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cladeymoore · 4 years

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How companies will work post COVID19: embracing a remote-first culture.

Companies are thinking about how and when to have employees come back to work. Due to social distancing requirements, many are realizing that they will only be able to have up to 50% of employees return to offices at most.

At the same time, many companies are realizing that remote work has worked better than they expected. They are now asking themselves whether they should keep some portion of their work force remote indefinitely.

For most companies, it will be a mix of remote and in-office. Here’s why:

Some employees are unable to stay remote indefinitely, because they are in difficult situations at home (studio apartment, no dedicated working space, distractions etc). Even when schools reopen and caregivers return to work, this will only partially alleviate the problem.

Some employees don’t want to return to the office, because they are happier and more productive at home. Once given, items are more difficult to take away, and top talent will come to expect remote work as an option.

A common piece of advice one hears is that a hybrid state of remote and in-office is the worst of both worlds. But given the requirements above, most companies will end up here. So what is the solution?

Options B and C likely require a remote-first culture to be successful.

The solution is to embrace the hybrid state and give it the best chance of success by turning your company into a remote-first culture.

What does remote-first mean?

Remote first means there is no disadvantage to working at home versus in-office. All employees have the same experience. If you don’t make the culture remote-first, you create a prisoner’s dilemma that encourages people to keep coming into offices.

Here is what remote-first means in practice:

1. Everyone dials in separately to meetings

Even if some employees are in one office, they each dial in separately to meetings.

2. More phone booths in office versus conference rooms

Employees dialing in to meetings from the office can do so from their desk, but they may want privacy in phone booth style small meeting rooms.

3. One floor in ten cities versus ten floors in one city

Companies will start to maintain lightweight offices in more cities (probably managed by third parties like WeWork), for employees who still want to come into an office, or direct employees to join co-working spaces. The rest will work from home. There will be less emphasis on a centralized headquarters with an expensive buildout that is customized to one company.

4. Less assigned seating

In the lightweight offices, companies will allocate some portion of desks that are first come first serve. Consulting companies have been doing this for years.

5. More written and asynchronous communication

Teams will rely more on wikis and written documentation. Gitlab has over 5,000 pages of public documentation about how they operate, and tools like Notion have made this easier than ever.

6. Clustering in certain time zones

Opening up most roles to remote work increases the top of funnel, but for everyone to have an equal experience it is beneficial to have employees clustered in certain time zones so that they can work together during the day.

Benefits to remote work

1. Hiring and retaining top talent

Location and commute are one of the biggest challenges companies face when hiring and retaining team members. I frequently hear “soul crushing commute” cited as a factor in departures here in San Francisco, and several friends have commented to me how much more productive/happy they are with an additional 1–2 hours every day where they are not commuting. Opening roles up to remote also dramatically increases the top of the funnel (probably by 1–2 orders of magnitude). A major part of recruiting effort is spent in convincing candidates and their families, often unsuccessfully, to relocate.

2. Employees will come to expect it

There is a fiercely competitive market for talent out there, especially in major hub cities. I believe that as more companies come to offer remote work options, companies who don’t will be at a disadvantage.

3. It de-risks centralizing too much in one location

As a company headquartered in San Francisco, employees have struggled with the rising cost of housing, long commutes, and to some extent quality of life. Part of the vision for Coinbase is to create a world with more economic freedom, and not being tied to one location is a key part of this. I expect that more companies over time will try to avoid vendor lock in, not just in the traditional sense, but in terms of where they are located.

4. Lifestyle

For those who have a suitable work environment set up at home (which is definitely not everyone), there is an aspect of remote work that just seems more fun. Employees can spend time in different cities without taking vacation days, see their children grow up, and avoid noisy or interruption prone offices.

Of course, it’s true that remote work is not better in all aspects.

Risks of remote work

1. Reduced collaboration and creativity

The early stages of remote work can feel more productive, as you finally get to race through your backlogged todo list. But what happens when alignment (that was largely generated in person), starts to fade? Moreover, how do we replace the unplanned moments of serendipity, walking by someone’s desk or lunch table, that lead to new ideas and innovation. More practically, how do you replace the whiteboard?

Potential mitigant: host regular in person meetups for each team, say twice a year.

2. Reduced camaraderie

Working remotely can get lonely. It will be interesting to learn more about remote work’s impact on morale, belonging, loyalty, and retention.

Potential mitigant: recreate team bonding moments virtually, with a variety of tools coming on the market [1 2], in addition to bi-annual in person meetups.

3. Home office set up

While it’s relatively straightforward to get employees the equipment they need, the real question is whether they have the space to use it. Home offices are a bit of a luxury, and a far cry from what many SF residents experience. High rent means less space and more roommates — not ideal for a home office.

Potential mitigant: Give employees the option to work from co-working spaces, or more lightweight offices that the company maintains in certain locations. Give employees budgets and guidance on great work from home setups. [1] Remote work also opens up hiring to lower cost of living locations where employees may have more space.

4. Performance management

It could be tempting for employees to relax their standards without a manager nearby. Remote work comes with a lot of freedom, so it’s important to have high trust that employees will deliver high quality work. An interesting choice to explore is whether remote work should be the default or an earned privilege.

Potential mitigant: practice measuring outputs, not inputs. Note: this is probably best practice in general, since it’s easy to appear busy in an office as well, without getting much done.

5. Learning and development

It can be more difficult for more new and less experienced employees to get up to speed when there is no neighbor to turn to and ask for help.

Potential mitigant: emphasize in onboarding that it is not just ok, but expected, to ask for help if you are stuck on something for more than 15 minutes. Invest in better documentation using wiki software like Notion and Confluence.

6. Time zones

Remote work suffers when teammates don’t have overlapping times of day where they can collaborate.

Potential mitigant: Publish a set of tier 1 (preferred), tier 2 (tolerated), and tier 3 (only approved by exception) time zones to focus your recruiting efforts.

Conclusion

I was initially skeptical of remote work as a way to build a top tier company, but I must say that this forced experiment, brought about by COVID19, has really made me reconsider. Companies have an incredible amount of overhead maintaining various offices and getting employees to show up in the right places physically. It reminds me of companies managing their own data centers before AWS. A remote company can be more nimble and dynamic.

I also can’t wait to see how remote work tools advance with this new wave of investment. VR, whiteboards, and getting all the little details right around lighting, sharing, knowing when to speak, etc will improve greatly in the coming years. Today, an in person meeting is still better than remote (all else being equal), but that gap is closing.

We are trying to figure this out, along with everyone else, and I would say my thinking on it is still evolving. I wanted to collect my thoughts in one place here to help us learn, share with others, and get additional feedback. I’m sure our thinking will continue to evolve over time.

If you are interested in figuring out the future of remote work with us, please check out our open roles and apply for a position. You may be seeing more remote roles open here soon!

