DemoCampHamilton5: Another Booming Success!
Yes, last night up at the newly redesigned Arnie Pub at Mohawk College, Software Hamilton founder Kevin Browne once again hosted our latest community DemoCampHamilton5 to another packed house!
And what a great new venue it was – the changes to the Arnie have been long in coming but the new big yet comfy room, the stage and digital presi equipment was superb…and as an attendant I must add a big #Kudos to Mohawk for this as well as their continued support for the DemoCampHamilton initiative too!
First, a big congrats and #kudos first to Ryan McGreal of raisethehammer.org blog fame and his solid Keynote Address on platforms…and why they’re the necessary and needed first step for anyone who’s looking to establish a digital initiative! As you may know, the About us page for this group states that “…raise the Hammer is a group of Hamilton, Ontario citizens who believe in our city’s potential and are willing to get involved in making the city a more vibrant, livable, and attractive place to live and work. We are non-partisan and our members come from diverse political backgrounds. Our common interest is revitalizing our city, a goal that benefits everyone…” and that about captures just who and what Ryan and his collective are all about. Last night, Ryan fulfilled that approach by his group to our community and the crowd found his presi absolutely spot- on! Well done Ryan!
Demo 1 Fluidmedia demo’d “…a seamless publishing system for communities of parents to share visual stories with friends and family” was how this was billed and Justin the head of the firm demo’d it nicely. What a great way to “see” your memories and build your own digital book – and the idea voiced at the end about publishing of same in a hard-copy format made this Grandpa sit up and take notice, eh! I loved this one, Justin…and the rollout I’m sure will be formidable!
Demo 2 Nik Garkusha (@Nik_G) demo’d Data Public: a new Drupal 7 distribution for government bundled with a number of custom modules for an all-in-one solution for Open Gov web initiatives & publishing Open Data. Packaged with a cloud-based installer, an open data catalogue & several apps, it cuts costs & time to launch Open Gov initiatives from months to hours. This type of open data intiative I think will grow – it’s the “buy in” by our politicians that is where the “rubber meets the road” and that’s a challenge for us all! But yes, #Kudos here Nik!
Demo 3 Mike Trpic (@mtrpcic) demo’d hist app – PathJS, a lightweight, client-side routing library for browsers that allows you to create ‘single page’ applications. It supports all major and modern browsers, and uses the latest web technologies…and watching his demo was great as all the coders in the room were as mesmerized as I was! #Kudos Mike!
Demo 4 Orbital (@GetOrbital) was in my opinion, the “demo-of-the-night” on a prototype of the smart home iOS app, Synapse. This was interesting in that what we were shown was a mobile app run on an iPhone, that “connected” to his house and allowed him to control everything from the kettle on his kitchen counter, to his garage door opener to the lights in his rec room. Yup, that’s right….with a simply “click” those items can be turned on/off….the kettle set to boil and the lights turned on…and from my own viewpoint I think that this is a pretty cool way to look ahead. Oh yes, I know that there are other technologies out there that do this too…but getting the demo from a Hamiltonian who used his own iPhone and his own house to show us what can be done was a real #startup turn-on for me. I can see some interesting opportunities there…and hope that this young man chooses to become a part of our own #HamOnt startup community – beginning maybe with an intake over at our Innovation Factory too! So…big #kudos here!
Demo 6 was a demo by one of the founders of a firm named Avaya web.alive – billed as “…an immersive Web collaboration tool that provides your organization with innovative new ways to meet, sell and learn. Radically different from other collaboration solutions, web.alive connects participants from around the globe in collaboration sessions featuring 3D visuals and spatial audio. Multiple, free-flowing discussions can take place simultaneously, and participants can have access to and take full advantage of all materials related to the session…” Oh, so…what exactly were we shown? Well, it’s a virtual world like say SecondLife….where just by using their online environment, you get to be an avatar immersed in worlds that they have created. Interesting? Yes. Cutting edge? Yes. But how to monetize that….was my own issue with same….and the founders both could not voice an opinion on just how to do that…so for me, as a business concept….this one is still somewhat distant IMHO….but the world we did see in the demo looked pretty cool so once again #kudos!
And there you have our recap of last night’s DemoCampHamilton5! A great event with more than 100+ attendants and some really cool demos….to learn more about same, take a click over to our softwarehamilton.com site, sign up for a free membership and then you’ll get our e-mail notices of our upcoming events! Now that’s a great way to help build our online community here in #HamOnt, eh! See you then!