Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
10 tips on how to make a great iPad app (live blog)
I'm live blogging the news app demonstrations at Hacks/Hackers Unite, where we are seeing a variety of interesting applications for news gathering and delivery. Just as interesting, we're hearing the panel of judges reflect on what makes a compelling app, so I'm going...
Demo apps for iPad news (live blog)
I'm at Hacks Hackers Unite, where a group of eighty journalists ("hacks") and software developers ("hackers") have spent the weekend building demo apps that show the possibilities for news gathering and delivery on the iPad. You won't be able to download these apps...
My latest for Oprah.com: Is an iPad Right for Your Family?
"I got an iPad!" my daughter announces to a friend. "No honey, I got an iPad," I remind her. The argument over who the iPad belongs to is just one of the many wrinkles in our new life as The iPad Family. Self-serve movie watching, GodFinger addiction, bedtime stories...
The problem with social media “reputation management”
If you've been tracking the rise of social media services, you may have noticed how many are pitched as reputation management. "Reputation" is really just an efficient way of saying "what other people think about you". And if you look at just about any spiritual...
The return of “I don’t know”
Fifteen years ago, "I don't know" was a regular part of our vocabulary. And then it all changed. I remember the night, shortly after I got my first high-speed connection, when a group of my friends were over and got into a conversation about Clifford the Big Red Dog....
Missing out on Twitter
I made a number of confessions in my Northern Voice talk on Coping with Social Media, and in Gillian Shaw's related story for the Vancouver Sun. But the one that was met with the most surprise -- and in a couple of cases, horror -- was the revelation that I no longer...
Still social after all these years
Ron Burnett has an interesting blog post on whether Twitter (and other social media) are really social. Ron is the President of Emily Carr University, where I run the Social + Interactive Media Centre. The crux of his argument is that Twitter is not as conversational...
5 solutions for coping with social media
Read Gillian Shaw's story about my social media methodology in the Vancouver Sun. Is social media something you have to cope with? Or is social media something that can help you cope? In my talk today at the Northern Voice blogging conference, I made my best case for...
6 Ways to Get Wired and Inspired
We tend to think of setting goals and seeking inspiration as highly personal. But achieving our goals is not always a solitary pursuit: The encouragement and resources of a larger community can help us do something we couldn’t do alone. Your computer can support both sides of this equation.
On Oprah.com: What to do on Twitter when you’re getting started
This post for Oprah.com shows what to do on Twitter when you’re getting started. Learn the basics of using Twitter, like how to find great people to follow, or check out this Twitter glossary.
The Harvard Business Review
10 tips on how to make a great iPad app (live blog)
I'm live blogging the news app demonstrations at Hacks/Hackers Unite, where we are seeing a variety of interesting applications for news gathering and delivery. Just as interesting, we're hearing the panel of judges reflect on what makes a compelling app, so I'm going...
Demo apps for iPad news (live blog)
I'm at Hacks Hackers Unite, where a group of eighty journalists ("hacks") and software developers ("hackers") have spent the weekend building demo apps that show the possibilities for news gathering and delivery on the iPad. You won't be able to download these apps...
My latest for Oprah.com: Is an iPad Right for Your Family?
"I got an iPad!" my daughter announces to a friend. "No honey, I got an iPad," I remind her. The argument over who the iPad belongs to is just one of the many wrinkles in our new life as The iPad Family. Self-serve movie watching, GodFinger addiction, bedtime stories...
The problem with social media “reputation management”
If you've been tracking the rise of social media services, you may have noticed how many are pitched as reputation management. "Reputation" is really just an efficient way of saying "what other people think about you". And if you look at just about any spiritual...
The return of “I don’t know”
Fifteen years ago, "I don't know" was a regular part of our vocabulary. And then it all changed. I remember the night, shortly after I got my first high-speed connection, when a group of my friends were over and got into a conversation about Clifford the Big Red Dog....
Missing out on Twitter
I made a number of confessions in my Northern Voice talk on Coping with Social Media, and in Gillian Shaw's related story for the Vancouver Sun. But the one that was met with the most surprise -- and in a couple of cases, horror -- was the revelation that I no longer...
Still social after all these years
Ron Burnett has an interesting blog post on whether Twitter (and other social media) are really social. Ron is the President of Emily Carr University, where I run the Social + Interactive Media Centre. The crux of his argument is that Twitter is not as conversational...
5 solutions for coping with social media
Read Gillian Shaw's story about my social media methodology in the Vancouver Sun. Is social media something you have to cope with? Or is social media something that can help you cope? In my talk today at the Northern Voice blogging conference, I made my best case for...
