Technology

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH®”AND ALLIES CALL ON 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TO SIGN THE “CHILDREN’S INTERNET SAFETY PRESIDENTIAL PLEDGE” PRIORITIZING THE PREVENTION OF ONLINE CHILD EXPLOITATION

Published

2 days ago

October 14, 2024

Pledge supported by more than 60 organizations and survivors

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The online exploitation and abuse of children has reached pandemic proportions and is one of the greatest public health issues facing youth in America. On September 23, 2024, Enough Is Enough® (EIE) sent the bipartisan “2024 Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge” to Vice President Harris and former President Trump for signature. EIE and our allies are hopeful that both candidates will eagerly support the Pledge.

EIE is joined by Pledge Supporting Organizations and Survivor Leaders representing millions of Americans, calling upon the 2024 presidential candidates, if elected, to adopt the 2024 Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge to defend the innocence and dignity of America’s children in the digital world. Preventing the online exploitation and abuse of children is a unifying non-partisan issue that has widespread bipartisan support at both the federal and state level of governments.

“America must ramp up efforts to win the war against the multi-billion-dollar child exploitation, trafficking and pornography criminal enterprises. Big Tech must be held responsible and accountable to put the safety of youth over profits,” said EIE President Donna Rice Hughes. “We can’t continue to fight a raging forest fire with a squirt gun. The 47th President of the United States has both the challenge and opportunity through the presidential appointment process, directives, policies, a robust legislative agenda and the implementation of the Pledge to fight this war on all fronts to make the internet safer for children and families. An entire generation will be lost if online threats to children are not mitigated now.”

Supporting Research reveals online child sexual exploitation has reached alarming levels:

NCMEC received 36.2 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation containing more than 105 million images/videos to its CyberTipline, and reported a 300% increase in online enticement cases since 2021.Younger and younger children are being targeted “on an industrial scale” by internet groomers, with a three-fold increase in imagery showing 7–10-year-olds.Global financial sextortion is one of fastest growing crimes targeting children, in particular minor-aged boys.The Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health indicated social media could pose a “profound risk of harm” to the mental health and well-being of children, stating it’s a “defining public health challenge of our times.”More than half of children (ages 13-17) said they viewed violent pornography depicting rape, choking, someone in pain.

In summary, the six key Pledge tenets call on each candidate to promise, if elected as President, to:

Uphold the rule of law by ensuring aggressive enforcement and funding of existing federal laws and advancing sound public policies to prevent the online exploitation and abuse of children;

Direct the Surgeon General to undertake investigations to address the public health risks of the online exploitation and abuse of minor children;

Consider the creation of a bipartisan Presidential Commission to examine the links between obscene pornography, child sexual abuse material, online exploitation and sex trafficking, and make recommendations to the Administration and Congress;

Advance bipartisan legislation requiring internet technology services and platforms to improve safety measures, policies, tools and reporting mechanisms and also promote voluntary efforts;

Consider the creation of a White House position of Children’s Internet Safety Director to oversee the President’s domestic policy on children’s internet safety issues, and;Support bipartisan Congressional efforts to amend Section #230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996

During the 2016 election cycle, EIE issued the historic bipartisan Children’s internet Safety Presidential Pledge signed by then candidate Donald J Trump and supported via letter by Secretary Clinton.

“When the next President of the United States says ‘enough is enough’ to the internet-enabled exploitation of our nation’s youth, the tide will begin to turn,” concluded Ms. Hughes.

About Enough Is Enough
Enough Is Enough® is a national nonpartisan, non-profit organization who has led the fight to make the internet safer for children and families since 1994. EIE’s efforts to prevent the internet-enabled exploitation of children incorporate a four-pronged holistic strategy with shared responsibilities between the public, corporate America, government and faith community. Enough Is Enough does not endorse or oppose candidates for office.

Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO of Enough Is Enough®, is an internationally known internet safety expert, author, speaker, media commentator, producer and host of the Emmy-Award winning PBS Internet Safety series and host of podcast, “Internet Safety, with Donna Rice Hughes“.

Support of The 2024 Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge in no way constitutes an endorsement of either presidential candidate or political party.

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Technology

OutSystems Celebrates the World’s Leading Software Innovators at the 2024 Innovation Awards and Build for the Future Hackathon

Published

35 mins ago

October 16, 2024

2024 ONE Conference recognizes major breakthroughs in application generation, marking the beginning of the generative software era

SINGAPORE , Oct. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — OutSystems, a global leader transforming how companies innovate through software, today announced the highly anticipated winners of its 2024 Innovation Awards and the Build for the Future Hackathon. Leading global brands including Bosch, HEINEKEN and Toyota are credited as some of the most innovative companies using low-code application development to turn big ideas into software that drives their business, people, and the world forward.

