Category Archives: Customertech

Toward new kinds of leverage

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Doc Searls

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world,” Archimedes is said to have said. For almost all of the last four years, Donald Trump was one hell of … Continue reading →

Posted in adtech, advertising, Blogging, Business, Customertech, Future, Internet, Journalism, problems, Technology, VRM | Leave a comment

How to get fans inside the NBA’s playoff bubble

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Doc Searls

Sell tickets to attend online through Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Webex, GoToMeeting, Jitsi or whatever conferencing system can supply working tech to the NBA. Then mic everyone in the paying crowd, project them all on the walls (or sheets … Continue reading →

Posted in Broadcasting, Business, Customertech, Digital Life, Fun, Sports, Technology | Tagged | Leave a comment

Going #Faceless

Posted on February 29, 2020 by Doc Searls

Facial recognition by machines is out of control. Meaning our control. As individuals, and as a society. Thanks to ubiquitous surveillance systems, including the ones in our own phones, we can no longer assume we are anonymous in public places or private … Continue reading →

Posted in Customertech, Digital Life, policy, Politics, privacy, security, VRM | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Here’s a cool project: completely revolutionize shopping online

Posted on August 12, 2019 by Doc Searls

In 1995, shortly after she first encountered e-commerce, my wife assigned a cool project to the world by asking a simple question: Why can’t I take my shopping cart from site to site? The operative word in that question is … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Customertech, Internet, publishing, Technology, VRM | Leave a comment

We can do better than selling our data

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Doc Searls

If personal data is actually a commodity, can you buy some from another person, as if that person were a fruit stand? Would you want to? Not yet. Or maybe not really. Either way, that’s the idea behind the urge … Continue reading →

Posted in adtech, advertising, Business, Customertech, history, Ideas, Internet, marketing, Nature, personal data, problems, publishing, Technology, VRM | 3 Comments

GDPR will pop the adtech bubble

Posted on May 12, 2018 by Doc Searls

In The Big Short, investor Michael Burry says “One hallmark of mania is the rapid rise in the incidence and complexity of fraud.” (Burry shorted the mania- and fraud-filled subprime mortgage market and made a mint in the process.) One … Continue reading →

Posted in adtech, advertising, Business, Cluetrain, Customertech, Journalism, personal data, problems, publishing, Research, Technology, VRM | 74 Comments

For privacy we need tech more than policy

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Doc Searls

To get real privacy in the online world, we need to get the tech horse in front of the policy cart. So far we haven’t done that. Let me explain… Nature and the Internet both came without privacy. The difference … Continue reading →

Posted in adtech, advertising, Business, Customertech, Internet, Journalism, marketing, personal data, privacy, problems, Technology | Leave a comment

Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica problems are nothing compared to what’s coming for all of online publishing

Posted on March 23, 2018 by Doc Searls

Let’s start with Facebook’s Surveillance Machine, by Zeynep Tufekci in last Monday’s New York Times. Among other things (all correct), Zeynep explains that “Facebook makes money, in other words, by profiling us and then selling our attention to advertisers, political … Continue reading →

Posted in adtech, advertising, Berkman, Business, Customertech, Ideas, infrastructure, Internet, Journalism, Law, Links, marketing, News, Personal, privacy, problems, publishing, Research, Technology, VRM | 72 Comments

A Qualified Fail

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Doc Searls

Power of the People is a great grabber of a headline, at least for me. But it’s a pitch for a report that requires filling out the form here on the right: You see a lot of these: invitations to … Continue reading →

Posted in adtech, advertising, Business, Cluetrain, Customertech, Identity, Law, marketing, problems, Technology | 3 Comments

Requiem for a great magazine

Posted on December 1, 2017 by Doc Searls

Linux Journal is folding. Carlie Fairchild, who has run the magazine almost since it started in 1994, posted Linux Journal Ceases Publication today on the website. So far all of the comments have been positive, which they should be. Throughout … Continue reading →

Posted in adtech, advertising, Business, Customertech, Journalism, publishing | Tagged , , | 3 Comments