Time spent with Doc Searls is always time well spent. I first chatted to him in 2005 at a Supernova convention in the USA where I discovered he not only had a radio past as a DJ, but had also listened to programmes I had made on shortwave in the days when Radio Nederland broadcast to North America through transmitters in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. During a recent encounter he explains a bit more about VRM, Vendor Relationship Management and why such a concept might be of a clue to the future funding of public radio in the US. Our interview in Paris was interrupted, as it happened, by an SMS which was advertising some lower phone rates to the Netherlands. It was so ironic, I left it in as a part of the "making of". Interested in what's been published today about VRM? Then check out the VRM blog on projectdrm.org. I can see that such services might be useful for African communties where brokers can match needs with offers of work or relevant services. Just like the mobile phone, African communities could leapfrog ahead of "customer relationship management" to VRM instead. But let Doc explain in his own words...