Gillmor Gang: Shaken, not stirred

With one day to go to the election, our thoughts are with those who look forward to talking about something else. Difficult as it might be to imagine, there must be other things to work on. One thing that comes to mind is the impact of the virus on how we manage our days and nights in a digital environment. Mobile devices have already propelled much of the change, but the pandemic has accelerated the move to a hybrid distributed lifestyle.

The election has mandated our attention to the political situation in ways that have expanded early voting and legal efforts to slow it down. Regardless of the outcome, the pressure to adapt to this new collaborative workflow will intensify. People have already seen significant shifts from commuting to time switching in a home context. Podcasting, which had emerged from a hackerish geeky hobby in recent years, has morphed into a more commercial adjunct to mainstream media.

In the process, new formats such as newsletters and live streaming have attracted investment from companies including Spotify and Audible, related technologies like Otter (transcription), Substack, Medium, new bundles of services (Apple One) and cable network disrupters, digital-first publishers like The Recount may have started out as traditional takes on political commentary, but in the windup of the campaign they are reaching audiences via notifications rather than repetitive cable talking heads and panels.

This roll up of breaking notifications and user-controlled editorial access have major implications for the near future post-election, however long it takes to plow through legal challenges and the restaffing of whichever government is formed. Also impacted will be congressional and antitrust attempts to regulate social media, and what I suspect will be a shift to private discussions and trend analysis. The interest groups and market makers that result from this realignment will offer exit strategies for companies like Twitter and YouTube where the risk of being broken up will be mitigated by powerful new business models for content creation and distribution.

By January 20th, a new influencer architecture based on notifications and live streaming will endow the media with tools it needs to lead the transition to safe, secure, hybrid digital/live events. Streaming will give new artists and entrepreneurs a platform to separate influence and impact from lossleader gatherings online, bolstered by association with food and tools delivery winners like Apple and Amazon. A similar synergy between tech companies and media advertising will be overt (Apple + and Prime) as well as implicit (the growth in Amazon search. and Twitch watch parties).

COVID therapeutics such as Regeneron create a roadmap for these private groups to reorganize as Costco-like next-wave restaurants, entertainment events and political efforts to consolidate economic power. With a combination of transparency and what could be called reverse boycotts, customers will align with products and companies who promote values-based association with stakeholders across the spectrum.

Central to the relationship is providing ethical access to important data in return for clear guidelines for the use of that data at scale. If this election has been correctly assessed as signaling a massive change in the electorate, the period of deescalation from the pandemic can foster a sense of ownership of that success by the incoming majority. Notification-based entertainers such as Sarah Cooper and more mainstream projects like Matthew McConaughey’s new book, “Greenlights,” speak initially to the Zoom home/work crowd, and soon to the formation of new studios and networks.

Who really knows how this transformation is playing out, given the terrible consequences of Trump’s impact on our country and its standing in the world. But the generation that followed the Greatest Generation is discovering it has more to it than the free love of rock and roll and following our bliss. That same generation ushered in the technology and media revolutions.

Now we’re suffering the backlash of so-called free software where our data is the real product, where Big Brother is extending power by acqui-hires and preemptive pivots. Yet still our democracy persists. Time to count the vote.

__________________

The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Michael Markman, Keith Teare, Denis Pombriant, Brent Leary, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, October 30, 2020.

Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor

@fradice, @mickeleh, @denispombriant, @kteare, @brentleary, @stevegillmor, @gillmorgang

For more, subscribe to the Gillmor Gang Newsletter and join the backchannel here on Telegram.

The Gillmor Gang on Facebook … and here’s our sister show G3 on Facebook.

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/02/gillmor-gang-shaken-not-stirred-2/

A new book and some excitement to go with it

Today is ship day for my new book, The Practice.

Medium asked me to do a weekly series about creativity. The first two posts are now live.

Also! I’m doing a Facebook Live (to be reposted later on Insta, etc) today at 4:15 New York time. Come with your questions about the magic of shipping creative work.

This week, some of the best podcasters I’ve ever met are rolling out podcast interviews on creativity that might resonate with you…

And, for the next 24 hours, you can enter for a chance to win some rare, out of print or simply fun backlist items from my attic of past projects and provocations.

Find the form to enter right here. There are only 100 prizes, and I’ll do my best to deliver before the end of the year.

Included in the prize pool:

The behemoth, an 18-pound, 800-page collector’s item.

The titan, the follow-up, similar in size, and profusely illustrated with amazing photos from Thomas Hawk.

Sleeves of alternate collectible covers for This is Marketing.

The super-rare LP edition of my reading of two of my past books. These are beautiful, even if you don’t own a record player. Winners get five copies to share.

The cut crystal Purple Cow award, and just a few of the scarce remaining Purple Cow milk cartons.

Several other cool items, too scarce to mention here.

