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Thanks for your interest in Connect A Product To Stripe In Clickfunnels!
I'm currently working on a detailed video to get you the latest information on this…
But in the meantime…
Checkout the best ClickFunnels offers, benefits, and features below.
In this day as well as age, the method your business runs online can make or break you.
How do most services presently have a visibility online?
Web sites.
The fact of the matter is, nevertheless, that sites have actually significantly advanced over the previous years – and also the methods of old are not sensible for contemporary organisation.
Back in the day, it would certainly suffice to have an easy site with a home page, services, prices, about us, and call web pages.
A prospective customer would certainly go to your website, scroll about, go to the different pages and take in content as they please.
Nevertheless, if you are a business investing any kind of money on advertising, you want to control what clients are learning more about on your website, present offers at the correct time, and also take full advantage of the income you make from each individual.
Just how does one attain this?
Making use of sales funnels.
Enter ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is the most convenient means making high converting sales as well as marketing funnels.
It is an unique device created especially to turn possible clients into customers.
It actually is an all-in-one remedy to develop sales funnels and includes touchdown web pages, e-mail assimilation, invoicing, webinars, membership sites, therefore far more. It's not surprising that it has promptly come to be a favorite tool for marketers.
Below is my in-depth ClickFunnels Testimonial, including favorite features, rates, pros/cons, and comparisons versus competitors.
Connect A Product To Stripe In Clickfunnels: Yet First, What Exactly Is a Sales Channel?
Sales funnels (additionally called advertising funnels) are multi-step projects that are made to move possible leads via your sales process, as well as turn them into buyers.
Photo a real-life channel. At the top, you put fluid in, which narrows down in the direction of one dealt with destination.
In sales, a similar event happens. On top, site visitors come to your web site, however not all who enter make it out of the various other end as purchasers.
Lots of things have to happen from the moment a site visitor enters your funnel, to the moment they act and also efficiently complete a purchase.
By breaking down the consumer's journey right into smaller steps, you can be more accurate concerning just how when you present an offer to your target market.
The detailed steps in a channel may look something like this:
- Unqualified lead gets to touchdown page
- Web page communicates the initial offer (something complimentary to gather an email).
- Once email is gathered, major deal is pitched.
- Lead comes to be a paying customer.
- Even more e-mail interaction supplying client value.
- Additional connection structure
- Repeating sales.
ClickFunnels also has a visuals that explains this in a basic means:.
Exactly what is ClickFunnels?
As discussed earlier, ClickFunnels is the very best sales funnel software around today.
The business makes the bold claim of offering you whatever you have to market, sell, as well as provide your products online – as well as they absolutely deliver.
A basic channel will utilize an opt-in web page (to collect email addresses), an e-mail car -responder (to send emails to your clients), plus an added sales web page with some content and an order kind, potentially followed by additional material, a membership site, and so on
. Previously, you would need to make use of different systems and also devices to complete all these tasks such as:
- Develop an internet site
- Discover Hosting
- Locate an autoresponder solution
- Locate subscription website software application
- Locate split-testing software application … and so on
But ClickFunnels looks after every little thing with their system. You not only conserve a ton of cash by not having to purchase various products/services, however you additionally prevent the technical mess of having to set whatever up, and could concentrate on what's actually crucial – expanding your business.
ClickFunnels provides a Free 14-Day Trial, so you get to explore the tool and truly see if it's ideal for your company.
Preferred Functions
* Rapidly Produce Pages Using Layouts and also Aspects *.
Prior to obtaining as well much, it is essential to recognize that a channel is a collection of web pages created in a calculated order, with the objective of converting as numerous leads right into customers. And also a page is just a collection of numerous components developed to obtain someone to take a particular activity.
ClickFunnels uses even more compared to 50 various components in order to help you develop the perfect page. The editor is very simple to utilize and all you have to do is drag as well as go down different components on the page, and also update the message and look to fit your needs – no coding abilities called for!
ClickFunnels also makes your life simpler by providing you with a lots of totally free templates.
In fact, ClickFunnels supplies over 37 sorts of web pages for you to mix and match with. These are broken down into the following 10 groups:
- Presell Pages: Survey Page, Short Article Web Page, Presell Web Page, Clickpop Page
- Optin Pages: Press Page, Reverse Capture Web Page, Lead Magnet, Voucher
- Thank You Pages: Thanks Web Page, Deal Wall, Bridge Web Page, Share Page
- Sales Pages: Video Clip Sales Web Page, Business Letter Web Page, Product Launch Page
- OTO Pages: Upsell Page, Downsell Page
- Order Forms: Two Step Order Web Page, Conventional Order Page, Video Clip Sales Letter Order Web Page, Sales Letter Order Page, Product Launch Order Web Page
- Webinar Pages: Webinar Enrollment Page, Webinar Confirmation Web Page, Webinar Broadcast Room, Webinar Replay Room
- Membership Pages: Gain Access To Page, Participant's Area
- Associate Pages: Gain Access To Page, Affiliate Location
- Other Pages: Application Page, Ask Page, Shop Front, Web Page, Hero Web Page, Hangout Page, Live Trial Page
The pre-built layouts are completely adjustable, and are what most individuals make use of.
You have the ability to select a template, edit or change the aspects with your own, as well as your brand-new web page prepares to go.
You can likewise link any channel you create with your own email advertising and marketing service (if you don't utilize the one included in ClickFunnels), and also use the ClickFunnels built in invoicing system.
This is also a blast to state that ClickFunnels gives really valuable as well as easy to understand training video clips when you first join. I highly suggest undergoing those due to the fact that they quickly enable you to make use of the device at its complete capacity, and you'll have extra enjoyable messing around. Connect A Product To Stripe In Clickfunnels
* Create One-Click Membership Sites *.
Among the best functions with ClickFunnels is the capacity to conveniently develop membership websites and also deliver material to your audience in one location.
Your subscription website will certainly come complete with registration pages, subscription gain access to pages, and also material pages which you could quickly lock or drip feed to your clients inning accordance with purchases they made in your funnel.
ClickFunnels subscription sites enable you to send out e-mails, quickly handle your emails, and also build an area all while removing the tension that's related to various other services such as Kajabi, or WordPress systems.
It's truly useful to not need to buy a different software program or plugin to develop subscription sites.
* Email Combination & Actionetics *.
With every funnel comes email list structure chances.
ClickFunnels sustains e-mail integration with every one of the major email automation systems such as:
- Active Campaign
- Aweber
- Constant Contact
- ConvertKit
- Drip
- Get Response
- Hubspot
- InfusionSoft
- Mad Mimi
- MailChimp
- Market Hero
- Ontraport
- Salesforce
- Sendlane
- And others
However, ClickFunnels also has their very own powerful automation tool called Actionetics.
Although you can produce, schedule, as well as supply e-mails similar to other email advertising platform, Actionetics is so much a lot more.
I enjoy Actionetics due to the fact that it not only replaces your email advertising and marketing but messenger marketing as well as SMS marketing software applications too. This takes automation to an entire new level and assists you connect the ideal message to your customers, exactly when they need it. A video introduction of Actionetics will be provided better listed below.
* Invoicing as well as Settlement Combination *.
An impressive attribute within ClickFunnels is the capacity to collect every one of the invoicing information from your clients precisely your sales web page. Selling is made so much less complicated when customers do not need to leave your site.
ClickFunnels integrates with significant repayment gateways such as PayPal, Red Stripe, as well as InfusionSoft, to name a few.
ClickFunnels Rates.
While you could start with the Free 14-Day Test, there are three different rates choices with ClickFunnels:
- $ 97/month.
- $ 297/month.
- $ 997 bulk discount rate strategy (recommended).
I'll go into detail for each of these plans listed below.
1. ClickFunnels Standard Plan – $97/month.
The standard strategy includes all of the functions you would require within ClickFunnels, but with limitations on the number of funnels (20) and web pages (100) you could have in your account, in addition to the amount of visitors (20K) could see your web pages each month.
You likewise do not obtain innovative performance such as ClickFunnels own email advertising and marketing and also affiliate monitoring tools.
2. ClickFunnels Etison Collection – $297/month.
This plan consists of all the bells as well as whistles of the standard strategy, with no constraints. It also features 2 extra items produced by ClickFunnels called Actionetics (e-mail advertising) and also Knapsack (associate monitoring platform).
