Ideas from Red Canary

Alberta: Can Government Funding Actually Kill High Tech?

Suzie Dingwall Williams — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:45:51 GMT

"It is (as) cash-starved and emaciated as the Olsen twins"

Borrowed from the blog Venture Law Lines

Even with the current influx of oil and gas money, many Alberta companies complain that local investor interest in high tech businesses is non-existent. Inovia Capital's office in Edmonton is one bright development. Last June, there appeared to be a second shot in the arm announced by the Alberta Government: a three-year strategic plan to deploy $178 million of government funds into Alberta's high tech sector (sorry; make that "knowledge-based sector"; let's not scare away the cattlemen). $100 million of this will be used by a new Crown corporation, the Alberta Enterprise Corporation. Sounds promising, doesn't it? That is, until you read the call for applications for the Chair and Independent Board members to serve on the corporation. What becomes clear is that the AEC is no lifeline to the high tech community; instead, it's a nicely-sized government subsidy for venture capital funds who will agree to invest in Alberta. Here's what the notice says (available on Ray & Berndtson's Canadian website): "$100 million has been allocated to the fund by the Province of Alberta to co-invest in a number of early stage capital funds. Through its activities, matching private investment will be attracted, and a number of new venture funds will launch operations in Alberta, directed by experienced fund managers. "

I'm all for job creation, but job creation for fund managers and VCs is not going to boost the growth of the Alberta high tech community.

A government led fund of funds? Those of us who have endured this in Ontario can tell you what that means (p.s. it's not good). Anyone trying to raise a fund in or related to Alberta will have a very tough time convincing any other LP to participate until this whole AEC scheme is worked out. Ask any Ontario VC how much they have enjoyed having their fundraising efforts brought to a complete standstill by the Ontario government's fund of funds, which struggled for over a year to select a manager and to start operations. It's also a colossal mistake to assume that a share of a $100 million is appealing enough to attract top tier venture fund managers to the region. Which will further delay deployment of capital to new funds. Which in turn means there's even less (not more) near term cash floating around for Alberta companies. I won't itemize the other woes this approach creates, but those of you nearby know what I'm talking about. Those of you in Alberta who want more details, buy me a shot of scotch and we'll talk. I'm all for job creation, but job creation for fund managers and VCs is not going to boost the growth of the Alberta high tech community. It's important to note that the Alberta high tech community is hardly in its infancy. Companies abound, many of them led by second and third time successful entrepreneurs. I can start in Edmonton with Semanti, run by the ex-Intuit team and keep going south until I hit the US border. What it is is cash-starved and as emaciated as the Olsen twins. I'm going to say what every Albertan as been waiting for a Torontonian to say: don't follow our example on this one.

Commercialising Online Videos & Other Digital Media

Tim T — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:30:28 GMT

Commercialising Online Videos & Other Digital Media

By Tim Tang

Should startups push for end-user adoption or sign exclusive deals with media distributers like Walt Disney Studio and Sony Pictures?

According to ComScore, 3 billion videos were streamed on YouTube in January 2008. YouTube has not released the cost of streaming these videos, but here are the facts in Google's 2007 Annual Report.

"We have yet to realize significant revenue benefits from our acquisitions of dMarc Broadcasting (Audio Ads), YouTube or Postini." - Item 1A - Risk Factors. Pg 21.

"We have also had copyright claims filed against us alleging that features of certain of our products and services, including Google Web Search, Google News, Google Video, Google Image Search, Google Book Search and YouTube, infringe another party's rights." - Item 1A - Risk Factors. Pg 23.

Shooting for a profit in online video

Many companies have tried or are trying to commercialise videos online. The fallout point is not a shortage of investment. The market is still in search for a sustainable model that works better than Google Adwords and Flash banners.

Celtic House, EdgeStone, and Tech Capital are backing a startup in Ottawa, called Overlay.TV, which goes about video advertising in a different way.

It provides a platform to overlay data on top of web videos – think VH1/MuchMusic's Pop-up Video, but for the web.

Success will require not only the blessing of the content owners but also risk-taking from the retail sector.

It enables crowd interaction and personalisation after production and distribution.

The obvious application is to tag and link items to online stores from Amazon to Zara. Success will require not only the blessing of the content owners but also risk-taking from the retail sector.

Two ways to monetize

There are many strategic decisions to be made for companies looking to commercialise online video, two stand out:

1. Should startups push for end-user adoption, or;

2. Sign exclusive deals with media distributers like Walt Disney Studio and Sony Pictures?

There are benefits and drawbacks to both.

1. Detail then Retail: The end-user adoption model

An end-user adoption approach would shorten development time by engaging the end-user early in the product cycle, validate the market research, and give dividend to free word-of-mouth marketing on the blogosphere.

To date, YouTube has yet to convince major media companies to license copyrights on its platform.

This strategy also enables startups to convert more sweat equity to traffic equity before the next round of financing that may lead to a M&A exit.

However, opening the platform to raise awareness and drive adoption may be less appealing to media companies wanting exclusive partnerships due to reduced marketing potential and reduced perceived control.

