What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been! This year’s AppCon, the App Economy Conference just wrapped up. While past AppCon events took place in Washington, D.C., 2020’s conference went completely digital. Fortunately, this change in the medium didn’t stop attending mobile app developers and tech innovators from opening a meaningful dialogue with political leaders about the impact of emerging technologies on society.

From broadband and 5G to telehealth and data privacy, here are the favorite AppCon 2020 highlights of Marc Fischer, our CEO and Co-Founder.

Better Internet Access Is Essential for Every Aspect of Society

The growth of the $1.7 trillion app economy and numerous other sectors depends on widespread internet access. Whether it’s educational opportunities, work, or healthcare, hundreds of millions of Americans turn to the internet every single day to get things done. With that said, do you know how many U.S. citizens currently lack access to adequate broadband connection? 20 million! Unsurprisingly, this transforms the digital divide into an enormous chasm.

During AppCon 2020, attendees got to meet with several members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to discuss the benefits that television white spaces, (TVWS), better broadband connectivity, and 5G infrastructure can bring to America. FCC Commissioners Michael O’Rielly and Brendan Carr joined in on the conversation and respectively honed in on ensuring broadband exists everywhere in the U.S. and making more spectrum available.

COVID-19 has made it readily apparent that internet access and connected devices are integral to carry out remote learning successfully. That’s why FCC Legal Advisor Umair Javed and Travis Litman, Chief of Staff and Senior Legal Advisor for the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, dedicated their time at AppCon 2020 towards discussing the digital divide’s effect on education and how it can be mitigated. AppCon attendees also got to talk with Evan Swarztrauber, a Policy Advisor of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, about increasing rural healthcare budgets and improving broadband access in these regions.

Whether it’s 5G, broadband, or TVWS, we strongly believe that everyone deserves strong internet access; it’s a necessity for practically every aspect of our modern lives. But this can only occur through more investment on a federal and private level.

Connected Health Tech Will Be a Cornerstone of Medicine, Even After COVID-19

Besides pulling back the curtain on how integral internet access is to remote education, COVID-19 has also unveiled the necessity of telehealth. Connected digital tools have been invaluable in the U.S. healthcare system’s battle with the pandemic. Doctors and patients have benefited immensely from the temporary restriction lifting on telehealth and medical app usage. That’s why a big part of AppCon 2020 focused on meeting with congressional leaders to ensure that digital health remains a cornerstone of our health system.

The U.S. currently spends $3 trillion on healthcare annually. $1 trillion of this goes through Medicare and Medicaid. Unfortunately, the country is still short by roughly 30,000 physicians, and this deficit will leap to 90,000 in approximately ten years. Around this exact same time, 70 million Americans will be 65 or older, and 80% of them will have at least one chronic condition. To make matters worse, 40% of Medicare patients have inadequate broadband access right now.

During their discussion with AppCon attendees, members of the U.S. Commerce Department acknowledged that telehealth has been extremely beneficial to Medicare. But for this technological paradigm to grow in the right direction, innovators and legislators must embrace what works and discard anything inefficient. We should take a lean approach to data management and prioritize the information that makes the most positive impact for the fewest dollars.

Dr. Donald Rucker, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), also spoke with attendees about the need to examine data gathering and usage so that patients can have agency over their healthcare. Rucker also discussed the difficulties of EMR integration, HIPAA compliance, and the often incomplete pictures of patient data that doctors around the country deal with.

COVID-19 has spurred a new age of digital innovation in the healthcare domain. We strongly believe that establishing telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and other digital advances as permanent fixtures is the right way to go. These technological capabilities allow patients to get treatment from the comfort of their own homes while drastically cutting costs. We hope that more political leaders start to see these clear-cut advantages for what they really are — a path towards a healthier future for all U.S. citizens

Data Privacy and Encryption Must Be Prioritized

There’s no doubt that we live in the information era. ACT’s member companies alone handle millions of terabytes of data every single day. We know that proper data security is imperative to protecting sensitive information and ensuring it’s being used appropriately. That’s why an entire week of AppCon 2020 was dedicated to this topic!

AppCon attendees and congressional leaders delved into the critical issues surrounding privacy legislation as well as the need for ubiquitous end-to-end encryption. They also made room to discuss the timely topic of facial recognition.

While the development of artificial intelligence has brought humanity several unprecedented capabilities, some of them demand more careful consideration regarding their usage. Facial recognition is one such matter. Attendees and political leaders talked about the implications that facial recognition and its accompanying legislation could have for both the near and far future.

See You At AppCon 2021!

As always, AppCon was an amazingly insightful event! The candid discussions that Marc gets to have at these conferences are something he looks forward to every year. They’re the reasons why Marc always makes the trek out to D.C. from Los Angeles!

