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2021 will demand new kinds of video conferencing
Last year entrenched videoconferencing at the center of our work and private lives — but also showed us the limits and drawbacks of the tools we now depend on.
What's happening: Services like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and WebEx were a lifeline in 2020, channeling everything from work and school to parties and doctor's appointments into our homebound lives.
- The more we got to know these tools, however, the more we could see that putting a bunch of kids on Zoom sure doesn't make it a party. For every conceivable use of videoconferencing, there's a need for more nuanced and specialized software to deliver more enjoyable, less fatiguing experiences.
As we head into another year likely to be filled with online substitutes for in-person gatherings, most of us are still using the same basic software for K-12 school, religious services, family gatherings, work meetings and book clubs.
- It doesn't have to be that way.
- Imagine, for example, an app built for birthday parties that offered kids some interactive fun — anything from a digital version of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey to built-in-access to Super Mario or Minecraft. One can easily envision adult-themed possibilities as well.
Where it stands: The space has already seen some innovation, with Zoom adding much-needed security features and Microsoft Teams experimenting with a "together mode" — including venues like virtual coffee shops and lecture halls to give different types of gatherings a more appropriate digital space.
- Cisco has started to offer custom versions of its WebEx software, including one designed for parliaments and state legislatures trying to conduct government business online.
- Meanwhile, startups are also taking note. Mmhmm is among those offering tools to people who want to customize video meetings with more than just fun virtual backgrounds.
- Other startups, including Spatial, are trying to use VR to make digital gatherings more immersive, though doing so takes away one of the few benefits of virtual meetings — being able to easily multitask.
Yes, but: Much is still lacking in these offerings — especially the ability to capture the whimsy, serendipity and intimacy of in-person events.
The big picture: Customized videoconferencing tools may be what users need, but the tech industry usually coalesces around one-size-fits-all platforms that substitute the power of scale for the appeal of tailor-made services.
- From office-document software to search engines and social networks to e-commerce, tech remains a winner-take-all world. Videoconferencing requires a lot of bandwidth and technical overhead, and the ability to deliver that may win out over subtler improvements in interface and social features.
Between the lines: Better hardware can also play an important role in making video conferencing more satisfying.
- Already we've seen Zoom come to smart displays such as Facebook's Portal and Amazon's Echo Show. TV set-top-boxes are probably next. Amazon already added camera support to its FireTV Cube device.
- Dedicated video-conferencing devices could also break into the consumer market after being aimed almost entirely at businesses.
- Meanwhile, 2021's laptop models may get serious camera upgrades, coming after device makers have had time to address the rise of remote work in their development and production cycles.
What's next: In the meantime, expect another year of people buying add-on microphones, cameras and ring lights to improve their at-home set-ups.
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Jun. 01, 2021 08:15PM EST
Biden administration suspends oil and gas leases in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The Interior Department suspended nearly a dozen oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Tuesday, the agency announced.
Why it matters: The move, which will require a new environmental analysis, will undo former President Trump's most significant environmental actions in his final days in office.
Worth noting: The new analysis could be time consuming and its results may spark a court battle.
Our thought bubble, via Axios' Andrew Freedman: Environmentalists have spent decades trying to protect this area of largely untouched wilderness that's home to thousands of caribou and a key population of polar bears. It's therefore not surprising the Biden administration would move to reverse this action, but it could spark a lengthy court battle.
Flashback: Two weeks before President Biden took office, the Trump administration auctioned off the right to drill in the refuge's coastal plain, an expanse in Alaska that has been subject to political dispute for decades.
- Native Americans and environmentalists had opposed the sale.
- No major oil companies participated in the auction. All but one went to an agency of the state of Alaska.
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Jul. 09, 2021 06:11PM EST
Biden order: End the monopoly game
President Biden wants to remake the U.S. economy by injecting more competition into highly concentrated industries including airlines, Big Tech and agriculture to improve choices and prices for consumers.
Why it matters: The ambitious executive order signed Friday directs the federal government to step up antitrust enforcement and regulation. The move marks a sea change from four decades of a hands-off-big-business approach ushered in by Ronald Reagan.
What they're saying: "Let me be very clear, capitalism without competition isn't capitalism. It's exploitation," Biden said at a White House signing ceremony for the order.
- The president argued that industrial concentration harms employees by giving them less choice in where to work and lowering their wages.
Details: The administration's order urges agencies to take specific actions help consumers' pocketbooks, including ...
- Charting a path for states and tribes to safely import drugs from Canada, and urging the Federal Trade Commission to ban arrangements in which name-brand drug makers pay generic companies to stay out of the market.
- Allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter, and cutting down on costs Americans' pay to get them from specialists.
- Forcing airlines to to refund fees when baggage is delayed or when in-flight WiFi doesn't work.
