A community blog celebrating Victoria's booming tech sector
Our Tectorian of the Week is: Latitude Technologies!
They took over VIATEC’s news page this week with non-stop good news news!
Keep up the good work Latitude!!
Our Tectorians of the Week are our challenge participants! (so far):
GlobalWide Media, RevenueWire, GenoLogics, Beanstream, RingPartner, Victoria Flying Club, Tourism Victoria, Carmanah Technologies Corp., Smart Dolphins IT Solutions, Victoria Airport Authority, HP Advanced Solutions, SendtoNews, CUBE Global Storage, FTS (Forest Technology Systems), StarFish Medical, AXYS Technologies and Flytographer!
These confident companies are the first to step up to the VIATEC Food Bank Challenge which runs from Nov 7th to Dec 2nd. There was no hesitation in signing up, and they’re all ready to come out on top with their cash and food donations for the Mustard Seed Food Bank!
There’s still time to sign up and be included in this list of amazing Victoria-based companies, boost your team morale and help us achieve our $100,000 goal!
Click here for all the details and contact engage@viatec.ca to accept the challenge.
#VIATECFoodBankChallenge
Our Tectorian of the Week is: SendtoNews!
Victoria-based SendtoNews announced this week a new syndication partnership with McClatchy, one of the largest newspaper publishers in the United States! The agreement will see the rollout of SendtoNews’ sports video content across McClatchy’s digital publishing operations, which reach vibrant communities ranging from Sacramento to Fort Worth to Miami.
SendtoNews is North America’s leading Sports Video Ad Platform serving an expanding publisher network of more than 1500 news properties. SendtoNews generates over 200 million monthly video views through the distribution of exclusive and semi-exclusive content from 75+ sports leagues, including the NBA, MLB, NFL, NASCAR, PGA Tour, NCAA and Premier League Soccer.
A HUGE congratulations to the SendtoNews team on this great achievement.
Our Tectorian of the Week is: Echosec!
Have you heard of location-based searching? Have you seen something like this below?
Echosec puts social media on the map so you can discover a new view of your world. The made-in-Victoria technology hunts for media that has been geo-tagged and is offered by open web servers, going beyond commonly used search tools to enable anyone to capture, curate, manage, process and visualize data in an entirely new way. This is especially useful during the Summer Olympics!
In a nutshell, Echosec combines geo-tagged location data with social media feeds to learn just about anything about anyone online: where you live, where you work, what time you go to work, and possibly even what you were doing at work if you happened to be logged in to any number of popular social networks.
Echosec aggregates all this information in a single search.
Try the Echosec public app here.
And a BIG congrats to Echosec for winning a Stevie International Business Award!
Our Tectorian of the Week is: Foundry Spatial!
Local, award-winning environmental science and consulting firm, Foundry Spatial, unveiled a free new tool on Wednesday. It allows government, First Nations, industry and members of the public to access detailed information on water supply in the Cariboo region of the province. Impressive!
The Cariboo Water Tool presents monitoring information from 1,500 stream flow, groundwater, water quality and weather measurement stations in the central portion of the Fraser River watershed. It also uses innovative technology to estimate mean annual and monthly discharge for user-defined watersheds at over 180,000 locations, and provides an overview of watershed characteristics (including vegetation and topography), along with an overview of current climate and projected climatic conditions.
Our Tectorian of the Week is: The Frosty Pop Corps!
The Frosty Pop Corps just became a VIATEC Member AND they just launched their new game Walls & Balls! That’s a pretty good week if you ask us.
Their game is a golf-pinball-pong hybrid with a Swiss design aesthetic, available only on the Apple App Store. This is The Frosty Pop Corps’s 10th feature on the App Store, and the first from their new home in Victoria, BC.
“It’s exciting to be living in such a vibrant gaming community here in Victoria, ” said founder Faisal Sethi. “Although I am new on the scene, at some point I hope to represent the Victoria gaming community on a global level with same creative reputation as Kano Apps, Tiny Mob, Codename, and many, many others.”
Walls & Balls can be downloaded at: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/walls-balls/id1083708143
Our Tectorian of the Week is: Vecima Networks!
Vecima Networks is a Victoria-based company which manufactures products for broadband access to cable and wireless networks. They were mentioned in the Times Colonist this week for having a solid third quarter with a profit of nearly $6 million!!!
Vecima Networks is also the Entertainment Sponsor at the upcoming 2016 VIATEC Technology Awards. Make sure you congratulate them at the gala!
