. Years earlier, Nixon had not been so gracious. During his re-election campaign, bathroom graffiti the Instagram of the time had noted, If you voted for Richard Nixon you cant s*it here, because your a**hole is in the White House. The joke was circulated publically, but did not sit well with Nixon, even though he was well aware of its place in a country that encouraged free expression.

Would issuing the slightest hurt to self-image even occur to Indian politicians, so blindly concerned about public perception? When anything and everything on politics, society or religion can spark the draconian edge of Indian intolerance, is it a surprise that a comedian should be arrested for a show where he didnt even appear, or when climate change activists can be picked up for sharing an innocuous document? This is hardly new in a country where some years earlier, Goddess Durga depictions were removed from an art show; or when goons suddenly appeared on stage at a literary festival calling for the arrest of an author. Even before it went on sale, Wendy Donigers book on Hinduism had to be taken off the shelves and was back in the warehouse.

More recent government orders are directed at entertainment programs: should Muslim-Hindu love scenes in Netflixs Suitable Boy be deleted? Should other un-Indian acts like violence, homosexuality and caste hostility be allowed on screen? Indian methods of censorship are themselves highly developed forms of satire.

The art world in India has such a shameful history of repression, that Indian artists have for some time begun to self-censor themselves by resorting to tame and acceptable themes. Charged so often with hurting religious or private sentiments Indian art, comedy and film now cautiously remain in neutral territory.

But elsewhere in our region, risky subjects abound. Art in Pakistan has created a valuable underground that practises a mean satirical view of the countrys sadistic and repressive political life. Beautiful enamel work displaying beheaded bodies at an oasis, a woman in traditional dress patterned with Kalashnikovs, carpets embroidered in a closeup of jail cells in paintings, miniatures, graphic novels and short cinema, daily violence appears in lurid technicolour, a gut wrenching portrait of lived reality. On Pakistani television, Banana News Network spoofs and mimics corrupt politicians. Iranian films similarly issue powerful rebuttals to prevailing political conditions, openly criticising authoritarianism. Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei too, continues to rile the government with his subversive art. Without mincing words or images his documentary on Hong Kong is an unapologetic portrayal of peoples rage.

Is Indian creative work mediocre and second-rate because it is stymied by fear of reprisal? Unlike Pakistan, Iran and other similarly repressive cultures like ours, a great deal of Indian art now relies on shock value for originality, rather than expressing sustained unique voices. Despite the fact that traditional Indian culture has had a long history of political outspokenness in street plays, mime, and painting, its modern counterpart in stand-up comedy, installation art and sculpture has become either docile and uncommunicative, or singularly outrageous. Sure, the All India Bakchod roast, or Goddess Kali as Marilyn Monroe have a shrill offensive edge, but offer no meaningful counterpoint to government views. The lack of effective insightful work is more disturbing than the tendency to clampdown.Free and expressive art must have cultural value to be worth saving from the censors. Arts most pervasive and deep influence can only be felt once there is some unity in the desperation, when like the Pakistani and Chinese work the artist feels a public obligation and finds difficult common subjects to tackle. It will take a longer period of continual repression by the government for a more coherent and cohesive Indian underground to emerge.

If you are a member of Congress, or if you are an idiot My apologies, I seem to be repeating myself. Instead of being jailed for sedition, Mark Twains quip was hailed by one and all as a delight of free expression. It encouraged many on American television later to hold that as a yardstick for political satire. Every year, the White House and its residing president hosts a televised dinner for the media in which a well-known comedian takes liberal swipes at the president seated nearby. During Trumps presidency, Indian American Hasan Minhaj ridiculed the fortunately absent president with, the only way to keep America functioning is to ensure that Trump spends more time on the golf course. It will still be some years till similar cracks can be made inside our Parliament.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Hundreds rally in Bangladesh over writers death in prison – Al Jazeera English

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Protesters demand annulment of the controversial Digital Security Act under which Mushtaq Ahmed was arrested last year.

About 300 students and activists have rallied in Bangladeshs capital to denounce the death in prison of a writer and commentator who was arrested last year on charges of violating a sweeping digital security law that critics say limits free speech.

Protesters on Monday marched through the Dhaka University campus and Dhakas streets demanding the release of seven student activists arrested during recent protests denouncing the death of writer Mushtaq Ahmed.

