Bits Republic presented its case for data mobilization at the 24th Angel Forum held at SFU Harbour Centre on Monday. Their mission is to make one's information accessible anywhere in the world, as well as acessible online and off. As such, they introduced the My Own Bits (MOB) platform, which not only hosts documents but also alerts clents to changes in those documents, and also have access to their documents even when they aren't on the Internet. Bits Republic also stressed the end-to-end nature of their security solution, with documents encrypted before thye leave the computer or origin. The document is also hosted by Bits Republic, but they can't sThe MOBS platform has been established and is (according to Bits Republic) ready for implementation, and the company is now ready to begin tackling different markets with targeted products.
MOB-PS is targeted at professional firms such as lawyers, and would cost $1,000 a year. MOB-BR is aimed at creating data rooms for virtual Mergers and Acquisitions. Finally, Bits Republic has created MOB-EMR, which targets the medical market and would cost $1,200 a year.
The novaNAIT Centre for Applied Research and Technology Transfer is running a new competition for local entrepreneurs. The novaNAIT Technology Commercialization Challenge aims to introduce and generate interest around applied research. Any Edmonton-area resident 18 years of age and older can submit a business idea for the chance to win up to $10,000 worth of services.
NovaNAIT is the new technology transfer arm of NAIT, much like TEC Edmonton is the technology transfer arm of the U of A. The goal is to help inventors and entrepreneurs get their ideas into the marketplace. The challenge is novaNAIT’s way of introducing itself to the community, and was inspired by an internal challenge held for NAIT staff in December 2006.
When I first came across the challenge, I noted that it seemed similar to TEC Edmonton’s VenturePrize. I asked David Burry, Coordinator of novaNAIT’s Prototype Development Program, about the similarity and he told me that he feels the competition compliments VenturePrize. The prizes for the novaNAIT Challenge aren’t quite as big, but they are tailored to the specific needs of the winner. Also, the competition is open to everyone whereas VenturePrize focuses on high-tech and fast-growth sectors. Burry said both competitions share the goal of “assisting in small business development and enhancing the entrepreneurial culture” in Edmonton.
If you’d like to participate in the novaNAIT Challenge, you need to submit an entry form (pdf) no later than 4pm MST on November 21st, 2008 (a week from today). Those entries will be judged and successful entrants will be invited to give a five minute presentation on their idea to a panel of judges on December 11th, 2008. The winner will be chosen and announced the following day.
The judges will evaluate entries on how innovative they are, the commercial and technical viability of the idea, the marketability of the solution, and the potential for economic impact in Alberta. The initial submission should not contain confidential details, but the presentations in phase two can (judges will sign a non-disclosure agreement). Entrepreneurs who choose to participate retain full ownership of their ideas.
I think we could use more competitions such as this one. Having participated in VenturePrize myself, I know how much work goes into a submission, and I think it turns many people away. The novaNAIT Challenge seems more accessible, and is a good way for local entrepreneurs to get some practice articulating their ideas to others in the community.
For more information on the novaNAIT Challenge, visit the website or contact David Burry via email or at 780.378.6187. If you’re planning to participate, I’d love to hear about it!
The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology is a leader in technical training and applied education designed to meet the demands of Alberta's... [more]
Today a TransLink iPhone app was launched on the iTunes App Store, which was created by Vancouver's Handi Mobility. The app is near identical to the m.translink.ca web app launched last month, providing schedule information for any route or stop in the system, but it uses PhoneGap (a made in Vancouver, open source solution) to run locally on the device. This allows it to load faster than the web version, and also use phone hardware features like geolocation. Whereas the user previously had to enter a stop or route number, the app now suggests a list of stops closest to your current location.
On Translink's Buzzer Blog Handi's Igor Faletski talks about how reasonably priced data plans have enabled applications like this, and shares some stats.
Our company is focused on mobile internet and its applications. We were just waiting for the day that Vancouver could get affordable data rates so more people could access our services. Then the iPhone launched, had affordable rates, and provided a rich visual experience. Put together, we needed to make sure TransLink could get to that audience.
...
In terms of actual statistics, NextBus SMS serves up to 16,000 text messages a day. When we launched the iPhone portal, traffic to that application grew 300 percent in one month. There are more than 1000 users on it every day and the number keeps growing.
Translink is the first transit system in Canada to have produced it's own iPhone app, but other systems do have third party options. Over east in Toronto, riders of the TTC have the very attractive and functional Red Rocket. At only $1.99, it's the #2 paid app in the "navigation" category. For Montreal, there is the $0.99 STM Mobile with full schedule features but no geolocation.
