I was at Deloitte’s TMT Prediction 2010 launch event yesterday morning at the Fairmont – The Queen Elizabeth Hotel. Here is a recap of the event and some thought on the predictions and the discussions we had during the event, including Google and Twitter. I’ll also write about Twitter and try to convince Duncan Stewart, the Director of Deloitte Canada Research: Technology, Media & Telecommunications, Life Sciences and GreenTech of why Twitter is a force to be reckoned with and is here to stay. In fact, by the time I finish this post, I have the intention of convincing any Business, Finance, Technology, Media or Telecommunication person reading it of the high value there is in following me, reading my blog and working with me for Business and Web Strategy, Industry and Business Analysis.

Winning the MyTMT Prediction 2010

This time around, Deloitte actually launched a competition called MyTMT prediction, opening it to the public. I was glad to be in the five finalists and also learn during the event that I won the competition with my prediction that Google is poised to massively disrupt the traditional Telecom Industry, to the applause of approximately 200 Business and Media people during the launch event yesterday, January 19th in Montreal.

Business Strategy

Many people have asked me what the prize was. It was recognition, from the Jury, from a big consulting firm like Deloitte and also many people in the Technology, Media and Telecommunication industries. I also won exposure, mingling with like-minded people, and participating in the conversation about foreseeing and predicting where Technology is bringing us and how it impacts our Businesses and lives. As Deloitte themselves argue, the value of the Predictions event is to

explore emerging trends that will have an impact on Canadian businesses in 2010.

and to

helping their clients evaluate complex issues, develop fresh approaches to problems, and implement practical solutions.

There are dedicated TMT practices in 45 countries in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific. DTT’s member firms serve 92 percent of the TMT companies in the Fortune Global 500. Clients of Deloitte’s member firms’ TMT practices include some of the world’s top software companies, computer manufacturers, semiconductor foundries, wireless operators, cable companies, advertising agencies, and publishers.

About the research
The 2010 series of Predictions has drawn on internal and external inputs including: conversations with TMT companies, contributions from DTT member firms’ 7,000 partners and senior practitioners specializing in TMT, discussions with financial and industry analysts, and conversations with trade bodies.

Being able to foresee where things are going allows strategizing, planning for the long run. Being able to monitor things allow for swift changing of Business tactics so that the changing environment can have less deleterious effects.

This is why Deloitte’s TMT Predictions 2010 is essential reading:

Similarly, somebody reading my blog back then in 2005 would have already known the pitfalls of using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer based on quasi-prophetic words at the time, totally vindicated by the recent huge security debacle involving Microsoft, Google, China, and some other 30-odd U.S. firms this January:

During and after these brushes with Justice, Microsoft officials have repeatedly been heard chanting the mantra “Innovation, Innovation. If Microsoft is broken into smaller pieces, we won’t be able to do our Innovation.”

But see, before all this, by bundling their inferior Internet Explorer with Windows, they still managed to make IE the most used browser on the planet since they also force Windows down the throat of the PC-buying customer.

But once they achieved this, what do you think they did with IE? Do you think they kept on innovating, adding features to it, sorting out the kinks, supporting Internet Standards?

No, they sat on it for 3 years. And since IE is a security hazard, the flaws were rapidly exploited. Last year, there were countless storied of PCs being hijacked by spyware, popups everywhere, people tearing their hair off, going mad.

All of this because Microsoft in intent on dominating a segment but does not really care about the customer, nor about innovation. And once they do, and every time a finger points at them, they will strive to cover everything up in marketing or P.R.
—
Not only that, but the Mozilla team, true to Open Source spirit, regularly updated the browser. More specifically, they patched any flaw very rapidly.

Typically, Microsoft will take weeks before even acknowledging a flaw, and if they patch it, the user is left with a vulnerable system for months.
—
Internet Explorer 7 will still be flawed. The problem is Microsoft.

MS’s IE7 will still be flawed. Microsoft still hasn’t learned to support open standards and they still haven’t learned to released a secure software. Instead they are still rushing bug-ridden software and covering it up with P.R. and marketing millions, the latest case being Visual Studio 2005.

Then they also want you to get their Windows Defender anti-spyware software. How come they cannot patch their faulty software first and foremost?

Microsoft hasn’t learned and won’t learn from its mistakes. It’s a monopoly and feels safe enough there. So it will rely on weird tactics for a long time. Like removing all trace of some Linux-bashing articles from the Internet. Like funding pseudo-neutral analysts to tout their software and bash alternatives. Like spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about alternate products. Like enabling only passport-registered people to post comments on their inane MS-marketing blogs. And who posts there? Well those who have MS passports, that is, MS employees primarily and who will do some mutual back-slapping hoping the community takes it up (astro-turfing – a fake grass root marketing approach). Like stubbornly not supporting Open Standards. Like pissing off customers, partners, and employees all at once. Like creating an artificial shortage of XBox 360.

