Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The message of usability
Completing an online form that reminds me that when you're the one GIVING the money out, there's no pressure to create good user experience. I celebrated Valentine's Day the traditional way this year: filling out a really terrible online form for a funding...
The beauty of baffling
It's the nature of Twitter that you baffle half the people who follow you & are baffled by half the folks you follow. I wrote this tonight in response to an old friend who was teasing me about finding half my tweets baffling. It's a comment I get a lot, often from...
An open source bedtime story
Tonight my daughter, a.k.a. Little Sweetie, requested a bedtime story that was "more educational". (Apparently she didn't like my version of the Three Little Pigs, in which the Big Bad Wolf helps the pigs with their unwanted facial hair.) After trying her on the...
We tweet: 6 ways Twitter can strengthen your love
A few weeks ago Rob and I went out for dinner at r.tl, which must have the best URL of any restaurant in the world. A waitress brought us our menus, and asked if we'd eaten there before. "We were here for Valentine's Day," I said. "Actually, I think you were our...
Using Twitter to create social media content that boosts SEO
With so many businesses looking to tap the power of social media -- and so many experts interested in selling to them -- it's no wonder that headlines like this one flourish across the web. Promise people bottom-line maximizing, brand-leveraging, social-media-packed...
Need a woman for your all-male SXSW panel?
I'm looking forward to this year's SXSW (including lots of panels featuring great women), but I've noticed that the all-male panel is alive and well. I'd like to offer up my XX chromosomes (among other qualities) to round out one of the already-scheduled panels...and...
5 ways social media can help you learn to say no (for HBR)
Subject: Join our new working group? Subject: Time to meet for coffee? Subject: Beta invitation for new web app Subject: Sign up for 2010 lecture series? If your January inbox looks like mine, it's full of requests and invitations. The problem with the New Year's...
How great editing motivates great user-generated content
When a business or organization takes on its first social media project, the communications team typically worries about how to handle a deluge of negative comments or inappropriate content. Rob and I always tell people that what they should worry about is the exact...
The meaning of friendship, on- and offline
This weekend was the first time I found myself on the receiving end of Facebook's new and more nuanced privacy settings. An old friend popped up in the Facebook sidebar, which rotates an assortment of different people in your friend list. On a whim, I clicked her...
9 ways social media can support your creativity
Creativity often demands social connection: for support, for feedback, for collaborators. Social media can help.
The Harvard Business Review
The message of usability
Completing an online form that reminds me that when you're the one GIVING the money out, there's no pressure to create good user experience. I celebrated Valentine's Day the traditional way this year: filling out a really terrible online form for a funding...
The beauty of baffling
It's the nature of Twitter that you baffle half the people who follow you & are baffled by half the folks you follow. I wrote this tonight in response to an old friend who was teasing me about finding half my tweets baffling. It's a comment I get a lot, often from...
An open source bedtime story
Tonight my daughter, a.k.a. Little Sweetie, requested a bedtime story that was "more educational". (Apparently she didn't like my version of the Three Little Pigs, in which the Big Bad Wolf helps the pigs with their unwanted facial hair.) After trying her on the...
We tweet: 6 ways Twitter can strengthen your love
A few weeks ago Rob and I went out for dinner at r.tl, which must have the best URL of any restaurant in the world. A waitress brought us our menus, and asked if we'd eaten there before. "We were here for Valentine's Day," I said. "Actually, I think you were our...
Using Twitter to create social media content that boosts SEO
With so many businesses looking to tap the power of social media -- and so many experts interested in selling to them -- it's no wonder that headlines like this one flourish across the web. Promise people bottom-line maximizing, brand-leveraging, social-media-packed...
Need a woman for your all-male SXSW panel?
I'm looking forward to this year's SXSW (including lots of panels featuring great women), but I've noticed that the all-male panel is alive and well. I'd like to offer up my XX chromosomes (among other qualities) to round out one of the already-scheduled panels...and...
5 ways social media can help you learn to say no (for HBR)
Subject: Join our new working group? Subject: Time to meet for coffee? Subject: Beta invitation for new web app Subject: Sign up for 2010 lecture series? If your January inbox looks like mine, it's full of requests and invitations. The problem with the New Year's...
How great editing motivates great user-generated content
When a business or organization takes on its first social media project, the communications team typically worries about how to handle a deluge of negative comments or inappropriate content. Rob and I always tell people that what they should worry about is the exact...
