A Safety Audit Report on Alif Garments Ltd.Oct 4, 2014

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A Safety Audit Report on Alif Garments Ltd.

Submitted to: Dr. Md.Mamunur Rashid, Management Counselor

Submitted by:

Mallik Shaheed Hussain .

ID: 14DH174,

Bangladesh Institute of Management

Batch: Evening 03(2014), PGD-HRM

Dated: 26 July, 2014

Dr. Md.Mamunur Rashid

Management Counselor

Bangladesh Institute of Management

Dhaka.

Subject: A Safety Audit report on Alif Garments Ltd”

Dear Sir,

With due respect, I am pleased to present you this report on A Safety

Audit report on Alif Garments Ltd, 21/22, Babar Road Block-B,

Mohammadpur , Dhaka, Bangladesh, . as an appropriate requirement of

the subject on “Industrial Safety, Health and Welfare”. Working for this

audit has been an interesting and informative experience for me. I have

learnt many unidentified facts about Garments Industry, the Factory

Environment, Factors that must be analyzed for existing Manufacturing

plant in terms of Safety & Health scenarios which I believe will be

infinitely useful in my professional career in the near future.

I have immensely enjoyed working on this report and hope that my work

will meet the level of your expectations.

Thanking you.

Sincerely yours,

Mallik Shaheed Hussain

PGD-HRM

ID: 14DH174

Batch: Evening 03

Acknowledgement

In preparing this assignment the enthusiastic cooperation from theAlif

Garments Ltd Address: 21/22, Babar Road Block-B,

Mohammadpur Dhaka Bangladesh, employees as well as

Management and the Insightful, Consistence, Diversified and Creative

guidance of Dr. Md.Mamunur Rashid, were the two most notable and

remarkable points. It was a pleasant experience conducting the safety

audit in a working factory without much encumbrance. I feel proud of

myself to be a part of this Safety Audit.

Table of Contents

Sl.Contents Page No

01Abstract , Introduction 05

02Origin, Objective, Specific Objective08

03Methodology, Scope, Drawback 09

04Paraphernalia/Equipment 10

05Job based Analysis 11

06Location based Analysis 12

07PPE and Others 14

08Electrical Wiring, Machine Safety 15

09Summary of Fire Safety Report 20

10Observations & Recommendations: 21

11Executive Summary 22

12Appendix: 23

Abstract

Readymade garments are the most important export item from

Bangladesh, yet the working conditions and fire safety records in the

factories are often not up to the standard. Despite a number of initiatives

to curb fire accidents in the garment industry, there are still a significant

number of fire occurrences in this industry. Unfortunately, there is no

comprehensive statistics on the current status of fire provisions and

management practices in the readymade garment factories in

Bangladesh. Given the management practices (soft issues) are often as

important as structural fire safety measures, yet difficult to regulate, this

paper develops a Fire Risk Index (FRI), the first of its kind in

Bangladesh, for soft parameters in the garment industry. FRI for 60

random garment factories are developed through surprise inspections to

understand the current status of fire risk due to inadequacies in the soft

parameters. Results show that the mean FRI is 2.8 on a scale of 5.0,

which indicates an alarming condition. Locked exit doors, lack of

emergency announcement system and lack of fire drills are the three

worst performers among the 24 investigated parameters and require

immediate attention from the regulators and stakeholders. We also

observed a U-shaped relationship between FRI and factory size.

Factories that are members of the industry’s trade lobby generally have

better fire safety practices than the non-members. Given the importance

of the readymade garment sector in many developing countries, poor fire

safety record and lack of information of fire safety, our approach of

developing an FRI for the industry can be very useful to understand the

immediate concerns and thus to curb fatalities and injuries from fire

accidents in this sector.

1. Introduction

Readymade garments are the largest export sector in Bangladesh, with

more than 78% of the country’s total foreign earnings generated from

this sector. Bangladesh is also the second largest apparel exporter in the

world with a total export of USD $17.91 billion in the fiscal year of

2010-11 (BGMEA 2012). The garment sector has enjoyed a significant

growth in Bangladesh for the last three decades. From a humble

beginning of 12 enterprises in 1978, the garment industry currently

consists of 4,500 factories of various

sizes (Muhammad 2011), although around 3,500 are currently operating

(Prothom Alo 2013). Almost all of these factories are distributed

primarily in the two of the largest cities – Dhaka, the capital and

Chittagong, with Dhaka hosting over 70% (Muhammad 2011). Since

this is a highly labor intensive industry (hence Bangladesh's competitive

advantage through its abundant supply of unskilled cheap labor) the

sector is also the largest industrial employer in the country with around

3.6 million people directly working in these factories. Inclusion of

backward and forward linkages would further increase the number of

employees dependant on this sector. Unfortunately, given the labor

intensive nature of the industry, the density of workers on factory floors

is very high. This high density of workers results in a large number of

injuries and fatalities in the event of an accident.

