Da Forde

Toronto has some 3,300 ICT (Information and Communication Technology) businesses and 150,000 people that make up the sector here in the city. We have very talented workforce and our city is responsible for a lot of the world’s innovation but we need a way to tell the story of Toronto’s technology community a lot better. The Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT), the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA) and the City of Toronto have come together on an initiative called “Toronto Technology Week.” This year I have the privilege to be the Chair and Alicia I. Bulwik, Toronto Economic Development as Co-Chair. We also have a powerful organizing committee including:

Marie-Jose Crete, Centennial College
Joey de Villa, Tucows Inc.
Terri Joosten, CareerDoor Inc.
John Jung, Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA)
Ian Kelso, New Media Business Alliance
Mark Kuznicki, Remarkk Consulting
Brad McBride, IT Business
Dave Paolini, Lenovo Canada
Marine Perran, City of Toronto IT
Joy Peters, IMaps
Elaine Pratt, KPMG
Carla Tsambourlianos, Ministry of Economic Development (MEDT)
Kathleen Webb, Computer Animation Studios of Ontario (CASO)

A local firm has been retained through an RFP process to develop the official website for Toronto Technology Week (TTW), but I thought I’d do a quick post to answer some of the questions that have come up a few times and help provide some answers for anyone and/or companies that are interested in being involved.

What is Toronto Technology Week?

TTW is an initiative that has been created by ITC Toronto and represents a week of various events and activities being organized by several stakeholders that are part of Toronto’s ICT community, including associations, government bodies, companies and schools. The purpose at a high level is to have one week dedicated to celebrating success within the sector, create a platform for Toronto based companies to share their story with Toronto and the world at large. To give you a very simple explanation, think of what Toronto Fashion Week or the International Film Festival do by bringing those industries together for one week for networking, celebration and education, that is similar to what we are looking for TTW to do for the tech sector.

Where is Toronto Technology Week being held?

In Toronto, Canada, the location of each event is up to each event organizer, and a calender of all the events will be located on the TTW web site as well details will be included in the official TTW Guide that will be distributed prior to the week.

When is Toronto Technology Week?

Toronto Technology Week (TTW) will be held the week of May 28 through June 1, 2007

Who is the audience?

With 3,300 companies representing Toronto’s ICT sector and well 15 events and activities taking place over the course of the week, TTW will serve a very broad and diverse audience. Each event will attract a certain demographic that could be similar or could be very different, for example events being organized by groups such as MESH, ITAC, Canadian New Media Awards (CNMA), Entrepreneur Competition or the 2-day Innovation Trade Show could potentially attract different people which is great because it give the entire community a chance to participate during the week. Local colleges and universities are also encouraged to participate in activities aimed at the student level. Companies looking to expand their business may take part in the International B2B Room, which brings together delegates from other countries and cities looking to do business with Toronto based companies. Depending on the event it may attract CIO’s, Developers, Product Managers, Venture Capitalists, Entrepreneurs, Students and those companies and individuals provide products/ services to the technology industry (legal, marketing services, public relations and many more).

How to get involved?

An open call has been made to various associations, schools and companies within Toronto’s ICT sector to participate by organizing events that fit within the scope of Toronto Technology Week. Here are some additional opportunities for you:

Trade Associations, ICT-related organizations, Education and Research Institutions and ICT-related stakeholder groups ICT industry-related events held during this week, will be included in the TTW program;

Businesses in the information and communication technology sector are welcome to participate in the business open door program, to either showcase product/services or to speak to visitors about their company;

Research and Education institutions will have the opportunity to either display special projects and/or facilities, as well as to list activities organized in connection with TTW

Government agencies and Foreign Delegations are encouraged to schedule ICT-related events during the TTW; Volunteers are encouraged to participate in the organization of this event and meet and mingle with colleagues in the field;

Sponsors will be offered opportunities at a range of sponsorship levels;
Please feel free to contact:
Dave Forde, Chair Toronto Technology Week
forde@profectio.com

Rob Berry, Project Director, ICT TORONTO
rberry@toronto.ca

Visit the official Toronto Tech Week site to get a list of all the events and activities that are taking place during that week.

