Tag: Google

The AI Health Tech subsidiary of Google, Deep Mind Health, is creating a system, based on the blockchain technology, to show how the company uses all the medical data that passes through its processors. The “Verifiable Data Audit” will allow hospitals, doctors and even patients to track their personal information in real-time and see if it has been changed or compromised. Deep Mind is trying to improve medical diagnosis with machine learning. But for developing those tools requires large amounts of confidential data. The company was already criticized, after gaining access to patient records for 1.6 million people in three London hospitals. With its new project, Deep Mind will try to win back some of the lost trust.

“Data can be a powerful force for social progress, helping our most important institutions to improve how they serve their communities. As cities, hospitals and transport systems find new ways to understand what people need from them, they’re unearthing opportunities to change how they work today and identifying existing ideas for the future”, the company’s Co-founder Mustafa Suleyman wrote in a blog post.

It is working in partnership with London’s Royal Free Hospital to develop kidney monitoring software called Streams, but critics still feel that data sharing can give Google too much power over the National Health System. According to Suleyman, data can only benefit society if it has society’s trust and confidence and that is the reason why auditability becomes an increasingly important virtue. He explained that any entry will record the fact that a particular piece of data has been used and also the reason why, for example a blood test was checked against the NHS national algorithm to detect possible acute kidney injury. The new systems are related to the bitcoin cryptocurrency and just like blockchain, the ledger will be append-only, so once a record of data use is added, it can’t be erased later. The ledger will also make it possible for third parties to verify that nobody has tampered with any of the entries. Meanwhile, Google announced a series of new tools to assist users with data preparation and integration, which will upgrade the power and agility of Google Cloud for business clients. The first released product is the new private beta of Google Cloud Dataprep. The tool is visualizing the data preparation, detecting anomalies and using machine learning to suggest data transformation that can improve the quality of information. To learn more about the latest trends in FinTech & Blockchain, Health Tech and Big Data & Cloud visit Webit.Festival Europe in Sofia on April 25 and 26. During the event you can listen to top level speakers, such as the Vice President for Cloud and Mobile Technology Strategy at IBM Jonas Jacobi, the Global Head of FinTech at ING Group Benoit Legrand and the Consultant Surgeon and Co-founder of Virtual Medics and Medical Realities Prof. Shafi Ahmed.

