McCarthy is best known for his pioneering work in the movement to commercialize the Internet in the first part of the 1990s, including early experiments with legitimate e-mail advertising, contributions to the development of the banner ad, practical applications of pay-per-click advertising and Internet video. He is credited in Time magazine with originating the idea of using click-through rates as the key metric of website performance.[1]
In 1994, he organized and sponsored the first conference ever held on potential commercial applications of the World Wide Web.[2]Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and developer of the first commercially successful Web browser, was the keynote speaker. Other Internet pioneers who acknowledge the impact McCarthy's ideas had on their own work include Ed Niehaus, Rick Boyce,[3] and Steve O'Keefe.[4] In a talk at Pacific Bell in 1994, McCarthy described in detail the new content marketing and distribution model the Internet was making possible, a model now sometimes referred to as The Long Tail.[5]
In 1998, he sold his company E-Media (a term he coined and for which he owned the federal trademark) to an investment group that rolled it up into Nine Systems, which in turn was absorbed by Akamai Technologies. He remains active in the Internet industry as an advisor, investor and entrepreneur operating under the name Amacord, Inc.[6]
He worked as a consultant to NEC's Biglobe, Japan's largest online service, from 1996 to 2001. He wrote the first book on Internet entrepreneurship published in Japan: The Internet Business Manual.
Activism
In 1995, McCarthy organized and sponsored a conference on the topic of using the web as a local publishing medium to assist community building.
Projects that came out of that conference include one of the first detailed studies of an election fraud to appear in any medium (the 1997 49er Stadium bond issue in San Francisco);[7] a virtual museum dedicated to recovering the forgotten story of one of San Francisco's most historically important neighborhoods (the Fillmore);[8] and documentation of the largest and most successful maritime evacuation in history (New York City on September 11, 2001.)[9][10][11]
McCarthy has also worked with challenged communities—Hudson, New York and New Orleans, Louisiana—to develop strategies to use the web to organize citizens and engage in public education and outreach. His work in Hudson resulted in the defeat of a plan to build what would have been North America's largest coal-fired cement plant on the banks of the Hudson River.[12]
Since 2006, McCarthy has worked with Levees.org,[13] the New Orleans–based organization dedicated to ensuring that New Orleans' levees are rebuilt correctly and that levees in other parts of the country with similar engineering flaws are tended to and repaired.
Internet video publishing
In the summer of 1994, McCarthy commissioned Hank Duderstadt, then head of the Video SIG for the San Francisco chapter of the International Interactive Communications Society (IICS), to write a cover story for the Internet Gazette on the potential of streaming video on the Internet.[citation needed]
The Internet Gazette, a short-lived print publication distributed for free in the San Francisco Bay Area, was founded and published by McCarthy to serve as a vehicle for disseminating practical advice to members of the Bay Area digital interactive communications community on how to use the Internet as a publishing and marketing tool.[14]
In 2005, inspired by the launches of YouTube and Google Video, McCarthy began an online publication on Internet video called The System Video Blog. In this publication, McCarthy tracked the development of the Internet video industry and reported on his own experiments in Internet video publishing.[15]
The projects included providing support for Levees.org,[16] the New Orleans–based non-profit and creating an online video encyclopedia about the city of New Orleans, FoodMusicJustice.org;[17] a searchable compilation of clips from television newscasts and independent video makers, BrasscheckTV.com;[18] a search engine for videos of jazz performances, JazzontheTube.com;[19] and an educational site on nutrition and food safety issues, TheRealFoodChannel.com.[20]
Other activities
In addition to his work in the Internet industry, McCarthy has been involved in the music industry, as a concert producer and promoter; in the film industry, as co-founder of one of New York City's first digital film audio post production studios (When We Were Kings, Like Water for Chocolate); and on Wall Street, as a technical communications consultant to Bankers Trust and First Boston.[21]
In the 1980s, while still in his twenties, he guest lectured at the business schools of Columbia University, MIT and New York University as part of a project called Optimal Learning[21] which was based on practical applications of his academic studies in psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University.
