Platform Access

Smart Companies Like Disney Show Why the FCC Is Wrong on Set-Top Boxes

Posted on by Eli Love

by Mike Montgomery

t’s hard to see what’s missing at Disney. The giant entertainment company (one of the biggest companies in the world with a $147 billion market cap) already has Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, ABC, ESPN, theme parks, hotels and TV channels galore.

But even Disney, as big and powerful as it is, must make deals with distribution partners such as Comcast, Netflix and Apple to get its movies and TV shows delivered to consumers in the manner they desire. So it wasn’t a huge surprise to many media watchers when Disney CEO Bob Iger announced earlier this month that the company was considering buying Netflix or Twitter in order to have its own distribution platform.

“The biggest thing we’re trying to do now is figure out what technology’s role is in distributing the great content that we have,” Iger told the crowd at the Boston College Chief Executives Club. “It’s one thing to be as fortunate as we are to have [our content] but in today’s world, it’s almost not enough … unless you have access to your consumers.”

Now, Disney may never actually buy either Netflix or Twitter, but the point is that when smart people in the media world are thinking about how to get close to the consumer, they are coming up with creative, market-driven solutions – not by asking the government for favors.

Over the past few years the way we consume entertainment has changed in unimaginable ways. People can watch what they want where they want when they want. Children coming of age today have no concept of a linear TV schedule where you have to be in your living room at a certain time to watch your favorite show. To them the world of TV and movies is just an endless giant living library that can be accessed from almost anywhere.

This kind of creative disruption is healthy for an industry and it’s exciting to see creators and innovators rising to the challenge.

And it’s crucial that this movement not be stopped by the FCC.

Read the full article here.

The Future Of Health Care Is In Data Analytics

Posted on by Eli Love

by Mike Montgomery

Every minute of the day, eCare21, a remote patient-monitoring system, collects thousands of pieces of health data about more than 1,000 senior citizens. The telehealth system uses smartphones, Fitbits, Bluetooth and sensors to collect information about things like blood pressure, physical activity, glucose levels, medication intake and weight. The information is then compiled on a dashboard so that the patients’ doctors, loved ones and caregivers can keep an eye on them and provide proactive care, even from hundreds of miles away.

This is proving to be a valuable service for individuals managing complicated health situations. But Vadim Cherdak, CEO and president of eCare21, says we are only scratching the surface. Once his company partners with a big data analytics service, it will be able to glean even more useful insights from the intense amount of data flowing in.

Cherdak expects to be able to deeply analyze the data to provide better alerts and tailored recommendations for patients and caregivers. Cherdak has been looking at big data systems such as IBM Watson, Cloudvara and Hortonworks, but the industry is still in the pioneering stages. No one yet knows the best way to make sense of the vast troves of data.

This kind of telehealth — which eliminates geographical constraints by using technology to help people receive timely medical care no matter where they are — is on the upswing. In fact, according to the National Business Group on Health, nine in 10 large employers will provide telehealth services to their employees in 2017. By 2019, NBG predicts, this number will leap to 97%.

Telemedicine may alleviate some of the struggles currently facing the health-care industry. We have an aging population, a shortage of physicians and an increasing need to manage chronic diseases. We also need to keep burgeoning health-care costs in check. Thanks to “constant technological innovation, increasing remote patient monitoring and rising use of treatments that require long follow-ups,” Mordor Intelligence predicts that the global telemedicine market will reach more than $34 billion by 2020.

Read the full post here.

CALinnovates Statement Regarding the FCC’s Revamped Privacy Proposal

Posted on by Eli Love

October 7, 2016

“This version, like the first, falls woefully short in its noble goal to safeguard consumer data and increase transparency for the public. Subjecting the exact same data to different and arbitrary rules depending upon a company’s primary offering in today’s era of vertical integration does not increase consumer privacy. It is also blind to the realities of the marketplace. We need 21st Century privacy rules to govern a 21st Century data market.” said Tim Sparapani, CALinnovates’ senior policy counsel.

“Chairman Wheeler has indicated that some favored companies will be allowed to practice permissionless innovation outside the FCC’s jurisdiction while other disfavored entities must operate under the microscope despite the fact that the data is one in the same. Businesses of all types today are data companies first and foremost, whether they make software or deliver internet access – or both. And innovation can and should spring from all types of companies, ISPs included.”

“Today, Verizon owns Yahoo, AOL and Huffington Post, and the line between ISPs and edge providers has been increasingly blurred. Consumers will be no better off under this scheme than the previous one, but they may be worse off than they are today.”

“This is a referendum on innovation and an affront to consumers who expect more and demand better. No matter how Chairman Wheeler tries to spin it, his latest iteration of the FCC’s privacy proposal is nothing more than lipstick on a pig,” said Mike Montgomery, executive director of CALinnovates.