The choice is yours. Make the best one.

You have the choice to try an alternative: the best browser in the world.

Microsoft has been at it again: trying to minimize the seriousness of the security issues, while bashing other browsers. The Web, however, is quick to point out the flawed reasoning:

Mashable – Microsoft downplays Internet Explorer security holes

It takes years to change an ingrained company culture with blessings of wrongdoing from above, and knowing the software engineering advantages of open-source (“With enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” – Eric S. Raymond), I knew there were fundamental problems with the company itself.

My point of view is validated today with entire governments like France and Germany saying no to Internet Explorer and urging to do the same, but only with 4 years of delay…

So, if you would like to know what I think of where the future in Business and Technology lies, here are the essential posts you should read:

And more predictions from me are here:

Predictions discussion

a. Google

After the presentation of my prediction, Duncan Stewart said “You nailed it. I think for everything, you nailed it. But I don’t agree with one thing”.

And that was about how in the US, people are very used to a certain level of customer service. He does have a point, especially judging by the flood of questions and complaints regarding an issue with continuous switching between Edge and 3G networks. This got the Google-T-Mobile-HTC trinity passing a hot potato around for a while.

Personally, I think it’s just growing pains for Google, but the bases of the innovative disruption are already there and the consumer will like that.

Check out this very insightful text by Jon Stokes on Ars Technica where he describes how selling the handset unlocked and separately from the carrier changes the competitive landscape:

Because AT&T has ensnared—and locked in—legions of consumers with the iPhone, the company’s incentive is to minimize their infrastructure spending so that they can maximize per-user profits. AT&T also has a motive to nickel-and-dime you to death, because it has you locked in with that amazing phone and its accompanying ETF.

b. Twitter

Asked by Michelle Blanc about what his thoughts on Twitter and its positive role in the aftermath of the Haiti disaster were, Duncan turned out not to be such a big fan of Twitter after all.

Here is what I think Duncan should do to do to get more out of Twitter:

1. Use TweetDeck (my favourite) or Seesmic (using it on Android since TweetDeck is not available and it’s very good indeed) to separate different streams into columns: “All Friends”, “Direct Messages”, “Mentions”. In TweetDeck, you can also add your Facebook column.

2. If you like Finance, Trading and Investments,
– register for StockTwits
– download the Nasdaq QFolio app for the iPhone in the App store and follow what people are saying on StockTwits for each ticker.

3. Follow people of interest, those with expertise and breaking news, through search or pre-existing lists on other people’s profiles or on TweetDeck’s homepage. e.g. Follow @howardlinzon, and @fredwilson

Here is why I think Twitter is important:

1. Nasdaq has built an iPhone app which leverages StockTwits, which itself leverages Twitter. I bet this is going to be important for algorithmic trading.

2. Twitter has made deals with Google and Microsoft to the tune of $25M so that their realtime search results appear in the two giants’ traditional search engines

3. Twitter has an ecosystem of 50,000 apps, and growing. It has become a platform where people use it for marketing and finance. This is crucial and there area many other details in my criteria for IPO selection in Two IPOs to look forward to in 2010.

4. Remember IRC channels during the Iraq war? Twitter plays that role today, and much more. Breakout news happens there first, and much later on other channels.

5. I was spending some night in New York and at one point in time there were insistent traffic of fire-trucks and I thought “This is not the city that never sleeps – it’s rather the city where you can never sleep”. My first reflex? Checking #NYC on Twitter to see if there was any danger in the vicinity. Similarly, Twitter will become essential for alerting you to any opportunities in your surroundings. That’s part of the power of real-time and location-based services.

6. Twitter allows you to do social computing. Your trusted friends and contacts will help when you have a genuine question and if you are helpful too.

7. Last but not least… Dell made $6.5M through Twitter channels sales in two years.

Solar

I was a bit disappointed to hear that solar would have some difficulties along the 2010 because of a supply glut. However, stumbling blocks can turn into stepping stones – this may be an opportunity to regularly stock up on the equities, value-averaging along the way until the big break provided the choice is made carefully.

How Deloitte leveraged Social Media for TMT Predictions 2010

Deloitte did very well in leveraging Social Media prior and up to the event. First, they decided to open up submissions from the public, leveraging user-generated content.

They further leveraged several social media applications, services and strategies and Katheline Jean-Pierre has been a driving force behind that, and I actually learned about the MyTMT prediction through her Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Deloitte was present on the Web, on Twitter, and on Facebook, together with UStream, YouTube etc…

Deloitte called upon Laurent Maisonnave of ZeAgence to build upon his social media and video streaming skills – the event was filmed and streamed to Deloitte’s UStream channel in realtime over the web.

They leveraged the Wildfire application for Facebook, which allows campaign management. Any participant could upload their videos and then invite their Facebook friends to vote through the Wildfire app embedded in Deloitte’s MyTMT web page.