2. Retail then Detail: Partnering Up

Working with content owners and forming a revenue-sharing relationship is a more pragmatic approach to organic growth.

With sufficient financial backing and the right connections, a deal with media companies and retailers could mean a new business model for online videos – one providing the same analytics as ROI-obsessed businesses enjoy with Google Analytics.

The focus for me is less whether there could be successful exits for startups that enter the space of commercializing online videos, but rather, how successful these exits will be

As part of the assumed risk that web entrepreneurs take, this important decision will have to be made blind early on.

One thing to keep in mind is that once such technology is out in the open, it can't come back due to high imitation competition and low switching cost.

Breaking an old broken model

The major misperception with startups like Overlay.TV is that media companies continue to see them as new channels that supplement existing advertising revenue.

Currently, media companies look to acquire more URL landing pages so that more eyeballs turn into clickthrough which in turn convert to sales. It works, but how effective is it?

In my vision of Web 3.0, the media companies and content owners themselves become the advertisement. Consumers see goods in dynamic action, not static text.

The business is blurring between the movie/music industry and the fashion industry in terms of marketing and customer experience.

The earlier media companies realise it, the earlier they will loosen DRM Terms of Use and convert some of the lost revenue from BitTorrent into higher quality redirects that link to real, tangible, desirable goods with higher revenue per click.

This would be a disruptive change for media companies who prefer the business model of selling more newspapers.

Not 'will it sell', but 'for how much'

The focus for me is less whether there could be successful exits for startups that enter the space of commercializing online videos, but rather, how successful these exits will be.

I believe the critical factors will depend more on choosing an audience and the "LinkedIn" networks of the investors – and less technical (like perfecting the technology to consume less bandwidth)

If done right, the purpose of video overlay ads may eventually be an unobtrusive call to action. That call may be completing an impulse purchase or joining a social movement. The length of the call may be that of a music video or that of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth".

Counting on The "Panic" Buy

In my opinion, media companies and web giants are starving for innovation in the advertising space and the burn rate of their existing digital properties like MySpace and YouTube will rush them into making an acquisition before fully understanding their opportunities and challenges.

For this reason, there may be multi-million dollar opportunities (and challenges) for the next wave of media entrepreneurs.

I leave you with this question:

With a platform that enables tagging for videos, should efforts go into tagging music videos first or full feature-length movies first Why?

Thank you for reading.

About Tim Tang

Tim Tang is an analyst on the Market Research & Intelligence team at MaRS. He provides business and strategy planning for emerging technologies in digital media, software, web apps, mobile apps, wireless, and clean energy.

Cloud Computing: Legal Implications for your business

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:48:58 GMT

Borrowed from Miller Thomson LLP

The cloud computing trend developed to accommodate the increase in processing and storage capacity that many organizations require to handle the enormous repositories of information connected with their business activities. Companies are also looking for means of rapidly accessing applications from a variety of locations and using a variety of access devices, such as office computers, laptops and PDAs.

Miller Thomson Analysis

Cloud computing gives rise to a number of legal issues, including the following:

Contract Issues

The cloud contracting trend requires the adoption of new business models to allow corporate and individual customers to obtain access to IT products and services. The “traditional” licensing model contemplates that a software company will grant a customer the right to install and use the program on the customer’s own computer located on its own premises (perhaps for a perpetual term).

By contrast, in the cloud computing paradigm, the provider grants the customer the right to obtain access to certain limited functionalities (perhaps through a web-based interface) of programs installed on the provider’s computer at a remote location. Such limited right of access and use may be granted only for a limited time period.

This different business model has implications for a variety of contract terms to address matters such as payments, warranty terms, termination, liability and protection of confidential and personal information.

Protection of Privacy

There have been concerns as to whether personal information about Canadians stored outside Canada may be accessed by lawenforcement bodies, particularly under anti-terrorism legislation such as the USA PATRIOT Act.

If a corporate or public sector customer uses a cloud computing service for purposes such as managing its e-mail system, it is quite possible that e-mails sent or received by individuals within the organization will be stored in the U.S. or another country.

In theory at least, such e-mail could be accessed by law enforcement bodies in that country, possibly without the knowledge of the persons affected. Faculty and student members of a Canadian university recently expressed concern about this possibility in circumstances where the university was using a cloud computing service offered by a U.S. service provider.

Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights

The cloud computing trend also gives rise to concerns about whether rights holder will be in a position to enforce their intellectual property rights when computing resources are used for the unauthorized distribution of video, music or other content, and the location of the infringing activity may be difficult to determine.

Jurisdiction

Finally, there is the broader issue of which courts will have jurisdiction to deal with any wrongful activity such as the posting of defamatory content on storage devices located in one jurisdiction, where the customers or any affected third parties may be located in other jurisdictions.

Conclusions

The cloud computing trend is likely to lead to new business models and contract arrangements between IT providers and their customers. Whereas corporate customers may obtain significant benefits from this movement, they must also understand and be prepared for the full implications and potential risks of the new arrangements for their stakeholders.

One Red Question - Is offshoring development a good idea for a startup?

