Is Handy really that handy?

At first I was skeptic of apps such as Uber, Lyft, Postmates, and Grubhub. Why should I look to an app for a service I thought worked perfectly, I walked outside and waved down a cab, went to pick up anything I need and if I wanted food delivery I would call a restaurant that delivered. However; after constant pestering from my collage roommates, I decided to give the app services a try at the beginning of my junior year. Needless to say I have been converted, for all the small issue that I turned a blind eye to while using the old service providers could no longer be ignored. Getting ripped off on a regular basis by cabbies and not have a clear cut way of rectifying any issues. In addition, to the overall service and product being provided was incomparable. Uber is now the first and only place I will look to if I need a ride somewhere at any hour. Same goes for Grubhub, no longer am I restricted to pizza or Chinese’s when I am looking to stay in an order food. So there is some good news, a new kid is moving onto the app service block and its name is Handy[1].

              An app that will book cleaners or handymen at a moment’s notice for your convenience. All you need to do is pick a time and let Handy handle the rest. Finally under one entity you can find all your home service providers, no longer is there the stress of researching and finding the perfect contractor. If you deal with Handy all the independent contractors come vetted with background checks, insured and a 100% money back guarantee. At this point I was thinking to myself is it really this easy to take any service create an app, act as a middle man and make millions? Well with the latest evaluation of half a billion dollars for Handy, Grubhub worth around 2.5 billion[2] and Uber around 50 billion[3] it is ever so tempting to give app creating an attempt. Though Handy provides a very convincing proposal I am back to my skeptical self, my family has been using the same handy man for years. I personally see us ending this relationship to try out an app, for many of which service are strongly relationship based. One the other hand if we were new to an area and did not have any good recommendations of handymen I could see us giving Handy a try. The other concern is that though these individuals have been screened, personally I would be hesitant of welcoming them into my home. For I do not know how through the screening process is and how easy it would be for a crook to forge a clean image. At which point a 100% satisfaction guarantee would not mean much on project if they clean out my house or harm my family.

              Therefore At the moment I am not jumping to my phone to order a cleaner or handyman from Handy. I will be waiting to see if their credibility builds up or whether like similar apps in Europe Hassel and Helping.[4] Handy will struggle to build up a client bases and become the main source people go to find home services contractors. As the saying goes, “There is an app for that,” is not a trusted law as of today.

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[1]Kosoff, Maya. "Handy, a Startup That Sends Someone to Clean Your Home, Just Raised $50 Million and Is Valued at Half a Billion Dollars."Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 02 Nov. 2015. Web. 02 Nov. 2015. http://www.businessinsider.com/handy-raises-50-million-at-a-500-million-valuation-2015-11

[2]"Seamless.com Owner GrubHub Surges After $192 Million IPO."Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-03/grubhub-raises-192-million-pricing-ipo-above-marketed-range

[3]"Uber Valued at More Than $50 Billion." WSJ. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015. http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-valued-at-more-than-50-billion-1438367457

[4]"On-Demand Cleaning Startup Hassle Merges With Rocket Internet’s Helpling." TechCrunch. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015. http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/02/hassle-helpling-merger/

