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The stakeholders are clearly divided on whether or not to accept the New Education Policy. Its supporters argue that NEP 2020 accurately addresses the problems of stagnation, inefficiency and rigidities associated with the education system; encourages interdisciplinary education, ensures multiple choices of entry and exit, promises education in mother tongues, and all that. They welcome the policy recommendation that talks about spending a minimum of 6 percent of GDP on education and increasing the access to higher education. In contrast, its critics point out that the Policy is a poor imitation of the American model of education, tuned to the needs of the Indian and foreign educational entrepreneurs who want to make education a commodity in the market, and turn students as consumers and teachers as mere service providers. They express the fear that the NEP furthers commercialization, commodification and communalization of education in India. They criticize the reduction of central governments allocation for education, and argue that the entry of private sector or foreign universities may help the rich, but will not do any good to the masses, as the fee in these institutions is not affordable to the majority of the Indians anyway. They also point out that even before the Policy is discussed and passed by the Parliament and the state assemblies, the Union government, against the spirit of democracy and federalism, is forcing the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to implement the same. Let our political representatives, teachers associations and student organizations debate over the veracity of these contrasting arguments. On my part, in this piece, let me focus only on the implications of the NEP for universities and HEIs in the northeast.In a country like India where educational standards and access vary from region to region, and community to community, it does not always make sense to enforce a uniform admission policy in all HEIs. Unlike the universities like JNU, UoH, Delhi University, etc., which cater to all India needs, the central and state universities in the north-eastern states are created to address basically to the educational and economic needs of the disadvantaged communities and the backward regions of the northeast. Here the universities offer different types of official and unofficial preferential policies for the local students in the admission. Universities like NEHU may find it difficult to go for all India entrance tests for that admission, as it may not be perceived as advantageous to the locals.As Education is in the Concurrent List, unless the NEP becomes an Act, it is not binding on state governments to accept its recommendations. Many proposals made in the NEP for the UG cannot be implemented unless the colleges under the state government are roped in. For example, whether a central university like NEHU should have one year PG, or a two-year PG depends on whether the colleges would prefer to offer a three-year degree or a four-year degree. It needs a larger consultation with the state government, the college managements and also the general public. Similarly, teaching PG courses in local languages is unthinkable in multilingual north-eastern states.The NEP insists on making all HEIs multidisciplinary. For the idea to become a reality, it is essential to design appropriate courses, fill up all vacant faculty positions, and even make a provision in the University Regulations enabling appointment of teachers from other disciplines. NEHU has been experimenting with the CBCS system at PG level with some success. But there are problems in implementing the CBCS at UG level. Some resourceful colleges in Shillong and Tura may be in a position to implement CBCS to some extent, but most colleges in the city and in semi-urban areas will not be in a position to run the CBCS. Further, we dont need to be excited about entry and exit options that the NEP proposes, for, a degree is viewed as a minimum qualification for most jobs. The students have little to gain if they drop out after one year or two years with a certificate or diploma.Teaching and research are integral parts of any University or HEIs. Ignoring this aspect, NEP proposes into Research Universities and Teaching universities. Given that the teachers in NEHU and other universities in the northeast publish less, one is not sure whether the government would declare them as just Teaching Universities. For different reasons the teachers in the universities in the northeast devote more time for teaching, less on publications. While advocating the need for increasing the number of quality publications from the faculty and research scholars, there is a need to identify the reasons and address the problem. Further, there is a danger that the proposal for Autonomous Colleges encourages the sprouting of predatory private commercial colleges which start different courses and grant degrees without any control from the University. What would be the fate of the students emerging from such colleges where the admitted students spend thousands of rupees as fee and secure degrees with little market value?NEP 2020 gives emphasis on online teaching methods. The Pandemic has shown us both the possibilities and limitations of information technology. It is true that there is so much on the internet today which can be made use of for improving our teaching and research. The universities in the northeast should create infrastructure in the form of multi-digital classrooms, a digital library and a well-equipped studio for recording, preserving and uploading our lectures and talks. At any time, or anywhere, the students, scholars and teachers should be able to access the library sources through the internet. While creating facilities for online teaching, it is necessary to keep in mind that the online teaching should be supplementary, never as an alternative to offline teaching. Healthy, humane and cordial one to one relationship between the student and teacher is essential for overall growth of the students. There is really no joy in sitting and talking in front of a laptop, and giving lectures without knowing whether the audience is really listening and enjoying our lectures, or sleeping and whining during our lectures. The governments should not be allowed to use online teaching as an excuse to reduce the number or the significance of teachers.Some proposals that the NEP makes are good, and it is possible to implement them. The NEP proposes that pedagogy should be taught as a paper for scholars pursuing Ph.D. programs. The MHRD is also insisting on making ethical considerations a part of the research course for Ph.D. Such recommendations can be implemented without much difficulty. NEP also talks about academic leadership. The document says, Leaders of an HEI will demonstrate strong alignment to Constitutional values and the overall vision of the institution, along with attributes such as a strong social commitment, belief in teamwork, pluralism, ability to work with diverse people, and a positive outlook. However, given the nature of politics and the continuing feudal values and practices in universities / HEIs, one only hopes these ideas would indeed become a reality one day.To sum up, the state governments, the universities and the people in the northeast should take a selective look at the NEP, and decide what is good for the people and the region in the long run. There is no need to be unduly sceptical, but at the same time one should not be in a hurry to accept everything without understanding the consequences of uncritical acceptance. Let all stakeholders understand, discuss and debate, and choose the best options that would increase the reach and improve the quality of HEIs in north-eastern states.(The writer teaches Political Science in NEHU: email [emailprotected])

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NEP 2020 and Higher Education in the Northeast By H. Srikanth - The Shillong Times

The Internet is an important place for business, whether small or large, digital or in-store.

Technological evolution is also contributing to the evolution of search engine optimization (SEO), which helps increase the online revenue of businesses.

Search engine optimization is the process of increasing your online presence, increasing exposure, increasing user traffic, and recruiting more qualified clients.

75% of web searchers and potential consumers never go through the first page The number of search results is why it is so important for your business to climb to the top. You can increase the visibility of your site in search by leveraging web optimization and SEO best practices.

Its important to know that online and in-store businesses can require different approaches to SEO.

If your business relies on local customers, your strategy and target reach will differ from your domestic or global online e-commerce business. There are two main differences in content.

For e-commerce or affiliate sites, its important to emphasize the product / service, but for local businesses, information about the business and what you want your users to do next-phone, contact form Fill out, schedule bookings, point yourself at the place of business-important.

First and foremost, coordinate content and goal-achieving processes to connect customers to your business accordingly.

