Open Source Panel in Ottawa

FOSSLC is hosting a leaders panel discussion on April 2 to discuss open source and business. Panel leaders include the CEO of Ingres, the CEO of DM Solutions, Eclipse's Director of Ecosystem Development, the President of OpenConcept Consulting and Senior IT analyst from the Treasury Board Secretariat. Details and registration are here.

From Inspiration to Activation: Making Online Collaborative Communities Work

Free Colloquium event in Fredericton, NB on March 23. From the abstract:

Inspiration is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for collaborative communities to work. Such communities often make use of complex Internet-based tool systems. In these systems, work gets distributed over many tools, often leading to the fragmentation of communicative acts. To address this problem, explicit attention needs to be paid to community activation. We outline a conceptual model of online collaborative communities. We introduce the use of collaboration patterns for defining socio-technical design solutions for activation problems. We illustrate the approach by discussing the results from a digital class experiment. Applications ranging from e-government to scientific collaborations are discussed.

Open or Closed? Choosing the Right Software Model

Choosing the right software model is an increasingly difficult decision for both business and academic researchers. This half-day session at the University of Waterloo Accelerator Centre will bring together representatives from proprietary and open software vendors, as well as university researchers, to discuss this critical strategic choice. Whether you’re contemplating a start-up, looking to expand your product line, or trying to share a research project with the world, this forum will offer insights into your alternatives. Registration details are available here.

TiEQuest

The deadline for submissions to TiEQuest 2009 is January 30th. From the website:

TiEQuest is an annual business venture competition held in Toronto to encourage entrepreneurship, engage emerging entrepreneurial talent and to create an ecosystem of entrepreneurship. TiEQuest was started in 2005 with the purpose of spawning businesses. This competition helps generate new ventures and gives entrepreneurs the encouragement and the support to turn their dreams into reality.

TiEQuest 2009 will provide contestants an opportunity to present to well-known angel investors, venture capitalists and fund managers. Sponsoring firms will be offering an “Expression of Interest” for investments of up to $1,000,000 to top teams. In addition, the winners will receive various cash prizes and incentives exceeding $150,000 in value.

Contestants are expected to come from business schools, life sciences, engineering and technology departments of various universities in Ontario, Entrepreneur Assistance programs of the Ontario Ministry of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Board of Trade, Business Development Bank of Canada and Export Development Corporation. In addition, a number of contestants will be referrals from banks, accounting firms, law firms and other entrepreneurial associations.

LAMP at digg.com

Owen Byrne was the primary technical decision maker at Digg for most of its period of explosive growth from inception to the Series A financing. Last Tuesday December 2, Owen presented "What I learned about LAMP Development at Digg" at the inaugural meeting of the Ottawa LAMP Meetup Group.

The origins of Digg are also described in Sarah Lacy's recent book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0, but Owen's account provided a fresh first-hand perspective with the candid insights of a seasoned engineer deeply connected with the "nuts and bolts" of the programming and infrastructure at Digg, and the open source software applications that power the World Wide Web.

Owen is currently the Senior Manager of TravelPod Labs in Ottawa Canada, host of the December Ottawa LAMP Meetup. Some photos from the event are posted at the TravelPod Travel Blog.

A Comparison of Open Source Application Servers for the Enterprise

OpenLogic is offering a free Webinar on Thursday, December 11 from 2:00 - 3:00 pm EST. From the description:

Application servers represent strategic investments that can impact enterprise budgets, personnel, and initiatives for years to come. Over the past few years enterprises have increasingly turned to open source application servers over commercial alternatives due to reduced costs and comparable features and reliability. However, recent advances in technology and changes in direction have again altered the landscape, and today the evaluation process for open source application servers is more complex than it was even a few years ago. This webinar will provide a comparison of the most popular open source application servers — JBoss, Glassfish, Geronimo, Tomcat, and the new SpringSource dm Server — and help you make the key initial decisions necessary to narrow the field before more thorough evaluations. In addition to features and reliability, we'll take a look at the important new concerns decision makers should consider.

The full description and registration link are here.

LAMP at Digg (in Ottawa)

Owen Byrne, co-founder and original developer of digg.com, will present "What I learned about LAMP Development at Digg" on Tuesday, December 2nd at 7:00 pm. Owen is currently Senior Manager of TravelPod Labs, where he is leading a team of developers building a large travel-related application for launch in early 2009. He was the primary technical decision maker at Digg for most of its period of explosive growth, from inception to the Series A financing.

The event is free but you have to RSVP. Details are here.

e-Commerce: Finding, Keeping and Converting Website Traffic

Note that this free event is being held in Ottawa on November 19:

Successful e-commerce is all about finding, keeping and converting website traffic. While first time visitors are likely your largest underperforming segment of website traffic, investments in search and email also make them your most expensive. So whether your conversion is about revenue, registrations or downloads, how can you improve the online experience to optimize results? Join Carolyn Gardner, Director of Customer Experience at Sitebrand, as she discusses the realities of driving traffic, building visitor personas and creating personalized messaging to maximize the conversion of first-time visitors.