Adam Cole, is director for specialty technology solutions at McKesson Canada, a Toronto-based health-care products and service provider with over $80 billion in revenues. He also sits on the national board of theCanadian Information Processing Society (CIPS), Canada's association of IT professionals. Cole blogs occasionally himself.
He reads the following blogs regularly:
Robert Cringley - I, Cringley
Cringley is brilliant as a forward-thinking pundit. He does not hesitate to stretch out his predictions – which even when they do not play out as he expects are still worth considering. Cringley has a great network and often has the inside beat on technical companies.
Nick Corcodilos –Ask the Headhunter
Corcodilos does not beat around the bush when discussing HR and in particular job hunting practices. He is a treasure trove of useful insights for any manager and job seeker. Corcodilos is not shy in his contempt of the job boards. Anyone searching for a job in the IT profession, or any other professional for that matter, will bebefit by reading this blog and Corcodilo's book.
Joel Spolsky - Joel on Software
Joel has slowed down on his blogging recently. Perhaps he is running out of topics. Whatever the reason, it is a shame. Joel is a top-class developer who cut his teeth in the early years at Microsoft. He now owns and runs his own software development company. I love reading Spolsky as much as his linguistic prowess as for his insightful comments on the challenges of software development.
Inspired to blog?
Jeff Atwood – Coding Horror
Atwood's topics and background are similar to Spolsky. Another top notch developer with a gift for writing (small surprise they have teamed together on www.StackOverflow.com). Besides the tribulations of hardcore development, Atwood frequently explores the fringes of the software industry and is a key contributor to keeping me "fresh".
Microsoft: Canadian IT Manager Connection
Want to keep your finger on the pulse of what matters to the Canadian IT manager? The title of this blog sums it up.
Philippa Lawson, was the executive director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Internet Clinic The Ottawa-based independent research and advocacy organization focused on technology-policies and laws and made sure government agencies and businesses were not trampling Canadian's privacy rights. A lawyer, Pippa, now runs her own consultancy business and advises organizations on privacy issues.
During her meager downtime, Pippa reads:
Michael Geist – Michael Geist's Blog
Michael is a law professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada Research chair in Internet and E-commerce Law and a long-time colleague. He is great in keeping up with consumer rights, privacy issues and security issues in the Canadian context. He's truly into the Canadian Internet sphere. Michael typically gets the news out before others do.
Bruce Schneier – Schneier on Security
Bruce has a very sensible approach to security and privacy topics. It's great to read a security insider with technical expertise and a pulse on relevant and current security issues.
Colin Coller, is senior manager for solutions development in Canada for global IT consultancy firm Avanade Inc. and has been working in the software development field for more than 11 years. To keep abreast of what's going on, he makes it a point to read his favourite blogs whenever he has dome downtime after work or while riding a taxi.
His faves are:
Dana Gardner – Briefings Direct Dana is a former senior analyst for the Yankee Group. I get a lot very useful technical and management strategies from his blog. This a top source for info on topics such as software-as-a service, cloud computing, management and business needs. His blog is pretty hard to beat. He doesn't just give you his opinion. Dana also provides a lot of references and links to other people and sites.
Dion Hincliffe – Dion Hincliffe's Web 2.0 Blog Dion is a very prolific and his blog is quick and easy to read. He's the best when it comes to talking about creating a Web 2.0 project. He provides very useful 'what to do and not to do' best practices stuff in very handy bullet-point form.
Jim Stanton, president of Stanton Associates, is a communications and training consultant firm based in Vancouver who specializes in crisis communication and the use of online and social media technology.
He follows:
JD Lasica – Social media biz
JD Lasica has been blogging since 2001, from the very beginning of "new media" as it were with hisNew Media Musings He stays up to date on all the Media 2.0 advances, is interesting and shows examples of fresh new approaches by new media practitioners. His new site reflects thhe increasing use of audio and video podcasts.
Chris Garnett- chrisg.com UK-based Chris Garnett is an expert on Internet marketing and new media marketing. He has lots of good tips, warnings about pitfalls of social media and good checklists of recent articles about new media. He's very current, which is very important.
Robert Beggs, is founder and CEO of DigitalDefense Inc. a Toronto-based information security and regulatory compliance solutions firm which specializes in corporate penetration testing, IT forensics and professional training.
Robert reads:
Bruce Schneier – Schneier on Security He provides a high-level view of security. Bruce is one of the top 5 security people globally. I like his strategic analysis and he is able to relate general news to specific security issues. For example he can talk about how the no-fly-list is doomed to fail and relate that to malicious site blacklisting and why that strategy is no good.
Harlan Karvey – for Windows Incident Response Blog Harlan is a real skilled security practitioner and a great source of technical information. The site is provides up-to-date information of Windows tools, and how to defend Windows systems against attacks. But Harlan doesn't j