In Actionetics – you could handle all of your get in touches with that register for your listing, send email programs, as well as develop a host of various other automations. Connect A Product To Stripe In Clickfunnels
The distinction between both strategies actually is the restrictions, and Actionetics/Backpack. If you are a standard customer as well as do not expect to utilize more than 20 funnels in your account – the Standard Strategy ought to be enough.
Nonetheless, if you plan to have an associate program or want to maintain your email marketing within ClickFunnels as well as not use a 3rd party software program, the Etison Suite is for you.
You could always begin on the reduced plan and upgrade if required.
3. Funnel Hacks System – $997
For anyone that's significant regarding their organisation, the ClickFunnels Funnel Hacks System is the deal of the century.
The $997 Funnel Hacks System consists of durable training programs bundled with 6-month access to the ClickFunnels Etison Suite.
This is an incredible deal since outside of this program, 6-months of Etison Collection alone would certainly cost you $1782.
Not just are you conserving $785 but you're obtaining a ton of trainings and overviews of help you get the most from ClickFunnels!
ClickFunnels Benefits And Drawbacks
- Creating funnels is extremely straightforward, simple, as well as quick
- All-in-one platform with every little thing your organisation has to win
- Split testing and also conversion tracking consisted of
- Email combination with all of the significant e-mail autoresponder systems
- Settlement handling abilities within ClickFunnels
- ClickFunnels is constantly adjusting and also upgrading to the moments
- There is constantly support readily available (whether real-time or otherwise).
- Incredibly active Facebook Team Neighborhood.
- Free 14-Day Test – enables you to attempt it run the risk of cost-free.
- As amazing as ClickFunnels is, it definitely is not an economical remedy as well as requires a continual registration to make use of
- Support isn't really constantly the fastest and also could draw from 1 minute to 24-HOUR relying on the problem.
ClickFunnels vs. Everybody Else.
Many individuals ask exactly how ClickFunnels as compares to other touchdown page home builders such as Leadpages, Unbounce, and also Infusionsoft.
Generally it's not actually a reasonable comparison due to the fact that each of these devices stands out is one location or the various other.
The chart above offers a detailed analysis – but I'll highlight some of the significant contrasts below.
ClickFunnels vs Leadpages
Prior to ClickFunnels, Leadpages was the huge pet.
Leadpages is just a lead capture software – absolutely nothing even more. You can produce touchdown web pages, lead boxes, gather leads … that's practically it. Additionally, the Leadpages themes are also restricted on customization.
ClickFunnels is far more versatile – it's a lot easier to make use of and does so much more than develop lead capture web pages.
Basically, Leadpages is really simply a touchdown page building contractor, while ClickFunnels is focused around building highly incorporated funnels.
ClickFunnels vs Infusionsoft
Infusionsoft is not a landing web page or sales web page contractor. It has a few of that performance constructed it, but that's not just what it's understood for.
At it's core, Infusionsoft is a CRM platform – one that allows you to handle your entire consumer database. ClickFunnels has this capability with Actionetics, however it's not virtually as progressed as Infusionsoft.
Infusionsoft is also incredibly costly as well as forces every brand-new client to pay $2000 for a mandatory kickstart training plan just to find out how to make use of the complex system (which is notoriously tough to use).
ClickFunnels Affiliate Program
There are 2 main paths people go down as ClickFunnels individuals.
Those that prefer to utilize the device for their business – in hopes of one day accomplish both Comma Club (over $1M in earnings).
And those that are interested in gaining passive income as a ClickFunnels Affiliate as well as winning the Dream Automobile Competition (where they pay $500/$1000 in the direction of your dream car if you get to 100/200 energetic monthly signups, respectively).
With a massive 40% regular monthly reoccuring payment, ClickFunnels quickly has one of the best affiliate programs of any type of system out there.
That's right – you make money an ongoing 40% compensation on every affiliate signup you make through the ClickFunnels Affiliate Program. However, exactly what does that truly equate to?
The basic strategy is a $97/month financial investment and the Etison Suite strategy is a $297/month investment. as a result you make $38.80 each standard strategy and $118.80 per Etison Collection plan … each and every month!
Typically, every 100 signups will bring in $4000/month in associate compensations (basically depending on the amount of Etison Strategy customers remain in there).
Visit this site to read more about ending up being a ClickFunnels Affiliate.
All-time Low Line
ClickFunnels is hands down the greatest system if you are wanting to easily build high transforming sales funnels.
Since it was developed from the ground up to be the most effective sales channel builder, it beats out every one of the competition in that regard.
On the surface, it could not be the least expensive product available – but if you use it to its complete capacity, your company will become a lot more rewarding and you will certainly conserve cash from not having to use various other tools. Connect A Product To Stripe In Clickfunnels
If you have actually read this far right into my ClickFunnels Testimonial, I recommend you see on your own with a Free 14-Day Test right here.


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Supreme Court's' Decision Overview – States to Decide to Legalize Gambling
Online gambling has boomed over the last decade or so. Within recent years specifically, since about 2015 online gambling and online gambling websites have seen its user base skyrocket typically by using pay per head betting sites. Pay per head websites are basically outsourcing for those who want to become bookies but don't want to run the day to day operations of the site or service. Since the ruling, there are more people than ever looking to both participate in and run a sports betting service
However, until this past May both sports betting and daily fantasy sports wagering on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel were still illegal in many states, and with the supreme court's' decision in May to strike down PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Betting Act) which was preventing states from legislating their own laws to regulate sports gambling that will change drastically in the coming years.
The N.J. Governor Phil Murphy v. NCAA case and subsequent ruling is going to allow bookies and states to have a say in what the rules are and how things are essentially done when it comes to the floodgates being opened concerning legalizing all sports betting. Basically, you won't have to go offshore anymore as most people still do who aren't in states with casinos or where offshore online gambling is considered ok. Put it this way it is estimated that about 400 billion U.S. dollars are said to be wagered on various sports and sporting events. It is also estimated that more than 90% of this is done illegally.
This new ruling has paved the way for DraftKings and Fanduel and those who love to play fantasy sports and wager on them in the process.
What does the ruling mean for you?
The supreme court decision means several things for the citizens of the states who decide to legalize sports betting. However, there are some pros and cons that come with the decision.
- Pros
Some of the positives of the ruling according to those involved are that it brings the seediness out from the shadows and into the light of day. What this means is that bookies who have taken bets illegally for years will be taxed and regulated. The hope for this is to curb any physical incidents that happen, while also boosting state revenues tenfold.
Another thing those in favor of the bill feel is that it will eliminate much of the desire to "fix" certain sporting events to go in favor of mafia organizations and other criminals looking to make a big score on a game or a team throughout a season.
- Cons
Some of the negatives of the court's decision are making sure that the regulation in place doesn't find its way to corruption Some also worry that many bookies will still fly under the radar and therefore the estimated financial gains would not quite reach expectations. There is also some rhetoric of sports gambling legalization leading to more addictions and more people ruining their lives.
In this journalist's humble opinion gambling, drugs, and prostitution should all be legalized and fully and securely regulated. Not only will several economies benefit greatly from this but the people involved who are more than likely going to use those vices on both sides whether it's legal or not will be made safer.

subset: commoncrawl


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Announcement:The Student Financial Solutions (SFS) Campus Cards Office is offering a giveaway for employees who upgrade to the new One Card. Any employee who upgrades to the new One Card between March 4, 2019 and December 31, 2019 is eligible to win one pair of Apple Air Pods!
For more information, please view our One Card Giveaway flyer and our One Card replacement service webapge.
Please note that UCSD Health Systems and UCSD affiliates are ineligible for the upgrade service at this time.
The Campus Card Office is located in the Student Services Center, Suite 354A ( map)
Business Hours:
Please check our calendar for the most up-to-date business hours!
About Campus Card
Your Campus Card is your employee ID and key to the campus. In addition to serving as your official photo identification card and security badge, the Campus Card will give you access to campus buildings and events, and lets you:
- Check out books and materials through UCSD Libraries.
- Use it as a debit card at various campus dining facilities.
- Use your ID to purchase a rec card or gain access to recreation classes and facilities.
- Get discounts or free admission to sporting events and other campus activities.
- Get discounts on attractions and events through the UCSD Box Office
- Get discounted rides on public transportation.
- Show your affiliation, if needed, on UCSD shuttles.
- Get employee discounts on attractions, electronics, education, movies, and more.
Need to find your employee number? Employees can access their employee number via MyTime (within the "Summary" tab) and via the "Earnings Statement" feature through At Your Service Online.
