Tara is a Canadian who has gone to California. She is a big part of the BarCamp movement. How many people read blogs? All of the audience.

Tara is talking about how blogging is changing the marketing landscape. People are pissed. Two thing shave changed. There are companies offering alternatives. Look at http://www.thresdless.com - SHOP-PARTICIPATE! and FireFox (The Web Browser).

There is a video called "Bowiechick." Go to YouTube.com. A teen girl is showing the personalities a piece of face-tracking software on her Logitec webcam allows her to adopt. It's a remarkable example of what I'll call the simulacra of identity the Internet allows. The crowd loves it.

Tara wants the audience to reflect on the nature of citizen media on marketing. We are all taking a moment to talk with the people around us. People have seen examples of the face-tracking personal video before. Some discussion about what happened to Kryptonite Locks when the Net found out about how easy it was to open them. That cost the company 40% of its sales.

Audience: Speaking out for "Expert" analysis rather than just people making funny faces.

Audience: It shows the power of product placement online. Some are wondering if the video - which became hugely popular - was a marketing setup.

Tara: Peer to Peer stuff is powerful.

Audience: I thought it was much more powerful than any traditional advertising. How does one define expertise?

Audience: If an expert stepped up and did the same video it would not work. It goes around MySpace because it is a kid.

Tara: The Pinko Principles are:

1) Inbound rather than outbound messages

2) Be a company community advocate

3) 100% authenticity (this is opposed to "viral" which is antithetical to the Pinko rules)

4) Serve niche markets (like providing a Mac uploader (...read more...)

Barnaby Marshall talks with podcaster and G4TechTV broadcaster Amber MacArthur, CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi and Rocketboom co-founder Andrew Baron. We paraphrase their discussion here.

BM: What does the Web 2.0 mean to traditional media?

JG: Old media is going to win because they've learned the lesson of the media business. Old media is doing it very effectively for example with MySpace. Online readership of the New York Times has surpassed the print version... they've done a good job of diversifying. The NYT will not die.

AB: They have learned their lessons but the music industry did lose a degree of control. Apple now owns the music industry - Apple is the single industry that is controlling prices and is playing a gate keeping role. Rocketboom is an example of how the Internet is allowing small groups access to an audience, including a global audience. Their advertising garners 3 times the CPM value of television advertising on programs like "Lost."

AM: The power of the web is in its degree of reach. My blog can reach people almost everywhere. Broadcasters have to learn how to deal with this or they'll be left behind.

JG: The ability to be heard if you're a band has profoundly changed. Pandora is a brilliant resource and great news for artists... The turning point will be when there is ubiquitous wifi in the automobile.

AB: The most profound thing the movie industry is going through is that you've needed money to make films until now. The technology allows almost anyone to put out a movie.

Audience: Why will old media win?

JG: The moneyed interests of old media are willing to take the risks and will offer $500 million for a company they want. The really good stuff stands the chance of being co-opted.

This panel's meta-theme (...read more...)

Early Stage Angel and Seed Investment Category

The finalists are Savvica, Virtual Reach, and Demand Cast.

The winner is DemandCast.



Venture Capital Category

The finalists are EQO, iSequent, and Truition.

The winner is Truition.



Public Venture Capital Category

The finalists are Official Community, Access Anywhere, and Pyxis.

The winner is Official Community.

Mary MacDonald of Thomson Financial provided the deligates and investors with a remarkably concise overview of the Canadian VC environment. Here are the facts, just the facts:

- The market has been flat since '02. There are no signs that the CDN market is improving, in fact, the money available for VC financing is tightening up.

- How do we relate to the US market? US = 10 while CDN = $6. But, from a number of company perspective, more CDN companies get funding. CDN is 2 to 1. The US companies get more money though. In the overall world VC market in 2004 Canada ranked third in terms of deals funded. However, we ranked 24th in terms of deal size.

- Two largest markets are Ontario and Quebec. $751 Mil ON to $710 in Quebec. BC is third with $226.

- The top US states are California with $12,385 Mil (that's 12. 4 Billion just in case you wanted a reminder) and Massachusetts with a little less.

- How do our cities fare? Montreal is number one. Toronto is fourth. Why? There may be too much activity (background noise?) here and it is harder for startups to get investor attention.

- Communications and networking is the sector leader followed by software then semiconductors then Internet.

