How many great online business ideas have gone by the digital wayside? Too many to count. I remember during my analyst days reviewing countless business plans predicated upon 70 percent efficiency rates in user registration and 80 percent repeatable user traffic. These and other metrics of success were utterly unbelievable in light of one key element that simply didn't exist at the time: speed. High-speed data delivery, otherwise known as broadband, was the missing link in most of the presumptive businesses that tried to get off the ground in the heady days of the Internet.

My relationship with Naked Communications began as any typical 21st century love story does: through blogs. I met Ed Tam from the London office last December when he found my Web site through Russell Davies' blog and e-mailed me, impressed with my writing. I had been reading a lot about Naked at that point, and was very excited about my new friend. Ed and I talked about planning, bounced ideas off of each other, and chatted about our industry.

A recent study by spencer stuart found that the average tenure of a chief marketing officer has shrunk to just 22 months. Obviously that's not much of a window of opportunity to make a lasting impact on a company, so successful CMOs have to move fast. They have to develop the right strategies quickly, and then execute within the windows of opportunity afforded by their company's annual planning process.

In Lewis Carroll's classic Through the Looking Glass, the Red Queen explains to Alice that she is running as fast as she can just to stay in place - an image that reminds us that speed doesn't always mean progress.

What happens when the world of traditional TV syndication meets the open distribution and highly fragmented reality of the Web? It's a question we should all start asking ourselves, because a significant portion of the Web video audience will be driven through syndicated video offerings in the coming years.

The internet has changed all our lives, but there are a few things that it doesn't do quite so well as the traditional world. First on my list is what I'll call "serendipity." The Internet allows you to find what you want when you want it, to customize this, RSS that, and otherwise cull together things that interest you. But what about the fascinating stuff you don't choose but can have enormous impact on your life?

When Bainbridge recently launched its online media practice group, we sought to offer tools companies could use to effectively plan, given the rapidly changing media landscape. The idea was that major corporations and start-ups alike are being forced to adjust to planning at Internet speed.

The object of all marketing is to be persuasive - to move your target audience to think, feel, or do something.

There are three main drivers of media change: technology, gatekeepers, and the consumer. And the greatest of these is the consumer (as it says in 1 Corinthians 13:13 - sort of). Okay, so that's not the most elegant corruption of a Biblical text you've ever read, but it makes the point.

Alvin Toffler's seminal bestseller future shock argued that the accelerated rate of technological and social change would leave society disconnected and in a state of "shattering stress and disorientation" due to "information overload."