#029: (Reflections on) The History of Digital Analytics with Jim Sterne

Philosopher, poet, and essayist George Santayana wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." We thought we'd have him on to reflect about the history of digital analytics...but he died in 1952. Ambrose Bierce wrote The Devil's Dictionary, which we think is brilliant, so we thought we would have him on...but he died in 1842! Lucky for us, we landed the best of both worlds with very-much-alive philosopher, poet, essayist, DAA founder and chairman, and eMetrics founder Jim Sterne.

People, places, and things mentioned in this episode officially ran a full, certifiable gamut:

• The Devil's Data Dictionary
• The Digital Analytics Association (DAA)
• eMetrics
• The Web Analyst's Code of Ethics
• Some "web analytics" platforms: Sawmill (still going strong!), Analog (less so), NetGenesis (verymuchlessso)
• The IAB
• The DMA
• A bunch of people (or, in one case, an archetype, and, in another a conscious, gestalt, artificial intelligence system): Krista Seiden, Seth Romanow, Eric Peterson, June Li, Stéphane Hamel, Josh Aberant, HiPPOs, Skynet