Uber Loses Gig Workers Rights Challenge in UK Supreme Court

Uber has lost a long running employment tribunal challenge in the UK’s Supreme Court — with the court dismissing the ride-hailing giant’s appeal and reaffirming earlier rulings that drivers who brought the case are workers, not independent contractors. From a report: The case, which dates back to 2016, has major ramifications for Uber’s business model (and other gig economy platforms) in…

How Oracle Sells Repression in China

In its bid for TikTok, Oracle was supposed to prevent data from being passed to Chinese police. Instead, it’s been marketing its own software for their surveillance work. From a report: Police in China’s Liaoning province were sitting on mounds of data collected through invasive means: financial records, travel information, vehicle registrations, social media, and surveillance camera footage. To make sense…

Miami City Council Agrees to At Least Study Mayor’s Bitcoin Proposal

Miami’s mayor Francis Suarez is trying to attract tech talent to his city. (The New York Times recently noted he’s joined by “a few venture capital influencers trying to tweet the city’s startup world into existence.”) So he’s still pushing a proposal to use bitcoin in a few city operations as “part of a larger play if you will to position…

To Block Covid-19 Charges, Amazon Sues New York’s Attorney General

The Associated Press reports:
Amazon is suing the attorney general of New York in a bid to stop her from suing the company over its coronavirus safety protocols and the firing of one of its outspoken workers. In the lawsuit filed Friday in Brooklyn federal court, Amazon said Attorney General Letitia James overstepped her authority by trying to regulate coronavirus safety protocols…

3 Ways to Future-Proof Your University

By Shwetabh Mittal, Senior Director, Product Management This article was originally published in Campus Tech, January 2021. When the pandemic led to the initial shutdown of university campuses in early February, Duke Kunshan University in Kunshan, China, was among the first to move all its courses to an online format. By April, at the height […]
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Salesforce Declares the 9-to-5 Workday Dead, Will Let Some Employees Work Remotely From Now On

Cloud computing company Salesforce is joining other Silicon Valley tech giants in announcing a substantial shift in how it allows its employees to work. From a report: In a blog post published Tuesday, the company says the “9-to-5 workday is dead” and that it will allow employees to choose one of three categories that dictate how often, if ever, they return…

Nissan’s ‘Office Pod’ Imagines a New Kind of Remote Working

Nissan has unveiled a concept vehicle that features a retractable office for remote workers and digital nomads. CNN reports: Dubbed Office Pod Concept, the mobile workspace comes with a modified Cosm chair by US furniture-maker Herman Miller, and desk space big enough for a large computer monitor. Those seeking privacy can set up inside the pod with the doors closed. Ambient…

Pandemic Drove Sales of 4G and 5G-Enabled PCs To New Record In 2020

Global sales of cellular-enabled mobile PCs reached more than 10 million units for the first time in 2020 as home workers sought improved connectivity in response to the closure of office facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research firm Strategy Analytics: According to the latest analysis from Strategy Analytics’ Connected Computing Devices program, global shipments increased by 70% to 10.1 million, the…

Microsoft Launches Viva, Its New Take on the Old Intranet

Microsoft today launched Viva, a new “employee experience platform,” or, in non-marketing terms, its new take on the intranet sites most large companies tend to offer their employees. From a report: This includes standard features like access to internal communications built on integrations with SharePoint, Yammer and other Microsoft tools. In addition, Viva also offers access to team analytics and an…

The Future of Jobs is Here: 10 Courses to Take in 2021

By Betty Vandenbosch, Chief Content Officer, Coursera  As the new year unfolds, many challenges from 2020 persist: the pandemic continues to affect economies around the world and unemployment rates are still high. As we prepare to take advantage of new opportunities in 2021, professional development is top of mind for many. How can I gain […]
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