- Banning internet service providers from charging high early termination fees, which can run upwards of $200.
- Barring non-compete clauses in employment contracts that make it harder for workers to change jobs.
Between the lines: Don't expect any of this to happen quickly — the process of adopting new regulations can take months or even years.
- The executive order relies on individual agencies to carry out the White House policies — which means lengthy rulemaking processes and lobbying frenzies from powerful industries.
The big picture: The order will make it harder for companies across sectors to merge or create joint venture agreements, and may lead to federal attempts to unwind acquisitions.
- That includes more scrutiny of Big Tech platforms' attempts to buy smaller rivals or scoop up troves of consumers' data through deal-making.
Yes, but: The president has yet to name a nominee to lead the antitrust division of the Justice Department, who, along with newly named FTC Chair Lina Khan, will be key in carrying out antitrust action.
Our thought bubble: Executive orders can be an ineffective means to change federal policy, as numerous failed initiatives by the Trump administration demonstrated. But the Biden administration is well stocked with bureaucratic veterans who may be able to make at least some of these changes stick.
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Jul. 15, 2021 05:29PM EST
"No more lies": What drove Cubans to protest
Data: Proyecto Inventario; Map: Will Chase/Axios
Sara Naranjo, 88, took to Cuba's streets this past week because she is "done with being hungry, unemployed, without water, without power." Naranjo is one of thousands of Cubans to take part in what activists said were the largest anti-government protests on the island in decades.
What's happening: People like Naranjo, who remembers Cuba before the revolution, joined thousands of younger Cubans, who have only known Communism, in the massive street protests despite their fear of the government’s harsh response.
Why it matters: Sunday’s seemingly spontaneous mobilizations across the island were something unseen in 60 years of castrista rule.
- Anti-government protests even erupted in the southeast province of Santiago de Cuba, Fidel Castro’s stronghold during the revolution and where he is buried.
- “So much hunger ate away at our fear,” one demonstrator, Wendy Guerra, told the independent Cuban news site 14yMedio.
The big picture: The pandemic deepened Cubans’ frustrations with lack of food and resources that had simmered for decades.
- Tourism, mostly from Canada and Europe, dried up along with the hard currency it provided.
- Mismanagement of the island’s state-run economy, already under a U.S. embargo since 1962, sent Cuba’s GDP crashing by 11% last year, its worst showing since the former Soviet Union stopped subsidies in the early 1990s.
- Chronic power cuts and shortages of food and medicines have been more acute, while the nearly quarter-million people who have had coronavirus have had to seek treatment from a healthcare system on the verge of collapse.
- Vaccinations have been scarce since the government decided not to participate in the COVAX sharing program for developing nations and to develop its own shots.
Between the lines: Pockets of overt dissidence had been growing even before Raúl Castro, Fidel Castro’s younger brother and his deputy during the revolution, stepped down in June as head of the Communist Party.
- Movimiento San Isidro, a young coalition of artists, journalists and academics formed in 2019, urged more Cubans to make their dissatisfaction public.
- Musicians and San Isidro members, Maykel Osorbo and El Funky, were joined by Yotuel, Gente De Zona, and Descemer Bueno to release the song “Patria y Vida” (Homeland and Life), which became an anthem for this week’s protesters.
- Its lyrics demand “no more lies” and “no more doctrine,” telling those who cling to the revolution that their time is past.
The growing availability of the internet, though also controlled by a state-run company, has allowed like-minded Cubans to share their frustrations more easily, like they did on Sunday.
- The protests erupted days after #SOSCuba began to trend on social media, with Cubans demanding humanitarian assistance to address the island’s many crises.
Where it stands: At least one person — 36-year-old Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, who was from an especially impoverished part of Havana — has died during the protests, according to local reports.
- The government shutdown the internet and phone lines after the first protest on Sunday.
- Reliable information regarding arrests is hard to come by with estimates ranging between 200 and 5,000 people.
In Washington,the Biden administration has said the protests are “remarkable,” but has not yet indicated whether further policy changes were coming.
- The U.S. has warned Cubans who might attempt to emigrate across the Florida Straits that they would be turned back.
In Havana, meanwhile, President Miguel Díaz-Canel has pointed to the U.S. embargo as the cause of his country’s economic woes and accused U.S. authorities of financing and promoting “non-conventional warfare.”
- On Wednesday, the Cuban government announced that tariffs on the private import of food, medicine and personal care products would be lifted at least until December.
By the numbers: 3.5% of all Latinos in the U.S. are of Cuban ancestry or Cuban immigrants, the fifth largest Latino or Hispanic cultural group.
- Most of live in Florida. The state’s weight in the Electoral College means Cuban-Americans have outsized political influence.
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