Montreal Tech Watch

Stephane Daury, a “web architect”, has released along with 2 other developers a new version of WPhone, a plugin for wordpress that allows iPhone and iPod Touch owners to visit and use wordpress blogs within a specially designed interface.

Like the new facebook iPhone interface, the new interface is specially designed to the device: it’s lightweight in size, buttons are bigger for better functionnality, main sections are highlighted, and it’s also optimized for the iPhone’s screen resolution. Because Apple’s products and WPhone caters to the same people (web geeks), I expect this plugin to be popular and be widely adopted. Wordpress administrators will get an additionnal functionnality and user interface for free, and focus instead on writing content.

As the version for iPhone is now somehow stable, Stephane Daury is now looking to extend the plugin to other mobile devices, like Nokia N60 series, Blackberries, Windows Mobile etc.. If you have any of the listed device, leave a comment on his blog.

I just closed the poll about the meaning of web2.0, there were 48 votes which seemed enough:

• hype, mostly 8% (4 votes)
• I don’t even know what ”web2.0” means 0% (0 votes)
• it’s short for we create all the content, and they keep all the (ad) money 4% (2 votes)
• it’s the new tools and technologies like AJAX, APIs, RSS, microformats, Rich Internet Applications 20% (10 votes)
• it’s blogs, social networking, wikis, syndication, and crowdsourcing 25% (13 votes)
• it’s the transition from desktop-based software to online/browser applications 22% (11 votes)
• it’s the future of the Internet and the computer 12% (6 votes)
• a buzzword that lacks any revenue or business model 4% (2 votes)

Most readers of MontrealTechWatch seem to have a clear idea about what web2.0 means, and they are also quite optimistic about it.

There were also 3 other answers:

• A semantic web might be worth a 2.0 version. AJAX and interactivity is more like…
• it’s convergence between industries, products ans services and converging player
• All of the above

I don’t quite understand the part about “convergence”. A semantic web is another problem that was pursued by many since the Internet’s birth, but is not yet solved. The third option is somehow true, but it’s an answer that is too easy.

For everyone who participated, thanks a lot!

To be fair, I will also give my answer. Web2.0 is for me the appropriation of the Internet users as a tool of communication, creation, information and work. Before web2.0, there was a common understanding that users “surf” the web, and consume whatever companies threw at them. Means of communication was limited to email and chat, and if you had websites where you could publish something, there were built as closed gardens where one had to register to experience, or worse pay a subscription fee. Web companies did that to artificially bump their number of users and thought that keeping a proprietary platform would prevent users to go elsewhere. Those were the days where external links were opened in new windows, if not forbidden, and where they messed with your browser so that you couldn’t leave the website. New startups came, and shattered that conception of the web, allowing users to reuse the data, allowing other companies to get and republish the data, make the data avalaible through other channels, and most importantly, focus their business model entirely on content created by each user, instead of serving them content created by big companies. With this came blogs, social networks, pictures, videos, news, music, all user-focused.

It’s true also that web2.0 was quickly grabbed by the marketing types and the next day, you had bloggers and new startups trying to give their own version of web2.0, which made the word somehow meaningless. In that regard, web2.0 is hyped, true; but it may be necessary. web2.0 is in its teenage days, and still trying to define itself. I used myself to see it as pure hype, but when you think about it, this really is the social usage of the web that is most suited to the technical nature of the Internet: a distributed tool of communication that allows personalization.

Finally, about tools and technologies, I don’t think AJAX has something to do with web2.0, gradients and stickers don’t either. They were the icing on the cake that pinpointed the changes to the user. However, RSS and APIs did a lot to the new movement and I believe will still play a bigger role.

I also like this illustration by eboy, which shows a chaotic web2.0 world:

You can click on the illustration to see other materials and posters.

