News on TechVibes

Originally introduced in the US in Octobe 2012, eBay Feed has come to Canada.

"Feed is eBay’s new way to curate a shopping experience and discover items perfect for you," the online auction giant says. "Feed marries the imagery that we have come to expect online with a personal focus on a shopper’s interests. The idea is like creating a news feed, but instead of news, it offers visual inspiration of products on eBay.ca that are all instantly shop-able."

The feature has been a smash hit for the company: according to eBay, Feed users come back to the site more often, spend longer on the site per session, and buy more items than those who don't.

For Canadians, eBay has interestingly evolved from a traditional auction of used goods to buying new items and items at fixed prices. The company says that n 2012 more than 75% of purchases made by Canadians on eBay were for new products and 65% were made at fixed prices. Canadians spend more than $1 billion on eBay per year, with eight million monthly visitors.

Slyce, a visual recognition purchasing platform, is making quite a name for themselves. They have already been dubbed the “Shazam of Stuff” and just Techvibes learned exclusively that the company's oversubscribed seed funding round has topped out at just over $3.75 million at its official close.

It’s not surprising that we are seeing big things come out of this Calgary-based startup. The company has lofty ambitions to completely change the way we discover and purchase products both online and offline. The Slyce platform combines the convenience of purchasing, using mobile and e-commerce, with advanced digital discovery methods such as visual recognition, QR and NFC, to give users the ability to identify and instantly purchase products anywhere, anytime.

“The complexity of the platform to engage the entire e-commerce ecosystem and change the transaction from the Point of Sale to the Point of Interest is a huge disruption,” explains Slyce founder and CEO Cameron Chell. “We required a large seed round to credibly jumpstart the project from the technical and customer development perspectives. We are thrilled by the response from investors and the support it shows for the endeavor and work done to date."

The idea behind Slyce is inherit in the platform’s name. Slyce aims to “cut to the purchase." Its goal is to remove the friction in the purchasing process to make it dead easy for a consumer to see a product and instantly buy it. Slyce wants to turn the world into a mall and your phone into a cash register. It does this by leveraging the full potential of mobile to let users act on their desires at the moment they occur.

Essentially, Slyce can be summed up in three words: See, Snap, Buy.

Using a smart device, users take a photo of items they are interested in purchasing anywhere they find it. The platform then uses visual recognition, powered by machine and crowd sourcing inputs, to find a match. Once recognized, users will then be able to instantly purchase their discoveries and either have them shipped or, alternatively, be directed to the nearest retail location.

Slyce uses its own payment engine designed to utilize a one-click purchase method similar to those that have been successful for the likes of Amazon and iTunes. The platform will support payments across North America.

The systems product catalogue is populated through a combination of brand identified products as well as those identified by users. It is also backfilled by affiliates like Amazon. Slyce’s goal is to ensure that all requests return either direct matches or recommend similar products to every result.

The ability for users to upload and tag items that they like is a key feature especially for influencers like Fashion Bloggers and speaks to the other side of Slyce focused on revenue sharing. Slyce currently has a patent pending to pay commission to the presenter of an item that is scanned through a mobile phone. This makes sure that all parties involved get a “slice of the pie” and is a powerful tool for brands to tap into the power of social commerce. For users, this is also an opportunity to earn affiliate revenue by endorsing products and sharing them with their social network.

The Slyce alpha platform gained significant industry interest after its February launch at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The release of the first private beta platform for Android is scheduled to take place in the coming weeks. The company also aims to rollout Version 1 of their much anticipated Slyce Social Commerce Platform.

Brands and beta testers can signup for the upcoming private Beta.

June is almost here, which means a busy time for companies filing their Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) claims.

If you’re unfamiliar, SR&ED is one of the most generous innovation funding programs, providing over $4.5 billion annually to more than 30,000 companies. Particularly Small Medium Businesses can recover up to 68% of eligible expenditures as a cash refund.

If your fiscal year end is December 31, June 30 of 2013 marks the absolute deadline to claim for expenditures incurred in 2011. If you have never heard of the program or are yet to look at your own claim, don’t worry. Our friends at Boast Capital are hosting a webinar on Wednesday, May 22 from 11am to 12pm PDT to give you a comprehensive view of the SR&ED program and other Innovation funding opportunities. The following topics will be covered:

• Introduction to SR&ED

• Changes to the SR&ED program

• How to determine eligibility

• Documentation requirements

• Strategies to maximize your claim

• Successful claim examples

• Other Government grants and innovation funding options

Click here to register.

Rob Ford's term as the mayor of Toronto has been littered with controversy and bizzare spectacles. This latest one, though, is perhaps the craziest of all.

