Craig Wireless to offer WiMax in Vancouver

MotorolaThe battle over Vancouver's next generation wireless internet market is heating up. Just over a year after Rogers and Bell teamed up to establish a the first WiMax network in Vancouver, Craig Wireless Systems has decided to build a WiMax network as well, with the help of their friend Motorola. This announcement comes after the decision by Industry Canada decided to award Craig Wireless a Broadband Radio Service License.

Vancouver, as a result, is going to have two 4G networks satisfying its wireless needs as WiMax technology makes its much-anticipated entrance into the internet mainstream.

Motorola will provide its end-to-end WiMAX solution, including base stations, wireless access controllers and an operation and maintenance center, as well as supporting services for network design, planning, installation and optimization for end-to-end integration of the network, which will operate in the 2.5GHz spectrum band.

"The Motorola solution will enable us to hit the ground running in our Vancouver market and seize immediate opportunities to serve our customers with new mobile services and applications," said Rod Vandenbos, president of Craig Wireless Systems Ltd. "Our customers in Vancouver will be able to enjoy fast, reliable connections to the Internet anywhere they live, work or play."

Nothing wrong with a little competition.

23 year-old CEO Pursues Growth During Recession

AppnovationIt's been the end to justify all our means; we stalk it relentlessly, tragically through this inglorous recession. Growth. At a time when small businesses struggle against a steady current of corporate decay, it can seem an almost futile pursuit. But 23 year old Vancouver CEO Arnold Leung contends that growth should not be discouraged. He and his start-up Appnovation Technologies have pursued a strategy of aggressive growth by focussing on niche markets, and have managed to grow their company and their market share in the short three years they have been around.

Appnovation is an interactive agency specializing in developing web sites and software applications using Drupal, an open source web development platform. Arnold Leung, who was only three years ago a student at the UBC Sauder School of Business, cutting his teeth on local business community initiatives, has now grown Appnovation to over sixteen employees, and brought on well-known clients such as The Canadian Cancer Society, NBC Universal, and Sage Software. With these large clients and the thought leadership it provides to the development community with its highly-trafficked company blog, Appnovation has swiftly been able to position itself as an industry leader in its niche markets: iPhone application development, and the development and implementation of the Alfresco open source Content / Document management system.

Appnovation has also increased its market share by joining forces with Vancouver based Work at Play and signing partnerships with Massachusetts-based Acquia, (The commercial support of Drupal), and other web agencies such as local VKI Studios, Seattle-based based Perfect Pixels, and New York-based Axis Point. In the past several months Leung has significantly expanded his offices and brought on new industry veterans to help him continue growing the business. With the help of his team, the young CEO continues to enjoy unprecedented success in not only local but international markets.

“[it’s] the perfect time to be more aggressive with sales and to grow our market share” says Leung. The core strategy of the company “has always been to focus on niche markets... by providing exceptional service to these markets we can capture a large amount of market share. With this in mind we can highly focus our marketing and sales tactics to provide us with the best possible return on investment.  It has been this micro targeting that has allowed us to grow swiftly over the last several years without feeling the effects of the recession.”

Appnovation is just one of the many examples of successful business growth that has taken place over the last several years, helping to remind us that entrepreneurs can use the recession as an opportunity, as Leung puts it, “to not be discouraged.”

AIESEC Provides Pro-D for Students

AIESECI want to go back to school. Not because I have a specific job in mind that I need a certificate for; not because I miss basing my schedule on ad-hoc, unilateral, spontaneous decision-making; not because I feel insufficiently educated or incapable; and not because I want to get laid (although all these things contain insidious whisperings of truth). I want to go back to school because the first time around I totally missed out on AIESEC.

AIESEC (Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales) is an international, non-profit, student run organization that is focused on building skills and exploring potential as a young person; a comprehensive, broad based, well connected social network of students and recent graduates working together to help each other find out what they want to do, how to get the necessary skills, where to actually get a position, and how to make the world a better place at the same time. And there is no private self-interest conflicting with the students' questing.

