2008.05.27

The Code Factory opens today

Jocelyn Kartes and Ian Graham of The Code FactoryCongratulations to Ian Graham. His vision of a collaborative, co-working space becomes a reality later today when he hosts an open house at The Code Factory, 246 Queen Street (Ottawa), second floor.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend the open house. Instead, I dropped by The Code Factory to congratulate Ian and Jocelyn Kartes (Minister of First Impressions) during lunch, yesterday. The space looks great!

Ian will be organizing a series of lunch-and-learn sessions for the community. He showed me a wish list of sessions and speakers and it looks like a great lineup.

2008.05.11

Ottawa Web Weekend in the home stretch

Each team weighed in during the latest checkpoint meeting at Ottawa Web Weekend.  It almost felt like a NASA pre-launch go/no-go exchange as marketing, business, design and then development sounded off on the remarkable progress each has made today.

That’s no surprise really.  Today’s discussions have been very focussed and energized, and there’s been long stretches of quiet time as everyone focused on their keyboards and screens, writing code, legal agreements, business plans, marketing strategies and web content.

Companies should take note.  There is something incredible about this kind of initiative.  I see a lot of potential for companies that would invest the necessary funds to have a weekend getaway for employees (perhaps even sponsoring this kind of event) to innovate and develop in an democratic, collaborative and supportive environment.

Now… back to my work!

2008.05.10

Ian Graham of The Code Factory

Ottawa Web Weekend is taking place at the future home of The Code Factory, a collaborative, co-working space founded by Ian Graham. The facilities are still under construction, heading towards a launch on May 20. Ian was kind enough to give me a tour.

My favourite part of this tour is when we walk into what Ian refers to as ‘the smallest office’ which sounds like a massive cavern in this audio recording.

Music: Bigfoot from Elegant Chaos by Robert Farrell

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