Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Hats off to the BCTF
The BC Teachers' strike hit home today, with CUPE picketing in support of the teachers even as some prospect for reconciliation has emerged. Our daughter's daycare was closed so that staff could respect CUPE's picket lines. But I have to admit that despite the...
Everything I needed to know about community engagement I learned from Flying Meat
Flying Meat is the software company behind VooDooPad, my latest favorite application ever. VooDooPad is one of those transformational technologies that do one small but crucial thing so incredibly way that they change the whole way you work. In this case, what...
Wanted: Office & Web Manager for community-minded web company
For more details visit http://www.socialsignal.com/hiring If you're organized, enjoy working with technology, and want your work to have social value, you could be the newest member of Social Signal (http://www.socialsignal.com). We're a Vancouver web company that...
Aggregation as an endless loop
Here's a challenge for wiser RSS-wranglers than I: as aggregation becomes a more widely used tool for populating web sites, how do we prevent RSS feeds from being cluttered with multiple identical posts? I was just looking at the Technorati tag page for net2, where a...
Community goes corporate
Boyd Neil of Hill & Knowlton has written a very kind and thought-provoking post in response to the launch of Social Signal. Boyd's observation is that corporate communicators have a lot to learn from social movements and community activists about how to use the...
Introducing Social Signal: collaboration for communities
I'm delighted to announce the launch of Social Signal. Social Signal's goal is to support online communities and distributed collaboration networks -- networks of communities that share content and relationships by using the latest generation of web tools. This...
Latest project: TechSoup/CompuMentor
My latest venture in the fabulous world of Web 2.0 is helping CompuMentor -- home of TechSoup -- set up an online community in conjunction with an event they are organizing for next spring. Job one? Use this post to check whether the aggregation is working.
What Google blog search doesn’t have
Rob highlights its pros and cons. How could he forget to mention its gravest oversight: no rankings! Or is this a desperate hope that the ascendance of Google could change the domestic balance of power?
National Conversation now online
Politics Online has launched theNational Conversation project, which aims at engaging Americans in dialogue about major national issues (in the first instance, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina). I like the effort to encourage multimedia contributions, and to allow people to...
10 ways RSS can help build online communities
Non-governmental organizations seeking to strengthen relationships with members. Governments trying to reach out to citizens. Businesses hoping to engage and win the loyalty of customers. These are the kinds of challenges that bring people to the field of online...
The Harvard Business Review
Hats off to the BCTF
The BC Teachers' strike hit home today, with CUPE picketing in support of the teachers even as some prospect for reconciliation has emerged. Our daughter's daycare was closed so that staff could respect CUPE's picket lines. But I have to admit that despite the...
Everything I needed to know about community engagement I learned from Flying Meat
Flying Meat is the software company behind VooDooPad, my latest favorite application ever. VooDooPad is one of those transformational technologies that do one small but crucial thing so incredibly way that they change the whole way you work. In this case, what...
Wanted: Office & Web Manager for community-minded web company
For more details visit http://www.socialsignal.com/hiring If you're organized, enjoy working with technology, and want your work to have social value, you could be the newest member of Social Signal (http://www.socialsignal.com). We're a Vancouver web company that...
Aggregation as an endless loop
Here's a challenge for wiser RSS-wranglers than I: as aggregation becomes a more widely used tool for populating web sites, how do we prevent RSS feeds from being cluttered with multiple identical posts? I was just looking at the Technorati tag page for net2, where a...
Community goes corporate
Boyd Neil of Hill & Knowlton has written a very kind and thought-provoking post in response to the launch of Social Signal. Boyd's observation is that corporate communicators have a lot to learn from social movements and community activists about how to use the...
Introducing Social Signal: collaboration for communities
I'm delighted to announce the launch of Social Signal. Social Signal's goal is to support online communities and distributed collaboration networks -- networks of communities that share content and relationships by using the latest generation of web tools. This...
Latest project: TechSoup/CompuMentor
My latest venture in the fabulous world of Web 2.0 is helping CompuMentor -- home of TechSoup -- set up an online community in conjunction with an event they are organizing for next spring. Job one? Use this post to check whether the aggregation is working.
What Google blog search doesn’t have
Rob highlights its pros and cons. How could he forget to mention its gravest oversight: no rankings! Or is this a desperate hope that the ascendance of Google could change the domestic balance of power?
National Conversation now online
Politics Online has launched theNational Conversation project, which aims at engaging Americans in dialogue about major national issues (in the first instance, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina). I like the effort to encourage multimedia contributions, and to allow people to...
10 ways RSS can help build online communities
Non-governmental organizations seeking to strengthen relationships with members. Governments trying to reach out to citizens. Businesses hoping to engage and win the loyalty of customers. These are the kinds of challenges that bring people to the field of online...
