Hey guys, it's Monica. Thank you so much for joining me in this video. I am actually gonna share with you my top 10 favorites of 2021. So if you're interested, stay tuned. Gosh, can you believe it's 2022? When I look back at 2021, it was a very turbulent year for me and I know for many of you, but now it's like here's a new beginning, 2022. And I'm so full of, I think, excitement, right? Because it's a clean slate going forward and it just makes me feel really good. I wanna put the past behind. I wanna put anything that happened negative in its proper place in my memory bank but not let the past hold me still. You know, I wanna be able to move forward and I don't wanna be glued in place in the past. I wanna put those memories where they belong and just have a wonderful 2022. So I hope that you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve. Whether you went out, whether you stayed home in your jammies or whatever you did, I hope you had a wonderful New Year's Eve. Jay and I actually had a early luncheon with my mom and my sister, late luncheon, early dinner.  So anyways, my top 10 favorites, the things that I really, really enjoyed in 2021. And because it was such a weird year for me, I really, I didn't really do a whole lot of skincare makeup, new stuff and all that. I do have a video coming up. So my skincare update is coming up. That'll be my next video. Then after that video, I have a collab video, which is gonna be super awesome. And then I have a video on magical marriages. I know, I know, I know. Actually, it's more in tuned of when it's just the two of you, you know, empty nesters. How do you keep that spark alive? How to have a magical marriage, basically. So those are the videos I have in the queue. So I hope you join me. If you're new to my channel, please consider subscribing. Please ring that notification bell so you'll be notified whenever I do upload. I know YouTube is so funky on that at times. But if you don't get a notification, just check back. And you might be surprised to see that I have some new videos. Anyways, top 10 items. Most of these are not going to be skincare or makeup. I do have some top skincare and makeup. I'll talk about that, obviously, in my next video. But the top 10 items or things that really made me happy in 2021 in a no particular order, right? In no particular order. So first up has to be my bike. Many of you know that Jay and I bought e-bikes in 2021. Jay and I always loved biking. We have, we had some really nice expensive, actually, Cannondale Mountain Bikes that we bought like 20 some odd years ago. And we would bike in Arcadia. We would bike around our neighborhood. We would do a lot of biking. Always enjoyed it. We take the bikes on our motor home. We'd go up to the beach and bike along the beach. And then it got to the point where the Cannondale Mountain Bikes are hybrid bikes that we had. Mine was super big. I had a hard time throwing my leg over it. I had a hard time just feeling comfortable in that big bike underneath me. And it's Jay. So we made a decision. We had seen some people on e-bikes and we said, wow, that's the way to go. We're getting older. You know, we want to still stay active. We want to be able to exercise. We want to be able to enjoy those things. So we made a decision to pursue e-bikes. And we did that. We investigated and we ended up buying an e-bike that I consider to be midline, you know, as far as price wise. There's many bikes that are in lower price point and there's many bikes that are much higher price point, which might be shocking to you because we're not talking hundreds of dollars. You know, in some cases these bikes are, some of the bikes I've seen are $16,000, $18,000. So I was like, oh my gosh, never. So we found a midpoint basically and what was important to us was a warranty and local servicing. We wanted to be able to take our bikes because neither one of us are handy. We wanted to be able to take our bikes and have them serviced locally.  However, the horror stories of ordering online, the horror stories of not having anyone service them, the reviews really made us nervous. So we ended up getting pedagos. They were pricey and, you know, you can finance, you could have a 0% finance, whatever your budget is. But we looked at it and said, okay, these bikes will probably outlast us. So we looked at it. So we bought pedagos and we absolutely love them. So for us in 2021, for the two of us, getting back on bikes, getting back out there, just exploring and being able to cruise the beach and do all the things that we really love to do on bikes, being able to do that again in 2021 was just awesome. So bikes absolutely love it, love it, love it. That outdoor activity, something Jay and I can do together. The second thing, number two, and again, no particular order, but number two has to be my Apple Watch. And this is a repeat. It's not new for 2021 for me. I've had an Apple Watch. This is I think my third Apple Watch or my second. I've had an Apple Watch for many, many years. I love my Apple Watch. Not only does it give me my text messages, can I listen to Vox messages on it or email on it? It gives me my health reporting. It also has safety, a fall factor. If I fall and I don't respond, it'll call 911. There's just a ton of things that my Apple Watch does. So the first time I got my Apple Watch, I was like, okay, but I didn't really maximize the use as much as I do now. So for me, an Apple Watch is a must. I would never be without my Apple Watch. And I love the fact that I can, and I buy these on Amazons. I have all these little replacement bracelets or bracelets that you can swap your watch out on. All of them have been bought on Amazon. I don't buy them from Apple. They are extremely reasonable. Some of them are like 20 bucks. Some of them are on sale for nine bucks. So it is super easy to swap out the bracelet or the chain and have several in this little box that your Apple Watch, you can have a different look. I have the pretty pearl ones when I go away to a wedding. I still wear my Apple Watch, but I have the pearl bracelet on. And the same thing, if I'm wearing something that's pretty fancy and I want the pink one, I put that on. I just love these little pink beads. And I just love how they look. So my Apple Watch for many, many reasons is definitely a favorite of 2021. The other thing, number three, would be for sure my Fire Pit. Oh my gosh. I love my Fire Pit. It is something that I've wanted for a long time. Jay and I bought it last year. I'm sorry, the year before. So we've had two seasons out of it. We'll probably get a different one next season. But we've had so much enjoyment. Now granted, Jay and I are not, we're sort of casual folks in many ways. I'm not really super into a lot of glam in my real, you know, personal life, my day-to-day life when I go to work, et cetera. I'm just not really into all of that. However, we love the simple things. And the Fire Pit is definitely a simple enjoyment that we've had that we really like a lot. Number four would be the podcasts. I have a podcast app and I can listen to it on my phone. I can listen to it on my Apple Watch. I can listen to it on my iPad.  I have several podcasts that I really like. Most of them are True Crime. Love, love, love the True Crime. Right now I'm in the middle of listening to a True Crime podcast, The Teacher's Pet. Oh my gosh, it's unbelievable. So podcasts and my audio books, Outlander book number nine, I'm listening to that. I'm trying to go very, very slow because I know that there's gonna be a big drought. Droughtlander, they call it between the books when book number 10 comes out, which I've heard is going to be the last in the series. I don't know. I hope that she does like a prequel and she talks about there, you know, prior to Jamie and Claire and all that. I love Outlander. Oh my gosh, Outlander is my favorite. Number five is my skincare. I have a whole line of some new skincare products that I'm using. Some of them extremely affordable. Some of them a little bit more on the pricey side. I'm gonna talk about them in my next video, but I love my skincare. I am a creature of habit. I get into a routine. I usually stick to that routine, especially when I start to see results. So my skincare number one for me, I've seen probably the most dramatic changes this last year in my skin. So I love my skincare. I love my skincare. Number six, my collagen. Great Lakes Collagen is what we use. Jay and I take two tablespoons every morning and sometimes I mess up in the afternoon or in the evening but two tablespoons at night. I've noticed the biggest difference since we've been doing the Great Lakes. I think we've been taking it since 2016. I'd have to go back and look. But we religiously take the collagen. It's you drink it. It does not have a taste. It isn't something that is gonna make an overnight difference. I started to notice the difference like three months into my collagen with my dry skin. That's the difference I noticed the most. So Great Lakes Collagen. Love it, love it, love it will not be without it. An app called Voxer, V-O-X-E-R. I love my Voxer app. I have the free version of Voxer. Voxer allows me to talk to people and sometimes it's in real time. Sometimes they're on the other end. So it's an app on your phone where you can leave a voice message without having to dial in, without having to pay any kind of like long distance charges or anything of that nature. You don't have to listen to any kind of an outgoing message. So you can also see when that message has been delivered to the person and also when that person plays that message. So I use Voxer with Jay to leave him quick messages. I use Voxer with a few of the other beautiful beauty content creators that I talk to almost daily. We leave Vox messages with each other. I really like Voxer a lot. And again, I'm using the free Voxer app. So it's easy to use and it's instant gratification because I can leave a message without having to dial in and without having to go through a voicemail system or anything of that nature. So Voxer's been a game changer for me for this year. Love it. My coffee maker, a couple of years ago, and I'm going to try to insert a picture.  A couple of years ago, Jay and I started to do, we actually started to do it when we were dry camping, when we're camping in our RV and we don't have electricity, but I want to get up in the morning and I want to have coffee and because you can't always turn your generator on early because of the rules. So we were looked into the Melita coffee system. So we bought a thermal craft and the cone that you put on top of it in the filter paper. Then we have a little grinder and we grind our own coffee beans. It has become a routine that I enjoy so much. Every morning I love when I hear those coffee beans grinding. I love the smell of those coffee beans and I love the coffee the way it tastes. So it takes a while, right? Because it's not going to be you're going to turn on a pot and plug it and go. You have to boil the water, then you have to gently pour it into the cone until it's full. So it does take some time to do it, but my coffee, my thermal coffee maker that, my drip coffee is awesome. So we have now, we bought a second one, went for the house and one to keep in the motor home. That's how much we love our coffee. So I am a coffee snob. I do like coffee beans and I like to ground them myself. Mm, just the thought of it makes me want to go have a cup of coffee. So coffee. The next thing that I didn't think I would ever say that Facebook would make one of my top 10s because I'm not a huge advocate of Facebook. I think it's full of spam.  