| INTRODUCTION → 1. The Planet Goes BlackBerry → 2. The Birth of the BlackBerry → 3. Lawsuits in Motion → → 4. From Brand to Icon → 5. BlackBerry Jam → 6. The Rise of the TeleBrain → |
| WELCOME / INDEX - SAMPLE CHAPTER → DEVICES → Image Gallery → Audio/Video → Texts & Docs → Web Links → Appendix → |
Alastair Sweeny Biography
From BlackBerry Planet Web Support
Born in Toronto, Ontario, he attended St. Andrew's College, received an honours BA from the University of Trinity College (University of Toronto), and an MLitt and PhD from Trinity College, Dublin.
Sweeny has managed research programs, produced reference and learning materials and consulted with many leading private and public sector organizations, including the Privy Council Office (Task Force on Canadian Unity), Library and Archives Canada, Parks Canada, Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, National Indian Veterans Association, Assembly of First Nations, Canadian Heritage, eLibrary ProQuest, Nelson Thomson Learning, Quebecor Media, Electric Library Canada and CanWest Global.
Sweeny served as first Managing Editor of House of Anansi Press. In 1989, he produced "Canadisk", Canada's first multimedia CD-ROM as a joint venture with Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the 1990s, he developed learning materials for Apple Computer's pioneering eWorld online service, and produced the original Encarta Book of Quotations (1999) with Microsoft Inc. and Bloomsbury Publishing, London. In the 1990s he helped get Canada's SchoolNet under way, and developed the "Today in Canadian History" online service for Bell Globemedia.
Sweeny has produced and written corporate history for a number of Canadian companies, including Investors Group, Alberta Energy Company (now Encana), Magna International and Gendis, Inc. (Sony of Canada). He has done background research for Canadian authors such as W. L. Morton (business biography of Lord Strathcona), Peter C. Newman (Hudson's Bay Company series background history), Richard Gwyn (The 49th Paradox: Canada in North America), Pierre Berton (The Promised Land) and Jeffrey Simpson (Spoils of Power). He is author of several books, including a biography of George-Étienne Cartier (1976) and CanQuiz (2002).
Sweeny is currently Executive Director of the non-profit educational foundation, The Civics Channel, dedicated to research, teaching and learning in the areas of citizenship and society, politics, human rights and the justice system. He is co-author and producer of Civics Canada Online, as well as its print version, Civics Canada (2005), and the sponsored Canadawiki portal.
He is also Vice President of Northern Blue Publishing of Waterloo, Ontario, and co-author and producer of History of Canada Online and Canada's First People, pioneering digital histories of Canada and Canada's first nations.
In 2008, he produced two open collaborative sites - The John A. Macdonald Portal and the Samuel de Champlain Portal - to serve as student resources on the life and works of Canada's first Prime Minister, and the founder of New France.
Sweeny's book BlackBerry Planet, on Research in Motion's BlackBerry smartphone, was published by John Wiley Canada Ltd. in September 2009. Sweeny has produced a BlackBerry Planet Web Support site, with a sample chapter, and is publishing a BlackBerry Planet weblog in support of the book.
- BlackBerry Planet: The Story of Research in Motion and the Little Device that Took the World by Storm (2009) ISBN 978-0-470-15940-8
Sweeny's book Black Bonanza, a history of Canada's Athabasca oilsands, and how they will help us avoid "peak oil" and make the shift to solar energy, was published by John Wiley Canada Ltd. in April 2010. Sweeny has also produced a Black Bonanza Web Support site, with a sample chapter.
- Black Bonanza: Canadas Oil Sands and the Race to Secure North Americas Energy Future (2010) ISBN 978-0-470-16138-8
