Category Archives: Technology

Silicon Welly to Host Technology Mentor Glitterati

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In an outstanding acknowledgement of Wellington’s status as the centre of New Zealand’s digital innovation universe the city has secured a global X|Media|Lab event to be held at Te Papa May 30th to June 1st. The theme is “Commercialising Ideas” and comprises a one day conference followed by an intensive weekend workshop involving technology venture mentors and successful entrepreneurs. You heard it here first!

The event is geared to helping technology firms develop their ideas to a point where they can increase the chances of receiving funding and getting to market successfully. Online gaming, mobile content, animation and anything Web 2.0 are focus areas for this event. The mentors include Chris Deering (former president Sony Entertainment), Marcelino Ford-Livene (GM Interactive Content – Intel Digital), Tom Duterme (Google) plus local heroes Sam Morgan and Rod Drury. The conference day alone will bring a wealth of knowledge – but imagine having a team like that on your advisory board!

The first X|Media|Lab event was held in Sydney in 2003. Aimed at spanning digital media and bring digital creatives and entrepreneurs together XML has grown to encompass multiple locations around the globe. The event has some serious backing from global partners and is supported by NZ Trade & Enterprise, so the entry cost is minimal (only $99 for individuals). Our research at GeniusNet showed that the most creative ideas spring from where different communities overlap and we have long felt that Wellington needed such an event.

Everything you need to know is on the X|Media|Lab website. But note that although the conference day is open to the public, the weekend workshop is only by invitation from the selection panel. If you require assistance preparing for the selection process and to be introduced to the organiser directly, please contact GeniusNet as early as possible.

Scaling Up the Innovation Ecosystem

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Thomas Nastas is an American venture capitalist based in the heart of Moscow. A recent blog post nicely condenses an article of his in which he explains how technology firms need to leverage success in their home markets before moving up the value chain.

Although writing about Russian and Eastern European SMEs, one immediately draws some strong comparisons with the New Zealand situation as he reflects on the role of government in national innovation systems. Like New Zealand, both Russia and Hungary have set aside funds to kick start a public-private partnership to co-invest in technology start-ups. But unlike New Zealand, Eastern Europe and Russia has a huge and largely untapped domestic market for technology products and services. Russia also has the benefit of an extensive programme of university research funded by government and the military.

Nastas prescribes a formula that involves SMEs targetting domestic customers and refining their product offering prior to approaching investors for cash to support tackling global markets. He quotes the example of Israel’s cleantech industry of water purification that grew up, with government support, around addressing a vast domestic need for fresh water. Exports of this technology alone are expected to reach $2 billion by 2010.

He also has some praise for New Zealand as a remote economy grappling with the need to diversify globally. By focussing where there already existed a competitive advantage, he notes how New Zealand’s exports of high end wine and meat products have grown substantially over the last decade or so, based on investment in technical innovation.

It’s a salutary lesson probably not lost on the architects of the Fast Forward programme. But we must not forget that agriculture isn’t the only game in town. High tech exporters like Endace, Rakon and Weta Digital sell their wares almost exclusively in offshore markets. The natural competitive advantage these companies enjoy is the ability to attract and retain an intelligent and highly creative labour force. Focussing only on food and beverage innovation within the agricultural sector would be a mistake.

Thomas Nastas first published his article in the Eastern European edition of the Harvard Business Review. A full version can be found here.

Grid Network to Support Trans-Tasman Research Collaboration

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With digital storage needs and computational demands by research institutions growing exponentially, it makes sense to get together on sharing resources. So the New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) banged some heads together and offered to fund a $2.5 million project to set up BeSTGRID a grid computing “ecosystem” that includes additional storage resources hosted by a third party.

Three New Zealand universities are already hooked up, with the new arrangements which reduce duplication on software expenditure whilst encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing through use of online tools such as video-conferencing, blogs and wikis. Other institutions are expected to join in the future. Research projects currently making use of BestGrid include linguistics, bio-informatics and earthquake engineering, but the possibilities are endless. BestGRID is part of KAREN the government owned high speed broadband network. The network provides interconnectivity between research and educational institutions in New Zealand, with the ability to deliver up to 10 gigabytes of data per second.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the venture is that there will be established a shared identity management protocol based on the Australian Access Federation standard. The Federation is not some inter-galactic peace force, but a technical standard that operates across Australian tertiary and research institutions and allows universal access via a single user identification. That opens up the possibility of including Aussie universities and research institutions in the New Zealand grid by linking to Australia’s own high speed research network AARNET at some point in the near future. AARNET already operates connections to the United States, Singapore and Europe. So the implications for New Zealand research institutions are obvious considering the constraints of the existing commercial service.