How companies will work post COVID19: embracing a remote-first culture. was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

from Money 101 https://blog.coinbase.com/how-companies-will-work-post-covid19-embracing-a-remote-first-culture-3778616143ea?source=rss----c114225aeaf7---4 via http://www.rssmix.com/

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i-lift-spirits-blog · 5 years

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Ways To Stay Anon as a Lîftblr

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Here is a guide to those who are afraid to post online because their identity might be compromised:

1. On your computer, install Virtual Machine (by Oracle) and set it up. This is a software which (in Lehman's terms) lets you run virtual computers from. This virtual computer is your last line of defense if anything goes wrong with the any software listed below (which shouldn’t happen, but just in case) and there would be a chance for people/hackers to get into your computer to get your personal information and expose you.

2. Install Ubuntu (a type of Linux OS) on the Virtual Machine. The reason for this is that this is the only OS that is (relatively) easy to install and is free to download.

3. Once you install Ubuntu and get it running, make sure to create an account (and administrator account, of course) and for the love of all things holy create a password for your account. Make it unique but something you can remember. Don’t show it to anyone and try not to write it down unless you have to. If you do write it down, do it on a small piece of paper (physically) and don’t keep it anywhere electronically. It is extremely easy nowadays for hackers to get your information on the computer/internet and exploit electronically written down passwords. If they find that password to your account and get into it, they can report you to the police, your friends, your family, etc. Don’t be that person.

4. On top of all the other steps install the Tor Browser on Ubuntu (your virtual computer.) This is the key step. If you can’t do the previous steps for whatever reason, absolutely do this one (just do it on your regular computer.) This is the main thing that helps keep you anon on the internet. This browser is the first and most important line of defense, and may be your only defense if you don’t have a virtual computer. Leave the browser’s settings on default unless you know how to tweak the settings (if you mess with them you might screw something up and get the browser to stop working, in which case just delete and reinstall the browser.)

5. Read the “New to Tor Browser? Let’s Get Started.” information in the about:tor page that opens at first launch of the browser. It contains very useful information about using it. Especially look at the tab in the information section called “Circuit Display.” Select the “See My Path” button when you open the tab and it will explain a bit about circuits for you. Don’t worry if you don’t understand it at all, but it is very useful to those that do (just in case something goes wrong or you need to change info around a bit.)

6. Another note about the Tor Browser is that it is really annoying when it comes to ReCapcha stuff. It sometimes takes multiple tries to prove that you are a human and that kinda stuff pops up a lot. Not impossible to get through, but time consuming. I still think it’s worth it if you really want that extra layer of security.

7. Last but not least, create an entirely new Tumblr account in the Tor Browser. Don’t use a previous account because that is already traceable back to you through your IP address among other things (yes, even sites like Tumblr store this information.) You should create an account that isn’t traceable back to you in any way. DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME, AGE, STATE, CITY, WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE, OR ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU IN YOUR NEW TUMBLR ACCOUNT. Create a strong password for this account and make sure it is unique (follow previous password tips I gave above.) From now on, only access your new lîftblr account on Tumblr through the TOR BROWSER. If you login anywhere else on that account, your account/identity might be compromised. Tip: also use a throwaway email for the purposes of creating your account. Make sure your email cannot be linked back to you. Here’s a link to a site which can give you a disposable email that may prove useful to you.

8. Another note: two factor authentication is a double edged sword. It can give you protection if your account is stolen, but not without drawbacks. If possible, try not to use it because it will give away your phone number and link it back to you. However, if you feel as if you must use two factor authentication, use a disposable number for this purpose. There are plenty of websites online which grant you these kinds of numbers, like this one.

9. OK last note I promise. Also make sure you have likes and follows hidden for your new account (this is just so antis won’t harass you.) I saw this advice elsewhere on Tumblr but don’t use tags related to lîftblr, misspell the names of stores so that there would be less key words that people could search up to give us away, and try to misspell or place accents on anything related to lîfting. It’ll only make your life easier.

10. Don’t look up anything related to lîfting on Google because they will track you! If you get caught, they may use it against you as evidence in court and you’ll get a heavier sentence. Use DuckDuckGo instead as a search engine to play it safe.

11. Also (this one might be a no-brainer,) but don’t post anything about lîfting by accident on one of your other blogs! I don’t need to tell you what’ll happen if you do.

If you aren’t very technologically adept there are plenty of online/YouTube tutorials on how to do everything that I just listed. Everything here should be free to download and if it isn’t, you’re probably being scammed or are on the wrong website.

This will not guarantee 100% anonymity, but it creates a good 98% of it. The rest of it is up to you.

P.S. Bonus points if you have a VPN!

Source: me! I’m a comp sci student and know a lot about privacy from lurking around on the internet. I’m also extremely paranoid.

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sheilalmartinia · 6 years

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The Ultimate Guide to WordPress and GDPR Compliance – Everything You Need to Know

Are you confused by GDPR, and how it will impact your WordPress site? GDPR, short for General Data Protection Regulation, is an European Union law that you have likely heard about. We have received dozens of emails from users asking us to explain GDPR in plain English and share tips on how to make your WordPress site GDPR compliant. In this article, we will explain everything you need to know about GDPR and WordPress (without the complex legal stuff).

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers. Nothing on this website should be considered legal advice.

To help you easily navigate through our ultimate guide to WordPress and GDPR Compliance, we have created a table of content below:

Table of Content

What is GDPR?

What is required under GDPR?

Is WordPress GDPR Compliant?

Areas on Your Website that are Impacted by GDPR

Best WordPress Plugins for GDPR Compliance

What is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union (EU) law taking effect on May 25, 2018. The goal of GDPR is to give EU citizens control over their personal data and change the data privacy approach of organizations across the world.

You’ve likely gotten dozens of emails from companies like Google and others regarding GDPR, their new privacy policy, and bunch of other legal stuff. That’s because the EU has put in hefty penalties for those who are not in compliance.

Fines

Basically after May 25th, 2018, businesses that are not in compliance with GDPR’s requirement can face large fines up to 4% of a company’s annual global revenue OR €20 million (whichever is greater). This is enough reason to cause wide-spread panic among businesses around the world.

This brings us to the big question that you might be thinking about:

Does GDPR apply to my WordPress site?

The answer is YES. It applies to every business, large and small, around the world (not just in the European Union).

If your website has visitors from European Union countries, then this law applies to you.

But don’t panic, this isn’t the end of the world.

While GDPR has the potential to escalate to those high level of fines, it will start with a warning, then a reprimand, then a suspension of data processing, and if you continue to violate the law, then the large fines will hit.

The EU isn’t some evil government that is out to get you. Their goal is to protect consumers, average people like you and me from reckless handling of data / breaches because it’s getting out of control.

