The debut of T-Labs Research and more…

Today, marks the debut of Transparency Laboratories Research, and maybe not exactly the type of research that might be expected! There are several, very very good, people releasing research demonstrating non-compliant activity, and that is certainly something that we will also be providing in the future too. But, to kickoff our research library, we wanted our first project to be reflective of the general philosophy of Transparency Labs. We could have named the company “Compliance Assurance Associates”, with a tag line of “Keeping your program clean, compliant and confident”, but that’s not who we are, although that is what we can do.

“Transparency”, because that’s really the only way to ensure trust and confidence in a relationship, especially a business relationship. And, “Laboratories”, because compliance assurance work is much more than reviewing metric-based reports. It is, literally, a field-of-study. A dynamic environment where scientific methods are employed to achieve the desired results. But constant testing, research, development of new theories and methods, etc, is critical to achieving the desired results on an on-going basis. “Pursuing the science of compliance” is exactly what we do. But why?

Everyone involved with Transparency Labs could, if they wished, be a ‘black hat‘, but have chosen a different path. We all believe in the Compliance Effect Theory, which simply states that monitoring and enforcing compliance will create positive opportunities and effects for advertising programs, networks, and the Internet as a whole. Without continuing to try to speak for all the T-Labs scientists, let me just offer my own story for being on the ‘white hat‘ side.

I received my first computer in 1982, purchased my first modem in 1984 and have been involved with computer telecommunications ever since. But, for the most part, it was a ‘toy’ and fun distraction. By 1993, I was still playing with computers, but was attending college majoring in History and minoring in Political Science, when the university began to allow free Internet access to all students. As a bit of a ‘computer geek’, I was aware of the Internet, and thought it might be interesting to play with too. And it was fun, but, as far as our access at-the-time was concerned, entirely text-based. However, when web access was introduced to students in 1994, ‘fun’ became serious.

My first experiences with the web, from the prospective of a historian, blew me away. Although the technology was very raw, the potential was clear. Near instantaneous distribution of information, and the range of applications was nearly unlimited. The Internet is an invention of almost indescribable historical significance. It is, metaphorically speaking, on the level of a Printing Press that virtually everyone can access, contribute too, and through it, view everyone else’s “Printing Presses”. I could have spent that last 15 years teaching high school history and poli-sci, but, there are only so many genuine watershed moments in history to-go-around. Discovering fire, inventing the wheel, writing, irrigation and cultivation, navigation, the printing press, the steam-engine, etc. Faced with the opportunity to teach history, or participate in history, as a historian, the choice was very simple.

“The Information Age” is not just a marketing slogan, it is very real.  Not unlike the citizens of late 14th-century Florence, we all are, collectively, experiencing the dawn of something new.  Although the Internet, as we know it, is approaching its second decade, as a medium and an influencer, it is still in it’s infancy.  As a historian, I personally believe that “law and order, not chaos” is important to the healthy evolution of the Internet.  So, my decision to be ‘white hat’ was simple as well. It provides me with the ability to do work that I enjoy, is intellectually-challenging, and which I feel is beneficial, even if in very minor ways, to what, I believe, should be viewed as the most important catalyst in human development of the last 1000 years - The Internet.

To do that work, we at Transparency Labs believe that it is extremely important to know and understand non-compliant Affiliates and Internet Marketers. It is not enough to say they are greedy, cheaters, fraudsters, etc. Exploring and understanding the “why”, in addition to the “how”, gives us an edge in anticipating “how, next time?”. Towards that end, our first round of research is a study of Non-Compliant Actors in Affiliate and Internet Marketing as a Complex Adaptive System. We believe it can help establish a foundation for understanding why people operate outside of compliance, and identifies key motivators and feedback loops for this behavior. Knowledge of these motivators can help compliance enforcement teams research strategies and employ processes that will increase their effectiveness.