6 Ways to Get Wired and Inspired
We tend to think of setting goals and seeking inspiration as highly personal. But achieving our goals is not always a solitary pursuit: The encouragement and resources of a larger community can help us do something we couldn’t do alone. Your computer can support both sides of this equation.
On Oprah.com: What to do on Twitter when you’re getting started
This post for Oprah.com shows what to do on Twitter when you’re getting started. Learn the basics of using Twitter, like how to find great people to follow, or check out this Twitter glossary.
OneZero
How to automatically organize your Mac’s bittorrents with Plex, Transmission, Automatic and Hazel
Ingredients for a Mac home media center (or two)
Welcome to the 2010 Home Media Center Overhaul and Documentation Festival
How Social Media Can Sustain Your Friendships (from Oprah.com)
This blog post originally appeared on Oprah.com. "I'm writing because I'm an old friend of Angel J.," the e-mail said. "I see from your site that you know her; can you put us in touch?" It wasn't the first time we'd served as a point of reintroduction. Our wedding...
Warning: Common sense on Twitter
It was bound to happen sooner or later: someone has actually offered some actually human level, common sense about RTs. You know RTs: "retweets", the Twitter equivalent of blowing a kiss, or maybe it's more like picking the lice out of someone's hair and eating it....
Where are you at?
I have become so habituated to referring to people in my tweets as @robcottingham, @morganbrayton, @kk etc. that I'm starting to think of "at" as part of my friends' names. You know, the way Spanish names often include "de la" or Hebrew names include a "Ben" this or...
The next frontier in hierarchy-busting with social media
Lots of organizations suffer from the pain of incorporating social media into command-and-control structures. The very structures that were once a source of organizational efficiencies are not only superceded by technologies that make those efficiences irrelevant;...
Wanted: LadyJoiners
My life is basically a series of social network and web app sign-ups, with a few friends, colleagues and tasks stuffed into the interstitial moments. So the arrival this week of Path -- what some people might consider YAFSN (Yet Another F*ing Social Network) -- was my...
JSTOR DAILY
How to automatically organize your Mac’s bittorrents with Plex, Transmission, Automatic and Hazel
Ingredients for a Mac home media center (or two)
Welcome to the 2010 Home Media Center Overhaul and Documentation Festival
How Social Media Can Sustain Your Friendships (from Oprah.com)
This blog post originally appeared on Oprah.com. "I'm writing because I'm an old friend of Angel J.," the e-mail said. "I see from your site that you know her; can you put us in touch?" It wasn't the first time we'd served as a point of reintroduction. Our wedding...
Warning: Common sense on Twitter
It was bound to happen sooner or later: someone has actually offered some actually human level, common sense about RTs. You know RTs: "retweets", the Twitter equivalent of blowing a kiss, or maybe it's more like picking the lice out of someone's hair and eating it....
Where are you at?
I have become so habituated to referring to people in my tweets as @robcottingham, @morganbrayton, @kk etc. that I'm starting to think of "at" as part of my friends' names. You know, the way Spanish names often include "de la" or Hebrew names include a "Ben" this or...
The next frontier in hierarchy-busting with social media
Lots of organizations suffer from the pain of incorporating social media into command-and-control structures. The very structures that were once a source of organizational efficiencies are not only superceded by technologies that make those efficiences irrelevant;...
Wanted: LadyJoiners
My life is basically a series of social network and web app sign-ups, with a few friends, colleagues and tasks stuffed into the interstitial moments. So the arrival this week of Path -- what some people might consider YAFSN (Yet Another F*ing Social Network) -- was my...
THE VERGE
6 qualities to look for in an online date or offline mate
[Online dating] sites tend to emphasize similarity on psychological variables like personality (e.g., matching extroverts with extroverts and introverts with introverts) and attitudes (e.g., matching people who prefer Judd Apatow’s movies to Woody Allen’s with people...
5 online calendars your family can’t live without
If you think online calendaring is for scheduling business meetings, appointments and the occasional lunch date, you're missing out. Online calendars can also be a great way to bring order to the chaos of family life -- if you create or subscribe to the essential...
Focus on your priorities with O.M.F.T.
Last night I was delighted to participate in a panel hosted by Canadian Women in Communications, speaking alongside Rebecca Bollwitt (aka Miss 604) and Gillian Shaw of the Vancouver Sun. CWC President Stephanie MacKendrick did a terrific job of eliciting our...
For Harvard Business book: How do you reward yourself at work?
How do you reward or motivate yourself to complete a task or project? I'm tackling this question in one of my pieces for a forthcoming edition of Harvard Business Review's Getting the Right Work Done. And I'd love your help. Maybe you're the kind of person who takes a...