Before and during the event, Deloitte had communicated and prominently displayed its hashtag for the event (#TMTPrediction2010 or #TMTPred2010) for others to include in their Tweets.

This morning, I was also flabbergasted to learn that my prediction was shown to 400 Business people at the event in Toronto.

Actually, it will also be shown throughout Canada during Deloitte’s stops in major cities during their TMT Prediction events. I believe they are:
Winnipeg, Quebec, Ottawa, Calgary, Halifax and Vancouver.

Thanks Deloitte for this opportunity and kudos to the team, Duncan, Robert, Peter, Katheline, Laurent and the Jury members.

1. Google Telecom, Hello! – July 2nd, 2007

Google

I envisioned then as TechCrunch had featured a rumour that Google was going to buy GrandCentral, that Google was bent on becoming a Telco or ISP themselves.

The acquisition of GrandCentral and mobile ambitions – The Google phone?

GrandCentral provides you with one phone number linked to all your existing phone numbers, and many other features (thanks to Techcrunch for this great overview) through its website and also through your mobile.

There have been rumors of the Google phone before, and such a device with the mobile Google applications, linked to all the Google integrated goodies mentioned above would be pure bliss for managing and sharing data and event information with contacts when either online or offline thanks to Google Gears.

Google’s killer move

Here is what I predict will happen with Google Telecom. Based on the current state of Telecom, i.e. VOIP disrupting the industry with the old Telcos still charging too much while there are cheaper VOIP offers like the Gizmo Project, Skype, VBuzzer and Jajah, Google will adopt a similar strategy to Google Apps. With Google Apps, Google has a tiered access: free access for users and paid access for businesses.

I believe Google Telecom will offer free calls locally and worldwide to fixed telephone lines and mobiles to individual users and basic paid access for businesses and bring a more severe disruption of the Telecom industry as it will rely on getting more advertising through these channels. Alternately, Google could use the Google Web infrastructure to position itself as an ISP and offer free Internet access to all too.

That’s a killer strategy, and they can pull it off. Beautifully at that.

2. How Apple will revolutionize music-making – March 11th, 2007

Apple

Months before the launch of the iPhone, I foresaw how the multi-touch device will change the way we make music, essentially because multi-touch is organic and enables the use of the device as Midi controllers.

However, the iPhone and the iPod Touch are a little too small for a big revolution. The forthcoming tablet will be different. Being bigger, we can expect many more practical uses like playing virtual instruments live, using the tablet as a virtual mixer and sequencer and so on.

Conclusion

The whole experience of how you make music within a sequencer with virtual instruments is about to be revolutionized by Apple with a forthcoming combination of multi-touch hardware and software based on Logic and running on at least Leopard.

The very act of recording, manipulating and producing music on a computer will become an organic performance in itself.

I don’t know when it’s coming, but I do know it’s soon, probably this year, and it’s going to be Apple and Leopard+.

The Next three ones come from a long post called The Web O.S., Web 2.0, yubnub and YashNub dated October 10th, 2005.

A revolution is under way. It is one of those times when technologies developed separately converge and congeal. From this emerges a new system that is better than the sum of its parts.

3. The Web O.S. / The Cloud – October 10th, 2005

This begs the question of how to propagate technical requirements to an underlying platform to enhance the end-user’s experience with Web 2.0.

The first point of contact is the user’s browser.
…

My view of the Web OS is that it must be a combination of the computer’s OS and the browser. …

Given Firefox and AJAX and great web services, there will be an increasing migration of desktop applications to remotely hosted locations on the web. Of course, not all applications can be hosted this way yet – desktop installed apps will still be around for a long time.

But assuming increased hosted services, it is a simple and logical step to envision that the computer OS can itself be tweaked for Web 2.0 usage. In other words, you could enhance existing Web support, but in addition, you could also strip an existing computer OS from any superfluous capabilities and code. You would then obtain a low-cost alternative to the bloated (and sometimes expensive) OSes currently available.

These WebOS 2.0 PC’s, being cheaper, could be used to power schools, especially in developing and third world countries and businesses alike.

Businesses would also benefit of broadband connections to leverage hosted services.

Although schools in poor areas may have broadband, they would still benefit of the network architecture: imagine just one server providing the necessary web services to a class of pupils. They could all be writing their assignment with a software like Writely.

The whole of the software service maintenance is outsourced – this is less costly in time and money for anyone using a PC with Web OS.

Of note recently is the announcement of the partnership between Google and Sun for cross-marketing of their services. This fuelled a lot of speculation about whether a Web version of StarOffice would be in the works. In addition, people have been talking about a possible Google browser and GoogleOS.

I envision the future Web O.S. to be a stripped down Linux distribution with subsequent enhancements. And the single distribution which is poised as the best contender has to be Mark Shuttleworth’s forever free Ubuntu Linux.