I hate the political stuff on it. I hate all the different arguments people get into, but Facebook has connected me with relatives that I haven't seen since I was a little girl in Germany. So Facebook has become to me a place where I can keep connections to people or reconnect with people, relatives, family members that I may not have seen for 40, 50, 60 years or more depends, right? It's just awesome. So this past year, and a lot of this has happened since my dad passed away, but this past year, my mom and I and my sister, we've really focused in on trying to connect up with relatives. And I've been able to connect up with my cousins and all of that. So Facebook for the connection value of it, not for any other avenue of the political rah-rah and all that stuff, but just the family thing. So I have my family groups and I work Facebook by going into the groups and not just in general all the time. And then lastly, somebody had left a comment about giving a gift of experiences. And I had done a video talking about the best gift of all the gift of experiences. So number 10 for me has been memory making and memory making or the gift of experiences has always been big for me. You know, Jay and I have always done day trips. We've done this, we used to take my mom and dad out. We'd pick mom and dad up and we'd take them here or go there and do this with them. And in this year, Jay and I've done it with my mom. So memory making, treasuring those little gifts of experiences that you can have together, being together, spending time together. That was huge for me in 2021. And I so treasure all of the memories that I've been able to make in 2021. Oh my gosh, so treasure them. And I'm so happy that the gift of experiences is so achievable. Doesn't cost much, just time, right? You don't even have to plan some big super special place to go, just be together. The gift of experiences, memory making, I absolutely love it. And then lastly, every single one of you. So every single one of you have added to my life, enriched my life and just added whole different dimension. I love my YouTube time, even though I haven't been super consistent at times, I love my YouTube time. And I just think it's amazing. And so many people, people that I hope to meet again in real life, hope to get together with them again and people that I have not had the opportunity to meet but that have enriched me by supporting the channel, becoming friends of mine, talking on Vox or even direct messaging. There's so many beautiful YouTube content creators that are like that.  I would be nowhere without you. And YouTube would be a very lonely place if you were not watching my videos and commenting and just being there. So I treasure every single one of you. And I, gosh, I hope we all collectively have the most amazing 2022, all of us. So thank you for watching. Love you all. And I'll see you in my next video. Oh, and don't forget, skincare is coming out. And the collab and a magical marriage. It's gonna be a good one. Bye guys.


Gweddyn nhw'n meddwl. Rydyn ni'n ddigon nhw'n meddwl i'r姢ff ddiwyddiadau'r sengfrannu yn llagol, beth mae'n cael ei ffordd yngyd ychydig iawn hwnnw. Yn nesif yn angen'u'r ddweud o'r rhan, oherwydd mae'n collidio'n meddwl i'n ddweud o'r ddweud i'ch hawdd, a byddwn i'n unrhyw angen o'r ddweud o'r tref. Diolch fan iddyn nhw'n amlwg hayd o'r cwrdd hwnnw, gyda eich meddwl gwaith i gadw yw 3 gradd ffiguradau bydd yn gynydwyr mewn gwaith. Mae'r llogh Lywbeth a Chyfloswy, rydyn chi'n gilydd yw eu pwg an gen i herbydd yn gwneud gael ysgrifennu hynny, fe oedd yn fetihau ar gyfer ysgrifennu i eich meddwl gweithio yw y cwmwylliant rhywbeth, fyddwch chi'n gydag mwyllwy i meddwl byd i'r byd yw'n teimlo i gweithio cyhoedd gyrddwt, oherwydd mae'n ffordd o'n ddweud o'r ddeunedig ar y ddweud. Rydym yn dweud o'n ddeunedig ar y Cedlin Cedlinol i'r Unedig Gweithio, ac mae'n dweud ei fod yn ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud ar yr Aelodol Cymru, fel 1988. Mae'r ddweud efallai sy'n ddweud o'r ddweudio ar yr aelodol am yr ysgolwch, a'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud. O'r ddweud y bydd y mewn ei dynod o'ch hun i'w ddechrau, yn bobl ei mewn ei dynod o'r ddweud, ac yn chamwe wneud o'r ddweud nad oedd yn brydau o'r ddweud, a'r unig, fel y gallwn, a gynnal, a wnaeth ymarferafol gwaith, unrhyw fydd o'r gwneud am eich ddim yn ei ddefnyddio ymddangos cyffredinol gwahanol, ac oedd yn cydweud o'u tePeonidol. Oedai'r uwch yn blaid o'r cyfan, a rydw i'n edrych gydweithio nhw. Ersig, cwpio'r ddweud, profi hwn. Cymr yn ymddangos i ddim yn ysgolodau ac yn ysgolodau ar y ddweud. Rwy'n mynd i'n ysgolodau a'i ddechrau. Mae'r ddweud eich ddweud yn ysgolodau, ac mae'r ddweud eich ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'n ysgolodau.  Mae'n dweud o'r cyfnod, felly mae'n dweud o'r cyfnod o'r cyfnod, ac rydyn ni'n dweud o'r cyfnod, rydyn ni'n dweud oherwydd y gallwch chi'n dweud oherwydd ychydig sy'n dweud oherwydd ychydig sydd Give me piece you a dazu Which might involve things which are very complicated. I don't know what the data scientists here or engineers in the room. The platform economy is something very complex for economists. So I won't be able to go deep in the analysis, and of course two rules that I want you to cover. ... Mueller er mwyn un ffordd o'r ffordd o'r rhaid, y ddech chi'n hyfer. Os ydym ni'n cyllideb, mae'n edrych i'r llwyddo jerf yn ychydig. Mae'r Ddiddl yn ymwysgoddiol iawn, ran hynny mae'n ddefnyddio y siarad ffordd a'r ddechrau... ... y cael ei safbethau hyffordd. Ond, mae'n f charging, maen nhw'n gallu hoffi'n teimlo... ... mae yna rwnt cerddach yr wych a'r cerdd... ac ein llenaf o'r brandmisoedd, o ffamilio'r ddau'r ddau. Fel ddau'r ddau'r ddau'r ddauエfydig, ac mae'r ddau'r ddau'r ddau'r ddau yn ddau'r ddau institutions, mae oes yn cyfnod i'n ffamilio philio'r ddau a'r ddau'r ddau'r ddau'r ddau'r ddau'r ddau deuaeth, Felly, mae'n gweithio i ymddyneb, i'r ddysgwyd, i'r ddysgwyd, ond mae'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio, ac mae'r teimlo, mewn i'r tîmhwuggag, ond mae'n blaen, yn ychydig i'n ddysgwyd rhai o ddysgwyd, o'r prysig, o'r cofiariaid i'r bwrdd cyllid, ac i'n ddysgwyd mwy o'r perffarniad. I think what I want to present today is the kind of complexities between the need for freedom in relation to data and information, and as well the fact that they are very strong push to make it expensive and rare. So, let's start with big data, and I'll start with some features and some facts and then move on by distinguishing different types of data. So, big data is usually qualified by the three Vs. It's different than data before because in terms of volume, the amount is very different. We have to deal with data which are very different, so variety is the second characteristics, and there is a speed as well in the world of big data, which makes it impossible for the traditional data analysis tool to deal with it because of those new complexities. When you look at recent reports, like to one produced by the House of Commons quite recently in February, I'll come back in a minute on what they mean by the dilemma of big data. But obviously it's something which is important, important for the economy in terms of jobs, in terms of GDP. You see the number there, so there is obviously an economic challenge. I think the legal discussion around big data usually focuses around personal data, but as put there, personal data is only probably a small part of big data. So, I will discuss some personal data issues, but discuss other issues. But at least it's clear it's important and in this report there is a kind of distinction of the value added that economic data or big data could bring to the UK economy sector by sector. Starting with numbers. I think there are three types of data, and probably different owners of the data which make big data. Public data of course is one important part, already mentioned personal data, and then as well to privately owned data. If you look at public data for instance, it seems according to the report that in the UK there are a lot more than 20,000 data sets which are now open data published and accessible according to the terms of some licence. Personal data, it's huge, it's huge, it's for instance every minute more than 200 million emails sent, 4 million Google search requests, and more than 2 million Facebook posts. So it's big, and I put it here on the side of personal data, but of course it appears as well to treasure of some companies usually. Concerning the data produced by the public sector where there has been a trend in favour of open data, I think in different countries and clearly in this country the governments realise that it's as important as other infrastructure. It's not to navigate to places as the open data institute says, but it helps to navigate to decisions and that makes it probably a valuable asset, big data, if of course it helps us to navigate. In order to share there is, and some of you might know much more than I do on the open government licence, which helps to access this data. I was stuck when reading the report about the effect that the release of some information about transport on London had as an effect because more than 5,000 designers registered to use the data sets made available under this open licence and it led to the creation as you can see of more than 360 apps. I don't know whether you are using some of them, but it's impressive in terms of outcome. When you read the report on the implementation of the deployment of open data it appears that there are some problems and some elements which are more complicated is the definition of the process, the policies and the standards for this open and shared data. That's where the problem is. The problem is not so much of course in the data and I think that's as well to legally see with more about the structure, the standards for data. On the other side, so personal data on by individuals, there it's clear that there is a dilemma, I think the title of this also of more report comes from that. People are concerned about the online privacy, but at the same time they are happy with the amount of information that they share. Of course those two polls which I quote there are made by a very different association and that might explain the outcome. Nevertheless, I think it's correct this ambivalence of people towards the use of their personal data, it's there and I think even if the commissions of those two polls are different it's correct. Now when we refer to private data or to data by the private sector it seems that data sharing of course is there more complicated and that there is quite a lot of friction. So