“CALinnovates encourages Chairman Wheeler to return to the drawing board to rewrite the rules one more time. Better yet, the FCC should seek further public input as well as guidance from Congress and the FTC, which has the longstanding privacy expertise the FCC lacks.”

CALinnovates is a non-partisan coalition of tech companies, founders, funders and non-profits determined to make the new economy a reality.

Statement Re: FCC’s Decision to Pull STB Plan From Meeting Agenda

Posted on by Eli Love

“Today consumers, content creators and the larger innovation community were given a reprieve from government dictating how innovation should take place when the FCC pulled the set-top box item from the agenda. Innovative companies are already shaking up the set-top box market and don’t want or need the FCC’s help.

When more than 200 Members of Congress, Roku, Amazon and others oppose the Wheeler plan, the writing was already on the wall and it was wise of Chairman Wheeler to hit the eject button. CALinnovates stands with Congressman Tony Cardenas in requesting that the FCC release the order as it currently stands. Doing so will allow the public to comment. Keeping sunshine rules in place on this item is inappropriate and against the spirit of the APA.

The ecosystem is already headed toward an app-based solution and by potentially creating a compulsory licensing scheme, Chairman Wheeler stands in the way of progress, innovation and the promise of this new Golden Age of television.”

Why Pot Is The New Frontier For Tech Entrepreneurs

Posted on by Eli Love

By Mike Montgomery

The cannabis industry is growing like, well, a weed. And the fact that recreational marijuana is on the California ballot in November means that we are about to see an extraordinary number of tech entrepreneurs enter this arena. According to cannabis research firm The Arcview Group, if the measure passes, the California cannabis market will grow from $2.7 billion to $6.6 billion by 2020.

Currently, Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington are the only states where recreational marijuana use is legal. It’s a $5.7 billion industry (“the fastest growing industry in America,” according to Cashinbis) that is poised to take off once California hits the market.

There are plenty of hot areas for fledgling cannabis entrepreneurs. Edibles, vapors, extraction processes and growing systems, to name just a few. “If you are looking at product development, there is no standard—no one will tell you how to do it,” says Michael Devlin, co-founder and president of Db3, which makes Zoots edibles. “As the industry grows, they will ask for innovation. The winners will be those who respond to that.”

I checked in with activist Brian Caldwell, owner of Triple-C: The Original Cannabis Club, to see what areas might be ripe for budding tech entrepreneurs interested in the cannabis industry:

Mature consumer-facing software: Right now, Weedmaps and Leafly are the top two sites where cannabis consumers can look up dispensaries, find cannabis strains and read reviews. But neither is perfect and both need to mature a lot in order to be truly user friendly.

Weedmaps suffered from a lot of growing pains and has had a number of software issues. Leafly, while packed with information on specific strains and great technologically, seems to be struggling to gain traction.

Read the full article here.

The FCC’s Perplexing Set-Top Box “Solution”

Posted on by Eli Love

By Mike Montgomery

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler jabbed a sharp stick in Hollywood’s eye via an op-ed in the creative community’s hometown newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, by announcing his new plan to obliterate the set-top box (STB) in favor of an apps-based approach. But unfortunately this welcome development of the FCC finally embracing apps as the future of TV consumption comes paired with deeply troubling news — instead of empowering open markets and innovators to invent and develop new apps and services to replace yesterday’s set-top boxes, Chairman Wheeler seems intent on creating a new government-mandated IP Licensing Board inside the FCC that dictates standards for the video app market.

That is an enormous step backwards that will confound and delay the introduction of new consumer apps and put government exactly where it does not belong — in the heart of the innovative and creative process by which new products are designed, developed, and rolled out. The Wheeler Licensing Body is regulatory overreach on steroids that will freeze app innovation in place and comes out of left field as not a single public comment over a seven month period even contemplated such a bizarre conclusion to the proceeding.

The idea that an additional layer of bureaucracy will spur “speed to market” momentum is farcical. If anything, there may be a “speed to licensing body” followed by slow progress that will ultimately keep consumers waiting for the newest innovations to hit the marketplace after a tedious and clunky bureaucratic process concludes. This will set back innovation and investment, which ultimately harms the very consumers Wheeler contends he’s helping.

We would never accept this kind of “Washington first” mandate for the apps, services, and platforms that power the web, and we should not tolerate such an approach in the video space. It’s a deeply flawed double standard by an FCC that has careened far outside its jurisdictional lane into copyright standard setting and the licensing process that undergirds much of the entertainment and technology economy. We have already seen this play out in other industries, and similar regimes have only served to create confusion, impede innovation and create additional costs; there is no reason to invite these dynamics into the booming video space.