The readymade garment industry is a highly competitive industry and

cost-saving is highly valued, but, given the lack of a safety culture in the

country in general, cost-cutting measures often affect the health and

safety of the workers. Clothing is easily flammable and as such fire is

one of the most frequent and damage inducing accidents in these

factories in Bangladesh. Fire is also purported to be the largest cause of

on-the-job injuries and fatalities in this sector.1 Each new incident of

fire and related damage adversely affects the reputation of the industry

abroad, especially since the working conditions in the manufacturing

sectors in the developing countries is a general cause of concern in many

developed countries. Given the importance of fire safety in the garment

sector, there have been concerted efforts from the government, the

industry lobby (Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters

Associations, BGMEA) and the international buyers of the apparel

products, to improve the fire safety culture and this has indeed reduced

the fire incidents and losses significantly.

However, the battle has not been fully won yet. Despite the various

measures, rules and regulations implemented in the past decades, there

are still several instances of fire outbreak in the garment factories every

year, resulting in significant losses of lives, livelihoods (through

injuries), equipments and materials (Ahmed and Hossain 2009). These

incidents raise questions about the effectiveness of existing fire

prevention and fire fighting rules, regulations and practices and whether

more could be done to limit fire occurrences and fire induced losses of

lives and injuries. Especially, enforcement of the rules and regulations

and day-to-day health and safety management practices on factory floor

is a major issue. In order to improve the fire safety in this industry, it is

important to understand and quantify the current state of affair in fire

safety of the garments factories in the country. As is common in any

developing country, there is a lack of data on fire safety in Bangladesh,

and, although there are a few studies on fire safety status in general (e.g.

Islam and Adri 2008), no comprehensive fire safety assessment of the

garment factories were undertaken before. In the wake of a recent fire

disaster at a garment factory that killed more than 100 factory workers

(BBC 2012a), fire safety evaluation of the industry became even more

important.

Accordingly, this research investigates a 'random' sample of garment

factories from two regions within Dhaka city to assess their current fire

safety status. We develop a fire safety index (first of its kind in

Bangladesh) based on various parameters which are weighted using

experts’ opinion in order to rate the factories. Special emphasis of the

current work is on understanding the status of the ‘soft’ parameters in

fire safety management (e.g. whether there is water in the dedicated

water tank for firefighting at the time of inspection) rather than on the

‘hard’ parameters (e.g. whether there is a dedicated water tank for

firefighting), which is often the focus of the fire safety certification

process.

We are also interested in understanding if any of the soft parameters are

uniformly poor across all factories and if there is a relationship between

the fire safety/risk status with the size or location or other characteristics

of the factories. Knowledge about such parameters or potential

relationships will allow regulators and policy makers to narrow their

focus on the specific Ready made garment Factory.

Ensuring fire safety in this industry. To our knowledge, such a

relationship was not addressed in fire safety literature before. Also,

given the poor working conditions in the garment sector in many other

developing countries and the importance of fire safety in improving the

working conditions, this research has practical implications and

applications beyond Bangladesh.2

This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses the background

and importance of fire safety in the context of garment industries in

Bangladesh. Section 3 presents the research methodology, describing the

choice of parameters, development of the fire safety index and data

collection process. Section 4 presents the results, while section 5

concludes.

Origin:

This report has been prepared for Dr. Md.Mamunur Rashid, as an

appropriate requirement of the subject “Industrial Safety, Health &

Welfare”.

Objective:

Broad Objective: Prepare a report on the safety audit on an industry or

factory, identifying the areas of improvement on safety through

Audit/Observation.

Specific Objective:

1. Risk/Hazard Assessment and analysis

1. Equipment based analysis

2. Job based analysis

3. Location based analysis

4. Identifying the presence of resources including PPE(Personal

Protective Equipment) etc.

5. Checking on factory premises including factory access,

weigh bridge area, roads, lanes and cleanliness related to Health Hazard.

6. Preparing Accident record register in MS Excel

7. FactoryBuilding design review & recommendation

8. Electrical Safety assessment & recommendation

9. Machine Safety assessment & recommendation

10. Identification and recommendation for occupational health

11. Evaluation of Fire fighting training & Drill

Methodology:

This safety audit was conducted on Alif Garments Ltd at 21/22, Babar

Road Block-B, Mohammadpur Dhaka Bangladesh,. The Data Collection

process was through primary sources (Face to Face interviews,

Department wise Team meeting, and random sampling of the factory

staffs) and physical observations of the factory premise. No secondary

data was used.

