GeekWire

The Jan. 6 breach and riot at the U.S. Capitol, and the larger effort to overturn the results of the election, have brought new attention to the larger need for political reform -- fixing the bugs in the system of democracy, to use a metaphor offered by Jon DeVaan, the former Microsoft engineering leader.

DeVaan has become deeply involved in the political reform movement since retiring from Microsoft in 2013 after 36 years at the company. He's on the board of Represent Us, a bipartisan organization seeking to end corruption in politics.

In recent weeks, he has served as an informal ombudsman, of sorts, to Microsoft as the company navigated a controversy over its political donations before announcing last week that it would not donate during the 2022 election cycle to members of Congress and other political leaders who who supported efforts to overturn the election.

DeVaan joins GeekWire's John Cook and Todd Bishop as the guest on this week's GeekWire Podcast, discussing the events of the past month, the path forward for political reform, and the role that tech companies and other businesses can play in the movement. Below, he shares recommended books, articles and other resources that have informed his understanding of the issues.

Jon DeVaan: It was my pleasure to speak with Todd and John about democracy reform in the podcast. I mentioned many references that are interesting to anyone who wants to learn more and get involved in the movement. I list those along with others I think are great primers on democracy reform.

Important Articles

• The first is a study done at Princeton about how citizens have nearly zero impact on public policy.
• The second is a Harvard Business School analysis of the “Political Industry” and its bad effect on economic competitiveness:
• The Economist’s ranking of democracy (the USA’s democracy rating has been falling for over a decade): Democracy Index 2020 - Economist Intelligence Unit (eiu.com)

Important Books

• Dark Money by Jane Mayer – This book outlines the political dynamics that birthed the modern conservative movement and the money strategy that bankrolled it.
• How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt: Why everyone should be afraid of where the USA is right now.
• Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy by Daniel Ziblatt: Why reform of the GOP is urgently needed (or a new center right party)
  • Also article: Why Conservative Parties Are Central to Democracy - The Atlantic
  • Also podcast: Opinion | An Appalled Republican Considers the Future of the G.O.P. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
• On Democracy by Robert A Dahl – This is an academic book but is the best explanation of what democracy is (really self-government in various forms) and why it is the best form of government known so far. This is my philosophical bible on what makes good democracy reform.

Movies – Not all of us have time to read books!

• Dark Money (not related to the book): A deep dive into money’s corrupting influence
• Slay the Dragon: Why gerrymandering is bad and how to fight it.
• Eastpointe: How ranked choice voting helps create better representation.

National groups:

• RepresentUs: Champions local and state laws that make the political system work for regular people
• Unite America: Champions local and state laws emphasizing independent and reform minded political leaders
• FairVote: Champions ranked choice voting nationwide
• IssueOne: Champions democracy reforms in Congress
• ProtectDemocracy: Champions accountability and prevention of presidential power
• Leadership Now Project: Building a coalition of businesses to champion reform

Groups in WA:

• Fair Vote WA: Championing ranked choice voting in WA
• Fix Democracy First: Champions a host of reforms
• The Sightline Institute: An excellent research group working on democracy reforms and other social issues

Twitter – Follow these people and groups to gain perspective

• Charlotte Hill 
• Lee Drutman
• Trevor Potter 
• Marc E. Elias
• Heather Cox Richardson
• Teri Kanefield
• Brennan Center 
• Evan McMullin 
• Vote At Home Institute

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How will Amazon maintain its culture as it approaches 1.3 million employees and prepares for its founder Jeff Bezos to step down as CEO? One answer is the set of processes and principles that the company has put into place, the "Invention Machine," created by Bezos and his leadership team inside the company.

That's the assessment of Bill Carr, a former Amazon executive and the co-author of the new book, Working Backwards, with fellow Amazon veteran Colin Bryar. 

Beyond providing a blueprint for others, he predicts that Amazon's processes and principles will "enable the company to continue to thrive and innovate for decades after Jeff’s departure" as CEO. Bezos will remain involved with the company as executive chairman. On this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast, Carr discusses the new book, describes Amazon's unique approaches, and shares inside stories including the offhand remark by the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs that contributed to the creation of some of Amazon’s most important products and services.

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What does Andy Jassy's track record at Amazon Web Services say about how he'll lead Amazon as the company's next CEO? What will be Jeff Bezos' ongoing influence as the company's executive chairman? Who will succeed Jassy as the head of AWS? And what should be the tech giant's 15th leadership principle?

Those are a few of the questions we ask — and in some cases even answer! — on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast with guest commentator Corey Quinn, the chief cloud economist at The Duckbill Group, the host of the AWS Morning Brief and Screaming in the Cloud Podcasts, and the curator of Last Week in AWS, a weekly newsletter.  

Continue reading for links to related coverage.

• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to step down this year, replaced by AWS chief Andy Jassy in stunning turn for tech giant
• Amazon’s next CEO, Andy Jassy, is a music-loving, wing-eating, hard-charging disciple of Jeff Bezos
• Amazon blows past estimates for holiday quarter, sets record with $125.6B in revenue
• Amazon Web Services posts record $13.5B in *profits* for 2020 in Andy Jassy’s AWS swan song
• Here’s the biggest challenge facing Amazon’s Andy Jassy — at least in the words of one partner
• Amazon arrives in rural America: Tech giant delivers hope and concern to California town

Edited by Curt Milton; Theme Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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Mike Lewis of KIRO Radio in Seattle speaks with GeekWire's Todd Bishop about a story Todd wrote this week about Amazon in his hometown of Orland, Calif. Read the story: Amazon arrives in rural America: Tech giant delivers hope and concern to California town

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Microsoft's profits rose 33% in the December quarter as CEO Satya Nadella touted a “second wave of digital transformation."

