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The Malta Independent | Thursday 13 August 2015
12 destinations for the tech-savvy traveller verse as laser printing, personal computers, and Ethernet networking. It is said a visit to the centre gave Steve Jobs the idea for Apple Computer’s graphical user interface. To visit now you may need an invite from someone who works there, but even if you drive past you’ll be coming close to IT history.
Jason Deign If you are a technology buff, here are the 12 places you won’t want to miss on your travels. Going anywhere nice this year? If technology is your thing then why not stop off at one of these locations while away on your next vacation. Just in case you won’t be travelling, we’ve also included a couple of local IT spots and some virtual locations.
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, United Kingdom While perhaps not as grand as its Mountain View counterpart, the U.K. Centre for Computing History (computinghistory.org.uk) has a treasure trove of gadgets for those who want to relive to good old days of IT. For the full back-in-time experience you can even hire retro computers and vintage games consoles. Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA, United States A must for IT fans in California, the Computer History Museum (computerhistory.org) is said to have the world’s largest collection of computing artifacts, including a Cray-1 supercomputer and a working Difference Engine, built
Ottobock, Berlin, Germany in 2008, based on the original design by Charles Babbage in 1849. Goonhilly Earth Station, Cornwall, United Kingdom Tucked away in the southwestern tip of the United Kingdom, Goonhilly Earth Station (goonhilly.org) is a spectacular cluster of around 60 satellite communications dishes set amid remote downs. One of the largest satellite earth stations in the world, it earned a place in history when it received the first transatlantic television broadcast from the United States, in July 1962. The visitor centre is currently closed for refurbishment but if you are in the area it is still worth a detour to take a look. Henn Na Hotel, Nagasaki, Japan If the idea of stumbling across a Dutch theme park in Nagasaki seems odd enough, then wait until you check into Huis Ten Bosch’s Henn na Hotel (h-nh.jp/en) after it opens in July 2015. “We carefully reconsidered the services and facilities that have personified hotels up until now,” says the hotel’s website, “and came up with the idea for a new hotel based on state-of-the-art technology with the main staff consisting entirely of robots.” Henn na, which means ‘evolve’, has been grabbing headlines with the robot staff concept, although its android employees are unlikely to get worked up over the attention. Songdo International Business District, Incheon, South Korea Built according to the latest smart city and sustainable living standards, the $35 billion Songdo (songdo.com) development by Gale International is probably the closest you can get right now to a
metropolis of the future. Cisco collaborated closely with Gale in the technology infrastructure for the city, which was built from the ground up on reclaimed land near the Yellow Sea. UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States The University of California, Los Angeles, or UCLA (ucla.edu), holds a special place in the hall of IT fame. It was here in 1969 that a team led by distinguished professor of computer science Leonard Kleinrock sent the very first message over the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network or ARPANET, the computer network that later became known as the Internet. That spirit of invention remains alive and well today, and you can sample it via a visit in person or even a virtual tour. Virtual worlds, anywhere online As any diehard IT fan knows, nowadays you can visit entire worlds without leaving home. If your budget won’t stretch much further than a broadband connection then you can still get to virtual worlds such as those available in Minecraft, Second Life, or SimCity. Alternatively, if you do not want to stray too far from reality then take a look at some of the bizarre real-world vistas found on Google Street View or even see what it is like to stroll around Mars (through Google). Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, CA, United States Few corporate charters can claim to have been as successful as Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre’s aim of being “the office of the future.” Since its inception in 1970, PARC has participated in technology developments as di-
Henn Na Hotel, Nagasaki, Japan
SmartCity Malta, Kalkara, Malta
Cisco Systems, San Jose, CA, United States Cisco has seen its fair share of action in the history of IT around the world, from commercialising the first routers to developing marketleading technologies such as the Cisco Carrier Routing System or Unified Computing System. Today, anyone with a serious interest in buying Cisco technologies is welcome to attend for one of the Executive Briefing and Experience Centres.
(mita.gov.mt/datacentre) is not open for visitors but the Agency has recently held an open day for the general public where more than 600 visitors had the opportunity to visit this Tier III Data Centre. The centre offers 1,600sqm of technical space for dedicated computer rooms and has four segmented computer rooms. Make sure you don’t miss the next open day! SmartCity Malta, Kalkara, Malta SmartCity Malta (smartcity.ae/Malta) is a technology park under development in Malta. It is the first European outpost of the SmartCity global network of business townships. Creating a network of opportunities, SmartCity Malta will home knowledge-based companies that aim to serve the EU and North
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The Malta Independent | Thursday 13 August 2015
Roderick Spiteri Roderick Spiteri is Marketing and Communications Manager at MITA and editor of Malta Independent ICT feature
The Malta Independent ICT Feature
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hrough technology advancements we now are in a situation where working remotely or off-site is relatively easy in most cases and for most jobs. This means that businesses can now employ vir-
tual employees – or virtual assistants – that work remotely from anywhere in the world. Today we look at how a virtual service can consist of specialists in a range of areas in addition to Artificial Intelligence. In today’s ICT Feature we will
Ottobock, Berlin, Germany Entering, testing and touching is greatly welcomed at Ottobock. The three-storey exhibition “Discover what moves us” offers the opportunity to learn more about one’s own body in an interactive and playful manner. Multimedia installations help to understand inventions that provide more mobility for people with physical impairments. Movement is the core topic of the exhibition. At the exhibition gallery, visitors can learn how the human sense of balance works, what it’s like to ride through Berlin in a wheelchair, or what our hand has to accomplish when we catch a pen. The functionality of mind-controlled prostheses is explained as well. MITA Data Centre, Santa Venera, Malta The MITA Data Centre
African markets. Currently SmartCity Malta already hosts a number of established companies such as MITA, HP, Cisco, Global College, and most recently, Huawei. Whilst you cannot exactly enter the offices of these companies we suggest you go for a stroll at the Laguna Walk which also offers a selection of indoor and outdoor dining outlets. Used with the permission of thenetwork.cisco.com and added last three locations. Jason Deign is a Barcelona-based business writer, journalist and author. Notable achievements include coining the term ‘Easyjet generation’ in 2003 and being the first UK journalist to document the rise of identity theft in 2001. Jason has worked with Cisco since 2000 and became a global contributor to The Network in 2003.
