Out My Backdoor

MMP fosters Walmart politics

2007-10-05T09:34:00.000-05:00

A frequent objection to the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) election reform proposal is that it’s too democratic. Just as it will smooth out the blatant over- and under-representation of today’s system (e.g. the 1990 Ontario NDPs, today’s Green Party), it’s possible that certain, less desirable political parties (the Nazi/Facist Party or one-issue parties the typical examples) could earn a seat in the House. The proposed legislation already addresses these “undesirables” with its requirement that parties must receive 3-percent of the popular vote to gain one of 39 list member seats – some, including the Globe & Mail, want this threshold raised to 5-percent. More than the suggested increase, the very fact that a threshold even exists looks to me to be in direct conflict with the basic principles of democracy. Two thoughts come to mind:

There’s a simple solution to having Marijuana Party MPs walking the halls of Queen's Park; don’t vote for them! If 5-percent of Ontarians vote for the Weed Party, that’s (unfortunately for some) a reflection of 5-percent of the province’s population, not a fault of the system. Sweeping the actual seat under the rug isn’t going to change the fact that you live in a land of stoners!
Aren’t the ability for every voter to have their say, and for political movements to develop at the grassroots level, essential and founding principles of democracy? How then, can anyone justify a quota for defining party credibility? We’re up in arms about predatory pricing and anti-competitiveness whenever Walmart sets up shop in another community. We’ve got legislation preventing the telcos from collusion and predatory pricing. Yet when it comes to our system of government, even a proposed better model, we penalize grassroots political organizations for being…well, grassroots. How undemocratic.

Am I oversimplifying?

Tory can still pull it off

2007-10-05T09:21:00.000-05:00

Whether he read my blog or not, Tory sure changed his tune on the faith-based schooling issue. He may be paying the price for it now, but it's still early to call the time of death on his campaign. From here, I think he needs to do three things:

Stick to his guns - he was firm in his support of the idea in the first place and has to stand firm with the new plan, including my original idea that he commit to developing an ideal solution before the next election.
Come up with the sound bite(s) - There are a bunch of ways Tory can turn the flip flop sentiment around, and they all require a stinging one-liner or two. He can turn it around on McGuinty and that voters are understandably more accustomed to leaders chaning their minds after the promises have been made and election results tallied. He can draw on the Leadership Matters theme, that what voters are seeing is smart leadership, something perhaps they can be forgiven for not recognizing. Whatever the issues, there's a zinger or two that can change public opinion around on this.
Hope - and I suppose praying would be appropriate - that he made the tactic switch on the issue far enough ahead of the election. A week earlier and I think he would have been fine - time will tell if the remaining 5 days is just enough for voters to move on to the big picture decision.

How Tory can win the Ontario election

2007-09-27T11:52:00.000-05:00

Change tune on the faith-based schools issue .

Tory has accomplished two significant things with his plan for funding faith-based schools, one obviously being to anger more than a handful of voters.

But just as importantly, he has single-handedly set the agenda for the entire campaign. Last week’s debate, daily news coverage, negative attacks; all have been centred on this (up until Tory raised it, virtually non-existent) topic. Hampton and McGuinty, for all their attacks on the idea, haven’t had much else to talk about. For this reason, he shouldn’t drop it entirely, but he should definitely change tact.

Here’s how I think he can make it work.

Instead of steadfastly sticking to his original proposal – a typical tactic of politicians who think voters see them as perfect policy robots and not human beings – he should commit to coming up with a better solution in his first term as Premier. Now that the issue is out in the open, too many Ontarians have a strong opinion on the topic for it to go away. Tory can still hold claim ownership of the issue, and get voted in as Premier, by committing to do all the necessary research, economic modeling and stakeholder outreach to come up with what will a better plan.

Doing so wouldn’t be backpeddalling, nor would it be “pandering to the polls,” but would instead be a smart person refining (but still sticking to) a smart idea based on new evidence and lessons learned. There’s simply little chance he can get elected with the plan as it is now. Investing a few years will almost certainly result in a much better solution that addresses concerns of both faith and equality supporters. What’s more, if properly crafted and indeed the best solution, the new plan would serve as the defining issue of the next provincial election, one that Tory would be well poised to win.

Will he do it?

I suspect pressure is pretty high on him to stick to his guns (for aforementioned robotic reasons), and I’m not entirely certain that he reads my blog on a regular basis. If he’s going to do it though, time is of the essence. If he changes tact now, it’s a shrewd move that shows he can learn from voter sentiment but still lead on an issue. If he waits, it’s a last minute attempt to win back voters he’s lost.

ontario election

Humour, Good Ideas in Globe & Mail Letters to the Editor

2007-09-14T21:29:00.001-05:00

More and more over the last 3-5 years I've found myself deriving enjoyment from newspapers' editorials, op-eds and letters to the editor. My loyal followers will know that the Toronto Sun is a frequent source of joy, brilliance and blog fodder. This time it's the Globe that's caught my attention, starting first with two hilarious letters to the editor from September 5.

First is this letter on the public outcry in response to revelations that Canada has a thriving horse meat economy, written by Fred Bealle of Vanier, Ontario:

When did horses start being pets instead of mostly utilitarian transport that was rewarded by being eaten after long service (Will Canadians Stomach A Horsemeat Industry? - Sept. 4).Cows are nice. I love cows. Cows are very affectionate. You can even ride one if you are not in a hurry. And on the way, the cow thoughtfully provides you with milk and cheese. Find a horse that will do that as efficiently.

I really do not understand why it is horrible to eat horses or cute little canines, and it is okay to enjoy a beefsteak. As for myself, I smugly avoid meats while I tuck into my rice and beans. It's about global warming, you know.

It's about global warming....HA! I'm still chuckling. Next comes George James from Port Hope, who has this to say about the provincial Liberals' election promise to give Ontarians a new holiday in February (the paper titled the letter, All in the family day):

I strongly support the Liberal proposal to add a public holiday known as Family Day in February (February Blahs Mark Ontario's Political Calendar - Sept. 4). It will give my wife time to catch up on the laundry and the housework.

On a more serious note, I think the most insightful, constructive and straightforward letter to the editor I've ever read came from the pen of Parker Quast of Oakville yesterday. Weighing in on the now pivotal provincial election issue of funding faith-based schools tabled by John Tory, Parker says:

I think it is a really bad idea to have kids with different religions split up in schools. This will lead to kids arguing that their religion is right and better than the other, instead of being friends. It will cost so much money just to set up a school to teach one religion. The parents should teach religion at home and, if a school teaches religion, it should be one class that teaches all religions. That way kids will know about them all and won't think there is a ''right or wrong'' religion.

If it's not enough that Parker has a point, consider this....he's ten years old. He's a keeper!

The Problem with Spam: It Works

2007-07-24T22:11:00.001-05:00

Here's a recent spam email I received that caught my eye. In addition to being a testament to the success of myriad international anti-spam legislation and do-not-email registries, this one stood out as an illustration of an intriguing, in some ways disconcerting reality; spam, no matter how bad it may be, clearly works.

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(In the spam, the picture above links to a company called U.S. Drugs)

Why? Because no matter how cheaply spammers can acquire their email lists, those lists still cost money. To offset even minimal costs, spammers have to sell at least one product for a campaign to be effective. Spam can be successful with even the most miniscule of click through and conversion rates...as long as they're not zero.

Therein lies the disconcerting aspect of this spam...there is absolutely no reason this email should have generated a single click through, let alone a sale. Forget needing calls to action, effective key messages or appealing to readers' emotions; this email barely even tells me what it's selling, and what it does go onto say lacks any logic whatsoever.

I can't figure out why this email was ever even sent, let alone why it generated a return. The fact that I've seen this particular email before only adds to adds to its mysterious apparent success.

Spammers wouldn't keep sending these emails if they didn't deliver results. Even if it's only a single sale for every 1,000,000,000 emails sent, the very fact that they keep ending up in my in-box means that they're generating revenues from somebody, somewhere.

As a marketer, I'm intrigued. Is direct email ultimately just a numbers game, with at least some results guaranteed regardless of content? As a communications consultant, I'm offended. What does this email say about the importance of key messages, value propositions, brand attributes and other things I spend a good chunk of my day doing? And what about consumers as a whole? Are we that lazy that we (at least some of us) will buy whatever's put in front us, even if we don't don't what it is?

On a more positive note, there's a lesson to be learned from this email in the form of a potential solution to the spam problem, a solution rooted in free markets, not legislation. One only needs to look at the impact of PIPEDA and the plethora of U.S. anti-spam laws have had on reducing the amount of spam you and I receive to see how legislation doesn't work. A free market solution would look something like this:

1) Disband all efforts currently underway to enact anti-spam legislation or do-not-email databases, for they are more likey to end up being gun-registryesque boondoggles with little or no results.

2) Put funds that were earmarked for said legislation into educational programs to make consumers more aware of the threats posed by spam, and simple ways to combat spam problems (namely, don't even read or open them).

3) In doing so, put the onus on the consumer, not governments, to turn off the spam hose.

Put another way, instead of coming up with a list of people not to spam, make those people acutely aware of how and why they shouldn't justify spam by reading emails or following links therein. Legislation, as we have seen, is but a minor inconvenience to spammers. As with many things, the real solution lies in hitting spammers in the pocketbook, turning off the revenue tap that continues to reward them and justify further spam campaigns.

Marketingcharts.com: A Panacea for Marketing Geeks

2007-07-20T12:38:00.000-05:00

If you write as many marketing plans, proposals and other business documents as I do, you know how many times you found yourself wanting for a great chart to throw into the "Market Opportunities" section; you know, the one predicting that the market for whatever you're working on is about to skyrocket, the one that shows the "hockey stick" growth curve. If this sounds familiar, put Marketingcharts.com in your bookmarks.

While I'm at it, here's one showing the hockey stick curve for in-game advertising, great news for Bitcasters (although we knew it already) with at least two ad-compatible video game properties in the works.

What a Party! - HistoriCanada Preview Launch

2007-06-26T23:55:00.000-05:00

On May 31, almost 10 years since Nathon Gunn and Thomas Axworthy first conceived the idea, and about two years since I've been working on it, Bitcasters officially unveiled The History Canada Game, the first popular computer game about Canadian history.

The launch featured guest MC and CBC News personality Evan Solomon, a delectable, authentically Canadian menu of foods courtesy of Nathan Isberg from the always hip Czehoski, and delightful musical performances from soundtrack performers Patricia O'Callaghan and Brian MacMillan. Not surprisingly, we got quite a bit of press coverage from the event, from CBC to Le Journal de Montréal. The History Canada Web Site is loaded with pictures and news clippings, but if you've got 3 minutes to spare, the following video from the launch is awesome:

Thanks to Matt and Darby from Minnow Productions for the brilliant shooting, and to Daniel Cockburn at Zero Function for amazing editing.

My Meez - Need I Say More?

2007-04-26T21:49:00.000-05:00

Avatars - and specifically the ability for your avatar to represent you in games, in email and instant messenger, on cell phones and more - are a big part of several projects I'm involved with at Bitcasters. One of the better known avatar creators is Meez. Here's mine:

Pretty productive use of an hour, eh?

If you're going to question faith...have your facts straight!

2007-03-18T21:56:00.000-05:00

In spite of comments from a few weeks ago, I really don't try to single out The Toronto Sun for sources of humour; really, I try to be equally constructive in my criticism to all (myself very much included).

But this I can't just leave there...

In his recent column Tales from the Crypt, Sun columnist Thane Burnett - admitedly voicing the concerns of hundreds of thousands, if not millions. of practicing Christians - expressed a fair amount of displeasure towards highly publicized and controversial documentary The Tomb of Jesus. As if Dan Brown hadn't done enough, now more doubt was being cast on the foundations of Christianity.

But here's Burnett's argument:

"If you're going to question the basis of Christian belief, you better make sure your case is airtight."

And if you're reading the way I am, what Burnett is saying is not to challenge faith in the centuries old, imcomplete diaries, written by many but edited by few over the course of centuries (I admit, my sources are largely Dan Brown books and recently completed The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury), unless your case is....actually, I can't think of a better word than airtight.

As airtight as the resurrection? Maybe.

But that's just it. You can't hold up faith in a court of law. There is room for and value in faith to be sure. But you can't ask that it be defended or disputed based on a logical case.

Faith isn't based on fact...it's based on faith.

Umm...where did February go?

2007-03-13T02:13:00.000-05:00

Yikes! It’s happened again…a full month and a half since my last blog! Quite a bit can happen in month and a half. From the perspective of my blog, two things from the last six weeks stand out as undisputable highlights.

I got my first flaming blog comment.

It was in response to my blog entry All Irish are Drunks back in January, and it contained the word “ass.” Quite sincerely, I’m flattered that someone took the time to disagree with me…with a vengeance! I’ll have to concede some of the anonymous poster’s points, but I still wouldn’t change (may be add a couple?) a word.

The election threat has become eerily real.

Unfortunately, my immediate reaction to the election possibility wasn’t my typical enthusiasm, but dread; not of the phone or doorbell ringing during dinner; not of the growth of the daily junkmail pile that will start soon; not even of the countless pundit analyses seemingly broadcast on every news channel 24 hours a day; what I dread is how blatantly obvious it’s become to me how much partisan politics plays into policy and platform (how’s that for alliteration!) decisions. Few if any elements of the Conservatives’ environmental policies – for example – would survive long if the Liberals should regain control of the government, and it wouldn’t happen because the policies were unsound nearly as much as it would be a factor of the party behind them.

There were two events in the last 72 hour that drove this point home.

One was they keynote speech at last week’s Saskatchewan Council of Social Sciences conference in Saskatoon. Roy MacGregor owns the Globe & Mail’s page A2, he’s an Officer of the Order of Canada, he’s been described as “the heir to Peter Gzowski,” and his speech was about the Canadian Identity. His whole talk was mesmerizing, but one stands out. Roy was interviewing a textbook rural Prairies MP, leaning on the hood of the gentleman’s truck as virtually everyone who drove by honked, waved at and/or cheered on their local representative in Ottawa. One particularly muddy truck bounded by without honk, wave or cheer, only to skid to a grinding halt 100 feet down the gravel road. The truck promptly reversed, the window rolled down and a gruff voice hollered out, “what in the hell are you doing talking to Jack Layton?”

The other event was catching a talking heads debate between Conservative Strategist Tim Powers and Liberal Strategist (and former Martin speechwriter) Scott Reid about the Prime Minister’s recent, very generous cross-country tour. It was amazing to see the lengths to which each would go to discredit the other, even if it meant contradicting positions their parties previously held. They’re both smart guys, both social and confident, both relatively young. But beyond all similarities, their party loyalties are such that I’m sure they have different coloured blood running through their vanes. For all I know, they may go out for beers together after an on-air debate, but their stances are clearly defined and clearly opposed.

I know I’m wandering into existential territory here, but I’ve got to believe that we want human beings running our country – honest, hard-working, intelligent, motivating and committed are all ideal characteristics, but at a minimum, they’ve got to be human. Human beings make mistakes. It’s true. So…if you’re always right, you’ve never made a mistake in your life, and you never, ever waiver on an issue, I’ve got to believe you’re either a) a huge liar, and/or b) too slow to recognize your mistakes.

(Insert politician joke here.)

I can’t think of a better model of good government – except, perhaps, for an elected Senate – than our very own. But while a party-based system promotes effective and active governance, it almost guarantees that the best solution to a given problem is never an option, where the best long term plans won’t see enough light to make an impact. A significant sacrifice for sure, but one that – as far as I can see – is necessary for the purposes of action and progress in government, two measurements that define a government’s long term – if not in today’s polls – success.

2006 Predictions: How'd I Do?

2007-01-15T03:33:00.000-05:00

All in all, not too far off; I must say...

The Y1C Crisis – I feel like Peter de Jager…gasoline prices have stayed well below $1.00, fending off the meltdown I anticipated as a result of most gas stations’ limited, sub-one-dollar rate signs.

PIPEDA Bites – I was optimistic in my belief that Canada’s privacy laws would grow teeth; 80% of my email still comprises promotions for penny stocks, penis enlargements and persecuted Nigerian ex-cabinet ministers.

Convergence Resurgence – I was pretty well on here, although consolidation was as prevalent as convergence. Bell Globemedia bought Chum (which I said might happen), Canwest is going to buy Alliance Atlantis, and Telus CEO Darren Entwistle proclaimed that the future of the telco was in television.

The New, New Wireless Wave – Smart phones have in fact become a lot more practical, powerful and, in fact…smarter. Witness the Treo 700, Blackberry Pearl and MotoQ as prime examples. And don’t try and tell me you don’t want an iPhone.

