Kerfmusic is the iTunes of Canada Alt-Country-Roots-Rock

Kerfmusic LogoIf you're hankering for some great Canadian content, look no further than Calgary's Kerfmusic. Kerfmusic has become THE source of Canadian alt-country, roots-rock alternative and jazz / folk around the world.

Kerfmusic has over 450 artists registered on the digital distribution and eCommerce platform, and more than 700 different CD's for download (in .MP3 format, so it's not restricted). The music hails mostly from Western Canada and B.C., with a smaller eastern contingent; as Kerfmusic puts it "great independent music from the prairies and beyond." Interestingly, almost half of their registered users ("fans") are not in Canada at all, and there is a growing interest from Europe, where this style-o-music is striking a chord.

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Facebook Hacked ... The Geeks Inherit The Earth

Facebook Hacked

Notice that I removed the word “Shall” from the title of this blog post

After I caught the news about the Facebook hack, I meandered around the internet, thought about some recent events and am connecting loose dots for those that haven’t heard about the goings on. Hell, maybe I'm way behind the eight-ball on this stuff, but it's worth noting. It all could be a “Blair Witch Project” or “Joaquin Phoenix” type hoax, so please take this lightly. Or, not.

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CYBF announces YOU Innovate Canada tournament starting September 26th with $25K in prizes

CYBF LogoThe Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) is the Canadian host of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), an international movement designed to inspire millions of young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity through entrepreneurs.  Through events and activities the week of November 14th until 20th, people in countries across the world will celebrate the success of entrepreneurs and inspire more people to follow their passion and choose entrepreneurship.

This year, CYBF’s flagship activity will be YOU Innovate Canada – a national tournament that challenges Canadians 16 and older to turn their minds to creating new value out of an everyday object.  As a lead-up to the tournament, this upcoming Monday, September 26th, CYBF be revealing an "Everyday Object.”  YOU Innovate Canada participants will then be faced with the challenge to take that object, create a new innovation, define its value and submit a brief video about their innovation for the chance to win their a share of $25,000 in CASH prizes and an all-expense paid trip to the UK. Check out more details YOU Innovate contest here.

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July 11 to 17th: It's Pay-A-Mobile-Developer Week

I admit. I made this up. I'm trying to start a trend.

Mobile Developers work hard, and yet many are hardly making any money at all. According to a recent report from VisionMobile, nearly a third of mobile developers make less than a $1,000 per app, which is much less than the cost of actually making them.

It irks me that app stores have so many free apps available ... they certainly aren't free to develop. Interestingly, you don't find many free SONGS on iTunes, so why does Apple think it's ok to give APPS away for free? Ultimately, giving apps away helps them sell more handsets, more subscriptions, more usage ... and that's what really drives revenue and huge market caps. But the money isn't making it back into the developers pockets.

This has been grinding my coffee for several years. The mobile ecosystem is tough on the very people who are driving unprecedented mobile usage and smartphone/tablet adoption: mobile developers. So, despite successes such as Angry Birds, many can't even afford the caffeine drip that's required to keep them up until 3:00 a.m. working their fingers to the bone.

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MWC Barcelona 2010 Wrap-Up

This article is the final blog post from 2010 MWC Barcelona week from Stephen King, CEO of Mob4Hire.

I'm sitting in the plane flying from Barcelona to Amsterdam as I write this. I'm a very tired boy from a week of non-stop meetings, non-stop trade floor traffic, non-stop major announcements, and non-stop partying, er, um, networking.

The wrap-up of this year's show can be summed up in one word: Apps

Apps were everywhere. App widgets, middle-ware platforms, O/S announcements (Bada, MeeGo, Windows Phone 7, Linux Mobile:LiMo, Android), new handsets with new Apps, carrier App cross-platform architectures, App testing, App porting, App delivery platforms, App Stores, App Developer Conferences, App API's.

Apps. Apps. Apps.

