Disqus - Latest Comments for Mark Kuznicki

Re: It begins…

Mark Kuznicki — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:23:50 -0000

OMG, it actually happened. David Crow is in MSFT, using Apple hardware and open source software and blogging about it. I'm truly impressed! Maybe Microsoft isn't evil after all. ;)

Congratulations on becoming Canada's Robert Scoble! And thank you Microsoft for gainfully employing the community shit disturber.

Re: BarCampVancouver is sweaty like hot balls

Mark Kuznicki — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:49:03 -0000

I met Megan Cole at nextMEDIA in Banff a couple of weeks back and completely agree: she rocks! I miss my Kris KrÃ¼g and the Boris Mann too. Maybe a road trip is in order for BarCamp Vancouver. Who’s in?

Re: [Announcement] DemoCampToronto14, Sept 17, 2007

Mark Kuznicki — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:56:46 -0000

Hooray, DemoCamp is back!

I'm looking forward to seeing the mix of t-shirted web hipsters with the BOT suit crowd. This is great idea to bring DemoCamp to new audiences and enable some new connections.

Re: From out of the ashes

Mark Kuznicki — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:46:46 -0000

David, great post that covers the gamut of incubator history, practice and future possibility!

You mentioned the TSX Venture exchange, and I think it would be interesting to explore the role that CPCs (Capital Pool Companies) might have in our (admittedly broken) ecosystem. CPCs allow a (relatively) cheap fast-track to a public listing on TSX-V and the pools are sitting there, waiting for a qualifying transaction with moneyed and connected people attached to them.

If TSX-V wants to compete with AIM globally, it should probably pay attention to the early stage tech community in its backyard.

Re: Best of Independent Toronto

Mark Kuznicki — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:37:35 -0000

I am honoured to be considered in such esteemed company. But none of this happened until that first Barcamp landed in 2005. You started this, you created this monster. When you said 'community is the framework', I drank the kool-aid and haven't looked back since.

I come here out of respect and admiration, Godfather. And to say thank you.

Re: OCRI is sour, grapes

Mark Kuznicki — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:20:32 -0000

I think Peter's post offers a caution, a red flag, to those that think a member-based industry association is the solution. The more I look at the ecosystem, the more I come to believe that the industry association model is just plain broken for emerging companies.

I believe this has a lot to do with emerging web tech companies growing up during a period of rapidly declining costs of R&D and acceleration of tech change. The institutional structures simply can't adapt quickly enough.

Something we SHOULD be thinking and talking about in more depth are intentional 'network organization' models built from the ground up on the DNA of the social web world. Our institutional partners can really help here. Is there an interest in this conversation? I'm curious.

(p.s. Thanks for putting Florida and me in the same sentence! That drink's on me!)

Re: Tech Week in Toronto is NOT for Technologists

Mark Kuznicki — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:52:18 -0000

I think the main error here is not the engagement/targeting of the non-tech business audiences per se, but rather the outsourcing of the conversation to intermediaries. There absolutely should be conversations between tech innovators and the rest of the business community. But it certainly should NOT be mediated and packaged in this ridiculous way.

“This event is not just for the geeks or freaks” is a not-so-thinly veiled insult of people who actually build stuff and have a genuine passion for technology. THAT is shocking. Equating “geeks” with circus freaks in order to make a non-tech audience feel welcome is just so wrong I can’t even comprehend it.

Re: BarCampToronto 2.0 – May 2006

Mark Kuznicki — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 10:44:17 -0000

Great news & I've been looking forward to the next one ever since 1.0. Tara and Chris look like fantastic additions to the Toronto crew. I think I already know my topic, posted here

Re: Entrepreneurship, Sharing and DemoCamp

Mark Kuznicki — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 00:11:56 -0000

I argue for the DemoCamp 'main event' to stay pretty much as-is with breakout sesssions added. The main event should be a limited number of demos delivered to the whole room, with clear direction from Demoers on why they're there and only clarification questions from the audience for about the content of the Demo or what the Demoer is looking for.

