Scott Lake

@scottica speaks...

Bixi biking…

Posted September 23, 2009 in Design

This past weekend, when I was in Montreal I used the new bixi bike sharing service and it was amazing.  On monday, when I left work I realized that I can ride a bixi bike from my office to where I park my car for free since the first 1/2 is free.  Since then I am been riding a bixi almost everyday.  The bikes are surprisingly comfortable and ride really well even though they look a little geeky.   Give one  a try….

Thanks to La Belle Province for the pic.

Montreal river surfing

Posted September 22, 2009 in Interesting for Me

I was in Montreal last weekend and came across a cool spot near the dockyards that has a stationary wave. It’s right in the St. Lawrence Seaway. There were alot of surfers there and below are some videos so you can see what its like. You can also take a look at the flickr set here.

SWIX is hiring developers

Posted September 14, 2009 in SWIX

For the past six months I’ve been working on a new software company called SWIX and like all startups it’s hard to get off the ground but once things start to happen it gets really busy fast!

So right now SWIX is looking to hire another software developer to join our team.

What is SWIX?  It’s only the best thing to hit the social media space since, well, ever.  See, the business world has figured out that social media sites (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) are a great way to stay engaged with their communities and get their word out but they don’t really know how to track the stuff.

But we do.  We are just about to launch one of the first, if not THE first, social media analytics products aimed at helping businesses figure out this social media thing.

It’s a hot product, a hot space, and well, we’re all hot too.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

-  Someone with experience building web apps using:  python, django & mysql – professional or hobby, don’t care, so long as you can produce

-  Must have all the basic Web skillz:  HTML/CSS/JS

-  Someone who’s eager, thinks “good enough isn’t” and wants to not only develop software, but push the envelope with what’ possible on the Web.

-  Knowledge of SVN, SQL, linux/BSD are bonuses

This is a fantastic opportunity.  We’ll help make you into a rock star if you’re not already.  Not just a job, but the chance to really make a splash.

If you’re interested in learning more, please tell us about your background, what you have to offer and why you’d like in.  Resume’s are optional – just tell me why you think you’d be a good fit and what skills you bring.

Get in contact with – craig(at)swixhq.com

Thanks,

Scott

(Cue AC/DC soundtrack)

Ultimate Playoffs

Posted September 03, 2009 in Interesting for Me

Last weekend, we played in our Ultimate leagues playoffs in the pouring rain.  It poured all game long.  I’m posting this pic because the team in question is Waffle which is having its 10th anniversary as a team this year.  10 years on the same Ultimate team has been great and Jody (kneeling on left) has been a great captain throughout.

Tara is coming to Ottawa

Posted September 03, 2009 in Interesting for Me, Social Media Breakfast, community

Tara Hunt is great and she is coming to the next Social Media Breakfast on Sept 16th in Ottawa.

She is the author of one of the best books ever written on how to build your business using social media: The Whuffie Factor.

She will also be in town on Sept 15th for a Girl Geek Dinner. If you are interested in meeting a true trailblazer in the space then sign up for one of these two events.

Once in a while…

Posted September 03, 2009 in Interesting for Me

I have been a fan of popurls for a while because it gives you a good overview of whats popular on the web right now. Unfortunately it also gives you  the opportunity to see a bunch of things that are total distractions.  This photo is one of them.

Marketing on the way to work

Posted August 25, 2009 in Interesting for Me

This morning, I came across two very different marketing campaigns by two very different organizations. The first was the Microsoft Bing search engine Corvette.  This one struck me as kind of funny.  I thought the world had moved beyond using hot cars to promote products. I guess not. In any case, I’m not so sure that alot of people ran to their computers and used Bing after seeing the car.

The second campaign was more of an awareness campaign by Peta with their “Love me dont club me” seal mascot.  He was cute, people smiled at him but interestingly enough he looked equally lame standing on his own outside of Parliament Hill waving his flipper and passing motorists.

Maybe its me but I seem to have less tolerance for IRL marketing. There is just so much of it that to get anyone to notice you have to reduce your message to something as banal as what’s shown above. I suppose both are interesting but  neither is very clever.

Dumping my company site

Posted August 25, 2009 in Interesting for Me

So recently I brought all my content back under one roof. As a result I am seriously considering dumping the ThinkSM blog and running everything through this site instead. Unfortunately, I feel like I am stretched too thin when it comes to blogging. Aside from Startup Ottawa and Scottica.com I’m blogging in a few other places and its getting a bit out of hand. Im thinking I’ll replace the ThinkSM blog with a more traditional site and link to my blog properties so that people can keep track of what Im doing.

A few years later

Posted August 14, 2009 in Interesting for Me

A few years ago I started blogging. That was on a site called tech.nologi.ca. It was pretty basic stuff but interesting none the less. It was at the beginning of web 2.0 and was a fun thing to do. It was around the same time we started Shopify. Since then, Ive blogged on at least a half dozen other sites but for the most part you could find me on startupottawa.com which is a blog I started to keep track of startup events in Ottawa. Lately, I’ve wanted to get back to blogging on a personal level so I collected everything and put it all on one blog. Blogging for business is interesting but just not as fun. In any case, it feels good to be doing this for me again. Its rejuvinating in a way. Im getting ready to launch a new company and it will be nice to document it here. Its friday afternoon and Im tired. Later all…

Great twitter app

Posted May 26, 2009 in Ottawa Tech, democamp, startups

The title of this post is what I said when Martin Dufort first showed me his new app Reportage. Obviously it was a joke but Reportage is such a perfect, simple and intelligent application that it raises the bar considerably. It does what no other Twitter app does, it treats individual as their own broadcast stations instead of just a series of linear chatter. Its like Twitter radio full of people stations. Martin and his company wherecloud have established themeselves as the leaders in mobile app development in Canada and I can’t wait to see what they think up next.
You can get Reportage at App Store right now!