Deloitte Technology Fast 50 - Canada's Best

Last night I attended Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 awards event in Toronto. I've blogged about this event before, but this is the first time I've attended. It was really well done, and the basic message is that this is a great showcase for up and coming Canadian tech companies. Lots of really interesting stories, and several companies are in my orbit, and I'll get to that in a moment.

To learn more, it's a lot easier if I steer you to a couple of links. First is Deloitte's press release, which provides a good summary of the event and the key winners. Second, the Globe & Mail had a feature section today about the event, along with some very nice profiles of a few companies like Sandvine, who was #1 overall.

Also notable in their profiles were two companies I've been following - Octopz and MyThum Interactive. Octopz didn't make the Fast 50, but did win a company-to-watch award. They are definitely a rising star, and I'm partial to them as I was following them very early and thought they were special then. MyThum Interactive was also the big winner recently at the Canadian New Media Awards, and I've done podcasts with both companies.

Aside from these companies, other winners of note in my orbit inlude AirIQ, Ascalade, Bridgewater Systems, DragonWave, Evertz Technologies, Impact Mobile, March Networks, Redline Communications, RIM, and Tira Wireless. No shortage of good companies here, and I've got podcast material from this to keep me going a long time.

You might find it odd to see RIM there, but they continue to grow year over year, and it was noted last night that RIM is the only company to have made the Fast 50 in each of the 10 years they've been doing this.

Perhaps the most innovative twist to the event was the inclusion of the Technology Green 15, which is pretty self-explanatory. They recognized 15 companies that embody green tech, but none were really in my space. Making that piece more special was the presence of John Baird, Minister of the Environment, who was a very convivial speaker, which was great to see.


A few photos courtesy of my Nokia N95...





View from the bandstand (the only guys not wearing suits)...






Technorati tags: Deloitte Technology Fast 50, Jon Arnold, Toronto

Microsoft Surface - This is Cool!

On Saturday, Max and I had a private briefing of Microsoft Surface. First off, I just have to say this is a bit like Telepresence - you have to see it and experience it to believe and understand what it's all about. You can get a good sense of this from the Surface website, but sitting down and seeing it first hand is something else.

Most people haven't seen Surface before, so if that's you, I think you'll really enjoy this post.

Toronto was the second stop on their North America media tour - following New York, and I suspect Max is the first teenager in Canada to have had a private briefing, so he's a pretty happy guy. Surface has been public for several months, but commercial deployments are another story. This particular demo was held at the downtown Sheraton Hotel, which is part of the Starwood hotel/resort operation. Am not sure just how far along they are in offering Surface to their guests, but we got a pretty good taste of what it might look like if they did.

I'll let the pictures and video clip below tell the rest of the story. I have no doubt Surface will find a home for some pretty cool commercial settings like hotels, but we also got a glimpse about how this will become the uber-cool coffee table of the future in your smart home. The mind boggles.....


Surface is a tabletop console, and it's touch-based. Just think of it as a giant iPhone - but much more powerful. This example is a restaurant, where all the menu items can be viewed, and you can place your order directly from the console. That's just the beginning...




Now it's time to divvy up the bill. Kyle and Max are going Dutch, and they're now going to drag each item that's theirs into their own spaces so they can figure out how much each of them owes to pay the bill.





Max's portion is $14.63. He just puts his credit card face up on the console. The back of his credit card is tagged to interface with Surface, and presto, the bill is paid on the spot. Of course, this cuts down on interacting with the waiter, but for the 2.0 crowd, how can you not like this?




Let's switch to the fun stuff - home entertainment. Check this out - the video puzzle. This is a car racing video, and the image is broken up over a grid of plastic tiles. They're all tagged, and each one shows a portion of the video clip. The challenge is to assemble all the tiles in the right order - just like a puzzle - to get the complete image as fast as you can (there's a timer on the console to show how long it takes). Lots of ways to play this game - 1 on 1, or kids vs. parents, etc. So, just like doing your daily crossword puzzle, imagine subscribing to a service where you get a daily video puzzle to solve. It's not hard to see how Surface opens up a whole new world of entertainment possibilities. You'll see even more in the video clip down below.