Then, I would add Jay's idea of 'speed-dating' with smaller groups into a breakout session immediately following Demo. I like the idea that after everyone gets a flavour for the thing, whether hack or investment-worthy product, the audience self-selects based on their interest level and clusters around the 3 or 4 or however-many Demoer tables to probe deeper, match interests, aptitudes and expertise. If there's something worth pursuing, people exchange business cards and then take it outside or continue over beer. (The Drake Underground would be great for this, because you don't have to leave to get a drink.) I like the common experience with the big audience & it brings great energy.

If we really want to do something remarkable, I've got a reality show concept called 'DemoCamp: Monster Island', which I'm pretty sure we can get some interesting funding partners for. More of an iterative bus/dev X-Prize challenge with one winner taking a purse large enough to fund development to take them to the next stage. If we really want to see the startup scene in T-Dot take off, we need to start thinking bigger than Canadians usually do. ;-)

Re: You say you want a revolution

Mark Kuznicki — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 11:54:15 -0000

This is an exciting development that validates the 'unconference' structure as an important part of building a vibrant technology innovation pipeline. BarCamp/DemoCamp provide a framework for work as play. These events act as a marketplace/bazaar for talent and ideas, our community's town square. What do others think?

Re: In my lifetime

Mark Kuznicki — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 07:06:42 -0000

Any one of these issues could be a great basis for discussion at mesh, because they all have a tech/web component & either as problem or part of the solution.

'Make meaning' is a favourite of mine, and a personal motto since beginning my own pursuit of meaning a few years back and reading Guy Kawasaki back in the day.

Re: The Church of BarCamp

Mark Kuznicki — Tue, 30 May 2006 05:47:13 -0000

I'm in for a t-shirt & I'd like to have a different BarCamp t-shirt for every day of the week!

The CafePress idea is a good one, as well as the PayPal donation idea. CafePress and similar vendors have shirt styles that are more boob-enhancing, for our girl geeks.

Re: BarCampER

Mark Kuznicki — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 14:50:56 -0000

David, my friend! I missed all the drama at DemoCamp, so I was completely shocked when I learned about this. Really. I humbly offer my services to help in any way I can during your recovery. First off – you’re about to get a full dose of my various media addictions! I hope your DVD player plays DivX files. Take it easy, and get well.

Re: Bombshells, B-Girlz and Bourbon

Mark Kuznicki — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 05:14:15 -0000

I'm looking forward to CampCamp, which will certainly bring out the HGNs hiding out there. How about getting sponsorship from Holts or Prada?

I think we should encourage the meshies to book the B-Gurlz for next May's mesh event. That'll shake the cob-webs from the Toronto tech scene!

Thanks to Laura for inviting me along to this fab gathering of talented PR people and their many fans, most of whom are apparently investment bankers.

Re: Find my purpose…

Mark Kuznicki — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 05:18:33 -0000

MeaningCamp is a great idea! Just in time for all those New Year's resolutions.

Meaning-making and sense-making is a contact sport. I know that my sense of myself and my role in the world has been absolutely informed by what you began with the very first BarCamp event in Toronto, the people I met and the blogs I read.

It is also an iterative process that benefits from articulation and testing against the real world.

Re: Leverage + measurement

Mark Kuznicki — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 06:15:44 -0000

Excellent post, thanks for writing it.

Re: We bring imagination to life

Mark Kuznicki — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:42:15 -0000

Wow! Yes. I think. We need to raise our sights and improve our thinking. We need to inspire and captivate an audience. We also need to have the ability to execute our crazy schemes, find community, improve ourselves and each other.

What does this mean? What does such a beast look like? I’m not sure, but it might involve some Powerpoint or Keynote…but hopefully using lots of Visual Thinking to communicate the big ideas as well as opportunities to see the gears whir if you’ve got code.

