As we approach the end of the first year that this blog was initiated by the Technology Commercialization Centre (TCC) and Techcom Program at the University of Alberta Business School, it is a good time to reflect on the value of this communication medium and how it can be utilized more effectively. The promise of the Techcom Program at the School of Business is to address the Provincial talent gap of business savvy entrepreneurs that understand science and technology--in order to facilitate and accelerate technology commercialization. Our students are actively involved in facilitating technology development and company creation through the Ingenuity Enterprise program supported by TEC Edmonton and the TCC at the School of Business as well as other initiatives. The TCC has, for instance, also been active in assisting researchers at the National Institute for Nanotechnology evaluate options for commercialization as well as supporting the development of major new technology initiatives in biomedical engineering (through the BERRI effort). We are also actively pursuing a more aggressive Science to Business training strategy. Such initiatives provide opportunities for our MBA students and facilitate technology commercialization in the Province. This blog can provide a key mechanism for more interactive learning by MBA students, as well as a very instrumental network and information sharing forum for those interested in technology commercialization in Alberta. My hope for 2008 is that this blog will pick up momentum and will be actively used by UA MBA students (current and past) and facilitate dialogue between University scientists and business people and the community at large--government, industry and capital. One of the deficits in the Province is the lack of a forum for communication that links disparate efforts and forms of expertise. To wit, we are in the process of making this an open access forum and encourage everyone to responsibly contribute to making this a generative venue for technology commercialization talk and knowledge.
All the best for the holidays and for an innovative and entrepreneurial 2008!
Michael Lounsbury
Director Technology Commercialization Centre
University of Alberta School of Business & National Institute for Technology.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
EzSeer Meets The Money
The Meet The Money (Entrepreneurs Helping Entrepreneurs) Boot Camp was held on November 2, 2007 at NAIT. James Ortlieb from EzSeer was one of nearly a dozen entrepreneurs invited to participate in the workshop. The purpose of the event is to help young companies hone the skills necessary to successfully secure financing from Angel Investors and Venture Capital firms.
Meet The Money is produced by a dynamic team of four female entrepreneurs, each successful in her own right. Angela Armstrong from Prime Capital, Johanna MacDonald from Johanna MacDonald & Associates, Carissa Reiniger from Silver Lining Ltd., and Laura Schuler from Trevoy LLP Lawyers.
Participants in the Boot Camp got a realistic insight into the expectations and requirements associated with new venture funding. At EzSeer we would like to commend all four of these ladies for presenting an interesting challenge and a compelling opportunity to this cadre of eager entrepreneurs. Good luck to all of the participants. For more information go to www.meetthemoney.ca.
EzSeer: See what you want easier.
Meet The Money is produced by a dynamic team of four female entrepreneurs, each successful in her own right. Angela Armstrong from Prime Capital, Johanna MacDonald from Johanna MacDonald & Associates, Carissa Reiniger from Silver Lining Ltd., and Laura Schuler from Trevoy LLP Lawyers.
Participants in the Boot Camp got a realistic insight into the expectations and requirements associated with new venture funding. At EzSeer we would like to commend all four of these ladies for presenting an interesting challenge and a compelling opportunity to this cadre of eager entrepreneurs. Good luck to all of the participants. For more information go to www.meetthemoney.ca.
EzSeer: See what you want easier.
EzSeer Invited to speak at Celebrating Ingenuity 2007
On November 16, 2007 the Alberta Ingenuity Fund will be hosting their annual event, Celebrating Ingenuity 2007, to honor Ingenuity Award Recipients. The event will commence at 6:00 pm. and is to be held at the Telus Centre for Business located at the University of Alberta.
EzSeer has been invited to say a few words to address the contributions made by the Alberta Ingenuity Fund and TEC Edmonton towards the advancement of the technology industry here in Alberta. EzSeer President Dr. Tingshao Zhu and COO James Ortlieb will be in attendance at the event.
