Sponsor Webcast: DELL Presents Internet Apps and Built-In Recovery Plans on June 9th – 1 PM EDT
When most people think about the web, they rarely think about the hardware side of the story. We are proud to have Dell sponsor the FTW! Coding Competition with awesome prizes alongside the Dell workstations at Make Web Not War 2010. Dell participated this year because they believe in the importance of great hardware when developing for the web. Dell would like to invite anyone interested in web apps and ecommerce Apps to join them live webcast they are holding on June 9th about Web App disaster recovery options.
Live Webcast | June 9th, 2010
Join Andre Webley, Tenzing Senior Solutions Engineer and Roy Swift, Enterprise Systems Consultant at Dell to discuss why every Internet application should have a built-in disaster recovery plan. With Web and Ecommerce applications becoming more business critical, downtime is simply not an option. Are you adequately prepared for a disaster? Join us as we explore key considerations to ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster, so that your organization is ready for anything. Interested in attending? you can register here
Cheers!
@phponwindows
Speaker Spotlight: Jeremy Wright
@jeremywright Having built several multi-million dollar media companies, Jeremy Wright’s primary value to clients is his results-oriented approach to projects, goals and strategic initiatives. He has managed to build one of the top 10 media companies in Canada, one of the top 5 social media companies in the world and a series of industry-leading companies in industries as diverse as web-hosting, blog marketing and time management. Over the course of his career, Jeremy has created a wide number of products, platforms and strategies which have been used by hundreds of millions of people and driven more than 10 million dollars in investment while generating more than 100 million dollars in revenue. Past clients in the technology space include Microsoft, Intel, Nortel, Novell and Citrix; in the healthcare space include Red Cross (Canada), the National Health Service (UK) and Health Sciences Center (Winnipeg); in the media space include b5media, Rogers (Media Services), DoubleClick, PicScout and in the public arena include the Government of Canada, the Romanian Parliament and the City of Toronto. Other clients in other industries range from Mitsubishi Corp and Honda Corp to Virgin America and South By Southwest. As such as we are pleased to have Jeremy joining us as a panelist at Make Web Not War!
Why did you decide to speak at Make Web Not War/FTW!?
Change seems to be a big theme this year, which is ironic because the web has always been about constant change. These days it feels a bit faster, because the languages, tools, technologies, platforms and usage paterns are all in a state of change… But the most important change happening right now, for me, is that communities are forming outside of the traditional battle lines (open source vs closed source, PHP vs ASP, etc) and that we are all focused more than ever on how we can create some of lasting value. Sure, the tools and technologies matter, but moreso than ever before they simply don’t define what we are able to do. Our creativity, our energy and our community is now both the biggest driver and biggest limiter for creativity. So why MWNW? Because it lets us come together as a real community to not just settle some old differences and learn to work together, but it allows us to do it in a fun and exciting setting. So let’s get shit done and have fun doing it!
What do you hope this event will help achieve?
For me personally I’m hoping to walk away with a clearer understanding of how many of the changes taking place can help our clients and where we can invest technology-wise over the next 6-12 months to continue producing the best work possible given our time and budget constraints. Also, I wouldn’t mind hiring a few people!
What are you most looking forward to at the event?
Definitely the CodeFest/competitions. I love seeing creative minds at work. Beyond that, it’s been far too long since I was in Montreal, so I’m looking to exlore the city and let it inspire me! Time for the #redpill!
Sponsor Spotlight: Microsoft Hardware
We all appreciate some new and pretty devices from time to time, actually – who are we kidding? All the time. Microsoft Hardware has sponsored Make Web Not War twice in the row and this year plans to wow the arc off your devices. Word has it they are preparing a Mouse Mountain with exclusively branded Make Web Not War logos. Here is a sneak peak of some of the images they’ve let us use for this post of just some of the items they will be bringing to give out!
Why did you decide to sponsor Make Web Not War?
Microsoft Hardware Canada has chosen to sponsor Make Web Not War for the 2nd year in a row to build share of mind for our brand. The attendees of this event are high-value consumers because of their distinguished interest in new technology and their willingness to adopt the newest and greatest products of the future
What do you hope Make Web Not War will achieve?
Our goal in sponsoring this event is to spread the word that Hardware and the computer peripheral business provides cool and unique products that are perfect for your PC ecosystem. Further, we would like to engage the attendees in areas where Microsoft differentiates itself from its competition such as BlueTrack technology and TrueColour technology. BlueTrack is a technology that allows you to track virtually on any surface with your mouse. It is available in many of the our mouse products. As for TrueColour technology, this technology along with the power of High Definition video provides the webcam end-user with a wonderful visual experience. LifeCam HD-5000, 6000 and LifeCam Cinema all offer this technology and provide you with an added element for your long distance communication.