Scope:

The scope of the report is to analyze the safety awareness and safety

condition of a Ready made garment Factory resulting in finding non-

compliance issues and recommendations for correcting those issues to

elevate or upgrade the safety scenario in working and operating the said

Ready made garment Factory.

Drawback:

Comparing the industry was difficult resulting in vague determination of

the probability of implementing the recommendations for improving the

safety of the Pharmaceutical Company.

The findings of the safety audit are listed below. Only the non-

compliance issues are mentioned with suggested recommendations to

improve the issues with further relevant comments.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Factory Name: Alif Garments Ltd

Address: 21/22, Babar Road Block-B,

Mohammodpur, Dhaka

Country:

Bangladesh

City:

Dhaka

Zip Code: 1207

Audit Duration: 1 Days

Re-Audit: Re- Audit After 0 Months

Draft Report Date: 12/07/2014

Final Report Date: 12/08/2014

Are all Action Items

From Previous

Assessment

Completed? Yes

Buildings in Complex: There is only one building in the premise used

for production.

Is the building(s) owned

or rented by the Factory: Owned

Number of Building

Levels (Stories):Main Building/Production building:- Height from

ground level to roof: 21 m (69 ft), Highest occupied floor level:

18.29 m (60 ft), Stories above grade: 6 Stories below grade: 0 Occupied

levels: 6

Approximate

Building Area (SF): Main Building Area: 20500 sft.

Date of Building

Construction: 22.06.1983

Date of LastBuilding April, 2014

Renovation/Addition:

Ancillary Structures in

Complex: No ancillary structures in complex.

Approximate Ancillary

Structures Area (SF): No ancillary structures in complex.

Number of Occupants: Total occupant: 350, Main building ground floor:

11,1st floor: 66 , 2nd floor: 95, 3rd floor: 95, 4th floor: 27, 5th

1. 1. Paraphernalia/Equipment

SLNon Compliance Action Plan Comment

1.

No Sprinkler

System

Installment of

Sprinkler System

covering the Pharma,

binding and end

product storage areas.

Only Firefighting

equipment present fire

extinguish

2.

No Smoke or Heat

Detector

Installment of inter-

zone smoke detector in

all areas including raw

material storage

specially paint and

lubricant storage. NA

3. No high quantity

fire prevention

instrument

Installment of water

hose for emergency

fire fighting. Already

Even though it can be

inconvenient for raw

materials (pharma), it is

present(i.e Water

hydrant or water

hose coil)

there is a water hose of

small quantity which is

not sufficient for full

coverage.

recommended that at

least two point to be

installed as front and

back point for water

output.

4.

Secondary

Equipment for

chemical fire or

chemical hazard

which is not

sufficient as per

standard bench

mark.

-Installment of Sand

bucket( Minimum

requirement)

- Already have

sufficient storage of

Rubber Boot and

gloves for chemical

handling(As a safety

measure)

Only fire extinguisher is

avialble as a primary

prevention equipment.

5. No fire alarm

Installment of Fire

Alarm for each zone

including emergency

lights. NA

1. 2. Job based Analysis

SL

Non Compliance Action Plan Comment

1.

No Dedicated

employee role &

responsibility for

emergency fire

fighting.

Training and assigning

dedicated employee for

rescue, medical & fire

fighting awareness

among employees.

Regular Drill should

be conducted.

2.

No defined

employee role and

responsibility for

emergency escape

assignment or

schedule.

Training and assigning

dedicated employee for

rescue, medical & fire

fighting awareness

among employees.

Regular Drill should

be conducted.

3.

No rescue and

medical detail

among employees in

case of emergency.

Training and assigning

dedicated employee for

rescue, medical & fire

fighting awareness

among employees.

Regular Drill should

be conducted.

4. No emergency Should implement

emergency prevention

Implementation of

Health & Safety

prevention plan

plan including:

1. Major work place

hazards

2. Personnel

responsible for various

emergency procedures

3. Housekeeping on

flammable or

combustible raw

materials and waste

4. Regular training &

Drill on emergency.

committee is highly

Recommended

5. No emergency

response procedure

Should implement

emergency response plan

including:

i. Personnel responsible

for various emergency

procedure.

Implementation of

Emergency response

committee is

recommended

ii. Regular training &

drill on emergency

procedures.

6. No First aid training

Conducting regular first

aid training and

designation of primary

responsible for First Aid.

A well experienced

Training Manager

(First Aid) should be

appointed as contact

basis.

1. 3. Location based Analysis:

SlNon Compliance Action Plan Comment

1.

Exit: Collapsible

Gate with down

sliding shutter

Installation

of “Outward Opening

Door” will be optimum

even though the gates

are always open while

operation goes on.

