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WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

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Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#111

Post by dcolkitt »

Jestar342 wrote: post #6
jakelazaroff wrote: post #2

I wonder when this trend of calling companies "tech companies" — just because they happen to use technology — will end. WeWork clearly is a real estate company; Uber is a taxi company with an app; etc.

I think it's the trend of bringing tech to an existing market. When that stops, we'll probably stop calling it tech companies. Uber is the perfect example of a "tech company" - they brought technology (and in this context "tech", arguably, means "the internet") to an industry that was previously dominated by standing on a street and waving down a cab/taxi. However I think it is rather pithy to just call them a taxi c…

Definitely agree with you about Uber. Here's one clear way to see that Uber is a tech company.

Imagine the senior management was all abducted by aliens tomorrow, and you had to replace them very quickly. Who would you rather bring in. A bunch of senior execs from Google or a bunch of former Taxi company managers? Which group do you think could run Uber better?

Well I think the obvious answer makes it pretty clear that Uber is a company with tech at the very foundation of its DNA.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#113

Post by nkrisc »

puranjay wrote: post #110

I'm tired of my WeWork. I'm tired of the relentless positivity ("Thank God for Mondays!") and faux corporate cheerfulness. I freelanced because I wanted out of that corporatism where I'm reminded that I don't just have to work; I have to be happy while doing it. WeWork's championing of "makers" and "creativity" and all that gobbledock might work for some people, but I just want a space to work out of that has good Wi…

It's corporate cult-as-a-service for those who don't have an office that provides that for them.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#114

Post by parliament32 »

ghaff wrote: post #61
Chlorus wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is a "proper service" in this case? Something like one of the 802.11 Enterprise modes that don't use a PSK and actually check against a user DB before handing out a session.

So now there’s significant complexity to getting on the network. Seems like a poor choice for a co-working space. And, as I say, plenty of large companies with competent IT departments don’t seem to think that’s necessarily. And how about when you’re having a meeting with outside people who need to get onto a network?

Most universities and schools have a similar setup. No idea how WeWork works but I assume you have some sort of user account already (how do you pay them otherwise?) that you can use to authenticate yourself. Then your AP just needs to talk to a auth gateway (usually RADIUS) which then talks to your actual auth backend (LDAP, AD, or whatever online login form they use).

For guests you either generate guest account or just have a guest network. We don't care if guests fight over the guest network because there aren't that many of them around at any one time... the problem is that actual WeWork customers shouldn't be fighting over insecure APs.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#115

Post by freehunter »

roland35 wrote: post #69
SamWhited wrote: post #66

This is the place where literally every one has the wifi password "P@ssw0rd" (or something similar, I forget) and instead of just connecting an HDMI cable to your laptop in the conference rooms you have to download some spyware that only works on Windows and Mac (despite the fact that their primary client is tech companies, many of whom use Linux or other OS's). Also never try printing, that just doesn't work, and th…

It seems like their isn't much benefit to brand loyalty here - I would imagine it is easy to simply do a google search for a short term work place in a new city if you need a change of scenery from the coffee shop!

I think it would be amazing to see a co-working brand have locations absolutely everywhere, like 24 hour gyms. One price gets you into any of them and they're all the same. It would help with customer retention because they've already paid $300/mo to get in, so if they move or travel they're not paying someone else. They're sticking with you.

I'm surprised WeWork locations are so few and far between, while Snap Fitness has a location on every other corner. There can't be that much more overhead to a co-working space versus a 24 hour fitness center.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#116

Post by nabnob »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #2

I wonder when this trend of calling companies "tech companies" — just because they happen to use technology — will end. WeWork clearly is a real estate company; Uber is a taxi company with an app; etc.

It's a property company that's planning tracking everything people do in their buildings.