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:48:20 GMT

This week's question was inspired by a conversation I had with a couple of very smart and very green young entrepreneurs. Armed with a great idea and limited funding, the two business grads decided to have their application developed overseas. Ultimately the founders felt they suffered for this decision and are now re-building parts of the app in-house, and have hired an experienced coder/project manager to transition the rest. I'll put the question to you: Are there situations where a fledgling app can be developed elsewhere? At what point can an application be parceled out? Is there better ROI for certain kinds of development?

Startup secures significant investment, seeks significant talent

Stealth Startup — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:38:29 GMT

Last week we closed a significant seed round financing with key players involved with Facebook, Workbrain, PayPal, Taleo, LinkedIn, Research In Motion, Slide, Thompson-Reuters, and Gini.

Six months ago we blogged about our new company on Red Canary

We had a great new idea. We had experience as co-founders of one of the biggest software companies in Canada.

We were for looking for talented and motivated developers with a passion for innovation and a will to succeed.

Thanks to Red Canary, we found them.

Now we have taken our vision and built a great core team, solution, and engaged user community.

We have built a small and closely-knit team of star developers focused on pragmatic problem solving. The team finds joy in tough challenges and tackles them together.

We are very hard working and like to have fun together. The agile mindset permeates our team; everyone is considered an equal.

We want smart, confident peers who will be essential in future feature development and who can contribute to our common vision.

Our customers tell us: "This is exactly what my people want"

The last half-year has been a blur of user-driven iteration and innovation.

Our solution (a web-service) solves a core social and productivity problem.

Recently, we attracted world-class capital as a result of our pace of our growth, the quality of our team, and large market opportunity ahead of us.

We continue to build a highly skilled team that can launch superb services with high impact. We move fast and expect to learn faster. We experiment and get users using our tools as quickly as we can.

Our approach:

Iterative
Agile
Data-driven
User-centered

You may be interested in joining us if you:

Consider yourself the best of the best
Want to be part of a world-beating team
Take pride in solving complex problems
Want your code to delight millions of people.
Are curious, learn continuously, and like to be challenged by smart people
Get things done quickly and elegantly
Enjoy a fast pace and constant change
Enjoy life outside the office

The people we are looking for:

Have experience building complex software
Are active online community participants
Adapt quickly, adopt early, and are web savvy
Love user interaction design
Dig rapid prototyping
Are excited by large datasets, statistics, and algorithms
Are familiar with Java, MySQL, GWT, Hibernate, SVN, Ehcache, and Glassfish

Specifically we need:

Front-End Ninja

A web development ninja who has experience on the server-side as well. Experience with large websites and web-based solutions where you implemented novel front-end designs, usability improvements, GUI metaphor inventions, etc. is required.

The ability to quickly prototype solutions using 80/20 rules while developing production solutions in parallel is core.

Star Developer

A highly flexible and experienced developer with a well-rounded background that includes some enterprise and lots of web experience. Innovation and technical know-how are expected. You should assume that quick change of pace and assignments will be common.

A strong sense of ownership and alignment with solution vision are key.

If you think that you might be the right person, please contact us to learn more about the opportunity.

Web 2.0 is about giving up some control

Gerry McGovern — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:43:53 GMT

The traditional manager is taught to command and control. Web 2.0 challenges that model.

Web 2.0 is part of the shift away from the dominance of the elite to the innovation of the collective.

Social media is just that-social. Blogging, wikis, rating and voting systems are based on the idea that there is value outside the traditional channels of power.

Web 2.0 and social media mean that for teachers a declining part of their job involves telling. An increasing part is listening to the class and facilitating them in having conversations. Teachers should help moderate these conversations and draw new learnings from them. They need to say less of: 'let's open up a book.' and more of: 'let's open up a conversation.'.

The managers are not the only clever people in the room anymore. The room is much bigger and it is speckled with cleverness. To manage in the Web 2.0 world is to converse, to listen, to be honest and upfront, to collaborate, to moderate, and constantly watch out for the trends and patterns that always emerge when many minds mingle and mix in the network.

The traditional manager is taught to command and control. Web 2.0 challenges that model. I have worked in many European countries. In Scandinavia, management tends to be very collaborative, but the further south you go the more the manager becomes a controller.

In some countries I have heard employees speak of their manager as "Sir." There is not much chance of Web 2.0 succeeding in such deferent cultures. It is, of course, hard to give up control. Even harder when your position brings with it such formal respect.

Companies are not democracies, of course. And social media will deliver little value if it becomes some giant water cooler conversation because not all the best ideas are discovered at the water cooler. Huge quantities of absolute rubbish are talked there too. So, social media and Web 2.0 are not a replacement for management decision making, but rather a support to make better, more-informed decisions.

The naive tool-centric view of Web 2.0 still exists. 'Just give them the blog and the wiki software and get out of the way' has very limited logic. But it is classic IT-thinking. As if the tool was the be all and end all, and the only purpose of life was to discover the right one. As if it was the type of quill that Shakespeare chose that made him the writer that he was.

The naive tool-centric view of Web 2.0 still exists. 'Just give them the blog and the wiki software and get out of the way' has very limited logic.

