Billions With Zero Knowledge - Austin Hill, Entrepreneur & Angel Investor

We just reached 600 wishes at the Gifter Wishing Well.  You can grab a coin at the Gifter.org site and drop it in the wishing well.   For each wish you make we have sponsors donating $1 to charity.   Our sponsors have already donated $6,147 to a number of worthy charities.

We need your help in collecting hundreds of thousands of more wishes.

Go make a wish and then help us spread the word with your friends.  Your wish is our donation. 

If you help us get 1,000,000 wishes - we are making sure we get the $1,000,000 dollars in donations - so make your wish today.

Update 10:30am: We’ve been getting some heavy traffic that has caused our wishing well to hicup. In the meantime you can still leave your wish by dropping the coin, but the graphic of the wishing well has become shy with all the attention and is not being generated for some reason. We will fix this shortly and your coin will appear on the wishing well. Thanks for your patience.

Update 3:00pm: We have the wishing well back in working order. There is a fresh well screen up, so if you want to make your wish please head over.

On Wed 28 Feb 2007. No Comments

Google recently released it’s RSS reader numbers and like most bloggers around the world I have a fairly large increase in my reader numbers. My RSS subscribers have jumped from about 80 regular RSS readers to 170.

Even though those readers must have been there for awhile, the increased readership is great encouragement to keep up regular postings.

In the coming weeks I’ll be starting to talk about what I’ve been working on with my various projects since leaving Radialpoint.

I also have my infamous inaugural post coming quite soon.

I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce some worthy causes to my newly discovered readers because I feel like being in the giving mood.

GuluWalk Gala Event

Joshua Fattore from SilverLining Ltd. let me know about a a fundraising event occuring in Toronto this Thursday February 22nd.

GuluWalk is focused on supporting the abandoned children of northern Uganda. They were honoured this last January by The NonProfit Times as one the ‘Worlds Best Fundraisers’.

January 24, 2007 - On Thursday, February 22, 2007, please join us as Athletes for Africa presents the ‘GuluWalk Gala’, a celebration in benefit of GuluWalk - - the worldwide movement for the abandoned children of northern Uganda.
It’s going to be a spectacular evening at the Barbara Frum Atrium at the CBC Building in downtown Toronto and will include an evening of fine food, great music, and an extensive silent and live auction.
It will be hosted by Matt Galloway, host of CBC Radio’s
‘Here & Now’, and will feature an impassioned keynote address by former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations Allan Rock and a live performance by Juno Award winning artist Donné Roberts.
Click here for more information, including tickets, sponsorship opportunities and how you can get involved.

I’m not in Toronto this week, but this is a worthy cause and sounds like a great event. If you are in Toronto and attend, drop me a note or blog about it and I’ll post about it.

Atwater Digital Literacy Project

I mentioned in my recent interview with Julien Smith that we both are involved with the Atwater Library Digital Literacy Project.

The Atwater Digital Literacy Project gets kids and community groups using creative web technologies (blogging, audio, video, digital photos) to help them express themselves, find new ways to talk about things important to them, and to help them build their own communities.

We are going to be working to raise some funds for the pilot project which is occuring right now. The first workshops with kids is starting this week. We (our great advisory board) are reaching out to the Montreal community to introduce this project and ask for support in raising the funds to get some equipment for the project. You can donate through CanadaHelps (make sure you mark Digital Literacy Project) on your donation if you would like to help this worthy project.

I had my fair share of interesting times as a teen, and without the help and support of people who showed me how to develop some of my skills I think I could have easily ended up living a very different life then the great one I enjoy now.

Gifter.org

I’ll be making my donation for the Atwater Literacy Project, and posting my receipt to Gifter.org. If you haven’t checked out Gifter.org it is our group giving project. We are collecting wishes at our Internet wishing well. For each wish collected we have a sponsor donating a dollar to charity. We recently put on a new interface and are getting ready to relaunch it. Go test out the new wishing well and make a wish.

If you’ve made a wish before, feel free to make another with the wishing well. We have lot’s of wishes available. I’d love to see 500 wishes come in the next week - so if you can help spread the word and make a wish - I’ll be donating that amount to the Atwater Digital Literacy Project and would love to see you use these wishes.