You can’t win if you don’t enter. I started doing online contests and sweepstakes in 1990, so this is a special thirtieth-anniversary celebration. You get a bonus entry for every copy of The Practice you buy.

Here are some pics of available goodies:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The magic is that there is no magic.” Simply the satisfaction of doing the work.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/638233756/0/sethsblog~A-new-book-and-some-excitement-to-go-with-it/

The useful crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was an actual crisis. The world was hours away from being annihilated–gone forever, all of us.

Since then, the media has exploited (and invented) crises on a regular basis, now more than ever, often at the expense of focusing our attention on chronic conditions, which are the real challenges.

Today’s election day in the US, and the whole world is watching. Even with mail-in voting, it’s mostly a one-day thing. A useful crisis, a chance to encourage millions of people to get involved, at least a little. The last time around, only 80,000 votes separated the outcome, a truly tiny fraction of the population who didn’t show up and vote but could have.

While the Tonkin crisis accelerated the US’s involvement in Vietnam, it was the chronic and persistent war that truly took a toll. We notice the amplified moments but the long haul is often invisible. And media like Twitter make it 140 times worse.

A crisis doesn’t have to be a negative event. A wedding is a crisis–one ceremony, one day, over and done. All eyes, all attention, all on this moment. That’s why we do it–even though the chronic condition of the marriage itself is always more important. And we do the same thing for job interviews and product launches as well.

Today’s the launch day for my new book, The Practice. People asked me why I would waste the focus and crisis of a launch on a day when everyone is going to be talking about something else. I did it partly because I know you can handle two things at once, and would probably want to find something to fill your time while you were waiting for the results. And mostly because The Practice is about the long haul, the persistent posture of creation and possibility. I’d love to have an exciting launch day (I’ll be posting some hoopla details later today) but I’m far more interested in what the people who go first do with the book after they read it. Tomorrow, next month and next year.

It doesn’t make sense to waste a good crisis, but it also hurts us when we are only concerned with them.

Please vote today if you can, and then let’s all try to find a way to work together to figure out how to focus on the persistent, chronic conditions that we can each do something about.

[Video by Fernando Lazzari]

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/638221932/0/sethsblog~The-useful-crisis/

Booming edtech M&A activity brings consolidation to a fragmented sector

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to force teachers, students and parents to adopt new technologies, edtech’s total addressable market has massively grown in the last several months. The shift has urged venture capitalists to pour money into the sector accordingly, ushering a number of startups into the unicorn club.

But maturation doesn’t just mean bigger checks and high-flying unicorns — it also brings exits.

Edtech M&A activity is buzzier than usual: In the last week, Course Hero, a startup that sells Netflix-like subscriptions to students looking for learning and teaching content, bought Symbolab, an artificial intelligence-powered calculator. Saga Education, a tutoring nonprofit backed by Comcast, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others, acquired math software platform Woot Math. We also saw PowerSchool, which sells a suite of software services to manage schools, scoop up Hoonuit, a data management and analytics tool for educators. Finally, K-12 curriculum company Discovery Education bought K-5 science and stem curriculum upstart Mystery Science.

It’s a lot of news in a short period of time. Luckily, these consolidations offer some directional guidance regarding where some edtech businesses think the future of their industry is headed.

Smart content as a competitive advantage

Content, to an extent, is commoditized. If you can find a free tutorial on Youtube or Khan Academy, buy a subscription to an edtech platform that offers the same solution? The commodification of education is good for end-users and is often why startups have a freemium model as a customer acquisition strategy. To convert free users into paying subscribers, edtech startups need to offer differentiated and targeted content.

Edtech exits show a need for better plumbing

The Course Hero and Mystery Science deals show us that edtech businesses are hungry for personalized, targeted content. Course Hero’s acquisition of Symbolab was essentially a deal for more than a decade’s worth of data that captured which math questions students found hardest.

Symbolab is a math calculator that is set to answer over 1 billion questions this year. With each answer, Symbolab adds information to its algorithm regarding students’ most common pain points and confusion. Course Hero, in contrast, is a broader service that focuses on Q&A from a variety of subjects. CEO Andrew Grauer says Symbolab’s algorithm isn’t something that Course Hero, which has been operating since 2006, can drum up overnight. That’s precisely why he “decided to buy, instead of build.”

“It made a lot of sense to move fast enough so it wouldn’t take up multiple years to get this technology,” Grauer said. The deal was made as big companies get in the Q&A game too, he noted. Google acquired homework helper app Socratic in 2019 and Microsoft built Microsoft Solver in the same year.

Discovery Education, a curriculum provider for K-12 classrooms, acquired San Francisco-based K-5 STEM curriculum provider, Mystery Science. Discovery Education has launched a series of other products focused on science education, including Discovery Education Experience, the Science Techbook series and STEM Connect.  However, Mystery Science is largely focused on offering a creative digital solution to science education. The programming, a mix of videos, prompts and projects, cover a range of questions such as, “Where do rivers flow?” and “Could a volcano pop up where you live?” for young students.