Two collapsible gate with

shutters: One front, One

back

2.Ventilation: No big

ventilation fan for

proper air flow(only

small ventilators

with small exhaust

Installation of big

exhaust fan at window

height(it will reduce

heat while operation

and reduce chemical

Only possible place in the

wall for exhaust fan is the

wall adjacent to the road,

the second wall is blocked

fans on walls

adjacent to the roof)

fumes from ink &

thinner from inhaling). by another building).

3.

Space: Placement of

raw and output

material (paper)

often hinders

movement and

evacuation route.

Enlargement of storage

for season of high

output so that paper

can mainly be stored in

storage, not in the

production area or

beside the machines.

NA

4.

Space planning:

Space is used way

over the limit of

optimal use,

resulting congested

space because of

machineries.

Thinning out the

machines and acquiring

additional space for

more spacious storage

place.

It will reduce accident,

free up space for

emergency pathways and

reduce heat.

5.No secondary

containment

procedure or

separate place for

Implementation of

proper containment

procedure with

different types of

Separation & minimal

divider between chemical

types will suffice.

Separation of chemical,

chemicals.

chemicals as well as

separate storage place.

machineries and papers is

mandatory.

6.

Building integrity:

No approval by

concerned authority

for building

construction for this

particular

production facility.

No occupancy

certificate either.

It is recommended that

the company arrange

an inspection by the

relevant authority for

the premise and take

necessary steps to

ensure building

integrity.

Major Re-Engineering

works is strongly

recommended.

7.

No environment

clearance certificate.

Acquisition of

environmental

clearance certificate.

Day to

day ETPmonitoring and

compliance with DoE.

1. 4. PPE and Others:

SLNon Compliance Action Plan Comment

1.

No accident/incident

report is maintained,

very Few

found(only)

Maintenance of

chronological

accident/incident register

NA

2.

Deviation report

found but none

consistently. Should maintain as daily

routine basis. NA

3. Insufficient of

PPE(Personal

protective

equipment) not

maintain up to the

Mark

Implementation of

regulation on all times

usage of Rubber Gloves

while handling

chemicals and wearing

Rubber boots while

handling large quantities

of it.

i.Even though the sound

level is not above

tolerance, usage of noise

reducing ear plug is

Employees should be

made aware of the

necessity of the

personal protective

equipment through

regular training and

implemented standard

operating procedure

(SOP).

preferable.

ii. Similarly, usage of

metal gloves in cutting

machine is advisable.

4.

No sufficient backup

light

Installment of More

Backup light.

Several charge lights

are used as instant

back up light, back up

generator line comes

from outside supplier

which supplies power

for several lights

only(No Generator for

machines).

5.

No Safety

cell/Committeeor

awareness activity

Formation of safety

committee and

conducting regular

safety awareness

campaign.

Regular training and

drills will work

greatly in this aspect.

1. 5. Electrical Wiring:

Electrical connection, quality & placement of switch boards are barely

satisfactory. Each machine has separate line & switch. Most lines are

jacketed with plastic pipes and placed above head on the wall. There are

some new electrical lines added outside of the jacketed lines which

increases the fire risk even though they are bound the jacketed lines with

twines or tape. There are no crises-crossing below the roof & no lines on

the ground. Only placement of several pedestal revolving fan encroach

on unsafe placement.

1. 6. Machine Safety:

Machines are mostly safe with regular maintenance. The Heat producing

machines has separate exhaust pipe to outside. Additionally some wall

mounted revolving fans circulate the excess heat produced while in

production. The possibility of work hazard includes cutting machine and

various motors running in the press.

Safety Provision:

1. 1. Identifying the “Areas of Improvement” on Safety through

Audit/Observation:

1. Risk/Hazard Assessment & Analysis on

1. Equipment based analysis.

2. Job based analysis.

3. Location based analysis.

1. Identifying the presence of the resources including “PPE”

(Personal Protective Equipment) etc. & developing a useable PPE

Matrix and recommending for immediate arrangement of the equipment

to implement the Safety Management Program.

1. Factory Premises including Factory Access, Weigh bridge area,

roads, lanes & cleanliness related health hazard.

1. Preparing Accident Record Register in MS Excel :

Must Provide an Excel Sheet….

1. Factory Building Design Review & recommendation(subject to

availability of the original building architectural layout plan in soft copy

in AutoCAD only)

2. Electrical “Safety Assessment & Correction” where possible as per

recommendation of our Electrical Engineer.

3. Machine Safety Assessment & recommendation

4. Identification & recommendation for “Occupational Health”

5. Working “Uniform/Dress”, Safe for work_ awareness campaign

among the first line workers.

6. Recommendations for “Awareness Campaign Materials”.

7. Formation of “Safety Cell” (Safety Committee) for self Inspection

& carrying out safety events at a regular/scheduled interval.

8. Giving Complete Guideline to establish an “Emergency Safety

Clinic”.