What are you most looking forward to at the Event?
We are looking forward to the atmosphere of the event and having the opportunity to engage our target consumers in conversation. Also, we are interested in providing attendees with more background around our brand and our products while in the meantime, being able to listen to their feedback and their questions
Drop by the Microsoft Hardware table at Make Web Not War to learn how to score your hardware upgrade!
Community Partner Spotlight: impressCMS
We are happy to have ImpressCMS partner with us for the “Make Web, Not War’ conference this year in Montreal. ImpressCMS is a community developed Content Management System for easily building and maintaining a dynamic web site. Marc-André Lanciault, one of the initiators of the ImpressCMS open source project, describes ImpressCMS as “the ideal tool for a wide range of users: from business to community users, from large enterprises to people who want a simple, easy to use blogging tool. ImpressCMS is a powerful system that gets outstanding results!”
Marc-André is a web developer with strong expertise on the LAMP architecture and founder of INBOX International inc , a Montreal based company specializing in web development based on open source technologies. Marc-André and his organization have a very strong knowledge of the ImpressCMS, XOOPS and Wordpress architecture and can build, expand, customize anything related to these open source content management systems. Catch Marc-Andre at the “Why one is just not good enough” Panel at ‘Make Web not War”. We asked Marc-Andre a few questions on what he thoguhts about Make Web not War:
Why did you want to get involved with Make Web Not War/FTW?
Cross-platform in the open source world has always been a challenge. It is very interesting to have a conference dedicated to that topic.
What do you hope this event will help achieve?
Get people to learn more about open source cross-platform and how you can more easily achieve more!
What are you most looking forward to at the event? (session/speaker/party?)
The business track!
Speaker Spotlight: Morten Rand-Hendriksen
We are privileged to have Morten Rand-Hendriksen, Creative Director for Pink & Yellow Media join our ranks as a speaker for Make Web Not War. Morten describes himself as a Norwegian expatriate with a passion for code and beauty. He splits his time between designing and developing complex WordPress-based websites, taking photos and playing music. An HTML, CSS and WordPress expert he teaches and writes educational articles on web design and helps people and companies solve web related problems.
And here’s what this Norwegian designer export had to say about Make Web Not War this year:
Why did you decide to speak at MWNW?
The web seems to be undergoing an almost vertically accellerating phase where evolution is concerned. What I mean by that is things change so fast and new technologies come online, get popular and then get outdated so fast that it is becoming harder and harder for people to stay current or even stay on top of what’s new and what’s next. What’s often lost in this runaway train mentality is the very reason we use the web in the first place: Content.
I feel that rather than trying to be on the bleeding edge of the latest craze on the web designers and developers alike should focus more on the content and how to communicate it from the creator to the viewer to facilitate the most effective exchange of ideas possible. The web has given us a fantastic to create communities and communicate across all borders, whether national, cultural or social. It is our job as designers and developers to make this communication happen and open it up so that everyone can participate.
My talk at MWNW is about building WordPress based websites as quickly and easily as possible. I choose to use WordPress as a plaform because it is an open source platform resting on an open source server environment and because the focus of the application is on accessability and communication. Using WordPress alongside Expression Web and other development technologies creates a web site production environment that lowers the straight code threshold and enables people who don’t consider themselves hard core coders to create solid web experiences.
Being able to publish your content in an easily digestible way is the very core of the online revolution and I will do my part to make it a realistic goal for everyone.
What do you hope this event will help achieve?
Although it seems to be slowly diminishing there is still a significant schism between the Open Source community and closed platforms. But though this schism makes sense historically there is no longer a good reason for it to continue to divide the web. After all, once on the web the user doesn’t care whether the content she is accessing lives on a Linux or a Microsoft server, whether it is written in PHP, .NET, Flash or Silverlight or if it was designed on a Mac or a PC. The only thing that matters to the end user is that the content is there to be accessed. I’d like to think we are at a point in time where we can become truly platform agnostic and start focusing on the best solutions to current and emerging problems and make the web a better place for everyone. And to that end events like Make Web Not War are invaluable simply because they bring communities previously considered to be arch enemies together for a real exchange of thoughts and ideas.
What are you most looking forward to?
I love meeting other designers, developers and content creators and see how they work. It is in open fora where thoughts and ideas are exchanged freely that true innovation emerges. I’m looking forward to talking to people and participating in the discussions that emerge. And of course I’m really looking forward to experiencing the mythical Quebec culture for the first time. Born and raised in Europe I’ve been told Quebec is more like where I came from and I’m curious to see if that’s true.