AIESEC started in the 1930s and 40s with European schools collaborating on various programs and student exchanges, and has now grown more than 35,000 students strong, hooking up over 5,550 international internships per year for students to live and work abroad. Aside from providing internships, AIESEC provides leadership training trough internal roles to develop necessary skills and career focus, and helps out with the logistis surrounding the exchanges, including accommodation, work permit and more. Each year they deliver over 470 conferences to students, helping them network with one another and gather information to build their future as leaders.

If there is anything I can imagine longing for in the immediate time leading up to and following graduation, it would have been a support group of upwardly mobile, driven young professionals all chasing big dreams and comparing notes along the way, bolstered by a prestigious international presence with political know-how and connections to all sorts of big businesses around the world, offering the opportunity to travel and gain valuable experience fresh out of the meat grinder. And yes, they have an office right here in Vancouver, at SFU. Let me just quickly add this to my list of reasons why I hate SFU for rejecting me when I was in a year-end grade 12 academic death spiral....... OK.

The AIESEC approach is ultimately aimed at “Peace and fulfillment of humankind’s potential” by developing students around values of leadership, integrity, diversity, participation, excellence, enjoyment, and sustainability. Through these values AIESEC helps students to take an active role in their lives, develop a personal vision, learn leadership skills, build a network, and champion a holistic world view for the future.

As far as the business world is concerned, AIESEC has access to a talent pool of the world’s best and brightest young leaders.

Now excuse me again while I find out if I’m young enough and a recent enough graduate to join.

Canadians Pay 5 cents to Have Photos Printed and Sent to Them

Kwikpix.caKwikpix.ca, the Canadian online photo printing service, has announced on Friday the launch of their new online photo service which offers Canadians (with the exception of Quebecers) 4 x 6 prints for only 5 cents a print -- the lowest online price in Canada. Using their streamlined service, customers can upload hi-resolution images, order prints, posters, and photobooks on the spot, and receive them via Canada Post Express Mail within 3-7 business days.

Remember when we used to take a roll of film to a store and pay $30 to have it developed for us over a few days? And spending days picking and arranging your favourites into an album from piles on the floor? Five cents a print? Forget about it. It’s hard not to think that this will be the way all domestic photo prints will soon be made.

The Toronto-based company says it has put together a new, innovative system that enables direct-to-print server workflow, high speed production printing, and high tech production efficiency processes that allows it to provide such cost effective service.

Mixpo Hires Hotshot Video Ad Man

MixpoBill Shaughnessy, a 15 year veteran of Microsoft was snatched up Monday by the video advertising technology company Mixpo, based out of Seattle. Shaughnessy has been steeped in technology and marketing since the 90s PC explosion, when he was with Compaq, one of the market-shattering first IBM Compatible PC companies. In his time with Microsoft he has played a number of critical strategic planning and marketing roles for the company, including most recently Global Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Services in the Advertiser and Publisher solutions Group, as well as General Manager of Digital Advertising Solutions Business Group.

Mixpo, whose goal is to use video advertising to make a more effective and accessible display ad, is thrilled to have him. The maneuver comes at a time when a very chaotic and fast changing online advertising industry is crashing into the sudden massive proliferation of digital video technology and online distribution, and it's beginning to appear that internet audience is fairly receptive to well targeted video advertising.

“Rich video experiences will play an increasingly critical role for marketers, publishers and agencies as it moves to the forefront of effective online advertising at the local level,” said Shaughnessy. “Mixpo is extremely well positioned to be the market leader in this emerging sector. I look forward to working with Anupam (Gupta, CEO) and the rest of the Mixpo team to deliver great customer solutions that further leverage the company’s VideoAd platform.”

That kind of marketing muscle could make Mixpo a serious contender in an ad market exploding with demand for hyper targeting and video technology solutions.