Gawker is using crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to raise $200,000 to acquire footage of Ford allegedly smoking crack cocaine, speaking homophobic slurs toward other politicians, and other career-razing debauchery. Sound too nuts to be true? Check it out.

According to Gawker's sources, Ford's crack dealer services other A-list Torontonians, including other members of his political team, as well as a "prominent hockey analyst."

The photo's authenticity is evidenced by the fact that Ford was photographed wearing the same sweatshirt by the National Post recently. Read the full story on Gawker.

UPDATE: Campaign is closing in on $30,000, or 15% of its goal. With 950 funders, the average amount being donated per person is just over $31. Not everyone supports the endeavour, though, such as this online commenter: "Just remember you’ll be handing over a large sum of money to a known drug gang that has murdered Toronto residents intentionally and accidentally, including a member of my family. Definitely cannot support Gawker any longer if you give cash to this person."

UPDATE II: The campaign is now at more than $50,000, or over 25% of its goal. 2,070 funders have pledged an average of $24. 10 Days remain left on the campaign, suggesting that it will most likely reach its goal.

UPDATE III: The campaign now has 3,000 backers. It's 35% of the way to its goal with eight days left.

Vancouver-based online dating company Plentyoffish is changing how its site works to emphasize relationship seeking and downplay those simply looking for sex.

"When I created POF, I wanted it to be all about finding relationships with the right person," founder Markus Frind says. "For the first seven years this worked really well: I got the site to 10 million users without any employees people and POF was generating a ton of relationships. But around three years ago, everyone started using the website via mobile phones."

Today, Markus says, about 70% of POF use is via a mobile phone, and "unfortunately about 2% of men have started to use POF as more of a hookup site mostly due the the casual nature of cell phone use." So his company is making three big changes to refocus on relationships:

1. First contact cannot be sexual. "Anyone who tries to get around this rule will be deleted without warning," says POF.

2. Users can only contact others who are not more than 14 years younger or older than themselves. There is "no reason for a 50 year old man to contact a 18 year old women," according to the Canadian company.

3. Intimiate Encounters are being terminated. According to POF statistics, there are 3.3 million people who use the site every day, and of those there are only 6,000 single women looking for intimate encounters. And of those 6,000 women, many are men. "Intimate Encounters on POF can be summed up as a bunch of horny men talking to a bunch of horny men pretending to be women," Frind writes.

Frind insists that these changes will not impact the "vast majority" of POF users.

Despite how connected humans are thanks to smartphones and social networks, important messages still get lost in the mix. That’s why Vancouver’s Progrid Technologies developed the iiris app, (short for important information relayed in seconds), which promises to ease multi-channel communications so that notifications never get overlooked again.

The brainchild of Harpaul Lehry, iiris is a SaaS (software-as-as-service) solution, which allows an administrator to send messages or survey questions via push notification, email, SMS text and voicemail to any desktop or mobile device. Once an organization sets up an iiris account and imports its contact lists, an email is automatically sent out prompting contacts to download the app so they can start receiving messages.

There is no fee to download the iPhone and Android app or receive messages. Only the organization using the service pays a subscription fee starting from $9 per month with a baseline of 50 contacts. Pricing then increases based on number of contacts and activity. 

“Companies are constantly bombarded with IT security options but in terms of technology to facilitate communications in case of an emergency, there’s not much out there,” says Harpaul Lehry, CEO of Progrid Technologies.  “Many institutions and schools don’t have a system in place to reach employees and parents if their internal network goes down. Since iiris is a third party provider, there is no interruption and the message will always get through.”

Iiris is a complete communication system perfect for disseminating important information like a school closure, meeting change or appointment reminder. When a message is sent out on its private, encrypted network, the administrator can verify who was notified and if it was actually read. Additionally, survey questions can be sent through the system and responses are automatically tallied with a report generated shortly after.

“For example, if you live in a condo, certain things can happen around your building like repair work that maintenance might not have the time to notify you about. With iiris, instead of taking the time to write a note and post it in the elevator message board, a push notification can be sent out right away,” adds Lehry.

Only two months old, iiris currently has approximately 40 customers in the evaluation phase and a handful of paid users applying the technology at their businesses. Lehry is also in talks with resellers in Singapore and Europe who are interested in acquiring the platform for their respective markets. Although SMS and voicemail is currently restricted to North America, Progrid is working towards expanding iiris’ functionalities across every platform including Blackberry and around the world in the coming months.

Like many bootstrapped startups, Progrid is actively looking to partner with an Angel investor or established VC to develop iiris even further. In the meantime, Lehry is involved with the BCTIA’s Centre4Growth CEO-in-residence program, which helps tech entrepreneurs across British Colombia accelerate the growth of their business by matching them with an experienced CEO to show them the ropes.

