In February, at the height of the Flappy Bird fad, a game called, Threes, was released in the app store. It had the addictive quality of Flappy Bird but it was not nearly so pointless and required, for want of a better word, 'thought.' It was also a polished game. Great music. Very fluid design. …
Can economists forecast technological progress?
As regular readers know, my co-blogger Erik Brynjolfsson has been in a continuing debate with Bob Gordon about what the next few decades are likely to bring technology-wise. There is no easy resolution of that debate as it ultimately depends on your view regarding whether technological progress will continue to have an impact on productivity …
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A quick question on virtual currency taxation
I'm no tax expert, but it seems to me that the IRS ruling that digital currency will be treated like property rather than currency has widespread ramifications for those in the US. The reason is this. Capital gains on property are taxed at 15% while gains made through currency fluctuations are taxed at 23% (this …
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No business built on teenager demand is sustainable
Perhaps the most common ‘doom and gloom’ cry for businesses — especially Internet businesses — is that teenagers, who were once their main customers, are ‘leaving in droves.’ The great example of this is Facebook where it is often claimed that it will be overtaken by Snapchat or the like because teenagers are leaving to other places. Thus, they will either …
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USPTO public hearing on Attributable Ownership.
Attributable Ownership Public Hearing in San Francisco on March 26, 2014: Testimony and Written Comments Invited The USPTO announces a public hearing on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 at U.C. Hastings College of Law in San Francisco from 9 a.m. until noon to receive feedback about proposed rules concerning the ownership of patents and applications (aka …
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Strong versus Weak Net Neutrality
Yesterday, Netflix's Reed Hastings came out strongly in favour of 'strong' net neutrality in a blog post: The essence of net neutrality is that ISPs such as AT&T and Comcast don't restrict, influence or otherwise meddle with the choices consumers make. The traditional form of net neutrality which was recently overturned by a Verizon lawsuit …
Wearables and Real Estate
I have been silent in blogging these last couple of weeks because I have been on vacation and unplugged. Ha, ha, no, of course not. I have been on vacation, still plugged and couldn't be bothered writing any posts. That hasn't stopped me thinking. What I thought about a lot was my wrist. Basically, during …
Podcast about bias and slant on Wikipedia
The web site, Surprisingly Free, organized a podcast about my recent paper, Collective Intelligence and Neutral Point of View: The Case of Wikipedia, coauthored with Harvard assistant professor Feng Zhu. Click here. The paper takes a look at whether Linus’ Law applies to Wikipedia articles. Do Wikipedia articles have a slant or bias? If so, …
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New paper on Remix Rights
When Ronald Coase passed away last year, it occurred to me that no one had really applied a Coasian framework to the characterisation of copyright regimes. I had been interested in these since reading Larry Lessig's book, Remix. Remixing is where users take original content (such as the Harlem Shake) and put it in new forms. …
The Irony of Public Funding
Misunderstandings and misstatements perennially pervade any debate about public funding of research and development. That must be so for any topic involving public money, almost by definition, but arguments about funding for scientific research and development contain a unique and special irony. Well-working government funding is, by definition, difficult to assess, because of two criteria …
Digitopoly 