Chris Dessi - Vice President zanox, Inc

Just when you thought the whole "I can see Russia from Alaska" thing couldn't get any funnier: it turns out that Sarah Palin has never seen Russia from Alaska. CNN's Tuchman went up to the part of Alaska from which you can actually see Russia, a remote island called Little Diomede. Turns out Palin has never been there.

read more | digg story

She has no idea what Hamas is or what their role in the Gaza Strip is. No idea. This person must not be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office. You must tell every voter in every swing state that we cannot make this kind of mistake.

read more | digg story

The title of this post was a tasty little tid-bit of advice from Gary V of winelibrary.tv fame. Gary blasted this perfectly thought provoking comment during his killer key note presentation at the Web2.0Expo in New York. The audience erupted. We were eating out of the palm of his hand.

I couldn't agree more with our friend Gary. How many hours do we waste in front of the ole' boob tube? How powerful would it be to your child's life if you spend that hour reading and playing with her, instead of watching TV? Or maybe we could (as Gary was alluding to) work on what our real passion is during that time? My passion is being a father. Being around my daughter heals me. My family is my life, and my passion. I don't want to be just a Dad. I want to be a Dadzilla! Be amazing at whatever it is you do. What's your passion?

And for the love of God, please stop watching f-ing Lost!

Over the past few months, a flood of clones has appeared, imitating and repurposing the "micro-blogging" concept popularized by the San Francisco-based social networking start-up. People generally use Twitter to post short status updates telling their friends via SMS what they're doing right this minute ("Reading Wired.com").

read more | digg story

Leading Online Marketing Company Aims to Raise Industry Standards with International Code of Behavior for Its Advertisers, Publishers and Service Providers Worldwide

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--zanox, a global leader in performance-based online marketing, today announced the company has released a comprehensive and detailed code of conduct for its global affiliate network as an industry measure toward establishing a rigorous benchmark for the affiliate marketing sector worldwide. Conceived as an industry-wide call to action, the zanox Code of Conduct will be implemented across the company's network including advertisers, publishers and service providers.

"As the market leader in Germany, where our headquarters is based, and a global player with more than one million sales partners worldwide, we feel we're in a position of special responsibility for the affiliate marketing sector," said Thomas Hessler, founder and CEO of ZANOX.de AG. "With the zanox Code of Conduct, we have the opportunity to promote effective quality standards and are proud to stand up for the entire industry."

The zanox Code of Conduct governs clear quality standards, content descriptions, technical functionality and sanctions for potential infringements in a way that is completely transparent to all participants. In order to develop the new Code of Conduct, zanox referenced numerous international standards such as the ICRA vocabulary, which was established by the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI). Additionally, as zanox's global footprint spans more than 200 countries worldwide, the company also took into account the different national legal systems and privacy standards of its global target markets.

"zanox has been at the forefront of the online marketing revolution over the past eight years and recognizes the importance of complete transparency throughout the network," said Christopher Dessi, VP of Advertiser Sales, North America. "We're thrilled to be taking our dedication to quality standards to the next level and hope to set a positive example for our esteemed industry partners and colleagues."

Since the company's founding, zanox has been dedicated to promoting ethical practices and has taken measures to ensure compliance to its code of behavior, including continuously developing and implementing abuse prevention systems. In addition, zanox created a third-party legal framework and established an internal zanox NetworkWatch team to consistently monitor all activity within their extensive global network 24 hours a day.

About zanox

zanox is the market leader for performance-based multichannel commerce and provides a global platform for efficiently marketing products and services on the Internet. zanox's online marketing services include affiliate marketing and search engine management as well as email marketing and customer loyalty programs.

zanox was founded in 2000 by CEOs Thomas Hessler, Heiko Rauch and Jens Hewald and employs more than 350 people. Headquartered in Berlin, zanox operates offices in the United States, UK, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Scandinavia and China. More than 2,000 prestigious international companies across the business sectors - TIMES, Travel, Retail & Shopping, as well as Financial Services - utilize the zanox network.

Since 2007, zanox has been part of the Axel Springer and PubliGroupe. Axel Springer is Germany's biggest newspaper publishing house and third-largest magazine publisher. PubliGroupe AG is an independent, internationally leading marketing, sales and service group for media and advertisers, supporting these in implementing their communication and media strategies with marketing and technology services.

Here's a list of some recurring sentiments regarding web 2.0 that I think we can all apply to our businesses:

1. Trust People
2. Listen
3. Inverse relationship between control and trust

Also..

1. Make mistakes well
2. Life is a beta
3. Be honest
4. Be transparent
5. Collaboration

finally...

Don't be Evil