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Malcolm Bastien

The way I think.

Posts

  • August 27, 10:15 AM

    Your Ideas And Blogging the Crap Out of Them

    I really enjoy listening whenever Merlin Mann talks about blogging. Because even with Merlin's hate of pointless productivity blogs, and of all the crappy things people do with social media, when he talks about blogging you still get a sense that it's something he thinks is worth doing, and that it's worth doing well.

    Merlin's insights into blogging are usually prefaced by 10 minute long admissions that "this is going to sound really douchey." The funny thing about that always is that the more time he spends telling you how douchey what he's about to tell you is going to be, the more likely it is what he's about to tell you will cut straight through the bullshit and reveal really enlightened principles that stick with you.

    In some of his talks, his system for rewarding blogging is roughly:

    1. Find your passion
    2. Find your voice
    3. Blog the shit out of the two.

    It took me a long time to find the passion part about what I wanted to blog about when I had my last job, but afterwards I lost interest in it quickly. One approach I've been adopting lately is to blog about my ideas.

    Instead of focusing on blogging about a passion, the only other topic I've been able to think of is to focus on all of the ideas I have, and the interesting things that get me thinking.

    If you could ever consider blogging about your passion (say, marketing) as a way to increase your knowledge, improve your thinking, and grow your confidence in a topic, then using the same method to reflect through the things that are occupying your mind should work equally as well.

    ... Or it could be because Merlin gets paid to talk about blogging.

    Hmm...

    John Gruber & Merlin Mann's Blogging Panel at SxSW: http://www.merlinmann.com/media/2009/3/14/audio-john-gruber-merlin-manns-blog...
    How to Blog: http://www.merlinmann.com/media/2008/9/15/video-how-to-blog.html

    Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • August 26, 08:06 PM

    Attention to Detail Versus Features

    Where are the examples of attention to detail on products not made by Apple?

    Competitors always show you the more features their products have compared to Apple's. Take the Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet they are announcing in September. They flood the video with lists of features the product has. But will Samsung ever go on stage and say as a company, that they took more care in making the product than Apple did the iPad? That they paid more attention to the details that will affect users?

    To be honest, the dark and robotic teaser promo for the Samsung Galaxy Tab makes it seem like these guys are competing more against Droid, another android phone, rather than against Apple. Compare this with one of the commercials for the BlackBerry Torch which are very Apple-esque (there's one with the Torch sitting on the table doing very iPhone like things).

    Why is Apple the only company to say that we’re going to ship less features because it’ll make a better product?

    You’d think that it would eventually become just a numbers game. If Apple does the “more design, less features” thing with their products, and they constantly are being mimic’d by a half dozen competitors every 6 months *and* they still manage to grow and gain share... Wouldn’t at least one other company eventually catch on and try to do the same?

    Yet every competitor competes on the more features play over and over again.

    I said it a year ago on this blog that the best companies constantly smoke their competition with only two things:

    1. Great Products
    2. Great Care

    Not all the Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube campaigns in the world will make up for that.

    Apple's Attention to Detail: http://floodlite.tumblr.com/post/1011047822/apples-attention-to-detail
    Feature checklist dysfunction: http://www.marco.org/380868888
    Samsung Galaxy Tab: http://galaxytab.samsungmobile.com/

    Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • August 26, 09:26 AM

    Optimal Connections

    Here's a list of social networks I'm on and where I've been at one time or another completely overwhelmed with information:

    - Foursquare
    - Friendfeed
    - Posterous
    - Tumblr
    - Twitter

    I was thinking today that the only thing I really remember people complaining about was that they were completely overwhelmed with none of this stuff, but with their RSS.

    RSS?

    While RSS has maybe never been the easiest to manage, it's so mature now that the ways to control and not feel overwhelmed by it have been around for years. The need to check RSS constantly is much less than the more social updates of your close friends on these other networks, and there’s no social price to pay if you delete particular websites from your RSS feed.

    Compare the the list of social networks to RSS and the one difference that stands out is that the following mechanism of the social networks are all built into the networks, while RSS is a standard that people use tools to subscribe to and manage. Decentralized social graphs have been talked about by open software groups since the dawning of Facebook, but it's still the unified networks that pair utility and networking together that have been growing, with decentralized methods still in the experimentation phase.

    This got me thinking about what it is about social networks that encourage us to overwhelm ourselves with information, and what at the same time makes all the content in our RSS the stuff that’s "overwhelming".

    One thing that comes to mind is that our tolerance for extra information is probably higher when we attach a higher social value to information that comes from social connections. It's this same reason why I avoid unfollowing or unfriending people unless I think I have to, and why I look at RSS and I think of it more as "news" (unsocial, but valuable information) than as "updates" (social, and potential not valuable at all).

    On the other hand, connections on Facebook (before, when I used to be on it) were equally unmanageable on the whole because of the richness of all the information connections were sharing with me.

    Here’s this idea crudely sketched.

    Download now or preview on posterous
    idea.pdf (71 KB)

    Something I wonder is if Facebook brings together what these services all do individually, blending status, location, blogging, photos, links, then we move further to the right of the graph. Right now each service works well on its own and stays manageable because the information we get is specific and hits that sweet spot. If we were to blend it all together would it end up becoming overwhelming and force us to move back down the graph?

    Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • August 25, 08:50 PM

    Trying to Find the Smaller Conversations

    At the very last meal of our latest cottage weekend before our car ride back to Toronto, @joshdavey challenged us and forced us to admit if we got value out of Twitter anymore. We started discussing the Buzz Kill story that Leo Laporte published and how for us yelling in a room full of other people yelling had become a habit that we all unknowingly found ourselves in as we started gaining larger twitter audiences.

    The most important part about the conversation we were having was it’s small nature. What was expressed was a constant frustration at observing the way people we know behave in ways online that were misaligned with their behaviours when we talk to them in person.

    We were all victims of being forced to shift our conversational patterns, from tight conversation, to loose conversation, and into broadcasting as our maturity on social networks matured. Eventually we started to seek out more networks to find places to have tight conversations. It worked for a period of time, but they all expanded eventually

    Every network is like this because every network has mechanisms and incentives to increase your connectedness to other users. There’s no social network that rewards small networks among users.

    One reason I think we keep finding ourselves in broadcast situations is that most of the different networks we join are all open. I’ve already been experimenting with private blogs over the past year as a way to keep communications tight among a close circle of friends, but what I found out though was that the effort blogging requires compared to Twitter in a public setting carries over and still makes it an inaccessible medium for those who with different workflows.