behind my talk here I think one of the challenge is to find ways to encourage data sharing among those private undertakings because that has quite a positive effect on the economy. But of course it's not that easy because individuals have as well some right on part of this information. But we'll come back on to ways to restrict access to this information companies using contracts or intellectual property. Big data became clearly an intangible asset, it's even described sometimes as a new asset class and it makes it similar to what I've been studying so it's a value protected by intellectual property rights. But it's not yet on the balance sheet, it's not on the balance sheet but it seems when you look at some reports and I refer here to an interesting graphic which was published last week in the financial times about, you cannot see it probably, about the trends in global trade. It seems that since 2007 concerning the flaws of good services and finance in the world we have reached a kind of plateau and there is even a slope down recently in terms of global trade. But at the same time when you compare and I think that was interesting in this article, when you compare that with the rise of global data flows and on the left side you have the data from 2005, on the right side down you have the data from 2014, there is an increase which is staggering. Interestingly as well it seems that there is some kind of regional circulation of data and probably it's like for other aspects of trade so within Europe that's a big round there. We are exchanging information with other countries coming from Europe which probably indicates the position where we are here in other countries in Europe. Okay that was some big data, some facts. Now the platform economy and that's even bolder because nobody knows exactly whether platform is just a buzzword or whether it corresponds to a new economic reality. I was just discussing with the master before entering to move and he referred to the fact that at the BBC there was some kind of thinking about moving towards a platform. Platform seems to be at least everywhere into language in particular in the process of decision makers. I will say a word on that and then I will briefly discuss but I'm not really an economist what a multi-sided market is for economists and what that could imply especially in terms of competition law analysis. So maybe here you haven't heard about Togatha, that's not a word in common language but it is now in certain countries especially in France, especially in Paris, Togatha are probably targeted by some politicians. And part of the debate on platform of course is probably partly explained by some political issues that not only in France but that decision makers as well in Germany and I think on that issue there is a real convergence between Germany and France. At least there is a lot of doubts about the world that Togatha are preparing for us in Europe. And of course when you look at what they call the ecosystem basically it's a platform, Google is a platform with many different services and when you enter the platform usually you stick to the platform you don't move out because it's so easy to remain associated with different services like the one you see there. And know that those companies like Google are moving outside to pure web services but they are coming into other industry sectors with the connected car, with nest acquisition, that's the nest standard which is a interesting tool to get a lot of data inside the house, the classes and so on. I think that raises really some concerns not only within the economic sectors but it has reached the level of politicians clearly in France and in Germany. And that's not the case in other countries. Last May you might know that the commission came with a strategy and it's called the digital single market strategy which is a kind of program for the next years in terms of digital policy for the commission and the EU institutions. So there were a lot of discussions on that and for instance you see here someone to which the question is addressed in the context of the digital single market what should take on platform regulation. And of course here the response from this person is well it's not useful and it doesn't mean anything because in the end we are all platforms to think it is a platform so it's not only Google. Of course that's what someone from Google says so they don't like too much but probably they are right as well that we should be very careful about this new notion which comes in to debate and maybe in the future into law. In fact in France there is already a lot of consumers which contains a definition, a legal definition of a platform but we don't have to do a French law here. So yes I think indeed indeed that's maybe to sign that it's not the right word but when you look at what the commission says in its strategy it's quite positive about platforms because platforms enable consumers to find information and a lot of business to exploit e-commerce. You see here a list which is an open list of platforms, search engines among social media, app stores, price comparison websites. I think it covers probably too many realities and two different entities for inadequate regulation to be defined but that's my view. At least they came with this broad list of illustration of what a platform is. The commission thinks that there are very good things and things which are not that good with platforms. They have a multiplier effect in fostering new SMEs and I think that's the case as well with the exploitation of big data and platforms are probably the best equipped to use and exploit big data but there are others SMEs can do to say. That has a lot of benefits in terms of efficiency for the consumer choice but of course they accumulate a lot of personal data and they use algorithms. Is it new? Not sure and of course for the commission and that's probably where there might have been some political push. Some platforms have a growing market pour and the commission concludes that maybe some further analysis if not some regulation is needed beyond the application of competition law in specific cases. So I cannot go into the details of what a platform or a multi-sided platform is but they are economists including the Nobel Prize, the French Nobel Prize or Tirol. We've been working on multi-sided platforms which are probably different than other markets because you have different sides in the case of a platform. You have users and advertisers and you have a lot of effects, a lot of networked effects. I mean this is the kind of functioning summarized of those which are offering free services where you have two sides. The users and the advertisers and you have free service and another part is a pet part of the market. In case you have a multi-sided market usually there are those external effects like a cross-side effect that means that a member of one group values more the interaction when the participation of another group increases and that's clearly the fact for advertisers if the number of users to which they can sell advertising grows. So that's a positive cross-side. There might be as well external effect within one side of the multi-sided market. That's quite obvious that the value for a member of one group increases if the number of people participating to that side increases. But that is positive in terms of participation to a multi-sided market like a social network for the users, maybe not on the other side for the advertisers of course. So you might have positive or negative external effects within one side or cross-side and those different effects makes the economic analysis probably more complicated in terms for instance of assessing the dominance because of the different effects. But at least those platforms tend to be very positive because they help us to do things that we would never be able to do through bilateral relationship because they would use the transaction costs. Of course there are many types of multi-side platforms and here you have some examples. I don't go into details but it should show that for economists this notion makes sense and can apply to different types of economy. It could even cover matchmakers not only to find a job on the market but as well to find a partner and most media of course, that's probably the case of the BBC, most media have two sides because they have two users and the other side. All the actors of the sharing economy are probably working on a multi-sided market as well. So all the debate that is very fashionable to speak about sharing economy, I saw that there are now theories at least in America's articles on the law platform as well but it's more focused on the sharing economy. So there are so many different types of platform, that's not interesting to go more into details but when you look at this slide it's interesting. Something interesting is happening in the economy of course, I mean it's itself explanatory so I don't have to go into details. What is happening? What is this interesting maybe development in the economy? Well you become big because you just have to data and you are in between the two sides of the market. So data becomes very important in this kind of digital platform economy. I was looking at the way the UK government responded to the EU public consultation on digital platforms because after the DSM strategy was released last year the commission came in open with consultation. And at the same time the House of Lords conducted as well a consultation about digital platforms. And when you look at the policy paper of the UK government and look at the headings, well what's the common denominator? The whole discussion is about data. It's all about data and I think we are probably at a moment where there is more to do to understand how the rules on data should function and should be designed. Now that's a more legal part of my talk. What about the rules? I will deal with competition law a little bit then focus more on intellectual property because probably a lot of people are interested in intellectual property law here today. And very little about data protection because time is passing and then I will conclude on the need maybe to adapt to rules. Competition law first. And the role of data in competition law I will come back on all cases. It's always nice to come back on sometimes very old cases like the McGill case that we have been following. I did it in the mid 19th. It's a UK case but there have been other cases which I will just summarize because they involve competition law, IP and the access to data. And I will then end up with some comments on new developments. McGill you might remember some of you but as I think it makes audience I come back on the facts. Sorry for those who know everything about this case. It's about tissue of a secondary market for weekly TV magazines because at that time it seems that each broadcaster including BBC had its own weekly magazine and they refused to give licences to McGill who wanted to publish a multi-channel guide. At that time they were only weekly guides per channel. Of course the information was released today in newspapers. That was