As much fun as AppCon 2020 was, we hope that the world beats COVID-19 by next year’s event so that things return to normal and we can hold AppCon 2021 in-person. Until then, stay safe, and stay informed!

AppCon 2020 has been underway for the past few weeks. While this year’s conference is completely digital, that hasn’t stopped the many mobile app developers and tech innovators in attendance from opening up meaningful dialogues with political leaders about the impact of emerging technologies on the future of the United States.

So much has happened in such a short amount of time that we thought a blog post covering some of the best highlights of this year’s event so far was warranted. With that said, let’s dive right in!

Week 1: The Future of the U.S. Depends on Internet Access

Besides being an essential utility that sustains the growth of the $1.7 trillion app economy as well as several small businesses in a variety of sectors, widespread internet access also supports hundreds of millions of Americans. With it, they’re able to access healthcare services, educational opportunities, and much more.

Unfortunately, more than 20 million U.S. citizens still lack access to an adequate broadband connection. And unless this is addressed soon, this digital divide will only grow larger with the introduction of new technologies. AppCon ’20 attendees got to speak with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Michael O’Rielly about this very topic.

Commissioner O’Rielly expressed intent in ensuring that broadband exists everywhere in the U.S. and placed special emphasis on getting underserved Americans connected. He stressed the importance of high bandwidth and low latency, and he also noted that how we achieve broadband access for all is less important than actually accomplishing it.

AppCon attendees also spoke with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who was focused on making more spectrum available for use. Whether it’s not having a device to connect with healthcare professionals, being unable to rely on high-speed internet, or not having access to a private space for care, Carr was well-aware of the pain points of Americans across the country. He reassured AppCon attendees that more funding was coming for connected care.

FCC Legal Advisor Umair Javed and Travis Litman, Chief of Staff and Senior Legal Advisor for the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, focused their meetings with AppCon attendees on the digital divide’s effect on education. COVID-19 has pulled back the curtain on just how necessary internet access and devices such as smartphones and laptops are for remote learning. During the meeting, Javed indicated that low power applications carried some potential for closing this gap.

Last but not least, AppCon attendees also got to meet with Evan Swarztrauber, a Policy Advisor of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Swarztrauber noted that an increase in rural healthcare budget was sorely needed, and so was an improvement in broadband access for these regions. With COVID-19 forcing aspects of society such as education and healthcare to go remote, folks out in the country will fall behind unless they have fast internet.

Week 2: Telehealth Must Remain Accessible, Even After COVID-19

Telehealth and connected tools have proven invaluable in the U.S. healthcare system’s response to COVID-19. It’s obvious that these technological paradigms are a necessity for all Americans, but unfortunately, some politicians don’t see it that way. Much of AppCon ’20’s Week 2 revolved around attendees meeting with congressional leaders to ensure that digital health remains a cornerstone in our country’s medical system.

Currently, the U.S. has an annual healthcare spend of $3 trillion, with $1 trillion going through Medicare and Medicaid. The country is short by about 30,000 physicians, and this shortage is estimated to grow to 90,000 by 2030. By that same year, 70 million Americans will be over 65, and 80% of them will be dealing with at least one chronic condition.

These statistics make it painfully obvious that telehealth capabilities should become a permanent fixture in the U.S. medical system. But before COVID-19, this technology was wrestling with rules written in the 1990s. Clearly, things have come a long way since then. Unfortunately, the temporary waiver that allows Medicare to cover telehealth is slated to end by November unless fast, meaningful action is taken.

AppCon attendees had the chance to speak with staff from the U.S. Commerce Department. Though 40% of Medicare patients don’t have adequate broadband access at home right now, the department members emphasized that telehealth transformation is definitely beneficial to Medicare. But we must keep the growth and convenience of this technology going without exacerbating health inequities. They also discussed that innovators and legislators must keep what works and let go of anything fraud-laden or inefficient.

To achieve this, the U.S. Commerce Department staff stressed that we need an honest, balanced approach to data management. We should prioritize the most useful data that provides the most positive impact for the fewest taxpayer dollars. We should also focus on delivering services and outcomes, not billing for simply noticing a malady and not treating it.

AppCon attendees also got to speak with Dr. Donald Rucker, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). Rucker wants one of the main goals for Congress to be freeing up patients to have agency over their healthcare. And to do this, we must examine the mechanism behind data gathering and usage.

Digital health tools and wearables such as the Apple Watch should strive to put patients back in charge of their information. Rucker believes that patients and the American public have already paid for this data, so they should be in charge of it, not third parties.

Rucker went on to discuss a variety of topics with AppCon attendees, including interoperability, how difficult EMR integration is, HIPAA compliance, and the need to address the incomplete pictures of patient data that physicians have to deal with. He even mentioned that healthcare providers sometimes struggle to access their own data.

