San Francisco’s technology industry is flexing its political muscle. After winning a series of payroll tax exemptions and helping re-elect an industry champion in City Hall, the tech set is broadening its ambitions and reintroducing itself to voters with – what else? – a viral video.
The video, set for release today, tries to cast municipal technology in a friendly light. It advocates turning payphones into Wi-Fi hotspots, outfitting bus stops with real-time transit maps, tweeting crime reports, and refilling parking meters from your smartphone. It throws mud on public transit delays, graffiti, and expensive parking tickets. Not exactly controversial stuff.
The video has some of tech’s biggest names behind it, including social gaming company Zynga, business web app Salesforce.com, the reigning king of angel investing Ron Conway, and Conway’s group “sf.citi,” a registered business advocacy group whose mission is to “leverage the collective power of the tech sector as a force for civic action in San Francisco.” It was produced over several months by Portal A, the San Francisco viral studio whose “Too Legit To Quit” video helped make Mayor Ed Lee the talk of Twitter last year (we profiled Portal A earlier this year).
“What we want to do is show the residents of San Francisco the possibilities of what the tech community can do to improve the quality of life,” says Conway.
'Mayor Lee said to start a tech chamber of commerce.' &mdash Ron Conway
angel investorAlong the way, the video will help the campaign in support of Prop. E, which repeals San Francisco’s payroll tax in favor of a gross receipts tax. The proposition has the support of both Mayor Ed Lee and his sometime critic on the Board of Supervisors John Avalos, along with both organized labor and business groups, and thus seems likely to easily garner the simple majority it needs to pass. Still, as insurance that the measure passes, SF Citi will launch its YouTube video by embedding it on a site that urges people to support Prop. E and to register to vote online. Tweets from video participants, whose ranks include Square CEO Jack Dorsey and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, will direct people to the pro-Prop. E site. (The video itself contains no mention of Prop. E.)
SF Citi’s other efforts thus far have been, like the viral video, relatively non controversial. The group has advocated a smattering of educational, philanthropic and local hiring initiatives. But the mere existence of the nine-month-old group is a turning point for local tech businesses, who have traditionally spoken through regional industry organizations like the 34-year-old Silicon Valley Leadership Group or broader city groups like the Chamber of Commerce.
“Once Ed Lee got elected [with tech industry help], he said, ‘the tech community should keep up its momentum -- you should start a tech chamber of commerce,” Conway says.
The group has its work cut out for it. During the last technology boom, and at times during the present one, San Francisco tech has been chastised for driving up rents, driving out longtime residents and for perpetuating a boom-bust cycle that oscillates between inflated wages and joblessness. Addressing those issues may push SF Citi further out on the political limb.
“In 2013, housing might be a pillar that we add,” Conway says. “We are studying the housing issue right now because the last thing we want to do is push people out of the city.” Their answer better not be long-term couch rentals via Airbnb.
