All posts by karimkanji

blog, digital media, social media, twitter

5 Questions with Shayan Hamidi

May 11, 2011 karimkanji

Shayan Hamidi is the CEO and co-Founder of TheRedPin.com. He studied Computer Science, Economics and Math at the University of Toronto. After running a few startups he teamed up with two other UofT comp-sci graduates and a real estate professional to start TheRedPin. Back in 2008 they realized that the real estate industry in Canada depends on the agent’s MLS system which does not cater to the new home and pre-construction industry, which is a huge and growing part of the market. So they considered building a new and improved MLS system for the new home industry that would also be open to the public. Today they are focused on brining transparency to the market and through technology they have streamlined the real estate process, and are able to pass on significant savings to the Canadian home buyers.

What motivates you to do what you do on a daily basis?

I love what I do, and I feel blessed having everything that I have today. I have surrounded myself with really smart and motivated people that just make things a lot more exciting for me. I also have the opportunity of working on a product that directly helps people with making the biggest investment decision in their lives, in an industry that’s very traditional and requires lots of improvements. Therefore, everyday that we introduce a new feature, tool or information we are directly helping someone in one of the most special moments in their lives; this makes me feel privileged and also responsible to deal with something so real and so important.

If you had 30 seconds to impart your wisdom on a classroom of soon-to-be graduates, what would you say?

You are lucky, there has never been a better time to graduate and start working. Don’t just take care of school and graduate. You can do lots to get yourself ready. The means of production and the tools to make or produce anything is now pretty much available to anyone and at a really low cost. Traditionally, you had to come out of a great university with great grades in order to prove you are worth getting a job at a decent firm. You don’t need anyone’s help anymore. You can do it all by yourself. The key is to be pro-active and make a move. Don’t wait till you graduate, start TODAY. Start reading about what you like and follow the players in your industry. Start a blog and show you care, leave comments on other people’s blogs and become active on Twitter and other social networks. You don’t need big names on your resume to show you are worth it, you can simply display your portfolio online with the initiatives you have taken till now. Read Linchpin by Seth Godin.

In your opinion, what has been one of the most important technological developments over the past 12 months?

Most of last decade was about the rise of social networks, and for the last few years we saw Facebook growing to pass 500 million users and pretty much finish building the framework for the social graph. This is a huge accomplishment, and with the social graph in place the fight over social networks came to an end. Every industry has its own trends, but overall for the last 12 months or so, the most interesting technologies were the ones that tapped into the existing social graph and introduced gaming into their platform to make the process more engaging. As a result we saw Groupon, the social buying application, becoming the fastest growing online company, and a game like Farmville growing to have more active users than Twitter!
Mobile is also huge, and we saw companies like Foursquare grabbing a lot of attention in the past year or so which has all the elements I mentioned and tries to bring the offline and online world closer together. But if I had to choose only one, it would be gaming. Games are the best engagement engines and I still find it hard to believe how big Farmville has become and how much attention it demands from its users.

If you had a crystal ball, what would you say will be the most important technological development over the next 12 months?

There is a lot happening, and today Quora is probably the company with the most hype. But I think the trends that I mentioned with new applications leveraging off of the social graph, games and mobile would be here for years to come. And companies that are able to successfully apply a mix of these three, to address different needs would be the big hits for 2011. This is just a beginning. Gaming will continue growing this year, so will mobile and I believe 3D technologies (both display and print) will also become mainstream.

Who is one of Canada’s tech stars and why?

I have worked with a lot of talented techies. My vote would go to TheRed-Hacker, Mr. Ali Ajellu who is also my partner and our CTO at TheRedPin.com. To be a tech star you obviously need to have a great deal of technical background and be comfortable with a variety of technologies and be able to keep yourself up-to-date with the new trends. But there are other factors involved that would differentiate a great developer from a tech star. A tech star needs to have vision, and ultimately understand that technology is just a means to an end, not an end in itself. So being able to see trends and consumer needs and then figuring out how to apply the tech to address the needs is the key.
Beyond that, I have to vouch for the folks over @freshbooks for their platform as well as the guys over @gridcentric. They’ve done a great job. In addition, let me give a shout out to @jpuopolo who walks like a tech guy, talks like a tech guy, and not surprisingly, is a star tech guy.

blog, crowdsourcing, social media, twitter

creating community: part 1

May 4, 2011 karimkanji

the GREENtuity chapter

There’s always a beginning to a story. And so there is with my story. It all began with an initiative I headed up called GREENtuity.org.