I have seen the sad results of intranets where anyone could set up a wiki or a blog. Sure, there were good ideas, but the intranet quickly filled with massive quantities of irrelevant and out-of-date junk. And I have seen countless failed attempts by government websites to 'interact' with the public by launching discussions areas that quickly became ghost towns.

So Web 2.0 and social media still need management. They rarely mature on their own. Discussions need to be moderated and channelled. Processes that allow the cream to rise to the top must be put in place. The bad ideas need to be weeded out.

But the managers are not the only clever people in the room anymore. The room is much bigger and it is speckled with cleverness. To manage in the Web 2.0 world is to converse, to listen, to be honest and upfront, to collaborate, to moderate, and constantly watch out for the trends and patterns that always emerge when many minds mingle and mix in the network.

VIDEO Microsoft 'Sphere' touch technology demo

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:23:07 GMT

This is an application of the same touch/surface manipulation technology demonstrated in this Microsoft Surface video posted last year. Some interesting consumer possibilities here.

In Software Project Management, Size Doesn't Matter

Craig Fitzpatrick — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:37:48 GMT

A frequent Red Canary contributor, Craig Fitzpatrick is the CEO of Devshop, a software-specific project management application, which recently released version 2. This entry was borrowed from his blog, Uncommon Sense (for Software).

A few months ago, I was discussing project management with someone from the financial sector. This person, who is rather good at his line of work, admitted he didn't know much about project management (but had some clients that did).

The organization is large enough...that it becomes difficult to see the direct impact that the top decision maker has on the success or failure of the project.

We were talking about some new ways of looking at project management, particularly, the domain-specific approach that I often advocate.

Wanting to test my theories, he picked up the phone and proceeded to call one of his clients, whom he knew to be a real top-notch expert in project management.

What is interesting is that this project manager client of his was perceived to be an expert not because of any particularly extraordinary skills he had displayed, or even a long list of stellar accomplishments but rather, because he managed really BIG projects - like 4 years, 200 people, $50 million projects. Big ones.

At first, I didn't even think twice. Of course, I thought, I suppose you would have to be really good to handle those kinds of projects. I mean, if co-ordinating 10 people is tough, 200 must be about 20 times tougher.

A lot of people would certainly reason this way. After meeting this manager, which was a rather familiar experience (nothing much new), it triggered a line of thinking: It is often far more difficult to manage a 10 person project than a 200 person project.

Let me explain.

It's not that I'm saying that the person managing the 10 person team is more important that the person managing 200 people on a $50 million project. I'm not equating difficulty with importance - and by difficulty, I'm talking about the project management responsibilities, not other duties they may have to perform.

Just like you shouldn't dabble at coding, dabbling at managing just makes you a manager with a disadvantage

Speaking with this project manager in particular gave me deja vu. It was more like speaking with a CEO than a project manager. In chatting with any "project manager" with a team size of 100 or so people, what you quickly realize is that they're not project managing anymore at all. They're more like a CEO, involved at the capital allocation level, for multi-year operations.

They are running an organization. They're tuned in to major technological shifts and trends, like "If we bet the farm on Lotus Notes, will it still be the platform of choice when we finish in 4 years?" Heh heh. Oops.

When you're talking about a project that big, the head honcho is managing managers, who possibly manage other managers, who have team leads, who lead the people actually producing the work.

They are more like mentors to the managers who are actually managing. The organization is large enough then, that it becomes really difficult to see the direct impact that the top decision maker is having on the success or failure of the project.

While I haven’t managed a 100 person team yet, I can already see the difference between 10 and 35 developers

I liken it to riding (or steering) the wave, rather than causing it directly. How many debates have you heard after some political or fortune 500 scandal where hoards of people say things like,

"Well, you can't blame the top dog for something that some underling in another office did. It's not his fault."

There you have it, by popular opinion, less direct accountability for large teams. If you can't blame the top dog for failures, then how can you attribute success to him? Life in a small team however (say 10 people), is much more likely to give you a heart attack. There's nowhere to hide. The pace is way faster. It's very easy to see the direct impact (good or bad) that each person is having on a daily basis.

When you're managing a software team of less than 10 people, chances are, you're not just the manager, but one of the developers as well (or at least a designer or architect). The dynamic of a 10 person software team is much more clear - one person managing, and 9 people producing. I think it's at about 10 to 15 people, where it is no longer practical for a manager to even touch the source code - in fact, it can be down right dangerous.

Over that last 13 years of managing software teams, I haven’t seen convincing evidence that project management difficulty increases linearly with team size.

Coding is not something you should dabble in. Either let it consume you and be really good at it, or don't touch it. After 15 or more team members, it's quite likely that there will be a lot more delegation. At 15, you may have 1 manager and 1 technical team lead.

At 35, you probably have a Director or a couple managers and a couple technical team leads. At 100, well, you get the picture.

With each round of delegation (which IS necessary by the way), some amount of pressure, and direct accountability is taken away from the top dog. I'm not just theorizing here, I've actually experienced it. While I haven't managed a 100 person team yet, I can already see the difference between 10 and 35 developers, team sizes I have managed.