And of course, the Paint program. Just pick your colors and doodle away. The possibilities are endless, and it won't take long for people to figure out creative ways to use this.





Here's a short video of the demo, led by Microsoft's Kyle Warnick. He does a great job illustrating some of the cool things you can do with Surface. Check out what he does with a digital camera, and then with a couple of Zunes. Where can I get one of these???




Technorati tags: Microsoft Surface, Jon Arnold, Toronto

Microsoft UC Vision Team Meeting

A few months back I was invited to join the Microsoft Canada Unified Communications Vision Team. It's basically a forum to provide insights about their unified communications initiatives from people following this space. Most vendors have forums or councils like this, and I think it's a great to way create a dialog with the outside world, and I'm glad to be part of it.

Yesterday I attended my first group meeting at Microsoft Canada's offices. They usually do these as a conference call, but the in-person setting is so much more engaging - good idea. The Vision Team draws from all kinds of spaces, including academia, but also telecom consultants of various stripes. I was the only analyst and blogger in the room - at least from what I could tell - and it was great to hear all the different points of view about what Microsoft is doing, and what unified communications means to each of us.

Lots of talk about end user experiences, and we all shared our personal regimes of the devices and applications we use on a daily basis. That was fun, and it sounds like the Microsoft team - Bryan Rusche and Erin Elofson - had lots of good takeaways.

I'm looking forward to continuing with this group, and I know there will be some tangible outputs that will help Microsoft better sell its vision to enterprises.

I'll leave you with a few photos, via my Nokia N93, of the meeting and the demos we saw.






Bryan and Erin demonstrating a typical UC session. Using presence, they see each is available, so they start to IM chat. This gets escalated to a video call, and you can see here Bryan in the larger picture, and Erin in the tiny picture embedded in Bryan's screen view.





Demo of Live Meeting and Roundtable, which is their 360 degree view of the room, split across multiple screen images. This will be launching later this month, so stay tuned.

This photo doesn't do much justice to the concept. I attended a more extensive demo of Roundtable this summer, and for a better look at this, have a look at my post and video segment of the demo.






Technorati tags: Microsoft Canada, Jon Arnold, Unified Communications

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Elliot Katz - Microsoft Vista

This week, my guest was Elliot Katz from Microsoft Canada. Elliot is the Senior Product Manager, Windows Client, and I invited him to come speak about Vista and Office 2007. With Microsoft being so ubiquitous, I don't mind devoting a podcast to a company's product offering, since almost everyone uses it.

Elliot provided a rich perspective on the "four pillars" behind Vista, and we focused mainly on two - security and mobility. There certainly was a lot to talk about, and being a user of both products, I found this particularly interesting. Definitely a lot of security challenges when you're such a big, tempting target for all the bad guys out there, and Elliot also talked about some of the Vista features that protect corporate data on notebooks that get lost or stolen.

We also touched briefly on the Canadian experience in adopting Vista, which not surprisingly lags the U.S. Elliot also talked about the roles and contributions Microsoft Canada provides in developing Vista.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Elliot.


Technorati tags: Elliot Katz, Jon Arnold, Microsoft Canada, Windows Vista

Cisco Networking Academy - One Way of Giving Back

Most companies are in the business of making money, but giving back can take many forms. One of the ways Cisco does this is through their Networking Academy, which will be marking its 10th anniversary this October.

The Networking Academy is Cisco's way of providing education and certification programs to encourage and prepare people for careers in IT and networking management. Their program is well established with over 500,000 students participating worldwide across more than 165 countries.

I got to learn more about this during a briefing on Tuesday down at Cisco Canada's Telepresence facility. So, not only did I get to learn about something new, but I got an extended taste of their Telepresence experience.

