Tag: technology

Minnesota to launch solar wifi network

Post ImageYay for wireless everywhere! Let us all follow the fine example about to be set by Minnesota. According to Web Worker Daily, the state is getting ready to take a major step into the wireless world (via Tris Hussey):

From a state better known for wind chill and the latest in fur-trimmed parka fashion, a plan to create a wireless mesh network with nodes powered by batteries refreshed via solar panels is gathering steam.

The solar panels being used are apparently the same type already being used for highway signs across the country. The battery system is theoretically capable of lasting nearly seven years between replacement. And all the hardware is promised to work even during the dead of winter, through snow and sub-freezing temps.

Canadians take note! This sounds like the kind of technology we need to deploy here in our own cities. Apparently 300 residents are already testing the network (not currently solar powered) and a final decision on the project should be made on Monday.

Wireless Internet access provided by an all-weather, solar-powered mesh network. Awesome.

Read: Web Worker Daily

Odeo relegated from company to product

Post ImageYesterday, Evan Williams announced that he has formed a new company called Obvious Corp. which has purchased all of the assets of Odeo Inc. from the other investors and shareholders. Some people are probably surprised at the move, but I’m not. In fact, I saw it coming back in July:

Maybe it’s time everyone stopped calling Odeo a podcasting company. I’ve been critical of Google’s apparent lack of focus and direction many times in the past, but they’ve got nothing on Odeo. I mean here’s a company with some very smart people working for them, some substantial venture capital behind them, and yet very little to show for it.

I’d guess the investors are happy to have gotten out without any losses (TechCrunch thinks the buyout price is a little more than $5 million). Odeo is no longer a company by itself. Instead, it is now simply one of perhaps many products in Obvious’ new “model for building and running web products.”

The new model that Evan describes in his post is vague, but interesting. More importantly, he seems really excited about it, and he’s right, “from excitement and bold moves, great things often happen.” I wish him the best of luck with Obvious Corp.

So what does this mean for Odeo? A post on the official blog says that they are now “even more focused on giving Odeo the attention it requires.” Frankly, it would be difficult to be less focused than they are right now, so I guess that’s a good first step. It appears it will be business as usual for Odeo, at least for the foreseeable future. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, they change or add.

Read: evhead

Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion

Post ImageThe ramifications of this deal will be felt for quite some time. CNET News.com is reporting that Google has purchased video sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. The deal has been rumored for some time, but I didn’t think it would actually go through:

“This is one of many investments that Google will be making to put video at the heart of a user’s online experience,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt on a conference call after the deal was announced. “When we looked at the marketplace and saw what was going on, we saw a clear winner in the social networking side of video, and that’s what drove us to start the conversations with YouTube.”

You can listen to an audio interview with Eric Schmidt and YouTube CEO Chad Hurley here.

Also today, YouTube announced some major distribution deals with the big record labels. All of a sudden, the threat of a lawsuit looks much less likely, doesn’t it? I wonder what the MySpace people will think of this deal. I’m sure they are a little scared now that YouTube has Google’s backing.

So the deal is done, Google is now king of video. Still, I can’t help but wonder if a simple, exclusive ad-deal with YouTube would have been a better investment for Google? I guess time will tell.

Read: CNET News.com

b5media funded – congrats Jeremy!

Post ImageThe news broke on Wednesday that Toronto-based b5media, a blogging/media network started by Jeremy Wright, had landed $2 million USD from Brightspark Ventures and J. L. Albright Venture Partners. b5media describes itself as “a gobal new media network” with over 150 blogs on a variety of topics. Today, National Post reporter Mark Evans announced that he is leaving mainstream media to join b5media as VP of Operations. I wish Mark the best of luck, though I don’t think he’ll need it – I think he made the right decision.

I have known Jeremy for a while now, and I’m a long time reader of his blog. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him a few times (such as at Northern Voice) and he has always struck me as an intelligent, fairly down-to-earth kind of guy. That’s not to say he’s completely grounded though – you might remember that Jeremy was the first blogger to auction his services off on eBay. There’s a lesson there though – Jeremy is an innovator, and he really understands blogging. I know he’ll do great things with b5media.

I am not sure what b5media plans to use the money for, but maybe they can purchase a laptop or two for Jeremy? That guy has the worst luck with portable computers.

