Kickstarter: it’s a social thing
Felix Salmon, pointing to Jeanne Pi’s recent Kickstarter analysis: [Y]our chances of raising $10,000 on Kickstarter are just 9% if you have 10 Facebook friends, rising to 20% if you have 100 friends,...
View ArticleIntroducing The KickBack Machine
A few months ago, I wrote a bit about Kickstarter, and how they hide (or at the very least, make it very difficult to find) failed projects. I believe that when it comes to crowdfunding, there’s much...
View ArticleDespite claiming otherwise, Kickstarter quietly removes projects
“Transparency is vital on Kickstarter.” Or so says their FAQ. But if you look closely enough, Kickstarter isn’t living up to its own transparency promises. It seems that Kickstarter has quietly removed...
View ArticleKickstarter now identifies intellectual property disputes
Late last week, I wrote about how Kickstarter was quietly removing projects from their site, despite claiming otherwise. The removed projects were replaced with a simple message stating: “Sorry, this...
View ArticleKickstarter gets a little less open
Late last month, Kickstarter quietly removed its “Open Hardware” category, and added a broader “Hardware” category. At the same time, Kickstarter re-categorized every single “Open Hardware” project...
View ArticleWhat if every show on CBC Radio had a live chat room?
Now they do. I’ve been thinking a lot about radio and live chat ever since I started listening to shows on Dan Benjamin’s 5by5 network. You see, many of the shows on 5by5 are recorded live. If you’re...
View ArticleAll-you-can-watch movies
If you ever find yourself in France for a year, and you want some serious bang for your entertainment buck, I suggest you look no further than an unlimited movie subscription from your local cinema....
View Article“Loyalty”≠ Loyalty
Apparently, CBC management is thinking about a “loyalty” program: [T]he CBC is considering adding game-like challenges on its websites, offering reward points to keep people engaged with the...
View Article“At every age we’re wrong”
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of laughing at our former selves. So then, I rather enjoyed John Tierney’s NYT piece about new research into people’s self-perceptions: “Middle-aged people — like me —...
View ArticleThe CBC’s crummy low-bitrate MP3 streams, and what to do about them
About six weeks ago, without any apparent warning, CBC Radio One’s audio streams switched from MP3 audio to AAC. This left a number of people unable to listen to streaming audio, namely those with...
View Article“The details are not the details. They make the design.”
So the other day, on the walk back from the grocery store, I listened to this past week’s On The Media. It began with a question: is the Golden Age of content sustainable, or just a supernova, a dying...
View ArticleCuriousity-driven work
Jason Fried wrote about what he calls the “Two i’s” – important and interesting: For a long time I’ve felt like the only thing worth working on is the next most important thing. Why spend time working...
View ArticleThat time I was 30
A year ago this evening, I was enjoying dinner with Tristan at Joseph Leonard in the West Village. I had a steak, many tiny French pickles, and perhaps one too many Hendrick’s and tonics. I was in New...
View ArticleSo long, Empire Theatres
So, Sobeys is getting out of the movie business by selling 24 of its Empire Theatres locations to Cineplex. I started working part-time at the Empire Theatres in Bedford, Nova Scotia in the spring of...
View ArticleLight bulbs and laser beams
This past week, I borrowed John Maeda’s The Laws of Simplicity from the Toronto Public Library. It’s a slim book, but it gave me a lot to chew on. While discussing his sixth law (Context), Maeda says:...
View ArticleMy bike is not a health and safety issue
There are a handful of things about our national public broadcaster (disclosure: my employer) that bother me. A few infuriate. But today took the cake. Let me explain. I own a bright blue Brompton...
View ArticleTransatlanticism
Exactly one year ago today, October 22, Jenna and I booked a one-way transatlantic crossing aboard the Queen Mary 2. Originally, the idea was more joke than anything else. “Wouldn’t it be funny?” we’d...
View ArticleHow I ditched my voice plan and went data-only
One year ago, I decided to take my iPhone data-only. No voice plan. No texting plan. Just sweet, sweet data. I don’t like paying for things that I don’t use, and I rarely use the telephone part of my...
View ArticleVitality, not virality (or, a Few Thoughts About Online Audio, CBC Radio, and...
If you work in or care about public radio, podcasting, or online audio, I strongly recommend Stan Alcorn’s terrific piece Is This Thing On? Why Audio Never Goes Viral. In it, Alcorn digs into some of...
View ArticleOur former selves
As anyone who’s been to Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids probably knows, I’m fascinated by the relationships we have with our former selves. Most often, when a person gets up on stage to read...
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