On 21-22 April, CEEDS'15 got together in Sofia more than 3,300 top executives from Central and Eastern Europe. CEOs, founders, CTOs, CIOs and top managers shared their experiences during the ‪CEEDS by ‪‎Webit lecture stream and shared part of the marketing trends that will influence the market in the next few years. “Global Webit Series became a gateway between the corporate and startup worlds helping them innovate through collaboration,” said Plamen Rusev - serial entrepreneur and investor in technology companies, founder of the largest technology forum CEEDS'15 by Webit. He opened the conference with an inspiring speech, highlighting the speed of the technology advancement and the importance of being aware of the opportunities that this digital tools offer us in order to achieve a better future. The following lines contain all the inaugural speech of Plamen Russev: “We are living in a very unique in economic history time when the very potent cocktail of globalisation combined with digitalisation is giving wings to amazing companies and endeavours. The companies who arised on the waves of it are all part of our everyday living now – Google, Apple, Facebook, Uber, AirBnB to name some of them. None of these are targeting niche markets – all of them are on a quest of taking over the world. Now we are going through a global digital transformation – it is changing our lives, societies, long lasting industries, lifestyles... in other words we are now facing a social transformation that ultimately will affect each and every person in this room, in this region and around the world. The phenomenon of this digital a.k.a social transformation is that it is taking place globally, at the same time and almost the same speed and impact and that it is driven by a quantified number of people (mostly located in the Silicon valley) with armies of developers chasing artificial intelligence and creating real life solutions which few years ago were considered science fiction and impossible. Do you remember when you first read about self driving or driverless cars a few years ago? A pure example of innovation thinking – you take the most important things in a product which you know and start removing the most important component of it. This is the way many new products are born, but in the driverless cars case you not only remove the wheel, the pedals and all connected to them controls, but the driver! So a few years ago when this hit the news – we all thought it might take decades to see it on the street – if we see it at all. Now all states in America already voted acts allowing such cars on the streets, UK is planing to become the largest adopter of the technology by 2017-2018. Something which was considered crazy a few years ago is adopted as normal today and the technology development is not linear but rather exponential and it is a fact that it started to advance faster that science fiction itself. What I believe we shall see next is the digital transformation being led by a few hundred tech illuminates and investors leading to a global revolution. Imagine what will happen to the thousands of taxi drivers in just few years when driverless cars become common on our streets. What about the artificial intelligence – it might not be news for you but the fact is that algorithms in the US control some 70 percent of all trading on the stock market these days. And it is not even close to artificial intelligence – imagine the impact over the human kind once it is achieved in the way some people think of it! Today you may sequence the human genome for a few hours and for some 1000 USD. Imagine how this can influence medicine tomorrow? Imagine how all the above is changing the world we live in. These technologies are all impacting one another but still each going its way. Imagine what will happen if a common platform may leverage on all of them and use them in synergy and simultaneously – and this platform is the AI. Imagine the speed of innovation and the horizons of it. Imagine how it will look compared to today. Now stop imagining. It is today! "The singularity is already here," says the person bearing the personal responsibility for technology taking over the science fiction. "It's not something that just happens next Tuesday at 9:40 in the morning. It's a process and it is taking place right now." says Sebastian Thrun, founder of Google X laboratory which for the past years created more new symbolic products and innovations such as driverless cars, Google glass, contact lenses that measure blood-sugar levels and many more. Thrun says "It's not the naysayers, but the optimists who will change the world, and the consequence is that such people will also amass more wealth and power." This is the reason the Webit community grows at 4 continents and brings so many amazing optimists together. "Over 120'000 people are part of our community newsletters from all around the world. Every year Global Webit series welcome over 15 000 people to our events in Europe, Middle East and Asia from over 110 countries. All of them, all of you are the optimists who are changing the world and who are part of the Digital transformation." The Global Webit Series because the largest EMEA digital economy forum to help boost the knowledge transfer, business networking and opportunities and innovation. More that this we are the most startup friendly enterprise events welcoming hundreds of selected innovative startups in technology, science, energy, commerce, fin-tech, health, edtech, digital entertainment, infrastructure, Big Data, cloud, etc. More than this – every year we are supporting them with a grant of a Millon Euros in marketing, PR, media and investors relations and investments. The Global Webit Series became a gateway between the corporate and startup worlds bringing synergy and helping them innovate through collaboration. But the humble beginning of Webit events was to change and improve the lives and chances of the people in Europe and more precisely for Central and Eastern Europe. Our team is not just making events and creating communities, we believe we bring happiness – we believe and know it by personal experience that people are happy being along with their families and friends and at the same time having opportunities for career and business development. This was the initial idea of Webit to help people from CEE embrace opportunities through the network which Webit brings, through the knowledge and knowhow transfer we empower and the business opportunities that arise from that. Recently I have heard through friends of mine about 3 young Bulgarians who proved the fact that the right time is now – not the future. 2 boy and a girl at their 17-teens won award for a robot they have build from various sources and using their pocket money and were selected among over 100 candidates at their age from all around Europe at the an international event in Vienna, Austria. Such young people are the proof that talent is equally distributed around the world – it is not only in America or Germany – it is everywhere – but we as society and individuals are responsible to invest in their education and opportunities if we want CEE and Europe to be part of the future I have shared with you in the beginning – and not only being spectators, but leaders and master minds. Тhe digital transformation leading to the global social transformation is a phenomenon that is still misunderstood, first and foremost by policymakers. If we want our home continent Europe to play a role in the future our Policymakers should master the framework creating the dreamers starting from school and the education system, legislation, healthcare, transportation and above all – to boost the entrepreneurial spirit, while following rules applicable for all. “ Annual Webit Series gather over 15,000 people worldwide and assist entrepreneurs from around the world, providing them with marketing resources, mentoring and opportunity for development by connecting them with investors, media and corporations. You can see the opening keynote of Mr Plamen Russev at CEEDS'15 by Webit in the YouTube Channel of Webit HERE.

