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Design

The Downside of Meeting Requests

January 4, 2015

“Expectation is the mother of all frustration.” – Antonio Banderas

Meeting requests are an amazing invention. Pioneered, and standardized, almost 20 years ago by companies like Microsoft (as part of Outlook/Exchange), Novell (Groupwise) and Lotus (now part of IBM Lotus Notes) this innovation had great promise to automate an essential, yet completely routine, aspect of modern life.

The ascendency of meeting request usage, …

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Books

{Book Review}: The Idea Factory

August 3, 2012
Book: The Idea Factory The idea factory by Jon Gernter

Published by Penguin Press WorldCat • LibraryThing • Google Books • BookFinder

A marvellous exploration of a research and innovation powerhouse that, even viewed from this age of innovation, surprisingly anticipated many approaches we think of as modern breakthroughs.

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Entrepreneurism

Who Will Revive Canadian Venture Capital (Part I)

June 14, 2012

Today was a banner day for announcements involving a reset of the technology funding ecosystem in Canada.

For a long time, the slow demise of Canadian Venture Capital has concerned me deeply, putting us at an international disadvantage in regards to funding and building our next generation of innovative businesses. You may recall my 2009 post Who Killed Canadian Venture Capital? …

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Business Strategy

How You Gonna Keep ‘Em Down On The Farm?

August 3, 2010

“How You Gonna Keep ‘Em Down On The Farm” (excerpt) by Andrew Bird

Oh, how ya gonna keep ’em down? Oh no, oh no Oh, how ya gonna keep ’em down? How ya gonna keep ’em away from Broadway? Jazzin’ around and painting the town? How ya gonna keep ’em away from harm? That’s the mystery

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This week, my 18 month old Blackberry finally bit the …

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Business Strategy

FourSquare – Re-writing the Rules While Killer Application Remains Elusive

April 10, 2010

“Nature is by and large to be found out of doors, a location where, it cannot be argued, there are never enough comfortable chairs.” – Fran Lebowitz

I’m a believer that Location Based Services (LBS), coupled with the latest smartphones, will evolve a number of indispensible, and unexpected, killer applications.

That said, it’s pretty clear that those mission critical applications …

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Investing

Attacking a Canadian Icon

January 23, 2009

While I’m hardly a shrinking violet, I generally shy away from newspaper coverage. That being said, after saying no several times to Gordon Pitts at the Globe and Mail, I finally agreed to be quoted. Here’s why.

Yesterday, Jim Balsillie won the Laurier Outstanding Business Leader of the Year Award. With his business, economic and philanthropic contributions to our area and …

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Business Strategy

Business Models: Subscription vs. Freemium vs. Free in Lean Times

November 29, 2008

Have you invented a killer application that people will use in business or their personal lives on a regular basis? Are you ready to implement a great web/mobile experience in the context of building a web startup business?

Now what? You’ll want to evolve a business model that helps viral adoption, yet still allows for effective monetization of your great new …

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Public Policy

Digital Policy #4: Reversing Canada’s Dismal State of Mobile Regulation

November 9, 2008

“Permanent connectivity, not motion, is the critical thing” Manuel Castells, Annenberg School for Communication

It is safe to say that mobile regulation in Canada represents a huge opportunity as the foundation for much of our future economic prosperity. It is ironic that such a geographically dispersed country, once the world leader in telecommunications through to the early 1980’s, should abandon what …

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Public Policy

Public Policy for the Digital Age

September 2, 2008

With the imminent federal election call in Canada, it seems timely to start a discussion on public policy principles that our governments (federal and provincial) should be considering. From the context of the information technology industry (web, mobile, digital media, etc.), why is this important?

Firstly, as more and more traditional manufacturing jobs migrate to the Pearl River Delta, the knowledge-based …

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Business Strategy

Brands, Trust and The Fine Print

August 2, 2008

In today’s mail I received a tantalizing offer from Bell Canada Long Distance. It promised the ability to “Call the world without limits” by delivering “Unlimited World Long Distance Plan $29.95/mo.” With calls to over 50 countries plus Canada and USA included, on the face of it, that’s a pretty attractive offer.

But, I’ve learned that, when dealing with the telecoms …

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