Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Choosing a widget control plugin for WordPress
For the past few months I have used the Widget Context plugin on my WordPress blog in order to control where widgets show up on my site. Everything you see in the two right-hand columns of my site is widget-based, as are the 3 columns that display teasers for featured...
The meaning of engagement
A great description of meaningful engagement from Chris Jones: True engagement requires more time and energy and active listening skills, but the resulting flow of information brings rich rewards. Insights begin to accumulate and multiply. Ideas get validated and...
Is social media just for married people?
Think Social is a blog from the Paley Center for Media that focuses on the public benefits of social media. It's an incredible blog and one that you must follow if you are looking for thoughtful reflection on both the social and political potential of social media....
Tips for avoiding social media compulsion
Chris Brogan's blog post, Your Blog is Not Your Job, contains some great tips on how keep blogging and social media from overtaking your primary work and focus. These include: Use an egg timer. If you’re going to venture out onto Twitter, time it. Keep a sticky note...
Can a mobile phone make you sane instead of crazy?
Aaron Bellve of Spit, Bristle and Fury (killer blog title, BTW!) has a thoughtful post about an NPR story on the dawn of therapy by mobile phone. Cell phones, rather than augmenting our human encounters, are replacing them and in something as complex, sensitive and...
Now on Oprah.com: Life passages online, plus an empty nest bonus
My latest blog post for Oprah.com talks about ways to get support during life passages. Whether you’re celebrating milestones like the birth of a baby, a marriage or a birthday, or confronting challenges like death or illness, I’ve got some pointers on how the web can help. This post looks at one passage in particular: your newly empty nest.
The virtues of losing touch
Google Buzz got slammed for prepopulating its users' friends lists based on their most frequent email correspondents. Facebook has taken heat for privacy settings that default to a high level of sharing. So what's the big deal about sharing stuff with people you know...
For Oprah.com: Should you get an iPad for kids?
This post for Oprah.com lists the 5 questions to ask about using an iPad for kids, so you can decide whether to get one for your family.
5 solutions to hyperthinking and hypertasking
While working my way through the consultation paper on Canada's Digital Advantage, I found myself: investigating the best way to copy and paste text from a PDF to Evernote, leading to an open browser window with a series of tabs about various options for Mac/Evernote...
On the limitations of dotcom culture
Graham Hatch's blog post about privacy issues at Google and Facebook includes some interesting musings on the dotcom world: I’ve long had a sense that there is an assumption in the dotcom world which deems that because they are inventing the future they don’t really...
The Harvard Business Review
Choosing a widget control plugin for WordPress
For the past few months I have used the Widget Context plugin on my WordPress blog in order to control where widgets show up on my site. Everything you see in the two right-hand columns of my site is widget-based, as are the 3 columns that display teasers for featured...
The meaning of engagement
A great description of meaningful engagement from Chris Jones: True engagement requires more time and energy and active listening skills, but the resulting flow of information brings rich rewards. Insights begin to accumulate and multiply. Ideas get validated and...
Is social media just for married people?
Think Social is a blog from the Paley Center for Media that focuses on the public benefits of social media. It's an incredible blog and one that you must follow if you are looking for thoughtful reflection on both the social and political potential of social media....
Tips for avoiding social media compulsion
Chris Brogan's blog post, Your Blog is Not Your Job, contains some great tips on how keep blogging and social media from overtaking your primary work and focus. These include: Use an egg timer. If you’re going to venture out onto Twitter, time it. Keep a sticky note...
Can a mobile phone make you sane instead of crazy?
Aaron Bellve of Spit, Bristle and Fury (killer blog title, BTW!) has a thoughtful post about an NPR story on the dawn of therapy by mobile phone. Cell phones, rather than augmenting our human encounters, are replacing them and in something as complex, sensitive and...
Now on Oprah.com: Life passages online, plus an empty nest bonus
My latest blog post for Oprah.com talks about ways to get support during life passages. Whether you’re celebrating milestones like the birth of a baby, a marriage or a birthday, or confronting challenges like death or illness, I’ve got some pointers on how the web can help. This post looks at one passage in particular: your newly empty nest.
The virtues of losing touch
Google Buzz got slammed for prepopulating its users' friends lists based on their most frequent email correspondents. Facebook has taken heat for privacy settings that default to a high level of sharing. So what's the big deal about sharing stuff with people you know...
For Oprah.com: Should you get an iPad for kids?
This post for Oprah.com lists the 5 questions to ask about using an iPad for kids, so you can decide whether to get one for your family.
5 solutions to hyperthinking and hypertasking
While working my way through the consultation paper on Canada's Digital Advantage, I found myself: investigating the best way to copy and paste text from a PDF to Evernote, leading to an open browser window with a series of tabs about various options for Mac/Evernote...
