Issues

City Permitting Is Complicated. Technology Can Make It Easier.

Posted on November 30, 2016June 27, 2018 by CALinnovates

When big companies build new office or commercial spaces, they have teams of lawyers and consultants who help them navigate the permitting process.

Small-business owners don’t have that same luxury, and city hall can often be a confusing place.

That’s where OpenCounter comes in. The tech company works with cities to make the permitting process easier and more tech friendly. They take the many rules and regulations a new business owner might need to understand and present them in an intuitive way through their online portal.

It’s an idea that more cities could use to help spur new business. In a conversation with CALinnovates Chief Evangelist Kish Rajan, OpenCounter co-founder Peter Koht pointed out that America is 49th in the world for ease of starting a businesses and 33rd for ease of construction permitting. These complications create real problems for new business owners.

“This is not a problem unique to California,” said Koht. “We need citizen-focused permitting.”

Koht and his co-founder, Joel Mahoney, approached the problem from a design point of view. The information that new businesses need is mostly already on a city’s website. OpenCounter uses algorithms and natural language to present that information in a way that more people can easily use.

Listen to the full interview below:

https://soundcloud.com/user-90169041/ep-9-founder-and-coo-at-opencounter-peter-koht

Like what you hear? Subscribe to A Step Ahead on iTunes.

Just Like Olivia Pope, But Without The White Dress And Affairs: Justin Knighten Helps Folks Maneuver Sacramento

Posted on November 23, 2016June 27, 2018 by CALinnovates

The world of Sacramento is its own ecosystem. Beyond politicians and lobbyists, there are people like Justin Knighten, vice president at Lucas Public Affairs, who work with businesses and interest groups to navigate the sometimes tricky paths to influencing policy.

“Think of us as Olivia Pope [from Scandal] but without the white dress and affairs,” Knighten joked to CALInnovates Chief Evangelist Kish Rajan during a wide-ranging interview.

Businesses, especially tech companies, are getting more involved in policy in California, and they’re signaling to the next generation that this is just part of doing business — especially for tech companies that are looking to disrupt industries. Inevitably, those disruptors are going to want to be heard on policy decisions, and that’s where Knighten comes in.

He’s helping companies understand that their reputations, which play an important role in how they are welcomed in Sacramento, are not forged by accident. It’s an ongoing thing, and businesses have to be aware of who their audiences are and what they’re saying to them.

Government has to be aware of its audience as well, and as a millennial, Knighten would like to see government reaching out more to younger people and making itself more relevant to digital natives.

“As young people think about what they want their impact on the world to be, I’m a big advocate for going into government,” said Knighten. “It’s a great platform.”

Listen to the full interview here:

https://soundcloud.com/user-90169041/ep-8-vp-at-lucas-public-affairs-justin-knighten

Like what you hear? Subscribe to A Step Ahead on iTunes.

A Step Ahead: Justin Knighten

Hey, everyone. Kish Rajan, chief evangelist at CALinnovates. Welcome to this edition of A Step Ahead, the CALinnovates podcast. This time we’re with Justin Knighten, who’s Vice President of Lucas Public Affairs which is one of the more successful and well established public affairs firms in Sacramento working on public policy in the state capitol.

You’ll hear Justin is a very thoughtful, insightful, young professional who understands politics, understands policy and business, where they intersect and how all that is changing, given how technology and innovation is fundamentally changing the way we all learn and communicate. For businesses out there that need to think about how to engage the new world of public policy, Justin has tremendous insights and I’ll hope you enjoy the chat that we have.

All right, Justin Knighten, Vice President at Lucas Public Affairs. Thanks for joining us.

Justin Knighten: Yeah, this is great, thanks for having me.

We appreciate you being here on A Step Ahead, the CALinnovates Podcast. This is great.

This is great. This is cool.

Cool. Well, you and I have known each other for a number of years and you are one of the key people at Lucas Public Affairs, one of the most well established and well respected public affairs firms in Sacramento. Tell us about that. Tell us about what does Lucas do?

What does Lucas do? We specialize in high-level reputation management, crisis communications and issues campaigns. What that means is we don’t really work with elected officials. We don’t really work on initiative campaigns like voter campaigns and we don’t do consumer PR, consumer outreach. We’re kind of in the space where it’s really politics meets policy meets business.

Interesting. Are you lobbyists? Do you lobby?

We do not lobby. We 100% do not lobby. We work with a lot of lobbyists. We help think through big picture strategy and game plans with lobbyists and other experts but we do not lobby.

Yeah, it’s interesting. You know, for most people who are not on the inside of how these things work at state capitols, whether it’s Sacramento or Washington DC, it’s hard to discern. But there really is an ecosystem of different types of businesses and disciplines. I suppose that ultimately adds up to how laws get made or don’t get made, but lobbying becomes this catch all term that is not accurate, right? What you all do is quite distinct from that.

We hear about lobbying all the time, right? We usually hear about lobbying in the worse case scenario, when a scandal breaks or something unethical happened, whether it’s in DC or here in California. So we hear about those things a lot more and when people think about the role of government, they think about policy makers and the press and then the third house, the lobbyists. We kind of get grouped up into that. Which is fine a layman’s terms but when it comes down to what you’re actually doing and what your function is in that space, there is a hard line. You know, we’re not picking up the phone, we’re not calling actual elected officials, we’re not meeting with them. We’re not having conversations with them. We’re helping to create the communication environments and the conversations around them.

Yeah, those narratives.

Absolutely.

Those conditions that ultimately create some of the parameters and shape how these outcomes can happen from a legislative or regulatory standpoint.

Absolutely. I kind of see it like we’re like Olivia Pope, right? But we’re in California and we don’t have white suits and we’re definitely not having any affairs with elected officials so we’re good.

But white suits aren’t a bad idea in Sacramento in the summertime.

I agree. It’s hot up there. I can attest to that.

But let’s talk about this because our audience, or a big part of our audience are businesses. Most businesses, at least this is my experience and I’d love to hear yours, this is all very mysterious, they know very little about the political process, it’s intimidating and it’s scary because they understand that at some level the government can have a lot of influence and impact over their business opportunities but they don’t exactly know how to shape it. Is that why, ultimately, businesses hire you all or what are they looking for when they hire you?

They’re not looking for us to help them sell something that’s going well. Usually it’s a problem or they have to fix something or there’s a huge challenge and they need help grappling with it. So we really come in and help build this partnership with them and really talk through…what is that thing you’re looking to achieve? What does that success look like for you? Whether it’s trying to do something to react to something that’s happening in the policy space that may have a negative impact on your company or operation or the issues that you care about. Or…

Playing defense.

Playing defense, exactly. Or you want to really mix things up and be a part of the conversation and help drive the agenda that is not only good for you and your company and your self interest, but you think will have bigger implications for the industries and the environments that you operate in because it’s something that’s new and that you think you could really add to that conversation.

Yeah, I want to talk about that. You know, my father worked at Levi-Strauss, that’s how I ended up in California.

That’s fantastic.

And they were a pioneering firm. This is 34 years ago when he first joined the firm and worked there for a long time. He used to use this phrase Corporate Social Responsibility that I ‘A,’ didn’t understand or ‘B,” it sounded kind of made up. But, actually, it turned out, with Levis, it was very sincere, it was very real. They had a recognition, perhaps being a San Francisco company where, as we’re sitting here in the heart of San Francisco having this discussion, it’s a very progressive place. It occurred to Levis at that time that to be a successful company in a community like this and then nationally, that genuine commitment to understanding what their social responsibility was was a big deal. Now it seems that that discipline and that approach by businesses has grown quite a bit.

I think that is definitely the ethos of San Francisco. You have a lot more companies that have more of an authentic ethos of their mission and their purpose and what they’re trying to achieve and I love when that jumps over into a Sacramento, kind of, policy space because that makes me really excited to be able to help someone or a company to do something that is that grand and big. I think that that mentality is definitely jumping to different parts of the state and different industries. I think that the companies and the groups that have been the most successful are those that don’t look at government and Sacramento as this really crazy space, let’s just get out of your way and lets you avoid it. We don’t need it. Let’s just deal with it when there’s a problem versus the companies who have really made it an integrated part of who they are and, you’re seeing that more and more, you know, with energy and healthcare and other industries that are really starting to bring this in.

Tack and, I think, innovation are doing it more than they ever have before and I love when I hear about new companies, startups, the heart of San Francisco where all the startups are really emerging, thinking about the government space and the policy implications and the legality of what they’re doing from the very beginning.

Yeah, I think it’s really interesting, you know, we certainly see our members at CALinnovates and we see it more broadly and you’re right, there’s both established industries: legacy, traditional businesses, and then, of course, there’s this new era of all kinds of new disruptive, whether they are disruptive or not, they’re just new innovative companies. But it seems that our experience, I’m wondering what your experience in Sacramento is, is that both of those types of companies are recognizing that constructive, positive engagement in the public policy realm, it’s important. It’s going to help them in the long run in their own self interests, quite candidly, to shape a reputation that helps them work towards more favorable policy outcomes but it also is a win win where not only are they advancing their self interests, but they’re promoting a broad interest. We sense a momentum. Are you seeing that type of momentum in Sacramento as well?

I am. Whether they’re finding there’s an issue or topic that directly impacts their business or again, with part of their ethos as a company like I mentioned before, whether it’s education or childcare issues or other things that directly impact their employees and the future of their companies, I am seeing that more and I think it’s very exciting. I wish it was happening far more. I still see some disconnect.

Yeah. It’s early.

It’s early. It’s early. I think when we see the big players in the tech space having established more of a credible reputation and more of a hand in the policy world, I think it’s telling the up and comers that this is important.

Yeah.

That we’re going to have to make this a priority down the road so why not start now? But let’s build something that maybe avoids a lot of the complications or issues down the road.

It’s a really fascinating thing. I feel the same way. Especially, you and I were talking a minute ago about the changing political dynamics and as we sit here recording this conversation, we’re only a week away from the national election, which we will talk…that’s a whole other podcast to talk about. We’ll have you part of a…

Post mortem.

