LandTech founders Andrew Moist and Jonny Britton

A decade ago, a nightmare self-build experience led former software developer Andrew Moist down a path that would culminate in LandTech, the proptech platform that he cofounded with Jonny Britton, which streamlines the entire property development process into a single digital workflow, enabling developers, from novices to building firms, to be build ready.

Anyone developing property, whether on a small or a large scale, is looking for one thing; an off-market deal to which they can add value. LandTech helps them by unlocking the secrets of land and providing them with the notoriously hard-to-find information and data on things like land ownership and availability, planning permission, previous sold price comparisons, potential problems with developing the land, and any other ongoing developments in the area, all in one place.

By eliminating the need for laborious manual research and liaising with countless organizations, including such as councils and land registries, the technology streamlines the process for existing developers and allows new developers to see the bigger picture and make informed decisions from the outset.

The business began with a chance conversation on Twitter. In 2013, Moist embarked, naively, on a mission to buy and do up an east London-based two-bedroom apartment. But having zero experience of property purchase, renovation, or development, his project quickly became a nightmare, which he shared on the social media platform.

Meanwhile, Britton, a former town planner, had become frustrated by the archaic systems and processes that he had to work with every day, especially as he could see the rapid evolution in technology that was driving innovations in social interactions and data capture. He decided to leave the planning industry, learned to create software, and built TimeMaps, an online atlas of world history, in his family business.

Through a chance conversation on Twitter he was introduced to Moist and the problems he was facing in trying to build his own home in London. With a clear understanding of these problems from the planning side, Britton saw an opportunity to tackle the U.K.s housing crisis by bringing much-needed innovation to the industry. With their combined insight into property and smart technology, they teamed up and launched LandTech.

Within a few weeks of meeting for the first time, we were working together full time on the business in a startup accelerator, says Britton. Andrew had already left his previous job and I still had some commitments with the family business, but, thanks to the accelerator we were able to dive into the business, which we started in February 2014.

By the end of the three-month program, they had a business plan and some of the basic, more visual aspects of the product. A year later, they were ready to put the product out into the market, but immediately ran into problems.

There were complications since the property data we wanted wasn't available when we first started, says Britton. We also had to aggregate a dataset from over 10 million unstructured PDF documents found in hard to reach locations. However, building the technology to do this has given our company a huge advantage as we can now use it for other datasets.

Another issue was that property developers had no industry body that the founders could work with, nor were they big users of social media, or advocates of business networking, so marketing LandTech to this group proved difficult. But, the founders knew their target audience and approached them direct, confident that their pitch would grab their interest. On the back of this came an unexpected challenge, in that their product was too good.

Our customers were blown away by it and therefore didn't want to talk about it with others so that they could keep the advantage to themselves, says Britton. Overall, having no clear channels to market and customers who wanted to keep it a secret, it was difficult to build brand awareness.

However, over time, LandTech began to build momentum. The founders hired a marketing team and used data-driven content to appeal to their customers, which Britton says has enabled them to add value to the industry through their unique insights.

The coronavirus pandemic that initially posed a threat to the business has also played a part in shaping its future. When it struck in March the uncertainty it created in the market left them unsure of their prospects. But they were keen to offer help during the crisis and adapted their product for volunteer groups to help them organize their work getting supplies out to the vulnerable.

It was used by hundreds of volunteer groups, says Britton. Fortunately, customer demand returned very quickly, so the business wasnt too badly affected. But it has made us more conscious as a business. The impact of Covid-19 will be minimal compared to climate change, so we will be speeding up our work towards becoming carbon neutral and a better ecosystem contributor in and around the property.

Recent reforms to the U.K.s planning system have presented LandTech with further opportunities. Being able to respond rapidly to the reforms, we can offer our customers the fastest way to take advantage of them, says Britton Without technology, you would not be in the game.

Today Landtech has a broad client base that includes major housebuilders, leading commercial and residential property agencies, and hundreds of SME residential developers. With investment, comprising seed capital and a grant, totaling $678,000 LandTech has been profitable since its first year of trading. It employs 90 people and is on track to turn over 8 million ($10.6 million) this financial year.

The brand is also set to go global, with immediate territories including the U.S. and Australia. The founders plan to grow revenues to 50 million by 2024 through this expansion.

Britton adds: We already have an office in Sydney and will be moving into the U.S. in 2021. As global urbanization continues, so will the need to develop in smarter, more efficient, more open ways, and we have some big surprises in store in terms of our market entry.

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Unlocking The Secrets Of Land: How Two Entrepreneurs Have Transformed Property Development - Forbes

Newswise ARLINGTON, Va., December 9, 2020 The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) announced today that Sue S. Yom, MD, PhD, FASTRO, will become the new editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics (Red Journal), ASTRO's flagship scientific journal. Dr. Yom, who is a vice chair and distinguished professor of radiation oncology as well as professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, will begin her five-year term on January 1, 2022.

A longtime member of the Red Journal editorial team and current Deputy Editor, Dr. Yom developed multiple concepts for the publication, such as a structured peer review format, an option for authors to submit scientific letters and content features including Gray Zone clinical case studies and the Statistics for the People section and podcast. She also is an accomplished researcher who has authored or co-authored more than 250 published books, chapters and journal articles.

When she begins her term, Dr. Yom will be only the second female editor-in-chief of a major journal in the radiological and imaging sciences. The Red Journal was ranked 10 of 134 journals in the Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging category in the most recent Web of Science Group Journal Citation Report, and only one of the top 10 journals in this category is currently led by a female editor-in-chief.

Dr. Yom will succeed Anthony Zietman, MD, FASTRO, who has served as editor-in-chief since 2012. Previously with Dr. Zietman, Dr. Yom worked to diversify the journal's editorial board and reach parity with the specialty on female, international, and underrepresented minority representation. "We made a very conscious decision to recruit the best early and mid-career scientists into editorial positions, especially those who might be traditionally overlooked for leadership roles," she explained. Women now constitute 40% of the journal's editorial board members. A dedicated educator and mentor, Dr. Yom established the journal's Resident Peer Review Training program, which has graduated three classes of residents. "I believe that our journals have a unique, critical role to play in mentoring and developing the next generation of researchers and leaders in radiation oncology," she said.

