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Crowdsourced repression: Could it happen here?

June 20, 2011

The debate that is unfolding online about crowdsourced surveillance — what Christopher Parson referred to as Vancouver’s Human Flesh Search Engine – rests on two implicit assumptions. It’s time to get clear about what they are, so that people can talk more constructively across their differences, and perhaps even rethink their positions. Let me start [...]

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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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Are you a parent traveling on business? Here are 15 tips for taking the kids

June 3, 2011

When I first wrote this post in October 2006, LilPnut was only a few months old, and didn’t even have his twitter handle yet. (Who can blame him? Twitter had barely been invented.) Almost five years later we have lots more experience traveling with the kids, and are much less ambitious about integrating business and [...]

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Vancouver’s 12 best wifi cafés and restaurants

July 27, 2009

In my search for the perfect Internet café I’ve tried more than my share of Vancouver’s wifi-enabled cafés and restaurants. Just like Vancouver’s neighbourhoods, its wifi cafés and restaurants range from the scruffily hip to the chicly modern.

In this post I round up (and map!) the best of the good-to-great. Every place on this list has reliable Internet service, at least a few accessible power outlets, and decent coffee; on

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When and how to communicate online

May 21, 2009

Don’t e-mail what you can blog. Don’t blog what you can tweet. Don’t tweet what you can DM. Don’t DM what you wouldn’t publish.

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How Twitter groups can make your twittering more a meaningful, conversational and connected

April 26, 2009

Learn how I set up a Twitter system that connects me more closely to the people and ideas that matter most in my own life.

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Today in the Globe & Mail: Alex on the business of social media

March 19, 2009

Today’s Globe & Mail included a special supplement about MBA programs, with a feature story on why and how schools are incorporating social media into the curriculum. “Within minutes or even seconds, online chatter can span continents, conveying positive spin or the kiss of death for a product or company,” reporter Diana McLaren writes. “Business schools are adapting to the rapidly shifting relationship between companies and consumers.”

Diana spoke to me about Social Signal’s experience integrating social media into today’s businesses. (And the Globe ran my favourite, uncredited headshot — by the remarkable Kris Krug.)

Here’s what Diana included in today’s story:

Social media consultant Alexandra Samuel, co-founder of Social Signal in Vancouver, says that social media is “not just a marketing technique. It also allows a business or organization a way of monitoring for customer care.

“Social media can’t just be out there isolated in some little marketing department. You need someone to monitor and respond to what people are saying.”

The challenge for MBA schools, she says, is to “get people to think about a dramatic shift in organizations needed for social media marketing. They need less hierarchy and more communication across teams. Generally speaking, one of the first concerns for business is risk management. The reality of social media is far greater than risk. It’s about throwing a party and no one comes, there’s no response.”

As someone who consults with organizations on social network marketing, but also a business owner herself who hires staff, Ms. Samuel agrees about the need for more MBA graduates to offer a combination of traditional skills, such as financial management and business strategy, with an understanding of social media that makes them “billable” to clients.

“My dream hire is for an MBA with social media expertise,” she says. “Someone who comes with the whole package.”

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Rob’s Northern Voice keynote

February 21, 2009
Thumbnail image for Rob’s Northern Voice keynote

If you’ve ever wondered whether social media is funny, check out the reaction to Rob’s Teh Funny Northern Voice keynote. The Twitter backchannel is reprinted in text below. These tweets are in chronological order, so you can follow the thread of the conversation. In related news, we’d love to hear of a Twitter search tool [...]

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Seven people’s seven favourite things?

January 17, 2009

I’ve been memed. As commanded by Dave Eaves and the many people upstream of him in the 7 Things thing, here are my 7 things.

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Research and writing

September 19, 2008

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) . Selected clippings and coverage Trying to build an online community? Don’t get tangled in a Web (PDF) The Globe and Mail, March 3, [...]

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Turned off by bad news? Try our special Olympic-friendly Internet!

August 1, 2008

I'm delighted to be writing this post as a OneWebDay ambassador. OneWebDay, which takes place on September 22, is a global day to celebrate the Internet, and the values that make the Internet such an essential part of our society.

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