Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Blacksburg reminds us how to worry about our kids
What you choose when you choose a network
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.
Finding the soul of the web in HTML
Search party: 10 tips for better searching on Google and beyond
Online innovators turn foresight into insight
Quiz: What level of online security is right for you?
Core tenets of the social web
The Core Tenets of the Social Web, 25 years in the making
This post originally appeared on the Harvard Business Review. We like to think of the social web as green fields in which we are just now sowing best practices and first principles. After all, if there are no hard-and-fast rules, then anything goes. We get to come up...
Cut the cord
Honoring the debt Canada’s connectivity owes to Chinese workers
When you choose a historical metaphor, you make claims on conscience as well as imagination. Canada chose to complete its national network of connectivity in November 1985, on the 100th anniversary of completing a national railway built on the hard work of ill-treated Chinese workers. The Canadian – and global — Internet is in danger of repeating that sad history.
The Harvard Business Review
Blacksburg reminds us how to worry about our kids
What you choose when you choose a network
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.
Finding the soul of the web in HTML
Search party: 10 tips for better searching on Google and beyond
Online innovators turn foresight into insight
Quiz: What level of online security is right for you?
Core tenets of the social web
The Core Tenets of the Social Web, 25 years in the making
This post originally appeared on the Harvard Business Review. We like to think of the social web as green fields in which we are just now sowing best practices and first principles. After all, if there are no hard-and-fast rules, then anything goes. We get to come up...
Cut the cord
Honoring the debt Canada’s connectivity owes to Chinese workers
When you choose a historical metaphor, you make claims on conscience as well as imagination. Canada chose to complete its national network of connectivity in November 1985, on the 100th anniversary of completing a national railway built on the hard work of ill-treated Chinese workers. The Canadian – and global — Internet is in danger of repeating that sad history.
OneZero
10 early warning signs that you need to decrease (or increase) your time online
Yesterday I received what I accurately diagnosed as the Best Error Message Ever: Being a deeply religious person, I figured that an error message this…ummm…ironic? apt? transcendant?…must be some kind of sign from the universe. At first I thought it might be a sign to...
4 ways to protect your privacy and reputation on Facebook Timeline
My latest blog post for HBR takes a look at the new ooh! aah! Facebook Timeline, which comes tantalizingly close to fulfilling my wish list for a social media scrapbook without allowing me to easily print the damn thing already. (And I'm guessing it won't be long...
Facebook’s Timeline Will Impact Your Career
The advent of Facebook’s new Timeline feature gives you, your colleagues, and your customers a whole new set of reasons…
How to add yourself to your own Twitter list using HootSuite
Today I noticed an irony on the SIM Centre website: our Twitter sidebar widget, which does a lovely job of displaying tweets from all those who are connected to the SIM Centre, wasn't showing tweets from the SIM Centre itself. I realized that was because our sidebar...
6 solutions to the sadness of social media
Is social media making us sad? On the UK's Channel 4 News website, Benjamin Cohen is concerned that social media is changing the nature of friendship, and has adjusted his use of social media in response: I’ve stopped sharing as much, full stop....I’m not suggesting...
Why I like to check my email
Recently I've been trying to follow my friend Leda's advice on taming the compulsive need to pull my iPhone out any spare moment: the eight seconds in which the grocery clerk is running a price check, the twenty seconds it takes to walk to the bathroom, the...
The 10 best tips on how to write an online dating profile
It was inevitable that one of my single friends would get the hint. I go on and on about my fascination with online dating, and how tragic it is that I missed out by getting married before it was really a thing, and how much I would like to learn more about how it all...
Jobs of the future
It has been widely reported that for most of today's elementary schoolchildren, the jobs that lie in their future don't even exist yet. While that may be terrifying for those of us in the parenting or education game (how do you prep kids for a future you can't see?),...
JSTOR DAILY
10 early warning signs that you need to decrease (or increase) your time online
Yesterday I received what I accurately diagnosed as the Best Error Message Ever: Being a deeply religious person, I figured that an error message this…ummm…ironic? apt? transcendant?…must be some kind of sign from the universe. At first I thought it might be a sign to...
4 ways to protect your privacy and reputation on Facebook Timeline
My latest blog post for HBR takes a look at the new ooh! aah! Facebook Timeline, which comes tantalizingly close to fulfilling my wish list for a social media scrapbook without allowing me to easily print the damn thing already. (And I'm guessing it won't be long...
Facebook’s Timeline Will Impact Your Career
The advent of Facebook’s new Timeline feature gives you, your colleagues, and your customers a whole new set of reasons…
How to add yourself to your own Twitter list using HootSuite
Today I noticed an irony on the SIM Centre website: our Twitter sidebar widget, which does a lovely job of displaying tweets from all those who are connected to the SIM Centre, wasn't showing tweets from the SIM Centre itself. I realized that was because our sidebar...
6 solutions to the sadness of social media
Is social media making us sad? On the UK's Channel 4 News website, Benjamin Cohen is concerned that social media is changing the nature of friendship, and has adjusted his use of social media in response: I’ve stopped sharing as much, full stop....I’m not suggesting...
Why I like to check my email
Recently I've been trying to follow my friend Leda's advice on taming the compulsive need to pull my iPhone out any spare moment: the eight seconds in which the grocery clerk is running a price check, the twenty seconds it takes to walk to the bathroom, the...
The 10 best tips on how to write an online dating profile
It was inevitable that one of my single friends would get the hint. I go on and on about my fascination with online dating, and how tragic it is that I missed out by getting married before it was really a thing, and how much I would like to learn more about how it all...
Jobs of the future
It has been widely reported that for most of today's elementary schoolchildren, the jobs that lie in their future don't even exist yet. While that may be terrifying for those of us in the parenting or education game (how do you prep kids for a future you can't see?),...
THE VERGE
Established Companies, Get Ready for the Collaborative Economy
This post originally appeared on The Harvard Business Review website. As more and more startups like Airbnb, Etsy and Kickstarter crowd into the space of the collaborative economy, big brands are starting to get in on the action, too. Staples sells products developed...
Announcing Work Smarter, Rule Your Email
There's no part of online life that has a bigger impact on our productivity — and our happiness! — than email. But most email productivity guides focus on getting control over email, when what we really need is more control over our lives and our work. That's why I'm...
7 ways you can learn to love reading ebooks
About a decade ago, somebody gave us our first crock pot, also known as a slow cooker. For months we feasted on the remarkably easy, delicious dishes it could produce: chicken tagines and chilis, beef briskets and vegan stews. Then I made the mistake of discussing our...
It’s monkey see, monkey do over here
And you know, you usually don't let monkeys hack firmware.