Yearly Archives: 2006

Montreal’s Blogging Revenge For The Grey Cup

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I’m pleased to say that The Other Bloke’s Blog has made it as one of the five finalists in the 2006 Canadian Blog Awards in the category Best Business Blog. Thanks to all who voted for this blog.

Although the Vancouver entry in this category seemed pretty strong in the First Round, the voting starts afresh in the Second Round. So it’s all to play for. It may appear to be a replay of the Grey Cup, but it doesn’t need to be that way. You can vote once per day so put a daily reminder for yourself to vote, and please tell your friends to do so. Remember the name, The Other Bloke’s Blog.

The Timetable is as follows:

  • Round 2 Voting Opens: Saturday November 25, 2006

  • Round 2 Voting Closes: Friday December 1, 2006

  • Round 2 Results: Sunday December 3, 2006 9pm EST

Whether you vote because this is the best of the bunch, or whether you vote to revenge our Alouettes, just make sure you vote often.

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The Laughing Cow Comes To Quebec

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La Vache Qui Rit

Following the influx of French Rabbits, we now have French cows. .. and they’re laughing too. The Laughing Cow logo is perhaps one of the best known logos to be seen in our grocery stores. Since Quebec is already world-famous for its cheeses, perhaps it’s not surprising that Fromageries Bel should announce that its fully owned subsidiary Bel Cheese Canada Inc. will begin producing The Laughing Cow wedges in Quebec under a co-packing agreement with cheese manufacturer, Fromagerie Bergeron. The Laughing Cow is perhaps better known to us here as La Vache Qui Rit.

More than $10 million will be invested over the next few years on setting up the production facility, machinery for making The Laughing Cow wedges, establishing the Bel Cheese Canada operation and marketing. Approximately 24 direct jobs will be created.

La Vache Qui Rit

Agropur Fine Cheese Division will continue to be the sole distributor and sales partner for all The Laughing Cow and Mini Babybel product lines across Canada.

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Local Search On The World Wide Web

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The Internet or the World Wide Web is all about making connections. For example the last twenty visitors to the BPWrap blog at the time of writing this post came from the following countries: Malaysia, Canada (3), Chile, United Kingdom (2), India (2), United States (8), France, Belgium, and South Africa. In some ways, the Internet has shrunk the world.

That’s a paradox in other ways since as yet the Internet has done only a little to help us with the connections that are most important to us. How can you make local connections? How can you seek and find local businesses that are important to you? Yellow Pages is now on line but not very effectively. Google is also trying although Google Local Search takes you to Google Maps.

According to AdAge, Yahoo! is adopting a different approach: they believe Local Search Is Like Social Networking. So they will get us all to help in generating the data on what we are looking for. Given the difficulty others are finding with Local Search, that sounds like a very practical way to go. They also recently released Yahoo! Maps. Unfortunately according to a leaked memo, there may well be a major shake-up in Yahoo! any time soon given their recent lack-lustre performance. Even if Yahoo! Local Search survives unscathed, it’s somewhat academic here in Canada for the moment since it only applies to the U.S.

Of course what we all really need is Mobile Local Search so that we can find what we need on our cell phones. Whoever cracks that one will really make a killing.

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Crossing the Digital Divide on the Mobile Web

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The Digital Divide is a distressing problem for those on the wrong side of the Divide. The term “digital divide” was coined in the 1990s to describe the perceived growing gap between those who have access to and the skills to use ICT and those who, for socio-economic and/or geographical reasons, have limited or no access. Access to the Internet is an enabling technology leading to improved knowledge, skills and well-being. The term was used for example to describe the challenge faced by a large section of the school population in the U.S. Equally or even more important is its application to the problems of the Developing World.

At the W3C Mobile Web Seminar held today in Paris, France, St?phane Boyera, one of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative staff, gave a presentation entitled, Mobile Web to Bridge the Digital Divide. There is some fascinating information to confirm the power of the Mobile Web to improve the economic lot of the Developing World. Mobile Devices are in general much cheaper than Desktop PCs and they can be readily to hand for people on the move. Here are some of the data from the presentation:

Mobile Phones are there

  • India: Penetration rate of PC: 2% stable – Mobile Phone 11% increasing 47% per year

  • China: Penetration rate of PC: 8% – Mobile Phone 30%

  • Morocco: 4 fixed-line/100 people (4 in 1995) – 24 mobile lines (0 in 1995)

  • More than 2 billion people have access to a mobile phone

  • Number increases by 1 million/day with 4 billions expected by the end of 2010
(Sources: World Bank, “Africa: The impact of mobile phones – March 2005” – PDF, “Market Trends: PC Penetration Data Highlights Market Maturity, Gartner April 2005″ and “Universal Access Report by GSM Association, October 2006” – PDF)

The W3C is pursuing Improved Web Access in Developing Countries. There will be a Workshop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries on 5/6 December 2006 in Bangalore, India. All credit should go to those who are getting involved in this.

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British Pensioners Meeting In Quebec

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An earlier post commented on the extreme inequity of the treatment of British pensioners in Canada. British pensioners in Canada, Australia, South Africa and a handful of other countries receive unindexed pensions. Their pensions are frozen at the values that applied when the pension entitlement was earned, sometimes even 50 or more years ago. British pensioners in most other countries including the USA and most of Europe receive fully indexed pensions.

The Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners (CABP) is one of the groups attempting to have this inequity corrected. A growing number of British MPs support the movement to right this unfeeling injustice, but the British Government has steadfastly and adamantly resisted. The action is now moving to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

There will be a meeting of the Quebec branch of the CABP in the Legion Hall, 365 St. Louis, Pointe-Claire on Saturday, November 18th from 10:00 a.m. to noon. There will be news on the progress of the European court case and other matters of interest. British goodies will be available for munching from Clarence & Cripps.

For more details, contact Mary Kapadia, Quebec representative of the CABP: telephone – (514) 630-3741.

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