Wheat Straw Panel Board Houses for China’s Earthquake Zone

Boewer Besseling

New homes in China’s earthquake zone will now be made from wheat straw instead of bricks and cement.
A Dutch company has licenced technology developed by the Alberta Research Council to make wheat straw panel board—OSSB or oriented straw strandboard—for the Chinese market.
According to architect Boewer Besseling of Panel Board Holdings, the wheat straw panels are superior for this earthquake zone since they are framed with light gauge steel.
Says Besseling, “First of all, the buildings are all made out of concrete and bricks. And the quality of these bricks and concrete is a little bit less than what we are used to in Europe and also in Canada. So if there is an earthquake, there is a big possibility that it just cracks because it is not flexible, and it comes down. Unfortunately, that happened a lot last year during the earthquake. And this light gauge steel is more flexible, so it can withstand an earthquake much better than concrete and bricks. And together with our OSSB, which we can use like a bracing element, it stands better in earthquakes than what they have right now.”
The wheat straw panel boards also offer an environmental break for China. ARC’s forest products technologist Wayne Wasylciw says the OSSB panel boards make use of straw that in China would otherwise be burned. They also save agricultural land from being dug up for clay to make bricks. √

2010 – The Year of Social Calibration

How to effectively gain entry into the social media ecosystem as it continues to grow in relevancy is top of mind for many, not only here in the Edmonton area but around Alberta and the rest of the World. 2010 will be the year many alter behaviors by integrating certain social web practices into overall business processes across the enterprise resulting in a “social calibration” of the corporate culture.
Veterans of at least one social media campaign will refine their approach as the realization that social influence is reliant on certain sustainable actions. In other words, there’s an understanding of the difference between being a blogger and being a blogger with influence—which means that social media integration into the 2010 marketing and communications plan happens at the outset rather than as an add-on later. This change in process should drive support for internal policy development and a concerted effort to build social capacity.
Also, as decision-makers come on board, I see more I.T. departments benefiting. The enterprise remains protected while I.T. enables social technologies behind their firewall by using open API authorization code like “OAuth” as appropriate. This success may also inspire the enterprise to pursue internal social media solutions related to human resources, such as employee retention, training, communications and knowledge capture.
Additionally, look for more organizations to embrace “cloud computing.” Despite still suffering from a bit of hype, trust has been strengthened in terms of data privacy and security… so the cloud will continue to influence collaborative innovations such as Google Wave for all to use.
As well, we’ll likely see more governments, (primarily municipal) embrace “open data” policies and concepts. And why not? Citizens are willing to contribute and even provide services for free. Participation in this area will continue to rise as access to public data truly becomes public. For more info on the open data topic visit eaves.ca and get ready for more city run contests, data mash-ups, and location aware services based widgets.
Maintaining consumer trust by way of social influence will remain a central goal behind social media performance metrics. Reputation 2.0 and the ever present need for active brand management online becomes a reality for more decision-makers in 2010. That said, this isn’t good news for lagging executives still employing the big plan of shutting down all access to the social web… but it’s certainly good news for their competitors who are consuming the social media Kool-Aid by the litre. That gap will continue to widen especially in areas of brand awareness, loyalty, customer support and rapport.
Experience suggests that concrete social media performance can only happen once the organization has truly committed. Up to now, there has been considerable experimentation and that’s to be expected. However, for measurable conversions to take place, an enterprise-wide commitment or social calibration must take place.
Ultimately, I believe 2010 will be a year of recovery, modest growth and prosperity. Social calibration should allow leaders who have a foothold within the social web (Twitter account and Facebook fan page) to accelerate and deepen relationships with customers. In other words, if your organization has been building social media credibility and customer love throughout a tough 2009, the next year will most likely require management teams to be better prepared to support future initiatives with more than just budget, they’ll need to support with a will to engage.
I’d like to wish all my readers, clients, the fusedlogic team, family and friends a fantastic Christmas and New Year’s celebration. √