Yeah. Hopefully not post mortem.

A celebration. Because hopefully it’s a celebration.

But looking at the political dynamic, this election, be it on a national level and we see it, certainly, in California, how these elections are happening, how the conversations are happening, how issues are being talked about or not being talked about, how sloganeering is or is not happening. It’s very different from a technology perspective today than it was, even five years ago, but certainly 10 or 15 years ago. The audiences and the general public and policy makers are engaging in very different ways, it seems to me and I’m curious to see your point of view on that.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, especially these last 10 months and looking at how communications and these narratives have really shifted, and this is something that isn’t going to stop now. It’s going to keep going, it’s going to keep evolving, it’s going to keep going and pushing the boundary. But if you look at it in the last eight years, it’s like two bookends, right? 2008, a revolutionary election that changed the game on so many fronts as it relates to the use of social media and tech and digital platforms to engage, not only younger audiences, all audiences.

Right?

Elections were won that way, obviously, looking at key battleground states. But from a communication standpoint, it was monumental. There is no one who will ever really debate that. It was significant. The bookend of this year is, maybe, how some of those platforms could go wrong or maybe some of the negative impacts of some of those things if they’re not managed correctly, right? Emails. You mentioned before, Twitter. Things that if they aren’t managed correctly or looked after or considered, could have negative implications for you.

Absolutely.

So I think if you’re looking at those as the two bookends, it’s like, wow, it was new, it was innovative, there were no rules. I think eight years later, there are some rules.

There’s no question. I want to continue this thread that we’re having about…it’s fascinating to me how there seems to be this intertwined situation where we’re talking about digital communications, what your digital reputation is in a political context as candidates. But it’s very much aligned with your corporate reputation or individual reputation inside of a corporate context. These things seem to be coming together where they’re influencing one another, both in the private sector and in the public sector or in the campaign world.

Yeah. You can no longer silo it. You talking as a leader of a company, the head of a campaign, you’re talking to all audiences at the same time. There’s no more divide, there’s no more lines. You can’t put yourself in a box. If you want Facebook live, if this is on Facebook live now and we push it out to the folks that are following us, whether it’s family members or people we went to school with or colleagues at work, they’re all seeing it. They’re all reaching it. So I think for CEOs or political leaders or other experts who are, maybe, jumping from an LA to a San Francisco into a policy space, they might have had amazing success with what they say in the corporate space, in the world of getting VC funding and all the other things they’re doing as the leader of their company, right? Building morale, building aspirational environments for their employees. Whatever it is that they’ve been doing to have success, they now have to figure out what is the connection and the thread to pull that in to parlay that in the policy space.

Those are all such great points. I mean, what you said is so vital and I want to drill into that for just a minute which is, your corporate reputation, what starts from your corporate leadership, your CEO or whoever your C levels are, all the way through your entire organization, and then what the brand and the reputation of your company is, it’s one thing and now there’s just multiple audiences that will experience your reputation and your brand and react to you based on that. So that’s policy makers, your own investors, your own customers, the communities that you serve, it’s all one thing. I think it’s a really big challenge for companies to iterate their approach to communications in a way that recognizes that new reality.

And we always say that reputation doesn’t happen overnight. Reputation isn’t by accident. Those are things that are built or you feel at the end of a particular period, right? Whether it’s someone who’s starting an initiative and sees it from beginning to end or is a good actor in the business space for many years or it’s an ongoing thing. It’s something that’s a living, breathing thing. Your reputation can take a hit instantly and it changes that narrative. The good news is that if your mindful of all those audiences and your approach and how you communicate to them and have that conversation, especially now, especially as so many of your customers and employees and citizens in the places where you work, politicos and others, can have a direct conversation with you. It’s increasingly more important to be mindful of.

I think you’re right and I think it’s only going to move more steadily and clearly in this direction. At CALinnovates we spend a lot of time…you’re a millennial and you’ve been a great contributor to our millennial conversation and bringing that perspective which we really appreciate. But when you look at the polling and you engage with millennials and you sense how millennials are deriving their own opinions, communicating with one another, establishing their own expectations, it certainly seems to me but you tell me, that the imperative to businesses for their success is only going to intensify over time about developing this reputation and communicating it in ways that can reach these millennial audiences, if the businesses want people to work there or to buy their products.

Absolutely and I think that is something that the government space is grappling with as well. How is government touching a younger audience? I would even say that’s not even the focus. It’s how are we touching all audiences in a different way, in a way that’s in line with where the world is today and to give the credit to the folks in Sacramento who are doing this work. It’s a big job, right? I think the beauty of being out in San Francisco or LA or other, bigger markets is that it is more flexible and fluid and cutting edge with market trends. That’s the expectation. A place like government where you have to consider all the audiences, you have to consider so many other stakeholders and what their needs are, I think sometimes those bigger sweeping changes might seem overwhelming but that’s not to say that they shouldn’t happen. But simply to say that there’s a lot of good work that is happening. How are people touching the things that we interact with with government all the time. Whether it’s the DMV or…

Your healthcare.

…being a juror. Healthcare. Things that we touch government on more regularly, how are we connecting with those things that makes sense from where we are on our phone, in a digital space? Something where we don’t necessarily have to go into a brick and mortar to make something happen. So there are those conversations happening. I, to be the hammer now, is to say that I think those things need to happen a little bit faster.

No doubt.

I think we have to be a little bit more comfortable in the discomfort to actually start to move in this direction because at the end of the day, what I see as the goal and the purpose is to make sure that we’re not losing the potential of this whole generation that will definitely breathe life into these systems moving forward.

There really is a legitimate worry, is there not, that an entire new generation, new era, whole generations will follow that just completely disconnect from government because they can’t get their brain around how to engage it, right? I mean, I, as a Gen X-er, we talk a lot about how we’re this bridge generation. I grew up before cell phones and now I’ve adapted my entire life to see that millennials are digital natives and so I can see the transition that’s been made. I also am someone who, having served in government, can see how old school it really is, from a technology and as you’re sort of describing it, consumer experience perspective that if we don’t break through this, how can you expect younger generations to engage it when they don’t even understand, at all, how it works or what its culture is.

Absolutely and its so funny that you mentioned your background and being connected to this. In junior high, I would leave my friends from the bus or whatever, and be, like, see you later, go into my house and instantly jump on, like AOL Instant Messenger and we would chat all night. So we never really lost contact. I didn’t really understand what that meant. So, yeah, to your point being a digital native, I think that is the world that we are in. We don’t see it as this separate, new emerging thing, it just is, right? It’s just what is. And I’ve always been a huge advocate of younger people, like myself and certainly others who are just leaving college or trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives, even leaving high school, thinking about what is it that they want their impact in the world to be. Which is very much a millennial thing. I’ve always been an advocate of going into government and public service and the world of politics because I think it’s such an incredible platform to really have an impact on the issues and the topics that impact all of us.

Yeah.

And to your point, if we don’t have the systems and the processes in place to have a more digital focused component or even to know how we’re talking, how we’re engaging this new demographic, I do think that that potential will slip away. I do think there’s the potential for that. And look, it’s disheartening but it’s also an uplifting thing to think about because it presents a great opportunity.

Well there’s no doubt and there is, you can see change happening in that political leadership world of who can then create policy that can push to modernize government? We recently had Evan Low, assemblymember …

He’s fantastic.

A millennial, he’s 31 years old, he served in local government, now he’s in the assembly, chair of the Innovation and Technology c]Caucus. He spoke really eloquently about the criticality of modernizing government. We’ve also been really fortunate to have Lt. Governor Newsom who was a pioneer at City Hall in San Francisco and has talked a lot about modernization of government at the state level. So at least we see a new generation of leaders who perhaps, with more motivation and more support can work on the big job but the necessary job of the way government functions.

And I think, just those two leaders, I’m a huge fan of both of them. I think what they’ve done is incredible and I think their likely impact in the future is going to be a benefit to all of us and I love the fact that they are very much on this digital space and they are advocates for the opportunity that it presents. I think just that visibility and that narrative is incredibly helpful and goes a long way to reaching those younger audiences who are kind of figuring out, what does government and policy and politics mean for me?

Yeah.

For all of those who aren’t already, like the guys like us, the political, wonky nerds who love reading about polls and issues, right? It’s those that are passionate about what happens to their future and their community’s future, and they do care about the status of, you know, society, right? Californians, what happens? How do we bring them into the process?

I think it’s a big challenge and I think it’s a big opportunity in front of us for sure and then, maybe, just as we wind up, to bring this back around to business for a moment. As those policy makers, this new generation of policy makers are coming in, I said to you as we were walking over here from our last event, one of my favorite photographs, speaking of Evan Low that I saw this year is a picture of him, of Assembly Member Jimmy Gomez, who’s a young assemblymember from downtown LA and Lorena Gonzalez, a young assemblymember from San Diego on the Assembly floor, Evan taking a selfie and them all having a fun moment. That picture, I think, perfectly represents certainly the present but absolutely the future of the state government. To the extent that that’s true, businesses in California are going to have to understand how do they position themselves to be able to react to this new core group of folks that will be setting state policy for the foreseeable future.

I love that example and I think it’s very indicative of the future legislatures we’re going to start to have more of in Sacramento which is very exciting for people like me to help businesses, you need to hire me.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea. I’ll say it.

To really break it down to a very tangible example of how businesses, at least those who are savvy, are adapting into this new world. Politicians, political leaders care a lot about their constituents. What their constituents say, do and think, they care about a lot. Traditionally, a lot of really successful campaigns have deployed grassroots efforts where you get a lot of constituents to either write letters or make phone calls to their elected leader. Do these things that demonstrate visibility on whatever issue or topic or concern that they have. Always very effective, right? Volume matters in those types of approaches. In the digital space, we’re seeing this happen more on platforms like Twitter because they are on their phones, taking selfies on the floor of the assembly. They are on their phones scanning what’s happening on Twitter and Facebook while they’re voting on big issues and topics. They’re doing these things simultaneously.