New Zealand will be hosting the 2008 APAN event 4-8 August, regarded as the leading Asia-Pacific symposium on advanced broadband networking and applications for research and education. The conference is to be hosted in beautiful Queenstown and themes include sustainability, earth science, medical and agricultural applications, high definition TV and seminars on network security. The event will be preceded by the High Performance Research Symposium looking at e-research projects and tool sets, being sponsored by Bluefern, the University of Canterbury supercomputing centre.

Confusion Over IP Guidelines

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The recently released policy on the treatment of intellectual property rights within government ICT contracts may open up downstream opportunities for New Zealand companies who provide software and services to public sector agencies. But industry commentators cannot seem to agree on whether or not it is a good thing.

A few years back a lobby group called ICTX pressed government to change the rules around onselling of intellectual property arising from publicly funded I.T. projects. ICTX cited replication of effort and confusion over copyright as barriers to further commercialisation of such technology. But now that the rules have been clarified, former ICTX members still appear disgruntled.

Others view the new guidelines as an opportunity because it opens the door to vendors retaining ownership of the technology. Under this scenario the developer effectively gets their R&D funded by a government contract, licences out the application and then has the option of pursuing further commercialisation where a wider market exists. That seems like a win-win situation.

But the State Services Commission (SSC) makes it clear that the guidelines are just that. Government agencies still get the final say on what goes into the contract. That’s fair enough, especially in the case where the technology relates to a sensitive area such as Defence, Customs or Police for example.

It is unsurprising that a diversity of views exist on this topic. The ICT sector has still not managed to solve the representation problem, with a myriad of bodies still claiming to speak on its behalf. Now that the SSC has finally responded to industry feedback it seems a little unreasonable to criticise.

Perhaps the best way to resolve the debate is to test the guidelines. Are there any technology applications currently in the pipeline that can be taken down a commercialisation pathway? Having a successful reference site already operating within a government agency is a great selling point after all.

Manipulating DNA to Unlock Bio-Energy

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A few months ago I wrote about the global ocean sampling project of the Venter Institute and explained how the expedition circumnavigated the world’s oceans discovering many new microbial life-forms as well as previously undiscovered proteins. By using technology developed through mapping the human genome, the institute now intends to manipulate bacterial DNA to create an organism that might one day be able to convert sunlight and ocean nutrients directly into biofuel. But Venter’s critics say it is dangerous to meddle with the building blocks of life and such work could lead to unimaginable consequences if it results in a virulent new form of bacteria.

In a recent lecture (44 mins video) at the BBC, Venter outlines his philosophy on using genomics to help satisfy the food and energy needs of humankind. The written text of his talk is also available. In my opinion genomics will be the defining technology of this century for a number of reasons. Firstly the logarithmic growth in the populations of the developing world has exceeded the carrying capacity of those regions. There is a stark choice between allowing wide scale starvation or employing technology to expand the supply of food and energy. Secondly, the genetic engineering “genie” is out of the bag already. It is far better to have this initial research being performed openly and with strict controls than by a corporation where there are conflicts of commercial risk versus ethical philosophy. Venter welcomes peer review and oversight. Finally, whether or not you agree with them, Venter and his colleagues are doing a great job of selling genomics as a safe, green and sustainable option for aiding humankind.

So is Venter a monster or a magician? And will New Zealand be able to participate in the genomics wave? As a maritime nation and with a proud record in biological research shouldn’t we be getting on board with this? It sounds like the kind of niche area New Zealand researchers could excel in. Venter is looking more and more likely to be the next Bill Gates. If our research institutions are not investing heavily in this area right now with partnerships and research projects, then we are destined to play catch-up downstream. This calls for proper public funding of the research and meaningful environmental protocols that protect whilst steamlining research project approval.

Esphion Goes Softly into the Night

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I have to admit I was a little surprised and saddened to read news of the Esphion sale. Five mill U.S. seems like a low price to me. In fact by my accounting, the sale price is less than the total amount placed by investors in the company since it was founded in 2002! Something doesn’t add up here. Possibly the NZ Herald article does not relay the full story and there may well be good reasons for such a hasty exit. But touted in 2005 as one of the top 100 leading edge tech companies in Asia by Red Herring and having secured several major product installations; Esphion seemed destined to succeed. 

