Writing and research

I have written on technology issues for the Toronto Star, Business 2.0 magazine, the Chronicle of Higher Education, CBC radio (PDF) and the Vancouver Sun (for which I was a columnist) . You can find most of my blog posts from Social Signal, Change Everything and other social media sites on my blog at http://www.alexandrasamuel.com.

Selected clippings and coverage

Trying to build an online community? Don’t get tangled in a Web (PDF)
The Globe and Mail, March 3, 2008
by Andrea Southcott
Excerpting Reflected Glory Marketing by Alexandra Samuel and Rob Cottingham

Alexandra Samuel and the Soul of the Internet
WorldChanging, December 3, 2007
by Jon Lebkowsky (e-mail interview)
Based on my blog post Five ways to shape the soul of the Internet

Del.icio.us spreads tagging fever
From The Toronto Star, May 16, 2005

How radio, cellphones, wireless Web are empowering developing nations (PDF)
From The Toronto Star, January 17, 2005

Working gifts that could save your bacon; Wireless battery chargers, secure USB keys lack glitz But a giver’s star will rise when they’re needed (PDF)
From The Toronto Star, December 6, 2004

Internet plays wild card into U.S. politics; The Web Election (PDF)
From The Toronto Star, October 18, 2004

It’s tough being loyal to loyalty cards
From The Invisible Hand, my column for The Vancouver Sun, May 8, 2002
>> Read all my Vancouver Sun op-eds and columns here.

Generosity brings joy to the worldwide web
From the The Vancouver Sun, December 20, 2001

Going online offers safety in discourse
From The Vancouver Sun, October 15, 2001

War on the Internet
From The Vancouver Sun, October 1, 2001

German Shepherds
From Business 2.0, May 1999

Research

My dissertation research examined the phenomenon of hacktivism, the marriage of computer hacking and political activism. Some of my findings appear in my paper “Hacktivism and the Future of Democratic Discourse,” published in Democracy Online. I presented earlier research in a paper on “Digital Disobedience”(PDF), delivered at the 2001 meetings of the American Political Science Association.

As the Research Director for Governance in the Digital Economy, I researched a wide range of issues in e-government and e-democracy for more than twenty government and private sector clients around the world. I examined the impact of the Internet on social capital in my research for Bowling Alone by Prof. Robert Putnam. An earlier paper on “Intercontinental Coding” (PDF), looked at the politics of immigration and outsourcing in the software industry.