Two Saskatoon developers are helping Canadian iPhone users find their caffeine fix. Blaine Korte and Cory Jacobsen of zu.com communications in Saskatoon had an early iPhone hit in July with TimmyMe , a free app that locates the nearest Tim Hortons location. Shortly after it's release, TimmyMe shot up to the #2 most popular free app, and even now still ranks in the top 100. More recently in October, they released BucksMe, a Starbucks location finder. For $0.99, the app adds maps functionality and a notepad for recording your secretary's order of a triple-shot soy extra-foam no-whip 1/3rd drizzle extra-hot marble mocha macchiato. Presumably, Starbucks fans aren't be phased by something costing another dollar anyhow.
The popularity of these niche apps show the potential for large brands to do mobile marketing in the form of purposeful apps. The development cost for small apps like these is low, and what better advertising space is there than a phone's home screen?
Established in 1995, we are experts in the systems we’ve developed and the applications we use. We win awards for the sites we build and the... [more]
Microsoft has launched a program called BizSpark to encourage the use of their products by upcoming startups. As part of the program, they are giving away 3 yr subscriptions for MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network), which will enable startups to obtain free access to tools like Visual Studio, Windows Server, SQL Server and even the recently launched Windows Azure. This is a worldwide program and the eligibility criteria for startups is as follows:
This is great news for startups, as the main reason to not choose these impressive Microsoft tools uptil now has been the cost involved in acquiring them. For two guys in a garage with the next killer idea, it is an easy decision to just go on eclipse.org and get that free IDE and start coding rightaway instead of shelling out several hundred dollars for Visual Studio. And likewise for other tools from Microsoft.
The result has been that over the past several years, most startups developing consumer web applications have built their product offering on the "LAMP" stack, using free and open source software like Eclipse, Apache, Linux, MySQL, etc. The most popular example of such a startup is probably Facebook. For a developer-focused company like Microsoft, this couldn't have been a palatable situation. BizSpark seems like a win-win program for both Microsoft and startups alike.
My experience with having used Microsoft's .NET, the LAMP stack and also the J2EE environment for creating web applications has been that for the fastest time to market - nothing beats Microsoft's tools, if you can afford them. LAMP stack is free and open source, and that is great, but you also spend a lot of time on tweaking things manually, and while that has its benefits, it also means that at the end of the day - the product will ship later than it could have. Likewise for J2EE which involves a lot of time spent in archaic configuration files. Friendster, one of the early social networks, initially built out their product on J2EE. Despite having a JSP book author on the team, they were not able to quickly scale their product and ended up having switching completely to the LAMP stack. By the time, a much quicker site called Facebook, built using PHP, surfaced and trounced them.
For startups with unproven ideas and very limited resources, it is a much better proposition to build something as soon as they can, get it out there and see the market response and then think about the next step. These free tools from Microsoft will definitely help in that.
Tonight was without a doubt our best DemoCamp ever here in Edmonton. With six fairly solid demos, nearly 150 people in attendance, and no technical glitches in sight, it’ll be hard to top DemoCampEdmonton4 but we’re certainly going to try! It’s just amazing to see the community grow like this – thanks to everyone who came out.
Tonight we had six demos:
It wasn’t planned at all, but all of the products that were demoed tonight seemed really polished. The interfaces were all slick and professional looking!
I think my “demo of the night” goes to ODIL’s Surveyor. I really like the interface, and the application itself seems pretty solid for something so early-stage. ElectionBuddy and Edistorm also had great demos, and have lots of potential. I think PureInbox could have been a great demo, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of the app itself. The History Books was entertaining, but as I said on Twitter, it seemed like something that came out of a few late night domain name purchases. Grant did a wicked presentation, showing us eight different projects that his Flash design firm has been involved with. He was definitely the most captivating presenter.
Tonight was also the first public announcement for Edmonton Code Camp! It’s going to take place on Saturday, November 29th at the MacEwan campus downtown. You can find more information here, and the domain will be http://www.edmontoncodecamp.com (working through some DNS issues currently). We’ll share more details soon.
The venue worked well again this time, and once again I had Free Wifi going (though it could have been a bit more reliable). I live-twittered the demos, which you can find at Twitter Search along with updates from others in attendance.
I think lots of people like DemoCamp just for the networking opportunity afterward, and again we had a full house at The Windsor Pub. Was great to see a bunch of new faces in the crowd too! Thanks to Smibs for sponsoring tonight’s event.
