Billions With Zero Knowledge

Last summer my friend Patrick Lauzon and I spoke about the need to create a new type of networking event that would bring together founders of technology firms, angel investors and venture capitalists.

We held the first Founders & Founders dinner last November with a private group of 75 people.   With the help of our sponsors, iNovia Capital, Neotech Capital and Montreal Startup the event raised $1,000 for the Montreal Barcamp community.

The event was a great success, and was quickly replicated in Toronto by our friends David Crow and Jevon MacDonald.

2nd Founders & Funders Montreal Announced

We are pleased to announce that we are going to be holding the second Montreal Founders and Funders dinner this coming May 14th in Montreal.

To help expand the community of people we invite to the event, we are opening up a registration form for invites allowing anyone who is a founder, angel investor or VC investor to request an invite. 

We are limited to 100 seats for the dinner.   The fee for the dinner will be $100 which will include drinks and dinner.

Given the interest we received after the first event and the fact that we won’t be able to invite everyone who has expressed interest to the dinner.  As a result we are also going to be hosting an after dinner open cocktail networking (A nice roof top terrace party).  The networking event will cost $20 and include two drink tickets.

Attendees to the dinner will be able to attend the networking event.  The networking party afterwards is open to anyone interested in the technology community in Montreal (not just Founders & Funders).

All profits from the event will go to support Barcamp events in Montreal.

How to Get An Invite

If you would like to attend the dinner, or the networking event after the dinner please fill out the following form and let us know who you are.

We will be contacting everyone with details on the location & registration for the dinner in the coming weeks.  We will also be announcing the great sponsors who are supporting us throw the event.

You can keep track of the event on the Founders and Funders blog.

If you would like to sponsor the event please feel free to contact me.

On Fri 18 Apr 2008. 1 Comment

Whenever I get into a new business I study it pretty extensively. I read everything I can get my hands on and spend time with a lot of experts to be able to make new connections, form my own opinions and re-think how and why things might work once a new product or service is introduced. A lot of my opinions of the social media industry is based on my research of community, economics and anthropology.

My study of gift economies started with the work of Marcel Mauss and formed a lot of my thinking of how our social economies work. The participatory nature of our social playgrounds are powered by reciprocity. By social playgrounds I refer to places such as Flickr, Facebook, blogs, Digg, MySpace, Last.Fm, Twitter, Wikipedia, Second Life which are just a few places people gather to express themselves and interact. Reciprocal exchange power each of these communities. This act of reciprocal exchange is described in a concept called ‘total prestation’. This is from the Wikipedia entry on Mauss theories.

In his classic work The Gift, Mauss argued that gifts are never “free”. Rather, human history is full of examples that gifts give rise to reciprocal exchange. The famous question that drove his inquiry into the anthropology of the gift was: “What power resides in the object given that causes its recipient to pay it back?” (1990:3). The answer is simple: the gift is a “total prestation”, imbued with “spiritual mechanisms”, engaging the honour of both giver and receiver (the term “total prestation” or “total social fact” (fait social total) was coined by his student Maurice Leenhardt after Durkheim’s social fact). Such transactions transcend the divisions between the spiritual and the material in a way that according to Mauss is almost “magical”. The giver does not merely give an object but also part of himself, for the object is indissolubly tied to the giver: “the objects are never completely separated from the men who exchange them” (1990:31). Because of this bond between giver and gift, the act of giving creates a social bond with an obligation to reciprocate on part of the recipient. To not reciprocate means to lose honour and status, but the spiritual implications can be even worse: in Polynesia, failure to reciprocate means to lose mana, one’s spiritual source of authority and wealth. Mauss distinguished between three obligations: giving - the necessary initial step for the creation and maintenance of social relationships; receiving, for to refuse to receive is to reject the social bond; and reciprocating in order to demonstrate one’s own liberality, honour and wealth.

Gift economies typically manifest in cultures that enjoy economics of abundance and who have rapidly climbed Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. If you are looking into the future, our technological advancements will add more power to these changes and will start to affect more industries.

Tara Hunt who stopped by Akoha for a recent visit while she was in Montreal, wrote a great post on how gift economies are helping her build Citizen Agency.

These are interesting times and we have only just begun to see what kind of services and new opportunities will be created, as old economic models based on scarcity are replaced.

On Wed 18 Jul 2007. [13] Comments

I spent last week in Toronto where I had the incredible pleasure of doing a keynote discussion at the Mesh Conference with Tom Williams of GiveMeaning and our great friend and Mesh organizer Rob Hyndman.

