Last week I wrote to you about my personal discontent with the way the word "test" is being thrown around these days. A couple of people on the SPINboard dubbed it perfectly. They called it an "experiment." While there is no perfect word, we need to perfect the concept.

I love Howard Dean. But, I love Howard Dean for the same reason many of you probably do. He has brought the success of his Web marketing machine to the masses and popularized it by positioning his campaign as extra strategic and insightful, largely because of this Web-based success.

No doubt, faithful readers of the trade press covering our hallowed industry know that AOL Time Warner has been considering changing their name for a few months now. Plagued with the reputation as arrogant dot-commers who came with the AOL management structure and business philosophies, the remaining Time Warner old guard, now firmly in control of the company that was supposed to be the pantheon of media convergence, will move Thursday to drop AOL from their name forever and go back to using the 'TWX' ticker symbol by which stock traders and investors identify their security.

From time to time in these pages I tend to go on a rant. Usually my rants are related to what I think is working and what I think is not working, and more often than not I'm asked, "What do you think is the next big thing?" I want to finally answer that question.

On September 10th, Cory wrote: "Will online ever adopt an upfront season?" Sure. In some categories, the upfront already exists. But why has a de facto upfront emerged in the automotive category but not for the general market? Cory touched on the reason why in his article last week. It has to do with the dynamic delivery of inventory in our business.

Do you remember the days when we all had to go in to prospects with our, "Why Advertise Online" decks? I don't know about you, but it seems like I hardly ever have to go through that misery anymore.

As I watched the presentations at this week's IAB Ad Forum, I kept wondering how the ratio of 15% for interactive's portion of the media mix kept seeming to be the ceiling. Almost every cross media study released thus far proposes an optimal figure between 10% and 15%.

As anyone who listens to the radio or has read the news at any time in the last, oh, 5 years, will know Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the US population. Surprisingly, though, folks using the online medium as a marketing tool haven't done very much to address this group. Big mistake.

Over the last few weeks I have given much more thought than ever before to the concept of an Online Upfront season and more than in any year past I am starting to think this would be a good idea.

The emergence of online media was disruptive to a number of business sectors, especially travel, retail and automotive. But has any business sector been affected quite like the music business?