Green: The New Color of Money – Boy was I right here. Not only was it the color of money, but also of power. Stephane Dion’s Liberal leadership victory has been attributed largely to (aside from Gerard Kennedy) his stance on the environment. Everyone from environmentalists to lobbyists is taking credit for it, and Stephen Harper has responded with a big shuffle in cabinet and his top five priorities.

VoIP Goes Mainstream – Vonage may still be losing money, but they can at least sleep well knowing they changed the telco landscape. Beyond the fact that their annoying jingle is stuck in the heads of Canadians from coast to coast, VOIP has got to be one of the top three new technology considerations for large enterprises…which is where the big bucks are.

Judgment Day for Satellite Radio – I’m still not convinced. My dad has one, and I loved playing around with it at first. But the novelty wore off pretty quickly (i.e. by the second or third stoplight) and, judging from the fact that both companies appear to be bleeding money out of every orifice, I don’t think I’m alone. Plus…if not ad-supported radio, where am I going to hear that annoying Vonage jingle?

Taking Responsibility for IT – Well…it’s government; you can’t expect it to happen overnight. What’s actually quite interesting is that – I’ve attended a number of CIO roundtable discussions on the topic – people in or experts on the IT industry have been saying the same thing for years…even decades. I wonder if there will in fact be one event (or series) that precipitates regulatory action a la SOX and Bill198.

I Won’t Shoot Another Eagle – Spot on. I really should have put money on this one.

And last but not least...More Reality TV! Skating, dancing and now enforcing the law with celebrities. Another Survivor, Amazing Race and American Idol. The Biggest Loser, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé and Who’s Your Daddy? On the sad front, we lost Croc Hunter Steve Erwin, and Dog the Bounty Hunter was arrested. On the plus side, Poncherello’s going to be busting real bad guys!

What’s next? Check out my 2007 predictions…due out soon!

All Irish are Drunks

2007-01-05T00:25:00.000-05:00

Lately I've found a source of daily amusement in the letters to the editor of the Toronto Sun. Writes one Sun reader - Domenic Faragalli of Welland - to the editor in today's paper:

"Just because a person is a politician doesn't mean he/she is a hero. Canadians are sick and tired of the dog and pony shows at all levels of govt. We are tired of self-serving, rich politicians who think they are better than those they serve. To say they are heroes is a joke. "

What bothers me about Mr. Faragalli's comments isn't that they're rife with ignorant cliches borne of apathy and uninformed disdain, but that I know he is far from alone in his opinions.

Adding frustration to bother is that, at least in my experience, those who share his sentiment - who label all politicians as corrupt, self serving crooks - almost never vote, never read a newspaper (beyond the Sunshine Girl), never know the state of current national or political affairs...they rarely even know who their local city councillor, MP or MPP is. What's more - again, in my experience - it's usually the same people that say all Irish are drunks, all Jews are cheap and all Arabs are thieves. After a while, it all begins to sound the same.

Now I'm not saying that Mr. Faragalli is a racist, a fool or uneducated. I'm not suggesting he's totally ignorant or apathetic. But what I do say to him is that, if he's truly informed, if he's truly engaged, if he's really serious about principles of good government, there's a simple solution to his pain: run for office!

Timely Commentary on American Foreign Policy

2006-12-22T22:39:00.000-05:00

In a rather interesting – and for me, certainly atypical – book I’m reading, I came across a few lines that I think quite accurately sum up the opinions of many Canadians when it comes to America’s foreign policy today:

Look around you. Above all, look down here at these anguished United States of ours. And what do you see? If you see with any clarity, you will record a madhouse.

Our government in Washington is sending metal and steel, and atomic energy, and destructive power all over the globe to protect our national security. To other people the fact is that our government in Washington is a supremely materialistic and atheistic society seeking, as every empire has in the past, control, power, control. Aging, almost senile, and probably impotent, men in our capitals both east and west are sending young men out to kill for old men’s chess games: power and control.

You remember what happened to Rome, don’t you? The Roman Empire, like the American Empire, spreading its rule of steel and concrete across the Mediterranean…”

So…who said it? Michael Moore? Jon Stewart? Howard Hampton?

No. It was Timothy Leary, in a transcript of “The Speech That Never Was,” a talk the godfather of LSD was supposed to give at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall as part of Perception ’67. That’s right, 1967. The book, incidentally, is The Art of Ecstasy, by William Marshall and Gilbert Taylor and published in the same year.

It’s a bit of an eye-opener. In fact, with the similarities between Leary’s day and ours, one could easily be tempted to consult his works further, to give us an idea of what we may expect to come. That temptation fades quickly, in no small part because of some of Leary’s other thoughts on the pathway to enlightenment:

:And of course the other third of the people that live here with us at the spiritual center are young people ranging from newborn babies up through the teens. And I want to point out that all the children who live in this house who are over the age of seven or eight take LSD and use marijuana regularly.”

Stop Global Warming with Delicious Last-Minute Christmas Gift

2006-12-20T21:57:00.000-05:00

Global Warming Blend coffee available at Roots, Mountain Equipment Co-op and Merchants of Green Coffee

In support of WWF-Canada and its efforts to combat global climate change, Toronto sustainable coffee distributor Merchants of Green Coffee (MGC) has developed a special coffee, the Global Warming Blend, available at select retailers in the final week of this holiday shopping season.

MGC will donate $3.00 from each pound of Global Warming Blend sold to WWF-Canada’s Save Our Climate campaign. The coffee, blended with Canada’s only certified sustainable coffee beans, is available in Toronto at Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC), Roots at Bloor & Yonge, and both online and in-store from MGC’s fair trade warehouse.

“Thanks to our partners, everyone enjoying a piping hot cup of Global Warming Blend over the holidays will be doing a small part to help curb the single biggest environmental threat facing our planet today,” said Julia Langer, Director of Global Threats, WWF-Canada.

Global Warming Blend has already been a hit with shoppers. According to MEC’s David Robinson, the store’s first shipment of 50 half-pound bags sold out in an afternoon.

“We developed the blend not only as a delicious beverage, but also as an agent of conversation and change,” said Derek Zavislake, co-founder of MGC. “Beyond contributing to one of the most prominent conservation organizations, with each cup we’re encouraging people to ask themselves how climate change affects their lifestyle, and vice versa.”

Added Robinson, “it also tastes really, really good. If you have any coffee connoisseurs on your gift list, they’ll appreciate it like a wine lover does a fine vintage.”

Global Warming Blend comes in half and full pound, roasted, whole-bean bags. For more information, visit a participating retailer or http://www.globalwarmingcoffee.com/.

Outsourcing, Insourcing...and Ho, Ho, Hosourcing!

2006-12-19T10:47:00.000-05:00

From a friend and former client of mine in the IT services world comes the logical next step in globalization of services delivery, a step that promises to save parents up to 30% on their current holiday services spending:

Contact your local Festive Service Provider (FSP) for further details and case studies.

Why do dogs lick their own balls?

2006-12-14T23:56:00.000-05:00

Because they can.

And that seems the entire reason behind the Bloc's threat to bring down the government over Canada’s Afghanistan mission.

Does Gilles Duceppe need a reminder that it was the Afghanistan-based Osama bin laden that was behind 9/11?

Have Canadian troops done anything but represent their country with the highest degree of honour, valour and courage?

Should we, as a G8 nation - and as such, a global leader – ignore our responsibilities to fight tyranny and defend our freedom in the face of direct threats?

Does peacekeeping - since Pearson a defining Canadian strength and source of national pride on the world stage - entail handing out lilies and releasing doves as former victims of genocide and warfare welcome us with ticker tape parades and bake sales?

Can Canada expect to command the respect of its fellow global leaders without contributing to world peace, justice and stability?

With such a vast yet vulnerable nation, does Duceppe think other countries will jump to our aid in times of need when we don't reciprocate?

If Duceppe had a say in 1944, would Canadians have played such a pivotal, honourable role on the shores of Normandy to ultimately bring an end to the second great world war?

The answer to all of these questions, of course, is no. I used to loathe the Bloc for trying to break up my country. Now it’s because they’re planning on utterly embarrassing it.

Je me souviens indeed.

The "Because Of" Factor: A Corollary

2006-12-14T19:04:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I was quite happy to hear Rick Segal of JL Albright Ventures on CBC Radio's Sounds Like Canada. Beyond the rebounding investments in the sector, it’s nice to hear more national discussion around the limitless opportunities that the Internet and related technologies continue to present to enterprising entrepreneurs.

One of the things Segal discussed was an emerging company success factor he calls the “Because Of” factor, to which I'd like to offer up a corollary. While I agree that the turning point in most companies comes “because of” word of mouth, referrals, blog traffic and other factors beyond a business’s control (the premise of Segal's theory), it’s important that prospective dot-com entrepreneurs realize that success doesn’t simply follow “because of” an idea being a good one.

For one thing, even the best idea or business model won’t go anywhere without the support of a team that can execute. With Windows and VHS cassettes as the classic examples, even the best technologies in the world (arguably Macintosh and Beta, respectively) won’t succeed in the face of competitors that can actually get a product out into the market. So, if you’re going after folks like Segal for funding, remember that as important as your idea itself is convincing backers that your team is the one that can get this into the hands of paying customers, fast. Remember Thomas Edison’s famous quote about genius being 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

Of equal importance, even with an experienced and accomplished team, just because an idea is seemingly brilliant idea doesn’t guarantee that customers will actually pay for it. Entrepreneurs – and I’ve seen hundreds of them do this – love to cite the success of similar offerings (like Google’s share price) or the overall size of the potential market as evidence of their company’s impending success. Quite common is what Guy Kawasaki and others have referred to as the Chinese Soda analogy; if you can get just 1% of the Chinese market to buy your soda, you’ll be selling 1.3-million cans of soda.

To be sure, the most convincing evidence a company can provide that customers will pay for its product is a purchase order or cheque (or thousands of them). The closer you can get to this, and the further you can get from magical, faith-based marketing projections, the more convincing you’ll be.

The days of the Internet are far from over and, with wireless, gaming, Web 2.0 and others as examples, the next 2-3 years alone will see some incredible advances in how we communicate, interact and do business. To paraphrase Winston Churchill – and at least one Silicon Valley venture capitalist whose name escapes me – we’re not at the beginning of the end of the dot-com era; if anything we’re at the end of the beginning.

Hell No, We Won't...er, what are we doing here again?

2006-12-13T11:08:00.000-05:00

So I'm driving along Bloor Street just east of Yonge and I notice a group of 50 or so protesters outside the Marriott hotel. Their cause? I don't know.

Granted I didn't see all of the placards, but among the 6 or 8 that I did see, none told me why they were there. They said 'Westin,' and 'The Prince Hotel,' which in itself is odd because they were outside the Marriott, which isn't affiliated with Westin, but nothing about what (if anything) either hotel chain did wrong.

Is it possible they were demonstrating in favour of of Westin? Trying, through their actions, to compel more people to stay at the company's hotels?

Alas, I may never know

What I do know is I will definitely start using this experience to demonstrate to clients a fundamental rule in effective communications: that no matter how effective your medium, you've got to have a message.

What's the definition of a consultant?

2006-12-09T02:40:00.000-05:00

According to a favorite joke of mine, it’s someone who comes in, borrows your watch, tells you what time it is, keeps the watch, and charges you an exorbitant fee.

And that’s exactly what came to mind reading The dean of design, an article in a recent issue of Canadian Business about University of Toronto Rotman School of Business Dean Roger Martin and his thoughts on the importance of design in today’s business environment.

The premise of the article is the “revolution” Dean explains is taking place in business; that among the most critical business success factors, arguably a company’s key competitive advantage, is design; design in your product, your support infrastructure, your customers’ experiences and more. To help illustrate, Martin cites three corporate case studies that exemplify the “design revolution” taking place around us.

The fact of the matter, as you will see, is that each of the “revolutionary” design principles illustrating the new design paradigm is, in fact, a pretty basic, Commerce 101 business principle. Yet, because it’s Martin, because he calls it a revolution, and because design is a yet under-exploited buzzword, we eat it up. Observe his three examples:

1) Four Seasons- rather than larger rooms, the globally renowned hotel chain pays immense attention to seemingly minute details of its offering to customers; the flow rate of its bathtubs and the ergonomics of its free shampoo bottles, for example. It would appear that the company strives to do things in a way that’s at least slightly different – and ideally better – than other hotel chains. Unless I’m mistaken, we already know this concept as “differentiating yourself from the competition.”

2) Air Canada – Martin’s “crowning moment” about the importance of design came during a San Francisco-Toronto flight on Air Canada, increasingly the poster child for how not to do business. It probably comes as no surprise that his less than stellar experience – and his realization of the importance of design in the customer experience – came from being neglected by his flight attendant, this in spite of the fact that he was the only passenger in that flight’s business class. Don’t get me wrong – I haven’t flown Air Canada in years – but I can’t help but think that what Martin heralds as part of the “design revolution” is in fact what I’ve heard referred to as “customer service,” and the concept of tailoring your product around your customers’ needs. To be sure, I suspect no less than 500 books have been written on the subject.

3) Research in Motion – The ultimate in Canadian technology success stories, Martin cites RIM as an example of revolutionary design because Balsillie and Lazaridis insisted on meticulous attention to design detail, for years before their first product shipped. Now, in this case, RIM is indeed deserving of recognition because of its commitment to make sure the Blackberry worked (technologically, ergonomically, etc.) thoroughly before bringing even a beta version to market. But at the same time, don’t we know this “design revolution” already as the Product, arguably the load-bearing pillar of any business and one of the fundamental four P’s that define a company’s market?

So there you have it. Three simple examples; three basic tenants of business theory; repackaged with a new buzzword in the “design” revolution…and we eat it up.

In the immortal words of another Martin, former Prime Minister Paul, let me be clear; this is not a rant against Roger Martin. Back when I was on a task force for the e-business Opportunities Roundtable, I saw first hand the vision and leadership that Martin brought to the table. I admire the work he’s done with the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity. And let’s face it…he’s definitely part of the “business royalty” in Canada.

It’s not his fault.

Rather, I would argue the way consultants get away with repackaging business basics as revolutions is a function of our underlying need for progress. It’s evidenced every month in magazines like Fast Company and Business 2.0. It’s rooted in our apparent boredom with the business status quo, and our need for constant change and new business challenges.

Put another way…does business ever really change at all?

Professor Comes Up With a Way to Divide by Zero

2006-12-08T01:55:00.000-05:00

From Slashdot.org comes this story that makes me second guess the value of my engineering degree:

"The BBC reports that Dr. James Anderson, of the University of Reading, has finally conquered the problem of dividing by zero. His new number, which he calls "nullity" solves the 1200 year old problem that niether Newton nor Pythagoras could solve, the problem of zero to the zero power. Story features video (Real Player only) of Dr. Anderson explaining the "simple" concept."

Dell: Now THAT'S Customer Service!

2006-12-05T13:29:00.000-05:00

Wow. As you may have seen in a blog posting last week, I used the 15 minutes or so that I spent on hold with Dell's customer service line to jot down a few tips to keep customers like me happy while we are on hold. A few people took notice, ITBusiness.ca picked up the posting in their "Readers Weigh In On..." web page, and within a day, Dell sent me a personal email asking how they could be of further assistance.

The email came from Marty Schwartz from Dell's Executive Support Office, and here a couple of excerpts:

"It would be an overstatement to say that Dell can make every single one of its customers happy, even when they are not contacting us directly with their concerns."

"I wanted to thank you for your feedback on our automated phone system; we are always trying to improve every facet of our customers' experience, and we don't get a tremendous amount of direct, written commentary on our automated system. I will be sure these suggestions are passed along to the people in that department."

"I also wanted to inquire as to your computer system… did we get you technically resolved? Has your issue been seen through to a final fix? Please let me know, as I'd like to make sure that your issues have been handled correctly by our team. "

Needless to say, I was nothing short of (pleasantly) astonished to hear from Marty's office, particularly so soon after I blogged about the on-hold experience. In part because of this, and in part out of fairness, I should reiterate what I said last week that my issues with being on hold aren't limited to Dell; to my mind today, and perhaps there's a better standard to aim for, being on hold for customer service is as much an unpleasant reality as having to pay invoices when they arrive on my desk. I should note too that I did end up getting a quick answer (and the one I was hoping for) when I got through to a Dell representative last week.

For those of you already thinking I'm selling out by flip flopping on my original posting, I'm not. I'm not absolving Dell of its responsibility to continuously improve on its customer service capabilities, nor am I suggesting we should all acquiesce to endless hours of elevator music. But in all reality, and relative to virtually anyone else I've dealt with in this respect, Dell hit this one out of the park for me.

A New Liberal Climate?