Hmm…thinking…

Re: Value to the audience

Mark Kuznicki — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:13:51 -0000

This is an excellent discussion. I've had similar ambivalent feelings about DemoCamp, it is great for the community feeling but it can suck when it descends to pitchfest.

To Rob's question, I would argue that David's priority about 'show me something new, interesting, challenging' is absolutely correct. I am bored by pitches. Any journalist or VC who's been there, done that should be bored too.

The authentic sense of wow comes from a show of acrobatic ingenuity, the dramatic stories of challenges overcome. VCs and journalists worth their salt should be just as fascinated by that as the technologists will be. If they're not, I question why they have an interest in technology in the first place.

I would hate to see DemoCamp descend into Pitchfest. CVF is nothing but pitches, which I found to the dullest of the dull. Pencils in my eyes dull.

If you want to launch or get VC, go to Under the Radar or Demo.

Re: WOW! me

Mark Kuznicki — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:22:35 -0000

WOW! I'm excited by where you're heading here! The evolution of David Crow continues.

Rohan is of course right that organizations have cultural biases against WOW! Projects. Within a homeostatic social system, there are many systemic barriers to change-making innovation and value creation.

Reimagining the future and deconstructing our mental models of the present can create space for WOW! Projects to emerge within an organization. Design thinking is our great hope. Is it sufficient?

Culture is a strategic lever in transforming an organization, a city, a community and our world. Culture fills the spaces created by design models and methodologies. Cultural transformation supports the development of a marketplace where WOW! is demanded; such a market raises all boats.

Do we have contemporary examples of a professional services firm that truly transformed its clients' organizational cultures? Can open creative communities provide a strategic lever to crack open the possibility of WOW!?

Re: Why I won’t be on The Dragon’s Den

Mark Kuznicki — Wed, 09 May 2007 11:10:39 -0000

I second the motion on getting Sean Wise to host the show - he would be great! He was a very entertaining MC at the Toronto Venture Forum, obviously knowledgeable in the startup and venture capital space and a natural ringmaster for this circus.

Re: » StartupCampToronto is tomorrow - open to all (8:30pm) | StartupNorth

Mark Kuznicki — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 09:32:09 -0000

Amazing work last night! There was a lot of excitement in that room - it was buzzing from a cluster of really significant announcements. Congratulations!

Re: » Canada Needs to Realize The Technology Business is a Race | StartupNorth

Mark Kuznicki — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:32:35 -0000

Great post by Will Pate. In policy jargon, it's called "competitive intensity" and you need more of it to create the conditions for innovation and commercialization success in a global market. As Michael commented on my recent post on the subject of Canadian innovation culture, we're both coddled by a nanny government and operate within a business climate ruled by an entitled cadre of UCC graduates used to being big fish in a small pond. It's myopic and provincial and it's fast becoming unsustainable.

As the global economy switch gets flipped to recession, those economies that nurture the mammals scurrying in the underbrush are those that are best positioned to adapt and remain resilient during the accelerating change of so-called "hypercapitalism".

Re: » GigPark - share reviews with your friends | StartupNorth

Mark Kuznicki — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:57:43 -0000

I've been using GigPark from time to time during the beta, and found it really useful and relevant. For the indie/freelance/free agent type, we need all the good professional services we can get, and GigPark has proven its value.

Smart implementation, fueled by rockstar programmer Paul Dowman's code and a really nice design sensibility.

Re: » Weekend Reading - March 15th 2008 | StartupNorth

Mark Kuznicki — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:29:00 -0000

Michele Perras and I were talking about this last night. Michele was concerned by the tone, particularly of the pile-on on Toronto TechWeek. As an event co-producer (ICE08), she felt the sting that any event organizer feels from criticism. I argue that this level of passion is not only good, but necessary. Something is at stake when passions flare. Canadians tends to shy away from open conflict, preferring to save criticism for passive-aggressive backchannel conversations. To me, bringing conflict out in the open is a critical step in shifting the conversation, of actually taking on some really important questions.