Ahmed, 53, was arrested in Dhaka in May last year for making comments on social media that criticised the governments handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He was denied bail at least six times.

Ahmeds death on Thursday night sparked protests on the streets and on social media, and prompted global human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, to urge Bangladeshs government to conduct a thorough investigation.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) demanded the government cancel the 2018 Digital Security Act.

The protesters marched towards the countrys home ministry on Monday, also demanding the annulment of the controversial Digital Security Act under which Ahmed was arrested last year.

They broke a barricade by removing barbed wire fences on the way to the ministry but were intercepted by a few hundred police officers outside the ministrys building in downtown Dhaka.

The state must take responsibility. He has been killed, it was not a natural death. How come he was held for nine months in jail without any justice? said one protester, Mahfuza Akhter.

We want justice, she said.

Students overturn security barricades outside the home ministry during the protest in Dhaka [Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP]At least 10 other people were charged with sedition under the digital security law in the same case Ahmed faced, includingpolitical cartoonist Kabir Kishore, who was arrested in the case last year.

Kishores lawyers said during previous court proceedings that he was mercilessly tortured in custody. The CPJ also demanded Kishores release from prison.

While a postmortem report said Ahmed died of natural causes, the protesters and his lawyers alleged he was tortured, despite being in poor health, and held in prison for nine months.

On Monday, the protesters used a loudspeaker to chant slogans that blamed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for Ahmeds death.

Police had charged Ahmed with attempting to tarnish the image of the nation and spread confusion.

The Digital Security Act includes a jail sentence of up to 14 years for any propaganda or campaign against the countrys independence war, its founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the national anthem or flag.

It also says a person can be jailed for up to 10 years for destroying communal harmony or creating unrest or disorder.

The broad characterisation of charges led Amnesty International to conclude that the law is plagued by a lack of clear definitions, explanations and exceptions, including repressive non-bailable penalties for at least 14 offences.

Hasina says the law is necessary to maintain order. But the opposition parties and editors have warned that the scope of the law can be misused against critics.

The CPJ said the law was being used repeatedly and unjustly against journalists.

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Universities minister compares decolonisation of history to Soviet Union-style censorship – The Independent

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The universities minister has claimed courses are facing decolonisation by tutors who she complained were censoring history like the Soviet Union.

Michelle Donelan suggested books were being removed from reading lists in an effort to prevent students being forced to confront hate speech.

The Tory MP for Chippenham insisted that "a lot of the talk" surrounding the issue was about removing elements of history rather than adding alternative viewpoints.

However, the ministers comments were criticised by historians who suggested she had misunderstood attempts to place subjects such as the British empire in the context of questions of race and slavery.

Speaking to a Daily Telegraph podcast, Ms Donelan said: As a history student, Im a vehement protector and champion of safeguarding our history.

It otherwise becomes fiction, if you start editing it, taking bits out that we view as stains.

A fundamental part of our history is about learning from it, not repeating the mistakes, being able to analyse and challenge why those events happened, how those decisions were made so that we dont repeat those actions in the future.

Oxford Universitys student council passed a Student Union motion last year condemning the use of hateful material which is ableist, misogynistic, classist or transphobic in mandatory teaching.

The motion also mandated the Student Union to lobby for trigger warnings on readings lists and for lectures, tutorials, and examinations with content deemed prejudicial against groups such as trans, non-binary, disabled, working class, and women to be non-compulsory for students.

Ms Donelan said: If were going down this road of taking bits out, are we then going to end up putting bits in that we wish had happened?

Its a very dangerous and odd road to go down, and certainly it has no place in our universities, I would argue, and it has no place in academic study.

And it just doesnt work when governments try to remove elements of history. Look at the Soviet Union, look at China. There are multiple examples where its been tried. It doesn't work.

Ms Donelan said she was in favour of adding sources from less well-known sources and often overlooked individuals in history but claimed that most of the narrative that is coming out ... is about removing elements of history, about whitewashing it and pretending that it never happened, which I just think is naive and almost irresponsible.

But the ministers comments were met with exasperation among academics.

Charlotte Lydia Riley, a lecturer in 20th century British history at the University of Southampton, tweeted: This historian says Michelle Donelan is talking out of her arse... she doesnt understand decolonising the curriculum, she doesnt understand the purpose of history and she seems a bit hazy on the Soviet Union.

