Toronto, tech hub of the world.
Six years ago I attended a symposium on Toronto’s roll in the tech/design landscape in North America. At the time it was said we were 3rd in north America for the volume and quality of ICT skilled workers following New York and San Francisco.
This week, Rip Empson, janitor at Techcrunch, shared Startup Genome’s findings on How The World’s Top Tech Hubs Stack Up. And it seems we’re holding on to our ranking in the global context.
Tech industry infighting and the ongoing saga of Instapaper and Readability.
Craig Saila just shared Readability, Instapaper, the Network and the Price we Pay by Anil Dash. In Anil’s words:
Since the success of the recent Readability app on iOS, things have gotten tense, not between the creators of [Instapaper and Readability], but between supporters, fans and enthusiasts in the community for both apps.
Whither the TO Events Calendar.
We shuttered the TO Events Calendar late last year because we:
1. Were having trouble managing it, because;
2. We hadn’t improved the technology to help make our lives easier as curators and your lives easier as contributors.
Our plan for the past year was to integrate Plancast via their API as they were (are?) doing a pretty good job of sucking in events from most of our event sources (Facebook, Meetup, Eventbrite, etc), leaving us with some leg work to grab events from proprietary software calendars from the likes of Rotman, the Toronto Board of Trade, etc.
Alas, word this week is that Plancast may be leaning towards extinction for many of the reasons we never attempted to commercialize our calendar software.
Patio Friday 2011 kickoff, this past Friday at Margaritas.
This past Friday we kicked off the Patio Friday season with a great crowd at Margaritas. Our gracious hosts at Margaritas let us take over the top floor patio as we grew to over 30 strong.
Photo taken by Chris.
Conversations were had around graphic design, Nat & Marie, the trials of post-CIA job hunting, finding your own summer place in Toronto, and much more.
Photo taken by Rannie.
Movember fundraiser photos.
Last week we helped launch The Beards campaign to raise funds for Prostate Cancer Canada by co-hosting an intimate affair at the Fair Trade Jewellery Co’s Parliament St atelier.
In the spirit of men’s clubs of yore, we had fantastic food catered from Little Kitchen, an assortment of scotch from Say Yeah!, fine brew from the Great Lakes Brewery, cigars and ambiance from FTJCO, and pleasant conversation to be had with each of our distinguished guests.
The Startup Weekend experience.
When I walked into Startup Weekend Toronto on Friday evening, I had a simple goal - team up with some old & new friends, deny myself sleep, and build something cool. And that’s exactly what happened.
In 30 hours, Satish Kanwar, Nate Garvie, Brian Gilham, Tony Wallace, Darren Butcher & myself put together the foundation for Task Ave, an iPhone application that reminds you what you need to do when you’re in the area that you need to do it.
We’ll be presenting at these upcoming events in April, May and June.
We’re pleased to be speaking at these upcoming events throughout April, May and June. Collectively, they offer a variety of topics, whether you’re an entrepreneur, marketer, or freelancer. Take a look!
DesignGuru Talks: Online Identity.
Friday, April 23, 2:00p at the Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Avenue, 4th Floor, Alterna Boardroom.
We’ll be discussing a variety of issues around how individuals and organizations can maintain a harmonious identity across varied platforms on the Web.
The importance of infrastructure: Haiti and beyond.
In the wake of the earthquake and ongoing disaster relief in Haiti there has been a lot of discussion around the political state of Haiti. Setting these political issues aside, let’s look at the disaster itself and, more specifically, how Haiti’s infrastructure has played a roll in multiplying the level of destruction and, as a result, greatly increased the requirement for aid and subsequent rebuilding efforts.
‘tis the season.
It’s that time of year again when there’s a party every night, mostly to celebrate everyone’s success. While we love a party as much as the next cat, it’s always nice to get together with a purpose other than handing out business cards or measuring alcoholic intake. And the success we’ve enjoyed throughout 2009 makes us even more aware of the struggles others have gone through this year.
Thoughts on Community
Back in June, on a sunny Patio Friday afternoon, we landed at the Adelaide St Pub rooftop patio. As the conversation ebbed and flowed with the arrival and departure of various new and familiar faces throughout the afternoon it became more evident to me that the Toronto Twitter community is strong and bright. We have, as a group, leveraged the online communication utility for many great things, not the least of which is simply to form new and formidable relationships with people we wouldn’t meet otherwise. This, naturally, also leads to learning things and finding opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise.