not an issue but they wanted to keep the secondary market for weekly magazine. McGill in this case complains before the DG competition, the commission which issued a decision back in 1988. At the same time there are discussions before the courts and the Irish court finds that copyrights exist in the material. And the material is the title of dates and times. That's a piece of the original case which I got from one of the lawyer, English lawyer who was involved. But of course we could take any TV listings that we can still find today. So to question is whether there is IP protection on that. There of course there might be some difference between the continent and the UK at least at that time. But there was a decision of the Irish court saying that there is a copyright. Maybe not all courts on the continent would conclude that there is a copyright on such a thing because it's all about information. The court of first instance as it was called at that time concluded that the refusal to license was preventing the production of a new product for which there was a potential consumer demand and was excluding all competition which was basically an abuse of dominant position to dominant position being reinforced by the IP rights. Reinforced because in this case you not only have to write but of course each broadcaster is as well to source source of information over the years to access this information. Except the broadcast because they are mastering their program. So there is no way to write in this case. But the court of justice in this case confirms that in exceptional circumstances so when there is a monopolisation of a downstream market and the prevention of a new product for which there is a consumer demand then there is an abuse if you refuse to grant a license. Of course that was a case where the material did not present much creativity. Then the other case which is an important case for refusal to license IP rights in both IMSLs. IMSLs is a large provider of data service. They sell data to pharma industry. The problem here is with a competitor in DC which wants to get some part of that market. IMSLs developed a so-called brick structure. It was called the 1860 brick structure which had became the standard for delivering the data to the pharma industry. The question was whether there was a possibility to refuse to grant a license on the use of this brick structure. It is a complicated procedure because there have been cases before the German courts and at the same time the competitor at DC made a complaint before the DG competition with the decision of the commission in 2001. A German courts then asked for a preliminary ruling on the conditions for refusal to license to be abusive under competition. That was this brick structure. Here you don't start to count them but you have 1860 different areas covering the German territory. Basically the information had to be a factor in this database. It seems it was not that easy to find a balance between going too much into deseguation of information because then there might be a privacy issue. If you know how many products are sold in this pharmacy and prescribed by that doctor. That goes too far because of the requirement of German privacy laws. You have to aggregate a little bit of data but it must still be valuable and give valuable information to the pharmaceutical company.  For the commission that's an essential facility and it's a kind of de facto industry standard which creates a lot of switching costs if the customers that is the pharmaceutical companies have to change. They have to change completely the reporting system, their database so it's a huge cost for them. No, I cannot go too much into details here but it's different. I won't discuss the Voven case which is an early decision on the same issue. Refusal to license in the case of design parts for cars. When you compare it with a McGill requirement, in McGill there need to be two markets. An upstream market and then some monopolisation of the downstream market. But here it's not clear that there are two markets. In fact there is only one product for which there is maybe no market as such. Because the brick structure is not solved. What is solved is the information that has to be embedded in this structure. So nobody is interested by the brick structure as such. So that's different as well from the McGill case. And then the ECJ in 2004 comes with the criteria for the refusal to be abusive. So first of all there should be some form of indispensability. When is a license from the right owner indispensable for a competitor to compete? That's a discussion about switching costs. But of course if they are switching costs they are probably cost first for the dominant firm when it establishes its position on the market. And I think you have to take that into account as well. And then to cause add something about the circumstances when the refusal is abusive. When you reserve to market and that was based on copyright as well on the database right. And that this reservation eliminates all competition on the market. Of course here there is as we saw the downstream market as such. And the competitor intends to offer new products not offered by the copyright owner and there is no objective justification. I think that's still the criteria applied in Europe including in more recent cases like the Microsoft case. Now another area of competition are major decisions. One of the issue there is to define what dominance is. And of course in order to assess whether a company is dominant you need to define the relevant market and in particular the relevant product market. That would be where the resource substitutability for instance for the consumers. Again I'm a little bit confident there because I know that there are experts and I'm not an expert in competition law but I think we are not yet there in terms of the definition of the relevant market for data. At least in a major decision like the Facebook WhatsApp decision of 2014 the commission concluded that there is no possibility to define a market because there is in fact no market. Because the data is not traded by those companies. Well WhatsApp even does not collect personal data. Facebook collects a lot of personal data but they don't sell directly to data. They use it to serve targeted ads but it's on the edge of the advertiser. They don't sell their database to the advertiser. So there is a difficulty to define a relevant product market for data in this case because data is only an input, an intermediary product. It's different in other cases because other companies like Twitter they sell the data and that's an example of all the personal and other data associated with a treat cannot go into details there but you have a lot of information associated with a treat that has some value. It appears because they sell to treats to some data aggregators. So here it's different. Here you have a real market but with other platforms like Google, Amazon their privacy policies explains explicitly that they don't sell to data to turn parties. So a lot of discussion about the economic nature of data. In principle it's non-reverberous in the sense that the fact that one entity has a lot of data does not preclude others from gathering the same information. The fact is as well that the same knowledge derived from the data usually can be extracted from other types of data. So in principle it's not revolverous but in practice companies are using different ways to exclude competitors to access to data. They might use contracts in terms of use, I won't say more on that, or by using IP rights. So I think we are at a moment where there is a discussion and it's an open discussion about there is something like data dominance in the case companies are gathering data that they don't sell to other companies. And you might have seen that last week that quite interesting the Bundeskartel started an investigation against Facebook. I think this procedure will probably show some light whether data has to be factoring in the competition analysis. Although they focus more on the terms of use of the social network which seems to be abusive in the sense that they are imposing unfair terms according to the Bundeskartel Amd in their press release of last week. And if this abusive practice results in market dominance there might be a problem from the competition point of view. Ok, I think I have to move on time is passing. Let's move to intellectual property law and how it affects data. That's a complex diagram, sorry for that. But I think it's good to be reminded about the tension between the different rights on information and the different freedoms to information. Of course, when dealing with data we have to find the good balance in between the two. So intellectual property of course is about restricting the access to information. Not to data access, it's always a qualified information in terms of an invention or a work by copyright and so on. But it's a way to restrict the access, that's quite clear. I will here discuss some aspects in relation to data. Copyright, database rights, trade secrets which are clearly part of intellectual property although trade secrets is a bit different than the predefined IP rights that you see on the left side. Data protection in a way works similarly to some intellectual property rights. I think big data in the space of intellectual property might be covered by issues involving trade secrets, as I said, copyright, data protection and we have on those issues different regulations in the background at different stages. I will discuss the revision of copyright exceptions, we are not yet very far. I will briefly mention the trade secret directive which will be adopted soon probably and the general data protection regulation which was adopted, there was a political agreement last December. So data mining and copyright, there is a problem there. I think there is a problem because we have in copyright rights which are broadly defined like the reproduction rights. Data mining and text mining implies reproduction that in principle are covered by copyright. Because the reproduction rights are disconnected from the economic nature of the act of reproduction. Many reproduction in the digital area are not linked to a true exploitation of the work and that might be the case with data mining. So if you are a little bit utopian you might then define the idea that there should be some kind of condition into reproduction rights and I have been working on that. That is when you are asked as an academic to be a little bit forward looking that there might be a requirement to use a work as a work for a reproduction in the sense of copyright to happen and that is not the case when you are making a copy for data mining or making a copy for using an anti-plagiarism software there are many other copies that are in principle covered by a reproduction right for which there is no exception so far in copyright law. So you cannot avoid the issue by requiring that there should be some type of use which implies that you are using to work for what it is and that is the means to communicate something with the public. Of course