So pile on everyone! Comment, be angry, give praise, get engaged, don't be silent. Fear not for giving or receiving offense. Fear only passivity and the mediocrity it engenders.

Re: » I love my city, and so should you | StartupNorth

Mark Kuznicki — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:38:12 -0000

Great post Jevon! This is absolutely critical - we will not ever BE Silicon Valley. We have to stop making Silicon Valley = success. We are BECOMING us, the question is how to make US more successful. In a knowledge economy, we need to respect the cultural and creative resources of our age - our people. It is for this reason we are sometimes frustrated at the lack of engagement with community demonstrated by our institutions. Keep up the good work at StartupNorth!

Re: » ChickAdvisor launches new show, does deal with Rogers Media | StartupNorth

Mark Kuznicki — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:23:56 -0000

This is great news! Congratulations to Alex and Ali. I've been waiting for some smart startups to bridge the social web world with traditional media. Great model!

Re: Venture capital didn’t create the bubble

Mark Kuznicki — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:38:01 -0000

Better late than never, I'll add my two cents here.

Re: What exactly do we mean by TV?

Mark Kuznicki — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:54:59 -0000

Mathew, great question and one I'm wrestling with myself.

From a user's perspective, I believe that television is a passive living room experience with a remote in hand. So if internet video is streamed onto a large screen with a remote to control it from the couch we should be able to call it "television".

However, I speculate that Rogers, CTV and Canwest would not call that television because it doesn't fit into standard broadcast channels, pipes and business models. i.e. if the traditional broadcast industry doesn't own the distribution channel and content, it's not television.

So who's right - the user or the industry that invented the word in the first place?

Re: Weinberger’s third order of information

Mark Kuznicki — Sun, 06 May 2007 13:08:31 -0000

Thanks for the post: yet another book added to my lengthening reading list. This seems like a good place to start for a Library 2.0 conversation.

Some Barcampers have been talking about organizing a LibraryCamp to bring together the web 2.0 and Information Architecture crowd with the librarians.

Re: Google and eBay — catfight, 90210-style

Mark Kuznicki — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 11:34:55 -0000

Bravo! This should be a regular feature: silicon valley corporate hissy fits in gurl-talk. Love it.

Re: Messina and Firefox

Mark Kuznicki — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:42:35 -0000

Great post. You raise the essential question: should/can an OSS enterprise open source its strategy?

My gut tells me that (in at least some circumstances like the Mozilla case) open sourcing strategy may be a way to optimally balance impact, legitimacy and long-run sustainability in the context of an adapting competitive threat and evolving community aspirations.

My gut also says that such a prospect is terrifying to employees of the enterprise for many legitimate reasons - some emotional, others completely rational.

If desirable, is true open source strategy even possible? The practices for it do not currently exist as they do in software development. What is the "source code" of strategy? (I'm speaking metaphorically here.) How do you break up "strategy-code" into discrete work packages that can be reassembled into a coherent whole? How do you interrogate the quality of strategy-code submitted by contributors and approve moving it into the core of an organization?

These seem like hard problems worth working on. If desirable and possible, then the best candidate to lead innovation in this area is Mozilla. Success would be nothing less than revolutionary - a true meta-innovation.

Developing an open source strategy development model would be a fascinating project that I would love to contribute to!

Re: TransitCamp

Mark Kuznicki — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:25:30 -0000

Thanks for the link David! (Unfortunately as I write this Stikipad, the TransitCamp wiki host, is down. Hope it comes up soon.)

Benton's question is a very good one. I would argue that it is an organizational question for the public agency rather than for the community. Innovation needs freedom for play as a starting point. Ideas are free, execution is hard and is the job of professionals.

