Publications

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Community goes corporate

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...

Latest project: TechSoup/CompuMentor

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

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

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

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...

More love for Zagat

More love for Zagat

Ah, the joys of the automatic reply. Zagat canceled my subscription as per my request, and here's what their e-mail included: If you have a moment, could you let us know why you decided to cancel? Is there anything we can do to change your mind? We rely on customer...

Zinging Zagat

Zinging Zagat

I'm going to resist turning this space into my own customer service department, but here's another little skirmish in my own personal war on obnoxious web sites. Tonight's target is Zagat, purveyors of other people's opinions. Long before epinions and Trip Advisor...

Tagging for Katrina

Tagging for Katrina

At the suggestion of Nancy White, I've just posted an introduction to tagging for people who are creating online resources for post-Katrina disaster recovery. It covers some suggestions for tag choice as well as overall tips on tagging. It's online at You're It.

Kudos to Fido

Kudos to Fido

Within a few days of my post, Fido responded with a 100% perfect solution: The $50 GPRS Unlimited bundle was added to your account. It was possible to do so as we have not yet fully converted to our new Billing platform - thankfully. The usual condition is that...

The Harvard Business Review

Community goes corporate

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...

Latest project: TechSoup/CompuMentor

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

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

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

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...

More love for Zagat

More love for Zagat

Ah, the joys of the automatic reply. Zagat canceled my subscription as per my request, and here's what their e-mail included: If you have a moment, could you let us know why you decided to cancel? Is there anything we can do to change your mind? We rely on customer...

Zinging Zagat

Zinging Zagat

I'm going to resist turning this space into my own customer service department, but here's another little skirmish in my own personal war on obnoxious web sites. Tonight's target is Zagat, purveyors of other people's opinions. Long before epinions and Trip Advisor...

Tagging for Katrina

Tagging for Katrina

At the suggestion of Nancy White, I've just posted an introduction to tagging for people who are creating online resources for post-Katrina disaster recovery. It covers some suggestions for tag choice as well as overall tips on tagging. It's online at You're It.

Kudos to Fido

Kudos to Fido

Within a few days of my post, Fido responded with a 100% perfect solution: The $50 GPRS Unlimited bundle was added to your account. It was possible to do so as we have not yet fully converted to our new Billing platform - thankfully. The usual condition is that...

OneZero

How the social web can nourish your most personal relationship

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

How the social web can nourish your most personal relationship

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

The social media obituary

The social media obituary

His real break came as a stuntman in the Hollywood movie “On the Beach,” about survivors of a nuclear war, which was filmed in Melbourne, his hometown, in 1959. It starred Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire. “He watched Gregory Peck do 27 takes and thought, ‘A...

Who would you be without the Internet?

Who would you be without the Internet?

Without the internet I wouldn't be able to write. In the realms of pre-internet media, one either comes to the publisher/editor/gatekeeper with mad skills and gets published, or he gets a generic pink slip with a one-line apology. You can't use this system of...

5 reasons to blog like it’s the last night of the world

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...