Happy Emergency

This is an article I wrote published in The Isthmus in 2012 about a future vision for the Mifflin Neighborhood. The issue is still alive with the Downtown Plan still up for debate.

 

The greatest and greenest opportunity for the healthy growth of Madison is an area ignored for decades: West Mifflin Street.

In the center of the downtown are over four full blocks and seven partial adjacent blocks of deteriorating, poorly maintained housing that could become the most vibrant, green and exciting area of the city.

Built in the early 1900s as blue-collar housing, this area in the 400-500 blocks of West Mifflin slowly transitioned to student housing over the last half of the 20th century. The neighborhood’s cultural die was cast with the student movements of the Vietnam War, but today it has more in common with tailgating than counterculture.

As a neighborhood Mifflin is reasonably successful, but the opportunity cost of its land and location is staggering. We could prevent an amount of suburban sprawl equal in size and population to Middleton if Mifflin were allowed to redevelop carefully. The character and culture of Mifflin must be preserved, and we can do it while still creating housing and office space for 22,000 new downtown residents.

As a development precedent for a new Mifflin Street we need look no further than its cultural precedent: Greenwich Village. Bleecker Street or a West Village block party exhibits the same character as Mifflin, only more so. We can improve on this urban design and apply it to the Mifflin neighborhood.

Dense, green mixed-use redevelopment could allow tens of thousands more to walk to work in the new Mifflin neighborhood employment center, the downtown or university. Dense, affordable multi-unit housing uses less material, less energy and far less land than single-family homes. Having more people downtown exponentially improves local businesses and increases the efficiency of infrastructure.

With 22,000 more residents within easy walking distance, the Mifflin Co-op wouldn’t have closed.

The Vietnam War of today’s generation of college student is the environmental movement, and once again the Mifflin neighborhood is on the front lines. It isn’t as sexy as bioreactors or electric cars, but dense green development has unequaled environmental benefits. The values and ideals from the ‘60s and ‘70s shouldn’t be sealed in an urban display case; they should be lived.

staff:

Yesterday we did a historic thing. We generated 87,834 phone calls to U.S. Representatives in a concerted effort to protect the Internet. Extraordinary. There’s no doubt that we’ve been heard.

So just to keep you updated: The well-intentioned, but immensely flawed “Stop Online Piracy Act” is still in the House Judiciary Committee. The hearing was yesterday and now members will debate and bring amendments to the bill. The Committee will reconvene in a few weeks — the date has yet to be scheduled. Nothing has been brought to a final vote. Everything is still very much in play. We’ll keep you posted on what’s going on and what you can do to help. But for now, we want to thank you.

One encouraging thing we heard yesterday:

I don’t believe this bill has any chance on the House floor. I think it’s way too extreme, it infringes on too many areas that our leadership will know is simply too dangerous to do in its current form.

— Representative Darrell Issa

We also want to express our tremendous gratitude to our friends at Mobile Commons who, on 30 minutes notice, hooked us up with their amazing platform (and provided their expertise) to automatically connect callers with their Representatives.

ourballotbox:

Huge. Embarrassing. We’ve very very sorry. Apparently, Anonymous votes weren’t being counted in the vote totals. Terrible, right?

It’s fixed now, and all of the 1,085 anonymous votes are now correctly counted. This was a hard message to write, but not a hard message to decide to write. Even…

Startup advice from Machiavelli

I had an amazing time at 94labs launch day at the shiny new Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. There were some really impressive startups. My highlights below. And of course sign up for these sweet betas.
 
Shindig 
Great idea: Like a Kickstarter for concerts, with Shindig you can pre-pay for a potential band+venue. If enough people pay it’s a no-brainer for the band and venue, and of course you only pay if the show actually happens. Really a cool idea, not only for the obvious reason of better delivering bands to needy fans, but it would also give a much stronger sense of ownership to the fans that effectively organized it. You can’t be a superfan anymore unless you made the concert. Their UI video is killer, but you’d have to be an investor to see it until they launch. Really cool social potential for mashup-happenings.

Circuit
Simple idea but powerful: Online, collaborative circuit design with a PRINT button and a credit card slot. Why solder all that junk together when you and your friends can design your own circuit boards online (maybe with some public feedback, no?) and for a few quid have it shipped to you in days. Makers rejoice.

Data Check Pro
This might not seem like the sexiest product but a shit-ton of food gets thrown away at grocery stories with expired inventory. With Data Check Pro, grocers can do dead simple inventory checking and tracking to mark down and move waning goods. Real saved food. Real recovered sales. Real simple.


