B. Mann Consulting

Want to know State of Real Estate and the Web in Canada? Just read Ben Wong's stuff over at Mostly Geek:

We’re deep in web2.0 and data is flying everywhere. However, real estate listings in Canada are pretty much still stuck in web1.0. When I read stories about listing aggregators like Zillow.com with millions of listings in the US, I can’t help but let out a long *sigh* about the state of things in Canada.

I worked with Ben on some projects at Sutton Group. I got a chance to break my head around the many nuances of the real estate business. Just when I thought I understood everything and the various business and regulatory aspects, there would be another layer, I'd swear a lot, and throw out my design for open real estate data.

This is part one from Ben, where he's going to walk us through the issues around the real estate data walled garden issue in Canada. Remember, this *is* a tipping point kind of thing. Right now, virtually all the value is inside the walled garden silo, with very little information sitting in the "open" silo. But, as the open silo grows, it accrues value a lot more quickly than the walled garden ever can, and there will come a tipping point. Really, the only way to prevent complete open-ness is for the walled garden itself to take steps to become more open.

Looks like Mesh Conference was just announced -- a "Web 2.0" conference for Canada. At $350 for 2 days, I have to think about this vs. Gnomedex. Of course, those are Canadian pesos, so lots less. Many interesting faces, but not a lot of details on tracks, conference style, etc. The blurb from one of the first blog posts goes like this:

There is all this buzz around Web 2.0. But what’s really happening, especially around here? Does anybody know? Can anybody help me understand it, and what it means for me? My business? My future? My family? My world?

mesh’s mandate will be to answer this question in as compelling, credible and authentic a way possible. Everything to do with the event will be around furthering that objective, and the content itself will serve to help mesh participants (not attendees :-)) to really start to get it, this year and in years to come. We will create the Canadian forum for next generation Web ideas and leaders.

A very nifty personal (only you get to add content) or shared (allow anyone to update and edit) mapping site powered by Google Maps. Has all the buzzwords the kids like today, from community to tags to reviews. Minus points for no Flickr integration, and for no support of Canada (!).

There seem to be lots of cranky people about the Web 2.0 meme. I think that used as hype, it's not that useful. As a general label for a lot of things that are happening with technological, social, and business changes, I find it useful. After all, it seems to be one of those things that you can recognize when you see it.

Brent Holliday, a partner in Vancouver-based Greenstone Venture Partners, recently posted an anti-hype rant on the BC's T-Net site. He makes some really good points, but comes across a little bitter about some of the useful aspects of Web 2.0. I'm hoping to help explain some of those useful aspects, in plain natural language at the October 25th Vancouver Enterprise Forum event. Dick Hardt is running the show, and there are some really great local speakers lined up, including:

• Roland Tanglao giving his blogging, etc. talk
• Andre Charland, who has been doing AJAX before it was called that
• Michael Fergusson on user generated content
• Paul Kedrosky, giving a good business perspective on the whole industry and how it all ties together, and who is so well known outside Vancouver that I tend to forget he's a local

Note to Brent: when BC T-Net updates their CMS 1.0, you can get them to fix the mis-spelling of your name at the top of your bio page. :P

If you haven't already, go on over and check out Lee Lefever's The World Is Not Flat site, affectionately known as "TWINF". It's running on Bryght, and we had a hand in twiddling a few bits of the code -- specifically, Colin mucked with maps and is now an AJAX god (or so he tells us) and Richard wrestled with custom PHP snippets and blocks. The always powerful Mark Yuasa of Raincity Studios did the CSS-fu to keep the site looking daisy fresh.

Why should you care about TWINF? Well, number 1, Lee (of Common Craft fame) is a very cool guy who is going to be travelling around the world next year with his wife Sachi. It fits in the category of international travel blog, but Lee and Sachi don't just want you to be able to keep up with what they're doing...they want to hear from you. The idea is to gather people's experiences which will help them decide where to go and what to visit (and what not to visit).

I just gave a young woman calling from the UVic Alumni Association a bit of a hard time, as I do anyone calling me unsolicited.

I asked a bit about their online progress. It turns out you can donate online, although predictably the entire site seems to be kept up to date using manual updates and Dreamweaver templates.

What would I like from my Alumni association? Well, a Web 2.0 website with profiles of my former classmates would be nice, as well as the option to subscribe to news via RSS. Perhaps that's asking a bit much. I'm stilling following LinkedIn with interest: they actually manage some group affiliations, like these alumni associations.

But, I guess I only get to complain if I get involved and try and help out. Time to go find out who to contact at UVic. 

I just created a new section in my handbook called Recommended Links. Before, I only had one link, Troy Angrignon's post on the mental evolution that people go through from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0.

I've just added a second: Danah Boyd's post on Why Web 2.0 matters, where she goes through more of the social and business changes taken place that are being aided/accelerated by technology.

And yes, there is What is Web 2.0 as well. This is my corner where I can send people a single link and tell them to read the posts linked there, then come back and talk.

Troy Angrignon does his usual fantastic job of crystallizing and refining all the swirling thoughts about the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. More specifically, he explains the mental evolution that people have to go through to realize what this means to them, and what benefits they can get from it.

There are several phases that people tend to pass through in their migration from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 thinking.I have watched this transformation over and over as I have had conversations with a lot of people on this subject. As far as I can see this is the general thought pattern that people go through over time.

Goes on my list of "must read" articles about shifting nature of Web 2.0, from Danah's unique perspective at the intersection of social science, academia, and technology.

Buzzwords associated with Web2.0 include: remix, tagging, hackability, social networks, open APIs, microcontent, personalization. People discuss how the web is moving from a read-only system to a read/write system and they focus on technologies like GreaseMonkey, Ajax, RSS/Atom, Ruby on Rails. Of course, others talk about the paradoxical relationship between openness and control. The reality is that when people talk about Web2.0, they're talking about a political affiliation with The Next Cool Thing, even if no one has a clue what it is yet.

Personally, i don't find comfort in any of the business, technological or experiential explanations. Yet, i do believe that a shift is occurring and i find myself emotionally invested in it. So then i had to ask myself: what is Web2.0 and why does it matter? The answer is glocalization.