Under Dr. Yom's leadership, the Red Journal will continue to provide a forum for top scientific research and the highest-level discussion of issues confronting the fields of radiation oncology, radiation biology and medical physics. Recent publications help guide the specialty as it continues to provide cancer care during the COVID-19 pandemic, including international consensus recommendations to adapt cancer treatment during the pandemic one of these from a task force led by Dr. Yom as well as on-the-ground reports from the initial outbreaks in Italy and Switzerland and the first peer-reviewed report of low-dose whole-lung radiation therapy for COVID-19 pneumonia. Dr. Yom also wrote the lead editorial for the recent special issue, Radiation Oncology: Through and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic.

"Dr. Yom is an internationally known leader in radiation oncology, and she has helped move our field forward through her impressive track record in research, global outreach, teaching and mentoring, and leadership of the Red Journal," said ASTRO President Laura Dawson, MD, FASTRO. "I support Dr. Yoms vision for the journal to continue to feature the best scientific research and discussion of issues confronting our field, including those that are controversial, and to facilitate mentoring of the next generation of leaders in radiation oncology. Her out-of-the-box thinking is evident. She is an advocate for diversity, and she helps elevate everyone she interacts with.

Dr. Yom also established the journal's social media committee and plans to expand the Red Journal's global reach and interconnectivity through social media and other channels, such as partnerships with other organizations, vodcasts (video podcasts) and increased interactive content for various audiences. Articles that have gained traction on social media in the past year include studies on bell-ringing ceremonies after cancer treatment and the evolution of radiation oncology in Pakistan, as well as articles on the side effects of breast cancer treatment and dosing and timing for prostate radiation.

Above all, Dr. Yom sees the journal as a critically important channel to advance novel science and practice-changing clinical trials affecting radiation oncology, in addition to providing research and commentary on social imperatives such as disparities, global health, education and medical ethics. "Since my time in residency, I cannot recall a time I have been away from the Red Journal," she said. "It has been my go-to source of education, understanding of events in our field and inspiration to do more for the profession. Medicine is a well of technological and scientific marvels, as well as ethical and moral questions that go to the heart of how we see and shape our society. These will remain our core issues at the Red Journal."

ABOUT ASTRO

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is the worlds largest radiation oncology society, with more than 10,000 members who are physicians, nurses, biologists, physicists, radiation therapists, dosimetrists and other health care professionals who specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. The Society is dedicated to improving patient care through professional education and training, support for clinical practice and health policy standards, advancement of science and research, and advocacy. ASTRO publishes three medical journals, International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, Practical Radiation Oncology and Advances in Radiation Oncology; developed and maintains an extensive patient website, RT Answers; and created the nonprofit foundation Radiation Oncology Institute. To learn more about ASTRO, visit our website and follow us on our blog, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Dr. Sue S. Yom named editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics (Red Journal) - Newswise

Online dating is rapidly changing as technology progresses in our society. It has become a more popular and more accessible way to meet people and express attraction. While dating apps open up new opportunities, especially during this time of social distancing, the majority of online daters are still struggling with the process of online dating and the reality of harassment.

Romantic attraction is difficult to predict. While data on personality traits like the Big Five and attachment types can effectively predict how much individuals want to be in partnerships and how desirable they may be as partners, romantic and sexual compatibility and relationship longevity are difficult to trace and anticipate.

Because so much of how we relate to others is due to our subconscious beliefs, self-reported personality data derived from conscious awareness that is fed into algorithms and regressions on dating websites cannot accurately capture how individuals operate in relationships, explains Maria Abramovich, MT-BC Board certified music therapist and Founder of Empowerment By You.

She continues, In order for artificial intelligence and machine learning to better predict romantic compatibility, the data would have to include data on subconscious programming.

Maria Abramovich

However, there is something to be said about the potential of AI for romantic pairing. The 2020 situation is a bright example how dating apps can serve us during the time of isolation. Many of my clients met their partners online. It really works when the right skill set and proper filters, states Lana Elco, Intimacy Expert and Founder of the Empowered Womens Club.

It is fascinating to witness the evolution of dating sites and apps, says Elco. I had my own dating agency back in the 1990s. At the time it was something new so it was not for everyone. It wasnt part of the mainstream culture quite yet.

Now it is quite the opposite. Most people use dating apps and find each other online.

We just left the decade that gave rise to dating on our phones. Weve endured the so-called dating apocalypse and created buzzwords for every iteration of being inconsiderate to the potential suitors weve met on apps. Its no secret that the majority of couples meet online now, and that dating apps have shifted how we find love.

The problem with relying on algorithms for something as complex as love is that it will often leave us disappointed.

Elco says that common frustrations with dating app predictions often sound like, I feel like I am wasting my time, I have so many messages but no quality dates, Its hard to meet someone who is interested in serious relationships, There are too many disrespectful men online.

Those who are actively dating seem to delete and reactivate the same dating apps over and over. Why?

I have heard the term dating fatigue and this appears to be a real and true thing, says Elco. Scrolling and swiping through hundreds of pictures a day of people that you have no interest in or no attraction to.

True intimacy is about exploration and growing together. Current AI, or Machine Learning, can capture casual human interaction but it is not yet capable of processing the depth and complexity of the human psyche. And yet, many daters knowingly rely on algorithms built by strangers to present them with potential intimate, possibly life, partners.

AI bias and bot hacking make dating via apps even more problematic, not to mention online harassment.

Lana Elco

Dr. Christy Wise, PSY. D. is a former Forensic Psychologist and Founder of Life-Sauce, elaborates: If you are a woman and never received a dick pic from a guy you met on a dating app, Id say, you'd be rare.

She continues, About six out of ten women from the ages 17 through 35 who have used dating apps report that they have been harassed.

In fact, 57 percent of women report that someone that they met on a dating app contacted them despite making it crystal clear that they were not interested and did not want to be contacted again.

Ultimately blocking that user and reporting them is the most common course of action, but there is algorithmic and human bias in this process as well, and often victims of online harassments complaints are met with silence.

Tinder introduced a new machine-learning tool to help flag potentially offensive messages and encourage more users to report inappropriate behavior, according to a recent article in Wired. While this is a step in the right direction, dating and intimacy experts like Elco dont see it as a complete solution.

AI can create an extra layer of protection but it wont solve the problem, says Elco. The only way to work through this massive societal challenge is providing education and psychological support to women and men.

Even as AI advances, there will always be limitations to how it can compare to human intelligence, especially regarding something as complex as the emotion of love. However, when we are considering AI and dating, it is near impossible to overlook the possibility of skipping the app altogether, and simply falling in love directly with the algorithm.

