BarCamp TorontoTechWeek (aka BarCamp Toronto4) is happening this Saturday, May 26th. This time, we’re bringing out the BarCamp noobies and sharing the real BarCamp experience at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information Studies.
In line with the counter-culture ethos of the unconference, this BarCamp marks the un-official un-launch of Toronto Technology Week, which features both Enterprise 2.0 Conference & Camp and the Mesh Conference. I will be attending BarCamp and plan on facilitating a conversation about the future of Mozilla as a product or a platform, based on Chris Messina’s recent rant on the subject.
If you’ve never attended an unconference before, you really need to try it. (Hint: DemoCamp IS NOT a BarCamp) Once you’ve had an unconference, your expectations for what a conference should be will never be the same. Participants only. Bring a presentation you want to share, or sometimes participation means active listening, engaging presenters, bringing a question you want to explore or an intention to meet some like-minded folk. It’s about sharing and learning in an open creative environment.
Register by adding your name on the wiki. (Click “edit page”, password: c4mp)
Joost is the most significant potential disruption and threat to the traditional video content distribution model in a long time, an innovation built on the architecture of the open Internet as we know it today and built on P2P technologies.
Is it television? Sort of. It has the potential to be way better than television. Rogers or Bell could decide to throttle Joost to the point of being unusable for their Internet customers, reducing consumer choice while protecting their cable and satellite oligopoly from competition. Is that risk real? What should we think about it? What is the future of the Open Internet? What should Canadian content creators expect?
All media has become digital. Is the Internet a lucrative and profitable playing ground for a new generation of creators and consumers of media or a new and potentially extremely profitable channel for old gatekeepers? How independent is the relationship between user, content creator and media conglomerate and how will this affect the distribution revenues and expenditures? How have these relationships been changing over time and how will they affect your business? Explore the frontlines of the digital media landscape through a town hall meeting where everyone is invited to participate.
Many of us have been arguing that the industry in Canada needs to start opening up the conversation about net neutrality, and nextMEDIA organizer Mark Greenspan responded by adding the session into the schedule. This is “nextMEDIA” after all, and net neutrality is THE central issue in the development of the architecture of the media platform of the future, so it’s a natural fit.
The “Town Hall” is scheduled opposite Heritage Minister Bev Oda’s speech. Off to the side and away from the view of the politicos, but at least the conversation is happening, which is some small measure of progress. If you’re in Banff, please join us for what will no doubt be a stimulating discussion.
Now if Kevin McArthur could finally give netneutrality.ca over to a good home!
Chris Messina (BarCamp godfather, Mr. Tara Hunt and open web evangelist) has posted a lengthy, provocative and thoughtful video rant on the state of Mozilla, makers of the Firefox browser. In it he argues that Mozilla needs to stop thinking of itself as a browser company and become “a platform for innovation, creativity and the advancement of civilization and societies“. (WOW!)
Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corp would collapse without the Mozilla community. That community is united by shared beliefs and sense of mission. It was catalyzed by a common purpose to take on a juggernaut in the form of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. It’s goal was to offer an alternative. With that purpose and goal now largely accomplished and IE7 a much improved competitor, it begs the question: What next?
Messina’s critique needs to be understood as being broadly about the kind of web we want and it’s place in society, just like the net neutrality debate. Chris’ recent launch-point is his concern that the next generation web dev platforms (Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Apollo) are curtailing “view source”. Chris and others credit web standards and view source as the primary propagating forces behind the rapid innovation on the web today. Messina is looking to Mozilla to lead the development of open alternatives in line with its mission to ensure choice on the web.
I was invited by Catarina von Maydell, formerly of the Toronto Angel Group, to attend a gathering of investors (mostly angel) at ISCM, the Innovation Synergy Centre in Markham north of Toronto. Investors learned about the services that this hub of so-called “4th pillar” organizations offers to small-medium sized growth companies. The invited investors had an opportunity to learn about and meet with some of the companies that ISCM helps prepare for investment.
We know it when we experience it. The fluid coordination of many disparate parts. It can be like jamming or improv. But sometimes you need planning and a choreographer. While I have an interest in the self-organizing nature of creative communities, we must recognize that the application of skill and talent in a more formally coordinated fashion is the only way to experience the seemingly effortless flow of collaboration like this (via Luis Suarez):
It’s a place to share the real stories of Canadian innovators that are creating a buzz; lessons from the trenches; resources, criticism and commentary from the edge. I will be making contributions there about some of the bigger policy questions, where entrepreneurs can go to find support and maybe even sharing some of my own experiences.
Let me know if there’s something cool or helpful that you think should be covered there.