The purpose of GREENtuity was to help raise money and awareness for a local non-profit called Toronto Green Community. TGC, as it is fondly known as, is a grassroots community organization in Toronto which focuses on teaching and empowering people to make positive environmental choices.

The GREENtuity concept was to have patrons at selected vendor partners donate their gratuities (hence the term GREENtuity) to TGC. The concept was powered by our blog as well as by Twitter. I thought that because we were using social media we would get massive support from the Toronto Twitter community. And why wouldn’t we? We were raising money for a good cause and I was a cool person.

And thus my lesson on creating community began.

Our goal was to raise $5000 for TGC as well as generate some media mentions. We succeeded on the media side by getting coverage from b logTO. The financial side? Not so much. $500 raised. In my eyes a failure. But a lesson learned.

Why did I fail? Because I didn’t understand the importance of being part of a community, building a community and, finally, mobilizing a community.

community membership:

Being part of an online community is more than just taking out a membership. It is all about being a productive member of that community. And being productive means giving. And by giving you accumulate social capital.

building community:

Once you’ve identified yourself as a member of the online community you are now able to build your own community. The key here is to not forget what brought you here in the first place: provide compelling content that spurs discussion amongst the community. At this “stage” you’ve identified yourself as a “trust agent”.

mobilizing community:

Once you’ve become a “trust agent” you are now ready (as far as the community is concerned) to mobilize the community. You can ask for comments, “likes”, RT’s or even time and money.

So where did I fail?

All of the above is the correct answer.

I wasn’t a contributing member of the online community. As such, when I asked for support I did not receive it to the extent that I hoped.

The great thing about the online community is that it is very forgiving and it is also a great place to learn. And since then I have learned a great deal. But that story will have to wait for another chapter.

to be continued…

Toronto’s social media winner: sports team category (karimkanji.wordpress.com)

digital media, social media

Canada’s federal election: social media won’t matter

April 21, 2011 karimkanji

Cover of "The Audacity to Win: The Inside... — Cover via Amazon

There. I said it. Social media won’t factor into who will be asked to form Canada’s next federal government. And it’s not because that social media isn’t important. I believe it is. I will be informed by it. I will continue to be influenced by the messages from other users whom I “follow”. And so will many of you.

The fact remains though that Canada’s social media “winner” won’t directly influence the results of next month’s election. And here’s the reason why: Canada’s politicians, parties and their “social media” advisors are not using it to win. They are using it to message and communicate. And that’s a huge difference from where I’m sitting.

Winning takes more than telling people what you stand for. It’s more than just asking for donations.

Winning with social media requires 4 specific things to be in place:

The candidate MUST be a once-in-a-generation candidate who exudes passion and whose message resonates with the Canadian electorate. Take a look around you. Which leader of Canada’s major political parties reeks of passion? Stop looking. There isn’t one.
The tools must be relevant to today’s electorate. My mom is on Facebook and my dad just signed up for LinkedIn. One point.
The candidate or party must allow people to organize at a grassroots level and be provided with the tools to make their job and lives easy. Ain’t gonna happen this time. Will this ever happen in Canada? Maybe. Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi seemed to have been on the right track. That was municipal politics. Federal politics is a much bigger beast.
Be transparent. Sounds like an oxymoron.

If these 4 factors sound familiar to you it may be because I blogged about these back in 2009 when I reviewed the Obama election and the book, “The Audacity To Win” written by campaign manager David Plouffe.

So, in my opinion, Canada’s political leaders and their parties only meet 1 out of four requirements. Therefore, what happens on Twitter, Facebook, or even the blogosphere won’t matter one iota when it comes to powering the next leader as Canada’s next prime minister.

What say you?

digital media, social media, sports, Toronto, twitter

(Update) Toronto’s social media winner: sports team category

April 18, 2011 karimkanji

(UPDATE – 4/19/2011: I’ve included links to all the web and social sites to the team listed below as well as numbers if applicable.)

Criteria:

Revenues generated as a direct result of social media. Here’s why this is the most important factor in determining the winner. What do fans want most? A winning team. The best situation would be a championship team. And the factor that determines whether or not a team is of contending status or not is their ability to financially attract and retain talent. And for the purposes of this blog post, let’s see which Toronto sport’s team has reaped financial benefits.

