Whatever happened to… ?

I don't know about you but I love the shows on VH1 Classic (and its ilk) about "one-hit wonders" or child actors who seemingly evaporated from the celebrity ranks long before their bar/bat mitzvah. It's not that I like to marvel in someone else's apparent fall from grace, rather these shows give you a chance to see what exists behind all the packaging and the pomp.

Wouldn't it be interesting to turn that "Whatever happened to...?" lens on the world of corporate governance and investor relations? Obviously, it would have to be less about the people (though we could get snarky and name some names) and more about the concepts or alleged best practices. For example, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO... WEB DISCLOSURE?

Remember web disclosure? Seems like just yesterday that everyone was arguing about web disclosure (some even argued with themselves about it). Man, last year's NIRI National Conference was just littered with vendors hocking oddly similar looking web disclosure "black boxes"... errr... technology "solutions" that promised instant cost savings, increased investor reach and heightened web traffic. There were white papers on web disclosure, and webinars about web disclosure, and epic Twitter fist fights about web disclosure and... then nothing. Not a peep.

No "new and improved" web disclosure 2.0 solutions (though it could be waiting for us at this year's NIRI National conference).

No webinars on lessons learned in web disclosures.

No "I told you so" chest thumping on Twitter. 

Just quiet... as if it had all been a dream.

Weird if you ask me. 

So I've got to ask: anyone know what happened to web disclosure? Did I miss something? It's highly possible that I did but, even so, going from "can't get away from it" to "missing something" is a pretty big leap in less than a year! Thoughts on why the conversation on web disclosure seemingly stopped so abruptly (not to mention the Twitter fist fights)? I've got a few theories... would love to hear yours.

Also, any predictions as to what this year's "web disclosure" will be or what we should consider for in the next installment of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO... ?