The Obama administration is doing some interesting online engineering in order to push its health care reform agenda.

Had an interesting meeting with our friends at Principle Gallery this week. The thumbnail: well-run, successful gallery on King Street in Old Town Alexandria, all skylights and exposed brick -- an ideal space for showcasing the work of emerging and established artists. While you can't ask for more from brick-and-mortar, ownership is tired of being in the cellar when it comes to the gallery's online presence, specifically SEO.

The phrase “thought leadership” has been buzzing around for a few years now. Increasingly, we’re encountering executives and senior managers who want to be known as thought leaders. They get dew-eyed at the prospect of their soaring credibility, imagining adoring underlings hounding them at the annual meeting, and envious competitors sucking up at the next trade show. The speaking engagements . . . the panel appearances . . .

Cutting through today's multi-media-sensory-hyper-info layer cake is the concern (mostly from stodgier quarters) that we are becoming a culture of distraction. Multiple email accounts, social networks, means of entertainment whether mobile or stadium-sized -- finding the calm center is all but impossible. But is that a bad thing? New York magazine writer Sam Anderson suggests that it's not.

Of course I'm biased. I'm a native Chicagoan, but I've endured mediocre hockey for decades. Now, Rocky Wirtz, who inherited Chicago Blackhawks ownership from his notoriously parsimonious father, has the team on an incredible turnaround.