According to a recent study, over a quarter of people have not ruled out the idea of falling in love with a robot. I believe that while it is a bit more complicated we are capable of developing feelings for a robot, says Wise.

However, it might be a companionate type of love but not likely a romantic type of love. Knowing and understanding that the robot might respond appropriately to your emotions, does not mean that the robot will feel them back. Frustration, resentment, and disconnection occurs ultimately driving a wedge in the relationship.

Dr. Christy Wise, PSY. D.

Emotional intelligence develops through practicing direct communication with other human beings, explains Elco. Intimacy is not just about sex and physical pleasure. Thats why sex toys are not enough for our intimate wellbeing. In fact, it is emotional intimacy that opens us up to experience the deepest and the most powerful intimate exchange with another.

Babita Spinelli, LP JD, Psychotherapist, Relationship Expert and CEO of Opening the Doors Psychotherapy and Babita Spinelli Group says that although she is fascinated about how AI can enhance our lives, she is also extremely concerned about replacing the human quality, touch and connection.

Spinelli, trained in psychoanalysis and other modalities such as the Gottman Method, is very aware of the positive aspects of online dating.

During this pandemic, technology, and algorithms more specifically, says Spinelli, have enabled virtual dating which has been extremely helpful for my clients who are single or divorced and want to meet someone. It has also allowed for long distance relationships to have virtual date nights and maintain their relationships especially when travel is a concern.

Given that dating apps are now a commonplace, and useful part of life, how do we humans deal with less-than-perfect algorithmic models so deeply entwined in something as crucial as love?

What is important from my lens, says Spinelli, is choosing a dating app where you feel it reflects your goals. Do you want an app which allows room for you to share more about you and read more about others? Where there is more thought in the responses because you are searching for a potential partner? Or are you seeking to date for fun and not searching for a long term commitment? It is important to get clear on your dating intentions prior to taking the plunge into the dating app world which can often become overwhelming.

Babita Spinelli, LP JD

Spinelli adds that it is also important to check in on your anxiety, depression and depletion levels when using these apps.

Is the process wearing on how you feel about yourself? Is it productive for you, or are you having difficulty focusing because you are consumed by the app? Are you still enjoying the process or has it become depleting? These are some of the questions to ask yourself, says Spinelli.

When it was all brand new, technology knew its place and its limits, essentially it was a worker bee for us, says Wise. Today however, technology has become very personal and incredibly intimate. We would be irresponsible not to take a deeper look at the emotional, social, and psychological effects of algorithms and how they ultimately influence human identity.

I personally dont see anything wrong with finding the right match and working through the informational database, says Elco. However, she continues, We need to be aware that AI can be used for wrong purposes such as manipulation, deception and misleading communication.

At the end of the day, most experts agree that any attempt to substitute real human relationships with AI is an elusive escape from reality and avoiding to face the intensity of real intimacy. Depending on algorithms for emotional support might seem to be an easy solution but it leads to addiction and isolation.

For now, online dating is viewed as being convenient, easy, and sometimes intriguing. However, in the opinion of many coaches and experts like those quoted in this piece, problems arise when people hide behind these apps and their algorithms to avoid the complex emotions that accompany human relationships.

Dating algorithms are limited by current technology as well as the biases of those who build them, so ones faith in an algorithm needs to be tempered by realistic expectations, as well as some reliance on different ways of meeting people. As Spinelli explains, for some people, dating apps end up hurting their in-person opportunities to find love.

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Am I Dating An Algorithm? Relationship Experts Weigh In On The Impacts Of AI - Forbes

Jointly authored by Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) and Oliver Wyman, the Singapore FinTech Landscape 2020 and Beyond Report highlights Singapores evolution as a centre for FinTech innovation over the past five years and forecasts the upcoming trends expected in the next five years.

The report was launched yesterday by Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Trade and Industry, at FinTech For Good 2020, organised as part of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2020.

At the event, SFA recognised the contributions of its individual and corporate members, who collectively donated S$100,000 to the NTUC-U Care Fund, under the FinTech for Good initiative. Led by SFA, in partnership with NTUC, the initiative lends support to various initiatives under the U Care Fund, which provides financial assistance to lower-income NTUC union members and their families. This is the first time SFA and U Care Fund have come together for such an initiative.

Singapore FinTech Landscape 2020 And Beyond: Key Findings

The FinTech community in Singapore has grown rapidly in the last five years together with the adoption of FinTech by traditional Financial Institutions, as they have sought means to innovate and transform. FinTech funding has risen steadily to fuel this growth.

Interestingly, in 2020, Singapore has demonstrated resilience amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite an initial decline in funding (49 per cent decline in Q1 2020 vs. Q4 2019), Singapores FinTech investments have since rebounded to US$278mn in Q2 2020, more than thrice the investments in Q1 2020. Investors are recognising the opportunities existing in Southeast Asia.

We continue to see FinTechs invest in areas of financial inclusion (Payments, Lending, etc.). The diversity of FinTechs and their business models in Singapore has also broadened significantly with emerging sub-sectors such as RegTech and Data Analytics. More importantly, FinTechs are leveraging on Singapore as a launchpad into the rest of Southeast Asia providing an opportunity to access more than 650mn people in the region.

Singapore has a strong ecosystem of players who recognise the benefits that FinTechs can bring. The key enablers that have contributed to Singapores success include innovation focused investors, a close-knit network of corporates, banks and partners, as well as progressive government and industry associations.

Private-sector funding has been important for the growth of Singapores FinTech ecosystem. From 2015 to 2019, approximately 65 per cent of the FinTech funding in Southeast Asia was directed to businesses in Singapore, close to four times more than the funding received by the next-largest market. While there are fewer local funds focused on later-stage investments, as the sector progresses, Singapore FinTechs will increasingly gain access and be connected to a wider pool of global investors.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has embraced digital innovation, being one of the first markets in the region to launch various initiatives such as the Electronics Transaction Act and a unified digital identity. This further extends to include relevant industry associations having a conscious view to support FinTechs such as through the Startup SG Programme by Enterprise Singapore and the FinTech Talent Programme by SFA. Singapores openness to digital initiatives across both the public and private sectors allows business models and workflows to be incubated and tested here in a way that would not be feasible elsewhere.

