Roundtable: Big Data is Watching You

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Roundtable: Big Data is Watching You
Number 3226
Broadcast Date FEBRUARY 23, 2018
Episode Length 1:06:40
Hosts Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane
Guests Jeff Cannata, Andrew Hawn, Len Peralta

It’s our end of February roundtable episode. We examine how big data currently influences our lives and what control if any we have over it. Debate if the explosion of media choices and platforms has had a negative impact on content discovery and consumption. And how did Snap’s CEO Evan Spiegel get his big fat payout?

Guest

Quick Hits

Google announced updates to Google Assistant including the launch of Routines which lets you ask for multiple actions at once. Later this year, Google Assistant will also get deeper integration with phone makers and mobile carriers to be able to handle requests specific to those devices or services. Assistant also will add 30 languages by the end of the year and the ability to automatically tell what language you're speaking.
Google's ARCore system is out of beta as version 1.0 launches on the Google Pixel, LG V30s, the ZenFone AR, OnePlus 5 and recent Samsung phones. ARCore now supports anchoring of virtual objects to any textured surface. Developers can submit apps that support ARCore to the Play store now, with Snap, Sotheby's and JD.com among the first to do so. Google is also parterning with certain OEMs in China to let non Google Play devices take advantage of ARCore there. Also the Lens visual search tool is now part of Google Photos on Android and iOS 9 or later.
CBS Sacramento in California reports that Elk Grove, California's police department has received around 1,600 accidental emergency calls in the last four months. The calls seem to be coming from a nearby Apple refurbishment center, since dispatchers report sometimes hearing conversations in the background about Apple devices and repairs. Apple told CBS Sacramento that it was aware of the issue and was working with the police stations to rectify it.
Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona Monday, February 26. The press conferences kick off Sunday the 25th with Huawei at 8 AM Eastern, Nokia at 10 AM and Samsung at 12 Eastern. Sony's press conference is Monday at 2:15 AM eastern and Asus has their announcement Tuesday at 1:30 PM eastern.
BMW is recalling 11,700 cars to fix their engine management software, because the wrong program had been installed on its luxury 5- and 7-Series models. Oops. BMW issued a statement about the recall after a report in Der Spiegel suggested BMW had installed software to manipulate emissions of harmful gases such as nitrogen oxide, which the company has denied. Affected cars are the 5- and 7-Series made between 2012 and 2017 containing high-performance diesel engines and three turbo chargers, though no regional details yet.
Last August, Opera delisted its Opera Max app which compressed data to help users with low data caps. The app remained functional for existing users. Friday, Samsung announced it will update the app for Samsung Galaxy devices users to be called Samsung Max and continue to work. Other users will see the app disabled with the next update.

Discussion

First Discussion Topic

What actually happened

In July 2015 in order to motivate Snap founder Evan Spiegel to go public, investors agreed to give him 3% of outstanding shares of stock after an IPO.
In July 2015 that was estimated to be worth $800 million.
If founders don't IPO investors (and employees) have a harder time cashing in on their stock. So the bonus is typical as an incentive to go public. And is considered a reward for bringing the company to the point where it can IPO
As of Snap's closing on Thursday the amount was worth about $603 million.
Spiegel's salary for 2017 was $98,078.

Jeff Cannata Discussion Topic

  • Big Data and how it is impacting our lives.
Has our ability to predict and influence our own behavior outstripped our capacity to handle it?
Solid is an exciting new project led by Prof. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, taking place at MIT. The project aims to radically change the way Web applications work today, resulting in true data ownership as well as improved privacy.

Andrew Hawn Discussion Topic

  • Media overload and fragmentation.
IMO media discovery is probably the single biggest issue facing entertainment today. Since the GAFA companies are all loading up on producing content, a ton of it is bound to (or is already) just not being seen. We have never seen a situation where more top dollar content is going unseen in mass quantities. I honestly don't necessarily think this is a problem if you can get to the "core 10,000" that Reed Hastings talks about if all that you are trying to achieve is a $13 monthly renewal for just a handful of shows.
The world of recommendation algorithms won't necessarily solve for this. Humans, it turns out, might actually be pretty important in that game. At least that seems to be the case that we are seeing in some of the research that we do at Maru.

Patron-chosen Discussion

  • How do you think crowdfunding is affecting the development of new technology?
andcbii asks: Will we get less new technology because companies stop wanting to take risks, and consumers lose interest in CF because they have been burned in the past?
Tom: I think maybe they're are four classes/ Total failure = never shipped. Shipped but failed = Ouya Shipped but couldn't maintain momentum = Pebble Success = Oculus (Also Big company that uses crowdfunding strictly as promotion, AKA Sony)
Nadine Scholz shows that crowdfunding potentially shortens the development cycle of new products, thus enabling an earlier market entry.
  • 2015 book The Relevance of Crowdfunding
"Results indicate that the amount of funding raised during a crowdfunding campaign does not significantly impact the later market performance of the crowdfunded product, while the number of backers attracted to the campaign does."
"Toward a better understanding of crowdfunding, openness and the consequences for innovation" -Michael A. Stanko and David H. Henard in Research Policy Journal
  • Does the Crowd Support Innovation? Innovation Claims and Success on Kickstarter
HEC Paris Research Paper No. MKG-2017-1220 July 19 2017
"A single claim of novelty increases project funding by about 200%, a single claim of usefulness increases project funding by about 1200%, and the co-occurrence of novelty and usefulness claims lowers funding by about 26%. Our findings are encouraging because they suggest the crowd strongly supports novelty and usefulness. However, our findings are disappointing because the premise of crowdfunding is to support projects that are innovative, i.e. that are both novel and useful, rather than projects that are only novel or only useful."

Last Minute News Break

Dropbox is going public looking to raise $500 million according to the company's IPO filling unsealed by the SEC today. Dropbox will list on Nasdaq under "DBX."
Of interest to investors are previously confidential details of the companies finances.
  • Highlights include:
Revenue: $1.11 billion in 2017, up 31 percent from the prior year
Net loss: $111.7 million in 2017, narrower than 2016's loss of $210.2 million
Average revenue per paid user: $111.91, up from 2016 but down from 2015
500 million registered users, 100 million signed up since the beginning of 2017
More than 11 million paying users
CEO and co-founder Drew Houston has 24.4 percent of voting power in the company, and Sequoia Capital has 24.8 percent.

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Preceded by:
"Nuthin’ but a 5G Thang" 		Roundtable: Big Data is Watching You
 Followed by:
"What Do You Do With A Rectangle?"
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