    More recently we’ve started experimenting with a private group on status.net. The purpose of starting a private group isn’t to have a place to express ideas that are inappropriate to share publicly, instead it’s a mechanism to keep the group controlled and small, and to replicate the ways regular conversation work. There’s almost no danger of a tweet being shared, emailed, or scraped by a social media monitoring service.

    It’s also fundamentally about letting the opportunity for tight conversations to happen more frequently. And on top of that, along the conversation spectrum of broadcasting, loose conversation, tight conversation, there’s finally no conversation, but personal introspection. What I think we are enabling ourselves to do by backing off from a shouting-room only environment is to reduce our investment in broadcasting (especially given the potential wasteful nature of investing in those messages like Leo Laporte will tell you) and reinvesting those resources into what is potentially more valuable.

    @joshdavey: http://twitter.com/joshdavey
    Buzz Kill: http://leoville.com/buzz-kill
    Status.net: http://status.net/ 

    Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • August 20, 10:22 AM

    Bit by Bit

    When mobile game systems first started getting more powerful, the first thing that got really exciting was the number of colours the systems were capable of displaying. Back in the era of Gameboy Color, we got colour games in our pockets for the very first time. Before then everything was shades of grey (who else owned a Gameboy Pocket?). Then Gameboy Advance came out with range of colour that blew me away. The colours were rich, and a lot of games had a great anime and cartoon feel to them. When the Nintendo DS came out though, 3d games first started coming out, these games tried to replicate the 3d environments found in console games and computer games. Most of these games looked terrible.

    Still now there are mobile games for the DS coming out that are fully 3d, but just look horrible. The DS can do 3d, but games just look so much better 2d. Some games even do a great job of being a 2d game with a 3d perspective. Those games are basically 2d, but play and look better, and they capture the key benefits that they would have had as 3d ones without all the drawbacks.

    People my age grew up for a long time with each new console being a new level of possibility to the games. At the time, SNES was dramatically better than NES, and when N64 came out, even 3d that was bad was fun, because it was so new at the time. 3d eventually became the mode.

    When I think about games, applications, websites, social networks, devices, I think about how different things got popular, but sometimes never any good: Motion control is becoming the norm for video games, 3d televisions, streams and social activity for websites and applications, capacitive touch screens for mobile phones, tablet computers, and e-readers.

    During this time, 2d video games have become nostalgic, and when I find ones I like see the are in the more, in the good ones I can notice the signs of the care and thought that were put into them.

    In the end I think most products could do with less attention for what's new, what's popular, and more focus into the elements, and qualities that matter.

    Inspired by A smartphone retrospective: http://www.marco.org/980434663

    Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • August 19, 10:57 PM

    When Identity and Blogs Don't Mix

    Sometimes Tumblr blogs can be really annoying (hold on)!. Many times I’ll find myself on a blog after clicking a reblogged post in my Tumblr dashboard, and for just some reason, the blog won’t have any information at all as to who’s site it is.

    Every time I find myself on a Tumblr blog not knowing who owns the blog I get frustrated. At this point, I’ve always come to associate a blog, with a blogger. And just the sheer number of places where you can find this is sign that it comes from something in the way that the system is designed. If identity is something that can be completely excluded from a website, that must to have been planned.

    Posterous blogs are always very clear on who’s blog it is. The customization options are there to hide the blog author, but practically all the time a user’s profile image is there, you can click through to their Posterous user account page and see what other blogs they own, and more often than not you can see the full names of all the contributors to a blog.

    Not that either is fundamentally right or wrong, it’s just a frustrating experience being on someone’s site and not knowing who they are. The nice thing that Wordpress has done from the very start is that the About page is ubiquitous. Every Wordpress blog has one by default. With Tumblr the only ubiquitous thing is that there’s content.

    There two scenarios where a Tumblr blog isn’t confusing:

    The first is where you already know the person. If you already know who owns a Tumblr blog then it’s not confusing. You of course don’t need to see your friend’s profile picture or their bio every time you visit their site. You already know who they are, and chances are you got to the site because they told you about it.

    The second is when the person who’s running the site doesn’t matter. In these cases, the identity of the blog is less about the person behind it and more about the identity that’s derived from the content. Who runs Fuck Yeah Girls and Bikes doesn’t matter. The site has an identity of its own thanks to the single topic the site focuses on. As long as the site is always about girls and bikes then everyone will feel comfortable there.

    In both of these cases I think not having an identity serves as a core part of the site, and improves the experience. Going to your friends blog means that you have a personal relationship with them. Their identity being a secret and not explicitly shared gives you a connection to the site other people won’t have. The content, and the commentary will resonate with you differently.

    For the second type, there’s something really refreshing about those sorts of blogs. In these cases, the site hasn’t been made for self marketing and no one’s using it to pimp their brand. It’s just pure content, and pure audience (sometimes with submissions).

    Thoughts here inspired by The New Who Thing: http://www.subtraction.com/2010/08/04/the-new-who-thing

    Fuck Yeah Girls and Bikes: http://fuckyeahgirlsandbikes.tumblr.com/

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  • August 18, 10:45 PM

    Create Share Consume and Organize

    Something I thought just a bit about today was the different reactions we as digital people have to new applications and services depending on what they do for us and how they integrate with the networks we are already a part of.

    Apps that give us new ways to create, share, consume, and organize seem all elicit different levels of excitement.

    Some apps, like Pulse, even give users the tools to all four of these activities. They can organize their news feeds, they can consume them in a rich way, they can share the articles they find that they like, and even create a website with all those shared stories.

    A new app to read RSS feeds or look at our Twitter stream can change “consumption” of media and has an impact on advertising, on mainstream media, on the print industry as a whole. Then, a new application that makes organizing and writing and accessing documents device agnostic, and fully cloud synced, gets little attention in comparison.

    When an app like Flipboard hits the scene then it disrupts where people go to read content, where they get their content from, and what they can do with their content. A neat example of sharing on Flipboard is how their article “comments” are all integrated with users’ Twitter accounts.

    A consumption app is going to do different things than a tool for writing. In fact, you already know what an app for consumption is going to do, who knows what people might do with a tool for creating?

    Pulse: http://www.alphonsolabs.com/
    Elements: http://www.secondgearsoftware.com/elements/
    Flipboard: http://www.flipboard.com/

    Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • August 08, 02:38 PM

    Flipboard

    A few weeks have gone by, and after forgetting about the meaningless "this is the future of media" buzz you would find in all the coverage of Flipboard, I feel like my everyday use of the application has created this a need in me that I would pay to satisfy.