9. Formation of “First Aid Team”

10. One day “First Aid Training” by Qualified Medical Professional

(On Additional Payment).

1. 16. Fire protection Equipment & PPE :

1. Fire Fighting Training & Drill

1. Formation of “Fire Safety Cell (Team)” & Preparing Yearly Fire

Safety Drill Schedule(FSDS) :

Summary of Fire Safety Report

The Alif Garments Ltd was assessed by Mallik Shaheed Hussain

identify significant fire safety issues and to provide recommendations

for remediation based on BNBC-2006, Alliance/Accord, NFPA, Boiler

Act, etc. The scope of this initial fire safety inspection was limited to

review and identification of Highly Hazardous, Medium Hazardous and

Hazardous for Fire safety issues.

SLWeight ageImportance

1. 3 Highly Hazardous

2. 2 Medium Hazardous

3. 1 Hazardous

Detail findings/observations and recommendations of fire safety issues

have been mentioned already. CAP time line will start from the report

submit day.

Observations & Recommendations:

SLCategory Observation Weight

1.

Documentation

Boiler license 2

2. Documentation Boiler Operator license 2

3. Documentation Fire License 2

4. Documentation HVAC System permission 1

5. Documentation Previous Assessment Report 2

6. Fire Protection Generator Room & Generator control 3

Construction room is not fire rated

7.

Fire Protection

Construction Uncovered light in the stored area 1

8.

Fire Protection

Construction

Fire barriers are provided to separate

boiler rooms. 2

9

Fire Protection

Construction

Fire rated separations between Diesel

tank and Generator are not found 2

10

. Electrical Substation

establishment

Permission from REB(Rural

Electrification Board) 3

11

.

Means of Egress

Some of the Exit signs have no

illumination system 3

12 Means of Egress Insufficient emergency light 2

13

. Means of Egress Day Care location 3

14 Fire protection Fire pumps accessibility 2

.

systems

15

. Fire protection systems

Fire department connections are not

provided 2

16

. Fire protection systems

Inspection, maintenance and testing

records for hose pipe system not

found.

Executive Summary

Alif Garments Ltd is a Garments factory among many in

Mohammodpur and Shaymoly area. In terms of machineries, it is a

medium to small garment and other related factory dealing with ready

made production. As a safety precaution equipment it has fire

extinguishers, which act as the preliminary fire fighting unit. The

Chemical handling & storage situation is dismal & the ventilation

scenario is barely acceptable. Usage of space is far above optimal level

resulting congested space with very limited space for storage and almost

non-existent evacuation corridor in the workplace. Electrical wiring

nearly sufficient in terms of safety protocol with jacketed wiring and

separate switch boards for the machines.

Appendix:

1. Class note of Dr.Md.Mamunur Rashid

2. Documentation slide collected from Dr.Md.Mamunur Rashid

3. Book: Industrial Safety & Health by Dr.Md.Mamunur Rashid

4. Book: Industrial Safety & Health by William Hardley(Online

Version)

5. Alif Garments Ltd Safety Manual & Library

6. Different web sources for Safety Audit related report

•

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Dr. Engr. Md Mamunur Rashid ; Faculty @ bim.org.bdLike Comment • Share on LinkedIn

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Andrew YangFollow

What's Eating Silicon ValleyJan 8, 2016

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This article originally appeared in Quartz

Like most people, I look up to and admire the heroes of Silicon Valley

(the real ones, not the ones from the TV show). They’ve given rise to

services (e.g., Google, Facebook, Uber, LinkedIn, Airbnb) that we use

every day and make the world a better place. They’ve created value,

wealth, and opportunity at unprecedented historic levels.

I’ve also had the chance to meet some of the leading CEOs and

entrepreneurs of the Valley and they are, by and large, good-natured,

brilliant, and thoughtful people. They’re earnest and committed to

building positive things. Some of them are donors to my organization,

for which I’m immensely grateful. It’s clear that Silicon Valley is today

more than ever the center of innovation and technological progress.

That said, there are a few things about it that are starting to make me

nervous.

I’ve had several friends tell me that they’re leaving the Valley because

they want to rejoin the real world. A successful entrepreneur told me he

fantasizes about leaving because he wants to raise his kids the way he

was raised in Rochester, and that his money would effectively triple as

soon as he left. Another successful entrepreneur who moved to San

Francisco said he felt like “just another cow in the pen,” and that he

enjoyed spending time in other parts of the country because it made him

feel more like he was making a difference.

What are these people talking about? What are the things that are

starting to freak people out about Silicon Valley? There are a few

themes that come up again and again:

The epicenter of wealth and young money

There are a lot of young people, generally from very good colleges,

making more money than most people will ever see. These are summer

college interns (non-engineers) who are being paid $7,000+ a month and

getting perks like free flights home to visit on weekends. Bidding wars

and five and six-digit signing bonuses are being paid out for freshly

minted engineering grads, particularly from Stanford. Average salaries

are now close to $200,000 in the Valley, to say nothing of the upside of

equity-based compensation, which can be dramatically higher.

