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Cathy Bogaart

Waterloo Region Economic Development - Canada's Technology Triangle - Waterloo, Ontario... - 0 views

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    Canada's Technology Triangle Inc (CTT) is a not-for-profit, public-private regional economic development partnership that markets the competitive advantages of the Waterloo Region to the world, and works to attract new businesses, investment and talent to the Region. As an information provider and business network facilitator, CTT is typically the first point of contact for enterprises outside the Waterloo Region interested in start-up, expansion, or relocation to the Waterloo Region. CTT's activity complements its partner municipalities, who focus on local business retention and expansion, and investment-related site location, business cost, servicing, and development approval considerations. CTT's municipal partners are the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo, and the townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich.
Assunta Krehl

Ontario research organizations join forces - ITBusiness.ca - 0 views

  • Three technology research centres in Ontario Monday said they have agreed to work together to help the province compete more effectively against countries like India and China.
  • Communitech is working with the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation, an economic development corporation located in the nation's capital, and the MaRS Discovery District, a Toronto-based not-for-profit geared towards the commercialization of scientific and technological intellectual property.
  • The three organizations have agreed their partnership will function under the name the MaRS Network. MaRS is by far the youngest of the three organizations – Communitech is almost a decade old and OCRI is about 25 – but has become a business force since it opened last year.
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  • MaRS originally stood for Medical and Research Sciences, but has since shied away from that label, said Ross Wallace, director of corporate strategy. The organization doesn't want to be pigeonholed as being just a life sciences or biotechnology outfit -- it lends equal weight to information communications and advanced manufacturing. MaRS may be Toronto-based, but its mandate is province-wide, said Wallace. By joining forces with organizations in other parts of Ontario, MaRS is more likely to fulfill that mandate, he said.
  • The three organizations aim to share best practices and contacts, and lean on the strengths of their respective regions. All three may have good venture capital resources, for example, but specialties that may be peculiar to a certain area.
  • Dale added that the MaRs Network is open to working with other Canadian technology organizations, including those with a national or a regional focus.
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    Communitech, the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation, and the MaRS Discovery District have ageed to work together to help the province compete more effectively against countries like India and China. These three companies partnership will function under the name MaRS Network. May 29, 2005
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    Communitech, the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation, and the MaRS Discovery District have ageed to work together to help the province compete more effectively against countries like India and China. These three companies partnership will function under the name MaRS Network.
Assunta Krehl

MaRS Innovation appoints president and CEO - University of Toronto -- News@UofT - 0 views

  • MaRS Innovation appoints president and CEO
  • A research commercialization leader from Israel, Dr. Raphael Hofstein, has been named president and CEO of the new MaRS Innovation initiative.
  • MI was created as a single, market-facing commercialization storefront for Toronto's university and health research institutions. Located in the MaRS Discovery District complex, with business development and administrative support from MaRS, MI will advance commercialization through industry partnerships, licensing and company creation. MaRS Innovation (MI) was founded in 2008 with $14.95 million in funding from the Government of Canada's Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) Programme, matched by $10 million from the research partners. The MI partnership includes U of T, the 10 partner hospitals and health research institutes affiliated with the university, Ryerson University, the Ontario College of Art & Design, BioDisocovery Toronto, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and MaRS. Hofstein joins MaRS Innovation from his previous position as president and CEO of Hadasit Ltd., the technology transfer company of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem.
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  • "MaRS Innovation is a unique global initiative, and I must commend the institutional leaders in Toronto for pulling this innovation powerhouse together to strengthen commercialization output. In my experience, good science is the single most important ingredient for success in this business. Toronto is already known as one of the strongest science cities in the world, and it continues to grow. Leading MaRS Innovation is a wonderful opportunity to do something remarkable."
  • Dr. Tim McTiernan, assistant vice-president (research) and executive director of The Innovations Group (TIG), U of T's research commercialization operation, said Mars Innovation will provide significant benefits to U of T.
  • And he said that MI's role as a resource "is like putting a turbo charger on an engine. Having MI working with us and the other member organizations is a huge step in taking advantage of the enormous potential in the Toronto research community. Commercialization offices acting independently will not be able to manage in nearly as effective a manner as will be possible with the expertise of MaRS Innovation."
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    Dr. Raphael Hofstein named president and CEO of the new MaRS Innovation initiative.
Assunta Krehl

reportonbusiness.com: THE COMPANY: INFONAUT INC.: Charting the right course through an ... - 0 views