Cruising On the Wi-fi Waves

Smartphones, smart watches, smart boards, now smart ships. Cruise ships, that is. For any of you who have previous traveled aboard a vessel of the sea, you know the struggles of on-board internet. Super slow speeds, practically dial-up, on the few computers in the "library" room keep ships stuck in the late 20th century. Well, not anymore. Royal Caribbean has announced their new SmartShips and Carnival has announced their new "Got Wifi?" campaign, with other cruise lines quickly following the fleets.
Fortune magazine does a good job of mentioning three key points to this new innovation incorporated into the ships - a step toward the future, new customer opportunities, and customer satisfaction. Faster wi-fi is the key to these upcoming successes in the cruising industry. "O3b Networks, a company that provides ship-to-shore communication systems, started working with Royal Caribbean back in 2011 to upgrade its internet connections. It developed a new type of high-throughput satellite which quadrupled connection speeds, according to Steve Collar, O3b’s CEO". These new speeds transport cruising from a pre-connected time into the current era. Because of the new internet availability found on board, businesses can now take their business conferences, training, and other trips via cruise ships without losing connection to the business world they need to stay connected with while on the trip. Whether this be via internet communications or simply business workers working on the vacation, it means many new customers for cruise lines. But business workers aren't the only new clients gained; millennials that can't seem to be separated from their connections can now stay connected while cruising, opening a whole new world to them.  With wi-fi so readily available now, people stay connected to social media, posting and sharing how much they're loving their cruise-cation, thereby promoting the cruising company and expanding their customers in that aspect as well. After a few trials of the new wi-fi systems were imposed, customer satisfaction jumped 50% because of the connections now available. Such improvement shows wi-fi is a strongly desired aspect of life nowadays, and now not only is it readily accessible from the seas, but the accessibility and connectivity are ever expanding and increasing to support the high demand of the quick-paced connected world we live in.
Unfortunately, the Fortune article fails to mention the losses this new implementation brings forth. It also focuses only on the wi-fi aspect although it is clear more advanced technologies are involved in the new smart ships emerging.
While it is true that this is a major step for cruise lines and cruise-goers, the importance of escaping the prison of a strong cellular or internet connection shouldn't be given up so easily. The world is full of natural beauty, and cruises are certainly a great way to get to experience a lot of that beauty, but if your nose is in your phone 24/7, why bother going on a cruise when you could do the same thing from home?

Fortune Article

Interana Analytics Company is Why Tinder Has New Great Features

Tinder is an application (app) used on smart phones to find local singles in the area. Recently, Tinder has enhanced its dating app with a “Super Like.” This feature allows the user to indicate to a perspective match that they are more interested in the perspective match than any other user within that 24 hour period. This new feature was developed by Tinder through the use of another company called Interana. In a press release that was republished on a reuters.com, Interana’s service is highlighted as being critical to analyzing how users interact with the app. As a result, Tinder has come out with new features, one previously being mentioned the “Super Like.”  Furthermore, Interana is practically a high profile company with valuable experiences: “Interana is founded by top technology experts from Facebook, Intel, LinkedIn, Google, Apple, Netflix, Oracle, Symantec and VMware, and is backed by venture capital firms Battery Ventures, Data Collective, Fuel Capital, Index Ventures, SV Angel, and YCombinator” (Woods). This blog will emphasize the major aspects of the press release as well as some things not mentioned explicitly in the press release.

One thing to note is the velocity or the rate at which Interana provides information to Tinder: “Tinder's Interana instance has passed the trillion rows of event data threshold, so being able to obtain insights in seconds with Interana vs. the hours it used to take has proven invaluable” (Woods). Additionally, Interana’s service is multifarious in nature: “Using Interana's simple and flexible behavioral tools, Tinder is able to quickly understand user behavior, reasons for conversion and retention, root cause, as well as types of connections made” (Woods). Lastly, the improvements are implicitly felt by its users or at least the ones who are scrutinizing potential matches too swiftly: “For instance, using Interana, the team realized that a small percentage of users were swiping right on every profile, potentially decreasing the value of matches. As a result, when company launched Tinder Plus shortly after, it also introduced a limit in right swipes each user could perform each day” (Woods). Something amazing happened when Tinder started to synthesize the data analytics provided by Interana: “Since introducing this [limit in right swipes] just 10 days ago, we’ve seen a 25% increase in the number of matches per right swipe, a 25% increase in the number of messages per match, and a 52% decrease in spam bots (another of our biggest user complaints)” (Tinder Blog).