Our briefing was led by Amy Christen, out of San Jose - via Telepresence, of course - and supported locally by Anne Miller, Cisco's Canadian Education Marketing Manager. They did a great job, and I had no idea how extensive these programs are and how valuable they can be for getting people - both kids and adults - on tech career paths - either right out of school or even as second careers.

I was personally interested, since my oldest son, Max is attending SATEC, one of the Toronto-area high schools participating in this program. He's very focused on getting his CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate), and now I know a lot more about what that really means.

Pretty interesting stuff, and globally, it was quite fascinating to learn how active this program is in emerging markets, which account for roughly 1/3 of all their students. In fact, only 20% of their enrollment comes from the U.S. and Canada. Within Canada, there are about 7,000 students right now, and to date has produced just under 50,000 graduates.

Canada is certainly producing its share of success stories, and this was covered off nicely during the session. If you want to learn more about this, give me a ring, or visit the Cisco website for Canada's Network Academy. With programs like these, I'd have to say it's a pretty good time to be considering career paths in tech and IT.

Switching hats for a moment, I wanted to share some photos of the session to give you a flavor of the Telepresence experience itself. This was my first time using Telepresence simply as a medium, so I was truly just an end user. We weren't there to talk about Telepresence, but I couldn't help thinking that way.

It really is very life like, and after a few minutes, it feels totally natural and not virtual at all. The image and sound quality was great, and the video was very real time. Eye contact was the only area that needed work. When looking back at those of us not sitting dead center, Amy's gaze was actually one person too far over from where we were. Am not sure why that was happening, but she pretty quickly got the cues, and after that, was able to make direct eye contact with everyone.

Have a look - courtesy of my Nokia N93...


One cool thing about Telepresence is that it's actually a phone call. To initiate a session you simply call in from the Cisco phone - just one button to push, that's it.

Also, notice the projection image just underneath where Amy is sitting - on the white background. That's where we watch the slide presentation she's giving from her location back in San Jose.






I really like this photo, as it shows how seamless the video experience is, even when split across two screens. There are 3 panels in total, and in this shot, I captured how Amy's hands cross from one screen panel to the next while typing on her PC. It's not quite The Matrix, but I thought it was a pretty cool proof point of how well this works.






For perspective, I wanted to get a shot to show how our conference table blends in with the virtual conference table where Amy is sitting, 3,000 miles away. From where we're sitting, it very much looks likes everyone is at the same table.





Technorati tags: Cisco Networking Academy, Jon Arnold, Telepresence, Cisco Canada

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Mark Farmer and Mobile Email for the Masses

For some reason, I seem to do podcasts with a lot of wireless companies, many of which are in Toronto, which otherwise is not really a VoIP hotbed. Tons of new media and video for sure, but it's a little lonely here otherwise. So, I always enjoy doing podcasts with someone in my own area code.

This week's guest was Mark Farmer, making his second appearance with me. He was previously with another wireless company, and has stayed in that space, but with a different focus. Recently, he went over to OceanLake Commerce, who has just launched meemo, a new offering of mobile email service to consumers using their existing handsets. It's not exactly the BlackBerry experience, but it's a very economical alternative that makes mobile email much more accessible without changing your handset or provider.

Mark and I talked about the broader market opportunity for consumer-based mobile email, which is still pretty much untapped. Solutions like meemo open up some interesting new markets and we explored what the end user experience is like as well as some possible business models that may emerge.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Mark.


Technorati tags: Mark Farmer, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Meemo

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Mike Fox and High Tech Recruiting

On this week's podcast, I spoke with Mike Fox, who runs a local recruiting firm here in Toronto, Brightlights Inc. I really try to mix things up on my podcasts, and I think recruiters are a pretty important part of the tech sector ecosystem. After all, we can't all be startups and indies, and when you least expect it, a call from a recruiter can be the best thing that's ever happened for your career.