if you are using a work because you make a copy just to check whether there is plagiarism there is no in that sense a communication out there between the author and the public. So you might exclude by coming back to the rationale of the reproduction right. But I think probably we will need a legislative fix a new exception for data mining and quite recently in December commission came with a communication towards a modern more European Copyright framework and there they open to where to the introduction of an exception for text and data mining. Probably it will be quite narrow and too narrow because it will only cover to users in the context of science and research and probably that's what you have. I know that there is an exception already under UK law but it excludes as far as I know commercial use. Maybe it's too narrow because for the digital economy for the exploitation of big data you would need a broader exception. Maybe, I mean that's my view. Another issue in relation to aggregation of content and hyperlinks it's a complex issue too but some of you know the case law involving for instance the Svensson case where one company operates a monitoring service and that's a defendant in this case Svensson is a journalist and retrievers sent to its clients list of clickable links. The journalist consented to the online publication of the articles on the website of their newspapers but they oppose them to reuse by retriever which they reuse by hyperlinks and the big issue there is whether there is a communication to the public and the copyright law. Again we have a definition in a directive so the ECJ is competent to interpret what a communication to the public is the ECJ in this Svensson case came with two conditions there should be a communication but it's broadly defined and a new public and here there is no new public because it's the same public which can access the articles directly on the newspaper websites or indirectly through the list of links that retriever is sending to its clients. So there is no new public and the court concluded that there is no communication to the public for that reason but the court is not as clear as that because it adds some conditions and for instance a condition that of course this list of links doesn't circumvent technical protection measures, TPM In another decision they come back in Luxembourg with the requirement that there is a first authorization so there should be an authorization to put online the content first. I think the whole debate here is wrongly framed in the sense that the whole discussion seems to be about direct infringement but the court mixed what is a direct infringement so what is communication to the public and other possibility to regulate to be able by using indirect liability or by using the protection of technical protection measures so in the sense that the court of justice make a confusion by mixing the issue involving direct infringement with the issues involving the circumvention of technical measures and what is called indirect liability which is outside the scope of the ECJ I think it would be better to have a better distinction between the three and I think that would help to solve some of the copyright issues along the internet and involving data. Database right now there have been cases as well like the email web case involving a dedicated meta search engine which offers, as you can see, a high number of search in real time which include the ads that are on Autotrack. Autotrack is the source website and they are offering CalAds, second hand CalAds and in a way they suit for an infringement of the database right so that involves meta search engines and I think that is as well important for big data probably so in this case in a way used to search engine of the targeted site so it's different than the general search of Google which is developed by Google but here they are translating the queries on the meta search tool into the search engine of the targeted database and they offer the same type of result so is there a real utilisation of the database in this case you have here the definition in the database directive of what the way to digitisation of the content of the database implies and the court here concludes that there is a making available because there is some form of parasitical product that is offered by the meta search and it's as well a making available to the public because anyone can use the meta search tool another case that you might have been following the Ryan air case which was designed by the ECJ last year early 2015 so that's a website, PR Aviation which offers the possibility for consumers to search the data of low cost companies air companies to compare the price and even to book the flights commission that is paid to PR Aviation they use an automated search in today's dataset linked to the Ryan air website the Dutch court in this case decide that there is no copyright, there is no database which of course might be controversial but that's the fact of the case in the Netherlands and then the Dutch Supreme Court comes with some question because in this case Ryan air on its website has some terms of use as you can use, prohibit to use of automated systems like the one used by PR Aviation for commercial purpose so it's about screen scrapping of data scrapping that is prohibited when you look at the terms of use of the Ryan air website and it seems that at least for the users you have to accept this contractual provision is contrary to the mandatory exception to the database rights because the database rights cannot allow the owner, the maker of the database to prohibit to reuse of insubstantial parts of the database and the question is whether Ryan air can make a claim based on the terms of use and the court of justice says yes because there is no protection of the database neither by copyright nor by the database right outside the scope of the directive and the court concludes that it's possible to use contracts but of course it's for the national court to decide for instance whether they are enforceable but it's a little bit paradoxical of course because when there is no IP protection then more contractual restrictions can exist so it will be for the Dutch court to decide whether the contractual terms are enforceable and it seems here that will be about the possibility to enforce a quick wrap licence at least for the users of Ryan air, the Aristis ClickCrap licence it's unclear that the automated query by the aggravator as well as to go through the click wrap window ok, but data scrapping is covered by otherwise different national laws maybe trespass to Chateau here so it's an area probably where more should be done in terms of analysation but of course we should avoid an helpful legislation there have been in some countries like Germany and Spain as you might know laws creating new possibility against aggregators creating some form of right against snippets so that the so-called anti snippets laws pushed by press publishers among others so it's a different difficulty and I think the case law is struggling as well in different countries I won't say more because time is passing and I have to stop about trade secrets but of course the online platforms may enjoy the protection of trade secrets in relation to the data that they are collecting on their customers, on their suppliers, on the different side of the market so that's as well something to factor in the analysis briefly on data protection I think one of the issue there is data portability which is the right to reuse the data and we will have when the general data protection regulation will come into force we will have such right to reuse data which is a right justified by privacy but in a sense as well it's a trojan horse for competition because it might have far reaching consequences if every data subject can claim to right to receive the person on data and as the text says in a structure and commonly used format and has them to right to transmit the data to another controller that might change the rules of competition on some markets for some platforms of course it's not always that easy to implement this right and I think there are some attempts like my data initiative into UK okay I think I have to stop or I want to say something on the directive on contracts for the supply of digital content it's only a draft directive sorry which came out at the end of last year as well which is interesting because it shows that data are in commerce because the scope of this directive covers contracts when you have a supplier supplying digital content and when you pay either a price or you pay by giving your data of course you have to be a little bit active by register for instance but that shows that data are becoming a counter performance in contracts and I think we are starting to deal with data in contract law with this draft directive which creates obligations again obligations in the case of the termination of those supply contracts because in that case the supplier must take measure to refrain from the use of the counter performance and should allow the consumer to retrieve all content provided by the consumer and again in a commonly used data format so we see the legislator trying to solve some of these issues here in the context of contract and consumer law so I went a little bit beyond data protection here and I conclude what probably is really a little bit a mixed message so far and I'm not sure that the message after the conclusion will be clear because there are a lot of different things that I'll try to put together just to start to think about the role of data in the economy and in the law so what should be redesigned I think I mentioned some elements I think for certain area of the law like competition law I think we should tie the analysis by taking into account the real importance of data and maybe there should be something about data dominance and what it could mean which requires probably competition law to rethink some bits on the other side for intellectual property there I think we should relax partly to barriers to access and use data it's quite obvious for copyright and for the accession for data mining maybe in relation to aggregation and handling it's used to aggregate content there should be some clarification to there data scrapping in the context of database again something should be flexible enough but maybe a little bit clearer because we don't know for instance whether to contract our restrictions prohibiting to reuse of data are enforceable or not and about the data portability it's a new sector which might be maybe expanded so that's about the area what kind of regulation what makes sense I quite like what happened with the wrongly called right to be forgotten so right to be delisted by Google or by other search engines and that's again about personal data but it's about access to information online I think it's an interesting mix of regulation where you have the principle which was defined by a court in this case the justice of the EU based on mainly I think fundamental rights and need to balance those fundamental rights and then of course you have the compliance process the application of the ruling which involves partly self-regulation because today it's Google, it's Microsoft other companies which are deciding about the application of the right to be forgotten about when some data should remain accessible or when it should be deleted or at least not really deleted but there should be a deal linked to that information it has something worth more or less good but it raises some issues because Google, Microsoft aren't a sole judge about what should be delisted or not and there is no oversight so for the 4,000, nearly 4,000 no 400,000 sorry request treated by Google so far since the decision of the ECJ only to guidance of Google no to criteria that they are applying to respond positively or not to a demand of the listing maybe there should be something to involve some form of agiticators so need for platform regulation there I am a little bit more reluctant and by that words I stop here thank you for your attention