Over the years, McCarthy has published a large number of articles on a wide variety of subjects including business, eCommerce, the history of media, economics, the business cycle, financial markets, geopolitics, U.S. politics, political dissidents in China and other countries, medicine and public health, agriculture, and military science. These articles have been a mix of investigative journalism, analysis and prediction. Some of these articles have been posted to brasscheck.com[22] and brasschecktv.com[23]
The content of Brasscheck is the property of the First Amendment Defense Trust.[22] This organization was created after McCarthy's investigation of the San Francisco 49ers stadium bond issue election.[24]
BrasscheckTV features videos on a wide range of contemporary topics, available via e-mail subscription. Ken McCarthy has been an advocate of alternative media. He is quoted in an interview on July 9, 2007, with Wes Unruh, of Alterati.com, describing traditional news reporting as "so incredibly inept," and asserting that "...for that small percentage of people that really wants to know, the Internet's been a blessing and I think it will be very persistent."[25]
Speaking specifically of BrasscheckTV.com he said "I'm putting the videos into context and giving people background on the significance of what they're actually seeing..."[26]
The name McCarthy gave to his own investigative efforts—"Brasscheck"—came from a book by Upton Sinclair about which George Seldes commented: "In 1920, Upton Sinclair, an outsider to journalism, wrote The Brass Check, the first book exposing the press. It was this book, plus a friendship with the author lasting many years, that influenced me and the books I wrote on the press, beginning in the 1930s." [28]
McCarthy is the founder and publisher of JazzontheTube.com, the high-ranking jazz and blues video compilation website.[29]
McCarthy's maternal grandfather, Andrew Paretti of the Bronx, New York, was the pre-eminent granite masonry contractor in the New York City area from 1936 to 1955. His firm did the stonework for the chapel at West Point, Keating Hall at Fordham University, and the Peace Plaza of the United Nations, as well as numerous public works projects during the Robert Moses era.
McCarthy graduated from Regis High School in Manhattan in 1977 and Princeton University in 1981. At Princeton he hosted a jazz program for WPRB-FM.[30] While at university and immediately afterwards, he produced numerous concerts including several for his college roommate who later became a multi-Grammy nominee Stanley Jordan.[30] His studies at Princeton included neuroscience, cognitive psychology and anthropology.
Edward "Kid" Ory was an American jazz composer, trombonist and bandleader. One of the early users of the glissando technique, he helped establish it as a central element of New Orleans jazz.
The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 30s in which jazz music and dance styles gained worldwide popularity. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz. Originating in New Orleans as mainly sourced from the culture of African Americans, jazz played a significant part in wider cultural changes in this period, and its influence on popular culture continued long afterwards.
The marketing mix is the set of controllable elements or variables that a company uses to influence and meet the needs of its target customers in the most effective and efficient way possible. These variables are often grouped into four key components, often referred to as the "Four Ps of Marketing."
Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way that a virus spreads from one person to another. It can be delivered by word of mouth, or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet and mobile networks.
The Fillmore is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California.
Bill Graham was a German-born American impresario and rock concert promoter.
Hayes Valley is a neighborhood in the Western Addition district of San Francisco, California. It is located between the historical districts of Alamo Square and the Civic Center. Victorian, Queen Anne, and Edwardian townhouses are mixed with high-end boutiques, restaurants, and public housing complexes. The neighborhood gets its name from Hayes Street, which was named for Thomas Hayes, San Francisco's county clerk from 1853 to 1856 who also started the first Market Street Railway franchise.
Tom Constanten is an American keyboardist, best known for playing with the Grateful Dead from 1968 to 1970, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
The Fillmore District is a historical neighborhood in San Francisco located to the southwest of Nob Hill, west of Market Street and north of the Mission District. The Fillmore District began to rise to prominence after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. As a result of not being affected by the earthquake itself nor the large fires that ensued, it quickly became one of the major commercial and cultural centers of the city.
Pacific Heights is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States. It has panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Palace of Fine Arts, Alcatraz, and the Presidio.
The Bonnet Carré Spillway is a flood control operation in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Located in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, about 12 miles (19 km) west of New Orleans, it allows floodwaters from the Mississippi River to flow into Lake Pontchartrain and thence into the Gulf of Mexico. The spillway was constructed between 1929 and 1931, following the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, and has been designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Joseph Thomas "Coke" Escovedo was an American percussionist, who came from a prominent musical family including five musician brothers and his niece, Sheila E. He played in various genres, including R&B, jazz fusion and soul, with bands including Santana, Malo, Cal Tjader, and Azteca.
Yoshi's is a nightclub located in Jack London Square in Oakland, California, United States. The venue originally opened in 1972 as a restaurant in Berkeley, later moving to Claremont Avenue in Oakland. In 1979, the restaurant expanded into a lounge/nightclub hosting local and national jazz musicians.
Earring Magic Ken, also known as "Gay Ken" and "Fey Ken", is a model of the Ken doll introduced by Mattel in 1993 as a companion to its Earring Magic Barbie figure, one of five dolls in the Earring Magic Barbie line.
In marketing, a product demonstration is a promotion where a product is demonstrated to potential customers. The goal is to introduce customers to the product in hopes of getting them to purchase that item.
Casa Sanchez Foods is an American Mexican-style food snack company, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, best known for producing authentic salsas and tortilla chips. Beginning in the 1920s as a tortilla manufacturer in San Francisco, the company soon evolved to producing salsas, guacamoles, tamales, pupusas, and coffee beans.