Mike knows the local tech recruiting market pretty well, and he shared some pretty interesting insights on what companies are looking for, and the realities faced by startups in landing senior level people. He also had some good words of advice for people starting out and looking at tech as a career option.

I should also add that Mike's a pretty good marketer, and I recommend his monthly e-newsletter, especially if you want to stay current on the Toronto scene.

You can listen to the podcast here, as well as read more about Mike and his company.


Technorati tags: Mike Fox, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Brightlights, tech recruiting

Teen Tech Review - LG's DVD Player

On this week's Teen Tech Review on BlogTV.ca, my son Max reviews the LG DVD player. We're just back from a road trip, so he's had the benefit of using it both at home and in various vacation settings.

If you're based in Canada, you can watch the review directly from the BlogTV.ca site here.

Note - looks like BlogTV.ca has made some changes to the Channel selections. Until now, Teen Tech Reviews was listed under the Technology Channel, which is where it belongs. Well, they've dropped this channel - guess not enough people are watching, and/or there's not enough people contributing relevant content. Now we've been slotted into the "Miscellaneous" channel, which isn't hugely encouraging. I guess it's a bit like being bumped from a Thursday night slot to Monday at 11pm. So, I'd say our reviews are going to be harder to find now, but you'll always be able to see them here.

Remember - BlogTV.ca is basically a social networking experiment. There's no advertising, and very little stuctured, regular content to speak of. Not surprisingly, most of the content is what 20-somethings are into - dating, About Me, lots of guitar playing and silly pet tricks.

If you're outside Canada you probably won't be able to access this link, but the embedded link below should work just fine. Hope you like it!





Technorati tags: LG DVD, Jon Arnold, Max Arnold, BlogTV.ca, Teen Tech Reviews

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Dave Dobbin and Toronto Hydro Telecom

On this week's podcast, I spoke with Dave Dobbin, President of Toronto Hydro Telecom. I've been wanting to do this for a while, as THT has a pretty interesting WiFi offering in Toronto's downtown core. Downtown Toronto has plenty of broadband as it is, but not so much on the WiFi front, and Dave provided some very interesting perspectives on how this is going for them. He shared some of the realities of providing service as well as the usage patterns of the service among different types of subscribers. Dave also made a point of mentioning that THT provides some of the fastest bi-directional WiFi broadband speeds in North America.

More broadly, Dave provided an overview of the events that led up to THT coming into existence, and the rationale behind Toronto Hydro's fiber optic buildout that runs over their power line infrastructure. We also made the distinction between their fiber based capabilities for voice and data service, and broadband over powerline, which instead relies on the power grid for transmission. Dave explained that regulatory issues, more than anything keep them out of the BPL market, and for now, WiFi is their technology of choice for offering broadband services.

You can download the podcast here as well as read more about Dave.


Technorati tags: Toronto Hydro Telecom, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Dave Dobbin, municipal WiFi

Max's Nokia N95 Written Review

When you're too busy to post, the next best thing is to post other people's stuff! Well, that's my story today, but if you follow the Nokia NSeries phones, you'll like this one.

Followers of my blog know about my oldest son, Max. He's doing reviews regularly, and we recently did a videocast review of the Nokia N95 on BlogTV.ca. He also has his own blog, and his written review of the N95 was posted today.

Reading his review, I especially agree with his comment about the stereo quality for music. Max uses high energy rock music for his ringtone, and as they say in Spinal Tap, he sets the volume to 11. He has a habit of leaving his phone at the top of the stairs, and when his friends call - at all hours - we almost have a heart attack with this sudden blast of mega-noise. Isn't being a parent fun?

Anyhow, thought I'd pass it along - hope you like it!



Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Max Arnold, Nokia N95

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Espial and the IPTV Middleware Market

My guest this week was Brian Mahony, VP of Marketing at Ottawa-based Espial Group. Espial is one of the leading indie IPTV middleware vendors, and are very much connnected to the market and technology issues around IPTV. Brian provided a great perspective on the IPTV market and some of the better-known deployments.