  • Toronto, where a small firm is using 21st-century software to create maps with similar goals - the containment of disease - by showing infection patterns that can be understood at a glance.
  • Toronto, where a small firm is using 21st-century software to create maps with similar goals - the containment of disease - by showing infection patterns that can be understood at a glance.
  • There's nothing wrong with Infonaut using the H1N1 flu outbreak to gain exposure, as long as the company is careful in the tone it takes, said John Lute, president of Toronto communications firm Lute and Co.
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  • Infonaut Inc. chief executive officer Niall Wallace and his partner, chief operating officer Matt McPherson, both former IT consultants for the Ontario government, created the company after helping to craft some of the recommendations that resulted from the SARS outbreak of 2003. They understood the value of visually represented, real-time infection data, and left government to set up Infonaut to develop that technology.
  • Infonaut has created three software products that turn infection information into maps. All are being tested in pilot projects and will soon be marketed commercially.
  • One, called Infection Watch Live, is now taking data gathered at 14 hospital emergency rooms in eastern Ontario and using it to create publicly accessible maps that show exactly where in the region cases of influenza and gastrointestinal diseases are active.
  • This complex mapping can help monitor and stop the spread of C. difficile and other superbugs.
  • The third product, called Regional Watch Live, generates maps and reports for regional health professionals by merging lab test results with a range of other information.
  • INFONAUT INC
  • Make sure to present straightforward information about how the company's products might help mitigate an outbreak in the future, but do not exaggerate promises. Be upfront about the state of pilot tests, the timelines to get the software to market, and how much funding will be needed to go to full commercialization. Use respected third-party partners to endorse the products, a move that will give the company more credibility. If there are privacy concerns, spell them out and detail how they are being addressed.
  • Infonaut should ensure that its message is understated and that the company is not an "ambulance chaser," Mr. Lute said
  • But the company does need to give straightforward information about how its products might help mitigate an outbreak in the future, and not exaggerate its promises, she said. In particular, it needs to be upfront about the state of its pilot tests and include details of when full versions of its products will be available. It also must explain how much funding they will need to get there, Ms. Wilcox said.
  • With Infonaut, there seems to be no question that there is a public gain, he said. "If it is just an opportunistic attempt to cash in on the misfortune of others, that tends to play badly. Where a company has something that can be tied to the public interest, such as in this case ... it is very low-risk."
  • He suggests that Infonaut make good use of its pilot test partners, such as the counties in eastern Ontario that are testing the Infection Watch Live system.
  • the company should forestall any concerns over privacy issues by spelling out how it ensures data on individuals are kept confidential.
  • There's nothing wrong with using the current concerns over H1N1 flu to gain exposure, as long as Infonaut is careful about taking a calm and respectful tone to its marketing and publicity.
  • On the other hand, it will clearly create an opportunity if Infonaut can increase its profile, "which helps it to get its story out, which helps it to get investors, which helps it to grow.
  • The problem Build a market for a unique infection mapping system without appearing to exploit the flu outbreak The plan: Use a subtle approach and be upfront with the state of development of the software products The payoff: Higher awareness among potential customers and an expanded market
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    Using 21st-century Infonaut is using software to create maps - the containment of disease - by showing infection patterns that can be understood at a glance.
Cathy Bogaart

The State of Entrepreneurship in Canada Executive Summary - 0 views

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    The Small Business and Tourism Branch has produced, in collaboration with professors Eileen Fischer (York University) and Rebecca Reuber (University of Toronto), a report that provides a portrait of the state of entrepreneurship in Canada. It charts entrepreneurial activity in Canada over time and compares it with leading countries. Entrepreneurial performance indicators observed include: birth and death rates, survival rates, high-growth firms and gazelles, and research and development expenditures. Furthermore, the report provides a profile of the owners of Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because important entrepreneurial activity takes place within these firms. Finally, the report identifies areas of strength, areas for improvement, and important areas that cannot currently be addressed.
Sarah Hickman