The maximum fine part in our opinion is largely to get the attention of large companies like Facebook and Google, so this regulation is NOT ignored. Furthermore, this encourage companies to actually put more emphasis on protecting the rights of people.

Once you understand what is required by GDPR and the spirit of the law, then you will realize that none of this is too crazy. We will also share tools / tips to make your WordPress site GDPR compliant.

What is required under GDPR?

The goal of GDPR is to protect user’s personally identifying information (PII) and hold businesses to a higher standard when it comes to how they collect, store, and use this data.

The personal data includes: name, emails, physical address, IP address, health information, income, etc.

While the GDPR regulation is 200 pages long, here are the most important pillars that you need to know:

Explicit Consent – if you’re collecting personal data from an EU resident, then you must obtain explicit consent that’s specific and unambiguous. In other words, you can’t just send unsolicited emails to people who gave you their business card or filled out your website contact form because they DID NOT opt-in for your marketing newsletter (that’s called SPAM by the way, and you shouldn’t be doing that anyways).

For it to be considered explicit consent, you must require a positive opt-in (i.e no pre-ticked checkbox), contain clear wording (no legalese), and be separate from other terms & conditions.

Rights to Data – you must inform individuals where, why, and how their data is processed / stored. An individual has the right to download their personal data and an individual also has the right to be forgotten meaning they can ask for their data to be deleted.

This will make sure that when you hit Unsubscribe or ask companies to delete your profile, then they actually do that (hmm, go figure). I’m looking at you Zenefits, still waiting for my account to be deleted for 2 years and hoping that you stop sending me spam emails just because I made the mistake of trying out your service.

Breach Notification – organizations must report certain types of data breaches to relevant authorities within 72 hours, unless the breach is considered harmless and poses no risk to individual data. However if a breach is high-risk, then the company MUST also inform individuals who’re impacted right away.

This will hopefully prevent cover-ups like Yahoo that was not revealed until the acquisition.

Data Protection Officers – if you are a public company or process large amounts of personal information, then you must appoint a data protection officer. Again this is not required for small businesses. Consult an attorney if you’re in doubt.

To put it in plain English, GDPR makes sure that businesses can’t go around spamming people by sending emails they didn’t ask for. Businesses can’t sell people’s data without their explicit consent (good luck getting this consent). Businesses have to delete user’s account and unsubscribe them from email lists if the user ask you to do that. Businesses have to report data breaches and overall be better about data protection.

Sounds pretty good, in theory at least.

Ok so now you are probably wondering what do you need to do to make sure that your WordPress site is GDPR compliant.

Well, that really depends on your specific website (more on this later).

Let us start by answering the biggest question that we’ve gotten from users:

Is WordPress GDPR Compliant?

Yes, as of WordPress 4.9.6, the WordPress core software is GDPR compliant. WordPress core team has added several GDPR enhancements to make sure that WordPress is GDPR compliant. It’s important to note that when we talk about WordPress, we’re talking about self-hosted WordPress.org (see the difference: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org).

Having said that, due to the dynamic nature of websites, no single platform, plugin or solution can offer 100% GDPR compliance. The GDPR compliance process will vary based on the type of website you have, what data you store, and how you process data on your site.

Ok so you might be thinking what does this mean in plain english?

Well, by default WordPress 4.9.6 now comes with the following GDPR enhancement tools:

Comments Consent

By default, WordPress used to store the commenters name, email and website as a cookie on the user’s browser. This made it easier for users to leave comments on their favorite blogs because those fields were pre-populated.

Due to GDPR’s consent requirement, WordPress has added the comment consent checkbox. The user can leave a comment without checking this box. All it would mean is that they would have to manually enter their name, email, and website every time they leave a comment.

Data Export and Erase Feature

WordPress offers site owners the ability to comply with GDPR’s data handling requirements and honor user’s request for exporting personal data as well as removal of user’s personal data.

The data handling features can be found under the Tools menu inside WordPress admin.

WordPress now comes with a built-in privacy policy generator. It offers a pre-made privacy policy template and offer you guidance in terms of what else to add, so you can be more transparent with users in terms of what data you store and how you handle their data.

These three things are enough to make a default WordPress blog GDPR compliant. However it is very likely that your website has additional features that will also need to be in compliance.

Areas on Your Website that are Impacted by GDPR

As a website owner, you might be using various WordPress plugins that store or process data like contact forms, analytics, email marketing, online store, membership sites, etc.

Depending on which which WordPress plugins you are using on your website, you would need to act accordingly to make sure that your website is GDPR compliant.

A lot of the best WordPress plugins have already gone ahead and added GDPR enhancement features. Let’s take a look at some of the common areas that you would need to address:

Google Analytics

Like most website owners, you’re likely using Google Analytics to get website stats. This means that it is possible that you’re collecting or tracking personal data like IP addresses, user IDs, cookies and other data for behavior profiling. To be GDPR compliant, you need to do one of the following:

Anonymize the data before storage and processing begins

Add an overlay to the site that gives notice of cookies and ask users for consent prior to tracking

Both of these are fairly difficult to do if you’re just pasting Google Analytics code manually on your site. However, if you’re using MonsterInsights, the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, then you’re in luck.

They have released an EU compliance addon that helps automate the above process. MonsterInsights also has a very good blog post about all you need to know about GDPR and Google Analytics (this is a must read, if you’re using Google Analytics on your site).

Contact Forms

If you are using a contact form in WordPress, then you may have to add extra transparency measures specially if you’re storing the form entries or using the data for marketing purposes.

Below are the things you might want to consider for making your WordPress forms GDPR compliant:

Get explicit consent from users to store their information.

Get explicit consent from users if you are planning to use their data for marketing purposes (i.e adding them to your email list).

Disable cookies, user-agent, and IP tracking for forms.

Make sure you have a data-processing agreement with your form providers if you are using a SaaS form solution.

Comply with data-deletion requests.

Disable storing all form entries (a bit extreme and not required by GDPR). You probably shouldn’t do this unless you know exactly what you’re doing.

The good part is that if you’re using WordPress plugins like WPForms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Contact Form 7, etc, then you don’t need a Data Processing Agreement because these plugins DO NOT store your form entries on their site. Your form entries are stored in your WordPress database.

Simply adding a required consent checkbox with clear explanation should be good enough for you to make your WordPress forms GDPR compliant.

WPForms, the contact form plugin we use on WPBeginner, has added several GDPR enhancements to make it easy for you to add a GDPR consent field, disable user cookies, disable user IP collection, and disable entries with a single click.

Email Marketing Opt-in Forms

Similar to contact forms, if you have any email marketing opt-in forms like popups, floating bars, inline-forms, and others, then you need to make sure that you’re collecting explicit consent from users before adding them to your list.

