Can tech play well with the government?

(Photo credit @angelvela)

Next week, my taxes are due. <insert obligatory groan> And yes, I waited until the last minute to do them and yes, I will gripe about how much money I pay in taxes when I see the final numbers. I know that government is a construct that provides enormous benefits to my community using the taxes that I pay into the system.  I am proud to support that system and by extension, our democracy, through all of its ups and downs. You might be wondering what the connection to tech is -- and that’s what tech often forgets too. 

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#techtopic

The tech industry as we know it was born out of government programs & policies like DARPA and Section 230. A 1963 DARPA memo helped bring about the modern internet. And Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 helped set the stage for companies like Google & Facebook to flourish. It’s crucial to understand section 230 as it helps to explain why many of the tech giants exist in their current form, and what drives them to do odd moves like merging Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook together on the same back-end platform. And then when 45 wades into this with an ill-conceived executive order, it causes more confusion about the rights granted to tech companies by section 230.

Tech is also challenged by government regulators around antitrust allegations due to their outsized market power, and the CEOs of 4 tech giants will be testifying in front of Congress in late July. Some argue that if tech companies are broken up, we will lose our competitiveness with China; others argue that we will only remain competitive with China if we break up the big tech companies to allow smaller/more innovative companies to flourish. Companies in regulated industries also believe their ability to compete is curtailed when tech has “no regulations to worry about.” What’s interesting is that none of this public discourse seems to have affected the stock prices for these tech giants -- they are leading a stock market recovery. Not sure if that shows a lack of confidence in our government regulators or a display of confidence in tech’s outlook -- or both. 

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#nerdcool

• Physicists Discover Exotic, New 'Tetraquark' Particle We've Never Seen Before

  • Fun fact: I’ve been inside the Large Haldron Collider at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. A PhD friend gave us a tour right before it became fully operational in late 2009. 

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How can we move around in a contactless world?

(Photo credit @autumnstudio)

One of the things I have struggled with over the past few months is my inability to travel. I don't like sitting in one place and I love to travel!  If these past few months had been ‘normal’ times, I would have visited Barcelona for my b-school reunion, and New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco for work. Instead, I haven't left the 50-mile radius of my home since March 7. At least I have been able to go hiking & kayaking and generally be outside in nature. I cannot even imagine what it’s like being inside of a large city & not leaving your 600 sq foot apartment for weeks on end. As we consider how to carefully re-open parts of our country & our lives, the rise in tools that support contactless mobility is exponential. 

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#techtopic

When you think about how people move around in a city, the trend of micro-mobility has already been on the rise for the past decade. Think Lime or Bird scooters and Citibikes for short distances and ride-hailing with Uber or Lyft for cross-town trips. And for many of those who own cars while living in a big city, you realize quickly that it sits empty for the majority of time - so you turn to ride-sharing programs like Zipcar or Turo. (Check out this really great overview by CBInsights on today’s micro-mobilty market map.) Now, these micro forms of transportation will become even more important as cities wrestle with how to move large volumes of people via public transportation without increasing infection rates. And for anyone who has been on a subway during rush hour, you know how impossible that task will be. There has been an increase in sales of leisure bikes and scooters in the past month, which bodes well for the future of micro-mobility. And since you already pay for all of these services with an app on your phone, this continues to help accelerate the move to a (near) cashless society.

When you shift to thinking about leisure & business travel over much longer distances, many of these challenges are magnified. JetBlue Tech Ventures wrote up a piece on the entire flow of moving passengers from one place to another, and highlighted startups working on each part of the process. As an avid traveler, it was helpful to see how much thought and effort some are putting into my safety & comfort (especially when you read horror stories like this and this of packed planes). Hotels are also exploring contactless methods for check-in and for robot food delivery. Skift has a great overview article on all of these trends across leisure & corporate travel. Ultimately, even as medical authorities shift focus to stopping infection via masks vs surface disinfection, the rise of contactless tool usage in the US may finally catch us up to the rest of the world. 

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#awww

Adorable Photos Show How Baby Owls Sleep on Their Stomachs

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Can subscription-based Neeva topple ad-supported Google?

(Photo credit @markuswinkler )

Guess what? I got a dog! Also known as a small horse, Riley is part black lab, part mastiff & a completely huge ball of love. You can check out pics here. We’re still figuring out life together, but I’m glad to have rescued her from a nearby shelter via Petfinder.com. We’re getting in lots of exercise & time outdoors. Totally debating the value of the Barkbox subscription vs simply using Amazon’s Subscribe & Save - any thoughts?

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#techtopic

For the first time in forever, a new search engine debuted this week and the tech world has been buzzing. (Check out this link if you want to join Neeva’s waitlist.) Why is Neeva so hyped? One, the founder is a former Google senior exec, who ran their ad business. Two, Neeva will *not* allow ads on its site. (See the about-face?) 

Many talk about how the ad-supported business model is dooming us to living in a hyper-segmented, surveilled world and that the ads themselves even change how we see ourselves. 

Instead, many companies are continuing to prove out the subscription-based model -- and are finding that while consumers are still mixed on what they will pay for, their appetite for subscriptions is growing. Netflix and Spotify are the companies many point to as the gold standard for the subscription economy (very cool chart showing the increase in paid subscribers), and Medium (for publishing). I mentioned Hey.com last week for email, now Neeva for search. (You can also toss in Amazon because of Prime).

One major concern: that only those consumers with means can afford to make the switch from free (and ad-supported) to paying subscribers, while those without means are relegated to using “free” tools that exploit them even further. Ellevest offered a solution this week with super low-cost subscriptions of $1/month to get access to good financial advice & other perks on their platform. Will that mean other companies/categories will offer these micro-priced subscriptions too, and succeed in a similar way to the Planet Fitness chains? Or is Ellevest doing a ‘robin hood style’ approach & taking profits from the rich to help lift up the less financially stable? Super interesting space to watch. 

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#interesting

Sandy Island Never Existed—But It Was on Google Maps

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