2006-11-28T15:52:00.000-05:00

Former Paul Martin advisor and long-time Liberal strategist John Duffy has a busy week ahead of him with this week's leadership convention in Montreal. It's not because he's a delegate or is campaigning for one of the candidates; it's because the convention is where Duffy is launching his latest initiative, climateliberal.ca.

In a nutshell, the project is a rallying cry for his fellow Grits to put aside divisions of the past and unite for a common cause, in this case (in addition to and as part of getting back into government) fighting global climate change. The site as it is now is really just a slick compilation of articles, research and a handful of Web 2.0 features surrounding climate change issues, but its greater purpose is as a vehicle to re-engage Canadian Liberals in fighting for the same team, against a common enemy.

It's an interesting premise, and one that's picking up surprising steam given the leadership convention and all the other issues it's competing with for attention this week. Time will tell whether it has enough steam this week to outshine the "Quebec as a Nation" debate, and ultimately whether it has enough meat to avoid being another version of Rick Mercer's One-Tonne Challenge commercials.

One of the reasons behind its early success is undoubtedly Duffy's uncanny ability to generate buzz from within the party and through news media. But the other reason, and what may end up being the issue that tugs at the requisite heart strings, is how it fits into a pretty consistent liberal heritage of fixing stuff...big stuff. Duffy points to two main examples - Canada's social welfare system 75 years ago, and the Charter of Rights & Freedoms 35 years ago - of how the Liberals have "stepped up" to solve some of the country's biggest problems as the government.

So...will climate change be the next Charter? Will a solution to global warming go down with social welfare as one of Canada's defining accomplishments? Or will it end up being seen as simply a lot of...wait for it...hot air? Time will always tell, but at least we'll get some glimpse after this week.

For more information, visit our web site

2006-11-27T12:50:00.000-05:00

I've now been on hold with a major, arguably very consumer-friendly technology vendor (hint: it's Dell!) for about 15 minutes. And, while I've got the elevator music on hold so I can continue to work while, I can't help but think about incovenient being on hold can be. Furthermore, being a big fan of lists, I've come up with the top three things I think companies can do to improve the on hold experience (note: not all directly related to the call I'm on now):

1. Don't tell me to visit the web site. Particularly for online firms like Dell (and there are others who do this), I don't think I'm alone in that I only pick up the phone and call after I've already exhausted all avenues on the web site.

2. Provide an out. I know how much more effective automated attendants and IVR systems are for the companies that provide them. However, and especially if I've already gone up and down all the automated attendant menus or been shifted from one department to another (something that should be easily tracked), tell me when I can hit zero or pound to talk to someone.

3. Stick to the elevator music. Every time the elevator music is interupted by a "your call is very important to us...please continue to hold" message, I automatically pick up the handset thinking that it's a human picking up the call, only to have my hopes dashed as I realize it's another recorded message.

Liberal Leadership: who the money's on

2006-11-27T11:05:00.000-05:00

As we enter the home stretch to this weekend's long anticipated Liberal Leadership Convention, I've checked in with the futures markets and online wagering sites to see who the money says will be the next party leader. You may recall from a previous posting from this year's election that futures markets are typically far more accurate predictors of events - from sporting events to elections and everything in between - than even the most comprehensive polls or expert opinions.

According to Pinnaclesports.com of the Netherlands, the odds as of today are:

Michael Ignatieff - 1.79:1
Bob Rae - 3.68:1
Stephen Dion - 4.73:1
Gerard Kennedy - 21:1
All Others: >200:1

At Dublin-based Intrade.com, the odds for each candidate are reflected in their Intrade stock value. Here are the last closing price for each, followed in parentheses by the high and low since the campaign began:

Michael Ignatieff - $65.00 ($40-65)
Bob Rae - $30.00 ($20-38)
Stephen Dion - $20.00 ($8.50-25)
Gerard Kennedy - $5.00 ($5-25)

I've searched for the same figures from UBC's Election Stock Exchange (http://esm.ubc.ca) but the site doesn't appear to be up anymore. In the January election their results weren't perfect indicators, but they were quite good.

Politicians: Know when to throw in the towel

2006-11-13T16:44:00.000-05:00

I’ve had this posting half-written for a week and ahalf now, but with tonight’s election looming I figure it’s time to blog or get off the pot, so to speak.

Being a communications professional – if I can get away with calling myself that – I appreciate more than most the importance of spokespeople staying on message, regardless of the topic at hand or questions posed. This is particularly so when unexpected events occur, and even more so when that spokesperson holds or is running for public office. I would go as far as to say that staying on message, projecting optimism and believing that failure is not an option can be even more important to the success of a political campaign than the issues or platforms themselves.

But there’s a point where you’ve got to throw in the towel if you’re going to keep the trust of the voters.

Witness George W. Bush. In spite of doubts, accusations and insults cast against him for everything from civil rights to the war in Iraq, Bush faired pretty well popularity-wise well into his second term. His arguably sizeable win over Kerry in 2004 is probably the most obvious indicator. Where I think Bush went wrong (in terms of communication, not policy), and ultimately why Republicans suffered defeat in the mid-terms, was when he went from “optimistic on-message” to…well, “dumb on-message.”

Forget whether or not the war was justified or the right move initially; fast forward to today and the reality is clearly way off what the Bush administration and American voters were envisioning for late 2006. Casualties continue to mount. Only two out of 18 provinces are under Iraqi control. And the commitment of coalition forces is wavering, at best. What’s almost more telling is the growing roster of generals, senators and other high ranking military officials and Republicans voicing their frustration with how the mission has unfolded.

My point is that voters – by and large, and even the skeptical ones – tend to give politicians the benefit of the doubt in a good number of issues, including when things aren’t going quite as planned. But our patience isn’t infinite. Put another way, we’ll put up with all the spin and massaging of the truth politicians dish out…to a point. But when live images on CNN and YouTube so glaringly cut through the fine tuned messaging and once-convincing optimism being conveyed by politicians; that’s when our patience runs out. That’s when healthy skepticism turns to disdain. And that, not “Foleygate” or the growing roster of recent scandals, is where I believe Bush lost that crucial ounce of trust that was keeping the Republicans in power.

On a smaller scale but closer to home, Toronto mayoral candidate Jane Pitfield crossed that line a couple weeks ago for me. It was after a planned speech to the Economic Club was cancelled because no-one (according to 680 News) signed up to attend. When asked if (pretty obviously) she saw the low/no turnout as a setback, Pitfield said no, effectively talking about the cancellation as if it were nothing more than missing an elevator and having to wait for the next one. “Not at all,” she replied, explaining that momentum among those who "truly follow the issues" is in fact growing.

To me, this single response was the nail in Jane Pitfield’s coffin (at least, the coffin of my vote). Why?

First off, what does her response say about the presidents, CEOs, lawyers, investment bankers, entrepreneurs (and me!) who attend Economic Club events? Aren’t we part of the group that “truly follow the issues” among whom momentum is growing? In her eyes, obviously not.

Plus, what does this say about how she would handle a catastrophe as Mayor? If a giant plume of SARS virus was blowing over Lake Ontario towards us, would she warn us, tell us what’s being done to protect us and provide guidance on how to prepare? Or would she optimistically wish us a happy day?

And lastly, because of course it’s a setback! A Communist Part candidate in Flin Flon would be disappointed in a zero-turnout event. Setbacks happen to everyone, but the smart thing to do is almost always to acknowledge them, find out why they happened, and institute measures so they don’t happen again.

I think Canadians enjoy and exhibit a healthy balance of skepticism and trust towards our elected officials. It’s this balance that allows us to break open an AdScam or Ahrar case, and to move on while we’re dealing with them. Acknowledging such setbacks and dealing with them certainly causes short-term turbulence for the offending party, but it keeps the skepticism and trust in balance. When reality so obviously contradicts politicians’ optimistic messages though, that’s when the balance is lost. It’s a fine but definite line that, when crossed, can be a fatal torpedo that sinks the boat of a politician or party.

How much Pitfield's comment will play into her defeat in today's election, I suppose we'll never know. All I can say for sure is that it cost her at least one vote.

Who's More Googly?

2006-11-01T01:17:00.000-05:00

Ever want to see - in a kind of funny and visually instinctive way - which of two search terms produces more results on Google? If you said yes, you're in luck.

Check out Googlefight.

It's nothing you can't do yourself with a couple more clicks on Google. And all they're really adding is a novelty stick-man animation and pretty mediocre bar chart. Still, it kept me hooked for more than 10 minutes. For your information (according solely to GoogleFight):

Canada beats porn
Microsoft beats IBM
Britney Spears beats Madonna
Stephen Harper beats Peter Mackay
Google.com (handily) beats MySpace.com
MySpace.com beats Yahoo.com
Molson beats Labatt
Divorce beats (by a factor of 5) gay marriage
Enron beat Worldcom
Michael Ignatieff beat Bob Rae
Sheila Copps beats Carolyn Parrish
And thankfully (wife and in-laws take note:)...Toronto beats Montreal

Incidentally, you can see very similar results at Google's official search hit comparison tool, Google Trends.

Next I'll be exploring the immense entertainment value of the "heads or tails" feature of common currency. Will the common penny be as accurate as the now extinct American $2.00 bill?

The Attack of the Killer Confidentiality Codes - Ahhhhh!!

2006-10-31T15:30:00.000-05:00

In honour of Halloween I'd like to point out how the innocent privacy or confidentiality disclaimer, once a nice gesture at the bottom of a web site or an email footer, has grown into a monster. No doubt a combination of global warming, moulds in school portables, SUVs and gay marriage, the confidentiality disclaimer has completely morphed into a huge, abrasive, demanding manifesto threatening to fill up our email quotas everywhere.

Here are just a few that I've come across lately:

Information contained in this electronic message (email) is confidential and intended only for the use of the addressee. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copy of this communication is strictly prohibited. XYZ Incorporated accepts no responsibility or liability in respect to this email other than to the addressee. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by telephone at the number above or by email. Thank you.

The information contained in this message and any attached files are legally privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or copy of this message and attachments is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify us by telephone or electronic mail and destroy the original message without making any copies. Thank you.

This email communication is intended as a private communication for the sole use of the primary addressee and those individuals listed for copies in the original message. The information contained in this email is private and confidential and If you are not an intended recipient you are hereby notified that copying, forwarding or other dissemination or distribution of this communication by any means is prohibited. If you are not specifically authorized to receive this email and if you believe that you received it in error please notify the original sender immediately. We honour similar requests relating to the privacy of email communications.

The information herein contained is legally privileged or confidential and intended only for use by the recipient individual ('s) or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, redistribution or taking of any action in reliance on the communicated information is strictly prohibited. If you are in receipt of this communication in error, please delete and notify sender by reply email. Thank you.

The information contained in this e-mail, including any attachments, may contain proprietary, privileged and confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any reading, use or dissemination of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify us by telephone (212-555-1234) and delete this message from your system. Even though this e-mail and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus or other defect that might affect any computer system into which it is received and opened, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that it is virus free, and no responsibility is accepted by (XYZ Company) for any loss or damage arising in any way from its use.

And I didn't even include the French translations, which appear with about 10-20% of the ones I see.

Having done a fair bit of work and research into privacy as part of some work I did prior to the launch of PIPEDA, I know full well why such steps are necessary; necessary to communicate in common sense terms the basics of privacy and confidentiality practice. But when the disclaimer itself is longer than the message is intended to cover, I can't help but feel the lawyers are having a bit of a laugh at the monster they've created.

Loft Office Working: 5 Tips

2006-10-31T14:42:00.000-05:00

REDUCE STRESS, TEAR DOWN BARRIERS!

FREE YOUR HIDDEN CREATIVE ENERGY!

AN ENVIRONMENT OF COLLABORATION!

For many, the lure of the loft office is its apparent panacea lifestyle where creativity blooms, collaboration reigns, and communication all takes place through osmosis. It’s quite accurate in many ways but, like any lifestyle (which I take to include “workstyle” as well) it has its pros and cons. A month after moving in to share office space (and work more closely on a handful of projects) with Nathon Gunn and the Bitcasters team, I’m now sitting in the sixth open concept or loft office of my career.

With yet another first month under my belt, here are some tips on how to thrive in the loft/open concept office:

1: Wear Headsets – even if you don’t own an ipod or know what an MP3 even looks like, even if you’re not listening to a single thing, headsets tell potential small talkers, long talkers and other distracters that you’re running way too many senses right now to take on even the briefest of conversations. Avoid eye contact to increase the effectiveness (radius of impact, deterrent intensity) of the headsets.

2: Fill Your Desk But Not with Garbage – Filling your desk with files, notebooks, stacks of paper or electronic devices leaves less room for people to add more to your desk, and it virtually prevents someone dropping a new file in front of you to seek your immediate input. But keep it clear of garbage; you’ll find that whatever seemingly innocent garbage you may leave behind – crumpled up paper, empty coffee cups, Coke cans, etc. – mysteriously multiplies every night while you’re at home, blissfully ignorant of the abuse your desk is taking at the office.

3: Use A Wireless Phone Headset – It would be great if you could combine the wireless phone headset with the “listening to music” headset (who knows…maybe you can), but either way, the phone headset allows you to jump from your desk to seek higher, quieter ground, on a moment’s notice in the event that an impromptu meeting or brainstorming session forms at a nearby desk.

4: Keep Valuables Hidden – I’m not talking about fine wine or jewellery here; I mean the things that are really valuable to you throughout the course of your work day. Elastic bands, multiple pens, note pads and Post-it notes, and of course the crown jewel of office supplies….the good stapler. Keep them out of site in a drawer or lidded box under your desk. You won’t need a lock…a closed drawer or box is enough to ward off exploratory fingers.

5. Watch Your Own Habits – Remember the golden rule and that every even remotely annoying habit you have – loud gum smacking, coffee slurping, sniffling, humming or the dreaded leg (or legs or hip or head or foot) shake – is amplified for those around you. Watch it, or there will be emails circulating about it long before you know it’s an issue!

I suppose an important last point is that it’s not for everyone. You may be a “lofter” (don’t know if that term exists) or you may prefer a totally different setting, one with privacy, peace and quite, order. If you’re considering the loft though, try out these tips to make the most of your experience.

Is a dog more sexist than a rat?

2006-10-20T12:50:00.000-05:00

By now everyone in Canada has heard about Peter MacKay's alleged reference to former girlfriend and now Liberal MP Belinda Stronach as a dog during Question Period in Parliament yesterday. While admittedly being (or perhaps being admittedly) male precludes me from relating directly inflicted on Ms. Stronach, I can't help but wonder if it really represents a sexist attack, as so many opposition members have accused claimed.

To be sure, there are other words McKay could have used that definitely would have crossed the sexist line. But does referring to a woman as a dog do the same? Put another way, is a dog more sexist than a rat?

While being called a rat isn't an exclusively male experience, it's not often used to describe a woman. What if the tables were turned and it was McKay who crossed the floor? Imagine if the Liberal MP said something to the effect, "I smell a rat here," to which Stronach replied, "that's because he usually sits near you."

Would opposition members be calling Stronach sexist? Tactless, unprofessional, below the belt; mabe. But sexist? I don't know.

Get a (Second) Life

2006-10-20T12:37:00.000-05:00

There.com

Virtual Laguna Beach

Second Life

Saturday Night Live in 1987

IBM talked openly about the fact that it is using the virtual world of Second Life as the next best thing to being there for corporate meetings.

The New York Times reported that companies such as Sony BMG Entertainment, Sun Microsystems, Nissan Motor, Adidas, Toyota Motor and Starwood Hotels are using Second Life for virtual focus groups and test marketing.

The Internal Revenue Service reveled its intentions to start monitoring and taxing financial transactions taking place in Second Life.

News wire service Reuters opened its first virtual bureau in Second Life.

W Hotels announced plans for the upcoming opening of its Aloft chain of virtual hotels on Second Life.

Rock star Ben Folds launched his latest album, supersunnyspeedgraphic at two virtual publicity events on Second Life.

The rocket science behind stock ratings

2006-10-06T10:11:00.000-05:00

Certain professions fascinate me in the brilliance required of their practitioners. How do quantum physicists wrap their heads around abstract, theoretical activities that take place at the sub-atomic level? How to geneticists figure out how to isolate one gene from the 6-billion that make up the human DNA? And how smart do you have to be to come up with - or dispute - the big bang theory?

But the one that stands out time and time again is how stock market analysts get away with what they do (and get paid enormous sums of money to do it)?

A case in point is rocket scientist Todd Coupland, an anlyst at CIBC World Markets. In the wake of recently passed U.S. legislation to prohibit online gambling companies from accepting U.S. transactions, and in a stroke of brilliant economic wizardry, Coupland Tuesday downgraded the online gambling market from "sector outperform" to "sector outperform."

