12 März, 2019 | Webfundsachen
Digitalisierungsindex: Stadtstaaten sind bei Digitalisierung führend
Digitalisierungsindex: Stadtstaaten sind bei Digitalisierung führend
http://bit.ly/2HtlVwN
Berlin ist gefolgt von Hamburg und Bremen laut dem neuen Deutschland-Index am weitesten bei der Digitalisierung. Die Infrastruktur für schnelles Internet ist in der Hauptstadt demnach gut ausgebaut, entsprechend hoch sei die private Internetnutzung, und auch die öffentliche Verwaltung habe für die Berlinerinnen und Berliner mittlerweile viele Online-Angebote. Ganz anders sieht es dem Index zufolge dagegen in Thüringen aus, das bundesweites Schlusslicht bei der Digitalisierung ist. Sachsen dagegen konnte bei der Entwicklung aufholen.
Der Index wird von Forschern und Forscherinnen des Kompetenzzentrums Öffentliche IT am Fraunhofer-Institut erstellt. Sie untersuchen, wie sich die digitalen Lebensverhältnisse entwickelt haben und berücksichtigen neben dem Fortschritt des Breitbandausbaus zahlreiche weitere Infrastrukturdaten. Dazu gehört beispielsweise, wie sich die Zahl der Studierenden in dem Fach Informatik entwickelt hat, aber auch wie viele Kommunen öffentliche WLAN-Hotspots bieten oder welche Behördengänge mittlerweile online möglich sind und wie reibungslos die Zusammenarbeit verschiedener Verwaltungsstellen und -ebenen untereinander klappt.
Dabei stellten sie fest: Gewerbeanmeldungen sind inzwischen in 37 Prozent der Städte und Gemeinden online möglich, aber nur bei jeder zehnten Kommune kann man online einen Bauantrag stellen. Am besten funktioniert die digitale Verwaltung der Untersuchung zufolge in Hamburg, Berlin kommt auf Platz zwei, danach folgen Nordrhein-Westfalen und Bremen. Den letzten Platz belegt Sachsen-Anhalt.
Aber auch IT-Fachkräfte spielen bei der Digitalisierung eine wichtige Rolle. Einer Erhebung der Bundesagentur für Arbeit vom Juni 2018 zufolge sind die Arbeitgeber in Hessen am erfolgreichsten, wenn es darum geht, freie Stellen in der IT-Branche zu besetzen. Auch Hamburg und Berlin haben es hier leichter, weil sie als Großstädte für viele Fachkräfte attraktiv sind.
Social-Media-Nutzung sinkt
Auch öffentliche WLAN-Hotspots gibt es vor allem in den Stadtstaaten. In Schleswig-Holstein dagegen meldete keine einzige angefragten Kommune freies WLAN. Für Thüringen ermittelten die Forscher einen durchschnittlichen Anteil von fünf Prozent aller Kommunen, die freies WLAN anbieten. Relativ niedrig ist die Zahl der öffentlichen Hotspots auch im Saarland, in Sachsen-Anhalt, Rheinland-Pfalz, Brandenburg und Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Ein überdurchschnittliches Angebot für kostenloses Surfen im öffentlichen Raum haben dagegen Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen und Bayern.
Und noch etwas stellten die Forscher fest: Die Begeisterung für soziale Medien ist in Deutschland nicht mehr ungebrochen. Ihren Angaben zufolge stieg der Anteil der Menschen, die Twitter, Facebook, Instagram und Co nutzen, zwischen 2015 und 2017 nur im Saarland, in Rheinland-Pfalz und in Hamburg noch geringfügig an. In allen anderen Bundesländern sank der Anteil der Nutzerinnen und Nutzer im gleichen Zeitraum, teilweise um bis zu 18 Prozent.
Digitalisierung – Digitale Transformation
via Digital: Alles digital http://bit.ly/2UlBFpL
March 11, 2019 at 03:40PM
8 März, 2019 | Webfundsachen
The Science of Sleep and Productivity
The Science of Sleep and Productivity
http://bit.ly/2HjuTg8
What if you could take a pill that improved your productivity at work? And what if the pill were free? Oh, and it made you feel really good? And improved your overall health?
