Boring site note...

I just upgraded this blog (and our VenturePrize blog) to use the new version of Community Server, so things might be wonky for a bit. I see the search is not working, but I think I have found out how to fix it. Other than that, and having to rebuild the skin, the upgrade went quite well!

We've been posting mostly on our VenturePrize Experience blog for the last couple of months, but now that the business plan competitions are over, we'll get back to posting here. But before we do that, here's a recap of the last couple months (the highlights anyway):

• 3.29.2006 - Paramagnus Press Coverage - Mack | Dickson
• 3.23.2006 - Paramagnus wins National Wes Nicol! - Mack
• 3.22.2006 - Paramagnus "edged" in VenturePrize Finals - Mack
• 3.06.2006 - VenturePrize Finalists, Local Wes Nicol Winners! - Mack
• 2.25.2006 - Local Wes Nicol Presentation - Mack | Dickson
• 2.24.2006 - VenturePrize Semi-Finals Presentation - Mack | Dickson
• 2.15.2006 - VenturePrize Semi-Finalist! - Mack | Dickson
• 1.31.2006 - Business Plan Submitted - Mack | Dickson

As you can see, it has been an incredibly hectic and rewarding month, with a strong runner-up showing in VenturePrize and a win in the Wes Nicol competition. We're really happy with everything that we managed to accomplish in the last month, and we're more excited and energized than ever to get our products released.

And now, back to the code!

Dickson and I have been working on a blog specifically for VenturePrize (and Wes Nicol too) and it's finally ready for public consumption! Basically you can read all about our experiences in the two competitions, starting way back in October 2005 when we first decided to take part in VenturePrize. The address is:

http://ventureprize.paramagnus.com

With the exception of the March posts, all entries have been posted after the fact. So a post from November was actually written in the last two weeks, even though the post itself seems like it was written in November. We did our best to go back in time and remember what we were thinking and feeling so that the blog is authentic. I don't think we'll be adding any more "back posts", unless we remember something worth sharing, so the blog is "live" moving forward.

There are two main reasons for this blog. First and foremost, it is for us, so that we can look back and remember the experience. It should also come in handy when asked about timelines in the future, as it is often difficult to remember when things happened. The second reason is that we hope our experience will be useful to future participants of the VenturePrize and Wes Nicol competitions. Learn from our mistakes, and improve upon the things we did!

The blog is entirely comprised of text posts right now, but we're planning to add some media content at some point too, podcasts, pictures, etc. Enjoy!

Dickson and I registered for Northern Voice 2006 tonight. We figured it was about time, since the conference is less than a month away (February 10th and 11th). We'll be in Vancouver from the 9th until the 12th, hopefully learning a lot and sharing the stuff we've been working on! We'll post an update when we've decided what exactly we'll have ready for the conference.

There's still time to register if you want to join us. See you there!

We finally updated our blog engine to the latest version, which is Community Server 1.1. I also added a few things like the "Post to Delicious", "Email" and "Monitor Post" links similar to what you'll find on my own blog. Also - this is now the only company blog! After some previous experimentation, we decided not to have separate blogs for each product, so the former Podcast Tags and Podcast Wizard blogs now forward here. Please ensure you update your links and bookmarks!

We've got lots of cool stuff happening over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!