This can be done with either:

Adding a checkbox that user has to click before opt-in

Simply requiring double-optin to your email list

Top lead-generation solutions like OptinMonster has added GDPR consent checkboxes and other necessary features to help you make your email opt-in forms compliant. You can read more about the GDPR strategies for marketers on the OptinMonster blog.

WooCommerce / Ecommerce

If you’re using WooCommerce, the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress, then you need to make sure your website is in compliance with GDPR.

The WooCommerce team has prepared a comprehensive guide for store owners to help them be GDPR compliant.

Retargeting Ads

If your website is running retargeting pixels or retargeting ads, then you will need to get user’s consent. You can do this by using a plugin like Cooke Notices.

Best WordPress Plugins for GDPR Compliance

There are several WordPress plugins that can help automate some aspects of GDPR compliance for you. However, no plugin can offer 100% compliance due to the dynamic nature of websites.

Beware of any WordPress plugin that claims to offer 100% GDPR compliance. They likely don’t know what they’re talking about, and it’s best for you to avoid them completely.

Below is our list of recommended plugins for facilitating GDPR compliance:

MonsterInsights – if you’re using Google Analytics, then you should use their EU compliance addon.

WPForms – by far the most user-friendly WordPress contact form plugin. They offer GDPR fields and other features.

Cookies Notice – popular free plugin to add an EU cookie notice. Integrates well with top plugins like MonsterInsights and others.

Delete Me – free plugin that allow users to automatically delete their profile on your site.

OptinMonster – advanced lead generation software that offers clever targeting features to boost conversions while being GDPR compliant.

Shared Counts – instead of loading the default share buttons which add tracking cookies, this plugin load static share buttons while displaying share counts.

We will continue to monitor the plugin ecosystem to see if any other WordPress plugin stands out and offer substantial GDPR compliance features.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re ready or not, GDPR will go in effect on May 25, 2018. If your website is not compliant before then, don’t panic. Just continue to work towards compliance and get it done asap.

The likelihood of you getting a fine the day after this rule goes in effect are pretty close to zero because the European Union’s website states that first you’ll get a warning, then a reprimand, and fines are the last step if you fail to comply and knowingly ignore the law.

The EU is not out to get you. They’re doing this to protect user’s data and restore people’s trust in online businesses. As the world goes digital, we need these standards. With the recent data breaches of large companies, it’s important that these standards are adapted globally.

It will be good for all involved. These new rules will help boost consumer confidence and in turn help grow your business.

We hope this article helped you learn about WordPress and GDPR compliance. We will do our best to keep it updated as more information or tools get released.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Additional Resources

GDPR Hysteria Part I and Part II by Jacques Mattheij

Data protection infographic by European Commission

Principles of the GDPR by European Commission

GDPR and MonsterInsights – everything you need to know

GDPR Enhancement Features for Your WordPress Forms

GDPR Compliance for WooCommerce Stores

GDPR and OptinMonster – Good read if you have email marketing opt-in forms

Legal Disclaimer / Disclosure

We are not lawyers. Nothing on this website should be considered legal advice. Due to the dynamic nature of websites, no single plugin or platform can offer 100% legal compliance. When in doubt, it’s best to consult a specialist internet law attorney to determine if you are in compliance with all applicable laws for your jurisdictions and your use cases.

WPBeginner founder, Syed Balkhi, is also the co-founder of OptinMonster, WPForms, and MonsterInsights.

The post The Ultimate Guide to WordPress and GDPR Compliance – Everything You Need to Know appeared first on WPBeginner.

from WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/the-ultimate-guide-to-wordpress-and-gdpr-compliance-everything-you-need-to-know/

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megatechcrunch · 6 years

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We’re currently laying the foundation for future generations of AI applications, but we aren’t there yet.

For the last few years, AI has been almost synonymous with deep learning (DL). We’ve seen AlphaGo touted as an example of deep learning. We’ve seen deep learning used for naming paint colors (not very successfully), imitating Rembrandt and other great painters, and many other applications. Deep learning has been successful in part because, as François Chollet tweeted, “you can achieve a surprising amount using only a small set of very basic techniques.” In other words, you can accomplish things with deep learning that don’t require you to become an AI expert. Deep learning’s apparent simplicity--the small number of basic techniques you need to know--makes it much easier to “democratize” AI, to build a core of AI developers that don’t have Ph.D.s in applied math or computer science.

But having said that, there’s a deep problem with deep learning. As Ali Rahimi has argued, we can often get deep learning to work, but we aren’t close to understanding how, when, or why it works: “we’re equipping [new AI developers] with little more than folklore and pre-trained deep nets, then asking them to innovate. We can barely agree on the phenomena that we should be explaining away.” Deep learning’s successes are suggestive, but if we can’t figure out why it works, its value as a tool is limited. We can build an army of deep learning developers, but that won’t help much if all we can tell them is, “Here are some tools. Try random stuff. Good luck.”

However, nothing is as simple as it seems. The best applications we’ve seen to date have been hybrid systems. AlphaGo wasn’t a pure deep learning engine; it incorporated Monte Carlo Tree Search, and at least two deep neural networks. At O’Reilly’s New York AI Conference in 2017, Josh Tenenbaum and David Ferrucci sketched out systems they are working on, systems that combine deep learning with other ideas and methods. Tenenbaum is working with one-shot learning, imitating the human ability to learn based on a single experience, and Ferrucci is working on building cognitive models that enable machines to understand human language in a meaningful way, not just pattern matching. DeepStack’s poker playing system combines neural networks with counterfactual regret minimization and heuristic search.

Adding structure to improve models

The fundamental idea behind deep learning is very simple: deep learning systems are neural networks with several hidden layers. Each neuron is very simple: it takes a number of inputs from previous layers, combines them according to a set of weights, and produces an output that’s passed to the next layer. The network doesn’t really care whether it’s processing images, text, or telemetry. That simplicity, though, is a hint that we’re missing out on a lot of structure that’s inherent in data. Images and texts aren’t the same; they’re structured differently. Languages have a lot of internal structure. As the computational linguist Chris Manning says:

I think the current era where everyone touts this mantra of fast GPUs, massive data, and these great deep learning algorithms has ... sent computational linguistics off-track. Because it is the case that if you have huge computation and massive amounts of data, you can do a lot ... with a simple learning device. But those learners are extremely bad learners. Human beings are extremely good learners. What we want to do is build AI devices that are also extremely good learners. ... The way to achieve those learners is to put much more innate structures.

If we’re going to make AI applications that understand language as well as humans do, we will have to take advantage of the structures that are in language. From that standpoint, deep learning has been a fruitful dead end: it’s a shortcut that has prevented us from asking the really important questions about how knowledge is structured. Gary Marcus makes an argument that’s even more radical:

There is a whole world of possible innate mechanisms that AI researchers might profitably consider; simply presuming by default it is desirable to include little or no innate machinery seems, at best, close-minded. And, at worst, an unthinking commitment to relearning everything from scratch may be downright foolish, effectively putting each individual AI system in the position of having to recapitulate a large portion of a billion years of evolution.

