November 2016

Representatives from social media giants Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are helping White House staffers find jobs for after President Barack Obama leaves office. Facebook and Instagram figures are advising staffers on the current job market, while LinkedIn officials are offering help with resumes and marketing their skills.

Georgetown University is also offering a customized career development program called “Future44,” named after Obama’s service as the 44th president. The program, funded by an anonymous donor, has hosted 271 White House staffers so far. Several high-profile former Obama staffers landed at tech companies after their White House service.

Businesses and policymakers are bracing for what could happen under President-elect Donald Trump's trade agenda. President-elect Trump has promised to slap a tax on Chinese goods, possibly as high as 45 percent; he also has said that he will reinvigorate US manufacturing by bringing it home. What would this mean for the goods we buy?

It costs Apple $224.80 to manufacture an iPhone 7, and that doesn't include the cost of R&D, marketing and distribution. A federal markup of 45 percent could drive up that price by more than $100. Apple could keep its retail price for a basic iPhone at $650, but the decision would cut significantly into its margins. Apple declined to comment on whether a tariff would lead to higher prices, saying in a statement that “Apple is responsible for creating more than two million jobs across the United States, from engineers, retail and call center employees to operations and delivery drivers. We work with over 8,000 suppliers from coast to coast and are investing heavily in American jobs and innovation.”

The Broadcasting Board of Governors released its annual impact numbers which show the agency had its largest ever increase in its weekly worldwide audience to 278 million people, up from 226 million in 2015. These increases occurred across all platforms with digital platforms seeing the largest percentage growth, followed by radio and television.

“The unprecedented growth we’ve seen this year further illustrates the need for US international media particularly in parts of the world where access to balanced, impartial news is severely limited or non-existent,” said BBG CEO and Director John Lansing. “In media markets increasingly dominated by disinformation and propaganda, more and more people are turning to BBG networks for fair, accurate, fact-based reporting.” The increases include gains in highly competitive media markets that are of strategic importance to the United States. Digital audiences increased from 32 million to 45 million while those for radio rose by 27% to 130 million. Television audience also grew, increasing 23% to 174 million.

[Commentary] On March 14, 2014, Turkey shut down Twitter. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced, “We now have a court order. We’ll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic.” He also said Turkey would “rip out the roots” of Twitter. Yes, and when I was in Istanbul last week, Twitter worked fine. That’s because Twitter’s roots are in the Internet.

Even if Turkey rips the roots out of the phone and cable systems that provide access to the Net, they can’t rip out the Net itself, because the Net is not centralized. It is distributed: a heterarchy rather than a hierarchy. At the most basic level, the Net’s existence relies on protocols rather than on how any .com, .org, .edu or .gov puts those protocols to use. The Internet is a world of ends rather than a world of governments, companies and .whatevers: a giant zero between everybody and everything on it. It cannot be reduced to any of those things, any more than time can be reduced to a clock. The Net is as oblivious to usage as are language and mathematics — and just as supportive of every use to which it is put. And, because of this oblivity, The Net supports all without favor to any.

[Doc Searls is a Fellow at the Center for Information Technology and Society at UC Santa Barabara and alumnus Fellow of the Berkman Center at Harvard.]