Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Using ecosystems to model the abundance of the Internet
John Naughton had a remarkably thoughtful and useful piece in the Observer this weekend, Everything you need to know about the internet. He covers what he deems the nine essential truths you have to understand about life online, and while that may be overreaching, he...
Putting a price on friendship
I'll give you $2 for the guy you talked to at an office party last week. The friend you play hockey with every weekend, on the other hand, is worth $75. Your college roommate? She'll net you a cool $1,000. If the idea of assigning a price tag to each of your friends...
How to find support online during life’s big passages (for Oprah.com)
Friends are there to share your celebrations, support you through difficult transitions, and mourn your losses. Social media enable that sharing and support in new ways, across distances that would formerly exclude people who are far away but dear to your heart. Find out how to get the support you need online.
A practice to make your online friendships more meaningful
I wonder if technology and social media has compressed our relationships into a process that we can barely recognize? That question is at the heart of Rhett Smith's thoughtful blog post, Technology: Connected, Yet Lonelier Than Ever. He argues that by making it so...
Techsperiment days 3 & 4: going out without Twitter
Our effort at keeping devices off during family time -- roughly three hours a night -- continues. The biggest challenge of day 4 came when I realized it was 5 pm, and I'd yet to log day 3. Would I grant myself an exception, and blog for a few minutes so that day 3...
Popplet brings mind mapping to the iPad
"It's only for content consumers, not content creators." That charge was leveled at the iPad even before it hit the stores. Now that it's in all our grubby little hands, there seems to be some truth to the argument. My husband has gotten great mileage out of his iPad...
5 questions that will change how your grown (or little) kid thinks about technology
If you want to affect your kids’ relationship to technology, you need to do it through conversation, and not by handing down edicts or advice. Here are five questions you can ask your kids to start a meaningful conversation about technology, whatever their age.
How to use your RSS reader to enhance community
How to use your RSS reader so that it strengthens your connection to community, and helps build the kind of society you want to live in.
Your social media friends are your real friends
Diana Adams is one of a growing number of social media junkies who have experimented with taking some time off from the web. She describes "hitting a wall" with her social media use and online relationships, and taking 8 days off from the net so that she could put...
Techsperiment day 1: the difficulty of unplugging with kids
24 hours into our vow to unplug -- for just 3 hours a day! -- and I am the weakest link. We've sworn to give up computers, iPhones and iPads between 6-9 every night ("family time") but it's day one and I'm already struggling. And that's after our daughter did a good...
The Harvard Business Review
Using ecosystems to model the abundance of the Internet
John Naughton had a remarkably thoughtful and useful piece in the Observer this weekend, Everything you need to know about the internet. He covers what he deems the nine essential truths you have to understand about life online, and while that may be overreaching, he...
Putting a price on friendship
I'll give you $2 for the guy you talked to at an office party last week. The friend you play hockey with every weekend, on the other hand, is worth $75. Your college roommate? She'll net you a cool $1,000. If the idea of assigning a price tag to each of your friends...
How to find support online during life’s big passages (for Oprah.com)
Friends are there to share your celebrations, support you through difficult transitions, and mourn your losses. Social media enable that sharing and support in new ways, across distances that would formerly exclude people who are far away but dear to your heart. Find out how to get the support you need online.
A practice to make your online friendships more meaningful
I wonder if technology and social media has compressed our relationships into a process that we can barely recognize? That question is at the heart of Rhett Smith's thoughtful blog post, Technology: Connected, Yet Lonelier Than Ever. He argues that by making it so...
Techsperiment days 3 & 4: going out without Twitter
Our effort at keeping devices off during family time -- roughly three hours a night -- continues. The biggest challenge of day 4 came when I realized it was 5 pm, and I'd yet to log day 3. Would I grant myself an exception, and blog for a few minutes so that day 3...
Popplet brings mind mapping to the iPad
"It's only for content consumers, not content creators." That charge was leveled at the iPad even before it hit the stores. Now that it's in all our grubby little hands, there seems to be some truth to the argument. My husband has gotten great mileage out of his iPad...