To manage 35 developers you really need to break them up into teams of 5 to 7, with technical team leads, and a manager or two. So even at 35, there's a couple degrees of separation between the top policy maker, and the folks actually producing code.

In that awkward team size of about 10 developers, you're likely to be as much a producer as a manager. It's really tough to be great at both. Just like you shouldn't dabble at coding, dabbling at managing just makes you a manager with a disadvantage.

It's at the point in time where it is clear to everyone around you that it is no longer practical for you do be doing any producing, but that you should be managing full time, that your project management life actually starts to get a bit easier. At that point in time where you have managers reporting to you, your project management worries get lighter still (though you probably have new responsibilities keeping you up nights).

All this to say, over that last 13 years of managing software teams, I haven't seen convincing evidence that project management difficulty increases linearly with team size. There's a breaking point at which the project management (only) difficulty actually decreases when the team sizes breaks a certain point.

Project management worries then get replaced by other worries (like what the heck should we be betting the farm on... 'cause if I'm wrong, we go out of business - easy stuff like that).

Chief Zack, dancing, and sharing a small bike with a large woman

Kristy Minor — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:20:41 GMT

Kristy Minor is an environmental engineering graduate working in Ghana as part of an Engineers Without Borders initiative. Currently working with Community Driven Initiatives for Food Security (CIFS) she is co-ordinating projects and helping to build the capacity of local government and its sub-structures. Kristy will continue to share her experiences and challenges on Red Canary

My favorite person. The Chief of Singa.

"Kristy! It's been a long time."

I return Chief Zack's greeting. Traditionally, the chief is supposed to be greeted first, normally lower than him with your hands closed. These traditions don't really apply to me but I try my best to show respect, as he is one person that I trust and respect fully in Ghana.

I admire him and his life. I only wish I had more time to learn from him.

He tells me about an NGO that will be hosting a cultural dance for a group of westerners. Red flags start popping up in my head, with visions of white people coming for a "village experience".

I agree to come as I am intrigued with the idea of seeing where his family comes from.

I am also ready to challenge these westerners' approach.

To Singa we go

I have decided to go with Amshawu, Chief Zack's younger sister and her child Windnam , both of whom I spend a lot of time with. We board a tro-tro (passenger van) and wait a couple hours for it to fill, while sucking on some mangoes.

Me dressed in traditional Dagomba garb

Finally we are off. It takes about 2 hours or more to reach the closest village to Singa on a very rough road with large trucks carrying sand from the river banks.

We get off the tro-tro and carry luggage filled with food and water down to the river. At the river I see the pumping station which pumps water for all of Tamale (some 300,000 people) and realize the water pipe I saw along the road was the supply pipe.

After taking a course on water supply and distribution in university, I decide it's really too small. No wonder we have a water problem in Tamale.

Not just one water problem

Some small kids are splashing around in the water, and I put my dirty feet into the water and wash my arms off. I look over to another young girl doing the same, and realize that she has scars from guinea worm infections.

I immediately get out of the water, asking if it is infected with guinea worm. "Yes".

My family's Grandmothers and me

Oh god. How did you get it?

Apparently standing in the water will not do it, but drinking it will. I look over at the kids splashing around, in water up to their chins and frown.

Right. Guinea worm. Still a problem.

My mind shifts to the canoe approaching. A small but long wooden canoe, filled partially by water.

We load the canoe with all our luggage and about 6 people. We take off and I look into the water brimming the sides of the canoe.

We reach the other side, only to realize that there is no one waiting for us, only a motorbike. Singa is another 10 miles. Somehow I end up on the back of the bike, sitting behind the man who is driving, a very large Ghanaian woman, and then me and my backpack of course.

Perfect. The sun beats down on my as I try not to let my feet fall to the ground as we bump along what is not a road, and sometimes not even a path.

As we roll into Singa and I can barely

Dancers!

hold on, I see the "Salamingas" or white people. They seem to have a tractor to pull them around, looking at trees.

They all turn their heads and watch as this 3 person motorbike speeds by. I wonder what they are thinking, and smile.

I arrive in Singa at the Chief's Palace, which is a normal compound house, slightly larger then the rest. Chief Zack is exiting the house on a horse with elaborate materials and an umbrella.

There is drumming and a large following of young and old. I can not greet him, as it is tradition not to stop the Chief as he is leaving the compound.

I enter into the compound to meet the many wives of the family I have grown so close to, meeting them and many of their children over the last ten months. I am welcomed with
open arms and excitement of me finally visiting them and Singa. I am to sleep in Hardi's mothers room.

Wrapped to meet a chief

We bathe and get ready to go out, but they (the mothers) decide that I should dress up!! That's right, I had already planned a nice dress, but Hardi's mother digs through her suitcases

These dancers scared the kids!

until a shiny pink stripped cloth appears. Traditional Dagomba attire.

It is basically 3 pieces of material. They wrap the first around my waist, the next they fold over my shoulder and the last they tie around my head. I feel a bit nervous that it will fall off as I walk, but accept this challenge of being part of this family.

