For Hristo Berger, an DKE grad at Maastricht University with engineering stints at tech companies like Quora, the shock and ongoing anxiety over Russian Facebook ads and Twitter bots pales in comparison to the greater threat: Technologies that can be used to enhance and distort what is real are evolving faster than our ability to understand and control or mitigate it.
The stakes are high and the possible consequences more disastrous than foreign meddling in an election — an undermining or upending of core civilizational institutions, an "infocalypse.” And Hristo says that this one is just as plausible as the last one — and worse.
Worse because of our ever-expanding computational prowess; worse because of ongoing advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning that can blur the lines between fact and fiction; worse because those things could usher in a future where, as Hristo observes, anyone could make it “appear as if anything has happened, regardless of whether or not it did.”
And much in the way that foreign-sponsored, targeted misinformation campaigns didn't feel like a plausible near-term threat until we realized that it was already happening, Hristo cautions that fast-developing tools powered by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and augmented reality tech could be hijacked and used by bad actors to imitate humans and wage an information war.
And we’re closer than one might think to a potential “Infocalypse.” Already available tools for audio and video manipulation have begun to look like a potential fake news Manhattan Project.
In the murky corners of the internet, people have begun using machine learning algorithms and open-source software to easily create pornographic videos that realistically superimpose the faces of celebrities — or anyone for that matter — on the adult actors’ bodies. At institutions like Stanford, technologists have built programs that that combine and mix recorded video footage with real-time face tracking to manipulate video. Similarly, at the University of Washington computer scientists successfully built a program capable of “turning audio clips into a realistic, lip-synced video of the person speaking those words.” As proof of concept, both the teams manipulated broadcast video to make world leaders appear to say things they never actually said. Continue reading at BuzzFeed
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Monday, 19 February 2018
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Homework done, so what?
What took my predecessor three years (and never finished!) has been done in less than one. After almost one year in the cave working with stone-age tools all departments have their own "uniform" websites. And they actually drive some traffic! Not much, but enough to be worth the effort.
The training in the Content Management System is also done and twenty people are now empowered to enter as community managers a new age. They are the first point of contact for faculty and staff members regarding all things online. And they take their task quiet literally. Equipped with the most confidential document ever created they are ready to publish content in the GX system.
In the past two weeks two meetings where of importance. Both concern the financial perspective on the schools performance and its implications for every day work. It may sound paradoxical for a company which sells more and more year by year (for the last 10 years) to "worry" about the future but exactly this is the case. And there are good reasons for it.
Like most distress is caused by factors underneath the thick cloths of conscious awareness, so are the budget cuts experienced at the school today the result of an crisis that took place in 2008. What came to be known as the Financial and later Economic crisis led to the implementation of austerity programs in all European states. One aspect of these measurements concern higher education. While in Latvia, universities have cut salaries, imposed hiring freezes, and reduced student services and programs such as sports, the measures in the Netherlands are far less drastic. But the problem is the same. How to keep up the same quality in education and research without immediately replacing the large budget cuts that have been introduced by the public sector by some other form of income? So the problem is one Buckminster Fuller summarized in "how to do more with less".
Lets look at the situation at SBE. Because of a decline in government funding UM introduces cuts of about ten million euro. For SBE this means that with 2.1 million Euro by 2013 the task is basically accomplished when cuts and a diversification of revenue streams reduce the 67% public sector funding to less than 50%. This results in a cut of 10% of the personal (in fte. as far as I know), cut back of services (f.e. I can only get tax benefits for a basic corporate fitness not a advanced one) accompanied by a restructuring process that ask for more flexibility and creativity.
The clusters which where separated just two years ago (Marketing and Communication, Business Relations and Communication) are now fused together and everybody gets new labels.
Another major cornerstone is "Valorization". Adding economic value to education and research activities and the search for new business models. Ufff.... Here we are again. Remember Journalism and its quest for a new business model? What was the result after a similar crisis has hit the profession more than ten years ago? And how did it react?