3D Baby Ultrasounds All The Rage

3D Baby UltrasoundAmidst the rapidly-expanding group of people who have come to be the audience of the digital media industry there is now a growing subculture; a niche market of sorts filling select screening rooms throughout the highly developed world. This anxious group of mostly couples are waiting to view one piece of content: live 3D coverage of their unborn child as it resides in its womb.

3D baby ultrasounds are not new technology by any means, but they are a currently seeing a surge in popularity. The Vancouver Sun reports that in Vancouver alone there are five 3D ultrasound clinics, out of seven in the province, seeing anywhere from six to eight clients per day, booked weeks in advance. A session, costing from $150 to $300, gets you the chance to see clear as day the body of your unborn child. Face; features; expressions; tiny little fingers; the pictures are stunning.

the technology behind 3D ultrasounds was first developed by Olaf von Ramm and Stephen Smith at Duke University in 1987. It arrived in BC in 1995 with the opening of UC Baby in Langley’s Walnut Grove, but it is really just heating up in recent years. And why wouldn’t it? We all seem to be riding a rising massive swelling wave of digital video content; in a time where we’re producing such vast works of digital video and computer generated art, it is only natural for us to look for solace in 3D digital renderings of our own offspring. And the graphics just keep getting better.

“Ew! it looks like Kuato from Total Recall!” was the response I got from a friend of mine the other day when I showed her this picture of a 3D baby ultrasound -- it does have a funny little clay alien man look to it. My first thought was that it looked utterly amazing.

But 3D baby ultrasound is controversial. Health Canada and the Canadian Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers recommend parents do not expose their unborn babies to fetal ultrasounds unnecessarily; a practice also discouraged by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine. Meanwhile supporters note that there are many positive results that can come from the experience, even to the effect of improving the behaviour and emotional state of the parents. And of course you can have the magic preserved in images on a CD, a live DVD, or printed to savour for a lifetime.

What’s it like to grow up having this strange 3D cartoon picture of yourself in the womb!?

Photograph by: Som Visao Spa

Lat49 Pins Display Advertising On The Map

It’s become a hallmark of the wayfaring experience, using online maps. Sitting in the bustling centre of a city yet unexplored, wondering where you can find something so specific it would take a long time to hunt for; and you don’t want just an average article of that thing, you want a relatively good one. That, my friends, is an audience hungry for advertising, and so long as the advertising is genuine and particularly relevant to what this foreigner seeks, that advertising is well received indeed.

That’s what the people at Lat49, a Vancouver-based ad network are pushing for with the launch of their new feature MapIt, a system which aims to combine the benefits of display and pushpin ads for a more powerful delivery in on-map advertising, or as it’s affectionately known, Mapvertising. Mapvertising is an ad delivery method that allows brand, service, and retail-based businesses to hyper-target customers by their location through online maps.

The way MapIt works is thus: A confused vagrant stares difficultly at his mobile device, battling the piercing aura of the sun and the rolling din surrounding him; he will search for a place to stay. Straining his eyes, he spots a Holiday Inn display ad in the cloudy glare of his screen, with a little toolbar that says “Map It”. He clicks it approvingly, and to his relief, a handful of little green H’s pepper the mapscape displayed on his screen. He clicks the ad again, recognizing the opportunity presented to him, and is taken straight to the Holiday Inn website where he promptly books himself into a well positioned room.

"Lat49 continues to lead innovation in the geo-contextual and mapvertising markets,” says Keith Ippel, president of Lat49. “By coupling geo-contextual display advertising with pushpins, retail businesses can truly leverage the power of hyper-targeted display advertising and the call-to-action that on-map pushpins provide. Publishers in our network gain from an ad platform that is fully integrated with the mapping experience, which then enhances the experience of their users.”

Usership of this produt is not limited to wayfarers and vagrants.

Zip.ca to Offer Legal Streaming Video to Canadians

Zip.ca

Online DVD streaming is coming to Canada; that is, legal online DVD streaming. Ottawa-based website Zip.ca already handles online DVD rentals, the kind where you make your selection online and wait a couple of days for the DVD to be delivered to your front door, but who does that? Renting a DVD is far too idle an activity for this blogger to plan several days ahead, especially when it takes the same amount of time or less for him to search for an illegal download (not that he would ever dream of it).