It’s how they’re checking in with what popular opinion looks like because at the end of the day politicians want to be popular but they also want to be legitimately responsive to who they represent.

Totally. So in creating this communications campaign, to support whatever work or effort or challenge you have in Sacramento, a tangible example is how can you use Twitter as the new platform for grassroots campaign where instead of letters, instead of making phone calls, meeting the people where the are, how can you create infrastructures where they’re using Twitter or other things to communicate directly to their member and not only their member but their staff and other places where they can talk to those who they’ve elected into office. That has more immediate and consistent and direct impact. Not to say that the traditional format…

Will go away all together but …

And I’m and advocate for how can we create a campaign where we can bring both together, right? How can we use digital media and traditional media. How can we use these new platforms, and what we’ve known has always worked in communicating and driving a narrative. I think that’s where the power is.

I think you’re right. I think for both political campaigns and engagement for the average citizens to be involved and politicians, but also for businesses that are now charting a new course for their own success, for their own self interest but how can they reach beyond that and make a contribution, it’s a very dynamic time and understanding all of these new frontiers is a big deal. A good way to understand that is certainly to continue to talk to folks like you. So Justin Knighten, Vice President of Lucas Public Affairs, thanks a lot for joining us on A Step Ahead, we appreciate your time.

Thanks for having me. This is great.

You bet.

Graham Richard Is Bringing Business And Government Together To Encourage Clean Energy

Posted on November 16, 2016June 27, 2018 by CALinnovates

There’s enormous potential in clean energy. Not only will it finally wean us off of harmful fossil fuels, but it will create an entire new industry with lots of new jobs.

But in order to make this vision of the future a reality, businesses and government need to work together. That’s where Graham Richard comes in.

The former mayor of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, Richard is now chief executive of Advanced Energy Economy, a San Francisco-based advocacy firm that is working to bring about a “prosperous economy based on secure, clean, affordable energy.” Richard works with companies such as Apple and Facebook that want to purchase more clean energy. He also works with federal and local governments to put policies in place that encourage the growth of the clean-energy sector.

“I’m more optimistic today than I have ever been,” Richard told CALInnovates Chief Evangelist Kish Rajan during an interview for the podcast “A Step Ahead.” “Because of innovative forces, the job-generating and economic impacts are becoming more effectively understood.”

Richard understands that in order to bring about a truly robust renewable economy, we need more than clever entrepreneurs coming up with great ideas like Nest and Tesla. We need the government to make fundamental changes in the way utilities are built and regulated. Instead of siloed regulations that look at things like the energy grid and renewables as different beasts, we need system-wide regulation that can bring lots of different players to the same table.

“Innovation in environmental technology is creating a $200 billion market,” says Richard. “That could climb to a $1 trillion market by 2030 and create new jobs all across the country.” If everyone comes together to make it happen.

Listen to the full interview below:

https://soundcloud.com/user-90169041/ep-7-ceo-of-advanced-energy-economy-graham-richard

Like what you hear? Subscribe to A Step Ahead on iTunes.

A Step Ahead: Graham Richard

Hi, everyone. Kish Rajan, Chief Evangelist at CALinnovates, and welcome you to this, the latest edition of A Step Ahead, the CALinnovates podcast. This time we’re joined by Graham Richard, who is the CEO of AEE, Advanced Energy Economy. They are a nonprofit that’s been around working with businesses across the energy landscape and the technology landscape, and as you’ll hear in our conversation, doing tremendous work all across the country helping to catalyze this new change towards advanced energy, and promoting all the economic possibilities associated with that.

He’s an interesting guy with a great background and a great story to tell about how much progress we’re making and how much more progress there is to make, so I hope you’ll enjoy the conversation I’ve had.

Graham Richard, thanks so much for joining us today. We appreciate it.

Graham Richard: Kish, great to be here.

It’s good to have you here on A Step Ahead, our new CALinnovates podcast, so thanks for being part of it. We’re here at your offices in San Francisco, at Advanced Energy Economy. For our listeners, just give us a quick orientation to tell us what AEE is all about.

We’re a relatively new business association with a national footprint, and we have a vision, Kish, of a prosperous world that runs on secure, clean, affordable energy. We now are active in 27 states, very active here in California, and we have over 100 national companies, wonderful companies, the names of which you know from your work.

Innovators like Apple, and Microsoft, and Intel, and Salesforce, and Facebook, and General Electric and Schneider Electric and Sun Power… a long list. Wind, solar, storage, systems integrators, and now, companies that want to buy advanced energy, they want to buy clean energy. And we’re helping face this wonderful new opportunity of creating jobs in the advanced energy, the clean energy sector, by encouraging policy that will make the growth of these new technologies become more present in our lives.

Right.

More real. And we think that that’s a prosperity agenda. So we’re a business association representing many of the companies that I’ve mentioned, and others, and every state is a different challenge, because every state has a different energy mix. My home state of Indiana, we were just talking about, right?

Yeah, I want to get into all of those issues that you’ve talked about. What you do, and policy, and I love what you said about this being a path to prosperity now going forward, I want to get into that. But very quickly, you’re from Fort Wayne, Indiana and now here you are in downtown San Francisco. How did that happen?

Well, it’s one of those wonderful opportunities. I had the chance to be an energy investor and serve as a state senator in Indiana, and Mayor of my city of Fort Wayne for eight years, and through mutual friends I was introduced to some funders and founders. Tom Steyer, Hemant Taneja, individuals that have a strong track record in investments and they were looking to support a business-based voice across the country and so, I’ve been on the board of an organization, The Clean Economy Network, which was merged into the Advanced Energy Economy and then I was selected to help build the organization. So, what we do is to make sure that the technologies and all the innovation around these wonderful new technologies is able to be embraced by policies that open up the market for these new technologies. And, as you know, energy is a highly regulated market-

Sure.

and its regulated state by state. So, we really have to work at the federal level, at the state level and the city level to open up the markets to encourage the adoption of technologies that even four or five years ago didn’t exist. Remember that company Nest? Who thought about having a thermostat that could ultimately do security, it could help you with… so, the technology has now created a demand for opening these markets.

There really is this tremendous confluence as we speak of amazing new technologies, inventions that creating brand new technologies that are taking place, but at the exact same time, there is clearly greater political awareness and demand for changing policies, to change behavior that would change the way that we create and consume energy for environmental preservation purposes and certainly here in California we’ve been very much at the forefront of that. You know, landmark pieces of legislation and other policies that it seems are quite at the forefront of driving a national and global movement in this regard.

And, is that policy that opened up the market years and years ago for clean wind, solar, and now batteries and storage and so, we want to see policies open these markets. The good news, Kish, is that this is now a very cost competitive opportunity. We were in Texas recently where we have our Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance and one of the largest industries in Texas includes DOW Chemical, which has a plant. And, DOW Chemical announced purchasing 200 mega watts of wind and they did that on the basis of the economics.

Apple, one of our member companies, buying over $820 million worth of clean solar power from solar here in California and its the 20 year economic value of that. That is the driver, not just the fact that it’s great for the environment. That’s important and we want that, we want to be able to deal with that but it’s also because it makes economic sense. That’s the innovation that’s happening in the market place.

That’s what .. and it seems to me that that’s so critical because that has been on the political side, and the arguments… one of the great criticisms has been and continues to be amongst some that these technologies—solar, wind, geothermal, go down the line—that they actually aren’t viable unto themselves, they aren’t economic and that engaging or purchasing those types of services or products really is a philanthropic exercise or it’s an exercise in at least public interest first and not purely business decisions. But, you’re saying that that’s…we’re seeing that change in the marketplace?

The innovation is coming in a number of ways. Improvement in overall systems cost in wind and solar is now making those, particularly the large scale, large city, a cost competitive purchase. So, you see a company like Warren Buffet’s MidAmerica’s power in Iowa throughout the upper Midwest, who are planning to have 100% clean energy by 2028. They just made the largest purchase of wind power in the history of the country and they’ve indicated that they’re going to keep their rates flat until about the end of 2020, 2027, 2028. So, this is cost effective and cost competitive.

In this last year, if you look at new installations in the electric power sector capacity, these innovations in clean energy, advanced energy have been so great that over 90% of all new installations have been what we would call advanced energy, clean energy. There’s another that’s happening. So, lets give some companies some roots here.

This is CALnnovates. You’ve got Sun Power, one of our very active members. You’ve got a company called STEM, which is a battery manufacturer, based here in California but then you have EnerNOC, which has a home base up in Boston. They’ve formed a partnership and what are they doing? The innovation is to take the software from EnerNOC, take the panels that are manufactured by Sun Power and put them into a system that is supported by storage to be able to deliver to a customer, perhaps a commercial or a industrial customer.

And, they say we would like to have more of our on site power, we would like to do more energy efficiency but we would like to have all of that integrated in a way that’s very different when you just used to have… envision in your mind a plug you plugged into a socket and the electricity will come to your device, but now all of a sudden you got to have more like the internet, a system that’s two way. So, it’s not just a plug in electrical socket with an extension cord. And, the innovation around the technology driven by the public policy to open those markets is creating a market that we estimate today to be a $200 billion market. We think that market can go to a trillion dollar market by 2030 and have job creation opportunity all across the country.

What are the keys to that you think, to continue to unlock that market? What’s it going to take to get to that next level of growth that you are suggesting?

Continued innovation by the great companies we are talking about. Continued innovation in public policy. We have to rethink how the electricity system is governed and operated and what is the business model for return on investment for electric utilities, so our association is involved in that across the country. I think continued innovation in finance and what I would call a systems way of regulating versus a silos way of regulating.

Tell me more about that.

