Transcripts For CSPAN2 After Words With Steve Case 20160502

CSPAN2 After Words With Steve Case May 2, 2016

Donald trump is at the 40000foot level. Hes very punchy, concepts, he doesnt necessarily offer a detailed substance behind it but he talks about this is my commitment and im going to do this, you can make this work im gonna win itll be great. People are are responding to that in the primaries. So its interesting to see how that will work out if donald trump is the nominee does he switch to a ground game like is describing going red or does he try to state that 40000foot level and see if he can bring in people through sheer messaging and celebrity status alone. Its an interesting test. And marcys new book, called going read. The 2,000,000 voters who will elect the next president and how conservatives can win. This is book deviancy spent to. Cspan, created by americas Cable Television companies and brought to you as a Public Public service by your cable or satellite provider. Afterwards is next with book tv, america on my cofounder steve k speculates on the future the internet and discusses how to navigate the everchanging digital landscape. He is he is joined by representative john delaney of maryland. So this is going to be a special treat, steve roller viewers. To talk about your new book. You and i have known each other for about 15 years now and weve had the opportunity to get to know each other in the private sector so its a real privilege to have you here. Its been hugely successful entrepreneur and those in. At my first question is really the timing of this book because you into America Online when it was something different, and the 80s it had a completely a completely different business plan. You reformulated the whole company, your is founder and leader. You lead the company through the 90s and it became one of the most Iconic Companies in American History and you as a result, 11 of the most iconic entrepreneurs in American History and by any measure one of the great businesspeople of our generation. Maybe we should just stop there call it a day. I think i saw somewhere at a speed of americans who connected to the internet connected to America Online. It became so popular it became a movie about it, you got mail starring tom hanks before he was really tom hanks by the way. Then he had a big merger with and then he went on to be a very successful business and you invested in a hundred Startup Companies like zipcar, sweet green and others. So why write the book now . I have to imagine that back in those days with aol there were people beat down the doors. When you first talked about the book i had an opportunity to see it forgot published. I was like how come he has not written a book before . So why now . Its a great thing well the internet with Lessons Learned in what were the lessons from that . I was not that interested in a memoir. Ive always been much more interested in what is happening next, the future of the past so i was not that motivated. It was about two years ago with cities all around the country in understanding what is happening and it dawned on me that there is this first wave and second wave about the break and it was going to be different in some of the lessons from the first wave would be helpful for the third wave so maybe it was now time to write a book, it was mostly about the future but tell some stories of the past because sometimes the past is prologue. So it became less for me about a memoir and more about the future and a little bit of a playbook, roadmap in some respects of whats going to happen in future and what everybody should do to be part of the future. Then it became more interesting. So i started maybe two years ago writing it off and on. So be very good to the substance of the book i might want to spend a little bit of time on your background. One of the things i was was happy about is your friend when i read the book is you did not want to write a memoir but you gave us a little bit of a glimpsed into not only the background, how you thought about the world as a young person, as a young entrepreneur, and obviously the aol days. But you are are from hawaii, born and raised and why. Up until about eight years ago you are probably one of the most famous people from hawaii, and probably up until about eight years ago you are probably the most famous person from your high school. I got elbowed aside. Why dont you. Well president obama and i were in high school at the same time. Its a great school, its 170 fifth anniversary. I was a little older than the president , i still am, even with the dog years. I was a senior in high school when he was a freshman. We actually do not have classes together but i do remember playing basketball a few times. It was only when he came to washington as a senator that we kind of reconnected. Ive easily when he became president we Work Together on some entrepreneurship related, youre completely right. No offense. I was thinking i had a pretty good in hawaii until he came. People are wondering what was in the water. Even a third way title, now we can go back to our roots. You and the president must have a good relationship. You also worked with president bush and president clinton so Public Policy has been a big part of who you are. I want to go back to that because thats our audience. Before i get further what i liked about your book, when theres a big thing going on and theres really nothing bigger than the internet, you could argue it is the most important Economic Force, certainly of our time, maybe in history in terms of pure Economic Force which you not only ushered in the Internet Business model but you also ushered in the internet into peoples homes. Whats great about great about the book is you actually overlay an Analytical Framework as to how we should all think about this. You break it down into the first wave, the second wave, the third way. We should spend some time with you explaining that the sister people and how you think about that. The first wave was building the internet. Building