MaRS Discovery District - Recommended Resources - Global Market Reports - VHA Research ... - 0 views

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    "The United States spends more on health care-related research and development than any other country. In 2003, it was estimated that the Federal government alone spent over $26 billion. Pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers and other private companies invested over $10 billion more. At its best, the American health care system is capable of delivering care unsurpassed anywhere else in the world. Yet, a 1999 Institute of Medicine study estimated that as many as 98,000 Americans die each year from hospital related medical errors. A recent study by the Rand Corporation (a non-profit think tank) concluded that less than 50 percent of encounters with doctors and hospitals resulted in optimal, evidence-based treatment. Studies show that as many as 42 million Americans - almost 15 percent of the population - lack health care insurance. Surveys reveal that patients do not feel they have adequate information about their conditions, and that their experience with health care ranks below that of most other sectors, in fact below that of the post office. In the aggregate, the country is spending nearly $2 trillion on health care, and yet the nation's health care system does not meet acceptable thresholds for safety, quality, access or cost. In 2005, VHA Health Foundation's board of directors sought to better understand the reasons behind this paradox. The foundation commissioned Larry Keeley and his associates at Doblin Inc. to apply the rigorous analytical methods that are used in their evaluation of other American industries and companies. The project set out to discover when, where and how innovation was taking place in health care. It also sought to identify organizations that were developing model innovation processes, and to explore where opportunities for successful innovation might lay."
Assunta Krehl

Science City - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

  • This is Toronto's research district, a maze of concrete and glass where the finest minds collaborate, turning the city into a global centre of biomedical discovery.
  • Nine research institutes employing 5,000 university faculty members, 2,000 graduate students and 1,100 postdoctoral and clinical fellows lie within a 20-minute walk of each other. This biomedical cluster at the heart of Toronto is one of the largest on the continent, and is one of the 10 largest in the world.
  • Tom Hudson from Montreal; cell biologist Ben Neel from Boston; and stem-cell biologist Gordon Keller, who came to Toronto in 2006, just months after New York magazine named him one of the scientists that city could not afford to lose. Toronto is also home to Tak Mak, who discovered the "key to the immune system" T-cell receptor, and John Dick, who discovered the first cancer stem cell in 1994 and last year grew a human cancer in a lab mouse for the first time.
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  • "There's an enthusiasm in the research community that's very exciting to be part of," says Dr. Keller, who now heads the McEwan Centre for Regenerative Medicine.
  • Dr. Hudson, who left Quebec to head the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, says the city's "tremendous power" is built on a strong history: Stem-cell research began here. "It's innovative," he says of Toronto. "I've never felt closer in my research career to thinking we will have an impact. I feel my goals are going to happen here."
  • Still, John Evans, board chairman of the non-profit MaRS Centre, which helps to turn research into viable businesses, envisages a day when research is seen as a social and economic driver, and the city shines as brightly as better-known centres such as Boston and Palo Alto.
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    Tenille Bonoguore, Globe and Mail features the MaRS Centre and meets 12 of its' "best specimens." MaRS is one of the 10 largest biomedical clusters in the continent.
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    Tenille Bonoguore, Globe and Mail features the MaRS Centre and meets 12 of its' "best specimens." Bonoguore states "MaRS Centre is one of the 10 largest biomedical clusters in the continent." Jan 5, 2008
Assunta Krehl

MaRS makes its first foray into the cleantech spotlight - Cleantech Group - 0 views

