Category Archives: Technology

Merry Twitt-Mass

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I’ve been resisting this for some time, but finally succumbed and opened an account at Twitter. And since Twitter now appear to have identified how they will make money, it’s clear that the increasingly popular micro-blogging service is here to stay.

Described alternately as “narcissistic and self indulgent” or (predictably) “the next killer app”, Twitter is like most things in life, there are pros and cons. If used judiciously it can be beneficial. It delivers me links to useful news and articles and it opens up another channel for me to share ideas. According to this explanatory webcast by O’Reilly Media, it’s also a “mood meter” for whatever is going in your sphere of interest. On the other hand, I don’t have any control over what I receive, once I subscribe to another user. So there are the vexing questions of truth and relevance. Do I really need all that additional information about somebody elses lifestream and how much of it is real anyway?!

But the really interesting part about Twitter is that it has the power to aggregate a huge global community. At present Twitterdom is largely confined to geeks, technophiles and early adopters. But that’s exactly what you’d expect at this point in its evolution. I think that will change. What will make the difference is when other communities realise that Twitter can work for them too. For example, there are lots of third world countries where Internet access is poor but mobile phone access is ubiquitous. So what better way to keep in touch with friends and family, when back-packing, than by micro-blogging via your mobile. Maybe even criminal dictators like Mugabe will be unseated by Twitter campaigns in the future?

But what really sold me on joining up was two things. Firstly a friend introduced me to TwitterEarth where you can spot tweets from all over the globe. OK so it’s a wee bit gimmicky, but it demonstrates how interesting new opportunities will spring up from the paradigm shift towards micro-blogging. Secondly I read a great article about how to use Twitter as a marketing tool. Suddenly I could see some value in it for me. It also occurred to me that Twitter is a great case study for the kind of mental transition our business will need to think about engendering as we push our own technology projects out into the global marketplace, such as our recently released site iWantMyName.

Looking forward to some “tasty Tweets” from you all over the Festive Season. And by the way, I promise not to squawk more than once or twice a day.

http://twitter.com/GeniusNet

iWantMyName Alive and Kicking

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I’m grinning from ear to ear right now. We flipped the switch on ideegeo’s first online venture today. Not only that, we satisfied our first online customer and began earning export dollars for New Zealand. It’s a good feeling after many long hours of hard work.

iWantMyName is an international domain registrar site offering a wide range of domains for sale to the public. It’s a highly competitive industry to enter, hence we are differentiating ourselves from day one. Helpful functionality and friendly usability are hard to find amongst existing registrars, so we’ve gone the extra mile to make the site as clean, sharp and easy to navigate as possible.

We will also be progressively adding functionality that assists users to “personalise their experience of the Web”. So for example if you want to hang all your cloud hosted email, documents, work spaces and social networks under your own domain, we think you should be able to do exactly that without any fuss. Now iWantMyName can help you make that transition. With all the buzz around hosted solutions and portable universal IDs lately, we think this is where the digital world is headed already.

Check out the site and please do feel free to give us feedback.

A Shaping Strategy for Technology Innovation

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Instead of retrenching, businesses are now being encouraged to use “shaping strategies” to navigate their way forward through uncertainty, so why couldn’t we apply this approach in the broader economy?

I’ve discussed at length the need for a unified national strategic blueprint for research, science and technology innovation. In difficult economic times this is more important than ever, because a ship without a rudder goes around and around in ever decreasing circles. But during an economic downturn is the perfect time to build capability in preparation for the next up cycle. This applies as much to a national economy as it does to  a small business. So we need to look at how we formulate innovation strategy both within our technology ventures and as a nation.

Shaping strategies eschew Darwinian styled adaptation to rapidly changing environments in favour of a vision that inverts the traditional risk/reward pyramid. Shaping strategists argue that by defining the market and offering a compelling case for investment, companies can leverage extraordinary returns.  For example in the confusing world of carbon trading and taxation of emissions, traditional polluters such as energy providers are now investing in disruptive clean technologies as a new source of revenue. The entrepreneurs who saw the change coming and established solar and wind energy technology ventures five to ten years ago are now reaping the rewards.

Shaping strategies are exemplified by involving large and diverse ecosystems of participants but within which profitable niches are established. So in the same way that Apple and Microsoft defined desktop computing, Google is now embarked upon a strategy to reshape how consumers perceive enterprise software. And although not every business has the resources to shape the market, there is lots of space to occupy the various niches that emerge within the new paradigm. For example at ideegeo we are carving out a space through which we can utilise our expertise in domain related technologies to support the transformation from proprietary software to hosted services.