Laura OBrien, a historian of 19th and 20th century France, said there was absolutely no evidence key texts were being removed from reading lists as the minister claimed.

She added that Ms Donelan completely misunderstands and misrepresents deconolonisation, writing: Efforts to decolonise curricula do not seek to leave out the bits we see as stains. Hardly! If anything, they draw greater attention to questions of race, empire, slavery, colonisation, and to diversify not censor! the voices included in reading lists.

Ms Donelans intervention comes after schools minister Nick Gibb rejected compulsory lessons about the British empire and the slave trade and said they would risk lowering standards.

Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch has also claimed that some campaigners wanted UK history to be taught in a way that [suggests] good people [are] black people and bad people [are] white people.

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Staffing: The new virtual reality – Accounting Today

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In a year that forced changes in nearly all of accounting firms day-to-day operations, hiring and onboarding processes were among the most impacted. The usually personal and hands-on experience of finding, engaging and acclimating new talent was transformed into a virtual one nearly overnight, and as they did with so many other things, firms had to adapt on the fly.

Even in normal times, firms of all sizes often have an urgent need to bring aboard fresh talent, and while the COVID-19 pandemic drastically complicates matters, firms are still seeking out job candidates.

We are now seeing activity pick up in many areas and have seen demand for accounting professionals relatively consistently even with the uncertainty of the pandemic, said Michael Steinitz, senior executive director of accounting staffing agency Accountemps. Many companies were able to quickly and almost seamlessly move operations to remote and keep their accounting and finance teams and functions operating efficiently.

In some ways, the move to remote work may actually have boosted firms abilities to reach candidates.

When the employer stops caring where the staff works, and begins to hire remote, our clients see large upticks in resumes for those remote positions about eight times more than for location-specific jobs, said Jeff Phillips, co-founder and CEO of recruiting platform Accountingfly.

So many of our clients started hiring fully remote, continued Phillips, who is also CEO of accounting and business consulting services provider Padgett Business Services. Firms that opened up to fully remote work like this had an easier time hiring they were talking to a larger amount of high-quality applicants and filling open roles faster.

For some firms, traditional recruiting methods were still able to work to their advantage.

LinkedIn provided most of our candidates last year, said Sarah Taylor, recruiting director at Austin, Texas- based Maxwell Locke & Ritter, which ranked No. 2 among midsized firms onAccounting Todays 2020 list of the Best Firms to Work For. Forty-one percent of our total hires came from LinkedIns sponsored job postings and/or the LinkedIn Recruiter platform. After LinkedIn, our internship program was our next significant source for new hires in 2020. We hired five interns for full-time roles, which is very unusual for our firms experienced-hire model. Prior to this year, we had only transitioned a handful of interns to full-time staff immediately after graduation.

Believe it or not, campus recruiting still brought in candidates for some firms last year albeit there, too, the effort was much more digital.

Our recruiting teams had to work extra hard to be more resourceful in how they worked with potential candidates, said Katrina Thompson, managing director of human resources at Top 20 Firm Dixon Hughes Goodman. On the campus recruiting side, we pivoted our efforts to be completely virtual. We actually experienced higher conversion rates of our summer 2020 interns, and we think that was largely due to how we were able to successfully pivot.

We embraced the virtual world, hosting virtual career fairs and events, and utilized innovative platforms to reach candidates, Thompson continued. These tactics have been effective for both our campus efforts and experienced hire efforts.

Welcome aboard (kind of)

Once that new hire has been found, a whole new challenge emerges in introducing and acclimating them to a team that may be spread out over a city, state, or even the whole country. As the vast majority of firms spent 2020 in a work-from-home capacity, how did firm leaders reach out and successfully welcome new employees into the fold?

One of the biggest challenges we faced across campus and experienced-hire onboarding was how to make new hires feel connected and engaged with the firm and their new colleagues, said Thompson. We were able to integrate a mix of games, questions and open discussion to create the level of connection and engagement we were used to in-person.

Remote staff can feel isolated, and starting new hires remotely can miss a lot of the socialization that normally occurs, added Phillips. We recommend having existing staff reach out to new hires before they start to welcome them to the team hosting welcome meetings over Zoom to introduce the new hire to the team, and assigning a mentor/buddy to make sure the new hire knows the team and gets what they need.

