Popular on HB604

I’ve frequently been asked to tell me what I write about. I always answer “I write about myself, my life in Vancouver, what I’m interested in”. People remain stumped when I dare to say that. I write about social media, yes. I write about environment, absolutely. I write about restaurants and theatre, clearly. I write about my personal stuff (one of my most popular posts is “a few notes about me“), of course. So I’ve decided to try and make a list of some of the most popular posts I’ve written and a quick annotation to each one. In no particular order:

Freelancing/contracting/consulting
This theme is recurrent on my blog as I have been a consultant for over 15 years. My work is not that of a traditional academic in that I balance consulting, research, teaching altogether, with a strong focus on client work. Thus, I frequently ask about the challenges I face as a consultant/contractor/freelancer.

Getting Paid What You Are Worth This article became really popular as much of my audience also shares the same struggle of not devaluing work. The entry was more focused on finding out best pricing strategies for writing output, more than anything, but turned into a discussion on how not to devalue our work. A follow-up article I wrote has been one of my most popular, ever.

The Economics of Free or Why I Don’t Do Things For Free Anymore This article became really, really popular not only with my audience but also with that of other social media stars like Chris Brogan and Tara Hunt (both of whom, kindly, linked to my post). Inspired by the challenge I faced when I began doing so much community (free) work that people started assuming I was willing to work for free.

Social media: Beyond the basics of social networking sites
I have always liked to challenge conventional wisdom. I like asking challenging and tough questions. I like to probe ideas, thoughts and concepts. Therefore, while I have written about tech, and social media, I pride myself in examining more complex, often-not-talked-about issues, such as diversity, ethics, disclosure and the unruly world of the social web. Some of my favorite posts seem to be also very popular too.

Where’s The Diversity In Social Media? Inspired by a conversation initiated over on One Degree by Alexa Clark, I wrote a post based on my comment that to be really diverse, we need to look beyond gender and look at ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, etc. It stirred a great discussion and I’m actually quite proud of this post.

On Hand-Wagging, Scolding and Other Social Media MusingsI am a scholar of institutionalism. I look at rules and norms and how these are created and molded. I apply my scholarly work to social media as well. I don’t think I could summarize my post better than the way the always brilliant Alex Samuel described it on Twitter: “From @hummingbird604 – In social media all the informal rule-setting is crowd-sourced. I scold, you scold, we all scold.”

My research

I’ve conducted research in several fields (mostly related to environmental policy and public policy). In an effort to connect both my worlds, I have written a few posts associated with what I have studied. These are a few of those posts. However, I do have an exclusive, dedicated blog to my research which can be found here.

WATER GOVERNANCE

Governing water, governing ourselves – This post intended to summarize the new trends in water governance, and the need for intergovernmental coordination for appropriate water management.

The governance of wastewater and the culture of flushing – This post analyzes the current state of affairs of wastewater governance and highlights how water users forget what happens to their wastewater once they flush the toilet.

Water footprint – A new tool to examine water scarcity and use – We seem to be unable to recognize the incredibly high amount of water we consume and waste, so in this post, I highlighted the usefulness of the water footprint tool.

Banning bottled water in Vancouver and the Metro Vancouver tap water pledge – Explaining the health-concerns basis for the use of bottled water (and discussing how Metro Vancouver is tackling this issue).

SOLID AND HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT

Waste Reduction Week in Canada – Reminding why we should reduce the amount of waste we generate in Canada.

ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

The death of environmentalism – This post discussed how we can use the concept of “something is dead” to revitalize it, using environmentalism as an example.

Environmental groups mobilization and protests: More than meets the eye – A discussion on the usefulness of environmental groups’ mobilization techniques and strategies. Do they work or do they not?

PUBLIC POLICY

Putting back the public in public policy – A post intended to galvanize my readers’ public opinion and try to engage them into participating in local and national political life.

HOMELESSNESS

Public policy lessons on homelessness for Vancouver’s next mayor – A post intended to make the new Mayor of Vancouver (to be elected on November 15th) to take into account intergovernmental relations and the current status of cities in Canada.

Homeless Action Week in Canada – A reminder of why we need national, provincial and municipal coordination to solve homelessness.

DOMESTIC AND TRANSNATIONAL POLITICS

What happened this past Canadian election – Delving into the minds of Canadian voters to explain how Canadians ended up re-electing a Conservative government.

Being the researcher and the phenomenon – Discussing my feelings as part of the VoterMedia experiment.