Lots of talk about bubble all right – for sure the rules are different now – but the whole ‘Cloud’ buzz has got lots of large companies scrambling to get into the space. I hope we don’t have a repeat performance of 2000 … the global economy is shaky enough as it is!

Did you read Steve Blank’s excellent business book – The 4 Steps to the Epiphany?

-Ed Byrne

In answer to your question about whether ecadamy could do what they did, as they are a UK based company EU Data protection rules apply to them.

A quick review of their Privacy policy and terms and conditions throws up no scenario where by they can email people ostensibly on your behalf. Interestingly their terms and conditions are very explicit about how you can use their service to email people using the platform or via “invitations”.

So, in short… you voted with your feet but it would appear their actions in processing personal data for a purpose which was not specified and for which consent or a lawful reason can by idenfitied might constitute a breach of Data Protection regulations.

In many ways some of what you reference above reminds me of people buying Coles Notes in the old days rather than trying to figure out Hamlet for themselves.

Cluetrain has a few chapters added – authors revisiting 10 years on to see what had happened their predictions. For me the the real kick was reading Cluetrain for the first time. Not sure whether merits purchase for the additional material.