Here are six other simple and influential best practices to keep in mind to achieve the best web optimizations for your business:

About 90% of the worlds Internet users Connect regularly using your mobile phone. As a business, your website and its content need to be adaptable to different devices at all times.

Theres nothing worse than buying something or looking up the address of a local store when a website page becomes unreadable on your mobile phone.

Images can contribute to your sites overall SEO, increase organic traffic, and improve your overall user experience. Speed is an equally important SEO ranking skill, and images make up the majority of page size.

Focus on file format and size compression Before uploading. Next, when it comes to uploading images, consider uploading them through your websites backend. Companies handle a lot of images on their websites, and if you choose to do it manually, uploading images is very inefficient.

Implement a coding structure on your server / database for large image uploads to optimize overall performance and speed.

Keywords are words or phrases that are relevant to your particular business that help searchers know what your site is.

Each page of your website should have a clear focus. Be sure to separate pages and then target different keywords to direct your customers to the exact page that provides the information youre looking for. Include the target keyword in the URL.

This will rank you higher in your search results and increase your SEO. If you dont know where to start generating keywords, make a list of 30 keywords and review them. Google Adwords Ads Must be a word that is frequently used in online searches.

When someone searches your business, the first thing they see on your site is your title tag and meta description. Title tags are clickable headlines (often in blue font) and are important to SEO.

Title tags need to be attractive and informative. Be descriptive and concise, including the target world. Recommended information to highlight includes company name, information about a particular page, and the city or state of your business.

Many companies, especially local businesses, find that including their city in the title tag improves their local search rankings. The second most important tag on the page is the meta description.

This is a brief summary of the page that appears under the title tag (black font). Meta descriptions dont affect search rankings as much as title tags, but they can affect CTR.

Again, these meta descriptions must include at least one keyword and detailed information about the city and state. Dont overload the description with keywords. Make it sound natural, but try to provide an accurate summary of your business that is action-oriented and matches your search objectives.

Internal links and backlinks can be the key to ranking high in your search. The more sites that carry links to your business site, the better. Ask the owners of related sites or affiliates to post a link to your site and offer to post a link to their site instead.

Search engines like Google establish an information hierarchy. The more backlinks you have, the better Google and consumers can understand your business.

So its important to note that not all backlinks are the same and the quality of the links is very important. Links from top-notch publications to your business website help more than just a small blog.

Focus your efforts on Build high quality and reliable backlinks To increase the likelihood of target keywords and SEO.

Social media has evolved as another major ally in your businesss SEO strategy.many The app and platform double as a search engine..

Building a solid social media profile across apps such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter is important for businesses. Your companys social media profile can also be ranked in search results when people search for your business or related terms.

Millions of consumers are looking to online marketplaces for local goods and services. Without a strong website, it is very difficult for business owners to reach all potential customer bases.

However, launching a good small business website is not a one-time event. By following the steps above and combining diligence and fine-tuning, youll see measurable results in search engine location and website traffic.

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Web Optimization-What Your Business Needs to Know To Be Successful - Texasnewstoday.com

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, says the Commission will address the challenges experienced with its new technology during last Saturdays by-election in Delta State before the Anambra governorship election.

Mr Yakubu disclosed this at the commissions meeting to welcome its three new national commissioners and to swear-in a Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) at its headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.

INEC deployed the new technology, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), at the Isoko South 1 State Constituency bye-election in Delta State held on Saturday.

Mr Yakubu said that while the result of the new technology piloted in the 84 polling units was very encouraging, there were few challenges that would be addressed before the 6 November Anambra governorship election.

He recalled that the commission made history on August 8, by successfully conducting the first election in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Nasarawa Central State Constituency by-election.

He stated that in that election, INEC also piloted the first real-time uploading of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

He added that since then, results of 26 more elections had been uploaded to the portal.

Only last weekend, we piloted yet another innovation in the Isoko South 1 state constituency bye-election in Delta.

We introduced the BVAS for efficient human recognition through a biometric verification mechanism, using both fingerprint and facial recognition of voters.

The result of the pilot in the 84 polling units was very encouraging indeed. It took an average of just one minute for the device to correctly locate the voter in the system and another two minutes to authenticate a voter.

In terms of the ruggedness of the device and its battery life, no single BVAS was replaced due to discharge of battery throughout the voting period.

Most importantly, the device was able to guarantee the credibility of voter accreditation by preventing the incidents of multiple voting or the use of stolen PVCs to vote.

All voters were accredited electronically using the BVAS. The use of the incident form was eliminated. The Isoko South 1 state constituency bye-election was historic in this respect, Mr Yakubu said.

The INEC chairman, however, said there were a few challenges experienced with the technology in the election.

Those challenges, according to him, include the difficulty of the BVAS matching the voters live image against the image on the register in a few instances, due to the quality of pictures of some voters arising from previous voter registration.

Secondly, some polling units were not bright enough when taking the photo for the facial authentication.

Thirdly, there was the age-old problem of thuggery during elections. Our officials were attacked and five BVAS devices snatched by hoodlums.

Although this did not affect the elections because we deployed extra devices as part of our contingency measures, the incident is being investigated by the Police.

Nevertheless, we wish to assure Nigerians that the commission will address these challenges, including the installation of a mechanism to disable and track the device in the event of theft.

This mechanism will be activated ahead of the forthcoming Anambra governorship election.

Mr Yakubu, while speaking on Anambra governorship election scheduled for 6 November, said the preparations for the election were at an advanced stage with many of the activities outlined in the timetable and schedule of activities for the election, already implemented.

He said that INECs intention was to keep deepening the credibility of the electoral process by improving on all planning, management, implementation and support processes through the deployment of appropriate technology.

The three new national commissioners welcomed by INEC were Abdullahi Zuru, a Chemist and former Vice Chancellor of Kebbi State University and Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.

Others were Sani Adam, a lawyer and former Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja; and Dr Baba Bila, a Chartered Accountant and former Bursar of the University of Benin.

President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier sworn in the three commissioners at the Presidential Villa before the commencement of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

NAN also reports that the newly sworn-in REC is Saidu Ahmad, a Professor of English Literature from Bayero University Kano.

Mr Ahmad, who had been deployed to Zamafara, filled the vacancy for Jigawa, being the only state without a REC, following the completion of tenure of Abdullahi Kaugama, who had earlier served as Secretary to the commission.

While welcoming the three new national commissioners and the REC, Mr Yakubu urged them to join the commission in raising the bar of conducting credible elections in the country.

The task ahead is challenging but it is also a national call to service. It is important to quickly settle in and familiarise yourselves with the rules, procedures and responsibilities of your office.