awareness of internet. Building awareness of why he should get connected to the internet. Building on ramps, the software, networks, servers, everything to get people connected. It seems obvious now but when we started in 1985, only 3 of people were online and they were only online one hour per week. So we said we wanted to it took is really a decade before it got traction. Most of that decade people thought why would anybody want to do that, sort of a hobbyist. It was a quirky thing. In fairness back then it was really hard to do, is really expensive to do, but if you were able to get online there is not much to do. Nobody to talk to and not much content. It took a a while before it finally became ready for prime time. But that was building the internet. The second wave is building on top of it like google, facebook, twitter, and the software writing on top of the internet. That is created enormous opportunity and Iconic Companies in that second wave, the third wave is going to be fundamentally different which is going to be integrating the internet and a much more seamless and pervasive ways, in every aspect of our lives. How we we stay healthy, how her kids learn, how is think about food, energy, or investing money. Pretty fundamental things that change a little bit in the first and second ride but not that much the way people deal for a Healthcare System for example is about the same, it said they thought the same form, its not as precise, you can order a pizza on your phone or watch netflix but the fundamental things around things like health and education have not changed. Theyre going to change a lot in this third wave but i think it is going to require different mindsets of for the innovators. Whether its a Startup Entrepreneurs are Bigger Companies to understand what is happening. Everybody i think needs to understand the definition of work is changed and is changing and will change even more in the third wave. The first wave was building the internet, the second was building on top of the internet, the third wave is integrating it in our lives. In the process as some of the largest business and industry in the country and in the world which created enormous opportunity for people who understand where the puck is going and can position themselves. In a way, the third wave we stop thinking of companies as technology companies. We just start thinking about technology as part of every company so the basic tools that we all thought existed in business and Technology Becomes that. So now like aol, one of the great things about the book when you go through when you took aol public it had 30,000,000 in revenues and senate was worth about 70 million. Now, we have google, apple, facebook, amazon, collectively these companies are probably worth 2 trillion. Its an extraordinary thing to think about these waves as you talk about it, what is really happen. But in but in the third wave what youre kind of staying is that there will be big healthcare companies, Big Financial Services companies, that will in be enabled by technology and waves we have not imagined before is that correct. Yes in some ways every company as a tech company. Even the internet internet is shifting from being an interesting phenomenon that are really internet enabled and at some point not the too distant future it will be taking for granted. We talk about electricity enabled, and the internet is on a similar path. I think well know when we get there, when we do not have a hyphenated internet. Hyphenated internet. Right now we call it the email, sometime what colleges male, right now we call it ecommerce sunday well call it commerce. I think itll take another ten or ten or 20 years to get there. I think were on that path. The third wave is just the next step, the next wave of really taking the idea of the internet and shifting it from being a Quirky Technology thing to be in a fundamental part of everyday life. One of the things ive always admired about you to seem to be an optimist. You believe in momentum, when things get going, capitalizing on the moment in. Theres a lot of debate about the Effect Technology has had on our world, im of the view that it has been enormously positive but in truth when you look at technological innovation, you combine it with global, its been a blessing for so many people here but it has put pressure on people. Its pressure pressure in terms of the anxiety in our life of being connected and it is heard a lot of middleclass jobs. Its that we have created new jobs, theres not been quite the equilibrium. So anything about this, i know youre an optimist, but why are you so positive about where this is going to take us . I completely agree their characterization. Im not on the techno optimist camp which says everything as i was positive and spread a little technology on everything it sells every problem. I think thats naive and not constructive. There are some positives, there are some negatives. How do you maximize the positives and minimize the negatives. I do think the internet has been an enormous force for good and empowering people in all around the world. Recently Internet Access available in cuba is going to be a game changer. People have been left out for nearly half a century. In some ways we look at their cars and we think theyre behind in times but in reality,. Will you have a wifi in those you know last summer we were in africa and in kenya, ethiopia and ghana what is happening there particularly in some of the remote villages because of the internet, because of innovation around solar and other kind of energy technologies, its incredibly liberating. But sometimes were to connect to pray the good news is we have the ability to get connected, the bad news is sometimes or hyper connected and sometimes it is good to home down and have a facetoface conversation. It sure technology has created a lot of jobs but it also has as you mentioned how it out a lot of jobs. How do you figure out ways for innovations for the future but bring everybody along . One thing i was proud to be