Our panel was on social change and charity online, and I was a little nervous when I accepted the invitation because Akoha, my main project and current startup, is still under development and has yet to launch anything.

I had plenty of ideas to talk about. I’ve spent the last three years studying and thinking about ideas on how the Internet can be leveraged for social change, and how the emerging gift economy of social media creates new structures for collective action.

Tom was incredible telling his story of how he came to be working on social change & philanthropy and the great work he is doing at GiveMeaning. Someone later that evening would tell me they felt awful for me after Tom spoke first because they felt that no one could follow such a great opening. (He did go on to say that we complimented each other incredibly well and loved our panel)

I also spoke publicly for the first time about how the loss of my brother Morgan after his battle with cancer and my attendance at the TED conference a week after his funeral was a turning point in my life.

Tom’s write up of the panel say’s it all when he mentions we were both grounded and authentic and I think the fact that neither of us were selling anything, just sharing our experiences that shaped our careers and how we are choosing to be entrepreneurs is what resonated with people.

The panel was an incredible discussion that Tom and I continued throughout the next two days with the attendees and other speakers. Tom and I are kindred souls and I think out shared passion for these issues came through on the panel.

There were a number of people who wrote about our panel, including some liveblogging that gives you some feel for how the discussion went. Here is a round up of some of the posts about the panel from Google Blog Search & Technorati. Here are some photo’s I showed up in from the conference. (Yes I am going bald - blame genetics & 15 years of startups :)

I have tons of other Mesh stories that are deserving blog posts, including some thoughts on the incredible number of young entrepreneurs I had a chance to meet. There was an incredible energy in the hallways where I found myself hanging with old friends and new.

The conference was different from many I attend in that there was a large diversity in the types of attendees with entrepreneurs, social media experts, investors and venture capitalists, technologists, programmers and corporate representatives from large and small companies. This created some unique conversations, as people were sharing lessons and ideas in a very co-operative discussion that wasn’t just focused on who acquired who that day.

I want to thank my friends and Mesh organizers, Mathew Ingram, Mark Evans, Stuart McDonald, Mike McDerment and Rob Hyndman.

They did an incredible job hosting a great conference. Thank you all for inviting me to be a part of this fun event.

On Mon 4 Jun 2007. [3] Comments

I’m announcing today at the Mesh 07 conference a small initiative that I am helping Zerofootprint co-ordinate.

DarkGreenPC is a non-profit, community organized open source project inspired by Seti@Home and Distributed.net where we are going enable people to optimize the power usage of their computers collectively and turn energy saving into a social activity.

I’m an advisor to Zerofootprint and my friend Ron Dembo and I presented this idea at an meeting on initiatives to combat climate collapse organized by John Doerr at the TED conference and got incredible support for the project.

We are now looking to hire an open source product leader.

Here is a small Standout Job advertisement for the position.

We’ll be posting more details on an upcoming project blog at DarkGreenPC.org. For more information on the project you can see this information at Zerofootprint.

On Wed 30 May 2007. [6] Comments

I mentioned in a previous post that I’m involved in hosting and welcoming people to Montreal for CFP 2007.

There is a panel & party which is open to anyone who would like to support or learn about Net Freedom. 

Proceeds from the fundraising party after the panel will go to support Creative Commons and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

I’m including a copy of the invitation that will is being handed out at the CFP registration desk for any Montreal locals not attending the conference but who would like to join us for the party & panel discussion.

It should be a good party, as there are about 150+ attendees from CFP and lot’s of local Montreal technology community members invited.

Here are instructions on how to get from the Bonaventure Hotel to the party location.

Music will be by Juno-award winning DJ and product Miguel Graca.

On Mon 30 Apr 2007. 1 Comment

One of the unfortunate things about the timing of my vacation was that I’d be missing BarcampMontreal 2 which occurs tomorrow.

BarcampMontreal organizer Fred Ngo has the details up on his blog.

On Fri 27 Apr 2007. No Comments

Next week Computers Freedom and Privacy 2007 is being held in Montreal.

I did the keynote speech for the CFP 2001 in Toronto, and while I’m out of the Security & Privacy business with my new gig at Akoha - these are issues I’m still very passionate about in my personal & professional life.

To welcome the out of town CFP guests, I’ve decided to throw a small party for Creative Commons and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

There will first be a panel on Net Freedom at the Hilton Bonaventure hotel Tuesday May 1st from 6:30 to 8:00pm. This is an open panel to anyone who cares about Net Freedom. I’ll be posting more details on the panel when I’m not in a Mexican internet cafe (i.e. Sunday night).