Having a strong network of partners further reinforces Singapores proposition as an ideal hotbed for B2B FinTechs to test their ideas. FinTechs in Singapore are focussed on a multi-country strategy with a strong appetite for overseas expansion. From SFA-OW FinTech survey 2020, 95 per cent of FinTechs have plans to expand overseas. A key challenge that many FinTechs face when expanding abroad is the heterogenous regulatory environment. Recognising this, there has been more emphasis on creating a coordinated approach for the region in recent years through cross-border collaborations.

The FinTech industrys growth trajectory has been impressive to date. To establish Singapore as a regional FinTech hub that stays on the path to be a global hub, key factors that have contributed to Singapores success to date need to be continuously adapted to stay relevant.

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Oliver Wyman and SFA publish report on Singapore's fintech scene - Finextra

Our objective has always been to demonstrably increase brands efficiency and effectiveness, and this certification with Neutronian reinforces this promise, giving our customers added confidence when making important data-driven business decisions.

AUSTIN, Texas (PRWEB) December 09, 2020

Affinity Answers, a leader in social-powered audience insights and activation, today announced it was awarded the Neutronian Certification Badge for its programmatic and addressable audience data. Affinity Answers joins a select cohort of flagship data providers to complete Neutronians audit and receive its certification, including Eyeota, an Affinity Answers partner.

Neutronian exists to bring increased clarity and trust to the marketing ecosystem. Its Certified by Neutronian badge is underpinned by a proprietary evaluation process and helps brands, agencies, and investment firms identify high-quality, privacy compliant data providers for use in their campaigns and trading models.

Brands and agencies know how challenging it is to understand and trust the performance and compliance of marketing data today especially with the inherent conflict of interest when data providers audit themselves. Neutronian addresses this critical need for increased transparency and eases the vetting burden on buyers by opening up the black box of marketing data.

Affinity Answers mission is to improve marketing through brand advertising effectiveness, measurement and improvement. Data quality and compliance have always been at the heart of everything the company does, especially as it pertains to how it handles and utilizes data sourced from social media. Undergoing Neutronians audit reinforces Affinity Answers commitment to data transparency with trusted third-party validation and rigorous standards for retaining certification.

Affinity Answers approach to creating brand affinity audiences, leveraging contextual indicators and sentiment from anonymized social profiles, proves that data providers can utilize social media data in a privacy conscious manner, said Timur Yarnall, CEO and co-founder of Neutronian. In this time of constant evolution of regulation and consumer sentiment, it is important for data providers to be mindful about how they are handling data and Affinity Answers demonstrated a thoughtful approach to this.

Now more than ever, brands need trusted data solutions to be able to engage the right audiences with confidence and to ultimately drive their bottom lines, said Howard Luks, Managing Director, Americas at Eyeota. We commend our partner, Affinity Answers, for its Neutronian certification and joining us as an early adopter of the industrys first data compliance and quality standard.

To earn a Neutronian Certification Badge, data providers must undergo a comprehensive audit and meet baseline criteria across five main categories. Aspects evaluated within each category include:

To retain their certification, data providers are subject to manual re-audits at least twice annually or whenever a fundamental methodology change is made to their data set. With the award of the Neutronian Certification Badge, Affinity Answers will enable Neutronian to continuously monitor its data for the purposes of ongoing quality assurance and anomaly detection.

The marketing and consumer insights industries have hit an inflection point when it comes to data, and its clear that the next phase of adoption and growth requires increased transparency around data quality and compliance, said Josh Raper, VP of Marketing for Affinity Answers. Our objective has always been to demonstrably increase brands efficiency and effectiveness, and this certification with Neutronian reinforces this promise, giving our customers added confidence when making important data-driven business decisions.

To learn more about Affinity Answers and its Neutronian Certification Badge please visit: https://www.affinityanswers.com/neutronian/

About Affinity Answers Affinity Answers is a leader in social-powered insights that enable marketers and consumer insights professionals to identify and activate passionate fans across every screen. More than 400 global brands, agencies and AdTech partners trust Affinity Answers to drive increased scale and return on ad spend. The companys TrueAffinity model analyzes billions of social engagements between consumers and brand entities, and combined with partner data, powers audience recommendations that can be activated across TV, social media and programmatic campaigns. FanFinder 360, the companys all-in-one platform, enables TV and streaming marketers to uncover the shared positive affinities between passionate fans of shows and everything else they love across the world of social media. Affinity Answers was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with R&D operations in India. For more information visit http://www.affinityanswers.com.

About Neutronian Neutronian is a SaaS platform company providing the industrys most comprehensive independent data certification program. We offer a quality and compliance credit score rating of marketing data that brings much needed clarity and trust to the ecosystem. To us, data quality means more than just performance and accuracy it includes everything that a marketer or brand needs to know about a dataset before using it. With our thorough approach to data certification, data buyers have the transparency they need to make data driven marketing decisions and high-quality, privacy compliant data providers can be rewarded for their efforts.

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Affinity Answers Awarded Neutronian Certification Badge - PR Web

Human rights evolved through a historical process of several social movements. MOIN QAZI writes on the fragility of human rights and the need for continued solidarity in face of attacks on human rights.

What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere.

-Abraham Lincoln

THE idea of universal human rights has been among the most important political legacies of this century. It offers a promise of ending many of the injustices that bedevil human society.

The tragedy is that this powerful idea has lost its sheen. The human efforts needed to guard and nurture it has weakened in the face of continuous assaults on human rights by the predators of civilisation

Human rights refer to a wide continuum of values or capabilities that enhance human agency or protect human interests and aspire to protect all people everywhere from severe social, political and legal abuses.

They symbolise humanitys highest aspirations.

The tragedy is that this powerful idea has lost its sheen. The human efforts needed to guard and nurture it has weakened in the face of continuous assaults on human rights by the predators of civilisation.

The ideals of human rights are far more fragile than we believe. In more and more countries, leaders are showing a penchant for demagoguery and autocracy.

These pure ideals that were once there, are now much harder to separate from the impure world of murky politics, civil rights abuses and unfulfilled hopes.

A large number of citizens now believe that the lofty idea of fair justice and human rights rings hollow that justice is reserved for the powerful, and the elite.

The fact remains that the supposed liberty of the citizen to do as he likes so long as he does not interfere with the liberty of others to do the same, which has been a shibboleth for several human right lovers, has been reduced to a mere romantic ideal.

Human rights became embedded slowly but steadily in human consciousness and began to symbolise legal morality.

The idea of human rights was kindled by courageous campaigners who passed on the flame to succeeding generations. These rights were first formally enshrined in 1948 when the United Nations approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that boldly proclaimed that recognition of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

Human rights became embedded slowly but steadily in human consciousness and began to symbolise legal morality.

