Category: 3/11/16

Positives and Negatives of Technological Innovation

Logan Frazier 1 Comment 3/11/16, Weekly Responses, Where Will We Work?

Technological innovation is a very polarizing issue. While the tech boom is doing much good in many parts of the country such as Silicon Valley as well as New York, I believe that significant issues will emerge.

First, to discuss the positives. The startup industry has greatly improved New York’s economy. The city’s economy is no longer reliant on Wall Street, making it significantly less likely that the 2008 Recession will rear its ugly head. Calderone says, “It’s okay now to fail here and that’s a good thing”. Those who take risks are seen as experienced and others are encouraged to do the same, creating venture capital. The economy is more stable than in 2008 because it is more diverse. This does not necessarily mean that we are safe from another crash as there are several other factors to be considered. Additionally, the youth and educated are becoming extremely successful. Aside from computer manufacturing and a cluster including internet publishing, all other sectors of New York City’s tech industry is dominated by those under 35. This reliance on the new generation is promising as we are shown to be innovators. Many intelligent people have made out quite well from this recent boom as well as those that have been helped by apps such as Handup. The concept of CivicTech is very promising. With this outlook, the industry could create a platform where all people could express ideas and perhaps have a chance at greatness or at least receive help.

There are those who disagree with these statements. Looking at San Francisco as a case study, many people have been driven out of their homes due to extremely high rents. As more and more people move into a place of innovation, more and more people will be priced out. We have been discussing this at length over the last couple weeks. Another issue that I noticed is the lack of diversity within the innovation workforce. The vast majority of workers are white males. Why is it that only a specific group is participating in this huge movement? I am leaning towards the inherent racism and sexism still present in our society, especially in the fields of science and technology. There are also the ever present worries of jobs being replaced with machines and hackers (or the NSA) getting access to our private information. I agree with Lawrence Grodeska; it all comes down to intent. While I believe him to be naively optimistic about innovation in general, his point about technology being as helpful as we make it is accurate. Unfortunately, I doubt everyone will use it for good. Money is more important.

Dangers of the Single Market Economy

Benjamin Cohn 1 Comment 3/11/16

What are the benefits that the growth of technological innovation is supposed to bring specifically to New York? Is disagreement on these benefits possible? What potential negative issues do you see emerging?

Mayors love it when a entire industry decides their city is this best. San Fransisco was long a cultural icon, starting with the era of the Haight. There has been some blight in the city and after pop culture went away the city was suffering. Why would San Fransisco politicians have the kind of hind sight to see that their city would be flooded by techies and used as the launchpad of Silicon Valley? They knew that the city needed help and they were looking for economic stimulus. What happened in San Fransisco was a result of a the city turning a blind eye to gentrification because of the money that it brought in. San Fransisco became they tech city and became very expensive and “fancy”. But there was a problem, unlike New York, San Fransisco became totally dependent on one industry for its life blood and its survival.

New York has been dependent on the financial industry since Wall Street was made financial capital of the country but we have never become too dependent. As Brom article pointed out, the cities growth survived the dot com collapse of the 90s and the crash of 07/08. Not only has the city survived but it has flourished. Flourished meaning the unsustainable unchecked growth continued to create inequality and drive people out. Anyway, New York survived because our city has not built itself on the back of one industry. If there is ever to be a total collapse of the tech industry or even a slowdown San Fransisco’s economy will take a huge hit. The financial sector is the biggest industry in New York but the cities fate is clearly not directly tied to it.

San Fransisco already sold out to Silicon Valley and only now that things have gotten so extreme and so many residents have been pushed out, has the tone of the administration change. But not really. The Streitfield article in the Times illustrates how resentful people have become of the techies that have made their city a rich mans playground and it shows whose side the city government is on. Clearly they want to keep making money, driving out the homeless and the unsightly and replacing culture with a desire for authenticity. What has already happened across the country is in the process of happening here but New York is too much of strong and diverse city to give in completely to the pressures of the market. To Mayors De Blasio’s credit, the cities policies are at least attempting to help people keep their homes and keep the middle class alive. He isn’t doing enough though.