“I’ve always had a desire to develop my own solution but raising funds isn’t easy. Since I have a background in reselling, my strategy was to establish Progrid to generate cash flow and then fund and create my own software,” says Lehry. “I wish there was some sort of conduit or bridge that would help Canadian companies connect with the funding in Silicon Valley. Hopefully there will be a go-to platform soon.”

The Ottawa International Game Conference, which showcases the innovations and emerging trends in the Ottawa and Canadian gaming industry, starts on Wednesday, May 29.

Founded by a consortium of game studios in 2012, the second annual OIGC is set to take place at the Ottawa Convention Centre and will "bring together the geek developers, whisky drinking business types, and artsy creatives," event organizers say: "Keynote speakers will blow minds, dynamic panels may turn into shouting matches, exhibitors will give away tons of swag, and the parties are going to make us wish handheld cameras were never invented."

Speakers at OIGC include Alex Lopez, an art director for Konami Digital; Anders Jeppsson, head of gaming at BlackBerry; Andy Smith, production manager at Get Set Game; and Ben Kane, the founder of Going Loud Studios. The event's founding partners include Jean-Sylvain Sormany of Snowed In Studios, John Criswick of Magmic, and Scott Simpson of Playbrains.

"OIGC 2013 is a must-attend event for game developers, artists, students, industry recruiters, and the players who live, eat and breathe everything game-related," organizers say. "The 2013 conference tracks are designed to cover all aspects of game development, from idea and market research, all the way through to the final polish. Beef up your current skills or learn about another aspect of the business. It’s all here at OIGC."

Here are the four tracks attendees can choose to participate in:

1. Consumer. "The Consumer track is designed to give conference attendees the opportunity to learn about the current and emerging consumer trends in the game industry. Influential speakers will help provide insight into what consumer habits will shape the future, while veteran game industry panelists review their successes and lessons learned."

2. Business. "The Business track is intended to provide practical information on getting a game financed and running a profitable game studio. Whether you’re looking to start your own studio, get funding for an existing studio, or improve your company’s ability to generate revenue, the Business track is here to help."

3. Developer. "
The Developer track will provide a wealth of knowledge to those with an interest in the technical side of game development. Listen and engage with game industry veterans from a wide range of development backgrounds. From indie to AAA studios, OIGC participants will learn about the tools and best practices required to build the best quality games on the market."

4. Creative. "It’s hard to make a successful game without the creative individuals that set a game apart from the competition. With the Creative track, OIGC participants will engage with talented creative professionals that make the visual, sound and design decisions that give their games the polish needed to be a hit."

The three-day event costs $495, but only $225 for independent developers and just $150 for students. Learn more or register here.

The inaugural Atlantic Venture Forum is next month in Halifax and it's already being tagged as Atlantic Canada's premier access to capital event.

The lineup of keynote speakers is impressive and includes Charley Lax, Paul Singh, Peter van der Velden, Ben Yoskovitz, and Yona Shtern.

Shtern is the cofounder and CEO of Beyond the Rack and Techvibes readers will be very familiar with his story.

Beyond the Rack was named the fastest growing e-tailer in North America by Internet Retailer Magazine in 2011 and third fastest growing private company in Canada for 2012 by Profit magazine. Launched in 2009, Beyond the Rack has grown exponentially with eight million consumer members, 5,000 brand partners, 400 employees, annual sales in excess of $200 Million, and over $60 Million in funding.

Beyond the Rack has just launched BTR TV, an exciting new feature on the site which displays Daily Spotlight Deals. Every day at noon customers are able to see video demonstrations of the day's Spotlight items.

The Atlantic Venture Forum is currently accepting presenting company applications, so if you're looking to showcase your tech startup this summer (you don't need to be in active fundraising mode) then this would be an ideal event.

The old saying “half of my money spent on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half” by John Wanamaker used to be a shield marketers could hide behind when explaining which of their campaigns went sour and didn’t create the returns on investment initially promised.

But in today’s marketing landscape where organizations are increasingly shifting their budgets to the digital realm, everything can be tested, measured, and redeployed down to the pixel and letter, making way for an increasing skills gap within the marketing profession.

The core of the problem being that those who thought they could go to business school to study marketing find themselves now in a world where not only are they unqualified to call themselves marketers, but to make matters worse, they are witnessing all their friends who studied anything but marketing land jobs in the field. With an organization’s marketing efforts living, breathing, and growing on the web, it is utterly shocking that so-called business schools feel no moral obligation to properly equip students with the skills required to not just land a job, but actually do one in a successful capacity. 

