Management

Elon Musk recently wrote, "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences," he followed with, "Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world." Twitter cannot serve two masters. So, which will it be, "a free-for-all hellscape," or "the most respected advertising platform in the world." Continue Reading →

The deal has officially closed and Elon Musk now owns Twitter. Shelly Palmer speaks with Zain Asher on CNN International's One World about the future of Twitter and whether or not Musk will be able to solve the issues he sees at his new company. Continue Reading →

On October 27, 2022 at 11:49 p.m. ET, @elonmusk tweeted, "the bird is freed." I'm wondering if he meant "fried." Elon is out about $44 billion (a substantial portion of which is his own money) and the freshly fired executive team is up approximately $88 million. It's no fun being fired, even by Elon, but the windfall of cash may ease their pain. Continue Reading →

Web2 (aka the centralized web) is the web as we know it today. It is dominated and controlled by our tech overlords. Web3 (aka the decentralized web) is supposed to replace it, releasing us from our data servitude. It won’t. For reasons I will share with you, it will be obvious that it can’t. We are already living in a hybrid world where Web2 and Web3 technologies are each leveraged to their best purposes. You can call it Web2.5 – it’s a more accurate description of where we are now and where we are likely to go next. Let’s review. Continue Reading →

TechCrunch reports: "When Florida-based Chetu hired a telemarketer in the Netherlands, the company demanded the employee turn on his webcam. The employee wasn’t happy with being monitored 'for 9 hours per day,' in a program that included screen-sharing and streaming his webcam. When he refused, he was fired, according to public court documents (in Dutch), for what the company stated was ‘refusal to work’ and ‘insubordination.’ The Dutch court didn’t agree, however, and ruled that “instructions to keep the webcam turned on is in conflict with the respect for the privacy of the workers’. In its verdict, the court goes so far as to suggest that demanding webcam surveillance is a human rights violation." Continue Reading →

The most significant event in the short history of Web3 will most likely occur on September 15, 2022. That’s when Ethereum, the largest smart contract blockchain (with the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap), is now scheduled to enact an existential operational change. If it fails, “The Merge,” as it is colloquially called, is almost sure to take the crypto markets down with it. But even if The Merge is 100 percent successful, it will come with profound implications regarding censorship, regulation, and the future of money. Continue Reading →

Each of these stories raises questions we all think we know the answers to. Where is the line between common sense and censorship? What lengths should the government go to to protect human lives? When is it appropriate for a platform or telecom carrier to block access to its network? Continue Reading →

There's a relatively new acronym in the media business: FAST. It stands for Free Advertiser-supported Streaming Television. For all practical purposes, FAST is good, old-fashioned broadcast television delivered over the public internet (as opposed to via an antenna or cable or satellite). In the not-so-distant past, this kind of delivery was called "over the top" or OTT, but the defining differences are that FAST is free (except for the cost of your internet access), and the programs are scheduled at specific times, exactly the same way linear, broadcast TV channels are scheduled. Does it matter how the signal is delivered to consumers? Think about this... Continue Reading →

Ever wonder how misinformation goes viral? Let's follow a typo made by CNBC as it propagates across the Web. The story quotes a post from Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner about the recent Instagram redesign. It's an object lesson about the truly revolting lack of journalistic standards that pervade our digital lives. Continue Reading →

First-party cookies are important. They help web publishers customize your experience. Third-party cookies are important for advertisers – and Google wants them gone. Continue Reading →