July 4th 2008
In its $1 billion copyright lawsuit, Viacom sought to force Google to turn over what many would consider to be trade secrets and private user records as part of discovery. Yesterday, US District Judge Louis L. Stanton agreed with Google that requiring it to disclose its search algorithms would unnecessarily put its trade secrets at […]
July 3rd 2008
There has been commentary, criticism, and even worry about ICANN’s proposed laissez-faire policy to allow a broad range of top-level domains. Our friends at Circle ID try to calm the waters by reminding us that ICANN’s byzantine committee structure, and its tendency to avoid both conflict and even the clearest paths of action, can make […]
July 2nd 2008
Back in November, Ars Technica provided an overview of the Obama plan for technology and innovation. In it, the campaign describes a role responsible for network integrity, coordination between agency CTOs, system interoperability, and increased government transparency. As it happens, I’ve worked with several state CTOs on most of these issues. Given authority over capital […]
June 30th 2008
China’s announcement that it is not preparing to investigate Microsoft seems more like a warning shot than reassurance. Hats off to Computerworld’s Preston Gralla, who points out the strangeness of communist governments complaining about monopolies. Hypocrisy and gamesmanship are likely to be reoccuring themes in the two giants’ relationship.
June 29th 2008
Nike has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) in the Federal District Court for the District of Oregon over the use of the term “Dri-FIT.” Dri-FIT is a trademark of Nike.
June 28th 2008
On Thursday the board of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the biggest ever expansion of the scheme for having Generic Top Level Domains (GTLDs). So instead of being limited to gTLDs which describe the purpose of traffic on the domain, such as .gov, .edu, end users could apply for their own […]
June 26th 2008
NPR suspended its skepticism and asked Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, how can Twitter change the presidential debate? Well gosh. Here’s a short list of ways Twitter might change political debate in America. It will delay the real political change that only debate in Haiku can provide. Twitter abbreviations such as “They […]
June 25th 2008
This week, ICANN waded into the issue of providing Internet addresses in non-roman characters. BusinessWeek has detailed coverage of the politics and complexity of countries with multiple languages and dialects who want Internet addressing translated to their native characters and words. The BBC calls this “the biggest Internet shake-up in decades.” Ask a Dumb Question, […]
June 24th 2008
Tom Regan of The Christian Science Monitor provides some perspective on the Web’s influence on the US presidential race. In January, Obama raised a record $32 million, a previously unimaginable amount. All but 12% of it came through the Web. And then there’s Ron Paul, who had $5 million single-night online fundraisers. About ten years […]
June 23rd 2008
Once you’ve read the federal CAN-SPAM legislation, you’ll see it does little to stop the sending of unsolicited messages. One might in fact call it the “Yes, you CAN spam” act. Yet even if you can spam, there are good reasons not to. Recently, James B. Zagel of the U.S. District Court in Northern Illinois rulled […]
The future of digital experiences will be built by strategists who grasp the full array of emerging business, social, and technical models. Specialties in user experience, branding, application design, and data science are laying the foundation for richer user experiences and business models breakthrough products and revenue based marketing.
UsefulArts is a soapbox to discuss the front line of digital experience, and the agencies and platforms that enable it. Digital business needs a cadre of leaders who can connect c-level enterprise thinking with the ways these new interaction models can help organizations to matter more to their most important stakeholders.