Monthly Archives: February 2012

Edging toward the fully licensed world

I own a lot of books and music CDs — enough to fill many shelves. Here’s just one: They are relatively uncomplicated possessions. There are no limits (other than mine) on who can read my books, or what else  I … Continue reading

Posted in Broadcasting, Business, history, Ideas, infrastructure, Links, News, Politics, problems, Technology | 36 Comments

Let’s use the ‘No Track’ button we already have

(Cross-posted from the ProjectVRM blog.) For as long as we’ve had economies, demand and supply have been attracted to each other like a pair of magnets. Ideally, they should match up evenly and produce good outcomes. But sometimes one side … Continue reading

Posted in Berkman, Business, Law, problems, VRM | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Savor the irony

Now comes news (via Peter Kafka in All Things D and Jason Boog in Galleycat) that robot-written “stories” are turning up on the pages of Forbes and other publications. The robots are made by Narrative Science, which (says its About page) … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Journalism | 8 Comments

The Jeremy Lin story

Why Jeremy Lin suddenly such hot stuff? Last night I listened to sports radio from ESPN, WFAN in New York, KNBR in San Francisco, and WEEI in Boston, as well as to KOVO here in Provo, Utah (where I’m hanging this … Continue reading

Posted in Sports | 8 Comments

For personal data, use value beats sale value

Should you manage your personal data just so you can sell it to marketers? (And just because somebody’s already buying it anyway, why not?) Those are the barely-challenged assumptions in Start-Ups Seek to Help Users Put a Price on Their Personal Data, by … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Future, Ideas, Personal, Technology, VRM | 9 Comments