It may come as no surprise that the practices that found themselves well-prepared for 2020 are those that had embraced a more tech-forward approach prior to the pandemic.

We achieved our goal of providing an experience similar to our in-person onboarding experience for new hires with only minor changes, said Taylor. Prior to the pandemic, we transitioned to virtual onboarding sessions for our general firm orientation, so we were well-positioned to continue with virtual experienced-hire onboarding. Our technology team quickly pivoted to provide equipment at home and assist with virtual setups. For our campus hires, we created smaller cohorts, so they were all able to feel connected to one another.

The virtual environment [further] prompted us to upgrade our onboarding experience, she added. We recorded our training sessions and now have an online training library which gives new hires a resource to refer to as they transition to our team.

Being ahead of the game is ideal, but even if firms have to play catch-up in terms of virtual hiring and onboarding, it might not be as difficult or time-consuming as they may think.

Its been incredible how quickly organizations have shifted strategies to account for remote hiring and onboarding, said Accountemps Steinitz. Weve seen companies adapt quickly to create playbooks and onboard new hires virtually, and its been very successful.

PhonlamaiPhoto/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Casting a wider net

Firms will also have to reckon with the idea of what a post-pandemic business could and should be. Having had a taste of remote work, some staff may find they like their new work situations better.

Phillips cited a survey by online job platform LiveCareer that found 29 percent of working professionals would quit their jobs if they couldnt continue to work remotely.

Its my opinion that even after we fully recover, high-performing staff will demand to spend more, or all, of their time working from home, said Phillips. This change could be a challenge for CPA firms looking to return everyone with the office.

Hire virtual staff anywhere [across the country] for permanent and seasonal positions, Phillips advised. You will cut your time and cost to fill critical roles in half.

And despite a wounded economy and troubling employment numbers, hiring is indeed marching on. Steinitz pointed to a recent Robert Half survey of more than 4,000 managers that found that 51 percent of companies still plan to expand their teams in 2021, adding that how [firms] work may be different, but the volume of work continues.

Companies that were previously averse to offering flexibility and remote work for employees will now be open to it permanently, said Steinitz. This will be an expectation of workers moving forward, and businesses have shifted mindsets. Organizations are increasingly adopting a remote-first approach, and theyre realizing the value of recruiting outside their city.

Employers who accelerate the hiring process by having fewer rounds of interviews or fewer interviewers, for example put themselves ahead of the competition, Steinitz added. Research compensation trends regularly and be prepared to come to the table with a competitive offer, and increase your odds of attracting top talent by offering fully remote job opportunities and expanding your candidate search geographically.

Whats next?

While the last year and a half has brought much undeniable hardship, there has been some silver lining in embracing new ways of hiring, including expanded ideas about how firms can hire, who they hire, and where they can hire.

After the pandemic forced us to shift all interviews to the virtual setting, our team discovered that we can hire fantastic people without meeting them in person, and the virtual interview experience is just as positive, engaging and fun as it is in the office, said Taylor. As a firm that engages with significant out-of-area candidates, shifting to virtual interviews has been extremely beneficial; we have improved the candidate experience and made our recruitment processes more time- and cost-efficient.

I am 100 percent sure things will permanently change post-pandemic, said Thompson. The biggest happy accident of this entire pandemic was observing how resilient and resourceful people are. From a recruiting perspective, we learned how much we could do virtually that we previously did not think was possible; it actually removed some barriers and allowed us to be more places and reach more students. I do believe these will be permanent, and positive, changes.

As a profession, we have been talking about the future of work for a while, added Thompson. That future arrived sooner than we expected, due in part to technology advances and the intentionality we had to have with leading people and connecting.

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USM Offers Education Majors Virtual Reality Teaching Experience – Southern Miss Now

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Wed, 03/03/2021 - 11:07am | By: Karelia Pitts

Faculty in The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School of Education have been teaching future educators for more than 100 years, but never before have they been afforded virtual reality technology to enhance learning and practicum experiences.

With support from the Governors Emergency Education Response (GEER) Fund program through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act Education Stabilization Fund, Southern Miss students are gaining valuable, hands-on teaching experiences in a virtual classroom for the first time.