Following the success of websites such as Netflix and hulu, Zip.ca is billing itself as Canada’s first ‘legit’ online film and television streaming service. The site will feature a huge selection of titles, obtained through an alliance with Sonic Solutions -- a California-based digital media content publising outfit -- and a smart ‘recommendation algorithm’ to help you decide what you'd like to watch based on your user profile and past rentals, when the rain outside stops your brain from working.

"Pushing movies through the Internet is a natural evolution of the home entertainment market," said Curt Millar, chief operations officer at Zip.ca. "From on air broadcast, the future is getting video data into your living room."

Finally, a legitimate solution to one of this modern man’s laziest catch twenty-twos: the ability to legally rent any DVD title in a comfortable, incidental fashion when it’s too wet to go outside, without going outside.

Nexterra Almost Out of the Woods

Nexterra

A Vancouver energy company is finding itself fortuitously positioned in the green energy market as demand and investment are surging. Nexterra Energy Corp. originally built its biofuel technology to reduce costs for the B.C. forest industry. The technology is based on small, self-contained units that can rely on local biomass for fuel; everything from urban tree trimmings to construction waste is fuel for the system. The key, says CEO Jonathan Rhone, is keeping the units small.

"You need small plants to reduce fuel transportation costs," Rhone said. "We believe that small-scale, highly efficient, ultra-low-emission biomass systems that are built on a distributed basis are really the way to go. We don't think large-scale biomass solutions make a lot of sense."

This small-scaled focus is yielding a huge potential for the company, and has seen them emerge as unlikely players in the grand energy scheme of the future. With interest coming in from giants like GE Energy and Oak Ridge Laboratories -- of Manhattan Project fame -- It’s ironic that such an exhaustive world energy/pollution crisis is inviting of a solution so localized in its conception.

The original project, undertaken by Nexterra for Tolko Industries, was meant to cut natural gas costs, which it did by $1 million per year. But it also produced renewable energy. Today we have over $180 billion contributed by governments world-wide to clean energy technologies, $70 billion alone coming from the U.S., and suddenly there is a world of opportunity out there for companies like Nexterra who, in the next few decades, may be out of the woods and into our homes and automobiles.

More on this story at The Vancouver Sun.

Timu Aims to Deliver Sports-Oriented Social Media

Timu Logo

These days everyone wishes they started the next big social media network, and the expansive online universe, in its enduring esoterica, hardly

fails to offer up new untapped niches for the social media model. That’s why Seattle startup Timu is taking it upon themselves to provide the connective and community-building capabilities of social media to the world of organized amateur sport.

Think about it, playing for sports team in the past (for those of us who found that sort of thing appealing), what communicative powers did we have? Team meetings? Phone calls from the coach? The always satisfying Team Banquet? Timu, led by social media veteran Matt Heaton, has built a platform that will allow amateur athletes, teams, and leagues to coordinate schedules and rosters, post stats and pictures, and generally engage the sports community. Imagine being able to compare your batting average to hundreds of thousands of sporting amateurs in the world, and then, provided your average is sufficient, sending a few cheeky remarks to tomorrow’s opponents. Or watching bowling video posts from last night's local league play to keep an eye on the tournament. Sounds like fun.

Of course, Timu aren’t the only people who have thought of this; there are scores of social media networks in the making out there, even in the sports genre, such as WePlay -- endorsed by LeBron James himself-- Sportsvite, and Vancouver’s own TeamPages. And we can’t forget that that heavyweights like Facebook will be hoping to keep sports groups in it’s enormous, multifaceted fold. But for Matt Heaton there’s is much inadequacy in the existing platforms out there, and he would know a thing or two about social media building, having co-founded the popular Active Rain real estate network.

Timu launches this week.