For example, if you are an individual who buys a company and you have some use for natural gas, lets say you also use water, lets say you also use electricity. Right now, we’ve got systems and if you add to that broadband and the smart of the smart grid, the smart of the smart city, the smart of the smart transportation is wireless and fiber optic broadband. We need more of it just like we need more cloud computing, more storage capacity so it’s thinking how about you put all those pieces together.

This is a secret of the US economy. Obviously, it’s happening all over the world but one of the things we do well here is we figure out how to put pieces together. Just go back for a minute, I use this analogy a lot but I have a different frame line—recent studies and talk about when President Kennedy said we’re going to go to the moon –

Right.

and, people said we don’t even have the technology to do that. How are we going to do that? We don’t have… so, part of the solar industry got its start by talking about the solar cells on spacecraft.

Interesting.

It was the integration of all kinds of scientific advancement that drove ultimately a very successful outcome. Today, hey, we have private space companies. Tesla, Elon Musk-

Space X. Right.

and, Bezos has got his company. And again, what are they doing? They’re integrating systems including energy systems for the moon for Mars. So, what I think is exciting is we’re starting to see a change in public policy that encourages thinking about “wait a minute. Why are we regulating all of these technologies and services separately?” So, the California Public Utility Commission, Public Utility Commissions across the country are starting to say-

We’ve got to rethink this.

we got to rethink this. You might have a smart water system here in California and Texas and other places where there is droughts and water issues. We’re not going to get it from a silo-based solution.

Well, I think you’re right and it’s such a fascinating thing to think about from a policy standpoint because listening to you talk to how we sort of re-imagine and help inspire new systems that can get the next moon shot to sort of follow your analogy. We do have all these layers and legacy at the legislative level and at the CPUC level, the current construct and conditions that we use to regulate our utilities today, both energy power utilities but then also from telecommunications standpoint… I don’t want to lose that thought… that you are also suggesting that in order to achieve these big advancements in energy well, if we don’t have the underlying information, technology systems that can power these smarter approaches you’re describing, it won’t work. So, re-envisioning energy regulation, telecommunications regulation, and other things I’m hearing you say are indispensable to getting to this economic potential you’ve described.

And transportation opportunities. I was just meeting with a group of chief sustainability officers from hospitals. And, hospitals are big consumers of energy but they’ve been focusing on, and I think this is fantastic, energy efficiency. Now some of the hospitals are saying, “Well, wait a minute, I’ve got all these–my customers, my patients, my consumers, trying to get to the hospital and we’re trying to provide services at home and we’re trying…and in addition to that, we’re having constituencies who are saying we want cleaner air, we don’t want that old diesel stand-by generator there, we want a new micro grid, we want a new energy storage devices, we want systems that will integrate that.

So, the demand side of that is creating a lot of the innovations. We convened a group of-

Doesn’t it always, right?

we convened a group of our major companies that were all saying we’ve made a pledge to add 100% clean energy by a certain time in the future and many of these are companies that own data centers. Well, it’s predicted that at the current growth of the cloud, you could have 1,000% growth of cloud computing in the next 10 years. That could go from 2% or 3% of the consumption of electric power to who knows what that number would be and if that’s clean energy or if it’s fueled by traditional energy, particularly heavy fossil fuel energy, there’s a different dimension to that and the innovation that comes around combining new solutions.

Let me give you an example… I’m going to go a little different direction. We have a lot of people that feel that innovations happening in cities, and a lot is happening in cities, and it’s very important but we see technologies move to other locations around the world and in this country. So, one of our member companies, I love telling this story, they said in a small town that might have a rural electric cooperative providing electricity, maybe it has a telecommunication provider that is cable TV and they haven’t gone fully to broadband, they’re beginning to see that you can piece together technologies.

So, in the case of one of our members, Jewel Energy, in northern Minnesota with another member company, General Electric, they’ve designed a system that they’re bringing up in the next 60 days and it’s a small system that is wind, solar, and battery storage and they put that battery storage, and I love this as a Mayor, together with the critical resiliency assets. So, they put it in the police station, the fire station, the hospital. They put it at the 911 center. They put it at places where it really matters that when the power is out, particularly if it’s in the middle of Minnesota winter, you got-

Backup.

resilience. It’s a problem. And, the pricing on this appears to be at 4.4 cents a kilo watt hour and because of the way they are designing this system, it’s going to be firm, dispatchable, 100% clean power. Now, it is the innovation of each individual piece of that low cost wind, low cost solar, lower storage but it’s putting it together as a package.

Well, it’s a really great story and has great resonance I would think with policy makers. Understanding that instance you’re providing is a tremendous value to the community that you serve because as you said, you’re creating resilience around those critical operations and assets. That sort of leads me to the question, a bigger question I was going to ask which is, you and I had both served in government and we have great respect for the role and the importance of government and the communities that they represent and protect and serve. It seems to me, at least this is my thought, and I just want your reaction, your experience, that when you think about the way we are regulating the energy utilities, the way that we regulate telecommunications and other critical systems is with a concern about everyday folks that if we don’t continue… the feeling to me seems that if we don’t continue to keep things the way they are that we somehow we will be abandoning our responsibility to protecting those folks… that we’ve created what we believe are these protections around them to this point.

I feel like there is a real reluctance on the part of regulators to let go of the old constructs for fear that they will be exposing vulnerable populations. A legitimate concern but I’m wondering: ‘A,’ if you sort of agree that that’s part of the driving force of where we are at the regulatory level and if so, what do we do to break through that and change that mindset?

Well, there is a power of an incumbent regulatory structure and economic order, and whenever changes come through innovation we have to deal with it so our belief is that we aren’t having enough of what I would call critical conversations among and between folks who don’t get a chance to talk to each other in a safe trusting environment. That doesn’t mean you don’t disagree but you least have a conversation.

So, our organization works heard to bring together people as we’ve done in now 10 different states, in California, New York and Michigan, Pennsylvania, and we bring together, in this particular case, the PUC regulators, members of our advanced energy network, executives from our companies, and then, say, regulated gas utility, electric utility, water utility, and we have a conversation. And, we say what is the need that you see each of the different parties having? And, of course, public utility commissioners and sometimes regulators that are advocates come to that table and express their view. So, out of that you then, we call convene, connect, collaborate for an action that will open up the market but also make sure that those who need some opportunity for transition get it.

Right. I’m curious what we see with the leaders that we’re talking to is new generations, new attitudes, new information is creating, it seems, a new era of legislators or mayors that not only understand these issues but are prepared and enthusiastic about getting in front to try to usher in this new kind of change.

And, part of this, as we say, this exchange of ideas and understanding, is so many folks aren’t as familiar with the public utility regulatory process but just think there are about 198 people that are elected, less than 200 people, some elected, most appointed-

Right.

who have authority over about a 100 billion dollars a year of investment in the electric power sector. So, how does a person maybe recently appointed by a governor and not have the depth of knowledge of all these technology innovations, how are you going to look at regulatory change if you don’t understand the technology that you’re having influence over? So, we work to bring together small groups of public utility commissioners by region and innovative technology companies to say this is a challenge, here is a potential solution so one of those areas is the use of micro grids, the use of on site power generation, the use of innovative software to help people whether it’s a hospital, whether it’s a school, whether it’s a factory, college, university, whatever…to be able to understand how their energy management, their energy savings, how that can integrate with all the other things in that environment that you’re working in. Transportation, for example.

Those PUC commissioners have signed up for some pretty important jobs but it’s a big deal. No doubt. Your personal energy seems to be as high as I’ve seen it in the last several years. As we wrap up here, I would love just sort of get your sense of the time you’ve been here and what you see in to the future. How do you feel about the progress that’s being made in ushering in this new era of advanced energy and how do you feel about where we’re headed?

I was in a conversation with the chief sustainability officer who works for the Cleveland Clinic, a very well known, innovative, Midwestern clinic and we were both commenting that we are most optimistic today as it relates to the future of advanced energy and clean energy then we ever have been because the innovation forces in finance and policy, in technology and now at a national and state level, around the job generating and the economics, that’s becoming more effectively understood, Kish. And so, as we seek first to understand and learn then the innovation is easier.

I will give you a specific anecdote. I was attending a conference that we hosted with CEOs of major electric utilities on the East Coast in October of 2013 and I brought up the question. I said, “What if, as an electric utility, by 2020 you could have a significant part of your revenue, certainly by 2030, that would come from electrification of transportation?” And, this executive turned to me, we were at a break time in the meeting, and he said, “We aren’t even looking at that. That’s not a strategy we’re even interested in because the regulators will never allow us to do that.” That same executive in a conversation said, “We’re investigating today, so that was 3 years ago, we’re investigating putting in charging stations, working with our regulatory authorities, talking with the automobile manufacturers, and I’m not just talking Tesla, I’m talking a whole wide range.

Sure.

So, it’s that kind of shift. Why did the shift happen? Because the technology and innovation and number of vehicles and consumer demand. So, he’s seeing healthcare institutions, or colleges and universities, that want an EV and they want a place to charge it and they’re calling the electric company and they’re saying… and then there are fleet buyers so the mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana, who I’m working with. Greg Ballard, established the first all electric ride sharing vehicle system. So, like you’d have a bike share you can now put a card and you can get a electric vehicle that you just drive around town and drop it off on another location-

Right.

100% electric vehicle. And he’s put in place, in his 8 years as mayor, the purchasing of an entire EV fleet for the city.

Wow.

So, what I’m seeing is a combination of demand, policy, cost curves coming down and integration of systems that allow all those things to happen.

That’s really fascinating.

That’s why I’m very optimistic. I believe we’re going to solve all these challenges because the combination of innovation in all these dimensions will produce solutions.

Well, the convergence is clearly happening. We’re at the cusp of a really exciting time and clearly Advanced Energy Economy is making a very significant contribution to helping, to working each of those areas that you just described but also that confluence of those factors that will make a big difference. We appreciate your leadership. Graham Richard, CEO of Advanced Energy Economy and thanks a lot for your time. It was great to have you here.

Thank you, Kish.

