News and Views from Political Author Steven Hill
Lecture by Steven Hill, Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), April 24, 2018
Keynote lecture, “Reining in Facebook and the Platform Economy”, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB)
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By Steven Hill, Washington Monthly, April 15, 2018
The government must force platforms like Facebook and Google to obey the terms of new, digital licenses—or get kicked out of the U.S. market.
In a sign of the times, investor George Soros devoted the bulk of his hour-long speech this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to excoriating Facebook and Google.…by Steven Hill, New York Times, March 26, 2018
The recent killing of a pedestrian by a self-driving Uber vehicle is the source of the latest negative headlines about this company. But there’s a much deeper problem. While the leadership has changed — Dara Khosrowshahi replaced Uber’s co-founder Travis Kalanick as chief executive last August after a series of scandals — the company itself has not evolved.…
By Steven Hill, American Prospect, March 27, 2018
How Uber and Lyft tend to widen disparities of race and class in urban transportation systems
Many working people rely on public transportation to get to their jobs. Mass transit choices have often been entangled with racial politics as well. So not surprisingly, issues of race and class are reflected in the Uber-ization of our city streets.…
by Steven Hill, Handelsblatt, March 23, 2018
Ubers neues Fahrdienstmodell hat zwar das Potenzial, vorhandene Verkehrsoptionen auf positive Weise zu ergänzen. Doch ohne Regulierung wirkt es zerstörerisch.
Der neue Uber-Chef Dara Khosrowshahi ist zurzeit als „Botschafter des guten Willens“ weltweit unterwegs und präsentiert das neue, das freundlichere und sanftere Gesicht des Unternehmens.…
By Steven Hill, Salon, January 14, 2018
ber’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has a lot on his plate, trying to recover from a hellish year for the popular ride-sharing service. So he doesn’t need the crippling legal blow that the European Union just dealt to Uber’s global ambition to be the leading taxi-ish service for the digital age.…
By Steven Hill, Le Monde, December 21, 2017
Dans une tribune au « Monde », le journaliste Steven Hill déplore combien les technologies numériques transforment un nombre croissant de bons emplois en minables petits boulots en ligne. Mais une autre voie est possible.
Au cours des dernières décennies, les travailleurs de France, d’Allemagne, des Etats-Unis, du Royaume-Uni et d’autres pays développés ont été les plus productifs et les plus riches du monde.…
By Steven Hill, Salon, December 3, 2017
The Jetsons are here, the Jetsons are here – well, almost. Uber, the massively popular yet unprofitable ridesharing company, recently announced, with great fanfare, that it’s on the verge of producing – drumroll please – FLYING cars.
Yes, you read that correctly. They are calling it Uber Elevate, and allegedly it’s coming faster than the director’s cut of “Blade Runner 2049.”…
Interview with Steven Hill, Stifterverband, Oct. 11, 2017
More freedom, more flexibility? The advantages of the job market for IT experts sound great. But there are also the downsides for the new digital workforce, reminds San Francisco-based author Steven Hill (“The Start-up Illusion”). Labour rights are going down the drain, and the security of permanent jobs is getting more important to people as they get older.…
Interview with Steven Hill, Stifterverband, September 27, 2017
A lot of the companies from Silicon Valley really aren’t big job creators, says San Francisco-based author Steven Hill („The Start-up Illusion“). In Germany, on the contrary, the small and medium sized Mittelstand companies create millions of jobs. But many of them don’t know much about the digital world.…
By Steven Hill, New York Times, August 30, 2017
Uber’s board has picked Dara Khosrowshahi, leader of the online travel company Expedia, to replace the embattled chief executive, Travis Kalanick. But the company’s troubles run deeper than Mr. Kalanick’s flubs and scandals, and new leadership alone won’t be able to right this distressed ship.…
New York Times, August 10, 2017
“This is a power struggle over management,” Steven Hill, author of a book on Uber’s economic impact, said of Benchmark’s lawsuit. “The board looked the other way for years while CEO Travis Kalanick engaged in all sorts of unethical and even illegal behavior. He is their monster.”…
By Steven Hill, Washington Post, August 8, 2017
Los Angeles, of all places, has taken a bold step forward on mass transit.
Few need reminding of the frequent traffic nightmares in L.A., whose soaring cloverleafs and endless traffic jams have been mythologized in film noir, fiction and song. “There are two modes of transport in Los Angeles: car and ambulance,” author Fran Lebowitz said.…
By Steven Hill, Die Zeit, August 3, 2017
Minijobber, Klickworker, Scheinselbstständige: Die neuen Formen der Arbeitsverhältnisse gefährden den Sozialstaat.
