I thought I embraced the future of television several years ago when we got our first TiVo. While that event was significant, it's now clear our DVR was only a technological painkiller to make tolerable the broken state of television: scheduled screenings with heavy commercial interruption. But things have come a long way since then.

The FTC is throwing down the gauntlet to the online ad industry. While the report still supports the notion of industry self-regulation on privacy rather than asking Congress to pass new laws, it's clear the FTC is not happy with how the industry has performed so far and is openly skeptical that the industry will get its act together.

Online display advertising is getting hammered these days -- and as a result, it's truly a buyer's market out there. But maybe this is an opportunity for the industry to take an objective look at itself and determine the correct path to follow for the future?

Advertising alone cannot save great journalism; in fact, it may just be killing it. As Walter Isaacson points out in his piece "How to Save Your Newspaper" in Time magazine, an over-reliance on advertising can have seriously adverse affects on journalism.

The words "buyer" and "seller" can sound ugly --especially when the phrase that turns them is an either/or statement. But one thing is certain these days: Your self-identification -- proclaimed or internalized -- matters. More than a single ID, it is the co-mingling of the various ways we identify that I believe makes us better. I cringe at the buyer/seller question, as I find it very bald, very falsely black and white. I buy. I sell. Those professions interact. And I do a whole blend of other things to draw and build business. So I really consider myself a developer.

Do you like speaking with humans or inanimate objects? I think most people prefer to speak with humans, and that's especially true when it comes to interacting with companies. In fact, customers get frustrated when companies limit or dehumanize interaction, especially when product or customer service is involved. But what's the right way for a brand to activate itself on Twitter? Specifically, is it better for companies to actively engage on Twitter with a brand profile, or a human profile?

I know, I know. I said that I wasn't going to write about the newspaper industry anymore. But don't worry, I'm not. Today's column is about something much bigger and more important than just the newspaper industry. It is about the watchdog role of media and my concerns about who will fill that role for us in the future, as traditional media companies -- newspapers, local broadcasters and news magazines -- become less and less able to do so.

In case you missed it -- and you very well may have missed it, because it happened awfully quickly -- the Web has finally become a legitimate channel for the promotion and distribution of music, and the music industry is finally embracing this fact. Of course, this can be debated, since the Web also pretty much killed the record industry at the very same time.

Every so often there are some must-read posts out there. I think if you are in the advertising and marketing industry, Randall Rothenberg's recent post "'A Bigger Idea': A Manifesto on Interactive Advertising Creativity" is one of those.

On Sundays, I like to peruse the content of the week's conversations and inventory the collection. Such an inventory is just a tally. Our lives and headspace contain a lot. So, as I reflected this Sunday, and looked onward, I asked myself: When it comes to our business, what are some of the most meaningful conversations we can be having right now? There were four themes that presented themselves.