We have a major sponsor of wishes preparing to make a large contribution to a charity associated with the project and we will be re-launching the new site with some new outreach programs.

Before we relaunch we want to get some feedback on the new site, so please give it a whirl and let us know what you think of the new interface.

If blogging is a gift economy then I guess I want to make sure to give as well as I get.  For another view of blogging as a gift economy this is a great article as well.

Welcome to you my newly discovered subscribers. Thank you for taking the time to subscribe.

I don’t know how long you’ve been with me, but please feel free to drop me a comment, or contact me through the website and let me know what’s on your mind.

On Tue 20 Feb 2007. 1 Comment

We are now accepting video wishes at Gifter.org.   If you find a video that makes you laugh, cry or relates to your wish then just post the link to the video with your wish and we’ll put it in the comments.

You can see the first sample along with my wish at Gifter.  I can’t help but smile when I watch this.

If you’ve already made a wish, and would like to make another with a video - please go ahead.  We have lot’s of wishes available.

To post a video wish simply make your wish along with a link to the video such as,

I wish we would invest in music education so everyone can appreciate just how funny this is and learn to create new music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

As long as the video is appropriate to the spirit of the project and relates to your wish, it should show up and look like this.

I wish we would invest in music education so everyone can appreciate just how funny this is and learn to create new music.

Happy wishes.

On Wed 10 Jan 2007. 1 Comment

I’ve had a few conversations resulting in a few interviews that have appeared in the last couple of weeks. Here is a quick round up of the coverage.

Eric Jackson, who has a great blog on leadership, was one of the first people to ask me to answer some questions when he heard I had left Radialpoint. I recently took the time to answer his questions about working with family, Zero-Knowledge Systems early success with the media and starting companies in Montreal. You can read the interview here. Eric is also one of the bloggers helping us spread the word about Gifter.org and the Million Dollar Blog Post, check out his post about the project here. Thanks Eric.

Mark Evans who wrote about Gifter.org for his Maple Leaf 2.0 blog followed up with a few questions. You can read our follow up conversation where I answer questions about high tech innovation in Canada, Project Ojibwe, and the Gifter series of experiments (along with my typo’s - note to self: proofread) in this follow up post. Thanks Mark.

Cassandra Szklarski from Canadian Press read about David Crow’s sponsorship of the Gifter Project (thanks David) and contacted me to write an article. It appeared in the Globe and Mail on Boxing Day, as well as across Canada in other newspapers. Thanks Cassandra.

I also sat down a couple of weeks ago with Roberto Rocha who writes the Technology column for the Montreal Gazette. We spoke about a number of topics, and he included some of our discussion in this article about the health of Montreal technology community. The article mentions my friend and Barcamp organizer Fred Ngo who is working on a new startup that I’m involved with. (Who also has posted the funniest sponsorship of the Gifter.org wishes project so far - Thanks Fred.)

A couple quick clarfications to the article, where I’m quoted,

“The problem is that in Canada, the government is competing with VCs,” Hill said, citing the Business Development Bank of Canada, the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and Investissement Quebec.

This stems from a discussion we had regarding the need for a strong national strategy for early stage technology and venture capital industries. The mention of the BDC comes from our discussion of a great series of posts from Canadian VC Mark Skapinker where he does a great job making the case for a more focused Canadian strategy for supporting venture capital. Mark has done a series of posts on the differences between what he has experienced in Israel and Canada with regards to government support of venture programs. They are worth a read.

The Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and Investissement Quebec was mistakenly included in this reference. They shouldn’t have been since I believe they are doing a great job supporting early stage venture financing by acting as a fund of funds. The Caisse has invested in a number of the early stage venture capital firms in Canada. This is similar to the role that CALpers plays in Silicon Valley and the team at the Caisse deserves a lot of credit their support of early stage venture capital firms in Canada.

Also the following quote wasn’t clear in it’s meaning,

“This confuses the situation for entrepreneurs. Tech execs don’t go to angels here. Lawyers do.”

