Category: Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

A couple of articles have already appeared in response to Ideas to Steal from Silicon Valley and Seattle:

Chris Ragobeer: An Open Letter to Toronto’s Technology Community

Over at The Toronto Marketing and Technology Blog, Chris Ragobeer wrote an article titled An Open Letter to Toronto’s Technology Community. In the article, Chris lists these things:

• Things that Toronto already has that will help in turning the city into a high-tech hub.
• Things Toronto needs to establish or acquire in order to turn the city into a high-tech hub.
• Some suggested actions that the local high-tech community can take.

David Crow: Harnessing Hogtown’s Hominids for High-Tech Hijinks and Hubs

David Crow (who recently was voted Toronto’s best tech evangelist at BlogTO, running against some pretty stiff competition including Yours Truly) also responded to my article in a piece with an extremely alliterative title: Harnessing Hogtown’s Hominids for High-Tech Hijinks and Hubs. In the article, he makes these points:

• Where is our “Fairchild” that creates our own “Fairchildren”? “Can you name big successful software companies that have started in Toronto? More importantly, can you name successful companies that have started because the founders were members of another “parent” company? Why has RIM or Nortel not created a strong spinoff culture?”
• One possible source of “Fairchildren” might be people who’ve spent time in Silicon Valley and other hubs, who’ve either returned or migrated to Toronto to start companies here. They bring with them experience and connections and “might be a better hope for new wealth creation in Toronto in the high-tech sector.”
• ICT Toronto is a joke. David’s feeling about City Hall’s attempt to bolster Toronto’s standing as a high-tech hub is similar to mine: “We have a fascination with self-congratulatory bullshit efforts!” Last year’s TechWeek was a non-event that registered on almost nobody’s radar, and I have my doubts about this year’s. Their goals are misguided, and they have no idea of what it means to be local technology company. They seem to be focused on on turning Toronto into a place to do “nearsourcing”, in which case they might as well come up with a marketing campaign like “Toronto: The Bangalore Next Door” and resign us to the fate of being a call center hub.

Here’s a photo to remind you that TSOT’s Second Ruby/Rails Project Night is just over a day away:

For more details about Ruby/Rails project night, see this blog entry.

Here’s a photo to remind you that DemoCamp 17 — the “show and tell” gathering of the bright lights of Toronto’s tech community — is just over a week away:

For more details about DemoCamp 17, see:

• My earlier blog entry on DemoCamp 17
• David Crow’s blog entry on DemoCamp 17
• Radiant Core’s blog entry on DemoCamp 17
• Leila Boujanane’s blog entry on DemoCamp 17
• Greg Wilson’s blog entry on DemoCamp 17

It’s the only time you should mix Ajax and beer: at Ajax Pub Night, which takes place here in Toronto on Monday, January 14th. Here are the details:

• Where: The Rhino (1249 Queen Street West, just west of Dufferin)
• When: Monday, January 14th, starting at 7:00 p.m.
• Who’s behind this? Brent Ashley, Pete Forde, Kristan Uccello and Gabriel Mansour
• Is there an official site? Yes, at ajaxcamp.org
• Will this be a recurring event? Yes — starting February, Ajax Pub Night will take place on the second Monday of each month.

Here’s what Brent has to say about Ajax Pub Night:

We’re here to build a community around Ajax and create opportunities to meet face to face at events small and large.

Ajax is a unifying word that brings a number of technologies and techniques together to express one concept – a way to build compelling browser-based applications that comprise the foundation of the future of the web.

Let’s start with a Toronto-based Ajax Pub Nite, informal and unstructured. Once some community is established we can introduce evening Ajax Presentations and Demos and/or Ajax Workshops and build up to an eventual full-day Ajax Camp, perhaps inspiring people from different locales to join in here and set up their own events worldwide.

I’ve been to similar pub nights at the Rhino, and generally the ideas flow as freely as the beer. If you’re interested in Ajax development and are looking to get some new ideas, meet your peers and possibly land a job (it’s happened at these gatherings), come on down to Ajax Pub Night this Monday! I plan to be there.