Reminder: Democamp 13 Tonight

DemoCamp is back with an all new format tonight and packing in the quality content. DemoCamp is the premier event for connecting with the tech community in Toronto. More info, and don’t forget to sign up on the wiki. (Also don’t forget to give Dave and Jay a big thanks, 13 times).

# Invited: Mike Beltzner Mozilla (15 minutes)
# Invited: Betsy Weber TechSmith (15 minutes)
# Break (10 minutes)
# Demos – 5 minutes each (these should not be sales demos)

* Opensource Game Platforms
* NotSoSo
* ViaVol
* ProductWiki
* Hosinux | Ad-Hoc Mobile Networks
* OpenID
* myhood.ca
* TeeVee
* Onyx-VJ

Venue: we’re back at No Regrets. Googly-x-marks-the-spot linky here. 6:30 is the time, but a few min earlier if you want a hope of catching seat and a full beer before the festivities begin.

Tag your photos and posts with DemoCamp, TorCamp and/or DemoCamp13

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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 overview of recent merchant experiences – what’s worked, what hasn’t, and why.

3rd Annual Visa E-Commerce Summit (for merchants), April 23rd, 2007

It went pretty well! Here’s what I came up with:

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It begins, canada’s newest Wireless Carrier: Quebecor Canada’s newest Carrier

(At least in Quebec). It’s about time, and it had to happen. Pierre Peladeau, CEO of Quebecor just announced his intention to enter the wireless market in Quebec. With fighting words describing the existing “players in the cellphone industry as a three-headed oligopoly with no interest in providing customers with innovative products or competitive prices”

He even compares Canada’s wireless penetration (unfavorably with 3rd world countries). Clearly, Pierre has been reading my blog.

The government is currently wrapping up consultation on how to auction off the next tranche of spectrum.

Lets hope they do the right thing, and set the conditions for Quebecor – or any other new entrants to enter the market.

Better yet, just send it my way…. Who wants to start a wildly disruptive all flat-rate, all-voip, carrier in the rest of Canada with me?

I don’t think the timing could be any better for disrupting this industry. You’ve got a market that’s the second from most under-penetrated in the industrialized world. You’ve got all manner of exciting and disruptive change on the horizon from new technologies from voip, web and other data services. You’ve got three competitors laden with debt, setting an absurdly high price umbrella and all hhooked on their legacy voice minute revenue.
Bring it on.

Thanks to Kevin at the Seabord group for tipping me off to this story in the National Post today.

(this post originally composed in the departure lounge of terminal 3 in Toronto, which lacking any wifi, and any piratical mobile data option, here I am posting 8 hrs later. Sometimes this country feels like the stone age.)

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