Weekly Links & Thoughts #40
Here is a weekly selection of thoughtful opinion pieces, interesting analyses and significant yet under-reported information bits from the digital and technology world. Published and commented every Thursday, just in time so you have something good to read during the weekend.
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- Who Needs an Interface Anyway?
People are fed up with downloading new apps all the time. For some type of service it might be smarter to skip the visual interface and to use existing communication channels such as messaging apps or texting for user interaction. I am pretty optimistic about that approach, especially since AI and machine learning is improving constantly, allowing for more human-like text-based exchanges with machines. - Kickstarter Focuses Its Mission on Altruism Over Profit
A fantastic move by Kickstarter, which hopefully will inspire other startups and tech companies. - YouTube’s Biggest Threat To The Music Industry Isn’t What You Probably Think It Is
Great piece highlighting the massive impact that YouTube stars have on a whole generation, and how that influences music, music culture and the music industry. - Understanding Media Coverage: Seven summer-long experiments with Media Cloud
Fascinating insights that you can gain when analyzing the data behind media coverage of major topics and public debates. These examples really show the impact media has on public opinion, and public opinion in reverse on those reporting. - Obama guru maps out Uber’s new Europe strategy
All over the world, Uber is involved in countless battles with governments, cities and municipalities. At least in Europe, the company now favors a more sophisticated, diplomatic approach when it comes to influencing policies and laws, compared to its previous, more direct, threatening attitude. - Your Right to Write
MG Siegler with a very solid take on what best is dubbed “the so called ad blocking controversy of 2015”. - Everything is coming up Slack
Agreed: The team chat service Slack is category-defining, and probably also defining of many other future tech products. - Silicon Valley’s Economic Indicator: Caltrain Ridership
To use the ridership statistics of the train connecting San Francisco and the Silicon Valley as indicator for the state of the region’s tech industry makes sense. - De Facto Veto Power
Interesting take on the de facto veto power that the organizations behind the 4 leading web browser have when it comes to new web standards. - The case against Dropbox looks stronger with each passing day
I love Dropbox and use it basically ever day. However, I have never paid a dime for the service. So I am not sure if I am too valuable for the company. The real value lies in the enterprise. However, is the company DNA built for that? And will there even be so much need for file syncing in the future? These are serious questions Dropbox is being confronted with right now, as this piece explains. - Inside Periscope’s Deep Bond With Turkey (The Country)
Turkish Internet users are often pretty unique in their excitement for certain social apps. For example, Foursquare/Swarm has always been huge in Turkey, unlike in most other markets. Now even Twitter-owned live video broadcasting service Periscope is blowing up in the country. - The Simple Rules That Could Transform How You Launch Your Product
A host of smart advises for all the product people and tech entrepreneurs out there. - Bleacher Report deep links its way to new revenue
Now that “linking” from one app to a specific section on another app has become feasible (so called “deep linking”), media organisations are being presented with new revenue opportunities, as this example shows. - Efficiency up, turnover down: Sweden experiments with six-hour working day
I would like to see more experiments into that direction.
And most recently on meshedsociety.com