I’m really glad that Jeremy has become successful with b5media. He’s had his fair share of tough times in the past. Congratulations Jeremy!

Read: b5media

Roland nails the Globe and Mail on Web 2.0

Post ImageFellow Canadian and photoblogger extraordinaire Roland Tanglao posted some harsh words about a recent Globe and Mail article. The article includes a fairly negative quote from Albert Behr, who says, “you’ll notice that there are no Web 2.0 companies on the [Technology Fast 50] list — they just cost too much to be profitable in this country.” I have to agree with Roland:

The prognostication that “Web 2.0 companies cost too much to be profitable in Canada” will turn out to be just as laughable as the 1990s predictions of Apple’s demise. The whole point of Web 2.0 (the read write web or whatever you want to call it) especially with affordable infrastructure like Amazon S3 and EC2 is that anybody with a great idea and great implementation skills can build a web service anywhere in the world (not just in Silicon Valley) that is useful and scalable.

Roland offers some examples, including Flickr and bubbleshare. I’d add Podcast Spot to the list. Even though we just launched last night, a lot of what Roland says resonates with me. We use Amazon S3, and I would say we have a great idea and a great implementation. Now we just have to work on becoming profitable 🙂

Perhaps it is fair to say that Web 2.0 companies are harder to do in Canada, but a little challenge never hurt anyone right?

Read: Roland Tanglao

Wired News gets Odeo all wrong

Post ImageI think the staff at Wired News must have missed the memo about Odeo. In a list of Web 2.0 Winners and Losers published today, they included Odeo on the winners list. They praised the service, saying that Odeo “breezed in and de-mystified the podcast.” Huh, is that really what happened?

Not according to Odeo co-founder Evan Williams, who when giving a talk last week said Odeo failed for five main reasons:

  • “Trying to build too much”
  • “Not building for people like ourselves”
  • “Not adjusting fast enough”
  • “Raising too much money too early”
  • “Not listening to my gut”

De-mystified the podcast? That would explain why the vast majority of the population doesn’t know what a podcast is. They certainly know what MySpace or YouTube is though, yet MySpace appears on Wired’s losers list.

In some ways, the list that was voted on by Wired News readers is much more accurate – Odeo doesn’t appear on either list. This is the wisdom of the crowd at work! I don’t think they can be described as winners or losers yet, because Odeo seems to be finding their way still. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, to wait and see if they can turn it around.

The funniest part of the Wired article is this:

In the interest of brevity, I’ve chosen five sites from each category. The web services industry certainly has more than five winners and five losers, so we’ve only highlighted the exemplars.

I’m not exactly sure what reporter Michael Calore considers the definition of “exemplary” to be, but I am quite certain it’s different from my definition. And probably different than the dictionary’s definition too. The first five that came to mind for me certainly didn’t include Writely or Odeo (mine would be Flickr, del.icio.us, YouTube, MySpace, and digg).

Read: Wired News

Podcasting Professor Has Website Suspended

Post ImagePodcasting and education – I think it’s only a matter of time, once the issues that make educational institutions uneasy are worked out. And to be sure, educators are already experimenting with podcasting, like communication and technology professor Robert Schrag. The problem is that he decided to charge for his podcasts, and NC State University didn’t like that too much (via Podcasting News):

Schrag had made his lectures available to students and the general public online for a fee of $2.50. The University questioned whether this practice was ethical, referring to the inconsistencies in opinion concerning intellectual property and decided to ask Schrag to suspend the Web site until copyright-issue clarifications could be made.

Besides wanting to make a small profit, I don’t know why Schrag was charging for his podcast. I highly doubt he gave the money to the university to cover his (probably very small) bandwidth costs. Interestingly enough, when he asked his class about the situation, only four of them said the podcasts should be free, and no one said the site should have been taken down.

This situation brings up a bunch of questions. As a paying student, is recording what the professor says for my own consumption any different than frantically trying to write everything down? Does the university own the content that the professor delivers, or does the professor himself/herself retain ownership? Why should I as a student have to pay extra to get an audio file of the lecture?

And perhaps most important of all, is podcasting just something universities need to embrace in order to keep up with the times? I think it might be, kind of like replacing blackboards with whiteboards or overhead projectors with digital projectors and computers. Schrag has the right idea:

“I’m not sorry I made the choice and I hope I can get back to giving the information,” Schrag said.

