Peter Block about community

From my growing interest in community, conversation and how we can harness what we’re learning about online community behaviours in the real world came a renewed pointer to Peter Block (thanks to a post by Mark Kuznicki). I remembered that … [read more]

Alternate reality: The Weather Network

The Weather Network is a portal to another reality. It’s a 24-hour cable news channel where everything revolves around the weather, all the time. Every bulletin and every story segment is about the weather, climate change, or about the weather’s … [read more]

Open-sourcing the inkjet scam

Inkjet printer cartridges – photo courtesy of Pixi via Wikimedia Commons Inkjet printer cartridges contain a tiny little amount of liquid ink and cost a fortune. Actual calculations vary across the web, but the consensus seems to be that printer … [read more]

Why I bought a Mac

Picture by Benjamin Nagel, via Wikimedia Commons Apparently, I’m a hipster now. According to my friend Bryce, who calls everyone a hipster who uses a Mac. Though I feel a certain kinship with PC in the “Get a Mac” commercials … [read more]

BumpTop with multi-touch

Here’s a new video showing BumpTop using a multi-touch screen under Windows 7. The march towards ‘tactile computing’ continues. I remain unconvinced that this is really what people want to do, for the simple reason that holding your hand/arm extended … [read more]

Profit in performance, not copyright

Newspapers, by Susan Lesch, via Wikimedia Commons Newpapers, as we all know, are in trouble. Their margins eroded by the Internet, incapable of putting forward a business model that can support their transformation onto the web, the current economic recession … [read more]

The magic of the ordinary (DNTO podcast)

Definintely Not The Opera (DNTO) is a magazine show on CBC Radio 1 that comes out every Saturday. It’s one of my most treasured Canadian cultural institutions. Originally named Brand X, it was first broadcast in 1994 and later renamed … [read more]

HealthCamp Toronto

Unplugging the system (HealthCamp Toronto)

It’s taken me more than a week to get around to synthesizing my impressions of the inaugural HealthCamp Toronto, which was held on September 15, 2009. HealthCamp is a participatory, roaming unconference. An unconference is a self-organizing community event, a … [read more]