It is difficult to fight against something as strong as the desirability of New York and the money that’s it when there’s is no support from the Feds and barely any from the State. Technology is the wave of the future in numerous ways and it is possible for New York to adopt without losing it self in the process as our brethren on the West Coast. People in a democratic country don’t have to take bullying by the market lying down and the people of San Fransisco will surely mount a last ditch defence. Perhaps they’ll take Elijah’s advice and use aggression and generally Tom-foolery to get the techies out but I would guess otherwise.

Treacherous Technology (Week of 3/11)

Crystal Awad 1 Comment 3/11/16, Weekly Responses

The main benefit of the growth of technological innovation in New York City is more employment opportunities. “New York City’s tech sector employed 117,147 people in 2014, a 71 percent increase from a decade earlier (68,571).” It is obviously important to the city’s economy, but I also think that the growth of technological innovation also adds to the city’s diversity. There are so many jobs that fall under the “tech sector.” Internet Publishing and Broadcasting, Web Search Portals industry, Electronic Shopping, Software Publishing, Computer Systems Design, and Computer Manufacturing are only some subsectors under the “tech sector.” The growth of technological innovation definitely adds to functional diversity, which we mentioned in class last week, is the idea that someone can walk into a restaurant in New York City and everyone is doing something different. The tech sector contributes to this because it is such a larger umbrella that includes so many subsectors of related but different jobs that use technology.

Another benefit of the advancement of technology in New York City is a shift in reliance from the finance sector to the technological sector. New York City still does heavily rely on the finance sector, but with the rise and development of the tech sector, I definitely foresee a shifting in reliance to the tech sector in New York City’s future. This is a benefit because the city should not be so dependent on one sector because if the sector crashes or has a recession, so will the city. We mentioned this idea in class as well when we mentioned what happened in 2008. However, technology, especially Internet based technology, has a way of keeping people connected to each other and to the world. Technology has the ability to give people voices to share their opinions and express ideas. I mentioned in my last post that being aware of issues in a society and possible solutions is an important part of being a member of a functional democracy. Well, technology enables this because it can bring attention to modern issues and people can write and publish their ideas and possible solutions online. However, I do believe that technology does come drawbacks and its potential might not the reality, or that it can be a dangerous slope with consequences.

I think disagreement on these benefits is definitely possible. One could argue that the tech sector will eventually run out of job opportunities or that the only people that can work in the tech sector are those that can afford some college education or intensive courses that prepare for specific jobs. In addition, even though Steve Blank, Maria Gotsch, and Maria Torres-Springer and I believe that the growth of technological innovation has contributed to diversity in New York City, one could argue that Silicon Valley, a relatively homogeneous hub, is a leader in technological innovation without much diversity. One could also disagree with New York City being less reliant on one sector, but is instead shifting reliance in a way that is still unhealthy to the city’s economy. What if New York City becomes just as reliant on the tech sector as it is now on the finance sector?

A negative of the growth of technological innovation is that not everyone has access to it. Only those that can afford technology are able to take advantage of it and only those that can afford proper education and intensive courses are those that can contribute to its innovation. In addition, New York City can become reliant on technology in more than one way. Mr. Tynan-Connelly said, “The city has the largest budget it ever had. But the homeless are still suffering while working-class families, including my students, struggle to find affordable housing and child care. Where are the benefits from the boom that are accruing to the whole city?” He was talking about San Francisco becoming a hub for the wealthy since only the wealthy are able to take advantage and rely on the innovation of technology. In addition, private technology companies can possibly contribute as a “pressure from above” if they gain too much power, in the sense that too many people rely on their services or products.

