The irony of the internet era is that selling your work to these content aggregation and distribution companies is only worthwhile until your fans want to see you on YouTube. Once you're popular enough that your largest audience is on socials and YouTube, it's better to own your own brand and directly monetize without a marketing department in the way. John Oliver would make much more using producing his own show and YouTube to promote a Patreon or a substack than letting HBO control who can see it, where and when.
Most of the issues you mention aren't big deals for people who telecommute. Let me break it down:
1. Internet - Sometimes. Some employers consider this part of the home office, and some just say it's a prereq of the job. Try signing up for a job at elance.com and say you want them to pay your internet bill on top of your contracting fee. This is considered a perk when it happens, but it is not the employers responsibility.
2. Computers - see #1
3. Electricity - No, I have never heard of an employer giving a heating or electricity subsidy. This is often made up for by the fact that commuting costs more money that staying home, and most employers won't pay the gas you use to commute to an office either.
4. About working through lunch, many people eat lunch at their desk in the office already, just to get more done. I don't see why that would be a bigger deal at home.
5. Meetings are the issue his previous post was about, why a hybrid model might be better. Check out the book "Why Work Sucks and How to Fix it." it makes a decent case that most meetings are better done as an email or phone call, anyway.
6. Distributing printed material - In an office environment, material such as this is almost always distributed via email these days. I've worked for several publically traded companies behind a desk, and besides new hire paperwork, I've never been handed important printed material, all important material was emailed.
There are issues, but most of them really just involve different incentives and productivity.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Ryan Singer.
Distribution irony
The irony of the internet era is that selling your work to these content aggregation and distribution companies is only worthwhile until your fans want to see you on YouTube. Once you're popular enough that your largest audience is on socials and YouTube, it's better to own your own brand and directly monetize without a marketing department in the way. John Oliver would make much more using producing his own show and YouTube to promote a Patreon or a substack than letting HBO control who can see it, where and when.
Red Queen Race
Seems to me like a Red Queen Race.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen%27s_race
Re:
Most of the issues you mention aren't big deals for people who telecommute. Let me break it down:
1. Internet - Sometimes. Some employers consider this part of the home office, and some just say it's a prereq of the job. Try signing up for a job at elance.com and say you want them to pay your internet bill on top of your contracting fee. This is considered a perk when it happens, but it is not the employers responsibility.
2. Computers - see #1
3. Electricity - No, I have never heard of an employer giving a heating or electricity subsidy. This is often made up for by the fact that commuting costs more money that staying home, and most employers won't pay the gas you use to commute to an office either.
4. About working through lunch, many people eat lunch at their desk in the office already, just to get more done. I don't see why that would be a bigger deal at home.
5. Meetings are the issue his previous post was about, why a hybrid model might be better. Check out the book "Why Work Sucks and How to Fix it." it makes a decent case that most meetings are better done as an email or phone call, anyway.
6. Distributing printed material - In an office environment, material such as this is almost always distributed via email these days. I've worked for several publically traded companies behind a desk, and besides new hire paperwork, I've never been handed important printed material, all important material was emailed.
There are issues, but most of them really just involve different incentives and productivity.