DemoCampToronto18: This one time at the Supermarket…
My colleague and I managed to get to the Supermarket around 5:30pm and noticed immediately that the venue was significantly smaller than the other TorCamp venues (like MaRS, Toronto Board of Trade). We found a couple of seats (it was still early) and managed to keep our seats for the entire evening. By the time the event was about to start, the Supermarket pretty much filled to capacity. So unless you were able to get a seat inside the room with the screen, you weren’t going to see much at all this evening.
The RGB from the projector was a bit off so there were moments that made viewing the screen difficult. There were also a lot of sound distractions coming from both people talking loudly and the sound of the wok from the open kitchen. That said, there were plenty of kick ass demos this evening that definitely delivered!
Roy Perira, Refresh Partners
Refresh Analytics: Social Networking Engagement Metrics
Launched in May/08, this app is a different way of doing analytics. It’s a REST based API that allows you to take social metrics data and put it on your website. By taking advantage of the Facebook API, they are able to provide and gather information about two main metrics: social influencers and virality (eg. how many new users does one new user bring to an application). With plenty of charts and detailed summaries of demographic info, I can see how this app would be very useful for marketers.
Chris Gurney
Blueprint Requirements Center
Based on eclipse, this app allows one to capture and elicit requirements through an easy to use interface. Chris first showed us how to enter a workflow and steps and inserting branching logic. He did a brief demo of the screen editor and showed us how they attach directly to processes. The ease of use of the application to create a visual story board and the ability to generate documentation and export out to other applications makes this seem like an ideal tool for business analysts.
Ali Asaria, Well.ca
Web -> Jabber Chat for your Site That’s better than Meebo and GTalk
By the time of this presentation, the RGB of the projector was finally balanced. Ali presented a tool that they’ve created over in their well.ca labs. We’re all familiar with instant messaging through web browsers but most of them aren’t that good. His solution is a chat system that is simple, reliable, doesn’t use AJAX and that can be embedded in a website. I think it’s something that my employer could use to integrate with our website, since we use jabber/iChat/Bonjour in the office.
Kosta Zabashta, Dr. Project, University of Toronto
Integrating IRC With Software Development Portals
For those not familiar with the Dr. Project it’s basically code that is forked from Trac. What his solution does is integrate IRC chats and logs with the Dr. Project system. Some of the key features he showed was the ability to query a Dr. Project Ticket with IRC and search IRC logs all within Dr. Project. I can see this being useful for those that use IRC in a lot of their day to day work.
Jesse Brown, Bitstrips
BITSTRIPS 1.2: why everyone should make comics
Debuted at SXSW 2008, this comic strip creation tool is the first strip creation tool that gives you a lot of creative freedom to make very unique cartoon characters. This definitely looked very cool and I will definitely be giving it a try.
Dave Coleman, SpreedNews
Spreed News: A Better Way of Reading your News on the Go
Spreed News solves the problem of information overload and two specific issues: Space and Time. By only displaying up to 5 words at a time and playing like a slideshow, this app allows you to gain more than just surface knowledge of articles. It actually allows you to read news in a much faster way. As you begin to read faster, you can change the speed of the text being output. Very cool.
Jevon MacDonald, Firestoker/StartupNorth
VC Rant
Jevon’s rant was about how startups will eventually save venture capital in Canada. He also emphasized the need for more good startups to be started through communities and for funders to connect with these great startups.
Conclusion
There were supposed to be 3 more ignite presentations but those never happened for whatever reason. Aside from some of the technical glitches that plagued some of the presentations, overall I had a good time. Best of all, I felt very inspired!
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