Deep learning began with a model that was, at least in principle, based on the human brain: the interconnection of neurons, and the ancient notion that human brains start out as a blank slate. Marcus is arguing that humans are born with innate abilities which are still very poorly understood--for example, the ability to learn language, or the ability to form abstractions. For AI to progress beyond deep learning, he suggests that researchers must learn how to model these innate abilities.

There are other paths forward. Ben Recht has written a series of posts sketching out how one might approach problems that fall under reinforcement learning. He is also concerned with the possibility that deep learning, as practiced today, promises more than it can deliver:

If you read Hacker News, you’d think that deep reinforcement learning can be used to solve any problem. ... I personally get suspicious when audacious claims like this are thrown about in press releases, and I get even more suspicious when other researchers call into question their reproducibility.

Recht argues for taking a comprehensive view, and reviews the possibility for augmenting reinforcement learning with techniques from optimal control and dynamical systems. This allows RL models to benefit from research results and techniques used in many real-world applications. He notes:

By throwing away models and knowledge, it is never clear if we can learn enough from a few instances and random seeds to generalize.

AI is more than machine learning

As Michael Jordan pointed out in a recent post, what is called AI is often machine learning (ML). As someone who organizes AI conferences, I can attest to this: many of the proposals we receive are for standard machine learning applications. The confusion was inevitable: when calling a research project “artificial intelligence” was hardly respectable, we used the term “machine learning.” ML became a shorthand for “the parts of AI that work.” These parts, up to and including deep learning, were basically large-scale data analysis. Now that the tides of buzz have shifted, and everyone wants AI, machine learning applications are AI again.

But a full-fledged AI application, such as an autonomous vehicle, requires much more than data analysis. It will require progress in many areas that go well beyond pattern recognition. To build an autonomous vehicle and other true AI applications, we will need significant advances in sensors and other hardware; we will need to learn how to build software for “edge devices,” which includes understanding how to partition problems between the edge devices and some kind of “cloud”; we will need to develop infrastructure for simulation and distributed computation; and we will need to understand how to craft the user experience for truly intelligent devices.

Jordan highlights the need for further research in two important areas:

Intelligence augmentation (IA): Tools that are designed to augment human intelligence and capabilities. These include search engines (which remember things we can’t), automated translation, and even aids for artists and musicians. These tools might involve high-level reasoning and thought, though current implementations don’t.

Intelligent infrastructure (II): Jordan defines II as “a web of computation, data, and physical entities exist that make human environments more supportive, interesting and safe.” This would include networks to share medical data safely, systems to make transportation safer (including smart cars and smart roads), and many other applications. Intelligent infrastructure is about managing flows of data in ways that support human life.

What’s most important about Jordan’s argument, though, is that we won’t get either IA or II if we focus solely on deep learning. They are inherently multidisciplinary. Deep learning will inevitably be part of the solution, but just as inevitably, it won’t be the whole solution. It may even be a very small part.

Closing thoughts

Researchers from many institutions are building tools for creating the AI applications of the future. While there is still a lot of work to be done on deep learning, researchers are looking well beyond DL to build the next generation of AI systems. UC Berkeley's RISE Lab has sketched out a research agenda that involves systems, architectures, and security.

Ameet Talwalkar’s recent post lists a number of research directions that should benefit industrial machine learning platforms. Industrial machine learning will have to meet system requirements, such as memory limitations, power budgets, and hard real time; they must be easy to deploy and to update, particularly since data models tend to grow stale over time; and they must be safe. Humans must understand how applications make decisions, along with the likely consequences of those decisions. These applications must take ethics into account.

These are all requirements for Jordan’s intelligent infrastructure. Over the past few years, we’ve seen many examples of machine learning put to questionable purposes, ranging from setting bail and determining prison sentences to targeted advertising, emotional manipulation, and the spreading of misinformation, that point us to a different set of needs. The research agenda for AI needs to take into account fairness and bias, transparency, privacy and user control over data, and the models built from that data. These issues encompass everything from ethics to design: getting informed consent, and explaining what that consent means, is not a trivial design problem. We’re only starting to understand how these disciplines connect to research in artificial intelligence. Fortunately, we’re seeing increasing interest within the data community in connecting ethics to practice. Events like the Data For Good Exchange (D4GX), the Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAT*), and others are devoted to data ethics.

Talwalkar notes that air travel didn’t become commonplace until nearly 50 years after the Wright Brothers. While they were the first to achieve flight, many more developments were needed to make flying safe, inexpensive, and convenient. We’re at a similar stage in the history of AI. We’ve made progress in a few basic areas, and what we ultimately build will no doubt be amazing. We’re currently laying the foundation for future generations of AI applications, but we aren’t there yet.

Related content:

“Toward the Jet Age of machine learning”

“Open-endedness: The last grand challenge you’ve never heard of”

"Language understanding remains one of AI’s grand challenges": David Ferrucci on the evolution of AI systems for language understanding

“The machine learning paradox”

“We need to build machine learning tools to augment machine learning engineers”

"Building and deploying large-scale machine learning pipelines": Ben Recht on why we need primitives, pipeline synthesis tools, and most importantly, error analysis and verification.

"How to train and deploy deep learning at scale": Ameet Talwalkar on large-scale machine learning

Continue reading Building tools for the AI applications of tomorrow.

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memyselfandjen · 7 years

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Facebook, Messenger and Kids: The Ultimate Parents Guide (Revised)

I originally wrote this post in 2014 as part of a series on What Parents Should Know about popular social media platforms. But it’s almost 2018, and Facebook (like Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram) has changed rapidly over the years. So has the way tweens and teens use it to communicate with each other.

Most of us have a Facebook account and use it regularly to keep in touch with friends and family. Some savvy social professionals use Facebook as their primary marketing tool for their at-home businesses. According to an article in Mashable almost 75% of teens were using Facebook back in 2014. While that number today has dropped to 65%, it’s nowhere near the “Teens don’t use Facebook” conversations I routinely overhear parents having.

Yes, tween and teens absolutely use Facebook. The differences between how kids and parents are using Facebook are astonishing, and hopefully this post will shed some light on how you can navigate Facebook like your kids, what to look for in their account, and how you can work to keep them safe while teaching them digital responsibility.

Top 5 Things Parents Should Know About Facebook

The minimum age to have a Facebook account is 13. This is not when Facebook decided that your child is ready for social media, or that it is safe for them to do so. This has everything to do with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which prevents companies from collecting certain information from kids under 13. Rather than create an environment that protects kids from data tracking, Facebook and other websites and apps choose to restrict access to those under 13.

A first and last name and an email address are required to set up a Facebook account.