So could we use this model to address strategic deficiencies in our own economy? I say yes, but it calls for a grand vision that previous governments never quite delivered on. A national shaping strategy that includes addressing infrastructure shortcomings whilst simultaneously raising research, science and technology output would create many new niches for businesses and individuals to occupy. Unfortunately politicians and civil servant bureaucrats are somewhat risk averse and therein lies the problem.

The Final Countdown

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Pretty boy rockers from the band Europe released a cult classic over twenty years ago with a triumphant keyboard riff that still thrills listeners today. Glam rock may now be confined to musical history, but we sure hope ideegeo’s new domain registrar site will roar up the sales charts and still be a number one hit in a couple of decades too.

It’s now only a few days to until we launch and I must say, it’s been most gratifying to see all the hard work evolve into something tangible. The smooth lines and easy functionality of the site belies the many hours of hard work that have gone into the project. Offering an iPhone interface for the site from day one has also proven to be a winning decision, as consumer recognition of the Apple platform grows by the day.

Our tech guys may not be as good looking as the band members from Europe, but they sure as hell work just as hard to satisfy their audience. We’ve had to overcome a few hurdles along the way, like banks who don’t want to know about start-up companies in the current economic climate and bureaucrats who don’t understand the pace of life in a fast moving new company and take two weeks to return your calls and emails. But with dogged determination we’ve pressed on.

Things move fast on the Web and online enterprises must continually reinvent themselves and reinvigorate their business model – especially when economies are faltering. That’s why we don’t want to be just another “me too” web venture. Differentiating our product is important, very much so. That’s why we are planning semantic search functionality and a whole host of value added services that other registrars do not offer.

ideegeo has a vision for the future that is both user-centric and grounded in the realities of cloud computing and hosted service offerings which are now coming of age and launching daily on a desktop or mobile platform near you. Web users of the near future will demand mobility and portability. Owning and managing your own personal domain will become as ubiquitous as owning a car or a refrigerator. In fact your car and fridge will probably soon be delivered complete with their own IP addresses! As our lives become increasingly web-centric and the domain industry opens up, individuals will want to personalise their web experiences. That’s when you will hear the people demand – “I want my name!”.

We’ll release more very soon, once we’ve signed off on our final testing phase. Stay tuned.

W2W W0Ws

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Last week Unlimited Potential successfully launched Wellington to the World (W2W) an annual demo-fest for technology innovators, entrepreneurs, mentors and investors. Four local technology entrepreneurs and four tech researchers from Victoria University pitched their projects to an attentive audience of almost 100 guests.

We always figured that combining a live networking event with a global video showcase would be a really cool way to promote Wellington’s digital technology to the world, and early feedback indicates we certainly struck a positive note with this concept, especially amongst the investor community. New Zealand has too few events that celebrate entrepreneurial success so it’s important that we grow W2W in the future.

It’s also important that we open up the event to a wide audience. With KEA’s help we will be circulating the presentations to over 25,000 ex-pat New Zealanders plus distributing the content around the NZ Trade & Enterprise network. Amazingly, one of the presenters received an approach from offshore the same day we posted the content online. Who knows what can be achieved once we actually begin to share the material out there.

A lot of people and organisations contributed to the success of the event. In particular I should mention both the Wellington City Council and the Wellington Convention Centre who were very supportive. Notably our video crew from Ocular Films went the extra mile to package the presentation content nicely. Unlimited Potential is also supported by career agents 920 as well as Gen-i and Grow Wellington. Thank-you all.

I’m also very proud that our company ideegeo Group Limited supported Wellington to the World with our time and resources. As a small technology start-up we are very mindful of the barriers facing New Zealand companies when it comes to connecting to markets offshore. We intend to continue our association with the event and encourage others to get involved as well.

Prime Time for iPredict

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I was so pleased to see iPredict’s Matt Burgess fronting up on the TV3 Leaders Debate this week with a demo of a political market trend forecast using their software product. Getting their website address in front of a few hundred thousand eyeballs won’t have done them any harm at all.

