A great place to go brain picking
By Leo Valiquette
Google’s new Chrome Internet browser is the largest open-source application release there has ever been, and the fact that it was an open-source project has been greatly underplayed.
Why did Google do it? There’s no immediate financial benefit. All the search engine titan has done is striven to make the Internet better and fired a shot across Internet Explorer’s bow in the process. It’s like Wal-Mart going to the effort to upgrade town centres. There’s no obvious or immediate benefit to the company’s bottom line.
I’ve taken liberties to summarize, but this wise insight came from Tobias Lutke of Jaded Pixel and Shopify last week at The Ottawa Network’s (TON) first Startup Drop-in of the season in the boardroom at Labarge Weinstein.
(And before I continue, while the above examples may not have immediate financial benefit for the companies in question, they’re still great marketing and PR moves, but that’s a subject for another time.)
The evening was a great kickoff for TON’s fall schedule. The theme was Open source Business Models and Opportunities and featured additional words of wisdom from the irrepressible Prof. Tony Bailetti of Carleton University. He expounded on the profound distinctions between open-source ecosystems and conventional business models and how understanding those differences is key to building a profitable business around open source.
What I took away from the evening, beyond a better understanding of the subject matter, was the value of such community engagement in Ottawa’s tech sector. Over the past couple of weeks, inmedia volunteered some time to drum up local media coverage of the good work that TON does. Some brainstorming with TON president Tim Hember and event organizer and sponsor James Smith of Labarge about what kind of message the organization wanted to take to the media emphasized the value of community engagement. There was no shortage of opinions going back and forth about the state of the technology sector in Ottawa, what challenges it faces and how they should be addressed. Such active and frank discussion is vital to building a vibrant and dynamic tech economy in this city.
TON has taken great strides this fall to present an interesting slate of weekly events built around specific and relevant themes to drive up attendance numbers. It’s all about sharing ideas and picking the brains of Ottawa innovative and adaptive thinkers, people who are building great businesses in a host of disciplines, such as open source, and thumbing their noses at the stale perception that Ottawa’s tech sector died with telecom.
We need to escape the “oh, woe is Ottawa” rut and take notice of the next generation of entrepreneurs who accept no direction but up regardless of the state of the venture capital industry, or whatever other complaint we typically hear in Ottawa. Even more importantly, we need more events that bring people together to network, share ideas, partner up and find innovative ways to overcome common challenges.
And if you’re wondering how to do that, checking out TON is a great way to start.