 

The Up and Coming Tech Industry in NYC

nataliah 1 Comment 3/11/16

New York’s tech industry has been growing rapidly over the past decade. The city has seen a 71 percent increase in employment in tech jobs since 2004. Having a booming tech industry can be immensely beneficial for our city. New York has been quite dependent on the financial sector in the past, something like the economic recession of 2008 could be disastrous. The tech industry is always cooking up new things. With a constant stream of technological advancement, it becomes possible for technology to become an integral part of various other industries. One of the greatly important aspects of the tech industry here in New York is its potential for giving citizens power to inform themselves at the touch of a button about anything regarding their daily life. With technology like this transparency in all things can be commonplace and not something we have to fight for. The ability for tenants to record unacceptable housing conditions or for workers to report unsafe work conditions and know what to do with the information they have gathered would go a long way in giving the average citizen in a city of 11 million a voice. The tech industry is a hub for innovation and ideas. Failure is not seen as a bad thing. Workers in this industry have a large range of options in what they can do. Innovation is one of the thing our city needs to continue to be one the greatest cities in the world.
Although, there are many benefits to the tech industry taking root in NYC there are also some possible downsides. In the article published in The New York Times, it is explained what is happening in San Francisco now that the tech industry has practically taken over. Rents become too high, tenants are evicted, working class people can no longer afford to live in the city that they work in. There was also a controversy wit one tech company founder complaining of the homeless and “riffraff” that he was “forced” to see on his way to work. This is a tech industry that has gotten to big and is strong arming the very people that have allowed it to take place out of their homes. This is part of the reason that I believe civiv tech is rather important to our city. It can be a bridge between the industry and people. Also if the people can use civic tech to build a case against a bad landlord or boss, they can surely use it to protect themselves from displacement.

Diana Kapkayeva 1 Comment 3/11/16

The growth of technological innovation encourages more creativity and idea development as well as backing from investors who are interested in seeing these ideas being fleshed out and brought to life. Given the rapid growth of technological innovation in New York City during the past couple of years, and how you have huge companies like Tumblr and Etsy being headquartered here, its encouraging other startups to touch base in New York and grow their company here. New York is “where entrepreneurs seek out the American Dream” and we’ve seen a major rise in the amount of startups ‘starting up’ in New York City because of inspiration from other successful startups that saw their beginnings in New York City. The benefits allow for more innovation in terms of ideas and encourage competition. People see that startups are having major successes in this City and so these people will be inspired to create new plans and companies to fulfill a purpose. Ideally, it will be one that’s beneficial to people, which allows us as a society to be better off.
New startups are “consciously engineered” in response to the corruption on Wall Street. They diversified New York City’s economy, and are not dependent on Wall Street’s backing. This diversified economy will no longer be dependent on financial institutions like major banks and investment banks, and this is a major issue to be dealing with considering how badly the 2008 collapse of some major banking institutions impacting the economy in New York City. Buying technology has gotten more inexpensive in the past few years, and more risks are being taken in light of this technologically innovated future that we are seeing develop.
Some benefits of the growth of technology innovation would be the efficiency that companies would be able to manage, and because of this efficiency, prices within the company can become cheaper. The quality can also be greatly controlled, and kept higher if technology provides for better conditions that are more manageable for owners.
If a specific sector grows due to technological innovation, and those people have very high paying jobs, a potential downside is that neighborhoods will then be faced with higher rents and higher housing prices in the area because of the growth in income of those who live there. Technological innovation can also erase the need for certain jobs and can displace workers.

The Positives and Negatives of the Tech Boom in NYC

Mohammed Arafa 0 Comment 3/11/16, Weekly Responses

Craig Calderone discusses in his article the Tech boom in New York City and the many changes that have occurred to allow this tech boom to continue to grow. For example Calderone discusses how the Bloomberg administration was the one to begin the shift from a focus and dependence on only the financial sector to allow the tech industry to grow in New York City. Also Calderone discusses the change in attitude with regard to failed startups. For example he states that “Instead of ridiculing founders for their failed startup, founders were deemed ‘experienced’ and asked about when they would start their next endeavor.”. This represents exemplifies the changing attitude of new York, for example no one who launched a failed startup in New York in the financial sector would be considered experienced. Jason Bram and Adam Forman both discuss the Tech sector boom in New York and how this boom has lead to a tremendous increase in the number of tech jobs in New York City. As seen in Bram’s article, while Wall street employment fell by over 11 percent, employment in the tech sector increased by 71 percent.