All of the above makes business sense—I’d offer the same thing to a

young person whom I thought could potentially be a difference-maker.

But it’s a lot relatively early in people’s careers.

Supercompetitive

Technology companies tend to operate in winner-take-all spaces and

thus adopt a very high-commitment culture. That is, if there are 10 or

100 mapping apps or social networks, the one company left standing is

worth billions, and the rest are worth a very small fraction of that

(probably only what people will pay for the talent on hand). As a result,

the organizations are ultra-efficient and expect long hours and constant

availability. It’s either win or lose big for a lot of companies, and there’s

not much in-between.

Hard work is awesome. But when you see an army of people staring at

their computer screens in the evening post-dinnertime, it’s a little eerie.

War for talent

If you want to win big, you have to get the best troops. Well-resourced

tech companies are now on the hunt for talent like never before, building

massive recruitment pipelines to hoover up top prospects and engineers.

Google recruits the heck out of Stanford, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon,

MIT, and other top schools offering six-figures to start, plus bonuses.

Facebook sponsors hackathons at the top schools, stays in touch with

professors, and invests tons of resources in order to be the most visible

and obvious employer.

Don’t think that the smart kids haven’t noticed—the proportion of

Stanford students majoring in the Humanities has plummeted from over

20% to only 7% this past year, prompting wails among History and

English professors whose classes no longer have students. One

administrator joked to me that Stanford is now the Stanford Institute of

Technology. In 2014, more Harvard Business School Grads went into

technology than into banking for the first time since the dot-com era.

Again, I’d do the same thing. But is this the optimal assignment of our

best and brightest? And is it a good thing that one of our nation’s top

universities seems to be going vocational?

Insular culture/Not awesome at diversity

The corporate campuses and workplace amenities of Apple, Google,

Facebook, etc. are legendary. They’re insider tourist attractions. For the

average employee, you wake up and drive from a leafy suburb to a

grounded spaceship. You stay there and eat the subsidized gourmet

dinner with someone who’s a lot like you. Or maybe you take the dark-

windowed company bus from San Francisco and tap out emails with

headphones on. Even smaller companies are competing on rock

climbing walls and ping-pong tables.

This way of life doesn’t generally expose you to people who are living

different ways of life. And the people on the bus and spaceship aren’t

representative of most of society based on gender or race or education or

age. “Silicon Valley is a bubble” doesn’t refer to valuations or money—

it refers to the fact that you live in a bubble.

Crazy high cost of living

Simply put, it will blow your mind what things cost in terms of housing

in the Bay Area right now. Modest houses for well over a million

dollars. Little apartments the same. One bedroom apartments start at

over $3,000/month. The average home in Santa Clara county sold for

$1.25 million in August of 2015, up 9% from last year. How is a teacher

or just about any regular person going to live there?

Even if you can afford to live in a neighborhood, the elevated costs

make it easy to compare yourself to others and say, “Well, sure I’m

richer than anyone I grew up with, but I’m not that rich, because look at

that guy I work with or went to school with or who lives down the block.

That guy’s really rich.” It’s not an environment of plenty, but one of

keeping up with the Joneses.

These are some of the things that are making people uncomfortable both

in and about the Valley. None of these issues are anyone’s fault. It’s just

the market at work—the capital market, the market for talent, the real

estate market.

It reminds me a fair amount of Wall Street. Wall Street’s public image

took a hit post-financial crisis in part because they were bailed out by the

government, in part because they contributed to the crisis, and in part

because they don’t produce tangible goods and services (no one got as

mad at Chrysler, for example).

But another reason Wall Street had trouble maintaining goodwill was

because of some of the attributes above—hard-charging, too much too

soon, parallel reality, money flowing everywhere, rich white guys, etc.

To use a sports metaphor, it’s like the Yankees or Duke University or

the Patriots—they start getting hard to root for, unless they’re your home

team.

Solve the big problems

Perhaps the biggest critique of Silicon Valley comes from a technologist

quoted in Vanity Fair’s recent article by Nick Bilton—“SF tech culture

is focused on solving one problem: What is my mother no longer doing

for me?”

Getting a car on demand, finding something online, business

productivity tools, connecting with people—these are solutions that the

market demands and rewards. They make money. Silicon Valley is like

Wall Street in that it will fill and pursue market opportunities to their

logical extremes.

If there’s one way that Silicon Valley can lead and distance itself from

critiques of insularity and out-of-touchness, it’s to tackle the big, thorny,

difficult problems that would improve the state of the world. Problems

that are messy, protracted, and involve the prospect of failure and

embarrassment. They don’t have a ready market. They affect rich and

poor alike. They touch flawed systems. They’re less “What did Mom do

to make my life better?” and more “What would make Mom proud?”

