Tony Perkins founder of Red Herring and AlwaysOn, spoke at the opening of Entrepreneur Week. The man who predicted the burst of the dotcom bubble believes that "the greatest Internet companies have yet to arrive."

Tony believes that blogs, and the "blogosphere" are part of an open media revolution - the "open web", or Web 2.0. Hey, you're soaking in one now.

From Canada.com:

"Every great industry -- airlines, television, automobiles, railroads, you name it -- was built on the back of a financial mania during which the average investment generated a negative return," Mr. Perkins said yesterday in a keynote speech at the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation's Venture and Technology Summit.

"But the real action happened after the blowout," said Mr. Perkins, 46, who is based in Silicon Valley.

He believes that stronger companies are emerging as they reap the benefits of lower startup costs and ongoing Internet penetration. He predicts that 70 per cent of the best firms will end up being founded between 2002 and 2007.

In other words, it's time to get started.