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What you choose when you choose a network

This entry is part 19 of 39 in the series 40 years online

When I went to work for the Rae government, I thought the choice of which computer to use was a choice of Mac vs PC. But what I was really choosing was a connection to a group of people who would change my life, and the future of our country.

The Core Tenets of the Social Web, 25 years in the making

This post originally appeared on the Harvard Business Review. We like to think of the social web as green fields in which we are just now sowing best practices and first principles. After all, if there are no hard-and-fast rules, then anything goes. We get to come up...

Honoring the debt Canada’s connectivity owes to Chinese workers

This entry is part 13 of 39 in the series 40 years online

When you choose a historical metaphor, you make claims on conscience as well as imagination. Canada chose to complete its national network of connectivity in November 1985, on the 100th anniversary of completing a national railway built on the hard work of ill-treated Chinese workers. The Canadian – and global — Internet is in danger of repeating that sad history.