The Big Tech Show

This week’s €1.5bn EU fine against Google for shutting rivals out of its online ad system begs the question: is Google too big? Should it be broken up? And if so, what about Facebook and Amazon?In the US, this is exactly what Democratic US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is proposing. But is it feasible? And what would it mean in terms of services?To discuss the practical and legal considerations around this, Adrian is joined by Philip Andrews, the head of the EU & Competition Law Group at McCann FitzGerald and by Donal O’Donovan, business editor of the Irish Independent.The panel looks at how much of our lives are spent using Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon and whether there’s any hope for new entrants to the market. They also wonder whether Europe’s muscular regulatory approach toward the big tech firms is sufficient or whether more radical anti-trust remedies are needed.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the roles for 5G is to connect self-driving cars. But before that happens, this generation of cars is currently being linked up to 4G networks for safety, upgrade and entertainment purposes.This week, Adrian talks to Barry Napier whose Cubic Telecom is one of Europe’s main providers of mobile connectivity to cars and other everyday things we use.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So Mark Zuckerberg wants Facebook to be a ‘privacy first’ company. Totally expected, right?This week, Adrian and Castlebridge founder Daragh O’Brien dig down into Mark Zuckerberg‘s new corporate mission to see whether it holds water.They discuss the chances — or not — of Facebook being allowed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner to make messages from Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger ‘interoperable’, as Zuckerberg sets out.And they look at what Ireland’s new Online Safety Commissioner will be expected to do.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's it like being Facebook's policeman?This week, Adrian sits down for an in-depth chat with Helen Dixon, Europe's most powerful data protection commissioner.They talk about Facebook, her approach and what exactly it takes for her office to kick off a probe.Helen has some surprising revelations, such as her office's recent look at whether Facebook is secretly recording us through our phones (and what they found).Adrian also asks Helen whether GDPR is causing endless pop-ups on websites that get ignored and if it has helped the big tech firms while hurting small players and startups.And theres lots more, from CCTV to what the office is planning in the future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adrian sits down with a German artificial intelligence expert to talk about why Europe isn’t doing AI right.In particular, Dr Stefan Heumann argues that member states and the European Union need to start taking AI seriously as a concerted effort if Europe is to compete with China and the US.Dr Heumann is a member of the management board of Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV), a non-profit think tank working at the intersection of technology and public policy in Germany.Adrian spoke to him at the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a very big week of broadband announcements in Ireland, Adrian sits down with the person promising the most radical plan.Imagine boss Sean Bolger says that his wireless broadband company will build a new national network to connect over 1m homes, including 400,000 of the 540,000 rural homes currently earmarked under the National Broadband Plan.This, he says, will be done by building hundreds of sites (such as masts) around the country, which will deliver the service to antennae on rural homes.But is this just another promise from a telecoms company? When will the rural homes he’s planning on connecting see the service?And does this mean he intends to scupper or challenge the state-subsidised scheme, which would use taxpayers’ money to do an enhanced fibre-based version of the same thing?Bolger has decades of experience in the Irish telecoms market. His was the company behind the WiMax wireless service that rose and fell some years ago.But rural Ireland may be his biggest challenge yet.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You started a company. You sold it for over €60m. Now you’re going back to start something new from scratch.The question is: why? Why get back into the trenches and try to prove yourself all over again?“It's the struggle, the fight. It's pulling together the most talented people to do their respective jobs and having that team become greater than the sum of their parts.”That’s Alan Coleman, the Dubliner who sold homegrown telecoms billing company Britebill for a fortune in 2016. He’s back with a new startup, Sweepr, and he’s aiming higher.He’s this week’s podcast guest on ‘The Big Tech Show’.One of the questions Adrian asks is what gets a startup entrepreneur really motivated.“Once I have an idea in my mind that this is inevitably going to be the way in which the world works, I then think, ‘why couldn't I do that? Why shouldn't it be me that starts the path to that inevitable outcome?’ I'm an extreme optimist.”Adrian and Alan also talk about privacy, the Ring doorbell and what’s coming next in tech.“There’s an enjoyment out of taking something that is literally a fleeting thought and building it up into a working company,” says Coleman.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, a double-header: one of Ireland’s best known venture capitalists talks money, while a tutor for beginners discusses what we need to know.Adrian catches up with entrepreneur and Draper Esprit financier Brian Caulfield to talk about the state of things for funding and company-building in Ireland today.Then he meets Aisling Mackey, Ireland’s ‘computer tutor’ to talk about some of the skills that we should brush up on.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How relevant are colleges? This week, Adrian sits down with the president of Dublin City University, Prof Brian MacCraith, to talk what universities do well and what they struggling with.Adrian asks Prof MacCraith why Irish universities keep slipping down the international ratings. He also asks about the possible introduction of a student loan system or higher fees for richer students, two things long recommended to keep Irish universities afloat but which no political party here will accept.The two also discuss whether online learning services such as Galway-based Alison.com or US-based Udacity and Coursera are chipping away at the basic rationale for having physical universities in the first place.Prof MacCraith also denies that there is a ‘snob factor’ with regard to Irish kids choosing a ‘northside university’.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Podcast host Adrian Weckler has been writing columns saying that web shopping — and Amazon in particular — is seriously altering the fortunes of offline retailers and the future of the ‘high street’.But the head of one of Ireland’s biggest retail chains, Harvey Norman’s Blaine Callard, thinks this is baloney.This week, Adrian invites Blaine on to tell him why.Blaine tells him that empty spaces in high streets and run down shopping centres are a misreading of the data and have more to do with parking charges, bad zoning and plain bad retailing than Amazon.He also reserves delivers harsh verdicts on retailers such as Clerys and Sears.Adrian remains unconvinced, but gives Blaine a good run at why he thinks the media are running with a false narrative.The two recorded the podcast in Harvey Norman’s newest flagship outlet, the 58,000 square foot store in Tallaght.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.