5 questions that will change how your grown (or little) kid thinks about technology
If you want to affect your kids’ relationship to technology, you need to do it through conversation, and not by handing down edicts or advice. Here are five questions you can ask your kids to start a meaningful conversation about technology, whatever their age.
How to use your RSS reader to enhance community
How to use your RSS reader so that it strengthens your connection to community, and helps build the kind of society you want to live in.
Your social media friends are your real friends
Diana Adams is one of a growing number of social media junkies who have experimented with taking some time off from the web. She describes "hitting a wall" with her social media use and online relationships, and taking 8 days off from the net so that she could put...
Techsperiment day 1: the difficulty of unplugging with kids
24 hours into our vow to unplug -- for just 3 hours a day! -- and I am the weakest link. We've sworn to give up computers, iPhones and iPads between 6-9 every night ("family time") but it's day one and I'm already struggling. And that's after our daughter did a good...
OneZero
AFTER e-mail: 5 steps to moving task management out of your inbox
How the other half goes offline
Between the Christmas break and the season of New Year's resolutions, I was braced for a flurry of blog posts about the merits of unplugging -- a phenomenon I was already tired of by the end of last summer, as I wrote about for HBR. So imagine my delight when I read...
Today in HBR: 6 social media choices you have to make in 2011
What am I choosing to do on the Web? That's one of the key choices you'll need to make this year, as we set the course for how social media will integrate into our lives and reshape the world. In my blog post today for HBR, Social Media in 2011: Six Choices You Need...
5 life lessons you can learn from emptying your inbox
You’ve probably got a handful of e-mails that are still in your inbox because you are, on some level, avoiding them. These e-mails, more than anything else, illuminate your core personal or professional blocks. Forcing yourself through them — the way you have to in order to empty your inbox — is not just a path to e-mail efficiency, but a very meaningful exercise in character-building. Here are some of the lessons that may lie waiting in your inbox.
4 steps to unsubscribing from unwanted e-mail
How to create Gmail labels that help empty your e-mail inbox
Day 6: Stop using your e-mail inbox as a post-it
TV for multi-tasking: 10 shows to help process your e-mail
JSTOR DAILY
AFTER e-mail: 5 steps to moving task management out of your inbox
How the other half goes offline
Between the Christmas break and the season of New Year's resolutions, I was braced for a flurry of blog posts about the merits of unplugging -- a phenomenon I was already tired of by the end of last summer, as I wrote about for HBR. So imagine my delight when I read...
Today in HBR: 6 social media choices you have to make in 2011
What am I choosing to do on the Web? That's one of the key choices you'll need to make this year, as we set the course for how social media will integrate into our lives and reshape the world. In my blog post today for HBR, Social Media in 2011: Six Choices You Need...
5 life lessons you can learn from emptying your inbox
You’ve probably got a handful of e-mails that are still in your inbox because you are, on some level, avoiding them. These e-mails, more than anything else, illuminate your core personal or professional blocks. Forcing yourself through them — the way you have to in order to empty your inbox — is not just a path to e-mail efficiency, but a very meaningful exercise in character-building. Here are some of the lessons that may lie waiting in your inbox.
4 steps to unsubscribing from unwanted e-mail
How to create Gmail labels that help empty your e-mail inbox
Day 6: Stop using your e-mail inbox as a post-it
TV for multi-tasking: 10 shows to help process your e-mail
THE VERGE
Towards a geography of digital memory
I'm in Toronto for a lightning trip, speaking tomorrow at a luncheon hosted by Women in Film & Television. Tonight I'm staying at the Sutton Place Hotel, which puts me at the epicentre of memory for my first 25 years of life. From the east-facing window of my...
Who Are You Online? A 360-Degree View
Who are you when you go online? That’s a question that goes way beyond how you feel in your own…
3 ways you can use Pinterest
In my Friday post for Harvard Business Review, I provided companies with some ideas about how they could use Pinterest to connect with customers. Today, I want to suggest 3 ways to use Pinterest personally: Compile a list of purchases before deciding what to buy; or...
3 features that would make Pinterest even more useful
Today in the Harvard Business Review, I invite companies to meet your Pinterest customer -- me! I've been using Pinterest for over a year, after I was introduced to it by Samantha Lefort, a talented designer and Emily Carr University alum. My experience using...