Interface designer and researcher David Crow works for Microsoft, but he's best known in the 416 area code for being a tireless promoter of various Camp events in the Greater Toronto area, as well as a guiding force for the city's tech community. He's just been named Toronto's best tech evangelist by BlogTO, beating out heavy hitters like Amber MacArthur, Will Pate and Joey DeVilla.
According to Crow, Toronto has always had isolated communities of designers, developers and other innovators, but there wasn't much in the way of cross-pollination between the groups until the first Camp event in late 2005. For Crow, technology is more about changing the world ands less about touting Toronto as the "fifth largest technology cluster in the world." He is also pushing a new initiative, Founders and Funders, which gets nascent tech companies together with investors and venture capitalists.
Crow pointed in his BlogTO interview to net neutrality and the need for a shift in mobile data rates as key issues for 2008. He also said smaller local online media outlets like Freshdaily, Toronto Life and Vancouver-based firms with national reach like NowPublic and TechVibes are all fostering innovation and spreading awareness of Canada's tech sector.
