Facebook retreats on Beacons

When Facebook announced its SocialAds I think everything was fairly accepting of advertising inside Facebook. At the same time they announced Facebook Beacon’s though, which let third-party websites advertise users actions inside Facebook. Unlikely many of the other features inside Facebook, the Facebook Beacons were turned on by default and required users to turn them […]

Flash in TO v65 Review

Flash in TO v65 was on last night, it was my first Flash in TO event and I knew almost nobody there. The event was at Element 156, which is on Augusta St, near Dundas. It’s a pretty neat environment with the front of the store setup as a shop/bar and the back of the […]

Creepy Friends Invalidate Social Networks?

Cory Doctrow, a Canadian writer who I have alot of respect for, has just written an article about Facebook, and social network in general. Cory believes that social networks come and go because people eventually encounter an awkward social connection. A friend from highschool, college or co-worker that you don’t really want as a ‘friend’. […]

Facebook messing with Secret Sauce

Facebook is updating their Newsfeed algorithm again. This time they have added the ability for users to thumb and thumb down particular news feed items. The update also forces developers to use the new Newsfeed templates if they want their newsfeed items to be seen by users who have not installed their applications. The Newsfeed […]

CaseCamp Toronto 6 Review

CaseCamp Toronto 6 was last night at the Century Club.   CaseCamp is marketing version of DemoCamp with marketing case studies instead of Demos. As always the room was packed and there was a lot socializing going on before the event. This time the Century Club was divided so that there was a socializing area and […]

Facebook Weekend BETA Announcement

refresh partners has been working with Innovation Toronto to help organize a weekend focused around developing Facebook applications.  FWB ( Facebook Weekend Beta ) is a combination of the Barcamp adhoc unconference and the StartupWeekend concept. It brings together entrepreneurs, Facebook developers, and designers to create products over a weekend. It’s a fun (and productive) […]

Openness

I wrote earlier about StartupCamp and I was impressed to see all the companies that have applied disclosed as part of the review process. Anyone can see the applicants here: StartupCampToronto1 I’m a big fan of openness as part of a review process. I think it helps both the quality of the event and the […]

FacebookCampMontreal Review

FacebookCampMontreal We were in Montreal last night for the FacebookCampMontreal event, its was our first time in Montreal as part of their Barcamp community. The FacebookCampMontreal event combined both the developer and marketing tracks into a single night and was able to get nearly 200 people in the SAT (Société des Arts Technologiques ). SAT […]

StartupCampToronto Announcement

StartupCampToronto has been announced after the success of StartupCampWaterloo. The concept is essentially that 5 startup’s get 5 mins each to pitch the audience on their company and get feedback. Kinda like a Dragon’s Den with the audience as the Dragon’s… I ‘m excited about the concept but a little unsure of the format. As […]

OpenSocial sounds great, can it deliver?

The Google OpenSocial API sounds really cool and brings together the ability to ability to write web applications and widgets for multiple platforms. Launch partners include : hi5 LinkedIn Plaxo Ning SixApart Google’s own Orkut At first glance it would seem Google has collected all the losers in the social media space and got them […]