Based on the above, I don’t think Google is preparing a browser or O.S. Because both the browser (Firefox) and the Computer OS (Ubuntu Linux) already exist, it doesn’t seem to be a good strategy to me.

4. Firefox – October 20th, 2005

In December 2009, Firefox overtakes IE 7 to become the Word’s most popular browser.

Firefox

…
My weapon of choice in this area is Firefox and it should be yours too. Mozilla’s awesome open-source browser is highly customizable through a variety of extensions. A personal favourite is GreaseMonkey which allows you to install scripts that personalize the browsing experience of some sites, removing annoyances in some cases or enhancing functionality in others.

My view of the Web OS is that it must be a combination of the computer’s OS and the browser. The advantage with a browser like Firefox is that it is already cross-platform and standards-based. It is therefore a candidate of choice for basing any development of the Web 2.0 services.

I also praised Firefox in this other post in November 2005 – Firefox, the world best browser.

Not only that, but the Mozilla team, true to Open Source spirit, regularly updated the browser. More specifically, they patched any flaw very rapidly.

5. Ruby on Rails – October 10th, 2005

Twitter

Thanks to launching with Ruby on Rails, Twitter has managed to raise $25M at the end of this year.

Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails is a Rapid Web Development framework built using Ruby, an open-source and truly object-oriented programming language.

Ruby

I am quite fond of Matsumoto-san’s Ruby language and hence I founded a local Ruby user Group.

Ruby on Rails has made the development of new web services a disarmingly simple thing to do. The very implementation of the Rails framework enables you not to have to repeat yourself in your code. Actually, a lot of the code is automatically generated.

Thanks to David Heinemeier Hansson and thousand of other contributors, RoR is and will continue to be a driving force for evolving Web 2.0 because it’s now easy and fast to build new applications. It’s also worth mentioning that RoR now incorporates AJAX functionality by default.

6. Open-source

I have been involved in Linux User Groups and the open-source community for more than a decade and I use and recommend open-source software for that much to enterprises and individuals alike.

Open-source continues to grow as an influential way of building technology and businesses. Sometimes, the open-source product is better engineered than the commercial product, since:

Therefore, building proprietary solutions from scratch is an increasingly losing battle. It is much better to build around open-source software and open standards, ensuring interoperability and robustness.

Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Ubuntu, Google, Apple Mac OS X are all built with or around open-source software.

By the way, Eric Raymond, the term ‘open source’ won – we rarely hear of Free Software anymore. However, let’s not forget the seminal work of Richard Stallman.

At the close of 2009, one of the most impressive companies of the decade relies heavily on Open-source software, contributes heavily to the Open-Source community and has evolved into a major player in several industries by building a hybrid business model:

Proprietary or closed-sourced core algorithms and technology
+
Heavily leverage open-source technology and contribute back to the community

That company is Google and is a great model for merging technology and business and succeeding in the digital age and the knowledge economy. Note that to replicate Google’s success, you also have to rely heavily on Engineers and Engineering in Computer Science.

World Record marketing

The number of downloads counted today will probably make Firefox go into the Guinness Book of Records. That’s a genius marketing coup.

Reliability and loyalty

I first downloaded Firefox in an early version years ago when it was still “Firebird” and when Microsoft’s Internet Explorer failed me atrociously and I have not regretted it ever since. That experience marked Internet Explorer as a security hazard in my mind ever since. Even during the slowdowns experienced because of memory use in version 2, I still used it exclusively.

It is Open-Source software

As a passionate advocate of open-source, and a participant of Linux User Groups where I have spent years explaining and analyzing the benefits of open-source, this is the proof in the pudding.

As a Software Engineer, my own perspective is that the open-source solution is, in the long run, the better engineered one. This is because of Eric S. Raymond’s insight that after a threshold of open-source contributors, “all bugs are shallow”. If there is a bug in the software, then there is no policy of security by obscurity as some commercial companies practice. Therefore, someone, somewhere must be an expert in that particular field where the bug lies. There is no agenda to delay fixing a bug since the resource is a willing volunteer. Therefore, the bug is fixed, brilliantly and speedily.

The software is necessary and is built, enhanced by the people and for the people, an example of the ideal of freedom and sharing. It is open-source, and therefore it is freely available, freely modifiable, multi-platform, stable and secure, richly extensible and supports open-standards which prevents any vendor-locking and allows me to access the fantastic resources online.

In any case, if ever you have a doubt about the absolute superiority of open-source software for business, just think about how Google is built on open-source technology, including Linux and Python.

Other Open-Source advancements I am especially fond of in addition to Mozilla’s excellent Thunderbird email software are:

1. Ubuntu Linux

Thanks here go to Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman for all those GNU goodies stemming from his particular vision, Mark Shuttleworth and a slew of other contributors.

My version of Ubuntu is a 64-bit operating system which leverages both 64-bit AMD Turion processors of my machine. I got my two latest upgrades – without reinstalls – through the Internet while still using my system and for free.