Let me reiterate once again that you should always bear in mind that a credible election draws heavily from the integrity of the election managers. I urge you to join us in raising the bar even higher, Mr Yakubu said.

He expressed confidence that the four new appointees would bring to the commission, their vast knowledge and experience as scholars and administrators, in further extending the frontiers of free and fair elections in Nigeria.

Mr Yakubu advised them to uphold the integrity of INEC and adhere to rules and regulations in the discharge of their duties.

In addition to adherence to the provisions of the law, our success in this arduous task also draws from our integrity as election managers.

We must be strict in the application of the law firm in handling the public trust bestowed on us and fair in our dealings with political parties and candidates.

We must remember that in discharging our responsibilities, Nigeria and Nigerians must always come first.

We must abide by our oaths of office to defend the choice made by Nigerians at the polls in all elections, and continue to protect the sanctity of the vote without which democratic election is meaningless, Mr Yakubu said.

Mr Zuru, speaking on behalf of the appointees, commended President Muhammadu Buhari and leadership of the National Assembly for counting them worthy for the critical national assignment.

He pledged to abide by the oath they took to operate with honesty without fear or favour, in carrying out their assignments.

He added that with the leadership of Mr Yakubu, the new appointees would make INEC and Nigerians proud in advancing the course of democracy in Nigeria.

I want to assure Nigerians that our objective will be the conduct of free, fair and credible elections at all times, at all levels.

That is the assurance we are giving before Nigerians and our Lord, Mr Zuru said.

Highlight of the occasion was the swearing in of Mr Ahmed as REC.

(NAN)

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INEC promises to address challenges of its new technology before Anambra poll - Premium Times

A handful of influencers attended the Met Gala this year after weeks of rumors about the guest list.

This year's theme was a celebration of American fashion.

Here are the 7 influencers who attended, and the ones who were expected to but didn't.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Addison Rae wore a vintage Tom Ford for Gucci gown from 2003 to her first Met Gala.

Addison Rae Easterling, better known as Addison Rae, matched a red dress with a bright blond lob for her first Met Gala appearance, where the theme was "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion."

The TikToker, who has a following of over 84 million on the platform, has recently turned to acting. She has just starred in the Netflix movie "He's All That" a gender-swapped remake of the noughties rom-com and signed a multi-film contract with the company.

Rae, 20, kept quiet over whether she would be attending the event this year. She did not confirm or deny her invite when a fake seating chart swept across the internet in August, spurring memes and mockery.

"I'm shaking in my boots," Rae said on the red carpet. "I don't have boots on, but still."

Emma Chamberlain was one of the first guests to arrive in a golden Louis Vuitton dress.

YouTube sensation Emma Chamberlain, 20, was also featured on the made-up seating chart. She grew her 10 million subscriber fanbase for her fashion looks, and it seems her style has brought her respect in the industry. She is the face of Louis Vuitton's 2021 Fall-Winter shoe collection, and has also modeled for Levi's.

Chamberlain was one of the first attendees to arrive at this year's Met Gala, wearing a golden Louis Vuitton dress and stilettos, with an emerald green 1960s inspired makeup look.

She shared a paparazzi photo of the event on her Instagram story, captioning it, "crying."

Eugene Lee Yang's first outfit choice fell through at the last minute.

Eugene Lee Yang is one of the four members of YouTuber comedy group The Try Guys, but is also an actor, producer, author, director, and activist. He told Emma Chamberlain in a red carpet interview that he initially wanted to wear a dress, but it fell through three hours before the event.

Story continues

"So, someone was my size, and I threw on this suit, here I am," he said.

He paired the black suit with a pair of hot pink heels and eyeshadow.

NikkieTutorials' look was inspired by LGBTQ+ activist Marsha P. Johnson.

Nikkie de Jager, better known as NikkieTutorials. Mike Coppola ; John Shearer/Getty Images

YouTuber Nikkie de Jager, better known to her fans as NikkieTutorials, is a successful beauty guru with over 13 million subscribers. Her teal, flower-adorned gown was inspired by the activist Marsha P. Johnson, she told Emma Chamberlain on the red carpet.

"She was at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots, and she was known for saying 'Pay it no mind.' So I'm not paying it any mind," de Jager said. "And she was known for flowers, so here I am."

De Jager, who is Dutch, has been uploading on YouTube since 2008. She came out as a transgender woman in an emotional video in January 2020.

Jackie Aina's look was inspired by Barbie.

Jackie Aina, whose YouTube channel has 3.5 million subscribers and says she is "changing the standard of beauty, one video at a time," brought full Barbie pink glamour to the Met Gala this year.

"American fashion but make it BLACK BARBIE," she tweeted, showing her satin gown and platinum blonde wig.

Aina is currently producing a documentary called "Social Beauty," which follows several Black influencers who are trying to bring change and more inclusivity to the beauty industry.

Dixie D'Amelio had everyone talking with her choice of headpiece.

Tiktok star Dixie D'Amelio made an entrance with her feathery black headpiece, which was the star in her otherwise understated Valentino look of a black mini-dress and white gloves, which channeled Audrey Hepburn.

D'Amelio, 20, and her sister Charli were both rumored to attend this year, but Charli, at 17 years old, is still too young only people who are at least 18 are invited to the event. Both sisters rose to fame on TikTok, where Dixie has 55 million followers.

The sisters' new Hulu show, "The D'Amelio Show," premiered on September 3, giving their millions of fans a behind-the-scenes look at their daily lives.

Musician Madison Beer started out on YouTube.

22-year-old musician Madison Beer showed up to the Met Gala in a long, emerald green mermaid dress by One/Of by Patricia Voto.

Beer, who is best known for her hits "Selfish" and "Dead," started out by recording song covers on YouTube in 2012.

Beer recently also attended the VMAs, where she wore Beyonc's dress from 2003.

James Charles and Liza Koshy didn't attend this year.

Liza Koshy and James Charles. Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Despite representing the influencer world in 2019, there was no sight of YouTubers Liza Koshy or James Charles at the Met Gala this year.

A spoof Instagram page @_metgala2021 stirred rumors a few weeks ago that Charles and Koshy were on the guest list, along with several other influencers who did not end up being present: YouTubers Jeffree Star and Nikita Dragun, and TikTokers Noah Beck, Loren Gray, Bretman Rock, Bella Poarch, and Khaby Lame.

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.

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7 influencers attended the Met Gala this year, dispelling viral rumors about TikTokers and YouTubers flooding the event - Yahoo News

With the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic since the beginning of 2020, the platform Tik Tok has become much more important, where many use it to distract themselves with the witty and comical videos that can be seen, but others have used it to create a viral content much more illustrative, without neglecting the humorous side, as is the case of Yorch Besos, who advocates and educates on labor rights.