No such pill exists, but science suggests an alternative does: sleep.
Mounting evidence suggests that a good night’s sleep seriously boosts productivity. One study of 4,188 U.S. workers found „significantly worse productivity, performance, and safety outcomes“ among those who slept less, and estimated a $1,967 loss in productivity per worker due to poor sleep.
Yet, paradoxically, what is the main driver of poor sleep? „Work overload,“ according to another study.
So many of us are not getting enough sleep because we’re working too much. And we’re not working efficiently because we’re not getting enough sleep. Sound like a bad pattern? It is, according to Matthew Carter, PhD, a sleep specialist at Williams College, who we had a chance to speak with about sleep and productivity.
„I definitely believe there is a sleep crisis in our culture,“ Carter says. „Most people equate losing sleep with having more time to enjoy the day or getting things done. Ironically, when they are sleep deprived, they enjoy the day less and are so unfocused that they are much slower in getting things done.“
In his TEDx talk „The Science of Sleep (and the Art of Productivity),“ Carter explores this paradoxical productivity crisis. „You’re able to get more done on a good night’s sleep, not less.“ Carter argues.
„You’re able to get more done on a good night’s sleep, not less.“Dr. Matthew Carter, PhD, Sleep Specialist
And Dr. Carter isn’t alone in sounding the alarm about poor sleep. Ariana Huffington has focused her attention on the topic, as well, delivering a TED Talk and penning a best-selling book on sleep and productivity.
Here, we’ll dig into the research to find out how much sleep we need, why we’re not getting it, and what we can do to improve our sleep—and, in turn, our productivity.
Sleep and Productivity: The Research
Looking back at the 20th century, it’s remarkable the degree to which scientific research impacted our behavior. Studies found that tobacco was bad, so we (largely) stopped smoking. Research showed the benefits of exercise, so we signed up for gym memberships in droves.
But when it comes to sleep, we seem to have missed the memo.
A recent study of 1,000 adults tracked productivity and sleep quantity and quality. The conclusion was clear: „Sleep duration (both short and long), insomnia, sleepiness, and snoring were all associated with decreased work productivity.“ Their recommendation was unambiguous: „Sleep should be considered an important element in workplace health.“
These results weren’t surprising. Researchers have known for years that poor sleep dramatically reduces performance for activities ranging from athletics to academia. A 2012 meta-analysis of 24 studies found „significant impairments“ in problem-solving and memory capacity among poor sleepers. Another study of interior design students found that „[…] Students who maintained short sleep durations, highly variable night-to-night sleep durations, or had fragmented sleep […] demonstrated pre- to poststudy declines on the laboratory measure of creativity.“
No matter what type of work you do, impairing your creativity, problem-solving, and memory probably won’t help your performance. Yet many of us continue to lose sleep because we’re so busy. Carter explains:
One of the biggest reasons that people don’t get enough sleep is because they feel they have too much to do or because they are stressed about what they need to work on. So we’re not getting enough work done because we’re sleep-deprived and we’re not sleeping because we’re not getting enough work done.
And how widespread is this problem? A Harvard study of 7,480 adults found a 23.2 percent population-wide prevalence of insomnia and estimated 11.3 days of lost productivity among these poor sleepers. Another 2014 survey by the National Sleep Foundation pegged the percentage of adults who lacked adequate sleep at 45 percent. Poor sleep is causing 23-45 percent of the population to lose more than two work weeks worth of productivity every year.
And what is our collective response to this sleep epidemic?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This confounds researchers like Dr. Carter:
If you saw a bunch of people routinely smoking, you would think they have an unhealthy smoking habit. If you saw a bunch of people routinely eating junk food, you would think they have an unhealthy diet. But if you see a bunch of people tired, you think they must be working hard or having an important, demanding job.
The scientific jury has reached its verdict: Sleep = productivity. Still, many of us struggle to get our full eight hours.
Or is it six hours…?
How Much Sleep Do You Need to Be Productive?
Ask a dozen people how much sleep is enough, and you’ll get a dozen answers. Some people believe in a solid eight hours, while others say they’re fine with five or six.
