Coursera Appoints Amanda Clark to Board of Directors

Today, we proudly welcome Amanda Clark, Chief Development Officer of Papa John’s International, as a director on the Coursera board. With 20 years of leading brands and franchisee businesses, Amanda brings a unique blend of consumer-focused innovation and operational experience to the board. Earlier this year, Coursera made two board appointments — Sabrina Simmons and […]
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‘Apple, Google and a Deal That Controls the Internet’

The New York Times’ looks at “a deal that controls the internet” — Apple’s agreement to feature Google as the preselected search engine for iPhones, saying America’s Justice Department views it “as a prime example of what prosecutors say are Google’s illegal tactics to protect its monopoly and choke off competition…” The scrutiny of the pact, which was first inked 15…

Quibi Is Shutting Down

Quibi is considering shutting itself down, WSJ reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter, a move that points to a possible crash landing for a once-highflying entertainment startup that raised $1.75 billion in capital. From the report: The streaming service has been plagued with problems since it launched in April, facing lower-than-expected viewership, disappointing download numbers and a lawsuit from…

Google’s Internal Data Suggests Employees Feel Less Productive At Home

The Information reports:
Google’s engineering directors are grappling with a worrisome trend: internal data that indicate productivity during the coronavirus shutdowns deteriorated among engineers, particularly newly hired ones. One internal survey viewed by The Information found that in the three months ended in June, only 31% of the company’s engineers polled felt they had been highly productive, down 8 percentage points from…

Former Cambridge Analytica Chief Receives Seven-Year Directorship Ban

Alexander Nix, the former boss of Cambridge Analytica, has been banned from serving as a company director for seven years over “potentially unethical” behavior linked to his position at the center of a global scandal. The Guardian reports: The Insolvency Service said Nix had allowed companies to offer potentially unethical services, including “bribery or honey-trap stings, voter disengagement campaigns, obtaining information…

With New Security and Free Internet Issues, What Did the TikTok Deal Really Achieve?

Though the U.S. government averted a shutdown of TikTok through a new Oracle/Walmart partnership, that leaves much bigger questions unresolved. The biggest issue may be that banning apps “defeats the original intent of the internet,” argues the New York TImes. “And that was to create a global communications network, unrestrained by national borders.” “The vision for a single, interconnected network around…

Remembering Laika: ‘Space Dogs’ Documentary Explores Moscow Through a Stray’s Eyes

Space.com reports:
Laika, a stray dog scooped off the streets of Moscow, launched on the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 2 mission in November 1957, just a month after Sputnik 1’s liftoff opened the space age. The 11-lb. (5 kilograms) mixed-breed quickly died of overheating and circled Earth as a corpse until April 1958, when Sputnik 2 fell back into the atmosphere and burned…

Former NSA Chief Keith Alexander Joins Amazon’s Board of Directors

Gen. Keith Alexander is joining Amazon’s board of directors, the company revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing today. The Verge reports: A former director of the National Security Agency and the first commander of the US Cyber Command, Alexander served as the public face of US data collection during the Edward Snowden leaks, but he retired from public service…

Apple Commits To Freedom of Speech After Criticism of China Censorship

Apple has for the first time published a human rights policy that commits to respecting “freedom of information and expression,” following years of criticism that it bows to demands from Beijing and carries out censorship in mainland China, Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong. From a report: Apple’s board of directors approved the policy and quietly published it ahead of a deadline…

Elon Musk Passes Mark Zuckerberg To Become Third-Richest Person In the World

Elon Musk is now the third-richest person in the world. Musk passed Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg Monday as shares of Tesla continued their unrelenting rally after undergoing a forward stock split. Musk is now worth $115.4 billion compared with $110.8 billion for Zuckerberg. Yahoo Finance reports: Also Monday, Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife MacKenzie Scott became the world’s richest woman, passing L’Oreal SA…