IP: The Dawn of the Infomediary

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 11:19:18 -0800
To: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu
From: James Glave <james@wired.com>
Subject: The Dawn of the Infomediary

http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/18094.html

The Dawn of the Infomediary
by James Glave 

3:00 a.m.  24.Feb.99.PST
Fred Davis is a little worried about his competition. 

"I am afraid they are going to drive a rental truck full of fertilizer up
to this shopping mall," he says. 

He's not bluffing, either. In temporary digs in a dead mall in El Cerrito,
California, Davis has cottoned onto a business model that could threaten
what he estimates is a US$74 billion industry. It's an entirely new
approach to privacy, online shopping, and advertising. 

Davis is CEO of Lumeria, a new kind of company known as an infomediary.
Like the handful of other infomediaries launching in the next few weeks,
Lumeria aims to give consumers total control over their personal
information -- their spending habits, ZIP code, gender, and more. 

[...snipped]
 


James Glave, News Editor, Wired News http://www.wired.com  +1 (415) 276-8430