They require you to do more than cut a check, and instead hunker down

and grind away for years.

What problems do I mean? Here are a few that come to mind that would

give Silicon Valley the moral leadership to match its economic and

intellectual might:

Water

We all know that California is stuck in a multi-year drought. It’s the

great equalizer. The Bay Area has been hit less hard by water rationing

than Southern California, but the dry spell is finally starting to impact

people’s ability to water their lawns and take out the Slip ‘N Slide, not to

mention its influence on the epic wildfires that are destroying homes all

over the state.

Imagine if the resources of Silicon Valley were to tackle this challenge.

How about building a water pipeline from Canada to northern

California? Megascale desalination, Israeli-style? Large-scale

conservation technologies? If there’s something that would get everyone

in California declaring companies as heroes it’s this. Water is free in

California, but not really—so be the water bringer.

Traffic/infrastructure

One CEO commented that it took him about an hour to make a 15-mile

commute in the morning to Palo Alto. I found myself shaking my head

at the thought of all of these millionaires inching along in standstill

traffic twice a day, even those that did their best to engineer a short

commute. While some of their Teslas can drive themselves so the driver

can send emails and whatnot, commute length is the single biggest

determinant of day-to-day happiness according to psychologists. What

use is being a mega-baller if you’re stuck in traffic every day?

I know, Google self-driving cars will go mainstream by 2030 and greatly

reduce traffic (and potentially eliminate hundreds of thousands of

driving jobs). In the meantime, how about dynamic tolling? Staggered

commute times? Jetpacks? A public-private partnership to add four lanes

to widen Route 101? Again, whoever did this would be a hero, and could

probably name the new lanes after their company.

Diversity and social issues

America is bifurcating fast. Social mobility is down, technological

unemployment is rising, and we’re heading toward a country where the

non-white majority in 2043 will have lower levels of income, wealth,

education, physical freedom, and political participation than the white

minority. That’s the country kids are growing into.

Technology companies are starting to focus on getting more diversity in

their own organizations, which is a great place to start. But there’s much

more that can be done.

Take the current controversy over policing. You’re telling me that the

best non-lethal weapon we can give an officer in 2016 is a Taser with a

range of 25 feet that was developed back in 1974? Or that I can have a

video camera on my phone but we can’t stick one on every badge?

Is there really no better system than to rely on overworked guidance

counselors and standardized testing at age 16 to identify talented

minorities in inner cities?

Technologists could do a lot to lead in the right direction.

Education

National SAT scores are at their lowest points in a decade. Online

education is ubiquitous, yet we don’t seem to be getting any smarter. If

anything, it’s kind of the opposite. We have decades of research on

effective education that isn’t being implemented nationwide.

Meanwhile, we plow millions of kids through a factory system that was

designed in the agrarian era.

I love Altschool, Minerva Project, and the Khan Academy, but we’re

still just scratching the surface of both the opportunity and the need

around the country. So many people want this, it’s unreal. There’s even

money in this one—the US spends $621 billion on public education,

with uneven results.

Is filling out bubbles with a pencil on a test designed in 1901 still the

best we can do to measure human potential?

I’m optimistic because this generation of techies is starting to have kids.

Nothing motivates you to figure out what’s going on with a system more

than when your kid has to enter it (even private schools).

Government

When technologists interact with government, they tend to focus either

on things that are good for their business interests (immigration, internet

access) or libertarianism (stay out of the way). Otherwise, money gets

lost in a maze. It’s a swamp, another world. The operating system of the

government is out-of-date and needs an update—only it’s not capable of

updating itself.

Don’t let the system scare you off. Look at Lawrence Lessig—he’s a law

professor who’s trying to get money out of politics and crowdfunded

$11 million dollars to do it. That’s how much Google spent on lobbying

last year.

Or Jen Pahlka and Code for America, which sends coders and designers

to save cities money by showing them what a lean, talented team can do.

Or Megan Smith who left Google to become CTO of the US, along with

the wave of heroes who moved to Washington DC to save

Healthcare.gov.

It’s still your country. Don’t give up on it.

Unsexy entrepreneurship

For Silicon Valley denizens, this is the golden age of entrepreneurship.

But if you look across the country, entrepreneurship is at a 24-year low

and most young people are not starting businesses, online or otherwise.

They’re looking for jobs in Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans, Cleveland,

St. Louis, Providence, Cincinnati, San Antonio, upstate New York, and

wherever else to pay back loans and maybe start a family.