Just because your child does not have a cell phone or a tablet, does not mean they don’t have Facebook. Kids share technology, usernames and passwords to keep their activity away from their parents and keep their online life thriving.

Wi-Fi is free almost everywhere. With Facebook being accessible on mobile and desktop (computer), kids do not need a data plan to use Facebook. Most schools now require a child to have a personal computer for homework, and the content filters only last as long as the computer is on the school district wi-fi. Once at home, the security isn’t in effect and kids are free to surf the net without restraint (unless you have security set up at home prohibiting them for access certain websites).

Just because your child has added you as a “Friend” on Facebook does not mean you will EVER see any content they publish or know what they are really doing. First, you can post content on Facebook and mute people on your friends list or select content only to be seen by certain people. So you will still appear on your child’s friend list, but you’ll never see anything they post on their Wall. Second, the vast majority of what kids do is in the “Messenger” feature of the app; the private conversations between them and one other person. These are not public and you as parents will never see this unless you are physically logged in to their account.

Parents Guide to Navigating Facebook

Facebook is THE most common social platform in use worldwide with 1.37 BILLION people on it every day. I’m going to assume that the majority reading this post understand the basics of Facebook, and I’m just going to review ways in which tweens / teens are using the app in ways that are probably different from most parents use it for.

Posting Status Updates

Most tweens / teens rarely post status updates on Facebook. I call this “front-end using” and that’s not what they really have Facebook set up for. Most of what you will see from them is when YOU or another family member tag them in something. But original posting? It’s not usually the norm.

However, they can post status updates and content and deliberately exclude you from seeing it. In case you aren’t familiar with this feature, at the bottom right corner of the content creation box on Facebook, you’ll see a drop-down menu that says “Friends” or whatever your default is set to. Clicking the arrow, and selecting “More” and “See All” will show you all of the pre-populated options you have to send content to, as well as mini groups and lists that Facebook has created for you as well as some you may have created a long time ago. You can create a list of people (like your close friends, and exclude your family members) that you can create content for and no one else will ever see it.

You will not be able to see every post your tween / teen makes unless you are logged in to their profile directly.

Groups

Just as you belong to different groups to keep in touch with the latest on your high school reunion, buy LulaRoe leggings, or network with local business professionals, your tweens/teens belong to groups too. Except their groups have HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF MEMBERS from all over the world and they are basically online hookup groups. Regular posts in these groups includes threads where kids post pictures of themselves to be judged and rated by the collective group, or to meet each other and then scoot off to Messenger to have private conversations which include exchanging pictures (clothed to completely nude), phone numbers, and then begin “dating” on Facebook.

All the while they have no idea who is REALLY behind the picture of the person they are communicating with.

You will not be able to see what groups your tweens/teens belong to unless you are logged in to their profile directly.

Parents Guide to Navigating Facebook Messenger

In my opinion, the worst thing Facebook has ever done is break Messenger out in to its own separate app on the mobile version. (Actually creating Messenger at all was a disaster looking for a place to happen). While on a desktop computer, you can use Messenger within Facebook. This cannot be done on the mobile version and you need Messenger installed as a separate app in order to view the content and utilize the services. I’m going to focus on utilizing Messenger on mobile devices, which is how most kids are using it. However, all of the features that I’ll be talking about are found in the desktop version too.

First, understand that Messenger is competing with Snapchat for your kid’s attention. So it has a lot of the same features that Snapchat does, but with a few added bonuses that kids are really taking advantage of. And it’s easier to use.

Here are the key things to know about Messenger:

You login to Messenger with your Facebook Username and Password

There are 5 main areas in Messenger: Home, People, a Camera for creating content, Games and Discover

Home

Messages shows you every conversation that’s taken place. These don’t go away. You can search through all of it and look for pictures that have been sent back and forth, as well as inappropriate conversations. As with Snapchat, partially nude, fully nude, and sexually explicit videos are being sent via this feature, along with frank conversations about anything and everything. If your child is involved with drinking, drugs, sex, gangs, bullying, or anything else that you can or cannot image that teens go through today, you’ll find it here.

Active shows the number of people who are currently on Facebook/Messenger at any given time and how to connect with that person.

Groups lists all of the group conversations that have taken place, whether the account holder has left them or not, and what was discussed

Calls will show a list of the PHONE CALLS that have been made via Messenger. Yes, I said calls. While this will show up here, it does NOT show up as an outgoing call in the phone’s call log. Do you see the camera next to the person’s name and the phone? Messenger allows you to make VIDEO CALLS as well (similar to Apple’s FaceTime feature), which also does not appear on the phone’s call log. This is where it all goes south with tweens/teens. They spend HOURS calling and video-calling people via Messenger. Are they all people that they ACTUALLY KNOW?????????

People

Message Requests. This is where messages from people who you are NOT connected to on Facebook/Messenger go. Once these messages are accepted, you are friends with this person on Facebook, and are now connected on Messenger.

Scan Code. This is the personal Messenger Code that Facebook has created just for the account holder to send people to add them to Messenger. This is very similar to Snapcodes on Snapchat.

Find Phone Contacts / Invite People. More ways that Facebook and Messenger can grab a hold of people in your telephone list and prompt them to join Facebook. And Messenger.

Camera

To start creating content in Messenger (called My Day) from this option by selecting the camera icon in the bottom center. This will take you to a blank camera screen, and you’re ready to begin.

To create selfies with Facebook Filters, flip the camera feature around and touch in the middle of your face. Then slide the filters that appear on either side of the circle in to the center. You then scroll through and add them to your face, and when ready take a picture.

To take video, it’s very similar to working video on your phone. Point and hold down the button for the length of the video you want to record. You only have a short window on Facebook (similar to Snapchat) to record a video so keep that in mind. Facebook works in vertical in this format, not horizontal, so don’t flip your phone.

To create non-picture based content, you can swipe the screen left to the “Write Something” option and a colored screen will appear. You can change the background color, add text, or freehand draw.

Once you’ve taken your picture, video, or created your content and you are ready to post it, there are options. You can add it to My Day, where it will appear in Messenger for 24 hours and you can see who views it, Send as Message to anyone that you are connected with in Messenger, or Save it to your Camera Roll to be used on another platform or text. You can also add stickers, text or emojis on top of it.

See what I mean about there being a lot of options regarding where to send content and none of it has to be where you, as a parent who is a Friend on Facebook, can see it?

Games

There is a Games option within Messenger that allows tweens/teens to play arcade style games with EVERYONE that is signed in to the Messenger App, worldwide. This is a great way for your kids to meet “strangers”.

