Spiegel Online war eigentlich immer meine erste Wahl fuer deutsche Nachrichten. Inzwischen fahre ich haeufiger mit dem Bus zur Arbeit, und lese dort auf meinem Handy das Neueste vom Tage. Von den deutschen mobilen Angeboten gefaellt mir die Welt Online im Moment wesentlich besser als Spiegel Online. Welt Mobil ist fuer meinen Geschmack besser zu lesen und einfacher zu navigieren, zumindest auf meinem HTC Handy mit Windows Mobile. Und schon aendert sich das Surfverhalten. Mal sehen ob Spiegel Online irgenwann das mobile Angebot verbessert.
Ten Canadian software companies to watch
July 6, 2007 By Leave a Comment
IDC Canada has highlighted ten emerging Canadian software companies in a new research study (press release; research store). According to IDC, these companies have “the potential to make an impact in the information and communications technology (ICT) market”.
I haven’t gotten my hands on the study but a ComputerWorld Canada article provides some very high level pointers on criteria and take-aways. In the article, executives from a few of the selected companies talk about what they see as key factors to success, including:
- Networking through industry associations and research groups
- Seeking the right partnerships
- Building a strong customer base
- Staying close and listening to the customers while keeping an eye on the evolving market
- Clarity of vision
The ten Canadian companies examined in the study are:
- Apparent Networks
- Casero
- Coveo
- Halogen
- Idée Inc.
- Loki Management Systems
- M-Tech
- Objectworld
- Osellus
- Privasoft
Toronto Technology Week – This is my City!
May 31, 2007 By Leave a Comment
As part of her opening keynote for Toronto Technology Week, High Road Communications co-founder and president Mia Wedgbury (my boss) showed a video with Jay Goldman of Radiant Core, Mark Relph of Microsoft Canada (High Road client) and Ken Nickerson of iBinary talking about their view on tech in Toronto and what we can do to promote the region as a centre of excellence. Here’s the video that I uploaded to Soapbox. For Mia’s perspective, see here.
Video: Toronto Tech Week – This is my City!
"I don’t like the sound of my turn signals"
April 21, 2007 By 1 Comment
From the next-time-let’s-not-make-conversation department:
Heavy traffic in Toronto. We’re coming to a halt at an intersection, two cars between me and the red light. The light turns green and both cars in front of me start signalling for a left turn. By the time the oncoming traffic has passed and they are gone, the traffic light is red again. We have to wait for another round.
Me: “You know, they should have signalled way earlier.”
Passenger (P): “Who?”
Me: “The two cars in front of us.”
P: “Why?”
Me: “Are you serious? Because I would have changed to the right lane, and would have made it across when it was green. Instead they stop at the lights and it looks like they want to go straight. Then they wait until the lights turn green to signal. And I am stuck behind them. Can’t they make up their mind when they approach the traffic light?”
P: “It’s okay. We’ll still make it in time.”
Me: “That’s not the point.”
P: “I know what your point is. Unless you want to chase after them to yell or make European gestures, let it go.
Me: “European gestures? I take offense to that. And I don’t want to go after them, I am just saying…”
P: “You couldn’t go after them anyway. Because it would mean that you would have to use your left turn signal now. And that would really annoy the driver behind you. Because you should have signalled way earlier if you want to make a left turn.”
Me: “Do you want to walk the rest of the way?”
The light turns green.
Two miles later.
P: “You know, I do that all the time.”
Me: “What?”
P: “Not signal until the light turns green.”
Me: “Why? WHY?”
P: “I don’t like the sound of my turn signals.”
PR Toolbar: Making room for more feeds
April 14, 2007 By 1 Comment
The list of blogs in the RSS reader has grown quite long. After talking to Michael O’Connor Clarke and Gary Schlee at the last Third Tuesday, I’ve decided to split up the RSS reader in the Canuck PR Toolbar into two sections: one for PR blogs (red) and one for marcom and social media blogs (blue).
This has nothing to do with ”separating church and state”. It is simply a functional improvement because a couple toolbar users told me that some RSS feeds had become unreadable because in lower screen resolutions the combined list extended beyond the margins of the monitor. Now the two RSS readers have a little room to grow again.
I will do another round of search on the weekend and add new Canadian PR and marcom blogs (suggestions welcome, as always).
The toolbar will update itself automatically. No need to reinstall. If anybody has trouble with the updated version, let me know.
High Road is hiring
April 11, 2007 By Leave a Comment
“We have immediate opportunities for consultants with 1 – 2 years agency exp as well as account managers with 4-6 years experience. The ideal candidates will have relevant technology and/or entertainment/gaming industry experience in an agency environment.”