Having access to a virtual learning environment gives our teaching candidates an opportunity to work with the latest in simulation technology while providing them with a safe environment to practice skills which are needed in both traditional and online classrooms, said Dr. Noal Cochran, interim director and teaching professor of educational administration in the School of Education and associate dean for educator preparation in the College of Education and Human Sciences. We look forward to this innovative partnership and the many opportunities it will offer our students.

In 2020, the U.S. Department of Education awarded GEER funding to the nations governors to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on students and parents across America. Mississippi received an allocation of $34.6 million for proposals designed to prevent, prepare for and respond to the novel coronavirus.

After watching upperclassmen education majors at USM struggle to complete their practicum experiences due to the pandemic, Drs. Audra Classen, Hollie Filce and Anne Sylvest composed a grant proposal for the GEER Fund program. Their innovative educational solution was awarded $115,736 and will transform the practicum experiences of hundreds of undergraduate teacher candidates at USM in the spring and fall 2021 terms.

Through a partnership with the AVATAR Lab at Kennesaw State University (KSU), the Golden Eagles Teaching in Virtual Reality (GET-VR) program utilizes state-of-the-art technology to create an immersive, mixed-reality environment for students to practice and master their skills. Funds are being used to implement training scenarios and VR simulations focused on high-leverage teaching practices. Southern Miss students are among the first in the nation to participate in these simulations developed by KSU and the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform (CEEDAR) Center at the University of Florida.

During a typical year, I oversee practicum experiences and teacher candidacy for approximately 400 undergraduates at USM. In 2020, many of these students had dramatically less time in field placements for their practicum courses due to obstacles resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, said Dr. Anne Sylvest, director of educational field experiences at USM. Concurrently, enrollment in practicum courses has increased, pushing the limits of what our faculty can reasonably manage. Our goal for GET-VR is to help offset the impact of COVID on our intermediate and senior block students practicum experiences by providing targeted training and practice in a virtual environment.

The AVATAR Lab delivers customized training scenarios that present professional challenges graduates will encounter on the job. Simulations focus on collaborating with families to support student learning and secure needed services, using student assessment data to analyze instructional practices and make necessary adjustments that improve student outcomes, using explicit instruction and strategies to promote active student engagement, and establishing consistent, organized and respectful classroom environments. The avatars are programmed to interact as second grade through high school students with a range of abilities and personalities, including an advanced student, an introvert, a rule-follower and a class clown.

While nothing can replace live interactions with students in our local educational settings, the coronavirus has forced K-12 schools to dramatically change their operational procedures, severely limiting opportunities for our teacher candidates. GET-VR will aid these students in gaining a deeper understanding of high-leverage practices critical to their ultimate success as teachers, said Dr. Hollie Filce, professor and coordinator of special education programs. This technology offers a safe space for our teacher candidates to practice teaching and receive feedback, so they learn from their mistakes and grow more confident managing their own classrooms in the future.

Southern Miss students are excited about the possibilities this new technology offers, including special education major Amber Taylor from Ocean Springs, Miss.

Im extremely grateful that our professors at USM saw our need, developed a plan and secured the best technology available so our student body can excel, said Taylor. They say 10 minutes of virtual reality teaching is like 45 minutes of teaching in-person because so many experiences are strategically packed into each session. I feel very blessed to be in this program because we have everything we need to succeed.

For more information about the College of Education and Human Sciences, visit http://www.usm.edu/education-human-sciences. To learn more about the School of Education, visit http://www.usm.edu/education.

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‘Omni One’ Virtual Reality Treadmill Raises Over $11M From More Than 4,000 Investors – PRNewswire

Posted: at 5:12 am

AUSTIN, Texas, March 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtuix, developer of Omni One, an omni-directional treadmill for the home that lets players walk and run inside popular games and virtual worlds, has announced that its campaign on SeedInvest, an equity crowdfunding platform, has surpassed $11Min funding from more than 4,000 investors, breaking records for the fastest uptake in the platform's history. Virtuix's campaign to back Omni One aims to raise $15Mand ends Friday, April 2, 2021.

Austin-based Virtuix is seeking to take home entertainment to the next level with the launch of Omni One, a consumer version of its "Omni" technology that fits tastefully in a living room or elsewhere in the home. Omni One's 360-degree experience enables players to walk or run in any direction inside their favorite videogames, delivering the immersive feeling of physically moving in VR.

