Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The 10 ingredients that make a great wifi café
Some people prowl the earth in search of the world’s greatest Don Giovanni; others look for the finest shoemaker, the best bookstore, the ideal glass of Pinot Noir. I put my energy where it counts: the search for the perfect wifi café. While I’ve yet to find my Holy 802.11b-enabled Grail, i have pinpointed what makes for the perfect, laptop-friendly coffee spot.
Best tech gadgets of 2009 (so far)
Our contribution to the economic recovery took the form of feverish technology purchasing throughout April, May and early June. Now that the dust and Visa bills have settled, it’s time to stop and rate the roses.
The ratings I’ve assinged to our past 6 months of tech investments aren’t based on assessments of comparative products — though every product on the list was purchased after reading other people’s reviews and comparative
How to use social media to recruit your dream hire
From Harvard Business Online: my post about how social media can help employers find the best people for their team.
10 action recommendations based on Industry Canada’s Digital Economy conference
Today’s Digital Economy conference has surfaced the hunger for a serious effort at moving Canada back into a leadership position in the global digital economy. As the day has unfolded, many people have noted that we need to meet that hunger with a concrete action plan. Here’s my first crack at a set of recommendations, guided by our experience in the emergent field of social media, for both action and further dialogue.
Social media questions for Industry Canada’s conference on Canada’s Digital Economy
I’m at a Canadian Government’s conference in Ottawa today on “Canada’s Digital Economy: Moving Forward“. Since the conference seems to consist largely of folks from the “traditional” tech world, I’m curious to see how the panelists and audience engage with the question of how social media changes the challenges and opportunities for Canadian IT.
6 ways to customize your Mac’s Finder and user experience
Happily, it’s easier to tweak your Mac than to upgrade your boyfriend or girlfriend. Here are some adjustments that any new Mac user should undertake, or at least consider, until your computer is exactly right for you.
![Tony nominee [title of show] is a case study in social media creativity](https://www.alexandrasamuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20090607-kqdh8auxx64w1q9ix4cx9fr3dr-1.png)
Tony nominee [title of show] is a case study in social media creativity
If you want to tap the expressive and marketing power of social media, you can learn a lot from the Tony-nominated [title of show].
12 questions for meaningful online conversations
My recent blog post for Harvard Business Online looks at how companies can best engage the Trojan Horse of social media, and it’s drawn some insightful comments.
4 Mac applications that make you more productive
Here are four Mac-only apps that will warm the heart of anyone who’s made the jump from Windows — and thrill long-time Mac users, too.
18 tools for effective social media participation on blogs and beyond
An overview of the tools I rely on to participate effectively in the thriving world of social media.
The Harvard Business Review
The 10 ingredients that make a great wifi café
Some people prowl the earth in search of the world’s greatest Don Giovanni; others look for the finest shoemaker, the best bookstore, the ideal glass of Pinot Noir. I put my energy where it counts: the search for the perfect wifi café. While I’ve yet to find my Holy 802.11b-enabled Grail, i have pinpointed what makes for the perfect, laptop-friendly coffee spot.
Best tech gadgets of 2009 (so far)
Our contribution to the economic recovery took the form of feverish technology purchasing throughout April, May and early June. Now that the dust and Visa bills have settled, it’s time to stop and rate the roses.
The ratings I’ve assinged to our past 6 months of tech investments aren’t based on assessments of comparative products — though every product on the list was purchased after reading other people’s reviews and comparative
How to use social media to recruit your dream hire
From Harvard Business Online: my post about how social media can help employers find the best people for their team.
10 action recommendations based on Industry Canada’s Digital Economy conference
Today’s Digital Economy conference has surfaced the hunger for a serious effort at moving Canada back into a leadership position in the global digital economy. As the day has unfolded, many people have noted that we need to meet that hunger with a concrete action plan. Here’s my first crack at a set of recommendations, guided by our experience in the emergent field of social media, for both action and further dialogue.
Social media questions for Industry Canada’s conference on Canada’s Digital Economy
I’m at a Canadian Government’s conference in Ottawa today on “Canada’s Digital Economy: Moving Forward“. Since the conference seems to consist largely of folks from the “traditional” tech world, I’m curious to see how the panelists and audience engage with the question of how social media changes the challenges and opportunities for Canadian IT.
6 ways to customize your Mac’s Finder and user experience
Happily, it’s easier to tweak your Mac than to upgrade your boyfriend or girlfriend. Here are some adjustments that any new Mac user should undertake, or at least consider, until your computer is exactly right for you.
Tony nominee [title of show] is a case study in social media creativity
If you want to tap the expressive and marketing power of social media, you can learn a lot from the Tony-nominated [title of show].
12 questions for meaningful online conversations
My recent blog post for Harvard Business Online looks at how companies can best engage the Trojan Horse of social media, and it’s drawn some insightful comments.
4 Mac applications that make you more productive
Here are four Mac-only apps that will warm the heart of anyone who’s made the jump from Windows — and thrill long-time Mac users, too.