Wanted: Hotel Industry’s Bent Policies

Posted on November 14, 2016November 14, 2016 by Eli Love

Technology Can Help Heal This Divided Country

Posted on November 11, 2016June 27, 2018 by CALinnovates

By Mike Montgomery

On Tuesday night, America was hit with an earthquake. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican. What Tuesday showed is that we are a country that is even more deeply divided than many of us thought.

At the heart of that division is a schism between the haves and the have nots. People who feel they have been left behind by the government and the economy may not have been heard by pollsters but they made themselves heard loud and clear Tuesday when they voted for radical change at the top level of government.

While it may be an uncomfortable situation, those of us in the tech space need to talk about the role technology played in that divide.

Those of us living in the iPhone bubble may believe that things like online banking, video calls and streaming music are part of the everyday life of all Americans but that’s not true. We still live in a country that has a very real digital divide.

Studies from the Pew Research Center show that people who earn less money and are less educated also have less access to the internet. While 88% of adults earning more than $150,000 per year have broadband at home, only 45% of those earning under $30,000 a year have the same access. Ninety percent of people at the top income level have smartphones compared to 53% of those at the bottom.

As more and more of the services that people rely on move online, those at the bottom are truly being left behind. They have less access to things like employment websites, online education and new banking options. Without fast access to the internet they are increasingly isolated.

Then there’s the very real problem of job displacement. While technology has made many things easier in our lives, it’s also made a lot of jobs redundant. By 2020 robots will have replaced an estimated 5 million jobs, according to the World Economic Forum. Those people who feel that the jobs they once relied on are deserting their communities — they’re right.

But here’s the thing. I also believe that technology can help solve these problems. Knowing the benefits that come from more people having access to the internet we can put policies in place to close the digital divide. We need policies that encourage states to upgrade their infrastructures to bring broadband to everyone.

We need to accept the reality that the economy, and with it the future of work, is changing fundamentally and it’s not changing back. We can’t pretend that we’re headed for a resurgence of reliable factory jobs.

Instead, let’s enact policies that train people for the jobs of the future. Let’s have a minimum wage so that those in the growing service industry earn enough to take care of their families. And let’s seriously consider things like wage insurance so that when people move into jobs that have less consistent income, they can still count on steady earnings.

But let’s also make sure that at a state level, we don’t overcorrect and put so many regulations in place that we chill new businesses. If the economy is going to grow, we need to encourage our tech entrepreneurs to continue to come up with new ideas that are going to drive the economy of the future.

These ideas are not liberal or conservative, they’re common sense. They are ideas that people on both sides of the aisle can, and should, come together to support.

With the election behind us, it’s time for both sides to work together to heal the problems we saw so nakedly exposed on Tuesday night. Our future depends on it.

The 3 Words Shaking The Tech Sector: President Donald Trump

Posted on November 10, 2016June 27, 2018 by CALinnovates

Donald Trump’s election to the U.S. presidency was a political earthquake that leaves the structural integrity of Silicon Valley’s economy in question.

“It’s the dawn of America that I think everyone is trying to put their finger on,” CALinnovates Executive Director Mike Montgomery told Chief Evangelist Kish Rajan on a special post-election episode of their podcast, “A Step Ahead.”

Right now, it’s hard to say what a Trump presidency portends for innovation, technology and public policy. Whereas Clinton had a detailed section in her policy platform dedicated to technology and innovation policy, Trump’s campaign hasn’t offered such guidance.

One thing we have some insight into, however, is Trump’s stance on immigration, which Montgomery says could have grave implications for talent acquisition, entrepreneurism and economic growth in California. For example, the H-1B visa program brings in a large portion of the talented coders who keep Silicon Valley humming. If he restricts skilled visas to make jobs available to Americans, that could hinder growth at high-tech companies. And the lack of a robust talent pipeline, already a concern for the tech sector, could become even more dire if the state’s top universities no longer matriculate STEM students from foreign countries.

If the new administration doesn’t show a commitment to creating conditions that appeal to businesses here in the U.S., might we see a tech drain out of the U.S.? “I certainly hope not,” says Rajan. “But I think it’s something that we have to think about.”

Listen to the full interview below:

https://soundcloud.com/user-90169041/ep-6-the-night-after-the-election

Like what you hear? Subscribe to A Step Ahead on iTunes.

A Step Ahead: The Night After the Election

Hey everyone Kish Rajan, Chief Evangelist at CALinnovates. This time, joined by our fearless leader, Executive Director of CALinnovates, Mike Montgomery. We welcome you to this special edition of A Step Ahead, the CALinnovates podcast. It’s special because we are recording this the day after Election Day 2016 and wow.

Hey Mike, how are you doing?

Mike Montgomery: All right Kish, how are you?

Good. I’m up here in San Francisco and you’re down in world headquarters in southern California. How about that election?

You know, I don’t think it’s what many people expected. I think it’s taken a lot of people by surprise. It’s really interesting that I talked to a lot of adults, a lot of grown ups today and so many people seem like they are having trouble stringing sentences together and thoughts together. They’ve really been kind of taken by surprise…

No doubt.

and are not quite sure what this means, what the implications are. We have a very unique perspective because we’re in California, which may be very helpful and maybe also shows why so many people didn’t expect this result.

Well, there’s no doubt. I mean, let’s be clear. This thing is a political earthquake, right? I mean, no one…well, I shouldn’t say no one, but very few people in the popular media, pundits, academics, all the standard experts, very few people were willing to come out and predict that this would happen. Now that it has happened, it’s a massive shock, it seems to me, to the United States political landscape and certainly as it relates to the issues that CALinnovates focuses on.

Yeah, I think it’s the dawn of a new era that everyone is trying to put their finger on.

Yeah, it’s the dawn of dawn, right?

Dawn of dawn.

What I think what we wanted to do here, was there’s going to be a lot more to talk about, and we’re looking forward to it, a lot more of A Step Ahead, many more episodes where we’ll talk about these issues in more depth. But I think here, we wanted to just kind of have some immediate reaction as best as we can to discern what this portends for innovation and technology and public policy issues that we concentrate on here. So. let’s just kind of talk about that for a minute.

You tell me, but I think the first thing that comes to my mind is, frankly, the lack of certainty about where this new Trump administration is going to go on innovation and technology issues. At least with the Clinton campaign and her policy platform, she had a detailed section in her policy platform that talked specifically about innovation and technology policy and the types of things that she would do in a Clinton administration. We don’t have any such guidance from the Trump campaign. Do we?

No, we’ve got a fairly blank slate. The Trump ticket talked about cyber. We’ve got a pretty decent understanding, we think, of where President Elect Trump stands on immigration, but the rest of the overall tech agenda is TBD.

No kidding. So, let’s talk about what we kind of do know, right? So, take immigration for a minute. I mean, given his incredibly strident approach to immigration during the campaign, if he even begins to implement that type of approach or philosophy, what does that mean for the innovation community?

One of the things that Hilary Clinton was very clear about, like you said, was her stance on tech issues. I think comprehensive immigration reform was an issue that Silicon Valley, in particular, really cared about. Trump kept saying that the United States got drug dealers and the criminals and the murderers, but there is a great value to, at the very least, the H-1B visa program that helps bring a lot of people who write code and do the high tech work that’s so valuable for a number of these different companies from startups all the way to the big boys. Is that in danger, I mean, for the future of entrepreneurialism in America? What does that mean to the talent base that comes into the United States to help build these companies? There’s probably a direct correlation to the future of education in America, but we can’t fill that gap in a matter of a few years.

I mean, this is the thing, right? It’s been a vexing challenge for technology companies already about a lack of a robust work force pipeline, either domestically created through the type of education programs that you’re talking about or through the utilization of the immigration rules, specifically H-1B. Now, we just don’t know if or how either of those will be priorities for the Trump administration, let alone whether we know that he would be supportive of the types of actions that will help deal with that pipeline issue, right?

Right. You know Kish, one question for you is during your time running business economic development for the state of California, you got to witness first hand why companies stayed in California and decided to leave to go to Texas or they’ve left the country or whatever. We want to do everything that we can to keep those companies headquartered in California. If they’re not in California, we want to keep them in the U.S., but we have foreign founders coming over. They hit Sand Hill Road, they raised their money, they maybe go to 500 startups or whatever. We don’t want them to found a company and go leave, right? We want them to stay.

Yeah, you’re totally right. I have to tell you that when…what we would deal with in California was trying to be competitive relative to our other states in the union and present that we had favorable conditions for those companies to come here or to be formed here and to grow here. Talent acquisition and retention, human capital was one of the great advantages that California had and it continues to be one of the reasons why California remains the epicenter of innovation and technology nationally and one of the global epicenters. It’s funny that you bring it up because I thought about that this morning and thought, “Not only were we trying to retain that business in California, and we faced real competitive threats, I’m worried about now, just trying to retain that in the United States.”

One question I’m going to add is, if we don’t show, if the new administration does not show a commitment to creating the types of conditions that businesses want to invest in here in the United State, might we start to see a tech drain out of the U.S. to other places that appear more favorable? I certainly hope not, but I think it’s something that we have to think about.

Yeah, absolutely. So, that’s on the table. One other thing that’s very obvious, of course, is that President Trump will be able to make some very important appointments in Washington to run different agencies and commissions. We spend a lot of time at CALinnovates, of course, on the FCC and the FTC. So, those agencies play major roles in the tech industry and they’ll have new leaders sometime after the first of the year. So, that’s something we’re going to have to follow and we’re going to have to pay close attention to and try to figure out what those policies may look like with the new chairmen, what it means to rules that have been put into place but weren’t enshrined in law by congress. So, it’s going to be an interesting next few months as we start to understand what this all means.

Well I think the last issue for now, and I think we’re going to…over time, we’re going to want to unpack all of this as the days, and weeks, and months unfold and continue to talk about it. But I think the last thing on my mind, are the political implications and that is to say, Trump has been elected President, I think, on a populist movement, it’s fair to say. I guess the question is politically speaking, how is the Silicon Valley…I’m using that as a metaphor, how is the innovation and tech community going to fair, politically, given this prevailing wave that has brought Donald Trump to the presidency?

