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Twitter Allows Staff to Work from Home Indefinitely
Image sourced from Mission Statement Academy Yesterday, CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey sent an email to Twitter staff, notifying employees that they will able to continue working from home as long as they see fit. Dorsey notes in the same email that Twitter was an early adopter of a work-from-home model, however – much like the rest of the world – that has only been accelerated by COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. Twitter confirmed this decision in an email to Tech Crunch: “We were uniquely positioned to respond quickly and allow folks to work from home given our emphasis on decentralization and supporting a distributed workforce capable of working from anywhere. The past few months have proven we can make that work. So if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from ho...
Loon and Vodacom Increase Internet Access in Mozambique
Image sourced from MIT Technology Review Alphabet’s Loon and Vodacom have signed a deal to use Loon’s balloon-powered Internet solution to expand the Vodacom network in Mozambique. In terms of the agreement, Loon will help Vodacom provide service to under-served parts of the country with a network of floating cellphone towers that operate 20 kilometres above Earth. Using the Loon solution, Vodacom will expand mobile network access to Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces, two regions that have proven hard to cover in the past due to the vast and logistically challenging geographical areas, together with low population density. This partnership aims to provide a 4G service that supports Data, Voice, SMS and USSD, which will also enable mobile financial services. The service will be available to...
INTERVIEW: Rentoza – Africa’s First On-Demand Rental Platform
New startup Rentoza is Africa’s first on-demand rental platform. Started by a group of 4 South Africans convinced the stuff hiding in the bottom of their cupboards and garages should be paying rent for taking up so much space – stuff that they didn’t want to sell because they might need them again. So often things are bought but only needed for a while, like a cot that your baby grew out of or bicycles laying to rust. That’s why they thought it would be great to help ordinary people turn these things into money without selling them. Even better, they realized you don’t need to buy the items you only need occasionally, because you can rent them from someone who already has them. With this plan, they created Rentoza to help people live life on their own terms. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_3b3.td-...
MTN Donates 5000 Smartphones to COVID-19 Field Workers
Sourced from Business Tech MTN Business has announced that it will donate 5 000 smartphones, each preloaded with 3GB of data, to the Limpopo Provincial Department of Health. These devices are to be distributed to field workers for the conducting of tests, screening of citizens and tracing of people that may have come into contact with patients that have been found to have the coronavirus. In addition to the smartphones, MTN has also pledged to conduct free after-sales services such as repairs device replacement, on-site device support, service and account management. As of 11 May 2020, 54 confirmed cases of coronavirus were reported in Limpopo, with 3 deaths and 28 recoveries according to statistics provided by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases. The number of confirmed cases ...
3 Key Trends for the FMCG Sector Post-Pandemic
Sourced from Footstuffs SA. It’s clear that the Coronavirus has changed the landscape for FMCGs (Fast-moving consumer goods) – in some ways permanently. However, despite its similarities, the impact has not been the same across its subsectors and through the supply chain. Itumeleng Merafe, Head of Interest Rate Structuring at Investec says that “the lockdown has hit the economy hard and despite efforts by the government and Reserve Bank to mitigate the effects, ultimately only a medical solution is likely to provide lasting relief to consumers and businesses servicing those consumers.” The market for fast-moving consumer goods faces considerable changes – impacted by the demand for consumer-packaged goods, changes in household spending, increase in e-commerce and frequency of shop visits. ...
How COVID-19 is Changing the Music Consumption Industry
Self-isolation and social-distancing laws have given rise to new trends in the music industry. In a bid to flatten the curve, fans across the world have substituted live music concerts for virtual alternatives, relying heavily on technology’s ability to recreate these experiences in the comfort of their homes. From the yesteryears of evenings spent on the couch, enjoying the ambience created by the magnificent combination of vinyl and gramophone to the more current trend of wirelessly streaming the latest chart-topping hits through state-of-the-art Bluetooth speakers – audio technology has continuously adapted to the changing requirements of fans and performers alike. A new trend is on the rise for music consumption Research by Billboard and Nielsen Music, titled COVID-19 tracking the impa...