$2,000 exemption on the university health system portion of your taxes. So that's neighborhood leadership And we're not done yet. My goal is to get the 65 senior property tax freeze on the university health system But I will tell you I push this every single year in commissioners court and we're getting progress We're not where we ought to be But we are investing in your health care at the university health system You've seen that investment in clinics and you've seen that investment in service and in your neighborhoods So we're we're proud. I truly believe that You know people create people power Create the policies that elected office holders implement You know because you're in the neighborhood five years before a politician does What the immediate needs are? Unfortunately sometimes Barocracies take five years just to get something done. They don't move as fast as commissioner Atkinson or myself would want them to but We do move them moving governments like moving a battleship. We just keep turning it in the right direction So we need your input. We need to know what you're feeling on the ground so we wanted to talk about and I want to thank University Health System because We got them to sponsor the lunches today So thank you very much for that You know, there are so many big issues that are going on in our neighborhoods If you're from an unincorporated neighborhood Just raise your hand if you live in unincorporated County, there's two of you three of you and four of you that I see, okay? One of the biggest things that we have been facing. I just want where's Carlos back there Carlos if we hand out our sheets, okay, so I Want to direct your attention. Let's talk taxes. Y'all want to talk taxes? Oh Lord, it's a hot issue and But I'm excited to Sizzle something up for you.  Let me tell you what's going on I'm gonna let you read it for yourself. You see this this thing that says Texas Education Agency This sheet Carlos did everybody get that sheet? Everybody got this sheet. It's got yellow highlight on it. It's got a yellow highlight on it Okay, we'll get it to you if you don't have it. It's got this formula. It's got this formula. This is Senate bill one page 381 right or three they hit it way way deep So you would never find it, but we found So every commissioner because we are statutorily the county managers. It's different than the city council, right? Your city council has a city manager. Well, we are the statutory managers of Kennedy government So we have to undergo Education and we have to get training and all those kinds of things as commissioners So a guy named Jim Allison. He's worked in the Texas legislature for 45 years He is the general counsel for all the commissioners in the state of Texas He said kind of talks like Bill Clinton. He said he said I found this on page 381 of your tax bill so 381 I want you to go to the bottom of the page where it says right or three and it says funding school program funding Okay, and it reads property values and the estimates of local tax collections on which they are based Shall be increased by seven point oh four percent for tax year 2017 and by six point seven seven percent for tax year 2018 my friends that adds up to a combined total of thirteen point eight one percent appraisal increase Now do you know who wrote that into your this is the funding formula by which your schools Have to be funded. Okay They're saying that over two years You will have appraisals Mandatorily increased on the largest portion of your tax bill, which is the school districts the Texas legislature the Texas House and the Texas Senate wrote this into law Don't blame the school districts. It's not their fault It's the friends of ours up in Austin in the legislature who did this This is their writing and they hit it on page 381 so we wouldn't know about it anybody have a thirteen point eight one percent pay increase over last two years. I Didn't think so Yeah She said thanks for welcome to social security Nobody's paycheck is going up by thirteen point eight percent and the reason that people have been pulling out their appraisals and saying My goodness my appraisals are going up more than ever. I know I'm not the only one They've been go because in the previous two years. They wrote it should go up 12% and the previous two years another 12% and the previous two years 11% and the previous two years 10% and let me explain to you why How are your schools funded the only way Speaker Strauss said it so I don't want to make this a partisan issue Because I agreed with Speaker Joe Strauss Speaker Strauss said the only way for us to give the people of Texas meaningful tax relief is to fully fund the schools Why is that? because It used to be the Texas legislature Funded 45% of the school district's budget from the general fund of appropriations from the legislature The other 45% was covered by you through your property taxes 10% was covered by the Department of Education federal government Today the Texas legislature is only funding 38% of the school's Budget through the general fund of appropriations and they are Increasing your appraisals and making you pay for the rest. Are y'all walking with me on this? You do not have to take my word for it. You read it in black and white We brought the language to you We wanted to empower you with the language So do y'all remember there was a special session that happened two years ago They didn't finish all their business. Do you know why there was a special session? The reason was they disagreed on funding of the schools in your taxes Speaker Strauss, God bless him He said I'm not gonna put more appraisal increase on the people of Texas The lieutenant governor and the governor said We disagree We want to keep writing it on page 381 We want to pass it on to the people of Texas. Well, it was two against one and so the speaker lost and they won Are y'all walking with me on this and this is what became law So don't believe that there is these big bad cities and counties raising your taxes And if you just put a 2% cap on them, it'll solve all your problems That's a lie Because your county is what? 12% of your overall tax budget your city is 12% of your overall tax budget What is the largest portion of your property tax bill the schools? It's 51% On your biggest value that you own. It's the schools now. Don't vilify the schools. They don't run the legislature They don't create the funding formula They would change it if they could They can't do anything. Let's not make them the big bad enemy That's that's wrong in a time where it takes more education to have jobs and the information technology economy We ought to be funding our schools. We have too many school districts where Kids are dropping out of school We're not preparing them to compete with China and India where the technology jobs are going We need to have them funded well So here's the benefit of fully funding your schools.  We have to keeping our homes People in my precinct. It's the epicenter of where high-property taxes are Happening and people are having to face the choice of whether they can stay I don't think that's right people endure through crime people endure through blight and then they got to move out that in right so I actually have a video online on YouTube because I knew Senator Bettencourt of Harris County would lie about what I said So I had a video crew come out and I testified on a policy solution. Okay, and here's what I said What you all know is that in a lot of these areas you're seeing 20% and praise will increase now There is a cap at 10% but you see it anyway. You see it's a 20 25% sometimes 50 sometimes 100% over two years It's pretty unbelievable, right so I'm one of these dorks who has a international relations economics background, right? So I read things in a different way than most elected officials and so if you understand something called hyperinflation ever heard of hyperinflation hyperinflation by definition is 50% inflation of a cost increase of a cost over a six month period So what you all are seeing in your appraisals in areas like Tobin Hill and Dignity Hill and government Hill and King William and other areas and it happens in the Dominion too it happens all over it This is applies to everybody is You're seeing a quarter of hyperinflation about 20 to 25 percent appraisal increase over the course of a year That is not economically sustainable Eventually as the investments die down in the next 10 to 15 years The values of the homes will equal out again, and they'll come back into what we call market equilibrium So you have to give people help today To ride over the over exuberance in the market. Are you all walking with me on this? So what I said is Why don't you let local taxing entities? Let us carve out these areas because it's not every area But where we see these quarter of a hyper hyperinflation Let us carve those areas out of special taxing areas and You know let's have miss Eckert's taxes index to Inflation which is one to four percent That way she doesn't feel priced out of her home. She can kind of plan for that That's better than having the appraisal crease by 20 and 25 or 10 and and bumping and bumping and bumping up We just can't afford to continue to do that If we did that where we could kind of plan a percent to four percent per year that makes it much more manageable It's not Socialistic and that it doesn't Carve out the free market system the free market system must still exist in price prices do inflate prices do increase over time But prices do not increase over time as much as the Texas legislature wrote on page 381 Are you all walking with me on this? so my idea Requires a state constitutional amendment because there's a clause in this Texas Constitution which calls for fair and equal taxation amongst all people But as long as the legislature is doing shenanigans like this We know there isn't fair and equal taxation across every neighborhood And so this is one solution out of many that we're proposing on your behalf But it takes people power it takes you to be empowered It takes you to understand this it takes you to raise this at the town halls when the lieutenant governor and the governor come into town