Contact info and more here.
Links of Note – April 10, 2007
April 11, 2007 By Leave a Comment
1) “How To Live Up to the Innovation Hype” – Business Week innovation and design writer Reena Jana on former “next big thing” companies that didn’t live up to the initial hype but are now seeing an upswing in business growth because they have “refined their technologies, remade their business models, and reached out to new audiences.”
If these [new] technologies weren’t taken to market, their owners may never have found that better use,” Chesbrough writes in an e-mail. “Innovators need to learn how to play poker in pursuing these technologies, rather than playing chess, where the objectives and possibilities are clearly defined at the outset.”
Henry Chesbrough, executive director of the Center for Open Innovation at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business
2) “How Blogging Can Help You Get a New Job” – The Wall Street Journal
Corporate recruiters have long surfed the Web to vet potential hires, but now they are also surfing blogs to unearth job candidates, expanding their talent pool and gaining insights they say they can’t get from résumés and interviews.
PR Blogger Kevin Duggan is quoted in the article. He says that his blog generates “about one job lead a month”.
Blogging still plays a minor role for PR hiring practices in Canada. But the importance is growing. Blogging can definitely help people get a new PR job here, too. Just ask Chris Clarke or Michael O’Connor-Clarke or Tamera Kremer of Thornley Fallis.
Out of this world transparency
March 27, 2007 By Leave a Comment
In a move to become more transparent and address accusations that authorites are ”covering up the truth”, the French space agency CNES has put its archive of UFO sightings online.
In the past 30 years there have been 1,600 sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects in France, according to tech news service heise.de. The CNES is a state organization that also observes “extraterrestrial phenomena.” They are working on adding photos and videos related to the sightings.
(via heise.de)
Seven years in Canada
March 21, 2007 By 11 Comments
Today is my seventh anniversary of immigrating to Canada. It’s a good day to say thank you to the unknown customs officer at Pearson Airport. I wish I had asked for his name.
On March 21, 2000, I anxiously stood in the customs lineup with a suitcase, a backpack and a list of things to be shipped later. 
When the officer saw that I am a new immigrant, he smiled, shook my hand and said “Welcome to Canada! Glad to have you here.”
Some people may dismiss this as a little Wal-Mart greeter type of gesture. It wasn’t. It made a world of difference to me. Since this is supposed to be a PR blog: I don’t think anybody could have done better PR for the country than this customs officer.
Thank you, Officer. And thank you, Canada. I am glad to be here, too.
IT World Canada swallows IT Business Group
February 28, 2007 By 1 Comment
[Cross-posted from the High Road Blog]
IT World Canada just announced that it has acquired IT Business Group from Transcontinental. That means ComputerWorld Canada and Computing Canada will be part of the same family. For how long? IT World Canada confirmed seven lay-offs in the press release but added there would be “no additional personnel changes as a result of the purchase”. No details yet on the future of all the publications and digital brands. IT World Canada’s president Andrew White made the following comment:
“Over the coming weeks, we will be finalizing the integration of the companies, and reviewing the product portfolios for future synergies. In the meantime, we will maintain all existing properties and work with our clients to ensure a smooth transition over the coming weeks and months.”
The acquisition will strengthen IT World Canada’s position in the market (I am especially interested to see what kind of digital strategy the combined powerhouse will embark on). Depending on the extent of the “future synergies”, it may also leave the Canadian IT community with less opportunity to get business technology news from different media sources. This begs the question: will we see another media company (or blogging network) step up?
Maybe one of the large American technology business sites will consider creating a Canadian site to get a share of the local online advertising dollars. Red Herring announced some kind of Canadian presence a while ago. CNET already operates international sites in Asia, Australia and several European countries. It has all the technology infrasctructure in place. Why not hire a few journalists and add Canada to the portfolio (again)?
Maybe other Canadian media properties, like Canoe or Globetechnology.com, will look at beefing up both enterprise-focused content and Canadian stories in their technology sections?
Or will we see even more independent bloggers and news sites pop up in Canada? Former National Post tech reporter Mark Evans is blogging away with his two tech blogs and a podcast series (together with Kevin Restivo). On the telecom/VoIP side, we have people like Alec Saunders and Jon Arnold covering the community. And there are many more.
IT World Canada is positioning itself for long-term success as an important voice in Canada’s thriving technology community. With more editorial staff it has the chance to provide even more breadth and depth in coverage. But there is room for more voices – corporate or independent.
Read the press release here.
martinhofmann.net is the personal blog and web playground of Martin Hofmann. I live in Toronto and work 
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