Tsikbal: from my perspective

As the shelter-in place orders keep dragging on, things feel like they aren't changing that much lately. News seem to turn around the pandemic, with few other things seem to be happening. Political events that could change the landscape, or business deals that could mean a big change moving forward are all focused on containing the pandemic. The economy not being kick stated out of fears that the pandemic might get worse, and as time goes on it will take longer to restart it. The usual thing that people could do to distract themselves, are put on hold since sport and entertainment venues are closed. Not only that, places where people could gather or just get to for some distraction are not available. Though with the content in the Internet and the ability to contact our loved ones without having to leave our homes has helped somewhat, they are not full substitutes for actually going out to meet people or distract ourselves from our daily routines. Even for the few ...

The economic downturn that the COVID-19 shutdowns brought, are creating a lot of new opportunities in business and technological development. How many will be able to actually benefit from this new opportunities, will the ones who are positioning to take them as soon as they can. Most of those who can actually able to take those positions, are the ones who already are in that position and those who have the flexibility to take those position in a timely manner. Those who will be most likely to do so, are those who are small enough to adapt to the new situations, and have the finances to be able to take them. Not all small businesses could be benefited though, since they have been some of the hardest hit by the shutdowns. This means, that many of those who survive the shutdowns possibly won't have the best financial position to make the best of the new opportunities. Freelancers on the other hand, could benefit greatly of the new opportunities. They could approach them ...

One thing that the COVID-19 shelter-in place orders have proven, is that people Internet access is vital to keep working and for children have to have keep getting an education. No one can argue that access to the Internet is a luxury, since an access to an education and to work are considered human rights . For many people, having access to a Internet connection is the only way they can receive an education, or have a work that allows them to maintain themselves and their families. As such, access to the Internet has to be at least affordable for those people who need to be readily available to them. It might not mean to have free access to the Internet everywhere, but it means that price of to such access can not be so expensive that it cut anyone to be able to access it. Other thing that the shelter-in place order can prove to many employers, is the feasibility of many roles can be done remotely. This can have the consequence of more people working from home than ever...

One of the things I've noticed, and found quite interesting, is how people have become a lot more proactive not just holding each other about their actions; but also their local government and other representatives about their handling of the pandemic. Not only that, in some cases they were at the front of not only proposing what actions to take, but of actually taking them before an official came out to enact such actions. People are becoming not only more socially conscious about the needs of their local neighborhoods, they are actively shaping policy and how it is enacted.   People finally become active participant not only sharing important information among themselves, but actually having a hand in shaping how governments respond. It is becoming quite hard for governments to hide what they respond, and how they do it. Finally it seems that more people are becoming conscious that they can wield the power to shape the response of local governments. And this is a ver...

One of the things that it seems could change significantly after the pandemic, is the way we work and collaborate with each other. With employers asking a higher percentage of their workforce to work from home, and the amount of time that people will have to fulfill their jobs this way, it quite likely that a significant percentage of the workforce might just keep working this way. This could be beneficial not only for employers, and the employees, that fall in this arrangement. This could mean less people having to move on daily basis to their workplaces, alleviating some of the congestion we have on our cities, but also it could mean that by staying home they could spend a larger percentage of their income on local businesses of their neighborhoods. Not only that, quality of life could greatly increase by not having to commute and sharing more time with their families, or friends. Not only employees could save money, and increase their quality of life. Employers could see th...

One of the things that the outbreak  of COVID-19 has demonstrated, is how interconnected the world has become. It highlights how much people move around, not only for tourism but also for business. Very few things are completely manufactured in one country, or any country produces all the products that move their market places. Economies are interconnected in various degrees, directly or indirectly. There is no country that is fully insoleted from what happens on other countries, it has become a question on how much it will impact them. For better, or for worse, we have built a world where we share a common fate. This is why we need to start demanding governments to start working together in such a way that allows people to work together in a more effective way. Closing borders is no longer a viable option to make the best possible future come for us. Such integration is not out of the hands of the those who want to stop it, now we have to work to make beneficial to a...

For me, one of the thing that is more underused, and underrated, about smartphones, is how easy they make for us to access any information(and content) at any time, anywhere we are at the moment. Not only we can access it, but we have the opportunity to be active contributors to the pool of knowledge not just passive consumers of it. This fact marks a flexing point in human history, when the traditional gatekeepers of what went into that pool, and who could access it, are losing its power. Now, that role has been spread into more hands, many of which would be even considered possible. Old barriers have been broken, new ones come and go as we are still learning how to use this new power. Now, we need to learn the tools needed not only to find the information we want, or learn new skills. There is a need to learn how to filter trough until we get to the relevant information, and to process it in order to use it effectively. We are now directly responsible to find, and use, more ...