Category: Digital Political Economy

Inclusion: An ‘alternative platform model’ for the COVID era

Jonathan DonnerDigital Political Economy
An opportunity for inclusion? Digital platform innovation in times of crisis | The Social Enterprise Magazine – Pioneers Post
Numerous digital platforms have emerged as a go-to response to the Covid-19 crisis – building on conventional platform characteristics, but using alternative, more inclusive organisational models. Will they stick?

“The platform innovations which we observed emphasised values like openness, sharing, cooperation, and transparency. One illustration of this was Pflegesterne (Care Stars), which enables a network of health organisations to address together the shortage of nursing staff in care facilities and hospitals.” – Friederici, Meier & Aslan Gümüsay.

Change model at Pflegesterne: Organizational innovation and new business models

Assessing Estonia’s COVID-19 responses as an example of successful digitization

Jonathan DonnerDigital Political Economy
Lessons For The World On How Estonia’s Digital State Is Coping With Coronavirus
Coronavirus is shaking the world out of all sorts of complacencies. Governments’ capacity – or lack of it – is suddenly under the microscope, which is making the case for digital government reforms in the image of Estonia not just attractive, which they have always been, but vital.

“This is What State Capacity Looks Like”

Facebook links its (big) entry into e-commerce to the pandemic

Jonathan DonnerDigital Livelihoods, Digital Political Economy
Facebook launches Shops to bring more businesses online during the pandemic
A major new push into e-commerce will bring an Instagram shopping tab, shoppable live streams, and more. Facebook Shops begin rolling out today.

In a live stream, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said expanded e-commerce would be important to begin rebuilding the economy while the pandemic continues. “If you can’t physically open your store or restaurant, you can still take orders online and ship them to people,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of small businesses that never had online businesses get online for the first time.”

The big platforms may have an even bigger role in retail and e-commerce, after COVID-19

Change model: Seeing an opportunity, or sensing good timing for a move they have been developing for a while, a big player enters new part of the market.

Making working from home a permanent condition

Jonathan DonnerDigital Livelihoods, Digital Political Economy
Twitter Will Allow Employees To Work At Home Forever
Two months into working from home, Twitter makes it permanent for some.

Is this a trend other firms in tech will follow? Will there be similar moves in other sectors? We saw the term “remote-first” used in an article this week. Like “mobile first”, there is likely to be some momentum in this direction for a while.

BREAKING: After Axing 135 Staff, Andela Will Go Fully Remote & Give Jobs To Non-Employees
After cutting its staff base by 10 percent with the axing of 135 staff, Andela is going fully remote and giving jobs to non-employees.

Open Society Foundations’ response takes the long view

Jonathan DonnerDigital Livelihoods, Digital Political Economy, Identity and Privacy, Public Sphere
Going Big against COVID-19
“In this perilous moment, Open Society is committing more than $130 million to provide relief for communities who will suffer the greatest impact.”

“For many of us, the pandemic has underlined the challenges to our globalized world, and to the old ways of running our economies, posed by the existential threat of climate change. The current catastrophe also presents an opportunity—an opportunity to push for fundamental changes needed to build societies that are stronger and more resilient in addressing the challenges to come. I assure you that the Open Society Foundations will be an active participant in this search for a better world to emerge from the trauma of our present horror.”

Patrick Gaspard – Open Society Foundations

Mozilla COVID-19 Solutions Fund

Jonathan DonnerDigital Political Economy

“The Mozilla Open Source Support (MOSS) awards program, created in 2015, broadens access, increases security, and empowers users by providing catalytic funding to open source technologists.”

“Mozilla is announcing today the creation of a COVID-19 Solutions Fund as part of the Mozilla Open Source Support Program (MOSS). Through this fund, we will provide awards of up to $50,000 each to open source technology projects which are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in some way.”

MOSS launches COVID-19 Solutions Fund – The Mozilla Blog
Mozilla is announcing today the creation of a COVID-19 Solutions Fund as part of the Mozilla Open Source Support Program (MOSS). Through this fund, we will provide awards of up …

The change model implied by the organization’s action is that Open Source Software will continue to be an important part of the digital landscape, post-COVID-19, so it is important to encourage its use during the crisis.