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The advertising industry is on the verge of being shattered into a thousand fragments due to the knowledge explosion and the proliferation of new technologies. There are no more grand theories that hold sway over the entire industry. Michael Strangelove
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Dave WinerWe haven't mentioned Dave Winer's great periodic website (DaveNet) in a long time. It's a terribly interesting phenomenon that tells a lot about some evolutionary patterns for the Web. Dave is, first and foremost, a software developer. It's easy to forget when he's on target an musing about the Web's future and key software industry players. He mixes his life's moodswings and analysis with breathtaking ease. As a reader, it takes a couple of years to notice the rhythms in Dave's output. You don't hear much from him when he's developing software. You hear a lot from him when he goes into marketing or planning modes. The net result is a delightful newsletter, chock full of insight and personality. It arrives in random lumpy batches (none for weeks then three days in a row). We always read them and usuall learn something.
WiReD IPO Back In The ClosetThe on again off again IPO from WiReD Ventures is off again. The amazing part of this story is an email lesson for us all. Though WiReD goes to some lengths to deny the story, the triggering event seems to have been the posting of internal email to the Well (a pioneering online system). In the process of moving through the formal stages of an IPO, there is a required "quiet period". Company members are forbidden from feeding the market any more than is stated in their prospectus. As you may know, the WiReD IPO was taking quite a bit of heat in certain quarters of the press. As an internal response, WiReD's management circulated a piece of internal email reminding employees of the accomplishments of the past couple years. Unfortunately, someone posted the mail to the Well (which is as good as posting it to the net at large). The resulting controversy appears to have triggered the firestorm that resulted in the IPO being withdrawn. The lessons are one of two:
We're not sure which one they learned at WiReD. PrivacyIs it a big deal? Although we tend to downplay the ultimate role of privacy in the evolution of the Internet, it seems to be a big (and getting bigger) bugaboo. For a comprehensive picture, take a look at the Stalker's Home Page. It's not really a collection of tools for stalkers, it's more of an alarmist's look at the potential of the net to invade privacy. Design ExcellenceWe've been fans of David Siegel's High Five Awards for a very long time. Although everybody knows that each design application requires a different solution, Siegel tirelessly champions a certain design perspective. It's somewhat limited by its emphasis on similarities with print media, but at least he's doing it. If you haven't seen it, visit a local bookstore and checkout a copy of Siegel's new book Creating Killer Websites. More of the same and better. The website built to support marketing of the book, killersites. is a great source of design inspiration and tools. We found a gem in the links section called Art and The Zen of Websites.
Take a look at the Archives. We've indexed all the past issues with topic pointers.
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