The Big Tech Show

This week, Adrian looks at whether buying digital art through NFTs (‘non-fungible tokens’) is for suckers or savvy collectors. He’s joined by Lory Kehoe, adjunct associate professor at Trinity Business School and director of digital assets at BNY Mellon.

The discussion looks at the recent $69m auction sale at Christie’s for an NFT-linked digital canvas, as well as the $2.9m sale of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet via NFT and the growing prominence of Ireland’s own Kevin Abosch, who has sold over €1m in NFT digital art in the last month.
What exactly do you own when you buy a piece of art via NFT? What’s to stop someone simply copying it at the click of a button? And where does it all fit in to the growth of crypto-currencies and blockchain?

The two also look at the IPO of Coinbase and ask whether it’s worth the extraordinary valuation.

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“10 years ago, we were sitting around drinking coffee and talking about Facebook and Twitter. Then we just decided to start doing things. Last month, one of our local startups IPO’d at $4bn.”

This week, Adrian sits down to chat with Clark Dever, one of the senior ecosystem heads at Techstars, the international startup accelerator organisation.

Clark tells Adrian about the experience of Buffalo, a rust-belt city in a high-tax state (New York).

The two discuss everything from incentives to tax rates and what startups should really do to get some funding and connections in place.

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This week, Adrian talks to Markham Nolan, the WWE’s VP of Media Operations.

The Dubliner is responsible for managing a social media footprint of over 1bn followers as well as being influential in the WWE’s overall media strategy.

The two talk about how Markham’s past in Irish journalism and Storyful. They also go through how and what the WWE prioritises in its online and media operations.

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This week, Adrian looks at the best webcams, cameras, lights and microphones for video-conferencing and Zoom calls from home.

He’s joined by two experts — well known YouTuber and content creator Clare Cullen (@Clisare) and a director of Conns Cameras, Bob Conn.

The panel also talks about how to set up so as to look professional.

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This week, Adrian welcomes back Paul Campbell, founder of the ticket-selling company Ti.to and the online event platform Vi.to.

Fresh from raising over €1m, Paul talks politics, ethics and how to sell software.

He also discusses the best camera, microphone and lighting setups for conferencing from home.

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This week, Adrian sits down with the veteran Irish tech marketer, Kieran Hannon, who has just taken a CMO job with the clean air firm WellAir.

Hannon is a 35-year survivor of Silicon Valley’s tech industry, with some big roles to show for it. He was chief marketer for Radioshack before moving on to a similar role in Belkin. A stint in Openpath preceded his appointment as marketing chief in the Bill McCabe-backed WellAir.

The two talk about survivability, tech marketing, retail, identities and a host of other topics.

The Big Tech Show is in association with Sky Broadband.

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This week, Adrian chats to Damien Burns, Europe’s top person with Amazon-owned Twitch, the giant live streaming platform.

While it dominates online streams of video games, Damian says that it’s now aiming farther afield, to lifestyle stuff.

Adrian asks about the market for watching sleeping videos and how much money you can make when sharing your Fortnite or Grand Theft Auto sessions live.

The two also talk about player bans, competing with TV stations and why US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) sometimes uses the platform to communicate.

For more visit the Big Tech Show page:
www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/

The Big Tech Show is in association with Sky Broadband.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s guest is Helen Dixon, Europe’s most powerful tech regulator. She and Adrian talk about Facebook, Whatsapp, fines, Brexit, data rights and a whole host of other things.

Among the revelations are that Whatsapp will not be sharing more data with Facebook in the EU anytime soon.

Helen Dixon says that there has “been no progress” between Facebook and the Irish regulator on seeking allowance for Facebook to integrate Whatsapp with Facebook in a closer way, as it is poised to do in the US.
The tech giant has been trying for years to find a way to make more money out of its subsidiary, which has tighter privacy controls than the tech giant’s main social platform.

But Ms Dixon’s office has steadfastly refused to allow cross-sharing of data across the EU, citing a lack of satisfactory explanation from Facebook around the legal basis of the data sharing.

“I don't doubt that Facebook hasn't given up on the idea of the data sharing,” she said. “But nonetheless, there has been no progress in terms of WhatsApp convincing the DPC that as the controller of the data of users of WhatsApp, it should share it with Facebook. And they've made no substantive approach to us. So it really hasn't progressed. There's no sharing of EU user data between the controllers.”

Last month, Whatsapp saw 20m users leave for rival messaging apps when it informed users outside the EU that they needed to agree to Whatsapp sharing more account information with Facebook for the ultimate purpose of cross-service advertising.

Helen Dixon is talking to Adrian on the same day that her office published its annual report, outlining several investigations and data breach statistics.

For more visit the Big Tech Show page:
https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/

The Big Tech Show is in association with Sky Broadband.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian sits down with Carolan Lennon to talk through some of the major issues failing Eir.

It’s been a tricky few months for the company, which has attracted white hot criticism over its customer service levels during the pandemic.
It’s also been a successful period in other ways, with its GoMo budget service hoovering up an unusual number of customers (250,000) in just a year, forcing the hand of rivals Three (48) and Vodafone (Clear Mobile).

Adrian goes through the topics, including a personal hobby horse: why operators here persist with the term “unlimited data” when fair use limits still apply.

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Escooter rental firms are lining up to launch here: at
least five firms have declared their intention to do so.

This week, Adrian sits down with Lawrence Leuschner, the founder and CEO of Europe’s biggest firm — Tier. It operates in 90 European cities and wants to launch here.

Adrian asks the questions that many will have: where will they be parked? How much will they cost to hire? And will we see ads urging us to ‘ride’?

Tier joins others in looking at a launch in Ireland after Communications Minister Ryan said he plans to remove the requirement for tax, insurance and a driver’s licence. Instead of motorbikes, escooters are to be reclassified as ‘powered personal transporters’.

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