- VCs have been investing in their existing portfolios and new investments are well-behind. Entrepreneurs must know their value proposition.

- Paradoxically, it is easier to get early stage investment in Canada than in the US!!

- US investors have played a key role with their investments: approx. %20. The bulk of that investment comes from the US East Coast.

AOL has just launched a new blog based service designed to radically alter the way investors gain access to the latest news about companies. Called "Blogging Stocks," the service allocates a blog for each stock.

If you're visiting Blogging Stocks around the time of this post's publication, you're one of the first to view the beginnings of what will be a revolution in the quality, depth and passion of online stock news and analysis. Sure, you can get stock charts (and good ones!) anywhere. You can get the press releases for your whole portfolio in your e-mail inbox or all in one pretty web page. You can read the same wire story in any one of a dozen or more stock-focused interfaces.

Do you need more proof that:

A) Information wants to be free?

B) Blogs are becoming a vital tool in the way we understand the world around us.

Just a reminder for our readers who are also fans of TorCampDemoCamp, TCDC 5 takes place tonight:

Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Time: 6:30 - 8:00, drinks to follow for those interested
Location: BA 1180, Bahen Centre for Information Technology, 40 St. George St. Toronto, ON (thanks to Greg Wilson for all of the leg work on finding and acquiring space!)
Expected Attendance: All are welcome! Please add yourself to the Attendees list below so we have some idea of the size of the crowd.
After location: TBD Open for suggestions. It would be great to find somewhere that was more open than Pogue Mahones to allow more mingling.

Further to yesterday's post on the financial underpinnings of the Web 2.0, the market was surprised by strong showings from Google and Yahoo. Google shares climbed 7% yesterday to $445.30 after reporting sales increases of 79% in the first quarter over the previous year. Profits grew by 59%. Yahoo showed 34% growth for the same period.

The company's growth is at the expense of the traditional advertising vehicles of newspapers, television, and radio. Online advertising grew 30% last year to $12.5 billion.

Today at 2:00 PM the Globe and Mail is entering the brave new world of real-time, online question and answer forums. The Globe will host William Thorsell of the Royal Ontario Museum and Matthew Teitelbaum of the Art Gallery of Ontario. This is a great opportunity for the community to find out what our cultural leaders are planning for the future. We applaud Thorsell and Teitelbaum for embracing this new form of community outreach. The Globe too deserves credit for moving away from the controlled safety of the print world. One recommendation though - ease up a bit on the rules and regulations! Here they are:

Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. HTML is not allowed. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.

If you're in the print business, blogging and online interactive forums are disruptive technologies. What does that mean? Print is in a long but inevitably losing battle with the online world for the dissemination of information. They know it so the big newspapers are doing their best to assimilate new online technologies. Their internal corporate cultures though retain a print mentality, as their regulations seem to suggest. The online world can be rough and ready. On occasion sites will get hacked, people will get in flame wars, and decorum may get thrown aside. Still, people love it! And these kinds of activities are the exception (...read more...)

Here's how to do it...

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Creating the XP installation CD
2.1 What You'll Need
2.2 Quick (Advanced) Instructions
2.3 Step-by-step Instructions
2.4 Creating the CD using mkisofs and a shell (OS X and *NIX)
2.5 Creating the CD for International (NON-US) version of XP
3 Partitioning the hard disk and Intalling OSX and XP
3.1 What You'll Need
3.2 Quick (Advanced) Instructions
3.3 Step-by-step instructions

At the iSummit conference today someone mentioned how the Chevy Tahoe had an online competition inviting people to make their own Tahoe ads. The site is an example of user generated content.

This was not what they had in mind:

We paved the prairies...

We deforested the hills...

We strip-mined our mountains...

And sold ourselves for oil...

To bring you this beautiful machine...

So you can finally drive...

To see what's left of our wilderness...

And now that we're here...

We can't get out of the car.

America 2006:

The ultimate padded cell.

Tahoe

An American Revolution

Update
The Tahoe Ad hack is becoming a blood sport. People from all over the net are appropriating the contest to tell the world what they think about SUVs. This is consumer democracy in action and if we learn anything from the "Wisdom of Crowds" it's that companies ignore this kind of populist groundswell at their peril.

Following on the music industry's question from this morning, this panel is about copyright in the digital world. The Sony "spyware" fiasco is the elephant in the room of this discussion. The panelists are: Moderator, Jim Griffin; Michael Geist; Susan Peacock; Marcus Bornfreund; Jake Gold. Will there be a clash of ideologies?