  • Five cleantech companies receive support at the Cleantech Forum in Boston from Canadian incubation and innovation center MaRS.
  • Alternative Fuels was just one of a lineup of early-stage startups being supported by MaRS, a nonprofit innovation center in Toronto’s downtown Discovery District that connects entrepreneurs with business skills, networks and capital to stimulate innovation and grow Canadian companies.
  • This week’s forum marked the organization’s first foray into the cleantech sector, said MaRS Venture Group Associate Kevin Downing. Downing said he wanted to connect cleantech-related companies in the MaRS portfolio that were “investment ready” with the forum’s audience. “I don’t have a motive to push any one client over any other because they’re not paying me,” Downing said. Of the 1,300 MaRS portfolio companies, he said the cleantech sector has been its fastest growing segment and an expanding sector in country as well (see Canadian cleantech looks to the future and IPO drought? Cleantech companies flood Canadian markets). Since 2006, cleantech and environmental technology companies have made up 9 percent of MaRS' portfolio. MaRS currently has 350 active clients. The center isn’t government funded, but does receive some government support, he said. It has been funded through donations from the public and private sector. MaRS has the ability to provide some funding, around $40,000, to startups on a competitive basis. Other companies showcased at the forum through MaRS included NIMtech, Real Tech, Vicicog and Skymeter.
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  • This week’s forum marked the organization’s first foray into the cleantech sector, said MaRS Venture Group Associate Kevin Downing. Downing said he wanted to connect cleantech-related companies in the MaRS portfolio that were “investment ready” with the forum’s audience. “I don’t have a motive to push any one client over any other because they’re not paying me,” Downing said. Of the 1,300 MaRS portfolio companies, he said the cleantech sector has been its fastest growing segment and an expanding sector in country as well (see Canadian cleantech looks to the future and IPO drought? Cleantech companies flood Canadian markets). Since 2006, cleantech and environmental technology companies have made up 9 percent of MaRS' portfolio. MaRS currently has 350 active clients. The center isn’t government funded, but does receive some government support, he said. It has been funded through donations from the public and private sector, as well as revenue from its mixed-use facility. MaRS has the ability to provide some funding, around $40,000, to startups on a competitive basis. Other companies showcased at the forum through MaRS included NIMtech, Real Tech, Vicicog and Skymeter.
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    Five cleantech companies received support at the Cleantech Forum in Boston from Canadian incubation and innovation center MaRS. Some of the companies showcased at the forum through MaRS included NIMtech, Real Tech, Vicicog and Skymeter. Sept 10, 2009
Assunta Krehl

News - Uof G students showcase work at food innovation forum - GuelphMercury.com - 0 views

  • The University of Guelph's leadership in the development of food products that enhance health was showcased at the Agri-Food Innovation Forum in downtown Toronto yesterday.The forum's focus is on agriculture, food and human health, and is examining ways to generate business enterprises in the nutraceutical and functional food field.
  • John Kelly, executive director of the MaRS Landing and chair of the Agri-Food Innovation Forum, said there is a growing global market for nutraceutical products and good product ideas are coming from young minds.
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    Agri-Food Innovation Forum focused on agriculture, food and human health and is examining ways to generate business enterprises in the nutraceutical and functional food field. MaRS Landing is quoted indicating that there is a global market for nutraceutical products and good product ideas.
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    Agri-Food Innovation Forum focused on agriculture, food and human health and is examining ways to generate business enterprises in the nutraceutical and functional food field. MaRS Landing is quoted indicating that there is a global market for nutraceutical products and good product ideas. Feb 12, 2009
Sarah Hickman

Exporting | Export, Import and Foreign Investment | Canada Business - 0 views

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    Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada provides free up-to-date access to local and global market reports (via subscription only). Market reports on the following industries are included: manufacturing, materials, aerospace and defense, agriculture (technology and food), arts, automotive, bio-tech, building products, chemicals, consumer products, electric power, environment, fish and seafood, forest, health, IT, metals, ocean tech, oil and gas, plastics, rail and urban transit, space, and tourism.
Assunta Krehl

MaRS Announces New Technology Accelerator JOLT - Village Gamer - April 24, 2012 - 0 views

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    MaRS announced the creation of JOLT, a new technology accelerator dedicated to building high-growth web and mobile companies that promise to transform the way consumers and enterprises connect, work and play. JOLT will select up to 15 high-potential startups annually, providing them with space, seed financing and mentorship, as well as access to partners and some of the top angel and venture capital investors in the industry. The goal of the program is to accelerate market validation and, in turn, help these companies secure the capital and talent necessary to scale efficiently.
Assunta Krehl