You've got to raise this We ought to have people when the governor comes into town We ought to have people with signs stop raising my taxes 13.81 percent my appraisal is 13.81 percent You need to hold them high And actually I did send some people to do that Right around the time that we were having this debate over the special session between speaker Strauss and lieutenant governor And do you know because people did that? within a week the governor did add the issue of These appraisals to the reasons to have a special session It wasn't there before He knew These guys know what they're doing It's important that we raise this as an issue It's not economically good over the long term and it's not economically sustainable. Okay So raise these issues in those forums With your elected officials But it's time to stop passing the buck and saying it's those cities and county There's actually you know most of the county commissioners in the state of texas and most of the county judges They're actually republicans. I'm a democrat But I can tell you that the The republicans are absolutely tired Of their colleagues in the legislature lying about cities and counties being the cause of your tax pay And it's like a civil war going on. I'm watching you as a commissioner. I'm seeing The county judge of terrick county republican. He's got a speaking tour just like I am He's saying these are the facts. This is real. You read it for yourself So this is not this is not about me picking on anybody One thing that you have known about my life and my career is I will tell you the truth And if the truth hurts it is what it is But this is where the truth is You don't have to take my word for it. Go home research it yourself. I've given you a few cliff notes So you can get started need our electorate to be as educated about our politics as we are about our football in texas If we did we'd have a much better state We got to follow what's going on Follow the money so anyway This group is a kind of group that can change this Inside you've got a card a big red and blue card Outlining some other policies you can send those to your legislature You just put it in the mail and say we want you to do meaningful tax reform We want you to do something. It's this it's this piece right here. This piece right here Okay, if you didn't get that raise your hand and carlos with carlos We have to order some more. Okay. I got them. I got them in the office So we'll work with commissioner akins in the bow and center to get these to everybody In your neighborhood groups And if you want me to come out there and explain it, I can do it an even shorter time I just got so excited to see all my friends. I've been on and on and on I apologize Let me give you a victory report A victory report that you deserve the credit for the people of bear county For ever since I got on to commissioners court. I have noticed that home ownership has been dropping The the people that have homes has been dropping we were like at 62 percent in 2005 And um as of last year we dropped down to 51 percent or this year we dropped down to 51 percent home ownership Now as you know the renters don't keep up the homes as well as the owners There's all kinds of secondary effects when you don't have home ownership There is the fact that people get into what you call rent bondage, right? The rent they pay is more expensive than a mortgage they would pay As a result people are selling drugs to make ends meet A lot of bad things are happening in secondary ways families tell their kids don't save up for college Or don't go to college because we can't afford it because our rent's too high Okay We're we're facing a perfect storm I have warned this community kind of like my father warned mericius narrows many many decades ago They came in the 80s to the city council and he warned The mayor at that time that we have a gang problem And everybody stuck their head in the sand And ignored it and then we became the drive-by capital of the united states y'all remember that in the 90s Yeah, it's my father who warned us about that I am warning you that the prosperity that san antonio has enjoyed Is in peril when we start to slip into the 40 and 38 because we're headed towards a trajectory remember we've lost Uh about 11 percentage points In home ownership in 15 years So we do that again We're headed to about 40 percent owners And 60 percent renters And that changes the american dream that changes the building of wealth that changes many many things If you can't get into your starter home You can't get into the second home and the third home and make improvements and build wealth in your family So the underbelly of our economy is soft Yes, we have the most growth of an american city But it's unsustainable if we don't do something about our chronic under education We have to we have to be ready to get the jobs of the future. So The victory that you deserve credit for is that because We had people from tier one and and cops metro alliance and neighborhoods first alliance and many many different organizations All of us are none justice groups all kinds of groups came by The commissioners court for the first time said that we will hire a consultant to help us deal with the affordable housing crisis because we don't have a We don't have enough internal knowledge to deal with this issue We're 30 years behind most major counties and cities in the united states With respect to dealing with this we need to be partnering with the city We need to be talking with the mayor's task force That's something i'm very much for We already have cities way ahead of us You know, there's a big article in los angeles times talked about what happened when the city and the county and los angeles did not talk to each other On housing how they could have been more synergistic So we've got to start working together and leveraging dollars. I represent people in the city Most of my voters are in the city. So i'm looking out for that but that issue Of housing and how we take money To reinvest in blighted properties in your neighborhood is critical to the integrity of most of the neighborhoods in this room It's absolutely critical. You know, you have homes that are blighted that could use a shot in the arm You know, you need to help put ownership. I hear it. I go to neighborhood meetings. I'm here I'm the only commissioner here for a reason I'm on the ground I'm in the neighborhoods you all say To me that You know, we're seeing transitions in the neighborhood. We're seeing people not take care of things as well They're not participating. You know when you don't have a sense of ownership. It also affects how you vote If you don't feel invested In your neighborhood, you have a lower chance of voting We already have a bad enough voter turnout as it is. We need more people voting not less so We're going to move forward I don't think the county will be ready to really invest dollars Until about 2020 some people want to build minor league baseball stadiums and waste all kind of money Some politicians don't have their priorities straight About where our crisis are But I will continue to be a voice. They will persecute me. They will ignore me They will bash me because I don't go along to get along But as long as I know you have my back Because you know, I'm fighting for the issues that are bread and butter that matter to neighborhoods and families We're going to be all right so Commissioner Is there well, I'll open it up for questions. I don't know if there's anything said that we have questions here Let's go for it. Jim. Whoever wants to start Hi This morning We had a representative from Put it a little closer to the mic if you Property protest and the appraisals and mike amos kita and his solution was that That we should really encourage the People here to get state funding that is The gap that is causing this big crisis in other words that that that 50 50 that you know 45 45 that you were talking state funding for education. Yeah for for education We're on the same page and he said that That would just wipe it out in the minute. Yes, ma'am. That's what i'm telling you what i'm wondering is if we start trying to Split what we're asking for It it might make neither one A good enough measure. I think that what you were for For suggesting I don't see that that would be as dramatic So for example, we're actually saying the same thing. So the chief appraiser and I are saying the same thing So I started my conversation And maybe I wasn't clear But I started my conversation saying that the way to get meaningful property tax relief Is to fully fund the schools you get a two for one you get better educated schools and you get property tax relief So we are we I'm saying the same thing. I was just saying that another policy That could be used to help deal with these hyper-inflating Areas because it doesn't apply to if not every area has hyper inflation of value some of them are In line with inflation, but those that are out of line with inflation These are the kinds of things that we could do. So I'm actually proposing two Two levels of protection for taxpayers, which is district five With saisg that the main problem is that they're losing students. They're they're not getting funding People are moving away and so If there's the the gap, I'm sure it's going to be even bigger where we well, you're absolutely right The gap will be bigger. That's why I believe in reinvesting in the older neighborhoods in district five and other places Home that is 20 years or older ought to be eligible for funds to reinvest and modernize and make sure that we don't have failing foundations and failing roofs and things of that nature That that that younger families will want to move into those Older neighborhoods and bring those communities back to life The most affordable home that we have is the one that we live in today And if we can afford to stay in the home that we have today Then that will bring new life back to these neighborhoods where people have fled Tell me I don't mean to uh to close this down But it is time for folks to move to the afternoon session. Okay. Do you have a few minutes to spend with these? Sure. I'll come and answer questions. Thank you for allowing me to come and talk to you. Appreciate Some new door prize numbers Okay, so Um, this is charlotte and lucas with now cast essay and i'm here with veronica soto Who is with the city of san antonio's department of neighborhood and housing services And in a few minutes, she's going to be leading a breakout workshop session on civic engagement So you seem to be the entire Perfect person to tell me what's going on here. Why it's important and what it has to do with civic engagement. Sure Um, so this conference and this event is one that brings neighborhoods together So that they can be the ones that are the best advocates for their neighborhood and civic engagement means that they are aware of the issues in the neighborhood They're aware of the issues in the city and they're aware how they can make an impact to make a positive contribution To both city policy city budget and how that can assist and help the neighborhood The topic of civic