Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
How Twitter filters can help you cope with your fear of missing out
UPDATE: Seesmic is now part of Hootsuite, which doesn't support filtering based on excluding keywords. So during SXSW, I use Tweetdeck, which lets you filter a stream to exclude any tweet that includes a specific term. If you've been using Facebook, Twitter,...
11 surprising insights into the future of mobile & BlackBerry from Tyler Lessard, VP of RIM
Tonight I attended presentation by Tyler Lessard VP of Developer Relations for RIM. There are 3 million downloads daily from BlackBerry store even though they have a fraction of the number of apps available on the Android and iPhone stores. ESPN reports more traffic...
Using your e-mail signature to fight inbox overload
It's day 5 of my vendetta on mandatory e-mail replies and I'm feeling the pain. On the one hand, I'm as committed as ever to changing the attitude that every e-mail needs a response -- an attitude that is totally out-of-step with every other channel of online...
Mindful of social media
Lori Deschene of TinyBuddha has a fantastic post on 10 Mindful Ways to Use Social Media at Tricycle. It's hard to pick just one to share but if I have to... If you propose to tweet, always ask yourself: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? Sometimes we post...
Two tweaks for your e-mail vendetta auto-responder
Yesterday I set up a vacation responder as part of my e-mail vendetta. If you're thinking of doing the same, you might note a couple of tweaks: I forward multiple e-mail addresses to a single Gmail account. But Gmail's vacation responder doesn't do a good job of...
Don’t try this at home: Implementing the e-mail vendetta
Today I declared war on e-mail. Well, not all e-mail: just the tyrannical assumption that we should all reply to every single message we reply. In a blog post for the Harvard Business Review, I called for a vendetta on the mandatory universal reply. That means...
Tied to technology
My latest toy is an iPod nano watch. It's just a plain old iPod nano, but it slides onto a watch strap specially designed to watch-ify it. I loved it for being red and iSomething and tiny but even so I wasn't particularly sure that it was a wise (read: financially...
Kenneth Cole’s Social Media Marketing Lesson
Milions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo…
Could you imagine life without Facebook?
Progressive Media Concepts recently posted an interesting question: What Would You Do If Facebook Shut Down Tomorrow? One I recovered from my blackout (it's my body's automatic self-defense mechanism when faced with the unthinkable) I read on, curious to hear PWC's...
Internet tunes: Craiglist Hookup – Missed Connections
Kate Allen has a great article in yesterday's Toronto Star about the phenomenon that is Craigslist's Missed Connections. It features the true story of a couple who met through MC two years ago...so yes, you can find love that way. Kate interviewed me for the story,...
The Harvard Business Review
How Twitter filters can help you cope with your fear of missing out
UPDATE: Seesmic is now part of Hootsuite, which doesn't support filtering based on excluding keywords. So during SXSW, I use Tweetdeck, which lets you filter a stream to exclude any tweet that includes a specific term. If you've been using Facebook, Twitter,...
11 surprising insights into the future of mobile & BlackBerry from Tyler Lessard, VP of RIM
Tonight I attended presentation by Tyler Lessard VP of Developer Relations for RIM. There are 3 million downloads daily from BlackBerry store even though they have a fraction of the number of apps available on the Android and iPhone stores. ESPN reports more traffic...
Using your e-mail signature to fight inbox overload
It's day 5 of my vendetta on mandatory e-mail replies and I'm feeling the pain. On the one hand, I'm as committed as ever to changing the attitude that every e-mail needs a response -- an attitude that is totally out-of-step with every other channel of online...
Mindful of social media
Lori Deschene of TinyBuddha has a fantastic post on 10 Mindful Ways to Use Social Media at Tricycle. It's hard to pick just one to share but if I have to... If you propose to tweet, always ask yourself: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? Sometimes we post...
Two tweaks for your e-mail vendetta auto-responder
Yesterday I set up a vacation responder as part of my e-mail vendetta. If you're thinking of doing the same, you might note a couple of tweaks: I forward multiple e-mail addresses to a single Gmail account. But Gmail's vacation responder doesn't do a good job of...
Don’t try this at home: Implementing the e-mail vendetta
Today I declared war on e-mail. Well, not all e-mail: just the tyrannical assumption that we should all reply to every single message we reply. In a blog post for the Harvard Business Review, I called for a vendetta on the mandatory universal reply. That means...
Tied to technology
My latest toy is an iPod nano watch. It's just a plain old iPod nano, but it slides onto a watch strap specially designed to watch-ify it. I loved it for being red and iSomething and tiny but even so I wasn't particularly sure that it was a wise (read: financially...