I’m pleased for two reasons. Firstly, Matt is a good guy, with an intriguing product and is doing a great job as CEO of iPredict in getting the company market recognition through media, events and the web. Secondly, it validates our decision to select him as one of the presenters at the Unlimited Potential Wellington to the World event on Friday. iPredict fitted our definition perfectly in that they had a novel and scalable global opportunity but still with a relatively low profile. Moreover, iPredict is a great example of academic research that has crossed over into the mainstream business arena.

In fact the first half of our show on Friday is devoted to linking academia with entrepreneurs and investors downtown. It’s an area that we have traditionally struggled with in New Zealand. Academics normally deliver to other academics and are focussed on building a body of research during their careers. Commercialisation of research is generally a secondary consideration. That’s a shame, because more than ever we need to be moving away from selling milk fat and instead moving towards selling knowledge to pay our way in the world.

It’s a cultural issue. In southern California smart post-graduate technology students are queuing up to attend seminars on how to structure their start-up businesses and court investors. Sure, the days when even a half decent business plan would get some crazy 20 year old funding for his pet project are gone. But that’s a good thing. Money migrates to value in the end and that’s where New Zealand creativity has an advantage. But we first need to overcome the barrier of distance to major capital and consumer markets; which is why we’ve partnered with KEA to take the event global.

It’s perfect that iPredict is a successful Victoria University spinoff company. There are other interesting projects emerging from Vic that could go the same way if we can help attract entrepreneurs and capital in that direction. That is why we are taking some first steps with W2W to strengthen bridges between academia and business here in Wellington.

For an entertaining forecast of the election outcome from our friends at iPredict and a look at some other cool ICT projects around town, make your way to the Wellington to the World event from 3.45pm on Friday 7th November at the Town Hall in Wellington. Registration essential.

Nats Deploy Smoke and Mirrors on RS&T Policy

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John Key’s recent announcement that the hard won R&D tax credit will be wiped out under a National government demonstrates a deep lack of understanding by the party regarding the role of the State in stimulating innovation and encouraging improvements in terms of global competitiveness.

Oddly, only two weeks previous they were proposing only a reduction in the tax credit from 15% to 10%. Now they want to drop it altogether, as well as kill Labour’s Fast Forward programme. The supposed savings would then be applied to pastoral greehouse gas research and primary sector and food research. Those are precisely the areas Fast Forward was targetting already, which means their policy results in a rather poorly disguised net loss of funding available to research, science and technology.

And if you think that government funded innovation sounds oxy-moronic, I agree. The agencies that fund and support innovation and economic development are (ironically) amongst the most bureaucratic and tunnel-visioned in New Zealand – and to their credit National have clearly expressed a desire to work on improving that situation. After all, there is a core of good people working within those organisations and a bunch of passionate scientists who really do want to make a difference, but whom are sometimes stymied by silly rules, mountains of paperwork and funding inconsistencies.

And there certainly remains a role for State intervention in economic development because markets do not always resolve economic short-comings in an equitable fashion. In fact, other small, agrarian nations have surged ahead in OECD rankings and in global competitiveness partly through the wise use of state directed programmes, including tax incentives. The Nats would be well advised to get over their pathological revulsion towards government sector and instead open their minds to some fresh ideas.

Of additional concern is the fact that the National Party’s economic development spokesperson Dr Richard Worth has been notably silent on exactly what strategies the blue team have in mind to forge New Zealand into “an innovative, export-led and high wage economy”. In fact Dr Worth’s last press release about anything at all was almost a year ago. This illustrates how much of a cult of personality that National has now become. That’s a problem because of Key’s background. He made his fortune trading in financial futures and equities, not through being entrepreneurial and actually building something worthwhile. In fact Key and his ilk are precisely the reason why the global economy is in serious poo right now.

Next week: Did Labour Govt. Squander Economic Transformation Opportunity?

NetValue Makes the Connection

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Waikato technology group NetValue have recently demonstrated that New Zealand companies can connect with investors and major global players in the Northern Hemisphere. So why isn’t more being done to replicate this kind of success story?

That was the question we asked ourselves when we started thinking about delivering an event that would actually link innovative New Zealand technology firms with investors, mentors and new partnerships offshore. I don’t care what some people say about the “weightless economy” being the new economic paradigm. It is still bloody hard work engaging in markets that are a day’s flying time away from our little islands, especially so in the current investment climate.