Stay Tuned for Our Coverage of Weeks 3 & 4!

While digital this year, AppCon 2020 has done an amazing job of bringing together mobile innovators from Los Angeles, New York City, and everywhere in between! But the party’s not over yet. Stay tuned for our coverage of weeks 3 and 4, where AppCon attendees will get the chance to discuss privacy, encryption, antitrust, and standard-essential patents (SEPs).

For the past few years, AppCon, the App Economy Conference, has taken over Washington, D.C. in late April. The annual event serves as an unparalleled opportunity for mobile app developers and other tech innovators to open a meaningful dialogue with political leaders about the future of emerging technologies and their impact on society.

This candid discussion is something that Marc Fischer, our CEO and Co-Founder, looks forward to every year. He usually makes the trek out to D.C. from Los Angeles just to attend this event. In the past, Marc has gotten the chance to talk with FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly and Director Ajit Pai about 5G’s future in rural areas, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) about data privacy, and Congressman Ted Lieu about how education and innovation go hand-in-hand.

Due to COVID-19, AppCon 2020 has pivoted from its original arrangement — it has gone virtual! Thanks to this new digital format, the event is now spread over the course of four weeks so that attendees have a sufficient amount of time to discuss each important topic. Let’s take a look at the relevant issues that this year’s AppCon is tackling.

Why the App Economy Is Essential

Every year, AppCon is held by ACT | The App Association, an international organization that represents more than 5,000 small- and medium-sized tech companies across the mobile app economy. By connecting the tech industry’s top leaders with preeminent policymakers, ACT strives to drive smart innovation and regulation. Members of ACT include pioneers at the forefront of revolutionizing entertainment, improving productivity, enabling healthier lifestyles, and accelerating learning.

The app economy is probably bigger than you think; it’s a $1.7 trillion ecosystem that employs 5.9 million Americans. And this isn’t just in Silicon Valley; more than 83% of U.S. app companies are located outside of San Francisco. There are currently more than 2 million mobile apps available on major platforms like the App Store and Google Play. And with 3.4 billion app users around the world, it should come as no surprise that consumers spent more than $120 billion in app stores in 2019 — almost twice the amount they did in 2016.

Keeping the app economy strong and healthy is one of ACT’s biggest priorities, which is why the organization is extremely focused on building a workforce that’s educated and properly prepared for the 21st century. Despite a median annual salary exceeding $88,000, more than half a million computing jobs are unfilled in the United States. Only 65,000 U.S. college graduates earn a computer science degree each year, but this isn’t enough.

Computing and information technology occupations are projected to grow 12% by 2028, with software development jobs anticipated to grow by 21%. To address this substantial growth, ACT is urging Congress to pass the CHANCE in TECH Act, a legislation that would allow employers to streamline their apprenticeship processes and focus on developing and training job candidates correctly. ACT is also requesting that Congress appropriate at least $250 million to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) Master Teacher Corps (MTC) program so that educators can receive advanced training to teach computer science correctly.

Week 1: All About Broadband

It’s no secret that widespread internet access is an essential utility to sustain the continued growth of the app economy and numerous businesses. Besides this, hundreds of millions of Americans depend on the internet to access educational opportunities, healthcare services, and participate in the global economy in general. But more than 20 million U.S. citizens currently lack access to broadband connections, making the digital divide a colossal chasm.

In Week 1, AppCon will focus on facilitating discussions around how improved access to broadband in rural and urban communities can close this immense digital divide. Political and tech leaders will examine the benefits that come with using television white spaces (TVWS), broadband mapping, and of course, the deployment of 5G.

Week 2: More Connected Healthcare

The COVID-19 pandemic has pulled back the curtain on telehealth. Today, the advantages of connected health tools are readily apparent to patients, doctors, and lawmakers — and they’re simply too big to ignore. Week 2 of AppCon will hone in on everyday digital health examples from the COVID-19 crisis, including the recent results from temporarily lifting telehealth restrictions in the U.S.

AppCon’s attendees will also discuss aspects of healthcare policy including payment for digital health tools, removing reimbursement restrictions for them, interoperability, the WEAR IT Act, and the now obvious necessity of better access to telehealth services for all Americans. If you’re a healthcare app developer, you won’t want to miss this week!

Week 3: Prioritizing Privacy and Encryption

ACT’s member companies alone handle millions of terabytes of data every day. That means that each of these organizations is on the frontline of protecting sensitive user information and ensuring that it’s being used appropriately. Each ACT member knows that proper data security is imperative. That’s why AppCon ’20 Week 3 is dedicated to this vital topic.