As a marketing graduate myself, I had to think long and hard over what was happening and how in truth in made sense that a company would invest in a designer who could create all their marketing material, a developer who could create and maintain their website, a statistician who could make sense of all the data they’re collecting, an engineer who could parse their database, or a journalism grad who could write them great copy. But what’s a business grad to do? Strategy maybe?

Good luck finding a job that lets you do that right out of school. There’s always sales, account management, or client services—but wait, those work better when you can talk and understand the technicalities of the product or software, so maybe not. Also, what if you don’t want to do sales. What’s a marketing grad to do then? 

The rise of the technical marketer is nothing new, however, though it has certainly generated enormous buzz and gotten significant attention over the past little while with terms like “growth hacker” and the like being thrown around. If you need further proof of the trend, one of my all-time favourite blog posts is “Every Marketer Should Be Technical,” in which Jamie Steven from SEOmoz provides a typical marketing scenario that undoubtedly would be encountered today, but would require some real technical chops to tackle. He also provides a great list of resources at his site Technical MKTG which not only breaks down which skills marketers can expect to be asked for today, but also where and how to acquire them so that they too could train to become indispensable. 

The dilemma, though, is that you’ve just spent $20,000 (or more) and four years thinking you were preparing for a hypothetical job that you find out upon graduation doesn’t really exist. Instead what you find is an arena where you have to lace up the boots once more and really use some excess resource of self-motivation and will power to learn everything you should have been taught. But here’s the catch—you weren’t.

Luckily, with all the proliferation of online resources made available for free or a marginal subscription fee, there’s no shortage of content to do just that. I personally like to use Treehouse (whose CEO Techvibes recently profiled here), Lynda.com, Code Academy, and Coursera to play catch up and fit the bill of a technical marketer, and if you’ve ever been in the same boat and are looking to do the same, I’d suggest spending a great chunk of your time doing so too.

Would I say the same for going to business school to learn marketing? Doubtful. But if you’re still deciding which program to pursue, consider something a little more, you guessed it, technical. 

Remember when you were a kid and your mom or dad pressed some cash in your hand and sent you off to the store? Whatever was leftover from their purchase could be used for candy.

They wanted milk or cheese or maybe just an hour without you in house so they didn’t have to be parents for 60 minutes. You didn’t care. Within five seconds of that cash hitting your hand, you were out the door around the corner and down the block already imagining the bonanza of jawbreakers, Cheetos, licorice and Icy Squares that would soon be yours.

There was no thought. It was instant. A flurry of purchase and consumption in a speed set beyond hyper. Later you’d snap out of your sugar-fueled haze, covered in wrappers and spend ten minutes watching your thumb and middle finger press together and slowly, stickily, stretch apart.

But the birthday and Christmas wish lists were very, very different. Weeks of planning went into the wish list as this was not to be taken lightly. There were consultations with friends to see what ideas they had. Catalogues were considered and plenty of toy stores were visited to see what Hasbro had come up with this year. After the market survey, lists were written and rewritten as the order of the list was of utmost importance.

You had some idea of what was considered a reasonable budget, so one expensive item at the top of the list meant fewer gifts in total as compared to eliminating the expensive item and seeding the list’s top items with lesser purchases. This strategy would of course result in more gifts. There were so many things to consider and so much to plan.

But a funny thing would usually happen. That one item over the period of consideration stood apart. That skateboard which previously was item number six on the list had embedded itself into your consciousness and you found yourself learning more and more about skateboarding in general and the decks, bearings and wheels. You could feel yourself attempting your first dark stall maneuver and it felt right.

Soon, the considerations of cost and numbers of gifts became entirely irrelevant and the skateboard became the entire focus. The rest of the list could be burned as long as the skateboard showed up on that special day.

As investors, we see pitches all the time. Sometimes we’ll see many pitches in a row and later you’ll still be thinking about that one deal and you keep going back to it until you either invest or find the problem that keeps you out.

I recently had a pitch from an entrepreneur who is likely one of the most creative minds I’ve come across. It’s his blessing and curse. He made a high-end product a few years back that found its way around the world. He wanted to start a new company and pitched me on his new product. It was a good idea, but not a great idea so I didn’t express a lot of enthusiasm. Sensing that I wasn’t excited, he said “Well, if you don’t like that idea I’ve got more!” and he proceeded to whip out ideas like they were Dubble Bubbles.

I have to admit that I was impressed by the sheer volume of ideas that one individual could create. I was less impressed by his passion for any one of them. I told him that I wanted to see him again when one of those ideas consumed him.

So many think that it’s all about the idea, but that’s only partially true. Ideas are great, but ideas without the passion to make them actionable are just a sugar rush. They’re instant fun.

