Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Mr. IAB Goes to Washington

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has hired a full-time lobbyist to educate politicians on the Internet, and it's about time.

IAB couldn't have hired more of an insider -- Mike Zaneis is the former executive director of technology and e-commerce at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

First on his agenda should be a long heart-to-heart with Ted Stevens to help "Senator series of tubes" on understanding what the Internet is. Thankfully he is no longer chairing any committees that oversee Internet technologies.

Zanies will take on issues including taxes on e-commerce and legislation that would require Internet companies to retain consumer data. Net neutrality should also be high on the agenda. Something that should be pushed on Capitol Hill but probably won't is click fraud. It doesn't directly affect consumers, although marketers who lose money to click fraud ultimately incorporate their advertising costs onto consumers.

Their is a huge digital divide between the Web 2.0 innovations affecting commerce and the mostly elder audience of Congress who are passing laws that impact online marketing. We could use an influx of Internet-savvy politicians. Thank goodness for Maria Cantwell!

By John Gartner at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)

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