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Martin Hofmann

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Canada

Toronto German Walk

Toronto German Walk

by Martin · Sep 25, 2016

Inges Idee - Brickman
Inges Idee – Brickman

Toronto is a city of neighbourhoods, and many of them have an ethnic history. Cabbagetown, Chinatown, Little Italy, Little India, Roncesvalles Village (Polish), or The Danforth (Greek) are just some examples. While Germans in Toronto don’t have one particular heritage neigbourhood to call their own, many roots and influences can be found across the city.

The German Consulate here started a series of “German Walks” to explore these contributions in Toronto. Last weekend I attended the second event, a German-language tour of downtown Toronto with guide Iris Schweiger.

CN Tower in the Rain
CN Tower in the Rain

The tour took us to a mixture of places, some historic and some more modern. Stops included the Brickman sculpture by Berlin art collective Inges Idee and St. James Cathedral, where Meyer Glass of Munich created some of the stained glass chancel windows in the 1880s and German-born artist Gustav Hahn painted the ceiling above the main altar.

We took a look at Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s  Toronto-Dominion Centre and heard how William Berczy, born in Bavaria as Johann Albrecht Ulrich Moll, led a group of German settlers to build the first stretch of Yonge Street in 1794.  Finally, we learned how Sir Adam Beck founded the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario. Despite rain starting halfway through the two-hour walk, it was time well spent.

Toronto-Dominion Centre
Toronto-Dominion Centre

At the end of the tour, the Goethe-Institut Toronto welcomed our group. Director Uwe Rau gave us an overview of all the local offerings at the institute, from language courses and a well-stocked German library to cultural collaborations for arts, literature and film.

The Goethe-Institut used to be on the ground floor of the same building at the corner of King Street West and University Avenue. It was a great location because everyone stepping out of the subway there used to walk by the institute’s gallery space. Budget cuts a decade ago prompted the institute to move to the second floor and give up the gallery. It’s unfortunate because ever since then, you need to know about the Goethe-Institut in advance. There’s no more accidentally running into German culture. Too bad. But it is great that a lot of the important work is being continued, even if less visible from street level. For example, this fall the Goethe-Institut is showing a series of German movies at the TIFF Bell Lightbox cinema.

Sir Adam Beck
Sir Adam Beck

In addition to starting this series of walking tours, the German Consulate Toronto also developed a virtual German Walk, which can be accessed online here. The content was developed together with Toronto Star columnist Shawn Micallef and it provides an overview of points of interest across Toronto with short descriptions. For me the site only worked after clicking “Show we all Geo locations”. The options of  “use my current location” returned an error and “select a neighbourhood to explore” curiously brought up a list of neigbourhoods in New York City. But when selecting all locations, a long list of places in Toronto comes up.

My favourite so far is the old lighthouse on Toronto Island, which is haunted by its first light keeper, German-born John Paul Radelmüller.

Filed Under: Canada, English, Photos

Civil Tweets

Civil Tweets

by Martin · Feb 18, 2012

Ottawa’s lengthy social media rulebook for civil servants may be counter to the spirit of Web 2.0, but at least it’s a start

BY MARTIN HOFMANN

[A version of this article appeared in the print edition of Marketing Magazine on January 16, 2012]

Jesus has been on Twitter since December 2009 and his earthly father Joseph of Nazareth joined this holiday season to narrate the entire Nativity story through 140 characters in German and English. Clearly, if you’re associated with heavenly power, you can tweet pretty much what you like. Yet it’s not so simple for mortals in the service of that other, more earthly power: the Canadian federal government. And so it was that Ottawa recently published its first overarching “guideline for external use of Web 2.0“.

Before government workers can interact through social networks and collaboration tools, they have a lot of reading to do. The federal guideline is 12,000 words long. That’s roughly four times the size of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If someone were to tweet the document in its entirety, it would take 570 tweets or more. And that’s not including the Policy Framework for Information and Technology and the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, which, the guideline says, should be read in conjunction.

One of the guideline’s key points is that “governance of Web 2.0 initiatives should be clear, succinct and well communicated.” Apparently, the guideline doesn’t have to adhere to its own principles. The document makes readers yearn for the early, simpler days of social media, when organizations like Microsoft informally steered employee bloggers with three simple words: “Don’t be stupid“.

It’s not just the document’s length that’s attracted attention, however. Gartner analyst Andrea Di Maio was quick to criticize it for being “all about obligations and risks”, noting that “there is nothing about how to encourage, assess [and] reward the use of web 2.0 tools to improve individual contributions to department’s outcomes.”

The guideline does indeed aim to cover every possible consideration, from accessibility and official languages to privacy, procurement and security. But it tries to make clear that it was written primarily to empower government departments, not employees. So there’s hope for Microsoft-style CliffsNotes versions of the thing, which will help Ottawa’s civil servants put social media to good use. And it encourages the principle that “personnel are trusted in their use of Web 2.0 tools and services just as they are trusted in every other aspect of their work.”

