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Updating Canada’s Election Act so you can tweet the results

January 13, 2012

Today the Canadian government announced its intention to table legislation that will bring Canada’s Elections Act into the 21st century. Tim Uppal, the junior minister for democratic reform, tweeted today to share the news. That’s right: next election night, Canadians will be able to discuss election results with all the immediacy, humour and clarity that [...]

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Our online future: Top 2011 posts on the Internet and society

December 30, 2011

Many of my top posts of 2011 were posts that addressed major questions about the politics of the Internet today, and the future of the online world we are now creating. I wrote a number of these as part of my 40 day, 40 year history of the Internet; several others emerged out of the [...]

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Is online activism effective? 5 ways to ask (and answer) the question

December 5, 2011

Can social media catalyze or support political change? To answer that question, you have to understand who is asking, and what they really want to know. And it’s the fundamental question we addressed today in a panel on social media and political activism at Meshwest Vancouver. I’ve been part of a couple of similar panels [...]

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Video: Social media, politics & the future of think tanks

October 26, 2011

Last month I had the opportunity to be part of a terrific day-long discussion on the future of think tanks, hosted by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations. I shared some of my thinking in a blog post about the future of think tanks, but CIGI also [...]

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Pastebin highlights the relationship between technology and political change

October 10, 2011

Today’s New York Times has a must-read article by Noam Cohen about the role of Pastebin in Occupy Wall Street. Pastebin is a site that is primarily used by programmers; it’s a way to store, share and retrieve snippets of code. You might use Pastebin to share the script you wrote to insert a “Tweet [...]

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An online cure for an unsustainable model of leadership

August 23, 2011

Jack Layton’s death has me thinking back over many years of NDP activism, going back to the very first campaign I ever worked on: Dan Heap’s 1984 election campaign, when one of the most tireless presences in the committee room was that of Dan’s young constituency assistant, Olivia Chow. And it especially has me thinking about [...]

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On the dangers of crowdsourced surveillance

June 16, 2011

My blog post for Harvard Business today looks at the troubling online reaction to last night’s riots in Vancouver. Reflecting on the widespread enthusiasm for using social media to track down criminals, I wrote: I don’t think we want to live in a society that turns social media into a form of crowdsourced surveillance. When [...]

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What you choose when you choose a network

April 16, 2011

When I went to work for the Rae government, I thought the choice of which computer to use was a choice of Mac vs PC. But what I was really choosing was a connection to a group of people who would change my life, and the future of our country.

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12 things you don’t know about Rob Cottingham

October 12, 2009

In a few hours I’ll be thankful for a plate of turkey, stuffing and gravy. Meanwhile, there’s nothing like jamming chunks of bread into the cavity of a formerly living creature to make you appreciate what really matters in life. As I stood elbow-deep in turkey, I found myself reflecting on the person who is at the heart of most of what I have to be thankful for this year

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The biggest story you won’t read in a Canadian paper

September 11, 2009

If you love the Iraq war, global warming and free trade, gosh, have I got great news for you. This week the US Supreme Court heard additional arguments in a case concerning Hillary: The Movie, a notorious anti-Clinton documentary that was set for release during last year’s Presidential race.

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How the social web can nourish your most personal relationship

March 28, 2009

The process of strengthening a relationship by working hard together; by facing, nurturing and celebrating your successes and challenges together — that’s an experience that’s open to any couple, or indeed any relationship, that integrates the creative and communicative possibilities of the social web. Here are some of the ways you can use the social web to bring the energy of creative collaboration into your relationship.

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