The music industry is a prime example of a regulatory structure the entertainment world should attempt to avoid. CALinnovates has been an outspoken voice on music licensing issues and everyone involved in that debate would unanimously agree that music’s licensing system has been a mess and that the industry would certainly choose a far different approach if it could take a mulligan.

Read the full article here.

Just Tell Me What I Need to Know! The FTC Delves Into Disclosures to Consumers

Posted on by Eli Love

By Tim Sparapani

“Bad UI leads to bad UX” is one of the most common sayings in Silicon Valley. Translated, this means that bad user interface (UI) – the look, feel and relative usability of an app or website’s design – will inevitably create a bad user experience (UX).  Silicon Valley spends considerable resources trying to build more intuitive, instinctive designs, especially when trying to get consumers’ attention and permission for using their data to offer them products and services.  This challenge is at the heart of an upcoming Federal Trade Commission conference this week focusing on the effectiveness of online disclosures to consumers.

Companies have long had to balance completeness and usefulness in disclosures — take our constantly evolving nutrition labels, for example.   In the digital age, while tech companies have made important strides in communicating with consumers,  striking the right balance is still a challenge just as it is with describing the most important details about your favorite cereal.

Despite decades of work in trying to figure out best disclosure practices by all kinds of companies, it’s amazing how much we have to learn about design for disclosing critical information to consumers. The challenge is most stark online:  tech companies must figure out how to get their  consumers’ attention, tell them what they need to know, and obtain their permission when needed, while not creating the dreaded “notice fatigue” where consumers ignore disclosures or, worse, abandon the website or app out of annoyance.

That’s why the upcoming FTC workshop to explore consumer disclosures is both so interesting and so important. The FTC, state attorneys general, and consumers themselves, rightfully expect that companies should communicate clearly what consumers should or must know about a company’s products or services.  Today, the FTC will gather experts from various disciplines to explore consumer messaging cognition and challenges for disclosures, permissions and warnings all with the goal of advancing UI.

How to communicate something you really need someone to know is a vexing problem in life.  Perhaps, if you are married, you are really good at sharing important news and wisdom with your spouse.  You probably do not try to use the same words to share the same bit of wisdom with your children or someone who is from an older generation.  Words and phrases, much less idioms or technical language, often mean different things to people with different experiences.  Those consumers for whom English is not their first language may understand words in translation differently than those who are native speakers.

Read the full article here.

The FCC’s Perplexing Set-Top Box “Solution”

Posted on by Eli Love

By Mike Montgomery

Chairman Wheeler smartly embraces an app-based approach while simultaneously proposing a cumbersome licensing regime that will harm innovation and consumers alike.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler jabbed a sharp stick in Hollywood’s eye today via an op-ed in the creative community’s hometown newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, by announcing his new plan to obliterate the set-top box (STB) in favor of an apps-based approach. But unfortunately this welcome development of the FCC finally embracing apps as the future of TV consumption comes paired with deeply troubling news – instead of empowering open markets and innovators to invent and develop new apps and services to replace yesterday’s set-top boxes, Chairman Wheeler seems intent on creating a new government-mandated IP Licensing Board inside the FCC that dictates standards for the video app market. That is an enormous step backwards that will confound and delay the introduction of new consumer apps and put government exactly where it does not belong – in the heart of the innovative and creative process by which new products are designed, developed, and rolled out. The Wheeler Licensing Body is regulatory overreach on steroids that will freeze app innovation in place and comes out of left field as not a single public comment over a seven month period even contemplated such a bizarre conclusion to the proceeding.

The idea that an additional layer of bureaucracy will spur “speed to market” momentum is farcical. If anything, there may be a “speed to licensing body” followed by slow progress that will ultimately keep consumers waiting for the newest innovations to hit the marketplace after a tedious and clunky bureaucratic process concludes. This will set back innovation and investment, which ultimately harms the very consumers Wheeler contends he’s helping.

We would never accept this kind of “Washington first” mandate for the apps, services, and platforms that power the web, and we should not tolerate such an approach in the video space. It’s a deeply flawed double standard by an FCC that has careened far outside its jurisdictional lane into copyright standard setting and the licensing process that undergirds much of the entertainment and technology economy. We have already seen this play out in other industries, and similar regimes have only served to create confusion, impede innovation and create additional costs; there is no reason to invite these dynamics into the booming video space. The music industry is a prime example of a regulatory structure the entertainment world should attempt to avoid. CALinnovates has been an outspoken voice on music licensing issues and everyone involved in that debate would unanimously agree that music’s licensing system has been a mess and that the industry would certainly choose a far different approach if it could take a mulligan. In STBs, Chairman Wheeler intends to create a brand new licensing bureau, with a number of questions still outstanding about enforcement, process, and legality. This isn’t as easy as Wheeler says, but ultimately the devil is in the not-so-transparent details, which the public will see in late October after the FCC votes on the issue in three short weeks.

Read the full article here.