NetValue is actually an umbrella for a number of different technology enterprises acquired progressively over a number of years. These include a software developer, hosting and web design services, a search technology venture and a company offering a genomic research tool. The latter arose out of research work into DNA sequencing conducted at Genesis Research which was originally spun out into a company called Cartesian Gridspeed. Bioengineering experts have described this astounding technology as “one of the most significant advances in sequence search technology to date”, although the company initially struggled to gain recognition despite its claim of a 10,000 fold improvement on processing speed over other systems on the market.

I remember seeing Cartesian Gridspeed company founder Leonard Bloksberg speak at a conference a few years ago and I figured his company would make it big one day. Let’s hope that their new found partnership with Microsoft will allow them to develop the product without altogether giving away the intellectual property to offshore interests. Unfortunately that is the quandry that all successful tech companies eventually face because of the lack of depth in the technology investment market at home.

I’m interested in NetValue’s progress for another reason. We’ve adopted a similar organisational model at ideegeo Group Limited. We are leveraging a core set of skills under one roof, with the aim of spinning out and commercialising new project ideas from R&D as resources permit. Mind you – our journey would be a lot more fruitful if we could spend more time on commercialisation and less on red tape. Dealing with the various government agencies that are supposedly supporting technology innovation and intellectual property protection is a bit like wading through treacle at present.

Digital IP Strategy Needs More User Input Less Govt.

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Last week I spent a day at the inaugural Digital Development Forum meeting, along with about 150 plus other well-meaning representatives of stakeholder organisations from the New Zealand ICT sector. One of the messages to emerge out of this meeting was that a lot of people are concerned about where the new copyright legislation is heading.

Almost everyone agrees that we urgently need to address the existing law, because it is woefully inadequate given the rapid changes in technology that are occurring. In fact the whole issue of intellectual property protection is receiving attention globally for this very reason. The current system doesn’t really work that well anymore, given the rapid rate of ICT innovation.

But the chief complaint with the New Zealand legislative changes seems to be that there is an imposition upon ISPs to police Internet use and to deactivate recalcitrant abusers and that the government has not listened to industry concerns. That is ironic because Digital Development NZ projects itself as being the industry mouthpiece in the ear of a government that is committed to listening to the industry.

So in a (rare) demonstration of unity the industry has asked that implementation of the legislation be delayed pending further input. But since the amendment to the Copyright Act Bill was actually passed months ago, one has to wonder whether or not these concerns were raised when the legislation was at Select Committee stage over a year ago. Or was the ISP policing clause inserted discretely afterwards?

In any event, the copyright legislation (and the DDNZ Forum) are unlikely to have any affect at all on teenagers and other so called “digital natives” whose lifestyles revolve around ripping off and re-mashing creative content from a variety of sources. Last week’s forum meeting was an invitation only event dominated by middle-aged public servants and well paid industry lobbyists in nice suits and comfortable shoes.

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e-Day Approaching

Perhaps the most useful outcome of my day at the forum was that I met Lawrence Zwimpfer, who is organising the nationwide e-Day event to be held on Saturday the 4th of October. e-Day is a great initiative that provides a free disposal and recycling service for owners of old or unused computer and cell phone gear. So there is no excuse for biffing all that obsolescent junk in the landfill.

They could really use some more volunteers to help out on the day in over 30 venues around New Zealand too! You can sign up here.

Wellington to the World to Showcase Local Tech Innovation

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I’m currently project managing Unlimited Potential’s Wellington to the World Event (W2W) to be held on Friday 7th November. There are so many really neat tech firms that are just bubbling below the surface that we thought we would create a great event around launching a few of them onto the world stage. If you are a technology firm based in the Greater Wellington Region and focused on growing through engaging with global markets, you need to be at W2W. With the support of its sponsors such as 920, Grow Wellington and Gen-i, Unlimited Potential are hoping to make this important event an annual fixture.

 

W2W involves live networking with angel investors plus business pitches from local technology companies that will be video-cast to a global web audience of innovators, entrepreneurs, mentors and investors with the assistance of KEA the Kiwi Ex-Pats association. KEA now has over 27,000 members globally, many of whom are in business and want to help New Zealand businesses go global. There will also be some presentations of cutting edge ICT research from Victoria University that has commercialisation potential. The Wellington City Council, Wellington Convention Centre and VicLink are to be applauded for getting behind the initiative.

 

We are looking for new faces! Emerging technology companies wishing to raise their profile, can articulate their message well and which have the capacity to scale up and go global – now is the time to step forward.

 

Contact me directly, if you are an emerging technology venture with a great story to tell.