I wouldn't call this a weekly a round-up - more a finely-tuned aggregated list of ad tech nuggets on a Friday morning. Here are the five stories you should have read this week.

1. Netmining Report Brings You Through The As, Bs And Cs Of Data-Driven Display

Netmining, an audience targeting solutions provider (does nobody want to be an ad net anymore?), released an epic seventy page report this week on the data-driven display. It is an excellent overview of the space. The report is broken down in the 6 key chapters: The Display Landscape; Dealing With Data; From Data To Audience; Audience Targeting For Branding; Privacy; And The Future Of Data-Driven Display. There is also insight and anlysis provided by leading players in the industry, including Google, Media6Degrees, DoubleVerify and Evidon. AppNexus CEO, Brian O'Kelly - a confirmed speaker at the upcoming ATS London summit on September 20 - gives some overview on the growth of RTB and the crucial role it plays in the evolving data-driven display. The report has even got a useful glossary too. A must-read.

2. Nolet Says, Rip It Up And Start Again

At seventy pages, isn't the Netmining a little excessive and convoluted? Is display really that complicated? Mike Nolet doesn't think so. In a recent post on his blog, Nolet argued that display isn't really that complicated. The post entitled, "The New Display Ecosystem — Part I: A few words on HYPE", is an interesting critique on the feature-driven nature of the display industry. Nolet questions the legitimacy of the category-laden Luma landscape. And in fairness he makes a good case. Many of these companies are not sustainable businesses, and some are now struggling to raise new funding rounds. What's wrong with being an ad network anyway? I think there's plenty of mileage in that model. It's worth reading - especially the comments from vested stakeholders like Terry Kawaja. And the follow-ups will no doubt provide even more debate.

3. Europe And Its Prior Consent Obsession

Another depressing article on the the continued lunacy of the cookie directive. Out-Law.com, the go-to legal site on all things digital in Europe, published a piece this week on why the UK's interpretation of the EU directive is not in line with the actual law. European watchdogs are contradicting the UK position on "informed" consent - which effectively was giving the user the option to opt-out any time a cookie is dropped on a machine. The political clowns in Europe are now insisting on prior consent for all third party cookie tracking - even though the word "prior" does not appear in the directive. Here's the guidance from the European committee of national data protection regulators, the Article 29 Working Party, that is likely going to cause more confusion in the market:

While Article 5(3) does not use the word prior, this is a clear and obvious conclusion from the wording of the provision," the guidance says. "It makes good sense for consent to be obtained prior to the starting of the data processing. Otherwise, the processing carried out during the period of time from the moment the processing had started until the moment that consent had been obtained would be unlawful because of lack of legal ground. Furthermore, in such cases, if the individual decided against consenting, any data processing that had already taken place would be unlawful for that reason as well.

We as an industry must continue to lobby Europe to get this unworkable law repealed - or come up with some new technology or process that will allow us to work within this law.

4. What Is A DMP - And Do We Really Need Another Acronym?

Now I was sceptical about the idea of DMP. A glorified data warehouse I thought. A souped-up MySQL or open-source database with some neat integrations I ruminated. After reading AdOpsInsider's four post special on the DMP I realised it could well become an integral part of automated trading on both the buy and sell side. Granted this has been live for some time - but I only got around to reading all four posts this week. Incidentally, AdOpsInsider, which is run by WebMD's Ben Kneen, gives a great overview of ad operations - and is the definitely one of the best sites for under-the bonnet musings on how the ad technology layer fits together.

5. Get Ready For IASH 2.0

Sometimes you have to wonder about standardisation and trade body legitimacy. That's what I thought when I read the press release on the new ABC/IAB on standardising the CV processes for automated buying. Ad verification is a requisite when buying dynamic inventory, but the reality is that most traders in Europe are augmenting the CV offerings on the market by putting in place their own in-house brand safety strategies (including block lists and strict business rules around inappropriate content). The biggest problem here is that not everyone has signed up to the new program. I can't see Google, Yahoo et al being told what verification solution they should use. And what about the cost? Is this new offering coming with a fee attached? How much will you have to pay IASH to use one of their approved vendors? There are no details as yet. And while it might be useful to put together some guidelines, the reality is the industry has moved beyond the quarterly IASH audit. I can't see anyone paying 30K-50K for the priviledge of using an approved vendor - as well as paying a fixed CPM fee structure charged by the ad verification solution provider. Trust me this new initiative is going to struggle.