RollAName, a Montreal startup launched 2 months ago, is a pure web2.0 product. The two founders, Vasily Klimko and David Nadezhdin, are promoting the service with a “web3.0″ and “web startups” group they created on facebook, are using the latest SEO techniques to rank high with Google, and hope on advertising and affiliates to monetize the service. In itself, RollAName is a social networking site where one member gets greater visibility if he/she had more friends than any others.

The bigger your network is, the higher you and your profile are listed and visible. Use this visibility to start promoting yourself, your business, events, websites, parties, books, blogs, video and audio and much more. Be Creative!

The most popular profiles will then be “featured” on the homepage, will get more traffic and have an opportunity to promote their videos, photos, listings etc. They also plan to include jobs and allow members to sell and buy via RollAName.

That said, I am not sure about the mass market appeal of RollAName. People don’t register on a website to be more popular, they do it to find information about a product, communicate with friends, buy stuff, etc. I’ve got my real-life friends to take care of, thank you, and it would be really a burden to register to yet another social networking website, just for the sake of it. I went through the website’s features, and concluded that people would register to RollAName if they are member of the media, bloggers, or in the marketing and PR industry etc.

That said, RollAName has sure some value with it, if you have a list of friends, and want to play with the “who is the most popular” game. The concept seems fun, for a moment, and would get my attention if I could just go into it right away. RollAName would then be perfect as a facebook application. Users would have already their data and list of friends, and RollAName would display some sort of tag cloud or another visualization tool to show how popular you are and what are the most popular stuff among your friends. If done right, they could also get at the same time traffic for their main website and build the service from there.

Better late than never.

Montreal tech entrepreneur breakfast took place last Tuesday at Bistro Etc. As usual, I met a lot of people. I would say that I knew almost half of the people that were there. This turns out to be a good thing because at every breakfast there is a sort of renewal of acquaintances. At the end, after two or three events, you might end up meeting more than a hundred people which is great.

I will talk about the people I got to know in no particular order:

I met David Carle from DNCOM Marketing. He is a specialist in search engine optimization. We talked about how this is a field in which you should always be moving foward and adapting your techniques; what was working just not so long ago is not applicable today anymore. The best example being the move from keyword optimization to backlinks.

Kakiloc’s CEO, Martin Dufort, was very energetic for a Tuesday morning. He discussed mostly about how he is going to morph the geo-localization system and build user friendly function into Kakiloc. In a matter to offer the better user experience, he is going to team up with Guillaume, an uxp designer in Montreal. I can’t wait to see the results.

I had a long conversation with George, the CEO of Smarthippo. He let me know about the services his company is offering. Interestingly enough, he told me that he found a way to finance his startup without the use of VC money. He is just constantly injecting the company profits coming from the consulting department into the development of his web application.

I talked with Mat Balez  from Karabunga. He told me that the public beta launch for their anti-spam software, Defensio, is imminent. We discussed a great number of issues. Sadly, you should have been there to find out about them. 

Bluestreak Technology is the third Montréal startup to receive VC funding this week. Iris Capital, Solidarity Fund QFL, BDC Venture Capital and First Capital Group have invested $20 million into Bluestreak.

Buestreak makes MachBlue, which is more or less Flash 7 for mobile phones and for digital TVs. It allows users and service providers to get “rich applications” without downloading any (java) software. MachBlue is used by many carriers in Europe and Asia, as well as media companies like Time Warner. With MachBlue, it has become very easy to create games, provide services like weather, news, TV games, etc. as you only need flash programmers and the software from Bluestreak.

Roberto Rocha reports that Mobivox has raised today $11 million from IDG Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, and Skypoint Capital Corp.

Mat Balez previously met Mobivox’s CEO at Red Herring Canada, and hinted about this second series of funding. The new funds will be used for accelerating growth and additionnal services:

the money will go towards opening a Beijing office (China is their third largest customer base) and rolling out premium paid services, like voice SMS and getting info (weather, stock quotes, etc.) via voice commands.

