Here are my alternative top 5 ways in which I think Twitter will change the world:

1) People will have advanced warning as to which of their new friends are going to end up irritating the hell out of them.

2) People will no longer applaud something by clapping, they will drum their fingers as if on an imaginary keyboard. (credit for this one goes to Liz Strauss at Jeff Pulver’s #140conf).

3) With everyone looking down at screens all the time, humans will begin to recognize each other by the unique hair growth patterns around the crown of the head.

4) The size of the average human thumb will shrink by 5% per generation until it is just slightly bigger than a letter on the keyboard of an iphone.

5) People who don’t have a mobile phone will also learn how to recognize words that have been shortened for convenience by leaving out the vowels.

Do you think I’m off the mark?

Yes ? Well

“FCK Y”

I was recently introduced to a great bunch of guys who are using soccer as a tool to drive home AIDS awareness and prevention programs in Africa and the Caribbean. Grassroots Soccer’s programs use footballers as role models, and leverage the popularity of soccer in order to engage hard to reach young people.

There curriculum is based on the Social Learning Theory and combines three powerful principles of education:

Kids learn best from people they respect. Role models have a unique power to influence young minds. Young people listen to and emulate their heroes. Grassroot Soccer uses professional players and other role models as HIV educators and spokespeople.

Learning is not a spectator sport. Adolescents retain knowledge best when they are active participants in the learning process, teaching others what they themselves have learned. Grassroot Soccer graduates are trained to become peer educators and advocates in their communities.

It takes a village. Role models can change what young people think about, but lifelong learning requires lifelong community support. Grassroot Soccer fosters community involvement through youth outreach, long-term partnerships and special events like graduation ceremonies for graduates.

With the World Cup coming up in South Africa next year, Grassroots Soccer is looking to raise the awareness of their activities so check out there website and see how you can help.

Over the past 12 months there has been a marked change in the way Venture Capital in Quebec is being managed. A number of the previously big players such as “the Caisse” and the “FTQ” have chosen to pull out of direct investment in start-up’s and now instead invest in professionally manged VC funds such as ID Capital, Brightspark and Garage Ventures.

The money flowing into these funds requires investing and once invested requires ongoing management by the Partners at these funds. The net result tends to be one where the average size of an investment increases – “au Quebec” in 2006 the average VC investment rose to $3.4M from 2005′s $2.1M. A longer term problem that can occur, particularly if Angel Investor activity is low, is that fewer new ideas and entrepreneurs are given the chance to grow – some evidence of this can be seen from the fact that almost 75% of Quebec investment in 2006 was made as a “follow-on” funding compared to 68% in 2005.

The VC’s are in somewhat or a lose-lose situation – they don’t have the resources to make many smaller investments – but if they don’t get new companies, entrepreneurs and ideas coming through then they are not going to have an opportunity to make many larger investments.

There have been some interesting initiatives in other parts of the world. I particularly like the Early Growth Funds that the UK Government launched and New Zealand’s Seed Co-Investment Fund. Both funds are manged by professional fund mangers and target businesses seeking between £50,000 ($NZ50,000) and £250,000 ($NZ250,000) of equity. Interestingly though, in both cases all investments must be made, on a 1:1 basis, alongside funds provided by Angel Investors.

Given the number of exciting ideas and capable individuals that are coming to the surface as a result of initiatives such as DemoCamp, BarCamp, Tech Breakfast etc. and the resulting demand for seed level funding, MSU is now working with local entrepreneurs, Angels, VC’s and government bodies to see whether this type of fund structure, along with support and advice from experienced Angel entrepreneurs, might be feasible in Montreal.

Click below:

Make your own Razz!