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OUR DEVELOPMENT PHILOSOPHY

The products, technologies, and services created by VELDT incorporate our development philosophy by successfully rebalancing the negative aspects of the Internet towards positive real-life benefit for each individual. We are inspired by the two stories that follow on this page, and we hope that you will read on to learn about how these stories directly impact our mission.

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There is no Average Person

In the 1940s, the U.S. Air Force was experiencing a high amount of “pilot error” crashes. They hypothesized that the errors had been caused by the cockpit designs, which had been based on the average body size of a pilot in 1926. Therefore, in 1950, the U.S. Air Force took new measurements using 4,063 different pilots, taking 140 data points per individual, and used the average of these measurements to design their first-ever standard airplane cockpit. Amazingly, not one pilot fit the dimensions of the cockpit. Research further showed that even when they focused on just 3 body measurements - neck, thighs and wrists - only 3.5 percent of pilots fit these averages. So, by using 140 dimensions of the human body in their design, the Air Force essentially ensured their cockpit would fit no one. The U.S. Air Force has since changed the cockpit design from this standardardized model based on averages to cockpits that can be individually adjusted by each pilot, resulting in a dramatic improvement in flight skills.

Source: The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness by Todd Rose

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A World of Filtered Information

In 2011, journalist Eli Pariser argued that the widespread use of personalization technology has reduced opportunities for internet users to interact with diverse information sources and perspectives. He dubbed the information bubbles created by these internet recommendations to be “filter bubbles.” We're being isolated in a web of one. This is the warning that Mr. Pariser, a data science expert and pioneering online organizer, gives in his TED Talk "Beware online 'filter bubbles'" which discusses how personalized search algorithms may be narrowing the information to which we have access. He says that when online web companies tailor their services to our personal tastes, there's a danger that we can get trapped in their filter bubbles, a customized Internet universe that controls what we see and prevents us from experiencing a broader view of the world. He first noticed this phenomenon when the feeds of his conservative friends all disappeared from his Facebook page. He realized that, without any explicit consultation or consent, his progressive browsing history had led to an editing of his life-something he says isn't unique to Facebook.

Source: Ted Talk, "Beware online 'filter bubbles'"

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Focus on the Individual Essentiality,
Not on the Overall Average

Many of the screens we see every day are full of big data-based recommendations. While this solution may offer convenience and comfort, it confines individuals to virtual worlds that are filter bubbles based on averages that are not even their own. We think that there may be more different ways for how each person uses their data. Utilizing small data instead of big, we believe it is important to begin with data gleaned from an individual's own essential experiences, transforming that data into something with merit before returning it to the individual. Recommendations based on the algorithms of others are useful, but when taking important actions, we believe that what you discover should be the fate of your actions. And finally we hope to inspire you to go out and pursue these unexpected discoveries, rather than stagnating in virtual comfort. VELDT chose IoT as the new touchpoint capable of holistically connecting the real world and the internet with your daily life. The individual over the average. Self-discovery over external recommendations. Real world over the virtual world. These philosophies are at the core of VELDT's offerings towards the sustainable future of connected society.