Political leaders and ACT members will discuss current issues regarding privacy legislation and the need for ubiquitous end-to-end encryption. AppCon attendees will also tackle one of the most timely issues of the last few months: Facial recognition. By now, you’ve probably heard stories about how law enforcement has been using this technology during the protests across America. Week 3 of AppCon ’20 intends to get to the bottom of this topic and discuss its implications for the near and far future.

Week 4: Platforms and SEPs

What do online platforms, competition, and standard-essential patents (SEPs) mean for the app ecosystem’s future? There are a ton of moving parts that go into this topic, and they’ve only helped fuel various debates in recent months.

AppCon 2020 will close out its final week with a focus on discussion about platform regulations, including antitrust and Wi-Fi standards regulations, IoT device chips, Bluetooth, and much more.

Has this blog post got you excited about the weeks to come for AppCon 2020? For more info, click here!

Politics can be truly divisive. But for topics like healthcare, data privacy, and education, we can all agree that smart reforms and regulations are sorely needed. Fortunately, progress is being made.

From April 28th to the 30th, AppCon 2019 gathered America’s top mobile app developers and preeminent politicians together in Washington, D.C. to discuss the most pressing issues facing technology and society in the near future.

Marc Fischer, our Co-Founder and CEO, was in attendance as a representative of California. He had the opportunity to talk tech with numerous political leaders at Capitol Hill. In this post, we’ve gathered some of Marc’s most memorable highlights from the event.

A Need for More Connected Healthcare

Each year, AppCon is hosted by ACT, the App Association. ACT is one of the leading public policy organizations in Washington, D.C. and represents technology companies, startups, and innovators across the country. By opening a dialogue with the country’s premier political leaders, ACT aims to protect and foster the tech industry by opening up opportunities for smarter regulations.

Healthcare is a topic near and dear to ACT’s heart. The organization started the Connected Health Initiative (CHI), a coalition of healthcare industry stakeholders, in order to spur improvement of patient engagement and outcomes through technology. So it should come as no surprise that some of the biggest obstacles in healthcare today took center-stage in many of Marc’s meetings.

Thanks to technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), great leaps are being made in remote patient monitoring (RPM). Smart assistants like Alexa, home robotics systems, and wearable technologies are all bringing unprecedented value to point of care thanks to AI and IoT.

But some issues are still impeding progress in RPM. Marc and other AppCon attendees had the chance to discuss RPM reimbursement standards with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). It can be challenging for physicians to receive proper remuneration for time spent on telehealth consultations. This certainly needs to change.

Another hot topic was loosening restrictions on which medical professionals can review patient data. By opening this up to caregivers, nurses, and other people besides doctors, all stakeholders involved can gain a more holistic perspective on a patient’s health.

Marc also had the opportunity to meet with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to discuss digital transformation in the healthcare system. It’s well known that there are some huge inefficiencies present when it comes to data exchange of electronic health records (EHR). To fix this, ACT’s members and the ONC are working together to pilot new projects that can help accelerate data portability and innovation in health IT.

Both RPM and data portability would go a long way towards helping those with chronic health conditions. Currently, 130 million Americans suffer from chronic health conditions. This ends up costing the U.S. economy more than $2.5 trillion per year. With Representatives Joseph Kennedy III (D-MA 4th District), Danny Davis (IL 7th District), Judy Chu (D-CA 27th District), and Senator Amy Klovuchar, Marc discussed potential telehealth solutions to lower costs and boost quality of care for RPM.

Among these possible solutions is the Wearable Equipment Adoption and Reinforcement and Investment in Technology (WEAR IT) Act. This would allow people to apply their HSAs or FSAs to cover part of the cost (up to $250) of consumer-facing medical wearables and other devices that have healthcare attributes. For example, you could apply this $250 towards the purchase of a new Apple Watch. Essentially, this new legislation would benefit patients with chronic illnesses immensely by making it easier for them to attain devices that could improve their quality of life.

Preparing for 5G

As we’ve covered in previous posts, 5G is fast approaching. But there are still some hiccups to work out. Marc met with FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly to discuss the standardization of this new wireless paradigm and what exactly constitutes 5G.

Recently, major telecom companies have been in a race to roll out 5G to their customers. And some have taken shortcuts. Most notable among them is A&T; the company released a platform called 5G Evolution (5GE) which isn’t actually 5G; it’s more of a foundation for when the real thing arrives.

But ensuring 5G arrives in metropolitan areas like New York City or San Francisco is not enough. Commissioner Michael O’Rielly and Marc also talked about the need for the FCC to take more of a leading role in ensuring 5G is faster to roll out to rural areas which were overlooked during the rollout of 4G.

This is crucial for many reasons. Not only will 5G open up opportunities for innovation in IoT, AI, and connected vehicles, but it will also bring possibilities for improvement in RPM and telehealth — both of which are sorely needed in rural areas.