The meaning of friendship, on- and offline
This weekend was the first time I found myself on the receiving end of Facebook's new and more nuanced privacy settings. An old friend popped up in the Facebook sidebar, which rotates an assortment of different people in your friend list. On a whim, I clicked her...
9 ways social media can support your creativity
Creativity often demands social connection: for support, for feedback, for collaborators. Social media can help.
OneZero
Social media for journalists: 10 ways to use Evernote
A social media resource for moms (and dads)
Nicole Cottrell has undertaken a three-part blog series, 15 ways moms can use social media. Judging from the first part, which went online today, it's going to have lots of great ideas. Here are a couple of my favorite parts: Try using your personal Twitter, Facebook,...
A new social media platform for gay rights reminds us what’s possible with social media
A "developer wanted" posting on Drupal.org pointed me towards a new start-up that plans to use the power of social networking to advance LGBT rights. Here's the more descriptive pitch on the FriendFactor website: Once we launch, people who are LGBT can set up profiles...
Talking about grown-up love online
One of the great miracles of my life is the affection between our two kids. As an only child myself, I always feared the prospective challenge of playing referee among multiple offspring. From what I could see of multi-child families, parenting siblings looked not...
The 10 best tool collections for delicious users
Last week I celebrated my sixth anniversary. No, not my wedding anniversary (we hit number 10 this summer); and not the anniversary of our business (our fifth birthday was a couple of weeks ago). Last week was my delicious anniversary, and after six years I can say...
The small organization’s guide to investing in social media
How a small organization can build a content-driven social media presence
The 5 requirements for using RSS aggregation to build your online presence
If your organization’s online audience is smaller than a million, an aggregation-based web site may be your best best for creating a lively social media presence. This posts maps out the 5 essential ingredients for a successful aggregation strategy.
JSTOR DAILY
Social media for journalists: 10 ways to use Evernote
A social media resource for moms (and dads)
Nicole Cottrell has undertaken a three-part blog series, 15 ways moms can use social media. Judging from the first part, which went online today, it's going to have lots of great ideas. Here are a couple of my favorite parts: Try using your personal Twitter, Facebook,...
A new social media platform for gay rights reminds us what’s possible with social media
A "developer wanted" posting on Drupal.org pointed me towards a new start-up that plans to use the power of social networking to advance LGBT rights. Here's the more descriptive pitch on the FriendFactor website: Once we launch, people who are LGBT can set up profiles...
Talking about grown-up love online
One of the great miracles of my life is the affection between our two kids. As an only child myself, I always feared the prospective challenge of playing referee among multiple offspring. From what I could see of multi-child families, parenting siblings looked not...
The 10 best tool collections for delicious users
Last week I celebrated my sixth anniversary. No, not my wedding anniversary (we hit number 10 this summer); and not the anniversary of our business (our fifth birthday was a couple of weeks ago). Last week was my delicious anniversary, and after six years I can say...
The small organization’s guide to investing in social media
How a small organization can build a content-driven social media presence
The 5 requirements for using RSS aggregation to build your online presence
If your organization’s online audience is smaller than a million, an aggregation-based web site may be your best best for creating a lively social media presence. This posts maps out the 5 essential ingredients for a successful aggregation strategy.
THE VERGE
Video: 10 reasons to stop apologizing for your online life
It's time to stop apologizing for your life online. That was the central message of my talk at TEDx Victoria in November, now on YouTube. From valuing your online attention to taking your online creativity seriously as real art, I argue that we can only unlock the...
Excel template: 7 steps to achieving your goals
Do you have trouble making good on your New Year's resolutions? Do you have a hard time staying focused on your most important work? Do you simply get overwhelmed by all the tasks on your plate, and worry about how to get them all done? When I'm trying to stay on...
Social media gives information workers the experience of materiality
Today's practice: If you haven't created something lately, try creating something online. At our all-university kick-off meeting for Emily Carr's spring semester, President Ron Burnett talked about the university's work in terms of materiality; in terms of the work,...
How self-reliance hurts online community
Today's practice: The next time you spend more than 15 minutes struggling with a tech challenge, stop trying to solve it yourself and ask someone for help. When our home media server froze as we were trying to watch a mother-daughter show tonight, I swung into...