Jeff Jarvis's Blog, page 66

The German privacy paradox

As a group, Germans are more private than anyone I know. My German grandfather-in-law used to lecture me: "People do not need to know that." Germans complain about Google Streetview taking pictures of them … in public. They're going after Facebook on privacy. They say that Google Analytics violates privacy. They even enable convicted killers to expunge their names from Wikipedia out of privacy. And now they're up in arms about airport body scanners.

Yet go into a German sauna, and there the G...

They're b-a-a-a-ck

Hilarious. Just mention a rumor of Howard Stern replacing Simon Cowell on American Idol and the so-called Parents Television Council rears its head again. Haven't heard from them in a while — have we? — because they and their coconspirators at the FCC succeeded in making broadcast TV and radio into dull, flavorless tapioca. But getting rid of Stern didn't help the PTC because they used him to scare their constituency and raise money. And that's why they're eagerly chomping into this rumor — s...

Google's Buzz(machine)

I still need more time to get my head around Google Buzz, which will enable users to post and share updates, links, photos, videos with the world or with friends tied to geography via the web, mobile apps, and voice. Buzz also promises to prioritize the "buzzes" we get. I think this could be the beginning of some big things:

* The hyperpersonal news stream, which Marissa Mayer has been talking about. The key value here is not just aggregating our streams but prioritizing them by listening to s...

What Toyota should do

Including my parents, we own four Toyotas in my family; over time, we've probably owned eight or 10. Will we ever buy another? Depends. Depends on whether we can trust the company given its performance lately.

There's a reason we bought our Toyotas. They are incredibly reliable. I abuse mine, skipping service calls. But — knock wood — I've not had any major problems. So even though I don't much like Toyota design and — as a professor, can no longer afford to pay for that styling with the...

Stop selling scarcity

If you are selling a scarcity — an inventory — of any nonphysical goods today, stop, turn around, and start selling value — outcomes — instead. Or you're screwed. Apply this rule to many enterprises: advertising, media, content, information, education, consultation, and to some extent, performance.

* * *

Start with advertising. I wrote in my report on a local advertising sales roundtable we held at CUNY that sites should shift from selling media — their own inventory of banners and buttons — t...

NewBizNews: What ad sales people hear

Recently, at CUNY, we held a roundtable for ad sales people from hyperlocal blogs to big newspapers to hear what they are hearing from local merchants. We're wrapping up our research for the New Business Models for News Project — indeed, it was Alberto Ibargüen, head of the Knight Foundation that funded this work, who said he really wanted to hear sales people's perspective — and beginning research for Carnegie-funded work on new ad models, products, service, and sales methods, working with T...

The Flip dance

At the Google party at Davos, I was enticed into doing the Flip dance with none less than Sir Tim Berners-Lee:

Another Sir Tim video from a session on social media. The first half of this 3:44 is him talking about the need for authority signals i social networks. In the middle, he takes pains to correct people who say that he invented the internet or created the web (no, he invented the web). The last half is his intriguing call for academic study of the web:

And, yes, it was a thrill to...

The disrupted of Davos

The theme of this year's World Economic Forum meeting at Davos was "rethink, redesign, rebuild." When a friend recited that list for me, I responded that given the institutions there, the more appropriate slogan is "replace."

Last year when I arrived at Davos, I wondered whether we were among the problem or the solution. This year, I wondered whether we were among the future or the past. Well, actually, I don't wonder.

We were among the disrupted. The only distinction among them is that some k...

Google news

First, the news: Google told me today that they would consider giving more transparency about revenue splits in Adsense.

At a private meeting with a dozen and a half media people at Davos with CEO Eric Schmidt, President of sales Nikesh Arora, search boss Marissa Mayer, YouTube founder Chad Hurley, and counsel/"chief diplomat" (Schmidt's joke) David Drummond in a Davos apartment dolled up with lava lamps, the execs discussed China, the company's push into display, critics from France to News ...

The danger of the wall

The European, a German online news service, asked me to write a commentary for a debate on paid content. Here it is in German. And here's the English text:

I have nothing against charging for content, if you can. After all, I'm selling a book. But I believe building pay walls around online news is a bad business decision.

The discussion about charging for content rises from a sense of entitlement—"we deserve to be paid," which is an emotional argument—rather than from rational economics.

Charg...