„In reality, most people need somewhere between six and eight hours,“ Carter says. „A small percentage of people only need five hours, and another group of people are on the other side of the scale and can need nine to ten hours of sleep.“
In other words, „it depends.“
Luckily, there’s a simple, free test you can take right now to determine if you’re getting enough sleep: Do you feel sleepy? If so, you probably need more sleep. End of test.
Research also shows that quality of sleep matters as much or more than quantity. One study of college students found that „average sleep quality was better related to sleepiness than sleep quantity.“
Sleep quality is determined by many factors and can be much harder to assess than total hours slept. „Some people get six to eight hours of sleep but have terrible quality of sleep based on their levels of stress, what they ate just before bed, and how much light they received in their eyes before bed,“ Carter says.
So how can you determine the quality of your sleep? The past few years have seen a surge in technologies—including wearables like Fitbit and smartwatches, as well as sleep-specific monitors like Nokia Sleep—that offer sleep-tracking. These are loads easier (and cheaper) than a full inpatient sleep study and can give you an overview of your overall sleep duration and cycles between different phases of sleep.
The most important and deepest phase of sleep is REM. Without entering it several times per night, you’re unlikely to wake feeling rested. Wearables like Fitbit can’t measure sleep cycles like REM directly—that requires an expensive polysomnography machine—but they can infer it relatively accurately from a combination of heart rate and movement tracking.
Overwhelmed? Here’s a TL;DR:
Aim for six to eight hours of quality sleep to maximize productivity.
If you’re sleeping six to eight hours but still feel tired, try tracking your sleep at home.
If your sleep tracking shows few periods of deep sleep, consider visiting a doctor for a full analysis.
Of course, getting six to eight hours of high-quality sleep is easier said than done.
How to Improve Your Sleep for Productivity’s Sake
For an activity that involves literally doing nothing, sleep can be surprisingly challenging. (As a lifelong insomniac, I’m something of an expert on not sleeping.) Whether you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, you’re not alone. The CDC estimates that a third of Americans don’t get enough sleep each night.
Sleep expert Matthew Carter has three main pieces of advice to help improve the quality and quantity of your sleep:
No screens before bed
„No phones, tablets, TVs, computers, etc. one hour before you go to sleep.“ Carter advises. „This is both because of the bright light hitting your eyeballs and also because what you are looking at on these devices is likely to excite you or stress you out.“
Blue light, in particular, can disrupt circadian rhythms and regulation of melatonin (a sleep hormone). Software like f.lux and Apple’s Night Shift help reduce blue light from screens at night, but adopting a strict screen curfew is still a better bet.
No carbohydrates or alcohol before bed
„Carbohydrates can keep you awake and negatively affect sleep quality,“ Carter explains. „And alcohol is metabolized in the blood into carbohydrates.“
Nevermind the health benefits, skipping a sweet midnight snack or nightcap can actually improve your daytime productivity.
Prepare for sleep and make a routine
Carter explains, „Many people expect sleep to just happen—in reality you have to get yourself ready for it.“ This step is probably the most important. Like a Pavlovian dog salivating at the sound of a bell, creating a routine at night will signal to your body that it’s time to wind down. For a double-dose of benefit, you can make this routine involve other sleep-promoting behaviors:
Turn down the lights around the house an hour before bed.
Change into sleepwear before bed only (sorry, lazy afternoons).
Once you’re in bed, read a book (about productivity, perhaps?).
You’ve probably heard some version of this advice before, and it’s easy to brush off. But next time you’re answering work emails at 11 p.m. instead of reading a book, remember: You’re hurting your productivity in the long term.
Of course, even if you follow all of this advice perfectly, you might still have trouble getting enough sleep.
„What should I do if…“
„…my partner snores?“
Wear earplugs. Sleep in separate rooms if it’s really bad. Or consider asking your partner to sign up for a sleep study; serious snoring can point to sleep apnea, a condition that could be compromising the quality of their sleep.
„…I need to work at night?“
If you work a graveyard shift, you can still adopt all the above practices—just do them during the day instead of at night. The toughest one will be keeping the light out, so get blackout light-blockers for your windows.