The digital era we are living in is challenging for a few main reasons - a lot of information, lots of tools and endless opportunities. Challenges come from the fact that in most cases you don’t have the control, so staying ahead of the digital marketing game can be difficult. More and more of your customers are online looking for brands and products to fill their needs on social media. It can be true that digital marketing strategy is time-consuming and expensive, but in order to stay on the market and people to know you, your business needs this strategy. So here are 5 digital tools every (digital) business should have:

• Engaging Website - Online experience starts from the company’s website. This is how current and potential customers are going to find and connect with your business. Make sure that you build a site that is optimized for success. Wordpress is the universal tool that can help you and will let to customize the service to suit your needs.
• Hootsuite (or Social Media) - Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc., etc. True social media madness. Hootsuite allows you to manage all your social media accounts by cross platform message scheduling and extensive data tracking. Analytics across every platform ensures less time managing and more time growing your business.
• Google Search - Advertising on search results relevant to your product or service is powerful and productive. All you should know is what search terms (keywords) to focus on. Instead of bidding on competitive keywords try to focus on specific phrases or geographies and bid aggressively. What is important is not the numbers of views of your ad, but whether it was shown to the right people.
• Remarketing Tools - have you ever checked new models of tablets on the Internet and later when you watch a video on YouTube tablet ads start popping out? This is remarketing and it’s happening more and more often. Use remarketing tactics if your product or service has a long buying cycle.
• Analytics - you own limitless quantity of information and at first, this may scare you. Fortunately, lots of analytics tools exist, so you can transform just data into essential  and useful information.

Everything is changing so quickly and you should stay adequate to the circumstances. CEEDS’15 by Webit will give you new digital ideas and tools, so the event will inspire you to perform even better during the digital transformation. Book your tickets now!  

If they ask you to name three companies from the digital industry, what would you say? Amongst the first that will come to your mind will be Facebook, Google and Apple, for sure. On 01-02 of October these three giants will be on the stage of Webit Global Congress in Istanbul, Turkey and you should not miss it. Founded 10 years ago, on February 4^th, 2004, Facebook is the youngest giant from the group. Currently, the social network has more than 6800 employees and total assets which equal to almost 18 billion dollars. Google is the bigger brother, founded on September 4^th, 1998. The 16-year-old company has more than 52 000 employees and 111 billion dollars assets for 2013. And last, but not least the eldest one, 38-year-old Apple, founded on April 1^st in 1976. Apple’s assets, 207 billion dollars, are almost twice these of Google and the employees are 80 000. No matter how different Facebook, Google and Apple are, they have something in common – the desire to dominate. When it comes to advertising, the rivalry between Facebook Ads and Google AdWords is well-known. Both Google and Facebook have a massive potential audience. Both offer paid as well as free advertising. According to their purpose, advertisers can choose which one to use. Google+ allows Google to collect personal user data and by checking Gmail and YouTube we can soon expect that Google’s user data will surmount Facebook in terms of value. On the other hand, we have Apple versus Google…again. In the last few years, especially after the passing of Steve Jobs, Google improved its brand recognition and became the world’s most valuable brand, according to MillwardBrown's 2014 BrandZ ranking. The desire to dominate provoked not only Google, but also Apple and Facebook to innovate and constantly to look for new opportunities. You see it is intriguing around the giants, so do not miss the chance to see them on one stage - 1-2 October, Istanbul, Webit Global Congress. Apply now!

1-2 October, 2014, Istanbul – remember these dates and reschedule if you have any other plans. The 6th Webit Global Congress is going to happen and for Digital, Tech and Media industry this will be the most beneficial and profitable two days of the year. Just in case you are not sure yet, here are only 10 reasons why you should join:

1. The only place with almost 60% C-level attendees who you can join to connect with the world’s Digital, Tech and Media elite! C-level managers at companies like Facebook, Apple, Google, etc. Pay attention – active managers (not ex-ones).
2. The venue – not only because of the fabulous city of Istanbul, but also because of the impressive venue which can be reached by all means of transport, including by boat.
3. Networking party on yacht – why not?
4. You will be surrounded by `giants` - Google, IBM, Apple, eBay. Good feeling, isn’t it?
5. Lectures will be divided in two flows – digital marketing and entrepreneurship. You can focus on what is really important to you and your business.
6. Speakers have only 10 minutes for their lectures – no babbling, only the essential.
7. Along the whole event, topics, devoted to new growing markets, will be discussed. Markets in Africa, Middle East, East Europe, etc. which will define the new trends and on which you want to operate, for sure. This way you can be sure you will not waste neither your time, nor your money.
8. Great opportunity for networking with worldwide known experts. Please, read again reason №4.
9. The only event where you will meet the best agencies in the world – Agency Lounge will be the place where agencies meet their clients and talk "Successful Business".
10. Founder Games, organised by Webit, are looking for the best startups and provide 1 million EUR marketing budget for startups.

Stay tuned for more reasons, news and updates. Have in mind that time is ticking away. Apply now!