The movement that culminated in the historic charter grew out of the horrors of Adolf Hitlers vicious and tyrannical regime that darkened the rest of the 20th century. But its roots can be traced to the Greek Stoics, who believed in universal natural laws; the Romans, who refined concepts on the rule of law; and the Enlightenment philosophers, who believed that freedom was a natural condition.

In this millennium, documents like Magna Carta of 1215, the English Bill of Rights of 1689, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, and the American Constitution of 1787 and the Bill of Rights of 1791 advanced the universality of human rights.

Clause 39 of Magna Carta is the fountain from which springs forth the pure transparent stream of human rights.: No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.

The notion that legal principles were the product of historical development, which itself was beyond the control of the people who lived it, was, in a word, teleological.

The courts across the world continue to look to Magna Carta for inspiration and guidance in identifying those rights that are fundamental to the idea of freedom in human society.

In the universe of justice, it is a widely held view that law is an expression of eternal truth.

Thus human rights is the product of the convergence of several social movements; they are an ocean in which several rivers have merged.

The notion that legal principles were the product of historical development, which itself was beyond the control of the people who lived it, was, in a word, teleological.

The principles were sometimes equated with the will of God; sometimes they were the product of secular but nevertheless inescapable evolution.

Thus human rights is the product of the convergence of several social movements; they are an ocean in which several rivers have merged.

It is owing to the sacrifices of our ancestors that we enjoy several immutable human rights and precious freedoms. These rights include free speech, the freedom of peaceful assembly, the freedom of religion, equality for men and women under the rule of law.

What is sinister, he argued, is that the conscious enemies of liberty are those to whom liberty ought to mean most.

We can understand the preciousness of these rights when history reminds us that there was a world that was profoundly different from the one we now live in, one in which people had far fewer rights and far less voice.

It was around the time of the Human Rights Declaration that the great writer George Orwell wrote his 1946 essay, The Prevention of Literature.Orwells concern then was not just with Russian totalitarianism, but with the arguments used by much of the Western intelligentsia to justify repression. What is sinister, he argued, is that the conscious enemies of liberty are those to whom liberty ought to mean most. He was addressing Western scientists who admired the Soviet Union for its technical prowess and were utterly indifferent to Stalins persecution of writers and artists.

They do not see that any attack on intellectual liberty, and on the concept of objective truth, threatens, in the long run, every department of thought. Several dissidents like Andrei D. Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Eastern bloc heroes of another age first made international human rights a rallying cry for activists across the world

We need to build coalitions with friends and partners across movementshuman rights activists, lawyers, trade unions, social movements, economists and faith leaders and ensure that the voices of those who need to be heard most are amplified and they are rid of the fetters that shackle them.

It is only through this solidarity that we can realise a world without inequality and injustice- a world for which many of our great ancestors have made extraordinary sacrifices.

Till we achieve this, our struggles remain a part of the work in progress.

(Moin Qazi is a development professional. Views are personal.)

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The Vision of Human Rights and Legal Morality - TheLeaflet - The Leaflet

Im a woman trapped in a mans body. Only a generation ago, few Americans would have regarded this statement as coherent and believable. Yet today, someone who comes out as transgender can earn cultural cachet, while those who question the new orthodoxy are increasingly branded as bigots or worse. This shift in cultural attitudes is only the latest triumph of the sexual revolution that has radically reshaped sexual categories and behaviors over the past several decades in America. Yet the roots of this revolution go back much further.

When determining why revolutions happen, social scientists often distinguish between three types of causes: preconditions, precipitants, and triggers. Preconditions are the long-term structural factors that make revolution possible. Precipitants are the short-term events that combine with these structures to make revolution plausible. Finally, triggers are the immediate catalyststhe sparks that ignite and make revolution actual.

The sexual revolution and its triumphs result from a similar mix of immediate, short-term, and long-term causes. Yet cultural commentators tend to focus only on triggers, acting like police officers or insurance adjusters who arrive at the scene of an accident to determine the extent of the damage or whos at fault. These roles are important, but they only scratch the surface of how the church should respond to the sexual revolution.

A more holistic response requires a more holistic understanding that can only be achieved by sorting out the long-term structural causes of the revolution from its short-term and immediate causes. This sorting is precisely what theologian and historian Carl Trueman aims to do in his latest book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution.

Truemans basic contention is this: The sexual revolution is a symptom rather than the cause of efforts to redefine human identity. Centuries before the nation swooned when Bruce Jenner debuted as Caitlyn, for example, intellectual shifts were taking place that would make a cultural event like this possible. What Trueman offers is the story of those shifts.

Trueman begins by diagnosing the state of modern Western culture so that, throughout the rest of the book, he can trace some of its intellectual preconditions. Here, he relies heavily on the work of three key thinkers: philosopher Charles Taylor, psychologist Philip Rieff, and ethicist Alasdair MacIntyre.

Of particular importance to Truemans narrative is the idea of the social imaginary, the term that Taylor uses to describe a societys basic intuitions about the world and the place of human beings within it. As each of us goes through life, we tend not to operate on the basis of a self-conscious commitment to a particular set of ideas. Instead, the process is much more intuitive. For example, only a generation ago, the claim Im a woman trapped in a mans body was widely understood to be nonsensical. This understanding owed less to a deep theoretical knowledge of gender and sex than it did to the widespread intuition that the world has an established order and meaning to which we must conform.

Today, the social imaginary has been radically reimagined. People tend to see the world and themselves more as raw material that they can bend and shape to suit their own purposes. This reimagining wasnt the result of learning new truths about the physical world but of subjugating the physical to the psychological. The modern idea of self has become thoroughly psychologized: Ones identity is defined not by a relationship with the external world but by an individual, internal sense of happiness. On this basis, the modern person operates according to what Taylor calls expressive individualism, desiring both to express an internal sense of self and to have that sense of self recognized and accepted by the external world.

Drawing from MacIntyres work, Trueman explains that expressive individualism has become the default mode of modern society. Because we lack a common framework for understanding who we are and why we exist, our moral discourse has degenerated into expressions of personal feelings and tastes. In order to satisfy our moral preferences, we feel we must be liberated from the repressive constraints of objective moral claims. Such liberation requires a full-scale campaign of cultural iconoclasm, of dismantling and disavowing the ideas and artifacts of the past so that we might pursue happiness on our ownthoroughly psychological and distinctly sexualterms.