Di Maio also thinks the guideline doesn’t go far enough down to the individual level. That’s true, but there’s an even bigger miss. In recent years we’ve seen growing political will to empower government through social media, and this is entirely absent from the document. South of the border, President Obama has been reaching out directly to Americans through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for years. His online presence has become so strong that some reporters in the White House press corps have voiced concerns that they are being turned into a sideshow.

In 2009 Obama also directed his government departments and agencies to establish “a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration,” which has resulted in a multitude of initiatives, many of the integrating social media. In Canada, federal Treasury Board minister Tony Clement just ordered the overhaul of government websites to include some social media functionality (the guideline page could have been a good starting point). In general, however, Canadian political leaders have yet to catch up with a powerful, overarching approach comparable to the United States.

Lengthy as it is, the new Web 2.0 guideline is as an encouraging sign that slowly but surely, social media will creep into the Canadian public sector. They may not have the leeway of Jesus or Joseph, but until change is driven in full force from the top, here’s hoping that some of Ottawa’s public servants accept the guideline as fine print on a ticket that gives access to meaningful engagement with Canadians.

Martin Hofmann (@martinhofmann) has worked in the public sector and agency world in Europe and North America. He currently is senior VP, social and digital, at Veritas Communications.

Filed Under: Canada, English, Featured, Ongoing, Public Sector

Timelapse of Toronto Skyline

by Martin · May 25, 2010

Nice timelapse video sequence of downtown Toronto (via Torontoist.com)

Timelapse Toronto Skyline Full HD from Viesturs Izotovs on Vimeo.

Filed Under: Canada, English, Ongoing

All you need is a blog to market your product? You’re so wrong

All you need is a blog to market your product? You’re so wrong

by Martin · Nov 7, 2008

For the upcoming StartupEmpire conference in Toronto, we shot a few short videos with Mike McDerment, CEO of FreshBooks. In the videos, he talks about his experience as a startup entrepreneur here in Canada.

The first one is about blogs and marketing: All you need is a blog to market your product? You’re so wrong. More videos next week.

(High Road Communications is a sponsor of StartupEmpire)

Filed Under: Canada, Communications, English, Events, High Road, Technology

StartupEmpire – The Conference

by Martin · Oct 17, 2008

Here’s a video of Jevon MacDonald and David Crow talking about the upcoming StartupEmpire conference in Toronto on November 13 and 14. It’s a Canadian conference “from entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs”.

StartupEmpire already has an amazing lineup of speakers including Don Dodge, Hugh MacLeod, Howard Lindzon, David Cohen, Austin Hill, Leila Boujnane, Lane Becker and Charlie O’Donnell. Watch the video for Jevon and David’s perspective on what they want to accomplish with the conference.

More information is available at www.startupempire.ca and on David and Jevon’s blogs.

Disclaimer: High Road Communications is a sponsor of the conference.

Filed Under: Canada, Communications, English, Events, High Road, Innovation, Technology Tagged With: startupempire

Founders and Funders

Founders and Funders

by Martin · May 1, 2008

When he’s not busy educating Toronto geeks on fashion style, David Crow dedicates a lot of his time to organizing and participating in tech community events.

founders and funders Now I just came across the Founders and Funders event, which he and Jevon MacDonald of StartupNorth are bringing to Toronto on June 4 – for the second time.

Started in Montreal last November, Founders & Funders is about “helping to connect the founders of early-stage, venture fundable web and technology companies with the funding community in Canada.”

Sounds like a great concept to me.

Founders & Funders is a private, invite only social event.

Founders and Funders is dedicated: to helping Canadian entrepreneurs to meet each other; meet potential funders: angel, VC or other money sources; to have fun; and see how we can help each other create the NEXT BIG successful company.

More information about the June 4 event can be found here.

Filed Under: Canada, English, Events, Technology

Ten Canadian software companies to watch

by Martin · Jul 6, 2007

IDC Canada has highlighted ten emerging Canadian software companies in a new research study (press release; research store). According to IDC, these companies have “the potential to make an impact in the information and communications technology (ICT) market”.

I haven’t gotten my hands on the study but a ComputerWorld Canada article provides some very high level pointers on criteria and take-aways. In the article, executives from a few of the selected companies talk about what they see as key factors to success, including:

  • Networking through industry associations and research groups
  • Seeking the right partnerships
  • Building a strong customer base
  • Staying close and listening to the customers while keeping an eye on the evolving market
  • Clarity of vision

The ten Canadian companies examined in the study are:

  1. Apparent Networks
  2. Casero
  3. Coveo
  4. Halogen
  5. Idée Inc.
  6. Loki Management Systems
  7. M-Tech
  8. Objectworld
  9. Osellus
  10. Privasoft

Filed Under: Canada, English, Innovation, Technology

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