The attitude towards the Westerners is friendly, but when I really get down to the real feelings, people seems confused why they have come and why should they trust them. Some are not interested and others are very curious.

I am guarded and ready to defend and challenge. I walk through the main part of town and eyes are looking at me. I greet back in Dagbani, and they realize I am definitely not part of the group of Salamingas.

The festivities are about to begin, and I greet Chief Zack and his elders in front of the crowd that has gathered. I do so by kneeling down very low.

He laughs, as this would never happen in our house. I flash a smile recognizing that we have a secret that no one else knows.

I sit with the elders, with my family.

I feel part of something bigger, and realize that this is part of my community, my extended family. This is what people meant about being part of something bigger.

It is not just an individual achievement that is respected here but the success of your whole family, community and tribe, everyone
working towards the same goal. It finally sinks in, as I see it unfold around me everyday.

The event begins. Chief Zack says a few nice words and the District Chief Executive greets the Westerners and encourages that they work together for the betterment of Singa. I respect that he has come to this remote community on a weekend.

Promises, Promises

The leaders of this group give an elaborate, Western-style speech...while being filmed and surrounded by large fluffy microphones.

I will not cut the speech into pieces here, but I held my tongue at the time and got others' opinion about it. In summary, it was alot of talk about alot of things that sound nice.

Drummers from Burkina Faso

But in the end, who asked for these things? It was not the community.

For the most part, what was spoken about was not achieveable in most of these people's lifetimes – if at all. I am frustrated and ready to challenge all of these promises.

I take a deep breath and realize that this is part of being a development worker, to challenge other's ideas, as well as mine. I will get feedback from others, and present that to them, but also learn more about their mission.... or I will at least try.

When in doubt, dance!

Then the dancing begins and I have a good time with Amshawu, Achiri and Baba Alhassan.

I have never been witness to such a great event of dancing and music from so many different areas and countries. People were there from all over Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger. I was definitely impressed.

Afterwards, I met up with some of the dancers from Niger, and they invited me back to their place for tea. I had to turn it down, as I was supposed to be back at the family house for
dinner.

I was disappointed but excited to spend some time with the family here.

Windnum dressed in his Friday outfit

I went with Amshawu to pump water from the borehole (which the NGO installed - one point NGO). As I sat with the women waiting for our turn, we spoke Dagbani. Although I stuck out, it wasn't like the other white visitors.

The women made fun of them and I and laughed and felt like I was part of the group. I realized the importance of integrating with the community: touching their culture and understanding their ideas and feelings.

It's given me a totally different and amazing perspective.

Community change, personal growth

I spent the rest of the weekend enjoying time with the family, visiting people in the community with Amshawu, and trying to push the Westerners' idea about development.

What are they doing here? Is it the RIGHT thing? How do they know?

On the last night I thought about EWBs approach – humble enough to question our own approach, but strong enough to challenge others.

So much of what EWB has encouraged and coached me on stands out – integrating with your community, understanding rural poverty, asking good questions, and listening.

I feel that there is no better place for me. There is still work to be done.

I fall asleep under the stars, in the middle of the compound surrounded by the rest of the community.

ProductCampToronto Gains Momentum

Chris Herbert — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:30:20 GMT

ProductCampToronto is gaining momentum. Our August 6th pub night is full, our Facebook membership is up to 34 and Toronto Product Management Association has joined us along with you as we move towards our goal of making this event a learning and networking success. We'd like to begin gathering ideas and thoughts around many things but two important areas are around session topics and publicity.

We've started a discussion thread called "call for session topics" where we need you to suggest Product Mgt/Marketing topics that you'd like to put forward for PCT. Also, let us know if you want to lead the session too.
Also, we are looking for those who have blogs to promote PCT. I see two types of bloggers being important to us. First, there are those who will do the odd post to promote and help us out. No complaints here from us! The second type of blogger is someone who plans on persistently blogging on PCT. Either way, we're not picky!

So, if you want to get involved in the "call for session topics" discussion visit our Google Groups site here. If your interested in our planning activities feel free to visit here. If you do a post on your blog or want to become a PCT blogger let me know and we will add you to our Delicious site here.

Product Management: How to Increase Business Value by Transitioning to Agile

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:32:18 GMT

Courtesy of Featureplan. Download the podcast or watch the flash presentation.

Presented by Levent Gurses, co-founder of Jacoozi a US-based technical consulting and development firm specializing in transformations through Lean and Agile development practices

The prospect of using Agile methods to accelerate the delivery of value to the customers while reducing feature fatigue has captured the imagination of Product Managers everywhere.

In the past few years a rising number of companies have experimented with Agile practices, hoping to bring the most valuable product features faster to the market and gain strategic advantage.

But many companies have had difficulties adopting the new Agile practices. Some have faced employee or department resistance to change during the transition. Others have failed to demonstrate enough business value to keep the initiatives alive and spread it across the organization.

Clearly, companies have to rethink how they formulate their Agile adoption strategy.

