Tech:NYC Digest: March 17

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Thursday, March 17, 2022 

In today’s digest, the Omicron subvariant is spreading across New York, Gov. Hochul announces new sanctions against Russia, and how to spring clean your work habits.

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By the numbers:  

• New positive cases statewide: 2,323

  • New positive cases, NYC: 865

• NYC Positivity Rate: 1.3 percent (no change) 

• NYC Hospitalizations: 333 (-13)

• Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

  • New Yorkers with at least one dose: 89.3 percent

  • New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 75.9 percent

In today’s latest:

• The CDC said the Omicron subvariant BA.2 is more quickly spreading across the US, making up nearly a quarter of new COVID infections nationwide. The agency said it’s particularly a concern in New York and New Jersey, where 39 percent of the virus in circulation is BA.2. (CBS News)

• Figures showing a global rise in COVID-19 cases could herald a much bigger problem as some countries also report a drop in testing rates, the WHO said on Tuesday. (NBC News) Individual testing is down and increasingly done at home, making it harder to see the full landscape. (STAT)

• The Senate passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023, ending the twice-annual changing of clocks in a move promoted by supporters advocating brighter afternoons and more economic activity. (Reuters)

  • Sleep experts widely agree with the Senate that the country should abandon its twice-yearly seasonal time changes. But unlike the Senate, they believe the country should adopt year-round standard time, not daylight saving time. (Washington Post)

• Gov. Hochul announced today that the state will cease business with companies that have continued to do business in Russia. The governor also announced that New York will send 100,000 pounds of medical supplies to Ukraine. (Associated Press)

• The winter ice-skating season may be coming to a close at Rockefeller Center, but for the first time in decades, the Rockefeller Center rink will feature roller skating from April through October. (New York Times)

• One fun update from our friends at Tech:NYC member company Bowery Farming: After three years of agricultural testing, strawberries grown from the startup’s indoor vertical farms are now being sold at Eataly and other NYC stores. (Crain’s New York) Learn more here.

In other reading:

• Two Years of the Pandemic in New York, Step by Awful Step (New York Times)

• Here's how you can get a free tree in NYC this spring (Time Out New York)

• 9 P.M. Is the New Midnight (New York Magazine)

Spring is almost here (it’s expected to climb above 70 degrees tomorrow here in NYC!), and you know what that means: it’s time for a good old-fashioned spring cleaning. After more than two years of work-from-wherever, that applies to your work habits, as well.

Atlassian’s resident work futurist Dominic Price says right now is the perfect time to spring clean some of those habits — and bring new ones back to the office with you. He spoke to Protocol to share some of his top tips:

Examine what you take as given: We pick up work habits – like making endless to-do lists – and never let them go. Your response to why you work a certain way or hold a certain meeting should never be, “Well, this is what I’ve always done.” 

• Atlassian has a guide for how to perform a reset test of these habits, or “rituals,” as Price calls them, available here.

Focus on what works for both you and your team: Instead of a manager imposing tools on a team, Price recommends that teams pick which tools to employ cooperatively. But when each team uses a different tool things can become messy. Price says your company's main communication tools should be standardized, but teams should be free to use whatever tools they need.

• The company has a library of free workshops, as well as its Working Agreements exercise, to help teams set expectations of each other.

Reassess your definition of productivity: Price says if your goal is to ensure employees get as much done as humanly possible, “you’re old school. You’re also wrong.” Focusing on outcomes over outputs is a better way: The work team members do to reach a goal looks different for everyone, so focusing on the goal — instead of solely the work — minimizes disruption. That strategy also “cares more about your emotional well-being and health.”

In other reading:

• Google chief diversity officer Melonie Parker reflects on being inclusive in year three of remote work (Fast Company)

• How to prepare for a cyberattack and set a backup plan (USA Today)

• The 9 to 5 Schedule Should Be the Next Pillar of Work to Fall (New York Times)

• Amagi, a NYC-based SaaS developer for broadcast and connected TV, raised $95 million in private equity funding at over a $1 billion valuation. Accel led the round and was joined by Norwest Venture Partners and Avataar Ventures. (Bloomberg)

• anywell, a NYC and Tel Aviv-based workspace-as-a-service company, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Pitango and Viola Ventures co0led the round and were joined by Emerge. (FinSMEs)

• Canopy, a NYC-based oncology care platform, raised $13 million in Series A funding. GSR Ventures led the round and was joined by Samsung Next, UpWest, and angel investors. (CTech)

• Oxio, a NYC-based telecom-as-a-service platform for brands and enterprises, raised $40 million in Series B funding. ParaFi Capital led the round and was joined by Digital Currency Group, Ascend, Leyden, Multicoin Capital, Monashees, Atlantico Capital, FinTech Collective, Allan Green, and angel investors from LightShed Partners and Sea Group. (CoinDesk)

• March 21: Virtual: #newtovc: Developing Your Fund Thesis, with Union Square Ventures partner Brad Burnham and Brooklyn Bridge Ventures founder Charlie O’Donnell. Hosted by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. Register here.

• March 22 – 23: Virtual: Bloomberg Equality Summit, with Meta vice president for civil rights Roy L. Austin, Jr., Microsoft corporate vice president Sarah Bond, NYSE chair Commissioner Sharon Bowen, and others. Hosted by Bloomberg. Register here. 

• March 31: Virtual: The Future of NYC: Charting an Equitable Recovery for All, with Federal Reserve Bank of New York president and CEO John C. Williams, BlocPower founder and CEO Donnel Baird, Regional Plan Association president and CEO Tom Wright, and more. Hosted by the New York Fed. Register here.

• April 6: Virtual: Data Science Day 2022, with White House Director of Science and Technology Policy Alondra Nelson and IBM Research AI vice president Sriram Raghavan. Hosted by the Data Science Institute at Columbia University. Register here.

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