The post-reading generation talks about the future of books

This post originally appeared on SIMCentre.ca. Today I got to be a (tweeting) fly on the wall in Jonathan Aitken’s ebook design class. Somewhat to my amusement, Jonathan began by explaining how old people like us used to read in linear way, where you flip...

An open design process for SIMCentre.ca

This post appears today on the site of the Social + Interactive Media Centre at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Shh…don’t tell anyone, but we’re redesigning our website. That’s the standard attitude towards website redesign, at least...

Erase this computer: a whiteboard for your laptop

This week I was in a meeting with Myron Campbell, an MAA student at Emily Carr. Myron  runs Draw by Night, a drawing party that happens every other month in Vancouver (and now, Calgary). Myron had an awesome DBN sticker on his laptop that looked like a dry erase board...

Show + Tech: What I did on my summer vacation

Stinky socks. Talking dogs. Dancing jelly beans. We got to see all of the above — and more! — at the SIM Centre’s inaugural show + tech. Show + tech is a chance for members of Vancouver’s business, art and technology communities to connect with...

Group identity and the psychology of social media

What motivates people to contribute content to user-driven web sites? A blog post on the Psychology Behind Social Media does a nice job summing up the major factors? I was particularly interested that it noted the desire for group identity: One of the main reasons...

Social networks say good-bye to difficult but crucial interactions

Todd Essig has a thoughtful post about how social networks have affected the process of saying good-bye in our culture. Now that the hospital where he works is closing, he anticipated more than the usual end-of-school-year good-byes. Instead, he’s seen less: as...

Gist shows the future of social media profiling

One of the best side effects of my recent contact management overhaul was the discovery of Gist. Gist is essentially the mutant offspring of CRM (customer relationship management) and RSS aggregation/social media monitoring. It’s one of those tools you never...