ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

These are the credits, which I’ve sorted into categories, even though many people I list defy categorization.

My wife Joyce, without whose faith and gentle pressure (over more than twenty years), this book would not have been written. Also, our son Jeffrey, who compiled the bibliography and who has been patient with my nonparental preoccupations. And our older kids, Colette, Jennine, Allen, and their families (including grandkids), who have endured the same neglect.

The quartet of good people who inseminated, incubated, and guided the book into existence. In order of appearance, they are:

• Rick Segal, who pushed me hard to make this book happen. He also gave it the title.
• Jeff Kehoe, my editor at Harvard Business Press, who showed up at my talk by this same title and suggested that the talk become a book. Jeff rocks.
• David Miller, my agent—and much more. He was with us for Cluetrain thirteen years ago, and he’s with me now for this book.
• Adele Menichella, the friend and editor I called on in the last month of drafting, to help bang the book into its final shape.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Harvard University, which took me on as a fellow in 2006 and patiently gave me four-plus years of runway to get ProjectVRM off the ground. Among my many friends and colleagues there (or with whom I’ve connected through the center), I’d especially like to thank:

• John Clippinger, Colin Maclay, and John Palfrey, who brought me in as a fellow (and Paul Trevithick, who helped behind the scenes).
• The faculty board that approved my return as a fellow for three years after the first one.
• My fellow fellows, with whom I met weekly and who have provided abundant help and encouragement.
• The Berkman staff, which has always gone out of its way to make Berkman the welcoming, valuable, and well-run place it is. I’d especially like to thank Urs Gasser, Colin Maclay, Phil Malone, Rebecca Tabasky (ably assisted by her cat Nancy), Amar Ashar, Catherine Bracy, Seth Young, Jon Murley, Rob Faris, Dan Jones, Caroline Nolan, Karyn Glemaud, and Carey Anderson, all of whom have never been less than extra helpful, as well as great fun to hang out with.
• The Geek Cave, especially Sebastian Diaz, Ed Popko, Dan Collis-Puro, Danny Silverman, and Isaac Miester.
• My two law school interns, Doug Kochelek and Alan Gregory (both now full-fledged attorneys, practicing in the world).
• John Deighton, Karim Lakhani, and Jose Alvarez of Harvard Business School, Andy McAfee of MIT Sloan School of Management (and formerly of HBS), Doug Rauch of Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI), and John Taysom, also of the ALI.

Developers with whom I’ve worked directly on code. These include David Karger, Oshani Seneviratne, and Adam Marcus of MIT/CSAIL, and Ahmad Bakhiet of King’s College London, for their work on Emancy/EmanciPay/Tipsy, and Dan Choi for his work on ListenLog. I also thank Google Summer of Code (GSoC), through the Berkman Center, for supporting Ahmad and his work. Among Berkman folk, I’d also like to single out Anita Patel, who coordinated our work both with the center and GSoC.

My friends, benefactors, and collaborators in the public media world, starting with Keith Hopper of NPR. Keith is the brainfather of ListenLog and a heavy contributor of time and energy to ProjectVRM, starting with our very first meeting at Berkman. Next are Jake Shapiro and his team at PRX, including Matt McDonald, Andrew Kuklewicz, and Rekha Murthy, who together put ListenLog in the Public Radio Player, plus Kerri Hoffman, who coordinated with Berkman and ProjectVRM. I’d also like to thank Robin Lubbock of WBUR, who was an early supporter of VRM work. And, neither last nor least, is the Surdna Foundation, which provided a grant supporting work on ListenLog and EmanciPay. Vince Stehle led that effort and has continued to provide helpful encouragement.

The companies and organizations working on VRM from the corporate (including the CRM) side. Among those I’d especially like to thank BT, where JP Rangaswami led a number of remarkable efforts, one of which was to get Jeremy Ruston and the Osmosoft team on the VRM case. Also the Innotribe group at SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), where Peter Vander Auwera and his colleagues worked with a number of VRM developers on the DAG (Digital Asset Grid).

