Month / April 2008

by Krystle K.

Double play for Rapids: Baseball club to change hands

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published on the front page of the Ottawa Business Journal and on its website.
April 28, 2008

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

Dot-com businessmen Rick Anderson and Rob Hall are expected to announce this week that they will buy Ottawa’s new professional baseball club.

The purchase precedes the Ottawa Rapids’ first exhibition game against the New Jersey Jackals on May 22.

Mr. Anderson, of Zip.ca, did not directly confirm the acquisition when the OBJ contacted him on April 24, but said: “The first time we met with Miles (Wolff, the Can-Am League commissioner) and he talked about bringing Can-Am back, we immediately told him Continue reading →

by Krystle K.

That’ll be $0, please

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
April 28, 2008 (May 1 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

The idea of literally giving something away but still profiting from it isn’t a new concept, but with the advent of the Internet there’s now a new dimension to it – and soon, all products and services we now pay for could become free, says Wired Magazine head honcho Chris Anderson.Wired Magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson previews his new book on how everything online will soon be free

It’s the subject of his new book, aptly named Free, which he will be previewing at Celebridee during the Canadian Tulip Festival, held from May 2 to May 19 in Ottawa. The OBJ picked Mr. Anderson’s brain to find out more about the new free economy and what it will mean for businesses.

OBJ: So tell us a bit more about what it means to have an economy where everything is free.

ANDERSON: It’s a broad economic trend that affects every industry everywhere. Any company, product, service that is digital is either going to eventually become free or compete with free; it’s the law of gravity in digital economics. It’s the Google model, where they don’t charge you: Google doesn’t show up on your credit card bill, Google’s free to consumers.

Software’s increasingly moving from a product that you buy to a free service that you go to on the web, the software-as-a-service model. And increasingly, services are moving from professional people you pay for to places you go to for free, be it Continue reading →

by Krystle K.

Raising the profile of ‘one of Canada’s well-kept secrets’

By KRYSTLE CHOW
Published in the Ottawa Business Journal newspaper and website.
April 14, 2008 (April 16 on OttawaBusinessJournal.com)

Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

Jerry Tomberlin will take office in July as the new dean of the Sprott School of Business.
Jerry Tomberlin will take office in July as the new dean of the Sprott School of Business.
Photo by CHRISTIAN FLEURY

Carleton University’s new business school dean and president will be starting their jobs on the same day this summer, and both say they are excited to strengthen what they see as a school with great potential.

The university recently announced that it has selected its first female president, Dr. Roseann Runte, and picked Dr. Jerry Tomberlin as the second dean for the Sprott School of Business since the business school was awarded full faculty status in 2006. Both start on July 1.

The new president will be taking over from interim head Dr. Samy Mahmoud and the incoming business school dean is succeeding acting dean Roland Thomas.

Mr. Tomberlin is the former dean of the John Molson School of Business at Montreal’s Concordia University, while Ms. Runte is currently serving as president of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.

“It’s a very exciting school that’s very strong and one of Canada’s well-kept secrets. I plan on making it stronger,” said Mr. Tomberlin in an interview with the OBJ. Continue reading →