At the first upgrade I couldn’t use the fancy effects for my desktop, putting in on a 3D cube and so on because my ATI graphics card was not supported. 2 hours later, the community had delivered new code onto repositories around the world for free to do just that. It ran slow. 1 more hour after reading the free forums, I had configured Compiz Fusion and saw it running beautifully.

I have the latest upgrade configured with a Mac OS X look and feel, just for fun, and it’s true that Apple has great design.

This upgrade plays all my audio CDs and DVDs. Compare this to the latest SP3 upgrade of the Windows XP Media Center Edition O.S. which came with my machine: anytime I insert an audio CD, I get a blue screen of death and nothing I do or have done has fixed the issue. The only solution seems to be a reinstall. Contrast, in turn to Vista, which has not kept its promise, possibly a instance of why a company should stick to its core business and not stray too far from it – in other words, after all these years, I would have expected Microsoft to have built an excellent Operating System. This was not the case, and in the meantime, Microsoft has diverted its attention into hardware, gaming consoles, and what not.

2. OpenOffice

This free and open-source office or productivity suite has improved leaps and bounds. The greatest advancement for me was when some of the Excel worksheets I had devised for Personal Finance could be loaded and all the dynamic charts could be updated within OpenOffice. To date, OpenOffice is still being regularly updated. It is a power-house of a suite.

3. Ruby and Ruby on Rails

Ruby is my favourite language and has been for a few years too. It is truly object-oriented, makes you feel your intelligence is treasured, puts immense power into your hands because of meta-programming, and is therefore a fantastic tool for prototyping. It has Japanese elegance, together with extreme beauty. Who would have thought one could say this of a programming language? Thanks go to Yukihiro Matsumoto San, alias Matz!

Ruby on Rails, in turn, is the absolute best framework for Rapid Web Applications building. Credits here go to David Heinemeier Hansson.

2008 is the year that the vendors in the Industry have rallied to bring their commercial endeavours for Ruby and Rails to fruition:

This comes a few years after the thought leaders who have understood and adopted Ruby and Ruby on Rails. A few more years and mass adoption will be a reality because 2008 is the year the vendors of the industry are proposing their solutions. Many companies, however, lag behind.

Back to our subject at hand: thanks to Mozilla and the whole team of contributors worldwide for making this a possibility.

I am now going to exit this 2.0.0.14 version and launch Firefox 3 with all the speed enhancements of the new Gecko rendering engine. As usual, I will be blinding fast. See if you can catch up!

However, I noticed he was opening new windows for his searches (trackpad right-click and Open in New Window) instead of using Firefox’s tabbed browsing and switching through them using Alt-Tab on his Windows laptop.

“Why are you doing that?” I asked.
“Because it’s faster to use the keyboard to switch between windows.” he replied.

Essentially, Olivier was using the right tool but not using its particular strengths and had a poor excuse for not knowing how to use Firefox properly. Some of the Firefox features would be slightly wasted if he was stuck in a Windows-switching habit. I usually combine the trackpad with the keyboard for navigating in Firefox.

Here are some keyboard shortcuts and other tips to boost your productivity when browsing with Firefox.

1. CTRL-K to go straight to the search bar and enter your search term

2. On the results page, maintain CTRL and navigate to the links of interest using the trackpad and Left-Click on the trackpad button. This will open all the links in different tabs in a single Firefox Window in the background, while you’re hunting for other relevant search results. If you use a wheel-mouse, most probably a wheel-click is already set to do just that. This method is great for Digg also or any other site with a lot of links that you want to browse to.

3. CTRL-TAB to navigate the tabs forwards or CTRL-SHIFT-TAB to navigate backwards.

I know the Mozilla keyboard shortcuts page says you can also use CTRL-Page Up and CTRL-Page Down, but if one of your tab contains a page with a entry box in focus, then you’ll be stuck on that tab when you get to it.

4. CTRL-W to close a tab

5. CTRL-T to open a new tab

6. CTRL-D to add to your Bookmarks

7. CTRL-B to open your Bookmarks sidebar

8. Backspace to navigate back

9. CTRL-Trackpad slide down to increase font size and CTRL-Trackpad slide up to decrease it. This works if you can already use your trackpad’s rightmost y-column to smooth scroll a page up or down like I do.

Last but not least, a really great time-saver:

10. CTRL-SHIFT-T to re-open a tab you just closed by mistake.

Mozilla has a page for Firefox keyboard shortcuts.

Update: As I am finishing this post, Google has just confirmed the acquisition of GrandCentral.

What positions Google superbly in this sector is:

That’s a huge advantage marketing-wise. Google has enormous mind share and an extended honeymoon period which gives it a significant business edge.

1. Google acquired a bunch of dark fiber and thus could manage and optimize its own high-bandwidth Internet infrastructure, an alternate Google Web that would enable it to cut down on costs.

