Will Pate's Blog - Peek into a mind of boundless curiosity
'Technology' Category

Canada and The Pace of Tech Innovation

Monday, January 21st, 2008

I published an article today on StartupNorth about how Canada needs to realize the technology business is a race. I’m very concerned about Canada falling behind while other countries all over the world are racing ahead with technology innovation.

The Secret History of Silicon Valley

Monday, January 21st, 2008

Silicon Valley is a fascinating place. It’s a world center for innovation and technology, full of wickedly smart and ambitious people. A video called The Secret History of Silicon Valley is essential watching if you’re curious about how it all started.

…World War II set the stage for the creation and explosive growth of Silicon Valley, and the role of Frederick Terman and Stanford in working with government agencies (including the CIA and the National Security Agency)…

These same geniuses figured out that you could use ordinary tinfoil as plane chaff during WWII, and read Russia’s air defense network from radar signals bounced off of their own ICBM launches and the even the moon!

Unfortunately the folks from Google that put these tech talks up on YouTube don’t want me to show the video to you here. You have to click the link to see the video on YouTube.

Copy This

Friday, December 7th, 2007

Don’t worry about people copying what you do, worry about when they stop.

No matter what you make, people are going to copy you. It’s getting easier and faster to share ideas, rip and burn content and commoditize technology. You don’t even need to be on the same continent anymore.

Pro tip: start studying the copies and the copiers to stay ahead. Knowing the number of copycats, their talent, the market response to their copies, and the parity gap all give you an edge. Clever innovation will keep you at the head of the pack.

A variation of Jeffrey Zeldman on having your design stolen.

Two ConceptShare Annoucements

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

Today is is a big day at ConceptShare. We released ConceptShare V2 for all our customers, and we’re really proud of the work we put into it to mature our tool so far. We also released CorelDRAWConceptShare, the first project in a 5 year partnership with Corel.

Our community has helped us grow and mature our tool for design collaboration, leading to over 100 improvements since we launched in January of this year. This is just the start of how we will engage our users, here is what’s coming in 2008

  • More integration with products that designers use
  • Making it easier to integrate other products with ConceptShare
  • Helping connect designers with each other, and customers

Thanks to everyone who blogged, twittered, dugg and sent us messages of congratulations. Your support means a lot to the entire team. We always welcome your feedback too.

Get a Sneak Peek at ConceptShare V2

Friday, November 30th, 2007

We’re getting really close to launching ConceptShare V2, the first major upgrade to our online tool for design collaboration. We’ve been testing it, but we know that we can’t possibly find every last bug ourselves. We’re setting up a testing account where you will be able to get a sneak peek. In return, we ask that you kick the tires and report any issues you find.

Please go to the ConceptShare V2 sneak peek page to apply.

A Few Things You Should Know

  • We have a limited number of spaces, if you don’t get a sneak peek invite please don’t be offended.
  • This account is for testing only, don’t use it for real work.
  • There will be bugs, we’re inviting you in to help us find the last ones we haven’t found yet.
  • We may close any workspace or end the test at any time.

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