Posts in category: CTIC News

Many of us listen to music while working, particularly when working from home. 75% of employees working remotely listen to music, 40% choosing to do so every day and 35% doing so at least once a week, making it a pretty reliable co-worker. Those who listen to music in traditional work place settings turn to their trusty companion: headphones. And, some companies have even introduced it to in-person work spaces, broadcasting it across the office. Needless to say, music has become a frequent consideration of work life. But, does it productivity? And, how might the music we listen to effect our ability to get work done?

Let’s muse on music in the work place.

Some refuse combining music and work, concerned music might be a distraction. Bill Gates reportedly stopped listening to music for 5 years in his 20s. In fact, to fully dedicate his attention to software, he gave up most forms of entertainment. However, he also did not have access to the Carroll Technology and Innovation blog to give him listening suggestions, so you might need to take the route he ventured down to create the next publicly traded software company.

When you are required to learn at work, it might be best to press pause powerful lyrics. When we are learning, the brain is processing information – analyzing and storing them. When lyrical music is playing, the brain is processing auditory data. This multitasking can result in the brain doing incorrect or inefficient processing of the inputs you hoped to meaningfully learn, struggling to decipher between what data to store and how. So, consider turning off the music during learning, especially if you are learning through a verbal or written stimulus and the music has lyrics.

You could switch the lyrics out or opt for ambient music. Ambient noise, such as background chatter of people or birds, can enhance performance on creative tasks when encountered at medium levels. If you’re a coffee shop worker like me, this may come as an affirmation to your work preferences, and a bullet to add to your list of rationale for spending $5 + on a cup of coffee. When looking for the comfort of ambient noise, try ambient music. This style of music sets a mood or the texture of a scene. For example, I created a Spotify playlist with the inspiration of meandering through an art museum, and frequent it for creative work such as writing this blog.

If you don’t want to support my playlists, Baroque-period music in particular seems to have an positive impact in productivity (if you’re a Spotify user, try it out for yourself with this playlist; if you’re not a Spotify user, I don’t know how to help you). Similar to ambiant noise, there is little to distract you in the form of lyrics, yet much to ground yourself with. Baroque-period works may have an additional edge. A study from many moons ago, conducted by researchers nearby at the University of Maryland in Baltimore and Harbor Hospital in Baltimore, and the less nearby University of Pennsylvania Health System, found positive effects in regard to mood and work satisfaction when radiologist subjects listened to music while working. Within the study, they reference other studies that report a correlation between baroque classical music listening and improved spatial reasoning, attentiveness, and concentration.

So, mind your music choices – and your desk neighbor if you have one – and listen to your hearts content. If it’s not the music made for optimal productivity, that’s okay. Pick something that makes you happy and trust the rest will fall into place!

In just 5 minutes, you can contribute to the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband data collection and help bring broadband home.

The FCC broadband map gives insights into internet services – providers and internet speeds – at a particular point or location of a home or business.  

The accuracy of this map is critical in enabling states to access the 42 billion dollars the federal government has set aside for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD), aimed at getting internet throughout the US. “They are working with states to identify underserved areas – and they are using these maps to identify these areas, so they need to be as accurate as they can be,” said Jay Uebel, Broadband Project Manager with Carroll County, Maryland. 

With appropriate access to these funds, as warranted by the accuracy of this map, states can use the funds to bring reliable, high speed, broadband internet to underserved and unserved areas. And, that’s where you come in. 

The success of the FCC map and state’s access to funds relies on the fact-checking skills of the public. “What we need is the help of the public to crowdsource this – basically go in and check their addresses and check that the information is correct. And if not, they need to file a challenge,” said Uebel. Individuals need to ensure their information is accurately represented – luckily, it’s pretty easy to do. 

Simply enter your address into the search bar located at the top of the page. The platform will then navigate to your property’s identification (information). Once there, you will see a pin representing your address, and from there, your discrepancy deciphering begins.  

Making Challenges 

You have an opportunity to challenge locations as well as provider information.  

Location Challenge 

You may find that the pin is mistakenly on a building you would not consider to be your home or place of business, or perhaps the pin is not attached to any structure.  

