All
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It’s been a fun two decades
Somewhere in the haze of it all, I missed an anniversary.
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Move those blocks
In eight minutes—seven minutes—this will appear to you.
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8 News Product Ideas
Drafted a year ago, floated for months, shared today.
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At 30
—30—
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5 Years
Counting.
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Overlap
Last weekend, I got on the bus.
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Spring
+1°
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Dante
?
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2015
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EPIC 2014
Thoughts after rewatching the iconic Flash movie about media.
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Civic Journalism
When journalism rises to its true potential it can bring the hidden stories to the front of a nation’s conscience and inspire that country to be better.
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Tilde Launch
The beginning of retirement for saila.com
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Introducing Miscellany
Reviving the idea of the old link blog to collect shared bits across the social web
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Building a bridge
An open letter to Toronto’s city council to urge them to support continued construction of the Fort York Pedestrian Cycle Bridge
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Muzzling the election
What Elections Canada ban on reporting the results means for news organizations and social media
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Reviving the news outlets of old
More interesting than the re-evaluation of the paywall, is what traditional media outlets are doing with their legacy products.
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Paying for the news in a digital world
News publishers are struggling to establish a viable revenue stream in the digital realm as it becomes their paying online audience alone can’t support the entire product.
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A picture’s worth
There’s an itch that the Internet and its all-seeing search engines hasn’t yet scratched: visual search.
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New designs on news
The new msnbc.com design represents a whole new way for editors to report the news online
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Safari fine
The latest upgrade to Apple's Web browser brings a promising set of new features.
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The summer of the city
Toronto reveals its true face in a trio of movies released in 2010
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Lessons from working with Web standards, revisited
Four years later, I look back at some of the lessons learned about designing a news Web site using Web standards to see what still applies.
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Magazines reborn
Although mainstream magazines are being shutdown in record numbers, there is a magazine renaissance of sorts is underway. You just might need to lok beyond the newsstand to find it.
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Gaining pay walls and losing page views
Sometimes, it pays to have list people clicking more pages as more online publications are finding.
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To get to the other side
A genuine rant inspired by waiting to cross the street and counting the cars going by
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The promise of the iPad
Apple's latest device provides tremendous design promise in comparison to the Web, but the price may be too high.
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A Safari adventure
With the exception of a few years when Internet Explorer was actually the more standard-compliant browser, I’ve always surfed the Web with a Netscape-originated browser. I supported Mozilla when it was still struggling to make something even approaching a usable browser. My name was one of thousands to be found in a New York Times ad announcing Firefox’s debut. I have friends that work with Mozilla.
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Touching the future
Thirteen years ago, the future imagined by Apple was a tablet computer called the Knowledge Navigator. Today, this vision became real with the iPad. And while the iPad lacks many of the features Apple first imagined, it represents an experience literally inconceivable in 1987.
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Cessation of government
A year ago, the country I live in swore in a leader who promised hope to a population that reveres the government’s executive office.
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Blind instinct
The following is a jumble of sentences. And for most of you, the next time you read this, those sentences will be even further jumbled. After five false starts, the narrative I was trying to form around the idea of of tunnel vision in creative pursuits would come to be. So, I broke each sentence into its own line, and let randomness happen.
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Open letter to the CBC about the news relaunch
This letter was sent in response to CBC’s relaunch of its news offerings and relates directly to the changes to The National.
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Ready to pay the price
Advertisers and readers may finally be ready to see the online medium as a place worthy of paying for.
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With glowing hearts
A run-down of the best Canadian music for Canada Day 2009.
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No more newspapers
Watching the newspapers collapse and grasp the new media dream a decade too late has been sobering.
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No more newspapers
Watching the newspapers collapse and grasp the new media dream a decade too late has been sobering.
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Open letter to the CBC about the news relaunch
This letter was sent in response to CBC’s relaunch of its news offerings and relates directly to the changes to The National.
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Just the facts (and more)
Open source can have a transformational effect for companies, and news organizations are starting to figure that out.
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Canadian election hangover
With the Canadian 2008 election producing no real change, but a lower participation level, it might be time to look into voting alternatives.
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Election blackout in Canada
Watching the election results not come in from the West coast of America is a surreal experience.
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Canada Day rant
Living in the U.S. puts into context how important it is not to become complacent about Canada’s national perception.