Wait a sec:

Fan engagement and reach is important too. In this day and age of instant communication, sports fans demand up to the second updates. This is why athletes and media are heavy users of tools like Twitter. However, to measure the “return on investment” of social media engagement.

Also, understand that these are just my observations. I have not interviewed anyone who works for the nominees even though I know them. The purpose of this blog is to give my viewpoint and to spur some discussion. I would love to hear your thoughts on who is “winning” the social media game. On to the nominees!

The nominees:

Toronto Argonauts

Twitter: 4,696 Facebook: 2,727 YouTube: 253,697 upload views

The Argos website has share functions throughout. Furthermore, their Facebook, YouTube and Twitter channels are well populated with a fairly engaged online community.

Toronto Maple Leafs

LeafSpaceMonika: 8,713 Twitter: 48,642 Facebook: 378,572

Their Leafspace.com fan-focused site drives both fan engagement and revenues via advertising and ticket and merch sales. The Leafs also have a huge following on both Twitter and Facebook.

Toronto Blue Jays

Social Media Clubhouse, Twitter: 32,210 Facebook: 249,397

A very busy website where the social media properties are hard to find. While we did see the BlackBerry sponsored Tweeting Tuesday’s ad, we had to scroll down to the bottom to see the Twitter and Facebook links. The BlueJays also have a very popular Facebook and Twitter following with a highly engaged audience.

Toronto Raptors

Twitter: 30,697 Facebook: 204,592

Piggy-backing off their Maple Leafs cousins, the Raps have done an amazing job with their Raptorspace fan site as well as with their Twitter and Facebook pages.

The Winner:

This is a hard one. I’ll be honest tough. Before I even started to write this I had the Blue Jays picked as the winner. Why? They had actually obtained a sponsor as a result of their Tweeting Tuesday’s initiative – BlackBerry. The Blue Jays are improving in how they communicate and engage with their fans via social media. And last year they not only obtained a sponsor for one of their social media properties, their parent company (Rogers) has done a great job by looping in all their media properties. Listen or watch a game and there will be mention of “following” or “friending” the Blue Jays. But…

The Leafs are the perennial favourites here in Toronto. Yet picking them would be too easy and lazy. However, after some surface research, I have to announce the winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Leafs have done an amazing job interacting and engaging with their fans on Facebook and Twitter. They (as well as the Raptors) have also created a fun and interactive fan site called Leafspace. And when it comes to monetization they have conquered that too. A cursory glance at their website shows corporate ads on their fan areas. And they also held a Facebook competition which was sponsored by a corporate sponsor.

Congrats Toronto Maple Leafs! And a HUGE thumbs up to the Toronto Blue Jays for doing a kick ass job in a relatively short period of time (and for inspiring this blog post!).

digital media, social media

5 Questions with Mark Graham of @RIGHTSLEEVE

April 6, 2011 karimkanji

Mark Graham is the founder of RIGHTSLEEVE.COM, a leading Web-based promotional products company. Utilizing a mix of promotional products, design and technology, RIGHTSLEEVE develops merchandise programs for brand leading corporations across North America. RIGHTSLEEVE was founded in 2000 and has been the recipient of several industry awards. RIGHTSLEEVE was the National winner of the Dell Small Business Excellence Award, presented to businesses that use technology in innovative ways to enhance customer experience and company growth.

What motivates you to do what you do on a daily basis?

I like to make a positive impact in everything I do. I love being involved in projects where I can change the way things are done for the better. If there is no opportunity for me to make a lasting impact on projects I am working on, I get bored very quickly.

If you had 30 seconds to impart your wisdom on a classroom of soon-to-be graduates, what would you say?

If there is any time to start your own business, it’s now. You are less willing to take risks when you are older and have competing commitments (family, mortgage, the safety net of an existing job).

In your opinion, what has been one of the most important technological developments over the past 12 months?

The continued sophistication of social networks, and the extension of social networking into the enterprise. I think this will have a dramatic effect on how people at work communicate with one another as we just seeing the beginning with services like Yammer and Chatter. Better communication begets more engagement which begets a more enjoyable work environment.

If you had a crystal ball, what would you say will be the most important technological development over the next 12 months?

Data mining and the semantic web. We’ve been talking about web 3.0 for a while now, but it has yet to really take off. I think that companies are getting a lot better at using the data available to help us make better decisions in our lives.

Who is one of Canada’s tech stars and why?