Doubling Down on Data Privacy

Marc also had the chance to speak with representatives from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House about data privacy. Preserving the integrity of our personal information is becoming more important than ever before. But doing this can often conflict with other endeavors.

As part of the AI Executive Order, the Trump administration issued executive mandates to open up data in an effort to accelerate AI innovation in America. Much of Marc’s conversation with the OSTP revolved around balancing out this order with updated standards for user privacy, data management, and the right to confidentiality.

Updating these cyber policies to ensure that both individuals and organizations are protected from internal and external espionage is a must. And the first step towards doing this is to have more government support in investigating acts of espionage or data leakages.

Large enterprise organizations need to be held accountable for leaking private customer information and not sharing this information until much later. A prime example of this is the Equifax hack; the company knew they had been hacked for four months before they went public with this information.

Progress Is Being Made

After four years of meeting with political leaders on Capitol Hill, ACT’s members are finally starting to see the fruits of their labor. RPM statutes have been written into law so that doctors can be properly reimbursed for their telehealth work. $250 million in federal funds have been released to support STEM education. And the government is beginning to better understand its role in the rollout of 5G.

We’re excited by the opportunities to innovate in the American economy with new technologies like AI, machine learning, and 5G. By driving the next wave of innovation, US tech leaders can help cement America’s leadership position in the world by creating jobs, boosting productivity, and increasing wages.

And from what Marc gathered at AppCon ’19, it looks like we’re right on track to do this. By collaborating together, the tech and political leaders of the United States can make a brighter future for us all.

The United States is facing an opioid addiction crisis that has far surpassed epidemic proportions long ago. It’s a problem that is taking a tremendous toll on our nation, and it will take an effort from each of us to stop it.

The Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) has created a sign-on letter to show Congress just how many groups and organizations are concerned about this crisis. Dogtown Media is extremely proud to co-sign this letter and join HLC’s efforts. If you’d like to review the letter, click here. To review all HLC letters, click here.

An Urgent Issue

From L.A. to New York, the problem of opioid addiction and misuse has spiraled out of control and devastated communities across the U.S. Social services, public safety, health care, family, friends — this scourge knows no bounds. 115 people in the U.S. alone die every day from overdoses related to opioids according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This compounds to over 40,000 lives lost annually.

The magnitude of this issue cannot be overexaggerated. Nor can the urgency with which we should act to fix it. But effort from one party alone is not enough to address this problem. A multi-pronged approach from as many organizations and groups as possible is what’s needed.

This is why the HLC has put together this letter.

More Than Words

Over the next few days, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on 34 bills created to tackle this opioid crisis. The letter applauds the House for taking action against this problem and also shows the Representatives the wide breadth of groups concerned about it.

The letter also urges Congress to advance multiple pieces of legislation that they’ll be reviewing in order to cover the wide range of areas needed to fight this epidemic such as prevention, treatment, and research and development for other pain management substitutes.

We Need Your Help

The letter will be sent to Congress on June 18. Lawmakers have demonstrated their commitment to combating this problem which has brought tragedy to far too many people’s lives. But it will take more effort than any lawmaker, MedTech developer, or doctor can muster. Let’s show the House that we care.

The battle over our Internet freedom continues to rage on. It doesn’t take a staunch supporter of net neutrality to see that something smells fishy over at the FCC. Since Ajit Pai became FCC Chairman, he’s been on a warpath to dismantle some of the only rules put in place to protect our Internet usage from corporate greed.

But his reasoning for doing so can be described as dodgy at best. And Congress is getting tired of what many people see as purposeful misleading. In a new letter, thirteen Representatives call Pai out on his lack of clear explanation, and it isn’t pretty.

Dissatisfied With Deception

In a letter from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Democrats, thirteen Congress members reiterate a set of questions about net neutrality that Pai has managed to avoid answering over the past months. Tired of playing around, they also took the time to scrutinize his “outright refusal to respond to some of the members of this Committee” and “repeated evasive responses to our inquiries.”

This letter is the latest in a string of inquiries from Representatives led by Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ). The questions began to fly long before the now-infamous December net neutrality vote in which the FCC agreed to dismantle the set of rules. But that vote just added more fuel to Congress’ curiosity, and they’re not letting up: “We take our oversight responsibilities very seriously, and we expect witnesses before the Committee and recipients of our letters to treat their responses the same way.”

The Representatives acknowledge that Pai never dodges meetings, it’s just that his answers are usually underwhelming and unsatisfying: “While we appreciate your continued willingness to testify before our Committee, we are concerned that you have been unable to give complete responses to verbal questions, questions for the record, or oversight letters from our members.”

The Back-And-Forth to Date

The frustrations started in June 2017, following a cyber attack on the FCC that suspiciously occurred during the net neutrality comment period. Pai evaded numerous questions by saying that since the threat was “ongoing,” revealing how the FCC is handling this threat would “undermine” their efforts.

