The North Dakota state senate voted 36-11 on Tuesday not to pass a bill that would have required app stores to enable software developers to use their own payment processing software and avoid fees charged by Apple and Google. From a report: The vote is a victory for Apple, which says that the App Store is a core part of its…
Tag: the coalition
Tech Coalition Working To Create Digital COVID-19 Vaccination Passport
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: A coalition of health and technology organizations are working to develop a digital COVID-19 vaccination passport to allow businesses, airlines and countries to check if people have received the vaccine. The Vaccination Credential Initiative, announced on Thursday, is formulating technology to confirm vaccinations in the likelihood that some governments will mandate people…
DoorDash Is Hiking Customer Fees To Pay For a Law It Helped Write
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: In the months since a coalition of app-based gig companies successfully passed Prop 22 in California, exempting themselves from reclassifying their workers as employees, DoorDash has been silently passing costs onto consumers. The company-funded Yes on Prop 22 campaign claimed that not passing the ballot initiative would result in higher prices for consumers,…
How the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Fought the Pandemic
In a long article titled “Gates versus the Pandemic,” Fast Company looks at the many mitigation efforts launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. – It’s one of the largest funders of the World Health Organization. – It’s partnered with the governments of Norway and India, the World Economic Forum, and the research-charity Wellcome Trust to launch an important group…
Massachusetts Votes on Expanding Access To Car Data, ‘Could Set the National Standard’
On Tuesday Massachusetts will vote on expanding the state’s right-to-repair law to include more access to car data, in an initiated state statute known as “Question 1.” Wired reports: The measure is meant to address how data sharing will work as cars start to suck in and share more wireless data. The Coalition for Safe and Secure Data, backed by giant…
Hundreds of App Developers Want to Join New Apple-Defying Coalition
The Washington Post reports: App developers are defying Apple in record numbers, according to a new coalition of companies aimed at breaking the iPhone maker’s tight grip over its mobile software and the way it governs the App Store. The Coalition for App Fairness, which launched last month and counts as members video-game giant Epic Games, dating company Match Group and…
Could Open Source Licensing Stop Big Pharma Profiteering On Taxpayer-Funded Covid-19 Vaccines?
Two professors at the University of Massachusetts have co-authored a new essay explaining how open source licensing “could keep Big Pharma from making huge profits off taxpayer-funded research” in the international, multi-billion-dollar race for a Covid-19 vaccine: The invention of the “General Public License,” sometimes referred to as a viral or reciprocal license, meant that should an improvement be made, the…
US Says It Won’t Join WHO-Linked Effort To Develop, Distribute Coronavirus Vaccine
The Trump administration said it will not join a global effort to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine, in part because the World Health Organization is involved, a decision that could shape the course of the pandemic and the country’s role in health diplomacy. The Washington Post reports: More than 170 countries are in talks to participate in the…
The Entire World’s Carbon Emissions Will Finally Be Trackable In Real Time
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Vox: There’s an old truism in the business world: what gets measured gets managed. One of the challenges in managing the greenhouse gas emissions warming the atmosphere is that they aren’t measured very well. The ultimate solution to this problem– the killer app, as it were — would be real-time tracking of all global…
Jack Dorsey Donates $3 Million To US Mayors For Universal Basic Income Pilot Programs In 15 Cities
Jack Dorsey, the billionaire CEO of Twitter and Square, is donating $3 million to help fund Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI), a new coalition of 15 mayors across the country who want to explore the idea of universal basic income — a recurring payment to residents — in their cities. Forbes reports: The coalition was created on June 29 by…