The EzSeer team is grateful for the opportunity to appear at this prestigious event and looks forward to meeting other delegates.
EzSeer: See what you want easier.
EzSeer has been invited to say a few words to address the contributions made by the Alberta Ingenuity Fund and TEC Edmonton towards the advancement of the technology industry here in Alberta. EzSeer President Dr. Tingshao Zhu and COO James Ortlieb will be in attendance at the event.
The EzSeer team is grateful for the opportunity to appear at this prestigious event and looks forward to meeting other delegates.
EzSeer: See what you want easier.
EzSeer at TRLabs NGI Workshop
TRLabs held their first Next Generation Internet/Networks (NGI/NGN) workshop on November 9, 2007 at the University of Alberta School of Business. TRLabs is a leader in Canada's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. The focus of the workshop was to address the technical challenges associated with transmitting the ever increasing volumes of data, voice and video across the planet's Internet system.
EzSeer, was invited to present its cutting edge artificial intelligence and machine learning technology as it pertains to Online Advertising and Social Network Sites. Although the workshop was largely focused on Web 2.0, Wikipedia.com describes artificial intelligence systems as being in the Web 3.0 domain and EzSeer's COO James Ortlieb was able to enlighten delegates on the latest trends.
Other notable speakers were: Bill St Arnaud -Senior Director Advanced Networks for Canarie Inc., and Dr Christian Schlegel - Professor at the UofA High Capacity Digital Communications Lab. Greatly anticipated was the presentation by one of the MIT fathers of the Internet, Dr. Lawrence Roberts - Founder, Chairman and Chief Architect for Anagran Inc.
EzSeer would like to thank Dr. David Antoniuk of TRLabs for the invitation to speak at the workshop. It was a great event.
EzSeer: See what you want easier.
EzSeer, was invited to present its cutting edge artificial intelligence and machine learning technology as it pertains to Online Advertising and Social Network Sites. Although the workshop was largely focused on Web 2.0, Wikipedia.com describes artificial intelligence systems as being in the Web 3.0 domain and EzSeer's COO James Ortlieb was able to enlighten delegates on the latest trends.
Other notable speakers were: Bill St Arnaud -Senior Director Advanced Networks for Canarie Inc., and Dr Christian Schlegel - Professor at the UofA High Capacity Digital Communications Lab. Greatly anticipated was the presentation by one of the MIT fathers of the Internet, Dr. Lawrence Roberts - Founder, Chairman and Chief Architect for Anagran Inc.
EzSeer would like to thank Dr. David Antoniuk of TRLabs for the invitation to speak at the workshop. It was a great event.
EzSeer: See what you want easier.
Monday, November 5, 2007
EzSeer: A new UofA spin-off company
Greetings World
My name is James Ortlieb and I am COO of the newly minted
EzSeer software company. Our President and CEO is Dr. Tingshao Zhu. He is also the principal inventor of the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Software that underpins our product line. The third active partner in our company is Kevin Jewell who comes to us from the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Machine Learning (AICML). Lastly, and by no means least, the University of Alberta is the fourth partner in the firm and has exclusively licensed the EzSeer technology to us.
Although Dr. Zhu has been developing this technology for the past 6 years, and our team has been working on the commercialization plan for 1 year, it has only been since October 1, 2007 that we have been incorporated to do business. This milestone could not have been accomplished without the greatly appreciated efforts of TEC Edmonton's Kim Ito and Jayant Kumar. A special thanks goes out to the best Mentor anyone could ask for - Bruce Johnson - founder of Intuit and Quicken business programs. My personal appreciation goes to UofA Technology Commercialization Professor Dr. Michael Lounsbury for introducing me to the TEC Edmonton team and this tremendous opportunity.
November is already shaping up to be a very active month for EzSeer and readers of this Blog can expect to hear more about our public forums and events. For now I will sign off with a short description of what EzSeer does, and our current marketing aspirations.
