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Riot vigilantes speak for themselves
Jun 21, 2011 | Community
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?
Jun 20, 2011 | Community, Top Thought Posts
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
Jun 16, 2011 | Community, The Harvard Business Review, Top privacy, security and surveillance posts
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
Jun 15, 2011 | Slider features, Top Posts of 2011: Personal, Self
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
Jun 14, 2011 | Politics, The Harvard Business Review, Career
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”
Jun 9, 2011 | Top Relationship Posts, Relationships, Zone
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...
10 ways Microsoft Kinect will change our world in the next decade
Jun 7, 2011 | Top Lifestyle Posts, Lifestyle
Six months after our Kinect arrived in our lives, it's mostly unused. But that doesn't mean it's any less transformative than I'd hoped...just in different ways than I predicted. In our household the Kinect's shining moment came on New Year's Eve, when our first...
Social media for small organizations: Why size matters
Jun 6, 2011 | Community, Top Strategy Posts, How nonprofits can use social media
10 ways you can tap the value of the Delicious community
Jun 2, 2011 | How to build community online, Community
A social bookmarking service that draws value from both its user and developer communities, Delicious makes it easy to keep track of your favorite web sites. Here are 10 ways you can tap into the unique value of the Delicious.
Lady Gaga and the transcendent narcissism of social media
Jun 1, 2011 | Lifestyle, Community, Top Thought Posts
Lady Gaga’s on- and offline relationship to her fans is a case study in the power and perils of social media narcissism.