Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada’s editorial team!
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What’s new this week
ServiceNow announces RiseUp
California-based provider of cloud-based solutions, ServiceNow has announced RiseUp with ServiceNow, a global program designed to skill one million people on the company’s platform by 2024.
The program seeks to build a diverse and inclusive workforce by expanding the definition of tech talent and emphasizing holistic competencies and ‘power skills’, such as critical thinking and interpersonal communication.
RiseUp expands on ServiceNow’s existing skilling solutions:
- Now Learning offers more than 600 free courses and 18 job-related certification paths to help individuals learn at their own pace
- ServiceNow NextGen offers in-house academies and training partnerships with nonprofits and government agencies
- Redesigned ServiceNow Community connects members with peer-to-peer networking opportunities and more
- ServiceNow Partner Placement Program seeks to help customers and partners source and assess talent from different backgrounds with the expectation to scale to 25 total partners by the end of 2023.
“Instead of focusing on the skills gap, we believe it’s time to focus on the opportunity gap and broaden the definition of tech talent so more people can benefit from the demand for digital transformation.” said Lara Caimi, chief customer and partner officer at ServiceNow.
Computer pioneer dies at age 100
Kathleen Booth, who co-designed one of the world’s first operational computers, has died aged 100. She also wrote two of the earliest books on computer design and programming, and was credited with the invention of the first “assembly language”, a programming language designed to be readable by users.
At Birkbeck College in England, Booth contributed to the discovery of the double helix shape of DNA, built a computing machine called the Automatic Relay Calculator, co-wrote General Considerations in the Design of an All Purpose Electronic Digital Computer and Automatic Digital Calculators, which included the general principles involved in the new “Planning and Coding” programming style. Later, she co-founded the School of Computer Science and Information Systems with her husband at Birkbeck.
In 1962, she became a research fellow and lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan, and in 1965, the director of a national project on machine translation of language. Six years later, she retired and founded a computer consulting business on Vancouver Island with her husband.
TECHNATION announces finalists for 2022 TECHNATION Ingenious Awards
Canada’s ICT (Information and Communications Technology) business association, TECHNATION has announced the finalists for the 2022 TECHNATION Ingenious Awards.
The TECHNATION Awards seeks to recognize tech talent and initiatives to support innovation, develop new programs and improve performance through technology.
Technology Category Finalists:
- Alethea Medical – Diagnostic AI
- Cadets Canada – Digital Services Rapid Modernization
- IBM Services – Immigration Decision Assistant (ISIDA)
- Ontario Ministry of Transportation – Mid-Tier Migration Project
- Biotonix – BTX App: Global Health Self-assessment Tool using Artificial Intelligence
- Regional Municipality of Durham – My Durham 311 Smart Home Device Voice Service
- Tafi – Innovates in Web3
- Visual Defence – Ingenious Road Maintenance using Rover AI
Public Sector Disruptor Finalists:
- Guylaine Carriere, director of Centre of Expertise in Agile & Innovative Procurement, Shared Services Canada
- Kalyan Chakravarthy, chief information officer (CIO), Regional Municipality of Durham
- Ryan Hum, vice president (VP) and chief data and information officer, Canada Energy Regulator
- Tim Pemberton, VP, Mental Health, Diagnostic Services, CIO, and chief privacy officer, Queensway Carleton Hospital
Winners will be announced on November 30, 2022 during a virtual awards presentation.
Amazon Music announces new offerings for Prime members
Prime members can now benefit from an expanded catalog of songs, available in shuffle mode and ad-free on Amazon Music. They can discover more music, based on their likes, shuffle play any artist, album or playlist in the catalog, stream a collection of All-Access playlists and download them for offline listening. Members can also upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited to play their songs ad-free, in HD or Ultra HD quality and access music in Spatial audio.
Prime members can also listen to popular podcasts ad-free and on demand, including the Wondery catalog of podcasts. The Amazon Music app will also include the new Podcast Previews feature, allowing listeners to preview a soundbite from an episode.
Prime membership costs C$9.99 per month, and non-prime members have to pay C$8.99 for Amazon Music Unlimited.
Tresorit adds eSignature function to cloud collaboration platform
Swiss-Hungarian cloud-collaboration specialist, Tresorit is adding e-signature capabilities to its U.S offerings, including Digital Workspace and email encryption plugins.
Tresorit’s Digital Workspace is designed to protect documents so workers can collaborate internally and externally without compromising data security or privacy. With Tresorit Simple eSign, users can now request and manage signed documents in a single, end-to-end encrypted workspace.
“Our zero-knowledge, end-to-end encrypted workspace was built with privacy and compliance in mind ,” explained Tresorit chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder István Lám. “Remote work models drive business initiatives, and companies need to protect themselves from insider threats, like accidental data misuse. We believe that data privacy is a human right that should include protecting all information from unnecessary access, including from us.”
Electronic signatures are considered legally binding under the U.S Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (ESIGN) Act and the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA), giving companies a way to digitally transform their contracts processes.
Tresorit eSign is now available to all Tresorit customers.
More to explore
Cyber hygiene is vital to survive today’s attacks, says Microsoft report
There are no shortcuts to fighting human-directed ransomware, according to Microsoft’s latest Digital Defence Report.
Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover: What happens to the platform?
Following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the fate of the social media platform is now up in the air.
Big Tech Q4 earnings proof big trouble ahead on economic front: Analyst
News that the mega-vendors reported weaker than expected earnings last week is just one of many signals that this is not just a blip, but indicative of what could end up being a severe and global economic slump, says Info-Tech analyst Scott Bickley.
Pantone’s new licensing change forces designers to pay $15 to use its colours
Designers who use Adobe’s Creative Suite tools, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, are pushing back on a licensing change that forces them to pay Pantone an additional US$15 a month to work with its signature colours within Adobe’s apps.
Nearly half of professionals in Toronto feel disengaged from work: survey
Professionals based in Toronto are facing a “disengagement crisis”, according to findings by UK-based recruitment agency, Robert Walters.
Stacey’s story: Pivoting from oil and gas to the tech sector
Life is what you make it, and nobody knows that better than Stacey McLennan-Waldal, a data scientist who currently works in PwC’s Calgary office in the firm’s advanced analytics practice.
RomCom RAT found in applications from spoofed Veeam, SolarWinds and KeePass websites
The websites of popular business applications from Veeam, SolarWinds, KeePass and PDF Technologies are being spoofed by a threat actor to spread the RomCom remote access trojan (RAT), according to researchers at BlackBerry and Palo Alto Networks.
Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.
Gartner predicts worldwide public cloud end-user spending to reach almost $600 Billion in 2023
Gartner’s latest forecast reveals that worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is expected to grow 20.7 per cent to total US$591.8 billion in 2023, up from US$490.3 billion in 2022. This is higher than the 18.8 per cent growth forecast for 2022.
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending
Hashtag Trending Nov. 8 – Twitter loses a million users; Twitter bans improper impersonation; Microsoft faces new lawsuit
Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today
Cyber Security Today, Nov. 7, 2022 – Beware of business email gift card scams, and a new gang of crooks is impersonating lawyers
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Tendances (Hosted by Direction Informatique)
If you live in Quebec, or prefer to consume the latest technology news in French, our sister publication Direction Informatique has you covered. Follow them on Twitter as well.