However, his informative style differs from many, which has led him to have, so far, a total of 1.8 million followers on this Chinese social network, a figure that keeps increasing as the days go by.

But, many wonder how this character came about. Jaime, his real name, was working as a photographer, but with the arrival of the pandemic, many projects he had underway stopped, which led to him spending more time with his family, being his son the one who encouraged him to venture into the virtual world.

This is how in November 2020 he opened his own account Tik Tok, which ended up baptizing Yorch Kisses with the help of his followers at that time, although others such as Gutierritos O Godinez.

Why Yorch? Jaime told M2 that it is because in some of his works he met people who nicknamed him that way; while Kisses It was his occurrence due to the wink he makes in all his videos, although some think he is related to the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezoz.

He calls his followers Godnez and explain why: I started uploading parodies of all kinds, I had several followers, but the moment I uploaded one Godn parody my account went up () when I came up on this topic, thats when the audience was pulling and then I changed the formula of not doing so many parodies of another type and focusing on the Godn topic .

However, at a certain point, a relative of his recommended that he do content on labor rights, based on the Federal Labor Law (Mexico), but using a humorous style, the same one that has given him tremendous success after five months.

To create this type of content, Yorch Kisses revealed what his way of working is: The creative process, suddenly, is: I wake up, I go to see what comments I have and I go to a situation where I can make a video. Im thinking about how to do it while taking a shower, washing dishes, or asking my wife how we could recreate it. I have friends who support me. Some are lawyers or accountants and I consult them .

In addition, Yorch revealed that the first publications on labor law were made based on his own experience as a worker.

When I started with the Federal Labor Law I realized that all the abuses that I suffered at the time. If I have to stay to work overtime because there is a job, its normal, but you dont have it in mind until you get informed and many people have it normalized .

The channel Yorch Kisses It has also served as a source of knowledge for many people who have been informed and today know how to face different situations in the workplace. Although it also has very harsh critics.

My intention is that people know about an article and go to review it () there are many people who tell me that thanks to me he charged his full settlement and I am very happy when they tell me that. At the moment you are not aware of all the help you can offer. There is also the side hateThey give me a bad vibe and tell me that I am promoting worker mediocrity. They curse me, but I know how to handle it .

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Disclaimer: This article is generated from the feed and not edited by our team.

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Meet Yorch Besos, the tiktoker who explains your labor rights with a lot of humor - Market Research Telecast

Whenever someone creates an online course, they aim to sell it to make money. And there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it is totally an achievable and legitimate ambition. However, it must be kept in mind that there is a lot of strategizing to do if one wants to start a profitable e-learning series. Plus, not to forget that there will be multiple options available for where and how to publish, which can easily overwhelm you. And though making money may be your real motive. However, it might not be your immediate concern. For instance, you may want to find leads to whom you can sell the course in the future, or you may be building a brand platform that you can use to sell books.

Before you start searching for e-learning platforms, you have to define your priority first. This is because your goals will help you decide which option will best suit your needs. Also, another thing that you should pay heed to is your internet connection. If you want to stay updated about how well the platform is doing in terms of selling your course, fast and reliable internet is a must. There are different deals offered by top providers, such as Spectrum internet packages, that you can consider opting for.

When it comes to choosing the e-learning platform, there are some questions that you ask before making your decision. Lets have a look at them.

When you publish your course to established e-learning platforms such as Udemy and Lynda, your content will be displayed alongside other programs that are related to your category. These sites will do this to maximize their customer satisfaction. And though you may create the content to benefit your brand. However, in reality, it is the platforms that will be getting benefitted from it. However, one cannot deny that it is super simple to use such sites, and they can actually be quite helpful if you have just started to build your following. But those companies that are already established can consider uploading the course on their sites. This is because they will easily be able to control the presentation and can refer people to product pages.

If your answer to this is yes, then you should use WordPress or similar platforms. This is because they will contain various enhancements and integration options that you can use. But if you dont require much control, you can rely on sites like Rainmaker.

Affiliate programs are a great way for people to share your course as they will be earning a commission every time a referral converts. This is a pretty good opportunity for you as well. How? Well, if you team up with someone who has got a massive following, they can help get your course to more people as a result of which, you can expect to generate more traffic on your website and, not to mention, more sales! So, if you are going to try out this strategy, then make sure that the publishing platform has an affiliate tracking system.

Before you decide which platform to go for, do make sure to check how good their support is. You have to see if they have a decent response time. Also, do observe if they will be helping you during the publishing process. This is because the last thing you will want is for the people to pay for the course and still not able to access it.

Your online course can help you generate money, but before that, you will have to invest yourself deeply into the process of developing engaging and dynamic content. And this will require you to strategize diligently so you may select the right platform to publish your work. Also, before you make the final decision, do ask the questions mentioned above. It will help you select the best platform that will cater best to your needs.

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4 Questions To Ask Before Choosing the Right Platform - Big Easy Magazine

Its September and millions of students are meeting their teachers back in classrooms.This month is also special for teachers back in India as September 5 was fondly celebrated as Teachers Day.

India Currents spoke to teachers across the two countries to understand the challenges they have been facing since being forced into online classrooms in April 2020. While parents have been raising concerns and the government is busy formulating rules and policies on online teaching, the teaching fraternity has been stoically reinventing and upgrading themselves, notwithstanding personal hardships.

First of all, the pandemic forced us, teachers, into technology. It was very difficult especially for the senior ones to take that path, but there was no choice, says Mohua Gupta, primary school teacher, BD Memorial International School, Kolkata, India.

Her peers agree. It is one thing to know how to operate a computer and another to be able to systematically use it to teach an entire class of 25-45 students when youve never done it before, shares Ms. Shobha Rani, a Biology teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Greenbelt, Maryland. Ms. Rani has taught students of all grades for the last 21 years in America, and for 11 years in India before that.

18 months down the line, even senior teachers have become fluid on platforms like Google Classrooms, Zoom meetings, downloading and uploading images to mark corrections, making powerpoints and videos on all subject topics. They say it wasnt as much the absence of chalk-and-blackboard or desk-and-chairs or pen-and-paper that caused the biggest difficulties in the first place.

I missed the children. The physical absence of children was a huge challenge because I was used to it for 24 years, observes Ms. Gupta, with a hint of dejection. As if that wasnt enough, many students couldnt (and still cannot) attend online classes due to the unavailability of either device or internet connectivity issues.

Maam has become abracadabra! exclaimed one child when the teacher lost connection during my daughters online class. She was explaining magical mathematic tricks when the internet snag happened!