You need to find that one idea that waits for you when you wake. It’s that one idea that won’t leave you alone. It’s the one idea that keeps you from sleeping and haunts your every waking moment until you know you have to find out if it has merit or not. When the end user or buyer of your solution who validates your idea turns to you with that look of candy-store glee, you’re golden.

You think up ideas all the time. You might as well start writing your ideas down on paper. They become your wish list. Eventually, you’ll be looking for a ramp.

Photo: Adam Gropman

There is both good news and bad news for BlackBerry.

The good news is that its marketshare in Canada has more than doubled since 2012, up from 6% last year to 13.5% today, according to Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt. The analyst believes the launch of BlackBerry 10 spurred the dramatic change.

BlackBerry still has a long way to go, however. In 2011, it held a marketshare of nearly 22% in Canada. And years before that, its marketshare was well over half.

In Canada, Apple boasts 40% of the market, while Samsung accounts for 30%.

Worldwide, BlackBerry isn't making much progress, however. It lost its third place ranking to Microsoft's Windows Phone in global smartphone shipments for the first quarter of 2013, according to market researcher IDC. Shipping just six million units, BlackBerry's share dropped to 2.9%, just behind Windows' 3.2%.

In other related news, BlackBerry Live, the company's annual conference in Orlando, wrapped up this week.

Here's some of the major announcement BlackBerry made during the event:

- The company created a mobile social network built on its BBM app called Channels.

- BlackBerry Messenger will be coming to iOS and Android this summer for free.

- BlackBerry World now has more than 120,000 apps.

- The company unveiled the Q5, a mid-range smartphone.

The promise of a mobile wallet that completely replaces the need to carry around our heavy, overloaded cowhides may still be far away. But according to Derek Colfer, head of mobile innovation at Visa Canada, the future of mobile payments is already here.

Techvibes had the chance to sit down with Colfer to talk about the changing face of payments in Canada before his session on this topic at Mesh13 this week.

According to Colfer, the key ingredient for mobile payments lies within a protocol called NFC or near field communications. Visa is focused on NFC because it is today what the plastic card was back in the 50s: a common standard which could be used by anyone to purchase anything, anywhere.

“The original Visa promise was that you could use this piece of plastic anywhere with zero-liability. The solution was scalable and interoperable. The only protocol out there today that mimics the interoperability, scale and security that plastic promised and delivered on today is NFC,” explained Colfer. 

Ironically, Canadian consumers are using NFC the most with their plastic cards which have NFC antennas embedded within them. NFC-enabled cards allow users to wave their card at the point of sale instead of swiping or using a chip and pin method for purchases up to $50. Visa Canadian cardholders are using this contactless form of payment every 0.6 seconds, according to Colfer.

ALSO AT MESH13: Ryan Carson Turns Traditions on Their Head at Treehouse

Visa sees these contactless credit card payments as a necessary way to groom the purchasing behavior of Canadian consumers to ease them into a full transition to mobile. “The beauty of it is that once you start to wave your card. There is no difference between waving a card and waving a phone,” says Colfer.

But in order for mobile payments to gain mass adoption, Colfer believes we need to be able to make purchases greater than $50 which will soon be possible. He confirmed that the technology to wave your phone at a point of sale and enter a passcode to make larger purchases is already in the works and should be rolling out soon.

Visa Canada’s commitment to NFC payments is extremely bullish in Canada especially because per capita we are walking around with the most smartphones in our hands. Colfer confirmed that Visa has moved past the pilot stage with mobile payments and are now putting all of their efforts in full commercial rollouts with more than 10 committed projects globally. Last week, Canadians got a big boost in mobile payment support with payment solutions being announced from CIBC and RBC.

Visa has already certified over 150 devices for NFC payments with this number growing daily and work with 9 out of 10 major device manufacturers and 4 out of the 5 major operating systems. The only one missing, of course, is Apple who has not yet released a handset with NFC capabilities. But Colfer says, “when and if Apple puts NFC in their devices, Visa will be there to certify these as well."

Mobile payments are a critical step in getting us to the highly coveted mobile wallet which, according to Colfer, we shouldn’t expect anytime soon.

“We are nowhere near providing the consumer with a mobile wallet until we can take everything out of your cowhide wallet and put it in your digital wallet—this means your drivers license, your transit pass, your loyalty cards, your library cards. There is ground to cover to fulfill the promise of leaving your wallet behind and  just using your phone. So what we are doing is starting with payments which is a good place to start,” explains Colfer.

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is looking for Canada’s most promising innovative technology companies to introduce to the UK’s vibrant tech community.

