Wikipedia, Reputation and Accuracy

"There's been a fascinating uproar in cyberspace about the estimable Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia I discussed in my column early this year and in the book. One of the topics was whether a site written entirely by its readers -- and where every page can be edited by anyone -- could meet any kind of "standards" of accuracy and reliablity."

Sell Side Advertising: A New Model?

"I love this model because it's viral and it's publisher driven - it lets the publishers decide which ads fit on their sites. Publishers won't put ads on their site that don't perform, and they'll compete to put up ads that do. Now when I say "publisher" what I really mean is "blogger" - in particular the kind of blogger that uses AdSense - or would if it worked well enough. Bloggers like, well, me, and Rafat, and Om, and loads of others who provide a service that readers appreciate. This allows us to proactively vote for ads we think fit our site, that we think work for our readers. It's also a big win for advertisers, as their downside is protected by pay for performance, and upside is that the market is optimizing the ads through both the network effect, as with AdSense, as well as honoring the crucial endemic relationship between publisher/author/blogger and reader. Publishers are, in a very real sense, endorsing the advertiser, and that publisher's endorsement carries weight with the reader. (Publishers who endorse lame ads, or ads that take advantage of the reader, will be punished by the readers voting with their feet...)"

Where the Fantastic Meets the Future

"[Bell Labs is involved with] telecommunications and networks in particular. There are things [in the works] like very broadband wireless pervasive networks. Things are getting cheaper, smaller, better, more efficient, using less power, and we understand how to pack more bits into spectrum, for example. [A promising area of innovation is] efficient wireless spectrum usage and how to build, design, construct, and manage a worldwide network which is high-bandwidth. [The network must be available] to everyone all the time, and [needs to know] where you are all the time. It will be there in 10 to 20 years, depending on the market."

Boring Game? Outsource It

"But now, the reality of exchange rates and international income gaps has spawned a virtual version of the real-world relationship between rich and poor countries. While players in wealthier countries casually drop hundreds of dollars to buy their way into better positions in the games -- or out of tedious parts of the games -- some workers in poorer countries are playing around the clock to produce virtual goods that earn them real money."

HDTV, DVD, Hard Drives and the future

"Realize, that whatever happens in the next couple years, that you won't be able to buy the newest releases and the biggest hits this way. There is no major media company who is going to disrupt their DVD cash cow to take a chance on a new business like this. The "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentally is big. But again, that's a good thing for entrepreneurs with content. While they hope it won't break, we can be out there trying to break it, and then they usually can't fix it."

On the Web, Branding Is Back

"Like most auto makers, Honda Motor is a big buyer of online advertising. It's continually hawking low prices and special offers in banners and click-through ads on popular auto sites such as Edmunds.com. But last year, it witnessed the power of online branding. To augment a TV campaign that showed Honda owners who look like their cars, visitors to Honda.com were invited to post photos of themselves and their automobile doppelgangers. It was so popular that Honda (HMC ) produced a separate Web commercial featuring the submissions."

Jeff Bezos: "Blind-Alley" Explorer

"Online, it's easier. If we ran a big network of physical stores and we wanted to try a new department, there would be literally a physical build-out, there would be physical signs that would have to be made, there would be different kinds of furniture that would have to be installed, and so on. So some of those experiments are hard to do. You can only do a certain amount of them. Online, we can show half of our customers one thing and half of customers another, and very quickly get some results back on how people actually behave."