All ICT Features are available on www.mita.gov.mt/ictfeature
Your virtual assistant of the future awaits marketing, project management and even time optimisation. The potential exists for VAs that incorporate AI to become one more useful interface, like Siri, that gains mass appeal. If that happens, look for anyone with access to a smart device to also have a VA helping to navigate through the seemingly never-ending set of tasks we wrestle with daily.
Kerry Doyle
MITA Data Centre, Santa Venera, Malta
take a look at 12 locations across the world where technology enthusiasts go to during their travels. We have also included a couple of locations in Malta.
Personal assistants have come a long way. No longer limited to performing simple office chores or helping with personal tasks, today a Virtual Assistant (VA) can be located anywhere in the world, even in remote locations. A virtual service can consist of specialists in a certain area and increasingly comes in the form of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In fact, a VA’s range of proficiencies can be diverse, from the most basic appointment scheduling and office support to professional teams, including project managers and graphic designers. Frequently, these online, remote assistants are employed by individual consultants, small startups, or large corporations. Moreover, the flexibility and freedom made possible by technology and an ever-increasing freelance base offer benefits both for those who work as Virtual Assistants and others who need them. According to figures by independent research firm Edelman Berland, 53 million Americans are currently freelancing. This represents 34% of the total workforce that is independently employed. There are complex economic reasons why this change is taking place. But similar to how the cloud provides scalable computing, storage, or task-specific apps when you want them, VAs are increasingly accessible and affordable to almost anyone. Getting productive with a virtual assistant In the recent past, working remotely or off-site was difficult at best due to technology constraints. By contrast, current innovations, including chat, online video, cloud storage, and document sharing make collaborations in real time with anyone in the world fast and easy. A simple Internet connection can provide the access; all that’s required is the skill and know-how. Today, hiring a VA can be done by contracting individuals
Used with the permission of thenetwork.cisco.com
through employment platforms or using a full-service agency which offers different price points and simplified payment models. These services also accommodate a range of budgets. Some provide pay-as-you-go, retainer, or perproject pricing. Others offer weekly/monthly plans, salaried full-time, or hourly part-time alternatives. Agencies assure legitimacy and security to prospective employers by performing extensive background checks and vetting of VA candidates. For example, Zirtual (zirtual.com) and eaHELP (eahelp.com) are two companies that provide advanced VAs to start-ups as well as C-level executives and other managers in all types of industries. Individual VAs must demonstrate communication skills, tech smarts, creativity, and resourcefulness. While Virtual Assist USA (virtualassistusa.com) is an on-shore company providing hundreds of skill sets and a streamlined payment process, Virtual Staff Finder (virtualstafffinder.com) andTasks Everyday (taskseveryday.com) represent two off-shore providers. These services meet the needs of budget-conscious businesses which require both flexibility and a high level of skill. Capabilities include book-keeping, Internet research, graphic design, search engine optimization, and more. Filling a completely different niche, OOHLALA (gotoohlala.co m) represents another type of VA geared to an educational setting. It helps students organise their academic, campus, and social lives through its mobile app. This VA tool wakes students for classes, provides exam and add/drop alerts, relays study session information, and inserts class schedules and events into its calendar. School administrators can
also collect and analyse data to help gauge students’ well-being and offer outreach, or to provide better support. AI expands possibilities for the VA world Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers a huge potential for diversifying the use of VAs. Recent ventures such as Julie Desk (juliedesk.com) and x.ai are eliminating the need to search for the right, best-qualified VA. Training is no longer an issue because these tools intuitively learn as they go along. Moreover, the need to keep an artificially intelligent VA on task disappears. Since the VA is not an individual, businesses can be sure that their intelligent assistant won’t simply quit one day. Nor will it get sick or become unreachable. These are key reasons why AI will likely become a driving force in the growth and evolution of the VA industry. Julie Desk eliminates the need to learn how to use a new tool because it’s accessed via the CC: field in an email client. All the typical back-and-forth involved with meetings and appointments are avoided by CC:ing Julie at the beginning of a message thread and by providing the tool with available meeting times. By utilising machine learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP), the VA gets smarter each time it’s summoned by emails. Today it might be basic appointment scheduling, tomorrow it could be expense reports, invoicing, travel plans, and a list of other tightly scripted tasks. For VAs such as x.ai and Julie Desk, a human component is responsible for overseeing interactions to avoid mistakes and to ensure a seamless level of accuracy. As the sophistication of VAs based on AI grows, they will take on many more high-level skills and roles, such as lead generation,
Kerry Doyle has covered business and technology issues for over a decade, first as a technician at the fabled PCWeek Labs and a reporter for PCWeek magazine, then as senior editor at ZDNet.com. As a freelance journalist, he provides cogent analyses of the newest trends in technology, from nanotech to the cloud, with a focus on issues relevant to both enterprise leaders and SMB owners.