InfoQ Homepage COVID-19 Content on InfoQ
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Virtualizing Design Sprint and UX Workshops
Design sprint and UX workshops can be done virtually using a combination of remote whiteboards and communication platforms. It brings advantages like being able to invite international experts, having remote participants attend, less travelling, smaller carbon footprint, and lower costs.
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The Post COVID Normal Will Be Hybrid Work Environments
The Microsoft Work Trend Report points to flexible, hybrid work being the new normal, leaders being out of touch with their employees, an exhausted workforce, innovation at risk, shrinking networks, the need for authenticity to spur productivity and well-being & a huge negative impact on GenZ. The report provides concrete advice for charting the way forward to overcome these and other challenges.
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Manuel Pais on Team Topologies during COVID-19
Manuel Pais, co-author of Team Topologies, recently spoke alongside leaders of Capra Consulting who have used the topologies to move from hierarchical structures to empowered teams. We report on the journey and speak to Pais about team topologies in the context of COVID-19.
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Facebook Open-Sources AI Model to Predict COVID-19 Patient Outcomes
A team from Facebook AI Research (FAIR) and New York University (NYU) School of Medicine has developed deep-learning models that use chest X-rays to predict COVID-19 patient prognosis. In a comparison study, the models outperformed human radiologists, and could be used to help hospitals predict the demand for supplemental oxygen or intensive care.
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Remote Onboarding Changes the New Hire Experience
As organisations make remote working more and more the norm, the employee onboarding experience needs to change to engage new people with their colleagues and the organisation effectively. The onboarding experience needs to be designed to engage the new employee and actively make them feel welcome and a part of the team.
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Remote Working for Tech Workers is Here to Stay
Remote working is here to stay for tech workers, irrespective of what happens with COVID-19. Many tech companies are changing their long term planning and hiring practices to allow for remote working in the future, and benefits packages are being reworked to provide support for parents with child care and home schooling pressures.
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Q&A with Katherine Kirk on Managing Entropy in Uncertain Times
InfoQ talks to Katherine Kirk about her recently published talk on thriving when control is removed. We discuss the impact of the current pandemic on organisations. Kirk explains the importance of contextual strategies which acknowledge and counterbalance the impact of entropy.
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Using Measurement to Optimise Remote Work
Dave Longman of HeadForwards wrote about using data to demonstrate the effectiveness of remote work during lockdown. Michael Schrage of MIT’s School of Management also wrote about the importance of using data-driven insights to improve performance in the current climate. Laura Giurge of London Business School talked about how isolation is teaching individuals and firms to be remotely effective.
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Google Meet’s Scaling Challenges during COVID-19
Google wrote about their challenges in scaling Google Meet due to increased usage since the COVID-19 pandemic led to more people using it. The SRE team at Google used their existing incident management framework with modifications to tackle the challenge of increased traffic that started earlier this year.
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Remote Collaboration Fatigue is Real, Remote Workers are More Empathic, Remote Work is Here to Stay
As the shift from in-person to remote working persists, organisations have been doing research into the impact this is having on individuals and teams. Studies by Gartner and Microsoft indicate that remote collaboration fatigue is real, remote workers are more empathic and inclusive, and remote work is here to stay.
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Pandemic Programming Survey Results Show Negative Impact of COVID-19 Changes
The Pandemic Programming survey looked at the ways that developers' lives have been impacted by the lockdowns and changes caused by COVID-19. Over 2200 people from 52 countries answered the questionnaire to assess their wellbeing and productivity before and while working at home. The results show that wellbeing and productivity are suffering with some groups more impacted than others.
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Conflicting Reports on Remote Worker Productivity and Contentment
Remote working is becoming normal for the tech industry, with most tech employees working remotely due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19. Studies and surveys are trying to measure the impact on productivity that organisations are seeing as a result of the shift. The results are conflicting and illustrate the complexity of the times we find ourselves in.
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Apple Releases iOS 13.5 with Exposure Notification Beta and Best Practices Sample App
The latest release of iOS, iOS 13.5, includes beta support for the Exposure Notification API Apple defined jointly with Google to enable contact tracing apps. Apple also published a sample app to showcase best practices in contact-tracing apps.
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Tech Giants Shift to More Remote Working for the Long Term
As the impacts of COVID-19 continue to be felt around the globe, and many tech industry employees get used to working from home, large tech companies are making long-term decisions about allowing and encouraging their people to work remotely. Facebook, Twitter, Shopify and others are making plans to have most or all of their workforce permanently remote.
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Secure Multiparty Computation May Enable Privacy-Protecting Contact Tracing Solutions
The current COVID-19 pandemic has fueled several efforts to implement contact tracing apps, based on a number of different cryptographic approaches. InfoQ has spoken with HashiCorp principal product manager for cryptography and security Andy Manoske to learn more about Secure Multiparty Computation and how it can enable privacy-protecting analysis on private data from different sources.