Last week was an interesting week. During a 7-day period, I heard more concern for the future of the Internet and digital media than I had heard in the previous 10 months. While I don't agree with much of it, it's worth hearing the arguments for and against. Let's recap, shall we?

Is online research valid? Could it be even more valid than other traditional techniques? The answer to that question lies partly in Nate Silver's analysis in The New York Times of the accuracy of dozens of major polls predicting the outcome of the last presidential election. He put the most popular survey methods under the microscope: live surveys via telephone; live surveys via mobile phone; and online surveys.

Last week, New York Times columnist Nate Silver correctly predicted the outcome of the presidential election by combining and analyzing data from hundreds of individual polls. Not everyone was happy with him or his approach. Some political pundits took offense not only to Silver's methods but also the man himself. Now, though, the pundits are the ones on the defensive. It turns out that opinionated rants are a less reliable way to predict an election outcome than data and algorithms.

"People don't hate ads. People hate bad, interruptive ads." That was the response of noted venture capitalist Fred Wilson when I asked him why Twitter and Tumblr have eschewed the online ad industry's standard display ads in favor of their own, native ad formats. The exchange took place during an onstage interview I had with Fred on the past, present and future of digital advertising at AdTech here in New York.

There is a tree in Florida called the "strangler fig." It grows in a startling way: a bird eats the fruit, flies up into a tree, and poops. The seed germinates from a high branch and begins to extend roots towards the ground. As it grows, it gradually wraps itself around its host tree, eventually enveloping it and killing it.

Can a traditional enterprise technology company really talk to a CMO? This is a very pertinent question in the marketplace right now, as more and more we're seeing the CMO transition to take over responsibility for creating and managing a technology stack that informs marketing. It's the "last frontier" for enterprise, one that's being hotly pursued by companies such as Salesforce and Oracle.

New Jersey, New York and neighboring states were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, and I hope the national and global attention the residents receive from the extreme media attention help them gather the necessary support to rebuild as soon as possible. Indeed, the region will rebuild. I have no doubt about that. But I also hope Hurricane Sandy's aftermath in the spotlight will continue and drive our attention to other important and long-term issues.

While I work in New York City, on most nights and weekends I live in a small rural town about 90 minutes away. Last week superstorm Sandy affected people on the East Coast -- sometimes tragically so -- and our area was no exception. We have been without power, running water, TV, Internet and train service since last Monday. While the trains have been running again as of Sunday, the rest of those services are still out.

Surely you've noticed. Your newsfeed currently features four topics, pretty much exclusively: updates on Sandy and her aftermath, Halloween pics, political updates -- and requests from companies whose Pages you've Liked to also express Interest in them. It's not their fault, they say. It's Facebook. Facebook has changed the settings so now only 10%-15% of our fans will see our posts. Unless we pay. Or unless you make a new part of your Facebook -- an "Interest list" -- that will show ALL our posts. Which will work great, as long as you visit this Interest list -- which evidently …