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Long time friend Leesa Barnes has made the official announcement that she’s signed a deal with Maxpress to write a book on podcasting. There are lots of people who do ‘things’, but it takes someone who is passionate and knowledgeable to make a difference, and she definately has that. The book should be completed in the next 2 - 3 months, and I look forward to my autographed copy (hint hint).

Congrats Leesa, you go girl!!

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Social Media is still the big buzz, but at the same time because it is still a relatively new area and we need to continue to educate clients on how to best take advantage of it. The “Social Media - Sex & the Sizzle” breakfast seminar will be taking place next Wednesday, January 31 here in Toronto. We will have some good speakers who will be sure to bring their “A” game to the table and wow the attendees with relevant case studies and information that can be used to make campaigns better.

Social Media Breakfast Seminar will cover:

Maggie Fox of Social Media Group will discuss how everyone’s talking Web 2.0 - but what does it mean? In this session, she’ll go over the hard facts: what people are doing online, why you need to pay attention and how your business can reap the benefits. The best part? You’ll get the numbers to back it all up.
Baron Manett, VP, of SEGAL will talk about the relevance of viral marketing in today’s marketing landscape - showcasing how SEGAL built a name for one of its clients with a super-chic interactive campaign. Learn how SEGAL leveraged women’s love of celebrity and fashion to create a brilliant, award-winning campaign that combined Web elements with television and media partnerships to draw more than 300,000 unique visitors and engage more than 20,000 women over a 13-week period.

I’ll also share results from the “Canadian Corporate Blogging” survey which identifies how corporate blogging effects companies.

Full details for the event are here or jump right to click here to register.

Also be sure to check out the aggregated list of Canadian Corporate Blogs.

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I’ve always been taught that you can tell the strength of a person’s leadership ability by the amount of people who follow them, so who better but Martin Luther King Jr. can bestowed the title of leader. He stood in the gap and and took on the burden of criticism, name calling and public ridicule all in the name of a cause that is greater then any one man. He had a vision for a different world, one in which equality for all people of all races was common place, racism and segregation would be a thing of the past. A peaceful man, who sought out his cause not by fists and rocks, but through the passion and conviction of his voice, and he took to the streets to find others who shared his conviction.
Is racism still alive, yes, and I do believe that we will always have racism between people for as long as man-kind is ignorant enough to not take a moment and get to know the stranger in front of them. Racism is fear, fear of the unknown.

Today, January 15 is the day the US has set as a national holiday in his memory, and on August 28, 1963 he gave a speech (see below) that has changed the world and still gives me chills to this day when I hear it, “I have a dream.”  I have also included a recording of his speech below.

“I HAVE A DREAM” (1963)

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well as white men - would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hoped that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “for whites only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today my friends - so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification - one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!”

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi - from every mountainside.

Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring - when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics - will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

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I just caught a post about Edelman releasing their “A Corporate Guide to the Global Blogosphere” (click for download) in which they have “partnered with the leading blog research firm, Technorati, in order to identify the most influential bloggers in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States and to understand the blog topics of the greatest interest in each market (such as technology, entertainment, politics, personal diary) and the frequency with which these bloggers were writing about corporations and their brands. Is the Canadian voice not influential enough to be counted in the results?
With companies such as Flickr and Research in Motion (makers of the blackberry, which I know Rick Murray and Steve Rubel use) have we not done enough in some 100 odd years to be part of your white paper?

Rick buddy, you were up here back in November for our “Word Up” conference, didn’t the other speakers and attendees trigger you to look a little deeper into what our is offered here in terms of blogs?

They have defined influencer’s as:

• Written or called a politician
• Attended a political rally, speech or organized protest
• Attended a public meeting on local issues
• Held or run for political office
• Served on a committee of a local organization
• Served as an officer for a club or organization
• Written a letter to the editor of a newspaper or magazine or called
a live radio or television show to express an opinion
• Signed a petition
• Worked for a public party
• Written an article for a magazine or newspaper
• Been an active member of any group that tries to influence
public policy or government

Which companies across Canada are blogging?

