hy the heck are advertising and marketing agencies so often so late to invest in or experiment with new technologies and emerging media, while the marketers and clients demonstrate increasing interest and tendency to pursue them directly?

The battle for ownership and control of consumer data on the Internet took center stage last week when AT&T announced that it is changing its privacy policy. Now, the teleco giant will classify consumer Internet browsing patterns, including personally identifiable information, as AT&T proprietary "business records," thus subjecting the collected data to whatever use or disclosure that AT&T deems appropriate or necessary for the conduct of its business. In other words, AT&T has told consumers that it owns their data and can do what it wants with it.

You might be just as surprised as I was to hear that Nielsen announced plans last week to begin measuring how consumers watch television programming on the Web, cell phones and iPods as well as all other digital devices...

For many media planning professionals, a media plan isn't a plan until every dollar is allocated to a media vehicle. For others, there's a distinct advantage to having a certain percentage of the media budget set aside for media opportunities that may come up during the course of the quarter.

Let's face it, if you are reading this, you most likely crave to create the next online craze or the most mentions on blogs. Hell, I do. What amazes me is the impact blogs and online postings can have to generate buzz. Take the upcoming soon-to-be-released summer thriller "Snakes on a Plane"...

I deliver this dispatch from Kevin Werbach's Supernova 2006 conference, the gathering of "business, government, and technology thought leaders to understand how decentralization and pervasive connectivity are changing the world."

Newspapers are in a state of shock at the moment. Just as they try to come to terms with the digital revolution, they run face-first into declining stock valuations, fleeing talent, declining debt ratings, lots of new competition, falling readership, increasing self-doubt, and, most recently, shareholder revolts. Given these circumstances, it's hard for most to be very optimistic about the future of newspapers. As much as I like to be one of the hopeful, I'm very concerned these days as well.

Our dependence on data, while obviously a necessary element in today's world, has become frightening. It's noticeable everywhere in our society--and it's relatively disturbing, especially when it shows up on "Entourage."

Perhaps it seems foolish to you for me to write a column on click-through rate in 2006. The online industry really got burned in the past because of this little metric. A metric whose value rarely ever reached the number one! But, if you take a leap of faith and are foolish enough to read it, I think it will be worth your while.

As writers, we Spinners get asked about our opinions on the online space. We also get asked to predict trends. Back at the beginning of the year, many of us said that peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies, sites and the like were something to watch out for. Wow was that an understatement. How many times have you received an e-mail from a friend or colleague asking you to post your current contact information on a service? I'm quite sure you've been asked several times to join someone's "network." I don't know about you but I have a …