<![CDATA[Seeing as I am now officially under attack from all quarters, and because none of my critics has really read either my disclosure page or most of the postings I've published about the ethical questions associated with taking money to place a badge and a weekly textual acknowledgment of the sponsorship, I herewith begin publishing a weekly disclosure of my business relationships. See, even though I do write for a large part of my living—a much smaller share since I started blogging, by the way, because it is perceived to be of less value to publishers than feature writing—I also perform business and media consulting functions, as well as start and operate companies.
Here are the current business relationships I have, as well as the stocks I own:
1. I am currently working as a paid consultant to Audible Inc. My stock portfolio is heavily weighted to Audible, as I received shares for my work with the company when they launched and have added shares at other times. I was Audible’s investment banker between 2001 and late 2002.
2. Last month I was paid $2,000 by Marc Canter to write the Marqui contract, after I posted criticisms of his planned approach on this blog.
3. I will receive $800 this month from Marqui for the badge you see up in the right corner of my blog and a weekly textual acknowledgment of the sponsorship. I would hasten to point out that most publishers and trade show producers, while they post a rate sheet, do not actually disclose the fees paid them by individual advertisers/sponsors, because they vary from customer to customer.
4. Red Herring will pay me to blog for the Red Herring The Now blog, but I cannot disclose the fees because they are part of a contract that requires I not disclose that information to the public. It’s not a lot of money, the worst-paying professional gig I’ve had in 14 years.
5. I co-own and operate InnovationWORLD LLC, a research publisher specializing in expansion-stage companies entering global markets.
6. I own and operate Internet/Media Strategies Inc., which is the legal entity for all my consulting work and ad/sponsorhip fees paid to me. It is paid fees for commerce transactions generated by this site by Amazon.com, as well as receiving Google AdSense revenue; we also receive royalty payments for past publications, including Digital Media and my Audible program, Adventures in Technology, from The Gale Group and Audible, respectively.
7. I am the co-founder, co-owner and co-operator of Persuadio LLC, a stealth-stage software development startup.
8. I am on the advisory board of Socialtext.
9. I am on the advisory board of Technorati.
10. I am on the advisory board and a consultant to iVideoTunes LLC.
11. In the past, I have provided in exchange for cash and/or stock compensation consulting or editorial services to: The Petkevich Group; E*Trade; Broadband Mechanics; America Online; EarthWeb; ZD Net; Time Warner (Sports Illustrated); SoftBank Comdex; The Cobb Group; SoftBank Conference & Exposition Co.; SoftBank Ventures (now Mobius Capital); The Digs Network; General Magic; CommerceNet; The U.S. Department of State (Clinton era); AT&T; AT&T Bell Labs; Hewlett-Packard Co.; America-Invest; The Wired Investor; GlobalNet Financial; Forbes; PC Week; FEED; In Formation; Fortune; Personify; MailMediary. I have served on the boards of directors of Electric Classified Inc. (Match.com), Web-X Inc., LoudVox Productions and LoanTek.
12. I own the following stocks: Audible; Boeing; Albertsons; EMC; Nordstrom; Starbucks. I also own shares of ON24.
I shot the sheriff, but I did not kill the deputy.
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