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Speaker Spotlight: Benoit Piette
With the recent movement to the standardization of web standards, it is important to have a clear understanding of what HTML5 means to you and your business. We are privileged to have Benoit Piette with W3Québec, join the ranks as a Make Web Not War speaker this year in his session titled: “Let’s Start to Work in HTML5“.
From an excerpt in his abstract Benoit points out: “It’s been a while now that HTML5 has started to be hyped in technology news. Some say that HTML5 might mean the end of Flash, other say that it won’t change a lot. It is now time to look seriously at what HTML5 brings to the table.”
We had the opportunity to ask Benoit a few questions about his participation at Make Web Not War:
Why did you decide to speak at Make Web Not War/FTW!?
A lot of new exciting things are happening with Web technology: cloud computing, mobile Web, advancement in Web standards, etc. I haven’t seen a lot of talks on HTML5 in Montreal and I thought I should do something about it. HTML is still the foundation of everything Web related (well almost) and it’s evolving at a more rapid pace right now. Especially with the advent of Internet Explorer 9 (and hopefully 10 and 11 too) Web developers will be enabled to advance their skills and use better techniques that were only available in other browsers. Also, those skills will be an asset for advancing interoperability on the mobile Web. If we believe that interoperability is important for competition and openness in technology, then open and standardized Web technology should be as advanced as what’s available in mobile application stores. Also, don’t forget about accessibility, A LOT of stuff is happening right now. I definitely have to read more on ARIA and hopefully I’ll have something for you at MWNW.
What do you hope this event will help achieve?
We should strive to learn new skills and understand what happening in our industry. This way we will be able to help the industry and provide for the continuing health of our jobs. Also, having fun is a prerequisite. We must talk, exchange on ideas and work together. In events like these, we are not in competition (well, except for the FTW competition, good competition!) and not within a silo. Let’s take this time to talk and exchange. Don’t be shy! I am the most nervous and shy guy around and I am doing a talk!
So if this event (and others like it) helps us achieve these goals, then we will be all better for it.
What are you most looking forward to at the event? (session/speaker/party?)
I definitely look forward to meet people and exchange on what’s happening right now in the Web industry. A lot of game changing products and technology are in their infancy right now. Will they succeed, will they put what we thought is normal out the window ? Being in information technology is quite cool right now. Don’t you think ? As for other speakers, there is a big possibility I’ll be too nervous thinking about my talk to listen to them. (Just joking). I always like Joey Devilla’s talks. He has a lot of wit and useful advice. If you can get Laurent Duveau, his talks on Silverlight are always great.
Community Partner Spotlight: W3Québec
At Confoo we had an opportunity to talk about web standards and interoperability with Samuel Lavoie from W3Québec. Samuel felt that MWNW and the FTW coding competition were a good way to celebrate an Open web and wanted to participate. We are proud to have them as community partners for MWNW and judges for the FTW Coding Competition.
a. Why did you decide to speak at Make Web Not War/FTW!?
A lot of new exciting things are happening with Web technology: cloud computing, mobile Web, advancement in Web standards, etc. I haven’t seen a lot of talks on HTML5 in Montreal and I thought I should do something about it. HTML is still the foundation of everything Web related (well almost) and it’s evolving at a more rapid pace right now. Especially with the advent of Internet Explorer 9 (and hopefully 10 and 11 too) Web developers will be enabled to advance their skills and use better techniques that were only available in other browsers. Also, those skills will be an asset for advancing interoperability on the mobile Web. If we believe that interoperability is important for competition and openness in technology, then open and standardized Web technology should be as advanced as what’s available in mobile application stores. Also, don’t forget about accessibility, A LOT of stuff is happening right now. I definitely have to read more on ARIA and hopefully I’ll have something for you at MWNW.
b. What do you hope this event will help achieve?
We should strive to learn new skills and understand what happening in our industry. This way we will be able to help the industry and provide for the continuing health of our jobs. Also, having fun is a prerequisite. We must talk, exchange on ideas and work together. In events like these, we are not in competition (well, except for the FTW competition, good competition!) and not within a silo. Let’s take this time to talk and exchange. Don’t be shy! I am the most nervous and shy guy around and I am doing a talk! So if this event (and others like it) helps us achieve these goals, then we will be all better for it.
c. What are you most looking forward to at the event? (session/speaker/party?)
I definitely look forward to meet people and exchange on what’s happening right now in the Web industry. A lot of game changing products and technology are in their infancy right now. Will they succeed, will they put what we thought is normal out the window ? Being in information technology is quite cool right now. Don’t you think ? As for other speakers, there is a big possibility I’ll be too nervous thinking about my talk to listen to them. (Just joking). I always like Joey Devilla’s talks. He has a lot of wit and useful advice. If you can get Laurent Duveau, his talks on Silverlight are always great.