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The year that was
A decade ago, the Web was in a boom that would lead to a bubble — now, it’s in a boom that will lead to…
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The False Idol: Technology
Technology seems to offer a lifeline to the hypochondria afflicting the journalism industry, but the real cure may be something simpler.
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Add a comment at The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail becomes the first mainstream media outlet in Canada to allow its regular readers to comment directly on the news presented on its Web site.
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Primus sets it right
The fourth in a series reveals that Primus may let me get VoIP while keeping my current local number.
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VoIP with Primus — so close
This third rant in a series on my attempts to get VoIP details how close to success I came before being stopped in mid-stride.
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Getting dry DSL hassle-free
The second in a series of rants about VoIP and dry DSL explains how easy it can be to get both — if you look at it the right way.
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Going dry with DSL
The first in a what I hope will be a series detailing my experience trying to set-up VoIP on with a Sympatico DSL service tied to my phone number.
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Pumping up the praise
Canada is without a feedback loop when it comes to online developments and this is an attempt to adjust that.
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Free Radio 3
CBC is still trying to catch a younger audience, and a full-scale revamp of CBC Radio 3 is underway
The year that was: 2004
Google and you
The value of a protest
Registration pro and con
Registering your voice
Don’t play the election blame game
It bleeds, but doesn’t lead
Shutting the gates
Two-in-one
Dayparting
Wearing sheep’s clothing: exploiting the media for political cover
The year that was: 2003
Web design generations
Online election results
Invalid mayors
Great Blackout of ’03
Mutual funds get CSS layouts
From Web to print
Browser bug swatting
Where I stand (at least when it comes to the content of this site)
Google: any way left but down?
All quiet on the Bell Globemedia front
The year that was: 2002
Growing Google
The WaSP’s new target
Final days for CANOE?
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The year that was
A year-end review, without the predictions, of the Internet in 2001
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CANOE Money: R.I.P.
CANOE decides to replace its established business brand, the result? A truly Canadian effort.
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First impressions
A reminder as to how meaningful first impressions can be.
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Subscriptions might just work
If the right kind of sites adopt them.
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Devolution of blogging
The events of September 11 has brought on the worst in some weblogs.
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Hackers threaten news sites’ integrity
Online news sites face risks with Web site defacements.
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There’s hype in tech journalism!
A rant inspired by Steve Gilliard’s NetSlave rant about technology journalism.
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A tale of two redesigns
A look at the redesigns of the latimes.com and The Globe and Mail.
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CRTC decision handicaps journalists
A CRTC decision prevents journalists from freely sharing information.
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A picture is worth just a keyword
Trying out the image search engine at Google.
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The day my Web died
The collapse of Automatic Media, Suck, Feed and Plastic, once three of the best sites online.
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Exit ads are just bad
Why its a bad idea to advertise to users when they leave the site.
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The fun with titles
Why it’s worth moving away from using titles for just usability aids.
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The New Yorker finally goes online
Commentary on The New Yorker magazine's long absent Web presence.
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More changes for CANOE
What Quebecor’s merger of CANOE and Netgraphe means.
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Election results (or how the big sites fared)
How Canadian news sites fared during the night of a federal election.
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Dot-what?!
A less-than-postive reaction to the domains ICANN approved.
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With a whimper
The underwhelming relase of the much-delayed Netscape 6.
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Make a change
What to do with your “Taxpayer Dividend”
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Give students their own Web site
hat if journalism students were given the opportunity to create their own online portfolio that was hosted by the school? This piece looks at how that might be possible.
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Current state of online journalism
An analysis of the state of online journalism in Canada and the United States at the beginning of 2000.
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Macs, frames, and usablility
The problems inherit in designing a usable site, especially with frames.
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One more Internet bubble: MP3.com
Looking at the astounding IPO of the music portal, MP3.com.
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After the Event has landed
Reflecting on the Event’s impact.
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The next Event
A personal perspective on what has been one of the biggest cultural events in the past 20 years, Star Wars.
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Canuck Portals
The portal wars begin in Canada.
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Taxes
The joy of taxes.
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Looks like another is needed…
The updates continue.
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An Apology of Sorts…
For the lack of updates and poor browser support of the Web standards.
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Any hope for online journalists?
Thoughts on the future of Canadian online journalism.
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The Odyssey
A sentimental piece written the day before I leave for momentous trip.
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Technorealism
Filtering the signal from the noise of Digital Hype.
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Another redesign?!
The column introducing one one of the site’s longest designs.
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It begins…
The first of the many, occasional main page rants.