企业级匿名分享应用 Memo：为员工之间坦诚交流架起桥梁
在过去的一年，我们看到大量匿名应用在手机上纷纷出现，允许用户与附近的人或是社交圈子里的人分享信息。但到目前为止，其中大多数匿名应用都专注于消费者市场。
一款名为 Memo 的新应用希望可以从企业级市场分得一杯羹，让公司员工可以与同事匿名、私下分享信息。
Memo 由纽约市一家名为 Collectively 的公司开发，该公司寻求以全新的方式“让工作变得更具人性化”。Memo 背后的创意与其他众多匿名分享应用的创意一样，即只要不让用户在帖子中暴露自己的身份，他们会更为坦诚地分享在实名状况下不敢公开的事情。
为了保证用户确实在某家公司工作，Memo 要求他们在注册时必须提供公司的电子邮箱地址，或是通过 LinkedIn 来验证他们的雇员身份。在身份验证步骤完成以后，Memo 会向用户提供唯一识别代码，但除此之外，不会保存其他任何身份信息。
一旦上述步骤全部完成，用户可以在公司内网与其他员工在私下交流。他们也可以与其他用户公开分享信息，但必须由 任职单位“ 验明正身”。
Collectively 首席执行官莱恩·延森（Ryan Janssen）表示，Memo 的目标是让公司的员工之间进行更坦诚的交流。他认为，不少大公司的高管经常不与普通员工接触。
延森在接受我电话采访时说：“一些企业之所以陷入困境，是因为他们不倾听员工的声音。”但他也暗示，员工们也不敢分享他们对发生在公司内一些事情的看法。
延森说：“管理层具有双重角色…一方面，他们被认为应该为公司内的交流提供便利，但另一方面，他们还决定着员工们的命运。这两种角色恰恰存在着矛盾。”
为了测试这种假设，Collectively 去年秋天首先面向惠普、IBM、亚马逊和花旗集团等大公司的员工推出 Memo。该应用被数千名员工下载到手机，当作私密移动留言板在这些公司中使用，如今 Memo 已经完全开放，所有人都能下载。
Memo 没有权限访问在这些私密留言板上进行的任何对话。Collectively 希望采用的商业模式是，推出一系列管理层可以使用的工具，包括分析工具、情绪分析工具，以及能对员工之间分享的消息作出回复的解决方案。
即便如此，有些公司仍然对员工在 Memo 上面匿名分享的事情感到不满。延森说，已有两家员工使用 Memo 的公司向 Collectively 发来“停止通知函”（cease-and-desist order），另外该公司还收到了其他多家企业发来的“措辞强烈”的电子邮件。
此外，延森告诉我，还有三家公司的员工“收到了一份备忘录，警告他们不要使用 Memo，这种做法真是具有讽刺性”。延森表示，他并未看到这些备忘录，只是通过 Memo 的信息反馈栏听说的。
有些公司还试图通过拦截身份验证电子邮件或是发自员工收件箱的邀请函，不让本公司员工使用 Memo。不过，延森认为企业的这种反应其实是件好事。在收到这种电子邮件以后，延森可以与一些公司坐下来谈一谈，找到更好的合作办法，同时研究 Collectively 应该推出哪些工具，帮助这些企业对员工在 Memo 中反映的事情作出回应。
虽然 Memo 迈出了不错的第一步，但很显然，在企业接受了有关员工在公司内部匿名分享信息的创意之前，Memo 还有很长的路要走。
Memo Brings Anonymous Group Sharing To The Enterprise
Over the last year, we’ve seen a bunch of anonymous (or anonymish) apps crop up on mobile phones, allowing users to share messages with people nearby or those in their social circles. To date, though, most of those apps have been focused on the consumer market.
A new app called Memo hopes to capture some of the enterprise market, enabling employees to share anonymously and privately with their coworkers.
Memo was created by a New York-based group called Collectively, which is looking for new ways to “help make work more human.” The theory behind Memo, like that behind many other anonymous sharing apps, is that by removing a user’s identity from a post they would be much more honest with the things they chose to post.
In order to ensure users work at a certain organization, Memo requires them to sign up with a company email address or verify their employment by connecting through LinkedIn. After that verification takes place, Memo provides users with a unique user ID but doesn’t save any other identifiable information.
Once that’s all done, users can share privately with other employees within their company’s network. They can also share publicly to any other users, but they are identified only by the company they work for.
For CEO Ryan Janssen, Memo’s goal is to open up more honest communication within an organization. All too often, he believes, senior management in many big companies is out of touch with the average worker.
“Companies are suffering because they aren’t listening to their employees,” Janssen told me in a phone interview. But he suggests employees are afraid to share what they really think about what’s happening in their organizations.
