Let the CDC speak
Today our elected officials are making choices that impact trillions of dollars and millions of lives. Forget about 9/11 and the subprime mortgage collapse, COVID-19 is the biggest story in America since WWII. But where can you get unbiased, factual news? Among the 55 articles listed in today’s NYT top stories, 47 are about the […]
Fistbump and grind
Seattle has become the Wuhan, China of America. It’s the first city to report a Covid-19 infection, the first city to report a Covid-19 death, and today is the first city picked by the Trump Administration as destination non grata for virus-free Americans. Don’t visit Seattle, they said. How does it feel to operate a […]
Macy’s: A tale of two coffees
Macy’s pulled the plug on its downtown store last month. Macy’s, and before that the Bon Marche, had acres of Hanes T-shirts and countertop appliances at 4th and Pine downtown. Some people are wringing their hands over the end of department stores, but not me. I welcome the Amazon world. Coincidentally AWS leases the top […]
Seattle Art
Long ago you could find art studios throughout Seattle neighborhoods, including downtown. They might open their doors for First Thursday. More often they would host ad hoc shows. The Virginia Inn used to invite artists to come to the tavern and paint dishes. I recall sitting in the V.I. with those artists when a young […]
2020 Client Coverage
At Owen Media, we’re fortunate to work with some of the most influential technology companies in the world. Our media relations efforts focus on developing and telling stories that resonate with editors from print and Web-based outlets, across to television broadcast producers. December 18, 2020 / Database Trends & Applications: The State of Machine Learning […]
Pentagon Drops a Bomb on AWS
Friday’s surprise announcement by the Pentagon that it was selecting @Azure over @AWScloud for the #JEDIcontract war cloud caught everyone by surprise. Even Microsoft was caught flat-footed, asking reporters for more time to fashion a comment late on a Friday. This is the biggest deal in Seattle enterprise technology not because of the $10 billion […]
Have We Reached “Peak Cloud?”
Earlier this year analysts were falling over themselves to proclaim the end of accelerating cloud growth. AWS and Azure warned of slowing growth rates. It’s not that the market isn’t red hot, it’s just not as red hot as it once was. Half of all IT dollars went to #cloudcomputing in 2018, so adoption will […]
The value of being an outsider
Every client engagement starts blind. There’s always a period in the beginning where the agency knows very little about the client. Maybe there is a remit for strategy, messaging, or a plan, but there is no history or shared knowledge. The agency asks questions and identifies gaps based on inquiries and logic. This exchange has […]
Journalism Ascendant
News is making a comeback. New models of journalism are rising at sites like BuzzFeed, Vox Media, and HuffPo. These sites have staffs approaching 500 people and make hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and are part of the trend of aggregating news readers to a few national sites. BuzzFeed makes nearly $200 million […]
Happy Earth Day, Except Idaho
Today NPR reports that less than half of teachers don’t teach climate change. Idaho stripped all mentions of human-caused climate change from statewide science guidelines this year, according to the New York Times. And five states block teachers from advocating climate change science. Scientists are working overtime to present research findings but their insights aren’t […]
