FOO, XERO AND SERATO

Reports are filtering out about the directions discussion took over the weekend at Kiwi Foo Camp, the gathering of geeks, creative types, entrepreneurs and politicians in Warkworth. It sounds like it was a really good event. Russell Brown, who helped organise it has a decent write-up. Juha at Geekzone also chips in as does Mauricio.

The most positive things to come out of Foo seem to have been communications minister David Cunliffe deciding to make internet peering a priority this year, something which could aid New Zealand web companies. It's also been interesting to hear of some of the developments planned for Firefox 3.0, courtesy of Kiwi Firefox and Google developer Ben Goodger. Rod Drury demonstrated his new web-based accounting service Xero and I notice the Xero website has now gone live.

In a maiden blog posting, Drury writes:

"As small business owners ourselves, we know what it's like. We know that cashflow is king. We understand the pressure of trying to spend quality time with your kids when your tax return is due tomorrow."

In other words, Xero is designed to make life easier for small business owners who want to spend the minimum of time dealing with accounting issues. Sounds good, can't wait to see it in action.

Also, a story of mine in the Herald today about an innovative Auckland company called Serato, which is doing great things on the world stage on the live deejay and music recording scene.