The idea behind Mobile Weekend is this:

• Get a bunch of brilliant, passionate and motivated individuals together over a weekend
• Have that group come up with and select an idea for a mobile application (most likely Java based or web based)
• Build the application over the weekend with the goal of launching a fully functional prototype by Sunday night
• Maybe, just maybe end up with a company to carry forward the idea. If nothing comes of it, we will probably release all code to the open-source community (assuming the participants all agree)
• The key is, this is community driven. The participants are the ones that make it happen (we’re just helping organize the event)

Mobile Weekend hopes to be able to provide the following to the participants

• A great event where we can all have lots of fun and learn
• To grow awareness of the tech community locally and beyond
• A great opportunity for networking within our tech community
• Provide all needed infrastructure for the weekend (servers, wireless, source control)
• Feed and water the participants (we hope to be able to provide all food and drink for the event through sponsorship, might also raise some money by selling tickets to the event)
• Swag (You know you want it)

More to come… Dan

Wishing everyone a very Happy 2008!

We would like to thank everyone who participated in our first forays into the wonderful world of startups. It has been a fascinating time and a vertical learning curve

To those who don’t know some of the background, we were not scheduled to initiate any activities until well into the first quarter of 2008. Then along came the great opportunities offered by the first Toronto Startup Weekend and Facebook Weekend Beta to start to get to know the startup and IT community in the GTA. It has been a great way to make new friends and start to shape the next steps for our an important part of our new Innovation Toronto focus.

After much discussion, it has become quite clear that there are some very interesting and timely things we can do to be of help to the community in general and address specific needs of the youth, startup and alternative energy communities specifically.

We would now like to engage those of you who may be interested in learning about and working together on our general plans to also get specific about what we might be able to do together in this brand new year. Is it an event or series of events that you need flexible space for? Is it finding resources and talent for your new project? Are you looking for a new adventure? Is it finding a new way to engage the community and give back?

Whatever your motivation, we would like to invite you to join in evolving our ongoing discussions and projects. Over the next few days we will be posting the outlines of a number of projects that we are most interested in seeing come to fruition. We would also like to hear about what you are working on and where collaboration might be advantageous.

You are invited . . .

Happy 2008

Wrinklebook.Com

Pet Project(s)

Charity Link

Energy footprint challenge

FB Application - Educational Publishing Space

Healthbook: An FB app for Personal Health Information and Services

Currently, 68 people are ready to help make your idea a reality! Submit your idea now at:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6900744045

If you have an idea that you would like to see successfully built or would like to be part of the team that builds and promotes them please go to the FBW BETA group at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6900744045

Let’s have fun and build some great projects!

FBWB ( Facebook Weekend Beta ) is a combination of the Barcamp adhoc unconference and the StartupWeekend concept. It brings together entrepreneurs, Facebook developers, and designers to create products over a weekend. It’s a fun (and productive) way to spend a weekend and a great way to build an app, start a company, and meet talented people.

Anyone can participate, whether you already have a team and an idea or if you want to lend your talents and join a group. Each team is responsible for all decision making on how to they want to develop their idea/company or project.

FBWB is brought to you by Innovation Toronto, a not-for-profit organization promoting entrepreneurship in the GTA. To find out more join the FacebookWeekend Beta group on, you guessed it, Facebook.

Important Stuff:

When: Friday Nov 30 (evening kick-off), Saturday Dec 1, Sunday Dec 2
Where: Innovation Toronto, 169 Eastern Avenue

How to Prepare: Join the Facebook group (this means you are registered once you join) and post your ideas, or offer your services to join a team by posting on the discussion board. Once you’re part of a team try to meet and plan in advance, it’ll make the weekend that much more productive and you will be that much closer to being ready to bring your idea to the expert panel.

What to Bring: Yourselves, your laptop, some cash for food (we’re working on finding food sponsors).

More information on Facebook Weekend BETA is available here:

http://www.innovationtoronto.com/facebook-weekend-beta/

And the Facebook Weekend Beta group to register your idea/group/company here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6900744045

Please don’t hesitate to contact either Colin Smillie or Ron Smith if you have any questions - or ideas of course!

The launch announcement should go out tomorrow mid-morning. Apologies ahead of time to anyone who receives a duplicate as we are using multiple mailing list to make sure we don’t miss you.