What I'm doing about the Tech Backlash
Yesterday I posted The Coming Tech Backlash, on how my industry is due for a reckoning with the job destruction caused by automation. The key question people asked, and hopefully of themselves, is what can I do about it? As a small startup founding CEO, here's my answer.
I signed an entrepreneur pledge to safeguard civil liberties and advance new economy jobs.
I'm leaning my product towards augmentation and job creation. And supporting emerging communities. These points are admittedly self-serving, but are therefore sustainable.
- Pingpad is already collaboration software that augments the abilities of teams. We fall on the side of Augmentation from the Doug Engelbart lineage in the Automation vs. Augmentation debate.
- There are hundreds of use cases for a bot-augmented wiki knowledge base. We are prioritizing those that drive job creation -- customer success. Focusing on how Customer Success Teams can onboard new customers faster, resolve customer issues faster and ultimately drive more revenue through people working together. This enables customers to grow and create more jobs.
- Pingpad is free for up to 100 Notes, ample enough not just for many business use cases, but great for communities organizing on Slack.
I'm also looking for opportunities to advance education for the disaffected. My particular interest is enabling junior colleges (I went to Foothill and gave a commencement speech there), which are best positioned to solve these problems, but need resources, technology and knowledge.
I'm going to keep bringing attention to the issue within the industry. And I'm looking for even better ideas that require a range of resources.
Photo Credit: Amazing Article about Luddites in the Smithsonian
Futurist@The House of Quality | CEO@CNI Solutions ||QMS & CAF Expert| ISO IWA48 ESG WG Member| Sat. Freq Interference Analysis & Coord| Supply Chain Integration | Strategy Dev| Author| Entrepreneur| Equitable Justice|
8 年Yes Ross, for me too the AUGMENT works .. have a look at https://www.thehouseofquality.com/thoq/index.htm
Applications/Web Developer at Hartree Partners
8 年I recognize you. You're the moron who believes in the fantasy that Trump is going to spark some sort of "Luddite Revolution". It's a terrible shame that you are so indoctrinated with Leftism that you cannot separate your personal political beliefs from your business acumen. Quoting Mr. Trump at the meeting: ________________ “This is a truly amazing group of people,” the president-elect said on Wednesday in a 25th-floor conference room at Trump Tower in Manhattan. The gathering included Jeff Bezos of Amazon; Elon Musk of Tesla; Timothy D. Cook of Apple; Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook; Larry Page and Eric Schmidt of Alphabet, Google’s parent company; and Satya Nadella of Microsoft, among others. “I’m here to help you folks do well,” Mr. Trump said. He kept going in that vein. “There’s nobody like you in the world,” he enthused. “In the world! There’s nobody like the people in this room.” Anything that the government “can do to help this go along,” he made clear, “we’re going to be there for you.”' ________________
Founding Partner, Marble ??
8 年Great post re: the Tech Backlash. Regarding things to do, some ideas: - consider taking the B Corp test and joining the network: https://www.bcorporation.net/ - embrace system thinking and try to understand the impact of your company through a system lens, looking for how to generate positive returns for everyone - think strategically about taking venture capital, and if/how the exit imperative of your investors, can lead you to take a path you would rather not to. you may also look for other forms of investment (impact investing, revenue participation, etc) - consider bringing democracy in the workplace (not necessarily through holacracy, which is over-hyped, but there are tons of other examples - see Valve, Gore, Enspiral, etc) I'm starting soon a research project on how Tech can be a force for good, happy to continue the conversation!
Career Highlights: Manager/VP of Marketing * Individual Contributor in Business Development & Marcomm * Excellent References * High Productivity & Business Value
8 年In marketing and graphic design, you no longer see art majors' "keyliners" and "production boards artists" because the film/print process upgraded its technology and automated that entire interim process into the Software programs, straight to digital files. That happened in the mid-'90s and the people did not disappear, they simply had to learn the New Technology to manage the new process. Instead of working with old linotype machines, paper, hot wax, and cardboard, they sat at a Mac and learned how to use Quark, Illustrator, and Photoshop. They still knew what they were doing for the marketing/advertising outcome; it was only a change in learning technology. Just like leaving the typewriter for the Microsoft Office suite (or WordPerfect before that)! Never fear no matter what your skills and educational level are, because you can always learn ;-). BTW, the technical press operators are still doing business--their equipment got MUCH more sophisticated with digital technology.
Awarded Grant for Public and Digital Humanities
8 年I would love to connect with you. I am a Working Class studies scholar at UC Merced. These issues are of great importance!