by Reema Duggal | Oct 1, 2010
At Meetup #11, we followed the un-meeting format again: I pitched the topic of Improving the Silicon Halton’s Business Directory. It proved to be a popular one attaining the most votes among all the topics suggested – and I won a VMware t-shirt in the process.
The Problem
We are a group of IT Businesses in Halton region; however, there is no easy way for members or external users to find a suitable service provider within the group. So the problem can be summarized as not having a useful Member Directory.
This challenge came to me when one of my projects required some development on Silverlight; my first idea was to locate a member on Silicon Halton that could partner with me to be able to provide a solution. However, I was discouraged to notice that there wasn’t a member directory that could help me with the search. At the same time, I realized that other members searching for my areas of expertise would have a hard time finding my company or me…
The Discussion
We started the discussion re-iterating the problem: The need for a member directory: this meant that members would have to build a searchable member profile; which we haven’t done. However, not all the participants felt the pressing need of a business directory; so we quickly turned into proposing ways to utilize the Linked In Group so it would serve the purpose of a business directory. Some of most relevant suggestions included:
- Post into the boards when looking for certain expertise.
- Create one single Discussion within the group where all the companies can post their profile. The discussion would be searchable, thus addressing the need of members to search for other members’ expertise.
- Create a Company Profile on LinkedIn, and join with it the Silicon Halton Group.
- Do Job Postings on LinkedIn that would only apply to a Group. (Note: I investigated this point, and from the initial Job Post form, it does not seem possible.)
Conclusions
These are some of the conclusions reached by the group:
- Linked In could be leveraged to find members by posting into the Discussion forums, improving personal profiles and creating company profiles.
- Company members need more opportunities to present their business to the group; either on LinkedIn or at Meetings, there is a need to know what each other do, so we can find points of collaboration and be able to provide referrals.
- While LinkedIn addresses the problems for Members, any external user/company looking for services will still encounter challenges when looking for specific providers.
Thanks to everyone that participated; the creativity and resourcefulness of the members came through but certainly the problem will not go away. Although it might not be a pressing need right now, in the future Silicon Halton should consider a business directory with full profiles to be able to properly showcase and promote their members.
About the Silicon Halton Blogger
Ricardo Covo is the founder and principal at Web Nodes, a custom-software development company focused on data-driven web applications and systems integration, specialized on Microsoft Technologies. With more than 10 years of international experience; including 5 years of experience in the Silicon Valley, Ricardo has developed strong expertise in Software Development, following processes that combine best practices, efficiency and quality. You can find Ricardo on line here @ricardocovo and http://ricardocovo.wordpress.com
by Reema Duggal | Sep 17, 2010
Continuation of Jon’s pre-VMWorld 2010-conference post). I will be the first to admit that I had no idea exactly what to expect when going to VMworld 2010. The signage and advertising used during VMworld was awesome. This year’s theme was “Virtual Roads. Actual Clouds.” Utilizing this theme, all signage was based around road signs. You will see a few examples in the blog. My first stop was Moscone Center West. This is where the LabCloud was being run. Only part of the datacenter was actually local to VMworld, the rest was being hosted by Terramark and Verizon remotely. Using Cloud Computing as an IT platform, we were able to deliver over 15,000 labs which required over 145,000 virtual machines to complete.
Just a little further down the road, Moscone North and South held the rest of the weekly activities.[/caption] The previous comparison to E3 or Tokyo Games show felt very appropriate. The ‘Solutions Exchange’ (Expo) contained demos of all shapes and forms, many vendors showing their product, and even a few “booth babes” along to entice the crowd. My actual contributions were shown in the very middle of this floor. The VMware Genius Bar was used to provide technical assistance on all VMware products to attendees of the conference. My specialty is VMware Lab Manager, as well as VMware vCloud Director. Yes, I said VMware vCloud Director. It might have been the best worst kept secret ever, but we announced VMware vCloud Director during the VMworld keynote. If you wish to see more specifics, take a peek here: http://www.vmware.com/products/vcloud/
Not everything was work while in San Francisco. I would definitely recommend going to the ‘Little Delhi’ Restaurant while in town, as it is just a short walking distance from most of the hotels. There were a couple super cars spotted at different locations, like a Bugatti Veyron. After having been there, everyone that is in IT and uses VMware product should go at least once. VMworld Europe 2010 is in about a month, but we should all be planning a trip to Las Vegas for VMworld 2011!
