PICK 20 Roundup of Canada’s Leading Web 2.0 Pioneers

Backbone Magazine has announced the second annual PICK 20 roundup of Canada’s leading Web 2.0 pioneers.

Created by Backbone and KPMG, the PICK 20 is the only national ranking of its kind and some of the judges and winners are our friends.

Among the Judges
Super-smart social media and digital marketing expert, Kate Trgovac is president of LintBucket Media, a boutique marketing agency headquartered in Vancouver which focuses on social media, community building and digital content creation. We love Kate and her marketing and technology blog.

Among the Winners

#8 NowPublic Friend Michael Tippett
http://www.nowpublic.com

Crowdsourced/participatory news gathering

A winner last year, “NowPublic continues at the forefront of the reinvention of news media,” according to O’Connor Clarke. “They continue to impress with the rate of their growth, their constant innovation and their overall leadership in defining the future of citizen media.” Napier said the company’s “scan tool, which acts as a filtering system, appears to be positioned to help readers get the information that is most valuable and relevant to them,” but Trgovac, while impressed by the company, is “still not sure how they make money.”

11 ThoughtFarmer Friend Chris McGrath, and social media gurus Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo who introduced me to ThoughtFarmer
http://www.thoughtfarmer.com

Intranet software which incorporates social networking features

A winner last year, ThoughtFarmer “is still great, although they’ve got some tough competition. Still, it has a solid team, smart products and really cool marketing,” according to O’Connor Clarke. Trgovac also sees “lots of competition in the marketplace” but also calls ThoughtFarmer “one of the best social intranet applications I’ve seen, with a great interface and features.”

#20 Pixton Friend and CEO/Creator Clive Goodinson and Creative Director Daina M. Goodinson
http://www.pixton.com

A site where people create, publish, share and remix comics

Geist enjoyed seeing something “new and creative” and Shende said Pixton “outputs creativity, collaboration, crowdsourcing and community all in an innovative new spin on an old, previously non-democratic medium.” The judges hope Pixton can monetize the service. “If the company can continue to attract classrooms willing to try the solution, and highlight the value delivered to entice institutions to pay for the subscription, the company could turn a fun comic-strip tool into something that’s really adding value and providing a revenue stream,” Napier said.

Congratulations to all 20 winners!