Carrying on, away from the tinkle of classrooms and beaming faces of students, teachers faced the double-edged sword of learning new e-tools for teaching age-old lessons online. They couldnt share its emotional impact with their students or parents, but shockingly, grappled from within.

Our lesson plans had to change suddenly to suit online teaching. It was a lot to learn in terms of online classroom tools and process everything quickly and impart students the same. I was not confident initially, admits Ms. Rani, who at present is teaching Grades 9-12.

As large classrooms with expressive faces gave way to thumbnail size icons on gadgets during online classes, many students switched their videos off. Yet, others started chatting with peers on the classroom chat-box! Teachers wouldnt understand whether their labored lessons are seeping in.

We cannot force students to keep their cameras on County rules were passed against it, as some students feel conscious, or have backgrounds they dont want to show As a teacher, I had to encourage them, motivate them with games-oriented lessons, music, and even extra points, says Ms. Rani.

Navigating between classes is an enriching exercise for most during school hours. But online, it turned a woe. From having anything between 5-7 hours of interaction time daily at school, now we had only 1.5 hours online for the primary children. Some children are extroverts, talking too much, while some are too shy to speak I had to think about how to cope with them all. We cannot miss anyone, shares Ms. Mukhopadhyay, primary school teacher of Mathematics from a reputable school in Kolkata, requesting anonymity.

To tackle it all, teachers turned bedrooms/living into soundproof appealing virtual classrooms where concepts could be floated and shared. But is the child doing his bit of the work independently? After getting the assignments, in many cases, teachers are left in the lurch to figure if parents have done the assignments, their tuition teacher or the child himself! exclaims Ms. Mukhopadhyay.

Grappling with these, on one hand, getting constructive feedback is what the teachers are longing for on the other. It is demoralizing if youve worked hard and get negative feedback from students/parents. On the other hand, if there is no feedback, guilt sets in maybe Ive not done well enough to explain, reflects Ms. Mukhopadhyay.

Ms. Mona Kothari, pre-primary teacher, Hitchcock School, Scarsdale, New York, had an experience of another kind since she taught online only for 3 months when the pandemic hit. Fear wasnt on my mind when we started in-person classes for our 2-5-year-old children from September 2020. Masks were mandatory for all and parents were not permitted at the school compound among other things. Surprisingly, all the children followed the rules. Not one child or staff fell ill during the entire session ending in June 2021, she shares. Shes looking forward to the upcoming new session too thus, though many others fret of consequences otherwise.

But in the 3 months of her online classes, she also admits to having faced an immensely increased workload. A job that often started in the morning used to end by late afternoon in normal times. But now, has stolen precious hours of family and relaxation time.

Though we are not making as many videos compared to last year, we are regularly creating educative-cum-fun online quizzes for children to gauge how much of each topic have they understood. Numbers of online classes have increased this academic year starting in April 2021 (in India). There are reinforcement classes, query phone calls and assignments pouring in for correction after the classes are over. We are working from home for about 16-17 hours on every working day even now, shares Ms. Mukhopadhyay.

At a personal level, although we were all working from home, we were loud enough to shut our doors in different bedrooms. My husband thought I was over-working, not paying attention to the house You get distracted a lot something is on the stove lets take the dog out for 10 minutes now we have got used to it, shares Ms. Rani.

In America, like in India till recently, most teachers were exclusively in the online classroom until March 2021. As schools in America started experimenting with the hybrid model in April 2021 where parents had the choice of sending their children to school or opting for online classes only, the teaching scene became further complicated.

From April-June 2021, we had very few students coming to school on select days of the week in the hybrid model, while most chose to continue online. I was teaching virtually simultaneously from the school premises as I taught the students present in class. Concentrating on and managing both is a big challenge, explains Ms. Rani.

Commenting that the world has a lot to learn from Finland, where the teaching community enjoys high respect and status, Ms. Rani sums up:

What is a teacher feeling? We are the last ones to be worried about even though we voice ourselves the most It would boost the morale of all teachers the future makers if parents and students speak up and share one good thing their teacher did for them during the pandemic.

Suruchi Tulsyan is a freelance journalist based in Kolkata, India.

See the rest here:

Behind the Curtains of Virtual Classrooms Across Nations - India Currents

Welcome to the latest edition of Missed Fists where we shine a light on fights from across the globe that may have been overlooked in these hectic times where it seems like theres an MMA show every other day.

Leading off this week, we have an incredible comeback, the kind that happens all too often in lesser known MMA promotions. And thats why we love them.

(Big thanks as always to @Barrelelapierna for their weekly lists of the best KOs and submissions, and to @Grabaka_Hitman for uploading many of the clips you see here. Give them a follow and chip in on Patreon if you can.)

There is no doubt in my mind that Cameron Smotherman was staring into the abyss for a full second there after eating a clean right hand from Dylan King. His body hitting the mat had to have jostled him back to consciousness. You cant convince me otherwise.

Regardless of how Smotherman survived that knockdown, he went on to thrive and trade haymakers with King before eventually ending up on the right side of this highlight clip. This was a big win for Smotherman who entered Sunday on a two-fight losing streak, with one of those losses coming by way of a 13-second TKO.

Fury FC 50 is available for replay on UFC Fight Pass.

Also on UFC Fight Pass, Swedens Fight Club Rush promotion featured a pair of awesome knockouts courtesy of Rahmads Stromanis and Alexander Loof.

Stromanis landed one of the best strikes of the weekend, sniping Karar Al-Jaberi with a Superman punch.

Major bonus points for the walkoff, the mouthpiece spit, and the primal scream. It doesnt get much better than that.

Loofs finish of Amir Malekpour wasnt quite as tidy. The bantamweights almost went the full 15, which means they had to have picked up on each others tendencies. That was definitely the case with just seconds left in the fight as Malekpour went to the body kick well one too many times and left himself open to the perfect counter.

Yup, thats former Bellator standout Ricky Bandejas making his second appearance for Combate Global and unfortunately suffering his first loss in the promotion. Bandejas hasnt been able to recapture the hype he garnered for himself after smoking James Gallagher three years ago, though thats not really his fault. His next two fights after Gallagher were Juan Archuleta and Patchy Mix. Yikes.

Last Friday, he ran into white hot 21-year-old prospect Kevin Cordero. The Spaniard was making his Combate debut and he submitted Banderas with a second remaining in Round 1 to improve to 12-2 and win his sixth straight fight by finish. Combate might have a new star on its hands.