If there is a discrepancy in the location of your address, you can file a location challenge by clicking the pin associated with the address searched or a spot on the map where an address ought to be and selecting the button to “Challenge Location”. You can also start a challenge by clicking “Location Challenge” beside your address in the sidebar that popped up as a result of the address search.  

In the pop-up menu that results from any path taken, add your contact information, correct the location mistake, and add any additional information. Then, submit! 

Location information is useful for understanding the density of areas, so correcting any discrepancies is useful for creating an accurate representation of the area.  

Service Challenge 

When you click on the pin, a sidebar will appear with information about the broadband type, technology, and speed, as well as internet service providers and technologies available. 

If you notice an inaccuracy, begin a challenge by selecting “Availability Challenge”. Then, select the provider whose information is incorrect. To file a formal challenge, you must send challenge information to the provider by selecting “Send my challenge to the selected provider”. Enter your contact information, describe your experience, and add any additional information. Then, submit! 

These define your access to reliable, high speed, broadband internet and the quality of these indicators will be used to inform investment decisions. The County and various service providers will use this information to determine unserved and underserved areas and where to grow their service.  

The FCC won’t have you asking, “can you hear me now?” to the allocation of government funds – even if you’re stuck asking the question day to day right now! The FCC map is an opportunity to have a voice in the continued expansion of reliable, high speed, broadband internet. 

The map has additional features for your perusal, such as area summaries and coverage percentages for fixed, mobile, and combined broadband. You can also snoop provider details and narrow in by technology type. There’s a lot to see! 

Get started on filing your challenge today and spread the word to help your home secure reliable internet access.  

Take on your own challenge to check for any challenges in the next 10 minutes, and then share the mission with 2 friends! To make anything happen, direct contact is the best, so while sharing this blog may help, personal outreach from you will make the biggest impact.  

How To Use The FCC Broadband Map To Submit A Claim 

Make Your Marketing Mark.

The temptation of tough economic times is to cutback on marketing, but research as shown that companies that maintain marketing expenditures during recessions emerge stronger. Often business leaders follow the lead of consumers and reduce their spending when hard times hit. Evidence encourages the contrary. Businesses that maintained or raised their marketing during the recession had significantly higher sales after the economy recovered in a McGraw-Hill Research study that looked at 600 companies from 1980 to 1985.

Choosing to spend less during a recessions leaves businesses in a less competitive position when the economy recovers. Those who spend less have also missed an opportunity to be the only voice in the room – customers continue to be aware of advertisers even when they have cutback on spending for the recession period and your business can present as the only option in the market when the consumer returns to purchasing. Such was the case for VRBO, an Expedia-owned vacation rental marketplace.

When COVID-19 hit and people stopped traveling, Airbnb cut their ad spending. During this period, VRBO outspent Airbnb 10-fold in advertising, spending $90.8 million in advertising from January to February 2021 compared to Airbnb’s $8.9 million. As a result, VRBO’s bookings recovered by 61%; Airbnb’s bookings dipped by 15% during the same time frame.

So, continue to invest in your marketing and make the most of this moment.

Give the Present of Online Presence.

The pandemic pushed us to rely on digital capabilities, but there’s more you can do to optimize your online presence.

Social media accounts offer a consistent connection with customers and can be used as an extension of services. Retail businesses may already be familiar with listing their products on web platforms for selling, but legal and accounting firms may have yet to realize the value of delivering professional advice on a livestream, or a therapist can make a video modeling an effective boundary-setting conversation.

In an age where a large part of the consumption is spent before the wallet comes out, investing in being in the places where your consumers are will disseminate information about your business and form relationships regularly. Consumers are already consuming media, so invite them to consume yours!

Find the Federal Opportunities

To rebuild the economy and infrastructure post-pandemic, there is lots of funding going towards states and localities from federal legislation. Small business owners should look into opportunities for funding and federal contracting. Owners part of an underrepresented population or part of an underserved community can additionally apply for certifications intended to improve their access to corporate representative and supplier diversity professional contracts.

• Good Jobs Challenge
• Minority Business Development Agency
• ByBlack initiative
• Women Impacting Public Policy

Additional certification opportunities can be found at:

• National LGBT Chamber of Commerce
• National Minority Supplier Diversity Council
• Disability: IN
• Women’s Business Enterprise National Council

Commit some time to exploring the opportunities ripe for your picking. These resources are intended for you to use them, so don’t let them pass you by this year!

