Archive for the ‘Social Networking’ Category

For VCU alum and 25000 others using her platform, meaningful connections start with brunch – VCU News

By Mary Kate Brogan

Once we met, we were inseparable, Jackson said. We were always togetherthroughout school, birthday parties, family events, things like thatuntil life took us apart.

The friends made time to get together through collegeMason at Virginia Commonwealth University, Jackson at University of Marylandmarriages, motherhood, careers, promotions, even Jacksons first big move from Richmond to Pittsburgh. But when a new opportunity meant Jackson would need to move to Las Vegas, the two realized they needed a new strategy to broaden their social circles, Mason said.

We ended up having a conversation about friendships as adults, how difficult it is to make friends as an adult, said Mason, who graduated from VCU in 2015 with a B.S. in psychology from theCollege of Humanities and Sciencesand a B.S.W. from theSchool of Social Work. When youre a kid, you just go out to the playground and you play with whoevers outside. As an adult, its a totally different thing.

The traditional networking events Mason and Jackson tried werent quite as fun and easygoing as theyd hoped, so they took to social media to share their dilemmaand see if anyone wanted to get brunch. After booking a brunch in Los Angeles and another in Richmond with rapidly growing guest lists, Mason said, we realized we were on to something. The response from others having a hard time making connections was huge, she said.

People were just coming out of everywhere, like, What are you doing? How are you doing this? We need that inourcity. How can we bring that here? Mason said. We quickly learned that we were not the only people feeling that way.

Tips from Lillian Jackson and Melissa Mason, co-founders of Brown Skin Brunchin, for fostering personal and professional connections where you are:

The pair foundedBrown Skin Brunchin, a platform and app (available on theApp StoreandGoogle Play) geared toward encouraging women from minority backgrounds to connect and build relationships over brunch. Since those first brunches in 2018, Jackson and Mason have expanded Brown Skin Brunchin to 71 cities with nearly 25,000 members in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean and thousands of followers onFacebook,InstagramandTikTok.

People come in theyre a little nervous at first sometimes but by five minutes in, you would never know that these people did not know each other, Mason said. Weve had complete strangers that are now lifelong friends, traveling with each other, doing stuff outside of brunch. Its great to see how bringing people together in that environment where they feel comfortable, how quickly people hit it off and just make new friends, make new connections, whether it be personal or professional.

Creating a welcoming environment for women of color has been a major focus for the founders of Brown Skin Brunchin.

Its geared toward women of color, and in communities of color its often more difficult to kind of interact and be open and not have to think about what it is youre doing all the time, said Mason, who cited her studies at VCU in helping her understand the impact building a community can have. My education and background helped me with getting people to a point where they feel comfortable. (At our events) people can come and be free. Theyre themselves. They can speak with someone who may understand what theyre going through as a person of color.

In addition to helping others feel more at ease in a new situation, Mason said meeting people where they are, without preset expectations, is a lesson that applies to Brown Skin Brunchin from her studies at VCU, student internships in social work and psychology, and career using her degree in social work. The skills she developed outside the classroom, too, have served her well as she has balanced working full time and raising her kids while she and Jackson have built their business across two time zones.

When I was a student at VCU, I had two school-age children. I was a double major. I was doing two internships at a time, and I was also working, said Mason, who also served as a student leader in theBachelor of Social Work Student AssociationandStudents Today Alumni Tomorrow. That, in and of itself, if you dont learn how to multitask and manage your time in a situation like that, you wont make it. So you have to figure out how to adjust, figure out what works best for you, figure out routines that work best for you and your family.

That time management, paired with her strong friendship with Jackson, has made building Brown Skin Brunchin easier, though certainly not easy, Mason said with a laugh. Jackson agreed and encouraged students and recent grads, if they want to build a business, to pursue their ideas, big or small.

Never in a million years did I think that we could do something around brunch, which is something that we both love, Jackson said. Find your passion and go for it.

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For VCU alum and 25000 others using her platform, meaningful connections start with brunch - VCU News

Huobi plays a vital role in the transformation of Web2 to Web3 – AMBCrypto News

The Metaverse has become the topic for the year, and the focus of discussion even among those outside of the blockchain industry. However, it is not the metaverse per se that has been grabbing attention worldwide. Rather, it has been another concept that has drawn the eyeballs of the technology and venture capitalist spaces.

