Long Term Research

I was at the marketplace innovations workshop at Stanford. I enjoyed meeting the few faces I recognized and the multitude of new folks in the field. Thanks to the organizers for an excellent program. It was great to see folks attacking two-sided marketplaces in Uber/Lyft.

I left with a question. We have had a few iterations of spectrum auctions. These are supposed to be for pricing and using a common good to benefit the society. Do we know a definition of a good or successful auction? We know the auction has to satisfy some constraints for access to remote areas or signal a good price for the govt. We can prove some properties assuming the bidders know the longterm value of the spectrum.  I am not convinced this is a good proxy for what benefits the society, and there should be independent metrics to evaluate whether a spectrum auction ultimately yielded longterm benefit, even empirically and retrospectively. 

Crane has not left Seattle

		I don't have time to explore and discover untrodden things these days from my base in Mercer Island. A few weeks ago, discovered Toppenish murals, a remarkable community effort to produce historic murals. Thanks to folks at Crafted for letting me have the whole basement to frolic and dine, walkin.

More local: The coval house of Mercer Island developed over a 100 years and recently demolished. "As research scientists, both Barbara and Myer possessed a native comfort with uncertainty, change and experimentation, and this proved to be a fertile environment for the artists and designers they engaged." Stunning woodwork.