Moreover, there are other things to consider that this press release has not provided. One being the concept of big data that Tinder is now entering the realm of. Big data in loose terms is an extremely large data set. Another way to define it is data that has high amount of volume, variety, and comes at a high velocity. Consequently, it is imperative to note the ways in which tech companies are now utilizing other tech companies for business improvements. Lastly, the range of products offered by Interana may not have been easily identified in the press release: “By using Interana's behavior-based tools -- like funnels, cohorts, metrics and sessions -- for visual and interactive ad hoc exploration and discovery of data, Tinder's product team is able to identify key user behaviors” (Woods). For a firm experimenting with the idea of using these tools, it may prove beneficial to mention a moniker for specific tools.

Bibliography

"Keeping Tinder Real." Tinder Blog —. Tinder, 11 Mar. 2015. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
Woods, Natasha. "Tinder Swipes Right on Interana's Behavioral Analytics for Event Data." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 28 Sept. 2015. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

Do we need to stop sharing and start living?

I would like to start off by saying thank you to Facebook for, “Giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected,” twitter for, “Giving everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers,” and finally Instagram for being there with us, “To capture and share the world’s moments.” As one can tell from these three companies mission statements, it is their sole priority to make sure you can share everything. Unfortunately, our generation has taken to a bit of an obsession over sharing.

An example of this obsession was highlighted over the weekend at the premier of Black Mass in Boston. At the star studded event, large crowds where eager to capture videos and photos on their smart phones of the festivities. However, it was a photo of an elderly lady leaning up on barrier simply taking in the sights that has captivated everyone. For around her everyone else had their phones out eagerly trying to capture all the events. Which brings up the question of instead of living the events we are attending we are now living though our phones or devices. Is the obsession too great that we can no longer simply stand there and enjoy the experience? Some may say that it is simply part of a group mentality, the person to my left and right are taking photos; therefore, I am missing out and should as well be taking a photo. Or better yet, have these social media companies done such a good job programming us that if we attend an event we must take a photo or video. For if we don’t the next question that will likely come up is, did you even attend the event? What do you mean you didn’t take any photos? It’s as if the word of mouth mean nothing, storytelling now has to involve your phone showing photos and videos you took of the event. Now don’t get me wrong it does make a story that much creditable and interesting, i.e. I was front row at the concert last night and then you have a photo of the lead singer right in front of you. Or I went out fishing last weekend a caught a six foot wahoo, you better have photos or I would never believe you.

However, when you were taking that photo or video there was a phone or device in-between you and the concert. Where even if it was just for a second you were more concerned about making sure the photo was in perfect focused than the fact you favorite song, singer or actor is right in front of you. Lastly, an argument could be made that taking one photo to simply preserve a memory is justifiable. I would agree with this, however, there is a time and place for everything and of course with moderation. Nevertheless, next time you are out and have an urge to pull out our phone to capture and share the event, stop and just soak in the experience and then when you want to share it tell someone about it as if your eyes could speak.  

"Facebook Logo." Facebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.

https://www.facebook.com/facebook/info?tab=page_info

"Company | About." Company | About. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.

https://about.twitter.com/company

"Instagram, Technology’s Window To The Soul." TechCrunch. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2015

http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/20/to-thee-i-do-commend-my-watchful-soul-ere-i-let-fall-the-windows-of-mine-eyes/

Dailymail.com, Carly Stern For. "Still Living in the Moment: Elderly Woman Pictured at a Premiere Becomes an Online Hero - Because She Was the Only One NOT Taking a Picture of Johnny Depp." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 05 Oct. 2015. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3260626/Elderly-woman-pictured-premiere-online-hero-one-NOT-capturing-scene-camera-phone.html

SkyTruth leads to Sea Truth

Image from Wall Street Journal via Google Images

Illegal fishing, sometimes referred to as pirate fishing, is a huge problem throughout the world, but with new satellite technology, it is becoming easier to catch these criminals at sea. SkyTruth has come up with a way to determine if vessels tracked via satellite are illegally hunting fish.