“Managers have this bifurcated role… On the one hand they are supposed to facilitate communication throughout the company, but they also determine employees’ futures. Those roles are in opposition to each other,” Janssen said.
To test out this hypothesis, the company made Memo available to employees within organizations like HP, IBM, Amazon, and Citigroup last fall. The app was downloaded by thousands of employees and used as a private mobile message board in those companies, and now it’s being opened up so that anyone can download it.
Memo doesn’t have access to any of the conversations that happen within those private boards. The business model it hopes to employ is to roll out tools that management can use that could include analytics tools, sentiment analysis, and ways to respond to messages that employees share.
That said, some companies aren’t happy about the things their employees have been sharing anonymously on Memo. Janssen says he’s received two cease-and-desist orders from companies with employees on Memo and some “strongly worded” emails from a few other organizations.
In addition, he told me employees at three other companies “received a memo not to use Memo, which is a little ironic.” Janssen says he hasn’t actually seen those memos, just heard about them through the app’s feedback form.
While some companies have tried to shut down use of Memo by blocking verification emails or email invites from hitting employee inboxes, Janssen thinks the backlash is actually a good thing. As a result of the emails he’s received, Janssen has been able to set up meetings with a few companies to figure out how he can better work with them and which tools he could implement to help them respond to employee feedback in the app.
It’s a good first step, but there’s obviously a long road ahead before companies get comfortable with the idea of anonymous sharing in the enterprise.
来源:techcrunch
硅谷
2015年01月19日
硅谷
为小公司而生的律师匹配服务 Lexoo 获 40 万美元融资
在我自己的创业冒险旅程中，我得出了这样一条结论，无论你是成功还是失败，肯定能赚钱的只有两种人，云服务提供商和律师。关于前者，价格和竞争形势都相当的透明。然而律师费就远非如此了。这正是英国创业公司 Lexoo 正在着手解决的问题。
为了帮助实现这一愿景，这家提供了自称为“律师匹配”服务的伦敦公司刚刚完成了 40 万美元的种子轮投资，投资方为 Forward Partners——一家 由尼克·布里斯伯恩（Nic Brisbourne）领导 的风投公司及创业公司“工厂”——以及乔纳森·麦凯（Jonathan McKay，JustGiving 董事长）。
“对于小公司来说，找到一名优秀律师并在此过程中不挨宰是件难事，”Lexoo 联合创始人兼首席执行官丹尼尔·范·宾斯伯根（Daniel van Binsbergen）解释道，此前他曾是一位专注于金融与并购领域的律师。“名牌律师事务所通常都很棒，但管理费用繁杂，因此每小时收费很高。对于小公司而言，很难知道哪一位律师真的能干，是否擅长这一领域。最后，如果你采用一名推荐律师的话，很难判断你给出的价格是否合理。”
为了解决这一难题——可以将此视作网络将市场变得更加高效透明的经典案例——公司可以根据工作类型需求，通过 Lexoo 平台获得一批精选律师队伍的多方报价。在 Lexoo 平台发布工作后，你会从多个胜任该工作的律师收到富有竞争力的报价，通常在 24 小时内。
“我们确保只有真正擅长于特定法律领域的律师才能为某件工作报价，每一位律师加入平台之前，我们都会对他进行面试，”范·宾斯伯根说道，“客户可以将报价和律师履历进行比较，做出更加明智的决定。我们的卖点在于，帮你找到曾在大型律师事务所摸爬滚打的资深律师，只不过他们现在因为生活方式的原因选择在家工作或者在小公司工作。这一点使得他们的常规报价只有之前每小时费用的一半左右。”
为此 Lexoo 不收取客户费用，不过律师需要将任何通过这一平台拿到的工作报酬的 10%作为佣金付给这家创业公司。
Lexoo Scores $400K For Its Lawyer-Matching Service For Small Businesses
During my own startup adventures, I came to the conclusion that, succeed or fail, the only people guaranteed to make money are cloud providers and lawyers. With regards to the former, pricing and competition is fairly transparent. But legal fees, not so much. That’s the problem UK startup Lexoo has set out to solve.
To help with that mission, the London-based company, which offers what it calls a ‘lawyer-matching’ service, has just scored a $400k seed round from Forward Partners — the venture firm and startup ‘foundry’ headed up by Nic Brisbourne — and Jonathan McKay (Chairman of JustGiving).
“It’s difficult for small businesses to find a good lawyer and not get overcharged in the process,” explains Lexoo co-founder and CEO Daniel van Binsbergen, who previously worked as a lawyer focussing on finance and M&A. “Brand name law firms are usually great but have a lot of overheads and therefore high hourly rates. With smaller firms it is hard to know which lawyers are actually good and specialised. Finally, if you go with a recommended lawyer it is hard to judge whether the price you are quoted makes sense or not.”
