I regularly engage with policymakers and the general public through op-eds, policy reports and by providing advice and research presentations to governments and international organizations. A selection of this work is listed below.
Op-eds & commentary
It’s Time to Protect Expert Advice. Co-authored with Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Matthew Herder, Howard Ramos & Julia M. Wright. The Globe and Mail. March 3, 2022.
Year One: Federal Government is No More Digital Than Before the Pandemic. The Ottawa Citizen. March 12, 2021.
Transforming (Digital) Government in Ontario. Medium. April 15, 2019.
Digital Government Doesn’t Equal Democratic Government. Policy Options. January 30, 2019.
Insights for Canada’s New Digital Government Minister. Co-authored with Jonathan Craft. Policy Options. February 8, 2019.
Why we need Code for Canada. The Hill Times. April 10, 2017.
Outrage over government Wikipedia edits sends wrong message. Policy Options. May 13, 2016.
The Innovation Challenge: Modernizing the Public Service. Policy Options. May 11, 2016.
Forced to Tweet in Both Languages Ministers Lose Their Impact. Co-authored with Elizabeth Dubois. The Globe and Mail. February 19, 2015.
We’ve Got Some Catching Up to Do: The Public Service and the 2015 Election. In Canadian Election Analysis 2015: Communications, Strategy, and Democracy. Alex Marland & Thierry Giasson, eds. Vancouver: UBC Press and Samara Canada. 2015.
Policy reports
Social Media Data Extraction in the Government of Canada. Co-authored with Benjamin Faveri. Report commissioned by Transport Canada. March 2021.
Transforming Ontario’s Student Assistance Program. Co-authored with Jungroan Lin & Jonathan Craft. Institute of Public Administration of Canada/Policy Ready.
Exploiting the Web as a Tool of Democracy: New Ways Forward in the Study and Practice of Digital Democracy. Report commissioned by the Council of Europe for the World Forum for Democracy. November 2013.
Social Media: Political Uses and Implications for Representative Democracy. Library of Parliament. March 2010.
Presentations to policymakers
Smart Cities and Mobility Hubs. Global Privacy Assembly 2021. October 19, 2021.
Opening Government in the Digital World. Government of Canada Executive Leadership Development Program. March 30, 2021.
Shifting Narratives of Digital Government: The Return to the State. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. March 19, 2019.
Digital government vision. Expert roundtable with Minister of Digital Government, The Honorable Joyce Murray. September 16, 2020.
Digital government: from settled to debated orthodoxy. Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. October 15, 2019.
Data Governance and Digital Government Services: Meeting Citizen Expectations. Ontario Digital Service, Government of Ontario. August 13, 2019.
Digital Government Services and Privacy. Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, House of Commons, Parliament of Canada. February 7, 2019.
Implementing ‘Government as a Platform’. Public Policy Forum’s Clerks and Cabinet Secretaries Symposium on Policy Innovation. October 13, 2016.
Media coverage
Article covering the research that Elizabeth Dubois and I published on government Wikipedia contributions. Federal government went on ‘draconian witch hunts’ after news stories on Wikipedia edits by bureaucrats. The National Post. June 3, 2020.
My book, Opening the Government of Canada: The Federal Bureaucracy in the Digital Age, was included in the Hill Times’ Top 100 Best Non-Fiction Canadian Books in 2019. December 16, 2019.
Article reviewing Opening the Government of Canada by Prof. Alex Marland in the Hill Times. December 16, 2019.
Article covering publication “The Twin Faces of Public Sector Design” in The Mandarin. July 22, 2019.
Interview on the Code for Canada fellowship and government tech talent needs. All in a Day, CBC Radio,. July 24, 2019.
Interview on government use of social media influencers. The House, CBC Radio, 15 June.
Interview for podcast “Crafting a Digital Democracy”, Policy Options, February 27, 2019.
Interview on the Canadian Digital Service. The Current, CBC Radio, December 14, 2017.
Interview on the role of civil society in the digital age. Internet renforce le pouvoir de la société civile. Le Monde. November 26, 2013.
Interview on current threats to democracy. Globe Focus: Threats to Democracy. The Globe and Mail. November 16, 2013.
Interview on new forms of online citizen engagement. Pull: How Technology is Changing the Conversation. Q Media Solutions and TVOntario. 2013.
Interview covering my research on government social media policies. How many groups does it take to craft a tweet in this government body? Eight. The Globe and Mail. February 6, 2013.