What's so special about Coupland's shrewd financial guidance? Two things:

I'm not sure it takes a Nobel prize winning economist to figure out that wiping out 300-million potential customers (by some estimates, the U.S. accounts for half of online gambling revenues) will have an adverse effect on the industry trying to serve those customers. Are there more complex or abstract economic factors at play here, or is just me?

Even more telling is the Coupland's downgrade of the sector was made on Tuesday, the day after the Senate passed the legislation, months after a previous version of the law was tabled to Congress, and after upwards of $6-billion in company value had already been wiped out of the online gambling market. By the time Coupland shared his brilliant insights with the market, shares in companies like World Gaming, PartyGaming, 888 Holdings and Cryptologic had already lost between 25- and 70% of their value. Did Coupland not read up on the market before Tuesday, or does he just not have email?

As I've said before (and is obvious here) my out look on equity analysts is skeptical at best, and perhaps best illustrated by what I continually read as the typical expert opinion on a given stock: "given current market conditions, the share price will absolutely go up in value...unless it doesn't."

For some background information and sources of some of my figures, check out two articles on the topic: Know when to hold 'em from the Globe & Mail, and Internet gaming firms on losing streak, from Ireland's Electric News.

Coupland hasn't helped changed that skepticism. In fact, he's actually motivated me to conduct an experiment I've heard about numerous times in the past; tracking the performance of randomly selected stocks under the hypothesis that stocks with negative ratings actually outperform those with postive ratings.

Stay tuned as I get the experiment up and running. In the meantime, if Coupland or other stock analysts are reading this, please tell me: how do you get away with it, and how can I get in on the action?

Still too much gay ol' time on their hands!

2006-10-05T10:59:00.000-05:00

What gives?

As I've griped about in previous posts, the Canadian government (among others) continues to waste finite and sometimes scarce resources on beating the dead horse that is the same sex marriage debate.

This week the government confirmed its intent to revisit the debate if there is sufficient support, or at a minimum table the "Defence of Religions Act" to give officiants the freedom to refuse to perform same sex marriages.

In the past I've complained that - between healthcare, the military, environment, foreign policy, productivity and much, much more - the Canadian government has no shortage of real, far more important issues to deal with. It occurred to me today...maybe I'm laying the blame at the wrong feet. Politicians are driven (today anyways) largely by public opinion polls, so perhaps it's the fault of certain Canadians that we're trying to stop boys from kissing instead of dealing with skyrocketing health care costs.

I'm generalizing here - and going squarely against the lessons of Freakonomics - but I'm going to assume that the public sentiment driving this quagmire of an issue is rooted in the right wing old guard. And to them I say "stop being so goddamn selfish...think of your children."

To continue this debate today is to take resources away from problems that are going to plague us long into the future; long after you're dead. It's as if it's not enough that your CFCs, asbestos and leaded gasoline have left a mess of an atmosphere for your children and grandchildren. Well, as the argument goes, at least you're protecting the sanctity of marriage from the "radical homosexual agenda" and roaming armies of militant lesbians (to say nothing of the damage white heterosexual guys like me have done to it).

If that's the way you want to plan for future generations, I hope it backfires on you. In your old age I hope you find yourself needing a lead umbrella to protect yourselves from the hole in the ozone layer directly above you. I hope you cringe when your pension plan has to be spent on renting military protection from the U.S. I hope you have to drain your retirement savings to pay for your two-tiered long term medical care.

If justice is to be served, as you're wilting away in a costly home for the aged, maybe an angry (and if you have it your way, single) lesbian nurse will jab you extra hard with the needle when it's time for your monthly vitamin B injections.

You know your ad's working when...

2006-10-05T08:54:00.000-05:00

...celebrities start using your tag line.

Well, celebrity may be a bit of a stretch but, as the Globe & Mail's Patricia Best reported yesterday, CBC's "uberhip and ultraknowledgeable" George Stroumboulopoulos gave WestJet some great PR after a flight from Vancouver to Toronto last week.

One of the flight attendants asked if he could stick around after the flight landed so she could get a photo with him. To her surprise and delight, he waited at the gate for her until the team had finished all their post-flight duties. When she thanked him enthusiastically, he responded, "it's not every day that I get to meet a WestJet owner!"

Hypnotic Photography Technique

2006-09-27T10:10:00.000-05:00

It's not often that I simply post a picture to this blog - nor was it ever my intention - but this one deserves exception. It's a shot of Manhatten taken from the Empire State Building, its vivid, mesmorizing colours the result of a technique called high dynamic range imaging (HDRI).

For more examples of HDRI images, check out Flickr's HDR Pool, which has hundreds of HDR images and guidance on HDR resources, software and more. And if you like the pic above, you should DIGG it (that's where I came across it).

Rae Bankrolls Political Foes

2006-09-22T12:24:00.000-05:00

At least, you'd be forgiven for thinking so based on recent news media reports on Canadian Liberal leadership candidate Bob Rae's donating habits. Said media - across the political spectrum - reported this week on Elections Canada's recently disclosed documents showing Rae made donations to (now political opponents) NDP parliametary candidates as recently as 2005.

But really...

...what the documents show is that Rae donated the princely sum of $550 to two NDP candidates in the last federal election, on top of donations he made to several Liberal candidates, including interim Opposition Leader Bill Graham, and even (in a previous campaign) then PC leadership candidate Hugh Segal.

So - in the words of Michael Krauss - I think the question you've got to be asking yourself is; is this a blatent example of Rae's opportunistic motivess, and lack of consistency and solidarity towards the party he is vying to lead, or is it a lifelong politician maintaining a sense of loyalty and support for colleagues he's worked with and admired throughout his career?

Comments and debate would be really, really welcome.

Johhny Canuck action figures hitting store shelves?

2006-09-18T11:27:00.000-05:00

Last month in a blog posting called HELP WANTED, I shared some thoughts on ways I thought the Canadian armed forces could ramp up the magnitude and effectiveness of its recruiting efforts. One of those ways was to look at what the U.S. Army did in creating an online game called America's Army.

On Friday the Associated Press reported the U.S. Army is taking it one step further with the introduction of $10 Army action figures to hit store shelves by this Christmas season. Excerpts from the article include:

“We're trying to put a face on soldiers so that kids can relate to them,” said Col. Casey Wardynski, director of the America's Army project. “It's hard to relate to a big green machine. This is a chance to get to know some of them who have done really outstanding things.”

The program comes after the Army fell short on recruiting last year, the first time since 1999. As of last month, the active-duty Army had signed up 72,997 new soldiers, nearly 3,000 above its year-to-date target. The Army National Guard was about 200 below its target of 63,240, while the Army Reserve was almost 2,000 below its year-to-date target of 33,124.

Wardynski said the Army spends about $2.5-million annually on the free PC game, a first-person shooter in which players go through a simulated boot camp or team up with other real players on-line in three-dimensional battles. About 27 million copies of the taxpayer-funded game have been distributed since its July 4, 2002, debut, and there are about 7.5 million registered users.

For the full story visit Likeness of real soldiers added to America's Army on the Globe and Mail's web site. Again, not a bad idea to look south of the border for some guidance on this one.

TV viewers provide telltale signs of tragedy

2006-09-14T10:15:00.000-05:00

I caught the news of the tragedy at Montreal's Dawson College yesterday at a convenience store on Queen Street where half a dozen customers had surrounded and were glued to one of the store's two television sets. Between September 11, last year's London Bombings, the most recent war in the Middle East and others, this scene of strangers staring together in awe at live, unfolding coverage of horrific events in stores and on street corners has become eerily familiar; just by the looks on my fellow customers' faces and the way they stopped dead in their tracks to watch the news unfold, I knew instantly I was about to learn of another terrorist attack, genocide or fatal shooting.

It's an interesting phenomenon borne of - in my view - two main factors. One is certainly - between cell phone cameras and embedded reporting - the news media's ability to deliver details of (all too often) tragic events in almost real time. Spend 5 minutes watching something like Dawson unfold in a convenience store, and you're as up to speed on the tragedy as the people involved - be they victims, soldiers or witnesses.

The other, more telling contributor appears to be (and I hate to use the expression) the "post 9/11" factor. We've all experienced this factor in terms of day to day lifestyle inconveniences - taking our shoes off during airport security screenings, surrenduring our pocket knife keychains going into a baseball game or simply increased police presence at public events - but what's just as profound is how we (North Americans) react to tragedies like Dawson.

In particular, the fact that terrorist attacks and other violent events in recent years are hitting closer and closer to home (not, as Bill Mayer puts it, in a country you can't find on a map) has created a need to stay on top of developing news stories around the clock. For what the Taliban and Al Queda have taught us in recent years is that, no matter in what Baltic or Middle Eastern state an attack or conflict might be right now, the next one could down the block.

What we've also done is sought comfort in in numbers as we watch tragedies unfold. Watching horrible events on CNN or CBC with our families, friends, co-workers or even strangers in a convenience store has become a more common occurence. It's become that telltale sign I mentioned earlier as we wait to see if the latest tragedy will be the Kennedy assassination of our generation, where decades from now we'll be able to recount exactly where we were and with whom.

Why this change in behaviour? There are probably a hundred explanations, equally valid. My simple answer is that we're cutting our teeth on living in a vulnerable world. For 150 years(Pearl Harbour aside) North Americans have had the luxury of living in a world that's been insulated from the bloodbaths and destruction that have rocked other civilizations throughout history. But as anyone who has lived in Northern Ireland, Romania or Israel can attest, constant vulnerability appears to be an unfortunate reality in any longstanding nation. The simple truth may be that North America is just growing up.

Another great free resource...and it works!

2006-09-07T13:31:00.000-05:00

Converting documents to PDF can make many people's jobs much easier, but the $349.00 price tag for Adobe Acrobat - or even $99/year for the online subscription service - can seem steep, particularly for SOHO or small business owners.

Thanks to the wonders of open-source software (although I'm still not sure how the revenue model works) software development kit company BCL Technologies offers the same functionality of Adobe's online service for free. Better yet, it works like a charm. To use the service,

1. Go to www.pdfonline.com
2. Select the file you want to convert to .pdf
3. Create a new file name
4. Enter your email address

Within 5 minutes you'll get an email with your .pdf attached. If you don't want to use the email or online service, for $14.99 BCL also offers an easyPDF Driver so you can print documents directly to .pdf on your desktop.

Test Your Site on 30 Different Browsers: a great, free resource...if it worked.

2006-09-06T23:22:00.000-05:00

"See how your site looks in various versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Netscape, Mozilla, Firebird, Dillo, Opera, Seamonkey, K-Meleon, Konquerer and more. Counted a total of 30 setups between Linux, Mac, and Windows. Also configurable to see your site in different resolutions,". say the owners of Browsershots.org.

It's really a great idea, a simple and obvious step that surprisingly, many firms unfortunately overlook. Having a 15" monitor on my laptop, it's quite clear to me when a company has failed to test their websites on different monitors, browers or resolutions. Now that I've got a Treo (awesome...maybe my first product review to come), I can easily see how resolution/browser issues are only magnified with the proliferation of Palms and Blackberries (which, at least based on some of my colleagues, is the primary means of online interaction for some).

Unfortunately, after half a dozen attempts ; twice I got an erroneous error (telling me to add something that was already in the URL I typed), and the other few times I encountered an "internal traceback" error. Still, if the service actually does what it says it does, I'm going to give it a few more chances and hope the bugs get worked out.

read more digg story

Quebec to oversee nationwide driver training?

2006-09-06T21:11:00.000-05:00

At a campaign stop in Montreal last month, Michael Ignatieff spoke of his "ferocious passion" for Quebec because of the second chance at life the province gave his family when they arrived as Russian refugees in 1928. While I can't tell as moving a story, I definitely have what I'd call a ferouciuos passion for many things Quebecois. Apart from my wife, her family, the culture, scenery, poutine, cretons, history, Mordecai Richler and the many other things the province has given me, one of the things I appreciate the most is its appreciation for driving etiquette.

Yes, tailgating may be the province's unofficial provincial sport, and yes I do feel a bit morally superior knowing how to make a right hand turn on a red light, but Quebeckers respect the left hand passing lane like no other in the continent. On virtually any autoroute - rush hour aside - the left hand lane is almost always empty as far as the eye can see, except for cars moving out to pass before getting right back into the right hand lane.

I make the drive from Toronto to my wife's family's cottage in the Eastern Townships half a dozen times a year, and each time it's the same. As soon as I cross into Quebec, traffic speeds up and people move to the right...my blood pressure lowers and I also relax my grip on the wheel. Going back - without even looking at the road signs or familiary scenery - I can tell the instant we're back in Ontario because of the almost magnetic pull of every other car to the left hand lane, where they happily cruise at 110 km/hr while my grip tightens and blood boils.

The concept of the left hand passing lane works, and it's there for a reason. It fosters a smoother flow of traffic, reduces fuel consumption from slowing down and speeding up, and it eliminates the need for deadly weaving and right hand passing (I'm a civil engineer...I know this stuff!!). They teach you that in driving school, and signs are posted on highways throughout the country, so why are Quebeckers the only ones who get it???

Every time I make the drive - in addition to the rise/drop in blood pressure - I'm reminded of one of the funniest listener calls into a radio station I've ever heard. It was about 3-5 years ago on Q107 and it involved two callers. They were both voicemails that went something like this:

Caller 1: Hi, I'm on the 401 right now stuck behind a stream of cars going 90 in the left lane and I'm calling to ask...am I the only (explitive) guy on the road who knows that the left hand lane is for passing??

Caller 2: Hi, I'm calling to respond to the guy who asked if he's the only one on the road that knows the left hand lane is for passing. No he's not...I'm the other one!!

Maybe you had to be there, but as the third (non-Quebecker) guy who apparently knows this, I get a kick out of the banter every time I think of it.

Getting the Sack from Radio Shack

2006-08-31T14:42:00.000-05:00

The Associated Press today reported that RadioShack just laid off 400 employees, which is one thing. But how they notified the unlucky employees is something else...by email!

RadioShack fires employees by e-mail
Associated Press

FORT WORTH — RadioShack Corp. notified about 400 workers by e-mail that they were being dismissed immediately as part of planned job cuts.

Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters got messages Tuesday morning saying: "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated."

Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically, spokeswoman Kay Jackson said. She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday's notification on a company intranet site.

Derrick D'Souza, a management professor at the University of North Texas, said he had never heard of such a large number of terminated employees being notified electronically. He said it could be seen as dehumanizing to employees.

I'm not sure which is worse, but reading this story took me back to my first job out of university when my employer made a similar (albeit on a much smaller scale) brilliantly classy move. It was an engineering company and we were working on a job site in the back woods of Tennessee. My co-worker had been with the company for a few months and the job in Tennessee meant he was spending 3 out of every 4 weeks away from his wife and 1-year old son. What's more, he was working the night shift.

So just imagine the joy he must have felt when he arrived on the job site at 7:00 p.m. for a 12-hour shift, having slept terribly during the day (neither one of us could ever really adjust to nights), only to find a terse, 3-line fax from our boss telling him his services were no longer required.

Given how much attention these days is paid to employee morale and productivity, it's hard to imagine companies or individuals being so tactless, even if it is letting someone go. I guess the explanation could be..."what are they going to do? quit?"

HELP WANTED: One Canadian Armed Forces

2006-08-30T00:18:00.000-05:00

News media in recent weeks have reported that Canada’s Armed Forces are needing to take (to some, anyways) drastic measures to battle a growing problem of attrition vs. sustainability. Not only is Canada struggling to attract sufficient numbers of recruits; it appears even with a full pipeline, administrative obstacles prevent us from getting them into service quickly enough. Case in point: reports came from both the PMO and DND this week indicating a doctor’s note will soon suffice in place of a physical exam to cut the enrollment process from 45-60 days to less than a week.

This weekend, a friend of mine in the Forces articulated the situation further, to the effect that “the attrition rate (due both to retirement and pursuing careers in the private sector) so far outweighs the rate of recruitment, I don’t know where the Army is going to be in ten years.”

While having the utmost respect and admiration for those who have served their country, I myself never have, and therefore I can’t make a single observation or suggestion based on first hand experience. That said, I’d like to offer up a few suggestions, all based on the goal of increasing the number of Canadians who choose the Armed Forces as a career.

Go to School: Send delegates out to EVERY high school in the country to tell students what it means to serve their country in the military. It may be happening already, but not everywhere. Every university in the country it seems visited my high school, including RMC, but not a representative of the Armed Forces. Why not? Not the right message to send to students? Name a more honourable career. Not enough resources? Tap into the Veteran’s Association, or even the Legion…blanket the country.

