Trust, disclosure and social media

Two of the most frequent criticisms of social media hinge on the quality and quantity of information people disclosure through blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social tools: Why does s/he think anyone cares? Asked about people who blog their latest meal, tweet their...

TedX Victoria: Stop apologizing for your online life

I’m delighted to be participating in TedX Victoria this November 19th.  I’ll be speaking about the 10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life, and look forward to helping TedX participants give up the notion of IRL (“In Real Life”),...

Bored by your boyfriend? Try having sex.

This is my best effort at scrupulous transcription of a conversation I was fortunate to overhear in the locker room today, between two young women I initially assumed were roommates. I wasn’t sure whether the locker room was covered by a cone of silence, so I...

What you can learn from your tech defeats

When I was a small child my mother dropped me onto a hard, stone floor. Miraculously, I was uninjured.  As soon as I stopped crying, it seemed, I was as good as new. It would take years before the long-term repercussions of this fall became apparent: the tumble had...

8 secrets to a smarter tech maintenance routine for your blog

This weekend I had one of my periodic orgies of blog maintenance. Now it  happens that 14 hours of software upgrades, plugin installs, widget testing and css tweaking is my idea of fun, so giving my blog a weekend of tech love is also a way of giving myself a weekend...

Video: Social media, politics & the future of think tanks

Last month I had the opportunity to be part of a terrific day-long discussion on the future of think tanks, hosted by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations. I shared some of my thinking in a blog post...