For now the Upcoming.org listing for the event is here.

Following that I’ll be throwing a fundraising party at my loft for out-of-towners attending CFP and any local Montreal community members who want to come out.

Here is the listing for the fundraising party.

I will be circulating details including address, directions for the party at the Net Freedom panel, or if you wish to contact my assistant Katherine @ - she will be emailing out details on Monday for people who RSVP on upcoming or contact her.

Everyone is welcome to come out. There will be a small door fee, and a cash bar with all proceeds going to support Creative Commons and EPIC (where I’m an advisory board member).

On Fri 27 Apr 2007. 1 Comment

DemocampMontreal2 is tonight.  We have some visiting guest in from out of town including some great guest presenters and my friend, angel investor and tech entrepreneur Patrick Lor.

This week at Democamp the following presenters will be demonstrating tonight at 6:30 at the SAT.

It promises to be a great night and the SAT is opening the bar, so come join us for a late cinq-a-sept and see what is occuring in the technology community.

What : DemoCampMontreal2

Where : Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), 1195 Boul. St. Laurent [Google Map]

When : Thursday March 29th, 2007. 6:30pm to 8:30pm.

• HughMcGuire - Collectik (Local community project leader, Hugh is a good friend and will be presenting one of his many projects)
• Martin Dufort - Kakiloc : Mobile Social Networking (Kakiloc are a great team of entrepreneurs working on an exciting new mobile social networking technology)
• iotum Talk Now Alec Saunders, Ottawa (winner of a DEMOGod award at Chris Shipley’s Demo and Ottawa entrepreneur)
• Brett Gaylor - Open Source Cinema
• BumpTop – Anand Agarawala, Toronto (I recently met Anand @ the TED conference in Monterey where he wowed the audience with a demo of his project Bumptop.  I’ve asked him to come visit Montreal and present the demo he did that is now among the most popular videos of all time on Youtube. I saw him present at Democamp Toronto last summer. From Democamp to the TED stage in six months. That’s a demo !)

On Thu 29 Mar 2007. [4] Comments

During my recent trip to Calgary my friends Patrick Lor, Claudia Moore & Sarah Blue from Cambrian House and Kemptom Lam helped me organize a local blogger dinner where I got to meet some great local entpreneurs, Calgary social media & tech folks.

In attendance where Patrick Lor, Sarah Blue, Claudia Moore, David Gluzman, Tom West,  Jasmine Antonick, Matthew Dorey, Nox Dineen, Matt Lonsdale, Mark Kornak, Ivan Sierralta, Fred Yee, Mark Rosenberger, and Kempton Lam.

Here is a video I shot with some of the local Calgary technology community saying hello.

Tom West has a great write up of the night.

One of the goals of the dinner was to help instigate (in the spirit of my friend & Barcamp/Democamp instigator grandaddy David Crow and Calgary native Tara Hunt) the Barcamp and Democamp movement in Calgary.

My friend Patrick Lor had these kind words and great announcement about Calgary’s Barcamp and Democamp kick off.

Well, he flies into town last week, and this week we have set a date for Calgary’s first BarCamp. Thanks to Austin Hill for instigating all of this. Also, huge thanks to Sarah at Cambrian House for organizing.

BarCamp Calgary will be Calgary’s premiere unconference, a showcase of Calgary’s technology community. Sign up now!

Date: Saturday, May 26th
Time: 9:00 to 6:00
Cost: Free, IF you promise to spread the word to attendees, presenters, and sponsors.

We’re also planning DemoCamp Calgary for April 24th, which is a 2 hour meeting with 4 or 5 company presentations that are strictly PowerPoint free! Why no PowerPoint? - check this out, and see how great a product presentation can be when there are no slides. Sign up here.

Kempton has written up a great report on our discussion about the Barcamp & Democamp ideas that we discussed.

The Barcamp/Democamp local community technology meetups hold a lot of promise for Canada’s technology community and I’m happy to help spread the word.  I saw some interesting companies while sitting as a judge at business plan presentation session that Patrick invited me to participate in. My take is that innovation in Calgary is like with other cities in Canada where there is more going on in our own backyards then most people realize.

I’m already involved as an angel investor in one startup that was born out of the Barcamp movement and have met two of the teams I’m mentoring through these meetups. 

With the great local entrepreneurs and community members I met in Calgary helping get this going I think something similar could easily occur in Calgary.

