I love DemoCamp for its enthusiasm and its inspiration. That said, I am hoping DemoCamp can take on a more educational role for the community.where the audience learns about the building of a product or business, or the marketing of a service, as opposed to simply getting a tour of, 'click here and this happens'. I want to know why you put that 'click' in there and what problem you are solving and for whom. I know Jerry wants to know these things too :)
Also, for any software entrepreneurs looking for further inspiration and some great perspective, be sure to check out some of Paul Graham's essays at <a href="http://paulgraham.com
David There's a very strong case to be made that there's lots of cool tech stuff happening in relative commercial obscurity in Toronto. And taking some of those projects and encouraging and supporting them into successful businesses would certainly be a good thing. Getting more involvement of 'grey hairs' with real experience in this stuff can only help that.
Jerry King asks 'if the folks presenting at MaRS on Tuesday evening can't speak intelligently about the commercial aspects of their very own ideas, who can?', I think there's an obvious answer to that, people like Jerry himself can speak intelligently to the commercialisation of ideas. Jerry demonstrates this point by suggesting several fascinating business models for the hacked digital camera idea, which Randy Glenn, who gave that demo, self-proclaimed as being business model free. I should note, Randy's was one of the most encouraging and inspirational demos I've seen at TorCamp yet.
I guess what I'm saying is that there is room for both hacking for hacking's sake and a more focused, business directed approach to development. In fact I'd argue that neither can thrive without the other. Personally, I'd be really sorry to see the business angle nudge out the for-it's-own-sake stuff in the TorCamp 'movement'. Perhaps there's room for two streams? ViableBusinessModelTechCamp and CoolButTotallyUncommercialisedCamp perhaps?
Sorry for the run on comment, but I felt particularly strongly about this after contrasting my impression of this week's DemoCamp (passionate and real) against iSummit (corporation heavy and the passion largely missing, or at least focused on cold hard cash).
Mark Evans
· 3 years ago
david, good post & here's hoping toronto's tech community starts to gain some momentum. it's encouraging to see democamp, torcamp, isummit and mesh happening so close together. perhaps it suggests the wheels are slowly starting to roll!
mark
Timothy Li
· 3 years ago
good one David, you finally said it.
I've been waiting for this note on 'business model' from you since shoeless joe's dinner.
I'm explaining what a 'business model' is to my friends as 'how you get paid'.
is my explaination misleading?
oshoma
· 3 years ago
Nice response, David. I'm looking forward to further discussion on entrepreneurship in Canada. (Or in Toronto, at least.) I have some thoughts to add; see here.
CD Evans
· 3 years ago
Hi David,
Shame you didn't make it out to the IA summit the guys said you weren't coming. Would have liked to meet you.
I'm wondering about your article. After working so long in europe, I'm fairly confused by the lack of a Design Community here in Canada, or in the states for that matter.
I hear your concerns about Technology and Business communicating effectively, but where is the design side? It seems there is an awful lot of what it takes to make something missing from this model.
Perhaps you could comment on how to involve the design community? Or to develop one here in Canada?
(In my experience in London and elsewhere in Europe, there is some communication between the biz and tech teams, but the design teams typically act as the catalyst or facilitate the communication. It's no wonder there is such a rift without design, and a certain lack of quality, we don't have the arts facility to make the products meaningful.)
Do you have any thoughts on how to involve design more?
All Comments
Great post David.
I love DemoCamp for its enthusiasm and its inspiration. That said, I am hoping DemoCamp can take on a more educational role for the community.where the audience learns about the building of a product or business, or the marketing of a service, as opposed to simply getting a tour of, 'click here and this happens'. I want to know why you put that 'click' in there and what problem you are solving and for whom. I know Jerry wants to know these things too :)
Also, for any software entrepreneurs looking for further inspiration and some great perspective, be sure to check out some of Paul Graham's essays at
" target="_blank"><a href="http://paulgraham.com" target="_blank">http://paulgraham.com<a href="http://paulgraham.com
David
There's a very strong case to be made that there's lots of cool tech stuff happening in relative commercial obscurity in Toronto. And taking some of those projects and encouraging and supporting them into successful businesses would certainly be a good thing. Getting more involvement of 'grey hairs' with real experience in this stuff can only help that.
Jerry King asks 'if the folks presenting at MaRS on Tuesday evening can't speak intelligently about the commercial aspects of their very own ideas, who can?', I think there's an obvious answer to that, people like Jerry himself can speak intelligently to the commercialisation of ideas. Jerry demonstrates this point by suggesting several fascinating business models for the hacked digital camera idea, which Randy Glenn, who gave that demo, self-proclaimed as being business model free. I should note, Randy's was one of the most encouraging and inspirational demos I've seen at TorCamp yet.
I guess what I'm saying is that there is room for both hacking for hacking's sake and a more focused, business directed approach to development. In fact I'd argue that neither can thrive without the other. Personally, I'd be really sorry to see the business angle nudge out the for-it's-own-sake stuff in the TorCamp 'movement'. Perhaps there's room for two streams? ViableBusinessModelTechCamp and CoolButTotallyUncommercialisedCamp perhaps?
Sorry for the run on comment, but I felt particularly strongly about this after contrasting my impression of this week's DemoCamp (passionate and real) against iSummit (corporation heavy and the passion largely missing, or at least focused on cold hard cash).
david,
good post & here's hoping toronto's tech community starts to gain some momentum. it's encouraging to see democamp, torcamp, isummit and mesh happening so close together. perhaps it suggests the wheels are slowly starting to roll!
mark
good one David, you finally said it.
I've been waiting for this note on 'business model' from you since shoeless joe's dinner.
I'm explaining what a 'business model' is to my friends as 'how you get paid'.
is my explaination misleading?
Nice response, David. I'm looking forward to further discussion on entrepreneurship in Canada. (Or in Toronto, at least.) I have some thoughts to add; see here.
Hi David,
Shame you didn't make it out to the IA summit the guys said you weren't coming. Would have liked to meet you.
I'm wondering about your article. After working so long in europe, I'm fairly confused by the lack of a Design Community here in Canada, or in the states for that matter.
I hear your concerns about Technology and Business communicating effectively, but where is the design side? It seems there is an awful lot of what it takes to make something missing from this model.
Perhaps you could comment on how to involve the design community? Or to develop one here in Canada?
(In my experience in London and elsewhere in Europe, there is some communication between the biz and tech teams, but the design teams typically act as the catalyst or facilitate the communication. It's no wonder there is such a rift without design, and a certain lack of quality, we don't have the arts facility to make the products meaningful.)
Do you have any thoughts on how to involve design more?
Cheers
CD Evans