As we discussed in class when a city is dependent on only one sector of the market, that city is vulnerable and while New York is becoming less and less dependent on the financial sector, the city becomes stronger and it’s economy less susceptible to collapse. How ever we cannot over look the negatives of this technological boom, as many of my class mates have written the increase in these high paying jobs leads to an influx of money in lower class neighborhood which leads to gentrification. This eventually leads to the expulsion of the original residents. Lastly Lawrence Grodeska’s article deals heavily with the positives of technology. Grodeska discusses the many positives that can be brought about with the introduction of “Civic tech” into the government. For example he states with the induction of more and more civic tech, government is more transparent and more effective in providing the services that it’s people require. Not only that but also Grodeska argues that civic tech allows the citizens to be more involved in government. He mention’s many Civc tech “tools” that are used to allow the people to become more involved in their communities. For example Neighborland a tool used to allow civic leaders to reach the residents of a community and inform them. All these tools can be used to greatly improve the way we interact with the world around us but we must also not forget that with everything come negatives. For example while technology in our lives keeps progressing at a phenomenal rate we must allow our laws and law enforcement time to adapt to the changing problems facing our society.

 

The Ever Growing Tech Sector in NYC

Amy Yedid 1 Comment 3/11/16, Weekly Responses

This week’s readings focus on the benefits of technological innovation for New York specifically. It used to be that New York’s finance sector was the one that brought in the most revenue and were responsible for the city’s economic booms. However, now it’s the tech sector that’s taking over New York’s economy. According to the article by Calderone, with the increases in technological innovation, the costs of starting a business are much lower and so more businesses are being developed with many becoming successful. New York has the benefit of having many major tech companies and offices located here such as Etsy, Buzzfeed, and Spotify to name a few. The tech sector in New York is also growing with a speed that greatly outpaces the rest of the country, growing by 57% from 2007 to 2014. With this growth came the city’s most recent economic boom and its surge towards being one of the top tech cities.

There is a great debate going on about whether technological innovation’s benefits outweigh the costs and exactly how beneficial it could be.

I think that technology can be very beneficial. such as with CivicTech, technology “used for public good and betters the lives of the many, not just the few,” as well as “an interoperable, extensible platform for government upon which anyone can build services that increase transparency, efficiency and participation,” (Grodeska). It aims to better communities and improve the public good. This is when technology can be extremely beneficial.
However, there are also the downsides to technological innovation. While those who are in the tech sector are enjoying the benefits that come with it, those who do not make their living from there are the ones burdened with the negative costs. According to Streitfeld, overcrowded cities come with higher demands for living space and therefore higher rent fees as well as congestion in the streets and subways. Groups are being evicted in favor of start-ups. While the wealthy get wealthier in the tech sector, everyone else is struggling to afford the rising costs of living in the city.

After reading all of the articles, I’m not sure if I’m a techno-pessimist or a techno-optimist anymore. I think that, although technological innovation comes with a ton of benefits to many people and communities, we also have to look at the costs of the innovation and whether the benefits outweigh the costs for the nation as a whole and not just a small group.

Benefits of Technological Innovation

jonathankkim 1 Comment 3/11/16

New York City has grown considerably over the years as financial sector’s impact alone on the economy forced other sectors to rise up. Back in the late 2000’s when the Lehman Brothers filed Bankruptcy, its effects were tremendous. As one the biggest bankruptcy filed in the US history, it has played a significant role in priming for the financial crisis in 2008. The event proved that the financial reliance on one sector is risky business and that other sectors needed to grow. Slowly but surely tech sector grew as Bloomberg administration gave support of technology, and continues to show signs of potential boom, aided by Mayor de Blasio’s appointment of Minerva Tantoco as the city’s first-ever Chief Technology Officer. As the technological innovation unravels faster and faster, it brings more and more benefit. However, city’s dependence on tech sector is being questioned whether such reliance will bring New York more harm than good.