Just a reminder DemocampMontreal2 is next Thursday March 29th.  There are going to be some interesting surprises at this Democamp so make sure to sign up and come on out.

On Tue 20 Mar 2007. [4] Comments

I admit it. I heart my Twitter. It’s fun and is forming a new way to keep in touch with my friends as I engage in an informal back channel conversation occurring throughout the day.

You can follow my Twitter conversations here - http://twitter.com/austinhill

I don’t find it distracting, with just an IM window quietly sitting there with a soft stream of interesting notes from my friends. I don’t have updates via SMS enabled so my phone isn’t ringing all the time with updates.

Many would call it a perfect viral service, but I hate that viral meme (See my Viral Manifesto) so IMHO it’s the perfect definition of an authentic service that creates emotional bonds that you just want to share with friends.

I got a chance to speak with Evan Williams at the TED conference, where Twitter sort of took off as Loic Le Meur, Jeff Clavier, Michael Parekh, Evan and I were Twittering the TED conference. (at least those were the people I was following who were Twittering. If you were there and I missed you let me know.)

Occurring at the same time Twitter groups were self organizing meetups and conversations were flowing in preparation for SWSX and all of sudden a firestorm of Twitter activity occurred.

I think Twitter hit a tipping point last week and everyone I know who is using it has quickly become addicted to it. Most of my friends I’ve spoken to it are afraid to touch it for fear of another Internet habit to occupy their already busy schedule. Twitter may just become the Tribbles of the Internet.

A number of great posts started to show up about Twitter. Here are some of the good ones I read,

• Anil Dash - Consider Twitter
• Ross Mayfield - Twitter tips the Tuna
• Mathew Ingram - Twitter is noice, but also signal
• Jason Calacanis - Twitter on fire ….
• Ben Yoskovitz - Join the Twitter Ranks
• Mitch Joel - Twitter Is To Blogging What Post-It Notes Are To Notebooks

There are tons of other posts as many people lit a fire of discussions about Twitter taking off.

This got me thinking about how careful the Twitter team and the community of users and developers of new Twitter tools need to be with this new medium.

There have been some great emergent uses of this tool.

• Robert Scoble was looking for help with an introduction to the Joost team that I was able to help with which was cool.
• Joi and I kicked up a conversation about Fatblogging and my new SwiMP3 goggles.
• Tara asking for instant feedback and some references before a presentation.
• Jonathan Boutelle (SlideShare’s CTO) must have Googled across my comment about Slideshare needing audio, and instantly introduced himself and let me know where their roadmap was going. Great customer service tip for anyone out there. Google your name, and instantly reach out to people talking about you. I felt incredible about the Slideshare team and will continue to play with the service as they add more features because of this simple personal service.
• @username broadcast chat conversations
• event organizing for conference parties at SWSX
• backchannel discussions of audience members during panel presentations, and TED talks
• @dictionary by Kosso (very cool)

All this attention and a remark from Calcanis on Twitter last night about commercializing a Pay-Per-Twitter idea got me thinking about how precarious this type of popularity could be for the service.

The infamous Tribbles were endearing to all who came in contact with them (well except Klingons). But they multiplied endlessly. Tribbles became a nuisance quickly as they overran the ship and ruined the party.

Twitter works for me because it’s social. My friends and followers are sharing parts of their day that interest me. I enjoy sharing parts of my day with those who read my blog and follow me on Twitter.

These activities have already created some interesting new conversations, and is bringing me closer to friends that I don’t see enough.

If someone were to start Spittering @ me (SpamTwittering) this would ruin it for me, and I would remove them. I don’t want commercial or overly self promtional Twitter users in my social network.

Like with all communities, there will be plenty of opportunities to build revenue around Twitter - but I don’t think it will be in the area of marketing. Leave marketing out of this unique conversation and the revenue opportunities will come from the community as new emergent behaviours and uses allow for premium services or unique tool offerings.

Tara has a good post about her concerns about the rising popularity of Twitter, read the comments to see some of the debate about Twitter.

I would happily pay for a premium Twitter bot construction kit that would allow me to integrate various Twitter rules & personal reminders in a Yahoo Pipes fashion to build my own Twitter services. There are a number of other premium features I would pay a reasonable annual fee for as well.

We need to think of Twitter like Flickr not like MySpace.

Small communities, within communities. Personal relationships. Emergent games and new forms of communication. Not adwords, pay-per-twits or spittering.

On Fri 16 Mar 2007. [6] Comments