Special Badge Requests
If you are a department on-campus and need to request special badges (i.e. RA badges, CSO badges, etc.), please contact us at our UCSD email address . Please also complete our Campus Cards Special Request form and attach it to your email (please note that there are two different tabs you must complete on the form).
Emergency Access Requests
The card also gives proof of official campus affiliation for quick identification during an emergency or major disaster. If your job duties grant you special access during an emergency, your department can request this designation on your card.
Triton Cash
When you deposit funds onto your Campus Card, it becomes a Triton Cash debit card, allowing you to make cash-free purchases at many on- and off-campus locations.


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Angst is how Kent Haslam described it. Not the teenage kind, but rather that feeling of unfocused anxiety and trepidation that comes with not particularly good news.
It stirred inside Montana's athletic director when he read the press release, that just two days before his Grizzly football team was to host North Dakota State in one of the most anticipated season openers in program history, the Bison were making an even bigger splash.
NDSU athletics planned to add to its permissible scholarships for 2016, just the second Football Championship Subdivision institution covering "full cost of attendance." Haslam knew the conversations and obstacles his department would face immediately; it left a pit in his stomach.
"And it was a pit of about $600,000," Haslam said.
North Dakota State's announcement on Aug. 27 toppled a series of dominoes in the FCS world as regional rivals reacted by following the Bison's lead. Just days later was North Dakota's own proclamation as the issue entered the Big Sky Conference. Then came South Dakota.
And though the addition of scholarship money promises to wobble the balance of power in recruiting -- by how much is unknown -- Haslam said Montana is standing firm.
At least for now.
As was the department's stance back in April when Liberty became the first university outside the so-called Power 5 conferences to offer full cost, UM maintains that it will not add to its scholarships in the imminent future to cover full cost of attendance.
"If we had to do it right now within our budget, no, we couldn't," Haslam said this week. "We don't have $600, $700 grand of extra money every year.
"... But there's a lot of conversations going on and what are we gonna do? You can't sit around and pretend it's not happening."
Montana State AD Peter Fields confirmed to the Missoulian that his institution is not ready for such a move either, and "the decision when and if we do will be made not in a vacuum."
In January the NCAA voted to allow universities to supplement their scholarships to student-athletes with stipends that would expand outside expenses traditionally covered like tuition, room and board and books.
The autonomous legislation, passed by a 79-1 vote, was a welcome move to the big dogs of college athletics. Schools in the Power 5 -- the Pac-12, Big 10, Big 12, Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conferences -- updated their budgets for the 2015-16 school year.
The full cost of attendance -- taking into account transportation, off-campus meals and further school supplies -- would be an added $2,000 to $4,000 per full athletic scholarship, depending on the school.
At Montana, the number is on the high end of that range. Added cost for in-state students is $3,228 while out-of-state students are estimated to require $3,928 because of heightened transportation expenses.
Across Montana's 178.1 total scholarships, that comes out to between $574,906.80 and $699,576.80 per year, on par with what other institutions face (Liberty, as a private school, is not required to release such information). Both extremes -- assuming all student-athletes are either in-state or out-of-state residents -- are unlikely with UM's real total falling somewhere in the middle.
The true cost of attendance is set by each school's respective financial aid offices.
At Montana State, the added budget weight would fall a little lower with MSU's full cost estimate at just $3,390 for out-of-state students. Considering the school's 165 or so scholarships -- the Bobcats have less because they do not field a softball program like UM -- that's still as much as $550,000.
Neither school has that kind of house money to play with, needing such a chunk on an annual basis.
"I feel strongly that it's got to be done in a fiscally responsible way," said Haslam, whose department handed out $4.3 million in athletic scholarships this year. "Two years down the road you wonder, 'Man, how am I gonna make this car payment?' I don't want to do that."
For some programs time wasn't an option. Their hands were forced.
Once North Dakota State took the step, its in-state rival couldn't stand by and become a second-tier athletic department. On Sept. 2, the third FCS domino fell.
"I certainly didn't anticipate it moving quite this fast," North Dakota AD Brian Faison said. "We've always felt that down the road it could be a possibility, but we need to be cognizant of our regional opposition here."
UND began offering full cost, or full amended grant-in-aid as the university refers to it, for it's renowned men's and women's hockey programs this year to keep pace with other national powers. Those 18 scholarships apiece are about one-fifth of NoDak's total aid and upping the offers to all the school's scholarships comes with an estimated $700,000 price tag.
NoDak wasn't the only one left reacting. Just two days later South Dakota added its name to the list.
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Other regional powers like South Dakota State, which is working its books now to see if the move is feasible, and Northern Iowa, which already offers full cost for men's and women's basketball and volleyball, could be the next to announce.
Big Sky Conference Deputy Commissioner Ron Loghry said schools are free to make the decision on their own rather than a conference deciding for them -- though some leagues have clung together. The Horizon League offers full cost for men's basketball and an equivalent number of women's scholarships in recognition of Title IX.
The decision is not one that conferences, the Big Sky included, feel comfortable pushing on their institutions.
"In fact across the nation conferences are hands-off," Loghry said. "We have never instituted a policy for or against (full cost of attendance scholarships) and we won't."
Because the four Subdivision schools won't begin play with full cost scholarships on board until next fall, the full effect on the balance of power is unclear. But Loghry said he knows the impact has already been felt in Utah, where the Big Sky headquarters is located, in the recruiting wars between FCS and nearby higher Football Bowl Subdivision teams like BYU and Utah.
Perhaps schools like Montana, with its football palace in Washington-Grizzly Stadium, recently opened Grizzly Student-Athlete Academic Center and upcoming $14 million Grizzly Champions Center project, won't feel much difference at all.
"We've got a lot of things that these other schools don't have and I've never been one to give excuses when we don't have something somebody else has," Montana first-year head football coach Bob Stitt said. "I've been winning games a long time with less."
Stitt coached the past 15 years at NCAA Division II Colorado School of Mines, a school with stout academic guidelines and rather unassuming facilities.
Haslam agreed with his coach. Right now Montana's fundraising emphasis is elsewhere.
"I've said from the very beginning, strategically what we want to focus on is improving our facilities," he said.
And though the full cost issue has dipped a toe in the Big Sky thanks to UND, the Green and White's move is far from creating tidal waves.
"In large part we don't recruit the same athletes so I don't know that there's necessarily as much of a direct impact on those schools," said Faison, whose NoDak programs fight for recruits in the Midwest in the shadow of the Big 10.
But how long will that last?
The topic has come up at each Big Sky school, some institutes playing down their discussions with relative secrecy.
Sure Weber State has talked about it, Loghry confirmed. Eastern Washington too, though Eagles' AD Bill Chaves declined to comment for this story, a department official saying only that "Eastern is monitoring the landscape and hasn't made any decision yet."
"Boy the sands shift so fast," added Haslam, laying out Montana's options for a hypothetical future that features full cost of attendance in Missoula.
It requires increasing revenue or decreasing expenses, the backbone of sustainable business.
Some expenses will never drop; things like travel, insurance and coaches' salaries swell every year. Cuts could do the trick, but Haslam said his department does as much trimming as possible on a yearly basis anyway. And dropping varsity sports isn't the answer, Montana having just added softball as its 15th last year (14 are needed to remain at Division I).
Montana would need to up its revenue then, increasing money earned from student fees, donations, multimedia rights, institutional support or ticket sales. Some of those are more feasible than others, Haslam said.
"What I get really nervous about is we're already charging an extremely high amount for tickets," he said. "We ask a lot of our ticket base."
Single-game football tickets range from $36 to $61 this season. Wa-Griz seats 25,217.
Private fundraising will likely have to come to the rescue, as it is at places like NDSU and UND.
And UM and the Grizzly Scholarship Association are likely already working toward that goal. You never know when the next domino, this one much closer to home, might drop.
"Montana or Montana State, if one of us were to jump in the fray, the other is probably 24 hours behind," MSU's Fields said. "If that."


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SoftBank Confirm Vision Fund 2; Emma Succeeding Through Sustainable Models
by Hugh Williams on 31st Jul 2019 in News
DTC's Daily Digest brings you the latest news on the world's fastest growing direct-to-consumer brands. In today's edition: SoftBank confirm Vision Fund 2; Emma succeeding through sustainable models; and VC funding boom in the US, as China falters.
SoftBank confirm Vision Fund 2
SoftBank has announced the planned establishment of Vision Fund 2, the successor to their lucrative Vision Fund. The new fund will total at least USD$108bn (£89bn), making this sequel larger than its predecessor.