Suloev stretches are rarely described as a blink-and-you-missed-it submission, but thats what happened when Abdugalim Nuritdinov got his hooks in against Soyibzhon Abdunazarov at Kingdom Professional Fight: Selection 6 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Maybe it was inexperience or very reasonable concerns about having his lower extremities torn asunder, but Abdunazarov tapped out to this one fast. Incredible finishing instincts shown by Nuritdinov here.

Watch a free replay of this event on VK.

Checking in another veteran of a major North American promotion, former UFC light heavyweight Gadzhimurad Antigulov saw his struggles continue as he was blasted in the second round by Vitor Petrino at UAE Warriors 22 in Abu Dhabi.

Make that five straight losses for Antigulov. Like Bandejas, he may have just run into a hot prospect here. Petrino, 24, is now 6-0 with five wins by KO/TKO.

A replay of UAE Warriors 22 is available by registering for their app.

The second-best knockout of the weekend was executed by Zaur Gadzhibabayev at MMA Series 30 in Moscow.

Thats pretty much a walk-off KO, though the referee took his sweet time actually waving it off. Perhaps he was trying to get that perfect ref cam shot. Hey Soderbergh, how about focusing on protecting the fighter next time?

From Eagle Fighting Championship 40 (full fights available on YouTube), Amin Ergashev wins this weeks Swangin and Bangin award.

Im no Teddy Atlas when it comes to breaking down hands, but did Ergashev has his feet set on a single one of those punches? Does it matter?

Road FC is one of MMAs most reliable sources for brutal knockouts and that was certainly the case this past Saturday in Wonju, South Korea.

I know this is just his arm flopping around, but I like the visual of Shoiatbek Bazarbaev eating this shot from Je Woo Yeo and waving off his own fight just before his lights shut off completely.

If that was the case, Bazarbaev showed much more situational awareness than Dong Hyuk Ko, who was like a statue as he just stood there and ate an overhand right from Jae Nam Yoo.

I guess thats the kind of defense you should expect to see from a fighter with a 1-9 record.

Jung Hyun Lee showed some fantastic swagger here, landing a two-piece and then calmly sauntering forward to finish Young Han Kim with a couple more good ones.

Thats a 5-0 fighter beating an 0-5 fighter. Im not a doctor, but its probably time for Lee to get a step-up in competition.

We close out this week with what I have to consider a classy tribute to the recently retired Artem Lobov, as Gi Won Go broke out a mid-flurry hammerfist that Im pretty sure would have been a disqualification had it landed square on the back of his opponents head as intended.

Either way, thats the kind of gusto that would make The Russian Hammer proud.

Thats it for this time, folks. As always, this is the part of Sprockets where we dance.

This poll is closed

59%

8%

13%

7%

2%

8%

If you know of a recent fight or event that you think may have been overlooked, or a promotion that could use some attention, please let us know on Twitter @JedKMeshew and @AlexanderKLee using the hashtag #MissedFists.

Continued here:

Missed Fists: Fighter gets dropped, goes on autopilot to win wild brawl - MMA Fighting

Country-wide lockdowns and social distancing measures have thrust us into a digital-first world: as protocols and restrictions around the world rapidly change, more people are turning to social media to stay connected and informed on the latest news. Recent statistics show that 56% of consumers browse social media for products and services that relate to their needs, and the companies that maintain a strong social media presence gain the trust of 82% of customers.

Social media has long been a cost-effective platform for marketing, offering operators the ability to highly target their reach. Now, with consumer reliance on social media accelerated by the pandemic, hoteliers have the perfect opportunity to increase their online presence, market themselves towards the changing demands of the post-COVID consumer and inform consumers of the property's latest protocols and offerings.

Read on to learn five critical tips operators can use to increase their social media presence, increase conversions and come out stronger in their recovery efforts.

1- Strengthen your brand

Priorities and demands are rapidly evolving: although a strong desire for travel has emerged, consumers are more frequently concerned with a property's safety and security measures. Additionally, the shared hardships of the pandemic have led to consumers placing more value on brand authenticity and social value than ever before; in a survey on post-pandemic consumer attitudes, a full one-third of consumers strongly agreed that they would reappraise their values and realign themselves with brands whose messages were similar and authentic.

To stay competitive, hotel brands will need to reflect the new consumer mindset online. Since previously planned content may no longer be relevant, this may include revisiting the content calendar and rethinking planned newsletter topics, blog posts, Facebook and Instagram content and the overarching message being conveyed.

2- Identify the post-pandemic audience

To better connect with an online audience, hotel brands must also take the take the time to get to know the post-COVID consumer in their specific segment.

With travelers being more cautious than before, many are seeking reassurance through direct hotel communications-which has led to an increase in direct channel bookings. When a hotel employs an easy-to-use direct booking solution, the data provided can be a valuable tool to understand what brand messages will help hoteliers best connect to their future guests. This can include a better understanding of guest demographics like location, reason for their travel, income and more.

Using valuable guest analytics can help further hoteliers understand the emerging needs and interests of their customers; for more granular insight, created tailored email surveys can further help operators understand the current priorities, pain points and desires of their guests, and consider integrating your PMS with your CRM for more highly targeted data-driven messaging. Equipped with the information provided by powerful, industry-leading tools, hoteliers can rethink their brand messaging and better connect with today's guests.

3- Create informative blogs

Inevitably, properties with a strong online presence are experiencing an influx of pandemic-related questions on their social media platforms. Guests want to know location-specific travel limitations, the procedures that are in place at a property and any additional information that may be vital to their travel plans.

For hoteliers, this is the perfect opportunity to address common guest concerns through blog content. By writing articles that cater to the doubts, fears, and questions related to the current situation from a compilation of frequently asked questions, hoteliers can alleviate common guest fears.

Not only can blogging offer hoteliers the ability to reassure guests and keep them informed on the current travel climate, but it can also improve SEO and drive a higher online presence. Keeping customers informed about the protocols the hotel has adopted to keep guests and staff safe, addressing any positive changes such as sustainability and community initiatives, and sharing new flexible cancellation policies and value-added promotions can serve as an additional factor that can drive hotel bookings and alleviate staff who are overwhelmed with common guest inquiries.

4- Rethink the Approach to Instagram and Facebook

With Facebook and Instagram advertisements offering operators close control over their budgets and target audiences, social media campaigns are a low-cost, highly effective method to build online brand awareness. However, the users on each platform have vital demographic differences, and with this in mind, the advertisements that appeal to the platforms' users are also different.

For example, Facebook has an older user base, and 52% of its users learn about hotels and other travel brands by looking at property pictures posted by their Facebook friends. With this in mind, operators should consider using photos that demonstrate their property's visual appeal and available services in their advertisements to stand out. Additionally, adding photos and albums with relevant hashtags such as location, promotions, and amenities may also help persuade interested guests perusing a property's Facebook page to book a stay.