Lets keep it at this. It is fair enough to say that the speed by which skills become obsolete is rather high these days. The monopoly of knowledge which universities enjoyed until recently broke down under electronic conditions. PBL is the direct result of this loos of control of knowledge due to Xerox and the electronic media of the 70s. The new role universities put on was that of a facilitator. Whether its the changing position in terms of private-public partnerships or the changing role between student and tutor; All have to do with the increasing speedup, availability and amount of knowledge. What do students expect from a university? Books, Access to Knowledge, Quality, Truth..... When looking at the evaluation reports of HBO students the answer is easy: A high paying job. If they would only knew that I have one!
The training in the Content Management System is also done and twenty people are now empowered to enter as community managers a new age. They are the first point of contact for faculty and staff members regarding all things online. And they take their task quiet literally. Equipped with the most confidential document ever created they are ready to publish content in the GX system.
In the past two weeks two meetings where of importance. Both concern the financial perspective on the schools performance and its implications for every day work. It may sound paradoxical for a company which sells more and more year by year (for the last 10 years) to "worry" about the future but exactly this is the case. And there are good reasons for it.
Like most distress is caused by factors underneath the thick cloths of conscious awareness, so are the budget cuts experienced at the school today the result of an crisis that took place in 2008. What came to be known as the Financial and later Economic crisis led to the implementation of austerity programs in all European states. One aspect of these measurements concern higher education. While in Latvia, universities have cut salaries, imposed hiring freezes, and reduced student services and programs such as sports, the measures in the Netherlands are far less drastic. But the problem is the same. How to keep up the same quality in education and research without immediately replacing the large budget cuts that have been introduced by the public sector by some other form of income? So the problem is one Buckminster Fuller summarized in "how to do more with less".
Lets look at the situation at SBE. Because of a decline in government funding UM introduces cuts of about ten million euro. For SBE this means that with 2.1 million Euro by 2013 the task is basically accomplished when cuts and a diversification of revenue streams reduce the 67% public sector funding to less than 50%. This results in a cut of 10% of the personal (in fte. as far as I know), cut back of services (f.e. I can only get tax benefits for a basic corporate fitness not a advanced one) accompanied by a restructuring process that ask for more flexibility and creativity.
The clusters which where separated just two years ago (Marketing and Communication, Business Relations and Communication) are now fused together and everybody gets new labels.
Another major cornerstone is "Valorization". Adding economic value to education and research activities and the search for new business models. Ufff.... Here we are again. Remember Journalism and its quest for a new business model? What was the result after a similar crisis has hit the profession more than ten years ago? And how did it react?
Lets keep it at this. It is fair enough to say that the speed by which skills become obsolete is rather high these days. The monopoly of knowledge which universities enjoyed until recently broke down under electronic conditions. PBL is the direct result of this loos of control of knowledge due to Xerox and the electronic media of the 70s. The new role universities put on was that of a facilitator. Whether its the changing position in terms of private-public partnerships or the changing role between student and tutor; All have to do with the increasing speedup, availability and amount of knowledge. What do students expect from a university? Books, Access to Knowledge, Quality, Truth..... When looking at the evaluation reports of HBO students the answer is easy: A high paying job. If they would only knew that I have one!
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Webco Meeting 21.06
Just beeing back from the web coordinator meeting where all with the same lable as I come together and disucss "online thingiieess.." under the supervision of Manon.
The personal profile pages deadline is now February 2012. The initial proposal presented by Tim Smith on January 4, 2011 is still the valid one. In the meanwhile we will utilize the Department of Finance application and extend its use to all other faculties of the school. In a recent email from Matthew he states the reasons for a university solution as follows:
"I understand your recommendation regarding other service providers. However, I strongly believe that people (including myself) find sites hosted by the university institution more credible and their first port of call for academics‘ information on the web."