SoftBank's first Vision Fund's epic size, large checks, and rapid-fire investment strategy shook the private markets. Companies of all sorts accepted money from Vision Fund 1 including Slack, DoorDash, Uber, and WeWork.
While news had swirled that SoftBank was struggling to find the capital for Vision Fund 2, the Japanese conglomerate did find sufficient limited partnerships (LPs) to fund its new weapon.
SoftBank won't just deploy other peoples' money, however. It will put about USD$38bn of its own money into the second Vision Fund, making it an anchor LP of the investment effort. SoftBank is, therefore, making a large, public double-down on its own strategy and vision for the future.
Those who have supported Vision Fund 2 include Apple, Microsoft, Standard Chartered, and even the National Investment Corporation of National Bank of Kazakhstan. With SoftBank investing in exciting smaller startups, as well as huge international businesses, DTCs looking to scale internationally will want to keep an eye on this.
Emma succeeding through sustainable models
Emma Mattress has generated £18 million revenue in the first half of 2019 thanks to its "sustainable business model".
The online bedding and mattress retailer said it was on track to achieve £45 million revenue this year, which is a growth of 173% from 2018.
"Emma's 316% year-on-year growth is a testament to our profitable and sustainable business model, which focuses on product quality and clearly communicating product differentiation and function," Emma Mattress co-founder Benjamin Quiroga-Rivera said.
"We're sceptical of adopting unsustainable strategies and believe we have found the right recipe for long-term success. Our strong H1 2019 results are further evidence that we're on the right track and put Emma Mattress on course to solidify its position as the UK's leading bed-in-box-brand".
As of July 19, Emma Mattress has sold over 400,000 mattresses on a profitable basis via its worldwide online channels. The retailer said it would reveal a new partnership with one of the UK's leading retailers by the end of July. This collaboration will increase Emma Mattress' retail presence to over 200 stores across the country.
Quiroga-Rivera spoke to DTC Daily back in March to discuss how Emma was standing out in the crowded DTC mattress space.
VC funding boom in the US, as China falters
Data from the last two quarters shows that a growing share of global VC funding is going to North America. This is a change from the prevailing trend for the last few years, which has seen VC money flowing to China.
However, so far in 2019, North American startups have pulled in 49% of total global investment. It's a particularly sharp rise in comparison to year-ago quarterly totals. In Q2 of 2018, American and Canadian startups pulled in just 37% of global investment. In Q1 of 2018, the figure was only a couple points higher.
The cause is a Chinese slow down, with total dollars flowing to North American startups fairly flat. Meanwhile, the Chinese startup scene is experiencing a dramatic deceleration. Out of the tens of billions of VC dollars invested worldwide in Q2 2019, Chinese startups accounted for approximately 15% of the total.
That's down markedly from the past quarter, and is a fraction of what it was in Q2 last year. China's share of the world's supergiant rounds – venture rounds of USD$100m (£82m) or more – has also fallen from its world-leading position in 2016 to third place in 2019.


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Features: The social side of email marketingPosted on September 15, 2017 at 10:00 am
The social side of email marketing
When people think about email marketing, they often feel that it can't mix with other forms of digital marketing; that email marketing is a standalone method. Whilst email marketing is the most efficient form of marketing to generate leads, engagement and dedicated reach potential, social media marketing can support an email marketing campaign. Some campaigns that I have come across since starting at NewZapp have just focused on website traffic, but there are other ways to turn a click into a return on your investment.
NewZapp has a few features which can help to boost traffic to your social media sites, as well as to your website, generate new sign ups through social media sign up forms or improving your reach by social sharing. We currently support, LinkedIn (share + follow), Google+ (share + follow), Facebook (share + follow) and Twitter (tweet + follow). We do not support Instagram or Pinterest as these are image based social media applications and as an email campaign is usually interactive (aka calls to action), these platforms are for static images. If you haven't got a company page on social media you can easily set one up for free (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+).
Social blocks
Social blocks are included within the Drag and Drop editor; these are free and included in all accounts. They contain small or large buttons which can be dragged into an image block. These buttons are ones we have made, but there is nothing stopping you from creating your own button for social sharing. The two types of social buttons (share/tweet + follow) are different in two ways; the share, encourages your subscribers to share the campaign on their social media pages. This means that you would not include this button if you have private content in the campaign. The social share can generate new leads through interaction such as placing a contact us button in the campaign; these leads/non subscriber interactions would not show under your NewZapp Track tab as due to data protection we cannot display non opt-in subscribers data.
The social follow is linked to your social media account (instructions on how to set up a business page/account are above), this encourages your subscribers to follow you on other medias for updates or offers. Discussing how social media can generate leads and grow your methods of marketing is another story but you might want to do some further research.
You may want to use a circle button instead of a rectangle or you may wish to use a plain text hyperlink for the social side of email marketing; its completely up to you! We have produced a help guide which will talk you through using the social blocks in your campaigns. We also have produced a handy video to walk you through social blocks on our drag and drop editor.
NewZapp Social Track
The NewZapp Track tab has many wonderful goodies within it; for Enterprise package customers, we have included the social media reach tab. This tab gives you further insight into which of your subscribers are sharing your campaigns, the clicks, how many additional opens have been as a result of sharing the campaign (using the social share button). This is the place where you can see if your campaign has gone what the kids call 'viral'.
As you can see from this image, we had 5 Tweets (shares) of our campaign which resulted in 150 opens of the link (click throughs) for our campaign which equated to a 3000% open rate! Although the amount of shares/Tweets could seem low, the impressions across these platforms will build brand awareness and could create a lead/new subscriber.
Organic subscriber sign ups
Once you have got your social media page up and running and your social media blocks in your campaign you can start to accumulate organic subscribers from Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn. Due to the way that these platforms work, NewZapp can only feed in via the A.P.I for Facebook; the other platforms you would provide a subscriber sign up form through a website link on your own website (WordPress CMS or HTML/CSS website). Earlier I mentioned including the social share buttons to encourage your subscribers to share the campaign across their social platforms? Including a sign up form on Facebook and a link to the sign up form for your website on the others will let those who have seen your campaign sign up with you. This will encourage your database to become organic and include engaged subscribers.
(N.B Organic subscribers are those who come to you)
Final thoughts
Whilst email marketing is the best method for reach, engagement and conversions; social media marketing can support it (not substitute it); with the digital world growing and improving year upon year, introducing social blocks in your campaign can give you another way to reach those who wouldn't usually engage with you.
On that note
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Rachel Hughes
Email Marketing Executive at NewZapp


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Pascal Hitzler
Krzysztof Janowicz
Editorial Board
Claudia d'Amato
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The paper contributes a very interesting, and novel in many regards, approach to semantic datasets exploration. The main novelty is in considering property paths when exploring sets of resources, not just direct properties, and on a set of predefined visualizations that are automatically configured and selected based on their computed usefulness.
Despite the interesting contribution and the nice results visible in the online version of the tool, my recommendation is a "major revision" mainly because the paper stays too much at the overview level and provides little details about the contribution internals.
Regarding this issue, there is little information about how the tool interacts with the SPARQL endpoint. My understanding is that it is done just through SPARQL though the code seems to be linked to just the Virtuoso store. In any case, this makes it difficult for me to understand what SPARQL is generated for some queries.
For instance, trying to get the names of all female laureates between 1900 and 1919. I first focus on the first two decades displayed. Then, I change the category dimension to the genre of the laureate and focus just on females. If I then display the names of the laureates, I'm getting also some men. Though not evident from the feedback provided by the tool, this makes sense because I'm all the time filtering awards not laureates and there are awards with both male and female laureates. Thus, I should pivot to the set of laureates before filtering by genre. However, I'm just offered this option if I use the path to the genre through laureate and then pivot. I managed, at last, to get the desired result, though the experience was a little confusing because SPARQL DISTINCT might be operating at different levels and when displaying the laureates and their Nobel prize years, the second Nobel for Marie Curie disappears.
Other parts that require more detail are regarding what kind of processing is done to prepare the system when it is deployed on a new dataset, especially things like how entry-point classes are determined. In this regard, the proposed approach of directly jumping to the selected entry-point class seems too "narrow" and against Shneiderman's mantra about starting with an overview. What about using the treemap view to show the main classes in the dataset and let the user choose where to start from?
Finally, something that also requires more details, and maybe more effort from the part of the authors, is the part regarding evaluation. Right now, though it is well motivated and the questionnaire about what users learned is very appealing, a more rigorous approach is also required, especially regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of the tool. For instance, actually measuring the time it takes users to complete the tasks.