Well, I think Silicon Valley has a little bit of a problem on its hands. Other than Peter Thiel, Silicon Valley at large was with Hilary Clinton.

Right. I remember that letter that was signed by…sorry, how many tech people signed…

By everyone.

That letter? 100 or 150 tech leaders? Yeah.

Yeah, by everyone. Those issues won’t go unnoticed, at least in the stories that have been running today in terms of the Trump transition team. For the people that they’re considering right off the bat, there was a full scrubbing of what people had written on social media. Certain people would bounce from the list for consideration for important jobs because they may have said something critical. If any industry thinks they’re going to get off scot free if they weren’t with Trump, then they probably have something else coming to them, which means it’s going to take a new approach, right? There’s got to be a new approach. There’s got to be a new way of thinking about this relationship or moving forward and perhaps messaging as well.

Well, I’m with you. Well look, there’s so much more to talk about and I think so much more to dive into. I think the political challenge that you’ve raised is a big one. I think there’s another dimension here that we’ll talk about more, which is the opposite side of the equation, places like California, that will, I think, have a very strong counter reaction, or reaction I guess, to prove that it can grow an economy and force technology and innovation companies to deal with the challenges of broader opportunity and prosperity. There could be a lot more heavy hand of government in the way of regulation and other ways they’ll want to compel that type of behavior. So, that’s going to be another reaction to this election that I think we’re going to have to watch, as well.

Boy, there’s going to be a lot going here. But look CALinnovates, we’re going to be involved, right? I think this is going to be a continuation of the work that we’ve been doing and thinking about. What is the right agenda and the right way to communicate to policy makers in D.C. and California and beyond about how innovation and technology can be a constructive force here and not something to be battled against?

That’s right. Whether you’re happy about the results of the presidential or you’ve been reduced to tears, there’s got to be a way that we move forward. We’re going to be there every step of the way. We’re going to try to continue chopping this up. We’re going to come to some interesting conclusions and pass forward. I hope that everyone listening will be with us every step of the way because it’s going to take a great effort to help the tech industry forward on its new advocacy path.

Well, it’s going to be an interesting path indeed. We’ll look forward to more discussions. So for you, Mike Montgomery our Executive Director, this is Kish Rajan Chief Evangelist of CALinnovates. Thanks so much for listening to this edition of A Step Ahead.

Kyra Worthy Is Helping The City Of Richmond Help Itself

Posted on November 5, 2016June 27, 2018 by CALinnovates

As the executive director at For Richmond, Kyra Worthy is a tireless advocate for the people of Richmond, a working-class community located north of Berkeley and just across the San Francisco Bay from tony Mill Valley.

Worthy’s job is to help the people of Richmond live up to their full potential through better education and better jobs. She helps students and parents navigate the tricky waters of education beyond high school by working with historically black colleges to send promising students to college summer programs and then to four-year programs. She makes sure that when companies promise jobs for the community, they deliver, and that residents are prepared to fill those jobs.

For Richmond helps lots of people, but Worthy says there is still more work to be done.

“To have this negative cloud over the city as if folks aren’t ready [to work] is really doing an injustice for folks who just sort of skip over Richmond,” says Worthy. “People try to make the answers for the community instead of engaging the community.” She’s working to turn that around.

Listen to “A Step Ahead”‘s full interview with Worthy below:

https://soundcloud.com/user-90169041/ep-5-for-richmond-executive-director-kyra-worthy

Like what you hear? Subscribe to A Step Ahead on iTunes.

A Step Ahead: Kyra Worthy

Hi everyone and welcome to this edition of The CALinnovates Podcast, this is Kish Rajan, Chief Evangelist at CALinnovates, and this time we’ve got…we’ve had a wonderful conversation with Kyra Worthy who’s the Executive Director of a community-based non-profit called For Richmond here in the East Bay in Richmond, California. At CALinnovates, as you know, we’re talking all the time about the fundamentals of the innovation and technology-based economy, and what are some of the gaps, what are some of the barriers to everyday people being able to participate in that economy.

Kyra does amazing work in a community that really exemplifies the kind of community that is in transition, but needs a lot of support and help to be able to participate. She’s got a really fascinating personal story and as you’ll hear, she’s doing remarkable work here in her part of the world, so I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Kyra Worthy, executive director of For Richmond, thanks for being with us.

Kyra Worthy: No problem.

It’s nice to be here in your beautiful offices in beautiful downtown Richmond.

Well thank you for coming!

It’s good to be here. So tell us about For Richmond. What do you all do?

We are here, the easiest way to say what For Richmond does for our community in Richmond is that we supplement services and support to the residents to be a bridge to community and to get them where they need to be to be socio-economically connected, to also build a bridge that could be self-sufficient, and that they can have the same opportunities as any other resident in the community and their neighbors.

So let’s break that down a little bit and we’ll talk about some of the specific programs that you’re doing, how you’re doing what you just said. But I want to talk about you though, for a minute, too. Where did you…how did you end up here? Are you from here?

Nope, I’m from San Jose.

Okay, so not too far.

Nope, not too far.

How did you end up at For Richmond?

After leaving the city and county of San Francisco at the mayor’s office, I started working at the school district here in Richmond. I worked in the Community Engagement Office at which time our current board member of the school district, Madeline Kronenberg, was one of the first influential folks to create For Richmond, and she plucked me from my job at the school district and I took on the job here at For Richmond.

What were you doing…what did community engagement in the school district…what did that mean?

So, I was in charge of half the schools in the school district, so I supervised about 15-16 schools and I engaged parents of color within their students’ academic success and also creating a line of community services and getting them help in that regard.

Like what?

It could be employment, helping students’ success whether it was the right school they needed to be enrolled at, I also helped a lot of Spanish-speaking parents with getting their students out of…to get them classified into being proficient in English, to be able so that then when they get into high school, they’ll be able to take their A-G credits and graduate on time as opposed to being in English learning classes, which kept them sort-of behind the rest of their peers.

How big of a problem was that?

It’s a very big problem in Richmond.

I live in Walnut Creek, so you have to help educate folks like me that…I guess because I’m extremely fortunate, I don’t even…I haven’t had these types of experiences. You have to help me understand how many students are we talking about in the district…I don’t need the exact statistics but I’m just curious as to the landscape that existed and exists inside of the West County School District in terms of some of these fundamental barriers you’re talking about.

It’s 60% English learners in the…

60. Six zero.

Uh-huh. Six zero. In the school district. It’s a very big problem. A lot of parents don’t know what it means, they think that their kids are in classes just to help them with English, but it’s also…they’re not able to take, at the same time, the regular classes that they need to be on track to graduate. There’s a way to opt-out, there’s a way to test out, it’s called FEP and educating the parents on requesting that test so that their children can be just as successful as their neighbor.

Because otherwise what you’re saying is just trying to deal with the fundamental language barriers was preventing…just tackling that problem was fundamentally preventing these kids from participating…all the other A-G requirements that are necessary to get them out of high school and to whatever the next level might be for them?

Yes, and what would usually happen would be around after Christmas break, when the kids return, after the grading period, students would then be called to the office and we’d let them know there are different alternatives for getting across the stage, whether it’s just going to be their GED or to just get homeschooled because graduating a normal graduation with the cap and gown like you and I had wasn’t an option for them because they didn’t have all their credits.

Yeah.

So then that would cause a dropout.

Yeah. And so, I’m curious…how long were you there? How long were you at the school district?

2 1/2 years.

So long enough. How many of those kids, in your mind, again, I don’t need exact statistics, but just in your experience, how many of them were graduating and then going on in a post-secondary way into something that was on a career pathway?

About 10%.

10%.

Mm-hmm.

And what are the other 90% doing?

Come to For Richmond now looking for work.

No kidding.

Yes.

So let’s talk about that. So I guess that’s why…that is clearly part of how you got here.

Mm-hmm.

It’s great that there was a leader in the school district that identified the good work that you were doing but I know there were others that saw that you could draw on your background to help really kind of build this program.

Mm-hmm .

It was still in its early stages when you got here.

Oh, it was very, very…there were no blinds, there was no furniture in here. It was like a little vacant storefront.

The artwork in here is beautiful, by the way. Where’d it come from?

It came from NIAD.

What’s that?

It’s a facility to help adults with disabilities and they create art. All of these photos are done by African-American artists at their facility.

Wow.

I made the request.

It’s beautiful, that’s really great. How do people find that, by the way. That would be interesting to know, if they could find that…

It’s right here off of Nevin in Richmond.

In Richmond?

Mm-hmm

How do you spell NIAD?

N-I-A-D.

Okay, cool. Very cool. What did you think you were getting hired to do here?

Well at first I got hired just to be the educational convener, just supporting and pushing different support services into the schools, which I really enjoyed. About a year and a half later, I was asked to be the interim ED and I did that for about six months, and then I interviewed to get the job and I was gratefully…I gratefully accepted and I’ve been here ever since.

And in those interviews you obviously must have brought to them a vision of what you thought For Richmond could and should be, I assume. What was that?

One of the main things is being honest and being understanding of the community. Recognizing that we all come from different spectrums. I come all the way from San Jose, you know. It’s night and day between San Jose and Richmond. And also just being trustworthy with the community, letting them know you know everything is not perfect but you can do your best to try to help them get to where they need to be. And it took a lot of trust. I came to Richmond with a lot of trust and so people were happy to see that I was still around. And centrally located on McDonald, one of the busiest streets in Richmond. I love my job, there’s never the same day, ever. I’ve never had the same day twice.

So tell us about, then, you’ve said it in your introduction but let’s dive into it a little bit of more…the actual programs. What are some of the key programs or activities that you perform here? People come and engage at For Richmond, what are you helping them with?