To tackle this — in what can be considered a classic example of how markets can be made more efficient and transparent by moving them online — Lexoo enables businesses to get multiple quotes from a curated line-up of lawyers, based on the type of work required. After posting a job, you receive multiple and competitive quotes from the qualified lawyers on the platform, usually within 24 hours.
“We make sure that only lawyers who are actually specialised in a certain area of law are invited to quote for a job and we screen and interview every single lawyer before they can join the platform,” says van Binsbergen. “Customers can then compare the quotes and lawyer profiles and make a much more educated decision. Our sweet spot is finding lawyers who trained at the largest firms but for lifestyle reasons are working at home, virtually or in a small office. This enables them to usually charge only 50 per cent of their previous hourly rates.”
To that end, Lexoo is free for clients, but lawyers pay the startup a 10 per cent commission on any work they obtain through the platform.
来源：techcrunch
硅谷
2015年01月19日
硅谷
Facebook宣布开源深度学习人工智能工具[摘要]Facebook的人工智能研究团队今天宣布，将开源其深度学习人工智能工具。
Facebook的人工智能研究团队今天宣布，将开源其深度学习人工智能工具。
Facebook将通过Torch库发布这一软件。Torch是一个协助机器学习技术开发的开源环境，被学术界，以及谷歌、Twitter和英特尔等公司在研究中广泛使用。
Facebook表示，相对于Torch中的默认软件，其深度学习模块的执行速度要更快。这将帮助研究人员在更短的时间内开发规模更大的神经网络。
Facebook希望，分享这一工具将推动整个深度学习研究领域的发展。（李玮）
Facebook open-sources its deep-learning AI tools
Facebook is sharing some of its technology. The company’s artificial intelligence research team today announced that it is open sourcing its deep-learning AI tools.
The software will be available on the Torch library, which serves as an open-source environment for machine learning development. Torch is widely used for research in academia, as well as by companies like Google, Twitter and Intel.
Facebook claims its deep-learning modules are significantly quicker than the default ones available through Torch, and allow the company to work on larger neural networks in less time.
Notable improvements include a 23.5x speed-up over publicly available convolutional layer codes, and the ability to parallelize neural networks training over GPU cards.
The company hopes sharing its tools will help optimize progress across the entire deep-learning research landscape.
来源：TNW
关注员工健康是趋势 促进企业员工运动的应用 Yomp 完成种子轮融资
位于伦敦、此前名为 PleaseCycle 的健康创业公司 Yomp 已从 5 名天使投资人处融资 31.5 万美元（20 万英镑）。该公司将利用这笔资金去拓展其健康平台，这一平台帮助企业员工以游戏的方式形成良好的健康习惯。
Yomp 的平台设计能鼓励企业员工参与运动，从而提高效率，降低缺勤率，让你能喜欢你的老板。
Yomp 的移动应用能记录距离，追踪数据，帮助用户组建团队，设置目标，并赢得积分。这就像是健康市场的 AirMiles。这些数据随后可以换取在线折扣券，奖励，或是向慈善组织的捐款。
已签约使用该应用的公司包括电通安吉斯传媒、彭博社和 EDF Energy，前者已经在 9 个国家部署了这款应用。
Yomp 现年 26 岁的创始人及首席执行官莱伊·摩根（Ry Morgan）表示：“我们此前一直小本经营，利润微薄。不过目前，随着资本的注入，我们将推动业务向前发展。”
Yomp 的竞争对手包括 Global Corporate Challenge、Keas（谷歌前高管创立的一家公司，已实现高速增长）、EveryMove、GetHealth、MaxwellHealth，以及 Challenge forChange / Love2Ride。
这些“量化自我”公司也开始探索 B2B 市场，例如 Jawbone 近期推出 了“Up for Groups”。
传统的员工福利及医疗健康提供商也来到了这一市场，不过它们已经落后，例如 PruHealth 的 Vitality。
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Yomp, An App To Get Employees Fit And Healthy, Raises An Angel Round
Londonbased health startup Yomp, formerly known as PleaseCycle, has raised $315,000 (£200,000) from five angel investors, to expand its heath and wellness platform which ‘games’ company employees into healthy habits.
Yomp’s platform is designed to encourage physical activity amongst a company’s employees, helping to increase productivity, reduce absenteeism and make you like your bosses (ok, maybe not that last bit).
A mobile app logs trips, tracks stats, lets you form teams, set goals and earn points – like an AirMiles for being healthy. These are then used to get online discounts, win prizes, or give donations to charity.
Companies signed up to use the app include Dentsu Aegis Media, Bloomberg and EDF Energy, with the former deploying it in nine countries.