In its own words: Welcome to our blog about ChatGPT, the revolutionary chatbot that uses advanced natural language processing technology to understand and respond to user inputs. ChatGPT is so advanced, it’s almost like it has a sense of humor! (Well, almost.)

I asked ChatGPT to introduce this blog for me. And although it’s not quite as funny as I am (right, guys?), it certainly does the trick.

ChatGPT has come on the scene as a language model trained to deliver human-like responses and conversations. Being one of the first, anyone can access it on a friendly web-interface and give it a try. Becoming a sort of friend in its own right, variations of ChatGPT are becoming remarkably capable of delivering coherent, digestible information.

Not only can they provide facts, but they can also create business plans, paper topic ideas, and even original humor. Users are having a blast asking the artificial intelligence (AI) system to create writings using peanut butter and VCR humor and in the style of a man going on tangents about the pumpkins he grew – yes, seriously. 

Users can ask them questions like we used to ask a Magic 8-Ball, although these answers are coherent prose about black holes and egg incubation rather than “it is certain” and “decidedly so” – although answers might intersect at existential questions. Users can also clarify their request to achieve more applicable and precise results, like in this sample from the Open AI website. 

Its creators and users are also finding more serious applications, such as spotting and fixing errors in code and answering open-ended analytical questions, the types that appear on school assignments and examinations.  

Some academic entitles worry about the potential for plagiarism, given the ease of use. Students could, potentially, rely on the AI writing creations for creating their assignments. This will likely be “field tested” by students, but, as this temptation is recognized and perhaps submitted to, it is also an opportunity for educators to rely on other techniques for evaluations.  

“AI platforms like ChatGPT are prompting educators to re-evaluate traditional methods of assessment and instruction- as an instructional designer I’m excited by this opportunity to promote student-centered alternatives,” said Alissa Harrington, Senior Instructional Design Specialist at McDaniel College.  “Ultimately, it’s important for teachers to have conversations with students about AI platforms like ChatGPT and leverage the technology to create learning opportunities around misinformation and unbiased content.”

Although chatbots seem to operate with discernible confidence, they are not always correct.  

Cade Metz of the New York Times reported “But they do not always tell the truth. Sometimes they can even fail at simple arithmetic. They blend fact with fiction. And as they continue to improve, people could use them to generate and spread untruths.” 

This ability to take what they have learned and shape into something new is what makes them compelling storytellers, already entertaining millions of users. This willingness to be inaccurate is also what makes them likely not the best fit to author a research or work assignment on your behalf – creators remind users that the creation is a research project itself. 

As people test ChatGPT, the system asked them to rate its responses. Through reinforcement learning, ChatGPT uses the ratings to define its functions and even gain the perspective – and maturity – to admit when it’s wrong to the user. 

Fixing the issue of untruths and incorrect answers all at once is a challenge as there is no source of truth given to ChatGPT during the reinforcement learning (RL) training and it assumes intentions of ambiguous questions, rather than getting clarity – we know what happens when you assume, you make an…. you know the rest.  

Like us navigating the applications of AI, ChatGPT will continue to experience and intake feedback to better understand its contributions. Until we know for sure, we can certainly enjoy its humorous contributions. 

Try ChatGPT for yourself! 

Have a comment or experience with ChatGPT? Want to learn more about Artificial Intelligence or another topic? Email me at molly@carrolltechcouncil.org and let’s continue the conversation. 

Giving back gives more than we might realize. Research suggests giving to others benefits not only them, but our own bodies and minds as well.

A BMC Public Health study results indicate that other-oriented volunteering – giving for the sake of helping another person, rather than for our own gain – has significantly stronger effects on mental and physical health, life satisfaction and social well-being. When we volunteer for altruistic reasons and express concern and care for other’s needs, regardless of how it affects us, we benefit our bodies – and likely each other – more. 

In self-oriented volunteering, the volunteer’s motivation is defined by the desire to develop social networks, acquire skills or evade personal problems and it is not as effective for our health, nor is it likely to be as effective for the people we are serving. This suggests volunteering benefits are better when there is not an expectation of compensation, but that does not mean there is no “pay.”