I think that the main programs that people really reach out to us for is our barrier-removal program and our educational services because we help kids get off to college. Primarily we work with all the historically black colleges, HBCUs, around the world, but it’s also an opportunity for the undocumented population in Richmond to get involved in a post-secondary education as well because a lot of schools outside of California aren’t concerned about your status. And I’m able to help them get to a zero balance with full scholarships, and that’s for all students that put that package together. We send the kids away in groups, we don’t send just one. They’re either going in twos or fours, boys they all go with one group. That’s fine. We want them to have a sense of community when they go. One of the other special caveats is that I don’t send kids far away from my personal family so that there’s places the kids can go to still have that sense of family.

Hmm. You have that much family at all these different schools around the world?

Yes, my mother has 19 brothers and sisters.

Say what?

You know, yeah. There’s many cousins after that.

Wow.

Many extended family.

I guess so.

So there’s always someone not so far away.

Wow.

And when talking with the parents, I do give them the choices of those schools of where they’re going to be near somebody.

That’s really interesting.

Mm-hmm.

So the kids go in a group, a small group or what have you…

Mm-hmm.

…they go and visit one of these historically black colleges…

Mm-hmm.

…how long do they go for and what do they do when they’re there?

During the summer programs, a program can last anywhere from 3-8 weeks. So the Howard University program, that lasts eight weeks, so that’s more of a medical-focused biology program for folks that are interested in medicine. So of course that program is going to be a little bit longer. So they take college courses, they take an English, a science, and a math. They get all their assessments done. And they return. So usually I send kids their junior year and their senior year. Their senior year, they’re going to be going to the summer program to where they’re going to be attending school in the fall. So we already know after your 11th grade year where you’re going to be going to school.

Wow.

So we sort of get all that stuff knocked out.

That’s really great. How interesting. And then the cost of all that, that’s underwritten by For Richmond and other donations?

Yes.

Because that sounds like…

Mm-hmm. And the school itself.

And the school itself.

Because we keep sending them students.

Okay. That’s fantastic. So that’s great, so a big part of your job then is not only identifying these kids and getting them engaged in a program and preparing them, but I guess also managing all those engagements with all those colleges at the same time?

Yeah. And we manage their courses.

Wow.

We choose their classes.

Wow. That’s really, really great.

Mm-hmm.

How many kids have gone through this program since you’ve…

Oh.

…instituted it.

Over 300.

Wow! That’s really fantastic. And you’re capturing their stories.

Yes.

All those things.

Everything. Capturing the suspensions, academic probations, we capture it all.

I could imagine. The first thing you said was barrier removal, too.

Mm-hmm.

Which I think is different than education…

Yes.

…so tell me about what that means.

So it’s a job barrier removal program, and how I came to this program was, when I first started with For Richmond, it was around the time where Chevron was preparing for their modernization project, trying to get the city council’s approval. It came out when they said they were going to have about 2500-2600 jobs for the community. And for someone who applies for jobs and there are certain things you’ve got to meet, you’ve got to be qualified for those positions.

Sure.

Right? And in a community like Richmond, there’s a lot of different barriers. There’s drug addiction, there are those who’ve never had employment before, experience is low, they don’t know how to obtain or sustain employment, and I asked, what things are in place to assist people with obtaining their positions? They said, “We never really thought about that.”

Hmmm.

And I was very concerned because if you’re soliciting to the community, saying that these jobs are for you in the community, who is preparing them and how are you getting them prepared? So that’s something I started working on with the community. So I worked with all the trades doing small, open-houses where questions and answers can go back and forth for folks to get a deeper understanding about what it meant to be in a trade. What it took to get into the trade. What tests had to be taken? I was also able to convince the trade to let them take the test here at For Richmond. So we did the tutoring and prepping and the testing right at For Richmond. So it was a comfortable place, they were used to coming here, they didn’t have to go away to Concord or Martinez or anywhere far. And they worked with the instructor who’s from Richmond to help them get through those steps.

And so to date I’ve placed over 1,000 at the refinery for work. To actually bring truth to what was being advertised to them. Last week I sent 80 laborers out there and just today I sent another 40. There’s folks in Richmond that do want to work. I’ve had people tell me that no one in Richmond wants to work, no one in Richmond wants to go to school, they’re just here, they don’t want to do nothing, and I take a lot of offense when people are describing the community because they’re using words like “they.”

Yeah.

Community has names, you can say the community.

Sure.

You don’t have to represent it. A lot of the community looks like me, so I take personal offense myself. I have a brother with many barriers. I know how hard of a track it is for even someone that’s my own sibling to make it to where my sister and I have been able to make it.

I hear you. You’re talking about, we’re here in Richmond, CA. The Chevron-Richmond refinery, a major industrial facility, has been in this community for 100 years I suppose.

Mm-hmm.

It’s been a significant employer, and you’re talking about just trying to go through a process of capturing local workers, youth or people of all ages, really.

Mm-hmm.

People that just need jobs and are willing to work, but just trying to create that connection and get their skills, training, get their confidence, get them proficient to be able to pursue local jobs right here in the community and that’s a process unto itself. Where I’m going with this is that…I’m trying to imagine but what I want to ask is what’s that like then, to try to get people prepared for jobs that aren’t even right here locally?

How I’ve explained to the community, a job is a job.

Yeah.

You just, you take it if you meet the qualifications. So it took a lot of one-on-ones and trust to say, okay, For Richmond and the staff that work at 3109 McDonald are really here to help us. All of us live in Richmond. I’m the only non-Richmond native on staff. And all of my staff are under 30. So these are folks they’ve known and grown up with that are trying to help.

Wait a minute, you’re saying there’s millennials that are trying to do things that are constructive?

That’s right. Only at For Richmond!

I don’t know about only, but at least those are good examples, right?

Yes. And so one of the bigger things of that, Richmond has a local-hire ordinance. A lot of people weren’t following it. So when I brought it to people’s attention, I said, “You have to be able to fill this gap and not use the excuse as of, people aren’t ready.”

Yeah. I hear you. The intensity and the real authenticity of what you’re doing locally seems like it’s critically important just to make things happen right here in the community. At CALinnovates, when we talked about this before we sat down, we’re thinking about the global innovation and technology economy all the time and how things are changing so dramatically.

Mm-hmm.

It makes me anxious, it makes me worried about the fact that that economy seems to be moving at breakneck speed in a certain global direction and what does that mean to people that live in communities like this one? What is your feeling about perhaps this disconnect or this widening gap that may be between where the economy’s really going and where people really live in towns like this?

I think it is very much a disconnect, and opportunities are being missed by not engaging communities like Richmond. It’s rich in a lot of different ways. I think that folks need to be given an opportunity and shared information to see where they fall, just like you do in any other community. Right? You’re not going to engage everybody, but you will engage some. To have this negative little cloud over the city as if folks aren’t prepared and ready, is really doing an injustice for folks in office who just skip over Richmond. I think that, and I always tell people this, one day Richmond, the residents of Richmond, are going to be so upset it’s going to be a little revolt. “Stop skipping over us, don’t build over us, don’t include us, don’t ask us…” People try to make the answers for the community instead of engaging the community.

It is an interesting thing, where as we are having this conversation we’re about three weeks away from the presidential campaign and it seems like it’s something that that campaign is exposing nationally. You have a lot people that are supporting both candidates for different reasons, I suppose, but you have a lot of people out there that clearly are expressing their frustration, their fears, the fact that they feel like their community is being skipped over as well. You’re having your own experience but it definitely seems like this is a challenge that’s very widespread, and it’s not just here, is it?

No. It’s not just here. It’s predominately in cities where opportunity is not being given to them.

Yeah.

Folks sort of feel like, “I’m not just missing the boat, the boat is not even coming near me.” I’m like waving at the boat, I’ve got to swim to the boat.” I think it’s an unfortunate feeling for a city like Richmond which is such a working class community.

Right.

I think that going to college is great. I went to plenty of college, but I don’t think that college is for everybody, and I think that until people get used to saying that, it will continue to be this way.

And even if it isn’t, our view of a four-year university…we have, clearly, in our lifetime…and I think people for really good reasons…because people that are our parents’ age, that was a critically important thing, to give people of color, people of all stripes, opportunities to go to college, because that had been shut out for people…

Mm-hmm.

…in previous generations, so folks worked really hard to create and set an expectation that that four-year degree is something that is attainable and something that we should all strive for. But it is interesting how it feels like that is coming back around and if we’re too narrowly focused on what that means, we maybe leaving people out all together.

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.

Yeah.

Definitely. I think like the community in Richmond, there’s a lot of different age groups here, right? There’s generations and generations of families. I always tell young people, “Go back and speak to your elders about what it was like growing up.” My mother, my grandfather was a slave, my mother was not given the opportunity to go to school until she was in 9th grade. So the woman who she worked for, the white woman who she worked for, educated her after she got done doing her work when her kids came home from school. My father, he grew up in the East Coast, came from much more, was given an opportunity to go to Bronx Science and NYU, had a different sort of experience as a young person, but as a kid hearing both of these stories all the time, it really helped me understand what I wanted to do for my own life. Right? Because I was able to see that you can make it with not being afforded much, my grandfather had 19 kids to take care of, and my dad just had himself and a set of twins and they were all very, very successful.

But to hear those types of experiences about how they grew up and what school meant to either of them was very important. And to actually meet the woman that my mother did work for and her explaining to me why she felt my mother needed to learn was also…I never would think anybody would ever take the time to explain to her child why that was.

Clearly it takes people that are committed and people that are thinking about their own experiences but wanting to share what they have and make a positive impact in the communities that they serve. I think that will always matter. As we sort of wind up our conversation, I’m wondering also about technology.

Mm-hmm.

I’m wondering at the Chevron-Richmond refinery that we’ve been talking about, a tremendous amount of technology, engineering is basically the foundation of what a company like that is. Given your experience at For Richmond and in schools in the West County District before, how do you feel about how we’re preparing youngsters in terms of equipping them to participate in what clearly is a much-more technology-driven economy moving forward?