After all, isn’t the primary function of a university to disseminate information? We call it teaching or learning, but really, a university is just a fancy way to spread information and knowledge to the population. Podcasting then should be viewed by universities as just another tool to help them spread information.

Read: Technician Online

Great Canadian Inventions

Post ImageAs usual (well when he decides to post anyway), Dickson has an interesting post up on his blog, this time about the CBC’s poll of the greatest Canadian inventions. There are 50 different inventions on the list, and CBC wants you to cast your vote. A special two-hour show featuring the inventions and a bunch of famous Canadians will air on January 3rd, 2007.

Here are my top ten picks (in no particular order):

  • Bloody Ceasar – Seriously, where would we be without this fine drink?
  • Canadarm – Showing them how it’s done in Space, since 1975.
  • Zipper – It’s the one thing I can properly operate after all those Caesars!
  • Poutine – When made right, super yummy.
  • Electron Microscope – Don’t forget about the small stuff!
  • Snowblower – Nothing says Canadian like a huge machine to move the fluffy white stuff around.
  • Insulin – A very worthy invention. Until the next major breakthrough renders it obsolete.
  • Wonderbra – I feel very proud to be Canadian right now.
  • Instant Replay – Though less important now thanks to TiVo and other PVRs, this is still a pretty cool invention.
  • Java Programming Language – Java is important to me for two reasons: it’s initial success partially led to the creation of .NET, and it’s continued bloat/politics/other problems clearly demonstrate why .NET is so much better now 😉

There’s some really interesting inventions on the list, some really old, and some more modern. It will be interesting to see how they are compared on the show.

What are your favorites?

Read: CBC

Has TechCrunch lost its edge?

Post ImageI’ve been subscribed TechCrunch for quite a long time, and I rather enjoy reading about the various companies and technologies they profile. Lately though, I’ve noticed that TechCrunch seems to be reporting on “big company” or “big media” things far more than the little stuff. A good example of this is what happened today. I opened up my aggregator for the first time today, and there were five posts in the TechCrunch feed:

  • Live.com and Yahoo! bulk up for local search brawl
  • Zune Unveiling Tomorrow
  • NBC to put new primetime shows online for free
  • Major Google/Intuit Partnership
  • Skype Video For Macs Launches Today

See what I mean? These look like headlines from CNET News.com, not TechCrunch! Now don’t get me wrong, these are all very interesting posts, and TechCrunch always has some inside information or extra analysis which is worthwhile, but they didn’t get to 113,000 subscribers by covering the big guys. They got there by finding and sharing the smaller companies and products that no one else could find.

Which begs the question – is TechCrunch becoming more like a mainstream business news site? Can we expect more of the “big company” type posts? Has TechCrunch lost its edge?

How can a company use podcasting?

Post ImageI came across this post from Karl Long today, titled “Uncommon Uses: Podcasting” in which he suggests some interesting ways that podcasting might be used. The basic idea is that we tend to use new technologies in similar ways as the old ones (using a podcast like a radio or TV show) because it seems natural, but that there are far more creative ways to take advantage of the new tech.

Karl focused mainly on individual scenarios, like learning a language or taking an audio tour, so I thought it would be interesting to come up with some company-focused ideas:

  • The most obvious use is public relations…audio-visual press releases!
  • Replacing a conference call with a podcast (IBM has already done this, for example)
  • And a related item…use a weekly podcast to cut down the number of emails that are sent, by summarizing the important things in audio form
  • Keeping your customers up-to-date on new product releases
  • Setup a podcast (or ability to track podcasts) so that potential job candidates could post audio-visual resumes
  • Keeping project members up-to-date on recent developments
  • Company training materials could be turned into podcasts, with the idea that all employees subscribe and information is added and updated over time
  • Certain meetings could be podcasted, like an AGM or shareholder’s meeting
  • In larger companies, new employees could be required to add an “introduction” to the internal “new hires” podcast – great way for people to find out about “the new guy/gal”
  • In a company like Google, employees could post a “pitch” for an idea they came up with or project they have in mind to an internal podcast

You’re limited only by your creativity! Any scenario in which information might be distributed over time is probably a good candidate for podcasting. Can you think of any other ways?