Ramp Up the Propaganda: Take Ralph Fiennes’s character from the English Patient, multiply him, and send him out on an ongoing media tour across Canada. Yes the war (in today’s case, Afghanistan) is always in our faces, but not at a personal level, and rarely on a victorious one. In his book I’m reading called Virtual War, Michael Ignatieff contends (as I interpret it) that ever increasing freedom and accessibility of the press in wartime has actually undermined Western values of spreading freedom and democracy; we’re happy to support it, as long as we don’t have to see the results. And while you can’t stop embedded, real-time and (often) gruesome footage, you can saturate the market with bona fide success stories and positive progress reports. Any time a Canadian Platoon or Battallion accomplishes a mission (within security parameters obviously), get those guys on the satellite phone to their local TV and radio stations to talk about the bravery, honour and sacrifice they demonstrated as their local town heroes.

Go to Where the Recruits Are: What do smart, physically fit, competitive 18-year olds do with a big chunk of their spare time? Video games: since 2002, the U.S. Army has used online video game America's Army to provide with a realistic experience firing weapons such as automatic rifles and grenade launchers. Surfing the Net: the Marine Corps has set up its own MySpace.com site. Music: the U.S. National Guard gives itunes downloads away if you agree to be contacted by a recruiting agent. Sound crazy? Crazier things have induced people to fight to the death for their country or cause.

New course teaches "ancient art" of (IT) application management

2006-08-19T09:58:00.000-05:00

Starting this fall, applications support and maintenance company (and my client) RIS will be teaching a course on Applications Support and Maintenance (ASM) as a continuing education course at Ryerson University.

ASM is the part of IT that deals with supporting, maintaining and upgrading companies’ existing, installed base of computer applications. And what's really interesting about it is that ASM knowledge and expertise is at risk of evaporating in the next decade as a result of an aging workforce.

You see, many companies today - banks being a primary example - still rely very much on legacy or mainframe applications and computer systems that were built 20...or event 30 years ago. Even if the people who developed them were only 20 at the time, that means they'll be hitting retirement soon, and likely aren't doing hands-on IT support now anyways.

As always, much of the demographic shift has to do with the baby boomers. This year the first of them are reaching age 60. In 2015 the effects will be more profound with the peak of the boomers reaching age 65.

So if if some of the banks' most important IT systems are 30 years old, and the people who know their inner workings are soon going to be long gone, who's going to know how to keep them running? As RIS puts it in their news release about the course, learning the "ancient art" of ASM makes a lot of sense.

Overcoming Serious Gaming Challenges

2006-08-17T22:51:00.000-05:00

I came across two interesting article this week that – in identifying some of the genre’s challenges and weaknesses – shed light on why educational video games (a.k.a. serious games) haven’t caught on as quickly as (many would argue) they should have by now. In doing so, they also illustrate the opportunities for innovative, well designed serious games – like the HistoriCanada Project – to be seriously successful.

One article in Monday’s San Jose Mercury News, It's really difficult to find good educational software (see excerpts), tells the familiar story of Gary Church, a clearly responsible and hands-on parent who, in looking for innovative ways to expand his son’s educational experience, bought his son a copy of Reader Rabbit, only to see it gather dust after an hour’s play. Even for a 3-year old, Reading Rabbit couldn’t compete with the towering wall of action and adventure games at the local Best Buy.

The other was an op-ed piece published earlier this month on European tech news site Tom’s Guide, entitled Educating kids with video games: a laudable, but doomed idea. In it, columnist Wolfgang Gruener details quite candidly (“most of the games used in education are crap”) why serious games haven’t hit the mark with students as much as educators (and parents like San Jose’s Gary Church) have hoped.

Excerpts from It's really difficult to find good educational software

``I'm not too happy with the choices. None of them seem to capture the kids' attention as much as the non-educational games,'' Church said while looking for a ``Mario Kart'' racing game for his son's new Nintendo DS handheld at a Best Buy store.

The segment's heyday in the 1990s came as parents raising a new generation of computer-savvy kids stocked up on software titles like Knowledge Adventure's ``JumpStart Preschool'' and Microsoft's ``Encarta'' encyclopedia program.

But not enough new material followed to sustain growth or spark new purchases. Software that was found useful often got passed to siblings.

``In the 1990s, there was a one-size-fits-all mentality, and `Reader Rabbit' and `Carmen Sandiego' were big hits. They fit the customers' needs at that time,'' said Jessica Lindl, vice president of marketing for Riverdeep, which now owns both those classic titles after a string of acquisitions. ``But the customer has changed dramatically over the last five years, and we were not meeting our customers needs.''

Adding to the challenge was the proliferation of free information available over the Internet.

``The tendency for consumers is first to open up a browser rather than going to a store nowadays,'' said Craig Bartholomew, general manager for Microsoft's education products group.

So why haven’t serious game worked? Some of the main reasons are:

Competition with the Internet – as a source of reference information, as well as casual games and communities (like MySpace or MiniClips) where kids spend most of their on-line time chatting, interacting and competing with their peers.

Obvious Educational Bent – students can spot a learning activity thinly veiled as a video game a mile away, and a teacher/parent “seal of approval” on a game is (as Vicki Saunders of Impactanation puts it) like the kiss of death.

Inability to Compete – serious games need different distribution models than console or online games because, when they’re on the shelf side by side with Halo, they don’t stand a chance.

Low Production Quality – due in part to their relatively minute production budgets, and contributing to their inability to compete directly, serious games typically lack the sophisticated interfaces, graphics and animation of their mainstream counterparts.

The Politics of Education – once a computer game even comes close to the classroom, it has to walk an almost impossibly fine line of addressing the needs/concerns of parents, teachers, school boards and government…and that’s assuming a kid will even want to play the game.

Excerpts from Educating kids with video games: a laudable, but
doomed idea

"Using video games to teach kids," goes the theory "makes it a more legitimate entertainment form." Sure, why not? There are, however, a couple of major flaws in this plan:

Most of the games used in education are crap.
Good games aren't used intentionally
Educational games are too obviously educational
Games aren't being used to teach the right things

The best way of doing this is not for educators and educational game developers to invest large wads of cash into the development of a whole new subset of the gaming industry. The educational sector should instead piggy back on the success of the commercial sector by utilising the same game engines, even games themselves, that the kids are playing at home to educate.

Why aren't id, Epic, Valve, Firaxis, Maxis and Paradox, among others, producing educational video games?

Civilization IV is educational as it is, but you could quite easily modify it to be even more so, bringing the Civlopaedia to the fore. Explain more about the history of technologies whilst kids are researching them, explain the basics of trade, industry and diplomacy as they play.

Fortunately, these two articles were outnumbered by a factor of 10 by articles talking about the growth, potential and increasing investment in serious games. Further evidence lies in the promising research and success stories that continue to pour out of universities and research institutes, and the serious gaming tracks that are increasingly the norm at game developer conferences like the GDC.

What’s more, the HistoriCanada Project appears to be squarely poised to capitalize on the industry momentum, and to address each of the drawbacks discussed in the two articles above. This hasn’t happened by accident; a number of central features and design considerations have been implemented specifically to learn from the experiences and results of serious games past. Specific examples include:

The game is built on – and therefore shares the same sophisticated game engine as – Sid Meier’s Civilization III, one of the best selling PC games of all time. In short, we know kids love this game.

All marketing, messaging, branding (note: the final game title will be determined in the coming months) and more is designed with the end user in mind, and geared towards avoiding the “kiss of death” of appearing like an educational video game. The current website, targeting potential sponsors and educational partners (selling Mini Wheats), will soon be replaced with a site (and game) entirely targeted at 12-18 year-old students (selling the Fruit Loops).

It’s being distributed directly to students, and not through the classroom. Yes, having the support of historians and teachers is important, but ultimately the classroom involves too many parties and . Whether it’s through an in-school magazine insert, a download from a portal or even as a Christmas gift, HistoriCanada is going directly into the hands of our target audience.

At the same time, in order to maximize its educational value, HistoriCanada has to manage the interests of educators, historians and parents too. Through focus groups, speaking engagements, discussion groups and (most importantly) the creative involvement of Historica and Canada's National History Society.

It teaches a ton. HistoriCanada balances accurate historical information (thanks to videos and an in-game encyclopedia based on Historica’s Canadian Encyclopedia and Heritage Minutes) with experiential learning, allowing students to change the outcome of Canadian history by facing the same decisions as early Canadians.

We’re giving it away. Say no more (I think).

Admittedly, several of these steps simply can’t apply to most games, but amongst all the factors one stands out as being critical, regardless of a serious game’s nature; designing it as a game, not as an education tool. Kids can spot a learning tool in disguise a mile away; no matter how delicious Shredded Wheat may be, because it’s nutritious it will never be as popular as Fruit Loops. Or, as friend and colleague Michael Krauss puts it, “it’s got to be ice cream for the kids, and broccoli for their parents.”

New digital video web service to match entrepreneurs and investors

2006-08-11T12:48:00.000-05:00

How do you connect innovative business ideas and entrepreneurs with the investors and capital to support them? Since the dot-com days a number of matchmaking models have come and gone, from the physical (like the IT Financing Forum) to the virtual (my personal favorite, the now retired CanadaStartups.com) to the televised (catch the American Idol style Inside the Dragon's Den on CBC this fall).

Today a new service to wed entrepreneurs and potential investors is being launched. Using the latest web and video technology, the digital video elevator pitch service offers entrepreneurs a new high-tech approach to pitching their business ideas to investors over the internet.

read more digg story

Changing the future of Canadian history

2006-08-10T00:32:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged about The HistoriCanada Project yet. For the past year and a half, I've been quite lucky to be part of building what could/should very well be one of the most significant innovations in Canadian educational technology. Spanning education, new media, the Internet and Canadian history and patriotism, it's a project that excites me as an entrepreneur, as a parent and as a proud Canadian.

The brainchild of Thomas Axworthy and Nathon Gunn almost a decade in the making, HistoriCanada is the world's first computer game to simulate the history of Canada. It puts players in control of Canada's destiny as it evolves from initial settlements to a coast-to-coast nation. Assuming the the role of the English, French, Metis, Iroquis or other early Canadian civilizations, players establish settlements, exploit natural resources, trade (and fight) with other civilizations, from exploration to confederation.

One of the main motivators behind HistoriCanada is what we've taken to calling Canada's growing history deficit. Among Canadians of all ages - but particularly among youth - knowledge, understanding and appreciation of our nation's past are seriously on the decline. Studies from The Dominion Institute illustrate this probably better than most; a 2004 poll of more than 500 youth, aged 14-18 showed that only 54% could name Canada’s current prime minister, and only 24% could name one of Canada’s political parties. Ouch, eh?

Plus, HistoriCanada is built on (essentially a customized version of) Sid Meier's Civilization III, one of the best selling computer games of all time. As such, it shares Civ's sophisticated engine that accounts for everything from technological discoveries to the trading value of turbot off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. In short, from a gaming perspective, it's a winner.

Innovation in Education and New Media

One of HistoriCanada's more compelling features is its balance between factual and experiential learning. The game abounds with historically accurate (and vetted) elements; everything from accurate topographical and resource maps of Canada to the introduction of actual historical events. Background information and definitions on every civilization, natural resource, event and more is included in the game by way of the Canadian Encylopedia, an ongoing, monumental initiative of Historica developed by over 4,000 writers, editors and educators. Several of Historica's popular Heritage Minutes video vignettes add further context and transition between game chapters.

On the other hand, HistoriCanada lets players completely re-shape Canada's destiny by being faced with the same decisions and challenges as early Canadians. Depending on the civilization they play (English, French, Native) and the types of decisions they make (where to settle, with whom to allign or fight), the outcome of every game is unique, and potentially vastly different from the Canada we know today.

This ability to change Canadian history, to put players in the shoes of early Canadians, is a near textbook application of experiential learning; an educational philosophy that emphasises immersive, thought-provoking and hands-on learning, and one that is quickly becoming the model for school curricula across the continent. Furthermore, myriad studies on from The
Woodrow Wilson Center, MIT and The University of Wisconsin at Madison have show games like Civilization III (itself the subject of many studies) are not only effective in teaching subject knowledge (from history to physics), but also in important learning skills; critical thinking, decision making, strategic planning, collaboration, and more.

Indeed, HistoriCanada has been heralded by historians and educators alike as one of the most promising, significant new media innovations in Canadian education.

Almost There...We Need Your Help

To change the way students appreciate their nation's past, to help plug Canada's history deficit, and to usher in a new era in educational technology, our goal is to give the game away for free to 100,000 Canadian students ages 12-18.

HistoriCanada will be ready to launch in the fall of 2006, thanks to the financial and strategic support of project partners Telefilm Canada, Historica, Canada's National History Society and Bitcasters. In order to reach our 100,000 student goal, we're looking for "last mile" support in three key areas:

Distribution - providing a direct, bundled, retail or online channel to reach 100,000 12-18 year old Canadians (and ideally to track usage, numbers, etc.)

Production - covering the hard costs of integrating sponsor branding into the game, and (if needed) producing 100,000 CD copies of the game

Marketing - to help make HistoriCanada the computer game kids want to play, while their parents and teachers feel good about it.

From title sponsorship to the enormous PR value (the story almost writes itself), we're confident supporting HistoriCanada will pay handsome dividends to the right partner(s). If you think you can help, call/email/fax/smoke signal...I'd love to talk to you!

680 News...help me with my short attention span!

2006-08-04T09:14:00.000-05:00

I'm one of those listeners who has fully bought into the 680 News "if you're reading it, it's history...if you're hearing it, it's news" philosophy; I'm a huge fan, particularly of the traffic alerts every ten minutes "on the ones."

My problem...I have a terribly short attention span and I tend to get distracted really easily, particularly when the traffic report comes on. Invariably I tune out of what's on the radio, coming to only when my "periferal hearing" catches the fact that I just missed the traffic update for the route I'm on. Then it's another nine minutes of news headlines (which I've already heard) and, in most cases, tuning out again by the time the traffic report comes on. This process can repeat itself several times and, as it did yesterday, can leave me livid and at a standstill on the DVP.

But I'm not just complaining; I have a solution, and one that I think would be fairly easy to implement. What if 680 recorded each traffic update, posting the recording to a special *680-type number that drivers like me could call in for a traffic update? If I tune out of the traffic report like I normally do, I could simply dial the number and hear a recording of the last update, fully alert and concentrating. Or I could simply dial up the number when I'm first getting in the car.

I'm pretty sure this would be a quick system to implement, and even one that could pay for itself. The recorded reports could be "brought to you" by paid advertisers, and listeners could pay $0.25 or so for the recording (if it were a quarter vs. another nine minutes of rage, I'd pay!).

So, if anyone from 680 is reading this, please help me with my short attention span!

Does anything matter?

2006-08-03T12:01:00.000-05:00

Ever since he gave the keynote speech at an event one of my clients hosted (the RIS IT Executive Think Tank), I've been quite intrigued by the work of author and technology futurist Nicholas Carr. Carr is best known for his now infamous Harvard Business Review Article from a couple years back, IT Doesn't Matter, in which he claimed that IT has lost its competitive value and has in fact become a commodity or utility - as basic as heat and electricity.

I couldn't help but think of Carr yesterday as I was walking down the street and came across a flyer (I've since seen several more) advertising quick and easy divorces for a flat fee of $300. The flyer got me thinking...what other, previously high value, deeply personal and intimate aspects of our lives have been commoditized like IT and computing?

To find out, I spent about 10 minutes on Google finding out what people now do online or in an automated fashion what have typically been (again) very personal and intimate tasks - the basics that get you out to meet your neighbors, for example. Here's what I found:

Banking - My grandfather went to the same bank branch for 50 years because of how much he valued the personal touch. Today 70% of Canadian Internet users use online banking, and only 54% have been in a bank in the last month.

Groceries - That same grandfather owned a grocery store at one time and, in that role, was literally a hub of his neighborhood's social scene. Today 125,000 people across Toronto forgo the social aspect of grocery shopping by using GroceryGateway.

Dating - My wife and I met at school, as did a number of my wedded friends. I know at least four couples who grew up across the street from one another, or whose parents' houses back onto one another. For up to 1.2-million Canadians though, online dating is the way to go...which helps make it one of the more profitable sectors online.

I also came across three online wedding sites in my research - iROM.org, Bored.com and GetMarriedOnline - but thankfully, they are all for entertainment purposes only. So yes, we are getting more automated with some things (I haven't been to a bank in at least a year) but it's a relief to see that some things are still sacred.

Oh, and the punchline on the divorce flyer; you know those little tear away tabs with the URL or phone number to contact? There was only one left.