Mike McDerment, CEO of Freshbooks. In 5 years, Mike and his team have created one of the world’s most enduring and beloved applications with over 2,000,000 users. He and his team have made a pretty mundane task (invoicing) easy, fun and social. They have been laser focused on solving one point of pain for their customers and have been enormously successful by staying committed to this goal. There are not many other privately funded Canadian success stories like Freshbooks on the world stage.

digital media

Ben Baldwin of ClearFit.com answers 5 questions

March 30, 2011 karimkanji

Toronto-based Ben Baldwin is the co-founder of no less than 2 successful start-ups. Most recently, Ben started ClearFit of which he is still building and expanding. According to Ben, “ClearFit is the only online hiring solution that makes it easy for anyone to find and hire the best person.” Let’s start chatting with him…

What motivates you to do what you do on a daily basis?

Our business makes a positive difference in peoples’ lives, so that motivates me. We’re matching people with jobs in which they’ll find the most fulfillment and success. We’re also helping companies with their most critical task: hiring employees, and we’re doing it in a way that’s quick and easy, so we eliminate a great deal of pain for them (e.g. hiring mistakes).

If you had 30 seconds to impart your wisdom on a classroom of soon-to-be graduates, what would you say?

I would tell them to learn how to fail and, therein, learn what they’re good at. In other words, failure isn’t bad if no one gets too hurt and you’re learning from it. Don’t make stupid decisions, but also don’t be afraid to take risks. Canadians have a lot to learn from Americans in this regard: the word “risk” is a positive word in the US, while it’s a negative one up here in Canada. Once you learn how to take risks and fail, you’ll learn so much more about yourself and your limits, what you’re good at and what others will and won’t do: an ongoing lesson in human nature.

In your opinion, what has been one of the most important technological developments over the last 12 months?

Everything being bought through app stores. First, mobile app stores like Apple’s came to prominence, but now we’re seeing a lot of companies hosting their own app stores for full scale apps (pioneered by Salesforce.com), like Google, Bell and some banks. This will simplify software and make it easier to integrate together, so we’ve seen the emergence of more small companies with highly specialized software.

If you had a crystal ball, what would you say will be the most important technological advancement over the next 12 months?

As I said above, I think we’ll see the emergence more small, highly specialized software firms, birthed from Y-Combinator-type funds, up to “super angels”. APIs and large distribution platforms allow integration with existing marketplaces, so these “long tail” solutions can find life with very little money.

Who is one of Canada’s tech stars and why?

I would definitely say Jim Balsillie, because he’s taken a very brash, unapologetic and therefore “non-Canadian” approach with RIM. I like that he’s a fighter … that he has balls.

digital media, social media, sports

Mediazoic: the birth of a new era in music and media

March 25, 2011 karimkanji

This post was originally posted on XConnectTO.

Another reason to attend April 7th’s FashionConnectTO:

You will probably see Toronto’s “next big thing.” How can we say that? You need to look no further than our last event, MusicConnectTO.

One of the panelists at MusicConnectTO was Greg Nisbet of Mediazoic. Mediazoic is simply a network of internet radio stations. Mediazoic makes the software which allows you and I to create, customize, & dj our own radio station…or stations.

Next Thursday, March 31st, Mediazoic goes live! And we couldn’t be more excited or happy for our friends!
Of course, all of you are invited. Here are the details:

At 9pm, on March 31st, Toronto’s Revival will play host to celebrate Mediazoic’s launch and to host Mediazoic’s own awards show – The Zoics – all live-streamed to the Internet.

Currently broadcasting in private beta, Mediazoic is counting down to midnight (April 1, 2011) when it goes live to the public.

For only $10 at the door, you can be part of this historic evening. The Zoics feature awards for categories like Coolest Hat and Sexiest Guitar, presented by local music scene notables. All bands receiving a Zoic will also be playing live.

And in the spirit of new and social media, Mediazoic has a couple of cool things for everyone to participate in:

Have a cool idea for an award category? Let us know by posting on this event’s Wall, and if yours is chosen, you’ll win free admission!
Can’t afford the $10 admission price? Enter our VIP Streamer Contest: http://mediazoic.com/vip/

Enter the VIP Streamer Pass Contest: http://mediazoic.com/vip/

And, of course, don’t forget to check out FashionConnectTO and to register!

MusicConnectTo Wrap Up from XConnectTO on Vimeo.

KARIM KANJI (dot) COM

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