The winners were unveiled at the ONE: OutSystems NextStep Experience conference. More than 2,000 IT experts and industry developers from around the world – including senior leaders from Gartner, Axos Bank, Carrefour, Roche, and more – united at ONE to explore the powerful trends shaping the future of Gen-AI powered software development.

The OutSystems Innovation Awards are an established industry benchmark to celebrate OutSystems customers that are creating meaningful impact and exemplifying the power of AI-powered low-code application development. The Build for the Future Hackathon complements the Innovation Awards by raising awareness of unique applications that have the potential to support nonprofits in achieving their goals.

“The winners of the 2024 Innovation Awards are pushing the boundaries of enterprise application development and empowering their organizations to build mission-critical software. With the recent announcement of Mentor, our customers will continue to be at the forefront of innovation as we enter a new era for generative software,” said Andy Pemberton, Chief Customer Officer at OutSystems.

The full list of the OutSystems 2024 Innovation Award winners includes:

Banca Generali: Legacy Modernisation – Banca Generali leveraged OutSystems to modernize over 70 internal legacy applications, improving processes, agility and operational efficiency. In less than two years, the bank created a Center of Excellence and re-engineered 28 apps, resulting in a 30-40% reduction in both time and costs, while increasing overall efficiency by 50%.Bosch: AI/Emerging Tech – Bosch partnered with OutSystems to develop Skillinx, an AIoT platform and one of the first Industry 5.0 applications to facilitate Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC). Skillinx has enabled Bosch to ramp up teams for new assembly lines in four days, compared to the previous time frame of four weeks.EVOxCharge: Environmental Impact – EVOxCharge selected OutSystems to support its electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions in the Philippines. Using OutSystems, it developed a mobile app in less than three months, allowing EV owners to locate charging stations, check availability, view costs and charging status, and pay directly through the app.HEINEKEN: High Performance Team – With big development needs and goals, HEINEKEN adopted a federated development model using OutSystems. This approach has enabled the company to scale app development globally while upholding high security and quality standards across all solutions.HORNE: Social Impact – To support the management of disaster recovery programs across the United States, HORNE uses OutSystems to build sophisticated applications that rapidly distribute billions of dollars in aid to those affected. So far, HORNE has dispersed $109 billion across 19 states and two US territories in response to natural disasters.Sport Lisboa e Benfica: Customer Experiences – Benfica turned to OutSystems to enhance the digital experience for its 10 million supporters worldwide through a new mobile app. Powered by OutSystems, the app enables Benfica to interact with fans and members in exciting new ways, strengthening engagement across the football club.Toyota Motor Corporation: Enterprise Digital Transformation – Since 2015, Toyota has expanded its use of OutSystems across 23 Toyota Group companies to accelerate its digital transformation, ensuring a flexible IT environment unburdened by legacy systems. This allowed Toyota to leverage OutSystems for over 70 applications, extending use cases beyond legacy modernization to include innovative front-end development.

The winners of the 2024 Build for the Future Hackathon, which took place between September 23 – 30, are:

1st Place: Team Escala – Developed an innovative mobile app that transforms the power of imagination into melodies for children with autism.2nd Place: Team tiramiSIU – Created a platform offering career guidance and mental health support for ex-prisoners.3rd Place (Tied):
– Advancialist 2.0 – Designed an app that transcribes lectures in real-time, empowering hearing-impaired students.
– PhoenixDX Champions – Developed an app to enhance engagement between case workers and children facing emotional challenges.

Developers invited to participate in this year’s Hackathon were challenged to create unique, impactful AI-powered applications which will help 26 nonprofit organizations to support their communities. This year, more than 330 participants from 17 countries used OutSystems AI Agent Builder, supported by AWS and Microsoft AI services.

“The Build for the Future Hackathon is an initiative we are extremely proud of as it enables IT leaders, developers and innovators to take a fresh look at what’s possible with low-code. Every participant brings such a high level of creativity, passion and dedication and the solutions they have developed will, without a doubt, have a real and positive impact. These innovations don’t just solve problems—they have the potential to truly change the world for the better,” said Miguel Baltazar, Vice President of Developers at OutSystems.