"We're both thrilled and humbled by this outpouring of investor support for Omni One," said Jan Goetgeluk, founder and CEO of Virtuix. "Given that many of our new investors are also eager customers who plan to buy Omni One for their homes, our success on SeedInvest signals strong market demand for Omni One."

SeedInvest is the premier platform for fundraising campaigns under SEC Regulation A ("Reg A"), which allows qualified private companies to sell shares to the public. Virtuix's Reg A campaign allows anyone to invest in Virtuix and receive shares in the company. The minimum investment is only $1,000. As an investor perk, Reg A investors will receive a 20% discount (worth $400) when buying Omni One.

"Omni One is like no other gaming system," Goetgeluk added. "It's a breakthrough in omni-directional treadmill technology. The system is light, it's compact at only four feet in diameter, and it's easy to fold up and store. Best of all, it gives players unmatched freedom of movement, including crouching, kneeling, and jumping."

Omni One will feature its own game store with 30 titles at launch, including Call of Duty and Fortnite-style games developed by Virtuix, alongside top titles licensed from third parties.

For the complete Omni One entertainment system, which includes an all-in-one VR headset and operating software for a seamless user experience, Virtuix plans to charge $1,995 (or $55 a month on a monthly payment plan). This pricing puts Omni One in line with mid-tier gaming PCs or connected fitness gear like a Peloton bike.

For $995, Virtuix will offer a "dev kit" package that comes without a VR headset. The dev kit option allows developers and VR hobbyists to pair Omni One with their own PCs and headsets for development or to play PC-based VR games.

Backed by Mark Cuban and other major investors, Virtuix raised over $30Min seed and Series A funding and has shipped over $10Mworth of commercial Omni systems to entertainment venues in 45 countries, including top locations like Dave & Buster's. Virtuix's content platform, Omniverse, has hosted more than two million plays.

Sign up to invest in Omni One's SeedInvest campaign and qualify for an investor discount of 20% (worth $400) here: http://invest.virtuix.com. To see Omni One in action, check out Virtuix's latest demo video here: https://youtu.be/aOYHg8qdxTE.

ABOUT VIRTUIX:

Virtuix Inc., founded in April 2013 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, is the developer of "Omni" - the first omni-directional treadmill that enables 360-degree movement in virtual environments. Virtuix's Omni product line currently consists of Omni Pro, a commercial version, and Omni Arena, a multiplayer attraction comprising four Omni Pro units. Virtuix has shipped nearly 4,000 Omni Pro systems to more than 500 commercial entertainment venues around the world, making Omni Pro the most widely distributed VR hardware apart from headsets. Omni Pro runs on Omniverse, Virtuix's proprietary content platform that offers 24 VR games and built-in esports competitions. Virtuix, a private company, has raised more than $30 million from individual and institutional investors. Virtuix is launching Omni One, a consumer version of the Omni for the home market, in 2021. For more information, visit https://invest.virtuix.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Jan GoetgelukCEO, Virtuix[emailprotected]

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omni-one-prototype.jpg Omni One prototype A player walks around inside virtual reality using the Omni One treadmill

omni-one-at-home.jpg Omni One at home An artist rendering of the Omni One entertainment system at home

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You can actually feel like you’re in the same place: Microsoft Mesh powers shared experiences in mixed reality | Innovation Stories – Microsoft

Posted: at 5:12 am

For years, Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Lalibert received countless proposals for virtual reality technologies, but they couldnt match the magic of his intensely visual and mesmerizing live performances. Now, with a new platform provided by Microsoft, hes rethinking that.

On Tuesday, he appeared at Microsofts Ignite digital conference via holoportation, which uses 3D capture technology to beam a lifelike image of a person into a virtual scene. In the companys first keynote experience designed entirely for mixed reality, people attending the conference from living rooms and home offices around the world could experience the show as avatars watching events unfold in a shared holographic world.

It was the companys first opportunity to showcase some of the experiences made possible by Microsoft Mesh, a new mixed-reality platform powered by Azure that allows people in different physical locations to join collaborative and shared holographic experiences on many kinds of devices.

This has been the dream for mixed reality, the idea from the very beginning, said Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman. You can actually feel like youre in the same place with someone sharing content or you can teleport from different mixed reality devices and be present with people even when youre not physically together.

