Quietly last fall, NEastPhilly.com, the hyperlocal news site for Northeast Philadelphia, marked three years since having been launched as a college project by now WHYY NewsWorks feed blogger Shannon McDonald. Though I spent much of that time contributing coverage, I now play the role of web editor, helping keep the site up and functional. Shannon [...]

I’m a fan of the fun collections of ideas, images and concepts that find their way onto personal Tumblr accounts, often driven by crowdsourcing contributions. Recently a handful of ideas have come to mind that I wish were actively being created by someone. I’d happily contribute. Ridiculous local TV lower thirds — As depicted above, [...]

I attend a lot of hackathons, considering either I’m organizing them or sponsoring them or covering them. Though I hope to slowly change that a bit, I’m no programmer. Still, sitting around these events has led me to conceive of and, in some cases, suggest projects that never actually happen. Maybe they someday will. Here [...]

The groundwork of privacy, anonymity and free speech is being set now with evolving jurisprudence and legislation surrounding the concept of social networking. That is the overarching theme, as I read it, in I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did:  Social Networks and the Death of Privacy, a new book from [...]

From this very compelling TED video from former MoveOn.org Executive Director Eli Pariser on ‘filter bubbles’ happening online due to personalized algorithms (i.e., in truth there is no one Google search, as nearly 60 filters dictate results) “We may have the story of the internet wrong. This is how the founding mythology goes: in a [...]

Back in June, I was added to the 20 from NBC Philadelphia. It’s a small, though clever, effort, and I appreciate being called among a select group of people locally highlighted as worth following on Twitter. It’s a diverse group that is still changing, but the list is an interesting way to curate a list [...]

Sometimes you need that kick in the pants from an outsider. There is a new Philadelphia chapter of the Online News Association, something of a trade organization founded in 1999 for journalism innovation that hosts a popular annual national conference I attended last year and regional events across the country. (I’ll be attending the national [...]

I tried out the Tweroid service. [Updated: I also tried the service for @TechnicallyPHL] The value proposition is to sign in, wait an hour or so, get an assessment of when your followers are most active online. The ask might be to then starting tweeting at those times to have the biggest impact. So, according [...]

I’ve managed more than a few Twitter strategies, for nonprofits, groups, organizations and news sites, and have picked up a few basics that you should be sure to steal. Signing off initials — If you have multiple people using your organization’s account, sign off with initials for transparency, personal connection and ease. Do create regular [...]

Facebook pushes traffic and helps build an online community. We’re over that. Joining Facebook and learning lessons from it is in the distant past. It’s time to have that next conversation. I’m interested in moving to the next step, creating more compelling Facebook pages that keep people coming back, attract more eyeballs, develop brands, help [...]