How will 4G broadband boost Tech entrepreneurship in Jamaica, will be the focus of a townhall type discussion tomorrow at Kingston Beta at the Spanish Court Hotel, New Kingston at 6:30pm. It is free.
A SiliconValley based entrepreneur Peter Rothman will be co-hosting the discussion with Ingrid Riley, Founder and host of Kingston Beta.

Kingston Beta is the bimonthly networking event and Startup pitch platform where Jamaican and Caribbean tech/internet/mobile/business professionals, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts come To Learn. To Be Inspired.To Network.It is staged by ConnectiMass, the parent company of SiliconCaribe.com.

If You Want to know what Jamaican/Caribbean People and Companies are doing Online and with Technology-Come to Kingston Beta. The event is geared towards, 1. Helping Startups Get Exposure 2. Connecting Startups and Investors and 3. Connecting the Caribbean technology community.

And it seems she might be on to something, as roughly 50 techies turned up at the Spanish Court Hotel last Thursday for the summer renewal of Kingston Beta.Those in attendance wear tags indicating their name and the companies they represent.

“Most of the Kingston Beta set are young entrepreneurs who have started tech-focused companies,” Riley notes, outlining that the mix of individuals ranges from web content developers to the social network-savvy.

Sharing thoughts on technology is further facilitated in a section called Pitch This, a five-minute session which sees proprietors of new online companies promoting their big idea. This is followed by a Q&A session. On this particular night, Jerome Campbell is pitching his new product homeinjamaica.com, a software outfit that specialises in real estate. There is, too, a presentation from Jonathan François who is beamed on screen from Trinidad & Tobago via Skype to speak on his caribbeantutors.com, an online learning resource aimed at CXC students. More

Marc Canter, never speaks directly from his presentations. He’s too dynamic and full of great stories to be that boring. He was a dynamic and interactive speaker who left the audience of 70 attendees in an inspired post event chatter at our last Kingston Beta on Thursday June 24th, 2010 @ The Spanish Court Hotel. Have a browse through this slide presentation and see if his ideas will spark your brain as it has ours.

And yes he will be speaking their via Skype Video on Thursday June 24th, 2010 to the Jamaica’s Kingston Beta community at the Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston.

Since we became Facebook friends, I took the opportunity to get a pre-event interview with him. So I sent him some questions and he answered them in a candid and direct way. Here’s the interview:

Journey of the Tech Entrepreneur
A Facebook Interview with Marc Canter, Founder of Macromedia, Ceo of Broadband Mechanics.

SC:When you started MarcoMind what was your intention, your goal at that time?
MC:To create video game development tools.

SC:Was Macromedia bootstrapped, then growth fed by profits or was it venture funded? And how did the type of funding play a role in Macromedia’s success?
MC: Angel funded with $100k from my father-in-law – we produced 7 products in three years.  We received VC money – after five years.  The VCs came in and took over.   Then kicked me out.

SC: The start and finish timeline of Macromedia can be summed up like this – (well according to Wikipedia anyway)- Founded in 1992 by Marc Canter…formerly an American graphics and web-development software house headquartered in San Francisco, California, produced such products as Macromedia Flash as well as Macromedia Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and as of 2010 controls the line of Macromedia products.
What are the factors – internal, external ( USA) that enabled Macromedia to achieve success?
MC: By the time the company was renamed Macromedia – it had achieved all of the milestones, overcome all the barriers, paid our dues, built up a new market, invented new product categories, pioneered and entirely new industry.  That was MacroMind.  We never had enough money.  When the VCs brought in their CEO – he spent more in the 1st QT, than we had in the previous 5 years.

That first CEO went back to the trough (VC rounds) = 5 times in 2 years.

That company and culture of MacroMind was entrepreneurial.  The culture of Macromedia was “buy a company rather than invent the technology”.

Macromedia never invented anything.

SC: This Adobe/Macromedia deal was clearly a strategic move against Microsoft…but…why did you “sell” ? Even though you walked away had trailerloads of cash..how did you move on from this? Was this your exit plan?
MC: It wasn’t me – it was them. Mating dinosaurs is how I’d typify that deal.  By the time that deal happened both companies are already dead.  They just don’t know it yet.

SC: It’s been said we’re now in the age of small business, there is now a rash of small and very successful software companies like 37 signals- is this the way forward?
MC: Inn the 80′s there were 100′s of software companies.

in the 90′s 1,000′s

in the 00′s 10,000′s

and in the future there will be 100,000′s of software companies.  How many will be the next Google or Facebook?  .00000001% all the rest will think global and act local.

SC: We have a small but vibrant software industry here in Jamaica and the Caribbean…speak to the entrepreneurs….tell them what you think are the things you believe will help make them successful and profitable.
MC: Open APIs, connecting ‘cyberspace to meatspace’, build software with some stage or role for humans to be directly involved in.  Design loosely coupled with other open systems and platforms.

SC: The centre of innovation is now the world it seems, innovation is no longer exclusively coming out of places we expect them to….does Jamaica have what it takes to be a centre of innovation? I ask this as we’re seeing lots of activity in Jamaica, across the Caribbean, we’ve predicted that this year is the tipping point for tech industry here and I want to see if we have the factors for that really to happen.
MC: Sure why not? But Jamaica can also fall on its face if it does not get it’s PEOPLE to use companies.  Its a simple notion – “all jobs of the future will require having computer skills”. Don’t worry so much about the software developers, “train the children!”