This Tectorian of the Week’s recognition is approximately 2,808 weeks overdue. Ian Barrodale has been a professor, successfully started and grown his own business, inspired many future Tectorians, and sees no end to loving his work, or this city.
Beginning in academia…
Ian has been involved with the University of Victoria (UVic) since the beginning. “I graduated in the UK with a B.Sc. in Mathematics in 1960, and immigrated to Canada in 1961 to begin work at Victoria College as an Instructor in Mathematics. The University of Victoria was established in July 1963, so I took leave for a year at UBC where I first began programming in order to complete my thesis for a M.A. in Mathematics. This extra degree was still not sufficient to maintain my position at UVic, so I took leave again and enrolled at the University of Liverpool, where I graduated with a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1967. I have been a faculty member (of some type) continuously since 1961; my current appointment as an (unpaid) Adjunct Professor expires in 2017 – which will then be 56 years in total.”
Venturing into business…
Fuelled by an effortless and enduring interest in mathematics and computing, and the excitement of interacting with almost every student, Ian has successfully earned a living by pursuing his interests. When he began feeling that he lacked relevant “real-world” experience (having been in academia since high school), Ian set out to rectify this situation by forming a consulting company in 1978 with his wife Sheila. “This entity slowly blossomed, and eventually I was faced with the significant challenge of choosing between full-time work in our company or continuing on full-time at UVic. The Computer Science department came into being in 1980 (I was the founding Chair) and I was then able to work there half-time for two years, quarter time for two years, and finally I went off salary at UVic in 1984; by this time our company had a dozen staff. So, ironically, my decision to acquire real-world experience in order to enhance my effectiveness as a professor eventually led to leaving my employment at UVic (albeit remaining as an Adjunct Professor).”
His academic and real-world experiences have made Ian and his company Barrodale Computing Services known world experts in numerical analysis. “Barrodale Computing Services has completed more than 450 projects for many different customers and application areas; almost all these projects required novel software development. The ready availability of bright and well educated personnel from UVic as staff members was crucial to the success of our company. We started primarily as a defence contractor involved with submarine and naval mine detection (during the Cold War), ventured into applications in hydrography, forestry, seismic processing, astronomy, and materials science, and eventually into geospatial database applications involving BC watershed mapping, fast delivery of mission-critical customized weather forecasts around the world, timber supply modelling including the effects of mountain pine beetle infestation, and development of an integrated digital electoral atlas used in managing BC provincial elections.”
Victoria keeps getting better…
Ian’s appreciation for the lifestyle Victoria can offer has increased year by year, and surely as he is reflecting on some of his past successes or obstacles overcome (be it while golfing, sampling local craft beer or exercising his new power washer), no achievement must make him prouder than the fact that he survived teaching a young, loud, rebellious and bratty Rob Bennett of VIATEC ;).
His journey has woven through academia, business, and even involved taming the most unruly student in UVic history – and throughout it all Victoria remained the primary backdrop. “When I arrived here in 1961 Victoria had very few restaurants, pubs, bookstores, or shopping centres, but it did have good weather and golf courses … Back then UVic was expanding rapidly (it experienced a few growing pains too), and professional collaboration with others usually involved travel on and off Vancouver Island. The internet, email and cheap telephone communication has now largely eliminated Victoria’s former isolation, so professionals and many types of businesses (particularly software companies) can thrive here as never before. Why would anyone who enjoys their work want to completely retire with all that Victoria now offers?”
Ian’s contributions to Tectoria have spanned decades and look set to continue, which makes him a true Tectorian, and our Tectorian of the Week.
By 8am their office is alive with conference calls to their colleagues in Dusseldorf, Germany, and by the end of the day you’ll hear the cheerful sounds of ping-pong and foosball. AbeBooks was purchased by Amazon in 2008, and other than their team and their reach growing bigger, they’ve maintained their local feel and great office culture.
You may have seen their name multiple times on VIATEC’s Job Board recently with 7 different job openings.
“Hiring the best is very important to us,” commented Alicia Pagnan, HR Business Partner at AbeBooks. “We are always looking for exceptional people to join our team, including super software developers, customer support champions, UX design gurus, dedicated technical and product managers, and motivated marketers. Every employee makes a difference with our empowered style of work.”
AbeBooks is an online marketplace for books. Millions of brand new books, used books, rare books, and out-of-print books are offered for sale through the AbeBooks websites from thousands of booksellers around the world.
“Readers can find bestsellers, collectors can find rare books, students can find new and used textbooks, and treasure hunters can find long-lost books. We connect buyers and sellers via our network of websites.”