Speaker Spotlight: Erin Blaskie
We met Erin Blaskie at WordCampToronto 2009 and were immediately intrigued with her passionate love affair, with the Internet. Whether she is leading her team of creative, outsourcing professionals or sharing information via the web, Erin brings to the table her enormous passion for tech, geek and the Internet.
Erin Blaskie started her first company at the age of 21. After launching BSETC, a professional outsourcing team, she joined forces with some of the top Internet Marketers to support, build, grow and sell some amazing companies. To date, Erin and her team have serviced over 300 entrepreneurs in countless countries around the world. We are happy to have her on board speaking at Make Web Not War 2010 this year about “Cross Platformed Solutions & Social Media”.
Why did you decide to speak at Make Web Not War/FTW!?
As an avid techno geek and someone who is in a passionate love affair with the Internet, Make Web Not War is the epitome of almost everything I believe in. I am thrilled to be a part of this event, alongside the other fabulous speakers, and look forward to meeting the fantastically geeky attendees!
What do you hope this event will help achieve?
I hope it brings together a group of people who can converse and put their heads together on current and future technologies. I hope people walk away excited and inspired to do big things in the tech community.
What are you most looking forward to at the event?
Everything! I can’t wait to meet the other speakers, the organizers and to get to know the participants better. I also hope that I can bring great value to the attendees of my session and inspire them to take action!
Catch Erin also on “Ask Erin Live“, a weekly live show that airs every Friday and brings together an amazing community of entrepreneurs and fellow geeks.
Make Web Not War would like to welcome Joël Perras as our keynote speaker!
Joël has spent the last 7 years waist-deep in open source software, both as an avid contributor and a consumer. He is a core developer of CakePHP, one of the world’s most popular web application frameworks, as well as a founding developer of Lithium, an up and coming PHP web application framework on the cutting edge of blending OOP, AOP & functional programming. In his spare time (which seems to decrease year after year), Joël is a data-junkie, and loves any type of problem that exercises his mathematically-trained brain. Joël is also a super-nerd, having formal training in physics and computer science, and has probably seen more episodes of Star Trek than should be humanly possible. Read the rest of Joël’s bio here.
Why did you decide to speak at Make Web Not War/FTW!?
If you would’ve asked me a year ago to speak at MWNW I would have been… not so eager. However, after being invited to and attending the Web Developers Summit (MSWDS) hosted by Microsoft last November, I had a change of heart – I realized there were more people like me, working for Microsoft, than I had originally thought. People that care about the Web and Web technologies, and that love it as much I do. After meeting and interacting with more intelligent, forward-thinking and sociable people than I could count, I realized that all these people have the same goal as I do – to make the Web a better place.
What do you hope this event will help achieve?
I hope it will help bridge the gap between people who live and breath open source web technologies, those who work with Microsoft web technologies, and all those people in between.
What are you most looking forward to at the event?
I would be lying if I didn’t say the lunchtime Rock Band showdown 
. Seriously though, I’m very interested in distributed computing, so the roundtable discussion on “The Power of the Interoperable Cloud” is high up on my radar. Also, I’m quite interested to see what comes out of the “6 Hour Project”.
Anything else you wanna say?
Just two points, that I will attempt to expand upon during my keynote:
1) The web is greater than the sum of its parts.
2) Developers “make” the Web, but they make the Web for people. The tools that we use to get there are important, but not nearly as important as the final result; we must not forget that the web exists to be consumed by others, and it’s our job to make that experience a better one. Don’t miss Joël at Make Web Not War!
Community Partner Spotlight: Vanilla Forums
Montreal is home to many ambitious personalities and Open Source projects. Mark O’Sullivan and Vanilla Forums are no exception. Vanilla is an open-source, standards-compliant, multi-lingual, theme-able, pluggable discussion forum for the web. VanillaForums.com is the hosting service for Vanilla – the simple way to grow online communities. Over 300,000 customers have used Vanilla Forums to build community around their website, brand, or business. Mark O’Sullivan, founder of VanillaForums.com, is a husband, an entrepreneur, and a developer (in that order). He enjoys creating and then solving big problems.
1. Why did you want to get involved with Make Web Not War/FTW!?
At it’s core, Vanilla is all about integration. We will get behind anything that helps to create and/or promote web standards for cross-application, cross-platform integrations. And, we want to contribute to the developer community in Montreal in any way we can.
2. What do you hope this event will help achieve?
Bring the Montreal community together so they can have a better understanding of all of the amazing work being done here.
3. What are you most looking forward to at the event?
We can’t wait for the opportunity to show people the integrations we’ve been working on at Vanilla. And we want to meet developers (we’re hiring!).