    The short version is that a blended branded, and curated stream could be a premium source of content on top of Flipboard’s free mechanically scrapped content streams. Many of these could exist, created and run by brands, by individuals, or by communities. It’s a need for more content that feels the same way that browsing the currently available Hacker News or Cool Hunting streams do, in how they’re more enjoyable to read because they each represent a single community. This creating a binding thread between all the content in those streams. It’s why your Twitter stream feels familiar because you know that while all the content and links point to different sites and come from different people, they all relate to your Twitter account.

    It’s the blending of the many (many articles, many links, many different websites), underneath a common thread that elevates the experience to more than just browsing links.

    The "everyday use" that revealed this aspect about Flipboard was not in the sense of using the application everyday for the first week that it came out, but instead it was by using the application as I went about my everyday life. That everyday use included being able find interesting content when the need arose if wanted to take a break from work, or in the morning when drinking coffee, looking for something interesting to start my day off with. I usually started with nothing more than the topic I want to browse, like technology or design, and then with every swipe of the app’s pages I was given something new and unpredictable, not knowing what the layout of the next page would be, or what images and graphics would be displayed.

    What I first started to notice and appreciate was that the source of the content came secondary in importance to the content itself. There was a small 25x25 pixel favicon with the site’s name beside it. Beyond that it felt like all content was treaty equally.
    Getting rid of the distinction of whether a piece of content was coming from a blog, a magazine, or a news site was refreshing. And on top of putting these different types of content side-by-side, Flipboard also made content more distinctive by curing the common symptom known as "Fucking Ugly Websites." Flipboard gave me a universally clean and consistent design to absorb article headlines.

    In general I like the experience of discovering content through the Flipboard interface enough to pay for it, with certain conditions. A Flipboard stream worth paying for would need to change in a couple ways. The first change needed for me to pay involves giving me more than only scrapped web content. Topics right now are only made up articles scrapped from specific sites, and like I mentioned before, smarter, curated streams would be incredible.

    This sort of curation shouldn’t just involve putting content through a human filter, but also involve giving a Flipboard stream the unique characteristics of a creative and thinking mind. What would really be worth paying for, and what could create loyal users would be a selection of streams, each one containing a blend of articles that are relevant and that draw you in, with each stream supplementing it’s curated content with unique premium content that only appears in that stream. Think, Daring Fireball on Flipboard.

    So far Flipboard is refreshing because it obfuscates the original source of a piece of content and let’s me not worry about ugly website. In each case it lets me focus on what matters. What would be great to see in the future, and what I would pay for, is a Flipboard that could bring disparate content together on a more meaningful level, and letting me know that in any one stream, every piece of content is related, bringing the big picture into play. This would help take the application from interesting, to relevant.

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  • August 06, 05:40 PM

    Where I Learn I Suck at Reading, But That's OK

    When I start a project, if it’s in an area or domain that I’m not comfortable with, I always spend a lot of time upfront collecting whatever information I can find from Google, from authors or writers that I trust online and in the books of magazines that I own. I collect all the information I can find and try to do the best job I can with the tools I have (notebooks, and applications like Things, Evernote, and Mindnode) to explore what ideas exist, relate all those ideas together, and to understand them fully. Even almost more importantly, I do all this to try and help myself from forgetting the conclusions I come up with.

    I read lot, take a lot of notes, and draw many sketches. The problem is I always forget a lot. I don’t know why it happens, but the fact that I can’t directly recall 95% of what I just studied in university makes me worried... about the possibility of in the future forgetting things I actually care about (aka I don’t miss the school stuff much).

    Overtime I started to experiment with different behaviours that would help me better retain the key ideas of what I read. I tried bookmarking pages with Post-its, and I tried vigorously taking notes on everything I thought was worth remembering, but neither method helped me much. Though I did learn what I was actually trying to achieve, and it wasn’t to remember the key ideas at all. It was to become a better product of them.

    If someone else was writing this you could paraphrase that as “Not better understanding what makes a better entrepreneur, but actually becoming one”, or designer, or hacker, etc...

    The funny thing about it is though, that at the start of a project, no matter how much preparation I do in trying to understand an idea, it only ever feels like it’s through the process of writing code, or designing, or in tackling all the little problems that come up (and sometimes there are larger ones that come up too) when I can feel like I’m moving forward in furthering my understanding.

    It may actually be more appropriate to say that it’s in the course of development and of being in that correct mindset, the mindset of developing, and not the mindset of preparing, that I can do stuff like look at my notes, or create new drafts, and actually learn.

    All the notes and sketches I do before starting a project, are preparation for the learning I’m about to do.

    What does that mean? It’s means reading books is good, but referencing them, discussing them, and dissecting them in the right mindset is more lasting.
    Try this. If you’re like me, you may still forget everything you read, but at least maybe the muscle memory will stick with you.

    The idea that I get very little from actually reading anything was a scary realization that was revealed itself word-by-word in front of me as I read The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains in Wired by Nicholas Carr.
    http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/all/1

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  • June 26, 08:55 PM

    Lake Rosseau

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  • June 23, 08:00 AM

    Designed To Be Addictive

    People loved watching a reality TV shows about people singing and dancing their way to fame.

    Then we got Glee.

    People loved books and movies about vampires, werewolves, and a chick.

    Then we got True Blood.
    TV isn’t always creative, but at the same time it can still be very successful. I don’t watch any of any of these shows, but what made these shows successful after copying the general theme, was that they copied the emotion pull of what made their predecessor successful, then they cranked it emotionally.

    Glee isn’t a show that reflects the experience of learning to sing and dance, it’s a show that makes an emotional connection between the audience with the unexpected stars who cover almost all the high school archetypes. After that, everything is a sensory overload of sight, sound, and emotion, and sex.

    If you've read Brave New World, maybe you'll recognize how this is similar to the Feelies from that story,

    “...an entertainment form with an incredible level of sensation but with minimal substance.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feelie

    Sounds a lot like junk food. And you know what the problem with junk food is? It’s designed to be addictive.

    After you do get addicted, you lose your appetite for anything else.

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  • June 22, 12:22 PM

    Something Routine

    After browsing through the free classic available on the Kobo ebook store, I downloaded about 30 different books that I’ve always known about, but that I’ve never made an effort to read. Now on my Kobo I have among others: Treasure Island, Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, A Tale of Two Cities, The Republic, The Metamorphosis, and The Prince.