In addition to my Day 1 and Day 2 wrap-ups, here's what happened the rest of the week.

In his keynote address, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, evangelized: "Google Embraces Mobile" ... specifically, Google embraces mobile that connects to the cloud. For a long-time computer guy like me, it was very reminiscent of Bill Gate's rally cry circa late '90's: in which Mr. Gates says that Microsoft will "... help make the Web lifestyle a reality. This is a lifestyle in which people take advantage of the Internet to lead more informed and productive lives, and have more fun."

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Day Two from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

This is a day 2 review of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from Stephen King, CEO of Mob4Hire, who's company is part of the Canadian Pavilion.

*Whew* Day 2 and fatigue is already setting in. Trade show hours of 9:00 am to 7:00 pm combined with after hours parties makes for some long busi-days.

Spent a bit of time at the Blackberry Developer Conference this morning. They launched their new Blackberry Enterprise Server Express which will expand their reach into mobile users who need both business and personal integration on their mobile device... apparently, corporate mobile users are getting tired of carrying around 2 phones so this is welcome news. Tyler Lessard, VP Global Alliances and Developer Relations, was very passionate about mobile developers creating "SuperApps" for Blackberry smartphones... the kind of app that will be on the phone all day long and be in constant use. Their key messages centered around integration to their new 5.0 API's, which offers developers a tremendous toolset to integrate with both the Blackberry pre-loaded apps (like Calendar) and architecture (like a graphics API), as well as operator's, for example, with a billing API. 

RIM stresses the quality of these apps are paramount, not the quantity. This is apparent in Blackberry App World, which currently has about 2,300 apps available vs. Apple's 140,000. Don't be fooled... there are 250,000 mobile developers in the Blackberry Developer Network who are doing amazing things, which is something we don't hear a lot about... many of these are programming enterprise integration and productivity apps, and not important consumer apps like iFart which tend to steal headlines.

I'll give you an example.

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Day One from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

I'm spending the week in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress. Mob4Hire (of which I am CEO) is part of the Canadian Pavilion, so I thought I'd share my experiences, both from a Canadian perspective as well as from my personal journey here.

First, of all, big time thanks to both the Federal and Provincal govt's (while many others have been involved, thanks 'specially to Leanne and Heli!). As a small Canadian micro-multinational mobile startup, our participation in the booth is very much appreciated; giving all the companies a valuable footprint in a massive show. To give you some perspective of the size, we are in building 2 of the 7 building Fira Barcelona complex, with 50,000+ attendees expected this week.

Things got underway last night, or Day 0, if you will. After setting up our booth, we went to the Canadian Consulate, where Canadian trade commissioners from around the world, Spanish commissioners as well as private industry came together for some awesome tapas and a group heartfelt missing of the Vancouver Olympics.

Then, it was off to Mobile Sunday. This was a gathering of mobile developers from the over 70 chapters of Mobile Monday organizations around the world. We saw a lot of old friends... this is a must stop every year for any mobile developer who is looking for birds of a feather, and the greatly expanded space held at least 200 hundred people.

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Canadian Companies rock PACT through California Market Access Program

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Last week, I spent two days in Sunnyvale, California, representing my company, Mob4Hire.com, in the Silicon Valley California Market Access program, which culminated in a 3 minute pitch at the annual PACT event at Plug and Play Tech Center.

This was the final stage of several months of work, starting at one-day bootcamps presented by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). These bootcamps happened in five cities across Western Canada (Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria) in early September. Calgary's occurred on September 11 (thanks, Emily McLaughlin, Chris Gill, Rick Rasmussen, Terry Weissenburger).

From this great one-day introduction and pitch, the selected participants continued the program in two different streams: San Diego and Silicon Valley. Mob4Hire was lucky enough to be selected into the second stage of both programs.

