CS 400k Tech Ecoystems

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html Regardless of Amazon becoming one of the world’s largest, most innovative companies, their reputation for employee satisfaction is extremely tainted, and their turnover rate is especially high. In this New York Times article, the work culture at Amazon is discussed in reference to past employee’s and their experiences working for the commerce giant. As quoted in the article by a former employee, this turnover rate is made possible through “purposeful Darwinism” (Kantor & Streitfeld, 2015). The incredibly high expectations and exhausting demands drive away those who can’t handle the pressure, leaving behind “an empire of elite workers” (Kantor & Streitfeld, 2015). As the article also addresses, Amazon’s work culture significantly differs from that of Google and Facebook’s, as one of their 14 guiding leadership principles ( https://www.amazon.jobs/en/pr...

Hi class,  As we have learned throughout the course, power relationships have played a central role in terms of helping to create the so-called 'information age' in which many theorists believe we are currently living in today. In the Manuel Castells reading titled 'Power in the Network Society', Castells argues that there are a multiplicity of different factors which reproduce and/or challenge power relationships, including gender relations (p.15).  That being said, I came across a recent news article that ties together the idea mentioned above with the KW tech sector. The article addresses how Vidyard, a Kitchener-based tech company, became a predominately male workplace and how Vidyard's CEO, Michael Litt, plans to change that. This decision came about after a news reported claimed that  women only represent one quarter of high tech workforce in Canada. Litt quickly began to realize he was a key player in this problem since he created a 'bro culture...

Mallon’s argument in the Communitech event can be seen as indicative of what Boltanski and Chiapello term "the projective city" in the Waterloo Region Tech Sector. In Mallon’s talk, he mentions seven variables that will change the method people work. “Technology, a tsunami of data, AI and computing robotics, jobs that are vulnerable to automation, diversity and generational changes, the fact that we’re living longer, so our careers will be longer as well, and an explosion in contingent work” are the variables (Pedro, 2019). We cannot deny the fact that with the quick development of technology, it changes our life and our work a lot. That is to say, some of the work can be instead by technology. Although the tech impacts the traditional work form, it is important to combine these together. therefore, the workforce and the technology should transmit together to make the market better. And this can be linked to Boltanski and Chapello’s (2005) perspective of “the projective ci...