In his article, Jason Bram presents data of New York’s tech sector how the jobs in the field is rapidly growing. One benefit of the technological innovation is the creation of more jobs. As shown in the article, New York City increased 58% in job growth, and Manhattan and Brooklyn have also increased 57% and 109% respectively. This growth of job will be available to a younger generation of students who study in fields related to tech sectors. One argument against it might be that because these jobs cater to people with a certain set of skills, average day to day retail and manufacturing workers cannot afford to work in this sector. Another downfall is that much starting pay in the tech sector is close to six figures. The jobs attract next generation of college graduates that have the necessary skills and will effectively pave a way to gentrification.

Adam Forman analyzes the data released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to visualize how much growth tech sector have experienced over the decade. In the graph of NYC Tech Sector Employment by Borough, Manhattan’s employment increased from 53,932 to 96,717 from 2004 to 2014, a 79% growth. Other Boroughs, Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx also increased 83%, 15%, and 12% respectively. One downfall of this is the significant increase in job openings in Manhattan alone. Such high density of Tech employers will raise the revenue from the tech sector and, thus, acquire favors from the government. This increase in the relationship between the tech community and the government can lead to what is evidently occurring in San Francisco. With the government worsening already congested traffic by favoring tech companies and with the housing prices increasing in the areas with the tech community, San Francisco is daunting many residents of their future. Similarly, NYC might be, and perhaps is already, headed to a frightening future.

However, this doesn’t mean that the people have no voice. One of the beneficial reasons for technological innovation is how we can use software to our advantage, to tie community stronger with democracy. Not only does civil tech work for startup businesses, it can “transform communities, workplaces, and institution to be more equitable, resilient,” and perhaps even more transparent in government dealings with sensitive topics like affordable housings. Civil tech can also potentially empower ‘powerless’ groups such as the community boards.

The Benefits and Consequences of Technological Innovation

jennylai 1 Comment 3/11/16, Weekly Responses ,

The growth of technological innovation has several benefits that can be brought to New York. One benefit as stated by Steve Blank in The Hacking NYC panel discussion is that the startup scene in NYC makes “economy more diverse and not as dependent upon Wall Street”. This is positive because when the Lehman Brothers collapsed and filed for bankruptcy in 2008, this caused a financial global crisis. The technological innovation in NY helps NY to move away from relying on Wall Street to be able to stand on its own. Thus any busts in Wall Street won’t impact NY’s economy as heavily as it did in 2008.  The second benefit due to the growth of technological innovation in New York is the rapid creations of tech jobs. Jason Bram and Matthew Ploenzke, the authors of “Will Silicon Alley Be the Next Silicon Valley?”, organized data to show the growth of the tech sector in New York. They stated that, “New York City’s tech sector still outpaces growth nationwide, 60 percent to 27 percent, or more than double”. The tech sector in NY is not only growing rapidly but even bypass the growth of tech sectors nationwide. In addition, these jobs pay fairly well with an average of $118,000 per year citywide as of 2013. I think disagreements on these benefits are possible because people can argue that there are too many employments focused in the tech sector and not enough employments focused on other sectors. People can also argue that these benefits can just be temporary and that if there is a boom, a bust will be inevitable.

A potential negative issue I can see emerging is that the tech sector is very concentrated in certain areas of NY. Adam Forman’s “New York’s tech Profile” shows that Manhattan has the highest tech employment  of the 5 boroughs with 94, 717 employment in 2014 compared to Bronx’s employment of 1, 284 and Staten Island’s employment of 1,286 in 2014. Staten Island actually has a -6% growth in tech sector from 2004-2014. This can become a problem because if Manhattan has more employments, the employees will be more likely to move to Manhattan to live since it will be around the area where they work. These employees with a higher income than the average income in the city ($84,000) will gather there which will also influence the landscape of Manhattan and other boroughs. More investments will be put in Manhattan such as more expensive stores to easier access to transportation. Manhattan will be the priority in New York while the other boroughs won’t have as much benefits as Manhattan will receive. The wealth gap will grow between Manhattan and the other boroughs and this will lead to an imbalance in New York. This can lead to the discontentment of the working class and the lower class people which will cause internal conflicts with their wealthier counterparts. David Streitfeld in “In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Comeuppance” brings up the point that “The consequences for people who do not make their living from technology are increasingly unpleasant”. The traffic there is horrible because of the increase population of people either moving to live there or commuting to work there. Rent increased with tenants living in fear and the tech elites are corrupting the local government by buying elections. What is happening now in San Francisco can easily happen in New York. It is something to be wary and aware of, that technological innovations can have many benefits but they can also cause many negative consequences.