Espial also just had a successful IPO, and Brian touched on some of the realities of being a public company, as well as what makes Ottawa such a viable market for tech startups.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Brian.

NOTE - no podcast next week - family vacation...

Technorati tags: Espial, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, IPTV

Teen Tech Review - Nokia N93

On this edition of Teen Tech Reviews, Max shares his impressions of the Nokia N93 phone.

If you're based in Canada, you can watch the review directly from the BlogTV.ca site here.

If you're outside Canada you probably won't be able to access this link, but the embedded link below should work just fine. Hope you like it!







Technorati tags: Nokia N93, Jon Arnold, Max Arnold, BlogTV.ca, Teen Tech Reviews

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Iain Klugman - Waterloo Tech Community

On this week's podcast, I spoke with Iain Klugman, CEO of Communitech. This is an interesting entity that serves as a hub for supporting Waterloo-based tech startups. Iain has a deep perspective about what makes Waterloo such a great spot for tech companies, and explained more about the role Communitech plays, as well as how it compares to similar initiatives in other tech centers in Canada and the U.S.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Iain.


Technorati tags: Communitech, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Iain Klugman, Waterloo technology

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Rod Piukkala and Emergency Communications

This week's podcast focused on emergency communications and the role that Web-based solutions can play for first line responders. My guest was Rod Piukkala, Director for Telus Business Solutions, Ontario Public Sector.

Rod has an extensive history in public service, and knows what emergency communications are all about, both from the front lines as well as what carriers like Telus are offering to the market. We talked about the various challenges around emergency communications, and he provided a good example of this in the health care sector.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Rod.

If you're interested in learning more about emergency communications, Rod let me know that Telus has a white paper on this. It's quite good, and if you've like to get a copy, please drop me a line.


Technorati tags: Telus Business Solutions, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, emergency communications

Max's Nokia N95 Video Review

We're finally back on track with our video reviews on BlogTV.ca. We've had a 2 week hiatus - Max had exams, and then we got a new web cam. This cam is MUCH better, but it took a few days to get things working properly - we'll be doing a separate review on this, actually.

So this week's Teen Tech Review is with the wonderful Nokia N95, and if you can bear with Max for 8 minutes, he'll show and tell you all the cool things this phone has to offer.

And if that's not enough, Max is working on his written review, which will turn up on his blog. Once it's posted, I'll get the word out here - hopefully on Monday.

For those of you based in Canada, you can watch the review here, which is a direct link to the BlogTV.ca website. After watching the review, I hope you poke around to explore what else is going on at BlogTV.ca.

I understand that BlogTV has been launched in the U.S., but Canada was the first country that the Israel-based BlogTV originators expanded to. So, for a change we've got something going here before the Americans, and I'll lay odds I'm the only person you're hearing about this from. If you like what you see, please RSS me, as Teen Tech Reviews is a regular series, and we have lots more reviews coming.

For those of you not based in Canada, you'll need to watch our review via the embedded link below. Regular readers of my blog will know the story behind this, but at least this is a workable solution to share our reviews outside of Canada.

Hope you like it, and all comments are welcome!









Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Max Arnold, BlogTV.ca, Teen Tech Reviews, Nokia N95

Update on Telus/RIM 8830 Launch

Fellow blogger Jim Courtney left a comment on yesterday's post about the launch I attended for the BlackBerry 8830.

Just wanted to amplify his comment, as my post needs correcting. Telus stated that they had an exclusive on the 8830, and he rightly points out that Bell has been recently advertising this phone. To follow through more on this, please check out his SkypeJournal post that is linked on his comment. Thanks Jim!


Technorati tags: Telus, Jon Arnold, Jim Courtney, BlackBerry 8830

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Rob Moffat and Mobile Business Continuity

On this week's podcast, my guest was Rob Moffat. Rob is the President and co-founder of Toronto-based Wallace Wireless. His company focuses on mobile applications to support business continuity, a space that's starting to get more attention.

