Brad Rourke

Brad Rourke’s Blog

  • Election Laws Coming for Facebook, Twitter

    The state I happen to live in is at the forefront of an interesting wave in public policy, one which is inevitable. The Maryland Board of Elections is considering taking actions to regulate the social media usage of candidates and campaigns. A quick scan shows that many candidates and campaigns have begun to tap into…

  • Some Contrarian Bullets

    Just a few contrarian bullets . . . thoughts, complaints, and predictions: There is a difference between a “brand” and a “label” — many label when they think they are branding. There is a difference between “being online” and “having a brand.” Young professionals tend to overvalue their intelligence, and undervalue others’ experience. Few people…

  • Are you going to turn off your Facebook? Not me.

    A lot of my friends are complaining about some of the recent changes Facebook has made to their terms of service and their privacy policies. People are upset that the changes were rolled out in an opt-out way. That is, you had to take a specific action to get out of the changes. This has…

  • Renaming An Organization

    My good friend Hildy Gottlieb, author of the very important Polyanna Principles, is in the midst of choosing a new name for her organization, the Community-Driven Institute. She has written a very interesting and transparent article about that process, and has thrown a few ideas out there for people to react to. The Vision Words…

  • My Three Dashboards

    Over the last few years, like many Internet users, my day-to-day online life has coalesced around three methods of interacting with the world. I’ve developed three “dashboards,” if you will, that each work within a different activity context. Throughout the day, I am constantly shifting from one dashboard to the other. They are separate in…

  • Anatomy Of A Rock Show

    Many of my colleagues and readers know that I am in a local rock band called The West End. We’re not going to be rich anytime soon, but people say we’re not too shabby. We’ve got a fair sized local fan base and we play out regularly. We’ve recorded and released two CD’s (the latest…

  • Issue Guide On America's Role In The World Available

    This is a little overdue, as this was released a little over a month ago, but better late than never! I am delighted to announce a new issue guide that I wrote has been released and will be used in deliberative forums across the nation. Here is the post I wrote for the “news” section…