I’ve known (and been intimidated by) Eric Peterson for some time now. I first met Eric at the 2006 DC eMetrics Summit. He stood in the middle of perhaps a dozen people like a warm, embracing sun bestowing life unto its myriad of planets. I was Haley’s Comet, coming in at a highly elliptical orbit, not known, from far, far away and with any luck never to be seen again.

Anybody garnering that kind of attention and delivering that kind of knowledge is someone to be in awe of.

So I did what I normally do when I want to meet someone and it seems an unlikely occurrence; I listened, watched and waited. Eventually the planets would lose their orbit or the sun would move away and it would be time for the comet to move in.

What I learned was that Eric is a generous, gregarious and engaging individual who’s very open and sharing with his knowledge and his feelings on things.

And did I mention that he’s inquisitive? Always questioning? Not only others but also himself?

That was and is very important to me. People can be very knowledgeable in their fields and my belief is that unless they’re constantly willing to explore, to investigate, to expand their own thinking and their horizons, their expertise fades fast. The sun may shine bright and eventually the stellar furnace cools and their knowledge fails.

The next time I had a chance to truly sit and talk with Eric was at the Semphonic’s XChange conference. We were sitting outside the bar at a WAT with Chris Ivy and some others and were talking about our different presentations. I was very taken by Eric’s thoughts regarding the future of web analytics and what tools might be used to better understand the growing audience.

Developing tools to understand humans is pretty much where I live, or have at least been setting up shop for the past 20 years or so. And as mentioned above, Eric’s enthusiasm was refreshing, so I put forth an idea I had been thinking over, something I’d been churning back and forth, waiting to find someone with like thoughts and like mind.

“Would you be willing to have an online discussion, a true Meeting of Minds or Glorious Accident, where people with different backgrounds and lots of knowledge and a willingness to share could get together and butt heads in a caring and considerate manner? I don’t want arguments, I want conversations. I want people willing to grow and learn, not people stuck in their own ideologies and experiential moraines. In the very least, people who recognize that their mountaintop might be merely a leaping point to greater and more glorious things?”

And Eric said yes.

So why am I co-authoring a blog with Eric Peterson and asking others to join in the discussion? Is there anybody who doesn’t enjoy a warm place in the sun?

(and people who know me should be truly impressed that I managed to post this)

Indeed, what does the future of web analytics hold? The smartest man I know posed that question to me at SEMphonic X Change last year in Napa Valley, asking honestly and earnestly as if I would certainly know the answer to his question. And trust me, when Joseph Carrabis asks you a question like that, you want to have a great answer!

Alas, I am human, and so I believe I said, “Hmmmm, what do you think?” knowing that Joseph is rarely at a loss for words. Ironically, he thought the same thing about me, but neither of us had a particularly excellent answer for this seemingly harmless question!

“What do you think will happen?” is among the most basic of questions, but as soon as you’re asked to voice your opinion for the record you immediately realize that there are ramifications whether you’re right or you’re wrong. If you’re right, people might think you had some type of inside information. If you’re wrong, people might think you’re losing your edge. And either way the answer has the potential to influence outcomes, especially if you’re widely read.

So I hedged my bets and we made a deal. Joseph and I agreed that we would get over our fear of being right or wrong, let it all hang out there, and talk about where the web analytics market is going. But upon reflection we realized that our voices are hardly the definitive word, and our opinions are inevitably limited by our experiences and our particular biases.

Fortunately “Web 2.0″ provides the solution: we created an open blog so the entire community can respectfully debate what they future might hold. In “The Future of Web Analytics, Demystified” we invite any-and-all to contribute their thoughts and ideas to the “debate du jour”, eschewing the idea of “comments” and instead creating conversations.

Each conversation will start with a single author’s position and evolve from there. To start these conversations, Joseph and I will invite individual contributors to proffer up their Utopian views … then, as in any good Socratic debate, the rest of us will respectfully tear that person’s view to shreds, either ending up with consensus or a complete lack thereof effectively highlighting an area of audience measurement that “needs work.”

Sound like fun? Want to contribute? Have great prognostications of your own? Excellent, we’re excited that you’re excited!

GROUND RULES

There are a few basic ground rules we’d like everyone to agree to in advance. Nothing too crazy, but just something that will help set the tone and keep things civil:

1. First and foremost, RESPECT. Individual contributions are moderated and no commentary that attacks a person, place, or thing will be approved. Remember what your momma said about not being able to say something nice …
2. That’s not to say it isn’t okay to disagree. Joseph and I firmly believe that we can have a respectful discussion regarding the multiple sides of any issue without bringing the world down around us. It is okay to have a difference of opinion! And we believe that it is far better to voice dissent than keep it bottled up inside.
3. Go ahead, link to yourself. If you’re putting yourself out there, get something back. Link to your own blog, your own site, your own ideas. But we appreciate and encourage you to link back to this blog and help grow the conversation.
4. Remember, this will go on your permanent record. With all of the above in mind, remember that your contribution will be forever public and likely cited in the place you least expect. Take the time to think about your contribution before clicking the “Publish your Thoughts” button.

What do you think? Is this blog a good idea? We already have the Web Analytics Forum and dozens of well-written web analytics blogs. Will you contribute? If so, what is your motivation for contribution? And are you a little afraid of putting yourself out there? We welcome your comments.