An update to last year's video -- it's worth a look.


Did You Know? 2.0

These companies presented at the 15 Minutes of Fame session at MESH:

Octopz is an easy to use, online collaboration tool for creative types. Collaboration on audio, video, animation, flash. Integrated text messaging and chat. Built the tool out of a need for collaboration with partners and clients in their production services company.

Greg Thompson of DemoFuse.com: Free online service to create interactive web site tours. Wanted to create a help system that was easy to put together, and easy to update as the web site or application changes. Designed for web sites who want to make a Flash tour; other use is for highlighting a particular feature. Invitation code: MESH.


FiveLimes.com - green social network and social shopping engine.

Rob Hyndman talks to charity 2.0 entrepreneurs Tom Williams and Austin Hill

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Austin:

Austin's first company, ZeroKnowledge, was meant to change how privacy works. Tools for managing privacy and personal data. After dot-bomb, Austin experienced a life-change as his younger brother died of cancer. He began to explore the idea of celebrating life, not death.

Think about the collective passion of the Internet. Created something he felt had meaning, and help people express their desire to change the world. People having fun being social, and giving people to tools to save the world through one random act of kindness at a time.

Tom:

Charity as the most selfish thing in the world, because it makes us feel good. Looking for meaning beyond a couple of rounds and an exit.

Austin:

When you give people the tools to communicate, they will by nature gather together around common interests. Have moved up the hierarchy of needs to focus on communication and idea sharing. The freedom to be what you really want to be. The tools to be an agent of change in the world. The democratization of power and influence, and empowering people to do good.

Tom:

This bubble is different - the organization inspiring others to act as opposed to trying to draw people to them. The establishment loses relevance, but let go of it controls. One blogger in Darfur can make a bigger difference than Oxfam and all it's funding and resources.

Austin: Social media is about putting the fun in functionality; donating to charity is not fun, so the objective is making their contribution, whatever it is, fun. The human agency bringing about actionable social change.

Tom: Web 2.0 opened he conversation; Web 3.0 facilitates it. "Doing good" as a form of media itself - another channel in the universe. The intention economy.

Austin: Extreme Makeover is popular because incredible acts of kindness makes people feel good. The Free Hugs campaign on YouTube --- feeling good isn't monopolized by the major networks.

Tom: Go to CNN for bad news; go to GiveMeaning for good news. Projects range from donating soccor balls in Equador, to any kind of venture that will inspire people to act -- participation and donation.

Austin: Always a huge disconnect between what they say and what they do. Recently there has been a tipping poing regarding public consciousness - (red) cellphones and pink kitchen tools make people feel like they're making a difference.

Best Practices
- switch the conversation from one to many, to many to many;
- think casually about how making the world a better place a fun activity; imbed it into everyday life
- doing something small with 40 million people can change the world.

Austin's New Venture announcement:
ZeroFootprint - Austin on board - DarkGreenPC - making saving energy on your PC a social activity. Open source code, can be distributed by anyone.

Every entrepreneur should read "How to Change the World" by David Bornstein.

9am - Stats are being streamed in:
More than 100,000 people join Facebook everyday.....

Keynote 1:
Matthew Ingram talks to Mike Arrington of TechCrunch, who started the blog as a way to keep up with what start-ups are doing.

Statements by Mike Arrington:
Old-school media industry needs to put all content online, without any login-to-view barriers, and make archives fully accessible gratis.

Start-ups need to create a technological barrier, or a loyalty barrier -- social networks define the value of the application (Flickr, Facebook). Once the network is built, that value is difficult to compete with.

The key to a successful blog - love without reservation what you're writing about. Become a social butterfly, get to know people. Blog about what you love, and you'll be great at it.

On adding audio and video to TechCrunch - too time consuming when speed of relaying info is the most important thing.

It's Toronto Tech Week - Anyone who is anyone will be there -- don't miss out!

Here's a list of events for the week. I'll be at MESH -- see you there!

http://www.techweek.to/participate/events

In April, Tom and I were interviewed by Workopolis TV for a series on working mothers.

You can view our video here at the Workopolis TV site.

Many thanks to Anne Gaviola for inviting us to participate.

Today I attended (with the family) the Green Living Show here in Toronto. Ever since university, I've been a light green, trying to do my best to leave a lighter footprint on the earth. I like to think we're pretty eco-conscious: we drive a small car, and only use the car for errands and use the TTC for work; we live in a small house where we've spent a lot of money and effort to make more energy-efficient.

Ever since my son was born, I've become more conscious of what and how we eat: for over a year we've been getting organic food delivery, and it's been fantastic. The food tastes so much better, and I like knowing our food is coming from local farmers.

The Green Living Show was a great chance to learn even more ways to save energy -- and money! We're looking into replacing the incandescent light bulbs with the florescents, and our hallogens with LEDs.

BrightSail is also becoming green --- at the show I met a printer who uses recycled paper and waterless printing. I'm excited to provide my clients with this environmental option when developing their marketing materials.

Go Green! It's all Good.

Labels: eco-friendly, ecological, environment, green

Day 1 of the expo was a good kick-off. The conference organizers are dedicated in their efforts to make this conference very two-oh, in that there's as much participation from delegates as from speakers. In fact, so far, I'd say the delegates are far more stimulating that the speakers.

Sunday night was Ignite, where anyone could sign up to speak for 5 minutes about their product/service/idea. Only 20 slides are allowed, with the slides automatically switching every 15 seconds. The first round was really great -- and a flash-back to my school days. The speaker is doing their best to hold the delegates' attention, but all the while we're encouraged to SMS to comment on the happenings. The result was a digital version of the teacher at the front of the class while the cool kids in the back snickered away with clever comments.

Some of these comments were a bit mean -- such is the nature of schoolyard culture, where the insecure kids make fun of others to make themselves feel superior. Still, it was pretty funny. We're all so immature.

The conference culture is interesting -- a strange mix of tech geeks and business goons. While listening to a session this morning, I realized that I'm One of Them -- a geek who has graduated to the echelon of business. I am among my people, so to speak.

The Expo crawl is tonight ... first chance to view the tradeshow and do some serious networking. Stay tuned for updates.

Labels: san francisco, web 2.0 expo