Image from dw.com via Google Images

National Geographic gives readers an insight on the history of SkyTruth, the technology behind it, and the limits or problems the technology currently faces.
In 2012, SkyTruth used satellites and radar to find the ship responsible for an oil spill off Angola by noticing a white dot at the end of a black stretch on the images. Eventually they realized they could use this same detection system to look for pirate fishermen, and teamed up with Pew Charitable Trusts to help. This partnership ended up involving Google and Oceana as well, creating a website called Global Fishing Watch, allowing advocacy groups, fisheries, and governments to view the same information as SkyTruth.
This data is made available because of the Automatic Identification System, or the GPS used by the ships. Originally, this data was intended just so ships wouldn't run into each other or could help vessels in danger. SkyTruth figured out the normal patterns of a ship's movement and can therefore now determine what a given vessel is up to - including illegal fishing.
Unfortunately, there are some loopholes. Some vessels only send up a signal when they are halfway through their voyage, and some transfer their illegally caught fish to other vessels. Some avoid the Automatic Identification System completely! These activities limit the complete accuracy of Global Fishing Watch and allow some ships to slip under the radar. Because of this, SkyTruth is now working on an even more advanced tracking system, a "vessel story", similar to a credit card log. Until then, they are still advancing the Global Fishing Watch website, and hope to make some of its information available to the public in the future.

The article also mentions drones are being used to also collect data and track illegal fishermen, yet they never dive into the drone aspect. It also mentions the White House plans to do something about this, but doesn't mention what. That would be an interesting and informational addition to the already informative article.

According to National Geographic, 20-32% of the wild-caught seafood imported into the United States ends up coming from pirate fishermen. This makes the information relevant to readers; it's where a lot of seafood is coming from! To bring this attention to more readers, this should have also been developed a bit more so more people understand the importance of this issue. It provides a serious question to ponder as well. If illegal fishing stops or is no longer as common, will people in the United States still have the same amount of seafood available to them?

National Geographic Article

Sea-less Surfing

Technology is always evolving; we see it in our smartphones, our electric cars, and our tablet laptop hybrid concoctions. But it's not just our cool toys that are developing technologically, our environment is too. Large ponds that are actually wave pools are popping up with man-made waves big enough to surf. This advancement will not only change the rules of the surf, but could go on to change the Olympics in time for Tokyo in 2020. 

There are three important positions that can be taken when exploring this new trend - technological, business, and the surfer. 

Wave pools are a popular attraction at many theme parks and have been for many years. However, now there is the capability of creating actual ocean-like waves, with no time for flat-spells, constantly and consistently - two things you're not likely to get in the real ocean. Each wave only takes about 90 seconds, so there's plenty of time for plenty of rides. Four major technology companies in this area currently are set to compete for head title of this new sensation within the next two years. Surf Snowdonia and Wavegarden currently lead the pack. 

In August, Surf Snowdonia opened to the public bringing about the reality of this being a serious business venture. They almost reached their maximum capacity every day it was opened for the first two weeks. Drawing in $30-70 a surfer, it shouldn't take long to profit off of the $7 million expense to build the creation. Once they perfect the barrel wave technology, profits and customers will only increase. Another park is planned to open next year in Austin, Texas. 

This idea definitely draws in surfing fans from around the world. It' a great way to learn how to surf for beginners, yet provides constant waves for pros. However, it isn't the ocean. It lacks the saltiness of the sea, the marine life, and the overall depth and danger associated with riding a huge wave in the middle of the ocean, far from land. Paul Evans, editor of Surf Europe Magazine, for example, is not at all excited about the idea of a perfect wave pool. 

What Evans and the article seem to overlook is the fact this could very well be game changing for the world's view on surfing as a sport, as well as giving new hope to land-locked people. With this technology, waves are always available, making it now eligible to be an Olympic sport. People who have always wanted to try to surf yet live nowhere near the water's edge now have the opportunity to learn and try to surf, almost quite literally in their own backyard. This technology has opened up the world of surfing to the entire world. 

Wave creating and wave riding technology has been previously introduced by many parks, but neither have quite perfected it. Thanks to Wavegarden and Surf Snowdonia, we are closer than ever before.

MarketWatch Article