On the limitations of dotcom culture
Graham Hatch's blog post about privacy issues at Google and Facebook includes some interesting musings on the dotcom world: I’ve long had a sense that there is an assumption in the dotcom world which deems that because they are inventing the future they don’t really...
OneZero
Making sense of the Wikileaks backlash
The past week has seen a series of denial-of-service attacks on services like Paypal and Amazon, which have been characterized as a hacker retaliation for how these services have treated Wikileaks. Since I wrote my dissertation on hacktivism -- politically motivated...
The 5 questions to ask about online distraction
Whether you’re worried about the Internet’s impact on your attention span, or tired of hearing about how life online is driving us to distraction, these 5 questions will help you think more deeply about online distraction.
Social media insights from recent research
The more time college students spend online, the worst they do in their first semester....but they end up with better social lives. Facebook activism doesn't detract from offline activism: people who are politically active on Facebook are actually more politically...
Star Trek for kids
Many parents focus on preparing their children for a digital future by working on their basic math skills, helping them use a computer, or even teaching them the basics of programming. These parents are fools! If there is one thing I have learned from working with...
How your Facebook presence can inspire your friends and family
Over at The Hookup Column, Anna Lind Thomas concludes her list of Dos & Don'ts for Facebook status lines with the following: DO inspire, uplift, support and spread love. Anna's suggestion is a refreshing departure from the all-too-common focus on social media as...
The suffering of technology users
I love this paragraph because I think it distills and represents the pain and suffering so many people now feel around the role of technology in their lives: I like technology just as much as the next person, but sometimes I find myself feeling overwhelmed with it...
“Since I started blogging…”
I overhear more and more conversations about how people cope with their lives online. We talk about our day-to-day strategies for coping with e-mail overload. We gossip about our friends' Facebook profiles and worry about whether we should be joining the latest social...
Can documentation save the world?
Yesterday I wrapped up my 2010 Home Media Overhaul and Documentation Festival with a blog post on why to watch TV. But I left another unanswered question on the table: why document your TV setup? Documentation is somewhere between a neurosis and a calling for me. As...
JSTOR DAILY
Making sense of the Wikileaks backlash
The past week has seen a series of denial-of-service attacks on services like Paypal and Amazon, which have been characterized as a hacker retaliation for how these services have treated Wikileaks. Since I wrote my dissertation on hacktivism -- politically motivated...
The 5 questions to ask about online distraction
Whether you’re worried about the Internet’s impact on your attention span, or tired of hearing about how life online is driving us to distraction, these 5 questions will help you think more deeply about online distraction.
Social media insights from recent research
The more time college students spend online, the worst they do in their first semester....but they end up with better social lives. Facebook activism doesn't detract from offline activism: people who are politically active on Facebook are actually more politically...
Star Trek for kids
Many parents focus on preparing their children for a digital future by working on their basic math skills, helping them use a computer, or even teaching them the basics of programming. These parents are fools! If there is one thing I have learned from working with...
How your Facebook presence can inspire your friends and family
Over at The Hookup Column, Anna Lind Thomas concludes her list of Dos & Don'ts for Facebook status lines with the following: DO inspire, uplift, support and spread love. Anna's suggestion is a refreshing departure from the all-too-common focus on social media as...
The suffering of technology users
I love this paragraph because I think it distills and represents the pain and suffering so many people now feel around the role of technology in their lives: I like technology just as much as the next person, but sometimes I find myself feeling overwhelmed with it...
“Since I started blogging…”
I overhear more and more conversations about how people cope with their lives online. We talk about our day-to-day strategies for coping with e-mail overload. We gossip about our friends' Facebook profiles and worry about whether we should be joining the latest social...
Can documentation save the world?
Yesterday I wrapped up my 2010 Home Media Overhaul and Documentation Festival with a blog post on why to watch TV. But I left another unanswered question on the table: why document your TV setup? Documentation is somewhere between a neurosis and a calling for me. As...
THE VERGE
Be the e-mailer you wish to see in the world
How many people do you receive e-mail from that you read and reply to every single time? I'm guessing it's just a handful: Your best friend -- the one who sends you short periodic updates with a single recent photo, not the one who sends you weekly 2-pagers. The...
5 commandments for your digital fast this Lent
I'm not really a Lent kinda gal. (It may have something to do with me being Jewish.) But for the past few years, I've felt increasingly Lent-aware, because of the sheer number of people who now seem to give up Facebook for Lent (but then tweet about it), email for...
Tweet if you like to procrastinate
I am always amazed at how much I get done on my focused writing days -- the days when I leave the office and camp in one of the cafés or restaurants where ambient noise helps me concentrate and write, write, write. But it's not my word count that amazes me: it's all...
Taking a Pinterest in Emily Carr University, in & out of the bathroom
Emily Carr University has birthed a couple of major obsessions for me over the past year. Online, I have explored ways to use Pinterest, an image curating site, thanks to Emily Carr student (now alum!) Samantha Lefort. Offline, I have delighted in our bathroom...