Day: November 16, 2013

Start-Up weekend, a launch-a-start-up-in-54-hours event has begun at UBC yesterday evening. Being hosted by Entrepreneurship at UBC and featuring accomplished judges such as Mozilla Labs Director David Ascher, Venture Capitalist Ray Torresan, and CEO and Co-Founder of Battlefy Jason Xu, among others. This year’s startup weekend is said to be technology-focused, as is apparent with the 1:1 ratio of business-oriented and software/hardware-oriented participants.

It is encouraging to see UBC foster and embrace the entrepreneurial spirit found in the thousands of bright, forward-thinking students which attend here. Entrepreneurs are the driving force of Canadian job creation, innovation, and economic growth. In fact, the over 1 million small businesses in Canada employ over 48 percent of Canada’s total workforce.

In my opinion, it is vital for UBC, and Sauder in particular, to put a strong emphasis on the power and importance with entrepreneurship. Most of Sauder’s most accomplished alumni are entrepreneurs themselves, and the more successful start-ups that come out of UBC, the more inspiring and reputable the school will become.

The clock struck 12 on November 15th, marking the release the Sony’s PlayStation 4, and the start of the console wars.

They say that the living room entertainment is the final home frontier for technology companies to dominate, and boy has the competition been aggressive. In the past few years we have seen the console wars elevate, with increased efforts from Microsoft’s Kinect, Apple’s Apple TV,  and Samsung’s SmartTV’s. Everyone is fighting for the couch. Which is why the release of the PS4 is so important.

Sony has claimed that is has already “sold” over 1 million PS4’s through preorders, and is expected to sell many more in the upcoming days. Strong preorders are said to be due to Sony’s dedication to the “hardcore gamer”, as opposed to Microsoft’s focus on families, casual gaming, and television.

But perhaps the preorders don’t show the whole story. Most preorders are purchased by “hardcore gamers”, and not the average family. I believe that the console wars are about more than just gaming. They are about entertainment, be it through movies, games or television. Which is why the PS4’s lack of diversity and functionality should be worrisome, and why you shouldn’t count Microsoft out just yet.