June round-up

I usually send out my newsletter at the end of each month. It’s just a collection of the posts published that month (you should subscribe if for some reason you don’t check this site every day). I thought it would be nice maybe to start each newsletter with some personal introduction of what has taken place over the month, and hey, I may as well make that a blog post. So here are some highlights and thoughts from June.

I went to the EDEN conference in Dublin, with Maren who was keynoting. Although I’ve been to a couple of conferences since lockdown, this was the first time meeting lots of international people who I hadn’t seen since the before times. It was a fun conference, lots of good talks, and well organised. I still feel as though my conference stamina is underdeveloped compared to pre-pandemic – it’s all that talking to people. And I’m not entirely sure I want to get back to that level either. Two or three a year seems a nice level now.

We gained a further round of GO-GN funding this month from the Hewlett Foundation, which is great news. This remains the best project I’ve worked on, and this year we celebrate 10 years since its founding.

I read 10 books this month, the pick of them was Fingers Crossed by Miki Berenyi (of 90s shoegaze group Lush). Her childhood is pretty messed up, and her account of the sexism of the music industry (particularly Brit pop) is scathing, but she tells it all with a dry sense of humour. After reading some male rock biographies, which think tales of blocking up toilets and hanging out with groupies are way more entertaining than they actually are, this was a refreshing entry in the rock biography genre.

It was also a delight to see Audrey Watters return with a Substack newsletter, Second Breakfast. I’ve paid up for a year, and it’s already a treat to have it ping into my inbox. I’ve missed her writing and insight.

AI angst continues to dominate much of the ed tech and beyond discourse. I’ve been in meetings at the OU where it is nothing short of outright panic, reminiscent of this scene:

Stay calm everyone.

The problems with tech companies as infrastructure

None of what I am about to relay is new, but it’s enlightening when you have a small personal experience that momentarily lifts away the curtain to demonstrate the broader significance of a trend. So, on the one hand this story is “man had to wait slightly longer for a taxi, boohoo” and on the other it is “foretaste of troubling social trend.” You can decide.

Last week I visited my daughter who is studying for a year abroad in North Carolina. Being ice hockey fans we went to see the Carolina Hurricanes (twice) in Raleigh. The PNC Arena where they play is a few miles out of town and not served by any public transport that I could ascertain. So far, so very American. I went to see the Chicago Blackhawks several years ago, and they provided free buses leaving regularly which dropped people off in downtown. It was an easy, and friendly service – I’m not sure if they still operate it, although I think many bars provide a shuttle service.

The Canes however, don’t offer any such service. Instead they say they have ‘partnered’ with Uber. This doesn’t seem to amount to anything other than offering a pick up point and saying “off you go”. It was, predictably, quite chaotic after the game with a large group of people trying to order Ubers from the same point. Several issues arose. Firstly, there were several Ubers nearby in the car park, but they were refusing pick ups, so you had to wait for them to decline. Secondly, drivers often accepted, got half way and became stuck in traffic, then declined and turned around. Thirdly, people got desperate and started getting in unmarked cars that were offering lifts. Lastly, the whole place became snarled up so drivers couldn’t get in to take people away.

A lot of this is just the usual frustration of exiting a large event. It took us about an hour to get one, but we arrived back at the hotel safely, so ultimately it was just a bit inconvenient, not a crisis. But it points to several bigger issues I think. By ‘partnering’ with Uber, the PNC Arena effectively sheds all responsibility for transport. But Uber drivers, as we experienced, are under no obligation to accept a ride. This is quite different from a taxi rank, where taxi drivers are largely obliged to accept the next customer. The result is an overall lack of responsibility and ownership for broader social issues such as transport. It all falls to the individual.

Another issue is that it is very inefficient, particularly from the perspective of fuel and the environment. Having shuttle buses would be ideal and would move traffic faster, but even a row of taxis ready to roll would generate less waste in queuing to get to the arena for pick up.

As I mentioned i saw some people getting into cars that were offering a ride. This obviously raises a safety issue, but because of the responsibility avoidance mentioned previously, this is down to the individual and not related to the Arena.

I’ve written about the dubious economics and labour practices of Uber before, but I acknowledge they also provide a convenient option often (particularly in places that lack any public transport). And I met a few drivers who seemed to appreciate the flexibility and control they had over their working hours. So this is not to say that Uber is necessarily a bad option, but the same kind of “outsource to the dominant tech company” model is the type of proposal libertarians like to propose for education, healthcare, and up until last week, ahem banking. But my small experience was that the shining future isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Still, I expect someone will be along to reinvent a bus soon enough.

Anyway, let’s go Canes!