OneZero
14 tips for Twitter contests that build followers and brand visibility
Inspired by a successful Twitter contest, we ran on our — and created this set of tips on what it takes to run an effective contest.
3 tips to make better use of the Firefox browser
It turns out that a great source of insight on how to make effective use of Firefox is….Firefox.
New resources to help entrepreneurs get started with social media
The SHOP Symposium that CRAVE put on today was bursting with fantastic women entrepreneurs whom I’ve long admired as a customer, member, or as a drooling window shopper. I offered some suggestions on the tools and tactics that can help their companies make the most of social media.
6 essential social media tools for your business or organization
If you’re itching to get a handle on this social media thing, and want to open your eyes and ears, there are a few tools we recommend as assets to virtually any organization. I’ve listed these in the order I’d recommend adopting each one.
4 questions to answer before you get started (or move forward) with social media
To make good choices about where to spend your social media dollars, you need to be clear about what you want to get out out of social media, and how you’re going to do it in compelling way. These four questions can help to frame your planning and decision-making.
Forrester, Social Signal on finding online passion for your brand
Comparing Forrester’s notion of “borrowed relevance” with Social Signal’s approach to “reflected glory marketing”.
17 tips for using Twitter to grow your business
Just like black-and-white photography can reveal depths you’ll never see in colour, the short length of a Twitter message encourages new levels of creativity and effectiveness in marketing. Don’t believe me? Here are my top tips on getting started with Twitter…and each is 140 characters or less.
How the social web can nourish your most personal relationship
The process of strengthening a relationship by working hard together; by facing, nurturing and celebrating your successes and challenges together — that’s an experience that’s open to any couple, or indeed any relationship, that integrates the creative and communicative possibilities of the social web. Here are some of the ways you can use the social web to bring the energy of creative collaboration into your relationship.
JSTOR DAILY
14 tips for Twitter contests that build followers and brand visibility
Inspired by a successful Twitter contest, we ran on our — and created this set of tips on what it takes to run an effective contest.
3 tips to make better use of the Firefox browser
It turns out that a great source of insight on how to make effective use of Firefox is….Firefox.
New resources to help entrepreneurs get started with social media
The SHOP Symposium that CRAVE put on today was bursting with fantastic women entrepreneurs whom I’ve long admired as a customer, member, or as a drooling window shopper. I offered some suggestions on the tools and tactics that can help their companies make the most of social media.
6 essential social media tools for your business or organization
If you’re itching to get a handle on this social media thing, and want to open your eyes and ears, there are a few tools we recommend as assets to virtually any organization. I’ve listed these in the order I’d recommend adopting each one.
4 questions to answer before you get started (or move forward) with social media
To make good choices about where to spend your social media dollars, you need to be clear about what you want to get out out of social media, and how you’re going to do it in compelling way. These four questions can help to frame your planning and decision-making.
Forrester, Social Signal on finding online passion for your brand
Comparing Forrester’s notion of “borrowed relevance” with Social Signal’s approach to “reflected glory marketing”.
17 tips for using Twitter to grow your business
Just like black-and-white photography can reveal depths you’ll never see in colour, the short length of a Twitter message encourages new levels of creativity and effectiveness in marketing. Don’t believe me? Here are my top tips on getting started with Twitter…and each is 140 characters or less.
How the social web can nourish your most personal relationship
The process of strengthening a relationship by working hard together; by facing, nurturing and celebrating your successes and challenges together — that’s an experience that’s open to any couple, or indeed any relationship, that integrates the creative and communicative possibilities of the social web. Here are some of the ways you can use the social web to bring the energy of creative collaboration into your relationship.
THE VERGE
5 reasons to blog like it’s the last night of the world
I worry a lot about the world ending. My scenarios usually involve some kind of catastrophic climate change, pandemic virus or global economic meltdown followed by civil collapse. This intermittent tendency to fret over various doomsday is something I try to deprive...
140-character lessons in how to live your real life online
Your online relationships, conversations and creativity are as real as anything you do offline. That's the message I delivered last weekend at Northern Voice, Canada's leading blogging conference. My talk, titled Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life, jumped off from...
The dangers of relying on Facebook and Twitter authentication
If you're not going to talk about me to your friends, I don't want to know you. That's the message that your web site is sending if you only accept registrations from Facebook and Twitter users. You can see what I'm talking about at Pinterest, a social network for...
5 ebook features that tap the power of social note-taking
Peter Meyers has a useful blog post on 3 ways to improve ebook note taking over at O'Reilly Radar. As he points out in his post, note-taking is one of the ways in which print books still kick the ass of digital books, since they allow you to "[j]ot notes anywhere you...