San Diego's 3 day program (called LEAP!) took place entwined with the events at the Banff Venture Forum ... an excellent combination. Through it, the 15 participants were treated to excellent informal and formal presentations, discussions and a San Diego V.C. pitch at the end of the week. In addition to one of the best 3 days I've spent learning as a CEO, I also noticed that it was due to the co-operation of many people, from the Federal Gov't (thanks Mario Diez!), local angels (thanks Randy Thompson, Henry Kutarna, Ken Gordon et al...), several financial and business leaders from San Diego, and supported by the local infrastructure such as CTI. Participants included Shopster, Kutano, Kryos Velocity, TeamPages, Solido Design, Mob4Hire, Soma Creates, Locarna, Dark Matter, IDUS Controls, Oprius Software, ResQ GPS, Atlantis Canada, eThor Media, and iKingdom.
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Last week's Silicon Valley took place with the co-operation of the Silicon Valley offices of the Canadian Trade Commissioner, C100, and others. For example, the first day put us in the offices of Uptake and Picaboo (two Canadian Valley-based start-ups) in the heart of Silicon Valley, downtown Palo Alto. We met with Microsoft, and then spent the afternoon at CISCO headquarters getting tuned up for our PACT presentation.

The 3rd annual PACT day at Sunnyvale's www.plugandplaytechcenter.com introduced companies from 10 different countries to a group of 250 including Silicon Valley V.C.'s, Angels, and our peers from the Valley. The GREAT day was hosted by the Plug and Play Tech Center; I must say that the Canadian companies showed up very well ... congrats everyone! The 22 participants were ActiveConversion, Arcalife, ASAT Solutions, Atlantis Research, Awesense Wireless Inc., Barrodale Computing, Dark Matter Labs, EnviroSpeak Media, InspekTech Online, ITSportsNet, Jostle Corporation, Kryos, Locarna Systems, Mob4Hire, MoboVivo, MSR Innovations, Omni Technology, Oprius Software, ResQ Mobile Services, Solido Design Automation, TeamPages and Titan Clean Energy Projects.

An important aspect of the Silicon Valley trip is the introduction of the C100; a group of successful Canadian business leaders who are passionate about helping other Canadian companies get introduced and network in the Valley. We had some good conversations with mentors we were introduced to (thanks, Ron!) ... important messages I carried away were "Think Bigger. Way Bigger" and "Keep it Simple ... Simple is easier to execute."

We made great enduring relationships, not only with the Gov't connections and mentors/advisors in the U.S., but also with the other participants who are Western Canada's "top of the cream" and represent the next generation of technological success in our fine cities. I must say that I am honored to be included in this group ... there are some very smart people and tremendous stories in bioscience, cleantech and IT in the West!

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As for Mob4Hire, I accomplished all our goals: get a deeply connected business advisor from the Valley, get some publicity (3 minutes of fame to be exact) and get to know the Canadian Consulate guys who can help in the area (Duncan Wright, for example, and  Consul General Beck). I also managed to get a free steak dinner from Duncan for including the word "sherbert" in my pitch. :) Thanks, Duncan (for the steak AND all your hard work making the Silicon Valley program so successful ... much appreciated!)

This sets up all the participant companies to take advantage of the "Canadian Technology Accelerators" in both San Diego and the Valley on an ongoing basis.

I'd also like to note that in the past year of being CEO of Mob4hire, organizations such as Calgary Technologies Inc., Alberta Deal Generator, and Venture Alberta have done a great job of providing resources to make sure my CEO thinking cap is on and to help me get my story to the next level. This is an invaluable "secret" ingredient that helped me step into the California Market Access Program.

All of this will have a great enduring impact on our success, so, on behalf of all the participants (who I know share my enthusiasm), thanks to everyone who contributed their time, money and passion ... your efforts have made a real impact! Great meeting you all and we'll see you soon.