EzSeer translates user behaviors into user interests and intentions. Essentially, EzSeer uses cutting-edge data mining algorithms to predict the user’s intentions, that is, it looks over your shoulder when you are on the computer, observes your actions, and through Artificial Intelligence Software determines your true interests.
For example, no matter what other actions you may have taken prior to Googling "Paris Hilton", Google will return to you (excluding sponsored links) about 1 million articles on the California Socialite. If just prior to Googling "Paris Hilton" you were observed to visit say, "Hotels.com" you would still get the Socialite from Google. From EzSeer you would get a Hilton Hotel in Paris. Your behavior gave away your true interests.
We have identified three industries or marketplaces for EzSeer technology and they are: Call Centres like those run by Dell Computers, Social Networks like FaceBook or MySpace, and Online Advertising as it appears on most public web sites.
EzSeer is able to predict the user’s intention based on the user’s behavior, to deliver the most relevant information (CRM, Call Centre, Enterprise Search), or connect users to the most interesting community groups (Social Networking), or present users with advertising that actually appeals to them (Online Advertising). EzSeer can also be integrated with any existing search system, acting as a proxy between the user and any search engines, to trigger the search engine to return more relevant information. In short, we can also make Google return more relevant results.
Currently, we have passed a 5 week, 104 participant study program on EzSeer Technology. What we need right now is an Angel Customer to get us well past the proof-of-concept stage. Our focus to-date has been to find a willing Call Centre but we could start in one of the other market spaces aswell.
I hope that I have imparted a clear albeit brief insight into our ambitions. We also have produced White papers which can more fully explain the technical and marketing aspects of our technology.
If I can be of assistance in answering anyone's questions regarding our company or our products please feel free to write to Jim Ortlieb. E-mail address ortlieb.jk@telus.net
Thank you and please look for future articles.
Jim
COO EzSeer
See what you want easier.
My name is James Ortlieb and I am COO of the newly minted
EzSeer software company. Our President and CEO is Dr. Tingshao Zhu. He is also the principal inventor of the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Software that underpins our product line. The third active partner in our company is Kevin Jewell who comes to us from the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Machine Learning (AICML). Lastly, and by no means least, the University of Alberta is the fourth partner in the firm and has exclusively licensed the EzSeer technology to us.
Although Dr. Zhu has been developing this technology for the past 6 years, and our team has been working on the commercialization plan for 1 year, it has only been since October 1, 2007 that we have been incorporated to do business. This milestone could not have been accomplished without the greatly appreciated efforts of TEC Edmonton's Kim Ito and Jayant Kumar. A special thanks goes out to the best Mentor anyone could ask for - Bruce Johnson - founder of Intuit and Quicken business programs. My personal appreciation goes to UofA Technology Commercialization Professor Dr. Michael Lounsbury for introducing me to the TEC Edmonton team and this tremendous opportunity.
November is already shaping up to be a very active month for EzSeer and readers of this Blog can expect to hear more about our public forums and events. For now I will sign off with a short description of what EzSeer does, and our current marketing aspirations.
EzSeer translates user behaviors into user interests and intentions. Essentially, EzSeer uses cutting-edge data mining algorithms to predict the user’s intentions, that is, it looks over your shoulder when you are on the computer, observes your actions, and through Artificial Intelligence Software determines your true interests.
For example, no matter what other actions you may have taken prior to Googling "Paris Hilton", Google will return to you (excluding sponsored links) about 1 million articles on the California Socialite. If just prior to Googling "Paris Hilton" you were observed to visit say, "Hotels.com" you would still get the Socialite from Google. From EzSeer you would get a Hilton Hotel in Paris. Your behavior gave away your true interests.
We have identified three industries or marketplaces for EzSeer technology and they are: Call Centres like those run by Dell Computers, Social Networks like FaceBook or MySpace, and Online Advertising as it appears on most public web sites.