The business side to good health - The Star - 0 views

  • The Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership was launched this year with a $5-million push from the Canadian government. The latest Ivey initiative has the goal of bringing students together with experts from the science and business sectors, with the ultimate goal of better identifying and commercializing health technologies.Dr. Kellie Leitch, a Hospital for Sick Children orthopedic surgeon, is the first executive director of the centre, which is based at Western.
  • She is sitting in the basement of MaRS, a scientific hub of activity in downtown Toronto where labs, business and major Toronto teaching hospitals are brought together under one roof.
  • The Ivey centre will focus on giving the educational capability to our students so they become really well educated in innovation and commercialization, so we can keep things here at home in Canada and grow those products."
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  • A good example of where both business and health-care expertise is needed is at Crown agencies such as eHealth Ontario.
  • The new Ivey centre builds on a partnership with the London Health Sciences Centre and the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry
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    The Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership was launched in 2009. The goal of this initiative is to bring students together together with experts from the science and business sectors, with the ultimate goal of better identifying and commercializing health technologies.Dr. Kellie Leitch, a Hospital for Sick Children orthopedic surgeon, is the first executive director of the centre, which is based at Western. Sept 10, 2009
Sarah Hickman

Amazon.com: Technology Ventures: From Idea to Enterprise (9780071259231): Richard C. Do... - 0 views

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    "Technology Ventures" is the first textbook to thoroughly examine a global phenomenon known as "technology entrepreneurship". Now in its second edition, this book integrates the most valuable entrepreneurship and technology management theories from some of the world's leading scholars and educators with current examples of new technologies and an extensive suite of media resources. Dorf and Byers's comprehensive collection of action-oriented concepts and applications provides both students and professionals with the tools necessary for success in starting and growing a technology enterprise. "Technology Ventures" details the critical differences between scientific ideas and true business opportunities.
Assunta Krehl

7 Opportunities in the Current Recession - Canadian Entrepreneur - 0 views

  • I attended the Wisdom Exchange today at the Mars Discovery District in Toronto, an annual gathering of leading growth firms sponsored by the Ontario government. Ontario’s ministry of small business recognizes that a tiny minority of SMEs, the export-oriented gazelles, account for a disproportionate share of job creation, and it does a great job of encouraging, motivating and supporting the CEOs of such companies through educational opportunities such as the Wisdom Exchange.
  • Jayson Myers, the respected economist who now heads up Canada's largest industry association, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters.
  • Myers offered a fair bit of bad news to the group – he warned that the recession “will be deeper and last longer than consensus forecasts,” and that total Canadian merchandise exports have actually been falling for six years.
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  • But here is the good news. Myers also cited a whole listfull of business opportunities created by the current downturn. Not every company is in a position to seize these opportunities, but those who can should definitely be looking at this list as a recipe for action.Opportunities in the Current Recession:· For companies with cash and investment strength· Replace competitors (who falter or struggle in this economy)· Acquisitions· Respond to new and emerging customer demand· New product and market development· Infrastructure and Innovation (including the smart grid, green energy, health care, logistics and security, and energy – all areas where Canadian companies have some advantages)· Product specialization, services, new processes, new skills
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    Wisdom Exchange Event was held at the MaRS Centre Feb 19, 2009. This event gathers leading growh firms and it is sponsored by the Ontario Government. Jason Myers, head of Canadian Manufacteurers & Exporters mentions the Canadian economy will get worse and last longer but there will be a list of business opportunities.
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    Wisdom Exchange Event was held at the MaRS Centre Feb 19, 2009. This event gathers leading growh firms and it is sponsored by the Ontario Government. Jason Myers, head of Canadian Manufacteurers & Exporters mentions the Canadian economy will get worse and last longer but there will be a list of business opportunities. Feb 19, 2009
Sarah Hickman

MaRS Discovery District - Recommended Resources - MaRS Recommended Reads - VentureTalk ... - 0 views

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    VentureTalk Radio (VTR) tackles the difficult decisions that everyone must face when starting or owning a business. Hosted by Dr. Dale Pfost and Don Marvin who together have raised over $300 million dollars for companies, VTR airs every Friday at 3:00PM EST on WWBD AM 860, in Philadelphia. VentureTalk Radio uses a game-show format in which three entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to the show's hosts and guest judges, who ask questions and then score the presentations. Each entrepreneur gives a two-minute pitch about their product and business, and then judges critique the pitch and an executive summary that the entrepreneur sends previously. Judges offer pointers on what to look out for and how viable the idea is for financing. Winners from each week's show are eligible to be considered for the annual grand prize: A road trip with Marvin and Pfost to pitch their business to investors.
Assunta Krehl

