Monthly Archives: September 2010

Montana in terms of North Dakota

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Doc Searls

Back in the 1920s my grandparents, Erick and Caroline Oman, took their four kids on the family’s one and only trip west from their home in Napoleon, North Dakota, which is about as far out in the prairrie as you … Continue reading →

Posted in Past, Quote | 3 Comments

The escape key

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Doc Searls

I love this from Dave: The why of it: I want to create, out of RSS, something like Twitter, but not locked up on one company’s servers. Call me an opensorcerer or a rastafarian, but I like networks that aren’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Future, problems, Technology | 3 Comments

Some research questions

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Doc Searls

Here’s some what I’m looking for right now. Any help is welcome. Topic 1: Advertising Size of the advertising industry, both in the U.S. and worldwide. Sums of advertising of various types to which individuals are exposed every day. Breakouts … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Research, Technology | 6 Comments

Would you move to Chatanooga for Internet speed?

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Doc Searls

So EPB, the Chatanooga power (and now high speed Internet) utility, is now offering Internet speeds up up to 1Gbps over fiber optic connections to homes. (A U.S. record, far as I know.) If you ignore EPB “triple play” offerings … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Ideas, infrastructure, Places, Technology | 18 Comments

Playing the organs

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Doc Searls

I’m at a fascinating luncheon talk by Al Roth at CRCS with the irresistable title, “Kidney Exchange.” This can’t help but call to mind “Anonymous Philanthopist Donates 200 Kidneys“, in The Onion. which I hope Al has in this talk … Continue reading →

Posted in Technology, VRM | 6 Comments

Let’s kill Interruptive ads

Posted on September 19, 2010 by Doc Searls

The Web is not television, and I would like online advertisers and publications to stop treating the Web like it is. Interruptive ads such as this one at Salon… … are meant to get 100% click-through rates, I suppose. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Journalism, problems | Tagged , , , , , | 28 Comments

Cookies for Kiddies

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Doc Searls

Back on July 31 I posted The Data Bubble in response to the first of The Wall Street Journal‘s landmark What They Know series of articles and Web postings on the topic of unwelcome (and, to their targets, mostly unknown) … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Ideas, Life, News, Technology, VRM | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Keeping relationship humanized

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Doc Searls

Ten years ago this month, on the morning after I gave this speech in Lucerne, my wife and I were walking through the restaurant at our hotel across the lake when a friendly American gentleman having breakfast buttonholed me to … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Call center hell, News, problems, VRM | 13 Comments

Igor vs. Bermuda

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Doc Searls

It’s a safe bet that most people don’t know where Bermuda is. Here’s the answer: In the middle of the ocean, close to nothing. It’s not like the Bahamas, or the islands of the Caribbean, which are arranged in chains, … Continue reading →

Posted in Geology, News, Places | 5 Comments

Sighs of the times

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Doc Searls

Several pieces worth noting. From back in February, The Smarter You Are, the Less You Click, in ReadWriteWeb. It begins, If the latest numbers from online ad network Chitika are anything to go by, then we may well be on our … Continue reading →

Posted in Future, history, Ideas, infrastructure, Past, Quote | Tagged , , | 2 Comments