The point I was trying to make is that our technology executives aren’t becoming angels often enough. Too often I’ve seen lawyers, accountants and other high net worth individuals playing the role of angels for technology startups in Canada. I don’t see a comparable level of investment activity from technology entrepreneurs that I’ve seen in other areas such as Boston, or the Valley. Entrepreneurs should be able to easily network and reach technology executives who are experienced at early stage angel investing. This is slowly changing, but the early stage angel ecosystem and how it works with VCs and entrepreneurs is still broken in Canada.

My minor clarifications notwithstanding, the article makes a great point about the underlooked potential in the Montreal technology community. Roberto has written about some other Montreal technology community events and I think he’s doing a great thing by showcasing local stories instead of just reprinting what I can read on any newswire or technology industry blog. Thanks Roberto.

Mathew Ingram also posted something about Gifter.org. He mentions another cool project in social giving, which comes the team at Cambrian House, the Robin Hood Fund. I met the team from Cambrian House at Web 2.0 and they are a cool team, and the Robin Hood fund is a great community project.

There are lot’s of other people writing about Gifter, we are tracking some of their posts at the Gifter.org blog.

On Thu 28 Dec 2006. [2] Comments

Mack Collier at the Viral Garden blog started the Z-list meme, where he invited people to post links to some of their favorite blogs that could use some link love.

Someone was kind enough to add my blog Billions with Zero Knowledge to the list, which recently made it’s way to Seth Godin’s blog post where he picked up the meme.

I’ve noticed a great pick up in my traffic from Seth’s post, and from the meme spreading on other blogs (my blog was near the top of many of the lists that were being posted - so thanks).

So in addition to posting the Z-list, I’m also inviting any blog listed here to offer their audience a wish on Gifter.org. We have sponsors who have donated $1 for each wish made at the Million Dollar Blog Post.

We currently have 5,807 wishes that have been sponsored with donations to charity. You can see our sponsors choices in charities by following the links to their proof of sponsorships.

• Project Ojibwe - 2500 wishes
• Andy Nulman - 1100 wishes
• Martin Dufort / Kakiloc - 100 wishes
• Freakitude - 10 wishes
• Rohan Jayasekera - 100 wishes
• Jacob Jay / Holocore Blog - 157 wishes
• Dennis Eusebio - 10 wishes
• Patrick Dinnen - 100 wishes
• Craig Silverman - 28 wishes
• David Crow - 100 wishes
• George Favvas - 500 wishes
• Chris Cree - 1039 wishes
• Christine / Very Random - 28 Wishes
• Fred Ngo / Silicon Island - 35 Wishes

So for all you Z-list meme bloggers - if you have benefitted from the traffic from this meme like I have, I invite you to post a wish on your blog (with a link back to the Million Dollar Blog Post) and invite your readers to do the same.

I see this as a timely chance to use the traffic from the Z-list meme to promote the idea recently discussed by Yossi Vardi (father of ICQ) discussed at LeWeb3 where he and David Sifry introduced the idea of BloggersForBetterWorld where bloggers write about issues of social responsibility & change.

We think that Gifter.org is a chance for people to show their support for charities and causes that reflect the type of world they want to create.

So for those on the Z-list, please make a wish on us. Your wish is our donation.

