Three trends you may have missed

This is a bad week to be a technology entrepreneur.  Three things happened this week that both taint tech professionals' image and make it harder to do business.  This week, I want to discuss how security guards for Google, a loss of net neutrality, and the growth of mobile computing are creating a witches' brew of discontent.  I have made a pretty big bet financially and professionally on net neutrality.  This week, a judge threw out FFC regulations that prevent phone companies and broadband operators from giving preferential treatment to one kind of content over another.  This is the antithesis of how the web is supposed to work.  All content is supposed to be equal. It is up to consumers to determine what is popular and what is not.  Thanks to this ruling, that is going to change.

 Now, big content providers like Facebook, Google, and the NYTimes can pay bribes to your cable company or mobile phone provider to give their content preferential treatment over those who did not pay the bribe.  This is perfectly legal conduct, thanks to the U.S. Court of Appeals.  This hurts bloggers and small entrepreneurs like me because it will hurt us in growing traffic and gaining venture capital.  This decision is bad for business and will not liberate the invisible hand of the marketplace; instead, it will unleash a flood of big money and crush innovation.  I hope the local Chamber of Commerce will lobby for net neutrality.

Next, Will Oremus and Reuters report that Google uses private security to protect its employees from protesters.  This has a faint whiff of similar behavior from the Pullman train car company.  In the San Francisco Bay area, relations between locals and technology firms have grown sour over the last 10 years.  This breakdown occurred because those in the technology business were making tremendous wealth.  This wealth has driven up housing costs.  In addition, the libertarian worldview of many tech professionals has created a severe gap with locals who see tech professionals as people who gentrify neighborhoods and could not take a flying leap about their neighbors who do not work in the profession.

The optics of that are just wrong: educated, wealthy professionals running roughshod over an existing community while the locals harbor deep resentment of the wealth and privilege of these professionals.  From a business perspective, I understand why Google is chartering private buses and hiring security guards to make it easier for employees to get into the office.  This creates a need for serious outreach to the community because I feel that a successful business should be a cause for celebration instead of a source of civil unrest.  As my business grows, we will try to share the wealth and become a respected community member.  

Finally, CNET.com has reported that mobile application use has grown by over 115% in 2013.  This says that if you are a small or medium-sized business, your website and applications will need to work on mobile devices.  The mobile web is no longer optional.  So, what do these three stories have in common?  The net neutrality ruling gives your wireless phone carrier tremendous power to pick winners and losers in the technology marketplace.  They will have this power because more of us are using our mobile devices to gather information.  What this will do is eventually create more income inequity and tension between those who understand technology and those who don’t.  At E₃ Systems, we can help your organization take advantage of the mobile web. Contact us to learn more.  These three trends together represent a massive challenge to the National economy and the local one in Joliet.  Together, working with the Chamber of Commerce and our elected representatives, we will win back net neutrality.  E₃ Systems want to be part of this community rather than apart from it, and we want to build your mobile web application to make your organization more successful.  The witch's brew of discontent could be a recipe for success. We have to make sure we watch the pot and make sure it does not boil over.  

Until next time.