Discover

Similar to Snapchat, companies, brands and digital media companies are using Messenger to communicate with customers and potential customers in order to ultimately increase their bottom lines. PayPal will now send you a confirmation of every transaction you make in Messenger. Like a Business Page on Facebook? You are now connected with them on Messenger and they can send you advertisements for products and services. Plus there are categories like Entertainment and Health and Fitness that will send you motivational messages and celebrity updates via Messenger every day, like a personalized news source that you create yourself. There are a dozen categories to choose from, and it’ll make suggestions to you based on your user habits in Facebook.

Next Steps for Parents

Messenger helps your kids to be sneaky. It makes it EASY for them. First, by allowing a secondary app to be required to view private conversations gives parents the illusion that if their child does not have Messenger, they aren’t having private conversations on Facebook. Second, by allowing them to make phone and video calls without creating a trail in the phone’s call log.

Thanks, Facebook.

I know several parents that have uttered the phrase, “My tween/teen isn’t allowed to have Messenger.” But they are allowed to have Facebook. Weeks later it comes to light that they WERE using Messenger, they were just using it on their friend’s phone at school.

Did you know that you can have more than one account information stored on the Facebook App? Yup. So kids give their BFF their login/password and then share devices at lunch time, extra curricular activities, or sleepovers with those kids whose parents are “strict” and don’t allow them to have certain apps. Just because you don’t see it happening doesn’t mean that it isn’t! Did you notice that the majority of these features are not visible as a “Friend” on your child’s account but ARE visible if you are logged in as your child? Or have their device and can see directly on their phone what they see, who they are connected to, who else is using their phone for their Facebook account, etc.? It’s imperative that we not only monitor the “front end” use on social media, but dig in to the back end of these social media applications, understand how they work, and where the pitfalls and dangers are for our kids.

If you’re child is just heading down the “making bad choices” road on Facebook / Messenger, I’d recommend implementing the following guidelines:

Change the Facebook password to something that only you know

Adjust privacy settings. Recommended privacy settings are:

Only you can see the phone number on the account. Attach your phone number to your child’s account as well

Only you can see email associated with account

Only you can see birth year, Friends can see birth day

Only Friends can see location, work, and zip code information

Remove any third-party apps that have been used to log in to Facebook

Only Friends can see your Friends List

Only Friends of Friends can send you Friend Requests

Only you can see the people, pages and lists you follow

You do NOT want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile

For more information review the Privacy Basics tutorial on Facebook

Review all people on Friends list and remove anyone that is not a first-person friend. No strangers, and definitely none of the opposite sex.

Discuss appropriate video and digital content. Talk about sexually explicit pictures and video and the personal and legal ramifications of sending this type of content.

Schedule time when your child can be on Facebook and sit with him/her to review the content they are receiving / seeing and discuss pros/cons

Set limitations on overall phone and computer usage

Lock down the wi-fi at your home; do not give your child the password.

Have computer time in a public part of the house; even for homework.

Do surprise checks on your child’s phone and computer. I know of several teens who delete their Facebook / Messenger when their parents look at their phone, and then reinstall it after its given back to them.

Create and sign a cell phone / social media contract

If you begin to investigate Facebook / Messenger and discover that your teen has been engaging in risky / dangerous behavior, I’d recommend implementing the following guidelines:

Change the Facebook password to something that only you know

Physically take your child’s phone. Get passwords for everything. Check what email account is linked to the app and start by gaining access to that email. Gmail will unlock with a 6 digit code text to the cell phone, and then you can reset the password.

Review all people on Friends list and remove anyone that is not a first-person friend. No strangers, and definitely none of the opposite sex.

Be willing to have a conversation with the parents of your children’s friends. Let them know that you’ve found some disturbing things on your child’s social channels and they might want to check their own kid’s account. This is TRICKY, I know. Because a lot of people don’t have the time or the inclination to monitor social media and tweens/teens like it needs to be done. They may not want to hear you. Know that your kid may lose friends because of this and be okay with it. Keeping your child safe is more important.

Therapy. Remember a confident child with a good sense of self-worth and self-esteem typically will not engage in this type of behavior. If you’re at this place with your kids, they are feeling pretty low as it is. Support, encouragement, and an understanding that tomorrow is a new day with an opportunity for new choices is always my best advice.

Naked Photos. If you find naked pictures on your child’s phone, DO NOT take screen shots and text them to yourself. That’s distribution of child pornography. Don’t go there. Go through their entire Facebook / Messenger account until you are satisfied that you’ve got a handle on the extent of the issues. Remember that you will probably never get the entire truth from your child at this point. Understand that details are going to be sketchy until they figure out that you are prepared to find it ALL, and then maybe they will start opening up. Lead with love, not yelling. Understand that they may not have an answer to why; therapy may be the only thing that uncovers that. Accept that at some point, once you have the big topics covered (sexual activity, drug use, alcohol use, bullying, self-harm, gang activity, criminal behavior) and know where your child’s participation level in each lays, it becomes rehash to continue to pour through everything.

Start putting a plan together for next steps and skills to move forward with the bullet points above. A continued berating for the same type of behavior, ultimately, won’t serve a purpose other than to tear your child down more than they already are.

If this type of content is on Facebook, odds are its elsewhere. Start looking at Snapchat and Instagram. There will be clues and conversations on other apps like HouseParty, Music.ly, and other places your kids are hanging out with their friends.

As a social media professional, it concerns me when I hear about parents allowing their kids to have access to social media without monitoring. It is imperative that we as parents not only understand the digital footprint our children are creating, but really understand how each of these platforms work ourselves. Don’t feel embarrassed to take a class to educate yourself on the ins and outs. The more educated you can be, the more of an equal conversation that you can have with your child and the more likely they are to be receptive to what you have to say.

Kids don’t need more “Friends”. They need parents.

What are your thoughts? Are you currently doing any of the above steps?

from Facebook, Messenger and Kids: The Ultimate Parents Guide (Revised)

#Facebook #Messenger and Kids: The Ultimate Parents Guide (Revised)

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dexterre-news · 7 years

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The 3 Best Free OCR Tools to Convert Your Files Back Into Editable Documents

Believe it or not, some people still print documents on physical pieces of paper. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software takes those printed documents and converts them right back into machine-readable text. We’ve found some of the best free OCR tools Free vs. Paid OCR Software: Microsoft OneNote and Nuance OmniPage Compared Free vs. Paid OCR Software: Microsoft OneNote and Nuance OmniPage Compared OCR scanner software lets you convert text in images or PDFs into editable text documents. Is a free OCR tool like OneNote good enough? Let's find out! Read More and compared them for you here.

No OCR program is perfect, so you’ll have to check the results and fix a few problems. Still, it’s a lot faster than typing the entire document back into the computer. Each of these free OCR software tools has its own strengths. All of them will get the job done.

The Methodology

To compare these tools, I took a screenshot of MakeUseOf’s Privacy page and saved it as a JPG file.

Then, I used that JPG to test out the following OCR services.

However, you could also scan a printed document if that’s what you want to edit.

