Comments on: What Doesn’t the Valley Understand About Washington?

By: manual forum posting

manual forum posting — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:16:00 +0000

About your statement I am bit curious.
“ Two of the largest e-commerce companies in the world have a sum total of eight people in DC, I was told by a well-placed source.”
How come two largest e-commerce companies have only 8 people?
About online privace act, I know, Sopa kicked some file hosting owners like megaupload founder, yes valley is too much strict on this now.

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By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:05:00 +0000

agfd

By: A Coachella “Fail-ble”: Do We Hold Spectrum in Common? | John Battelle's Search Blog

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:53:33 +0000

[...] I wrote yesterday, I recently spent some time in Washington DC, and sat down with the Obama administration’s [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:42:00 +0000

Glad you found this post and please stay in touch and keep us informed of your progress!

By: Michael McGeary

Michael McGeary — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:37:00 +0000

John, this was a fascinating take. Thank you, first, for venturing to Washington and also for distilling your thoughts so clearly. Your take is exactly what I’m finding as I help start up an organization called Engine Advocacy, which is meant to leverage the ideas, personalities and stories from the emerging tech community and band them together to make a difference on policies that matter in Washington. What we have found, and as you discuss, is that while privacy and copyright issues may dominate the debate, it’s interesting to see that, building off the SOPA momentum, the impact working with Washington can have on the everyday lives of founders, entrepreneurs and startup companies with issues like immigration or financial regulation or patent. We’re working to gather more good data from our growing community and also build relationships of trust (thus avoiding the “us vs. them” mentality you speak about) between the startup community (especially beyond the Valley) and those in government so that we can change the perception of what our companies do, how they do it, the ideas we have and can share to make better policies, and how we can all work together to make America better. The very first step in that process is, as you lay out here, simply having a conversation. We’re working to have more conversations and keep people engaged, and it’s great to see more people getting involved in the process to help deepen that understanding.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:59:00 +0000

Good point. For readers, a search on CISPA: http://www.bing.com/search?setmkt=en-US&q=CISPA

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:34:00 +0000

Very well put, David. I think we do stand at a crossroads. And I agree, this industry can lead or not. I want it to lead.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:10:00 +0000

Thanks for the kind words, Leon, keep on!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:55:00 +0000

Interesting John. I think the Valley is not really serious about Washington. I think the Valley is simply too self-absorbed and believes too strongly that what they do is ultimately what matters in this world. What they do is important. But people in this country tend to greatly overestimate their contribution and greatly underestimate the contribution of their environment and their engagement with others in that environment. And I think they may think in terms of technical approaches when our challenges in Washington aren’t, by and large, technical. I think the famous line, “we could send a man to the moon but we still had starving children in this country” sums it up for me. Just because you can create iPads and iPhones and become billionaires doesn’t mean you can address all challenges that way.

The Valley, like Buffett, is in an ideal position to counter all the nonsense that doing well in business means having the weakest government possible. Stanford’s funding and activities are dependent in so many cases from funding from the federal government and areas that may not have immediate payoffs. Who better than the Valley folks to speak to this? Is it not in the Valley’s long-term interest to see infrastructure issues addressed? What if the folks that met with Obama at Doerr’s house spoke out and said we need to pay for what we have committed to, we need to act collectively in some places (like global warming), and the government may be imperfect but it is us. It would help. And it is our future (and the future of the kids of those who live in the Valley).

I think the fiscal challenges we face will, over the long term affect the Silicon Valley. I’m not sure how they cannot. We are at a stalemate. Who better to rip through the arguments about business being hurt by raising taxes than, well, the titans of the Valley? I mean, I gather that a good portion of the Valley was built from government funding. The rest of the country needs the celebrities of the Valley to point this out again and again and again. They have a duty, in my view.

Finally, I agree with Steve Wildstrom. Stopping legislation is one thing. Our system is designed to make it extremely difficult to pass legislation. So passing it, is quite another thing. It was a victory. But when the Valley is able to get such a controversial piece of legislation passed then I think they will have a more impressive victory.