I have closely worked with teams running a number of these initiatives (TVC, Wes Nicol, Summer Company to name a few), and I am often surprised by how few of our young aspiring entrepreneurs understand the bootstrap support available through these world class competitions. As you consider applying to TVC, please take some time to understand and plan how you will leverage the rich support that will be be made available to you.

Remember, deadline for 2010 TVC application is March 02, 2010. For more details, please visit: http://www.techvc.org

In 2009, OAK helped 50+ clients set up their web hosting to host their web presences. Over the last 2 years, we have looked at (and used) a number of hosting options and reviewed the performance of all of them. At this point of time, while we have a list of our preferred hosting providers, we will have to give the title of “Most Reliable Web Hosting for OAK” to HOSTGATOR for the year 2009.

Again, what made HOSTGATOR stand out from the others was their 100% uptime for all of client webproperites hosted with them, which beat their 99.9% uptime guarantee. Coupled with their terrific technical performance, their excellent support and customer friendliness made it super easy for us (and our clients) to work with them. And last but not the least, we really admire them for their commitment to being “green”. HOSTGATOR has purchased renewable energy credits up to 130% of their total power consumption - quite admirable.

If you would like us to help you set up your hosting with HOSTGATOR, then please contact us and we will be happy to help you set up your web hosting with a world class hosting solution.

I am really excited about this story not only because there is a personal joy here but also because it validates the philosophy of the Foundry Program and the TalentBridge program in that our investments in Talent and Talent development have to be seen as long term investments that will invariably create a competitive differentiator for the Ottawa community. Since the announcement, Haroon has specifically mentioned the Foundry Program and recognized the importance of the faith that Luc and the rest of the program put into him as a student on Carleton campus.

The story can be found at the following links:

http://www.techvibes.com/blog/cix-wraps-up-with-cognovision-solutions-taking-top-prize

http://www.techvibes.com/blog/cix-top-20-cognovision-solutions

http://www2.carleton.ca/newsroom/news-releases/a-company-founded-by-carleton-alumni-named-as-canada%E2%80%99s-most-innovative-firm/

Details of the company can be found at: http://www.cognovision.com/

This is a moment to take a pause and congratulate Haroon and Cognovision for their giant strides. His teams efforts and success have reinforced that what we are doing in the community with programs like TalentBridge and Foundry will definitely augur well for our community in the long term and will help catalyse more success stories like this. I am going to sleep tonight with a big smile on my face …

Dr. Florida said it in a conference room full of “educationists” and it would have been really cool to see how many of his audience agreed with his thesis. For me, as with most other things he said, I took this back to my TBridge drawing board to study how this would relate to the program. When I conceptualized TalentBridge, I had a few modelling requirements in mind, primarily:

• the program will “facilitate” experience, i.e. while, my role as the program prime would be to create “learning and development” opportunities for the participants, my role in the program would primarily be of a facilitator and not an ensurer.
• the program had to create a new social construct wherein everyone took responsibility of their own experience, i.e. again my role in the program would be to “advise and empower” but the initiative would have to come from each participants individually
• the program would have to be structured in such a way that every single participant will be encouraged to come forward with their ideas, whether they relate to their own development, or they are business ideas or ideas with a community imperative
• the program would have to be lean and able to adapt itself as per the needs of its primary audience - students and companies, meaning it is well understood that the program primarily exists to provide Ottawa’s talent with a unique empowering experience in the company of industry partners who share the programs dual vision of “talent engagement” and “talent empowerment”
• finally, the program will always be about “people” - the participants, the industry partners, the strategic stakeholders, the mentors, the community at large, and it would be my resolve to always make sure that the program does not ever lose that focus.

Why a revisit at this time, one would ask. Because, I was amused by Dr. Florida’s use of the expression “they will be disintermediated” and I wanted to take this moment to make sure that we are - more than a year into TalentBridge - still doing things as we started out to do.  Ottawa needs a constant stream of thought leaders like Dr. Florida coming to come through and leave us with thought provoking gems. Thanks a lot Dr. Florida !!!

And how do we go about it? This is where Dr. Florida’s take on “reset” is so interesting. In listening to him, I almost saw him making a case for “creative destruction”. Let us revisit our core frameworks and models that we currently employ to encourage, engage and empower our talented youth and if we see a disconnect between the “sought” and the “real”, then maybe it is time for us to dismantle them and recreate new ones. Can we do it? We, at TalentBridge, have every reason to believe that we can. TalentBridge afterall is a big example of that “Reset”.

How could the website that heralded the arrival of “user generated content” and laid the foundation for web stalwarts like Facebook (and many others that we are insanely in love with now) die such a death. Simply put, because Geocities (as the likes of Facebooks and Twitters are doing now) built a reputation purely on the basis of its ability to build a critical mass of users - which was not (even as it is not now) a viable sustainable business model. At its height, Geocities supported 3.5 million web pages, was valued by Yahoo at US $4.6 billion and found mention on the front pages of all major publications including such trend setters as Wall Street Journal. Yet, inspite of its hordes of “loyal” users Geocities struggled with monetization as it failed to attract the “sought out advertisers” in numbers that it needed to live up to its potential. In the end, the ability of Geocities to support the users need for self expression was not enough and it had to be let go.