Kenneth Cole’s Social Media Marketing Lesson
Milions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo…
Could you imagine life without Facebook?
Progressive Media Concepts recently posted an interesting question: What Would You Do If Facebook Shut Down Tomorrow? One I recovered from my blackout (it's my body's automatic self-defense mechanism when faced with the unthinkable) I read on, curious to hear PWC's...
Internet tunes: Craiglist Hookup – Missed Connections
Kate Allen has a great article in yesterday's Toronto Star about the phenomenon that is Craigslist's Missed Connections. It features the true story of a couple who met through MC two years ago...so yes, you can find love that way. Kate interviewed me for the story,...
OneZero
The 3 essential questions every blogger should answer
Any blogger — newbie or pro — should be able to answer these three essential questions about his or her blog.
5 questions that will make the most of your social media vacation
Do you suspect that taking a brief or extended break from the Internet would make you happier, smarter or taller? Tackle these 5 questions to get the most from your social media vacation.
10 challenging perspectives on social media & the Vancouver riots
The past week has been a laboratory in the power and limitations of online dialogue. While I have been troubled by the number of simplistic, hostile or unconsidered posts and comments about crowdsourcing the identification of rioters, I have more often been astounded...
Riot vigilantes speak for themselves
In the past couple of days I've heard from people who were initially enthusiastic about the crowdsourcing of rioter identification, but now see the concern with this kind of vigilantism. I'd love to take credit, but I'm not the most convincing voice in this argument....
Crowdsourced repression: Could it happen here?
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...
On the dangers of crowdsourced surveillance
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...
8 ways to beat the urgency trap in online communications
In a thoughtful post about The Pitfalls of social media, Aleksandr Voinov writes Social Media exerts pressure on us to do things immediately and respond to everything immediately. I'm not sure about you, but sometimes I like to think things through and discuss it with...
5 signs that you’ve mastered the art of online discretion
I sometimes think that the most useful preparation for my career in social media came not from my academic research into online politics, but rather, my practical experience with electoral politics. Working on the political staff of a senior elected official (the...
JSTOR DAILY
The 3 essential questions every blogger should answer
Any blogger — newbie or pro — should be able to answer these three essential questions about his or her blog.
5 questions that will make the most of your social media vacation
Do you suspect that taking a brief or extended break from the Internet would make you happier, smarter or taller? Tackle these 5 questions to get the most from your social media vacation.
10 challenging perspectives on social media & the Vancouver riots
The past week has been a laboratory in the power and limitations of online dialogue. While I have been troubled by the number of simplistic, hostile or unconsidered posts and comments about crowdsourcing the identification of rioters, I have more often been astounded...
Riot vigilantes speak for themselves
In the past couple of days I've heard from people who were initially enthusiastic about the crowdsourcing of rioter identification, but now see the concern with this kind of vigilantism. I'd love to take credit, but I'm not the most convincing voice in this argument....
Crowdsourced repression: Could it happen here?
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...
On the dangers of crowdsourced surveillance
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...
8 ways to beat the urgency trap in online communications
In a thoughtful post about The Pitfalls of social media, Aleksandr Voinov writes Social Media exerts pressure on us to do things immediately and respond to everything immediately. I'm not sure about you, but sometimes I like to think things through and discuss it with...
5 signs that you’ve mastered the art of online discretion
I sometimes think that the most useful preparation for my career in social media came not from my academic research into online politics, but rather, my practical experience with electoral politics. Working on the political staff of a senior elected official (the...
THE VERGE
End those digital fasts with these 5 April Fool’s Day pranks
Well, folks, it's almost that time again: Easter. Also known as the end of Lent. Or what should be known as national coming out day for all the people who've just spent the past 40 days doing some kind of digital fast. They inevitably come back with a desire to...
NSF Political Science cuts fail to predict the unpredictability of research
On March 20 the Senate de-funded political science grants from the National Science Foundation “except for research projects that the Director of the National Science Foundation certifies as promoting national security or the economic interests of the United States.”...
The 23 stages of the task management software lifecycle
Totally on top of all pending tasks Moderate slippage of select tasks leads to mild anxiety Catastrophic failure to complete one or more mission-critical tasks leads to wholesale re-evaluation of career choice, self-worth and why are we even on this earth anyhow?...
3 tricks for monitoring Twitter mentions and trackbacks
The brilliant Lauren Bacon made a big splash yesterday with her thought-provoking post on the emotional work that often gets assigned to women working in the tech world. The response to that post has been so massive that it's left her with a challenge: how do you...