But what does the future really hold for the tech giant? What will be the next big opportunity for Microsoft? And what are the biggest threats it faces?

We discuss all of that and more this week with veteran technology journalist and Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, who writes the All About Microsoft blog for ZDNet. She is the author of “Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era,” and is also the cohost of the “Windows Weekly” podcast with Paul Thurrott on the TWiT network.

Nadella's tenure at Microsoft has brought a new approach, doubling down on the company's traditional strength in enterprise software, pulling of successful acquisitions, and moving the Office productivity platform into a new era with products such as the Microsoft Teams collaboration software.

Discussing Microsoft opportunities and potential areas for future acquisitions, Mary Jo points to security and artificial intelligence as two key sectors for the company. She sees Microsoft Teams as another big area of opportunity. The company’s goal is to make Teams into even more of a platform -- an operating system for work, essentially.

One open question: How can Microsoft leverage its momentum with the Xbox game platform to create a stronger benefit for the rest of the company? Microsoft's Project xCloud could be one way, giving the company more of a presence on other platforms. GeekWire's John Cook, citing his son as an example, sees Microsoft's presence in gaming as a long-term benefit to the brand, as the next generation of consumers and IT decision-makers become adults.

On the subject of the biggest threats to Microsoft, Mary Jo points out that Google remains a formidable (and perhaps underestimated) rival to Microsoft in cloud productivity software.

And then there’s Windows. What’s up with Microsoft’s flagship operating system? Is it truly “back,” as Microsoft would have you believe? Mary Jo has some thoughts … and some doubts.

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As Joe Biden settles into the Oval Office, tech companies in the Seattle region and elsewhere are watching with a sense of optimism to see what the new administration will mean for them and the industry. From the pandemic response to jobs to the climate, there's no shortage of critical issues for the new administration to address. And that has some experts believing that antitrust, content moderation and other regulatory crackdowns pursued by the prior administration might not be a priority in the initial phase of the new one. GeekWire contributing editor Monica Nickelsburg joins co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop to assess the issues ahead.

Produced by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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It was one of the most tumultuous years the country and the world have ever seen. And yet, as we reported on GeekWire last week, venture capital investments in the United States broke another record in 2020, topping $150 billion for the first time, according to Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association. In Seattle and across the Pacific Northwest, funding totals came in at $4.4 billion, up 15% year-over-year, according to GeekWire’s tally, derived from our running list of startup investments. 

What in the heck is going on? My colleague, GeekWire co-founder John Cook, put that question to Mike Davidson, a Seattle-based tech and media veteran who was Twitter’s vice president of design from 2012 to 2016, during the recording of our most recent GeekWire podcast episode. This portion of the conversation didn't make the final cut, but we found the analysis illuminating, so we're presenting it here as a bonus episode. 

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Twitter didn't set out to ban Donald Trump. The president gave it no choice.

That's the assessment from Mike Davidson, a Seattle-based tech and media veteran who was Twitter's vice president of design from 2012 to 2016, sharing his perspective  as the guest commentator on this week's show.

"This was something that many employees have wanted the company to do for a long time; I wanted the company to do this for a long time," Davidson said. "But the company itself is not out to get Donald Trump. If anything, they let him stick around on their platform for too long."

The breaking point was Trump's incitement of the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters.

"If you run one of these private companies, you have to ask yourself, 'Am I OK being complicit in an insurrection of the United States government? Am I OK with that?' ... The answer to that question has to be no," Davidson said. "There is no concept of of owning a platform and being able to stay neutral about something like that."

So what went wrong with social media? And where do we go from here? Those are some of the topics on this podcast discussion between Davidson and GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop.

Podcast produced and edited by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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Twitter's decision Friday to join Facebook in permanently suspending President Trump's account underscored the fundamental role of social media in one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. If it feels strange and unusual, that's because there's no historical precedent, neither in media nor the presidency.

"This has not happened before," says Margaret O’Mara, a historian, author and University of Washington professor, our guest commentator on this week's show.

"Particularly in the modern period, what the president says and does has always been covered, because it's always been newsworthy," said O'Mara, who specializes in the history of tech and politics. "Particularly as the presidency grew into becoming the most important job on the planet, and the U.S. was becoming a military and economic superpower, what the president said mattered -- it had credibility."

We also discuss the future of Seattle, Silicon Valley and other established tech hubs in the aftermath of the pandemic, a topic of O'Mara's recent New York Times opinion column, "California May Lose Some of Its Stars. But Silicon Valley Is Forever."

And we wrap the show with highlights from O'Mara's bookshelf: "Uncanny Valley," by Anna Wiener; "Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership," by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor; and "The Cigarette: A Political History," by Sarah Milov.

Produced and edited by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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When (and how) will we all return to the office? How can startups position themselves to succeed in 2021? Which innovations will define the coming year? And which technologies will be overhyped? Last week, we recapped the top stories of 2020. This week, we look ahead to anticipate the coming year in technology and innovation. Our guest commentator is computer scientist Peter Lee, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for research and incubations, one of several tech and business leaders based in the Seattle region who responded to a GeekWire survey about what to expect in the year ahead.

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