THIS WEEK IN TECTORIA

A community blog celebrating Victoria's booming tech sector

CONTACT THE TECTORIA BLOG

Got a cool story about technology and creativity in Victoria? Email stories, tips, pictures, links and anything of interest to Tessa Bousfield at: tectoria@viatec.ca

Ho Kim: Nominate Yourself or Somebody Else for the VIATeC Board

by

Don’t miss out! VIATeC’s AGM and board elections are coming up on September 18; the deadline for nominations for board elections is September 5.

Ho Kim, President and CEO of CAMACC Systems and VIATeC board chair explains why participating on the VIATeC board of directors is a great way to give back to your community.

b5-camacckim-jpgPhoto courtesy Adrian Lam, Times Colonist

 

Ho Kim: I run a successful technology company, which means I’m a lot like you.

Okay, I’m probably taller and more Asian than you, but my point is that if you’re involved in the management of a complicated, demanding technology business, you and I have a lot in common.

We’re busy.

Seriously, relentlessly, balls-to-the-wall busy.

One of the things our shared experience tells me about you is that you’re not really looking for more things to add to your days or evenings.

You Only Get Out of Your Community What You Put Into It

That was me, three years ago, before I was nominated for a seat on the VIATeC board. My company had been a member of VIATeC for years. A quiet member, a not-really-interested-in-more-on-our-plate kind of member.

In truth, I was never satisfied with that kind of membership in the local technology community.

I’ve always played team sports, so I know – I know deep in my bones (the ones that ache today because I’ve always played team sports) – that you only get out what you put in.

Like all busy people, I needed a push to participate, an obligation to do what I knew to be right for me and my company and the community.

So I put on my game face, and made the conscious – and a little bit scary – decision to run for a seat on the VIATeC board. It was a great decision.

Connect With Your Community on the VIATeC Board

Being on the board, and sitting as board chair for the past year, has been a great obligation, in that it has obligated me to participate in a surprisingly wide range of VIATeC activities – participation that has helped me and my staff develop, connect, and serve the wider community.

We’re now plugged into sector roundtables, where leaders share experience and learn from each other; social and networking events; promotional events like the technology awards; community service activities like the FoodBank Challenge…

My company and I have benefitted greatly from all of them.

Nominate yourself, or somebody else, for a position on the VIATeC board

I know that you and your company will benefit in the same way, even though you’re busy. Maybe because of it. Let me encourage you to think of yourself, or somebody you know, in terms of the same obligation to participate in VIATeC.

Nominate yourself, or somebody else, for a position on the VIATeC board.

Do it today!

Ho Kim

President and CEO, CAMACC Systems

VIATeC Board Chair

The nomination deadline is September 5, 2014.

Broke Your Smartphone Screen? Just Swap It Out!

by

araaaaa1

Google’s Advanced Technologies and Products Group (ATAP) is on a mission: build a modular smartphone.

Google and design company New Deal have floated a concept for a modular Android phone ecosystem called Project Ara that lets smartphone users swap modules (batteries, radios, cameras, screens, etc) around between “exoskeletons.”

The most obvious and immediate practical application of a modular phone is that if you drop the phone and shatter the screen, you can quickly and easily (and, hopefully, cheaply) swap in a new one. Or if your battery runs out and you’re away from a charger, just switch to a new one.

The two breakthroughs that make this design possible are a piece of hardware dubbed the endoskeleton and a concept New Deal refers to as “parceling.”

google modular phone

For ATAP and Google, the goal is to build a device that will make the smartphone accessible to the billions of people who can’t afford iPhones and Galaxy S5s.

They plan to release the first phone in less than a year, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, besides some great Project Ara eye candy, the Verge has a good breakdown of all the crazy phones you can make with Google’s Project Ara.

 

Can You Help With Cool Aid’s Housing Development Plan?

by

Can Tectorians rise to the challenge?

Innovative Victoria community agency Cool Aid needs an additional 360 apartments to be there when people need us, and we plan to build them in the next 5 years. Look at CoolAid.org/endhomelessness for details on how.

unnamed

In 1968 people said a bunch of college kids would never end homelessness in Victoria.

They hadn’t met Steve Jobs yet either.

For 46 years the Victoria Cool Aid Society has provided innovative solutions to help people experiencing homelessness, addictions, and mental health issues. Not bad for a charity started by students in the basement of an abandoned church.

That abandoned church is now the Belfry Theatre, and Cool Aid now operates 14 facilities across Greater Victoria, including a full-service health centre, dental clinic, three shelters, a community centre, and nine supportive housing buildings. Cool Aid provides over 90% of our city’s emergency shelter beds, and helps over 9,000 individuals each year to overcome or completely avoid homelessness.

