Freelance writer Nate Thayer touched off a debate this week about media outlets wanting to publish content for free — but the reality is that the economics of content have changed forever, and the supply of free content is almost infinite. Read more at paidContent »
We’re used to how the social web has disrupted media, but that same wave is moving through other industries, driven by startups like Airbnb, Coursera and Uber — and while regulators and entrenched industries are trying to fight it, the trend behind that wave is unstoppable. Read more »
There has been a lot of bad news from the chip giants this quarter, but it’s not the decline of the PC or even merely economic worries pressing on the sector. No, there’s a systemic change in the market and the industry giants are reacting. Read more »
Is your city thriving, or does it lag behind? If it lags, can it catch up? UC Berkeley economics professor, Enrico Moretti’s new book, The New Geography of Jobs examines how innovation clusters are causing massive shifts in where jobs, people and wealth are distributed. Read more »
A morning chunk of last week’s Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics Conference focused on hydraulic fracking and natural gas. It represents an aggressive new vision for the U.S. energy economy that will contribute to climate change and could slow development of renewable energy. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
For skilled professionals, the increasing prevalence of independent work can be a blessing, but the trend toward replacing steady jobs with gig-based careers is bad news for the economy as a whole and inequality in particular, argues a Canadian magazine. Do you agree? Read more »
Startups looking to disrupt the traditional energy industries — oil, coal, gas-burning cars — need to have more than just innovative technology. They need a team and a plan in place that can scale their technologies to compete on the massive scale needed. Read more »