EzSeer is able to predict the user’s intention based on the user’s behavior, to deliver the most relevant information (CRM, Call Centre, Enterprise Search), or connect users to the most interesting community groups (Social Networking), or present users with advertising that actually appeals to them (Online Advertising). EzSeer can also be integrated with any existing search system, acting as a proxy between the user and any search engines, to trigger the search engine to return more relevant information. In short, we can also make Google return more relevant results.
Currently, we have passed a 5 week, 104 participant study program on EzSeer Technology. What we need right now is an Angel Customer to get us well past the proof-of-concept stage. Our focus to-date has been to find a willing Call Centre but we could start in one of the other market spaces aswell.
I hope that I have imparted a clear albeit brief insight into our ambitions. We also have produced White papers which can more fully explain the technical and marketing aspects of our technology.
If I can be of assistance in answering anyone's questions regarding our company or our products please feel free to write to Jim Ortlieb. E-mail address ortlieb.jk@telus.net
Thank you and please look for future articles.
Jim
COO EzSeer
See what you want easier.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Future of open innovation: Linux vs. Innocentive
What is the future of innovation and can it be predicted and predetermined?
It seems to me as if the technology is way faster than our rate of adaptation to it or our capability to foresee and respond to its implications. The arena in which the game is being played has changed but it seems as if the rules still have a lot of catching up to do and will perhaps never be able to catch up to it. Are we playing a global game with local rules?
I will state my case by considering the differences in the open innovation models and their implications in the case of Linux and Innocentive and I don’t claim to have read many books on the topic but this is what I understand so far.
Looking at the case of Linux (or others like MySQL, or Apache, Firefox), all these products have been created by the independent innovators and have proved to be mutually beneficial, but what about the model of Innocentive? It is being hailed as a great change a great concept that will make the companies more competitive more profitable and so on. But is it really a win-win situation??may be and may be not.
The implications of obtaining solutions through websites such as Innocentive :
- The companies don’t have to hire a full research team, or invest in up gradation or long term investments. It is in a way a quick fix solution for companies.
- One lump-sum payment is given to the innovator, no need to provide benefits and other perks, which means again huge cost saving for the companies.
- The number of supporting staff that is hired for the R&D teams is not needed any more.
- So one can actually run a virtual company with a staff of 5-8 people in a small office space or just from home, by outsourcing, R&D, manufacturing, and admin. Support.( various companies are already doing it, such as Point Therapeutics ( recent news ref. www.Biospace.com)) both as a cost cutting measure and the core model.
This may result into:
- Lesser permanent jobs
- Lesser jobs for the local populations ( esp. in countries like Canada where the min wage is $8 per hour…that’s in Alberta, can we compete with countries with R&D capability of same calibre and wages 1/10 th of Canadian wages?)
- An overall reduced private R&D base ( due to lesser incentive for investment in long term organizational R&D capabilities)
And wait a minute…what about other government policies such as temporary worker policies? The Canadian laws require a foreign worker to have a clearance from HRDC to the effect that the person being hired is not taking away a job from equally qualified Canadian. Recently US senate debated (I am not sure if it passed a bill yet) on limiting the outsourcing, the question is do these regulations apply on companies based on the model of Innocentive?
I know I sound sceptical, when most people are upbeat about the future of open innovation, but either I am grossly misinformed or there is an urgent need to limit the expanse of the open innovation, because we still don’t have completely porous borders and a min wage of $8 per hour (and same labour laws) throughout the world. Waiting to hear your comments.
It seems to me as if the technology is way faster than our rate of adaptation to it or our capability to foresee and respond to its implications. The arena in which the game is being played has changed but it seems as if the rules still have a lot of catching up to do and will perhaps never be able to catch up to it. Are we playing a global game with local rules?
I will state my case by considering the differences in the open innovation models and their implications in the case of Linux and Innocentive and I don’t claim to have read many books on the topic but this is what I understand so far.
Looking at the case of Linux (or others like MySQL, or Apache, Firefox), all these products have been created by the independent innovators and have proved to be mutually beneficial, but what about the model of Innocentive? It is being hailed as a great change a great concept that will make the companies more competitive more profitable and so on. But is it really a win-win situation??may be and may be not.