You can understand why “avoid” is everyone’s first choice.

unnamed (1)

Cool Aid is committed not just to helping folks struggling with homelessness, but putting an end to it by providing enough supported homes to have one ready when somebody loses theirs. When we talk about innovation, imagine a city without people sleeping on the streets, without families living in cars and tents in parks; isn’t that cool? It’s what Cool Aid is all about.

More homes are what our city needs right now. Cool Aid has 374 apartments supported by trained staff 24/7, but there’s a waiting list 9 months long to get in. That’s far too long.

Cool Aid can’t do it alone. Strong partnerships with the Coalition to End Homelessness and local government agencies will help, but the key to making it happen is individual backers. Once Cool Aid raises $5 million in community donations our partners will kick in the rest. Care to join us?

Tectorian of the Week: TinyMob Games

by

06-tegu-of-kul_tar_final

Our Tectorian of the Week for April 11 is TinyMob Games. …You may have heard of them in Tech Cruch.

TinyMob unveiled their first game earlier today at the massive PAX East Boston gaming conference. It’s hard to believe TinyMob, led by Tectorians Chris Hoefgen, Alex Mendelev and Jamie Toghill, opened their studio last fall, just a few months ago.

Besides getting critical home-town recognition in a glowing Times Colonist article today, TinyMob and its new game is also the subject of a longer Tech Crunch profile published just this morning.

Tiny Realms, a Unity-based real-time strategy game for iPad and iPhone, looks like it’s going to be awesome, and it’s very cool that a Victoria-based company is creating eye candy that appeals to millions of gamers around the world.

The game lets you build worlds, assemble armies, wage wars, and build empires.

Tiny Realms is also generating a lot of exciting in a mobile games industry always seeking innovative ways to remain competitive and profitable.

“We have content and features planned out for the next 12 months post launch that not only add content, but will also expose more of the underlying mythology we’ve created for our world,” Mendelev says in the Tech Crunch interview. “The way we bring this to life is through player events actually having an impact on the fabric of the Tiny Realms universe. Player actions will leave indelible marks on the game we’ve created that other players will get to experience, too.”

The team unveiled the name, images and a trailer of game play at the PAX East Boston gaming conference. The finished product will be released later this spring.

 

Innovation Right Here: Andrew Wilkinson

by

andrew wilkinson bc minister

We want to acknowledge the hard work of Andrew Wilkinson, MLA for Vancouver-Quilchena and the provincial minister responsible for growing BC’s technology industry.

Since becoming BC’s Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services about a year ago, Andrew has proven himself to be a champion for tech entrepreneurs and tech companies in Greater Victoria and the rest of the province.

In short, Andrew is helping grow and celebrate the success of innovation, right here in Victoria and every corner of BC.

We Tectorians think he deserves some recognition!

First, some background…

The other day, Dan Gunn, Rob Bennett, and Accelerate Tectoria’s very own Crowd Content attended Cascadia Startup Day in Vancouver. The event is organized by BC’s leading technology incubators, including Wavefront, one of Accelerate Tectoria’s partners in the BC Acceleration Network.

The BC Acceleration Network itself is funded and supported by our friends at BC Innovation Council, which itself works closely with Andrew Wilkinson in his role as the provincial minister responsible for growing BC’s tech sector.

So, Cascadia Startup Day features a high-energy pitch competition that connects tech entrepreneurs across the Cascadia region with investors, media, and industry professionals.

Dan, Rob, and Crowd Content worked hard all day to mingle, network, and spread the word about Crowd Content, and… it worked!

After a few hours, Crowd Content was selected from between 25 other start-ups to be among 5 “finalists” to give a public pitch to 500+ attendees. By the end of the afternoon Crowd Content was already talking with potential new customers.

While the Tectoria team was working the room, Andrew Wilkinson actually came looking for the VIATeC contingent, hoping to catch up with what’s happening in Victoria tech scene.

Government ministers are typically busy (and popular) people at events like Cascadia Startup Day, so it was really notable that Andrew was able to make time for Victoria’s tech community.

Then, when it was time for his presentation about BC’s booming technology industry, Andrew began by acknowledging the hard work of organizations like VIATeC and Kelowna’s Accelerate Okanagan in growing BC’s regional tech sector.

Andrew gave some highlights of a recent BC Stats report about the explosive growth of the tech sector in every corner of BC. Read the report here.

It’s great to be remembered and acknowledged, especially when there is so much good news already coming out of Andrew’s home turf of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.

It can be hard to keep up, but Andrew Wilkinson has consistently championed tech companies in every corner of the province.

Building a strong, vibrant tech sector that creates plenty of high-paying jobs is truly a team effort, and we want to give a shout out to Minister Andrew Wilkinson, thanking him for his hard work!

How Amazon Fire TV Stacks Up To Apple TV, Chromecast and Roku

by

amazon fire tv

Amazon has just announced its streaming TV media device: Fire TV is a yet another direct challenge by Amazon against other tech giants and incumbents.