Kipman appeared on the Ignite virtual stage as a fully realized holoportation of himself, narrating the shows opening experience in real time as rays of light that simulated his physical body.

James Cameron, the filmmaker and ocean explorer, and John Hanke, CEO and founder of leading augmented reality company Niantic, Inc., also joined Kipman remotely to spotlight how Microsoft Mesh is helping them create shared experiences across the virtual and physical worlds.

Lalibert chatted with Kipman about a new collaboration to help Lune Rouge, another company Lalibert founded, realize a project called Hanai World. Its a social mixed reality platform that hes thought about for years which would connect live and digital entertainment experiences into single events but only now have technologies like Microsoft Mesh caught up with that vision.

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Microsoft Mesh will also enable geographically distributed teams to have more collaborative meetings, conduct virtual design sessions, assist others, learn together and host virtual social meetups. People will initially be able to express themselves as avatars in these shared virtual experiences and over time use holoportation to project themselves as their most lifelike, photorealistic selves, the company said.

The new platform is the result of years of Microsoft research and development in areas ranging from hand and eye tracking and HoloLens development to creating persistent holograms and artificial intelligence models that can create expressive avatars.

Built on Azure, Microsofts cloud computing platform, Microsoft Mesh also benefits from Azures enterprise-grade security and privacy features, as well as its vast computational resources, data, AI and mixed reality services.

More and more we are building value in our intelligent cloud, which is Azure, Kipman said. In these collaborative experiences, the content is not inside my device or inside my application. The holographic content is in the cloud, and I just need the special lenses that allow me to see it.

With Microsoft Mesh-enabled applications, designers or engineers who work with 3D physical models anything from bicycles to high-end furniture to jet engines to new sports stadiums could appear as themselves in a shared virtual space to collaborate and iterate on holographic models, regardless of their physical location.

Architects and engineers could physically walk through a holographic model of a factory floor under construction, seeing how all the pieces of equipment fit together in three dimensions, potentially avoiding costly mistakes.

Engineering or medical students learning about electric car engines or human anatomy could gather as avatars around a holographic model and remove parts of the engine or peel back muscles to see whats underneath. Colleagues could simply get together and chat in a shared virtual space, or companies could use Microsoft Mesh-enabled apps to offer virtual all-hands meetings or trainings to employees around the world.

The Microsoft Mesh platform will in coming months offer developers a full suite of AI-powered tools for avatars, session management, spatial rendering, synchronization across multiple users and holoportation to build collaborative solutions in mixed reality, the company said.

Though users will have the richest experiences in mixed or virtual reality, Microsoft Meshs open standards will give developers the freedom to build solutions that will work across many different devices: HoloLens 2, a range of virtual reality headsets, smartphones, tablets and PCs.

At Ignite, Microsoft announced two apps built on the Microsoft Mesh platform.

Those include a preview of the Microsoft Mesh app for HoloLens, which allows team members to remotely collaborate and is available for download. Customers can also request access to a new version of Mesh-enabled AltspaceVR, which will allow companies to hold meetings and work gatherings in virtual reality with enterprise-grade security features including secure sign-ins, session management and privacy compliance.

Over time, the company said it expects customers will be able to choose from a growing set of Microsoft Mesh-enabled applications built by external developers and partners, and also to benefit from planned integration with Microsoft products such as Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365.

This is why weve been so passionate about mixed reality as the next big medium for collaborative computing, Kipman said. Its magical when two people see the same hologram.

On board OceanXplorer, one of the most advanced research and deep sea exploration vessels ever built, theres only so much room to host all the scientists clamoring to learn from new data constantly collected by instruments and cameras on its deep sea vehicles that can probe everything from coral reefs and brine pools to sea life around deep hydrothermal vents and minerals around underwater volcanoes.

At Ignite, OceanX, a nonprofit that merges cutting edge science with compelling storytelling and product and technology experiences to support ocean education and awareness, announced a new collaboration with Microsoft to create a Mesh-enabled holographic laboratory on the ship that scientists could gather in either in person or virtually from labs and offices around the world to see 3D holograms of the areas the vehicles are exploring.

Researchers trying to figure out why sperm whales hunt in certain areas, for instance, might see a holographic representation of a deep sea canyon with data collected from tags put on the whales, overlaid with information about salinity, temperature and ocean chemistry changes and integrated with data from fish finders showing where squid and other prey might be.