They’re known for having an office environment that has great views and is fun, challenging, passionate and sometimes loud.
“A lot of people attend the gym at lunchtime and we have social events on a regular basis,” commented Pagnan. “It’s a friendly office where we try to ensure staff meet people outside of their teams.”
Although flexible working is a part of their culture, they still trust their staff to get the job done. They also encourage communication, so if you have something to say, you can take it right to senior staff at various meetings or even over the lunch table.
The AbeBooks team can be divided into: Engineers, Operations, Customer Service, Marketing and Finance. They range from interns to staff over 60, they have about 100 people in the Victoria office and another 40 in Germany.
AbeBooks joined the #ILookLikeAnEngineer movement to help spread awareness about gender diversity in tech
To be the perfect AbeBooks employee… “You’ve got to be smart. You are going to be challenged by some bright people so that means producing very high caliber work,” explained Pagnan. “You have to be prepared to keep improving your work after absorbing all the feedback. We also like people who put the customer first and are willing to help their colleagues. A sense of humour goes a long way here too.”
AbeBooks is a past VIATEC Food Bank Challenge participant and plans on competing again November 9 – December 4.
“Our experience was very positive. We asked departments to compete against each other in terms of donations and that’s always a recipe for success with so many competitive people here.”
AbeBooks tends to always have a major project or two they’re working on, but they keep the details close to their chest and wouldn’t tell us a thing. We even bribed them with candy.
What they could tell us was that their quest to improve their business for buyers and sellers never ends. E-commerce is always developing, and one of the few constants is change.
“We love the fact that we can work for an e-commerce pioneer while living in this beautiful city,” beamed Pagnan. “We love the fact that many of us can walk or cycle to work (via Galloping Goose), that there’s a collaborative tech community, and that work/life balance is really important here.”
He’s a husband and father of three, Architect at xMatters, a member of the expert committee that designed the swagger specification for web APIs, an occasional conference presenter, leader of the local Java Users Group, an open source software contributor, and he occasionally builds things like “Glitch” in his “spare” time. Paul Hill keeps himself very busy and there’s no slowing him down. That’s why he’s our Tectorian of the Week!
Paul is a very proud Canadian, originally from New Zealand. He’s travelled the globe and lived and worked in London where he met his wife. I wouldn’t say they’ve “settled down” in Victoria, but they have chosen this city to live their very busy lives in.
Paul and his family
Paul blames his addiction for streaming games on KIXEYE Canada where he was an Architect. Today, he helps a very talented team of engineers design systems that provide feature-rich emergency notification to much of the fortune 500.
Paul has built healthcare claim processing systems, ACH cheque transaction warehousing systems, and most recently, an interactive game streaming system called Glitch.
Glitch is a place where you can go to watch live player broadcasts and mess with their game as you watch. It’s a platform where gamers can connect to an interactive audience, providing a unique level of audience participation.
In other words, it’s a stage for players to entertain viewers.
Viewers who can reach into the game and effect the player. The audience is now part of the game, and the possibilities for unique experiences are endless.
Glitch started with the idea that watching players broadcast could be more than a passive experience.
“After all, it’s a video game, it’s all ones and zeros, so why can’t I change the game? Why can’t I tie the quarterback’s shoelaces before the big play? Why can’t I help her find the resources she needs to survive the night? Why can’t I turn his plasma rifle into a banana and his armor into a ball gown?” questioned Paul.
“The idea bounced around my head for a while, and I bugged a lot of friends about it, before I decided I needed to just go ahead and build it,” commented Paul. “I believe that a great idea and $2.45 will buy you a coffee at Starbucks. I needed to put in the effort to make it a real thing. So I did.”
You can view the demo here, and Glitch itself here. It’s all powered by an API that lives here.
Paul is running a Kickstarter campaign to get a little financial boost to start the engine and then allow Glitch to grow organically. The goal is $48,000
“If I can build something that perpetually improves the lives of others then I get that warm fuzzy feeling like I’ve done something worthwhile with my skills.”
To get involved, you can visit the Kickstarter page and back the project for as little as $1.
Paul is also looking for someone to spice up the kickstarter pitch video, and local hackers who can create mods for host-your-own server games. Contact tbousfield@viatec.ca if you’d like to get connected with him.
“Folks come to Victoria on vacation just to see the place. I can work in the tech sector on leading edge technologies and jump a short flight down to head office in Silicon Valley anytime. What’s not to love?”
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