In August, ten Congress members followed this up with an official comment that they believe the FCC’s proposal to undo net neutrality “fundamentally and profoundly runs counter to the law.” Pai response to this basically amounted to the FCC’s proposal itself with a lengthy intro exposition justifying itself.

After the December vote, another letter came from Congress, this time focusing on the myriad problems with the FCC’s commenting system. One of the issues raised was how none of their own comments were addressed. Keeping with the vague pattern, Pai responded by basically saying that everything was okay.

A Long-Term Investment

The Representatives involved know that another stern letter probably won’t be the convincing that Pai needs to improve his “lack of candor.” But that’s not the aim of all this effort. The constant back-and-forth will be a paper trail of questions and inadequate answers that could prove to be useful in the near future.

As strong supporters of reinstating net neutrality, we couldn’t be happier that many members of Congress take issue with the FCC’s recent actions. Dissolving net neutrality affects more than just mobile app developers in Los Angeles; it’s practically guaranteed that it will impact your life one way or another, regardless of what you do for a living or where you’re located in the United States.

The letter came attached to “a collection of letters that you have yet to answer completely, or at all,” as the Congress members put it. They have requested a response from Pai by June 4.

From April 23rd to the 25th, Appcon 2018 took over Washington, D.C. The annual event serves as a great opportunity for tech innovators, app developers, and entrepreneurs to open a dialogue with the preeminent leaders in politics. It’s a time to discuss and shape the future of different technologies and, in turn, their impact on society.

Marc Fischer, our CEO and co-founder, attended AppCon this year. He got the chance to speak to a dizzying number of political leaders at Capitol Hill, the FCC, and the White House! We’ve gathered some highlights from Marc’s experience below, just for you.

Three Days of Non-Stop Action

In total, 54 tech leaders representing 29 different states flew in to discuss the tech industry’s impact on humanity’s future. AppCon is hosted by the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), also known as the App Association. ACT is one of the foremost public policy organizations in Washington, D.C.

ACT represents tech companies, startups, entrepreneurs, and developers so that our voices are heard and our concerns are met with productive solutions. It aims to protect and foster the tech industry by instilling smart regulation so it can thrive in a competitive global economy.

The first day of AppCon centered around a conference discussing where the mobile app industry is and where it’s going. Currently, the global app ecosystem is worth $950 billion. Expect exponential value growth from enterprise applications and the use of IoT. But whether the app economy (or tech industry, in general) keeps succeeding or begins to falter depends on a few crucial variables.

The Importance of Education

Over dozens of meetings, Marc found one to be particularly salient: his stop at the White House. There, he had the opportunity to speak with representatives from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Together, they explored both the positive and negative impacts that disruptive technologies like automation, AI, and drones would have on our economy.

Marc and the OSTP representatives also focused on another topic near and dear to the future of society and tech — education. The United States could be facing a job crisis, unlike anything we’ve seen before. ACT projects that the app economy will create half a million more job opportunities in the U.S. alone by 2024. Other niches in the tech industry are estimated to experience similar growth.

So, why’s this a problem exactly? Because last year, only 59,000 U.S. college students graduated with a computer science degree. There are currently 503,000 computing jobs across the U.S. So only one out of every eight computing jobs is getting filled right now. Only about 40 percent of K-12 schools tech modern computer science skills. This figure dwindles down to 20 percent if you’re only considering high schools.

Education and Innovation Go Hand-in-Hand

Marc and the OSTP discussed the importance of apprenticeships and improving computer science programs in school. But this is far too big of a topic to tackle in one meeting. So, going forward, Marc and Dogtown Media will work with the OSTP to engineer smarter education! Specifically, we aim to build smarter legislation for the apprenticeship and computer science programs that will be rolled out in public schools nationwide over the next few years.Marc Fischer with Representative Ted Lieu meeting on Capitol Hill on the sidelines of a congressional vote in progress.

Education played an important part in many of Marc’s conversations. In his meeting with Congressman Ted Lieu, the two focused on getting more funding for computer science programs in the Los Angeles school system. It was great to see a familiar face in D.C.! Lieu is the Representative for California’s 33rd congressional district. Dogtown Media and Mr. Lieu’s office will collaborate more on this endeavor through a tech community involvement event in Los Angeles this summer, so stay tuned!

To round out Marc’s discussions on education, he also got the chance to meet with Congressman Danny Davis, U.S. Representative of Illinois’s 7th congressional district. Davis is a huge supporter of the CHANCE in Tech Act (Championing Apprenticeships for New Careers and Employees), and so is Marc. It aims to incentivize private companies to expand their workforce through the form of apprenticeships. It will serve as a great opportunity to train workers with no technical skills to become experienced knowledge workers in one of the many burgeoning niches in the tech industry.

