Brad Rourke

Brad Rourke’s Blog

  • Would You Attend a Bootcamp to Get Online?

    Lately I have been considering developing a one-day (or perhaps half-day) “boot camp” for people who are interested in getting their online lives set up. This would be a session for people who have no online presence, or who have one but aren’t happy with it. At the end of the day, participants would have…

  • I Completed the P90X Fitness Program! Here Are My Thoughts.

    As many of my friends know, I have been diligently pursuing the P90X fitness program. This is an intense series of DVDs featuring trainer Tony Horton. It’s designed to get you into really, really good shape. For me, it has done exactly that. Many friends have been asking about my progress and I thought I…

  • Two Ways to Use Google Voice

    Google Voice is often referred to as the “one number to rule them all” service. That does not really describe what the service does — or can do. I have been a user of the service since it began (and used its predecessor, Grand Central, before that). Some of my friends have asked me about…

  • New Norms Needed For New Realities

    As my friends on Facebook know, I recently turned off the voicemail on our home telephone line. Even though I had a fairly stern outgoing message that informed people they should not expect a message to reach us timely, people were still leaving messages and getting miffed when we didn’t call back. But the thing…

  • 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…