Latest publications
Read my latest stories for The Wall Street Journal, Passcode, The Harvard Business Review, JSTOR Daily and more.
The 3 essential questions every blogger should answer
Any blogger — newbie or pro — should be able to answer these three essential questions about his or her blog.
5 questions that will make the most of your social media vacation
Do you suspect that taking a brief or extended break from the Internet would make you happier, smarter or taller? Tackle these 5 questions to get the most from your social media vacation.
10 challenging perspectives on social media & the Vancouver riots
The past week has been a laboratory in the power and limitations of online dialogue. While I have been troubled by the number of simplistic, hostile or unconsidered posts and comments about crowdsourcing the identification of rioters, I have more often been astounded...
Riot vigilantes speak for themselves
In the past couple of days I've heard from people who were initially enthusiastic about the crowdsourcing of rioter identification, but now see the concern with this kind of vigilantism. I'd love to take credit, but I'm not the most convincing voice in this argument....
Crowdsourced repression: Could it happen here?
The debate that is unfolding online about crowdsourced surveillance -- what Christopher Parson referred to as Vancouver's Human Flesh Search Engine -- rests on two implicit assumptions. It's time to get clear about what they are, so that people can talk more...
On the dangers of crowdsourced surveillance
My blog post for Harvard Business today looks at the troubling online reaction to last night's riots in Vancouver. Reflecting on the widespread enthusiasm for using social media to track down criminals, I wrote: I don't think we want to live in a society that turns...
8 ways to beat the urgency trap in online communications
In a thoughtful post about The Pitfalls of social media, Aleksandr Voinov writes Social Media exerts pressure on us to do things immediately and respond to everything immediately. I'm not sure about you, but sometimes I like to think things through and discuss it with...
5 signs that you’ve mastered the art of online discretion
I sometimes think that the most useful preparation for my career in social media came not from my academic research into online politics, but rather, my practical experience with electoral politics. Working on the political staff of a senior elected official (the...
The pajama test: An open letter to my Facebook “friends”
A year ago today, this blog post was the turning point in my relationship with Facebook. In my life affair for Twitter I'd pretty much lost sight of how Facebook could possibly be relevant to me. Then I made the decision that Facebook would be my personal space -- the...
11 best practices for managing your social network memberships
Between the Wordpress.com hack, the Honda Canada hack and the Playstation hack, I feel like my favorite online identities have been seriously compromised. Nor am I the only one: the recent attack on PBS servers has also created potential identity risks for PBS...