Lost in Translation

2006-08-02T10:23:00.000-05:00

The Associated Press today reported that Iran’s President has ordered all government and cultural bodies to use newly identified Persian words or phrases to replace Western words that have crept into the Iranian lexicon. “Pizzas”, for example, will now be known as “elastic loaves.”

Aside from the fact that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad probably has more pressing matters to deal with right now, I think he’s onto something that could be of value here in North America. Not to replace words with foreign origins, but replacing the jargon, buzzwords and other elitist dialects conceived on the part of the technocracy, as John Raulston Saul would put it. Specifically, if I were Canada’s Minister of Propaganda:

Dial tone, 9-11, system access, system connection, network maintenance and other fine print line items that come on your phone or cell phone bill would now be known as extra profits. I mean really…can I opt out of the dial tone feature?

Café lattes, moccaccinos, frappucinos, macchiatos and correttos would now be known simply as coffee. Coffee with lots of milk, coffee with caramel, with lots of whipped cream – you name it, but just call it coffee.

Mobile phones, wireless devices, PDAs, palm-tops and blackberrys would now be known as cell phones. Within the next year they’re all going to have the same features anyways.

Equity ratings such as buy, sell, outperform, underperform, hold, market perform, overweight, neutral or strong buy would know be known as your guess is as good as mine. I’ve read repeatedly that companies with sell ratings consistently outperform those with buy ratings, which kinda begs the question…

Trans fats, saturated fats, sucrose, fructose, glucose, electrolytes, essentially fatty acids, cholesterol, MSG and other ingredients would be known simply as good food or bad food. Especially for simple folk like me, it just gets too complicated otherwise.

The world gets a little bit better...again!

2006-07-29T15:02:00.000-05:00

If you want to accuse me of posting the cat, go ahead...I don't care.

Just before 1:00 a.m. today my (superhero) wife Jenn gave birth to our second son, Caleb Michael Holt Corcoran. Weighing in at 7 lbs 5 oz, Caleb arrived less than 35 minutes after we landed at the hospital. He is welcomed by parents, granparents, aunts, uncles and proud older brother Luke. Check him out...

Special thanks to everyone at St. Mike's who made it such a great experience again, including Cathy and Drs. Tessler and Czzik. Caleb...welcome aboard!

Albert Lai...I hate that guy!

2006-07-25T11:07:00.000-05:00

How does this guy do it? I think he developed his first computer program before he could ride a bike. In the late 1990’s at something like 14 years of age, he reached wunderkind status with the sale of mydesktop.com, making him both a millionaire and poster child for the potential and prosperity of the Internet. Today he’s found himself in the right place and the right time again, this time with Internet photo-sharing startup Bubbleshare.

Bubbleshare is the epitome of the so-called Web 2.0, the next generation of web sites (if you can still call them that) defined by dynamic, community and collaborative features such as user-generated content (e.g. blogs, personal web sites), file and photo sharing, and content customization (e.g. RSS). And like Web 1.0, companies in this space are all the rage, commanding headlines, site traffic and valuations in the hundreds of millions. Some of the most recognized examples include MySpace.com (which recently passed Google as the most visited property on the Web), del.icio.us and flickr (two social search and photo sharing sites recently acquired by Yahoo!).

It's not enough that Lai is in the Internet sweet spot again…he’s there despite my direct skepticism. Albert and I sat down about 2 or 3 years ago when he was first getting the company started and, having spent about a year working with Vancouver-based digital imaging company ACD Systems (makers of ACDSee), I offered him some wise words of advice: the way Windows, Google and Yahoo are moving, I really don’t see a lot of opportunity here for you…it would be like coming out with a new search engine.

Damn it was I wrong. Not only was there opportunity for photo-sharing, but with del.icio.us and the social search evolution, event search engines are being turned on their heads. I hate guys that can see this years out!

Seriously though, Albert deserves all the success that’s coming to him, and I suspect there’s going to be a ton. I’d look to see his name in the news soon as Yahoo! or Google fork out seven or eight figures for another one of his creations. And with another notch on his belt, there’s no doubt he’ll be on to the next thing in short order. Only this time, he’ll have at least one more believer behind him from day one.

Beauty idea, eh?

2006-07-24T12:35:00.000-05:00

Kudos to Sean Wise and Reg Cheramy for their recent launch of the Canadian Tech Mob, a web-ring program aimed at showcasing the achievements of Canadians on the domestic and world stage in the areas of technology and innovation.

The web-ring works almost like a virtual lapel pin, where Canadian entrepreneurs, bloggers, venture capitalists and overall champions of innovation show their Canadian pride by posting the Tech Mob icon on their site. The icon then serves two purposes: highlighting Canadian pride, and linking interested visitors back to the web-ring to see other examples of Canadian leadership and innovation.

Beyond being a neat idea, the Canadian Tech Mob hits on an issue that’s very close to my heart; showcasing how Canadians, contrary to conventional wisdom, have been behind some of the most important innovations and discoveries in high tech, wireless, the Internet, biotechnology, medicine, and more. Whether it’s because we’re too humble about our accomplishments or that we’re simply not good at marketing ourselves (two typical criticisms of Canadians from an international business perspective), Canadians are one the world’s largest invisible minorities when it comes to achievement and recognition. Even on our own soil, few recognize how Canadians like Jeff Skoll (ebay), Jeff Mallet (Yahoo), Rob Burgess (Macromedia) and more have created some of the new economy’s most important companies and technologies. With Bernie Ebbers, we’ve even got our own celebrity white crime criminal to boast!

Another factor contributing to Canada’s invisible minority status is that, at least during the dot-com era, many entrepreneurs felt they wouldn’t be taken seriously if they held onto their Canadian identities. When I was doing marketing and PR for (then) dot-com darling DocSpace, CEO Evan Chrapko was religious about maintaining an American face for this very reason; even based in Toronto, my business cards had a Menlo Park address and phone number, I never gave out my Canadian coordinates, and Evan even led workshops on talking more American…to this day I still say project, process, out and about like I was from California.

I’m also a huge fan of the Tech Mob concept because it’s not the first; it builds on previous initiatives (some of which I’ve been involved with) to help put Canada on the domestic and global innovation map. In 2000 entrepreneur Michael Lewkowitz and e-bay co-founder Jeff Skoll founded The Leaf Initiative, a grass-roots, non-profit initiative that ran awards programs and published success stories about Canadian new economy icons before it merged with SMART Toronto in 2003. Out west, Vancouver VC Brent Halliday and the late founder of CanadaIT.com Peter Standeven formed TechnicallyHip.ca, a sort of clearing house for all things Canadian in the context of high tech ventures and successes. And Leonard Brody, former Onvia Canada co-founder and overall huge fan of Canadians, has authored two best-selling books on the subject, Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Java to Jurassic Park, and Everything I Needed to Know About Business...I Learned from a Canadian.

For Sean and Reg, these past experiences should provide both momentum and support from those who were involved, and some important lessons in how to make the program work. Ultimately the crux of any program like this is…what’s the incentive for people to join? Someone like me is an easy sell, but motivating the masses, the silent majority of Canadians out there, is a different story. From my experience, three factors stand out:

Target the Influencers – A motivating factor for a good number of people in networking programs like this is gaining access to recognized leaders. With the Leaf Initiative, we had people like Jeff Skoll, Andrea Reisman, Roger Martin, Jonathan Ehrlich and Dean Hopkins involved as early supporters and champions.

Promote the Hell out of It – Leonard Brody didn’t just let his books fly off the shelves of Amazon or Indigo; he pounded the pavement promoting his book through a non-stop tour of speaking engagements and networking events across the country.

Merge Virtual with Physical – One of the most successful global, nation-based networking groups I’m aware of is The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). With over 10,000 members in 44 countries, TiE has succeeded in part by combining a simple brand with valuable, compelling networking events, special interest groups and programs specifically to nurture the next generation of Indian entrepreneurs.

Either way, I’ve signed up and you should be seeing a Tech Mob icon on this site shortly. If you’re Canadian and you’re doing something valuable, opinion-influencing, innovative or groundbreaking in high tech, take two minutes out of your day to sign up too. It’s a quick and easy process to sign up, it’s a worthwhile cause and, ultimately, propping up Canada’s position on the global technology stage will benefit all of us involved in it.

Eavesdropping spells relief

2006-07-20T21:46:00.000-05:00

The third and final straw that got me back into the blogging mood came earlier this week with George Bush and Tony Blair being caught on tape having a candid conversation about everything from sweater styles to Hamas and Hezzbolah. The lines that most media outlets have singled out are, from Bush to Blair:

"I feel like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen."

"See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over."

In contrast to the opinions of pundits and columnists I’ve come across in the past day or so, I reacted rather uniquely to the exchange; I’m actually relieved that this is what Bush and Blair talk about when they’re off the record. When I first heard that they had been caught on tape, I was worried that Bush said something about a reporter he didn’t like, or how his progress with My Pet Goat was coming along.

Was it rehearsed or scripted? I don’t know. What I do know is that I feel at least a bit more comfortable about the state of the war on terror knowing that the two guys with their fingers closest to the button actually talk about the issues (instead of fighting to the death with same sex marriage advocates) and, just as importantly, they appear to believe in what they’re saying.

Freakonomics changes outlook

2006-07-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

The second thing that got me up on the blogging horse again is that I went on vacation. And while out in the Eastern Townships – where, the more I think about it, the more I want to retire eventually – I finally read Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. It’s only been on the best-seller list for about 1,000 weeks now.

In any case, why this book prompted me to put finger to keyboard is that, upon initial reflection, I didn’t think it changed a thing for me. Like Boom, Bust & Echo, I could argue (assuming that I could likely dig up some research findings to support my case) most of the points raised in the book to at least some degree and, like David Foot, I thought Freakonomics authors Levitt and Dubner did a great job of predicting…what had already taken place.

As an aside, this isn’t much different from my previously bitter view of economists’ predictions in general: given current and underlying market conditions, this stock/market/commodity will absolutely positively go up in price…unless it doesn’t.

Upon further reflection, however, I found Freakonomics has changed everything for me, or at least it has in the sense of assessing and questioning things in a whole new light. One of its most consistent themes was John Kenneth Galbraith’s notion of conventional wisdom which, contrary to conventional wisdom, isn’t a function of being wise. On the contrary; in many cases it is a set of universally misunderstood concepts that, because the population hasn’t sufficiently questioned underlying assumptions behind certain beliefs, lead to a widely accepted, inaccurate outlook on a given topic.

What Freakonomics instilled in me isn’t that all public policy is misdirected, but rather that I have been as guilty as anyone in accepting conventional wisdom as fact, failing to question seemingly sound assumptions because they do a good job of explaining why certain decisions get made. Here are a few examples:

Guns vs. Swimming Pools – Espousing what I think is a fairly typical Toronto attitude, I’m on side with the move towards stricter gun laws and tighter gun control (both in Canada and the U.S.). If my son goes to a friend’s house and I find out one of the parents has a gun in the house, I’d at least take a cautionary note of the fact. But if the friend had a swimming pool, I probably wouldn’t give it a second thought. Imagine how dumb I felt when reading – according to Levitt’s data – a child would be 100 times more likely to die at the hands of the swimming pool than the parent’s gun. Wow.

Terror vs. French Fries – Hundreds of billions of dollars have gone into the war on terror, a cause that I support whole heartedly. At the same time, I’m not what you would call a religiously healthy eater and I’ve been known to eat the occasional banquet burger (and fries, with gravy, and a beer). All in all, not abnormal, but concerning when you consider that, as Levitt puts it, “the likelihood of any given person being killed in a terrorist attack are infinitesimally smaller than the likelihood that the same person will clog up his arteries with fatty food and die of heart disease,” not to mention that modifying eating habits is likely to be a) less expensive and b) more successful than guaranteeing protection against terror/extremist attacks.

Couch Potato Tots vs. Literate Babies – Studies from volumes of California elementary school data show that, as compared to factors such as the socio-economic status of parents and low birth weight, the amount of reading a child does at an early age – and as a corollary, the amount of TV they watch – have little or no bearing on a child’s performance in school.

Now, having said all this, don’t get me wrong; am I in favour of tighter gun control? For sure. Am I going to continue reading every day with my son? Definitely. Do I support the war on terror? Without a shadow of a doubt. What I am doing differently though – and why I’d recommend the book – is questioning assumptions that I previously accepted blindly, questioning the underlying rationale behind personal and political decisions and, ultimately, questioning why I support the things that I so often do with passion and vigour. And some of the answers have been very eye-opening…maybe even fodder for an upcoming blog??

Too much gay ol' time on their hands

2006-07-18T10:09:00.000-05:00

Yikes!

Is it ever easy to let this blogging thing slide. First it was a couple of days, then weeks and, by then, you figure you've got to write something really provocative to justify why you haven't written anything in so long. That leads to further procrastination and, before you know it, it's been three months. By then, what's the bother of trying to share your view of the world?

Luckily, it seems this cycle can be broken. For me, it was three things that sparked me out of my cycle of blogging-funk. The first was when I woke up one morning to find that the most important threat facing the free world is that of same sex marriage defiling what some feel can only be shared between a man and a woman.

In the span of a single week in June, I witnessed State Representatives, Governors, Members of Parliament, U.S. and Canadian Senators, not to mention Bush and Harper, spending not minutes, but hours and (in some cases) days lobbying the media and public to help protect the sanctity of marriage. I even witnessed one spokesperson (although I can't for the life of me remember who) saying the destruction of the institution of marriage is as fundamental a threat to the U.S. way of life as terrorism.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue, is this really what our elected leaders should be spending their time on? Is the war on terror over? What about energy supply, aboriginal land disputes, greenhouse gases, world poverty, gun crime, affordable daycare...and even electoral reform?

As usual - and this was ultimately the final straw for me to say something about it - a comedia/pundit summed up in a few words what I've been trying to get across in my head; in his amusing collection of mini-rants, New Rules, Bill Maher said:

"Sometimes I just don’t understand this country. I don’t get that your air is poison and your job is gone and your son is scattered all over a desert you can’t find on a map, but what really matters is boys kissing."

WARNING: Free Heat Causes Housewarming

2006-03-22T23:44:00.000-05:00

So it's been over a month since I last blogged. At least part of the reason (procrastination and laziness aside) is that I've been quite busy, among other things working with my long-time friend and colleague Michael Lekowitz on a Housewarming Party. Lewkowitz is CEO of Clean Energy Developments (CED), a company that develops clean energy systems for homes and buildings using a combination of geo-exchange and solar-thermal technologies.

On February 24, along with Marshall Homes and the Canadian Geoexchange Coalition, CED hosted the launch - dubbed a housewarming party - of the STREAM system, the first clean energy system specifically designed for quick and easily installation in production (new, subdivision) homes that uses both solar-thermal and geo-exchange energy. Based on much the same principle as your refrigerator, these systems simply exchange heat with their surroundings through roof-mounted solar collectors and geoexchange loops (again, like your refrigerator) installed about 175 feet below ground.

Ontario Energy Minister Donna Cansfield and Oshawa Mayor John Grey were among almost 100 special guests, and I suspect (and certainly hope!) there will be more to come from CED.

In the meantime, see what others have had to say:

Toronto Star columnist Tyler Hamilton's blog, Clean Break
Toronto Star Article by Tracy Hanes
National Post Article by Lisa Van de Ven

Yeah I'll be at that meeting...maybe

2006-02-19T20:57:00.000-05:00

Admittedly, it’s happened very rarely since I started working for myself, but a checklist for successful meetings in this weekend’s Globe & Mail still hit home. Toronto-based management consulting firm Kinect developed the checklist as a measure of meetings’ potential effectiveness:

People look forward to our meetings.
We stay on track.
We stay on time.
People feel free to discuss their honest opinion.
Everyone participates.
No one dominates the discussion.
We engage in innovative thinking.
We produce better-than average results.
We make decisions effectively.
We reach consensus easily.
People support the decisions made.
We leave the meeting feeling time has been well spent.

I’ve bolded those which I think are particularly important. In fact, I wouldn’t go to a meeting without at least meeting these criteria.

Stop Or I'll Squirt!

2006-02-19T18:44:00.000-05:00

There's an interesting piece of legislation spreading through Ontario municipalities these days focused on none other than the homeland security threat imposed by toy guns. It would appear that a growing number of Mayors – David Miller included – are supporting legislation to ban toy guns. The model currently being tossed around – and adopted by at least one Ontario municipality – is a $150 fine for anyone under 18 caught in public with a toy gun.

Now, nostalgia about the good old days of cops, robbers, cowboys, Indians, cap guns, squirt guns and overall pretend guns aside, is there something I’m missing here? On the one hand, how many 12 year olds have held up a convenience store with a super soaker? And, on the other hand, why is it okay for a 19-year old to play with a toy-gun in public?