    If I get through half of those in the next year I’ll be happy.

    On the creative side I bought Autodesk Sketchbook Pro both for the iPhone and the iPad, and I also downloaded the free Adobe Ideas app.

    It was easy to get apps these onto my device, and it’s also easy to launch the apps to either start reading or to start drawing.

    With these non-wastes of time being just as easy to launch as games, social networks, or email, I’m thinking a bit about what could be the final effect?

    Laptops and wifi first made the mobile office possible. People changed their work behaviours, leaving the office to work in their environments of choice like in cafes, or during trips on trains and planes. But it the tools didn't make it easy to do digital art on the go, and it wasn’t as easy to access a mobile digital library, or to buy books on demand.

    What happens to our society as the price for these devices and applications drop, as this sort of computing becomes the norm in work and schools, and as easily accessible let reading and designing become normal, or common activities. This is the same thing that was probably asked ten years ago, but the timeline was much longer. Then, they were looking into the next decade, with the technology only being an idea. Now the tools are already in people's hands, and their effects are close coming.

    When the same device that's delivering people television and games is the same one used to read and to draw, what will be the effects if everyone starts to do those activities a few hours a week. Think on the same scale to how massive the change would be for people if they also exercised for 15 minutes a day.

    Nothing substantial, but something noticeably routine.

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  • June 14, 12:22 PM

    iPad Apps For School

    After seeing apps like this, I'm instantly jealous of people who are still in school.

    Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • June 14, 10:59 AM

    Best to Wait on Ebooks

    After thinking about some comments Steve Jobs made on ebooks, and because of the fact that iBooks hasn't really entered Canada yet, I think the best decision is probably to wait on making a lot of purchases on ebooks for at least the next 6 months, or until a few things happens.

    1. iBooks

    It's not out in Canada yet, but the real impact of iBooks on the publishing industry is going to be made in the States because of the size of that market. The main shifts in ebook publishing, and in pricing are going to come from iBooks's success in the US. Canada isn't going to be the source of any major change or innovation in this space.

    I think we can start using ebooks and ereading software, but don't pour too much money into any particular platforms yet until the "real" market develops and makes its way up north.

    2. eBook Pricing

    I think the key to this is what Jobs said at the D8 conference about pricing. He made the point that for all media, Apple's strategy has been to price aggressively, and go for volume. When the interviewer pointed out that this was counter to Apple's strategy on ebooks, pricing them at the higher price desired by publishers, Jobs said that it was all a matter of demand. In the long term, consumers aren't going to pay the prices for ebooks that publishers think they should. Jobs knows this, and consumers know this. But from Job's position, if pricing ebooks higher in the short term is what it will take to bring publishers on board with iBooks,  then so be it.

    We will see ebook prices drop, maybe even back down to that $9.99 price point Amazon originally offered.

    But on iBooks of course.

    3. Kobo

    My biggest problem with Kobo is that it doesn't have a track record yet. I'm talking about the seven year track record that the iTunes store now how. Kobo has a good ecosystem, backing by Indigo, and they have a good online store with both good selection and pricing. But they don't have a track record yet. It's still possible that we could see  consumers buying all these books through the Kobo service, only to see the company shut-down in 12 months with all the books bought from them locked into discontinued and unsupported software.

    What do you think?

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  • June 13, 09:09 PM

    Virtual Bookshelves Are a Pain

    I don't mind ebooks.

    In fact, I don't mind ebooks so much that I would be completely willing to part ways with all the 257 (I counted) books that I have in my room right now.

    Anyone else in the same situation I'm in right now? I have this new device I bought to read books, and at the same time I have all these old books - some I've read, some I haven't - that I really want to move to my device, and not take up all my space.

    There might probably be someone who could use these books as well. There are places that still need books aren't there? Take them.

    All I ask for in return is a couple of less-than-1MB epub files in their place. I would like them without DRM. But if they have to be DRM'd so be it. Though when the only solution we have to read our ebooks on our PCs is using Adobe Digital Editions, then things look bleak.

    Why is it that with the iPad selling at a rate of one every three seconds, companies aren't trying some more creative strategies to market their products? It's safe to say the "Let's just sell them DRM'd ebooks" approach won't last another year.

    For now, the iBook Store (in Canada) is not an option. The Gutenberg books you get from there are so poorly formatted, it looks as though some TXT files were saved as an epub file and thrown up there. The book sections and chapters are all over the place, and there are pages and pages of translation notes that are impossible to navigate around (which is really bad considering it's all digital). My biggest complaint about Gutenberg books on iBooks is that none of them have cover images...

    Anyways.

    The Kindle, and Kobo book stores work, but they fail to impress. It's 2010, and it's still easier, and more useful to go out and buy a paper book. That's how much people suck.

    I just bought Bounce from the Kobo store. The book was easy to buy and fast to download. I expect the transaction of a 700kb file to be easy and smooth no matter what. But when I read that the book was available in ePub, I sort of expected that ibooks would've been able to read it. I mean, iBooks is software purely for the consumption of ePub files. The legal work at play must be impressive if two different applications on the same device can't read the same file.

    I mean, the file is there, on the device. One reader can read the file, but the other isn't allowed to.

    Virtual bookshelves are a pain in the ass. 

    Backtracking to my original want to get rid of all my paper books in exchange for ebooks... DRM sucks, and being locked-in is never any fun. But I would still prefer to be locked in a single platform and have all my paper books swapped out for digital ones.

    The sooner all my books are on a digital platform (whether it's Kindle, Kobo, or iBooks) the more committed I will be to buying books from that platform, for all the same reasons people don't split their music libraries between iTunes and Zune Marketplace. And the sooner one platform gives me a compelling enough offer and either gives me cheaper books, more selection, a better software experience, or a trade-in which I'll emphasize again for the fourth time, the sooner I will be a customer for life.

    Consider it the book version of "Import to iTunes". From a marginal-cost perspective the strategy works (cost of distributing a bunch of ePub files = zero), especially if it guarantees further purchases through a specific ebook store.

    One more final thought: When it's impossible to get ebooks from the public library... We. Are. Fucked.

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  • June 10, 01:08 PM

    How BP could solve the oil leak

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  • June 09, 03:19 PM

    The Better Tech Conference Survey

    I've taken my notes from the mind-map posted yesterday, and come up with a set of questions for my report on better tech conferences.

