For over 20 years now, I've followed the high-tech harvests: from Boulder to Phoenix to Tokyo (Fujitsu, Ricoh, the Japanese government's "Fifth Generation" artificial intelligence project) to Pittsburgh (Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute) to Chicago (CIMlinc) back to Boulder (Avalanche Development [SGML]) to Long Island (CMP Publications) to Westport, CT (Mecklermedia, Internet World) to Washington, DC (MCI) to White Plains, NY (IBM) and once again back to Boulder to work on microdisplay hardware tech, then exploring the prospects of an MP3 startup. Fortunately, the last company bellied up before Napster even came off the blocks, thus saving me from horrible embarrassment, and forcing me into "consulting" and "enterprise wide" web manifesto production. And, as they say, the rest is history.

Maybe I'm history too. Some days I wonder. Those are the days I freak out completely and have to spend long afternoons re-reading Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now. Because at those times, The Power of Then just doesn't cut it. Look for my forthcoming book: The Power of Getting Too Old for This Shit.

At the end of my last massive core dump, below, I promised to say something about how all that RageBoy Goes to West Point business applies to what I've been attempting here on Chief Blogging Officer, and what all that has to do with HighBeam Research. This could make for a book in itself, but let's see if I can stitch something together in less than 25,000 words.

To begin with, the migrant knowledge worker theme is highly germane. Consider. In the last 20 years, especially in the '90s, organizations became more permeable -- in the sense that people moved around a lot. And I mean: a lot.  Before the proverbial Bubble burst, the economy was virtually ka-booming, and changing jobs -- usually trading up -- took about as much effort as ordering a Starbucks vanilla half-caf skinny latte. To go.

This is the trend that blogging has continued. Nota bene. Or nota not so bene, as the case may be. We've all seen more than our fair share of organizational stupidity, been around the block a few times, aren't taking any wooden nickels -- and we're still comparing notes. Think of it as the right-now low-brow approach to "Knowledge Management."

Allow me to illustrate...

Has this radical planet-wide change had an effect on marketing?

Yes, Virginia, and the Pope is Catholic.

So have corporations, in their usual great wisdom, figured out what all this means for them? Of course not. What most have figured out -- years after the phenomenon was rocking the net to its roots -- is, wow, there sure are a lot of "blogs" out there all of a sudden! Zounds. And they are now asking themselves how they can leverage, co-opt, bend, fold, spindle and otherwise mutilate a truly original idea to their pedestrian low-IQ advantage. Gimme a D. Gimme a U. Gimme an H...

What does it spell? Balderdash.

Why? Because the people who've developed this new skill of comparing notes -- across once-rigid company departments and divisions, across legends-in-their-own- mind corporate monoliths, across across still-ossified industry lines of demarcation -- are not going to pay much heed to some johnny come lately "corporate blogger" telling them some useless information about how white their shirts can be. To paraphrase Mick and and lads: that don't give no satisfaction.

Instead, here's an idea! What if companies first: paid attention to who's writing about what, and what for, and how well; and second, picked someone who seemed to be talking to people who overlapped with some part of that company's market?

Take an example. We can all laugh at cat sites. Ha, ha-ha. We are so above that. But look, some people really are that into cats. And at least one of these cat fanatics must write cogently enough to draw an audience of less articulate but no less enthusiastic cat fanciers. Right? Are you tracking? I know this is pretty complex stuff.

So wouldn't it make sense for Purina Cat Chow or IAMS or one of those to underwrite such a skilled cat-o-blogger? Yes, it would. And would this person then turn into a shill for Purina or IAMS? Not if the corporate braincase had retained sufficient neural capacity to understand that such a move would alienate the very audience it wanted to impress with how blog-savvy it had become.

So what would our cat blogger change after becoming the beneficiary of such underwriting? Here's what: NOTHING. No, she would continue just as before to chronicle the ineffable cuteness of kitties and the insufferable yet endearing aloofness of cats. And there in the upper left corner, say, of this fabulously catty blog's pages it would say something like "Underwritten by Purina -- Your Pet, Our Passion™" or somesuch.

Just as it says in the upper left corner of this blog "Underwritten by HighBeam Research." And this is what I've changed about my style of writing here: NOTHING. (Except that I say the fuck-word less often.) What I write about is not HighBeam's service -- though I do demonstrate it's use. But I demonstrate it's use by doing precisely what I'm already inclined to do: dig up weird but credibly sourced information on a disturbingly wide range of subjects. Why? Because I'm barking mad, that's why! But it doesn't matter. I am the info-junkie analog of the cat fanatic. We're all a bit mad, when you come right down to it. I mean, aren't we? And some have equated this madness with passion -- the kind of scary energy and enthusiasm it takes to write endlessly about Seal Point Persians and Curly Abyssinians -- or Madame Blavatskys and Ralph Waldo Emersons.

Do I need to dot the i's and cross the t's to end this one? I think not. Much as I hate to invoke the old internet litmus test: you either get it or you don't. It takes so few intellectual ergs to grasp what's going on here, you'd have to be a total dunce to miss the point.

But if the hat fits, wear it.

dunce cap: a cone-shaped hat that children slow at learning were formerly forced to wear in school.

from: dunce cap
source: Webster's NewWorld Dictionary, January, 1988
via: HighBeam Research

dunce by Douglas Thompson x
the artsnob

Disclaimer: those Friskies Salmon & Shrimp Treats (pictured above) are the only ones my cat (hereinafter, Kitty-Kitty) will eat. The materials on this page do not imply any association with or relation to Purina or imply in any way that any materials from http://www.purina.com are maintained within the Chief Blogging Officer web site. [WTF???] I was not paid to say this. Kitty-Kitty made me do it.