I have to say I was quite skeptical about Mobivox. My first reaction was it was just another VOIP company, in a market that’s overcrowded, with players like jajah backed by big telcos and handset manufacturers. The voice agent also sounded gimmicky. But that’s where I was wrong, the voice agent and voice recognition software was in fact their most precious asset and differentiating factor from other mobile companies. Extending the voice agent to provide an array of services is a great idea, it’s scalable, it’s practical, and easy to use. Going to China is also smart. Congratulations to Mobivox then!

Alliance NumeriQC has a new brand, with a new name, Alliance Numerique, and a new website:

Alliance Numerique is a business network of the multimedia industry in Québec, regrouping video games companies, web design and development firms, pretty much anything related to multimedia. They offer services, grants, studies and organizes various events for its members.

Their previous website was a community portal, featuring news, events, announcements from its members. Now these are pushed below the fold, and messages from Alliance Numerique and the website’s different sections are shown instead in the forefront.

I really prefer the old version, because now it looks as though they are now a professionnal consulting firm. I am quite sure that Bob communications, who is said to be the mindmaster behind this new relaunch, told them that they needed to have a stronger brand, a bolder logo, and a main tagline/message shown in the website, etc. instead of the community portal they previously had. And yes it’s cute, it’s vibrant, it’s nicely designed but I am sorry, this just doesn’t work. Bob communications lives in brochureware land, and second, you need sometimes to tone down your brand so that the members and companies you represent are given the focus. The only interesting new feature here is a new blog section, although it’s empty.

I guess I will have to delete the website from my bookmarks.

Lure Media has raised $2.5 million from Garage Technology Ventures Canada yesterday.

Lure Media Group was until yesterday a company providing media, marketing and technical services to the design industry. With the new funds, they have acquired the intellectual property and assets of Impact IS, a company which provided business automation software for design firms and design manufacturers. In their new website, Lure Media Group rebrands now themselves as a provider of software. They also announced they will use the new funds to launch a new SCM software for the industry, name ETERIORS. Impact IS and Lure Media are both headquartered in Montreal, but had offices in New York City and in San Francisco.

Margit Léger, founder and head of Impact IS, will be charmain for Lure Media, while Gordon Haight, former president of the Red Herring Magazine, will be the new president and CEO for the company.

It’s curious to see in the same day the acquisition and the funding. I guess Impact IS had the product and technical expertise, while Lure Media had the right people to execute the business plan. You should also notice that Garage Canada previously invested in Standoutjobs and in Praized Media, both aiming consumers, while this will target businesses (or B2B like one my friend likes to call it).

Browsing in Montreal Tech Watch’s archives, I stumbled upon the polls that were posted here months ago, that I simply forgot to re-run. Because they were somehow entertaininginformative, we shall have again a series of polls, to take the pulse of the Montreal Tech community.

To begin this highly scientific exercice, I have decided that we shall have no less that a poll about web2.0, which is a controversial word, to put it mildly.

Please come by the blog to say what you think about “web2.0″.

Company: Movivox

Position: Web Developer

Responsibilites and Tasks:
MOBIVOX is looking for a hands-on, results oriented Web Developer who’s excited to contribute immediately to our success. This developer will be working with a small team of other web developers, integratorsand graphical designers.

Responsibilities:

* Design and code the logic of the web site, web tools, etc
* Creates prototypes as required
* Identifiy system deficiencies and recommends solutions
* Meet development deadlines and schedules
* Understand the necessity of and contributes to coding standards

Required Knoweledge:
* Solid background in PHP programming on UNIX or UNIX-like environments (2 years or more)
* Computer science college degree or bachelors degree (superior academic results)
* Knowledge of XHTML, AJAX/JSON technologies, DHTML
* Excellent communication skills (French, English an asset)
* Strong analytic skills and design using OOP principles
* A good team player with positive attitude
* High degree of enthusiasm for technology, VoIP or Skype.

Compensation:
Depends on experience

Additional info:
http://www.mobivox.com/about/careers/

How to apply:
E-mail Mark at careers@mobivox.com

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