There was an old Cheney...

2006-02-17T10:33:00.000-05:00

In hearing Dick Cheney’s long awaited response to this weekend’s shooting incident, “I pulled the trigger that fired the shot that hit Harry,” I couldn’t help be reminded of The Little Old Lady who swallowed a fly. I imagine, if the song were adapted to this weekend’s accident, it might sound something like this:

There was an old VP who almost killed Harry,
Who’s hunting adventure turned terrible scary;
He almost killed Harry while out hunting quail,
But it was his buddy, not dinner, that really got nailed;
He was out hunting quail ‘cause like Charlton Heston
He loves the second amendment and his Smith & Wesson;
The second amendment protects his right,
To fire with both barrels, whatever the fight;
And nowhere are guns loved as much as in Texas,
Where electric chairs and sawed-offs make for a Republican Nexus;
And in Texas is where the old man’s tail ends,
Out in the bush with some of his friends;
His trouble arose when he fired his gun,
Oh what fun, to fire a gun,

Uh oh…it’s Dick…quick, duck and run!

Psiphoning Democracy

2006-02-16T16:33:00.000-05:00

Every so often you come across a technology that has profound democratizing effects on society, with the Internet as an obvious example. There's P2P file sharing, which (legal issues aside) democratized the distribution of music, video and other artistic media, or the democratization of editorial expression with the proliferation of blogs, or the democratization of political fundraising with Howard Dean's presidential campaign web site. The list goes on.

One of the most recent technologies to fit this bill is a project out of University of Toronto's Citizen Lab. It's a technology called Psiphon that's doing its part in the war on freedom of information against countries like China, Iran and North Korea, who are collectively spending billions of dollars on firewalls and means of censoring information that would otherwise be freely available on the Internet. Psiphon is a software application (although I'm sure that's not doing it justice) that propagates information by breaking down technology barriers to the freedom of both expression and access to information.

(You've probably read about Google's recent agreement to conform to China's stringent censorship requirements, a move that drew some heavy criticism and questions about whether Google is living up to one of its corporate value, to "do no evil.")

With Psiphon as another role model, what's the next democratizing technology going to be? Could we use a peer-reviewed, collaboration technology to develop a real global solution to climate change? Will new wireless communications technologies engage Canada's youth more in the democratic process? What about a supply chain management system that automatically, and profitably, directly excess food supplies to global communities in need?

I'll tell you one for sure (more on this later)...an actual, fun video game about Canadian History!

Bringin' in the Army

2006-02-15T21:25:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I wrote (or should I be saying blogged now?) about a possible part of the solution to Toronto's skyrocketing gun violence crisis: bringing in the Army. Yes, the same Army that came in to save us from the snow a decade ago, only this time coming back to defend us against a much deadlier natural disaster...a huge spike in the concentration of flying bullets in the air we breathe.

Well it should come as no surprise that I smiled when I read about the TAVIS Task Force earlier this week.

Launched in mid-January (no doubt because of my blog posting) the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy comprises three teams of 18 uniformed, specially trained police officers who monitor high risk Toronto neighborhoods a week at a time on a rotating basis. In addition to making friendly visits to sketchy bars, donut shops and strip clubs, the teams also respond en masse to nearby emergencies, both in virtually unprecedented displays of presence and authority.

The results? In less than a month, the $5-million operation has netted more than 60 arrests, mostly handgun-related (recall that 52 of Toronto's 78 homicides in 2005 were gun-related, and nearly double the 2004 figure of 27). In fact, the only real objection I gathered from the articles I read was almost comical; that the approach was a bit overdone, akin to dispatching the air force to respond to a petty theft. Well, if that's the downside, I'd say the program has merit, and I'd echo a local resident's comments, "Go for it...more power to you guys!"

Will the program work in the long run? Will the $5-million pay off? Time will tell, but it currently looks like we can at least leave General Hillier to more pressing matters (of which there are many) for the time being.

A Checklist for Business Writers

2006-02-13T14:49:00.000-05:00

A good part of my job involves writing or editing other people’s writing, so it’s not uncommon that I get asked for advice on how to write effective articles or other documents for business audiences. In response to one such request, here are a few pointers I put together for Connections, the monthly newsletter of one of my clients, applications support and maintenance company RIS:

The Inverted Pyramid: A classic structure for news articles, the inverted pyramid refers to the concept of starting your article with the most important information, and proceeding in order of decreasing importance from there. The premise is that, if someone only reads the top 10% of the article, they’ve read the most important 10%.

Be Your Audience: Before you even put pen to paper – or finger to keyboard as it were – put yourself in your readers’ shoes and ask “why would I read this article?” Write the article from that perspective to answer your audience’s questions, not to tell them what you want them to hear.

Speak English (or Romanian, or…): Especially in the world of high tech, writers are often tempted to use industry buzzwords, “unofficial terminology in quotation marks,” or the dreaded Proprietary Overly-Complicated Abbreviations (POCAs). Resist the temptation, and write in a language your audience will understand.

Back Up Your Claims: Whether your article is reporting on facts or expressing your opinions, back up what you say. Common ways to back up your points include describing specific personal experiences, citing research statistics or – even better – by quoting an expert on the topic.

Know Your Medium: Just as you need to start with your audience in mind, it’s also helpful to know where your article is going to be published. Find the publication(s) where you want the article to appear, and read up on some back issues to familiarize yourself with its writing style, and to make sure your topic hasn’t been covered already.

Delusions of Technology Licensing

2006-02-02T10:44:00.000-05:00

You’ve recently come across a groundbreaking technology, a disruptive breakthrough that promises with some credibility to turn lead into gold. What’s more, after several meetings and brainstorming sessions, the technology owner has graciously offered you an exclusive, perpetual license to commercialize the technology across North America, or even across the globe in a particular vertical market.

What a deal…right?

Not so fast. Like any technology venture, a technology licensing deal has to be approached with a great deal of due diligence. And, unfortunately, like any technology venture, most tend to fail because of a combination of proven, avoidable pitfalls, namely:

It’s too good to be true: The technology has proven itself on the laboratory bench or an obscure test market in suburban Qumar, but will it work for your market? Will it perform in practice as it does in theory? And most importantly, will customers pay for it? The reality is, in most cases, you have no idea.

Risk Imbalance: The way many of these deals are structured financially is in two components. One is an upfront or recurring licensing fee, and the other is ongoing royalties, both paid to the technology owner in return for your right to execute on the technology. When structured this way, the technology owner is virtually guaranteed some financial success, while you’re left to fund 100% of operations and carry 100% of the risk.

Conflicting Objectives: Your job is to use the technology to create a product with the features and benefits your customers will buy. Unless the technology owner is an operating company with the same objectives, their goals are typically to experiment with technology development in many different applications, often for simple sake of advancing science. Without having the same objectives, or without direct control over the product development team, you’ll find it difficult, if not impossible, to offer your customers a product they need.

As any university or public sector technology transfer office will tell you (check out the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Queen’s University’s PARTEQ or U of T’s Centre for Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship) successes abound in the world of technology licensing. To be sure, such organizations have spawned hundreds of successful companies and generated millions in royalties for their respective organizations. But before you sign on as the exclusive, worldwide distributor of the perpetual motion machine, make sure your diligence addresses the delusions that may come along with it.

Disappointing numbers, but delightful fodder

2006-01-25T11:22:00.000-05:00

So after my frantic race to post futures market predictions for the election results on Monday - and declaring my utter fascination with their typical accuracy - I was a little bit disappointed to see that even they didn't predict the hold that the Grits maintained on Vancouver and the GTA, even if they were far more accurate than any poll I've seen.

That aside, I did enjoy the election and ensuing news coverage, complete with upsets, surprises, back peddling and more. From everything I saw and read, here are my three favourites:

3. Global's Early Prediction - I read yesterday that Global was the first network to declare a Conservative minority...at 7:30 p.m. ET!! With recounts and hanging chads being such defining features of U.S. elections in recent years, I thought the networks here would be ultra-cautious about making a call, at least until some of the polls closed. Bold move.

2. Andrew Coyne's Column - The National Post was chock full o' heavily slanted (and quite funny at times) news coverage following the election, but Andrew Coyne also delivered one of the most eloquent lines I've read throughout the campaign. Unfortunately I don't have the article in front of me, but it went something like this: For the first time in more than a decade, the Conservative wave from the West didn't break on the banks of the Rideau, but flowed over into Quebec.

1. Martin's Concession Speech - No matter what your political stripe (I haven't divulged mine I hope!) you had to love Martin's farewell speech. Not just because it was a bit of a tear-jerker, but because it immediately opened a new chapter in Canadian politics. With the Grits still very much alive in Parliament, his resignation instantly made me think of the final scene of from a Friday the 13th movie, where just before the screen cuts to black and the credits role, the (supposedly, finally) dead bad guy opens his eyes. Maybe there's going to be a sequel!

And the money is on...

2006-01-23T22:27:00.000-05:00

I heard second hand last week that CBC researchers had identified a stunning correlation between Toronto Maple Leafs games and election outcomes; apparently dating back some time, every time the Leafs won the last game before election day, the Liberals won. Every time the buds lost, it was a Tory victory. Given Saturday's performance, it looked like we were in for a Conservative majority.

The futures markets paint a slightly different picture, but a Tory-blue one just the same. Here are the closing numbers from futures markets at UBC:

Liberal - 93
Conservative - 127
NDP - 33
Bloq - 54
Other - 1

and Pinnaclesports.com:

Liberal - 87.5
Conservative - 134.5
NDP - 30.5
Bloq - 55.5
Other - 0.5

A little bit of time will tell, but if proponents of free market dynamics have their way, look for numbers pretty similar to these in the papers tomorrow.

Futures Markets: Money where the mouth is

2006-01-23T22:05:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning for weeks now to write about this topic - the fascinating predictive powers of futures markets - and time's quickly running out for it to have any relevance to tonight's Canadian election. The Globe, Post, Star and CBC have all reported on it, and the polls closed in Newfoundland an hour and a half ago, but I'm still going to take a stab at writing something noteworthy.

In simple terms - for my fellow engineers and non-MBA types - futures markets allow people to bet on the outcome of a future event. They've existed for decades - if not longer - in commodities markets, with traders buying and selling futures in oil & gas, produce, precious metals, and of course, pork bellies.

At the risk of offending pork belly traders, futures markets have become infinitely more interesting to the average observer, mainly with the Internet brining the concept to the masses with futures markets in everything from sporting events to elections. What's more, the results of these markets have been astounding in their predictive abilities. Some notable examples include:

Intrade - The Dublin-based market showed that the probability of Saddam Hussein's capture more than tripled the day before his capture. Remember that his capture was a relative surprise to begin with, let alone on that day.

Iowa Election Exchange - Over the course of 5 presidential elections spanning 12 years, the University of Iowa's election futures markets predicted the popular vote within 1.4%.

University of British Columbia - In the 2000 election, UBC's futures market was remarkably close in its seat predictions, and accurate within 1.5% for each of the five parties in popular vote.

Hollywood Stock Exchange - Harvard researchers have concluded that HSX's futures-based box office predictions are accurate to within 16% of actual receipts, more accurate than any other single means of forecasting.

The theory behind the predictive abilities of futures markets - compared to even the most statistically significant polls - is that traders have to put their money where their mouths are. Moreover, the theory holds that the more educated a trader is on the likely outcome, the more he/she will invest in their bet. In the case of an election, the traders don't even have to represent the actual voters to predict the outcome better than polls.

Whatever the theory, the results speak for themselves. And the predictions for tonight's election? Check back in a minute!

Coming to a thumbnail near you

2006-01-20T01:48:00.000-05:00

Does "less is more" apply to TV?

Next week, CBS will be airing the 60-second pilot episode of The Courier, the networks' first major forray into the realm of the "micro-series" genre; shows specifically produced and exclusively broadcast on handheld devices like PDA's, iPods and cell phones.

Now don't get me wrong. The last thing I want to do is come across as ornery or technophobic, but does this make sense? In entertainment and interaction, isn't (at least in terms of screen size) bigger always better?

It's better in audio, but bigger can come with the right headphones. It's better in computing, and even in video games, but almost any user/gamer/player will sacrifice some screen size, and a bit of functionality perhaps, in return for benefits like freedom and mobility.

But with television (and movies for that matter) the screen is virtually everything. It's the reason the TV exists. With TV, the screen is the functionality. No?

Either way, chalk me up in the "late adopter/laggard" column on this one.

Tepid Lucidity

2006-01-19T10:09:00.000-05:00

As much as I enjoy providing friendly, unsolicited advice to politicians every so often, I am a great believer in the democratic system. More to the point, I can't stand hearing people gripe about the corruption of politicians and the divide between government policy and local issues as excuses to give up on the democratic system entirely.

Yes, the system has faults, but how on earth can a country's leadership be determined other than through the election of representatives by their peers?

Yes, I'm one of those people who believes voting is not just a right, but civic responsibility. Yes, I'm one of those people who at least understands the "if you didn't vote, sit down and shut up" philosophy.

And yet, I'm afraid I must join the ranks of the gripers in expressing my disappointment with my first experience in riding-level politics in years.

I recently attended an all-candidates meeting in a GTA riding - I won't tell you which one, except to say that it wasn't my own. I can best sum up my experience as...underwhelming.

Why? Because I was expecting to hear how the candidates would truly address local issues, how they would translate national party platforms into local actions that (if I were to live in the riding) I could see when I walked out of my door every morning. Having seen and read more than enough debate at the federal level, I was looking for something refreshingly local.

Instead, what I saw was an off-off-Broadway version of the leadership debates I already spent too much time watching on TV. Almost without exception, every question of local relevance - gun crime, traffic congestion, green spaces - was met with an answer taken straight out of the party platform. One candidate answered a question about a local park with his party's stance on the Kyoto Protocol!

One of the setbacks I admit exists in our Parliamentary system of government is that voters must cast a single ballot to express their preference for both local representatives and the Prime Minister.

It has been said that local issues at best constitute 20% of a given voter's decision at the ballot box. If all all-candidates meetings were like this one, I'd say that figure should be closer to 0.

Those of you out there going to all-candidates meetings, I hope you're in for a more compelling evening than I had. Those of you who put on the debate, if I wanted to hear the party line, I would have turned on the TV. And those of you who got the Queensrÿche reference...YOU ROCK!

Go Ahead...Bring in the Army

2006-01-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

The Liberals have had a rough couple of days suffering almost universal lambasting for an attack ad (guns....in our cities...in Canada) that seemingly almost ran on national TV. The wisdom - or lack thereof - of the attack aside, there is a shred of value in the ad as it relates to Toronto's rising gun violence: Why not bring in the army?

That's right. Bring the Army to Toronto. Arm them with big guns loaded with rubber bullets, and deploy them at strategic checkpoints in high gun-crime areas.

What? But we're in Toronto, not Kabul. It reeks of racial profiling. It's reactionary tactic, and it will only mean gun criminals move their turf.

Well...maybe. But here are a few reasons why it isn't such a crazy idea:

It's our bloodiest war - With the utmost respect to our fallen soldiers, more Canadians have died from gunshots in Toronto in the last year than in all foreign conflicts combined. According to reports from CBC and the DND, in the past two years eight Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan, one (serving with the U.S. forces) was killed in Iraq, and one submariner perished in the HMCS Chicoutimi fire. By contrast, Toronto saw gun-related homicides more than double to an astounding 52 deaths in 2005.

It might work now - I couldn't be more supportive of root-cause solutions to Toronto's gun problems, but they won't help curb the problem today; they'll either come into effect after subsequent rounds of gun deaths (in the case of raising minimum sentences) or in a generation (in the case of community programs). This solution could put a quick end to the problem in days.

It's their mandate - One of the duties of the Army is "providing armed and unarmed assistance to civil authorities when needed to maintain public order and security or to assist in emergency relief." And - jokes from Albertan aside - if snow removal constitutes emergency relief as Mel Lastman believed, surely putting an end to an explosion in gun violence does too.

It's not racial profiling - It's regional profiling, with soldiers deployed only to strategic locations in high crime areas. As someone who lives in one affected area, I can say without question that I'd rather wake up to checkpoints manned by the Canadian Forces than I would to find a dead man, shot in the head in an apparent drug deal gone wrong, in the playground of the school where my two-year old son may end up going in a few short years.

Stewart Delivers

2006-01-05T23:08:00.000-05:00

I asked for it and I got it...Stewart. Summing up in less than 10 words what I attempted to convey in 500, Stewart articulated what I hope was on the minds of witnesses to the Sago Mine news coverage:

"Leave these people the f--k alone."

This is probably why Stewart has his own, internationally syndicated show, and I have my blog.