Mobile Apps Take Centre Stage at Dow Jones Wireless Innovation

Panel at Dow Jones Wireless Innovation I just spent a fascinating two days at the Sofitel Hotel in Redwood City, CA; the site of the 2009 Dow Jones Wireless Innovation. The 200+ Attendees were a combination of VC's, reporters and executives from established mobile industry companies and startups who are setting the stage for the next generation mobile space that is one of the world's "shining spots in an otherwise black economy."

Both days started and ended with keynotes and panels, and sandwiched presentations from 60 of the brightest star's of mobile startups.

In the opening keynote and panel, the stage was set with thoughts of the likes of Apple, Google and RIM helping shift power from the carriers to the handset manufacturers with application stores and such ... fueling increased product and mobile application development and user choices. It was agreed that this creates a very dynamic tension in the industry, with the winners being the consumer's useability as well as opportunity for innovative application development startups!

Growth of new subscribers is absolutely slowing, from high double digits to 3 to 5%. We are shifting focus from new subscribers, to "How do I keep my customers" and "How do I create more value for my customers." The future is a handset that becomes the "control centre for a digital lifestyle." Dan Schulman, CEO, Virgin Mobile US.

Here's some meandering things I found interesting ... and continues to reinforce that this mobile business is very global, and successful companies in this space can come from anywhere. Canadian firms take note!!! You don't need to be in Silicon Valley to win!

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Six Blog Degrees of Separation

Not having blogged for awhile, when our Techvibes leader, Rob Lewis, suggested I post a blog on BlogDay, I thought it would be a good opportunity to put my rusty digitalpen to paper, as well as do a shout out to some fascinating minds I've had the fortune to come across in my travels.

I came up with six blogs that I read from time to time ... and, interestingly, they are as varied as the people that write them:

  1. Paul Poutanen: Paul's blog discusses his business journey as founder of Calgary's www.mob4hire.com which offers crowd source testing for wireless applications (and is secretly growing into a incredible success story), as well as his insights on the wild and wacky wireless application industry that he's been a pioneer in for the last bunch of years.
  2. Bob Hayes: Bob is a good friend from Seattle, is founder of www.businessoverbroadway.com, has a Ph.D. in industrial organizational psychology and is a recognized expert in customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement (mostly as it relates to hyper-growth of a company). While I love customer loyalty stuff as much as the next guy, I also get a kick out of him kicking Fred Reichheld's Net Promoter theory in the arse.
  3. George Jaquette: I worked with George near San Francisco on a social networking project at Intuit a couple of years ago, and he's now Vice President, Engineering of www.intacct.com, an Saas financial service suite. With an MBA and a degree from MIT, George is potentially the smartest guy I've ever met, and in combination with his well-considered thinking and deep humanity, his blog is a great read.
  4. Julie Rusciolelli: I haven't spoken with Julie for a couple of years but I include her here for a couple reasons: as President of Toronto based Maverick, a public relations firm that rages against the corporate schlock most PR firms are shelling, and also because she's a firecracker and a very entertaining read.
  5. Fred Yee: Fred is CEO of Calgary based SEO optimization firm www.FoundPages.com and converting leads to sales technology, www.ActiveConversion.com. Both companies provide excellent results using sound business web techniques vs. the tricksters and spammers that infuriate us all. Fred's blog is a combination of big picture SEO thoughts as well as what's going on locally in Calgary.
  6. Sharon McIntyre: I like Sharon's blog for two reasons: it tries to make sense of participating in a tech scene that's off the beaten path (i.e. Calgary!), and secondly, Sharon is part of Calgary's STIRR, which also involves (and continues the vital work of) some of the original members of Material Insight, the now defunct private hub of Calgary high-tech.

And, finally, a shout out to my fellow Techvibes bloggers, who are doing great and necessary work in building grassroots high-tech awareness of their own cities. Finding passion/purpose in one's work and life is a meandering road at times. We use the thoughts and perceptions of those we admire to help forge our own, and for that, I thank all the above people.