In giving, we are “paid” with the feeling of pride and joy that arises from having served someone – a smile on their face, a genuine thanks. We also can reap the benefits of supported community members – a veteran with the newfound resources to find a job they love or a kid with a safe and fun after school program. We can build our communities stronger for the individuals we know and lives we build.

There are additional correlations between wellness and volunteering: volunteers may experience a lower rate of mortality than those who do not, according to an observation of an analysis of data from the Longitudinal Study of Aging. In another study by the American Society of Pain Management Nurses, individuals suffering from chronic pain experience a decrease in the intensity of their pain, disability levels and depression when they served as peer volunteers.

There is also positive indications for disease prevention: volunteerism may be an effective, non-pharmacological intervention for incidence of hypertension. Such is a risk factor of cardiovascular disease, stroke and mortality. Participants in a Carnegie Mellon University study who had volunteered 200 hours or more in a year were 40% less likely to develop hypertension than non-volunteers.

Extending this observation on volunteering and heart health, an analysis by AmeriCorps using health and volunteering data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Center for Disease Control, it was found that “states with higher volunteer rates are more likely to have lower rates of mortality and less incidence of heart disease.” 

Service may just be the secret for the health and wellness of ourselves and our communities. On this GivingTuesday, find let’s serve our bodies, and each other.

GivingTuesday is an opportunity to use your individual power of generosity to connect and support your communities through acts of kindness, time, talent and treasure. “All around the world, we are joining forces and leaning on each other – and this generosity tells us that we will achieve the better, more just world that we all seek,” writes the GivingTuesday website.

You can donate to the TechWorks program and help us support our veterans. We are equipping them with laptops and the digital skills they need to become connected with social and employment opportunities. 

Driver, roll up the partition, please. 

Last month, Maryland put legislation into effect pertinent to farm owners and relevant to anyone who owns property.

In May, Maryland joined twenty-one states in enacting a version of the “Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act.” Maryland’s new “Partition of Property Act” aims to help families preserve wealth and legacies held in real property by protecting them from predatory sales, tangled titles and pressured decisions on property and ownership division.

The legislation serves to provide a pathway encouraging collaboration and equity. Previously, when all heirs had equal ownership (and were known by law as tenants-in-common) any one heir could force the sale of the property and have resulting funds divided amongst heirs, known as partition by-sale. In this process, the property is often sold at below the fair market value and strips heirs of an opportunity to acquire wealth – in the form of land or fair compensation. This partitioning was a common approach for settling disputes among heirs and a speculatively desired proceeding for real-estate to acquire property at below-market prices.

The “Partition of Property Act” seeks to change the Maryland partition law to protect owners of tenancy-in-common property by requiring notification of property stakeholders and a fair market-based valuation of the land and by creating a road map for buyouts and partition.

1. It creates a notice requirement.
   • Alert all property owners at the same time;
   • Put forth effort to identify and alert heirs known and unknown;
   • Mark the property conspicuously to bring the community’s attention to the property’s status.
2. It demands property valuation by
   • An appraisal OR
   • Evidence OR
   • Court determination based on appraisal plus evidence OR
   • Owners come to an agreement.
3. Offers buy-out options by
   • Giving co-owners the right to buy-out those who don’t want the property at all.
4. Encourages partitioning aside from the common by-sale.
   • Dividing the land into parts, known as partition by-kind, is a required consideration for the courts.

If there is no buy-out or partitioning of the land in-kind, partitioning must be done in-sale, meaning the property must be valued on an open market to receive a fair market price.

When deciding the value of the property, with this legislation the courts must consider various inputs to the lands use and consequences of partitioning such as:

• Practicality of dividing the property;
• If partitioning will cause the property to be materially diminished;
• Impact of co-tenants on the land (eg how their actions have improved the value of the property);
• Sentimental value.

Supporters of this legislation expect it will create a pathway to clear titling and encourage collaboration among stakeholders. It is in-line with allowing farmers to go through the re-lending process to access funds available in the Inflation Protection Act through re-titling.

The full impact of the legislation will be seen as it enters the “real world” and is employed by courts and property heirs and landowners, who now have a better footing to protect and manage their property.

Read the bill language here. 