Some industrial players believe that the arrival of this concept could completely change current economic and social operation models, signaling a new era in the digital economy. Top venture capital firms such as Sequoia and A16Z have made heavy bets on its potential and have even claimed to have restructured internally in order to seize the opportunities emerging from this revolution; crypto-asset exchanges, technology, fintech, and consumer companies are investing in R & D resources into this up-and-coming technology concept. The hype is real, and constructive actions have already been taken toward building on this concept with an eye to the future. But what is it?

It is, simply put, Web3, the third generation of the Internet. Not unlike its predecessors Web1 and Web2 during their infancy, Web3 is not without its controversies. What exactly constitutes Web3, how can this vision be realized, and what role can centralized exchanges play in the Web3 era?

From Web1 to Web3: The Evolutionary Journey

When the World Wide Web was rolled out at the end of the 1980s, people entered the Web1 era, where portal websites were the sole provider of the content. Internet users could only read or watch what these websites provided and relied on them almost exclusively for information. Web1 is best known as a period where users had next to no say with regard to content contribution and creation users mostly consumed whatever information was made available to them via the early portals and websites.

At the beginning of the 21st century, when the concept of social media emerged and platforms such as Facebook appeared on the World Wide Web, the Internet users were able to create, upload and share their own content on the Internet, which added much depth and flavor to the Internet. The dawn of user-generated content (UGC) marked the beginning of the Web2 age, which is basically the Internet as we know it today a period marked by users increased and active participation in all aspects of content development dramatically increased.

Despite its vast improvement over Web1, Web2 is not without its drawbacks. Current Web2 social media platforms and websites, with their centralized modes of operation, have faced criticism over their absolute ownership of user-created content, often at the expense of the users themselves who generated the content.

Enter the blockchain the infrastructure from which decentralized systems are built upon. With the strong growth of blockchain technology in recent years, it is believed that the next stage in the evolution of the Internet, Web3, is looming on the horizon. Web3 has been touted as an era of user empowerment, where content creators receive more rights and decision making opportunities with regard to the development of the Internet and the online communities they operate in.

Its early days yet, and although Web3s full potential has yet to be realized, prospects look promising. The success enjoyed by blockchain-based projects serves as a testament to the enormous benefits the blockchain brings to various aspects of society, and bodes well for a future where decentralized systems feature prominently alongside centralized ones, paving the way for a more intelligent, autonomous and open iteration of the Internet.

Web2 to Web3 The Huobi Vision

Huobi Global envisions a world where safe and reliable Internet of Value (IoV) services can be provided to millions of users across the globe.

We listen to the demands of users, consider what others have not previously thought of, and innovate for the benefit of our users, said Lily Zhang, CFO of Huobi Global, the worlds leading crypto asset exchange.

A pioneer in the blockchain space, Huobi Global has evolved into a full-fledged platform since its launch in 2013, and is fully committed to providing value-add for its users.

We already have numerous assets of high quality and Web3 contents which are readily apparent on our platform, but we will not stop there. We aim to become an integral part of peoples Web3 lifestyles, just like how social messaging apps such as WhatsApp, LINE and WeChat have become the Web2 way of life for people worldwide.

Huobi has also invested in Cube Chain, a new public chain that aspires to become the worlds leading Web3 blockchain. Huobi believes that Web3 is on the cusp of transforming the world, and that decentralized public chains such as Cube Chain will form its backbone.

Huobi facilitates Web3 infrastructure

As the basic building block of the Web3 world, the blockchain industry is still emerging from infancy. Infrastructure projects tend to be long-term in nature, and challenges have been observed from three main aspects:

Firstly, demand for the application layer is growing too fast. For example, Ethereum is struggling to undertake the data and interaction demands of upper-layer applications, and sharding technology has not yet been fully realized; secondly, technical difficulties have been exhibited and have yet to be fully countered by technical teams; thirdly, external factors, such as regulation, financing difficulties, and more are faced by up-and-coming projects.