Jawnt
The most interesting and creative of the batch, Jawnt took me a few minutes to fully grok. Like an airbnb for insider tours on demand, Jawnt creates an entire new market, both supply and latent demand. Next time you go to Paris, on Jawnt you can browse the profiles of freelance Parisian tour guides all pitching different types of tours. So for maybe €10 you could get a serial entrepreneur to give you a walking tour of a startup-heavy area and introduce you to friends. Or a pastry chef to show you around their favorite patisseries. This could transform tourism overnight. But guys, you gotta improve the message! I think the concept of on demand insider personal tours would be thematically good marketing to explore. In fact maybe move away from the word “tour” entirely. Jawnt is more insider club guide than follow-the-fat-lady-with-the-red-umbrella tour. And make that symmetrical reputation system sing, you’re not a platform you’re a content provider.

It was a good day for startups, a good day for Madison, and an increasingly normal day for Madison startups. By the way, did you read about the itunes-killer, murfie, in the Wall Street Journal? I know where you’re buying your next album.

When I heard the news this morning about Google buying Motorola Mobile I got excited. As a designer, the potential to finally compete with Apple for high-end devices is something we’ve all been hoping for. But what really has me excited is the possible social and environmental benefits if Google were to make gPhones (forgive the portmanteau) rentable as they do with Chromebooks.

We, humanity, have a consumer waste problem. Electronic waste, an increasingly share of which is from cell phones, is a huge part of that. By following the Chromebook model instead of the Apple model, Google would shift social norms and economic incentives toward sustainability.

Improved Economic Incentives
Hardware
From an economic perspective, changing from a business model based on initial purchase to renting shifts incentives from short term to long term. When profit is determined by initial purchase, as long as the device can clear the warranty period the manufacturer has no direct financial impact from short device lifespans. Brand image is the only reason devices generally outlast their warranties.

If manufactures rent their devices, their financial incentives shift dramatically. The biggest shift is that their profits now rely on the longevity of the device. The longer the device remains fully functional, the greater their profits. The shift to renting also moves reuse and recyclability incentives from (largely) marketing to directly impacting profit. When a device is no longer commercially viable to rent, that device becomes a resource to the manufacturer. If they can reuse any of the components that will help their bottom line. If they can efficiently recycle components that will help their bottom line. While pleasant things like morals and image play a role in corporate behavior, almost all major decisions in the business world are made based on economic incentives, and shifting from a selling to a renting business model will have unparalleled impact.

Contrast the renting economic incentives above with Apple and the iPhone. While they make money from many areas in the iPhone ecosystem, the sale of the phone itself is their greatest cost and opportunity for profit. iPhones come with a 1-year warranty, and cost $70 to increase their warrantied life by a single year. And they, like most OEMs, won’t offer a warranty beyond 2 years because there isn’t a financially viable way to insure the product for a 3rd year at a rate that would be reasonable and marketable. This is a shocking admission of the projected short lifespan of the device that we’ve become numb to due to the lack of alternative.

Software
With a rental business model, each new gPhone release will cause price differentiation between newer and older gPhones. Would you pay an extra $6 a month for the new model over the previous? Some will, some won’t. Either way, the business model creates incentives to make the device more appealing in the long term. Once the hardware is created it’s continued appeal relies on software. This is one area Google has excelled at. They are continually expanding and adding features to almost all of their software products, which are almost always free. As Google marketing correctly trumpets, their products do get better over time.

Contrast this with Apple. Free increased functionality is dolled out sparingly in favor of major new OS releases which often must be purchased. When new OSs are rolled out, the list of unsupported devices can include products barely two years old.

Improved Social Incentives
From a social perspective, switching from selling to renting will have a broad impact. Today, we live in a gadget culture dominated by Apple and their annual introduction of a model and discontinuation (with rare exception) of a previous years model. Their marketing tells us the newest product isn’t an incremental improvement over last years, it’s a revolution. To a great extent this is how you market to humans; we like shiny. But they’re surprisingly short on marketing that sells *owning* an iPhone/Mac vs. *owning the newest* iPhone/Mac. If you look at almost every other durable-good electronics company they market a lot more ads about their brand and continued value of their products over time. Apple is also by far the most aggressive at discontinuing previously model. Besides the social cue that your old model is no longer relevant, the forced cessation of a product model shrinks the viability of that model’s market.