As mentioned, a more rigorous evaluation would require further work so maybe the best option for the current paper would be to extend the technical details about the contribution, as mentioned earlier, and keep the evaluation mainly as future work, with some preliminary results like those from the questionnaires. Then, for future work, it might be interesting to use evaluation results to compare the user experience provided by the tool to similar ones. One option might be the BESDUI benchmark (https://github.com/rhizomik/BESDUI), which in fact is a "cheap" approach to UI benchmarking because it doesn't require real-users involvement.
The paper presents an approach and a tool for visual exploration of linked data, which provides visual representations of resource sets that help gain insights about those resources.
The authors gave a good overview of related works pointing that the other approaches do not make it possible to navigate linked data directly while benefitting from aggregation techniques, sub-selections etc.
+ important topic, fitting well in the scope of the Semantic Web Journal
+ good narrative
+ good idea
+ set-oriented exploration, such as identifying correlations, observing distributions, comparing & contrasting groups of resources
+ builds nicely on the experiences and results of previous works in the area
+ minimal effort from users before they can start browsing
+ S-Paths is distributed as an open-source project (requires registering/signing up to the git service of INRIA)
- some too much generic descriptions - lack of precise definitions, algorithms etc.
- some information is given only by means of examples and not by an exhaustive list
- the evaluation setup was not always clearly communicated to users
Further comments:
"amenable to visual representation" -> is this measurable?
"set-based navigation"-> it is not precisely defined in the paper what it is
***1. Introduction***
"Most linked data browsers employ a follow-yournose strategy" -> reference needed
"Properties that provide relevant descriptions of resources are not necessarily direct properties of those resources." -> any (quantitative) evidence? Examples?
"They can be several hops away in the RDF graph, depending on how abstract the dataset's model is and on what ontologies it employs"-> can this be an artefact of serializing OWL to RDF?
Fig.1 contains very small images, hardly readable.
***3. S-Paths***
"S-Paths is designed to support users in the exploration of linked datasets"-> this sentence would benefit from the stating what S-Paths is (even if previously mentioned)
"semantic path" -> It is unclear whether a "semantic path" is being introduced by this paper, or if it has been introduced previously. In the former case, it would be better to provide a phrase like "in this paper we introduce semantic paths". In the latter case, there should be a citation or a section with preliminaries to delineate what is the contribution of the current paper with respect to previous work.
"A semantic path is a set of resources related to a set of values by a sequence of RDF statements." ->this definition is a bit vague, as it does not say in a detailed way about the relation, e.g. are RDF statements arbitrary? It would benefit from formalization
"S-Paths provides a collection of such templates"->where they can be found or a list of them? It would be useful to point to such list in this place of the manuscript or inform that it will be described later in the paper in Section X
"Considering paths that can be indirect, and not only first level properties, mechanically results in aggregation steps to the set of results."-> what does that mean that it *mechanically* results?
"The full analysis is performed only when S-Paths gets set up with a new set of graphs." ->what is a full analysis? The analysis with respect to all the characteristics?
"S-Paths provides a set of views: map, image gallery, timeline, statistical charts, simple node-link diagrams, etc." ->I recommend to remove "etc." and provide a full set of the views or a reference to the full set (e.g. included in a table).
"Once semantic paths for a given resource set have been characterized,"->it is unclear exactly how they are characterized, there haven't been any algorithm presented before this point of the paper, only a generic description
"These are used in multiple places in the interface, e.g., next to the resource selection menu, in the view configuration menu, in the axes' legends, and whenever a semantic path is displayed."->again, I would prefer more exact description than only kind of an example (with use of "e.g.")
"They serve as entry points into the data, constituting what we consider a priori to be reasonably-coherent groups of entities."-> what is that the authors consider "reasonably-coherent groups of entities". This should be precised/formalized.
Fig.6 and Fig.7 are much too small in my opinion.
http://s-paths.net is down.
***4. Illustrative Scenario****
The images at Figure 8 are too small, non-readable.
***5. Evaluation***
In general, when users do exploratory search it is often a pre-requisite to solving some task.
The users were given tasks indicatively. At the same time the users were asked to explore the dataset in an open-ended fashion. There is perhaps some inconsistency or lack of explicit instructions on the goals with regard to the guidelines the users were given. Therefore I think that the quantitative results presented in "5.3. Task Success and Task Time" are not valid or reliable.
"They also had to tell whether they would have been able to answer those questions before the experiment."-> I am not sure this is the right setup.
I would expect such setup in which one group of the users is divided into two groups where one is answering the questions before and then the subgroups change the roles solving another, but similar configuration of the task, i.e. actually evaluating how well the task is solved with and without the proposed system and not asking how the users think they would solve the task. The baseline might be raw data?
***6. Limitations*
I appreciate that the authors provided the limitations section.
6.2. Data Processing: The authors claim they have tested S-Paths on several datasets, but it is not described what was the setup of the testing, and what was tested exactly.
Overall, I am rather positive about the paper, regarding its narrative, motivations, topic and contribution, which is very in line with the scope of the Semantic Web Journal.
However, I would expect more precise definitions (clear, even if not overly formal) and more rigorous style of writing (at places I have indicated in comments) and fixing a broken link to the demo.
Another major remark is that the paper might perhaphs be submitted to a category of "Reports on tools and systems"?
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Martina Senis, Giovanni Atzori, Fabio Sorrentino, Lucio Davide Spano, Gianni Fenu
Smart Furniture and Technologies for Supporting Distributed Learning Groups
Proceedings of the 12th Biannual Conference on Italian SIGCHI Chapter
September 2017
Abstract: Advances in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and its combination with IP technology support developers of interactive systems in building integrated experiences. In the same way, people are constantly connected between them using mobile devices. Through the IoT era we are going to a fully connected world and it influences the field of Education too. Due to the availability of smartphones, bluetooth beacons and other network devices that enhance the interaction in the classroom, we try to lower the gap between the activities that take place in the physical and in the digital world, taking advantage from implicit inputs and tracking the creation of groups. In this paper, we describe a proof of concept in a blended learning environment setting by detailing both the hardware setup and the general prototype architecture design thus presenting the implemented features and the future work.
Marianna Saba, Fabio Sorrentino, Alessandro Muntoni, Sara Casti, Gianmarco Cherchi, Alessandro Carcangiu, Fabrizio Corda, Alessio Murru, Lucio Davide Spano, Riccardo Scateni, Ilaria Vitali, Ovidio Salvetti, Massimo Magrini, Andrea Villa, Andrea Carboni, Pascali Maria Antonietta
A Seamless Pipeline for the Acquisition of the Body Shape: the Virtuoso Case Study
Smart Tools and Apps for Graphics
July 2017
Abstract: In this paper, we describe the design and the implementation of the demonstrator for the Virtuoso project, which aims at creating seamless support for fitness and wellness activities in touristic resort. We define the objectives of the user interface, the hardware and software setup, showing how we combined and exploited consumer-level devices for supporting 3D body scan, contact-less acquisition of physical parameters, exercise guidance and operator support.
Federico Cau, Alessandro Carcangiu, Fabio Sorrentino, Lucio Davide Spano
SnAIR drum: A gesture interface for rhythm practice
June 2017
Abstract: he availability of standard devices for gestural interaction supports the distribution on the web of interactive teaching material for learning music. In this paper, we focus on rhythm practice, introducing an exercise platform that exploits gestural interaction for tracking the user's movements and a web-based environment for loading exercises and checking his/her performance. We discuss the design and the technical implementation of the solution. Copyright is held by the authors/owner (s).
Fabio Sorrentino, Lucio Davide Spano, Sara Casti, Alessandro Carcangiu, Fabrizio Corda, Gianmarco Cherchi, Alessio Murru, Alessandro Muntoni, Stefano Nuvoli, Riccardo Scateni
ChIP: Teaching coding in primary schools
June 2017
Abstract: In this paper, we introduce the ChIP project, which aims at teaching coding in primary schools by using a series of educational games and hands-on activities. The overall idea is to determine the benefits and costs of this activity and to explore the meaning and the potential impact of learning to code for younger students. We describe the lessons learned from two 60 hours courses that took place in two different primary schools thus detailing the pros and cons of this experience. Copyright is held by the author/owner (s).
