Business
Visa Debit rolls out in Canada
This is a project I’ve been working on and involved with in one capacity or another for a long time, including building the first business case and running the product development for CIBC as far back as 2005. More on the launch of Visa Debit in Canada: Toronto Star: CIBC rolls out Canada’s first Visa-branded [...]
Trouble at the Video Store Part 2
My last post [Trouble at the video store] seemed to have caused a bit of an “OMG I Know” stir in the comments. Here is the other shoe. Clearly the video rental model, like that of the CD store is well known, even by it’s owners, as obsolesced industry coasting through it’s sunset years. Despite [...]
Pierre Karl Peladeau on Wireless Competition
To set the scene for you yesterday at the Empire Club luncheon: Perre Karl Peladeau, CEO of Quebecor and would-be new entrant in the Canadian mobile industry, 200 investment bankers in serious suits, former prime minister Brian Mulroney of Canada sharing the rubber chicken, and one blogger/web2.0 troublemaker. Pierre: : I am here to talk [...]
Guilds as a model for new (un)organizational behaviour
Michele Perras has a great article up on her blog about the emergent signal of tech-and-media-enabled communities and how they do and don’t echo a very old form of organization of professionals guilds. looking at the innumerable communities that have emerged and exploded, in large part due to what people are doing with web/mobile technology, [...]
Has Facebook killed blogging?
Have you noticed the blogosphere growing quiet? The pros and the a-listers and the corporate blogs are still at it as strong as ever. But tumbleweeds blow through the empty feed folders of personal friends. Flickr too is fading away. Maybe it’s just summer and we’re all outdoors, as we should be, instead. But I [...]
The most interesting piece of news this week.
Now this could change everything. Will Canada follow? UPDATE:More from the horse’s mouth (thanks Michele: Our commitment to open broadband platforms – google UPDATE2: [FCC Says Wireless Could be America's "Third Pipe"] FCC responds: In a congressional hearing on Tuesday, three out of the five FCC commissioners told lawmakers that they are supportive of the [...]
Negative Space in Product Design – Value from things that things don’t do.
I figure the single sound that must bring the most collective happiness to people the world over is exactly the sound your alarm clock doesn’t make as soon as you hit the snooze button. I’ve been trying to think up, ever since my alarm came back on this morning, some other examples of this principle [...]
The Tricks and Challenges of Social Computing in the Office
Great set of notes (thanks Stephanie!) on Suw Charman’s recent talk at google (been meaning to link to this for a while) on the tricky art of introducing social software to the office. “Low-level fear of social humiliation. How are they going to come across to their peers and bosses? Fear of making mistake. People [...]
The Science of Hits and why you can’t pick them
New research shows us the old adage “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like” – is just not true. We don’t know much about art -or- what we like. A recent study shows that intrinsic quality of a work (in this case a song) is at best a 50% predictor [...]
Open thoughts for open cities
..Because gifted children are able to consider the possibilities of how things might be, they tend to be idealists. However, they are simultaneously able to see that the world is falling short of how it might be. Because they are intense, gifted children feel keenly the disappointment and frustration which occurs when ideals are not [...]
The office as occupied territory, and three rules for collaboration
Jevon today had an entertaining riff on positive vs pejorative connotations of “collaboration”. However you look at it, whether it’s collaborating with the occupying regime or subversive collaboration among La Résistance (so to speak), I would argue that effective collaboration in an organization requires 3 things: Opportunities to collaborate. Are your people finding where they [...]
Is it just me or is Outlook archiving dumb?
Is it just me or is Outlook’s (and Exchange’s) insistence on “archiving” items and restricting the size of your inbox just stupid and something that must irritate and/or baffle millions of users? ‘Would you like to archive old items now?” no, I would not! How is an average user supposed to even know what that [...]
iDubya’s are Enterprising Searchers and other things learned on MSoft’s Bar Tab
The good folks at Microsoft and High Road invited a bunch of us technology business types out for drinks last night to hear about Microsoft and Enterprise Search. After taking the dubious precaution of getting us well sauced in advance. We bloggers are a surly soapboxers at the best of times.
This is what I learned: (much more after the jump)
StartupNorth has launched
StarupNorth.ca has launched. Tracking Canadian startup stories and celebrating the vibrant startup community that is in Canada – though you might not know it. If there’s one thing that silicon valley is good at, it’s self promotion. It’s time we got on that train ourselves. There no reason Canadian entrepreneurs need to impress Scoble or [...]
Social Media, the Importance of Communities (and how to get one)
Visa Canada asked me to talk about the following topic this morning for 140 mid to senior level execs in the areas of ecom, marketing, finance and risk from online merchants. Merchant Experiences in Social Media: Insights and tips into the strategies that merchants have taken to successfully harness the power of social media. An [...]
Open Data more than Open Source Debates is What Matters Now
There’s a battle for openess going on these days, but it’s not the same as the old open source debate. The ability/openess to modify software is just not that important to most people. Statistically speaking, almost nobody modifies their software (though the few that do can sometimes create enormous value for everyone else – that much is still true).
What I worry about is the battle for open connectivity. The media and telecoms landscape is shifting and the connection providers are the new gatekeepers…. Much more after the jump.
Canada Worse than 3rd World Countries when it comes to Mobile Data Access
The motto of the CRTC, Canada’s telcom regulator is “Communications in the Public Interest”. Right. If you live in Canada, write to your MP. The CRTC, as an institution, needs to be taken out and shot.* This chart charts the best rates available from all carriers. And all levels of government say that “ICT” competitiveness [...]
The Language of Omaha
Warren Buffet’s annual letter is up on the internet. As usual it is a joy to read. Don’t you wish everyone in business could speak so plainly? Okay, On the one, hand I do suppose that anyone who made their shareholders 16.9B last year (yes, that’s with a ‘B’) would have the prerogative to talk [...]
Thomas Purves
is a technology executive specializing digital payment systems, a futurist and sometimes entrepreneur living in the great city of 