Mystery Science CEO and founder Keith Schact explained how his product focuses on kids and educators, while Discovery Education focuses on educators and districts, making the deal feel like a “natural marriage.” Even as edtech goes directly to consumers, Schact remains bullish on the role that institutions play in true adoption of technology.

“You can go straight to teachers and get a certain market share,” he said. “But the institutions still do have a big role.” The founder likened the dynamic to the state of media: With the rise of blogs, you can publish directly and reach an engaged audience, but writers who want a bigger positioning tend to join larger platforms to grow their overall reach. Edtech is the same, in that some startups need an official sign-off from schools before they can reach venture-scale returns.

According to a source familiar with the transaction, Mystery Science was sold for $175 million after only raising $4 million in venture financing.

Using data management and analytics to improve student outcomes

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/02/booming-edtech-ma-activity-brings-consolidation-to-a-fragmented-sector/

Fortnite will be available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S at launch

As ever, launch title choices are likely to be a concern for gamers plunking down cash on a next-gen console. They can, however, take solace in the fact that the immensely popular battle royale title Fortnite will be available for both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S when those systems arrive a couple of days apart next week.

Publisher Epic Games has detailed what the titles will look like for the news systems. It notes in a release that, “the Fortnite builds on Xbox Series X/S and PS5 aren’t simply tweaked last-gen builds but new native ones to harness the power of the new consoles.” Existing players will be able to pick up where they left off on the new systems, while taking advantage of some of that shiny new hardware.

Hands-on: Sony’s DualSense PS5 controller could be a game changer

The improvements look pretty similar, whether you’re a Sony or Microsoft enthusiast. Both the Xbox Series X and PS5 versions sport 4K resolution at 60 frames a second, faster match loading, split screens with a 60 FPS rate and improved physics and visuals that include features like trees that respond to explosions and better looking weather effects. The Xbox series S also supports most of these things, but downgrades 4K video for 1080p.

The new Xbox and PlayStation arrive on November 10 and 12, respectively.

Microsoft confirms $499 Xbox Series X arrives November 10, pre-orders begin September 22

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/02/fortnite-will-be-available-for-playstation-5-and-xbox-series-x-s-at-launch/

What do you get and what does it cost?

This is pretty easy to discuss when we’re discussing buying an ice cream sandwich. It costs $2, you get an ice cream sandwich.

It gets a little more nuanced when we talk about what $2 means to you, what the freedom to choose is worth, the guilt or joy you get from eating a sugary dessert all on your own, the fun of sharing it with a friend, your narrative about hormones and livestock… Maybe it’s not that easy after all.

And so we get to the sometimes subtle calculation of voting.

Tomorrow in the US is voting day. It apparently doesn’t cost anything to vote–just a few minutes of time. But it actually can feel like it costs a lot, because it comes with cognitive load, with decision making, with a feeling of power or futility or connection or loneliness. If you don’t vote, it’s a lot easier to deny any responsibility.

A year ago, I was standing in line at an ice cream stand in Syracuse, NY. A person in front of me took more than two minutes (a long time when it’s a long line!) to make up their mind, and even let two other people jump ahead because it was so hard (which means, also, so fun) to be undecided. That’s a choice, and the date certain of voting pushes us to move through that state…

But along with these costs, voting comes with the feeling of participation. Even if you don’t think your vote counts, others do. People are paying attention, and over time, it adds up.

And it comes with the feeling of generosity, because you can vote to advance the well-being of someone who needs to be seen even more than you do.

If you’re a habitual non-voter, it’s worth wondering for a moment about the calculation you use to keep that streak going, and perhaps consider exploring the feelings that come when you break that streak.

Not just tomorrow, but in all the ways, and on all the days, when we don’t speak up, don’t raise our hands and don’t vote.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/638160956/0/sethsblog~What-do-you-get-and-what-does-it-cost/

Omission, commission and the places in between

If you accidentally leave the gate open and foragers end up destroying 1000 acres of crops, the guilt feels different than if you went and actively burned down the fields, even if the damage is identical.

In our society, we treat errors of omission differently from the decision to commit a crime.

But there are countless places in between.

What if you should have known?

What if you could have known but didn’t bother to do the work?

What if you promised you’d do the work to find a path, but then didn’t?

One reason we hide is that we’re afraid of being on the hook, of making a promise we can’t keep, of showing up and taking responsibility for our intentional actions. But, as information becomes more widespread and our leverage increases, we’ve already put ourselves on the hook. Could, should and would not only rhyme, they exist on a continuum.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/638094152/0/sethsblog~Omission-commission-and-the-places-in-between/