The Power of the Network
11 weeks ago, the kitten you see in this photo was malnourished, flea-infested, with a serious eye infection and likely a broken femur. At just 3 weeks old she was found, having been abandoned on the streets of Sacramento, California. When she was found, she probably had less than 24 hours to live. Now, just […]
Want to Broaden Your Network? Start Close to Home
I’ve been really fortunate to be able to spend some time with old friends lately. I recently had a girls weekend in Toronto with two close friends that I’ve known for more than 20 years. I got to have lunch this past weekend with some great friends that I haven’t seen in ages. It’s always […]
What's in a Name
There’s something about a name. Tonight, I went down to the local Shawarma joint (Mr. Shawarma, for any Ottawa west-enders looking for the best meal in the ‘hood). I am quite a regular there, stopping in probably once or twice a week – it’s my default meal when hubby is working. The same man is […]
Online Authenticity – You Be The Judge
There are still a lot of skeptics out there when it comes to trusting other people online. I speak with people all the time who are not involved in online communities. I ask them why they haven’t gotten involved. I get a lot of answers, but perhaps the most interesting response I get is that […]
The Art of Shameless Self Promotion
I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts and tweets lately about people being averse to “tooting their own horn”. And I’m not sure I really understand the aversion. Ok, I know there are lots of spammers out there. I know there are certain types of people that seem to do nothing but shamelessly self-promote […]
Twitter's Imaginary Cliques
Recently I’ve heard rumblings around the Blogosphere and the Twitterverse that “cliques” are forming on Twitter. Cliques that are intentionally excluding people from conversations, cliques who are self-interested, existing only to promote their latest book or seminar, or just trying to be the most popular. I know the self-interested promoters exist. I unfollow them all […]
On Kitchen Parties and Social Networks
I’ve been fortunate to spend a good chunk of time in Newfoundland and Labrador. Even though I’m not from the Eastern part of Canada, I feel very in tune with the people there. Perhaps it’s in my blood, because my Dad is from New Brunswick. Perhaps I can relate to the culture because I grew […]
Forget the Message – What's Your Medium?
“A light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence.” — Marshall McLuhan I’ve been thinking a lot about WHY people choose certain mediums to communicate. In McLuhan’s day, the options were much more limited. Not by their ability to tell stories, but by their accesibility to the general public. At that time, we relied […]
Knowledge is Power, Understanding is Success
This week I’ve been reflecting on how far I’ve come in the past several years, as I’ve made the transition from worker-bee to creator. I used to be the typical high-tech worker. I knew how to do a lot of stuff, like build a web site, write a communiqué, build a document library, write a technical manual. […]
Feedly Gets It
I discovered Feedly this morning and in just a couple of minutes it changed the way I interact online. One of the things that drives me bananas about many social media apps these days is the lengthy process I need to go through just to get it to understand who I am and what I […]