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This is the website of
Bobbie Johnson, writer and journalist.

Find out more about me, get in touch or, if you feel like it, subscribe to my blog feed or a feed of my activities.

See my pictures on Flickr
Read my writing for the Guardian
Follow me on Twitter
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(c) All material copyright Bobbie Johnson

My favourite stories

In my career as a journalist, I've written countless stories about many weird and wonderful things. Here are a dozen to give you a flavour of my writing, my opinions and my expertise.

Note: While generally a fairly prolific writer for the Guardian, I was quieter between 2002 and 2005, when I was working in editing - rather than writing - roles.

The short life of Kaycee Nicole, May 2001
For two years, a young American girl recounted her brave struggle against leukaemia in a daily online diary. This month she died. Thousands of web-users sent condolences. But, as Bobbie Johnson reveals, there was just one problem ...

Kind of blue, November 2003
Can porn really be acceptable? A new website thinks it can. Bobbie Johnson reports

The coolest player in town, September 2005
Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs, the man behind the iPod phenomenon, gives an exclusive interview to Bobbie Johnson about his drive to make technology simple

Time for the web pioneers to pick sides, November 2005
For years, the internet's pioneers have spun us the rhetoric of revolution: the web, they said, is about communication, information and freedom. Now we discover there's a limit to everything.

Security flaw leaves 3m HSBC online accounts open to fraud, August 2006
One of Britain's biggest high street banks has left millions of online bank accounts exposed to potential fraud because of a glaring security loophole, the Guardian has learned.

• <Situation critical, May 2007
The BBC's desperate attempt to lead the new media revolution has been fraught with controversy, delays and huge costs. Bobbie Johnson asks how it all went wrong

How three Swedish geeks became Hollywood's Number One enemy, August 2007
Operating under the sign of a Jolly Roger, the Pirate Bay website hopes to evoke a buccaneer spirit: swashbuckling swordsmen, or perhaps the pirate radio stations of the 1960s. But as the internet's number one destination for illegal downloads, it has raised the hackles of the entertainment industry and elevated its founders to the top of Hollywood's most wanted list.

Stars in your lap, February 2008
They crack open a beer, they joke, they spoof, they dissect the news - and they're just a few keystrokes away. Bobbie Johnson meets the new wave of cyber celebrities. Can they break out of the techie realm and into the bigtime?

'No one is ready for this', April 2009
A few years ago, the idea of hackers bringing the world to the brink of catastrophe was just a fun Hollywood plotline. Now, cyber-attacks are on the rise and Nato's top computer experts have gathered in a military base in Estonia to prepare cyberwar defences

Inside Twitter HQ, July 2009
Twitter is the hottest internet startup on the planet. Over the last few months, the messaging service it provides has morphed from a social networking tool into an instrument of revolution. So what's life like for the 52 employees at its San Francisco headquarters?

I wrote a series of pieces attempting to untangle some about the energy footprint of the internet. They proved important markers in a vital conversation.
Web providers must limit internet's carbon footprint, say experts
Google's power-hungry data centres
The net's hunger for power: Google responds

I wrote a selection of pieces on the 18-year ordeal faced by kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard - best read together.
Police focus on spate of unsolved killings
A world of nightmare: Jaycee Lee Dugard's story
Antioch: scene of chaos in a place where few questions are asked

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