But it looks horribly like yet another example of a clever Kiwi idea struggling to gain traction in a global market and then getting gobbled up by a more powerful competitor. I thought the idea was to grow these companies from home and build a high tech economy?  Will the taxpayers, who subsidised the firm with grants and seed coinvestment, have an opportunity to realise an economic return? There’s little point in business leaders and scientists pitching for more government support for technology commercialisation if there is no accountability about keeping these businesses local.

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In the meantime scroll down half a page and we read that China Railway Construction, a former operating division of the Communist Red Army, is about to undertake a $4.5 billion market listing in China and Hong Kong. How ironic is that? Perhaps we should simply forget about the technology business and get into construction instead?

Callaghan Questions Biotech Focus

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Renowned science commentator, author and physics researcher Prof. Paul Callaghan this month embarks on a nationwide speaking tour, sponsored by the Royal Society of New Zealand. Winner of numerous awards and prizes during his career, Callaghan has a simple message for his audience – we need to build on our investment in research, science and technology if we are to grow a prosperous society.

Callaghan is one of a rare species of boundary spanning scientists both willing and able to communicate to those outside of his field. He understands the importance of encouraging the next generation of scientists as well as connecting researchers to entrepreneurs and investors who can help commercialise new scientific knowledge for economic benefit. He is also part of a growing chorus demanding more science funding and a better process for allocating resources within the national innovation system.

Prof. Callaghan’s passion for science is obvious when he speaks in public and I look forward to attending his Wellington event. He discussed at length the importance of science to the economy in an interview on National Radio’s Sunday morning “Ideas” slot recently and reminded us how improvements in our quality of life have come about through advances in technology. He also said that similar sized nations such as Israel, Finland and Ireland are now enjoying bouyant economic times in part due to substantial past investments in research.

He also alluded to some concerns about where the focus lies in terms of New Zealand’s national innovation framework. Citing a strong track record of commercialisation in the physical sciences and engineering technologies, he suggested there was an unwarranted emphasis on biotechnology, despite its promising global outlook. He says New Zealand has struggled to gain traction in biotech because of the huge capital requirements and long lead times that sometimes overwhelm small firms seeking product accreditation and then sales in distant markets.

Callaghan suggested that we need to keep an open mind about where we invest in research, science and technology because good ideas sometimes spring up from unexpected places. He quoted the example of Peter Jackson and the film and graphics industries that grew around his business. Encumbent government Minister Pete Hodgson stated that he was listening to the views of the science community and he was mindful that New Zealand’s investment, although improving, was still below par. He said that forthcoming changes to the tax treatment of R&D from next year should be of assistance to the sector.

Prof. Paul Callaghan tours the main centres from 13th November.

Will NZ Miss the Pacific Cable Boat?

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Apparently Google are engaged in talks over investing in the Unity cable project aimed at spanning the Pacific Ocean with terabits of new bandwidth. It could turn out to be a wise investment on two fronts. Firstly there is obviously a return on the revenue generated by digital traffic. But secondly it ensures that the burgeoning middle classes of Asia-Pacific have ongoing high speed access to applications hosted in America, amongst which Google is aiming to become the provider of choice.

A lot of commentators are talking like Google is setting itself up as a telecoms operator but this is not true. Google may have the cash, but it does not have the expertise to contemplate such a project. The word is that Google are in fact talking to an Australian telco about the new venture.

 Unity is not the only initiative aiming to add capacity across the Pacific. Verizon are working on a project linking to China and North Asia and Southern Cross have just commenced a major upgrade of the cable that links Australasia to North America. All of which is good for consumers because as domestic networks improve, so the demand for international bandwidth increases.

The slow rollout of domestic high speed bandwidth is often upheld as the reason why we will never see a Google or a Bebo spring out of New Zealand. But it looks more and more like a U.S. centric hub and spoke kind of network, everywhere you look now. Naturally providers of innovative global digital content and services then look to the United States as the preferred site to host their offerings. I think that is why we do not yet see anything special built and hosted here in NZ, despite the fact that digital creativity abounds.

In fact there was a visionary project about five years ago called “First Light” that aimed to set up a direct NZ-Singapore cable. The project failed because of difficulty in negotiating “last mile” access at the Singapore terminal. In retrospect it is now clear that New Zealand missed a major opportunity.