2. Google has built and dispatched a staggering number of huge Google data centers around the US. As you may have read in my post on The essence of Google’s success, each of these data centers is powered by a highly-optimized cluster of low-cost PCs running Linux in a fast network, and with customized device drivers for high-speed hard-disk i/o.

Google Talk allows Voice over IP and Internet messaging. More recently, a Google Gadget for Google Talk has been available. Thus, Google Talk capabilities can be integrated into the iGoogle page so that a user from any OS can use it through the browser.

Already, Google Talk allows the integration of Voice Messages into GMail (up to 10 minutes of recorded voice messages in mp3 format), and also file sharing.

Future enhancements include the support for the SIP protocol for VOIP.

GMail already integrates the messaging part of Google Talk so that you can chat with your peers, but more integration of your data within Google apps and services could potentially be achieved. For instance, one can imagine the automatic recognition of event data within Google Talk messages (text or audio) to be added to Google Calendar.

GMail already does this for text with Google Calendar, but the integration of Google Talk VOIP and messaging into Calendaring will bring about much business value in event sharing and invitation as well as resource reservation and general scheduling.

Example of GMail and Google Calendar integration:

I have sent myself an email with the details of the ‘party’ in the subject line.

Within the “More actions” combo box, I select Create New Event. The Google Calendar event details form is automatically populated with the correct information. Note that even the date of this Friday is correctly abstracted. Amazing, isn’t it?

On adding the event, since I have two-way synchronization between Google Calendar and Thunderbird and Lightning, the event appears in both!

Moreover, you could imagine sharing all your files within Google Docs and Spreadsheets with your friends and business contacts from within Google. The new interface for Google Docs and Spreadsheets has a folder-view which allows easy file management within the browser.

The potential for collaborative work within this integrated Google infrastructure is amazing for several reasons. One, is the fact that Google is reliable and fast so that you don’t have to manage the actual infrastructure, but remember also that Google gives you a lot of space online and has the best search capabilities.

It would be interesting to know where the Jotspot wiki technology is heading and how it could also be used with the above-mentioned Google technologies as a collaborative tool.

With all the above and the freshly announced Google Gadget Ventures which will reward developers for the most successful Google Gadgets, it is obvious that Google has on its hands an extremely powerful collaborative developer platform.

Besides, this allows external developers to freely extend Google’s software capabilities using open-source tools.

GrandCentral provides you with one phone number linked to all your existing phone numbers, and many other features (thanks to Techcrunch for this great overview) through its website and also through your mobile.

There have been rumors of the Google phone before, and such a device with the mobile Google applications, linked to all the Google integrated goodies mentioned above would be pure bliss for managing and sharing data and event information with contacts when either online or offline thanks to Google Gears.

To fuel these Telco ambitions, Google has all the money it needs. Its stock has now risen above $500 and this trend shown no sign of abating. Google has the money especially because of its inroad in highly-targeted advertising which brings the bulk of the revenues and profits.

Here is what I predict will happen with Google Telecom. Based on the current state of Telecom, i.e. VOIP disrupting the industry with the old Telcos still charging too much while there are cheaper VOIP offers like the Gizmo Project, Skype, VBuzzer and Jajah, Google will adopt a similar strategy to Google Apps. With Google Apps, Google has a tiered access: free access for users and paid access for businesses.

I believe Google Telecom will offer free calls locally and worldwide to fixed telephone lines and mobiles to individual users and basic paid access for businesses and bring a more severe disruption of the Telecom industry as it will rely on getting more advertising through these channels. Alternately, Google could use the Google Web infrastructure to position itself as an ISP and offer free Internet access to all too.

That’s a killer strategy, and they can pull it off. Beautifully at that.

Peter Nowak from the Financial Post probably has the best article about this.

Until now it wasn’t really possible to have two-way synchronization of your local Lightning calendar with Google Calendar. In this post, I show you how to do this so that an event added or edited in Google Calendar will appear in Lightning, and vice versa automatically. For Windows XP you should apply the XP timezone patch, but for all other Operating Systems, like Mac OS and Linux, the steps should work the same.

Requirements:

1. If you have Windows XP: XP timezone patch

2. Google Calendar

3. Mozilla Thunderbird – The best open-source email program.

4. Provider for Google Calendar add-on

5. Lightning – Thunderbird calendar add-on

Install the timezone patch if necessary. If you already have Thunderbird and a Google Calendar account, then:

1. Download and install the Provider for Google Calendar add-on for Thunderbird

2. Download and install the latest Lightning add-on for Thunderbird

To do these two steps above, you must:

a. Right-click and save the extension in a local folder

b. In Thunderbird, go to Tools->add-ons

c. Click on the lower left “Install…” button and then find the two add-on files you saved (with the .xpi extension)

Once the extensions are installed, check whether Lightning has correctly determined your timezone, and if not, set it manually in Thunderbird:

Tools->options->Lightning->Timezone tab

You should find your events appear magically in Thunderbird.

