Regulate Tech
If we are inviting you to listen to this then we owe you an explanation for why we recorded it. Some egoism of course sits behind any exercise of this kind, and we fit the bill for middle-aged men making podcasts as they are desperate for someone to listen to them while locked down in a pandemic. But we also have a political purpose and believe we have something useful to contribute to the debate on regulation of internet platforms. This dialogue - about the future of technology, policy and society - is among the most important public conversations that will play out over the next decade, and its outcomes will affect our lives for years to come. You may not agree with all (or much!) of what you hear from us, but we hope you will feel that it is at least well-informed and, if nothing else, provides some useful insights into the thinking of people who have worked ’at the heart of the beast’. All views personal only, and not those of any affiliated organizations, employers or other parties!
Episodes
Episodes
Thursday Jan 13, 2022
Regulate Tech 2022 ep 1: Planning!
Thursday Jan 13, 2022
Thursday Jan 13, 2022
In this episode we discuss all things planning and strategy for a policy team. Should a policy team plan? What frameworks exist? How do you deal with plans encountering reality? We discuss books by John Doerr - Measure What Matters - and Richard Rummelt - Good Strategy, Bad Strategy - and much, much more. Meet the new year with plans! And then change them...
Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad
Monday Dec 20, 2021
Regulate Tech #42: Summing up 2021 and looking forward to 2022
Monday Dec 20, 2021
Monday Dec 20, 2021
In this episode we sum up the first year with the podcast, our thoughts about 2021 and some predictions for 2022. We discuss what new episodes we should be digging into as well -- and would love to hear from you if you have ideas!
Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad
Wednesday Dec 15, 2021
Regulate Tech #41: Patents, all your patents!
Wednesday Dec 15, 2021
Wednesday Dec 15, 2021
In this episode we discuss the political economy of patents, their origin and the ways in which they touch tech policy. We also noodle on what a good tech policy agenda for patents could look like, and why trolls are a problem.
Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad
Monday Dec 06, 2021
Monday Dec 06, 2021
In this episode we discuss the classic text by Eric Raymond (see here http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/ ) and how different modes of production of software are converging - and what that means for policy!
Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad
Friday Nov 26, 2021
Regulate Tech #39:Working with legal, NDAs and the origin of p-counsel
Friday Nov 26, 2021
Friday Nov 26, 2021
In this episode we discuss how to work with the legal function in a tech company, and what we can learn from our colleagues in litigation, employment law, commercial negotiations and not least the new and emerging profession of product counsel. Read more about how product counsel came to become the hottest legal profession here:
http://www.bricoleur.org/2020/04/product-counsel-origin-story.html
Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad
Saturday Nov 13, 2021
Regulate Tech #38: Why does technology fail?
Saturday Nov 13, 2021
Saturday Nov 13, 2021
In this episode we discuss what it means for technology to fail, why Facebook is ceasing to do facial recognition, what happened to Google Glass, how we should think about Altavista and MySpace and a host of other things like DRM, PETs and ECMSs. Tune in!
Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad
Saturday Nov 06, 2021
Regulate Tech #37: Advertising part II: the harms and the balances
Saturday Nov 06, 2021
Saturday Nov 06, 2021
In the first episode we discussed the value and challenges of advertising as a business model - and in this episode we dig deeper into the harms and how they can be mitigated. All technologies are trade offs, and here we discuss individual, social and long term harms from creating targeted profiles - and how they can be addressed.
Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
In this episode we discuss the politics and policy of advertising. Universally disliked, seems to be an increasingly valuable discovery mechanism in the information economy. It underpins SME-growth and exports, and helps us find what we need - yet it is condemned as manipulative, dangerous and eroding our social liberties. Which one is it?
As a bonus we share our favorite ads:
John West: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP92j-uEnps
Coors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_N4l0s7qU0
Participants: Richard Allan, Nicklas Berild Lundblad
A podcast about tech, policy and the future
Are you interested in learning more about the craft of tech policy? Dig deep in the classics? Figure out what the future for tech holds? Then this is the podcast for you. Conversations between two long-time policy professionsals with 50+ years of shared experience from tech policy in companies, trade associations and academia.