Category: Policy

Joho Does WEF

Back in 2001, I was named a "GLT", which is short for Global Leader of Tomorrow, by the lords of the World Economic Forum in Davos. I felt just a tiny a bit sheepish about the honor, and still do, as I imagine the decision making process might have gone…

clintonWEFBack in 2001, I was named a “GLT“, which is short for Global Leader of Tomorrow, by the lords of the World Economic Forum in Davos. I felt just a tiny a bit sheepish about the honor, and still do, as I imagine the decision making process might have gone something like “Who’s hot in the internet space? That Battelle guy sure has a great magazine, let’s get him.” Then my magazine bit the dust. Dooh!

Anyway, I got to go to Davos that year, and I still get invited, but since then I haven’t found either the coin or the time to attend. But man, what a meeting it is, the world’s entire power structure laid out in one large, wonderful, and ostentatious display, nearly everyone promenading, certain of their self worth, the fragrance of shared self-congratulation hanging thick in the air. And, in fact, it’s true: Everyone there *is* important, from the heads of most every major state, to the heads of every major corporation. The World Economic Forum, more than any meeting I have ever been to, is about power, baby, raw power dressed in impeccable french shirts, cufflinks, and hand-tailored suits. (OK, there are also a few poorly dressed geeks, and some rather boring German industrialists, but for the most part, the agenda is set by the suits).

All this came back to me as I read this post from David Weinberger, who was asked to participate in one of the Forum’s many seminars held around the world. This one was in NYC over the past few days, and his portion of it focused on the media business. The post is chilling, if you care about what the overlords of Big Media are thinking about, give it a read.

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Google Going More Transparent

I've said before that Google's opaque approach to policy – in particular with regard to its editorial policies surround AdWords – could not stand. Now Danny has the scoop on Google's intention to clarify and expand its advertising guidelines. Great news. Forget the debate over what exactly Google will allow….

clarityI’ve said before that Google’s opaque approach to policy – in particular with regard to its editorial policies surround AdWords – could not stand. Now Danny has the scoop on Google’s intention to clarify and expand its advertising guidelines. Great news.

Forget the debate over what exactly Google will allow. A core issue to me has been why doesn’t Google simply publish its rules? Why can’t advertisers know from the start what Google allows? The guesswork has been infuriating to some who have been rejected on the basis of unpublished policies in the past, plus it has fed into the secretive nature some accuse Google of having….
…Google’s planning to greatly expand the editorial guidelines it publishes online, providing everyone — advertisers and Google users alike — a better idea of what it accepts on the advertising front.

“We’re in the editing phase of what that page will look like,” said Sheryl Sandberg, vice president of global online sales and operations for Google. “It won’t be up in the next few days, but if we’re not done within a few months, I’ll be disappointed.”

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My First Day WIth AdSense: Battelle Gets Busted

Well, Day one with AdSense has been a learning experience, but that's why I decided to try it, right? Noontime brought this email into my box from Google: Subject: Google AdSense – Program Policies Hello John, It has recently come to our attention that you're encouraging your website users to…

prisonWell, Day one with AdSense has been a learning experience, but that’s why I decided to try it, right? Noontime brought this email into my box from Google:

Subject: Google AdSense – Program Policies

Hello John,

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IDG’s Blunt Instrument

Now granted, I might have my own rather biased reasons to beat a tired old horse, but really, Loosely Coupled nails it in this post about IDG's deep linking policies. They are blunt, dumb, and tone deaf. I understand that there may be cases where others are making hay off…

Rear_View_MirrorNow granted, I might have my own rather biased reasons to beat a tired old horse, but really, Loosely Coupled nails it in this post about IDG’s deep linking policies. They are blunt, dumb, and tone deaf. I understand that there may be cases where others are making hay off your content and you have to respond (I deal with this from time to time at Boing Boing), but this policy is not the answer.

In short, IDG’s policy states: You may not link to our site if you sell ads on your site or you charge a subscription fee to use or access your site. So I just broke the policy by linking to them, I guess, now that I take AdSense. Loosley Coupled notes they’ve broken the policy about 1,000 times. In this world of personal media, its nothing short of ridiculous to ask folks to NOT link to your content. It’s suicide.

(Thanks, Dan)

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Judge to Geico: Go Forth, And Sue

Geico's trademark infringement suit against Google and Yahoo has cleared a legal hurdle, and will proceed to trial, barring settlement. Interesting commentary on the basis of the case to be had over at Techdirt: As long as the ads in question don't try to trick users into believing that they…

gavelGeico’s trademark infringement suit against Google and Yahoo has cleared a legal hurdle, and will proceed to trial, barring settlement.