Rob talked further about what's behind this trend and why it's important to provide a mobile solution. We also talked about how being in Toronto has been a real plus for their largest customer, RIM, as well as some of the factors that make Canada a good market to support companies focused on the wireless space.

You can download the podcast and read more about Rob here.




Technorati tags: Wallace Wireless, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, business continuity

BCE Privatization Story/Meeting Mr. Sabia

Without a doubt, the privatization of Bell Canada/BCE is the biggest story in Canadian telecom, and has many fascinating angles worth exploring. I've been very quiet about it, simply because it's so widely covered, and if I get started on this, I could be blogging for a long time. I gotta make a living, and have a backlog of other posts to get out from being away last week. Please be patient....

Well, I got my chance to speak my mind about BCE today on BNN - Business Network News. This is one of Canada's main financial news TV networks - it used to be called ROB TV (Report on Business TV), and was recently rebranded as BNN. Same studio, same people, same shows, and same owner - the Globe & Mail.

The studios are right downtown here in Toronto, and I was downtown anyway for a meeting, so the timing worked out well. This afternoon, I was on the After Hours show, hosted by Kim Parlee and Andy Bell. They wanted my take on the BCE deal, and what it means to Telus, as well as the rest of the Canadian communications landscape.

The segment runs about 7 minutes, and you can find the link on the BNN home page. You first need to get to the program listings for July 3, and then scroll down to the 4:40 pm time slot, and you'll see the link there.

If you can't find that, here's a direct link. However, they usually only leave these up on the site for a week, so don't wait too long if you want to view it.

So, what's the connection to Mr. Sabia? Michael Sabia is BCE's CEO, and figures prominently in most of the coverage of this story. Well, who do I run into as I'm leaving the studio? Mr. Sabia - he was on his way in to do the next BNN segment. If you want to hear his take on things, here's the link to the SqueezePlay show which follows After Hours. His interview starts at around the 13 minute mark. Strange, huh? Never met him before, and I may never meet him again - at least in his current role. You never know whose path you will cross - I wonder if he saw my segment?


Technorati tags: BCE, Jon Arnold, Business Network News, Telus, Michael Sabia

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Don Albert - Skype - Canada Update

With a handful of exceptions, I've been maintaining a weekly podcast schedule for almost two years. Last week I was away at Mitel's conference, and being Canada Day weekend, one thing has led to another, and I'm simply way behind on blog posts. I even planned ahead and did last week's podcast before leaving, but have not been able to post it until now. Best of intentions....

So, without further ado - I spoke with Don Albert about Skype and the state of the nation here in Canada. During a recent press tour, Don was in Toronto, and I had a thorough update with him at eBay Canada's office, which is close by to me. I decided it would be a good idea to follow this up with a podcast and share a more detailed discussion about how Skype is doing in Canada, and that's just what we did a week or so ago.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Don.



Technorati tags: Skype, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Don Albert

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - New Media, with MyThum Interactive and Deloitte

On this week's podcast, the focus was Canada's New Media community. I've never had 3 guests on together before, but somehow, we made it work. This podcast was a follow up to my coverage of the Canadian New Media Awards held last month in Toronto, and I wanted to do something with the Company of the Year winner. So, one of my guests was Michael Carter, President and CEO of MyThum Interactive, and we talked about what winning this award has meant for the company.

Joining us was Gary Gluckman and Richard Lee, both from the Toronto office of Deloitte, where they are key leaders of their Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice. Deloitte has been on previous podcasts of mine, talking about their Fast 50 and Fast 500 programs, but this was the first time we talked about their involvement in the new media space. Deloitte is a major sponsor of the CNMA, and Gary and Richard shared their views on the new media space in Canada, along with the winning qualities they saw in MyThum.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Gary, Richard and Michael.


Technorati tags: MyThum Interactive, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Deloitte,
Canadian New Media Awards