They’re not coming out prepared.

Yeah.

Even some of the entry-level admin positions at the refinery need to have a technology knowledge. They have to have it. And right now going in, there’s a lot of on the job training that folks have to do with the companies because, number one, they’re committed to who I send to them being local residents, but also, they recognize that there is that gap. So I don’t know to get that done or bridge that gap, but technology is very important. As much emphasis and time young people, or we all, take just answering emails or sending a text, there needs to more on the technical side of creating spreadsheets, understanding the formulas, knowing which programs are used to do what, and it is very important because from there automatically you want to learn more.

Yeah.

But once you get folks interested in learning those things, those components of what it’s going to take to get for them to get their job to the next level, it will be beneficial for everybody, not only the employer.

Do you see technology becoming a bigger part of what you do here at For Richmond?

It is, because before I…I do all the pre-screening for the employers. Me personally. So depending on the job, I need you to show me what you know how to do. So I’ll say, “okay, log on the computer, do this, make this spreadsheet, I need to see a payroll something,” and sometimes people will just look at me. So I say, “okay, we need to get those skills.” Because when you get there, these are construction people…I’ve placed people at veterinary hospitals, answering phones someplace, just being able to take a message. I think people take all these little things that we do in our day-to-day life for granted.

And you see some of these youngsters that are working for you here now, are they pushing you? Not that you’re much older than them, but are you…

I am.

…I know if I was working here, I know they probably would be pushing me. But is that part of the culture or part of the experience?

Yes. I have to ask them … Everyone knows I don’t like social media, you can’t find me anywhere until I came to For Richmond and had to write all these things, but I ask them, “What do you guys do? What does this mean?” And that’s what we try to implement. Because I tried to get on a Facebook page one time and I erased everything and they were like, “You can’t touch it anymore.” And I was like, “That’s fine.” Because it was all gone. I didn’t know what happened.

Last question, which is what are you most proud of in, now, the couple of years that you’ve been here? The vision that you started with and the things that you’ve been able to accomplish, what stands out to you?

I think from receiving our money from Chevron and the community seeing us as an independent entity. And not a façade or some fake face or, I’m not their puppet or anything like that. I really take pride in that. I always tell people my name is not Chevron, my name is Kyra. And I have a mind of my own. That’s just how it is.

What about in terms of a student that you’ve reached or a story that you can think of of someone that, just through the course of their interaction with you, that stands out to somebody … A life that you’ve been able to impact.

Oh, this last student I just took was Latayna. That was the hardest rock ever to move. Ever.

Tell us about it.

I think that when you’re going to a school where all you hear is your teachers saying negative things about your community all the time…she was very aggressive, fighting…she’s a very good fighter.

It was just really hard…I personally took her to school. I personally dropped her off and told her, “Okay, this is it. No one’s here to bail you out. You are far away in a whole other state where it’s either you make it or break it. I bought you a one-way ticket. So here’s all your stuff.” We helped her with her room and that was it. I seen her a couple of weeks ago, she just finished her midterms and she got all As.

Wow.

This is a girl that sort of turned it around her 11th grade year and just blew it out of the water. I don’t know what she was doing back in 10th grade. But 11th grade she really turned it around, and that was a good thing. So I’m happy for her.

That’s really great. Well listen, Kyra Worthy, you are clearly that example of what I was talking about a minute ago, where it’s going to take in communities like this one, and there’s so many of them, industrial communities, urban communities where the economy in many ways had moved away from folks, and there’s still real challenges, and the only way that we’re going to bridge those gaps is some combination of authentic community engagement, a recognition of the past…

Mm-hmm.

…but looking to the future. It’s clear that you’re the kind of person that’s making that happen here.

Oh, thanks.

You were telling me a story, I’d love if you’d repeat it on air here, that you took a field trip to Google recently, is that right?

Yes, we took a field trip…

What was that about?

…we took the Richmond Steelers, the whole team about 100 cheer and football…

Okay.

…kids. They’re all from the south side of Richmond, and we took them to see something else other than what’s been going on in their community as of late. And so we took them on a field trip to Google and to Stanford. We had lunch and toured the kids around. One of the things that the kids were so shocked to see was that there were actually a group of African-American employees there.

And they said, “Kyra, black people work here, too!” And I said, “Black people are everywhere! Stop saying that out loud!” It’s just to get the kids out more, and their parents too, to see that young people that are, or their older siblings are, aunts and uncles ages are working in places like Google that you see everyday. I was very grateful that they were able to take them around, they explained their jobs and talked about where they came from and how they got there, but it is indicative to be able to show kids in communities like ours who aren’t really exposed to as much that we have been afforded to, that it is possible. Just being on it everyday and also encouraging their parents and encouraging the kids because at times when you’re going through hard times or when you feel that you are less than, it is very important to have that light at the end of the tunnel. Working with folks to ensure that they know that there is hope and that they, too, can do it is really important here.

No kidding. We’re really glad that you joined us. Thanks for being part of our program. We appreciate it.

No problem.

The Cautionary Tale Of George Hotz And The Self-Driving Car

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Eli Love

by Mike Montgomery

George Hotz is one of the best-known hackers in America. At just 17 years old, he was the first person to unlock an iPhone so it could be used by multiple carriers. He cracked the security on the PS3 and was sued by Sony. The two settled out of court with Hotz promising he would never again tinker with Sony security.

After years of angering corporations, Hotz decided to go legit, trading in his black hat for a white one, signifying his status as a newly minted good guy. He worked for both Facebook and Google before starting his own company Comma.ai, last year. At this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, he unveiled the company’s first product — the Comma One, a $999 box that could help make Honda Civics and some Acuras almost self-driving cars.

But then, last week, any excitement Hotz’s announcement had created disappeared because of some regulatory intervention. All it took was one sharply worded letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for Hotz to pack up his toys and go home. The letter, which Hotz posted here, said that the NHTSA needed to ensure that the device didn’t have a “safety-related defect” that might put drivers in danger.

In a series of tweets, Hotz said: “Would much rather spend my life building amazing technology than dealing with regulators and lawyers. It isn’t worth it. The comma one [sic] is canceled. Comma.ai will be exploring other markets and products. Hello from Shenzhen, China.”

But Hotz’s story isn’t about a new product being regulated to death; it’s about entrepreneurs who fail to take the realities of our government into account when they start to build their companies. Certainly, the NHTSA was simply doing its job ensuring public safety, and perhaps the agency could have communicated its concerns in gentler way rather than Napstering the potentially revolutionary device. But had Hotz gone into this with a team that understood the regulatory environment, this axle-breaking speed bump could have been avoided.

Read the full article here.

Why Election Technology Is Stuck In The Stone Age

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Eli Love

by Mike Montgomery

In the past, technology firm Democracy Live has used a cloud-based platform to send ballots to U.S. military and overseas citizens around the world. Submariners, ambassadors in Paris and scientists working in an Antarctic lab are among those who have cast their votes using this electronic ballot.

But they are the outliers. We can buy movie tickets, order cars and even pay our taxes online, but for most of us, voting is a distinctly analog experience. We walk into a polling place and have our names penciled off by hand in a giant ledger before entering a booth with our paper ballot and pen or ink blotter.

So when will we see the era of online voting? The short and quick answer: no time soon.

“Voters are satisfied in the way they cast their ballots,” says Eric Jaye of consulting firm Storefront Political Media. “They prefer the security of a paper ballot and have worked to ensure even when the vote is cast technologically, there is a paper record.”

Democracy Live President Bryan Finney points out that most stateside voters (eight out of 10) this election will be marking their choices on paper or using an electric machine that creates a paper trail, even though that can actually cost more than if the states were to upgrade their voting to an online system.

That’s because security is still paramount. As we saw with the recent hack that took out Twitter, Netflix and other sites by exploiting the Internet of Things, there are real issues around online security, and until they are addressed, government officials are understandably wary of trusting something as important as an election to the internet.

Read the full article here.

Anti-Airbnb law will line the pockets of big hotel owners

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Eli Love

by Mike Montgomery

Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a huge mistake Oct. 21 when he signed into law a bill that restricts home sharing in New York. The new law will hurt homeowners and visitors and only help a group that doesn’t need any: the hotel industry.

The law allows for fines of up to $7,500 on anyone advertising a home rental available for fewer than 30 nights when the owner is not present. Thousands of people in New York who have been making extra money by renting out rooms (or their entire home) will suddenly be denied an important source of income.

The governor and his cronies claim that the law is being imposed to protect affordable housing, but this argument is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Everyone loves affordable housing, and who wouldn’t want to protect it? But the real aim of this bill is to give a big, sloppy kiss to the hotel industry.

And the industry’s delight was palpable. Hotel owners could barely contain their glee when they heard the news. Mike Barnello, the CEO of LaSalle Hotel Properties, which owns (among others) the Park Central, the Roger and Gild Hall near Wall Street, openly admitted that the bill will help him raise room prices.

On a recent earnings call he told investors that the new law should be a “big boost in the arm for the business … certainly in terms of the pricing.”

Helping hotel owners raise room rates while cutting off home sharing options to all socioeconomic classes will have a negative ripple effect on local economies. Our research has found that for every dollar spent at a hotel, 60% leaves the state and goes to corporate headquarters, many of which reside outside of the United States. But for every dollar spent on a home share, 87% stays in the community.

That means that New York is taking money out of neighborhoods and sending it to multibillion-dollar, multinational corporations with little incentive to reinvest in the communities in which they operate. It’s also going to force visitors to spend more on their hotel rooms, which means they’ll have less money to spend on things like shopping, shows and dining.

And let’s remember New York is more than just New York City. The new law means that a couple in upstate New York counting on home sharing to earn some extra money from tourists coming to see the fall foliage, suddenly face a massive fine just for listing their home. New York City might not be in desperate need of revenue that stays in the community, but other cities and towns are. They shouldn’t be penalized in this egregious way.

Read the full article here.