Entrepreneurship in these other cities looks quite different than it does in

the Valley. It’s unsexy and gritty, measured in credit card debt rather

than VC meetings, by getting customers instead of visitors or users, by

changing the neighborhood instead of changing the world. Companies

are started not with a desire to be huge, but because there’s a problem to

be solved.

These entrepreneurs look up to the people in the Valley for inspiration.

You wouldn’t believe how big a difference it would make to have tech

rockstars spend time in these cities and commit to making them better. It

would make these entrepreneurs think all things were possible.

These are just problems that come to mind for me. The truth is that you

could choose just about anything under the sun that you felt strongly

about, as long as it came from a good place.

When I ran a company, I didn’t have time for much else. I thought that

the work that I was doing represented the most profound impact and

good I could make in the world. I was focused. I wanted to be rich. If

someone asked me for help I would make a small contribution, but I felt

my greatest contribution was my day job.

After we got acquired, I thought about joining or starting another

company. Instead I wound up founding a non-profit to make

entrepreneurship more accessible and distributed throughout the US.

That decision has driven the last five years. It’s been a struggle and a

massive education. The market’s fuzzier. Nothing is as clean as you

want it to be. The humanity of it can be overwhelming.

But underlying the humanity is the conviction that the problem you’re

addressing is worth solving. It challenges you in ways similar to having

a child—you grow up or you quit, only quitting would make you a loser.

Here’s the plea to Silicon Valley: we’re worried you’re losing your soul.

Please take on challenges that are worthy of you, that demand your

heart, reputation, treasure, commitment, conviction, and values—not just

what the market’s asking of you. You’re the builders of this era. It’s not

enough. We need you to lead.

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Image by Richard Giles, licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

Aileen GallagherAssistant Professor at Syracuse University

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2016: The Year Tablet Magazines Get to DieJan 8, 2016

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Magazine editors from around the country (or, really, New York City

and a couple other places) met on January 6 at Columbia University to

determine the winners of the 2016 National Magazine Awards. And for

the first time since 2012, they did not have to pretend that tablet

magazines are worthy of celebration.

The American Society of Magazine Editors, the professional

organization that administers the National Magazine Awards (known as

ASMEs or Ellies), first gaveNational Geographic the Calder elephant in

the Tablet Edition category in 2012.National Geographic won the

category, re-named “Tablet Magazine,” in 2013, 2014, and 2015. This

year, ASME retired the category.

To be fair, ASME reviews and changes its award categories regularly.

For example, ASME reduced the coveted General Excellence award,

which recognizes magazines in different verticals, to four categories

from six in 2016. (Farewell, “Active Interest.”) It makes sense to

reconsider how a changing industry honors its best.

But something about the end of the tablet category feels more

significant, like a quiet acknowledgment of the industry’s failure to

innovate. Yes, tablets didn’t sell like smartphones, but there are still a lot

of them out there. According to the Pew Research Center, 45 percent of

U.S. adults owned a tablet in 2015, compared to the 68 percent who

owned a smartphone. Apple’s Newsstand ghetto didn’t help, either. But

blame the magazine industry for tablet magazines’ failure to launch.

ASME’s call for entries in 2015 said that “tablet magazines need not

duplicate the frequency of content of sibling print editions.” But in

reality, tablet magazines didhave to duplicate print editions. The

Alliance for Audited Media sets the rules for how magazines report

circulation (copies distributed) and rate base, the average circulation

level that determines ad rates. Tablet magazines, AAM determined,

could be included in the rate base — and therefore be counted for

advertising purposes — only if they included “all the same editorial

content [as] in the print.” Magazines could include enhanced content

suitable for tablets, such as videos or interactive elements, but only on

top of the magazine’s original editorial, art, and ads “presented in a

manner consistent with the print issue.”

The magazine industry, desperate to bolster flagging circulation, utilized

this exciting new platform by … offering mostly replica versions of the

print magazines. Innovation, costly to begin with, was bad for business.

Titles likePopular Mechanics, Wired, and National Geographic, whose

editorial missions seemed a natural fit for tablets, could do little more

than tack on multimedia shackled to the format and presentation of a

print editions. And to access this content, the user had to remember to

open the newsstand once a month and download a giant file. For that

kind of content, why bother?

The audience had little use for consuming magazines this way. National

Geographic, whose tablet magazine was the only winner of a National

Magazine Award in the history of the category, had a total circulation of

3.5 million in 2014 (the most recent data publicly available). The digital

replica circulation: 164,408. Editors have to make difficult financial

choices these days. Expending resources on a product that comprises

only 5 percent of the readership is an easy cut. If a title doesn’t outright

abandon its tablet edition soon, look for scaled-back, PDFish versions

like the kind carried by Texture. There’s zero incentive to try anything

else.

So goodbye, tablet magazine. CueCat can’t wait to meet you.

***

(This article was originally published on Medium.)