Articles from Best of the Best (trending on the web)

TED: Bassam Tariq: The beauty and diversity of Muslim life - Bassam Tariq (2014)

Bassam Tariq is a blogger, a filmmaker, and a halal butcher -- but one thread unites his work: His joy in the diversity, the humanness of our individual experiences. In this charming talk, he shares clips from his film "These Birds Walk" and images from his tour of 30 mosques in 30 days -- and reminds us to consider the beautiful complexity within us all.

Salesforce.com Chief Strategy Officer: Companies Must Innovate Around The Customer

What do you need to successfully build a long-lasting relationship with your customers? As the Chief Strategy Officer for Salesforce.com, the #1 most valuable cloud company in the world, Micheal Lazerow spends most of his time trying to answer this question. By spending time with customers, Lazerow is able to better understand and communicate his customer's needs back into his organization. It has been said that regardless of the size of your business, there are always more smart people on the outside, than on the inside, of any company.

White House said to be preparing sweeping privacy legislation

As the Federal Trade Commission has requested, the White House reportedly is preparing to ask Congress to bolster the FTC’s power to police privacy violations by Internet-related businesses, including online advertisers, app makers and companies that make the smart, connected consumer devices that are fast populating the so-called Internet of Things. The proposal, which is expected to be presented to lawmakers next month,  would require the companies to get permission from consumers before collecting and sharing their personal information, according to Politico.

FTC takes down ‘revenge porn’ site operator Craig Brittain

Today, ladies, the Federal Trade Commission is on your side. The FTC is shutting down revenge porn site “IsAnybodyDown.” Operated by Craig Brittain, IsAnybodyDown was a receptacle for nude photos of women obtained through deceptive means. According to the FTC, Brittain would go on Craigslist posing as a woman and ask other women to exchange nude photos. He […]

TED: Khadija Gbla: My mother’s strange definition of empowerment - Khadija Gbla (2014)

Khadija Gbla grew up caught between two definitions of what it means to be an “empowered woman.” While her Sierra Leonean mother thought that circumsizing her — and thus stifling her sexual urges — was the ultimate form of empowerment, her culture as a teenager in Australia told her that she deserved pleasure and that what happened to her was called “female genital mutilation.” In a candid and funny talk, she shares what it was like to make her way in a “clitoris-centric society,” and how she works to make sure other women don’t have to figure this out.

The 25 Most Valuable Cloud Computing Companies Are Worth Way More Than You'd Think

With Box's successful IPO last week, there are now 25 public companies in the cloud computing market worth more than $1 billion, according to Bessemer Venture Partners' Cloud Index. And the market cap of the top 30 cloud tracked by the BVP Cloud index hit more than $155 billion last week, too. (The index tracks 41 public companies.) That's grown by a lot. In 2013, when the index was new, the top 30 companies were worth about $100 billion and only 15 of them were worth over $1 billion. Here's another shocker: Byron Deeter and Kristina ShenNo.

TED: Severine Autesserre: To solve mass violence, look to locals - Severine Autesserre (2014)

Severine Autesserre studies the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is in the middle of the deadliest conflict since World War II; it's been called "the largest ongoing humanitarian crisis in the world.” The conflict seems hopelessly, unsolvably large. But her insight from decades of listening and engaging: The conflicts are often locally based. And instead of focusing on solutions that scale to a national level, leaders and aid groups might be better served solving local crises before they ignite.

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