From the narrow perspective of the software industry, Mr. Gates may see the obvious prescription for Canada. However, if we discipline ourselves to look at the facts rather than superstitions, we will head in a dramatically different direction than that advocated by the science and technology lobby's most prominent member.

We are becoming less competitive. In just two years, we have slipped from 3rd to 12th place in comparative measurements of macroeconomic and microeconomic performance, according to the results of benchmarking by the Conference Board. Canada lags behind most developed economies in productivity growth. Our resource sectors require significant new strategic investment if they are to meet global competition, and our biggest cities are starved for investment in comparison with global cities elsewhere. In vital sectors of our economy, we are not keeping up with our competitors.

The Conference Board makes clear in this report that strategic investment in our major cities is urgent. Nowhere is the gap between Canada as a global society and our political, fiscal and regulatory architectures more apparent than in our largest cities. (...read more...)

1 Call Forwarding
Whether you've set your Skype account up on your home or work computer, the fact is, you are occasionally going to get important calls when you aren't there. Thankfully, you can simply forward those calls to another Skype account or even a cell phone or land line. That way, even if your computer at work is shut down, as soon as a call comes in to your Skype account, the call will immediately ring on your cell phone, your home computer and your home phone line, meaning that no matter where you are you'll be sure to get it.
To forward a call click on the "Tools" menu and select "Options." From there set the forwarding number in the "Call Forwarding & Voicemail" section.

2 Providing Customer Support
Got a small business online? Want to offer some customer support without spending a fortune on telephony costs? Skype's graphical click-to-call SkypeMe buttons are ideal for this. Create your SkypeMe button (free account needed) and embed the code in your website, weblog, template, email, or wherever you want it to appear. When someone views your web page (or email message), the button will indicate whether you are online and accepting Skye calls, busy, or offline. If you're on the go and (...read more...)

All of this is not good news for the old guard of magazine editors, obviously, but in most cases, magazines are still superior to websites when it comes to the quality of writing, photos, and layout. There is definitely a level of pride and craftsmanship (not to mention time and money) that goes into every page of every magazine issue. But will nice photos, a good presentation, and great writing be enough to save the magazines in the long run? For the sake of my former colleagues, and friends, in the magazine business, I hope so. But a more sober assessment would be that tech magazines aren’t long for this world, and simply cannot compete with their online contemporaries.

How do we improve the dialogue between ttc and its ridership?

How do we apply the BarCamp group problem-solving model to other problems?

How do we build bridges between different creative communities in the city?

This was an experiment in bringing BarCamp event practices, social media and online collaboration tools and community stewardship practices to the rest of the world - the real world. Web 2.0 obsessed technologists (this means you DemoCamp) often forget that technology is a means, not an end. Transit Campers were challenged to become city-builders and at the end of the day an amazing new community was born armed (...read more...)

Canadians aren't exactly seasoned global traders to begin with, preferring to do the bulk of their business with the U.S., if they leave Canada at all. Their cautious, trusting nature is in sharp contrast to Chinese culture, where the word for honest, loashi, is a derogatory term meaning to be gullible or to follow blindly. "You're better off going to Vegas for the weekend," says Jim Sherry, a former federal trade commissioner turned consultant. "You'll lose money just as fast and have more fun."

(first posted at European Tribune, Jan 18, 2007)

When I took economics at the University of Minnesota in the early 1970s, one of my professors was Walter Heller. Heller was President Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisors chairman and would claim, quite seriously, that he taught Kennedy Keynesianism.

In those days, the Keynesians were utterly dominant in academe and government. There were so many of them, they had subdivided into various schools. It could be argued that Heller represented the right wing of the Keynesian school. (...read more...)

Testing was conducted in mid-December by Novarum Inc., an independent consulting firm offering comprehensive broadband wireless advisory, analysis and testing services. Novarum is developing the first standardized benchmarks for overall wireless network performance. All of the North American wireless mesh networks were tested from a user perspective with industry-standard tools and methodology in Q3 and Q4 of 2006.

“We tested 41 wireless networks in 14 cities, and the performance of Toronto Hydro Telecom’s One Zone, delivering speeds of up to 5 Mbps bi-directionally, was stunning,” said Ken Biba, one of Novarum’s analysts. “One Zone’s performance is better than my broadband connection at home and, on average, five times faster than any of the other networks we tested. Most impressive was the fact that this exceptional performance is being delivered in the challenging environment of a dense urban canyon.”

Founded in 2001 at the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business, UVF is an independent, self-sustaining venture capital company committed to the entrepreneurial education of students at participating universities . . . "We're delighted that students from the Wharton School are now officially on board," said Jared Hutchings, founder and managing director of UVF. "The Wharton team of students offers exceptional expertise from previous work experiences and brings a rigorous analytical approach that reflects the strong Wharton MBA curriculum, so they will be a great asset for us. And UVF can help the Wharton students gain venture capital experience in a very hands-on way. There's no better training than investing real money in real entrepreneurs."

Founded in 2001 at the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business, University Venture Fund (UVF) is an independent venture capital firm committed to improving the quality of entrepreneurial education for a diverse group of students at its participating universities. The fund (...read more...)

Gone are the Herman Miller Aeron desk chairs and the other technocrat excesses of the late 1990s when dot-coms burned through money and hype, throwing lavish launch parties, staffing up quickly and spending millions on Super Bowl ads.

Emerging in their stead is a post-crash generation of stingy startups using ingenuity to minimize the cost of turning raw ideas into viable businesses.

They hire slowly and avoid using recruiters. They take advantage of plunging technology prices. They generate buzz by word of mouth. They establish overseas operations to lower labor costs. They scrounge computers and furniture from the free section of community Web site Craigslist. And, when they raise venture capital, they hoard it, fearful of blowing their shot at making it.