Management

Elon Musk and Twitter are probably going to court over whether he should be forced to buy the social media company for $44 billion. He's trying to back out of the deal because he thinks Twitter is lying about the number of bots and fake accounts on the platform. But it's not just about the bots. Twitter has not had a substantial increase in users since 2016 – which makes you wonder why Elon ever considered buying the platform. But the story gets worse, because Twitter's woes are not even a little bit new. Continue Reading →

I know I'm supposed to weigh in on the Elon Musk/Twitter deal today. People who care about this fall into two camps: 1) Elon's just looking for a better price. 2) Elon never intended to make the purchase. Now it's going to court. As entertaining as the Elon story may be, my attention today is on James, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as some of the most important astronomical images ever taken will be released at 5 p.m. ET today. Continue Reading →

As we enter another crypto winter, it has become de rigueur for tech types to go on record espousing that Web3 is nonsense, that blockchain is a terrible technology, and that cryptocurrencies (all of them) are Ponzi schemes. There is seemingly no end to the tweets and blog posts from highly credentialed people about tulips and "The Emperor's New Clothes" and greater fool theory. It's as if the technocrats want to make sure that they know that you know that they know that all things Web3 are technologically inferior to all things Web2. Are they right? Continue Reading →

In World of Warcraft, a soulbound item, once picked up, cannot be transferred or sold to another player. It is this idea of “immutable, permanent binding” that inspired Ethereum’s creator, Vitalik Buterin, to ask a question: What if NFTs could be soulbound? Continue Reading →

OpenSea, the world's largest NFT marketplace, informed people on its email list that an employee of Customer.io (OpenSea's bulk email vendor) gave the OpenSea email list to an outside party. OpenSea sent a note advising everyone on the list to beware of phishing schemes that are likely to ensue. Even if you didn't get a note, beware of phishing schemes. Continue Reading →

Are you looking for a sound bite that properly explains gas prices, inflation, potential stagflation, the crashing stock, and crypto markets? What's happening to the global supply chain? How the Fed's actions are likely to affect the economy in the near term? Forget it. Continue Reading →

In 2000, almost $8 trillion of wealth vaporized when the dot-com bubble burst. It was a tough year for Wall Street, venture capitalists, and average retail investors. Why? The pundit parade did its best to explain the crash, but markets are complex systems (which makes them computationally unpredictable). So, in the end, the only thing we could be sure of was that $8 trillion had gone missing. What did we learn? Continue Reading →

Outside of limiting the government’s powers, is there such a thing as “freedom of speech”? And if there is, should we regulate big tech platforms to allow anyone to say anything? Shelly Palmer, advanced media professor in residence for the Newhouse School’s New Media Management program, hosts a panel discussion of industry leaders will explore freedom of speech and what it means in today’s political and tech landscapes. Continue Reading →

This past week, I had the pleasure of spending time with several bankers, financial professionals, and business leaders. While everyone agreed that it's too early to make predictions about how the world of crypto, Web3, and DeFi are going to go, there was one common thread: to a banker, crypto looks like money. I'm not sure that's a good thing. Continue Reading →

It's the end of an era: New York City removed its last public payphone on Monday. The city began removing street payphones in 2015, replacing them with kiosks that offer free phone calls, Wi-Fi, and device charging. The boxy enclosures were once an iconic symbol across the city, but the rise of cellphones made the booths obsolete. Continue Reading →