Twitter is Using New Labels to Fight COVID-19 Misinformation
Image sourced from Mission Statement Academy In an attempt to make finding credible news a little easier, Twitter has announced that it is introducing new labels for tweets that contain COVID-19-related misinformation. The social media goliath started testing labels in February after it became known that a number of public figures were tweeting misleading and manipulated media – these untrue tweets were highlighted with an orange label that includes Twitter’s policy guidelines as well as accurate information from fact-checkers and journalists. And now it seems that Twitter wants to take these labels one step further – “earlier this year, we introduced a new label for Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media. Similar labels will now appear on Tweets containing potentially harmful, ...
NCC says No 5G Licenses have been Issued to Network Operators in Nigeria
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is adamant that it has not yet issued 5G licenses to any of the countries operators – despite rumours spread via social media platforms that claim the local telecoms industry would switch on 5G networks in Lagos this week. In an official statement, the NCC says that these rumours couldn’t be further from the truth – “there is no deployment of 5G in Nigeria at the moment”. The commission – which insists that the rumours come from “faceless sponsors” – told The Vanguard that it had approved 5G trials in November 2019 for a three-month period, ending January 2020. The trials have since been concluded and installation decommissioned. “The trial among others was to study and observe any health or security challenges the 5G network might present. Rele...
How COVID-19 Misinformation Continues to Go Viral
Sourced from Speechling. Despite pledges from massive social media companies to remove dangerous instances of coronavirus misinformation – from false causes to false cures – Silicon Valley and fact-checkers around the world are struggling to stem the flow of fake news about the pandemic. Last week, a video titled “Plandemic” went viral, clocking up millions of views and clicks across Facebook and YouTube before the companies took action. “I’ve not seen a video of this type gain this kind of viral traction so quickly,” Alan Duke, the editor in chief of Lead Stories, a fact-checking group that works with Facebook told CNN. As of last-week Thursday afternoon, a book that features the subject of “Plandemic” has rocketed to number 1 on Amazon’s Best Seller’s List, where it remained over the wee...
What to Expect from the 2020 Bitcoin Halving
The Bitcoin halving is a planned reduction in rewards miners receive. Halvings happen once every four years or so. And the next one will take place in the early hours of Tuesday, 12 May 2020. What exactly is a halving and why does it happen? Bitcoin is generated by miners. They have computers performing complex calculations which validate the transactions on a public digital ledger, called the blockchain. The miners compete with each other to earn newly-issued tokens known as a block reward. A halving is a 50% reduction in the value of rewards to Bitcoin miners. There is a finite number of Bitcoin that will ever be in circulation (21 million) and there is no way of producing more. Halvings are a unique protocol which controls the supply of Bitcoin. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_98b.td-a-rec-img{...
Workplace Health Surveillance Tool Launched in South Africa
Sourced from ISHN.com As more South Africans return to work in May, workplaces are re-designing to combat COVID-19 infection, while simultaneously reassuring workers are the new priority. Fortunately, South African innovation is rising to the challenge of reimagining shared workspaces in the COVID-19 era and a timely example of this is HealthID. Launched this week by a group of Cape Town-based entrepreneurs, HealthID helps employers comply with new government regulations that stipulate they should not only screen employees for signs of COVID-19 infection, but they must specifically create and maintain a database outlining the health status of individual workers. “It’s doubtful any reputable employer would want to incur the wrath of the Department of Labour inspectors by recording something...
GovChat to Digitise Africa’s Largest COVID-19 Social Relief Campaign
GovChat, the South African civic engagement technology platform, has announced a partnership with the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to support the digitisation of the COVID-19 social relief grant application process. The partnership with GovChat could enable millions of unemployed citizens to access the largest social security programme on the African continent directly from their mobile devices. GovChat’s platform – accessed through WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SMS and USSDchannels – is said to provide a secure application portal for pre-qualifying citizens, automating filling, verification and applicant assessment. The automation of processes, using the GovChat artificial intelligence tools, enhances the agency’s productivity and allows them to respond to more application...