To learn more about this year’s transformative impact of AI-powered high-performance low-code software development, visit the 2024 Build for the Future Hackathon.

About OutSystems

OutSystems is a global leader transforming how companies innovate through software, empowering IT leaders with a better way to build the software that matters most. The OutSystems platform helps companies develop, deploy, and maintain mission-critical applications by unifying and automating the entire software lifecycle. With OutSystems, organizations leverage GenAI to deliver software instantaneously, adapt faster to changing requirements, and reduce technical debt by building on a future-proof platform. Helping customers achieve their business goals by addressing key strategic initiatives, OutSystems delivers software up to 10x faster than traditional development. Recognized as a leader by analysts, IT executives, business leaders, and developers around the world, global brands trust OutSystems to tackle their impossible projects and turn their big ideas into software that moves their business, people, and the world forward.

Founded in 2001, the company’s network spans more than 800,000 community members, over 500 partners, and active customers in 75+ countries across 21 industries. Learn more at www.outsystems.com.

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Technology

Talent Lifecycle Management Company Cappfinity Appoints Chief Skills Officer

Published

35 mins ago

October 16, 2024

LONDON, Oct. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The skills-based Talent Lifecycle Management company Cappfinity announces the appointment of Celine Floyd into its new Chief Skills Officer role. This role recognizes Cappfinity’s extensive skills proposition, voice and prominence in helping organizations globally realize a Skills First agenda.

Co-CEO Nicky Garcea remarked, ‘We are delighted to see Celine move into this pivotal appointment. It acknowledges and celebrates Celine as a strategic leader, and her vital role in helping our clients develop comprehensive skills strategies. We are excited to see this move enable Cappfinity to powerfully lead the charge in helping our clients reverse skills shortages, future-proof their organizations against talent gaps, and ensure their competitiveness in the global marketplace.’

Celine Floyd, Chief Skills Officer, says ‘This feels like an incredibly exciting time for Cappfinity. In the Chief Skills Officer role I will be able to drive our extensive skills-based proposition, leveraging two decades’ worth of research, data and track record. I’m looking forward to supporting more organizations to realize a skills-based transformation and unlock people potential at scale.’

The appointment of a Chief Skills Officer for Cappfinity underpins the increasing presence the talent lifecycle management firm has globally, specifically in the definition, measurement and development of skills. Cappfinity’s extensively research-backed skills taxonomy (the 80 Skills Framework) and prominent voice on skill types (their behavioral, cognitive and technical skills model) serve the Cappfinity Skills Suite, whose products are helping hundreds of organizations across sectors realize the power of skills.

To learn more about Cappfinity, please visit https://cappfinity.com/

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SOURCE Cappfinity

Technology

EDMI Achieves New Milestone with 9 Million SMETS2 Devices for Great Britain

Published

35 mins ago

October 16, 2024

LONDON, Oct. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — EDMI, a Global Energy Solution Leader, has successfully delivered over 9 million SMETS2 devices as part of the ongoing residential smart meter rollout in Great Britain. This milestone includes 5 million Communications Hubs and 4 million smart electricity and gas meters. The delivery marks a significant step in the transformation of the energy landscape, enabling households to better manage energy consumption and support the wider grid infrastructure.

EDMI is currently the only company in the market that designs, manufactures, and supplies all eight SMETS2 device types.

The Communications Hub, a key part of this success, is a detachable gateway that integrates essential functions such as connectivity, data storage, and smart functionalities. Leveraging its expertise in SMETS2 technology, EDMI is set to expand its gateway solutions to new markets, supporting the transformation of the electricity system.

Michael Somersmith, Managing Director at EDMI Europe, remarked, “The pace of technology change requires new approaches, and separating the ‘smarts’ from the metrology is an exciting new path forward for us. We are now seeing in numerous European countries the adoption of detachable and separate gateways and app layers, helping to unlock important use cases for Distribution System Operators (DSOs) and third-party providers.”

To learn more about EDMI’s latest gateway offerings and its contributions to the transformation of energy systems, visit us at Enlit Europe 2024, which takes place in Milan, Italy, from 22 to 24 October 2024.

About EDMI

EDMI is a leading global provider of smart metering solutions. With a focus on designing, developing and manufacturing innovative smart meters and metering systems, EDMI serves utility industries worldwide. The company’s portfolio includes a comprehensive range of smart metering devices, data management and energy resource management systems. EDMI is owned by Osaki Electric Co., Ltd, a Japanese metering solutions provider listed on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Learn more: www.edmi-meters.com.

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