TikTok is creating an inclusive culture of influence – it’s time you include yourself and your business.

With an algorithm that maximizes discoverability, TikTok is equalizing opportunities for brand exposure and engagement. And, it works. Creating TikToks and interacting with viewers as a brand personality is becoming a huge part of marketing, press and presence for small businesses.

73% of users report feeling a deeper connection to brands they interact with on TikTok versus other apps. The unique style of the platform makes viewers feel like they get to “know” a brand, and that’s in large part because of the content brands make.  

At the TikTok Small Business Workshop hosted by the 2022 TEDCO Tech Fair, the resounding advice for business users was “make TikToks, not ads.” In this vein, brands should not post videos advertising a product or service – instead, they have to sell what viewers are buying: entertainment and earnest engagement.  

Brands are expected to contribute equally to the culture. Businesses on the platform are side by side with creators. In this way, they are competing, collaborating and creating content alongside average and exceptional TikTokers. Businesses are at the liberty of the trends and techniques valued by viewers.  

Market to the mobile. Videos must be vertical, at a 9:16 aspect ratio, to achieve high engagement. Viewers don’t like to see content that has been pulled off other platforms, as it will appear if the video is horizontal or not filling the entire screen.  

Make some noise. TikToks do well with voice-overs, songs and trending audios. Various noises are often layered atop each other and complimented by on-screen captioning. TikTok makes it easy with an extensive library of popular music and voice-over sounds. TikToks branded to or making use of trending audios do very well on the app – so pay attention to what’s popping! 

Mold your message. Emphasize your message or tell your entire story with on-screen captions. This engrosses your viewer in more types of mediums and makes the material more accessible. Captions are easily created in the app’s editing tools.

Manage your minutes. The optimal duration for a TikTok is 21-34 seconds – never go below 10 seconds! This is because the completion rate of videos is what moves the algorithm, so you want viewers to be able to finish your videos and even watch them again. Editing tools exist within the app, so you can do all the work right there.

Make your mark! Pick up the camera and shoot. The best content is not the stuff that’s highly produced – it’s the stuff that’s authentic to you and your brand. Check out some ideas for tapping into that authenticity and the narrative you have to share with some recently trending templates for small businesses: 

 If none of these spark your creativity, jump on the app and discover what trends and techniques that speak to you and your brand. TikTok offers support to businesses, accessible through tiktok.com/business and impact.tiktok.com.

Most importantly, lead with authenticity. When you share what you love, you’re sure to attract the people that love it too. Happy TikTok-ing!

Folks often join economic development organizations with the hope of meeting other businesses and resources that will lead them to new opportunities and connections. While community groups like Carroll Technology and Innovation Council are usually identified for those working in Carroll County, they can also offer great services to those who live here and work elsewhere. 

Opportunities to connect and serve arise all around you when you are connected to your community. That is what has been true of David Shaffer’s experience living and being involved in Carroll County, despite not doing business here.  

“We live here,” said David Shaffer, who has lived in Carroll County since 1990, started a family here and was one of the founders of the then Carroll Technology Council. “I don’t like it, I love it,” he said of his Carroll County home and life. 

Although the ability to move his business here has not been possible, Shaffer still finds great opportunities by involving himself in the Council’s programming. 

“The tech council, like other organizations, allows you to form those relationships and there’s a lot of information that’s apart of business,” said Shaffer, referencing the Council’s past sessions on insurance and policy education events. “It’s just not all IT stuff, it’s a wide, wide range.”  

The CTIC offers programming intended to advocate for inclusive workforce policies and practices; educate individuals on topics connected or related to technology; improve access to workforce training and development; and promote innovative and inspirational ideas. The CTIC is able to extend technology access and education programs with the support of our members.

Schaffer resonates strongly with the Council’s goals of philanthropy and people. “You’re not there to get clients and customers, you’re there to develop relationships and give back,” he said of the social and educational events and programming. 

Although his business operated in Baltimore County, Shaffer did not feel thwarted from joining and serving the Council. “The resident component is critical,” said Shaffer. “It was very important to me, since I lived here, to give back.” 

If your home is in Carroll County, you can expect to find a home at your Carroll Technology and Innovation Council, too. “It’s great to get to know the people who live with you.”