Silicon Valley Challenges Auto Makers to Think

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A brainstorming conversation held at Google’s headquarters has led to VC investment in a new kind of electric car. Think, a Norwegian based manufacturer of next generation electric cars, is pitching the project as foreshadowing a paradigmatic shift in the logic around personal mobility and connectivity. Not only does their concept vehicle have green credentials, but it is marketed entirely via the Internet and is itself web enabled with communications and self-diagnostic tools. In an article in Business 2.0, Think CEO Jan-Olaf Willums outlines just how the company intends to compete against the huge car manufacturers.

But the technology is not without issues of its own. One glitch is that the kind of battery you need to provide energy for a small car still comprises about half the capital investment of such a vehicle. To solve this problem, Think plan to set up battery leasing and reconditioning franchises to support vehicle owners. There is also the question of the environmentally sound disposal of battery components when they reach life’s end. With input from other tech firms in Silicon Valley, these and other problems with the batteries will no doubt be addressed over time.

The only real question is about what uptake will be like in the world’s largest car market. But given growing unease over climate change and uncertainties around oil supplies, it seems like quite a good time to be revisiting the electric car idea. Traditional car manufacturers have struggled to innovate around finding greener solutions for transport. In fact they have struggled to redefine their industry at all despite huge financial losses.

But liquid fuels (of one sort of another) seem likely to remain a major part of the mix for a long time yet and electric vehicles may still struggle against the prevailing marketplace until there are further stepwise break-throughs in the technology.

[tags] cleantech, sustainability, technology [/tags]

Free Online Apps: What’s the Catch?

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Microsoft is currently trialling an initial release of its free online developer toolset PopFly. It provides enough kit to get yourself up and running with your very own Web 2.0 site plus an inbuilt social network for the developer community. The hosted application requires a “Flash-like” plugin called Silverlight.

The only limitation on users is their imaginations and the fact that PopFly version 1.0 still has a few eccentricities yet to be ironed out. In time honoured fashion this has not discouraged MS from releasing it to a willing public in order to carry out free user-lead testing on their behalf.

PopFly is a response to other hosted offerings such as Yahoo’s HotPipes which goes by the rather esoteric descriptor of “interactive feed aggregator and manipulator”. That’s geek-speak for “recombining” the assets of other web 2.0 sites and placing them at your fingertips and for others to use.

Microsoft is competing in this space because it doesn’t want to be outflanked by its arch nemesis Google (and others) who are populating the Web with hosted applications as fast as they can build them. But there is another more subtle reason. You simply cannot run PopFly unless you have IE 6 or 7 and Windows XP or Vista.

Upgrading your O/S seems to be less of a cultural imperative than it used to be in the past. Until quite recently I was happy running my basic home office business functions, such as email and word processing, on a Windows 98 platform. It remained reliable and has only once succumbed to a viral infection, from which there was a full recovery of data. Furthermore, “broadband” connectivity is so slow in the suburbs that my experience of “media rich” applications could hardly justify spending my hard earned cash on a new O/S. Hence MS know that they now need to make a much stronger case for late adopters like me to upgrade by providing free toys to play with online – toys that only work with the most recent version of their ubiquitous O/S.

But I’m still nervous about being tied to a single service provider for life. So why doesn’t someone clever make an easily installable Linux based O/S for laptops, complete with a nifty applications toolset? Then I don’t have to be reliant on Microsoft (or Apple) or Google to get my work done. Well apparently Ubuntu has the answer. Ubuntu is a free open source operating system that has its own user/developer community and is now reportedly installed on over 100,000 private and government owned computers.

The downside is that Ubuntu is still evolving. And whilst it performs adequately in a basic setup, it can be a wee bit buggy to install where there are lots of peripherals, sound cards, drivers and other toys involved. Furthermore Ubuntu has not been embraced (yet) by the likes of Adobe or by games developers for example. However support groups are popping up like mushrooms, as are new applications that do work with the Ubuntu O/S. A company called Canonical facilitates the project and offers to provide software support on a commercial basis whilst releasing upgrades and promising to keep the software free of charge. It’s a great example of how crowd-sourced content and user communities can make a difference in the world of technology. No doubt a lot of people are watching to see if this business model can be made to work on a global basis.

If anyone has tried Ubuntu, please do share your experiences.

[tags] Ubuntu, open source software, crowd sourcing [/tags]