After diagnosing the state of modern Western culture, Trueman spends the bulk of the book showing that our reimagined sense of self is rooted in intellectual shifts that had been taking place for several centuries.

The first shift was the psychologizing of the selfin other words, making ones feelings and desires foundational to ones identity. Trueman highlights the work of the 18th-century Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who laid the groundwork for this shift by arguing that we can only live authentically when our outward behavior can match our inner psychology. In a revolutionary step, Rousseau gives ethical priority to ones psychology, claiming that society is the enemy of the authentic self because it forces people to suppress their desires and conform to conventional morality.

At the turn of the 19th century, Rousseaus heirs within the Romantic movementparticularly the poets William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Blakewere instrumental in popularizing this psychological view of the self. Yet for all their calls to cast off the repressive influences of civilized society, these Romanticslike Rousseauwere confident that nature possessed a purposeful order upon which humans could build their lives. By the end of the 19th century, such confidence was greatly undermined by the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, and Charles Darwin. To Nietzsche and Marx, belief in transcendent reality and purposeful order are symptoms of psychological weakness and social sickness. Then, Darwins writings on evolution dealt the death blow by providing a new story of humankind that reduces human nature to something fluid and directionless.

With the belief that personal identity is psychological and self-determined, the stage was set for a second intellectual shift: the sexualizing of psychology. It was Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology, who in the early 20th century championed the insidious idea thats intoxicated modern society: Self-identity is grounded in sexual desire. Were essentially psychological, says Rousseau. Yet our psychology is essentially sexual, says Freud. Therefore, were essentially sexual. With Freud, sex is transformed from something we do into who we are.

After this transformation, it was only a matter of time before a third intellectual shift occurred: the politicizing of sex. Two Freudian acolytes, psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich and philosopher Herbert Marcuse, drove this shift by merging Marxist ideas of political oppression with the Freudian notion of sexual repression. They argued that, because humans are essentially sexual, there can be no political liberation without sexual liberation.

In response, from the mid-20th century to the present day, a bevy of writers and activists from the New Left have aimed for sexual liberation by attacking the most problematic of all bourgeois institutions: the nuclear family. As long as the nuclear family is considered good and necessary to the right ordering of society, allegedly repressive norms such as heterosexuality and monogamy will perpetuate an oppressive social hierarchy that rewards sexual conformity and punishes those who wish to follow their own sexual codes. On this understanding, political liberation depends on sexual liberationwhich depends on the dismantling of the nuclear family.

Though not everyone reaches the same conclusions, the underlying association of political liberation with sexual liberation is widely assumed today. Even if theyve never read the writings of Freud, Reich, Marcuse, and the New Left, many people intuitively believe that open and unqualified expression of sexual desire is essential to human identity and dignity.

Its this revolutionary belief that has transformed our social imaginary and led to a swift and stunning series of triumphs for the sexual revolution. Trueman devotes several chapters to detailing three triumphs in particular: the pervasiveness of eroticism in art and pop culture, the prioritization of psychological well-being in academic settings and legal or ethical arguments, and the widespread embrace of transgender identity.

Yet, as Trueman reiterates throughout his book, the triumphs of the sexual revolution are not as swift and stunning as they appear. Instead, theyre the latest logical outcomes of a society that has accepted expressive individualism as its basic premise. The road to sexual revolution was long and marked by a series of intellectual turns that were hardly inevitable. But once chosen, they led Western culture to where it is today.

As a preeminent church historian, Trueman is well-versed at telling the stories of intellectual turns and tracing their cultural consequences. Yet here Truemans aim is more modest: Rather than showing precisely how the ideas that undergird the sexual revolution have come to permeate our culture (for this would take many volumes), he intends only to show that these ideas arent new but have been preconditioned by several centuries of intellectual shifts. In this aim, he succeeds marvelously.

Yet certain segments of the book would have benefitted from some attention to causation. Ill give just one example: By moving from Rousseau (chapter 3) to Wordsworth (chapter 4) in his narrative, Trueman implies a causal relationship thats hardly clear. Though Wordsworth emphasizes the internal life of the poet, in his preface to the Lyrical Ballads he reins in any excess expressivism by describing the true poet as one who being possessed of more than usual organic sensibility, had also thought long and deeply. Also, Wordsworths reasons for using everyday language echo the literary choices of earlier poets like Dante, who in De Vulgari Eloquentia insists that vernacular is natural and more noble than the artificial language of educated elites. Further, Wordsworth's distinction between poetry and history stands in the tradition of Aristotle and the poet Sir Philip Sidney.

So, it could be that Wordsworth owes more to Rousseau than to these earlier poets, but the lack of a clear causal connection blunts Truemans dramatic claim that Wordsworth stands near the head of a path that leads to Hugh Hefner and Kim Kardashian. A similar lack of causal explanation blunts the force of other conclusions that Trueman makes throughout the book.

Yet this critique should take nothing away from the fact that The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is a signal achievement of cultural analysis. Readers wishing to understand the cultural convulsions and social upheavals taking place in the West will find this an indispensable book. Its a masterclass on the fact that, while all ideas have consequences, some ideas are more consequential than others. Trueman shows that the consequences arising from ideas about human nature and identity can be especially revolutionary.

This fact should help guide the churchs response to the sexual revolution. Just as the revolution was made possible by certain preconditioned ideas about human nature and identity, any successful counter-revolution must arise from preconditions of its own. The church must lead the way by articulating and modeling a vision of true human identity and community. And we must do this with the knowledge that were unlikely to see any significant change in our own day. The road to sexual revolution was long, and so too will be the road to renewal. But its the only faithful road, and so its the one we must take.

Timothy Kleiser is a teacher and writer from Louisville, Kentucky. His writing has appeared in National Review, The American Conservative, Modern Age, The Boston Globe, Front Porch Republic, and elsewhere.

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The Triumph of the Sexual Revolution Seems Stunni... - ChristianityToday.com

By Shade Vaughn3 minute Read

For some, digital transformation may seem like a traditional business project that has a distinct beginning and end. However, the savviest organizations know that it has no defined starting point, and there is no true finish line. Digital transformation will continue to evolve and scale with the business, and it will require building consensus across numerous functional silos.

It also isnt something that naturally happenscompanies need to make the conscious decision to proactively define and manage their own digital transformation objectives, especially as spending on digital transformation increases each year. In fact, according to IDC, global spending on digital transformation technologies and services will grow 10.4 percent in 2020 to $1.3 trillion.