The implications of obtaining solutions through websites such as Innocentive :
- The companies don’t have to hire a full research team, or invest in up gradation or long term investments. It is in a way a quick fix solution for companies.
- One lump-sum payment is given to the innovator, no need to provide benefits and other perks, which means again huge cost saving for the companies.
- The number of supporting staff that is hired for the R&D teams is not needed any more.
- So one can actually run a virtual company with a staff of 5-8 people in a small office space or just from home, by outsourcing, R&D, manufacturing, and admin. Support.( various companies are already doing it, such as Point Therapeutics ( recent news ref. www.Biospace.com)) both as a cost cutting measure and the core model.
This may result into:
- Lesser permanent jobs
- Lesser jobs for the local populations ( esp. in countries like Canada where the min wage is $8 per hour…that’s in Alberta, can we compete with countries with R&D capability of same calibre and wages 1/10 th of Canadian wages?)
- An overall reduced private R&D base ( due to lesser incentive for investment in long term organizational R&D capabilities)
And wait a minute…what about other government policies such as temporary worker policies? The Canadian laws require a foreign worker to have a clearance from HRDC to the effect that the person being hired is not taking away a job from equally qualified Canadian. Recently US senate debated (I am not sure if it passed a bill yet) on limiting the outsourcing, the question is do these regulations apply on companies based on the model of Innocentive?
I know I sound sceptical, when most people are upbeat about the future of open innovation, but either I am grossly misinformed or there is an urgent need to limit the expanse of the open innovation, because we still don’t have completely porous borders and a min wage of $8 per hour (and same labour laws) throughout the world. Waiting to hear your comments.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Report card on Canada gives it "D" for innovation
Nothing too surprising here as plenty of topics in class revolved around how innovation could be better fostered and encouraged. Article here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070613/wl_canada_nm/canada_reportcard_col_2;_ylt=At9pCvuZ9uVVp2CN6kxVu5QE1vAI
Reasons given in article for lack of innovation:
Not sure I know what the government could do to increase science and technology degrees. I guess it's a bit of a chicken and egg problem. If there were more innovation in private sector, there would be more demand and higher wages for those types of degrees, hence greater enrollment. But I know a chemist who was earning $30k/year with a BSc. and 5 years experience working with hazardous chemicals, while a teachers starts with over $40K/year and 2 months holidays a year. Who wants to be a chemist?
The part about relying on natural resources makes it sound like Canada uses them like a crutch, where I would argue that free market made that the economic driver of choice. Sure exploration and extraction aren't as glamorous as high tech, but Canada is renowned for its expertise in those areas and should be proud of it. Not to mention there has been plenty of innovation in those fields as well.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070613/wl_canada_nm/canada_reportcard_col_2;_ylt=At9pCvuZ9uVVp2CN6kxVu5QE1vAI
Canada's socio-economic performance is mediocre and it lags other developed countries when it comes to innovation and the environment, the Conference Board of Canada said in a report card published on Wednesday.
Reasons given in article for lack of innovation:
In innovation, the report said Canada doesn't invest enough in knowledge and not enough students graduate with science and technology degrees. As well, it relies too much on its natural resources and has a shortage of skilled labor.
Not sure I know what the government could do to increase science and technology degrees. I guess it's a bit of a chicken and egg problem. If there were more innovation in private sector, there would be more demand and higher wages for those types of degrees, hence greater enrollment. But I know a chemist who was earning $30k/year with a BSc. and 5 years experience working with hazardous chemicals, while a teachers starts with over $40K/year and 2 months holidays a year. Who wants to be a chemist?
The part about relying on natural resources makes it sound like Canada uses them like a crutch, where I would argue that free market made that the economic driver of choice. Sure exploration and extraction aren't as glamorous as high tech, but Canada is renowned for its expertise in those areas and should be proud of it. Not to mention there has been plenty of innovation in those fields as well.
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