The four winners of the competition will have a chance to:

• spend two days in the UK to kick-start their European adventure;

• receive advice and mentoring from specialists who have helped hundreds of Canadian businesses go global;

• meet and network with world-class investors, companies and incubators;

• and visit leading technology clusters including Tech City, Europe’s most vibrant innovation hub.

Enter the competition by submitting your entry by June 14. Questions about this competition or a business expansion to the UK can be submitted on Twitter to @UKTI_canada using the hashtag #UkCanInv.

Nokia this week launched Nokia Music in Canada, its free music streaming service.

Nokia Music is a service exclusive to Nokia Lumia smartphones, providing consumers with a "simple and delightful way to discover and enjoy music," the company says. According to Nokia, there is no sign-up, no ads and no subscription. The catalogue features 18 million songs.

A main feature of Nokia Music is Mix Radio. Using Mix Radio, consumers can stream free music from a suite of more than 150 exclusive playlists that are curated by staff—sort of like Songza, but with less variety.

"Technology has shaped the listening behaviour of many Canadians and transformed the music industry by giving music lovers more listening choices. However, with so many options and so much music out there, it's easy to get overwhelmed (and even discouraged) when it comes to discovering new music," says Alan Cross, long time radio broadcaster and musicologist famous for The Ongoing History of New Music and The Secret History of Rock. "What Nokia Music offers is a seamless, easy-to-use way to listen to new and old music, all with a touch of a button."

Music fans can create their own personal soundtrack and Nokia Music playlists can also be enjoyed offline. Other features include Nokia Music's "Gig Finder," which pinpoints live shows taking place nearby.

For a monthly subscription of $3.99, Nokia Music+ enables unlimited song skips on playlists and higher quality streaming over wifi, among other premium features.

"We believe that Nokia Music offers great value and will revolutionize the way Canadian music lovers can explore, discover and enjoy music," says Jyrki Rosenberg, Vice President of Nokia Entertainment. "We are always striving to give Canadians the best service possible and we have worked extra hard to ensure Nokia Music meets the expectations of the demanding, active and inspired music fans in Canada."

The Nokia Music app is available for download to all Canadian Lumia owners in the Windows Phone Store.

In March Techvibes reported that Facebook is setting up an office in Vancouver. We've recently learned that it won't be in either of the more trational tech hubs of Gastown or Yaletown.

The world's largest social network is recruiting up to 150 staff, mostly software engineers, to fill the office, which is slated to open this month.

According to Facebook, the office will serve as a training ground for recent software engineering graduates seeking full-time employment within the company.

Techvibes has confirmed that Facebook has signed a three-year lease on a 20,000 square foot space at 1555 West Pender (Pender and Georgia) in Coal Harbour. The location was previously occcupied by Kassian Architecture.

According to Colliers' Matthew Carlson, “This is fantastic news for Vancouver. When major companies from San Francisco like Salesforce, Lucasfilm, and Facebook set up offices, it confirms that our technology community is doing all the right things.”

While Facebook has deemed this Vancouver office as "temporary" with a one year life span, the three-year lease may indicate otherwise.

Two of Canada's major telecommunications companies, Rogers and Bell, are itching to launch their own video streaming products, which could create a lot of competition for Netflix.

Netflix is well loved by Canadians though and says it's prepared to compete at the highest level through exclusive content rights and top-notch original content.

“Linear television has been very successful ... but it’s ripe for replacement,” Hastings told The Globe and Mail in an interview. “They are now realizing they have good content and that they need to make it on-demand and convenient to access. They are a few years late, butthat won’t matter in the long term. What will matter is if they can get in there and really improve the television experience.”

SEE ALSO: Netflix Not Concerned with Piracy: 'People are Mostly Honest'

Quoth the Globe:

The number of subscribers to traditional television services continues to increase in Canada, but the rate of growth has slowed considerably and is expected to begin declining within a few years as more viewers turn to alternatives for their content. About 12 million Canadian households subscribe to traditional television packages, compared with two million for Netflix. But Netflix is on a different trajectory, doubling its number of subscribers in the past year as it bulks up on content and introduces original shows such as Hemlock Grove and House of Cards.

Many consumers—including virtually all Netflix customers—don't believe that Canada's telcos stand a chance at competing with Netflix. As one online commentor said, Netflix's strategy is to "offer a good service at a fair price" with "no lock-in and no game playing," while Bell's strategy is to "charge as much as possible for a service as poor as they can get away with, then back it up with horrible customer service and onerous contract terms."

Netflix streamed four billion hours of content worldwide in April. The company's content streaming accounts for up to one-third of all internet traffic in Canada during peak hours, saw subscriptions climb 50% in 2012, according to a report from the Media Technology Monitor.