Now try adding a new event in Thunderbird and Reload the Google Calendar page in your browser. Then, try editing an entry in Thunderbird and Reload the page in Google Calendar.

There you go, two-way sync between Thunderbird and Lightning and Google Calendar!

Now, when you see an interesting event on Upcoming or any other site which uses microformats, you can easily add that event to your Google Calendar with a single click, thanks to Firefox and the Operator add-on. If not, read my previous post on Enhancing calendar scheduling with Microformats.

Once you’ve done that, your event is both in Google Calendar (so that you can check your calendar from any online computer) and in Thunderbird (so that you can check your calendar even when offline).

The world just got a whole lot better.

I am currently testing it and compared to Firefox 2, it is really much faster. The new Gecko rendering engine is doing wonders, or else Firefox 2 is uncharacteristically slow.

One thing which still needs to be worked on though is the overuse of memory when browsing many tabs.

Currently, the alpha version doesn’t show any additional improvement related to the use of Firefox 3 as an information broker.

Fabiàn Rodriguez from Canonical provided us with DVDs and CDs of Ubuntu Linux 7.04. Etienne was another colleague from Canonical I met and talked to. I asked him about the opportunities of working for Canonical.

I first tried a 32-bit version Live CD on my laptop and it worked first time. A Live CD does not need installation so you can give the OS a try before installing it. I have used Kubuntu before and I like KDE so I was expecting to be disappointed with the default Gnome desktop, but was I surprised. Gnome has really come a long way. It felt good. Fabiàn said that on install I could still try Kubuntu – it’s all on the DVD. He also gave me a 64-bit version of Ubuntu and I’ve tried it and it’s really blazing fast on my AMD Turion 64 x2. There was no glitch whatsoever.

My favorite browser, Firefox is already available by default. OpenOffice 2.2 is there too. As for email, the default is Evolution Mail whereas I use Mozilla’s fantastically stable Thunderbird (try the latest one, it’s faster).

It was great to see Luis again whom I had met before at the MLUG, and we talked quite a lot about open source software like tinyERP and Ubuntu. Luis knows his way around Linux. He showed me the ruggedest laptop ever – isn’t it, Luis?

We had free wi-fi from the excellent île-sans-fil project. It worked really well. Luis’s connection seemed stronger. He explained that there was some kind on antenna on the side of his screen, which made me think of hacking my wireless card with some wire extension and do the same. We laughed a lot about how solid his laptop was – it’s like concrete – it’s got a metal screen shield, some super screen antenna, polymer gels for protecting the HDD from shocks and vibrations and probably some kind of nuclear power.

I couldn’t try the Desktop effects because I needed special drivers for my ATI video chipset, but Luis’s nuclear bunker of a laptop worked straight away. He was taunting me with it.

I probably told Luis “I’m so happy this works” about a thousand times because that’s how I felt seeing the Live CD Ubuntu Linux on my laptop. Last time I tried I think I had a badly burnt DVD image so I was stuck at the boot screen. This time…perfection.

So I’d like to extend my thanks to:

Fabiàn Rodriguez – thanks a million Fabiàn – you’re great. Etienne and other Canonical employees present today. FACiL and the Quebec Ubuntu Local Community team.

Michael Lenczner and all the île-sans-fil team and volunteers who are working hard and doing a tremendous job at bringing free high-quality wi-fi hotspots throughout Montreal.

All the other people present and who took some time to chat, Cyril, Franco, Hans, the three Vincents, etc…

Linus Torvalds, Eric Stallman, Eric Raymond, Bruce Perens, the Debian people and all other volunteers and contributors.

The whole of the Ubuntu community, as well as Canonical.

And last but not least:

A huge thank you to you, Mr. Mark Shuttleworth. You are a true genius and benefactor to ship Ubuntu freely around the world and give free support in the spirit of the African Ubuntu ideology.

Fantasties – Dankie!

DemoCampMontreal2 happens tomorrow. Geeks, Entrepreneurs, Visionaries, Savvy Businessmen, Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists of The Montreal Tech Scene will gather freely to share a most fantastic 2 hours together, and maybe even a drink or two at the SAT bar while seeing five interesting demos.

MAP:: Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), 1195 Boul. St. Laurent

The presentations

1. Collektik – Hugh McGuire

Hugh is the mastermind behind project LibriVox, which harnesses open participation and open-source software together with the free content of Project Gutenberg to provide you with a growing collection of free audio-books for your listening pleasure.

Wasn’t that a long sentence? Well, through LibriVox, a volunteer could read it out loud, record it, upload it onto the site so you could in turn freely get it as a long audio sentence in mp3 for your media player. And if it’s too long, people can collaborate on the task too.

Come see his newest project, Collectik. It’s like mixtapes but for podcasts.