A centralized solution for future Google Analytics reports are also discussed. The marketing department will recieve a detailed report every month as do programm coordinators. What kind of information they want is up for debate here! Any suggestions please send an email to me (webc-sbe@maastrichtuniversity.nl)
The faculty of Law is proactive and has a slick web appearance. The trick is to use less text and more videos. T36 is responsible for the videos and add value to otherwise often confusing texts. The webvideo initiative with Brightcover at the centre is not used by SBE at all. So here is a call to everybody who has videos to bring them to me (B-1.10) on a disk or USB stick. The upload and distribution will be taken care of by a student web editor on central level. Please let me know if you have any videos.
Finalizing SBE's online evaluation report is my main job these days. I hope to finish it this week. It will be published as by the end of this month exclusively here. :)
Another call is out there to send in information about SBE faculty members who are in some European Union expert panel or otherwise related group. One strategic aim of SBE is to increase the presence of SBE faculty members in the press. And with the help of the EJC there is a good chance that we might succeed.
The personal profile pages deadline is now February 2012. The initial proposal presented by Tim Smith on January 4, 2011 is still the valid one. In the meanwhile we will utilize the Department of Finance application and extend its use to all other faculties of the school. In a recent email from Matthew he states the reasons for a university solution as follows:
"I understand your recommendation regarding other service providers. However, I strongly believe that people (including myself) find sites hosted by the university institution more credible and their first port of call for academics‘ information on the web."
A centralized solution for future Google Analytics reports are also discussed. The marketing department will recieve a detailed report every month as do programm coordinators. What kind of information they want is up for debate here! Any suggestions please send an email to me (webc-sbe@maastrichtuniversity.nl)
The faculty of Law is proactive and has a slick web appearance. The trick is to use less text and more videos. T36 is responsible for the videos and add value to otherwise often confusing texts. The webvideo initiative with Brightcover at the centre is not used by SBE at all. So here is a call to everybody who has videos to bring them to me (B-1.10) on a disk or USB stick. The upload and distribution will be taken care of by a student web editor on central level. Please let me know if you have any videos.
Finalizing SBE's online evaluation report is my main job these days. I hope to finish it this week. It will be published as by the end of this month exclusively here. :)
Another call is out there to send in information about SBE faculty members who are in some European Union expert panel or otherwise related group. One strategic aim of SBE is to increase the presence of SBE faculty members in the press. And with the help of the EJC there is a good chance that we might succeed.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Web 2.0 at UniMaas... and the development of what so ever 2.0
Starting with todays cartoon on the last page of the Observant I am compelled to relate it to a particular dilemma regarding MU's use of social media. The cartoon depicts a character who spends his evening updating his inventory of social media channels ending up with no time to study. The apparent grievance or joke touches a point worth considering here. What gives rise to the grievance is not the time consumed by the the cartoon's character but the apparent dissonance between what he says he's doing and what he actually does. Namely nothing! His homework is not finished and he did not study. What should give us a thrill is the fact that the UM website is as far from being done as the character's homework at the end of the cartoon. But instead of looking at the causes of this particular joke only its effects show off in peoples faces.
We all know that keeping an additional communication channel nice and pretty is time intense. And it is important to be on facebook, on twitter, on foresquare, on what so ever 2.0. Of course these tools are for free and therefore are used by everybody. That is the democratization of the net and the main reason behind UM's aspirations to be there is to claim part of this space in order to get the attention of prospective and current students. Primarily for the purpose of recruiting them for one of our programmes. Having said this there is no empirical evidence that it has any effect on recruting other than guesswork to my knowledge. But its like TV, newspaper, radio a legitimate channel to reach out for eyeballs. And there is nothing to support the antithesis either. So we can say, lets try and experiment with this.
But the main problem remains, namely that the primary communication channel of MU is in comparison with other University websites underdeveloped. So whatever hopes are attached to this technologies they are more like phantom pain in their appearance. Like people who lost an arm point to their missing limp as their perceived source of pain, people engaging in a dialogue about web2.0 technologies point to facebook as the sources of pain that needs a cure. This curing of non existing limps is impossible but a welcoming distraction from the homework. And it is exactly the distraction from his homework and from his study that causes us to feel pity for the Cartoon character while at the same time reminds us of our own situation.