The idea is to take all this amazing scientific data were collecting and bring it into a holographic setting and use it as a way to guide scientific missions in real time, said Vincent Pieribone, vice chairman of OceanX.

The goal is to allow any researcher with a HoloLens 2 or other compatible device, using Microsoft Mesh, to appear around a table as an avatar and point to a particular area on the holographic seafloor that they might have a question about and converse in real time with other scientists about what they are seeing.

On OceanXs research missions, there are often groups of people huddled around video feeds, posing questions and having sidebar conversations with their colleagues. Researchers who arent on the boat, even if theyre watching the same footage on a screen in their office, dont always benefit from those interactions, Pieribone said.

Theres a social component to this thats essential, he said. We want to bring everyone into the same room so they can bounce things off of each other and have that human connection.

To expand on an entirely different kind of exploration, Niantic demonstrated at Ignite a proof-of-concept Pokmon GO demo experience that runs on HoloLens 2. It was designed to showcase the vision for a new collaboration that will build on Microsofts and Niantics mixed and augmented reality capabilities.

In the demonstration, which does not represent a consumer product, Hanke and a bevy of Pokmon at his favorite park were joined by Veronica Saron, product marketing manager for Pokmon GO, to battle in a shared mixed-reality session.

Niantics mission is to create technologies that allow people to socialize and explore the world together, Hanke said, whether thats kids using Pokmon GO to explore their neighborhoods with parents or friends, or thousands of people gathering at parks for festivals.

Microsoft Mesh offers a whole new way of doing that, he said. This notion of bringing my virtual friends along with me as I go out and walk and explore the world I just love that concept and Im really interested to see what we can do with that.

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Microsoft shows off its vision for future meetings, with your colleagues as holograms floating in space – CNBC

Posted: at 5:12 am

Microsoft on Tuesday announced Mesh, a service to build apps for people to collaborate in augmented reality.

Augmented reality (AR) shows computer-generated images superimposed over the real world, and nearly all the major tech players are working on the technology as they strive to create the next computing platform that will replace the smartphone. However, AR headsets today are often clunky and expensive -- Microsoft's HoloLens starts at $3,500 -- and so far they've mainly been used in industrial applications. Apple and Facebook are reportedly building their own AR headsets or glasses for release over the next couple of years, which could help validate the market for consumers and create a sort of AR gold rush.

With Mesh, Microsoft wants to ensure that people who don't have AR systems can participate in virtual gatherings with those who do. The goal is to enable people to join Mesh-enabled meetings on any device, such as a PC, a tablet or a smartphone. It will also work with virtual reality (VR) headsets -- a slightly different class of device that immerse people in a computer-generated world but block out the physical environment, and are generally cheaper and more common than AR headsets. For example, HP sells a VR device that works with Windows, the Reverb G2, for $600.

To illustrate what Mesh can do, Microsoft built a sample app that runs on the HoloLens.

After putting on a HoloLens and opening the app, a person can design an avatar to represent themselves and join a meeting with other people, whose avatars appear like holograms. People's heads, bodies and hands can all move thanks to the information the headsets capture, and it's possible to talk with everyone, similar to a video call. Additionally, users can import, display and manipulate ready-made and custom three-dimensional holograms. Three-dimensional drawing tools are available, too.

To demonstrate the technology more broadly, the company is coming out with a Mesh-enabled version of AltspaceVR, a VR meeting app. Customers can request to download the app. Microsoft acquired AltspaceVR in 2017 for undisclosed terms.

Over time, Microsoft plans to incorporate Mesh into its own applications, such as the Teams collaboration app that has become more widely used during the Covid pandemic as a way for co-workers to meet without being in the office.

Mesh will be an Azure service and associated software development kit. Select customers can start testing the Mesh cloud service now in preview before it becomes more widely available. Microsoft has not disclosed how much it will cost to use the service. Azure is a public cloud service for hosting applications.

Microsoft derives less than 5% of its revenue from devices, while one analyst estimates that Azure represents 17% of revenue. Azure revenue grew 50% year over year in the fourth quarter, while devices revenue increased less than 4%.

WATCH: Here's how Microsoft's augmented reality headset will make Army soldiers deadlier

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