A five-part Agile adoption methodology:

1. Companies need to realize the importance of starting small. This is the time for selecting a pilot project for the Agile adoption. Companies will want to try and fail and learn within the pilot project before they move with a wholesale adoption.
2. Companies should define business value in very clear and concrete terms. It's all too often that projects deliver too many features, mostly useless to the real customers.
3. Activities and technologies need to be evaluated according to their contribution to the business value. Agility promotes faster business value, but not necessarily the latest and greatest technical framework.
4. the companies should carefully select and incrementally adopt key Agile practices. Agile adoption does not have to be all or nothing. Every practice should be assessed with respect to the business goals and only adopted if it makes business sense.
5. Companies should develop a set of objective evaluation criteria to measure the success of the initiative. Since it is very difficult to improve things that cannot be measured, it is imperative to develop a set of measurable goals to assess the success of the Agile project.

This Webinar will outline the principles, tools and transition strategy for a successful Agile adoption.

Speaker Bio
Levent Gurses is a Washington, DC-based technology consultant. He is also the co-founder of Jacoozi, a US-based technical consulting and development firm specializing in transformations through Lean and Agile development practices. As a Certified ScrumMaster Levent helps his clients develop better software through Lean and Agile. His expertise is in transitioning companies to Agile by establishing technical infrastructure, mentoring and coaching for Rapid Product Development (RPD). Through his company Jacoozi, Levent provides vital Agile resources with real world experience such as coaches, project managers, architects and developers.

5 Ways to Get People to Invest in You - A Conversation with Sean Wise

Alan Kearns — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:46:59 GMT

Have you ever had to present a new business solution that you thought your company should invest in? Maybe you have desired to start your own business, or you are in sales "pitching" your products to customers. Whether you work for a Fortune 500 company or out of your basement, one thing is for sure, you are asking for people to invest in you. This week's podcast is with Sean Wise, online host of CBC's hit show "Dragons' Den". On this business reality show, you get the opportunity to pitch your business idea to a panel of five multi-millionaires known as Dragons.

Sean is also a leading Venture Capitalist who has helped his clients raise over $2.1 billion dollars to bring their products and services to the global market.

A guy who knows how to sell

Sean has had a very interesting career journey so far. By the ripe old age of 35 he had started 6 businesses, his first business as a clown at the age of 13. "I was dissatisfied with the management at McDonalds, so my parents suggested that if I disliked my role I should figure out a way to do better for myself." Earning $50 per hour as a 13 year old is not a bad way to spend your weekend and it sure beats flipping burgers. No laughing matter (pun intended), over the next 6 years, Sean spent time as a clown to fund his university education, learning how to build a business from scratch.

The only failure is the failure to try. – Sean Wise

He was accepted at the University of Ottawa's joint MBA/LLB program and upon graduation joined Ernst & Young's Venture Capital group. Sean then went on to launch his own VC firm working with emerging companies helping them to raise capital and mentoring their leadership teams. He has recently started a new collaborative venture fund, partnering with Spencer Trask out of New York City. This was the firm that originally funded Thomas Edison for his little idea - the light bulb. As an entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist and online Dragons' Den host, Sean knows what it takes to get people to vote with their wallets and invest in great ideas. In our conversation, he shared

5 key ways to get people to invest in you and your ideas.

The Power of Your Passion - How much do you believe in the idea? Your confidence about the idea is the foundation for pitching your idea. Research, Research, Research - What problem will this idea solve? Why would people buy it? Who are the competitors? How will you make money? Knowing the answers to these questions is the key to getting people to invest. Take Your Idea For a Walk - Nothing is more powerful than getting perspectives from a wide spectrum of people. The more people you approach, the more opportunity to get accurate feedback and to fine tune the idea. Two thumbs up - This is the Roger Ebert principle. Who do you know who has clout and will give you a strong endorsement with your idea? We have been well trained to take action based upon third-party endorsements! Less is more - When presenting your idea to decision makers, simplify the explanation. See if you can present your idea's concept in one PowerPoint slide. As Sean says, "Companies invest in you and your idea, but ultimately they are taking the chance with you." You may be asking, "What if I try and fail?" Sean says, "There are no losers, the only failure is the failure to try."

Speaking of investing in you, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a full 96 per cent of HR professionals agree that hiring a career coach delivers tangible benefits to individuals and organizations alike. So whether you need help drafting a professional resume, securing a promotion, switching jobs or any other career-related move, we are here to help. Join our free workshop, or book an initial consultation with myself. Take control over your career today! Along the road with you Alan

Time is everything on the Web

Gerry McGovern — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:24:40 GMT

Borrowed from the Blog "New Thinking":http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new_thinking.htm

Auctions were once a pillar of e-commerce . . . these days, consumers are less enamored of the hassle of auctions, preferring to buy stuff quickly at a fixed price.

Information overload, news fatigue and WADD (Web Attention Deficit Disorder) are creating a brutal landscape on the Internet.

"Web users are getting more ruthless and selfish when they go online", the BBC states in a review of a Jakob Nielsen report on web habits. "Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave."

Many organizations' websites are out-of-sync with their customers. Marketers think flashy graphics of smiling faces attract customers on the Web. Showing a smiling face to a typical web customer is like showing a crucifix to a vampire.

