Songs of the Year - Best of 07: Number 6.
The lethargic pace with which I’m working through this list has little to do with the minimal attention I’ve given this site. It has everything to do with public taste catching up to my eclectic ear.
Kidding, of course.
Although, I do continue to believe there will be a day when the world understands the brilliance that is Brother Ali.
I remember coming across him for the first time. It was at a live show in a tiny club in Toronto. Al and I - stained by sweat and soaked in beer - left the club and spent a long walk home trying to figure out not who the unknown opening act was but why he sang so passionately about being a minority.
Sure we were young and drunk. But a white male singing about the struggles of a minority? “Maybe he was doing an Ani Difranco cover song?” Maybe. For the entire concert? “Meh, maybe he’s that artistic.”
Turns out he’s albino.
His second full length album on RSE released this year. It’s stellar.
Here’s my favorite song on the album and my 6th favorite song of 2007.
Songs of the Year - Best of 07: Number 5.
I’ve moved a lot over the past 5 years. 7 times. There’s something about the first night in a new place. Anticipated excitement. The thrill of daydreaming about what the place can look like.
There’s always a tradition I follow that first night: plug in receiver, hook up speakers, and listen to the song of the moment on repeat while I dance around the place.
Al can attest to this. When I showed up in T.O. I celebrated my arrival by taking out a street lamp with my UHaul and then toasted the moment by listening to Mr. Brightside about a hundred times.
Last June I closed on my house, an old little two bedroom near the heart of Westdale. I moved two things over the first night: my bed and my stereo. It was hot. I was sweaty. Forever I will remember blasting my 5th favourite song of 2007 over and over while I ran around the place, blown away that it was ‘mine.’
My 5th favourite song of 2007 is of Montreal - suffer for fashion.
A new addition to my Kiva portfolio, Mkama is a 43 year old Tanzanian entrepreneur. He started his clothing business 8 years ago. Mkama works 12 hours a day, has taken one Kiva loan already and is now looking to scale his business.
He’s also the first entrepreneur in a developing country that will benefit from my new incentive program.
Regular readers know of my love for Kiva and how they’re reshaping the world of philanthropy and helping to change the world by creating an “online lending platform” that connects lenders to entrepreneurs in developing countries. The service aggregates small amounts of money from individuals in the developed world and distributes micro-loans to individuals in developing nations, allowing them to find a path out of poverty. A remarkable thing.
Mkama, I’m glad to help you out. Looking forward to following your progress over the months.
Songs of the Year - Best of 07: Number 4.
One of my favourite bands is Stars, a Canadian group based in Montreal with ties to Broken Social Scene.
I played their album, In Our Bedroom After the War, constantly during the late fall. It’s a bit more poppy than their previous release. That’s not a bad thing. Although I did miss the raw emotion that was felt in some of their earlier work.
As a groomsman’s present my best buddy Greg got me tickets to see them in Toronto. The two of us had a memorable evening and the band - originally from Toronto - put on an incredible show in front of their hometown fans.
My favourite song on the new album is The Ghost of Genova Heights. It’s fitting that the most memorable moment of a memorable evening came when Torquil drunkenly reappeared on stage during this song wearing a suit of lights.
The Ghost of Genova Heights by Stars is my fourth favourite song of 2007.
The Importance of Hope (or, Barack Obama on Entrepreneurship).
Alternative title for this post: Barack Obama explains the difference between entrepreneurs in the US and Canada.
Dave, my brother, asked me the following question the other day: what’s the biggest difference between entrepreneurs you’ve met in Canada and entrepreneurs you’ve met in the States?
My intial response - “one’s the majors the other’s the minors” - left me unsatisfied. That explanation covers entrepreneurship but fails to explain entrepreneurs.
The biggest difference in entrepreneurs?
The answer lies with Barack. (more…)
Songs of the Year - Best of 07: Number 3.
I’m in a bad mood because of AT&T, the iPhone, text messaging, and the entire cellular/mobile industry. Long story, and it will only further tick me off to share it.
Anyway, this is my third favourite song of 2007: Kings of Leon - On Call.
Appropriate title considering the cause of my frustration.
The song is good. The band is even better. Everybody (and this is not an exaggeration) can benefit from more rock in their life.
It’s important to remember that the best things in life aren’t things.
