A historical collection of our writing.
Robert Reich has an op-ed piece in the NY Times today arguing that “Big Tech Has Become Way Too Powerful” and that we should apply anti-trust regulation. There is little doubt that network effects have made tech’s new incumbents such as Google and Facebook formidable. But applying traditional […] Read more (opens Continuations in a new tab)
Two days ago I wrote a post explaining why I am bullish on crowdfunding and skeptical on micropayments as an alternative to funding content, especially journalism. The explanation was a bit dry and abstract, but in the comments I provided a more concrete example that seemed to resonate, so here it […] Read more (opens Continuations in a new tab)
The rollout of iOS 9 and along with it adblocking plugins for mobile Safari has re-ignited the debate over the ethics of removing ads from pages. Marco Arment who released the paid Peace adblocker previously wrote a piece laying out his views arguing that publishers have crossed a line with ads and […] Read more (opens Continuations in a new tab)
While thinking about my talk at the On Demand Conference today in New York, I stumbled upon a tweet which quotes a Bloomberg piece on Baidu’s Robin Lee (the CEO): This of course sounds a lot like the on demand services that entrepreneurs are building here in the US. The basic logic here appears to […] Read more (opens Continuations in a new tab)
It is Basic Income Week and I am speaking at the On Demand Conference in New York. That is a fortunate co-incidence as On Demand companies ought to be strong supporters of Basic Income. First, with Basic Income, the distinction between employee and contractor status becomes irrelevant and should go […] Read more (opens Continuations in a new tab)
I happened to be listening to some back to school coverage on TV this morning and of course the Common Core standard was brought up along with the question of college readiness. As we have been homeschooling now for two years and our twins are entering 10th grade we have been thinking a lot about […] Read more (opens Continuations in a new tab)
