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Here's What Netflix's New 'Culture Memo' Says About How the Company Has Changed
Kristin Snyder
Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Netflix promised change after its poor first-quarter earnings. One of the first targets: the Netflix Culture document.
The changes, which Variety reported on Thursday, indicate a new focus on fiscal responsibility and concern about censorship. While promises to support honest feedback and open decision-making remain, the memo’s first update in almost five years reveals that the days of lax spending are over. The newly added “artistic expression” section emphasizes Netflix’s refusal to censor its work and implores employees to support the platform’s content.
The “artistic expression” section states that the company will not “censor specific artists or voices” and specifies that employees may have to work on content “they perceive to be harmful.” The memo points to ratings, content warnings and parental controls as ways for users to determine what is appropriate content.
Censorship has been a contentious issue within Netflix. Last year, employees walked out in protest after the company stood by comedian Dave Chappelle’s special, “The Closer,” which many said was transphobic. The streaming service has since announced four more specials from the comedian, who was attacked on stage at Netflix’s first comedy festival. The show will not air on the platform, as Netflix did not tape the event.
The reaction to Chappelle’s 2021 special ripples further in the updated memo. After firing an employee who leaked how much the company paid for the special, the new “ethical expectations” section directs employees to protect company information.
The memo also reflects pressure borught by poor first-quarter earnings. Employees are now instructed to “spend our members’ money wisely,” and Variety reported that earlier passages that indicated a lack of spending limits were cut. Variety also found that the updated memo removed promises that the company would not make employees take pay cuts in the face of Netflix’s own financial struggles.
These updates come as employee morale has reportedly dropped and editorial staffers at the Netflix website TuDum were laid off en masse. Those employees were offered two weeks of severance pay—and Netflix has now cut a section in the memo promising four months of full pay as severance.
As the company that literally wrote the book on corporate culture faces internal struggles, it's unlikely that making employees take on more responsibility while prioritizing corporate secrecy and discouraging content criticism will improve morale.
Kristin Snyder
Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
https://twitter.com/ksnyder_db
LA is the Third-Largest Startup Ecosystem in the US
02:00 PM | February 17, 2022
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
Los Angeles is now the third-largest startup market in the U.S.—with nearly 4,000 venture-backed startups calling the City of Angels home, according to a new report from venture capital firm Telstra Ventures.
On Wednesday, San Francisco-based Telstra released its second annual “Tech’s Great Migration” report, highlighting trends across the country’s “emerging tech hubs.” While the report highlights the impressive growth of emerging tech markets like Miami and Houston, it also shows how L.A. has established itself as No. 3 behind the tech megahubs of the San Francisco Bay Area and New York.
Los Angeles is now home to around 3,800 venture-backed companies, according to Telstra, with only the aforementioned Bay Area (approximately 13,000) and New York (approximately 7,500) having larger startup ecosystems. L.A. saw 20% growth, year-on-year, in its number of VC-backed startups last year—outstripping both the Bay Area and New York, but behind faster-growing markets like Miami (44%), Houston (34%) and St. Louis (31%).
The number of venture capital investments into L.A. startups, meanwhile, increased 83% year-on-year, to nearly 1,200. While that growth number also lagged behind rapidly expanding markets like Miami (260%) and Houston (165%), Los Angeles still had the third-highest total number of VC investments in 2021, according to Telstra, behind the Bay Area and New York.
Nationally, startups dealing in blockchain technology saw a particularly sharp jump (182%) in VC deal volume last year—though the total number of blockchain investments (nearly 600) still lagged behind more established sectors like enterprise software, health tech and fintech. L.A. saw a 188% increase in blockchain VC deals in 2021, with nearly 50 such investments; only the Bay Area (over 200) and New York (over 150) had more. (Telstra noted that Miami had by far the highest spike in blockchain VC deals, with more than 2,000% growth; however, the South Florida metropolis still trailed considerably behind the top-three markets in total number of deals.)
Behind blockchain firms, mobile and consumer startups saw the second-most investment growth (93%) in the Los Angeles region, followed by logistics and industrial tech (85%), educational tech (79%) and fintech (76%).