Re: I’ve never seen a political speech like this

Mark Kuznicki — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:09:43 -0000

I too have been completely enthralled by this speech. I read it. Listened to it on my iPod. Watched the YouTube (>1.6 million views!). Read the reactions.
The words "universal president" popped into my mind today. Your description of him as "conduit" is apt. Can an individual tap the energies of diverse communities of interest, identity and ideology and actually channel them towards real change? It is remarkable, inspiring and motivating for anybody that thinks about social change and the possibility of progress.

Re: The Open Web is a social movement

Mark Kuznicki — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:32:34 -0000

Great post David. What is interesting to me is how technology and social movements in general appear to be co-evolving, locked in a dance with no apparent control centre. I think Paul Hawkens' ideas (Blessed Unrest, http://www.wiserearth.org/) are important here, which I wrote about recently.

The starfish of the Open Web movement mirrors that of other global social, economic and environmental justice movements. There is no central control, no unifying ideology; only a set of values and a complex, decentralized network of humans who hold those values and collaborate (sometimes explicitly, sometimes serendipitously) to solve practical problems of human need, usually with the intent (expressed or implicit) of dispersing pathological concentrations of power.

Taking these lessons and applying them here, I think that attempts by individuals to create an ideology out of this decentralized movement will fail. I also think it is unrealistic for believers to expect any one organization to take on a central role organizing a set of values, beliefs, standards, technologies, products and ideas as complex as those we could wrap up in the term the "Open Web".

I'm sympathetic to Chris' hopes and dreams for what Mozilla could be. But maybe we all need to take a step back, try to see the bigger pattern of what is emerging, and realize that there are many strategic points of influence in our movement(s).

Re: Firefox 3 pledge map vs. the Pentagon’s new map

Mark Kuznicki — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:45:51 -0000

Fascinating correlation and thank you for sharing the Burnett TED video link. He is a provocative, passionate and entertaining speaker.

Re: Why I won’t be on The Dragon’s Den

Mark Kuznicki — Wed, 09 May 2007 11:10:39 -0000

Re: StartupCampToronto is tomorrow - open to all (8:30pm)

Mark Kuznicki — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 09:32:09 -0000

Amazing work last night! There was a lot of excitement in that room - it was buzzing from a cluster of really significant announcements. Congratulations!

Re: Canada Needs to Realize The Technology Business is a Race

Mark Kuznicki — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:32:35 -0000

Re: GigPark - share reviews with your friends

Mark Kuznicki — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:57:43 -0000

Re: Weekend Reading - March 15th 2008

Mark Kuznicki — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:29:00 -0000

Re: I love my city, and so should you

Mark Kuznicki — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:38:12 -0000

Re: ChickAdvisor launches new show, does deal with Rogers Media

Mark Kuznicki — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:23:56 -0000

This is great news! Congratulations to Alex and Ali. I've been waiting for some smart startups to bridge the social web world with traditional media. Great model!

Re: Guest Post - What Artists Can Teach Everyone About Social Media

Mark Kuznicki — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 10:31:49 -0000

Great piece Amrita! The perspective of an artist-creator is one that inspires me, because of the way an artist engages with the world - not as a supplicant, but as an agent of change, with intent. Finding that perspective means finding something inside oneself together with a curiosity about the world that is unique and personal. Your post has me thinking about artists and social media creators as both engaged in acts of meaning-making. Thanks for the stimulus!

Re: Daily Challenge breaks a record, reminds us not everything has to happen online

Mark Kuznicki — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:38:38 -0000

Great point Andrew! This is critical to me, that what so many people that come from a traditional media/marketing/PR background do not understand is that part of the reason that people meet online is that they want to meet great people in real life!

People want to meet each other around their shared passions and then take action, which is its own reward and which creates a new incentive to take another action.

How does Brand fit into this? Well, Brand can hope to enable and get some of the afterglow to rub off on it. Otherwise, it is probably just getting in the way.