    I've tried to keep the survey (and the amount of work I have to do) short, so the survey is only 25 multiple choice questions. Two areas I kept out of the questioning to keep things short were questions about conference content and theme. You can look back to my last post on the conference mind-map to see what ideas were organized within those to top level branches. 

    Also, the survey results are all public.

    Since this is only a class on writing reports, and not a class on how to run a good survey, I'm not asking any personal or demographic information (age, income, profession).

    (After you hit submit, the iFrame will turn grey, scroll back up to see the confirmation message.)

    Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • June 08, 11:21 AM

    Better Tech Conference Report: The Mindmap

    One of my two final courses in my undergraduate degree I'm taking this summer is a course on business report writing. It's super fun.

    The main assignment for the course is a informative report on a topic of our choosing, and thanks to some other things I was involved with at the start of the course, I chose to write a report to analyze the qualities that people like and dislike in technology conferences they attend.

    My main method for going about this is to try and break down different topics and themes that come up in the comments, blog posts, summaries, and mind-dumps, that are written about tech conferences either in general, or right after they happen. Some of the blog posts I've been reading for example were a lot of the post-SXSW 2010 coverage, which some people brought up themes such as super crowded and hard to get into sessions, and the rise of a VIP social situation.

    Right now I'm coming up with a questionnaire that I'll need your help to fill.

    For now, I'll share with you the mind-map that I've put together which the questions will be based on.

    Download now or preview on posterous
    Better Events.pdf (37 KB)

    Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • May 20, 02:31 PM

    EVE Online

    I'm in class now as I write this. And a student just called this image
    out as not being possible.

    "There can only be one y value for each x value... I don't think there
    are imaginary numbers in learning curves"

    Thank god I'm only a month away from leaving this school... Along with
    100s of other people like this who will have the same degree as me.

    Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • May 06, 08:11 PM

    The Before And After

    The Before

    The After

    Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Open Mode

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  • June 11, 05:29 PM

    Interview with Team Save & Burstn

    Yesterday evening I did a short interview with Josh Davey and Dave Senior Burstn, and Chris Nguyen from Team Save, after all three have them were featured this week in the different mainstream media publications for their two start-ups.

    Chris Nguyen’s start-up, Team Save, enables social buying, and gives consumers the power to together to share and unlock new deals for products and services each day. Busrtn, co-founded by Josh and Dave, is a real-time photo publishing application for the iPhone.

    I wanted to ask these three if they felt anything similar after getting featured in the media with the practice of sharing goals publicly. Experts in productivity have all said before that a great way to commit to, and to stick with goals is to share them with friends, family, or to publish them online on something like a blog.

    Is there anything similar that happens when your start-up gets covered by the media? Do these two start-ups feel more committed to hitting their deadlines now that the general public and all of their friends are tuned in?

    One interesting quote from the interview:

    “Telling people that we were in the mainstream media, drove more traffic than actually being in the mainstream media.” - Josh Davey

    Also featured in the mainstream press recently was Hossein Rahnama whose post-graduate research project developed a prototype smartphone system to assist passengers with special needs navigate dynamic environments such as airport hubs or train systems.

  • June 10, 12:10 PM

    TeamSave’s Chris Nguyen and Zappos’s Tony Hsieh


    Team Save's Chris Nguyen


    Zappos's Tony Hsieh

    TeamSave’s Chris Nguyen and Zappos’s Tony Hsieh

  • June 09, 12:10 PM

    Three Ways to Market Your Startup by Blogging

    There is a lot of opportunity for projects in the DMZ to promote their businesses, and grow their reputation through starting their own blogs.

    There are three things I want to touch on,

    1. Blogging to become knowable
    2. Marketing by teaching
    3. Becoming an authority

    Blogging to Become Knowable

    “‘Don’t blog to get known, blog to be knowable.’ - Hugh McGuire

    Being knowable as opposed to being known is about developing trust, not reputation. This quote is simple, and it’s a great perspective on the approach that people should look at if they want to start a blog for marketing their businesses.

    Hugh goes on to say:

    “if I am evaluating someone as a potential business partner, client, service provider, etc, I want to be able to trust them. There are a few ways of trusting someone: knowing them, getting a good recommendation about them, or knowing about them.

    When I am researching a person, a company, a product, I want to be able to go somewhere like a blog to poke around, read up on their thinking and opinions, a place where I can get to know them, what interests them, what they are like. No other platform - not Facebook, twitter or anywhere else - comes close to a blog for giving me immediate comfort about & trust in someone I know nothing about.” Hugh McGuire (via Mitch Joel)

    Blogging shouldn’t necessarily be tied to goals of increasing revenues or attracting more customers. You may get something back from it, but that’s not the point. The blog is a by-product of your business. The blog is a way for you to be generous with your experience and your expertise to your customers and others.

    Being generous is how you build trust.

    Marketing by Teaching

    This was an idea I first heard from the CEO of 37 Signals, Jason Fried, where at one conference he talked about how sharing the knowledge that his company had gathered became an effective method of developing popular resources and bring many new people to their blog, and to their products.

    37 Signals took advantage of their experience managing a small business, and developing web applications to teach their readers about those very topics. They also took advantage of their company’s “by-products”, the secondary objects that were created as a result of running their primary business. Two examples of by-products, aside from the company’s blog, are the collections of experiences and lessons learnt that they packaged into two books: Getting Real, and Rework.

    Teaching their audience about business, software, and web application development, also helped 37 Signals become an authority in their industry.

    Becoming an Authority

    If blogging to be knowable was about building trust, than blogging to become an authority is about getting people to rely on what you say, and to follow you.

    John Gruber is an authority on Apple. Clay Shirky is an authority on social Internet technologies. Seth Godin is an authority on marketing. You may trust these figures less than others in your social circle, but their authority brings them plenty of business.

    Authority exists in specific circles. Just like the new ventures DMZ start-ups are creating, there exists the opportunity not just to develop authority in an existing circle, but to create a new circle, even if it’s a small one, and to be the authority of that group.

    There also always exists the promotional and cash generating possibilities of being called for consulting, or for speaking because of your authority on a particular topic. Authority trumps expertise in these cases.

    Blogging Before Launch

    Your product doesn’t even need to be launched for you to carry out these tactics. Even if you don’t want to reveal information about your product, you can start by talking about the general industry you are going into, the challenges that exist, and the problems that other companies haven’t been able to solve.

    …but that you soon will.

