Big tech companies may be preparing to downsize, but startups are still hiring like mad. Particularly engineers.

It’s hard for one startup to get noticed above the crowd, but what if twenty of them pool their resources, hold a competition and throw a five day party for top recruits? That’s the goal of Gnip and 19 other Boulder, Colorado based startups who are pitching in $5,000 each to host a multi-day job fair at the end of October.

Engineers are invited to upload their resumes and apply for 100 spots at the event. The applications will be reviewed by the companies, and a total of 100 people will be invited out for an all-expenses paid three day trip. Twenty applicants are rotated through each day over a five day period, with dinners and parties each night.

Read more . . .

This sounds like a perfect project for Toronto startups!  Anyone interested in helping to organize something like this please contact: rsmith[at]innovationtoronto.com.  Let’s see if we can’t build some momentum.

photo credit: eryoni

ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2008) — People could live in glass houses and look at the world through rose-tinted windows while reducing their carbon emissions by 50%, thanks to QUT Institute of Sustainable Resources (ISR) research.

Professor John Bell said QUT had worked with a Canberra-based company Dyesol, which is developing transparent solar cells that act as both windows and energy generators in houses or commercial buildings.

He said the solar cell glass would make a significant difference to home and building owners’ energy costs and could, in fact, generate excess energy that could be stored or onsold.

Professor Bell said the glass was one of a number of practical technologies that would help combat global warming which was a focus of research at the ISR.

Read more . . .

Participants seem to be finding that a group of individuals from wildly different backgrounds brainstorming their idea/plans to be a very helpful way of reality checking what they have while finding new support to accelerate their idea development.

This experiment to prove the usefulness of brainstorming sessions involving people with very different backgrounds (developers, social entrepreneurs, business, artists, etc.) willing to help others develop their concepts or help refine their approach has been quite exciting.

“My idea of fun is to have brilliant people along with sound innovative ideas combined with great conversation and laughs. See you next week!” - Karen F.

‘Sometimes you get to a point in your process where things get a little muddled and you’re not quite sure what should be your next steps.  Innovation Toronto gives you an opportunity to bounce things off an eclectic but positive group of people, and I often come out of meetings with a whole new perspective, and constructive ideas.  I’m happy to be a
part of the Experiment!’ - E.L.

So, we will be continuing Innovation Wednesdays for the foreseeable future. Everyone is welcome to join in - bring your idea or have fun working on the fascinating concepts of others. There is only 1 emerging challenge: you can’t help everyone. This is a very nice problem to have.

If you are interested, please let us know as these sessions are by invitation only - contact wednesday(at]innovationtorontodotcom.

announced Friday

The client library allows users to make Facebook API calls from any web site and create Ajax Facebook applications on that website.

Wei Zhu from Facebook explains the benefits:

Since the library does not require any server-side code on your server, you can now create a Facebook application that can be hosted on any web site that serves static HTML. An application that uses this client library should be registered as an iframe type. This applies to either iframe Facebook apps that users access through the Facebook web site or apps that users access directly on the app’s own web sites. Almost all Facebook APIs are supported.   Read more .  .  .

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Please send us your needs/wishes (already have 1 posted for example) and we will post them on a separate page. Here are some things to consider:

1. Without giving away your idea entirely, do write something that will entice interest. It will then be up to both parties to decide if there is something there of mutual interest once initial contact has been made.
2. Make sure you are clear in your description of what you need. Sometimes this can be difficult if you are not experienced in putting together a team for your project. If you are not certain whether you need 1 or 4 developers working in php or java, 1 or 3 marcom people etc., ask for someone who could act in an advisory role to help you define exact needs.
3. On the other side of the equation, if you are a developer looking for a new challenge, be specific about your area(s) of interest
4. What is the basis of for your proposal for participation? Paid position(s), equity, community contribution or a combination?
5. Please be light on the use of formatting as WordPress does tend to do strange things to multiple bullets, indents etc.
6. Finally, let us know if you have found useful connectivity already through our events or contacts. Stories are important and we would like to tell some of them from time to time to encourage others.

As always, your ideas and comments on how we can make things better are always welcome!

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