A small make-up of SBE's facebook page and some small fixes here and there on the website was among the jobs that kept me from updating the blog. This week a wordpress MU account was launched by the Student Service Center offering students their own blogging environment. Interesting enough it is hosted in the states and initiated by students themselves. The Postgraduate Education Department, if one wants to call it like this, also launched their blog using a hosted solution offered by the same CRM than the Student Service Center. Another one of those novelties I used recently was Eventbrite for the SBE Christmas Party 2010. It's a free service offering you with more or less ease to let people register for events. I also managed to get hold on a webserver "webserver 18" as Walter calls it that will be used in the near future.
Another time consuming activity is the begging for money one. But it relates to a very important point I stressed already over and over again. There are universities that have a web team. And this is reflected in the website of these universities. But here I am my own team. And to extend it I want an student assistant. So if you read these lines, and you are a motivated, structured student at Maastricht University, with the aspirations to work for money one day a week for a year at a very challenging environment just drop me a line. Right here! Together with Julijenne I have 4 departments already in my pocket to pay for you. And the rest follows.
Some meetings where also on my agenda and together with all the above mentioned activities cost about 1/3 of my time. That is definitely too much but I am working on it. Among the meetings where those with people from METEOR, MSCM, AIM, ICTS and Cross Knowledge. Now you might ask, yourself dear reader what this is. Its a private company offering education for highly skilled and flexible knowledge worker. And if this does not sound convincing I can assure you that it is. Its an all in one package including infrastructure (meaning website, learning environment, customer relationship management software), Content (audiovisual educational content designed for distance learning activities in I think 5 different languages) and expertise. Mr. Pieters visited me early and in the exciting discussion I learned a lot about the "state of art" in selling education. The wave upon which CrossKnowledge rides high is the trend from formal to informal education. No flaws, no discontinuity and supported with a broader vision that I can relate to. In fact, it was this meeting that gave me the most joy in the past two weeks.
The big part now for the end. The department websites occupy my the second 1/3 of my time. A third training session just got confirmed today for the 16th of December. I happy with this because it means that all people are trained and have access to their parts of the website. The content is coming in slowly and I better spend more time on writing it myself. The personal pages topic is one which will not be solved soon. In the first step only the important information such as Name, Title, Availability, Room Number, Telephone, Email, and a link to their existing profile pages is oversee able. What I got from one of the meetings was that people of FIN are really happy with their System (ASP) and can be used for all of SBE.
The other points regarding the department's structure are straight forward. A description about their programs (MSc, BSc, Executive, MBA) and their research activities should be doable, I thought. And some sentences about their department's aspirations or mission statement would be already more than other universities' departments have to offer. We are getting there. ...HEELLLPPP!!!
In tandem with the department websites I also redo the METEOR site and draw on my whiteboard the outlines of the whole SBE website structure. Starting with a programme page that displays all programs that we offer is an important improvement that needs to be in place before the next semester starts. A service page, displaying all the services is indeed as necessary. And together with the departmental websites it captures the essence of what SBE does.
Any Feedback?
We all know that keeping an additional communication channel nice and pretty is time intense. And it is important to be on facebook, on twitter, on foresquare, on what so ever 2.0. Of course these tools are for free and therefore are used by everybody. That is the democratization of the net and the main reason behind UM's aspirations to be there is to claim part of this space in order to get the attention of prospective and current students. Primarily for the purpose of recruiting them for one of our programmes. Having said this there is no empirical evidence that it has any effect on recruting other than guesswork to my knowledge. But its like TV, newspaper, radio a legitimate channel to reach out for eyeballs. And there is nothing to support the antithesis either. So we can say, lets try and experiment with this.