Or else he might also present a super-secret stealth-ninja-mode project. Something kept under wraps behind a second closed vault door or something.

2. Kakiloc – Martin Dufort

A location-based mobile social networking project. Austin Hill is said to have gently persuaded Martin Dufort to present – something involving twisting arms.

3. iotum Talk Now

iotum Talk-Now enables you to customize your availability information and share it through your BlackBerry.

4. Open Source Cinema – Brett Gaylor

Brett Gaylor was the host of the first impromptu Mashpit in Montreal so that an ad-hoc team of four (Brett, Hugh, Sylvain and myself) met around mostly Macs, a few Sleeman beers and some tasty end-of-night whiskey all soaked up in pizza to help bring his Drupal-based collaborative web-site to fruition. Brett is currently working on “Basement Tapes” a movie about free culture. During his project, he’s met some little-known people like Lawrence Lessig, DJ Girltalk and me.

5. BumpTop

Anand Agarawala from Toronto will present BumpTop’s revolutionary interface technology which puts physics and realism back into your bland 2D GUI.

For more information:
DemoCampMontreal2
Fred also has more info on his blog.

Looks like Austin Hill will replace “Big” John Kopanas (a worthy successor of the UFC’s “Big” John McCarthy) as MC this time around, and multi-talented, omelette-engineering expert, Simon Law will fulfill photographic duties again.

Quick Presentation Tips

At DemoCamp, there are no slides. This can be tricky. Here are a few tips to keep in mind and also put in practice for your experience to be a success:

1. Know you goal for presenting at DemoCamp
2. Based on your goal, define your audience
3. Know which language and communication style you want to use with your audience
4. Communicate the benefits of your projects, your goals early.

For instance, if your goal is to find funding for your startup, then you know you want to reach angel investors and venture capitalists. You should then make it clear that your objective is to find funding but make sure also that you manage to make a convincing case of your business benefits very early. I’d say about 80% of your presentation should be about the business benefits and 20% about the technology itself to also cater for the geek audience in this example.

Of course there are other goals to presenting at DemoCamp, just make sure you communicate the benefits clearly to your audience. Clear communication will also make it easier for us to spread the good news about your projects and technology and about you too.

Previous Reports

1. DemoCampMontreal1 – part1 – part 2
2. DemoCampCUSEC1

This last week of March sure is an event-packed one in Montreal’s Tech Scene.

I will see you there. Say hi.

—-

If you’re an astute geek or tech-oriented business person who reads my personal blog at YashLabs, you are most probably already using FireFox and have installed the Operator plugin, which will enable you to easily add these events into your online calendar. All are open-source and free technologies.

I will show you how to improve the scheduling of activities in an online calendar by automating much of this process by using Microformats.

Microformats enable machine readability but additionally add meaning to chunks of text and other data. That means that these chunks of information also become machine ‘understandable’. In turn, this leads to automated processing of semantically useful data.

The implications for building an Artificial Intelligence with the Semantic Web are staggering but in the meantime, I just want to tell you about a practical application of Microformats which is useful today itself, namely how to make good use of the hCalendar Microformat.

What you should use:
1. Firefox. You are using Mozilla’s Open-Source Firefox, aren’t you? If not download it.

2. Operator. A Firefox extension or addon by Michael Kaply of IBM, which detects Microformats and enables you to act on them. Install it and restart Firefox and restore your session to come back here. Michael just opened up Operator’s source code. Thanks for that and for Operator Michael.

3. Google Calendar. Get an account with Google and login.

4. Upcoming.org. Yahoo’s event site which has support for Microformats.

On installing Operator and relaunching Firefox, you should have a new thin toolbar. Mine shows: [Export Contact | Google Calendar | Google Maps | Flickr | Del.icio.us | Technorati]

Now, head to upcoming.org and as search tags, type in, for instance, ‘Montreal’. This should list all events locally. It would be much more helpful if upcoming.org also provided Microformats on this list of events but currently it doesn’t.

Click one of these events. For this example, I chose the forthcoming Montreal Tech Entrepreneur Breakfast II launched by Ben Yoskovitz.

Operator detects the hCalendar Microformat content and add “(1)” next to the [Google Calendar] button among other things.

Click on this button and the events information is automatically added to Google calendar’s event form. You can then save the event into your calendar.

Voilà. You now have a way to rapidly find and integrate events within your online Calendar with nothing to type – just clicks.

Now, it would be more interesting if people blogging about events would take the time to add Microformats to the information. One way to do this is to use the hCalendar Creator by Ryan King, based on previous work by Tantek Çelik. It also automatically add tags so that you can found similar events on eventful.com, another web service which is also using Microformats. Similarly here, Eventful does not provide the Microformat information in the list view.

Check my past post about DemoCampMontreal1. Operator detects it immediately because that informative chunk of text was microformatted with hCalendar information by using the hCalendar creator.

You can read more about Operator on Michael’s blog and on the Mozilla blog.