Despite numerous challenges, there have been innovative technical achievements, such as zk, modular public chain and other expansion schemes that are promising to propel the blockchain to new heights. As one of the leading crypto asset exchanges in the industry, Huobi is committed to leading the development of the entire industry in technological innovation through various forms of support. Huobi has invested in OptimismPBC, zkSync and other high-quality Layer 2 programs, and is willing to take on the role of an active partner in high-potential project teams in order to solve these pressing issues.

The Web3 resident identity system

Decentralized Identifiers (DID) is the identification system for Web3 residents. DIDs can correspond with multiple identities and require more applications, including social networking, games, and more to support the accumulation of data on-chain. As of now, Huobi has made significant headway in DID building nearly 700,000 Huobi users have obtained DIDs. The year 2022 should see social networking and NFTs utilized as gateways to provide more Web3 application scenarios for DID users.

Entrance to the Web3 economy

As a Nine-year old crypto assets exchange, Huobi Global has listed more than 500 high-quality crypto assets hailing from a variety of Web3 segments, including NFT, DeFi, GameFi, and SocialFi. Innovative and industry-leading projects are Huobis primary considerations for listing, and such assets hold the potential to play major roles in the upcoming Web3 economy. Huobi is committed to listing infrastructure and application tokens, such as some innovative new Layer1 blockchains, NFT tokens, social tokens, and more to enrich the future of the World Wide Web.

Among the numerous crypto assets available today, NFT, with its characteristics of digital scarcity, uniqueness and verifiability, provide confirmation of digital ownership for and play a pivotal role in entering the Web3 era. NFTs undertake the value transfer of real and virtual assets, enabling users to participate in both offline and online virtual events. Huobi is focused on building a cohesive NFT platform and community, enabling more creative developers, artists and users to participate in and mutually enjoy the benefits offered by the industry.

Easing the Web2 to Web3 migration

The transit from Web2 to Web3 could present many challenges to users. For example, digital currency will likely be the mainstream medium for Web3 transactions, but users might not know the best channels for purchasing digital currency. Other pain points could include the lack of knowledge around how to invest and trade in digital assets. From a user security level, how should discerning users best avoid the scam ads that have been flooding social media, while also protecting themselves against phishing attacks and fraudulent transactions?

With its expertise and rich experience in the crypto industry since 2013, Huobi has made available several tools and services to smoothen the migration from Web2 to Web3. Huobi will also support Web2 companies migration to Web3 at the investment or incubation level with its strong financial and research know-how. Being a creator and contributor to the Web3 space, Huobi is committed to offering more opportunities to innovative and cutting-edge projects, enabling Web3 residents to not only keep up with the development of the industry, but also actively participate in this promising new era.

The Web3 world is envisioned as one underscored by autonomy, with no central organization, and where content will be owned and controlled by users. Its arrival could completely break the monopoly of the current technology giants, rewrite the current operation of the digital economy, and trigger a fair share of upheaval and innovation. Those who spearhead this revolution and seize this budding opportunity stand to enjoy what might just be the most lucrative dividends of this industrial change. We can only wait and see.

About Huobi Global

Founded in 2013, Huobi Global is one of the worlds leading cryptocurrency exchanges, with tens of millions of users across five continents and 160 different countries. We are dedicated to empowering financial freedom and creating new global wealth, having led the cryptocurrency industry in spot, derivatives, and Bitcoin transactions for many years. Our infrastructure, operations and offerings are built on processes and standards that prioritize user safety and industry compliance, backed by strong global customer support underpinned by local expertise. This lets us offer a unique trading environment that is truly customer-first, safe and sustainable for all users, enabling their long-term success. For more information, visit http://www.huobi.com

Disclaimer: This is a paid post and should not be treated as news/advice.

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Huobi plays a vital role in the transformation of Web2 to Web3 - AMBCrypto News

Meta is adding social hangouts to the Quest’s VR home space – The Verge

Meta Quest virtual reality headsets will soon offer an option for hanging out with other people in your homescreen. The v41 Quest update will add a multiuser Horizon Home space, which Meta announced last year at Connect. Horizon Home lets people put on their headsets and immediately invite other Quest users to jump into social experiences, including watching VR videos as a group. Its a step toward a larger Horizon-branded metaverse that Meta has been rolling out piecemeal over the past few years.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Homes rollout in a video with Free Solo climber Alex Honnold, offering a brief demo of the system. Zuckerberg and Honnold appear as Horizons traditional legless avatars and pop into a 360-degree video of Honnold free climbing the Dolomites, then switch to a space landscape for more chatting. In the Facebook post, Zuckerberg says more options for customizing your Home space are currently in development. A Meta spokesperson told Road to VR that the v41 update would be coming next week, when well presumably find out more details about the system, including how many people it supports in one hangout.