In Deutschland wie auch in anderen Industrienationen hat sich die Art und Weise, wie die Menschen arbeiten, radikal verändert. Vor 15 Jahren arbeiteten deutlich weniger Menschen in Teilzeit, befristeten Arbeitsverhältnissen, Minijobs oder als Selbstständige.…
by Steven Hill, Salon, June 30, 2017
Published originally by Tagesspiegel (in German), June 13, 2017
If Airbnb knowingly facilitates criminal activity, it should itself be treated as a criminal enterprise
A year ago in June 2016, I wrote an oped for Tagesspiegel in which I predicted that a new Berlin law, designed to curtail the runaway growth of Airbnb home-renting, would fail to accomplish its goal.…
by Steven Hill, Quartz, June 26, 2017
CEO Travis Kalanick’s departure from Uber is not a surprise to those who have been following this company for the last several years. In my book Raw Deal about what I call the “Uber Economy,” I predicted this would happen. With Kalanick gone, does Uber stand a better chance now of turning around its fortunes?…
By Steven Hill, MarketWatch, June 24, 2017
Uber risks burning through its remaining $7 billion in startup capital within about 3 years
The dirty little secret of Silicon Valley is that seven out of 10 startups fail. Uber is on track to become one of them.
While Uber has become popular as a taxi company for the digital age, and its valuation has reached $70 billion — now greater than Ford, General Motors or Tesla — the company has been losing money at a rate that some tech analysts say is faster than any technology company ever.…
by Steven Hill, Salon, June 17, 2017
CEO Travis Kalanick is out, but Uber’s problems won’t be solved with just a new hire
CEO Travis Kalanick’s departure from Uber is not a surprise to those who have been following this company for the last several years.
Since February, Uber has been rocked by one scandal after another: allegations of rampant sexual harassment at the company and of stealing trade secrets for self-driving cars from a competitor (Google/Waymo), poorly performing self-driving car experiments in San Francisco and Pittsburgh (the vehicles ran numerous red lights and were involved in fender benders, requiring constant intervention from their human drivers), and getting caught red-handed with secret software called Greyball that allowed Uber drivers to evade local authorities trying to enforce traffic laws.…
By Steven Hill, Handelsblatt, June 16, 2017
(German version “Warnung und Verheißung für die Wirtschaft” here)
Instead of chasing Google or Facebook, Germany should take the best of its innovative Mittelstand and combine it with a homegrown startup scene.
All over Germany, I hear various political and business leaders asking the same questions: “Where are the German Facebooks, Googles, Amazons and Apples?…
Interview with Steven Hill, A2larm, Czech Republic, May 30, 2017
Prague interview: “If we are not careful, technology will destroy us”
Steven Hill interviewed by Václav Drozd, A2larm, Czech Republic, May 30, 2017, on the pros and cons of “platform capitalism” and digital technologies. Link here…
Interview by Václav Drozd, A2larm, May 30, 2017
My interview with A2larm, by editor Václav Drozd, an important publication in Prague, Czech Republic, on the pros and cons of “platform capitalism” and digital technologies.
http://a2larm.cz/2017/05/pokud-nebudeme-opatrni-technologie-lidstvo-znici/…
Interview with Steven Hill, Lidové noviny, May 29, 2017
Interview by Jan Klesla, a lengthy interview in Prague’s leading newspaper, Lidové noviny, lidovky.cz, about the impact of “platform capitalism” and digital technologies on society.…
Interview by Jan Klesla, Lidové noviny, May 29, 2017
This is a shortened version of a lengthy interview that I gave to Prague’s leading newspaper, Lidové noviny, lidovky.cz, about the impact of “platform capitalism” and digital technologies on society.
Thanks to Kateřina Smejkalová and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung for inviting me.…
By Steven Hill, Berlin Journal, May 27, 2017
English excerpt from the Introduction of Die Start-up-Illusion: Wie die Internet-Ökonomie unseren Sozialstaat ruiniert by Steven Hill, published in German in May 2017 by Droemer Knaur.
When travelers arrive at Berlin’s Tegel Airport and exit Terminal A with their roll-aways, they are immediately greeted by a monstrously large billboard in the quasi-shape of a giant football goalpost.…
Lecture by Steven Hill, Telefonica Basecamp, May 11, 2017
Digital Masterminds: Steven Hill über die Startup-Illusion, Telefonica Basecamp, Berlin…