Despite new emerging markets across the country, Telstra’s data indicates that VC funding still gravitates toward established coastal markets. More than half of all U.S. venture capital investments flowed to the Bay Area and New York last year, followed by Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, Austin, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and Denver.
The report marks the second consecutive year that Telstra has documented growth across U.S. startup markets, following its initial 2020 report. The San Francisco-based VC firm’s L.A. tech investments include esports outfit Team SoloMid, Playa Vista-based network platform Subspace and Omaze, a charity sweepstakes platform headquartered in Culver City.
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Samson Amore
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
https://twitter.com/samsonamore
samsonamore@dot.la
Here's How To Get a Digital License Plate In California
03:49 PM | October 14, 2022
Photo by Clayton Cardinalli on Unsplash
Thanks to a new bill passed on October 5, California drivers now have the choice to chuck their traditional metal license plates and replace them with digital ones.
The plates are referred to as “Rplate” and were developed by Sacramento-based Reviver. A news release on Reviver’s website that accompanied the bill’s passage states that there are “two device options enabling vehicle owners to connect their vehicle with a suite of services including in-app registration renewal, visual personalization, vehicle location services and security features such as easily reporting a vehicle as stolen.”
Reviver Auto Current and Future CapabilitiesFrom Youtube
There are wired (connected to and powered by a vehicle’s electrical system) and battery-powered options, and drivers can choose to pay for their plates monthly or annually. Four-year agreements for battery-powered plates begin at $19.95 a month or $215.40 yearly. Commercial vehicles will pay $275.40 each year for wired plates. A two-year agreement for wired plates costs $24.95 per month. Drivers can choose to install their plates, but on its website, Reviver offers professional installation for $150.
A pilot digital plate program was launched in 2018, and according to the Los Angeles Times, there were 175,000 participants. The new bill ensures all 27 million California drivers can elect to get a digital plate of their own.
California is the third state after Arizona and Michigan to offer digital plates to all drivers, while Texas currently only provides the digital option for commercial vehicles. In July 2022, Deseret News reported that Colorado might also offer the option. They have several advantages over the classic metal plates as well—as the L.A. Times notes, digital plates will streamline registration renewals and reduce time spent at the DMV. They also have light and dark modes, according to Reviver’s website. Thanks to an accompanying app, they act as additional vehicle security, alerting drivers to unexpected vehicle movements and providing a method to report stolen vehicles.
As part of the new digital plate program, Reviver touts its products’ connectivity, stating that in addition to Bluetooth capabilities, digital plates have “national 5G network connectivity and stability.” But don’t worry—the same plates purportedly protect owner privacy with cloud support and encrypted software updates.
5 Reasons to avoid the digital license plate | Ride TechFrom Youtube
After the Rplate pilot program was announced four years ago, some raised questions about just how good an idea digital plates might be. Reviver and others who support switching to digital emphasize personalization, efficient DMV operations and connectivity. However, a 2018 post published by Sophos’s Naked Security blog pointed out that “the plates could be as susceptible to hacking as other wireless and IoT technologies,” noting that everyday “objects – things like kettles, TVs, and baby monitors – are getting connected to the internet with elementary security flaws still in place.”
To that end, a May 2018 syndicated New York Times news service article about digital plates quoted the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which warned that such a device could be a “‘honeypot of data,’ recording the drivers’ trips to the grocery store, or to a protest, or to an abortion clinic.”
For now, Rplates are another option in addition to old-fashioned metal, and many are likely to opt out due to cost alone. If you decide to go the digital route, however, it helps if you know what you could be getting yourself into.
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Steve Huff
Steve Huff is an Editor and Reporter at dot.LA. Steve was previously managing editor for The Metaverse Post and before that deputy digital editor for Maxim magazine. He has written for Inside Hook, Observer and New York Mag. Steve is the author of two official tie-ins books for AMC’s hit “Breaking Bad” prequel, “Better Call Saul.” He’s also a classically-trained tenor and has performed with opera companies and orchestras all over the Eastern U.S. He lives in the greater Boston metro area with his wife, educator Dr. Dana Huff.
steve@dot.la
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