My fellow members of the Berkman Center authors group, without whose help this book would be far less focused and organized than it is now. In alphabetical order by first name, they are:

• Christian Sandvig
• Colin Maclay
• David Weinberger
• Ethan Zuckerman
• Jason Goldman
• Judith Donath
• Lokman Tsui
• Wendy Seltzer
• Zeynep Tufekci

My unclassifiable collaborators and sources of much help, inspiration, or both:

• Craig Burton
• Dave Winer
• Dean Landsman
• Don Marti
• Eric S. Raymond
• Erik Cecil
• Jay Rosen
• Jeff Jarvis
• Jerry Michalski
• JP Rangaswami
• Kaliya Hamlin
• Mary Hodder
• Renee Lloyd
• Stephen E. Lewis
• Steve Gillmor

VRM developers and related organizations:

• Azigo, led by Paul Trevithick
• Buyosphere, led by Tara Hunt
• Connect.Me, led by Drummond Reed and Joe Johnston
• Getabl, led by Mark Slater
• Hover and Ting, led by Ross Rader and Elliot Noss
• Kantara, led into existence by Brett McDowell, and within Kantara the Information Sharing Workgroup, whose members are also listed elsewhere in the credits here
• Kynetx, led by Phil Windley
• MyDex, The Customer’s Voice, and Ctrl-SHIFT, especially Iain Henderson, Alan Mitchell, and William Heath
• MyInfo.cl, led by Sebastian Reisch
• NewGov.us, led by Britt Blaser
• Paoga, led by Graham Saad
• Pegasus, led by William Dyson
• Personal Data Ecosystem Consortium, led by Kaliya Hamlin
• Personal.com, led by Shane Green
• Sceneverse, led by David de Weerdt
• Switchbook, led by Joe Andrieu
• Synergetics, led by Luk Vervenne
• The Banyan Project, led by Tom Stites
• Project Danube, and much more, led by Markus Sabadello
• The Locker Project, Telehash and Singly, led by Jeremie Miller
• The Mine! Project, led by Adriana Lukas and Alec Muffett
• Thumbtack, co-led by Sander Daniels
• TiddlyWiki, led by Jeremy Ruston
• Trustfabric, led by Joe Botha
• UMA, led by Eve Maler

Friends in the CRM community, including Paul Greenberg, Larry Augustin, Dan Miller, Mitch Lieberman, Denis Pombriant, Josh Weinberger and John McKean.

ProjectVRM’s and Customer Commons’ committee members, whose faith and guidance has sustained both me and the whole project. They include:

• Chris Carfi
• Craig Burton
• Dean Landsman
• Deb Schultz
• Iain Henderson
• Joe Andrieu
• Joyce Searls
• Judi Clarke
• Kaliya Hamlin
• Mary Hodder
• Sean Bohan

The rest of the VRM community list. At the risk of insulting any one of them, I’ll list the members alphabetically by first name (including some of those already listed):

