Only 1% of orders on shopping sites came from people who visited a social network immediately before.
Online sales on Black Friday hit another record this year. Social media only played a relatively small role — at least when measured directly, according to the latest data from IBM.
Continue reading… “Only 1% of online Black Friday sales were driven by social media”
Sebastian Thrun
Sebastian Thrun, founder of Udacity, captivated the world with visions of self-driving cars and Google Glass and has signed up 16 million students for online classes. So why is he pivoting away from MOOC’s? Thrun says, “We don’t educate people as others wished, or as I wished.”
Continue reading… “Udacity’s Sebastian Thrun: MOOC’s not effective for undergraduate education”
U.S. comes in 31st place on internet speed.
How fast we can access the internet is very important. There is evidence that internet bandwidth is a key driver of economic growth and online participation, and there is plenty of other research to point to its role in social value creation.
Continue reading… “Global comparison of household internet speeds”
Machines will generate more data than will people in 2014.
Connected fitness gadgets such as Fitbit and Jawbone are being snatched up by consumers this year. But in 2014, we will see this kind of ubiquitous sensor technology extend to the enterprise as part of the “Internet of things,” according to an analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
Continue reading… “2014 will be the year of the Internet of Things”
84 percent of travelers aren’t properly protecting themselves from public WiFi threats.
The holiday season is the time of year we travel. It’s when people buckle up on planes and trains across the world, relishing the relatively recent wide-spread availability of public WiFi. (Infographic)
Continue reading… “Holiday travelers beware – 89% of public Wi-Fi connections are not safe”
Harold Washington library in Chicago.
The need for libraries, and librarians has been placed under scrutiny due to the advent of the internet. Everything in print is now available online. So do we really need physical libraries and librarians anymore? Of course we do…now, more than ever before.
Continue reading… “Libraries and librarians are more relevant than ever in the digital age”
60% of people can’t go without WiFi access for more than a day.
Addiction to the internet is real. In the United States, it is said to be more pervasive than alcoholism, and debate is raging over whether it should be officially classified as a mental illness.
Continue reading… “WiFi is the new cigarette: Infographic”
Millions of schoolchildren around the country go to school every day without Internet or broadband connections.
Only 39 percent of public schools in the U.S. have wireless network access for the whole school. But perhaps the greatest offense—up to this point, at least—has been apathy about the problem.
The big online companies are calling for urgent reforms to protect us from having data intercepted.
Over a few weeks’ worth of bedtimes in the summer of 1984, my dad read me Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Though the dystopian context would have been lost on nine-year old me, the pervasive malevolence and the futility of the struggle was not.
Continue reading… “Our best defenders against Big Brother may be Google and Facebook”
China’s leading e-commerce marketplace.
Taobao, China’s leading e-commerce marketplace, racked up RMB 1 billion ($164 million) in mobile purchases from over 14 million user accounts one hour into China’s annual Single’s Day shopping blitz,
When Curalate, a visual analytics platform, set out to quantify the impact that different image qualities have on Instagram, it discovered that photos with blue as the main color got the most likes. Reds and oranges on the other hand tended to receive 24 percent less likes than blue-tinted shots. (Infographic)
Continue reading… “Instagram photos that are mostly blue get more likes: Study”
Technology firms like Cisco and GE have created a special division to focus on the internet of things and Intel is following in their footsteps. The new IoT Solutions Group combines the Intelligent Systems Group and Wind River acquisition, and will be headed up by Doug Davis.
Continue reading… “Intel forms a special division to focus on the Internet of Things”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.