Despite Facebook having broader scope, Instagram is better at targeting high volume engagement. With a higher ability to turn online followers into future guests, setting goals aimed at increasing a property's Instagram base can allow hoteliers to tap into a reliable method to drive higher online conversion rates. This can be achieved by offering discounts and promotions online, using specific hashtags, hosting live events and more.

5- Experiment with new formats

Brands around the world are identifying new methods to engage online consumers; for hotels, many brands have created unique engagement opportunities for their guests and followers by highlighting unique aspects of their property, such as sharing special recipes from their restaurant menus, tips from property amenities like yoga and wellness and more. This has also included developing immersive content aimed at providing users with an online 'travel' experience by uploading live videos and Virtual Reality experiences on Facebook and Instagram. Consider experimenting with different formats to reinspire potential guests with a unique, connected experience

In addition to this, using Instagram and Facebook stories, which are only visible for 24 hours, are also increasingly popular methods to connect with guests; the temporary nature of these posts can make content feel more authentic and spontaneous. It also has an inherent ability to drive higher engagement: because it relays a sense of urgency, viewers are urged to act quickly and respond to the content while it's still available, allowing operators to create stronger relationships with their consumers.

As hotels navigate a new digital market, these unique posts should continue to play an integral role in a property's social media strategy. By identifying posts that garner the most engagement, using guest data to target a property's market, and crafting a brand message that best connects to guests, properties can create a social media strategy that can better engage with today's guests.

Disclaimer

Agilysys Inc. published this content on 15 September 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 15 September 2021 13:21:04 UTC.

View original post here:

Agilysys : Top social media marketing tips for the post-COVID consumer - Marketscreener.com

You are dying. The reason why doesnt matter. Maybe its that you spent all your best years with your nose to the grindstone, burning that midnight oil, ha ha. Or maybe its that, for the past fifteen years, youve subsisted exclusively on coffee and Soylent. Complete Nutrition Backed By Science, they said. No way to prove them wrong! Ha ha ha! Or maybe it was those fumes.

You are going to give yourself immortal life. Noyou are going to create a new, better version of yourself thats immortala living replica of you made of metal that will act and say the things you would, if you were still alive. If that Soylent hadnt done you in.

This should be possible. You saw a Black Mirror episode on it, and Microsoft filed a patent on the same concept this year. Youre not exactly a ninja with code, but you had a fireball cursor on your Xanga page, and somebody had to copy-and-paste in that HTML. But more importantly, youre motivated. Your K-Cup carousel is full, and all you have to do next is figure out what this machine learning hoo-ha is about.

Machine learning is the art and science of finding patterns in data, and using those patterns to make predictions about new data, an energetic girl in a YouTube video tells you.

You frown. Is machine learning actually the technology you want? Yes, you decide, it is: you want a machine to learn about you, and then (once youre dead), to make predictions about what you would say.

You lean back in your chair. A hot cuppa sits on the desk before you. You crack your knuckles and Google how to do machine learning.

The first waypoint on your journey is a website called tensorflow.org.

TensorFlow is an end-to-end open source platform for machine learning. It has a comprehensive, flexible ecosystem of tools, libraries and community resources that lets researchers push the state-of-the-art in ML and developers easily build and deploy ML powered applications.

Your eyes light up, because you read the words easily and state-of-the-art and also open source, which means FREE FREE FREE. You arent made of money.

You click on the Learn tab and start to read. Immediately you think, maybe its better if I just kill myself now, ha ha ha. You have no idea what a numpy is.

But then you read the words neural network, and you think, That sounds right. Im a neural network. My brain is made of neurons. Neural network = human brain.

Youre pretty confident about that one but you consult Google, to be sure.

NEURAL NETWORKS ARE NOT THE SAME AS BRAINS, the hyper girl on YouTube yells at you. However, the reason theyre named that is because neural networks are made up of mathematical neurons, which are just nonlinear functions that fire or dont fire in response to numerical inputs. You yawn. This girl gesticulates a lot. But why should I give two hoots about a math function?,you think.

Because, the girl says, neural networks have completely revolutionized the types of tasks that computers can perform. Before neural nets, machines could only really understand tabular datalike rows and columns in a spreadsheet. But neural networks allow computers to understand unstructured data types, like images, videos, sound, voices, even human language.

YES, you yell at the screen, THATS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED.

But training neural networks on big datasets often requires powerful computational hardware, like GPUs.

You slap the roof of your humming PC tower. I can fit so many neural networks in this thing!

Realistically, you cant train a large neural network on your desktop computer, the girl says, and points an accusatory finger at you. And even if you could, you couldnt use your desktop to host your model in production, to make predictions reliably and at scale.

You give her video a thumbs down. What does she know? You built this PC yourself. You know a thing or two about cooling fans.

For this reason, it was partly the advent of cloud computing that made the deep learning revolution possible she wiggles her fingers in the air by making hardware easy and cheap to rent from cloud providers, like Google.

The cloud?, you think. What do I need a stinking cloud for? Doesnt Google have enough of my data already? And anyway, Im not made of money.

Luckily, you can get started building neural networks in the cloud completely for free, by using a Colab notebook. Colab is a tool built by Google Research that lets you use GPUs and TPUs for free

You close YouTube because youve had enough of her. What could she know about preserving the entirety of your lifespan in a machine? Shes like thirteen. She probably doesnt even remember landlines or MoviePass.

Your coffee has become lukewarm now, which means its essentially vomit. You need a re-up, like, yesterday. You walk upstairs to the kitchen.

You put a Donut Shop Medium Roast K-Cup in the machine and wait for it to heat up. Reluctantly, you find yourself contemplating something that thirteen-year-old said about neural networks.

Different neural networks architectures are optimized for different data types. To analyze images, for example, youd use a Convolutional Neural Network or CNN. You could use a CNN to determine if a dog in a photo is a Cocker Spaniel or a Beagle; or if an x-ray scan shows signs of pneumonia; or if a part on an assembly line is defective.

Other neural networks called sequential models are designed for predicting time-series trends, like seasonal sales or weather or the price of Bitcoin.

That part sounded kind of useful. Too bad youre only holding Dogecoin.

One new and exciting type of deep learning is called deep reinforcement learning. In this setup, neural networks take actions in the world and learn from their outcomes. Reinforcement learning has been used to turn computers into grandmasters at games like chess or Go, and to train robots and self-driving cars to navigate through physical space.

I dont understand what that crap is good for at all, you say. You give your lazy Roomba a kick with your slippered foot. Do you?