Perry Sink Marshall is an American business consultant, and author of books on marketing, business strategy, communications technology, and evolution.
Bop City was a jazz club operated by John "Jimbo" Edwards in San Francisco from 1949 to 1965. It was situated in the back room of a Victorian house at 1690 Post Street, in the Western Addition district. During its heyday, the venue was known for late-night live performances of many popular jazz artists, including Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, and Charlie Parker, and was one of the most famous jazz clubs of its time, being instrumental in popularizing the modern jazz style in San Francisco.
African Americans in San Francisco, California, composed just under 6% of the city's total population as of 2019 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, down from 13.4% in 1970. There are about 55,000 people of full or partial black ancestry living within the city. The community began with workers and entrepreneurs of the California Gold Rush in the 19th century, and in the early-to-mid 20th century, grew to include migrant workers with origins in the Southern United States, who worked as railroad workers or service people at shipyards. In the mid-20th century, the African American community in the Fillmore District earned the neighborhood the nickname the "Harlem of the West," referring to New York City's Harlem neighborhood, which is associated with African American culture.
Lewis Watts is an American photographer, archivist curator, art historian, author, lecturer, and educator. He is a Professor Emeritus of Art at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
References
Comm, Joel (2008). Click Here to Order: The World's Most Successful Internet Marketing Entrepreneurs. Morgan James. ISBN1-60037-173-6.
Drews, Laura Gail (2020) Henry S. Dakin: From Physics to Metaphysics & Guns to Toys. Happy Medium Productions. ISBN978-0578577654.
Dushinski, Kim (2009). The Mobile Marketing Handbook. Information Today. ISBN978-0-910965-82-8.
Hunt, Ben (2011). Convert! Designing Web Sites to Increase Traffic and Conversion. Wiley, John & Sons. ISBN0-470-61633-4
Jacobson, Howie (2008). AdWords for Dummies. Wiley Publishing. ISBN978-0-470-15252-2.
Kennedy, Dan (1996). How to Make Millions with Your Ideas. Plume. ISBN0-452-27316-1.
Kennedy, Dan (1996). The Ultimate Sales Letter. Adams Business Media. ISBN1-59337-499-2
Kennedy, Dan (2019). Almost Alchemy: Make Any Business of Any Size Produce More with Fewer and Less. Forbes Books. ISBN1950863239.
Kennedy Jr., Robert F. Kennedy. (2021) The Real Anthony Fauci|The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the War on Democracy and Public Health. Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN1510766804
Kurtz, Brian (2019). Overdeliver: Build a Business for a Lifetime Playing the Long Game in Direct Response Marketing. Hayes House. ISBN1401956750
Marshall, Perry (2013). 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More. Entrepreneur Press. ISBN1599185059
McCarthy, Ken (1996). The Internet Business Manual. Japanese Language, Bunksha (Tokyo). ISBN4-8211-0515-2
McCarthy, Ken (2010). The System Club Letters. (Privately published.)
McCarthy, Ken (2022). Piacenza: A Hidden Jewel on the Crossroads of History. ISBN979-8356618710
McCarthy, Ken (2022). 78 Days of Terror: The US-Led NATO Attack on the Civilians of Yugoslavia. Brasscheck Press. ISBN979-8357071316
McCarthy, Ken (2023). Death, Resurrection, and the Spirit of New Orleans. JazzontheTube.com (New York). ISBN979-8386647995
O'Keefe, Steve (2002). The Complete Guide to Internet Publicity. J. Wiley. ISBN0-471-10580-5.
Pepin, Elizabeth and Watts, Lewis (2006). Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era. Chronicle Books. ISBN0-8118-4548-6.
Reid, Robert (1997). Architects of the Web: One Thousand Days that Built the Future of Business. J. Wiley. ISBN0-471-17187-5.
Rosenthal, Sandy. (2020) Words Whispered in the Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina. Mango. ISBN1642503274
Russel, Dick. (2023) The Real RFK Jr: Trials of a Truth Warrior. Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN1510776095
Scotson, Linda and Ken McCarthy (2022). Cerebral Plasticity and Breathing Therapy. (New York). ISBN979-8846017801
Sharav, Vera. McCarthy, Ken (2022) The Nuremberg Code: 75th Anniversary Commemorative Edition. Brasscheck Press. ISBN979-8849607054
Valentine, Douglas. (2016) The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World. Clarity Press, Inc. ISBN0997287012
Vee, Jimmy; Miller, Travis; and Bauer Joel (2008). Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers. J. Wiley. ISBN978-0-470-22647-6.
Web site: Writings on the Internet's future A collection of McCarthy's articles about the Internet's commercial potential, 1994–1996
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