Horizon Home joins Metas Horizon Workrooms VR meeting software and its Horizon Worlds creative and social platform. Its similar to Facebook Spaces, a 2017 app where you could play minigames with friends and take virtual selfies. Spaces shut down in 2019 to make way for Horizon, and it never appeared to reach the popularity of independent VR hangout apps like BigScreen, VRChat, and Rec Room. And until now, the Quest homescreen has been a solitary experience where players could move around and pull up apps.

In theory, Home has the advantage of being directly integrated into the core Quest experience. Meta has also ramped up its virtual and augmented reality efforts as it has attempted to transition past its traditional social networking business. The hardware part of that strategy is still in flux, with Meta recently canceling plans for an upcoming smartwatch and an early consumer-focused AR headset, focusing on longer-term AR glasses plans. But VR software is a much nearer-term bet, and here, Meta is filling an obvious ecosystem gap for easy, small-scale virtual meetups.

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Meta is adding social hangouts to the Quest's VR home space - The Verge

Hospitality Technology Opens Nominations for the 2022 MURTEC Breakthrough Awards – PR Web

CHICAGO (PRWEB) June 13, 2022

Hospitality Technology (HT) magazine is pleased to accept nominations for the 2022 MURTEC Breakthrough Awards, which honor restaurant companies for outstanding achievement in business innovation. Sponsored by Fortinet, a developer of network and cybersecurity solutions, the awards are presented to operators for leveraging groundbreaking technology and innovative strategies to improve customer engagement and/or the overall enterprise.

Now in their 16th year, the MURTEC Breakthrough Awards will be presented at the MURTEC Executive Summit, a sister event to MURTEC (Multi-Unit Restaurant Technology Conference).Nominations for the MURTEC Breakthrough Awards are being accepted through August 5, 2022.

Restaurants have accelerated digital innovations these past two years, and now we are seeing even greater enthusiasm for emerging technologies, says Hospitality Technologys Editor-in-Chief Robert Firpo-Cappiello. Recognizing that technology is now the cornerstone to meeting guest and staff expectations, the MURTEC Breakthrough Awards will honor restaurant companies that are leaning into technology to make magic happen.

In the Restaurant Industry, as in life, the difference between success and failure often comes down to taking action, especially in the face of adversity. Not being afraid to take risks, to fail forward, and embrace new technologies as digital differentiators is exactly what separates the innovators from the imitators, said Courtney Radke, Field CISO for Retail and Hospitality, at Fortinet. I want to recognize and congratulate those companies that took on the challenge head-on, paving the way for new and engaging customer experiences and continued digital innovation in the Restaurant Industry! We thank you for carrying the torch and are honored to be the sponsor of this years MURTEC Breakthrough Awards.

MURTEC Breakthrough Awards are given in two categories:Enterprise Innovator This is presented to the company that has leveraged a specific strategy or technology beyond standard practice to improve overall restaurant operations. Results should reveal an increase or marked improvement in efficiency, cost savings, etc. Areas of innovation can include, but are not limited to: back-office and/or front-of-house applications, labor management, point-of-sale technologies, cloud computing, and enterprise-grade mobile applications.Customer Engagement Innovator This is presented to the company that has leveraged a specific strategy or technology to increase guest satisfaction, loyalty, and/or brand reputation. Potential concepts can include, but are not limited to: mobile applications, social networking, loyalty and CRM.

NOMINATION GUIDELINES:

https://forms.gle/6EqFKhszEABxavbQ9

The MURTEC Executive Summit, held November 2-4, at Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa, California, is produced by Hospitality Technology and is a sister event to MURTEC (Multi-Unit Restaurant Technology Conference). MURTEC Executive Summit is where restaurant leaders from across the organization -- in both technical and non-technical roles -- unite to see their future through the lens of strategic technology.

