ThinkTWENTY20

Discussion Areas on the Web: Reddit

: on 25 August 2020

Online discussion areas have been part of the technology world before the Internet and the traditional online services (America Online, Compuserve, Prodigy, etc.). Usenet, for example, had a place of prominence from 1980 to 2010. Of Usenet, they said, “The entire realm of human knowledge is shared on Usenet every four days.” They also said, “The average person uses less than 10% of their brain, and Usenet proves it is probably lower than that.”

The successors to Usenet today are obvious, as a Google/Bing/Baidu/Yahoo/DuckDuckGo search on a topic will likely return results from some of them – in particular, Quora and Reddit. I have a special place in my heart for Reddit, as Quora requires you to log in to see much of anything. Reddit brings together people with just about any interests to discuss topics. One estimate has 1.2 million different topical areas (called subreddits), of which around 140,000 are active. As such, it is a top 10 visited website globally.

For financial professionals, there are many existing different groups of interest. Each group has its own etiquette and moderators with various degrees of dedication to keep things civil and on track. Participation level and quality control is often left to the participants to self-regulate. A starting point for those thinking of a career in the world would be a subreddit such as r/Accounting (www.reddit.com/r/Accounting). Primarily designed as a point for people to discuss accounting careers, people will ask accounting and reporting questions, ethics questions, and much more. Likewise, r/Tax is for tax careers and r/TaxPros is for working tax professionals to share notes.

How is technology changing financial services? There’s r/fintech. Can I get help with my accounting software or help others? You will find specialized (but maybe not so active) groups like r/Quickbooks or r/Epicor.

Branching off to the world of cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin, there are groups such as r/Bitcoin, r/CryptoCurrency, r/ethFinance and more.

In my next entry, I hope to share some lessons learned (often the hard way) by posters to these latter groups.

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Digital Trust – A New Look at an Older Issue

Tuesday, 20 September 2022

The predominant method of connecting with others to conduct business transactions is now through digital means. In most cases, the actual people connecting don’t know each other and are operating amid a complex web of technologies, many of which they do not understand. As with any business transaction, there must be a degree of trust in order for the transactions to take place successfully. And even for the business to remain viable.

The need for companies to address this situation strategically and operationally has led to the idea of Digital Trust. According to ISACA, “Digital trust is the confidence in the relationship and transactions among providers and consumers within an associated digital ecosystem. This includes the ability of people, organizations, process, information and technology to create and maintain a trustworthy digital world.”

It was stated in a recent ISACA survey (Available at https://www.isaca.org/digital-trust/state-of-digital-trust) that “the top three most important components of digital trust according to the survey respondents are security, data integrity and privacy, but only half (50 percent) of respondents agree that there is sufficient collaboration at their organization among professionals who work in these fields.” At the same time, “85 percent of respondents say that digital trust is extremely or very important to organizations today, and 63 percent say that digital trust is extremely or very relevant to their job role, only 66 percent say that their organization prioritizes digital trust in line with its level of importance.”

Clearly there is work to be done. It is generally agreed that the Directors and C-suite must drive the work. Then it must be carried out by a company wide network of people, including those responsible for security, data integrity and privacy. This in itself cuts across a broad swathe of company activity. But, as always, it’s important to note that digital trust must not be viewed as a technological activity but rather than one that must involve most elements of the organization.

Companies are generally taking the area of digital trust more seriously than in the past. Some take specific measures to measure their level of digital trust maturity, using outside reviews by experts and/or established security-based frameworks.

In this time of digital commerce, few business activities are more important.

Web3 Blockchain is About to Skyrocket.

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According to Market Research Future, the value of the Web3 blockchain technology sector will exceed $6 trillion in 2023, and from 2023 to 2030, Web3 will expand at a CAGR of 44.6%.

It’s seems clear where Blockchain is on the hype cycle. We already went through the initial hype. Then for many, the collapse of cyber currencies this year has brought on a trough of disillusionment. However, after that we have in the Gartner Hype Cycle a period of enlightenment, which may be represented by the Web3 phenomenon as well as a host of other emerging applications of Blockchain. Finally, the new technology settles into a period of productivity, when the usefulness of it is established and it is used in a growing and vibrant new field. This also seems to be where Web3 is taking us.

The latest Newsletter from the Blockchain Council, available on linkedin, sets out the future of Web3 in more detail.