Elena Tuveri, Luca Macis, Fabio Sorrentino, Lucio Davide Spano, Riccardo Scateni
Fitmersive Games: Fitness Gamification through Immersive VR
June 2016
Abstract: The decreasing hardware cost makes it affordable to pair Immersive Virtual Environments (IVR) visors with treadmills and exercise bikes. In this paper, we discuss the application of different gamification techniques in IVR for supporting physical exercise. We describe both the hardware setting and the design of Rift-a-bike, a cycling fitmersive game (immersive games for fitness). We evaluate the effectiveness of such techniques through a user study, which provides different insights on their effectiveness in designing such applications.
Fabio Sorrentino, Lucio Davide Spano, Riccardo Scateni
Internet Of T(eachi)ngs: Assessing Children's Learning In The IoT Era
June 2016
This paper discusses an early prototype aiming at providing teachers with means for configuring connected objects that can be used for assessing the understanding and the creative reworking of children's learning. In order to do that, we support teachers in defining the information flow between the connected objects and the interactive manipulation events considered relevant for the assessment. Considering that in the last years classrooms have been more and more equipped with different technological supports, we propose to use them in a more customisable way, helping both teachers and students in making lessons more enjoyable and pleasant. We focus on already available and low cost technologies, since more advanced ones may have a high impact on school budgets. Due to this, we propose an approach that uses modular and low cost components that could be embedded in different physical objects and easily replicated by schools with a low investment.
Fabio Sorrentino, Lucio Davide Spano, Riccardo Scateni
Speaky Notes: Learn languages with augmented reality
9th International Conference on Interactive Mobile Communication Technologies and Learning
November 2015
Abstract: In recent years, mobile devices have become very popular with young people. Thanks to developments in mobile technologies, these devices can now do much more than just voice calls and texts. We envision mobile devices as tools for improving young users' lifestyle, especially for learning. In this work, we present a web authoring system that makes it possible to create a mobile application that supports children in learning a new language in a more pleasant and entertaining way by using Augmented Reality. This application allows pupils to improve their speaking skills turning the language acquisition into a game under the supervision of both teachers and parents. Our contribution is focused on understanding how digital technology can facilitate learning while keeping in mind that it is a wide and interdisciplinary issue.
Fabio Sorrentino, Lucio Davide Spano, Riccardo Scateni
SuperAvatar: Children and mobile tourist guides become friends using superpowered avatars
9th International Conference on Interactive Mobile Communication Technologies and Learning
November 2015
Abstract: The recent development in consumer hardware lowers the cost barrier for adopting immersive Virtual Reality (VR) solutions, which could be an option for classroom use in the near future. In this paper, we introduce RiftArt, a VR tool for supporting the teaching and studying of Art History. Using RiftArt the teachers can configure virtual museum rooms, with artwork models inside, and enhance them with multimodal annotation. The environment supports both the teachers during the lesson and the students during rehearsal. The application, implemented completely using Web technologies, can be visualized on large screens and head mounted displays. The user test results advance the understanding of the VR effects on classroom usage. We demonstrate that VR increases the motivation of high-school students towards studying Art History and we provide an in-depth analysis of the factors that contribute to this result.
Fabio Sorrentino, Lucio Davide Spano, Riccardo Scateni
RiftArt: Bringing Masterpieces in the Classroom through Immersive Virtual Reality
Smart Tools and Apps for Graphics – Eurographics Italian Chapter Conference
October 2015
Abstract: In recent years, mobile devices have become very popular within young people. Thanks to developments in mobile technologies, these devices can now do much more than just voice calls and texts. We envision mobile devices as tools for improving the young users' lifestyle, especially for learning. In this work we present a web authoring system that makes it possible to create a mobile application that supports children in learning a new language in a more pleasant and entertaining way by using Augmented Reality. This application allows pupils to improve their speaking skills turning the language acquisition into a game under the supervision of both teachers and parents. Our contribution is focused on understanding how digital technology can facilitate learning while keeping in mind that it is a wide and interdisciplinary issue.
Fabio Sorrentino, Lucio Davide Spano, Riccardo Scateni
Interactive shops: how the customer can deal with them both from inside and outside
Proceedings of the 11th Biannual Conference on Italian SIGCHI Chapter
September 2015
Abstract:Abstract We present here a proof-of-concept of an integrated system for enhancing the shopping experience in a shoes' shop. The system uses two modules:(i) one internal to the shop using an interactive totem;(ii) one external to the shop based on the customer's mobile device and the interactive external shop surface. We describe the technical architecture of the two modules and two different scenarios of the user experience.
Marianna Saba, Riccardo Scateni, Fabio Sorrentino, Lucio Davide Spano, Sara Colantonio, Daniela Giorgi, Massimo Magrini, Ovidio Salvetti, Novella Buonaccorsi, Ilaria Vitali
Smart Mirror Where I Stand, Who Is the Leanest in the Sand?
Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Access to Learning, Health and Well-Being
August 2015
Abstract:Abstract In this paper we introduce the Virtuoso project, which aims at creating a seamless interactive support for fitness and wellness activities in touristic resorts. The overall idea is toevaluate the current physical state of the user through a technology-enhanced mirror. We describe the state of the art technologies for building a smart mirror prototype. In addition, we compare different parameters for evaluating the user's physical state, considering the user's impact, the contact requirements and their cost.
Stefano Fibbi, Lucio Davide Spano, Fabio Sorrentino, Riccardo Scateni
WoBo: Multisensorial travels through Oculus Rift
Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
April 2015
Abstract:Abstract WoBo (World in a Box) aims to provide a new experience for travellers, allowing them to visit distant or hardly reachable places through the exploitation of consumer cameras and a head mounted display. The experience consists in watching a 360-degrees video with 3D audio in a dedicated cabin. The user can select videos shot in different places, which have been created with six consumer cameras. We describe the proposed experience, the hardware and the software used for a first prototype.
Fabrizio Corda, Fabio Sorrentino, Riccardo Scateni
CHROMAGRAM: A real-time Chroma Key application for mobile devices
Smart Tools and Apps for Graphics – Eurographics Italian Chapter Conference
September 2015
Abstract: Chroma Key is a special-effects technique widely used by television and motion picture industries for image composition. This technique allows users to replace sections identified by a chosen colour in a multimedia stream (like a video or a photo) with another image or video stream. In this paper, we describe an easy-to-implement technique for the creation of an Android based application for mobile devices (like smartphones and tablets) that applies Chroma Key-based effects to the video stream coming from the device camera. We discuss the algorithm used to achieve the Chroma Key effect focusing on the computational performance and on the quality of its final result. Using a picture selected from the device gallery, this application makes possible the replacement of video stream background areas characterized by a chroma value with the chosen picture.
Gianmarco Cherchi, Fabio Sorrentino, Riccardo Scateni
AR Turn-by-turn Navigation in Small Urban Areas and Information Browsing
Smart Tools and Apps for Graphics – Eurographics Italian Chapter Conference
September 2015
Abstract:Navigation systems allow to discover cities and their urban areas easily and quickly, finding the shortest path to reach them and giving directions to users saving their time and energy. At present time, these systems are based over streets maps offered by the major mapping services like Tele Atlas, Navteq or OpenStreetMap. In recent years, thanks to the Google StreetView service it has been possible to discover main cities locations both indoor and outdoor. What is missing in this frame is the possibility to map small urban areas of small and medium sized cities, due to their lack of relevance for the big players. In this cities there could be very interesting areas for tourists. Example locations could be botanical gardens, archeological sites, protected natural areas among others. In this work we tried to set up a navigation system for limited extensions inside urban areas which permits to wander around and gives access to related information using augmented reality techniques. Due to the possible poor wireless coverage in these locations we designed an application that stores all required data on the user's device, splitting the information in packages according to the chosen language. A key issue was to achieve good results combining all these features in a single device with a small display, overwhelming the constraints due to the mobile environment.
Sara Casti, Fabio Sorrentino, Riccardo Scateni
Click and share: A face recognition tool for the mobile community
IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP)
October 2014
Abstract: In this paper, we describe an Android based application for mobile devices that allows users to quickly and easily identify faces in pictures, recognizing persons, and, thus, sharing pictures with them. Each identified person matches against a contact registered in the phone directory, and, if no match is found, the detected face can be used for the creation of a new contact. We discuss how face recognition in a mobile setting increases the efficiency of the users while sharing content created with the mobile device, automatically suggesting the people identified in a photo or a video. We show the effectiveness of the approach through a user test on a photo sharing task, showing that it reduces the need for tedious, in particular on mobile devices, user input (e.g., compared to Facebook). By this means, we envision an increase of the quality of the user experience when interacting with the components of her social network.
