Conversation Nation: January 2021

A new year is finally here, and I’m thankful. Sitting here and reflecting back on the past 12 months is eye-opening; we’ve seen a lot of positive shifts here at Holler, and the country as a whole has been through quite a lot. But, we made it!

Kicking off my first Conversation Nation Newsletter of 2021 with a lot to share. 

Conversation Nation: The Emoji Story

On the latest episode of Conversation Nation, I spoke with Jennifer 8. Lee and Rayouf Alhumedhi of the brand new documentary, The Emoji Story. We discussed the importance of representation in visual content, the process of getting new emojis accepted by the Unicode Consortium, and a lot more. The Emoji Story is available now to stream on AppleTV. 

Tech News Weigh In

There’s a lot going on in the world of tech right now and I’m weighing in on some of the hottest topics. 

Facebook and Apple are at it again, debating data privacy and advertising. Facebook claims Apple is taking a direct hit at small businesses who rely on hyper-targeted data to advertise, but Apple remains firm that their recent moves are meant to put the consumer in control. For Apple, it’s all about letting the user grant or deny permission, which I believe is a smart move. We need to let the consumer take control of their data back, and what Apple is doing is the first step toward a safer future. I even argue that we can go further than this; with the technology available to us now, we don’t need to know who people are, we just need to know what people want. For the first time ever, we have the contextual technology and AI necessary to better understand what people want and when they want it - all without ever needing to know their identifying information. Now is the time for the era of service over surveillance. 

Dubsmash’s recent acquisition by Reddit means change is coming for the short video platform. Reports say that the company will maintain the Dubsmash brand, but it will also be integrated into Reddit’s video creation tools. This acquisition is said to be a part of Reddit’s diversity and inclusion efforts, as Dubsmash highlights Black and Latinx creators. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, especially as Dubsmash is a direct competitor of TikTok. This acquisition might revolutionize the world of social video once again. 

There have been talks that Salesforce is to acquire Slack, the popular work communication platform. This mega deal could pose a threat to the leading email providers and other business communication tools  - like Gmail, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. A Salesforce backing could mean that Slack could pose a threat to email as we know it in years to come. Although I think email is here to stay, I don’t doubt that workplace messaging capabilities will become even more crucial, especially in a post-pandemic world. 

LinkedIn Big Ideas 2021

Photo: Orbon Alija/Getty Images

LinkedIn recently released their roundup of Big Ideas for 2021, featuring thoughts and predictions from leaders across different industries. Topics spanned from a modified work week and innovative office design to the future of movie theaters and accountability in diversity and inclusion. It was a great list of innovative thoughts and ideas, check it out. Within the article, I provided commentary on the Future of Tech as it pertains to privacy-safe data.

This is a topic I’ve spoken a lot about in recent weeks. I think we’re going to see some major shifts in data privacy standards in 2021 and beyond. You can read more about my views here. 

Holler Kit 5 is Here

Speaking of innovative and privacy-safe tech, my team has been super busy working on Holler Kit 5 - the latest and greatest iteration of our Content Engine for Conversations. We have some exciting new updates to share, including the introduction of GIFs to our platform. Learn more about Kit 5:  https://www.holler.io/developers.

DIB Source

At the end of 2020 I announced Holler’s new initiative, DIB Source, which is a Holler Project dedicated to Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging in the workplace. I’m personally passionate about diversity and equity, but we knew we needed to open up the conversation on a collaborative platform.

DIB Source was created so we could be transparent about the DIB initiatives (successful and not!) at Holler, and so people everywhere could learn and share ideas about how their organizations are thinking about inclusivity. We invite everyone to submit their ideas to help foster progression on the topic! Check out the site: https://www.dibsource.com/

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That's all for now! I hope you all find success and good things coming your way as we begin 2021. I'm always open for a good chat, so if you have any feedback from this newsletter or just want to get in touch, just Holler!