Net Neutrality and media: Why you should care.

I’m often asked: “What exactly is Net Neutrality?” Boiled down, it’s the philosophy that, however we personally use the Internet, it carries no restrictions or tariffs based on the content we access. Essentially is it the principle that carriers (ISPs) are precluded from restricting or prioritizing access to data based on the content that the data comprises.

Think of it as the postal system. The government is not allowed to open and read your mail to see if one letter is more important than another.  As long as the postage is correct for the weight of the envelope, your letter gets delivered.  Priority Mail would be analogous to upgrading your bandwidth.  Like going from Dial-up to Broadband.  But at no point is the content of the envelope considered in how your mail gets sorted or delivered by your mail carrier. Continue reading “Net Neutrality and media: Why you should care.”

The Internet gets married, has kids, settles down

Grow up (via Ant's photostream/Flickr)The Internet is on its way to settling down. Don’t misunderstand me, as far as the interwebs are concerned, 401 still means unauthorized access and has nothing to do with retirement (yes, that’s a geek joke). Instead, it means that the Internet is giving up on the chaos of its youth and settling into a respectable and tactful adulthood. At the root of the issue lies the concept of online identity.

For the past decade, our collective online experiences have been modeled after a Matrix-esque experience. We select usernames, which become our residual self-image. Behind these fairly anonymous handles humanity as a whole has been able to momentarily devolve into caustic, self-righteous, judgmental twelve-year-olds (not me, of course). Not that this was necessarily a bad thing, it just was. But the status quo is changing. So what’s the agent of change? Continue reading “The Internet gets married, has kids, settles down”

Online Hispanics are a lucrative target

Internet (TransCam via Flickr)A recent comScore report on the Hispanic Internet market found that the online Hispanic population reached a record 20.3 million visitors in February 2009 – representing 11% of the total U.S. online market.  Furthermore, among online activities, Hispanics ranked highest on Community (Teens); Gaming; Entertainment (Radio and Multimedia); Discussion/Chat, IM; and Music.

These findings should be of keen interest to US marketers, and (as all research findings), raise a couple of questions.

Why does the Hispanic market spend so much time online?

The answer to that question is two-fold. Hispanics, by nature, are an interdependent-interconnected culture – which is why we see them over-index on connected media (e.g. cell phone usage, social networking, blogging, etc.).  Any technology that facilitates connecting is high-value for the Hispanic consumer. Continue reading “Online Hispanics are a lucrative target”