Category: Uncategorized
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Le Monde: Bienvenue dans la “société free lance”
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.…
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Uber’s flying car project shows the company’s desperation
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.”…
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Interview: The Downsides of the Digital Job Market
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.…
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Interview: Excellent Hybrid – Start-ups and Mittelstand
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.…
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NY Times: What Dara Khosrowshahi Must Do to Save Uber
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.…
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NY Times: Uber Investor Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud
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.”…
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WA Post: L.A. — the city of traffic jams — finds a way to get people out of their cars
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.…
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Die Zeit: “Gefährlich flexibel” (“Dangerously flexible”)
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.…
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Salon: How the Berlin government could rein in Airbnb and protect local housing
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.…
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Quartz: The new, post-Kalanick Uber needs to raise fares and focus on taxi business, or it will fail
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?…
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MarketWatch: Uber must raise fares — and do 5 more things — to survive
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.…
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Salon: Strike four for Uber: Even with Kalanick’s departure, they may still end as the “Enron of the transportation industry”
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.…
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Handelsblatt: Beating Silicon Valley With the Mittelstand
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?…
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Prague interview: “If we are not careful, technology will destroy us”
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…
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Prague interview: “If we are not careful, technology will destroy us”
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/…
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Interview: Uber a Airbnb? Zregulovat, říká jejich kritik. Tvrdí, že ničí taxikáře a hotely Zdroj
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.…
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Lidové noviny (Prague) interview: Uber a Airbnb? Zregulovat, říká jejich kritik. Tvrdí, že ničí taxikáře a hotely Zdroj
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.…
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The Startup Illusion: excerpt from the Introduction of the book
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.…
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Digital Masterminds: Steven Hill über die Startup-Illusion
Lecture by Steven Hill, Telefonica Basecamp, May 11, 2017
Digital Masterminds: Steven Hill über die Startup-Illusion, Telefonica Basecamp, Berlin…
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Excerpt from “Startup Illusion”: Die Schattenseiten der Startup-Industrie
Gruenderszene, May 11, 2017
Nicht alles, was die Startup-Welt hervorbringt, ist automatisch gut, sagt der Journalist Steven Hill. In seinem neuen Buch knöpft er sich die Szene vor. Mit seinen Aussagen darüber, dass Startups den Sozialstaat ruinieren würden, entfachte der US-Journalist diese Woche auf der Republica eine lebhafte Debatte.
(Excerpt from Die Startup Illusion: Wie die Internet-Ökonomie unseren Sozialstaat ruiniert, published by Gruenderszene, one of the leading publications in Germany covering the startup economy) https://www.gruenderszene.de/allgemein/startup-illusion-stephen-hill-buchauszug…
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Review of Steven Hill’s “Startup Illusion” in Tagesspiegel (Berlin)
By Til Knipper, Tagesspiegel, May 10, 2017
Review of Steven Hill’s book Die Startup Illusion: Wie die Internet-Ökonomie unseren Sozialstaat ruiniert
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Wired: How much Silicon Valley Spirit do we need in Germany?
Wired.de, May 9, 2017
An article reporting on Steven Hill’s appearance at Berlin’s re:publica 2017 conference, and discussing his new book Die Startup Illusion: Wie die Internet-Ökonomie unseren Sozialstaat ruiniert
By Benedikt Plass-Fleßenkämper
Wie könnte Deutschland so innovativ und flexibel wie das Silicon Valley werden, dabei aber eigene Stärken beibehalten?…
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Lecture at re:publica: “Future of Work: How can Germany be a leader in the Digital Economy?”
Lecture by Steven Hill, re:publica-Berlin, May 9, 2017
re:publica – Festival for the Digital Society, Berlin , Steven Hill keynote speech, “Future of Work: How can Germany be a leader in the Digital Economy?”…
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Deutschland Radio: “Start-ups are not job machines”
Deutschland Radio/Deutschlandfunk Kultur, May 9, 2017
Author Steven Hill is interviewed on Deutschland Radio/Deutschlandfunk Kultur by host Dieter Kassel about his new book Die Startup Illusion: Wie die Internet-Ökonomie unseren Sozialstaat ruiniert (link to audio and transcript; the interview is in German)
In seinem Buch “Die Start-up-Illusion” blickt der Journalist Steven Hill auf die Kehrseite der Internet-Ökonomie: So würden sie deutlich weniger Jobs schaffen als die traditionelle Wirtschaft – und oft nur prekäre.…
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Troubled Mayoral Race in St. Louis Shows Need for Ranked Choice Voting
By Steven Hill, In These Times, April 5, 2017
Ranked choice voting offers a proven solution that empowers communities of color as well as candidates.
Ferguson. Michael Brown. Racial tensions at the University of Missouri. St. Louis being crowned as the fifth most segregated city in the United States.
If ever there were places in need of racial healing, they are the state of Missouri and the St.…