Protecting the Potential at Stake

Besides education, cybersecurity was also a crucial conversation starter at many of Marc’s meetings. Cybercrime costs consumers a global total of $3 trillion. And the app industry is in serious need of an upgrade. Current security protocols are sub-standard at best. As apps begin to play a more integral role in all of our lives, it’s important that we address this shortcoming now.

During their talk, Congressman Lieu and Marc discussed how it’s necessary to make it easier for businesses to cooperate with the federal government when it comes to defending ourselves against national and international cyber threats. Not only is fostering such a dialogue important for both of these parties, but also for the average consumer whose data they hold.Marc Fischer with Congressman Joseph Kennedy, Representative of Massachusets.

This topic also came up during Marc’s talk with Congressman Joseph Kennedy III, U.S. Representative of Massachusetts’ 4th congressional district. Besides discussing the need for Congress to legislate new net neutrality rules, the two also focused on ways to improve the implementation of the Small Business Cyber Act, which helps mandate regulations for government support of small businesses that have experienced a hack. Guidelines on how to manage such circumstances where data may be stolen or breached are absolutely necessary to figure out before you need them.

Of course, cybersecurity is moot if the ones holding your data in the first place are using it in questionable ways. This was the main agenda of Marc’s visit to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office. Internet service providers (ISPs) currently have the ability to monitor our habits virtually anywhere. They then sell this data to third parties. In an effort to protect user data from ISPs, Marc’s main request of Feinstein’s office was to draft regulations that would prevent cases like this from occurring.

On a similar note, we also got the chance to voice our adamant opposition to the Burr-Feinstein bill. This would force companies large and small to build backdoors into all of their technology for law enforcement to utilize. This opens up immense issues around the cost of compliance, as well as a great risk that these forced access points could be exploited by malicious hackers.

Everyone Deserves to Be Connected

NOTE: Dogtown Media is strongly against any threat to an open, free, fair Internet. We FULLY disagree with the FCC’s decision to rollback net neutrality regulations. If you don’t believe us, just check out our recent articles in support of it here, here, and here.

It’s hard to fathom, but many people in the United States are missing out on the numerous advantages that modern technology offers, simply because of the fact that they don’t have a fast enough connection to the Internet. 34 million Americans across the rural United States are in this predicament. This was the main topic of discussion between Marc and Ajit Pai, the now-infamous Director of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Okay, now that we got that out of the way… back to the meeting! Just because two people don’t agree on one subject doesn’t mean they can’t find common ground with another. In Pai’s and Marc’s case, this happened to be improving nationwide Internet access. The two mostly focused on the rollout of 5G access nationwide over the next decade. Part of the infrastructure program involving this also includes room for speeding up Internet access for households and businesses, but Pai and Marc specifically focused on the best ways to bring technologies out to rural communities.

Leveraging Mobile MedTech More

Congressman and physician Michael C. Burgess, U.S. Representative of Texas’s 26th congressional district, decided to focus his talk with Marc on current medical issues facing the country. In particular, Burgess and his office were interested in learning how our healthcare system could utilize mobile technology more, and how it could reform Medicare and Medicaid.

Drug adherence is a big issue in preventative medicine. Mobile technology offers a plethora of positive regulation possibilities, like remote monitoring and scheduled reminders. Burgess and Marc touched upon the unique fact that this could also be used inversely to treat addiction problems, specifically the current opioid addiction crisis.

Mobile technology has the potential to transform how preventative medicine is represented in Congress. Currently, when a budget is put together, only the cost of the proposed legislation is shown — not the cost savings or return on investment. This holds back many great proposals from being passed that could reduce costs and improve patient outcomes. Burgess wants to change this, and he thinks that implementing cost-effective and innovative mobile solutions could help do it.

A Brighter Future, One Step at a Time

Dogtown Media is 100-percent committed to bringing empowerment to communities nationwide through our advances in technology. Marc genuinely felt like the tech industry’s voice was heard in Washington, D.C. over the course of AppCon. While the trip was undoubtedly exhausting, it was completely worth it. The dialogues that were opened could end up shaping our future.

From what we see, that future just got a little brighter!

The hefty sum encompasses lobbying federal agencies, Congress, and the White House. Google’s oldest and most trustworthy revenue generator is online advertising, which it also lobbied for, according to the Senate Office of Public Records. It makes Google the largest spender of all companies lobbying in 2017.

A Troubling Trend

Google’s large spending echoes the overarching theme of “more data, more power,” but most consumers don’t have the means or knowledge of how to disable ad tracking. Most internet and digital advertising companies bank off of this, and the laws surrounding these data collection methods are in their infancy stages.

Why can’t you easily turn off the ad tracking for those jeans you were eyeing online but decided not to buy? Exactly. Regulators believe the tech giants are capable of abusing their market data.