A rental business model would shift marketing for prioritizing the newest model to prioritizing the absolute utility of owning that type of phone. Sure, new gPhones will have great fanfare, but I bet it will be done in a way that strengthens the value of older phones instead of being at their expense: “Look at this exciting new addition to the ecosystem, that will increase the utility of all members of the ecosystem”.

tl;dr Summary
Renting phones instead of selling will create economic incentives for higher quality phones with greater lifespans and more reusable/recyclable components. Despite not owning the OEMs, Google is already pushing this with Chromebooks. If they did the same with gPhones the environmental impact would be huge. Maybe as significant, the move could help push consumer culture away from overvaluing a product’s relative newness and toward placing greater value on its absolute utility. Combined, the impact could be world-changing.

If you’re a social entrepreneur that wants to change the world with your org, you almost certainly want to go with either a B corp or a non-profit. 

Non-Profit or B Corp?

1. Is your venture scalable, i.e. probably *not* a “lifestyle business”?
2. Will you likely need investors that will require an exit or liquidity event?

If your answer to either of those is no, a non-profit is probably best.

If your answer to either is yes, your business is scalable or you will likely need investors; a B corp may be the best option.

B Labs’ B Corp vs. State B Corps

When people talk about B corps there are actually two different definitions that can lead to some confusion. B corps (Benefit Corporations) are legally defined corporate entities that are required to provide some sort of public benefit, as recognized in five states at the time of this writing: Vermont, Maryland, Hawaii, Virginia, and New Jersey.

Those legally defined B corps require some form of 3rd party independent social benefit audit, a service B Labs (http://www.bcorporation.net/) provides, but using B Labs isn’t required to be a B corp. 

When some people use the phrase B corp they are referring to a B Labs certified B Corp, which from a legal perspective may still actually be an S or C corp! In that sense a B Labs B Corp is a sort of brand or certification. The B Labs’ version of B Corps came first, and some people may not be aware of the new legal structure offered by states, which leads to the confusion.

Your B corp doesn’t necessarily have to work with B Labs, but they do seem to be the biggest provider of the auditing service that I’m aware of.

I’m not a lawyer, but forming as a state recognized B corp will likely give you better legal protections (whether or not you use B Labs for your audits) than a B Labs certification on top of a S/C corp.

Ultimately the purpose of a B corp is to protect a do-gooding company from being sued by a profit-centric shareholder. If that happens it’s better to have a state law AND a contract on your side than just a contract alone.

3 Returns, 18-22 Calls and Hundreds of Hours Without a Working Phone

I purchased an HTC EVO 4G Android just over a year ago in mid June. It worked perfectly for about the first 4 months, then it started crash-restarting regularly when it was hot, sometimes repeatedly restarting until you pulled the battery out. After some thorough troubleshooting, it seemed clear the problem was with the hardware.

In late December I called HTC and started 5 months of the worst customer service experience of my life. I’ve dealt with a lot of computer customer support; I’ve had graphics cards replaced from a Toshiba and a custom workstation, a CPU replaced from my 09’ unibody MacBook Pro, an iPhone replaced and a Motorola RAZR 3i replaced. My initially customer service experience with HTC seemed pretty typical, maybe a little worse than usual due to the need to bring Sprint into the conversation (Sprint covers the battery, not HTC). I sent my phone in for servicing and assumed all would be set to right. I was wrong.

The phone came back in a cute box that said “All Good”, with a thumbs up drawing. At first I thought they gave me an entirely new phone due to the absence of a minor LCD blemish I hadn’t even mentioned to support. Much later I learned that the screen and motherboard were replaced. One thing that wasn’t replaced was whatever was causing the chain restarting. Frustrating. I had gone without my only phone for about two weeks, paying shipping one way, and it was still broken.

I called HTC again and basically restarted the customer support process from the beginning. I was vexed, but not yet overly upset. I really liked Android and HTC, partly because I’m a fan of HTC’s great cycling team, and I just wanted a working phone so I didn’t make a big deal out of their second failure (the first was selling me a defective phone). After talking with HTC again, once again explaining the problem in great detail, I was told to send it in again. I did. This time, at least, I didn’t have to pay for shipping.

The phone was shipped back to me for the second time in the familiar “All Good” box. With a sense of dread I started using the phone anticipating crashing and chain restarting. I wasn’t disappointed. Without fail I was able to crash the phone causing it to chain restart with just some moderate usage after recharging the battery. Now I was truly upset.

Calling HTC yet again, I explained the problem in great detail to multiple people, I was asked to send it in again. That’s right. After failing to fix the problem with two attempts, HTC wanted me to send it in for a third time. That’s when I started to get really angry. I said no. I told them that Einstein defined insanity as expecting a different result from the same action, and thank you but I’m not insane. How many times do I need to send it in for it to actually get fixed? How many times do I need to send it in before we find another solution to this problem? I knew the answer to that one: two. I had been without a phone for around a month, and couldn’t be without one for another few weeks. I politely stated that we’ve tried to fix the problem twice using HTC’s procedures, and they failed. To solve the problem, HTC needed to send me a new EVO to use while I sent in my defective unit. That’s when tech support transferred me to their warranty group.