Photo: Reuters

I was simultaneously thumb wrestling one-on-one with a bearded business executive and a group of fellow attendees during a keynote at Canada 3.0.

Needless to say, Canada 3.0 was one of the more unusual conferences I’d attended. In terms of substance, Canada 3.0 featured the new industrial revolution, insights into content marketing, and how gaming could be the medium that saves businesses tons of wages.

THE NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Chris Anderson, former editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and cofounder and CEO of 3DRobotics, spoke about what he believes is the next Industrial Revolution: desktop 3D printing and the Maker Movement.

He draws parallels to how desktop publishing changed the world; instead of having publishing be stuck in the wealthy hands of those who owned publishing factories, staff, and expensive printing equipment, desktop publishing essentially put a “personal factory” on everyone’s desk. This technology was not only made widely accessible and available, it also democratized the process of publishing.

Today, it’s advanced even further: with the click of one button, publishers could theoretically reach millions of people through one blog post.

Anderson likens the 3D printer to the Publish button. Instead of being held back by equipment and expertise, desktop publishing made it easy for even the most amateur users to share their thoughts. Similarly, instead of having a lack of expertise or material as restrictions, users of 3D printers can now create real-world items to their specification and share them with the world through the cloud.

Autodesk 123D (and Catch), Thingiverse, Alibaba, and Shapeways were among many other resources that Anderson shared in his keynote.

While many crowds are skeptical of 3D printing (especially given the recent scare spread by the printing of the 3D gun), Anderson pointed out that 3D printing isn’t exactly the best way to print guns. The material simply doesn’t offer enough stability; similarly, guns can be purchased at retailers like Wal-Mart—or can be custom-assembled without much difficulty with a variety of metal pieces and pipes.

Canada 3.0 offered many insights into the way business, and life, will be in the next decade. From what it looks like, it’s going to be an extremely exciting ride.

On Sunday, May 26, an HTML5 Gaming Workshop will be held in Vancouver.

The event, presented by Vancouver Polyglot {Un}conference, Startup Weekend Vancouver and Microsoft Canada, will show attendees how they can use HTML5 to build games and interactive experiences today. Then they will be shown how they can take those HTML5 games and migrate them to Windows 8 to take advantage of monetization opportunities with 60 million potential users.

"With advances brought to us by HTML5, modern browsers and free libraries like CreateJS, we can create games and rich interactive experiences more easily than before," event organizers say.

You do not have to have deep experience with either HTML5 or Windows 8 but a fundamental knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript will be helpful, according to Microsoft. And you will need Windows 8 and the Visual Studio Express for Windows 8 to take advantage of the hands-on time, the company says.

And if you're part of a startup that is building software, check out the Microsoft BizSpark program to learn more about freesoftware, development tools, support, visibility and community from Microsoft.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft Canada Sets up Shop in Coworking Spaces Across Country

The event's main speaker is Thomas Lewis, a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft. Here are some of the event's session abstracts:

Creating an HTML5 Game: Overview

"Learn about some of the great HTML5 games that are out there and how you can create your own by getting the fundamentals of how to build a game featuring a loveable, yet angry, Yeti using HTML5 technologies that work across all modern browsers."

Creating an HTML5 Game: Components

"Learn how you can create a game about a loveable, yet angry, Yeti using HTML5 technologies that work across all modern browsers. In this session, we will discuss game mechanics such as input, entities, sprites, animation, collision, sound and best practices for performance."

Migrating an HTML5 Game to Windows 8

"You have an HTML5 game and want to take advantage of all the greatness that the Windows 8 platform give you (like possibly making a lot of scratch). This session will show you how you can take an existing HTML5 app and migrate it to a Windows Store app."

The workshop is free, but attendees are asked to donate $10 to local charity. Learn more or register online here.

The Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit program is one of the most generous in the world and many software companies take advantage of this program to help fund their research and development initiatives.

The SR&ED (pronounced "shred") program was created over 25 years ago when software development was primarily performed by large enterprises and systems integrators with the development methodology being a highly structured, waterfall processes with a heavy focus on documentation.

Today, many software developers are adopting agile, lean, or other iterative development methodologies and keeping process documentation focused on the minimum requirements. However, the SR&ED program’s stringent focus on “contemporaneous documentation” has created a conflict for a company trying to optimize their SR&ED claim, yet developing software using an Agile methodology.

One of the questions that I am frequently asked is how companies can apply the rigorous SR&ED documentation requirements with the speed and agility required from their highly iterative development process? How can the two concepts co-exist successfully and effectively?