2017 is the first year a tech firm has taken the top spot in expenditure since the Center for Responsive Politics started tracking in 1998. Google usurped the telecom, energy, and defense companies that typically take the top spot. Facebook, Apple, and Amazon all closely followed behind; in total, the four companies have spent $50 million on lobbying since 2016. Facebook’s spending increased by 32% in 2017 over 2016, and Apple’s increased 51% in that same time. Google’s increased by 17%.

Money Talks

It’s no coincidence that Google and the other San Francisco development giants are injecting these huge cash influxes to influence legislation at a time when social media and online advertising have fallen under scrutiny from the most recent presidential election. As the federal government moves to make more laws surrounding online advertising and digital marketing, Google and Facebook have pledged to oversee online political advertising more responsibly and actively. But in this case, spending speaks louder than words.

Alvaro Bedoya, who leads the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown University, worries that the government will struggle to pass new, meaningful consumer protection laws. “Because this is the first time in American history that the giants of industry have as their raw material personal data, [tech companies] are going to do as much as possible to protect access to that raw material,” he says.

Data is quickly becoming the main currency of the world because of the power it offers, and not just in mobile app development. Until companies can be held accountable and verify that they’re responsibly handling consumer data in a transparent manner, it’s best to take a proactive approach and protect yourself. Whether you get a new device or app, always do some due diligence to learn about what data it could be taking from your interactions. It never hurts to learn this. After all, knowledge (or data) is power!

Any banking app developer online during last year’s contentious U.S. presidential election knows that the social media landscape was a mess. In the era of Facebook and Twitter, civic debate is now powered as much by memes and the dreaded fake news as much as it is an exchange of thoughts and ideas. But since the election, a bleaker picture has emerged. We now know that the Russian government meddled in the election, perhaps in a way that ultimately swayed it towards the loathsome Donald J. Trump. Groups from the House, Senate, and various intelligence agencies, as well as special counsel Robert Mueller, are working overtime to suss out what exactly the Russians did to American democracy. Now members of Trump’s own team are being investigated to determine whether or not there was collusion.

Now attention is turning towards Facebook too. Banking app developers are likely familiar with recent reports indicating that the Russians spent $100,000 on political ads during the 2016 election. These ads, which are still under wraps to the public, were specifically designed to “amplify divisive social and political messages.” Facebook has already provided Special Counsel Robert Mueller with information regarding the ads in question. This week, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, California’s own Adam Schiff, is dogging the social media platform, calling for Facebook to testify before the committee.

“We need to know the full extent of their use of social media to influence us from Facebook, from Twitter, from Google, from any social media or search engine,” Schiff said before stating that he believed Facebook needed to testify. Given that the social media behemoth has already handed over information to Mueller (and that Mark Zuckerberg may be eyeing political office), it seems highly likely that Facebook will cooperate. Los Angeles banking app developers are split over how culpable Facebook is in this situation. Whatever comes out of these investigations though, expect Facebook’s ad buying policies to be a little stricter in 2020.

Internet of things app developers have long been advocates for the exciting possibilities of autonomous automobiles. As lobbying group Self Driving Coalition for Safer Streets puts it, “Self-driving vehicles offer an opportunity to significantly increase safety, improve transportation access for underserved communities, and transform how people, goods and services get from point A to B.” Self-driving technology has advanced exponentially over the past few years, but the lack of federal regulation has actually held it back from reaching its full potential. But it looks like that could change very soon.

Yesterday, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the SELF DRIVE Act, a bill that establishes federal regulations for autonomous vehicle technology. Usually when IoT app developers hear the word “regulations,” they cringe; it seems all too often that regulations constrain innovation. But in this case, regulation actually allows for significantly more testing and research. Companies developing self-driving technology have to apply for special exemptions through the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) in order to test their vehicles on the road. Currently, the NHTSA allows only 2,500 exemptions in a year. If the SELF DRIVE Act passes through the Senate, that number will increase tenfold to 25,000 per year, before increasing to 100,000 per year in three years.

That means a lot more driverless vehicles on the streets all over the nation. As it stands now, states can write legislation that makes testing self-driving cars more difficult; in New York, for instance, companies developing autonomous vehicle technology must have $5 million insurance policies and police escorts for every test drive. The SELF DRIVE Act would put the power to regulate testing in the federal government’s hands, creating one set of rules for all 50 states. While there is some understandable concern about states’ reduced regulatory role and the intricacies of liability laws, companies like Uber, Waymo, Ford, and Lyft see the SELF DRIVE Act as a way to push their innovations in autonomous vehicles to the next level. Chicago IoT app developers have their fingers crossed that the bipartisan support the bill found in the House holds when it finally reaches the Senate.