  • June 07, 03:54 PM

    Hacker Monthly Magazine


    A local favourite, Hacker News is one of the most visited websites by the developers and tech entrepreneurs in the Ryerson Digital Media Zone. This new monthly publication covers a lot of the same themes and content discussed on Hacker News, and on the website of the well respected VC and entrepreneurship writer Paul Graham, partner in the popular Y Combinator venture firm.

    “HACKER MONTHLY is the print magazine version of Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com) — a social news website wildly popular among hackers and startup founders with its content can be “anything that gratifies one’s intellectual curiosity”(as quoted from the site’s submission guidelines). Every month, we select the top voted articles from Hacker News and put them in the magazine format.”

    This issue covers topics from development, start-ups, and careers, to miscellaneous topics like A/B Testing, pricing, and writing advice for engineers.

    The magazine is available in two formats: A paper copy available for $9, and as a free PDF download from the Hacker Monthly website. To be honest the reading experience as a PDF is not as great as I had hoped, with multi-page spreads, and a three-column reading layout contributing to making the magazine harder to sit back with, say, like on an iPad.

    It’s really the integration of all these different topics targeted towards a single audience, into a single package that will help Hacker Monthly a really take off. Also nice is the small amount of unobtrusive advertising in the magazine, but that may change in the future.

    Enjoy!

  • June 03, 10:58 AM

    Thanks to Matt Thompson from Mozilla for sharing this on...



    Thanks to Matt Thompson from Mozilla for sharing this on Twitter.

    Original link here: Open Source Open World.

  • May 31, 05:37 PM

    Freemium Business Models

    Evernote is one of my favourite products. Whether you use it on your PC, Mac, iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android phone, it’s an everything bucket that you can use to store your notes, documents, photos, links, your web clippings, ideas, to dos, or your projects. Thank you to TechCrunch for sharing a recent presentation by Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote at the quarterly Founder Showcase in Silicon Valley on Evernote and its fremium business model.

    This talk is great for anyone wanting to see a successful Freemium business model in action. Phil shares with the audience interesting information including their user retention rates, premium subscription rates, variable costs info, and other metrics most CEOs wouldn’t share publicly.

    The most interesting part of the product and what this financial view shows is how users who stick around with the service for a longer period of time have higher premium conversion rates. The beautiful part is how that customer behaviour fits in exactly with the way the product is designed, the more you have in Evernote and the more information that’s important you throw into it, the more valuable the tool is to you. And that shows. Phil mentions in the talk that when asked why users converted to the premium subscription, the top reason is “I love Evernote!”.

    Phil starts his talk off with some candid advice,

    ‘The best product doesn’t always win,’

    ….This is, extremely important, complete and utter bullshit. Totally wrong, totally pernicious, and anyone who’s telling you this wants you to fail. - Phil Libin

    The first piece of advice Phil gives to companies is that if you have the option of investing a dollar in making their product better or in other stuff, spend it on making a better product. If other people tell you to to focus your time and energies in something other than just making the best product, then that’s just really bad advice, because all that other stuff that’s not building a great product you can basically get for free.

    This reflects some classic advertising wisdom:

    The best way to increase the sale of a product is to improve the product. - David Ogilvy

    The Freemium model is just one of many business models options available for startups, but what Phil says is that it’s a simple model that works if you make a great product. If your product is great, then people will pay for it.

    Do you use Evernote or subscribe to any premium services online? We’d love to hear which ones and why!

    Remember to follow us on Twitter! @RyersonDMZ

    Bonus: If you are interested in Free and how free works as a business model, check out Chris Anderson’s free ebook, Free: The Future of a Radical Price.

  • May 31, 04:48 PM

    How to Create Shared Open Spaces for Social Innovation | via CSI

    Rigour: How-To Create World-Changing Spaces
    Hardcopy
    PDF
    This book is a manual for those planning or operating a shared space. It reveals the accumulated knowledge of six years of experience and offers a ton of tips, lessons and tools for developing a strong organization and vibrant community. 
    via socialinnovation.ca

    As part of the Shared Spaces for Social Innovation initiative at CSI—the group is publishing free (downloadable PDF) and paid (hardcopy) manuals on their story; a how-to; and, an impact report. The how-to report entitled “Rigour: How-To Create World-Changing Spaces” is solid. Many of the concepts look especially applicable to the DMZ. I am looking forward to our team adopting some of the lexicon, tips, and lessons shared from +6 years experience in this field. 

    I love the books design (a lot like @thinksmith’s visual aesthetic). The team has done a brilliant job of laying out content. One thing to pick at: the PDF version fails to link the hosted resources the manual often makes a point of referencing. Hopefully version 2 will include hot links.

    From the definitions to tools through branding—this is a must read for anyone in the tech community looking to develop a vibrant community within a shared space. Excellent work—

  • May 28, 07:37 PM

    Drive & The Ryerson Digital Media Zone

    A few days ago I found this video that gives a super fun and compelling walk through of the arguments made in the book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Dan Pink. Specifically, the counter-intuitive argument made is that in work requiring mental effort or creativity, a.k.a. Knowledge Work, the incentives which we’ve always for success such as money or promotions, actually have a destructive effect on our performance.

    Dan Pink is one of my favourite authors. I first read his book Whole New Mind, which was an eye opener into how the right brain and creativity becomes the competitive advantage in a global economy embraced by automation, off-shoring, and abundance. I then read his two other books, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, and Free Agent Nation. Both of these books took up the future of work and the new ways of working.

    Drive, his latest work published in late 2009, is another book I think will take a while for everyone to appreciate. There’s a chance though that it could have a big impact on a lot of different workplaces.

    Another thing I think is cool is how much this can tie into what the DMZ is doing for students, especially those still finishing or just out of their undergraduate programs. The Zone is giving people - once again - beyond free resources and a ton of support, the autonomy to set their own direction, their own schedule, and the chance to work on whatever problems they want to solve. Who knew that sort of opportunity, that autonomy, could be recognized as such an important factor in motivation though?

    This makes me think of how this Zone could be used not only for the launching of new businesses and as a space for University research projects, but as a low-cost reward and motivational tool. This could be a tool to give students, research assistants, or masters students the autonomy and the motivation they need early in their careers as an opportunity not provided elsewhere.

    It may also be the best place to make the home for innovative new university sponsored initiatives, as it could be close enough to take advantage of universities resources, yet separated enough in culture and in location to not be held down by traditional organizational politics, or bureaucracy.