SC: You’re speaking at Kingston Beta on Thursday 24th live by Ustream, first of all thanks for saying yes to that…you are now the Founder and CEO of Broadband Mechanics, and I read online I believe on your blog, that your goal is to Making Software Social and you’re on the road to creating another billion dollar company…without telling us everything before Kingston Beta…what is Broadband Mechanics about and what’s this move about Making Software Social?
MC: That message is 2-3 years old.  That’s what’s on the Broadband Mechanics web site.  That company has a social networking platform that one could use to create their own Ning, or Facebook or any kind of social network.  We call that “white labeled”.  The source code is available for that product at:  update.peopleaggregator.org.

But to me that was 5-6 years ago – when I started that platform – which was a culmination of years of designing and building many of the original social networks (2003-2006.)

About 2.5 years ago I started work on a book – called “How to build the Open Mesh” – which was a theoretical treatise on how open standards and dashboard can form a distributed system for allowing ANY software developer to “play” in the game.

After I finished the book I was looking for new opportunities as the (economic) downturn had decimated my customers and we had only one remaining customer – the U.S. Army ROTC program. So I laid my book onto the desk of the CTO of CWRU (in Cleveland) and he invited me to teach there.  So I wrote a second book for my class: “How to build a Digital City” – where I go into details on just how we can create jobs and build out a new kind of software infrastructure.

Here are links to downloads of my two books:

http://blog.broadbandmechanics.com/2009/07/10/links-to-my-two-books/

I’ve now focused my energies on starting a new company called “Digital City Mechanics” – which will be the commercial version of my Phd. thesis.  The idea is that I will spend five years:

- deploying my ideas into local “digital bureaus”
- we will leverage the “Haves” to help the “Have Nots”
- we will train our future workers in a “virtuous process of volunteerism and community involvement”
- and we will utilize sponsored multimedia projects to get paid workers to intern and apprentice our trainees”
- who will then learn marketable job skills by BUILDING multimedia projects

And that’s where Jamaica comes in

Now ask me “what was I saying back in 1991-2 when I came ot Jamaica with Hugo?”  And what did I say on Mutabaraka’s show?

Kingston, Jamaica – Thursday, May 20th, 2010 -

“We’re excited to have Marc Canter as our first international guest speaker. He’s a globally renowned tech entrepreneur and a keynote speaker with great influence and insight. So we believe the idea and information exchange that will happened between him and our community of technology entrepreneurs and business professionals will be invaluable,” said Ingrid Riley, Ceo of ConnectiMass and founder of the event.

Kingston Beta is three years old and has seen hundreds of attendees and over 30 startup companies pitch. “It’s become the event to attend if you want to know what Jamaican/Caribbean people and companies are doing online and with technology,” Riley added. It is the bimonthly networking event and startup pitch platform where Jamaican and Caribbean technology and business professionals, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts come To Learn,To Be Inspired, To Network.

At the event, “we’ll be broadcasting Mr Canter live online from Ohio using Ustream and other technologies,” Riley added. We are expecting our community to be in full attendance as usual. We’ve also invited the UWI, Utech IT and Programming and Business students to attend. Additionally for those in the Caribbean tech community in the region and Diaspora, they can be online and follow the event as it will be streamed live on the Kingston Beta Facebook Fan Page as well as live tweeted by Jamaican tweeters using the hash tag #kgnbeta.

Kingston Beta has a fast growing roster of event partners including Jamaica National, Socialingua and SiliconCaribe.com.

Contact: Ingrid Riley | ingrid@connectimass.com | 1 876 864 2440

About Us | www.ConnectiMass.com | Connecting People, Ideas and Technology

Ceo of ConnectiMass, a Jamaican Digital Marketing firm that helps Caribbean brands use social media and mobile marketing to grow their business; runs workshops, trend briefings and conferences as well as publishes information products.

About Kingston Beta | ww.KingstonBeta.com| To Learn. Be Inspired. To Network

Kingston BETA is a bi-monthly networking event and Startup Pitch platform for the Jamaican/Caribbean startups, entrepreneurs, bloggers and professionals in the Internet/ Technology/ Mobile industries. It’s for anyone who want to know what /Caribbean Companies and Jamaican people are doing online and with technology. Kingston Beta is an Event and a Community.

The Kingston Beta Community powers over 80% of the Internet activity in Jamaica and the Caribbean in addition to activity focused on Caribbean people at home and in the Diaspora. They own the social networks, blogs, media sites, online magazines, you tube channels, online dating sites, product review and rating sites and message boards where Jamaicans and Caribbean people are spending most of their time online. They are the influential entrepreneurs, committed enthusiasts, bloggers, industry professionals, emerging futurists and industry experts.

Kingston Beta has already seen over 30 startups pitch and hundreds of : They are Jamenus.com, Socialingua, Global Youth Connection, SureContact, BakariDigital, Playjamaica.com, Coretalk Caribbean, CaribContact, CaribClix, ECaribbean Ltd (St. Kitts), Top5Jamaica, Software architects, PileoJobs.com, RebelMix, Music Pass Network, CaribbeanHomePlans.com, MyEliteGrocer.com, Twindies.com, One studio (Vietnam).

With sponsor Jamaica National, partners in SiliconCaribe, Socialingua, RealVibez.tv and CaribClix – the audience of entrepreneurs, bloggers, site publishers, Internet marketers, software developers saw pitches from Global Youth Connection, Smart Office, TechShopja and VirtualMall Jamaica.