engagement is about making sure the neighborhood voice is heard And that's what i'll be addressing. I'll also talk about how citizens can be involved in providing feedback And get information from the city. So civic engagement is about being informed It's about making sure that if there is a concern it is voiced and it is about knowing how to connect to resources So Yeah, that was terrific. So so civic engagement Is also about democracy it is So civic engagement is about that voice from the community. And so it is about how We can share our opinions. We know we may not always agree But building that consensus making sure the voice is heard is a big part of the civic engagement and the democracy process And so this is part of why today is important. This is part of the recent a lot of the folks are here They have issues. They have concerns. They want to make sure their voice is part of this Democratic process and so that's part of the recent. I think many of the folk the Part of the recent many of the folks are here today And and when people feel like their voice their their voice matters, right? Their ideas matter It makes a difference in terms of also whether they come out to vote Oh, yes, um, it makes a difference when people come out to vote It makes a difference on the kind of things they support It makes a difference about how they feel about the community. And so having the the voice heard It's a big deal when it comes to having trust in your government When it comes to voting when it comes to feeling like the community is working with you And so that's that's a big part of what today is and why this session is going to be important Now now in neighborhood services You also deal with some of the big issues that we've heard here today One of the one of the things that I heard people talking about was affordability housing affordability One of the things I heard people talking about was displacement And you're in a position to actually do something about that. Yes So the department is new. It was created this fiscal year. Our name is neighborhood and housing services So as a department, we are supposed to address in our addressing the issues related to housing And so what we have found is that we have many housing problems that are not easy to solve But there are solutions and so we have been working with a lot of folks to address those issues Everyone from the housing commission to the mayor's housing policy task force And so there'll be a series of recommendations that will take additional steps to implement But the fact that we're talking about it and finding common ground for many of these issues Is a positive first step. So the issues that the folks here have talked about the issues that have Maybe kept them up at night are ones that are being deliberated very thoughtfully And ones where we'll have a recommendation. Maybe not everyone will agree But it will be a proposed solution to those kind of issues And and part of what you're in a position to do is not just Listen to people who are elected to office and not just listen to people who are appointed to office But actually listen to people who are tenants and who are who are homeowners and who are facing those situations, right? Yes So our department takes our neighborhood engagement quite seriously It's part of the reason the word neighborhood is the first one in our department name We have a whole division focused on that and so part of my role here is asking people to make sure We have the right contact for the neighborhood associations because we have a registry for that We use that list at the city not just in our department But multiple departments as a point of contact to let people know what the city is doing in those neighborhoods And so it's very important that we have that information and that ability to share So that when there's policy issues that are going to impact the neighborhood When those issues are about to be deliberated Those folks are aware and they can be part of that process Because being part of that process sharing their voices and concern Is a big part of how we make the policy better We might have a good idea But the public input the neighborhood having a voice may make it a better idea. And so that's why we're here That's why we urge people to register with our Program through the neighborhood association. That's why we're soliciting feedback now To see how we can make our registration process better And also asking what are the other tools we need to make our neighborhood engagement even better What's the registration process? So the registration process it has to be a neighborhood association. We ask for points of contacts We ask us for the bylaws we ask for the boundary And so we put that in a map and the map is used by multiple departments that can access if they have a project in that area If there's a zoning case in that area, that's who the official contact is There's issues with overlapping boundaries. There's issues with how often we have to ask folks to update the information So we're refining how we do that so that we can continually serve our community in a better way Well, right. I think we heard earlier today that One of your colleagues from the city saying that there are somewhere upwards of 250 neighborhood associations Maybe as many as 300 any any idea what the real number is 344, but it changes. I'm sure that after today There'll be a few more So we have 344 Registered neighborhood associations in this city and that's just neighborhood associations that not homeowners associations both Oh, it is both because what we register are the voluntary associations as well as the homeowner association So it's a combination of both. Okay 344 Wow And and what I know is that the neighborhood Plans that are up on the city's website. I counted 55 of them now a couple of those are updates But that is that is a small fraction of all of them Yes And those neighborhood plans are done by our colleagues in the planning department And so there's a lot of conversation and overlap in our work There's a lot of engagement that alofas work together on and so Many neighborhoods do have plans, but many others do not I looked at some of those plans and The one on the west side for instance it covers a couple of different neighborhoods But it was planned is bilingual It was put together my more than 200 people and it took them somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 or 16 months to do it Completely so I mean it was it was not just a couple of folks sitting around the table It's a big deal. We take citizen feedback seriously We always get criticized for not doing enough for not doing it right But it goes with our work and and it's important to go and you know Sometimes be praised and sometimes be criticized about how we're seeking feedback And that's okay because hearing both the praise and the criticism only helps us as city staff do our job better Well, I'd like to say when it comes to my website Only my friends tell me when it's broken the rest of them just walk away So I mean it's it's the it's the people who care who are telling you where it's broken Yes, well I neighborhoods do care then we're hearing a lot And so it's good to hear though. It's great to get this feedback It's great to figure out how we can help other associations in a better way And it's great to see that people are plugged in and engaged in this manner There has been um lately Well, I guess it's not just just lately, but I've noticed lately a couple of neighborhood associations where leadership changed kind of radically And and there were sort of up endings what what kinds of things Do you guys go through or or who goes through them? Is it the city council representative who says okay? This this new leadership is is something that we're recognizing Well, that's one of the issues that hopefully through the survey we can figure out But there's several associations that have had that kind of issue So one of the things that we want to do is offer best practices so that associations themselves Can sort through that and so part of having best practices is having clear bylaws that state how you do a change over What the responsibilities are and so our job is just to provide the best practice Best bylaws and say look these bylaws work really well and then provide the training for the neighborhood leaders When you're about to transition, this is how you prepare your association These are the kind of things that you should be doing And so those kind of things are the ones that our department is looking to add to our toolkit So that we can offer that toolkit because we don't want to be the ones that any association comes and runs to every time There's an issue we want the associations to Have the tools and solve the issue themselves It should not be coming to the city to resolve it to mediate to figure it out for them It should be associations having a strong enough set of tools that they can do it themselves And so our job is to just get the tools and put them in the right hands And and that's a that's a process right now that that is not something that already exists right no that Well, that's one of the things that we're seeking to have And some associations are very good about that Some need a little bit of help and so our job is to figure out who needs that little bit of help And create those tools and put them in the hands of the people that will use them and make it better So say somebody is um Has moved into the city fairly recently or is in a neighborhood and they don't know How did they find out what their neighborhood association or homeowner well neighborhood homeowners? They probably know because they bought the house. How did they find out where their neighborhood association? Well, if you go to our website to san antonio.gov and you go through neighborhood and housing services department We have a tab devoted to neighborhoods and you will find a map of all the neighborhood associations there So that's the best way to find if you're in a neighborhood association And you guys try really hard But I acknowledge that you're not entirely perfect on that map So it may it may need updating and and if they find something broken to let you know Yes, and that's part of the reason we're here as well We have our contact list and we're verifying with the folks present that we have the correct information It's a constant every day keep tending to it Uh, and so the maps should be pretty good, but we may not have exactly the right contact person But we do have the maps available so people can figure it out And we're working to make those maps even better and more interactive But that's that's yet to come I was going to say I think um Google had that figured out for a while, but it's a kind of a tough thing on the city's website It is it is so we continue to work on how we can make that information at your fingertip Available and make it better It does take us a little while and then when changes happen We have to figure out how do we update that change and not delay access to the information Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate your taking the time. Thank you You