Once again I had the joy of explaining in great detail the problem with the phone and the growing list of conversations and attempted remediation. When it was again suggested I send the phone in for a third time, I explained the only option that would work for me: a replacement phone while the defective phone is being fixed. When the warranty staff said that wasn’t an option I asked to speak with their superior.

Once again I told the whole spiel to another person, this time a warranty support manager. The manager’s position was that no, my proposal would not happen. She went further to say that since the phone passed their automated “burn test”, as far as the warranty was concerned there was nothing wrong with the phone. I was incredulous. I tried to reason with her by asking questions about the “burn test” and suggesting why the circumstances could miss the problem since it’s heat related. She stonewalled and restated that the burn test is the only test of whether or not the phone is broken. So if the phone chain restarts and is unusable for hours, that’s not broken? More stonewalling. By the end of the conversation I think she was more upset than I was and I felt wholly defeated. I wish I had written down her name; she has no place anywhere near customers, and probably nowhere near coworkers. If anyone at HTC is reading this, I had the conversation around mid February (I think). If you have a recording of the call please scrutinize it.


So I gave up, at least for the moment. I wasn’t willing to give up my (mostly working) phone for two more weeks to have it *maybe* fixed. And after speaking with someone at what I thought was a reasonably high level, I ran smack into their lack of reasonableness.

Defeated, I resolved to give it another try, maybe in early June before the warranty gave out, and aid my case with a video of the behavior. My plan accelerated around April when the EVO started to crash and chain restart with much greater frequency initiated with much less heat. It was becoming increasingly unusable, to the point where it spent more time cooling down with the battery out than it did in use.

I made a video, posted it to youtube, and called HTC. Once again I explained the situation to multiple people, they seemed to have some case notes, but not exhaustive. The video seemed to make a huge difference; now I was being forwarded to someone “from corporate”. After about a week of being bounced around to different people, I was forwarded to some high level person named Joe. He had his own phone number, which he gave me, a 425 area code that seems likely to be HTC’s American headquarters. Apart from wasting a little bit of my time sending me a third battery to try and a day of diagnosis in Safe Mode, Joe sent me a new EVO and a shipping slip to return my defective phone.

On Friday, June 10th, I finally received a fully functioning HTC EVO 4G. It took over 5 months, between 18-22 long calls to HTC (and a few to Sprint), explaining the problem in great detail to maybe 10-15 people, and easily hundreds of hours without a working phone. All to fix a defective phone under warranty with HTC.

My question to you, Internet: Is there anyway HTC can make this right? I’m a turn the other cheek, an eye for an eye leaves the world blind, forgive and forget kind of guy. I’m loathe to suggest anyone is ever “owed” anything. But at this point merely getting a functioning EVO back doesn’t feel like I was made whole. So much of my time, effort, and frustration was expended just to achieve *the minimum* level of service required by a manufacturer. And what’s worse, I bet 90% of customers that had the same problem wouldn’t have gone to the lengths necessary to have their phone fixed. It took a lot of time and patience, regularly feeling like I was hitting my head against a wall.

I want to like HTC. As a designer their phones (sometimes) have *some* design sensibility. I really love Android and HTC has been a big part of it’s ascendancy, through both its hardware and Sense filling a void in the polish early Android lacked. And I’m still a huge fan of their bike team. And despite the problems, *when it worked* I really liked my EVO, maybe more than the iPhone I sold it for. It would be difficult for me not to feel somewhat victimized by HTC, but I’m certainly open to any grand gestures. Send me a new phone once a year and I’ll even write a review of them!

But in all seriousness, this saga is still unfinished. I haven’t yet heard back from HTC since I last talked to Joe 12 days ago. I don’t know what the technical defect was with my phone. I don’t even know if the new EVO I’m now using is mine to keep or if it’s just a loaner until my phone is fixed. I don’t really care which as long as I have a working EVO at the end and some sense of closure.

How HTC decides to end this chapter will determine my judgement of the company, though at this point it’s difficult to imagine myself having an ultimately positive feeling about the episode.

The ball is in your court, HTC. Internet, in your court of public opinion, how do you rule?

UPDATED 5/28: I received a shipping notification that my phone has been repaired and is being returned to me. I guess this means the phone I was sent was a truly a loaner.