globeadvisor.com: HOW A GOOD PLAN WENT BAD - 0 views

  • University of Toronto Asset Management
  • Canada's sharpest financial minds
  • runs $2.8-billion of staff pensions and $1.5-billion of endowments, which traditionally produces tens of millions of dollars annually for student aid and faculty posts.
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  • But this year the money has stopped flowing after investment losses reached $1.5-billion for 2008 and the university was forced to cancel a planned $62-million endowment payout, representing about 5 per cent of its operating budget.
  • Canada's most innovative investment funds is in question by the university that is bearing the brunt of its losses.
  • Settling into a boardroom chair in the restored heritage building of Toronto's MaRS research centre, Mr. Moriarty remains unshaken by the crisis. He stands committed to UTAM's sophisticated investing approach, reciting phrases like "portable alpha" and "risk budgets" to explain portfolio decisions.
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    University of Toronto remodelled its pension and endowment fund - and then lost $1.5-billion last year. University of Toronto Asset Management runs $2.8-billion of staff pensions and $1.5-billion of endowments, which traditionally produces tens of millions of dollars annually for student aid and faculty posts.runs $2.8-billion of staff pensions and $1.5-billion of endowments, which traditionally produces tens of millions of dollars annually for student aid and faculty posts. Small mention of UTAM at MaRS.
Sarah Hickman

Singularity Is Near: Amazon.ca: Ray Kurzweil: Books - 0 views

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    The "singularity"--in which technological change becomes so rapid and so profound that our bodies and brains will merge with our machines.\n The Singularity Is Near portrays what life will be like after this event--a human-machine civilization where our experiences shift from real reality to virtual reality and where our intelligence becomes nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than unaided human intelligence. In practical terms, this means that human aging and pollution will be reversed, world hunger will be solved and our bodies and environment transformed by nanotechnology to overcome the limitations of biology, including death. We will be able to create virtually any physical product just from information, resulting in radical wealth creation. In addition to outlining these fantastic changes, Kurzweil also considers their social and philosophical ramifications.
Tim T

How to Make Wealth - 0 views

  • Remember what a startup is, economically: a way of saying, I want to work faster. Instead of accumulating money slowly by being paid a regular wage for fifty years, I want to get it over with as soon as possible. So governments that forbid you to accumulate wealth are in effect decreeing that you work slowly. They're willing to let you earn $3 million over fifty years, but they're not willing to let you work so hard that you can do it in two. They are like the corporate boss that you can't go to and say, I want to work ten times as hard, so please pay me ten times a much. Except this is not a boss you can escape by starting your own company.
  • What is technology? It's technique. It's the way we all do things. And when you discover a new way to do things, its value is multiplied by all the people who use it. It is the proverbial fishing rod, rather than the fish. That's the difference between a startup and a restaurant or a barber shop. You fry eggs or cut hair one customer at a time. Whereas if you solve a technical problem that a lot of people care about, you help everyone who uses your solution. That's leverage.If you look at history, it seems that most people who got rich by creating wealth did it by developing new technology. You just can't fry eggs or cut hair fast enough. What made the Florentines rich in 1200 was the discovery of new techniques for making the high-tech product of the time, fine woven cloth. What made the Dutch rich in 1600 was the discovery of shipbuilding and navigation techniques that enabled them to dominate the seas of the Far East.
  • What a company does, and has to do if it wants to continue to exist, is earn money. And the way most companies make money is by creating wealth. Companies can be so specialized that this similarity is concealed, but it is not only manufacturing companies that create wealth. A big component of wealth is location. Remember that magic machine that could make you cars and cook you dinner and so on? It would not be so useful if it delivered your dinner to a random location in central Asia. If wealth means what people want, companies that move things also create wealth. Ditto for many other kinds of companies that don't make anything physical. Nearly all companies exist to do something people want.And that's what you do, as well, when you go to work for a company. But here there is another layer that tends to obscure the underlying reality. In a company, the work you do is averaged together with a lot of other people's. You may not even be aware you're doing something people want. Your contribution may be indirect. But the company as a whole must be giving people something they want, or they won't make any money. And if they are paying you x dollars a year, then on average you must be contributing at least x dollars a year worth of work, or the company will be spending more than it makes, and will go out of business.Someone graduating from college thinks, and is told, that he needs to get a job, as if the important thing were becoming a member of an institution. A more direct way to put it would be: you need to start doing something people want. You don't need to join a company to do that. All a company is is a group of people working together to do something people want. It's doing something people want that matters, not joining the group.
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  • When wealth is talked about in this context, it is often described as a pie. "You can't make the pie larger," say politicians. When you're talking about the amount of money in one family's bank account, or the amount available to a government from one year's tax revenue, this is true. If one person gets more, someone else has to get less.I can remember believing, as a child, that if a few rich people had all the money, it left less for everyone else. Many people seem to continue to believe something like this well into adulthood. This fallacy is usually there in the background when you hear someone talking about how x percent of the population have y percent of the wealth. If you plan to start a startup, then whether you realize it or not, you're planning to disprove the Pie Fallacy.What leads people astray here is the abstraction of money. Money is not wealth. It's just something we use to move wealth around. So although there may be, in certain specific moments (like your family, this month) a fixed amount of money available to trade with other people for things you want, there is not a fixed amount of wealth in the world. You can make more wealth. Wealth has been getting created and destroyed (but on balance, created) for all of human history.Suppose you own a beat-up old car. Instead of sitting on your butt next summer, you could spend the time restoring your car to pristine condition. In doing so you create wealth. The world is-- and you specifically are-- one pristine old car the richer. And not just in some metaphorical way. If you sell your car, you'll get more for it.In restoring your old car you have made yourself richer. You haven't made anyone else poorer. So there is obviously not a fixed pie. And in fact, when you look at it this way, you wonder why anyone would think there was.
Tim T

