The Wall Street Journal Online (free online access), writes about start-up FON Technology and bloggers, some of whom may stand to gain from the success of the company.
Most of the nine members of FON’s U.S. advisory board, including former newspaper journalist Dan Gillmor, technology author David Weinberger and Internet-law expert Wendy Seltzer, wrote about FON on their blogs late Sunday. That was right after FON founder Martin Varsavsky revealed on his own blog that the closely held company had raised $21.7 million in funding from Google, Skype and others, declaring it “a dream come true.”
Messrs. Gillmor and Weinberger disclosed on their blogs that they are advisers to Madrid-based FON and also said they may receive compensation for their services. But Ms. Seltzer and other advisory-board members who talked up FON’s prospects online didn’t mention they might be paid by the company, though they did note they were FON advisers.Ms. Seltzer says her [positive] comments weren’t influenced by any compensation she could receive from FON. She adds, however, that she “should probably add that [disclosure] at some point.”
Yet when I talked with David Weinberger and David Isenberg at Berkman on Tuesday, both told me their primary interest in Fon was not financial, but rather in getting Internet service to the less developed world. They also said this was the primary purpose of their advisory board involvement as well.
Gillmor regularly opens his veins, confessing his business failures (and liberal politics). Conservatives (like the WSJ) and liberals (like these bloggers), love to fight. Nothing wrong with that.
In related news, DailyWireless is going to offer banner advertising. We are doing this because revenue from AdSense doesn’t quite pay the bills here at the DailyWireless tower. Banner ads, we believe, will help us maintain a high quality product. I have nothing against banner ads. Don is less enthusiastic, but is willing to try it.So we’re going to give it a go. One banner will be for VeriLAN, a Portland ISP and wireless contractor, and the other will be for TradePublications, which offers free subscriptions to name brand trade magazines (to those that qualify).
We think the revenue from these banner ads will be a good thing. After all, without Google’s AdSense, DailyWireless wouldn’t be here at all.
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