Communicators have gone mad on the Web; publishing press releases and thinking people will actually read them. News is being devalued because huge quantities of trivia and vanity are being labeled as news.

As many as 50 percent of people bail out after a quick glance of a webpage

bA study of young people's news habits found that, "news fatigue brought many of the participants to a learned helplessness response. The more overwhelmed or unsatisfied they were, the less effort they were willing to put in."

Time is everything on the Web. "Auctions were once a pillar of e-commerce," a Business Week article states. "People didn't simply shop on eBay. They hunted, they fought, they sweated, they won. These days, consumers are less enamored of the hassle of auctions, preferring to buy stuff quickly at a fixed price."

Over 40 percent of people click on the first search result. Over 60 percent click within the first 3 results, and over 90 percent click within the first 10 results

The emergence of the impatient, unforgiving customer has been gathering pace for many years. Back in 2006 a study by Akami found that 75% of people would not go back to a website that took more than 4 seconds to load. It used to be that people would wait for 8 seconds. In 2008, how many seconds will they wait?

As many as 50 percent of people bail out after a quick glance of a webpage, another 2006 report stated. Back then you had 4 seconds to convince people that you had something useful to offer. They might read about 15 words before making that decision.

"If your copy targets multiple demographics, those 15 words will not work," the MarketingSherpa report stated. "Don't construct a page to appeal broadly across a wide variety of "typical" users. It won't appeal to anyone at all and your conversions will suffer."

Over 40 percent of people click on the first search result. Over 60 percent click within the first 3 results, and over 90 percent click within the first 10 results. (More people have been on top of Mount Everest than have been to the 1,000th search result. Does it even exist?)

I was told of a study where the first and second search result were swapped for a selection of searches. The new "first" result kept getting more clicks. So, what we're dealing with is a customer who clicks first and asks questions later. It's a customer with their finger on the Back button.

"About half of all people who visit a commercial website intending to buy something give up because, above all, they are confused--by product descriptions, navigation and checkout procedures," a Newsweek article stated in July 2008.

Think about that: half the customers who come to websites wanting to buy things leave without spending anything. How frustrating is that?

Web 2.0 companies flock to CATA as social networking expertise becomes vital

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:06:46 GMT

There is a growing belief throughout the global economy that Web 2.0 technologies - blogs, podcasts, interactive web sites, online communities, wikis, mash-ups, and similar innovations - are changing customer and employee expectations.

OTTAWA July 11 2008 - The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance's drive to provide social networking education and access as an essential component of a successful business model for Canadian companies, has core Web 2.0 companies flocking to the association. Internet related organizations like CIRA, Helix Communications, FuseTalk, Market2World, More 411 Inc., TANJss, Go Phones, Octopus IP Communications Inc., Igloo, Iotum, and Shift Networks have recently joined Canada's largest high-tech trade association and its extensive network of 30,000 high-tech leaders. CATA is an advocate of social networking sites as a tool to increase a business's global reach.

"Early social networking sites such as Facebook have turned people from web viewers into participants who want to participate and interact online" - Barry Gander .

"Markets are now conversations," said Barry Gander, Executive Vice President, CATA. "Engagement has become the mantra of today's corporate sales model. In the U.K., these 'Web 2.0' techniques have become so prevalent that the Internet is expected to overcome television as the biggest advertising medium in Britain this year, with more than 19 per cent of total ad spend. This is a watershed in current trends! Canadian companies are jumping on the idea." "Our team is focused on helping companies find the tools and the partners to create their Web 2.0 presence," says John Reid, President of CATA. "We are both a matchmaking network and a centre for best practices in this new field. It's important that companies, in any sector, recognize that this is the new wave and get on board." Facebook, Viadeo and IGLOO have become staple applications in CATA's own business model and allow the association to post industry related news, conduct forums, share industry best practices, and promote new and innovative Canadian technologies. CATA's new "mobility" office, which provides employees with the option of working whenever they want and wherever they want, is largely based on the various applications provided by social networking sites, such as Facebook's free conference calls, and the Google platform's messaging and document sharing sites. CATA recently partnered with the Access Group to bring together 80 business leaders for a roundtable discussion to compare competitive strategies and approaches to the Web 2.0 phenomenon. CATA has also been heavily involved in the development of unique social networking sites such as First Run, a global site designed for journalism students, and a partnership with IGLOO has had them participate in the creation of an E-governance Task Force site designed for the City of Ottawa. As the web of social networks widens, CATA will likely gain even greater momentum with its initiatives and membership. For more information on CATA's latest social networking endeavors, please visit www.cata.ca.

Introducing ProductCampToronto

Chris Herbert — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:43:56 GMT

Join us this fall at ProductCampToronto! This event is an "unconference" where you get to choose the topics of discussion -- not sponsors with "planted presentations" and event organizers more interested in the agendas of sponsors. ProductCampToronto is for anyone interested in the art and science of product management. You, the attendee set the topics and direction. To register visit the "official wiki" and join our Facebook Group. Subscribe to this blog for updates too.