• Adam Carson
• Adrian Gropper
• Adriana Lukas
• Alan Mitchell
• Alan Patrick
• Aldo Casteneda
• Alec Muffett
• Alicia Wu
• Allan Gregory
• Allan Hoving
• Andre Durand
• Andrew Vitvitsky
• Ankit Kapasi
• Asa Hardcastle
• Bart Stevens
• Ben Laurie
• Ben Rubin
• Bernard Lunn
• Bill Densmore
• Bill Washburn
• Bill Wendell
• Bob Frankston
• Brett McDowell
• Brian Behlendorf
• Brian Benz
• Britt Blaser
• Bruce Kasanoff
• Bruce MacVarish
• Carter F. Smith
• Charles Andres
• Chris Advansun
• Chris Carfi
• Claire Boonstra
• Crosbie Fitch
• Dan Miller
• Dan Whaley
• Daniel Choi
• Daniel Perry
• Daniel Schmidt
• Darius Dunlap
• Dave Recordon
• David Goldschmidt
• David Karger
• David Scott Williams
• David Siegel
• Davor Meersman
• Dean Landsman
• Deb Schultz
• Denise Howell
• Devon Loffreto
• Don Marti
• Don Thorson
• Drummond Reed
• Elias Bizannes
• Elliot Noss
• Eric Norlin
• Erik Cecil
• Ethan Bauley
• Francisco Casas
• Frank Paynter
• Frankxr
• Gabe Wachob
• Gam Dias
• Gerald Beuchelt
• Gon Zifroni
• Greg Biggers
• Greg Oxton
• Guy Higgins
• Hanan Cohen
• Henk Bos
• Henri Asseily
• Jamie Clark
• Jason Cavnar
• Jay Deragon
• Jay Gairson
• Jay Graves
• Jeff Bunch
• Jim Bursch
• Jim Morris
• Jim Pasquale
• Jim Thompson
• Joe Andrieu
• Joe Botha
• Joerg Resch
• Johannes Ernst
• Jon Garfunkel
• Jon Lebkowski
• Jonathan Peterson
• Jonathan MacDonald
• Jorge Jaime
• JP Rangaswami
• Judi Clarke
• Julian Gay
• Katherine Warman Kern
• Keith Hopper
• Ken Shafer
• Kenji Takahashi
• Kevin Barron
• Larry Chaing
• Lorraine Lezama
• Lucas Cioffi
• Luk Vervenne
• Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald
• Mark Lizar
• Mark Scrimshire
• Mark Slater
• Markus Sabadelo
• Marty Heaner
• Mary Hodder
• Mary Ruddy
• Matt Terenzio
• Matteo Brunati
• Matthew Blass
• Matthew Platte
• Maurice Sharp
• Meg Withgott
• Michael Becker
• Michael O’Connor Clarke
• Michael Zeuthen
• Mike Kirkwood
• Mike Ozburn
• Mike Warot
• Mitch Ratcliffe
• Naos Wilbrink
• Neesha Mirchandani
• Nick Givotovsky
• Oshani Seneviratne
• Paul Bouzide
• Paul Chapman
• Paul Hodgson
• Paul Kamp
• Paul Madsen
• Paul Trevithick
• Persephone Miel
• Pete Touschner
• Peter Davis
• Peter Vander Auwera
• Phil Jacob
• Phil Whitehouse
• Phil Windley
• Phil Wolff
• Phillip Sheldrake
• Phillippe Borremans
• Ray Zhu
• Renee Lloyd
• Richard Dale
• Richard Reukema
• Robert Kost
• Robin Lubbock
• Ryan Janssen
• Sara Wedeman
• Scott Pine
• Sean Bohan
• Sebastian Reisch
• Spencer Jackson
• Stuart Henshall
• Stuart Maxwell
• T. J. McDonald
• Tara Hunt
• Ted Shelton
• Tim Pozar
• Thom Hastings
• Tim Hwang
• Todd Carpenter
• Tom Carroll
• Tom Guarriello
• Tom Stites
• Torre Tribout
• Trent Adams
• W. B. McNamara
• Yosem Companys

Two universities dear to my heart and mind. First is the University of California Santa Barbara and, in particular, the Center for Information Technology and Society there. CITS has been waiting patiently for me to return home and get back to research on the Internet and infrastructure, which I began there in 2006 and which I will complete after getting this book done. At CITS, I would especially like to thank Bruce Bimber, Jennifer Earl, and Andrew Flanagin. I would also like to thank Kevin Barron of the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics at UCSB, my good friend and collaborator on efforts to make fiber-to-the-premise happen in Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara County. One of these years, it will. Second is Harvard University, where gathered are some of the world’s most helpful people and resources. I had never set foot at Harvard before Dave Winer’s first Bloggercon there in 2003, when Dave was a fellow at Berkman. Yet I felt welcome and at home from the start. In addition to the people and organizations at Harvard I’ve already thanked, I’ll add two more: (1) Harvard University Health Services (HUHS), which provided excellent care—especially through a couple of emergencies from which I came out more healthy than I went in; and (2) the library system, which claims to be the largest of its kind in the world, and seems even bigger than that.