The investment is paying off. Those that had already begun executing against a digital transformation strategy were able to navigate the dramatic changes that resulted from the current pandemic.

While it might feel natural to look to the IT department to shepherd a digital transformation effort, marketers have specific skill sets that make them well-equipped to take on a leadership role. Marketers can help their companies use transformative technology to strengthen engagement between brands and customers, improve business performance and operations, and increase employee engagement.

According to Gartner consulting, 87% of senior business leaders say digitalization is a company priority, however only 40% of organizations have brought digital initiatives to scale. To address this gap, marketers can tap into one of their many areas of expertise and showcase their value to the project:

Marketers can use their communications skills to help energize and educate employees about the benefits of undergoing a digital transformation effort. More than six out of 10 respondents consider culture as the number one hurdle to digital transformation, according to Capgeminis Digital Transformation Review 12th Edition, and marketers can help push the needle with effective communication strategies. When the pandemic disrupted the restaurant industry, Friendlys Restaurants rapidly transformed their technology strategy to include contactless options. Friendlys CIO recognized the strength of its culture as a key factor in the companys successthey embraced the new processes and rose to the occasion.

Marketers have the insight and perspective to shape digital transformation efforts to maximize the value to the customer. After all, they are well-versed in the customer journey and how to establish strong connections across all touchpoints. To build a relevant roadmap, organizations need to take a long view of what they want a digital transformation strategy to accomplishacross people, performance, operations, and customers.

By nature of the role, marketers have acquired a vast amount of knowledge about their organizationits strengths, its weaknesses, and how it operates day-to-day. They are able to have a birds-eye view of the business and build an ecosystem of trusted partners who are willing to put skin in the game and ensure value. This type of foresight will go a long way when executing against a digital transformation strategy as it requires strong talent in development and technology-related areas.

Advances in marketing technology have changed drastically over the past 10 yearsand so has the role of the marketer. The days of simply generating impressions and clicks are mostly gone; now, more effective dollars are being spent on buyer intent and propensity-to-buy tools, data and analytics, search marketing, digital campaigns, and social selling. Many marketers have embraced this digital-forward world and welcomed the many opportunities it presents to connect with customers in new and exciting ways. They are usually on the forefront of innovation and strive to inspire others in their quest for marketing excellence and fueling business growth.

While marketing can confidently take charge, it still needs to be in lockstep with the IT department. After all, there is no digital transformation without a technology evolution, and that requires a heavy lift from IT. The two teams should work together to solve business problems, implement systems that support the larger goal, and find new ways to create value for customers.

For example, IT and marketing teamed up to create an improved fan experience for the San Francisco 49ers. Innovative technology was implemented to ensure football fans stay connected throughout the season, and the new site (IGYB) incorporates different aspects of digital and social media marketing to provide the latest updates and resources.

Marketers are creative and nimble, constantly on the lookout for new ways to innovate. By putting them in prominent leadership positions within a digital transformation overhaul, there will be an immediate shift in communication effort, diligence, and culture.

Shade Vaughn is Chief Marketing Officer for Capgemini North America.

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4 reasons why marketing should drive your company's digital evolution - Fast Company

Read Part One

People often talk about consciousness as a mystery. But there isnt anything mysterious about consciousness itself; nothing is better known to us than our own experiences.

Philosopher Philip Goff, writing in his essay, Bertrand Russell and the Problem of Consciousness

I mentioned, yesterday, that a group of scientists and philosophers have been pushing a radical idea lately.

Pan-psychism Pan meaning, Everywhere, and Psych meaning, Consciousness. Panpsychism, then, is the belief that consciousness is everywhere.

Given the failure of modern science to define and explain the one thing that is common to every human being consciousness the panpsychists have proposed a general concept that consciousness is just as much an essential building block of reality as are space, time, matter and energy. The theory postulates that consciousness is present in everything, from the largest galaxies to the smallest subatomic particles.

That everything everything has some level of awareness of its surroundings and perhaps even some level of intentionality.

This is not a new idea. Cultures all around the world, down through history, have apparently held similar beliefs that everything in nature is blessed with consciousness, although some have taught that consciousness is found only in living beings (people, animals, plants).

Ancient Hindu scriptures, dating back to perhaps 1500 BC, are interpreted differently by different teachers, (and always have been), but one popular teaching holds that the universe, as we know it and experience it, is a single, unified consciousness and that all conscious beings are, in essence, sharing one and the same consciousness. Such a world view can easily accommodate the idea that a nocturnal dream might allow access to special areas of the universal consciousness inaccessible to us when were awake. That special access might allow us to look into the future, or develop unique insights into the situations were facing during the daytime.

This Hindu understanding of the world as a unified consciousness, poses a strong challenge to the materialist view that science has been promoting, ever more aggressively, for the past 400 years, especially in Europe and North America. In general, the materialist view has long maintained that consciousness, far from being universal, exists only in human beings if it even exists at all? (See Part One of this essay, for a brief overview of the idea, as promoted by philosopher and scientist Daniel Dennett, that consciousness is merely an illusion created by the mechanical firing of synapses in the brain.)

The materialist often views the world as lifeless matter that, in certain accidental combinations caused by an non-conscious process called evolution, gives the appearance of being something more than lifeless matter. To the materialist, a nocturnal dream something that presents no physical evidence of its occurrence other than some electrical activity in a recessed corner of the brain and some random eye movement and perhaps some twitching in the hands and feet can have little significance.

Something that has little physical significance gets ignored, if you believe the world is exclusively physical.

This materialist view would appear, on its face, to deny not only Hindu beliefs in a universal consciousness, but also Judeo-Christian beliefs in humankind as created in Gods image and as having inherited from the Creator a range of intellectual and moral characteristics.

The panpsychists are now challenging the materialist world view. How far they will get, no one knows. But I want to touch for a moment on another idea weve briefly considered in this essay.

Confirmation bias.

Ill repeat a quote I shared earlier, attributed to billionaire Warren Buffett: What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.

If Warren Buffett is correct, confirmation bias the tendency of people to favor information that confirms their existing beliefs, and to undervalue evidence that could disprove those beliefs is not only a common human trait, but its what we do best.

