Pragmatist

Sixteen years on from my own initial posts on the subject of a personal assistant that can privately find and buy stuff for you on the web, ...

Readers will be familiar with my view that we consumers tend to be loyal to ' facilitators ' who focus on solving our problems, ...

Funny to see a story from John Gapper in the FT this morning, saying technology will hurt retail banks but not kill them , only a few pag...

Source: Financial Times Like Google's declaration of war on the human race , the news that Twitter will buy Gnip illustrates why s...

I see this blog has reached the ripe old age of six, so I felt compelled to squeeze in at least one post to celebrate.   It's fit...

Crowdfunding directories are becoming useful, given the wide variety of potential models, specific geographic and other constraints, an...

Since 2009 I've hoped that the semantic web - that is my computer dealing with suppliers' computers - would replace the need for ...

Bailing out (of) the UK Two days ago it was all over the national media that ING Direct UK's savings and mortgage business had bee...

The distinction between 'facilitators' and 'institutions' is a theme that has emerged quite strongly in this blog and is ...

I guess it started out as a reasonable idea - provide card customers with comfort that someone else will help if your credit card is stolen ...

I'm reading Henry Jenkins ' Convergence Culture at the moment, which discusses the attempts to transform brands into 'love mark...

I've been an avid supporter of low cost travel operators, but recently I've detected a marked change in their attitude, and some f...

I see that finally the competition authorities are looking at Visa's exclusive arrangement for the Olympic Games. I can well imagine th...

A thought provoking post by David Armano on " Why Social Sharing Is Bigger Than Facebook or Twitter ". David identifies the impl...

Recent discussions about whether new entrants are pushing banks to the back office of the consumer finance space have prompted me to update...

Oikonomics makes the excellent observation that "We consume not to conform and be like (or liked) but to be different and thereby fee...

I enjoyed Professor Michael Froomkin's recent "Golden Eggs" lecture on internet regulation . He foresees the future regulation...

Rupert Murdoch thinks search engines are getting a 'free ride' on News Corp's content. He also sees little value in 'occasi...