These members of the Z-list have already written about Gifter.org - Andy Nulman, The Instigator Blog, MapleLeaf 2.0, [Updated - and Willard's Web 2.0 Experience who also wrote about Gifter.  Sorry Willard - missed you there.]
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
Working at Home on the Internet
Darren Barefoot
Two Hat Marketing
The Engaging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
Kinetic Ideas
Unconventional Thinking
Buzzoodle
Conversation Agent
The Copywriting Maven
Hee-Haw Marketing
Scott Burkett’s Pothole on the Infobahn
Multi-Cult Classics
Logic + Emotion
Branding & Marketing
Carpe Factum
Steve’s 2 Cents
Simplicity
Popcorn n Roses
On Influence & Automation
Servant of Chaos
converstations
eSoup
Make it Great!
Presentation Zen
Dmitry Linkov
aialone
Urban Jacksonville
John Wagner
Nick Rice
CKs Blog
Design Sojourn
Frozen Puck
The Sartorialist
Small Surfaces
Africa Unchained
Perspective
gDiapers
Marketing Nirvana
Bob Sutton
¡Hola! Oi! Hi!
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Community Guy
Social Media on the fly
Jeremy Latham’s Blog
SMogger Social Media Blog
Masey.com
37 Days
A Clear Eye
Alex Halavais
Blog Brothers
Brand Autopsy
Brand Soul
Creating Passionate Users
Crossroads Dispatches
Doc Searls
Drawn
eHub
FAST Company
gapingvoid
gillianic tendencies
Good Experience
Hitchhikers Guide to the Blogosphere
Hobopoet
How to Save the World
Josh Hallett
Joy of Six
Learned on Women
Listics
Make it Great
my topography
New Charm School
Occupational Adventure
Orbit Now
Pause
PureLand Mountain
Seth Godin
Simplicity
Songs of Experience
Talking Story
Time Goes By
Tom Peters
Tomorrow Today
WonderBranding
World Changing
Tertiary Education
Joyful Jubilant Learning
Creative Think
8wishes
Movie Marketing Madness
Blog Till You Drop!
Get Shouty!
One Reader at a Time
100 Bloggers
Critical Fluff
The New PR
Own Your Brand!
OTOInsights
bizandbuzz
Work, in Plain English
Buzz Canuck
New Millenium PR
Pardon My French
AENDirect
Diva Marketing
Marketing Hipster
The Marketing Minute
Funny Business
The Frager Factor
Mindblob
OrbitNow!
Open The Dialogue
Word Sell
Note to CMO:
That’s Great Marketing!
Shotgun Marketing Blog

On Wed 27 Dec 2006. [6] Comments

Go make a wish today - it’s already paid for. We have 3,600 wishes sponsored.

The Prize for the 1st Sponsor of the Million Dollar Blog Post ….

Goes to my good friend Andy Nulman. He graciously donated $1,100 dollars to charity and sponsored 1,100 of your wishes.

If you know Andy or read his blog, take him up on it and go make a wish right now. Let him know you used one of his wishes and thank him by linking back to his copy of his donation.

Thanks Andy. You win the first sponsor prize and although the Million Dollars in this case is going to charity, you’ve earned your place in history at Sponsor #1 for this project.

The Prize for the 1st to Blog About the Million Dollar Blog Post…

Goes to my friend and Librivox Mayor (see this post to understand) Hugh McGuire. Hugh and I are involved in a number of great discussions involving how open communities operate. I’m learning more from him, then he is from me I think. Hugh has earned his place in history twice that I know of. The first as the founder of the great Librivox project (Check out their offering of free audiobooks now!). He is also going down in history as the first person to blog about the Million Dollar Blog Post.

The Prize for the 1st to Reporter to Write About the Million Dollar Blog Post…

This goes to long time reporter, Maple Leaf 2.0 blogger and current VP Operations at B5 Media - our friend, Mark Evans. Mark wrote this post about our project on the his Maple Leaf 2.0 website.

Now, some may say that Mark is no longer a reporter. They might argue he should be in some different class as a professional blogger and entrepreneur at a blog network now. Here’s how I’m treating this. Mark is free to pass this torch and award to the next reporter to cover the story if he so chooses. He then will have the freedom to to define his own 1st prize category in which I will award him first prize to recognize his post. This is a chance for his Mesh co-organizer Mathew Ingram to try and wrestle the title from him. (Or any other reporter who wants to try to negotiate with Mark for this title.

Thank you all for your support of this idea. I will be awarding a few other 1st prizes in the coming days. I will also be providing a round up of our early supporters when we document how the project developed. If you’d like to get behind a good cause, or your interested in the opportunity for Internet fame - please help us spread the word.

Make sure you click on this link and help us Digg the story. (It only takes a moment to setup an account and help us vote for this story deserving attention)

If you have a blog, then please write about it.

You can also get involved as a sponsor if you’d like.

The best way to help though is to go make a wish at the Million Dollar Blog Post. Please take a moment to make a wish. It’s doesn’t take any effort and you’ll be responsible for $1 going to charity. We need your wishes to make this project succeed.

Make your wish and invite your friends to do the same.

On Tue 19 Dec 2006. 1 Comment