I enjoy hearing alternative view on current events from our Daily Post readers and contributors. Different views on the Biden-Trump election, for example. Different views on the COVID pandemic. Different view on local politics. Sometimes, I end up in lengthy email exchanges with these friends, and I am often amazed at how often highly intelligent people will look at only one side of an issue, and totally discount and ignore the evidence on the other side of the coin. (I have no doubt that Im suffering from the same malady, at least on occasion, and rarely notice it.)

And it seems that, the less certain a person is about the certain question, the more desperately they cling to their biased opinions.

Right now, many scientists are clinging to a materialist view of the universe, and feel justified in their biases because science has made great progress in understanding certain physical processes.

But what happens when a process is not physical? What then?

Bill Hudson

Bill Hudson founded the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 based on the belief that community leaders often tell only one side of the story while the public deserves to hear all sides.

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ESSAY: Dreams and Perception, Part Seven - Pagosa Daily Post

Most people know Wish as a site that sells throwaway doodads from China, but in anticipation of its impending IPO, the 10-year-old San Francisco-based company has begun portraying itself as a kind of Amazon for the rest of us.

Judging by what weve read and heard from sources in recent months, Wish wants to paint itself as a patriotic alternative to the trillion-dollar juggernaut and is positioning itself as the better option for the estimated 60% of families in the U.S. without enough liquid savings to get through three months of expenses. Such cost-conscious customers cant afford Amazon Prime and are at least in Wishs telling willing to wait an extra week or three for a product if it means paying considerably less for it.

Well know soon enough if public market investors buy the pitch. Wish registered plans this morning to sell 46 million shares at between $22 an $24 per share in an IPO thats expected to take place next week. The current range would value Wish at up to $14 billion, up from the $11.2 billion valuation it was last assigned by its private investors.

Wish has a lot of reasons to feel optimistic about its story heading into the offering. For one thing, people are clearly still discovering its business. According to Sensor Tower, Wishs mobile shopping app was downloaded 9 million times last month, compared with the 6 million downloads that Amazons shopping app saw and the 2 million downloads seen by Walmart. In 2019, across all types of apps, Wish was the 16th most downloaded app.

Theres a lot to discover once potential customers do check out Wish. According to the companys prospectus, its more than 100 million monthly active users across more than 100 countries are now shopping from 500,000 merchants that are selling approximately 150 million items on the platform.

While many of these are the nonessential tchotchkes that Wish has long been identified with, from tattoo kits to pet nail trimmers, a growing percentage of the mix also includes essential goods like paper towels and disinfectants the kinds of items that keep customers coming back in reliable fashion.

Its a bit of an evolution for the company, whose early focus was almost exclusively on cheap items that didnt weigh much. From the start, Wish has worked with unbranded merchants, mostly in China, who dont have marketing costs built into their products and like the platform because it enables them to reach new customers for free without cannibalizing their existing market.

Until recently, Wish which takes 15% of each transaction had also relied heavily on a partnership with the USPS and China called ePacket that enabled it to send items overseas to the U.S. for $1 to $2 as long as the items werent unusually large or heavy. That changed on July 1, with a new USPS pricing structure that now requires companies like Wish to pay more to ship their goods or else move to more costly commercial networks.

It could have been a deadly blow, but Wish had back-up plans. One of these has involved packing together multiple orders in China based on customers locations, then sending them in bulk to the U.S. to a designated location where they can be picked up.

Relatedly, dating back to early 2019, Wish began partnering with what are now tens of thousands of small businesses in the U.S. and Europe that stock its products, trading their storage space for access to Wishs customers along with a small financial bonus for every in-store pickup. (Wish will pay store owners even more if they can deliver orders directly to customers homes.) According to Forbes, these partnerships provided Wish with an inexpensive distribution network practically overnight.

It happens to fit neatly into a larger anti-Amazon narrative wherein the Goliath (Amazon), unable to disrupt convenience stores, is now trying to supplant them with its own branded convenience shops, while Wish may be helping them prosper. Wish also boasts a very asset-lite model compared with Amazon. Wish doesnt hold inventory; it also doesnt have to buy or maintain a fleet of cargo planes or trucks or warehouses.

None of these developments completely counter the challenges that unprofitable Wish is still facing, beginning with its scale, which remains tiny compared with the towering giants it faces.

While the company is showing moderate revenue growth, its filings also show steady losses owing in part to its marketing spend. (In 2019, Wish reported revenue of $1.9 billion, up 10% year over year, but it saw a net loss of $136 million.)

The company has been making inroads into new geographies around the world, but it is still heavily dependent on China-based merchants. To address this, it has reportedly begun partnering increasingly with more U.S. and Europe-based retailers, including those with overstocked or returned items to offload, along with those looking to sell refurbished electronics. Wed love to diversify, co-founder and CEO Peter Szulczewski told Forbes this summer.

Wish has always been plagued by quality control issues, too, which it has yet to resolve. In fact, there are YouTube channels some very funny focused entirely around what Wish products look like in reality versus how they are presented to shoppers online (see below).

Partly, its a cultural issue. For example, at a 2016 event hosted by this editor, co-founder and CEO Peter Szulczewski talked about having to educate Chinese merchants about American customers expectations. Its true that consumer expectations in China are very different, Szulczewski explained at the time. Like, if you order a red sweater and you get a blue one, [shoppers are] like, Eh, next time. So we have a lot of merchants that have only sold to Chinese consumers and we have to educate them that its not okay to ship a blue sweater because you dont have any red sweaters in stock.

Wish has been working to close the gap, as well as to tackle outright fraud on the platform. Just one of many moves has involved hiring a former community manager at Facebook as its own director of community engagement, a task that reportedly involves organizing Wish users to weed out bad apples. But Wish has surely lost customers burned by shopping experiences along the way.

In the meantime, plenty of public market investors will be watching and waiting to see what happens next week. So will the venture firms that have provided the company with $2.1 billion in funding over the years, including Formation 8, Third Point Ventures, GGV Capital, Raptor Group, Legend Capital, IDG Capital, DST Global, 8VC, 137 Ventures and Vika Ventures.

For her part, Anna Palmer of Boston-based Flybridge Capital Partners who does not have a stake in Wish but who is focused very much on so-called commerce 3.0 thinks that Wish serves a different use case and a different customer need than the Amazon shopper.

If you look at the strong retail performance of the off-price and discount market think of retailers like Dollar General and Dollar Tree it bodes well for the continued growth of Wish, especially since the discount market has been a tough one to bring online because of the additional logistics costs involved.

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Wish wants to be the Amazon for the rest of us; will retail investors buy it? - TechCrunch