There is clear dissatisfaction with the current state of marketing among the social media mavens.

• Fred Wilson and Union Square Ventures are looking for companies to invest in to take advantage of this.
• BuzzLogic releases their conversational ad service.
• The Inquisitr moves from AdSense to Technorati Media, indicating a potential shift at b5 Media.
• Lookery is providing demographic information that is relevant to social media providers and shaping ad presentation that way
• A completely off-the-radar person such as myself realizes that there is gold in what holds the attention, and that’s not always the latest and greatest

So what can be done? Jeff Jarvis points out that the problem lies with measurement. I agree, as there is only value in a system where all of the people involved agree on what the metric of record will be, and how it can be validly captured.

Currently CPM is the agreed upon metric. In a feed based online world, how does a CPM model work? And, most importantly, why would I continue to place your ads on my site if all your doing is advertising to people based on the words on the page, rather than who is looking at the page and how often that page is looked at.

In effect, advertisers should be the ones thrying to figure out how to get into the community, get into the conversation. As an advertiser, don’t you want to be where the action is? But how do you find an engaged audience in an online world that makes a sand castle on the beach in a hurricane look stable?

The challenge for advertisers is to be able to find the active communities and conversations effectively. The challenge for content creators and communities is to understand the value of their conversations, the interactions that people who visit the site have with the content.

In effect, a social media advertising model turns the current model on its head. Site owners and community creators gain the benefit of being attractive to advertisers because of the community, not because of the content. And site owners who understand who visits their site, what content most engages them, how they interact with the system will be able to reap the greatest rewards by selling their community as a marketable entity.

And Steven Hodson rounds out the week’s think on communities by throwing out the subversive idea that communities are not always free (as in ‘beer’, not as in ‘land of’). If a community has paid for the privilege of coming together to participate in communal events and discussions, then can’t that become an area for site owners to further control the cost of advertising on their site?

While the benefit of reduced or no marketing content is the benefit of many for-pay communities, this benefit can be used by site owners by saying that an advertiser can have access to the for-pay community at the cost of higher ad rates and smaller ads. The free community is a completely different set of rules, but there are also areas in the free community that are of higher value than others.

In summary, the current model is broken. But there is no way to measure the value of a Twitter stream, a FriendFeed conversation, a Disqus thread, or a Digg rampage. And until there is, we are stuck with an ad model that based on the words on the page, and not the community that created the words.

My grandmother died a few months back, and while this was indeed a very sad day for all of us, she left on her own terms, and with her mind intact, facing the next adventure with grace and dignity.

What this sad event did is provide a focus for the entire Pierzchala clan to reconvene for the first time in more than a decade. Tomorrow, we will going to the ancestral heartland in the Crowsnest Pass to spread her ashes, and celebrate her life.

I am staying at my Aunt Heather’s home, someone I haven’t seen or spoken to in years. And tomorrow, I will see my aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, etc. and feel a part of the family that I had left behind.

I am sad that I couldn’t bring the rest of my family with me, to feel a part of this larger family, and understand just how many people they are related to, this is very important to me.

These are my people. My clan. My tribe.

And it is good to be among them again.

I don’t often (ever) talk about my musical taste. It is unremarkable for the most part, with flights into madness and impulsiveness.

Lately, I have discovered Icelandic music. Mainly Sigur Ros, Mum, Apparat Organ Quartet, Aniima, and (of course) Bjork. Apparently Icelandic music is all the rage, with people trying to understand how such a small country can produce such a wide range of artists.

These artists provide a soothing background to my jangled, often confused, mental state. I played it as I slept while I was on my latest trip, and while I was on the plane returning from Chicago.

However, my deep feelings and desire to visit Iceland has its roots back in my very early teens. A Hardy Boys mystery and a Clive Cussler novel brought it to my attention. It’s a nation of extremes, of wonder, isolation, and survival.

It is among one of the few places I feel I have to visit at least once in my life. I cannot explain this desire. Perhaps it is the latent Viking in me.

But the music draws me as much as the place does.

I know that I have been bad at blogging news about GrabPERF, but today there is some. In the last two weeks, we have added two measurement locations: Washington DC AOL and Argentina LaNacion.

Thanks to Carson Evans of AOL, and Jose Falvo and Leonardo Lancellotta of LaNacion for helping out with the installation process.

So, on New Years Eve, due to the vagaries of modern air travel, the family will be spending seven hours at Sea-Tac waiting for the second leg of our trip home.

For me, this is usually not an issue, as I can huddle up in a corner with my wireless connection and while away the hours with work and general interest. However, we will be a one laptop family, and my children need to be entertained.

Likely at least an hour of the trip will be handled by immigration as they subject us to the joys of entry with our Advanced Parole documents. It’s now harder for us to get into the US via air as late process Green Card applicants than it is if we were simply visiting the country.

After that, who knows.

Does anyone out there in blog land have any great suggestions for entertaining a family for seven hours at an airport?

Landed in the US on a one-day business trip today. The family is enjoying Christmas with the grandparents in Victoria, BC, and I need to work remotely to cover the time.

I flew into Seattle for a one-day trip, with my brand-new Advanced Parole documents. Figured it would be speedy.

90 minutes later, they let someone who has gone through a number of security checks and other body scans into the US.

Have to wonder what people from other countries have to go through.

Technorati Tags: Green Card, Advanced Parole, immigration, strip search, body cavity

Want to follow all the Holiday Retail Fun? Check out the GrabPERF Black Friday Dashboard! Follow the Web performance of your favorite retailer all the time!

New and updated for 2008!

This morning, Tiger Direct effectively imploded.

Bad day.

UPDATE: Looks like they found the solution to their problem.

Technorati Tags:
Grabperf, Web performance, Tiger Direct, Cyber Monday

Today’s biggest victim of Black Friday appears to be Sears

Sears measurement data for the last 8 hours can be found here.

UPDATE: It gets worse for Sears.

Technorati Tags:
Grabperf, Sears, Black Friday, Web Performance

Ok, for my birthday (November 14), I am going to Columbus, OH.

Could be worse.

Couldn’t it?

Technorati Tags:
Columbus, Ohio, birthday, 39, travel

Part of the problem with making a lot of East to West trips across the US is that the flights back are a nightmare for timing. You either lose most of a day or have to take a red-eye.

Well, taking the red-eye has only one advantage: you get to camp in the airline lounge and get some work done that you have been too tired/jetlagged to deal with.

I am in the United Red Carpet Lounge. It is 18:33 PDT, and my flight boards at 22:00 PDT. I have been here since 15:00 PDT. I have caught up with a client project, completed my (dreaded) weekly timesheet, booked accommodation for my Columbus, OH trip, and tidied up an analysis script that I use to process client measurement data.

Seems odd that this is the most productive time of the week.

This trip is a 48-hour turnaround from Boston to LA to finish up the project for a large client. The first half was handled by some colleagues, and was detailed here.

Then,when I get home, I have to go to NYC (Long Island City actually) for the day on Monday. And, as I mentioned above, Columbus which is set for the middle of the month.

Compared to some jet-setters out there, this is nothing. But I travelled so much between August 15 and November 15 that I went from 2,000 miles on United to well into Premier (24,000+ miles). This trip makes the fourth cross-country trip in 2.5 months. Not bad for a homebody.

I have three more hours. Think I will sit back and watch Trois Couleurs: Blanc.