Good morning everybody! We’re again – and it’s good to be again – for our first new episode of 2021! In the present day we’re speaking about Slack’s huge outage, Alphabet staff searching for to unionize, and Enterprise Insider’s tech developments for 2021.
It’s all of the tech information that’s widespread proper now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Tuesday, January 5, and I’m your host Baneet Braich.
Slack suffered an enormous outage yesterday and customers had hassle loading channels or connecting to Slack. At round 10:30 am ET Monday, Slack’s standing web page confirmed that its messaging and connections have been present process a technical difficulty. Log-ins, messaging, calls, and connections have been all unavailable. Whereas this was occurring, CNN discovered staff have been switching to discord, LinkedIn, and naturally e-mail. The difficulty was discovered inside an hour nonetheless it’s nonetheless unclear what precisely occurred.
Alphabet staff have a serious announcement: They’re looking to unionize. Greater than 200 staff joined forces to unionize with the Communications Staff of America, forming the Alphabet Staff Union. That is stunning information because the tech business, and massive tech particularly, is thought to squash such exercise. That is the most important and high-profile unionization amongst tech works to date with others being Kickstarter and Glitch. After we have a look at this via an even bigger lens, the unionization follows occasions of worker discontent. For instance, the corporate’s dealing with of sexual harassment prompted a big walkout in 2018. The Nationwide Labor Relations Board additionally not too long ago filed a grievance in opposition to Google alleging the tech large illegally spied and fired two staff who had organized protests. Google says they at all times labored onerous to create a supportive and rewarding office. Regardless, a union exhibits how the dynamic of staff in tech corporations might change going ahead. [
It’s a new year meaning new tech trends are coming in hot. Business Insider reached out to venture capitalists and here’s what they had to say. Virtual events as we know them will cease to exist, once it’s safe to gather in person, people will go. Startups will push to never have a physical office. Climate tech is the next big essential thing that every business buys and many VCs fund. Gen Z has lots of opportunities to launch businesses online from digital content, cloud kitchens, to online storefronts. Future offices may look more like hotels where people go to gather rather than a place to just work and Silicon Valley will make a comeback. Although companies are moving to places like Texas, they will fail to find the right execs, team leaders, and materialize, according to at least one VC. [Twitter thread]
That’s all of the tech information that’s trending proper now. Hashtag Trending is part of the ITWC Podcast community. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Dwelling every day briefing. And keep in mind, throughout the remainder of this week, we wish you to inform us what you assume was final yr’s largest Canadian tech story. Tell us on Twitter @ITWorldCa, or depart a touch upon the present notes for this episode at ITWorldCanada.com. Respondents will probably be entered right into a draw for an opportunity to win an IT World Canada mug! I’m Baneet Braich, thanks for listening!