  • May 25, 10:47 AM

    Ryerson DMZ as Startup CEO Training

    What part of the experience are entrepreneurs getting at the Ryerson DMZ that is giving them a big advantage in their careers?

    As great as they all are, it’s not the free conferences, the roomy downtown office space, or the free equipment, and it’s also not the product feedback they get from demoing their products to VIPs touring the DMZ (but, it is pretty great).

    The biggest advantage is the opportunity to have four months dedicated to building a product, the rest are all resources to support that. This will help their start-ups succeed, and as it turns out, it also gives them the training to become awesome start-up CEOs.

    On his blog, Marcus Daniels goes over his reasons why product management doubles as great start-up CEO training.

    Daniels breaks down the three areas of responsibility that product managers perform that best prepares them for roles as start-up CEOs: Product Roadmapping, Setting Priorities, Go-To-Market Strategy & Execution.

    “Product managers become market experts as they talk to potential customers early in the process. They can test and validate concepts before building the startup. The product management experience teaches them how to manage all of the moving parts in a new venture, master alignment, and better predict key financial metrics.”

    - Marcus Daniels

    Since not many groups in the DMZ have formally launched yet, their focus should be on product roadmapping, and on setting priorities. As teams focus on product development, team members should be iterating their development and paying attention to the strategic direction of the product, the market for the product, and the market need they are going after.

    For example, the original target market and business model behind Burstn was very different than what it has become over the past 6 months. The original business pitch had a different target market, different service offerings, and different branding. By balancing flexibility in development while paying attention to consumers and market needs, the team is now developing a product that solves a bigger problem.

    “Like writing a business plan, the true value of creating a product roadmap is the strategic analysis and thought not the document.”

    - Marcus Daniels

    To bring in again all the resources the DMZ provides to it’s participants, the conference opportunities and networking events that participants in the DMZ are offered do provide value to participants, but at cost. They can risk taking a team’s focus away from building and shipping their products.

    “Getting the team focused on priorities to build minimal viable product and ship a software release on time is absolutely essential in a startup environment. Without focused prioritization, your startup will find itself with endless possibilities without a market orientation.”

    - Marcus Daniels

    Just like how each start-up may have only one CEO on their team, any group in the DMZ may have only one product manager. They may not have one at all. But if every member of a team at the DMZ is not providing strategic input into the development of their group’s product, and taking responsibility for the different moving parts in their ventures, then they are missing one of the biggest opportunities available to them. It’s the process of performing strategic analysis on their market, setting a direction for their products, and focusing on priorities that lead to better product designs, which will lead to more success for their companies, and for themselves.

  • May 21, 04:29 PM

    Quit Facebook Day

    It’s a lack of fair choices and best intentions that has been the reason why 12,341 have committed to leaving Facebook on May 31st.

    That, according to Quit Facebook Day organizers, Joseph Dee and Matthew Milan, is what Facebook isn’t doing a good job of. The event and website are a follow up to a blog post Matthew wrote earlier this month where he explained his reasons for leaving the social networking site,

    While I believe it’s acceptable for organizations to collect and use comprehensive personal data from individuals, they must do it in a way that 1. gives individuals fair choices to decide how that data is used, and 2. is done with the intent of serving the best interests of current (and future) society as a whole.

    Since Facebook is not doing either of these (and is in fact heading rapidly in the other direction), I’m no longer interested in maintaining a presence of any type on the site. If a company doesn’t consider information sustainability in their designs, they are not creating any long term value for humanity. - Matthew Milan

    That blog post later got picked up by the CBC.

    Quitting For The Sake of Passion

    Among other reasons to quit Facebook, is doing work that matters. This is not the most talked about reason for quitting Facebook, nor does it necessarily have the biggest impact on the Facebook population, but it’s the one that’s most important to doing great work, and about shipping.

    When you think about what all the different things the DMZ stands for, giving people in the Ryerson community the opportunity to turn a great idea into a great business is high on that list.

    Many companies in the Ryerson DMZ haven’t launched yet. Many of them are building the Beta versions of their applications, and some, only their product’s Proof of Concept. They are the perfect target for the comfort and familiarity that Facebook provides in place of the risk and danger that comes from doing something new which might fail, or that might get laughed at.

    I quit Facebook not because it was an addiction but because I decided I didn’t need it. - Josh Davey, Founder, Burstn

    I am quitting Facebook because I realized it is a parasite of purity. How many times a day when I am trying to crush it do I check in to see if something changed in my social scope? Or worse, when I am with my closest friends hanging out… all of sudden I find myself checking the FB news feed—all while neglecting the essence FB fails at capturing: friendship. - Jaime Sorgente, Community Member

    My Take

    Quitting Facebook for me is a stand against letting the lizard brain take over. The lizard brain is what draws us to familiarity, and to do what’s comfortable; to avoid doing what’s risky and instead seek out what’s expected.

    If you’re more driven by your passion than by Facebook (unless your passion is Facebook), then I suggest you read this article by productivity blogger Merlin Mann. The article is long, so here’s a small selection (but go and read the whole thing). 

    Future Proofing Your Passion

    It really is true that no one but you cares about your major. But, trust me: everybody is interested in the person who repeatedly notices the things that are about to stop being impossible…

    …If we embrace the fact that no one can or should ever care about the health of our passions as much as we do, the practical decisions that help ensure Our Good Thing stays alive can become as “simple” as a handful of proven patterns—work hard, stay awake, fail well, hang with smart people, shed bullshit, say “maybe,” focus on action, and always always commit yourself to a bracing daily mixture of all the courage, honesty, and information you need to do something awesome—discover whatever it’ll take to keep your nose on the side of the ocean where the fresh air lives. This is huge.

    Anything else? Yeah. Drink lots of water, play with your kid every chance you get, and quit Facebook today. No, really, do it. - Merlin Mann

    If you are interested in the privacy issues surrounding Facebook, here are some links to consider:

    Read, then make the decision for yourself.

  • April 09, 04:30 PM

    Media Round Up: Digital Media Zone Launch

    Thanks to everyone who came out to the launch.  The Digital Media Zone is a collaboration space for young entrepreneurs that is just bubbling over with energy. I am excited that the media felt the same way we do about what’s happening and the tremendous possibilities Ryerson is creating for it’s students with the space.