„…I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep?“
This is a common and maddening problem. Often the problem stems from irregular sleep patterns (e.g., sleeping in some days and waking up early others, or taking long naps during the day). Try to create a regular, nap-free sleep schedule for at least a week and see if the problem persists.
„…my mind won’t slow down when I close my eyes?“
Other than obvious solutions (like not drinking caffeine within 10 hours of bedtime), you might want to consider a relaxation technique like gentle yoga or meditation. The popular meditation app Headspace recently launched a whole sleep-focused meditation package that can help quiet your busy mind.
There’s no gray area here: Good sleep improves productivity. You can read study after study that shows the same thing, or you can trust your own common intuition. Do you do your best work on three hours of sleep?
And it’s not just that a good night’s sleep will improve your work for a single day. Improving your productivity can actually improve your sleep, which improves your productivity—and so on, in a virtuous cycle. Carter explains:
If a person gets more sleep, then they are more focused and better at performing tasks. Therefore, they get more done and can feel better about their work. This, in turn, can help sleep because people feel like they have „earned it.“
Will our culture finally embrace sleep and its productivity-boosting potential? There are some positive signs. Seattle public schools recently pushed high school start time back a full hour to unambiguously positive results: better attendance and better grades.
Until we move toward valuing sleep as a cultural norm, you can at the very least value it for yourself—and your productivity.
Related reading:
The Science of Background Noise and the Best Sound Apps for Work, Sleep, and Relaxation
12 Morning and Evening Routines That Will Set Up Each Day for Success
Technologie
via The Zapier Blog http://bit.ly/2P0SSRp
March 7, 2019 at 01:03PM
8 März, 2019 | Webfundsachen
Cookie walls dont comply with GDPR says Dutch DPA
Cookie walls don’t comply with GDPR, says Dutch DPA
https://tcrn.ch/2HsNZAL
Cookie walls that demand a website visitor agrees to their internet browsing being tracked for ad-targeting as the “price” of entry to the site are not compliant with European data protection law, the Dutch data protection agency clarified yesterday.
The DPA said it has received dozens of complaints from internet users who had had their access to websites blocked after refusing to accept tracking cookies — so it has taken the step of publishing clear guidance on the issue.
It also says it will be stepping up monitoring, adding that it has written to the most-complained-about organizations (without naming any names) — instructing them to make changes to ensure they come into compliance with GDPR.
Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, which came into force last May, tightens the rules around consent as a legal basis for processing personal data — requiring it to be specific, informed and freely given in order for it to be valid under the law.
Of course consent is not the only legal basis for processing personal data, but many websites do rely on asking internet visitors for consent to ad cookies as they arrive.
And the Dutch DPA’s guidance makes it clear internet visitors must be asked for permission in advance for any tracking software to be placed — such as third-party tracking cookies; tracking pixels; and browser fingerprinting tech — and that that permission must be freely obtained. Ergo, a free choice must be offered.
So, in other words, a “data for access” cookie wall isn’t going to cut it. (Or, as the DPA puts it: “Permission is not ‘free’ if someone has no real or free choice. Or if the person cannot refuse giving permission without adverse consequences.”)
“This is not for nothing; website visitors must be able to trust that their personal data are properly protected,” it further writes in a clarification published on its website [translated via Google Translate].
“There is no objection to software for the proper functioning of the website and the general analysis of the visit on that site. More thorough monitoring and analysis of the behavior of website visitors and the sharing of this information with other parties is only allowed with permission. That permission must be completely free,” it adds.
We reached out to the DPA with questions. A spokesperson told us it can’t comment on any individual complaints, but added: “Cookie walls are non-compliant with the principles of consent of the GDPR. Which means that any party with a cookie wall on their website has to be compliant ASAP, whether or not we will check that in a couple of months, which we certainly will do.”
In light of this ruling clarification, the cookie wall on the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB)’s European site (screengrabbed below) looks like a textbook example of what not to do — given the online ad industry association is bundling multiple cookie uses (site-functional cookies; site-analytical cookies; and third-party advertising cookies) under a single “I AGREE” option.