M. Gattullo, M. Di Donato, F. Sorrentino
VisitAR: An AR mobile application for tourism.
Symposium on Mobile Graphics and Interactive Applications, Hong Kong, Asia.
November 2013.
Abstract: According to Lee et al. [1] Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the thirteen key technologies used in Ubiquitous city. In fact it allows users to enhance their capabilities when they are in these cities. A consistent way of using mobile Augmented Reality in Ubiquitous City concerns tourism. In this work we present "VisitAR", a mobile AR application that will allow users to have a more immersive sightseeing experience, providing tourist information in a more entertaining way. For example, once arrived in the city, a user can plan his/her sightseeing using our AR application that overlay 3D information over the paper city map. After the planning step, the tourists, visiting the city, can have a well guided and customizable route using the same application, and, finally, when they reach some city attractions can gain access to several extra-contents like images, videos, cultural information and much more. The application has been designed for handheld devices like smartphones and tablets. This kind of devices represent the most common technology that allows users to exploit AR techniques, especially due to the fact that tourists have these devices always nearby. However it could be adapted to other mobile AR technologies like Optical SeeThrough HMD, or integrated with other features using new generation HUDs, like the Google Glass. The application has been developed with the AR browser Junaio. Provided that the city of Oulu (Finland) has an excellent free WiFi connection system, we considered it as a case study.
S. A. Iacolina, M. Corrias, O. Pontis, A. Soro, F. Sorrentino, R. Scateni.
A Multitouch Notice Board Fostering Social Interaction.
ACM SIGCHI Italian Chapter (CHItaly 2013), Trento, Italia.
September 2013.
Abstract: We report on an alternative OCGM interface for a bulletin board, where a user can pin a note or a drawing, and actually shares contents. Exploiting direct and continuous manipulations, opposite to discrete gestures, to explore containers, the proposed interface supports a more natural and immediate interaction. It manages also the presence of different simultaneous users, allowing for the creation of local multimedia contents, the connection to social networks, providing a suitable working environment for cooperative and collaborative tasks in a multi-touch setup, such as touch-tables, interactive walls or multimedia boards.
E. Tuveri, S. A. Iacolina, F. Sorrentino, L. D. Spano, R. Scateni.
Controlling a planetarium software with a Kinect or in a multi-touch table: a comparison.
ACM SIGCHI Italian Chapter (CHItaly 2013), Trento, Italia.
September 2013.
Abstract: The wide availability of low-cost sensing devices is opening the possibility to easily create different interaction settings, which exploit various techniques for a more natural interaction, especially in public and shared settings. In this paper, we compared two different solutions for enhancing the interaction experience of a planetarium application, both replicable at a reasonable cost. The first version is based on a simple multitouch paradigm, while the second one exploits a full-body interaction together with a projection on geodetic sphere. We detail the technical implementation of both versions and, in addition, we discuss the results of user-study that compared the two modalities, which highlights a tradeoff between the control and the users' involvement in the virtual environment.
F. Sorrentino, R. Scateni
THAL-k: TalkingHead Animation Library.
CG Libs Smart Libraries for Computer Graphics, Pisa, Italia.
June 2013.
Abstract: We present here the first release of an SDK (Software Development Kit) for mobile devices supporting the animation of 3D talking heads: THAL-k. The SDK is constantly evolving and here we discuss the features of version 1.0. This library is thought as a support for all the developers wishing to build applications on smartphones or tablets including avatars to enhance the interaction functionalities. The main challenge we face is to provide developers with a complete SDK for the creation, customization and real-time animation of the models.
F. Sorrentino, R. Scateni
Talking heads on mobile devices.
FAA ACM Symposium on Facial Analysis and Animation, Vienna, Austria.
September 2012.
Abstract: The number and quality of smartphones on the market has dramatically raised lately. Researchers and developers are, thus, more and more pushed to bring algorithms and techniques from desktop environments to mobile platforms. One of the biggest constraints in mobile applications is the fine control of computing power and the relative power consumption. Although smartphones' manufactures are offering better computing performance and longer battery life, the mobile architecture is not always powerful enough. Furthermore, nowadays, the touchless interaction (e.g., the usage of voice commands) on mobile devices is particularly attractive. The device can also possibly answer to our questions (e.g., Siri-Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface, which according to Apple is "the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking"). The use of talking avatars can improve the quality of the interaction and make it more useful and pleasant. Since avatars are static models, but the interaction requires dynamics, it is almost obliged to introduce avatars' animations. Animation in desktop environment [Orvalho et al. 2012] has been studied for decades. However transferring the same techniques to the mobile environment requires to reinterpret them due to the aforementioned constraints. This is especially true when we want to achieve real-time animations. The goal is more complicated when the animation of a 3D model are related to facial expressions. A real-time realistic animation has an heavy computational cost than pre-calculated animation. Due to this reason, in our work, we have analyzed a possible methodology to simulate the speech of a 3D-avatar in the most fluid andrealistic possible way.
S. Boi, F. Sorrentino, S. Marras, R. Scateni
3D-ize U! A Real-time 3D Head-model Texture Generator for Android.
EuroGraphics Italian Chapter 2011, Salerno, Italia.
November 2011.
Abstract: Recently, the number of applications developed for smartphones has dramatically increased; however, at the moment, applications having the purpose of creating and displaying 3D models are quite rare. The goal of this work is to build an application that allows the user to see the virtual three-dimensional representations of their friends and interact with them. The main challenge is to achieve results similar to those that a computer would produce, optimizing the process to deal with the constraints due to the technology used. Since there are no similar mobile applications, this work will make possible to create a base onto which will be possible to realize applications that have customized 3D models as a common feature.


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What is Article 370 and 35A? Why it is causing trouble in Jammu & Kashmir State: As you all might know that things aren't going right in Jammu & Kashmir nowadays. The government has planned to take off the Article 35A and 370 from the valley which means that the special right which was given to the Jammu & Kashmir people will be taken off today. This is why the people who are living in J&K are protesting as they are demanding that it should remain as it is. A lot of things are going on down there and we will update you about every detail here. Kashmir Turmoil Major Live Updates
What is Article 35A?
You all should know that Article 35A is based on Article 370, which guarantees special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Under this article, they have the power to decide who are its permanent residents are and give them special rights in government jobs, on buying property in the state, scholarships and other schemes. This is surely going to be a big thing and if this will take off today then the local people will surely show their rage to the government.
"35A. Saving of laws with respect to permanent residents and their rights, —
Notwithstanding anything contained in this Constitution, no existing law in force in the State of Jammu and Kashmir, and no law hereafter enacted by the Legislature of the State,—
A) Defining the classes of persons who are, or shall be, permanent residents of the State of Jammu & Kashmir; or
B) Conferring on such permanent residents any special rights and privileges or imposing upon other persons any restrictions as respects
1) Employment under the State Government
2) Acquisition of immovable property in the State
3) Settlement in the State; or
4) Right to scholarships and such other forms of aid as the State Government may provide, shall be void on the ground that it is inconsistent with or takes away or abridges any rights conferred on the other citizens of India by any provision of this Part."
As you all might already know that according to the article 370 they have right to define "persons born or settled within the state before 1911 or after having lawfully acquired immovable property and resident in the state for not less than 10 years before that date." Overall, it is a serious matter and it also contains that Children of women who marry outside the state lose their state subject rights.
What is Article 370?
Article 370 of the Indian Constitution is a 'temporary provision' which grants special autonomous status to Jammu & Kashmir. Under Part XXI of the Constitution of India, which deals with "Temporary, Transitional and Special provisions", the state of Jammu & Kashmir has been accorded special status under Art370. All the provisions of the Constitution which are applicable to other states are not applicable to J&K. For example, till 1965, J&K had a Sadr-e-Riyasat for governor and prime minister in place of chief minister.
History of Article 370
The provision was drafted in 1947 by Sheikh Abdullah, who had by then been appointed prime minister of Jammu & Kashmir by Maharaja Hari Singh and Jawahar Lal Nehru. Sheikh Abdullah had argued that Article 370 should not be placed under temporary provisions of the Constitution. He wanted 'iron clad autonomy' for the state, which Centre didn't comply with.