Interesting commentary on the basis of the case to be had over at Techdirt:

As long as the ads in question don’t try to trick users into believing that they are Geico, there’s no trademark infringement. It’s no different than trying to get yourself on the same super market shelf as a more popular brand. You want to be in the same place when someone is looking for your competitor. If anything, Geico should be focusing on specific ads that confuse users into believing that the ads are for Geico instead of a competitor. Speaking of which, Google and Overture should have nothing to do with this case. They’re not the ones who created the ads, but are simply the vehicle for delivering them. If Geico has a problem with the ads, they should be suing the advertiser in question.

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The China Firewall: Banned Keywords

An update from the WSJ (paid sub) on the Great Chinese Firewall, quoting the China Internet project I played a small role in starting at Berkeley. The piece includes a list of keywords that are banned in China, a list that was first published by the China Digital News blog…

greatwallAn update from the WSJ (paid sub) on the Great Chinese Firewall, quoting the China Internet project I played a small role in starting at Berkeley. The piece includes a list of keywords that are banned in China, a list that was first published by the China Digital News blog we launched last year.

It’s interesting to note how critical search is to the process of censorship in China and other countries. From the WSJ article:

The research project by the three universities, known as the OpenNet
Initiative, routed requests through computers in China to Google, Yahoo
and Chinese search engines Baidu.com, in which Google Inc. is an
investor, and Yisou.com, which is owned by Yahoo Inc. Searches with
sensitive terms like “Falun,” for the Falun Gong spiritual movement that
is banned in China, or “Free Tibet” were routinely cut off, without
sending back an error message, the report says.

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What Google (And Alot of Other Companies) Knows About You

On the Ephemeral to Eternal Beat: a listing of what Google Knows. I'd add that it ain't just Google that knows this, and, what they know, the government can know, with a simple court order. (Via Phillip)…

On the Ephemeral to Eternal Beat: a listing of what Google Knows. I’d add that it ain’t just Google that knows this, and, what they know, the government can know, with a simple court order. (Via Phillip)

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Give an Interview in April…

… get a pass in August? When I first heard this interview was coming, last week, I thought "Hmmm…wonder why that's happening." But I did not post on it. Google is not known for doing anything press related without calculating the impact down to the last meme, so it struck…

pboy… get a pass in August?

When I first heard this interview was coming, last week, I thought “Hmmm…wonder why that’s happening.” But I did not post on it. Google is not known for doing anything press related without calculating the impact down to the last meme, so it struck me that they had thought through the implications of a Playboy piece – and the attendant coverage it would create from journalists angry *they* didn’t get the interview. I figured the Playboy interview was given way before the quiet period ever started. I was wrong – it was given in early April – one week before Google filed. Now the SEC is investigating.

Could this be a case where Playboy ran with the interview against the wishes of the company? We may never know, but now the pundits are predicting this might delay the IPO, a la Benioff.

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Big Brother, Inc.

The ACLU has issued a report on a trend I often ping, that of corporate data gathering practices and how the government can bypass restrictions on domestic spying by requiring companies, in essence, to do the spying by proxy. The ACLU report includes a suggested "No Spy Pledge" that they…

TIA-tmThe ACLU has issued a report on a trend I often ping, that of corporate data gathering practices and how the government can bypass restrictions on domestic spying by requiring companies, in essence, to do the spying by proxy.

The ACLU report includes a suggested “No Spy Pledge” that they hope consumers will ask companies to take. The ACLU site includes a sample letter to send to companies which requests:

1. You will not turn individually identifiable data on your customers over
to the government for security purposes unless legally required to do so.

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The TiVo Debate: Missing the Picture

WashPost (reg required) today: TiVo, the company that makes the digital-video-recorder boxes that inspire such strange idolatry among their users, is in a weird spot. It's asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to add a new feature — the option for a TiVo user to send recorded digital TV…

WashPost (reg required) today:

TiVo, the company that makes the digital-video-recorder boxes that inspire such strange idolatry among their users, is in a weird spot. It’s asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to add a new feature — the option for a TiVo user to send recorded digital TV programs via the Internet to nine other people. …
…For this, the company has drawn the ire of the National Football League and the Motion Picture Association of America, which have asked the FCC to deny TiVo’s proposal.
The NFL says that TiVo’s Internet-sharing feature will allow people to send game broadcasts to blacked-out viewers in real time (a team’s home game can be aired locally only if it sells out beforehand).

I don’t know about you, but sending multi-gigabyte three-hour files around the net is not my idea of fun, at least until the Koreans show up with fiber to the home.

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