It does not offer visitors any opt-outs at all. (Not even under the “MORE INFO” or privacy policy options pictured below.)
If the user does not click “I I AGREE” they cannot gain access to the IAB’s website. So there’s no free choice here. It’s agree or leave.
Clicking “MORE INFO” brings up additional information about the purposes the IAB uses cookies for — where it states it is not using collected information to create “visitor profiles.”
However, it notes it is using Google products, and explains that some of these use cookies that may collect visitors’ information for advertising — thereby bundling ad tracking into the provision of its website “service.”
Again the only “choice” offered to site visitors is “I AGREE” or leave without gaining access to the website. Which means it’s not a free choice.
The IAB told us no data protection agencies had been in touch regarding its cookie wall.
Asked whether it intends to amend the cookie wall in light of the Dutch DPA’s guidance, a spokeswoman said she wasn’t sure what the team planned to do yet — but she claimed GDPR does not “outright prohibit making access to a service conditional upon consent”; pointing also to the (2002) ePrivacy Directive which she claimed applies here, saying it “also includes recital language to the effect of saying that website content can be made conditional upon the well-informed acceptance of cookies.”
“We’re not going to change our implementation of our cookie banner on this point because the law does not require us to allow people to access our website without consenting to the use of cookies,” Matthias Matthiesen, the IAB’s director for privacy and public policy, told us in a follow-up call.
The IAB’s position appears to be that the ePrivacy Directive trumps GDPR on this issue.
Though it’s not clear how they’ve arrived at that conclusion. (The more than 15-year-old ePrivacy Directive is also in the process of being updated — while the flagship GDPR only came into force last year.)
On this Matthiesen cited a “general principle of law” that he said means that “in a conflict between two rules that cover the same thing it’s the more specific law prevails.” (Though that does assume the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive are in conflict where cookie walls are concerned.)
The portion of the ePrivacy Directive that the IAB appears to be referring to is recital 25 — which includes the following line:
Access to specific website content may still be made conditional on the well-informed acceptance of a cookie or similar device, if it is used for a legitimate purpose.
However, “specific website content” is hardly the same as full site access, i.e. as is entirely blocked by their cookie wall.
The “legitimate purpose” point in the recital also provides a second caveat vis-à-vis making access conditional on accepting cookies — and the recital text includes an example of “facilita[ting] the provision of information society services” as such a legitimate purpose.
What are “information society services”? An earlier European directive defines this legal term as services that are “provided at a distance, electronically and at the individual request of a recipient” [emphasis ours] — suggesting it refers to Internet content that the user actually intends to access (i.e. the website itself), rather than ads that track them behind the scenes as they surf.
So, in other words, even per the outdated ePrivacy Directive, a site might be able to require consent for functional cookies from a user to access a portion of the site.
But that’s not the same as saying you can gate off an entire website unless the visitor agrees to their browsing being pervasively tracked by advertisers.
That’s not the kind of “service” website visitors are looking for.
Add to that, returning to present day Europe, the Dutch DPA has put out very clear guidance demolishing cookie walls.
The only sensible legal interpretation here is that the writing is on the wall for cookie walls.
The IAB’s Matthiesen disagrees, of course.
“Law’s complicated and [the definition of an information society service is] not as simple as that statement,” he said debating this point. “When a browser connects to a website it’s making technically a request on the things that are being loaded. So it is technically requesting the content that is loaded on the site.”
“The website is the property of the website owner. There are fundamental rights attached to property too,” he added. “There is nothing in the GDPR that says I must make my website’s content available to people. I am perfectly fine to determine the conditions under which I am making my property available.
“You’re not entitled to it. I can’t force you to accept tracking, right, maybe. The way in which you aren’t forced is that you don’t have to use my property. That is the fundamental disagreement between the position [that cookie walls can’t be used] and mine [i.e. that they can].”
He suggested it will be up to the European Court of Justice to provide legal clarity on the issue — assuming any Dutch websites targeted by the regulator to take down their cookie walls choose to bring a legal challenge.
This report was updated with comment from the DPA and the IAB.
Technologie
via TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2S7UdIS
March 8, 2019 at 11:37AM