If you’d like to be notified about future DemoCamp and BarCamp events in Edmonton, sign up for the mailing list here.
See you at DemoCampEdmonton5!
Recent switcher from Windows to Mac or Linux, or contemplating it? Firstly, congratulations for ending that abusive relationship, and second, today is your lucky day. Today only, CodeWeavers is offering their CrossOver products for download with a free serial number. CrossOver is based on the open source Wine project, and acts as a compatibility layer to run Windows apps right in Mac OS X or your preferred flavour of Linux; no reboot required.
It allows you to run Windows apps like Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Quicken, Adobe's suite, and more. Games like Counter Strike, Half Life 2, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Guild Wars, and Team Fortress 2 can all be run at near native performance. Additionally on Linux you can use it to run iTunes or Quicktime, not previously possible. CrossOver is different from virtualization products like VMware and Parallels because it doesn't have to run a full instance of Windows; it re-implements Windows APIs to make programs think they're running on Windows. Thus it offers better performance, but sacrifices some compatibility with less popular applications.
Get your free download today only at CodeWeavers.
When I received a phone book this year, it went straight to the recycle. I couldn't imagine that I would ever open a dead tree copy of information that I could access much quicker online. Directory publishers have been realizing that the writing is on the wall and have been diversifying with online offerings.
Today Canpages, based in Vancouver, announced the creation of ImmersiFind, a new division to license it's local search platform. The platform includes local content, map views, mobile interfaces, SMS functionality, and social media widgets. Local news, traffic and weather are also part of the platform, going beyond traditional directory functions.
Boasting a circulation of more than 7.2 million, Canpages publishes over 70 local telephone directories across Ontario, BC, Quebec, Alberta, the... [more]
DemoCamp 11, already?
This Thursday at 6:30pm is DemoCamp 11. It hardly seems like any time has passed since the last DemoCamp and we are already getting set to watch another group of founders show us what is new in Calgary. Come out and join everyone at Critical Mass (map), I hear there is even going to be beer!
Also, the Calgary UX Meetup is taking place at Vicious Circle at 5:30pm. Stop by on your way to DemoCamp, they are only a few blocks away from each other. Convenient, or just good planning?
For more details head over to the BarCampCalgary page. See you on Thursday.
When we last wrote about Smibs, they had just started private beta testing for Doorbell, a web-based sales software application. Now, four months later, it's ready for public beta testing:
The application will be launched off SmibsNet, a professional business networking site that allows professionals to promote themselves and their companies. Billed as “sales software for non-sales people”, Doorbell helps business owners and employees save time and energy managing client relationships and sales-related activities.
I created an account and found the entire process to be fairly painless. Setting up my personal profile and creating a company was simple - the interface is friendly and easy-to-understand. I was particularly happy to find that everything seemed to work okay (just one minor glitch) in my browser of choice (Opera 9.6) even though it is not officially supported! Here are a couple of screenshots:
Like similar applications, Doorbell is pretty useless until you enter some contacts. There are three ways to do that: you can either type in all the information yourself, you can find people in the public SmibsNet network, or you can import from Outlook (or VCard). The first two methods will work well for a small business looking to use Smibs as its contact management solution. For anyone that already has a contact list elsewhere however, the import method is the way to go.
Once you've got some contacts in the system, you can tag them, organize them into groups, and add tasks and notes. You can also add relationships between contacts.
Throughout the public invite-only beta, Smibs is looking for feedback on how to improve the system. Current testers will be able to invite their friends and colleagues to the network, and everyone else can request an invite here. Techvibes readers can sign up using this special link.
I stopped by the Smibs office last night to see how the team was doing. Everyone seemed surprisingly calm for being just hours away from a public launch! Founder Peter Urban was hard at work finishing up some getting started videos for the site. He ran into a few issues, but chalked it up to Murphy's law, telling me "that's all you can expect the night before launch!" Down the hall, a few developers worked to quash some last minute bugs while another team ensured the other items on the checklist were being completed. I did my best to stay out of the way!
Though everyone cringed at the thought of staying up until the wee hours of the morning, the excitement of being able to show off their work with the rest of the world was clearly there.
I'm happy for Peter and his team, and I hope the public beta goes well. It's great to see another local startup putting itself out there on the world stage!
Small businesses struggle with finding new clients while working on projects that pay the bills. There is just not enough time and energy for a... [more]