Provisions of Article 370
According to this article, except for defence, foreign affairs, finance and communications, Parliament needs the state government's concurrence for applying all other laws. Thus the state's residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians. As a result of this provision, Indian citizens from other states cannot purchase land or property in Jammu & Kashmir. Under Article 370, the Centre has no power to declare financial emergency under Article 360 in the state. It can declare an emergency in the state only in case of war or external aggression. The Union government can therefore not declare emergency on grounds of internal disturbance or imminent danger unless it is made at the request or with the concurrence of the state government.
This action was taken by the Jammu and Kashmir high court which conflicted that women married to non-permanent residents will not lose their rights. Now, if everything goes off as it seems then no one will be able to access any right. Also, this will clarify what will be the fate of J&K. Jammu and Kashmir parties say Article 35A protects the identity of the people of the state and safeguards jobs and scholarships for state subjects.
As you all might already know that Article 35A was added in the constitution in 1954 by an order of President Rajendra Prasad on the advice of the Jawaharlal Nehru cabinet. We think that whatever will happen today will decide the fate of Indian people and as well as the J&K people. Also, this will surely help the local people because they are in problem because of the terrorism in the valley.


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LOL, I just saw a question posed to me....DUH.I dont know, life happens quick. To quote Rod Stewart "Time is a thief when you are undecided".Career, child....you know, typical thirties...that are...SIGH...well over now.But, Im back, and with a vengeance. And I am making it a mission to liven this board up.
But, Im back, and with a vengeance. And I am making it a mission to liven this board up.
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ABC Evening News for Wednesday, Sep 27, 2017
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Man stabbed during fight in downtown Montreal
A man was hospitalized after a stabbing incident at the corner of Sherbrooke St. and Côte-des-Neiges Rd. in Montreal early Tuesday morning.
The 27-year-old man suffered injuries to his back after an altercation with a man and a woman around 12:20 a.m., Montreal police said. His life is not in danger.
Police do not have a description of the suspects, who have not been located.


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⛈ Would like to confirm our heat index is no longer 119! Rain continues to slowly drift inland. Hopefully storms will bring some relief to our northern areas as well. Watch for frequent lightning and heavy rain. #mobwx #rain pic.twitter.com/sW23j6Ybwc
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Yogi Adityanath completed 100 days in office as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, but it was a low-key event with no fanfare to showcase the achievements, except for the government asserting that it has given the "best performance and result".
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is addressing a press conference in Lucknow. Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government,which took office on March 18 after winning 325 of the 403 Assembly seats along with its allies, organised a low-key anniversary celebrations with no big event to showcase its achievements. The Yogi Adityanath government faces major challenges, some of the biggest being raising funds for the farm loan-waiver and law and order issues.
Summing up the highlights of the 100-day of governance, he said, "There is fear among the corrupt and the criminals as they are not getting political patronage now as in the past."
He said, "This is a paradigm shift from what it used to be during the previous (SP and BSP) governments.


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Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) is a method where the solution finds all the β̂ coefficients which minimize the sum of squares of the residuals, i.
minimizing the sum of these differences: (y — ŷ)², for all values of y and ŷ in the training observations.
Think of y and ŷ as column vectors with entries equal to the number of your total observations.
The fascinating piece is that OLS provides the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) of y under a set of classical assumptions.
That's a bit of a mouthful, but note that:"best" = minimal variance of the OLS estimation of the true betas (i.
no other linear estimator has less variance!)"unbiased" = expected value of the estimated beta-hats equal the true beta valuesClearly a BLUE estimator is desirable, yet it can also be elusive to achieve as you'll see below.
Above I wrote y as a function of one explanatory feature and one intercept, but in practice this is going to be a multi-dimensional problem.
To make this more concrete: say you wanted to predict the Housing Price Index of the US and you have the following data:DataFrame for RegressionHere your column of data housing_price_index is your labeled y vector, and the 7 columns from sp500 to gross_domestic_product are 7 feature vectors which you can also think of as a feature matrix X.
This means we'd estimate 7 different beta coefficients for each feature plus one intercept value.
These are the OLS assumptions:Residual (error) distribution iid: mean 0, constant variance — a) expected value of each population error term is 0 (recall we are estimating the true y)!b) variance of each population error term is constant σ² (also called Homoscedasticity)c) No autocorrelation — error terms need to be independent from each other (e.
day-to-day stock prices have auto-correlation)Feature matrix X has full column rank — the number of observations is greater than the number of features, and there cannot be an exact linear relationship between any two features (no multicollinearity).
Without full column rank, the matrix X is not invertible and the OLS estimator cannot be computed.
Regression is linear in the parameters — the dependent y is a linear function of the β parameters and all relevant explanatory variables need to be there to avoid omitted variable bias.
Features are independent from the error terms — this is also referred to as exogenous explanatory variables.
This means you can't have any of the features contain explanatory info about each error term.
(Optional due to CLT) Residuals (population error terms) should be normally distributed — the reason this is often listed as optional or omitted is because for large sample sizes the CLT states that the coefficient estimates are going to be basically normal anyway (in the limit) even if the error term distribution is not normally distributed.
However, for a small number of observations the CLT may not have converged anywhere near something normally distributed yet.
In my case below I had a very small sample size.
When things go awryIn real life your data is unlikely to perfectly meet these assumptions.
In this section I'll show an example where my base data set blatantly violates assumptions #5 and #1b above, and what I did to fix it.
My data came from funding levels of online-crowdsourced projects, and a variety of features such as campaign length, description text sentiment (via NLTK Vader), number of online photos and many more.
By simply running OLS on the features and target (dollars pledged) here's what the residuals looked like:The red line indicates perfect normality, and clearly the residuals are not normally distributed in violation of assumption #5.
This mattered in my case as I had less than 250 observations total so was not convinced my coefficient estimates would be asymptotically normally distributed.
Next, here's a plot to check if the residuals are spread evenly across the range of predictors (assumption #1b for equal variance):Clearly the residual errors are not spread evenly across the range of predictors, so we have issues here as well.
Data TransformationHere's a pair plot of my untransformed data set with a few select problem features:In this case pledged was my dependent y, and num_gift_options and photo_cnt were two selected features.
While not a guarantee, it's sometime the case that transforming features or the target to a 'more normal looking' distribution can help with the problematic OLS assumptions mentioned above.
In this case, the pledged amount y is begging for a transformation to log space.
Its individual y values take on anything from $2 to $80000.
In my case pledged was in a Pandas DataFrame, so I converted the entire column via numpy's log function:Transform Pandas DataFrame column to log valuesThis resulted in the following transformation:One quick aside is that when you transform y to log space, you'll implicitly end up interpreting unit changes in X as having a percentage change interpretation in the original non-log y at the end.
The answer in this StackOverflow thread has a very clear explanation of why this is the case by using the property of the natural log's derivative.
Now on to the features.
I've found the Box-Cox transformation to help immensely with regard to fixing residual normality.
If you look at the center box in the pair plot above, you'll see the un-transformed distribution of the number of gift options.
Here's how to run a Box-Cox transformation of taht using scipy.
stats:Box-Cox Transformation with best lambda parameterNote here that the stats.
boxcox_normax function from scipy.
stats will find the best lambda to use in the power transformation.
Here's how it looks post-transformation:If the feature in question has zero or negative values, neither the log transform or the box-cox will work.
Thankfully, the Yeo-Johnson power transformation solves for this case explicitly.
Conveniently, the Yeo-Johnson method is the default case in sklearn.
preprocessing's PowerTransformer:Here's what that looks like post-transformation:While the transformed features are by no means normally distributed themselves, look at what we get for our residual distribution and variance plots post-transformation:This is night and day from where we started, and we can now say that we have essentially normally distributed residuals and constant variance among the residuals.
Hence these OLS assumptions and we can be more confident in a BLUE estimator.
Model Testing and InterpretationThis is by no means the end point of the analysis.
In this specific case, I ended up running a 3-fold Cross-Validation testing out Linear Regression, Ridge Regression, and Huber Regression on a validation split of my training data, and then finally testing the winner on the held-out test data to see if the model generalized.
The overall point is that it's best to make sure you have met the OLS assumptions before going into a full train/validation/test loop on a number of models for the regression case.
One note is that when you transform a feature, you lose the ability to interpret the coefficients effect on y at the end.
For example, I did not transform the project length feature in this analysis, and at the end I was able to say that a unit increase (+1 day) in project length led to an 11% decrease in funding amount.
Since I used these transformations on the photo count and number of gift options features, I can't make the same assertion given a unit increase in X, as the coefficient predictions are relative to the transformation.
Thus transformations do have a downside, but it's worth it to know you're get a BLUE estimator via OLS.
.. More details


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