The effects of the digital revolution on employment have fueled debate and triggered strong concerns, two of which are particularly striking. The first is quantitative, and argues that the current productivity gains associated with technological developments will reduce the amount of work and jobs available. The second is more qualitative, and anticipates a transformation in the very nature of jobs: salaried labor could be replaced by independent work, with workers connected directly with their clients via digital platforms. In this scenario, workers’ social guarantees and safeguards, fundamentally built into the framework of waged employment, would be threatened. To use an expression that has become common, it would facilitate the Uberization of the economy.
The first real anonymization algorithms were developed in the mid-1990s. These methods worked very well over the next ten to fifteen years, until the beginning of a new era, that of big data. Everybody generates data from which they can be easily re-identified. The era of big data leaves no room for anonymization. The offered solution reverses the problem: instead of sharing an anonymized database, data will be stored on a secure infrastructure with a controlled access. Those who wish to use these data cannot access it directly. Instead, they will download an algorithm, which we will check and run before authorizing it to search the database for the pieces of required data. This secure infrastructure will allow researchers, statistical institutes or companies to use the potential of big data while offering very strong guarantees in terms of protection of user privacy.
How come the EdTech startups are still struggling to penetrate and transform the higher education market? One reason is to the digital players’ poor apprehension of the university’s value chain. Will higher education institutions will resist digitization forever? It seems unlikely.
The term university covers a wide range of institutions. In time, this diversity could narrow down to two main types of universities: a local model, with institutes and Bachelor degrees related to regional development; a global model, including prototypes such as Harvard or Oxford, and emerging players in Europe or China. These world-class universities can be seen as a new type of universal power. Beyond its graduating activities, the world-class university also exerts a power of knowledge, one that determines global development, ethics and norms. Furthermore, it enjoys an increasingly independent autonomous political power, a new, global magisterium.
Facebook heralds the advent of a society that mirrors what the social network claims to promote. Not a society of democratic exchange, where people interact within a virtual agora by opposing arguments, but a society divided by antagonism and defiance, one that is partitioned in isolated bubbles; not a society of free sharing of information but of commercial exploitation of the data we deliver each time we visit Facebook. Why should we turn away from this social network and all those who promote its paradigm? Because the proliferation of images encourages negative feelings, jealousy and intellectual harassment; because it distracts us from thinking in depth and it fragments our lives; because it spreads and strengthens the logic of ratings that leads to a superficial redefinition of the value of intellectual products and individuals; because it reinforces our preconceptions instead of confronting us to opposing arguments. The network invented by Mark Zuckerberg, who could very well run for president at the next US elections, poses a significant democratic threat.
The digital transformation has begun to reshape traditional literary culture, as well as traditional intellectual culture. Three Americans were central to that process: Norbert Wiener, the celebrated founder of cybernetics, Stewart Brand, a leading hippie figure from the 70s, and more recently Tim O’Reilly, who brought us the terms “web 2.0” and “open source,” as well as a few other ways of looking at the world. How do they work as intellectuals? There are three steps for an intellectual entrepreneur to gain influence. First, a platform. Second, a network forum: a place where different networks can actually be brought together to talk to each other. Once they reunite, they begin to speak in a common language. That shared language gives rise to new terms like open source, or cybernetics. The leader can finally export those new languages from the network through books, articles, interviews.
The European Council recently ratified the PSD II and it has been in force since the 12th of January 2016. A lot has been written on the ‘hot’ FinTech topic, so why write another piece...
Living under a green lifestyle, I lived through the policies China adopted to promote low-carbon growth and the green transformation, and the way they were rolled out. This article is to share my first-hand experiences.
Climate change adaptation, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and adverse effects mitigation are, essentially, endeavours made for future development and they touch upon all aspects of the society, economy and development. The science is complex. Whereas...
Following the diplomatic success of the Paris agreement, we will need an economic success in the years to come. After the time of diplomacy, success now depends on firms and researchers. And it will not...
The SJTU ParisTech Review launched its “After Paris” series in January, 2016 with the view of understanding the impact of the 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change...
A few weeks ahead of the Paris Climate Summit (COP21), we had an opportunity to talk with Jean-Marc Jancovici, a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique and one of the most widely acknowledged climate and energy specialists...
Sustainable development mantras are all over the world, but change is slow to come. While the international negotiations in the context of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have not shown much progress, international...
Standards are usually seen as constraints rather than dynamic tools to disseminate innovation and best practices and facilitate market access. There is a lot of confusion between regulation and standards. With the globalization of trade...
Within a decade or two, the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, even if not successful, will have paved the way to a new Asian market, where actors currently present in western China will hold a...
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