iPhone Dev Center: iPhone Human Interface Guidelines: Human Interface Principles: Creat... - 0 views

  • A great user interface follows human interface design principles that are based on the way people—users—think and work, not on the capabilities of the device
  • a beautiful, intuitive, compelling user interface enhances an application’s functionality and inspires a positive emotional attachment in users.
  • model your application’s objects and actions on objects and actions in the real world.
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  • This technique especially helps novice users quickly grasp how your application works. Folders are a classic software metaphor. People file things in folders in the real world, so they immediately understand the idea of putting data into folders on a computer.
  • iPhone OS users enjoy a heightened sense of direct manipulation because of the Multi-Touch interface. Using gestures, people feel a greater affinity for, and sense of control over, the objects they see on screen, because they do not use any intermediate device (such as a mouse) to manipulate them.
  • An iPhone application is better than a person at remembering lists of options, commands, data, and so on. Take advantage of this by presenting choices or options in list form, so users can easily scan them and make a choice. Keeping text input to a minimum frees users from having to spend a lot of time typing and frees your application from having to perform a lot of error checking. Presenting choices to the user, instead of asking for more open-ended input, also allows them to concentrate on accomplishing tasks with your application, instead of remembering how to operate it.
  • Your application should respond to every user action with some visible change.
  • Keep actions simple and straightforward so users can easily understand and remember them
  • Whenever possible, use standard controls and behaviors that users are already familiar with.
  • appearance has a strong impact on functionality: An application that appears cluttered or illogical is hard to understand and use.
  • Aesthetic integrity is not a measure of how beautiful your application is. It’s a measure of how well the appearance of your application integrates with its function. For example, a productivity application should keep decorative elements subtle and in the background, while giving prominence to the task by providing standard controls and behaviors.
  • An immersive application is at the other end of the spectrum, and users expect a beautiful appearance that promises fun and encourages discovery.
  • appearance still needs to integrate with the task.
Cathy Bogaart

Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) - 0 views

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    ACE is a national charitable organization that is teaching and igniting young Canadians to create brighter futures for themselves and their communities. Working in partnership with business and higher education, ACE delivers experience-based programming that allows university and college students to move beyond the traditional path of post-secondary education. These students are challenged to address economic, social and environmental issues in their own entrepreneurial ventures and in their communities. ACE currently delivers two programs on over 50 university and college campuses across Canada with the involvement of over 1,700 student leaders and student entrepreneurs.
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