Dave Sobel

Episode 13 – Social Media Moderation and Money

Dave was off to New Zealand when we recorded Episode 13. So Ryan and Karl took on three topics on our own. Dave will be back next week. We kick off with a discussion of social media moderation. In particular, why does one social media outlet (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) leave material up while…

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Episode 12 – Breaking Up (Amazon and Facebook) is Hard To Do

We start off arguing about whether to investigate and breaks up some of the big online services. Listen for Dave’s challenge to the listeners! Next up, we jump into the following article from the MIT Technology Review: Revising DNS to include Blockchain. Questions include: Is there a problem that needs to be solved? Does anarchy…

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Episode 11 – Technology in Schools and Space

Topics here include technology in schools, Windows 7 EOL, and SpaceX. Technology in schools has become more important than ever, but the “digital divide” is getting worse. Some districts have amazing, cutting edge programs while others are struggling…

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Episode 10 – Benevolence vs. Malevolence in Technology

A follow-up to the topic we started last week. We kick off with a discussion about ethics in emerging technology. Ethics need to be both internal and outward-facing. And the sooner ethics enters the discussion, the better. Inventors don’t normally consider the evil possibilities in their creations right from the start. At what point should…

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Episode 9 – The Dark Side of Emerging Technology

We kick off Episode 9 with our pet peeve slides from the front of the room. Give us your feedback: If you could eliminate one slide forever, what would it be? … Wherein Ryan admits he has used more than his share of data slides … leaving fewer slides for the rest of us. From…

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Episode 8 – Business Models, Terminology, and Emerging Technology

Ryan sent us a blog post that just didn’t hit home with him. Dave breaks it into three pieces and then shreds it. Wherein we note that The Google can’t lie. Then we slip into a very serious discussion of business models and business model generation. Book: Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game…

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Episode 7 – Do You Become Dumber When You Work for a Vendor?

Ryan is wandering off with a client this week (or feeling sick or some such nonsense), so Dave and Karl conspired to riff on the IT industry without his perspective. Dave asks the question, “Did I become dumber when I went to work for a vendor?” Sometimes IT service providers assume that anyone who works…

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Episode 6 – Is the Term MSP Still Useful?

Dave kicks us off with some notes about emerging technologies and how soon we might be able to find business opportunities. Ryan posits that the term “Managed Service Provider” isn’t useful to customers. And of course that leads to a discussion of “cloud” and the use of terminology over time. There follows a detailed discussion…

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Episode 5 – Drones Aren’t Just Drone

Dave kicks us off with the reality of Drones being legalized in Rural Virginia. Alphabet (Google) has been granted license to allow drone delivery services in rural delivery. But don’t run out and buy one, thinking you’ll be able to fly it anywhere and make a bunch of money. Before you do that, go learn…

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Episode IV – A New Hope for IT

The fun continues! Thanks to everyone who downloaded, listened, and shared the Killing IT podcasts. We would love your feedback, questions, and comments. See the form. Is AI ruining search results? Should we have paid search options with better results? What constitutes “best practice” in our industry? Is it just “most common” practice? And does…

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