On the case of data transparency…or is it in the casing?

I wanted to just highlight some interesting discussions of late around user data, advertising and transparency.

First is a great article last week with Om Malik’s take on FaceBook Connect and then Saul Hansell yesterday on Google’s blog around the customization of search results.

As I think Saul points out well, transparency is a good thing, but understand that you may not like what you see when you learn how the sausage is made.

Convenience has its price, can you handle the truth...and how far do you trust others to handle it for you?(Cue stunned look Tom Cruise and Demi Moore's faces).

Kawasaki on Pitching the WSJ

Kawasaki imparts this sage advice based on a recent experience pitching the Journal:

To tell you the truth, there are two more lessons that I learned--or, more accurately, relearned. First, "if you don't ask, you don't get." Second, "sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart."

In a recent post, "15 Entrepreneur Blogs Worth Reading," WSJ reporter Wendy Bounds mentioned Guy's primary blog, but he was angling for a mention of alltop.com, his aggregation site, which corrals all of the top news by categories, such as venture capital, startups, environment, etc.

Check out his blog post for an approach that goes beyond the basics, resulting in a Bounds blog post focused on Alltop.

For more reasons why Alltop rocks, see this post from ReadWriteWeb.

WebInno18 - July 15 - Be There or You're So 1.0

After a brief hiatus, The Web Innovators Group will be back and bustling with its 18th event, slated for July 15th. Same time (doors open 6:30 p.m., presos start at 7:00 p.m.) and same location (Royal Sonesta, Cambridge).

Here's the lineup of main dishes (the coveted 5 minute demos):

Totspot - Adam Katz - A place for parents to publish a page about their kids and share with family and friends. According to the website, it's part online babybook, parent journal, and social network.

WebNotes - Ryan Damico - A tool to help you create and manage online annotations. (Sorry - I can't get the link to work.)

Zeer - Michael Putnam - A grocery product community that provides product information and buying advice.

Following these presentations, the "side dish" demonstrators give a 30-second overview of their product or service to the audience. During the networking portion of the evening, they'll be showcasing their products at tables around the periphery of the room.

For a rundown of the side dishes, visit David Beisel's blog post here.