About Fortinet Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) secures the largest enterprise, service provider, and government organizations around the world. Fortinet empowers its customers with intelligent, seamless protection across the expanding attack surface and the power to take on ever-increasing performance requirements of the borderless networktoday and into the future. Only the Fortinet Security Fabric architecture can deliver security without compromise to address the most critical security challenges, whether in networked, application, cloud, or mobile environments. Fortinet ranks number one in the most security appliances shipped worldwide and more than 500,000 customers trust Fortinet to protect their businesses. Learn more at http://www.fortinet.com

About Hospitality TechnologyHospitality Technology (HT) is the only publication dedicated to covering the role ofinformation technology in improving business performance for both hotel and restaurant operators. The Hospitality Technology editorial portfolio includes: a print publication that publishes eight times annually and reaches more than 16,000 hospitality industry executives, three networking and educational events (MURTEC, HT-NEXT and MURTEC Executive Summit), a comprehensive website, e-newsletters, web seminars, and several exclusive annual reports and studies. Hospitality Technology is the parent brand of the Restaurant Technology Network (http://www.restauranttechnologynetwork.com), a membership community of restaurants and suppliers working together to solve industry challenges by shaping standards and sharing best practices. Visit Hospitality Technology online at http://www.hospitalitytech.com. Hospitality Technology is published by EnsembleIQ, headquartered in Chicago.

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Hospitality Technology Opens Nominations for the 2022 MURTEC Breakthrough Awards - PR Web

Health Union Launches First-of-its-Kind Social Health Network – PR Newswire

Largest network of patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals reimagines ways to drive connections, amplify voices within healthcare industry

PHILADELPHIA, June 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Health Union, the leader in social health, announces the launch of its Social Health Network, a broad reaching community for patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals with the goal of bringing empathy, support and humanity to the healthcare industry. The Social Health Network (SocialHealthNetwork.com) continues Health Union's tradition of bringing people together in the shared experience of driving unique and impactful conversations about health, while expanding opportunities for health leaders to raise awareness, share knowledge and help others.

Health Union's Social Health Network represents a significant milestone that furthers the company's mission to help people with chronic and complex conditions live better, providing a mutually beneficial impact for both health leaders and the healthcare industry. By combining the powerful impact of Health Union's proven online health community model with WEGO Health's Patient Leader Network, Health Union further cements its commitment to social health - the dynamic, real-time action people take to find meaningful connections and share information that impact their health journey.

Health Union's Social Health Network offers health leaders - a mixture of patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals - opportunities to participate in panels and networking events, as well as other external opportunities to amplify their voices and positively impact the healthcare industry. In addition to these opportunities, participants will have access to free online courses, webinars and other resources.

All of these opportunities and resources, as well as engagement and discussions, can be found on SocialHealthNetwork.com and within the community's corresponding social media channels.

"Through our research and more than a decade of working closely with health leaders impacted by a variety of chronic and complex health conditions, we know just how influential their experiences can be on the health journeys of others," said Amrita Bhowmick, Health Union's chief community officer. "Launching the Social Health Network gives Health Union the ability to expand the power of social health while empowering patient leaders to use their voices in a way that will positively reshape the healthcare ecosystem."

For nearly 15 years, the Patient Leader Network - an extensive group of patients and caregivers, across virtually all health conditions and topics - helped to elevate the patient voice across the healthcare industry. All members will automatically become part of the Social Health Network, which will retain the features and opportunities previously offered through WEGO Health and open up new opportunities with the inclusion of healthcare industry professionals.

Any new patients, caregivers or healthcare professionals interested in joining the Social Health Network can visit SocialHealthNetwork.com to learn more.

About Health Union

Health Unionis the proven industry leader driving and amplifying social health. As the premier social health company, only Health Union encourages the dynamic, real-time action people take to find meaningful connections and share information that impact their health journey. The company reaches millions of people through the largest portfolio of condition-specific online health communities (e.g., Migraine.com, MultipleSclerosis.net, LungCancer.net) and health leaders - addressing virtually every condition and providing the information, connection and support they need.

SOURCE Health Union

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Health Union Launches First-of-its-Kind Social Health Network - PR Newswire