mesh - Canada's Web 2.0 confernece- continues to come together. Today, we've finalized our hotel deal with The Delta Chelsea in downtown Toronto. We're also having a post-conference social on Monday night at The Drake, an ultra-cool hotel/night club. Check out the mesh blog for all the details on what's happening. You can register for mesh here.

Charlene Li has sure set off a firestorm of controversy in the wake of her report that suggested only 1% of households listen currently to podcasts. The blogosphere went into hyper-mode with criticism and support. The critics - most of them actively involved in the podcasting industry - were fairly brutal with some wondering what planet Li is living on. eMarketer has weighed into the fray by highlighting a recent report that suggests there will be 15-million podcast listeners by 2010 - which is not that different than Li's 12.3-million estimate. Below, you'll find a graphic from the report.



Shameless plug: check out my first podcast (done with National Post colleague Kevin Restivo) here. We're looking for tips, ideas, a name and a podcast hosting service.

Craig McCaw's Clearwire Corp., which provides high-speed Internet access through its own flavour of Wi-Max, has launched a VoIP service in Stockton, Ca. For those us in Canada, it's an interesting development because Clearwire's VoIP technology is being supplied by Bell Canada. Bell injected $100-million in Clearwire, whos investors also include Intel Corp. Clearwire offers high-speed service in 27 markets across the U.S., as well as Ireland, Belgium, Dennmark and Mexico. For McCaw, Clearwire, which recently raised $360-million in debt, offers a way for him to catch lightning in a bottle again after two big-time misses: XO Communications Inc., which went bankrupt in 2002 after trying to take on the Bells in the local phone market; and Teledesic LLC, which dreamt of offering high-speed Internet access by putting hundreds of satellites before shutting down before even putting a satellite in orbit. Then again, McCaw made $11.5-billion selling McCaw Wireless to AT&T in 1994 so it's not like he can't afford an entrepreneurial mistake. Bell launched its own Wi-Max service last month along with joint venture partner Rogers Communications.
Update: Engadget has more details on the cost of the service and features.