My theme and focus for 2008? To unclutter my life in as many respects as possible.
The thought originated as as I packed in anticipation of the move to the US. I was forced to realize just how much stuff I had. Stuff I had no need for. Stuff that created stress.
So I set out to focus on only bringing the things that really mattered. Two suitcases made the move with me. I’ve been here for two months and haven’t needed anything. In fact, it’s been stress reducing.
From there I focused on uncluttering the rest of my life. Stripping away things and embracing constraints in a diverse area.
Focus on what’s important.
I’ve been trying to really focus on loved ones, family and friends, because there’s nothing more critical. In our connected age it’s easy to form connections with many but it’s important to invest into those that matter most.
Goodbye stuff. I’ve embraced and learned to love simplistic living. It’s rewarding.
Google Reader used to bring me piles of information. That I skimmed. I fell into the bad habit of RSS overload, too many unread items would pile up and I would put aside interesting and thought provoking pieces to “read when I had time.” I would focus on body-count: plowing through uninteresting articles to lessen the stress-creating number of unreads. I’ve paired down 100 subscriptions to 10. I’m about to give up on the reader altogether. I’m now reading more, thinking deeper, and enjoying the returns.
Inbox? I’m clearing it out before I end each day.
Focusing on the moment. Friends know that my mind is generally in multiple places, racing from concept to concept. I’m working on focusing - and enjoying - the moment. The price was dear, a costly lack of focus and heightened anxiety. This is a hard one to work on, but I’m investing into it heavily.
I’m bringing the ‘uncluttered’ theme to every aspect of my life. So far it’s been a wonderful experience.
What can you focus less on in order to focus more?
Songs of the Year - Best of 07: Number 1.
One trend that I love to track is the progression of my musical tastes. I can literally look back over the years and see the influences that created subtle changes in taste that ultimately led to new genres I love.
The genre that has consumed my rca-cord for the past three years has been brit pop. A cool post would be explaining how I got there, but thatâs not the focus of this post.
The focus of this post is my # 1 song of the year for 2007. A song that is surely brit pop, yet exhibits traits and elements of a different sound. A sound that, I can already tell, will lead me to a new genre. In that sense the song is significant not only because it was my most loved (and played!) song of the year, but additionally because it marks the beginning of the end.
The beginning of the end of my love affair with brit pop. The start of the long-walk away from the genre that has given me the Arctic Monkeys, Hard-Fi, and countless other favourite groups.
I love to connect songs to single moments in time that are rich, visual, memories. This song captures many moments, capturing a period. Like the genre shifting impact the song is having on my musical tastes, the period is best described as transitory.
Late summer, early fall. A time of transition for 25-year old Fraser.
My song of 2007 is Jamie T â Operation.
âWant the big idea? Make a product that makes everything I have easy to useâ
- my dad, in response to hearing I wanted to be an entrepreneur
Eight years later the gravity of my dadâs statement is greater than ever. The impact that a productâs usability has on its ultimate market performance continues to grow.
Iâve had the pleasure of spending my entire career commercializing new technology across companies in diverse industries. The usability (or lack-thereof) has always factored significantly into the technologyâs ultimate success.
If youâre not thinking about usability, deeply, and practicing user-centric design practices, actively, then, well, good luck to you!
Itâs something thatâs always on my mind. And so during a recent trip to Palo Alto I picked up a book on the topic, Pip Coburnâs The Change Function.
In it Coburn presents a change function to explain the adoption of new technology:
f (user crises, total perceived pane of adoption)
Where adoption occurs when user crisis > total perceived pane of adoption.
Coburn chastises a tech world for its arrogant, supplier-side approach to product development. The âbuild it and they will comeâ mentality has far too often resulted in overly complex technology being developed that ultimately fails.
Ideally, Coburn argues, companies should leverage user-centric approaches to product design. Working collaboratively with users, through quick, iterative designs, companies can transition data into information and ultimately into insight.
There are a number of interesting case studies and worthwhile questions that can help guide user-centric design. The most valuable message that the book delivers is how important ease-of-use is to a productâs success and how focusing on the user keeps the focus true.
At 200 pages the book could use some editing. It would make a good 150-page book. The message is excellent at 100 pages. However, if you donât practice user-centric design I highly recommend this. If the message is lost on you, read it again. The lessonâs that important.