Benefits of Technological Innovation and Civic Tech – Christian Butron

cbutron1996 1 Comment 3/11/16, Weekly Responses

The point of the finance industry is to facilitate the consistent flow of money. While it is an important industry, if the city overly relies on finance, then its economy would be heavily dependent on the world economy, which is volatile. We have seen the consequences of the city’s economy being influenced by that of rest of the world with the Great Recession. By growing the city’s tech sector, we can reduce New York City’s dependence on the world economy. The tech sector also has more employment opportunities. Aside from work in established firms, people in the tech sector can work freelance, full-time or part-time. The Center for an Urban Future reports that the amount of part-time freelance jobs increased by 51%. The fast-changing nature of the industry also allows for the flow of new ideas. Innovators can create startups to realize these ideas and New York City is one of the world’s biggest hubs of innovation. In 2015, NYC-based tech startups had around $6.66 billion in venture capital.

On the other hand, many see the sector’s penchant for automation as a threat to city employment. Most of the working population is not educated in the skills needed to survive in the tech industry. As a result, a sudden shift to tech could leave millions unemployed. However, if that happens, it will not last forever. Computer Science is quickly becoming one of the most sought after majors in the United States. The sector is still fairly young, leaving a great opportunity for growth. Also, the rise of coding bootcamps and online coding academies are replacing the roles that colleges held for educating aspiring computer programmers and engineers. These new schools are not like the standard Computer Science education offered in college in that students do not have to take abstract courses on the idea of programming or developing skills to prepare for programming. Instead, these schools focus only on making people into programmers by teaching only courses in learning programming languages and immediately exposing students to the advanced techniques that may take years for students in college to access. One bootcamp called the Dev Bootcamp proclaims that they can take a person new to computers and turn him/her into a full-fledged programmer in only 19 weeks. People who may not have had a proper college education or even a high school education can become programmers under these programs. The cost is a bit prohibitive with tuition averaging around $10,000, but the potential return is high with the currently high demand for labor. Not to mention, there is talk of adding programming to our core K-12 curriculum. In an industry known for its fairly young labor force, core programming curriculum can mean that post-secondary education may not even be necessary for future generations. Over time, the wider labor force should be able to shift smoothly towards tech.

Civic tech is another potential benefit of technological innovation. In the past, the government was largely inaccessible to the average citizen. It was once hard for people to commit to causes and organize with other like-minded people due to a lack of communication. However, the rise of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter coupled with civic technologies such as Neighborland, people are now able to organize faster than ever. All protests that occur in the city are organized online. Like-minded people can congregate on a single website. Even then, it’s still difficult for citizens to participate in elections because people either have other obligations or no reliable form of transport. This showed recently in the Massachusetts Democratic primaries where voters in several precincts reported that they were blocked from the voting lines due to a rallies held nearby. Never mind the fact that these rallies may have been examples of blatant voter fraud, the fact that things as simple as rallies can stop people from voting shows the inefficiency in the current voting system which requires people to be physically present at certain places in order to vote. Another form of civic technology which allows people to submit votes electronically can simplify the voting process and increase participation.

There is a concern that rise of social media and civic tech could mean that while there is more participation, those who do participate are less informed due to the rather low attention-span of the internet and the ability for misinformation to proliferate. However, with the speed at which people are able to access information via the internet, it’s difficult for people to completely uninformed. As quickly as one article can spread in support of one side, another article in opposition can spread just as quickly. Inevitably, those who do take the time to find out the truth will be the ones who do participate the most.