Show respect for West Virginia miners

2006-01-05T00:53:00.000-05:00

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – a daily must-see for me – often pokes fun at national news media who sometimes report on news less than they create it. Coverage over the past 24 hours of the tragic explosion at Tallmansville, West Virginia’s Sago Coal Mine shows to what extent such creation takes place.

Families of 12 perished miners waited in desperation to hear news of their loved ones’ conditions while trapped in a carbon monoxide-rich shaft 240 feet below the ground level. After an unconfirmed and incorrect announcement that all the miners were rescued alive, the families of 12 men heard the worst news imaginable; that in fact all but one perished.

I had the television in my office on all day today, flipping mostly between U.S. and Canadian news networks. And to my disappointment – although not to my surprise – I couldn’t help but notice that the story had become – not the tragedy at the coal mine or the stories of the brave people who risked their lives as part of the rescue/recovery efforts – the actual news coverage of the initial “miscommunication” from the mine about the miners being rescued alive, and the international reporting of misinformation that ensued. In an interview with a local television reporter and news director on As it Happens this evening, I am fairly certain more time was spent discussing CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s reaction to the mixed reports of the tragedy than on the tragedy itself.

Really. Do the families of the 12 victims really want to know who’s to blame for an optimistic breach of protocol right now? At this time of grieving, do you really think they want to read about an entirely different angle to the story that has sent a torpedo into their lives?

For the record, 10 of the 12 victims of the Sago explosion (and it even took me a while to find these) were:

Alva Martin Bennett, 50
Jim Bennett, 61
Jerry Groves, 57
George Hamner Jr.
Terry Helms, 50
David Lewis, 28
Martin Toler
Fred Ware Jr
Jack Weaver
Marshall Winans

To the families of the victims, my thoughts are with you along with my hope that the news media don’t drag out this experience to excruciating lengths.

I haven’t seen the Daily Show yet today, but I sure hope Stewart is all over this.

Timeless Humour

2005-12-24T18:26:00.000-05:00

My sister has informed me that she expected my blog to be funnier than it has proven to be. While I can't be expected to change my editorial policy - in the interests of my many, many readers - it is, after all, Christmas. And what better time to experience the gift of giving? So here...take this for funny:

For those of you who don't know, this is a classic Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson, entitled (I believe) Midvale School for the Gifted.

My predictions for 2006

2005-12-22T14:33:00.000-05:00

Before I get to my predictions for the new year, I should say that a number of my clients have vested interests in some of these predictions coming true. With that said, don’t discount them as publicity fluff, but rather as indications of the belief I have in my clients’ business models. There….take that.

The Y1C Crisis – While I highly doubt we’re going to run out of oil in the next 12 months, I do think the days of $1.00/liter gasoline are here to stay. In the biggest crisis to hit Canada since Y2K, watch the gasoline companies scramble to update their price signs to reflect the new, three figure reality…or start pricing gasoline in full cents.

PIPEDA Bites – It came in like a lion in 2004 but since then has looked far more like a lamb. Expect this year to see federal and provincial privacy commissioners really start to hold companies accountable for privacy breaches…and by accountable I mean more than a couple of bad PR days.

Convergence Resurgence – BCE’s divestiture of Bell Globe Media hammered one more nail in the coffin of Jean Monty’s convergence vision, but I wouldn’t write it off too soon. Don’t be surprised to see at least one or two big mergers, involving at least two of Monty’s convergence pillars: communications (Rogers, Telus?) and a content (Corus, Chum, CanWest?)

The New, New Wireless Wave – This is almost more a hope than a prediction, but I do see 2006 as the year that, finally, wireless providers come out with an affordable, all-in-one device that delivers phone, data, MP3s, TV, radio, internet, universal remote control, voice recorder, calendaring, and maybe even a clock.

Green: The New Color of Money – Even with natural gas and oil prices skyrocketing this year, the misconception still exists that green, renewable energy products are only environmental in value, and only for the select few that can afford them. Look for 2006 to see a change in mindset – especially with Ontarians seeing more natural gas hikes in January – with the realization that renewable technologies actually cost less…and you get to save the world.

VoIP Goes Mainstream – With Vonage putting their feet to the fire, incumbent telcos have sheepishly unveiled their VOIP offerings, although you wouldn’t know it from their marketing. It makes sense, but this year Canadians won’t have a choice but to see how much money they stand to save with VOIP, and telcos will have to respond.

Judgment Day for Satellite Radio – If the technology gift guides are any indication, satellite radios will be under the tree for virtually every technophile in the country this year. Don’t be so sure. Even with the might of Howard Stern, I’m not convinced Canadians will take too well to paying for something they’ve grown accustomed to getting for free. Plus, where will we tune in to hear those annoying Goodyear ads?

Taking Responsibility for IT – The debate around how to regulate and govern information technology will continue once again, but two things will change. One is that corporate officers and directors will start getting nervous about the risks and potential liabilities their firms’ IT systems represent. The other is that software glitches are going to get more serious.

I Won’t Shoot Another Eagle – A shameless plug I must admit, but last year I shot two bona fide eagles. I don’t see this happening again any time in the near future, much less in the coming year.

And last but not least...More Reality TV!

Tow the line on CIA landings

2005-12-20T18:28:00.000-05:00

Allegations have recently arisen that Canada has offered the CIA a hand in transporting suspected members of al-Queda and other terrorist organizations to and from an international network of alleged interrogation centres. The Canadian press claims that a particular Hercules craft in question flew from Newfoundland to a Scottish airport that's under scrutiny as an apparent destination for numerous covert flights, and that said plane is registered to Rapid Air Transport, an alleged shell company controlled by the CIA.

No doubt these allegations will make their way into the crossfire of heated accusations among campaigning political leaders. The Feds will deny any knowledge of any such activity. The Tories will call for greater transparency while also aligning closer with the U.S. in curbing terror. And of course the NDP will call this an abomination of justice, where the people’s right to know and judge for themselves has been stolen by the technocracy in office.

Instead of putting into motion a predictable series of shots across the bow, I suggest a unified approach that puts the matter to rest, keeps it out of this election, and maintains the focus of this election on what really, truly matters to Canadians. More to the point, when pressed I hope each of the leaders looks to the U.S. for guidance on this matter; not cuddling up to the Americans, but learning from them how to deal with an issue that is best left out of a general election, something like:

“We’re not at liberty to speak to issues like this of utmost national security. Suffice it to say that your elected officials are acting in the best interest of both Canadians at large, and overall human rights. This is our mandate, our responsibility, our duty to Canadians.”

To enter into a debate about minutia detail surrounding clandestine counter-terrorist operations will do nothing to help any of the parties, nor anything to help quell international insurgency. The only thing that will come from opening up this can of worms is more anger, a blip in the polls, and another squeeze of lemon on the open sore that is our relationship with our neighbors.

Is IT spending the key to productivity?

2005-12-15T10:38:00.000-05:00

Will increasing our investment in information and computing technologies (ICT) narrow the productivity gap between the U.S. and Canada? That question is at the heart of a recently released study from the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, commissioned by the Information Technology Association of Canada.

On the one hand, there definitely appears to be a link. As reported by ITWorldCanada:

The report concluded that in 2004, current dollar investment per worker in IT by Canadian businesses was 45.1 per cent of U.S. levels, and as a share of GDP just 61.1 per cent. By sector, companies in the information and cultural industries led the pack, investing US$ 12,244 per worker, while the accommodation and food services industry brought up the rear, investing just $98 per worker.

With Canadian productivity growth also lagging that of the U.S., CSLS president Andrew Sharpe said there is a link between lack of IT investment and the productivity gap. "Many people think [IT investment] is a key factor behind the Canada/U.S. labour productivity gap."

A recent study by University of Toronto economist Melvyn Fuss and London Business School chair of economics Leonard Waverman concluded IT spending accounts for 60 per cent of the productivity gap, but Sharpe said he would put the figure at closer to 20 per cent.

On the other hand, to conclude that more servers makes a more productive company appears not only to be an onversimplification, but a potentially dangerous one at that. As John Krpan, Executive VP at IT services firm RIS (DISCLAIMER: RIS is one of my clients), put it in a recent column penned for the Globe and Mail's online technology section:

IT has proven its value, both enhancing productivity on a macro level, and as an enabler of innovation at the company level...but there are those who will argue that there isn't even a correlation between IT spending and productivity.

In his still widely debated 2003 article IT Doesn't Matter, Harvard Business Review editor Nicholas Carr makes this argument based on a study of 2,500 U.S. firms. Carr explains that the most productive and successful firms spend less than a quarter on IT (0.8 per cent of revenue) than what is spent by the average company (3.7 per cent). Moreover, the companies that generated the lowest returns also spent only 0.8 per cent of revenue on IT.

For the sake of productivity, competitiveness and innovation, companies shouldn't just spend more on IT; they should spend smarter. In IT, the old adage that one size doesn't fit all couldn't be more valid.

Having the wisdom to draw the line — between spending more and getting more out of IT — is the key to more productive companies, and a more productive Canada.

So do more computers make for a more productive country? The techie side of me wants to say yes. But the still fresh memories of the dot-com days lead me to advise...be smart about how you interpret these findings.

Gimme a Break, Yosemite Dave

2005-12-14T08:11:00.000-05:00

"It may be smart election-year politics to thump your chest and constantly criticize your friend and your No. 1 trading partner. But it is a slippery slope, and all of us should hope that it doesn't have a long-term impact on the relationship."

So said David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, in a stinging response yesterday to Prime Minister Martin's recent criticism of America's environmental and commercial policies.

In theory, he's right. We should all just get along. We do need closer ties and a more sophisticated relationship with the U.S. In fact, I'm more supportive of closer Canada-U.S. ties - in terms of trade, defense and the environment - than virtually anyone I know. Jack Granatstein, if by chance you're reading this, you would certainly be an exception.

But to swagger in and scold us while claiming the higher ground in the relationship? To respond with threats in the manner of an older brother who's pissed off that we outed him for siphoning booze out of dad's liquor cabinet? Give me a break.

1. As much respect as I have for the U.S. and the lessons we can learn from you in terms of patriotism, capitalism and taking on global responsibilities, you are hardly in a position to be dishing out advice when it comes to bilateral relations. Really.

2. You can't pretend the same thing doesn't happen during your elections. It was only last year that Canada was in the crosshairs of the Democratic campaign (fuelled no doubt in part by CNN's omniscient Lou Dobbs) as an offshore haven stealing jobs from hard working Americans. On the other side of the political spectrum, many of us will remember Pat Buchanan's lovely reference to "Soviet Canuckistan" as a nation of whining freeloaders.

3. What's the slippery slope you're talking about, and where does it lead? Will you stop buying our oil? Our natural gas? Our lumber? Our cars? Will the next defense budget include funding for new northern Minutemen? Just what are you hinting at?

4. Regardless of tit-for-tat comments of recent weeks, you still owe us $5-billion!

Rather than tell Wilkins where he can shove his belt buckle, I ask that he give it a rest and let the campaign take its toll. Yes, electioneering leaders are like kids in the sandbox that need some adult supervision when they get nasty. But with all due respect, that adult is the voting public, not David Wilkins.

Memo to Stephen Harper: Focus on Succession

2005-12-11T22:23:00.000-05:00

Dear Mr. Harper,

It seems you’ve found yourself in a position of great potential power again, and this time you've learned from past experiences. While I can’t say I agree with all of them, your GST cut, tough stance on same-sex marriage, and tax cut approach to child care show that your platform comprises more than simply not being Paul Martin. Your physical makeover appears to have hit the mark…even Margaret Wente thinks you’re a hottie.

Acknowledging all your progress, I can’t help but point out a fundamental (if not widely recognized) weakness that still haunts your cause; most Canadians still have a really, really hard time picturing you as the leader of their country.

While I still hold some animosity towards Rick Mercer for leaving This Hour Has 22 Minutes, he did make a rather poignant observation in a recent episode of the Rick Mercer Report; that Canadians could easily find themselves looking forward to two leadership campaigns and two federal elections within the next 24 months. If, as accepted by most as one of two likely outcomes, the Liberals win a minority government, we will almost certainly see Paul Martin’s tenure come to an anti-climatic close by way of a leadership review, with his successor surely calling a quick election to secure a mandate from the people. If the Tories win a minority government, the other widely accepted likely outcome, as Mercer put it, your government would last as long as the lifespan of a fruitfly (it may have been butterfly…I’m not sure).

Which brings me to my advice…the NDP and Bloc aside, this election really isn’t so much about the current party leaders as it is about their potential successors. To win over the hearts and minds of Canadians, show them now what the future of the party holds. Mounting polls show that the biggest threat to the Liberal incumbency has nothing to do with the sponsorship scandal; it’s a universal desire for change.

Unfortunately for you Mr. Harper, you’re just not the person Canadians see as being the end product of that change. The antagonist, yes…the successor, no.

Also unfortunately for you, the Liberals seem to have no shortage of suitors to the throne. Recently parachuted Michael Ignatieff – while I’m still not sure I see the connection – is already being touted as a future PM, a Trudeau incarnate. You can be certain that John Manley will be an instant contender upon throwing his hat in the ring. I would be surprised if one or both of Tobin or McKenna, both strong characters with loyal supporters, don’t consider a run at the post too.

On the Tory side, there are more challenges than candidates. Granted, Peter MacKay has party leadership written all over him, but for the time being he’s a bit young, still a bit stung from the Belinda breakup, and quite frankly….too loyal to you. Bernard Lord would have been a highly credible candidate, if not for the recent byelection that effectively forces him to stay in office to keep the New Brunswick Tories in power.

So Mr. Harper, to reiterate: find someone, anyone, in the Conservative party whom you think Canadians could realistically see as their next Prime Minister and make that guy (in the gender-neutral sense) the clear heir to the thrown. Don’t secede the leadership, but make it abundantly clear that the Tories are quickly going to evolve from toppling mode to governance mode, complete with a PM-style leader poised to take the helm.

But I finally get Wiki

2005-12-09T19:29:00.000-05:00

I recognize that I’m not doing a very good job selling myself as an early adopter of technology, but I must still confess that, in addition to blogs, I really didn’t get the hype around Wikipedia, at least…until now.

I understand the concept of empowering all netizens (how’s that for a dot-com buzzword) to contribute to an expanding knowledge base. I can grasp the benefits of a collaborative approach to building that knowledge base. And I fully appreciate the value of knowledge evolving over time.

What I didn’t get was based on my belief that the reliability of a reference tool – an encyclopedia for example – is a direct function of its authors’ credibility. And how do authors exhibit their credibility? Through their academic distinctions, their professional track record, and/or other experiences that demonstrate their relative exclusivity as subject matter experts.

Therein lies the problem; by its very nature Wiki can’t provide the exclusivity necessary to demonstrate credibility and reliability. It’s too…democratic.

And that’s when the light bulb went on (bear with me if you already know where I’m going with this).

The very element of Wiki that, in my mind, discounts its value as a reference tool is what makes it quite possibly the perfect medium for an entirely different purpose: policy development. Imagine if, instead of surprising the country with a $500-million handgun ban this week, the Liberals launched a Wiki policy forum, where the basic objectives (cut down on gun-related deaths) and constraints (minimize impact on civil liberties) of the intended policy were laid out, along with a skeleton of possible implementation options. Instead of costly focus groups, pollsters and policy analysts, leave it up to the people to shape public policy.

Sounds great in theory, but in practice it’ll be chaotic, right? I don’t know. But considering how disenchanted voters are with the coming election, coupled with election promises (like the handgun ban) that completely miss their mark, I’ve got to believe a smart campaign team would at least give it a try.

I don't get blogs!

2005-12-09T02:20:00.000-05:00

I don't get blogs!

Starting my own blog has been on my to-do list for the better part of two years now. And at long last, my theory – that if I shared my intentions with a critical mass of people, their expectations would force me to deliver simply in order to save face – has borne fruit. The last straw came earlier this week by way of an email from my friend Rick Spence, the former Editor and Publisher at PROFIT Magazine who blogs it up at Canadian Entrepreneur. His email (in typical Spence fashion) was quick and to the point, with three out of 12 or so words reading: “Start blogging fast.”

So, there you have it, and here I am.

However proud I may be right now, I must come clean with an admission: I don’t get blogs. I don’t get how they’re any different from the open source code I used almost a decade ago to create a discussion forum on my web site. I don’t get how a blog is any different from a web site that is simply updated daily, or even an ancient Bulletin Board System (BBS) for that matter. What I do know is that I’ve been driven to start blogging out of sheer commitment to staying on the early side of the adoption curve, and I’m hopeful that I’ll get it soon. In the meantime, if anyone can enlighten me on the revolutionary significance of blogs, please do.