So how does the Amazon TV compare to Apple TV, Google Chromecast and Roku’s lineup?

First-party content for a cheaper price

Amazon Instant Video library is huge and well-known, and offers a vast range of content from well-recognized sources. Amazon also features some exclusive streaming deals, and is also starting produce original content.

The price tag? $99 a year.

Apple TV is perhaps the biggest competitor with an equally vast amount of content, but to access all of it you are going to pay more than Amazon’s $99 a year.

Google Play does not feature nearly the same variety of content, while Roku relies on third-party content.

Third-party content

Third-party content in this context means being able to use a smartphone, combined with an app, to stream content to your television. Google’s Chromecast is designed specifically to do this, as are Roku, and Apple TV and Airplay.

However, third-party content provider Netflix competes directly with Amazon Instant, and for the moment Amazon Fire TV will have a lot of catching up to do… if Amazon is truly serious about facilitating third-party content.

Gaming

Neither Chromecast nor Roku currently offer a compelling gaming experience, while Apple TV offers no games at all. On the other hand, Amazon Fire TV looks like it is committed to providing a quality gaming experience.

Size and ease of use

Chromecast is a simple (and cheap) HDMI dongle, and Roku offers a similar “stick” device. Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV are more traditional boxes with cables and power cords.

All have their advantages and disadvantages when setting up, with no clear winner.

Price

Apple TV is $99; the Roku series ranges from $50 to $100. Google’s Chromecast is just $35. Amazon’s Fire TV is $99.

Tectorian of the Week

by

Tectorian of the week - Feb 14th 2014Y-Combinator backs Sendwithus

Joining the likes of Reddit, Dropbox, and Songkick, sendwithus is now a member of “The most prestigious program for budding digital entrepreneurs”, Y-Combinator.

Twice a year, Y-Combinator invests a small amount of money ($14-20k + an $80k note) in a large number of startups (most recently 52). The startups move to Silicon Valley for 3 months, during which they work intensively with them to get the company into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors.

During their time in the Accelerate Tectoria program, Matt Harris and Brad Van Vugt found themselves repeatedly having to change a bunch of email templates and wanting to test different variants.  What they found was that there was no real technology in place to do so, “Larger companies will usually build their own systems for this”, they explain.

What resulted was a mission to bring optimization and A/B testing to marketers and anyone else sending out targeted promotional emails which led to the birth of sendwithus.

Sendwithus created a website where customers can select from pre-made email templates or upload their own, log in to their preferred email provider, and then set up A/B tests and drip campaigns. Customers also have access to analytics showing how variants and campaigns are performing.

Harris said Sendwithus is focused on “transactional emails” (i.e., the emails that are sent to specific users at specific times, usually to accomplish a specific task) as opposed to newsletters or other broad campaigns. Just managing all the different templates and automatically sending the right one out at the right time is important to the company’s customers, he added.

Founded 11 months ago, Sendwithus already processes more than 1 million emails a day, he added, and its customers include 8tracks, uSell, SuperRewards and App.net. Pricing starts at $19 a month and there’s also a free version for emailing up to 100 customers.

Tectoria Newsletter Signup

by

Every Friday the Tectoria team send out an engaging, eclectic update about what’s going on in Tectoria: Canada’s hottest technology region.

Learn about people making a difference in our tech scene, as well as events and activities that can help you connect with your fellow Tectorians and your community.

Sign up below and get a newsletter in your email inbox once a week!

Subscribe to This Week In Tectoria

* indicates required field




 

Tectorian of the Week

by

 Baby Iver
On December 28th, fellow Tectorian and entrepreneur, Dylan Benson lost his wife to a sudden hemorrhage of blood to her brain. At the time, she was 22 weeks pregnant.

Physicians are attempting to keep Robyn’s body alive for up to 7 more weeks (potentially until she is at or near 34 weeks pregnant).  The thought process behind this is that if they can keep her body alive, it will give their unborn son (his name will be Iver Cohen Benson) a good chance of surviving a c-section at that time. The doctors have said that he now has higher than an 80% of survival and that increases with every day that passes. There are roughly only 30 published medical records of this type of thing being attempted, but so far, amazingly, they have been successful.

Most of us know Dylan very well. He is one of the good guys that works hard and contributes his time and energy to the local tech community.  

It was his idea to bring Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian to Victoria for his keynote speech at last year’s Thinklanida festival. HE has also stepped up an organizer for the popular Tectoria ‘Startup Meetup’ networking group.  Since joining local e-commerce company RevenueWire in December 2011, Dylan has also gone on to co-found his own online gift-exchange company called somethinginthemail.com.

Dylan and his family are enduring the unthinkable and we encourage you all to read his story in his own words and please support Baby Iver by donating to the trust fund in his name. This story has now touched the hearts of thousands and recently been widely covered in the media but please consider sharing with your contacts and social circles.