Iâve been out of touch with too many for three weeks. Hello? Hi. Iâm here. Here for the past three weeks has been a difficult place to define.
Currently Iâm in Austin. It was a long trip. Last Week I was in San Diego with Alex at ETech. It was a trip. The week before I was in San Francisco. Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge at night, towards SF, is something that everyone should experience.
If youâre in Austin letâs get together over a beer to discuss commercializing emerging web technologies. Drop me a note or stop by booth #228 to lock down time/place/beer type
And if you want to track my adventures in a more granular way, follow me on twitter. Ta-ta!
Songs of the Year - Best of 07: Number 2.
Whooops. Must have been the travel schedule. I wrote the previous posts on a flight between NY and Dallas. Without the benefit of the net I accidently skipped my second favourite song of 2007.
And it’s one that’s definitely worth coming back for.
In April of 07 the Arctic Monkeys - clearly my favourite band of the past few years - released their new album. While great, I became infatuated with a b-side from the album’s lead single.
Feature Dizzee Rascal the song continues to energize me with every listen. The hard driving guitar that is now a trademark of the band, the clever lyrics of Alex Turner, and Dizzee’s verse all add up to create an awesome song.
Had I not had a love affair with Jamie T and his entire album, this song would have been the best of 07 for me.
Check it out and let me know what you think - better than anything else on the new Monkey’s album?
TechCocktail Conference in Chicago.
On Thursday, May 29th in Chicago some of the biggest brains in technology are congregating at the first TechCocktail Conference to teach, learn, and converse.
Eric Olson and Frank Gruber have organized what’s going to be an incredible event. Take a look at the speakers list: successful entrepreneurs, well-known VCs, and more. Brilliant minds all of them.
There’s a diverse number of topics covered. If you’re interested in the web, tech, and entrepreneurship it’s bound to be an incredible day. And it’s inexpensive. It would be hard to find a better value for the insight that you’ll gain. That’s a testament to Eric and Frank’s vision for the conference and the respect they have in the industry.
I’m honoured to share that I’ll be speaking at the conference.
The topic is Understanding the Semantic Web and I’ll be providing insight and knowledge on the topic and covering what you need to know about the emerging market.
Register now and enter the following promo code to save 10%: techcocktailer.
If you’re heading to the conference drop me a note, I’ll buy you a beer.
Summer in NYC is wonderful. The streets are buzzing at all times of the day with an infectious energy that’s missing in the winter. The parks are filled with active people, the subways are hot, and cafes and restaurants are lively.
And in the evening there’s nothing better than relaxing on a patio while sipping a beer as the sun dips over the horizon.
I’ve tried to enjoy all that the city offers in the summer but I’ve also had a busy travel schedule (work and pleasure). There have been multiple trips to SF, a trip to Chicago, Ottawa, and Australia. It’s been a remarkable few months.
The past few months have also been remarkable with respect to building the business. There are a bunch of things to share, not all of them here, not all of them now.
I’m immensely proud of what we’re building. If you want to participate in the alpha, just drop me a note.
There are also a few posts (and excellent discussions) on our site that may be of interest to you:
- What We Can Learn From Beckett Baseball Card Monthly
- Thinking About Context
- Incrementalism
- What We Can All Learn From Summize
PS, I now have my life savings invested into kiva
7 years ago I was sitting in my apartment in a small town at the tip of Lake Ontario with housemates and friends.
Like everyone that day we were glued to the television, watching the news in disbelief. It was the second day of second year and I’ll never forget the confusion that was emanating from everyone.
7 years later I stepped out of my apartment on the evening of Sept 10th and snapped this photo:
I’ve always been aware of how quickly the world changes. But in the past two years I’ve learned to deeply appreciate that life unfolds. It’s important that we welcome and accept the evolving nature of our lives.
Change is one common element that we all share.
The Evolving Nature of Technology Adoption.
I’m speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo that is being held in NYC this week. My session is in the strategy stream and is titled “The Real, Long-lasting (and Negative) Impact of Web 2.0 on Technology Adoption.”
There are three pieces to the session: web 2.0 trends that have impacted technology adoption; the impact of those trends; and finally, ways to adapt and succeed in this new world.
Here’s some exploratory thoughts on the impact of web 2.0 trends on technology adoption. I’ll post ways to adapt and succeed in this new world following the conference.
Refresh.