Where would we be without standards?

Quick post this, but important nonetheless. One pager offering a list of standard metrics for online media, so you can not only impress your friends, but also work out if your campaign has any way by which it can be measured like for like. Now, before you all scream out "isnt this obvious?", I should add that I've recently started working for an offline agency. Just the other day someone asked me to decipher a web log and explain the difference between a "visit" and a "unique visit".

Just found an even more comprehensive link here, so now there's no excuses...

The rule of thumb - if your mum don't know, then you should assume most people don't.

Million different channels and there's nothing on...

And here's another...

Gimme shelter....

Heard a great program on the ever venerable Radio 4 the other night that should be required listening for anyone working in marketing. "In Business" makes the fortnightly drive back from the north on a sunday night very bearable. The other week they had a program about the rise of "not for profit" organisations, and how lessons learnt from the business world were being adopted as a means to bring real social change not only overseas but in the poorer, disenfranchised areas of the UK. Download the program from the bbc website here or, better still, subscribe to the podcast and make it a part of your listening pleasure.

On a related matter, take a look at this round up of how .org's are adopting online as a means to enable them to better serve their goals. The number one choice, Kiva.org, uses microfinance as a means to gather donors together to sponsor business development in the developing world. Simple idea, very focussed, and by all means very effective.

See, it's not all about selling people things they don't really need! Back to the pet food then...

I remember when all this was just fields...

Great post and link from both Seth Gecko on a post from Chris Salic about an old back issue of Internet World (i'm tired now) with a round up of the best of the internet from 1994 and predictions for 1995.

The US was always a good five or so years ahead of the game with the internet and looking at the commercial possibilities from the get go. Free local calls made dial up access available to everyone, with most people paying a flat subscription fee every month for unlimited access, developing the channel to something akin to radio or tv. The success of early startups such as Craig's Lists also found a way to utilise the channel in a meaningful way to everyone (house hunting, dating, online gaming, news / content aggregation and spam / scams).

One prediction that jumped out at me was this one "There will be a concerted effort by the U.S. Congress to regulate content on the Internet." This never really transpired, but it pertinent now given recent rumblings from US government that they may impose tax legislation onto virtual currency, doing away with the "commerce without borders" ethos of the web as we've come to love and know it.