18 tools for effective social media participation on blogs and beyond
An overview of the tools I rely on to participate effectively in the thriving world of social media.
OneZero
Twitter and be gay
Leone Kraus has a fantastic article that covers the particular social media challenges for LGBT folks. As she points out, a guy who keeps his sexual orientation off-the-radar at work may find himself outed online if he's tagged in a Facebook photo taken at a gay...
7 practices to strengthen your online presence
True online presence offers opportunities for authentic experience, connection and discovery; opportunities for joy and fulfillment. Practices like meditation, yoga and day-to-day mindfulness help cultivate the capacity for offline presence, so that we live our lives more fully. Now that we live so much of our lives online, we need similar practices for our networked time so that we can integrate our online moments into a meaningful life rather than experiencing them as moments deducted from our “real” lives. Here are some practices that foster online presence.
5 practices to humanize online communication
What we look like when we plug in
We all see them. Perhaps we are among the guilty ones. We see them at restaurants: Families at dinner; each member plugged into his or her iPad, iPhone or iPod. We see them at work: Colleagues texting and checking statuses on social networking sites while...
5 ways to get authentically naked
What’s the line between authenticity and over-disclosure? This post offers 5 ways you can keep track of the boundary between sharing and over-sharing.
Social media vs reality
There's been a lot of hand-wringing lately about how the Internet is impoverishing our minds, souls and relationships. But Matthew Gallion has written what may now be my favorite articulation of why we should worry about the web in his post on Social Media and the...
Family movie night: The 2×2
Like everything in life, the conundrum that is Family Movie Night can be reduced to a 2x2 table. Common Sense Media has solved a lot of our household media selection challenges, but it's yet to resolve this one. Your kids will find this movie... Appropriate for...
How to use Thesis to customize your teasers by page and category
I use the Thesis theme for my Wordpress blog. Thesis is much beloved in the Wordpress community because it allows a high degree of customization using its two pages of configuration menus, so even if you know nothing about PHP or CSS you can do a lot to customize your...
JSTOR DAILY
Twitter and be gay
Leone Kraus has a fantastic article that covers the particular social media challenges for LGBT folks. As she points out, a guy who keeps his sexual orientation off-the-radar at work may find himself outed online if he's tagged in a Facebook photo taken at a gay...
7 practices to strengthen your online presence
True online presence offers opportunities for authentic experience, connection and discovery; opportunities for joy and fulfillment. Practices like meditation, yoga and day-to-day mindfulness help cultivate the capacity for offline presence, so that we live our lives more fully. Now that we live so much of our lives online, we need similar practices for our networked time so that we can integrate our online moments into a meaningful life rather than experiencing them as moments deducted from our “real” lives. Here are some practices that foster online presence.
5 practices to humanize online communication
What we look like when we plug in
We all see them. Perhaps we are among the guilty ones. We see them at restaurants: Families at dinner; each member plugged into his or her iPad, iPhone or iPod. We see them at work: Colleagues texting and checking statuses on social networking sites while...
5 ways to get authentically naked
What’s the line between authenticity and over-disclosure? This post offers 5 ways you can keep track of the boundary between sharing and over-sharing.
Social media vs reality
There's been a lot of hand-wringing lately about how the Internet is impoverishing our minds, souls and relationships. But Matthew Gallion has written what may now be my favorite articulation of why we should worry about the web in his post on Social Media and the...
Family movie night: The 2×2
Like everything in life, the conundrum that is Family Movie Night can be reduced to a 2x2 table. Common Sense Media has solved a lot of our household media selection challenges, but it's yet to resolve this one. Your kids will find this movie... Appropriate for...
How to use Thesis to customize your teasers by page and category
I use the Thesis theme for my Wordpress blog. Thesis is much beloved in the Wordpress community because it allows a high degree of customization using its two pages of configuration menus, so even if you know nothing about PHP or CSS you can do a lot to customize your...
THE VERGE
Is online activism effective? 5 ways to ask (and answer) the question
Can social media catalyze or support political change? To answer that question, you have to understand who is asking, and what they really want to know. And it's the fundamental question we addressed today in a panel on social media and political activism at Meshwest...
The 6 great tech religions, and how to resist them
It's Friday night again: time for good Jews to light their sabbath candles, or in our family's religious tradition, to feel vaguely guilty for not even thinking of it. We lead highly secular lives, not because we're techno-centric geeks, but in spite of it. For all...
3 options for sharing an iTunes account under iCloud with your husband, wife or sweetie
If you had asked me on Friday whether I was in a committed relationship, I'd have said yes. I've been married to the same man for over 11 years, and we've been together for 14. Together we have two children, a business, a house, and multiple bank accounts. Not to...
9 ways the Internet can cheer your mood when you’re feeling sad
A rough day: we all have them. Yet no day is so rough that it should shake your faith in the Internet as, if not a universal cure, than a widely applicable balm. Here are 5 ways the Internet can cheer you up when you're blue: Create something. Upload a picture. Edit...