Data Science

They say that if you ask the wrong question, you are guaranteed to get the wrong answer. Asked as, “Can YouTube ever be brand safe?” the answer is no. There is no possible way to make YouTube, or any environment that relies so heavily on user-generated content (UGC), 100 percent brand safe. Asked as, “Is YouTube safe for my brand?” is a better question, and it is the proper lens for any serious marketing discussion. Continue Reading →

I wrote an article back in April 2009 entitled Metamerica: Evolving The Governance Of A Digital Democracy. It begins, “Dateline New York: April 3, 2021” with breaking news about a massive, catastrophic data breach. So how would the Great Data Crash of 2021 happen? Or, perhaps more importantly, why have the questions I posed in 2009, and the very clear predictions of known consequences of our digital society, not only gone unanswered by our leaders but in many cases gone unasked? Let’s look back to help us see the future. Continue Reading →

Recent studies predict that by 2025 there may be as many as 100 billion IoT devices deployed worldwide. That’s roughly 14 connected devices or sensors for every person on Earth. My good friend Rob Mesirow and I have been spending a lot of time talking about the most practical ways to integrate “smart” technology into business processes. Continue Reading →

The largest trade show in North America, CES^® (formerly the Consumer Electronics Show) starts this week in Las Vegas. The numbers are staggering. There are roughly 4,000 exhibitors hawking their wares to approximately 180,000 people. I've been attending the show since 1996, and I can tell you from personal experience, it is one of the most exciting weeks of the year. Here's what I expect to see. Continue Reading →

At the last ShellyPalmer Innovation Series Breakfast at CES, I had a Socratic discussion about the influence of the big technology platforms and other emerging technologies on our lives and the need for responsible innovation with David Sapin, US Risk & Regulatory Leader, PwC. Then the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica news broke. Since then, our thinking has evolved. Continue Reading →

It was just after 9:30 Friday night when a vociferous klaxon and a yellow tire emoji alerted us that our right front tire had experienced a sudden loss of pressure. My Q7 was handling fine, so instead of pulling over, we decided to check the tire pressure at the next gas station (approximately 40 miles away). As I started to fill the tire, an unmistakable hiss sent shivers down my spine. Continue Reading →

Apple is the most valuable tech company in the world. So when its CEO lambasts other tech companies for "weaponizing [user data] against us with military efficiency," people are going to take him seriously. After all, Tim Cook is the de facto leader of the tech world. While he didn't name names, his vilification was clearly aimed at his corporate peers (which ordinarily would be good clean fun), except as presented, his accusations sounded like self-serving corporate posturing. Of course, there is another possibility ... Tim may have just been speaking metaphorically. Continue Reading →

For about 200,000 years, modern humans have relied on our eyes and ears to separate truth from lies and fact from fiction. Even if we ignore the rise of fake news (and how difficult it is to do anything about it), technology (like deep learning) is on the verge of making it impossible to know if what you are seeing and hearing is real or fake. Continue Reading →

Adapt or die! For smartphone makers, this immutable law of nature incentivizes innovation and forces continuous improvement as they seek new ways to make their great devices even greater. What's next? Here are five awesome new smartphone features we're likely to see in the near future. Continue Reading →

I hit rock bottom in April 2013. My weight had ballooned to 252 lbs., and eating had become a compulsion. I hated the way I looked and the difficulty I had moving around, and I especially hated the way I felt. I had tried everything (or so I thought) and had a 100 percent failure rate. But, luckily for me, 2013 was the height of the quantified-self hype-cycle, and there was no end to the number of fitness trackers and health and wellness apps coming to market. I started a journey. Continue Reading →