Smartmobs: Bad dataplans killing iPhone adoption in Japan, Canada

Back in June of 2008, many tech writers speculated that the iPhone might not go big in Japan. For my part, I wondered if philosophical and cultural differences might constitute barriers to adoption. I reasoned that the challenges would be practical as well as aesthetic.

Read the rest of my article at Howard Rheingold’s Smartmobs.

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Web Weekend Vancouver: Magazines get user-centric

I just returned from another thrilling adventure in innovation at Magazines Canada’s Web Weekend series in Vancouver.

My talk: “The Sharing Revolution, ” outlines key trends, tools and barriers to adoption with social and participatory media approaches. I shared the bill on Sunday with fellow content producer and former Tyee marketing manager Lisa Manfield, [...]

Writing for the Web2.0: Usability is still king

Since graduating with an English literature degree ten years ago, I’ve made a good part of my living writing web and interactive content. Much of what I learned comes from online journalism practices, web usability via Nielsen and the web style guides I’ve worked with on various projects.

Last year, I put all the [...]

Heading to Web Weekend Vancouver

Excited to be heading off to Vancouver as a speaker at Magazines Canada’s Web Weekend series for Canadian magazine professionals. This is my second year presenting in the series.

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Web marketing, analytics and metrics for online publishers

The Google doc above is a very basic Google docs presentation I created to show to my classes and clients. It’s essentially a point form overview of the basic considerations for marketing an online publication – whether it’s a blog or large scale magazine. Remarkably, many publications that have a strong print strategy still [...]

“De-tagging” college students rethinking reputation

Over the past few years I’ve observed, with great interest, my students’ varying opinions about their identity and behaviour online. And because I teach professional, post-graduate industry courses, I have different expectations of maturity from 20-something university graduates than I would for at-risk teens.  A person in their mid to late twenties, seeking a career [...]