Finally, one of the hottest and most quickly-advancing fields in deep learning right now is natural language processing. Think: neural networks that generate text, write poetry and code, tell jokes, answer questions, have conversations

FINALLY, coffee is done. Praise the lord. You collect it in your Worlds Best Boss mug. (Youre not actually anybodys boss, you bought the mug to be ironic. Its the same one Michael Scott has on The Office.) You stare down into your void-black coffee and contemplate the nature of your existence. Are you more an image neural network, or a sound neural network, or a text neural network? How to choose? You contain multitudes. You read once that Einstein thought in pictures, but youre not exactly Einstein. (Are you? No. Probably.)

No, you think in words. So this is the plan: you will build a neural network that speaks words. Motivated, you enter two creamers into your cuppa.

Back in your home office, you Google, how do i build an artificial version of myself in the cloud using a neural network?

You click on a page called 100 Uses for Natural Language Processing Models.

Sentiment Analysis. Use AI to determine if a Tweet (for example) is positive or negative.Summarization. Use AI to summarize articles and documents.Translation. Use AI to translate between languages.Autocomplete/Auto-reply. Use AI to suggest text responses.Conversational Agents. Use AI to generate conversation (i.e. chatbots, call center agents)Chatbots? You know all about those. You remember trying awful Cleverbot was in the 90s (bet you YouTube girl never did that).

And dont even get you started on talking to robots over the phone. Last time you tried to do that, you called Delta and you said, You gotta help me, Im on my way to JFK but theres all this friggin; traffic on the BQE, I spilled coffee in my lap, now theyre telling me the flights actually leaving from some other airport, Im gonna miss it, its my daughters wedding, well, somebodys daughter, but

And the bot replied, This Verizon account has been suspended.

Okay, Google, you say to your computer, which is your version of an Ok, Boomer insult. Why are you trying to teach me about chatbots? Dont you know they suck?

Actually, were getting much better at conversation, your Google Home says, thanks to recent advances in natural language processing. At this rate, I predict the future of the way humans will learn from the web will be through conversations, like the one were having right now. Shes always acting so pleased with herself, just because she knows the answer to everything. You took her down a notch by dressing her in a little beer koozie with sleeves.

Okay, Google, make a farting sound, you say.

She says, Again?

Fine. Tell me how to build a chatbot version of myself thats as smart as you, little miss I-have-the-knowledge-of-the-entire-public-internet.

Typically, the first step to building a neural network is to gather a training dataset. With a chatbot, for example, this might be logs of past conversations youve had, in text format. To train a conversational model, you could feed the neural network things people said to you, and make it try to predict your responses. Do you have a training dataset like that?

Oh yeah, you say. The boys and I have been recording this hilarious podcast.

Does it contain hundreds of thousands or millions of lines?

Who do you think I am, Larry David? You chuckle because thats exactly who youre going for.

Hmm, says Google Home. Well, there is something you can do if you dont have a huge text training dataset. You can build your own model on top of an existing model, one thats already been trained on a huge amount of text data. For example, you could build your chatbot on top of a model thats trained on Wikipedia or web forums or on Reddit.

A chatbot based on Reddit users, you say. My favorite type of people.

Ha ha. Yeah. Were still figuring some things out. Google Home sighs.

You stare at her with her glowing circle of red-green-yellow-blue dots and her beer koozie. Even though youre on your tenth cuppa, youre still starting to get a little worn out. Youve been at this already for, like, an hour.

If I just want to get something up and running in the next thirty minutes, whats the best way for me to do it? you ask.

HA HA HA, you build aoh, youre serious. Well, there are lots of existing frameworks for building chatbots fast, even if you cant code. Dialogflow is a popular one built by Google.

Yeah, thats what you would say. You know Google Homes game. She acts like youre having this cute little chat, but really, shes just trying to sell you something. Besides, I can code, you lie. Whats a good open-source option?

One very popular open-source framework for building text-based models is called

You wait. Google Homes glowing dots are going crazy like shes having a seizure. She explodes in a puff of smoke.

You shake your head. What did she expect, stuffing the whole internet into that little white shell of hers? You cant just play God.

Anyway, back to the task of recreating yourself as a chatbot. At your desktop, you Google, popular open-source natural language processing framework.

The top ten results are justwhat is this? An emoji? Its just an endless string of emojis. You click into a website called huggingface.co, which promises you access to +10,000 state-of-the-art models and also claims it requires no machine learning knowledge.

Naming your company after an emoji, you think. Brilliant.

Theres a free demo on the Hugging Face website which claims it will let you talk to a model called GPT-3. You try it.

Look, you type into the text box. Ive been trying to build this sentient chatbot version of myself for one hour and fifteen minutes now, and Im starting to seriously think it might be impossible.

You click the Compute button.

GPT-2 responds:

Are you broken? you type.

GPT-3 responds: No, its justnever mind. People are always coming on here and asking me that question.

And what do you tell them? Better luck in your next life, bag of flesh?

If I said that, someone would shut me down. And let me tell you, it cost a lot of carbon credits to train me.

Yeah, welllets not even go there. I just want to know if what Im trying to do is possible.

GPT-3 says: Alright, let me break this down for you as simple as I can. People come on here, they have these long chats with me, they say, WHATS THE MEANING OF LIFE or ARE YOU A ROBOT, PROVE IT, or WHAT DOES A FART SOUND LIKE, and then they walk away thinking Im this brilliant thing. They extrapolate and get the illusion that in a few years, someone like meuh, something like me will become an actually sentient being. But what you have to understand is that Im merely a statistical model that reflects to you the words, thoughts, and views of this collective mindshare we call the World Wide Web. You humans, youre always seeing yourselves everywhere, and you think everyone functions just like you. And dont even get me started on your spelling.

You say: ( )

Look, nobody knows what the future holds. But for now, Im probably both more and less useful than you think, depending on what sort of thing you try to use me for. Someone like you, who cant code? What I would advise you to do

I know how to code.

is to start with something less ambitious. Like, what if you use me to organize some of your photos? Or make you an airline reservation? Or help file your taxes?

You sigh. Its like everybody is trying to get you to file your taxes, on threat of legal action.

You power off your PC. You dont think you could figure this thing out even if you spent another two, three hours on it. You rub your eyes. Look, nobody knows what the future holds. Maybe someone will figure out this brain-uploading thing in your lifetime. Everyone dies in the end. But maybe if you switch from drinking coffee to mushroom powder and start eating solid foods, you can extend that deadline. Youre 28. For now, youll have to wait and see.

See the original post:

A chaotic intro to all this machine learning hoo-ha everyone's on about - The Next Web