We ♡ Hamilton, DemoCamp, Canada

Friday, 11 March 2011 14:19

Written by Andrew J. Holden

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The Cat Came Back - Canadian Animation Cordell Barker

On March 2, we participated in Hamilton’s first DemoCamp. We had a great time courtesy of the amazing and unbelievably helpful folks at the Hamilton Innovation Factory and the Greater Hamilton Computing and Software Network. For the first time in public, we showed Weever, our true HTML5 "instantly-make-your-site-a-web-app" service (in this case for the Joomla! CMS).

The Community is the Framework

DemoCamp is like a cocktail-party and tech-demo rolled into one for developers, designers, and marketing professionals where "the community is the framework." Launched in Toronto in 2005, DemoCamp has been a Canadian phenomenon for show casing start-ups and creative projects. DemoCamps now take place across the country, in cities like Calgary, Montreal, Guelph and Vancouver.

This year, Hamilton became a DemoCamp city as well. We were honoured to participate in Hamilton's first DemoCamp. The format was casual, but fast paced – we had a hard time fitting in all we had to say about Weever!

Weever is an *amazing* platform right now and I'm thrilled to be preparing for BETA soon. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to demo Weever as in-depth as we would have liked, so if you were at DemoCamp, or just want to learn more about Weever, please sign up for our BETA run. We would like to thank volunteer Kevin Browne of the Greater Hamilton Computing and Software Network for helping us prep for the night.

Upcoming Innovation Factory Event in Hamilton:

The Big DiF
Innovation Factory's annual open house, networking, and celebration event for Hamilton's Innovation Community. Register here.
March 24, 2011, 5:30- 8:00PM. McMaster Innovation Park
Event Details: Admission free: refreshments, music, information, and inspiration. Please register now as space is limited.

The Community is the Framework … Part 2

Participating in DemoCamp also held a second meaning for me personally – the previous week, I became a Canadian citizen at a wonderful, emotionally-charged oath taking ceremony. I deeply appreciate the community ties – both professional and personal – that I have made here in Canada.

It has been quite a few hectic weeks here at CartaNova. We added a *lot* of new features to Weever that we have yet to announce (for the curious, email me and I'll tell you what they are). We have also added a number of inspiring new clients to our CartaNova community and we're in the midst of numerous site launches. Our newest addition to the web: SouthAsianHeritage.org

When Robert Porter and I started CartaNova (and HoldenCreative before that) we were risking a lot - environmentalism was not a popular slant in web marketing, we were dirt-poor, new to the city, and we had a *lot* to learn about business (and still do). Hamilton, Ontario has been more than generous to us than I could have imagined when I first landed here. We intend to pay that generosity back.

Thanks are due to: our friend and adviser Jay Rosenblatt, who took time out of his busy schedule to come down and see our demo; Keanin, Pete, Rob and the good folks at the Innovation Factory; Jennifer Patterson at the city's clean-tech-development department; and all of our wonderful clients, friends, and partners all over the globe who have helped turn CartaNova into what I believe is a significant force for ethical web design and a democratic accessible web.

Oh, Canada - Video Edition

I thought our American and international clients may appreciate a scattershot run-down of some of the Canadian pop-culture standards I've enjoyed since moving here from Virginia. These videos are nostalgic here, but I had the joy of coming into them new :)

'Canada Minutes' were (and still are) produced as public service ads here.
(pretty corny at times.)

Grey Owl: http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10191

Can-a-da: http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10123