To answer this, let’s start with the requirements from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) SR&ED policy on documentation. The policy states that there is a need to have “contemporaneous documentation” of SR&ED activities as evidence of qualified work. Contemporaneous refers to documentation that is created at the time the SR&ED activity is performed, identifies who did the work and what was done. Ideally, the documentation should exemplify the technological uncertainties and the systematic investigation that was performed.

In essence, the “how” and “why” of the development process is far more important to account for than the "what." Despite the ability to show the final results of SR&ED, failure to meet the SR&ED documentation requirements will usually result in denial of a claim, should it get reviewed.

Instead of creating an additional and onerous SR&ED process, I suggest adding to or modifying your current development processes to accommodate SR&ED. To this end, I have identified some easy to implement and often overlooked areas where you can document SR&ED within your existing agile environment.

1. Create a SR&ED champion within your company. This person should be someone who manages projects and is familiar with the standards and processes of software development in your company.

Ideally, they are a Project Manager who already produces artefacts such as sprint summaries. As “SR&ED Champion,” they are the primary resource for all SR&ED related questions and can enforce the implementation of these ideas through existing and new project management artefacts.

2. Add SR&ED commenting during source code check-ins. An example of how an existing development process can be modified to suit SR&ED purposes is by using source code repository check-ins to document SR&ED. Your developers may already add their check in notes.

By mandating the use of SR&ED “tags” with additional notes on experimentation performed leading to the code output you now have a diary of all your SR&ED results. This repository can then be searched when you need to document and compile your claim.

3. Use of sprint/scrum reports and wiki notes: Adding three SR&ED relevant fields in your sprint summaries or scrum reports - SR&ED: Yes/No; Technological Obstacles; Experimentation Performed- will ensure that you capture the SR&ED work done within the context of your existing SR&ED reporting.

You can also add the “SR&ED” tag to wiki entries that may relate to SR&ED work. This tag can be easily searched when you need to develop your SR&ED claim for related sprints or tasks.

4. Source code commenting: While source code is an accepted form of SR&ED documentation, it only shows the results of SR&ED, rather than the process of SR&ED. Identifying specific algorithms tried and the experimentation undertaken as comments in code is a good way to document the SR&ED process.

When appropriate, commenting out failed code or iterations of algorithms is a good way to tag SR&ED work. Adding shorthand to the comments, such as initials of the programmer and dates, can strengthen the reliability of this type of documentation.

5. Email is an often overlooked area of SR&ED documentation. You can create a SR&ED specific account such as [email protected] and CC the email when SR&ED specific emails are sent. Emails that discuss technological obstacles, uncertainties and experimentation are worth documenting.

This method is a good way to improve your SR&ED documentation with minimal overhead. This email account can now be retrieved regularly or at the end of the fiscal year when you need to compile your SR&ED claim.

The CRA also expects that larger, more complex software development environments have more mature and formal documentation; you should expect that if your claims are large, your level of documentation corresponds accordingly. Larger claims should, in theory, have more comprehensive documentation. By implementing these simple steps in conjunction with their existing process, software companies of all sizes can adapt their agile development to improve SR&ED documentation, resulting in more effective and timely SR&ED claims.

Six Canadian startups will be participating in the second round of ideaBoost, a business accelerator for companies focused on creating content and enabling technologies for the media and entertainment industry.

The Canadian Film Centre, together with Corus Entertainment, Google and Shaw Media, announced the selection: AlertTV, Bemused Network, Instaradio, Lightning Platform, Motion Panels and Wondereur. They will each receive $15,000 in seed capital for their project as well as mentoring by thought leaders from the technology, business, marketing, media and product communities, ideaBoost says. Shaw, Corus, and Google will offer program participants strategic guidance over the course of the four-month boot camp-style program, as well as the potential for capital investment at exit, according to the accelerator.

“The deep involvement of ideaBOOST’s founding partners—Shaw Media, Corus Entertainment and Google—all of whom recognize the importance of creating opportunities for the next generation of media and entertainment innovators is what sets our accelerator apart,” says Ana Serrano, chief digital officer of the CFC.

IdeaBoost received "hundreds" of applications from companies in major cities all over Canada.

“IdeaBoost has expanded the call to include both the stories and the means by which they are produced, delivered, and ultimately experienced by the audience,” saysScott Dyer, chief technology officer of Corus.

"Once again, we are pleased to see the very high quality of companies applying to ideaBoost,” added Peter Bissonnette, president of Shaw Communications.

"We are in the early days of a fundamental shift in the way content is created and delivered,” noted Jeremy Butteriss, Director of Strategic Partnerships for Google Canada. “For this reason it is important to catalyze both content and technology developers in Canada. IdeaBoosthopes to help in both regards with our new cohort."