associated about an initiative a few years ago around a Small Business in the report that came out was can start ups save the American Dream . In this be a force for good . I think this key to this is the democritus ties he to democratize access to entrepreneurship and opportunity. So everybody feels like they have a shot. Right now not everybody does. Some people do feel left out. Part of the reason i wrote the book was to lay out a framework for everybody. Not just for the entrepreneurs but for everybody to think about how the world developing and what it might look like ten or 15 years from now and what are some of the opportunities for your own kids that might help give you a brighter future. So you talk about healthcare, education, what are some of the examples, what what are some of the things that could be transformed by technology that can really change how we think about some of the problems . Anytime an entrepreneur sees a problem its an opportunity. In education a lot of things have been done in the last few decades in terms of the for the most part im not a teacher but ive talked to a lot of teachers and i would say the way theyre teaching is about the same that it was 20 years ago. The way students are learning is about the same as it was 20 years ago. There is more advancement about personalize common approaches that not all kids learn the same way. Some are more visual learners, heavenly systems that can help customize the learnings can be very important. Having teachers that more of a sense of whats going on with individual students where they really are struggling and they need more help. That is one example of the third way. Thats not just just about software to about integrating a culture with features and schools, its not just about to learning in the cloud and internet, but how do you improve learning in the class theres interesting developments on the medical side. Fitbits have gotten popular, the way people manage diseases the same way, particularly if its a lifethreatening disease is not as precise as it needs to be when people come there first cancer in particular 25 of time they change their opinion so it needs to be more personalized approaches and technology as part of that. Its not just the engineers, its partnering with the doctors and figuring out ways to put things together to usher in an era of healthcare that is a Better Outcomes more convenient and maybe lowercost. So thats one of the things we think youve added so much to the discussion, theres two problems we have with these discussions would talk about business and the Nonprofit Sector or the government sector working together, you have people come at this debate from the perspective of the private sector like the technologist have it all figured out. Were kind of on an island and we know whats best. It is some what of an insulator view of the world. Then you you people come at it from the perspective and one of the things thats been important is that its been very balanced. One of the things that theres a role for government but you have to be careful because it can stifle innovation. It can can get in the way, its a bureaucratic and theres just not enough of those balance voices, particularly those we have a business crew that you have had, advocating for that balance. So what brought you to that point . Said the fact that weve lived in d. C. For a while . Understanding the people and is part of the reason why am nonpartisan trying to Work Together because ive tried to work with people over three decades and i just want to get stuff done. Its also watching the evolution of the internet itself. Theres folks in Silicon Valley in particular that are kind of arrogant about it. Like the government screws everything up and the regulations are dumb and theres and thats, slow innovation, sometimes thats true. Sometime there things that government does that does frustrate entrepreneurs but its something to take seriously but the reality is Silicon Valley would not exist without the government and the internet would exist without the permit. The government funded darpa which is the research around the internet. Judge greene broke up the phone company that unleashed enormous telecommunication. People forget how big of a deal that was. They for the most part in the first wave of the internet the government said im not quite sure how this cannot work so lets take a handsoff approach, so i saw that develop and if you look at some of the Great Innovation that you take for granted in your life not just things like internet but gps, weather data, those, those are funded by the government. There is a role for government. At some of amazing that weather. Com gets gets all the information from the government. And if your marketing genius you have to tip your head to them. Ive been in conversations with people as a we dont need the government. We dont need that we have weather. Com. But hundreds would suffer. Some people view this book that im defending the government, i get frustrated by the government to. I lay out some things in the book that we need to take seriously, otherwise were going to lose our way, were not guaranteed, i understand the critics who are frustrated, i understand that view, i also think theres the other view that as you think about important aspects of your life like making sure the food our kids eat at school is like when to make them sick or the drugs are parents take are not going to kill them, or even jones fine over the playground is not going to crash and hit her some kind of kid. People want want the government to provide some basic rules of the road. They want some basic safety and consistency. At the same time they dont want the government to overreach and stifle innovation. So how so how do you strike the what right balance . Your work is a good example of that. We need more people with your your entrepreneurial background making those decisions whether it be in congress or the white house. Its important to strike that balance. 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