But the main problem remains, namely that the primary communication channel of MU is in comparison with other University websites underdeveloped. So whatever hopes are attached to this technologies they are more like phantom pain in their appearance. Like people who lost an arm point to their missing limp as their perceived source of pain, people engaging in a dialogue about web2.0 technologies point to facebook as the sources of pain that needs a cure. This curing of non existing limps is impossible but a welcoming distraction from the homework. And it is exactly the distraction from his homework and from his study that causes us to feel pity for the Cartoon character while at the same time reminds us of our own situation.
A small make-up of SBE's facebook page and some small fixes here and there on the website was among the jobs that kept me from updating the blog. This week a wordpress MU account was launched by the Student Service Center offering students their own blogging environment. Interesting enough it is hosted in the states and initiated by students themselves. The Postgraduate Education Department, if one wants to call it like this, also launched their blog using a hosted solution offered by the same CRM than the Student Service Center. Another one of those novelties I used recently was Eventbrite for the SBE Christmas Party 2010. It's a free service offering you with more or less ease to let people register for events. I also managed to get hold on a webserver "webserver 18" as Walter calls it that will be used in the near future.
Another time consuming activity is the begging for money one. But it relates to a very important point I stressed already over and over again. There are universities that have a web team. And this is reflected in the website of these universities. But here I am my own team. And to extend it I want an student assistant. So if you read these lines, and you are a motivated, structured student at Maastricht University, with the aspirations to work for money one day a week for a year at a very challenging environment just drop me a line. Right here! Together with Julijenne I have 4 departments already in my pocket to pay for you. And the rest follows.
Some meetings where also on my agenda and together with all the above mentioned activities cost about 1/3 of my time. That is definitely too much but I am working on it. Among the meetings where those with people from METEOR, MSCM, AIM, ICTS and Cross Knowledge. Now you might ask, yourself dear reader what this is. Its a private company offering education for highly skilled and flexible knowledge worker. And if this does not sound convincing I can assure you that it is. Its an all in one package including infrastructure (meaning website, learning environment, customer relationship management software), Content (audiovisual educational content designed for distance learning activities in I think 5 different languages) and expertise. Mr. Pieters visited me early and in the exciting discussion I learned a lot about the "state of art" in selling education. The wave upon which CrossKnowledge rides high is the trend from formal to informal education. No flaws, no discontinuity and supported with a broader vision that I can relate to. In fact, it was this meeting that gave me the most joy in the past two weeks.
The big part now for the end. The department websites occupy my the second 1/3 of my time. A third training session just got confirmed today for the 16th of December. I happy with this because it means that all people are trained and have access to their parts of the website. The content is coming in slowly and I better spend more time on writing it myself. The personal pages topic is one which will not be solved soon. In the first step only the important information such as Name, Title, Availability, Room Number, Telephone, Email, and a link to their existing profile pages is oversee able. What I got from one of the meetings was that people of FIN are really happy with their System (ASP) and can be used for all of SBE.
The other points regarding the department's structure are straight forward. A description about their programs (MSc, BSc, Executive, MBA) and their research activities should be doable, I thought. And some sentences about their department's aspirations or mission statement would be already more than other universities' departments have to offer. We are getting there. ...HEELLLPPP!!!
In tandem with the department websites I also redo the METEOR site and draw on my whiteboard the outlines of the whole SBE website structure. Starting with a programme page that displays all programs that we offer is an important improvement that needs to be in place before the next semester starts. A service page, displaying all the services is indeed as necessary. And together with the departmental websites it captures the essence of what SBE does.
Any Feedback?
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Youth Media and Next generation Classroom
One recent initiative that offers some insights into the major theme of this years opening of the academic year is the Youth media and next generation Classroom seminar series. A full conference coverage where international top educators, innovators and media experts meet in October 2009 here in Maastricht to discuss how they create the future for universities.
The Department of Education Research and Development should be interested in what Prof. Anne Balsamo from the University of South California has to report on her experience with new media and new literacies.
The Department of Education Research and Development should be interested in what Prof. Anne Balsamo from the University of South California has to report on her experience with new media and new literacies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)