Category Archives: Research

Microsoft Bing Chat 0, Perplexity.ai 1.

So I thought I’d give Bing a try at using ChatGPT to answer a question for which I knew the answer. The question was, “What group sings the theme song to the podcast ‘A History of Rock Music in 500 … Continue reading

Posted in AI, audio, Research | 1 Comment

On using Wikipedia in schools

In Students are told not to use Wikipedia for research. But it’s a trustworthy source, Rachel Cunneen and Mathieu O’Niel nicely unpack their case for the headline. In a online polylogue in response to that piece, I wrote, “You always have a … Continue reading

Posted in education, Research, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Social shell games

If you listen to Episode 49: Parler, Ownership, and Open Source of the latest Reality 2.0 podcast, you’ll learn that I was blindsided at first by the topic of Parler, which has lately become a thing. But I caught up fast, even getting … Continue reading

Posted in Ideas, infrastructure, Internet, problems, Research | Leave a comment

About face

We know more than we can tell. That one-liner from Michael Polanyi has been waiting half a century for a proper controversy, which it now has with facial recognition. Here’s how he explains it in The Tacit Dimension: This fact seems obvious enough; but … Continue reading

Posted in Identity, language, Law, Life, privacy, problems, Research, Science, security | Leave a comment

Dear @WashingtonPost

This is wrong: Because I’m not blocking ads. I’m blocking tracking. In fact I welcome ads—especially ones that sponsor The Washington Post and other fine publishers. I’ll also be glad to subscribe to the Post once it stops trying to track … Continue reading

Posted in adtech, advertising, Business, publishing, Research, Technology, VRM | 1 Comment

Is ad blocking past 2 billion worldwide?

The answer is, we don’t know. Also, we may never know, because— It’s too hard to measure (especially if you’re talking about the entire Net). Too so much of the usage is in mobile devices of too many different kinds. … Continue reading

Posted in adtech, advertising, Business, Digital Life, Internet, Research, Science, Technology, VRM | Leave a comment

A helpful approach to personal data protection regulation

Enforcing Data Protection: A Model for Risk-Based Supervision Using Responsive Regulatory Tools, a post by Dvara Research, summarizes Effective Enforcement of a Data Protection Regime, a deeply thought and researched paper by Beni Chugh (@BeniChugh), Malavika Raghavan (@teninthemorning), Nishanth Kumar (@beamboybeamboy) and … Continue reading

Posted in adtech, advertising, Business, Research | Leave a comment

GDPR will pop the adtech bubble

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

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

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

Geology answers for Montecito and Santa Barbara

Just before it started, the geology meeting at the Santa Barbara Central Library on Thursday looked like this from the front of the room (where I also tweeted the same pano): Our speakers were geology professor Ed Keller of UCSB and … Continue reading

Posted in Future, Geography, Geology, history, infrastructure, Nature, Photography, Places, Research, Santa Barbara, Science, ThomasFire, weather, wildfire | 17 Comments