In a provocative piece, Peter Thiel wrote: "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters." This framed a discussion at the NBER Summer Institute on Monday as to whether we are about to run out of ideas. (By the way, apparently only Bob Gordon thinks we are or, perhaps like Tyler Cowen, the ideas …
The Open Internet Advisory Committee at one year
Today I would like to make a little shout-out for recent work at the FCC to improve policy making for the Internet. To do that I need to put my preferences front and center. There are policy debates, and then there is actual policy making. The former grabs headlines on occasion, while the latter rarely …
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Apple found guilty of price fixing: Initial thoughts
Apple have been found guilty of price fixing in the US. Judge Cote found that Apple and five publishers had conspired to raise the price of eBooks. Basically, Apple used the iPad launch to "solve" the publisher's problem with Amazon's $9.99 retail pricing by assisting and, perhaps, insisting, that they engage in a coordinated move …
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Information Technology in the Desert
Every summer my wife and I take the children west to experience nature at its grandest. Though these trips are designed to foster “quality family time,” invariably they teach us about more about ourselves than merely about nature. In previous posts I have used these trips to learn something new about the role of information …
What Feed Reader should you use?
With Google Reader closing down in just a few days, I have had lots of questions regarding where to switch to. I have waited until the last minute because there is innovation going on at a rapid pace as other competitors suddenly see opportunity. The answer of which feed reader to use really depends. I …
Is Steve Jobs a posterchild for the inequality debate?
The short answer: No. First, some background. Greg Mankiw, who is one of the clearest economic writers there is, penned an essay "Defending the 1%." He wasn't looking to earn any friends but he was looking to frame the inequality debate. And on page one what do we read? Then, one day, this egalitarian utopia …
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A quick remark on Instagram's Video
Instagram announced yesterday that it would be adding video to its now extremely popular (130 million user) app (acquired last year by Facebook). The video part works alot like Twitter's Vine in that you can only make short videos and that putting different angles together is very easy. That led many to suggest that Instagram …
Differentiated Platforms
Differentiation is a standard concept for analyzing competition. It describes a common situation, where one firm develops the ability to serve one type of customer in a market—say, buyers who will pay a lot to save time—while a competing firm serves another—say, budget-conscious buyers who are patient. Differentiation can describe common competitive behavior in technology …
My TEDx talk
Filmed last month at TEDxUofT on entrepreneurial strategy. It reflects thinking about that topic that I have done with Fiona Murray and Scott Stern. Someone later suggested the title of the talk should have been "A Vision for Relief." Here are some links to some of the topics touched on: The Onion talks The National …
Is Apple harming the feature innovation ecosystem?
Yesterday, Apple announced iOS7, the latest version of its mobile operating system. It was a large change but perhaps the most interesting bit was Apple's continuation of its rather tense relationship with the app developer community. To be sure, Apple has enabled that community and handed them $10 billion in revenue since 2008. However, once …
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Digitopoly 