If you go that route, it’ll work best if the page features common fonts, such as Times New Roman or Arial. Also, make sure the image is right side up before scanning it. Aim for scanned material with a file size of less than 2 MB, too.

Now, let’s dig in!

Google Drive & Google Docs

Google Drive has integrated OCR support. It depends on the same OCR engine that Google uses to scan books and understand text in PDF files.

To get started, save the picture you want to send through the OCR to your computer.

Next, open the Google Drive website and upload your file into the application.

Pro tip: If you’re a Gmail user, you can also attach the scanned document to an email. The attachment features a button that lets you transfer the file to Google Drive without leaving your inbox.

After putting the file in Google Drive, locate it and right click. Then select Open With and choose Google Docs.

Your scanned image then appears as a new, editable text document in Google Docs! Google will keep your original image at the top of the document, and automatically create editable text using OCR below it.

The combination of Google Drive and Google Docs did a pretty good job here. It struggled to understand the web addresses, but that was the case with all the tested tools.

Many free online OCR tools 4 Free Online OCR Tools Put to the Ultimate Test 4 Free Online OCR Tools Put to the Ultimate Test With advances in OCR technology, converting text and Images from your scanned PDF document into the editable text formats is easier. We tested a few free online OCR tools so you won't have to. Read More , like Free OCR Convert Images To Text Online With Free OCR Convert Images To Text Online With Free OCR Read More , limit your uploads. Google Docs is advantageous because it doesn’t have page upload limits.

Microsoft Document Imaging

Microsoft also offers support for OCR, but only for Windows users. Do you use a version of Microsoft Word from 2010 or older? It already has Microsoft Document Imaging.

Otherwise, you need to install SharePoint Designer 2007.

Okay, now before we get too far into this, it’s important to note that you’ll need to have Microsoft Word in order for this OCR method to truly work.

Microsoft Word is not a free program, I know. However, because this OCR method is SO effective, and because access to Word is so easy (go to any library or college campus) I’m making the executive decision to include this in our free OCR tools list anyway.

Moving on…

Install SharePoint by going to this URL. When you click Download, you’ll be presented with some options. Click the SharepointDesigner.exe field and hit Download.

After accepting the software license, choose the Customize option.

Look for the Installation Options tab in the top left of the box on your screen (this should be the default tab the program takes you to). Notice the drop-down menus to the left of many of the options.

Find the drop-down menus for Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer, Microsoft Office Shared Features, and Office Tools. Select the Not Available option for all of them. It includes a red X, making it easy to spot.

Expand the section for Office Tools, then locate the Microsoft Office Document Imaging option. Pick the Run All From My Computer option. Be careful not to select the similarly worded Run From My Computer entry on the drop-down instead.

Finally, click the Install Now button. It’s in the bottom right of the dialog box you’ve worked with throughout this installation. (Note: This installation may take a few minutes.)

You’re now ready to use the MODI feature!

The next step is to scan your document or save your image from the web. Then, convert it to a TIFF file.

Microsoft Paint is one example of a free TIFF conversion option. Just open your file in Paint and click Save As. Select Other formats.

Select the TIFF format from the drop-down menu and save the image.

Then, launch MODI on your computer.

Just search your computer for Microsoft Office Document Imaging and open the program.

After that, click File, then Open and find your image document.

Then, click the OCR button on the menu bar.

Once the program finishes the OCR, click the Tools menu and select Send Text to Word.

The program will automatically open a new Word document and paste your OCR text into it.

The result gives you editable text within a program you know well.

Having to download the supplementary software first might feel a bit intimidating. However, the process itself isn’t hard and Microsoft does a better job than Google Drive at recognizing text. For instance, this program had no problem picking up on the website URL for MakeUseOf.com, and it didn’t smush any words together.

One major downside, though is that MODI is not available for Mac computers. If you have a Mac, check out these alternatives.

Download: MDI to TIFF File Converter and SharePoint Designer 2007 (Free for Windows)

Maybe you’re only getting started with OCR tools and want an extremely straightforward, non-platform-specific option. A website called OnlineOCR.net meets those needs.

It supports over 40 languages, which is good news if your document contains one other than English.

Look for the blue Select File button on the left side of your screen. Because you can upload files as large as 15 MB, this service works well for graphic-heavy materials.

After that, use the drop-down list and select your desired output language. Look to the right of that menu and notice there are three choices of file formats. You can select Microsoft Word (which is the route I took), Microsoft Excel, or Plain Text.

The Excel option may be useful when working with a scanned price sheet that includes graphics. It’s also potentially helpful with any other source material that with numbers. OnlineOCR supports documents with tables and columns as well.

After tweaking the options, click the Convert button. Then, download the output file the tool spits out and, voila! Editable text at your fingertips.

This free tool didn’t work as well as the other two here, but since you can use OnlineOCR without registering it’s super convenient and easy. Plus, it did do a half-decent job recognizing the text from my image. It’s a smart choice if you want to try a tool without making commitments or providing information.

Also, this free option allows for converting up to 15 documents per hour. That benefit makes it appropriate for medium-volume OCR tasks.

The Verdict

Each of these programs has its strengths.

Google Docs can OCR documents without downloading anything to your computer, but you do have to sign up for a free account.

Microsoft Office Document Imaging is easy enough to use and extremely accurate, but it takes a little bit to install the necessary software.

OnlineOCR.net is a simple-to-use browser-based tool that doesn’t require registration and supports multiple languages.

With any tool, once you’re done with the OCR process How to Extract Text From Images (OCR) How to Extract Text From Images (OCR) The best way to extract text from an image is to use optical character recognition (OCR). We show you seven free OCR tools for the job. Read More , you may want to spell-check your document 8 Ways To Spell & Grammar Check In Microsoft Word Using Different Dictionaries & Languages 8 Ways To Spell & Grammar Check In Microsoft Word Using Different Dictionaries & Languages Microsoft Word's built-in spelling and grammar checking tools can be customized to meet your needs. You can even use AutoCorrect to speed up your typing. Read More . That’s especially true if you’re just starting out with a tool and don’t know if it’s accurate.

And, depending on your use, you may not even have to OCR documents at all. You can convert a paper book to an ebook How To Convert Scanned Pages Into eReader eBook Format How To Convert Scanned Pages Into eReader eBook Format Read More without OCRing it, for example.

Which OCR software works best for you? Do you have a different favorite OCR program that we didn’t mention here? Leave a comment and let us know.

Did you know that you could also turn handwriting into text using OCR How to Convert an Image With Handwriting to Text Using OCR How to Convert an Image With Handwriting to Text Using OCR To convert an image of handwritten text into digital text that you can edit and search, you need an OCR (optical character recognition) tool. Try one of these OCR tools to digitize handwriting. Read More ?

Originally written by Chris Hoffman in March 2012.

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