About the Silicon Halton Member Blogger
Jonathan Hemming is a VMware staff member based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. By day, he works as an Escalation Engineer at VMWare’s offices in Burlington, and works on some of the more complex problems with software like VMware Lab Manager. You can find Jon on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @vJonHemming.
by Reema Duggal | Sep 2, 2010
Open Data is about transforming government data into an open platform. Open Halton is about transforming Halton with open data. Silicon Halton is about transforming Halton with network of high tech entrepreneurs and leaders. The way I see it all 3 can help and benefit from one another. Open Data=Open Halton=Silicon Halton. What a fit! That’s why I was so excited to stand up at my second Silicon Halton meet-up and put forward a topic of discussion – you guessed it – Open Data. It helped that this meetup followed the “open space” concept, which was an ideal format to quickly:
- Share what Open Data is all about in a 3-minute overview
- Have a break-out session to throw around great ideas
- Connect with others who are interested in exploring further
For those unfamiliar with Open Data, in a nutshell it’s about helping governments release non-PII data so that citizens and developers could derive new insights and build new cool applications. Think mash-ups of public data: city landmarks (parks, schools, libraries, etc), transit data (bus schedules, routes, etc), schedules (garbage pick-ups, etc), council meeting info (agendas, minutes, etc) — all available to be consumed by today’s Web 2.0 apps on the web, desktop & mobile. Read more on the relationship between Open Data and Open Gov at About Open Halton.
Open Data turned out to be a HOT TOPIC, getting most votes for a breakout. Our breakout was loosely structured around identifying (a) needs & challenges /wrt Open Data and (b) ideas & solutions for those needs.
What floated to the top of all other needs & ideas were these 2 major “buckets”:
TRANSIT DATA:
- needs for more accessible bus data vs. today’s customary .PDF-only map/schedule option
- better tools for cross-region trip planning (e.g. taking a bus from Burlington to Milton)
- needs for rider feedback (and insights) as input for a more efficient transit schedule
LOCAL EVENT DATA
- need to have easier access to local arts+culture events & other activities
- better access to information on school & community center programs & schedules
The bus data seems to have been a very interesting area because the data already exists in some type of structured format, managed by local transit authorities, but is not very useful as it’s mostly locked up in large-size PDFs that are cumbersome to read and hence planning a trip, particularly cross-region, is a nightmare. The passion of our breakout group, and all the open data ideas inspired me to double-down on launch of the Open Halton community, and to earmark TRANSIT as our first open data project! I feel that with the help of Chris, Rick and the Silicon Halton community, Open Data can be a transformational force in Halton’s high tech landscape. Thanks to everyone @SiliconHalton for such interest and volume of ideas and suggestions! You guys rock!
About the Silicon Halton Blogger
Nik Garkusha is the Open Source Strategy Lead at Microsoft Canada with the mission of building relationships with the local Open Source developer communities. Nik is responsible for a number of industry projects including Gov 2.0, Open Data, Open Source and PHP on Windows initiatives, and the founder of the Open Halton community. The common theme across all of his projects is the vision of providing an integrated platform for a seamless end-user and developer experiences across a wide range of devices and services; it’s this vision that Nik helps to bring to life through his leadership role on the Windows platform strategy team, Port25.ca editor and as a local representative of the Microsoft Open Source Technology Centre.
Silicon Halton note: Nik conducted an Open Space session at Meetup 10 on the topic of Open Data in Halton. This blog post was generated from that event. Thanks Nik!
by Reema Duggal | Aug 29, 2010
Meetup 10 was my first with the Silicon Halton group and I was pleased to help out with facilitating the open space. Chris Herbert’s topic of what Silicon Halton would look like in 2020 (link to Chris’ post) inspired me to host a chat about the Rockefeller Habits.
Rockefeller Habits
The Rockefeller Habits is a framework for distilling big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAG) into small chunks so you can make small, incremental and measurable gains towards your goal. During this session I gave a brief overview of what the Rockefeller Habits are along with a couple of stories from a previous company that I helped implement them in. Mostly we brainstormed about the Rockefeller Habits and how it could apply to helping us figure out a long-term goal for what Silicon Halton looks like in 2010 or perhaps what the Halton region will look like in 2020. One example was using the Open Space in November as a possible action to help define what our BHAG is and how we can make incremental gains to get there. The most challenging part of the discussion was how to use this method in a non-corporate environment.
While the Rockefeller Habits are geared towards helping companies increase the value of their high-growth organization, the framework is rooted in common sense that can apply to all levels and types of goal setting. Our only action item was to chew on the output of the brainstorm and talk again at the next meeting to figure out what the next steps can be. For more information about the Rockefeller Habits, check out this site. Read more about my experiences implementing the Rockefeller Habits here.
About the Silicon Halton Member Blogger
Jason Little is an independent Agile Coach and Consultant specializing in helping organizations improve their business processes and build success with Agile practices. You can view Jason’s Linked In profile here ( http://ca.linkedin.com/in/jasonlittle ) or check out his Agile Coach blog.