Notable moments:

Jake Gold said Susan Peacock's intro position on digital sharing's impact on the industry was "Guff." "People will support producers of quality stuff."

"Copyright has become everybody's interest."

There is a clash of ideologies between the view that appropriating music is the equivalent of going into a store and stealing a dress. The counter argument is that musicians are benefiting because more bands are being given access to the consumer market. WHat the dress argument doesn't respond to is the thousands of dress manufacturers who rip off the Paris houses with impunity.

"Should the law codify old business models [that no longer work]? JG

Update
By far the most surprising spokesperson is Jake Gold of the Management Trust. he argues that the digital realm is much like the old style Music Clubs where members got four CDs for ten cents. The up side to performers was that more people attended their concerts. The EFF makes the same argument.

One new business model is "www.burnlounge.com????" that is like a pyramid scheme where people get a percentage of sales down a chain of potential distributors. Interesting model.

We're doing another live blog this time from the iSummit Conference taking place today and tomorrow at Toronto's MaRs Centre on College Street.

The plenary session is on right now. Titled, "Transformation: is it OK to say "Convergence Again?"

Moderator is James Lewis. Speakers are Gary Anderson, Norm Bolen, Maria Hales, Mike Lee, and Paul Robertson. For more info go to the iSummit web site.

They're discussing the power of video on the Internet. The premise is that this is the future of television. Norm Bolen just said that "Canadians are screwed." Why? Foreign sources with capitalized costs are rolling into our territory and outperforming us.

Update 1
"If you don't give them what they want they will bypass you." Paul Robertson, Corus. I can't think of a better way to describe how new Web 2.0 technologies and cultural pull is changing the way we conceive of the media audience. They are no longer passive.

"If we're not there experimenting and learning then we'll be left behind." PR

"It's a "pull" driven world not a push one." NB

"Three years ago we served 3 million video streams, now we serve 100 million." Gary Anderson, Bell Canada.

"Quality video is driving consumer behaviour." GA

Update 2

"It's about building communities online." Maria Hale, CHUM TV.

"User generated content will be bigger than anyone can imagine." NB

Well, we have to agree with this and Norm seems to be genuinely on top of the space with an awareness that new market forces are about to leap onto the market landscape. (Editor)

"How does user generated content pay for itself?" "How do you keep the "bad" side of user generated content out?" GA

Update 3 Questions
A representative of the music industry worries that a generation of kids are stealing the content of performers, (...read more...)

The Wi-Fi cloud is finally descending on our city and we have to celebrate. Toronto Hydro is announcing a new service that will blanket the city with wireless Internet access. Rumour has it that one of the city's largest provider of wireless services, Ted Rogers, is not happy. We can't feel too sorry for Rogers and Bell though. They have long known that ubiquitous connectivity is inevitable and I'm sure they've planned for it.

They may go to the CRTC and claim that government institutions like city electric companies should not compete with the private sector in the convergent media space. Normally I'd agree. The government is a poor supplier of non-essential consumer services. But this is different. Internet connectivity is as much an essential part of life in the 21st century as water and electrical services. Cities around the world are opening their wireless gateways. If Torontonians don't have the same kind of infrastructure then we'll be at a competitive disadvantage. So, if government makes the decision to impede the democratization of wireless there is a good chance that our economy will suffer in the long term.

There are other reasons to celebrate. The poor will now have equal access to wireless. There will be an explosion of products and services for the new market. The venture capital and entrepreneurial sectors will experience an upsurge in new opportunities. More on the economics of this decision later.

Tonight the Schulich Enterprise Forum Presents:

Record Year for Public Venture Capital + 3 Successful Ontario Capital Pool Company Presentations

In 2005, TSX Venture Exchange saw growth in all aspects of operations:

- Financings up 46%
- New listings up 16%
- Trading up 26%

Tim Babcock, Manager of Listings for the Toronto Office, will the provide details on the final results for the year. He will also discuss market trends, particularly in Ontario and with the Capital Pool Company Program.

Moderator:
Tim Gallagher, President
Inflection Capital Inc.

David Crow is sponsoring the Toronto version of BarCamp February 20th at the TUCOWS' office at 96 Mowat Street. For more information on this great "bootcamp" for entrepreneurs go to http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/TorCamp/