Ry Morgan, Yomp’s 26 year-old Founding CEO, says, “We’ve built everything to-date on a shoestring and retained profits, but we’re now at a stage where an influx of capital will help drive the business forward.”
Competitors to Yomp include the incumbent in the space, Global Corporate Challenge, Keas (ex-Google founders with huge growth), EveryMove, GetHealth, Maxwell Health (bigger remit but similar budgets) and Challenge for Change / Love2Ride .
The QS companies are also starting to explore the B2B space, such as Jawbone’s recent launch of “Up for Groups”.
Traditional employeebenefit and healthcare providers are also in this space too, although they’re lagging behind, such as PruHealth’s Vitality.
来源：techcrunch
硅谷
2015年01月11日
硅谷
大数据＋机器学习＋平台，Dato拿了1850万美元B轮融资大数据在硅谷炙手可热，拿融资自然也不再话下，拿到千万级美元融资的也有不少，不久前大数据分析云服务GoodData就获得了Intel Capital领投的2750万美元。据华尔街日报消息，机器学习平台 GraphLab 刚刚改名Dato，并获得了 1850 万美元新融资，投资方为 Vulcan Capital 、Opus Capital 、New Enterprise Associates、Madrona Venture Group。此前他们曾获得680万美元融资。
GraphLab 提供了一个完整的平台，让客户能够使用可扩展的机器学习系统进行大数据分析。简单来说，就是从别的应用程序或者服务中抓取数据，让机器学习这个模型，并将学到的知识作为基础，自动地进行准确的预测和决策制定。这么讲挺抽象，我们还是具体举几个例子吧。可能最好理解的就是民主国家政府的民意调查，可以通过社交网络、媒体等提取数据，分析出民众到底在关心什么，分析出哪些区域的哪些问题必须关注、解决。其实，生物医学研究团队也会使用 GraphLab，主要是来分析临床记录，从而预测病人的病情发展趋势。零售业可以做价格预测、用户推荐；金融服务业可以做诈骗预警；市场公司则可以通过情绪分析锁定关键客户。现在 GraphLab 的客户已经包括 Zillow、Adobe、Zynga、Pandora 等。
那为什么是 GraphLab（现在应该叫 Dato 了）会获得这么多客户的青睐呢？ 其实，将原始数据转化为决策依据，并作出预测，这个过程还是很复杂的。往往需要大量的数据处理工具，收集、清洗数据，再建模分析，得出结论，进行展示；还需要大量的数据科学家或同样知识渊博的软件工程师来配合完成。既耗时费力，还投入不菲。所以 GraphLab 这样的平台，可以让毫无编程经验的数据科学家，快速地将理念转化为生产环境可以使用的产品，提高企业的生产效率，自然受欢迎。值得一提的是，Dato 现在能处理各种数据类型。
GraphLab 的创始人 Carlos Guestrin 是机器学习界国际公认的大牛，曾被 Popular Science 杂志评为 2008 年 “Brilliant 10”，还获得过美国青年科学家总统奖。2008 年在卡耐基梅隆大学带着两个学生研发了 GraphLab 的原型，2012 年被 Jeff Bezos 游说去了华盛顿大学。
在 Madrona Ventures 和 NEA 的资金支持下，2014 年 3 月创办了 GraphLab，并以测试版的形式推出了第一个商业版。2013 年 10 月，增加了机器学习功能，推出了新版本。现在的 GraphLab 已经不仅仅是图谱分析了，更是一家基于 AI 的大数据公司，能够处理各种数据类型，所以公司也改名叫 Dato 了。
在美国现在的大数据公司主要有四类：
数据的拥有者、数据源：特点是业务优势能收集到大量数据，就像煤老板垄断一个地区的矿一样。其实大多数有能力产生或收集数据的公司都属于这类型，比如Vantage Sports和收集了PB级数据的包子铺。
大数据咨询：特点是非常技术，提供从基础设施规划建设维护到软件开发和数据分析等的服务，但不拥有数据，比如Cloudera这家不到500人的startup是最著名的Hadoop架构咨询公司。
做大数据工具的：比如AMPLab出来的Databricks和Yahoo人主导的Hortonworks。
整合应用型：特点是收集拥有或购买一些数据，然后结合AI来解决更多实际的痛点。
像 Dato 这种做整合应用型的大数据公司才有可能有希望。未来是 AI 的，而 AI 的食物是数据。就像很多产业链一样，最困难且最有价值的创新往往发生在接近最终用户的那端，比如 iPhone。大数据行业最有价值的部分在于如何利用机器去处理数据得到洞见，影响组织和个人的行为，从而改变世界。收集和整理数据在未来会变得标准化和自动化，而利用 AI 进行分析的能力会变得更为关键。
[36氪，作者: 小石头]
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