Silicon Halton note: Jason conducted an Open Space session at Meetup 10 on the topic of Effective Execution. This blog post was generated from that event. Thanks Jason!
by Reema Duggal | Aug 29, 2010
What a great co-incidence it has been – for our Ministry of Education to come out with a new initiative to have students exposed to industry sectors BEFORE graduating from secondary school – and for Silicon Halton to exist for the purpose of bringing people together in the Information and Communications Technology sector!
The fact is, our schools need business partners to provide students with Reach Ahead activities, Job Shadowing, Job Twinning, Presentations or even semester long Co-op placements in our Information and Communications Technology SHSMs. Could I dream of a better resource for partnerships than SiliconHalton.com ? I am a teacher with the Halton District School Board – where I have taught Computer Science and Computer Engineering now for 16 years. (I also teach math and gulp… dramatic arts – when they need me !) My school is TA Blakelock High School which is located near the Hopedale Mall at 3rd Line and Rebecca Street in Oakville.
What a great honor it has been to meet the people at Silicon Halton in Meetings 9 and 10 and to be able to present to the group to explain SHSMs (Specialist High Skills Major) diplomas. There are SHSMs availabe in many different industry sectors (Energy, Manufacturing, Arts and Culture, Information and Communications Technology… and the list goes on. See my profile on Linkedin.com for the complete list in a document called “SHSM Fact Sheet”). Certain schools provide certain SHSMs – as the cost of offering SHSMs makes it necessary to divide up the programs so that there is always one school in each of the 3 geographic regions in Halton for each sector. The complete list of Public and Catholic schools is found in picture files titled Pathways1.jpg and Pathways2.jpg (also in my LinkedIn profile). Please read the files to learn more of the school’s offering SHSMs near your company and see the shsm_fact_sheet.pdf.
At Meetup 10 of Silicon Halton, some new ideas were under discussion. We talked about having Silicon Halton companies having a career day – where they present to students who rotate through as if “speed-dating” the companies of their choice. We also talked about having the students host a “dragon’s den” where the reverse scenario has the employers “speed dating” the students. We talked about having a travelling bus day where students are allowed to visit multiple businesses during a day. And it was mentioned that specific student needs could be posted on the SiliconHalton site once students have stated their own preferences for the kind of positions they are seeking. It was all discussed with very positive responses, as I collected over 20 business cards of people offering everything from Reach Ahead activities (1 to 3 days’ commitment) to Co-op placements (1 semester’s commitment). And again I mentioned how you can view http://www.schooltocareer.ca as both a corporate partner and a parent to help determine if you can provide support to the schools in your area. Guidance contacts are listed and they want to hear from you ! Alan.
About the Silicon Halton Member Blogger
Alan Payne is a Secondary School Teacher at TA Blakelock High School in Oakville, ON for the Halton District School Board. Alan is presently working on the Specialist High Skills Major program for the Ministry of Education where he is seeking co-op opportunity for his students order to complement the student’s High Skills Major Diploma in Information and Communication Technology. Silicon Halton note: Alan conducted an Open Space session at Meetup 10 on the topic of the Specialist High Skills Major in Halton District School Board. This blog was generated from that event. Thanks Alan!
by Reema Duggal | Aug 21, 2010
In July I offered to guest blog for Silicon Halton about VMworld. The question for me was ‘Where do I start?” Going back to basics, I’ll try to answer the classic 5 W’s surrounding these blogs. What is VMworld? If you aren’t familiar VMworld is the Information Technology equivalent to E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), or the Detroit Auto Show. VMworld will exibit new and existing technologies for the Datacenter and Desktop computing markets. Check out the official site (http://www.vmworld.com/) if you want to know more.
When is VMworld? The whole convention runs from August 30 to September 2 at the Moscone Center, in San Francisco California. I’ll be down there a day ahead of time to get prepared to help run my part of the event, and blog out some of bits and bytes from the floor of the Moscone. I guess that answers the ‘where’ as well! Why should I check out VMworld? If you can attend VMworld, it is the best opportunity to meet, greet, and learn from some of the world’s best virutalization experts. There are numerous labs, sessions, and panels to discuss all things relating to virutalization. This gives you the chance to learn and grow as a valued asset to your employer. Even if you can’t make it to the event directly, some of the content will be posted online and will be well worthing the time to view it. How can I get involved? VMworld.com has all the details for ticketing information, how to attend, view content online and all that good stuff. Cheers until next time. Jon
About the Silicon Halton Member Blogger
Jonathan Hemming is a VMware staff member based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. By day, he works as an Escalation Engineer at VMWare’s offices in Burlington, and works on some of the more complex problems with software like VMware Lab Manager. You can find Jon on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @vJonHemming. (Editor’s note: See Jon’s post VMword 2010 blog here)