>WeWork's latest acquisition is a small software company with 24 employees. Euclid is a spatial analytics platform...Euclid's website says the company is "focused on redefining the workplace experience of the future." Translation: optimizing every aspect of the physical workplace so workers are their most productive. Euclid does this by tracking how people move around physical spaces. Its technology can track how many people showed up to a meeting or to that after-work happy hour. The company can see where employees tend to congregate and for how long. It's all done over Wi-Fi.

https://www.inc.com/betsy-mikel/wework-is-trying-a-creepy-ne...

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#117

Post by parliament32 »

skrebbel wrote: post #78
tedivm wrote: post #7

For the number of engineers they have you'd think they'd have figured out how to build a decent wifi network with some actual security in it. Instead every WeWork has the same password for the wifi (literally a variant on `P@ssw0rd`) and it is super easy to spy on other people's connections. The hilarious thing is they actually built a secure wifi network for their staff, so they clearly recognize the need. They also…

I thought I knew this stuff, but now I'm not so sure anymore. If I take care to only visit https sites, what's the risk in being on an open network or a network with a stupid password? They can see what domains I connect to and when, but that's it, correct? No MITM, no further snooping, right?

MITM for HTTP and DNS are the main threats. An attacker can use one of these vectors to inject malicious JS into pages for you.

Otherwise, it depends on what else you use the network for. Maybe you set "SSL optional" in your mail client so your email password gets fired off in plaintext. Maybe your special radio streaming app is vulnerable to RCE. Maybe the latest Windows update accidently started sending your keylogs (ahem, "telemetry") over an unencrypted channel.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#118

Post by nabnob »

duxup wrote: post #62

I'm not very knowledgeable about WeWork... but what exactly do they bring to the table that wasn't being done before business wise? They just seem to have office space like any other company that might. Presumably the properties they bought or lease or whatever were somewhat profitable before ... but now WeWork owns them and ... doesn't make money? That seems, bad. I'm skeptical of say Uber's long term sustainability…

They're planning on tracking workers within their buildings.

>WeWork's latest acquisition is a small software company with 24 employees. Euclid is a spatial analytics platform...Euclid's website says the company is "focused on redefining the workplace experience of the future." Translation: optimizing every aspect of the physical workplace so workers are their most productive. Euclid does this by tracking how people move around physical spaces. Its technology can track how many people showed up to a meeting or to that after-work happy hour. The company can see where employees tend to congregate and for how long. It's all done over Wi-Fi.

https://www.inc.com/betsy-mikel/wework-is-trying-a-creepy-ne...

I don't think this kind of tracking will have any positive impact on employee productivity, and it could have the opposite effect of being demoralizing. Unfortunately, I'm sure there's lots of unethical companies that would love to have this kind of data on their workers.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#119

Post by driverdan »

nostromo wrote: post #106
tempestn wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Approved by whom? Someone might look at it after the fact, but nothing stops a company from buying or selling with its shareholders. (In fact it's quite common for private companies to pay owners for things like office space.) But yes, it should be at fair market value; you're not supposed to buy something for one price just to flip it to your company for a higher price (effectively taking compensation as a capital g…

In theory, the board. The board represents investors. And usually the big investors will have a seat on the board. The board should have intervened here.

That's my point. The LLC owners / WeWork shareholders should have recused themselves due to conflict of interest and the board should have shot it down. This seems really sketchy to me, an end run to get money out of the company.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#120

Post by novok »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #46
Jestar342 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's the trend of bringing tech to an existing market. When that stops, we'll probably stop calling it tech companies. Uber is the perfect example of a "tech company" - they brought technology (and in this context "tech", arguably, means "the internet") to an industry that was previously dominated by standing on a street and waving down a cab/taxi. However I think it is rather pithy to just call them a taxi c…

But we don't call, say, banks tech companies. A huge portion of their business requires sophisticated technical infrastructure they create themselves, but we just call them banks. And there are plenty of normal taxi companies with similar systems to Uber's.

In many ways, banks were the original hybrid tech companies. VERY early adopters of software, mainframes, databases and so on. But because they were so early we don't call them tech companies, probably because there wasn't a concept of a 'software tech' company back then and they were evolutions of older companies that didn't use software to run their businesses.
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