    Here is a round up of the coverage from the launch event

    Ryerson in the market for bright ideas - Globe and Mail

    Ryerson’s digital think tank sparks inventions - The Toronto Star

    CBC News Toronto video article @ 17:40 - CBC News Toronto

    Ryerson University opens Digital Media Zone - Canadian News Wire

    Ryerson helps budding inventors - Metro

    Ryerson Launches DMZ in Toronto - TechVibes

    Digital Media Zone drives development at Ryerson - MediaCaster Magazine

    Ryerson opens idea factory - The Ryersonian

  • April 09, 12:18 PM

    Ryerson DMZ Launch and Open House

  • April 07, 01:21 PM

    @ludachris talking about Entrepreneurship, the Ryerson DMZ and...



    @ludachris talking about Entrepreneurship, the Ryerson DMZ and what it takes to be a successful startup.

  • April 07, 01:33 AM

    TeamSave Interview with Founder Chris Nguyen

    You are launching a new web service today, tell us about the project

    TeamSave.com is a social buying website that lets consumers buy as a group to save as a team.  Combining the power of group purchasing with social media, TeamSave.com gives consumers access to heavily discounted goods, services and events from hundreds of local businesses, including well-known restaurants, spas and event organizers, helping consumers save up to 50% off the regular price in some cases.

    How is it different then everything else that’s going on in the social buying space?

    I believe our demographics we’re going after, types of deals we’re promoting, smartphone strategy and execution will separate us from our competitors. Our first venture was in the highly competitive job board industry and it taught us how to compete in an emerging market.

    How did you get involved in the DMZ

    I was approached by Sheldon Levy to sit on the Steering Committee for the DMZ.  I have maintained a great relationship with Ryerson, founding my first venture while in school. I ended up leaving the parent company who acquired my first venture and began to build TeamSave.com from the DMZ. 

    I know you presented at DemoCamp Toronto 26 held at the Ted Rogers School of Management, how was the experience?

    This was our second DemoCamp we presented at. We’ve received great response to our presentation and had an overwhelming number of congratulatory emails and considerable feedback. I encourage any start-up with the opportunity to present at DemoCamp to do so. 

    How is the DMZ helping you out in launching your new venture?

    We are able to utilize the resources available at the DMZ. We’re able to connect with corporations like Microsoft who provide all the resources and tools that any start up would need. I enjoy being surrounded by like-minded entrepreneurs who I can request feedback on our product. 

  • April 06, 01:19 PM

    DMZ Open House Wednesday April 7th 1:00-4:00pm



    DMZ Open House Wednesday April 7th 1:00-4:00pm

  • April 03, 04:05 PM

    "What is OIDMTC?"

    “What is OIDMTC?”

    -

    The Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit (OIDMTC) is a refundable tax credit that supports interactive media development in Ontario. The credit has been designed to encourage development in the area of digital media and can result in significant cash refunds.

    Is my company eligible to receive OIDMTC?
    Yes, if your company is:
    - Canadian or foreign-owned corporation
    - Operates in Ontario
    - Files Ontario tax return

    via sredunlimited.com

    Found this excellent FAQ post on The Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit (OIDMTC) from the folks over at SRED Unlimited. Check it out to get a better understanding of how the OIDTMC is calculated, eligible products and expenditures, and how you can maximize your credit.

    For more details on the tax credit and your potential eligibility visit: http://www.omdc.on.ca/Page3400.aspx

  • April 03, 03:56 PM

    vBlog by Naomi Cowan [YouTube]

    via youtube.com

    Site visit hosted by Ryerson vBlogger Naomi Cowan. Special thanks to Adrian Bulzacki, Chris Nguyen, Jonathan Ingham (http://p15media.com/) and Hossein Rahnama.

    Video produced by Ryerson University.

  • April 03, 03:37 PM

    SR&ED Tax Credit in a Nutshell

    via techincentives.ca

    The Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program is a federal tax incentive that aims to enable and incentivize research and development (R&D). SR&ED helps Canadian organizations—at any size and growth stage—conduct research that leads to new, improved, or technologically advanced products or processes.

    For information straight from the CRA’s mouth, check out: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/txcrdt/sred-rsde/bts-eng.html The page takes you through all the questions (how to: qualify, apply, process) inherent to considering filing a tax credit application for SR&ED program.

  • April 03, 03:07 PM

    via vimeo.com A brief site tour on a very quiet Saturday...



    via vimeo.com

    A brief site tour on a very quiet Saturday afternoon in the Zone. Apologies for the repetitive use of um & pseudo and please excuse the choppy walk-through. Still only getting the hang of using the Flipcam :)

    PS—> The Network Centre of Excellence I spoke about is focused on Graphics, Animation, and New meDia! For more info, check out this link: http://ryerson.ca/~edgelab/

  • April 01, 04:59 PM

    Working in the zone



    Working in the zone

Ryerson DMZ

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Malcolm Bastien

studying, reading, writing
Information Technology and Services | Toronto, Canada Area, CA

Summary

Experience with open source technologies and advocacy, with interests in management and the use of open source to advance business results

My goals include increasing my capabilities with project management, organizational structure and development, as well as studying the use of open source and free software in pedagogy at the university level and it's effective use in business.

I was a presenter at the 2007 Ace Regionals Competition in Ottawa Ontario, winning 2nd place in the Financial Literacy category.
Specialties: Open source technologies and advocacy, XHTML and CSS, Linux, Django, Python, CakePHP

Experience

  • Mar 2009 - Nov 2009

    Consumer Insights Analyst / Blast Radius

  • Sept 2008 - Dec 2008

    SEO Consultant / The Hospital for Sick Children

    Part-time SEO consulting for one of the hospital's web properties, www.AboutKidsHealth.ca, including organic SEO and web analytics analysis.
  • May 2008 - Aug 2008

    Category Analyst / Labatt Breweries of Canada

    Performed Category Management and Space Management functions for retail stores in Quebec. Prepared reports culminating large sets of sales data, and also performed application maintenance and updating using VBA.
  • Jan 2007 - May 2008

    VP of Project Management / SIFE Ryerson

    Introduced project management and organizational management concepts as well as performed process re-engineering with the goal of strengthening the organizations effectiveness and to improve the quality of the experience for our members.
  • May 2007 - Dec 2007

    Solutions Development Analyst / Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation

Education

  • 2005 - 2010

    Ryerson University

    BComm in Information Technology Management
    Activities: SIFE Ryerson

Additional information

Websites:
My Schedule
Honors:
ACE Summer Project Manager Bursary recipient
Interests:
management, project management, innovation, culture, collaboration, Linux, free and open source software, web development, digital marketing, social networking, open culture, productivity, Personal MBA program, Photography, reading, blogging, web analytics
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