It is inevitable that numerous case studies would be written and studied to analyze how it all went wrong with Geocities. Is the fault to lie with Yahoo, or was the model (to start with) faulty, or was the UI not cool enough, or did the management not understand the true potential. It is definitely good news for proponents and developers of case studies. So many can be written to capture different aspects of “what went wrong” here. The “end” - as I see it - can truly be attributed to a combination of factors including limitations in business modelling, challenges with integration with Yahoo’s core business, an inability to keep pace with the developments in the domain … et al. … but the crux of the matter is that Yahoo pulled the plug because even after fathering and supporting Geocities for well over 10 years Yahoo could not come up with a viable business/economic model for it. As much as we love them, “User empowerment”, “content democracratization” and ”vehicle for self expression” just couldnt do it for what was acquired as a business line.

This development is a bit sad for me personally because my personal web journey started in early 2000 with my first web page that I published on Geocities under the name of “BigCrazyHindu”. I had meant to save the files somewhere before the Oct 26th deadline but I could not remember the name of my page till about 10 minutes ago and it was too late by then. I would, though, like to take this moment to thank everyone associated with Geocities including the founding team lead by David Bohnett for their great contribution to our understanding of the power and possibilities of web. For if it was not for Geocities, our love affair with the likes of Facebook and Twitter would have never happened … and more importantly we would have never realised the joy of “Self Expression” and “Truly Democratized Communication”. This is to bid Geocities a warm heartfelt goodbye … Thank you very much Geocities for (in your sad death) proving that our concerns and doubts about others like yourself are not misplaced.

This blog entry also appears on the TalentBridge blog at: http://tbridge.ca/mourning-the-death-of-geocities-a-web-giant-lost/

The seeds of OIC were sown about 4 weeks back during one of our regular TalentBridge meetings when Steve Robins brought up the idea of running an immersive student initiative in town that will bring local students and local industry together in a “bootcamp” environment. At that time, in parallel, I was also working on developing a similar concept. When Steve mentioned the idea, it was quite serendipitous and, I suggested that we develop it as a TalentBridge run micro initiative during the time that Steve and other TalentBridge interns spend with with us on Fridays. That it took much more than Fridays is another story, but OIC 2009 was born and we decided to pilot it over the weekend of 21st-23rd August 2009 before Steve takes off once again for school at University of Western Ontario.

Over the last four weeks, we developed the framework/model for the competition, drafted all framework documents, recruited the two companies - Benbria and ThinkSM for 2009 challenge - that would put together the industry challenges, sought and secured the necessary sponsorships and partnerships, put together a website, developed the marketing/PR collateral, ran a directed marketing campaign, developed the actual logistics of running the competition, ran recruitment sessions, recruited the talent (students) and then ran the initiative from 5:00 p.m. on the evening of 21st of August till 8:00 p.m. on the 23rd of August - but most importantly all of us had a lot of fun over the weekend surrounded by 12 hugely talented people who developed jaw dropping/awe inspiring solutions to the challenges that were thrown at them by the two companies.

The preparation for 2010 OIC is already underway, and we are committed to delivering a larger program - with a stronger immersive component - with a larger talent and industry participation. Anyone interested in helping out with the 2010 OIC should get in touch with me asap.

Twitter Updates of OIC 2009 can be found at: http://twitter.com/search?q=%23OIC2009

What started as a casual discussion in one of the TalentBridge meetings is starting to develop into a community initiative that has been on my drawing board - and has been close to my heart - for some time. Through TalentBridge, I am continually trying to build and rollout initiatives that will support our “youth entrepreneurship support” programming. In developing new programs, my intent is always to bridge the current divide between entrepreneurially inclined post secondary students and the “plethora” of (Ottawa based) industry stalwarts who are willing to make themselves available - and I am amazed by how many are really open to mentoring talent - to help young entrepreneurs. I am helping build this particular project as a “TalentBridge Partner Initiative” with two local young entrepreneurs and current TalentBridge participants - Steve Robins and William Armstrong. Infact, Steve and William will be leads on this particular project and they are the ones who will be more or less running with it. I will post the details the moment we have everything lined up on our end. We started working on the model about two weeks back, and we are very close to announcing the project pilot - which we are hoping to launch towards the end of August 2009.

Please stay tuned for details. For more details on TalentBridge, please visit: www.tbridge.ca

What triggered this thought was a question that I got asked today morning. What was my primary driver for conceiving and developing TalentBridge and what do I look for when I am qualifying students … and without giving it a second thought I said … “Ideas and Dreams” … that is what inspired me to create TalentBridge and that is what I am always seeking while looking to surround myself with people I know I will enjoy working with. If there is one defining thing about our community at TalentBridge, it is our collective ability to think big and dream bigger … and that alone has made all the effort I have put into the program so worth it. A lot has been said about the power of ideas and the potential of dreams, and quite eloquently and in much detail. All I can add is, Riverdale was a dream and it all started with an idea one (incredibly hot) afternoon when my sister turned to me and said … “hey I have an idea …”

This post also appears on the TalentBridge blog at: http://tbridge.ca/ideas-and-dreams-drivers-for-talentbridge/

I am happy to share my experience and provide specific details of the FITT program to anyone who is considering the CITP designation.