As many people know I’ve been working on a survey to help identify where the Canadian corporate blogs are and in particular how blogging effects their business. I’ll be publishing the results very shortly, but there has been great response so far. I think it is also safe to say we’ll have some good discussions about it at the breakfast seminar at the end of this month about blogs. Since Edelman won’t help to educate Canadians then I’ll do my part to help, so if you contribute to a corporate blog then make sure to complete the survey.

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I posted a few months ago about the problems that i was having with my MacBook Pro, and Apples “customer service” (I use that term very loosely), and I’m back to having problems yet again. We all heard about the bad batch of batteries, some exploding, and well mine was growing (see pictures here). Well wouldn’t you know it, the same problem is happening all over again, and in case you haven’t seen what happens to the battery take a look at the pictures below.

Steve & Apple crew - how many more batteries do I need to go through before you make me a happy customers? Oh, John, I hope you have better luck than I have. Maybe I’ll blame it on Guy for leaving Apple.

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I just read Max Kalehoff’s latest column from Media Post, in his article about page views and the debates over its pending death got me to thinking about how bloggers, especially VC bloggers can sway the success of a start-up. Max mentions that “the death of the page view has been predicted and touted recently by some of the Web’s more forward-looking champions.” I first caught it on Steve Rubel’s blog, where he called for the Imminent Deminse of Page Views. Max also makes reference to a few other posts, from Niall Kennedy and Steve Gilmor but the post that makes me go “wait a minute” is one from VC blogger Fred Wilson. Now I have never met Fred nor suggesting he’s unethical, but follow me for a minute.

If page views die then something has to take over, right? Widgets seems to be the natural fit and a way that site owners can measure the reach of their audiences. So who is to say that a smart VC with a larger readership won’t start fueling this debate and then make suggestions of which widget company will become the dominant player. Then all of a sudden we all read about an investment deal with say Widget Box. This of course makes it all the more reason why it is crucial for VC bloggers who are involved in the deal to let their readers know before they sway any opinions.
Sound crazy, maybe, but let’s face it, the current growth curve that we’re experiencing can’t last for ever…

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2007 - a new year, new goals, new dreams and for a few the thought of starting their own business. VC Matt McCall has a useful post on what it is that VC’s look for in a CEO:
1. Resourceful
2. Relentless
3. Creative Thought
4. Responsive
5. Proactive
6. Honest/ Open Communicator
7. Justified Confidence
8. Strong Domain Knowledge
9. Respect for downside
10. Leadership/ Inspirational

Now someone should put together a Top Ten list of what to look for in a VC.

Tags: web 2.0, venture captial, entrepreneur, VC

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Good article from Information Week on the (5) Disruptive Technologies for 2007:

1. Radio Frequency Identification - definitely no a new promise or technology; but with the Wal-Mart and the Defense Department being early adopters pushing suppliers to invest in the technology this maybe the year we see it take off
2. Web Services - 2006 mainstream media headlines were dominated with words such as Web 2.0, RSS, blogs, Software as a Service (SAAS), many of these services were consumer focused but 2007 is supposed to be the year it takes on into the Enterprise
3. Server Vitalization - server space has become cheap again and companies are giving it away
4. Advanced Graphics Processing - In 2006 AMD purchased Nvidia long term competitor ATI so only fitting that something big is on the horizon. There has also been talk of the next Second Life type application being 3D
5. Mobile Security - more and more laptops and mobile devices are hitting the street and one thing that will never change is the need to have them on “lock down”

Source: Andy Wibblels

Tags: predictions 2007, RFID, Web Services, Web 2.0, Mobile

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I fell into temptation and took the quiz - Superhero Personality Quiz.

Well it turns out that I am an “Inventor. Businessman. Genius”, 2007’s going to be a great year!!!

You are Iron Man

Iron Man 95% The Flash 85% Green Lantern 65% Hulk 65% Robin 55% Wonder Woman 55% Spider-Man 55% Supergirl 50% Catwoman 50% Batman 35% Superman 25%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

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