The folks organizing the mesh conference in Toronto have finalized the program, and introduced the mesh class of 2006.
I am happy to attend, and I will be speaking in a session called "Is Web 2.0 Changing the Software Industry?" led by Mike McDerment, with Chris Messina of Flock.com, Matt Mullenweg of Wordpress, and me.
In the spirit of Canadianism, I went online yesterday and investigated emigrating to Canada. No kidding. Things are crazy down here, and maybe getting worse. I have family in Canada, which helps in the Canadian government's assessment, it seems. Here's the resulots of the self-assessment for skilled workers (includes journalists, IT consultants, and a number of other jobs I had in the past ten years). Similar tests exist for entrepreneurs and the self-employed, both which characterize my interests.
I can't really emigrate right now -- two sons in high school -- but I am bringing Keenan, my eldest, up to Toronto to look at colleges there in May, the weekend before the conference. Maybe 3 years from now, when Conrad graduates. We'll see.
I am half-serious, despite the recent swing in Canada toward a slightly more conservative government. More research to follow, at the conference.
We'd love to count you in!
Posted by: Seb | April 06, 2006 at 07:19 AM
Happy to help if you need it (ie: sponsoring, job offer, etc).
Posted by: Jeremy Wright | April 06, 2006 at 08:04 AM
We'd be glad to have you, Stowe. Just remember, you'll have to make a little bit more money every year to pay for all that "free" health care we get up here :-)
Posted by: Mathew Ingram | April 06, 2006 at 08:05 AM
Thanks, guys. I appreciate it!
Posted by: Stowe Boyd | April 07, 2006 at 04:43 AM
Stowe,
I emigrated from Austin TX to Mississauga ON and now live in Toronto, 10 years ago this December. If you need any real live American->Canada transplant advice, I am it. And there are others. Over 600,000 US Citizens living (and some voting!) in Canada.
Cheers!
Posted by: Alex Sirota | April 07, 2006 at 06:54 AM
Re: colleges in Canada.
I'm from Canada but now live in Texas. I can afford US colleges for my kids but I still think Canadian colleges are a great deal and wonderful opportunities. I went to Queen's University and McGill and both are great. UofT is excellent too (my brother's alum) but akin to an NYU, big-city feel. There are lots of US students at McGill which helps the integration aspect. Not sure what the out-of-province fees are now but they still beat state uni's prices, I'm guessing.
You may appreciate your sons being exposed to the Canadian philosophy about life as well.
You'll want to check out:
http://www.macleans.ca/universities/
Linda Frum's Guide to Canadian Universities: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1550132423/sr=8-1/qid=1144420953/ref=sr_1_1/002-8295304-4129605?%5Fencoding=UTF8
Posted by: John | April 07, 2006 at 07:44 AM