Data thieves defied by ENCRYPTSTICK

Ed Rusnak CEO of ENC

Imagine you’re a medical technician and your laptop just got stolen… Imagine the stress over the fact that it contained samples of about a quarter of a million lab tests for reportable and communicable diseases, plus identifiable names and personal health numbers. Even worse, imagine your name is on the list.
In June 2009, Alberta Health Services (AHS) reported two physically locked down laptops stolen from a lab at the University Hospital. Within a month, in a separate incident, private medical files of 11,000 Albertans within AHS were put at risk as a virus intermittently took snapshots of screens of computers that access that data. The information could have been transmitted to locations unknown.
These are just two recent locals cases, but the phenomenon is worldwide. The Open Security Foundation’s DataLossDB.org gathers reported information about events involving the loss, theft or exposure of personally identifiable information—the statistics are mind-boggling.
“The loss of data is certainly a major concern for personal privacy, especially in health care, insurance and financial industries. For individuals, identity theft is becoming a more common threat,” states Ed Rusnak, CEO of ENC Security Systems. Based in Pitt Meadows, BC, the company provides solutions to secure and transfer personal and professional data.
“Not only can companies be adversely affected, the loss of information can spell ruin for families when banking and personal identity information falls into the hands of criminals.” Typically, most concerns are over the effect of the theft of the actual hardware… but the potential gain on the black market of the selling and actual use of stolen data would far exceed the nominal value of the equipment.
The problem isn’t limited to laptops and hacked databases. The proliferation of high capacity, pint-sized data storage devices—USB flash drives, memory sticks or keys, pen drives or thumb drives—increases exposure to data risk and creates potential goldmine for data thieves. According to the USB Flash Drive Alliance, from 2004 to 2008, the number of units sold rose from 59.5 million to 220 million, and the average capacity increased from 213MB to 1727MB. They can be seen hanging from key chains, belt loops, and lanyards around people’s necks. Too often, they are left unattended, plugged into the USB ports on computers.
“Things will get lost… things will get stolen. It happens every day.”
And, while Rusnak can’t help people safeguard devices from physical theft or loss, he can help them protect their data.
ENC has developed EncryptStick, an application that turns these low-cost, off-the-shelf flash drives into affordable, easy-to-use, highly secure data vaults. It prevents virtually any type of file—documents, videos, photos—or passwords from being stolen.
“Password protection is not enough. EncryptStick uses powerful 512 bit polymorphic encryption technology, which has never been broken or successfully hacked,” Rusnak proclaims proudly.
Encryption converts data into code by use of an algorithm that cannot be converted back or decrypted without a “key”. EncryptStick uses the unique ID or serial number of the flash drive as a part of those 512 bits of information to create that key. This, combined with the user’s password, makes it virtually impossible to be decoded.

SIMPLE STEPS TO DATA SECURITY
To get EncryptStick, simply plug a flash drive into a USB port, purchase a license and download the software directly to it (not the host computer). Using the unique registration code, follow the instructions to create a master password.
“The password is not stored on ENC’s servers or on the computer. It’s directed to the flash drive and is known to only the user,” stresses Rusnak.
To use EncryptStick, plug the flash drive into the USB port. The software runs automatically. When the password is entered, the vaults become visible. Open existing vaults, create new vaults and easily encrypt or decrypt any file by right-clicking and selecting from a drop down menu, or simply dragging and dropping the files into the folders. EncryptStick also enables “encryption on the fly”—the ability to edit documents within vaults while the files are encrypted.
“And it’s fast. EncryptStick encrypts files at a rate 10 times faster that AES 256 (the federal government encryption standard) and takes up only 4MB of space.”
EncryptStick also allows users to maintain anonymity. “You can plug your encrypted flash drive into a public computer; when you remove it, it removes the temporary operating file so there is absolutely no footprint—no evidence of you being on that computer,” says Tim Sperling, President ENC.
And, even if someone were to gain physical access to the encrypted computer or see the vaults, without both the Encrypt-Stick flash drive inserted and the correct password, that information is coded and thus unreadable.
ENC anticipated that a flash drive could get lost or become inoperable (perhaps you ran it through the wash). As long as the original drive was registered, replace the flash drive, purchase a new ENC license, and the system will piggyback a new registration key on the old key, allowing access to existing vaults.

ALBERTA ROOTS
Born in Vegreville, Alberta, Rusnak attended Strathcona Composite High School in Edmonton. His entrepreneurial roots sprouted in St. Albert when he started his first venture in the 1970s. For the most part, he worked in the oil and gas sector and related industries.
In 1997, the recently divorced Rusnak reconnected with Doris, a former classmate from Vegreville who had been widowed two years earlier. After a few months together in Edmonton, the couple relocated to her home in Pitt Meadows—where the possibility of year-round golf appealed to Rusnak.
The reality of a life of leisure soon waned. And, while flash drives are a recent phenomenon, application of encryption technologies is old hat to Rusnak. He soon founded AFI Inc., focusing his efforts on the oil and gas industry where he was the first to design a CSA approved electronic device for remotely monitoring well-heads on remote Northern Alberta sites via satellite.
“Our system replaced windup devices on a seven-day clock which was susceptible to things like wet paper and dried up ink and where we waited 60 days for results from a Calgary lab,” Rusnak recalls.
At that time, encryption technology was used to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the data transmitted rather than to address an issue of security. After 9/11, that all changed.
“We knew that we could encrypt analog and digital data through the unique ID or serial number of the processor.” Rusnak admitted this direction was inevitable but sold the company in 2003 before being able to implement it. He realized that he could use the same methodology on flash drives as he could with the processors on the remote well head monitors.
“Most people were using flash drives for storage. It can be more—and it is.” In 2005, he started ENC and, by late 2006, EncryptStick was ready to roll. The timing couldn’t have been better, but things went sideways. According to Rusnak, a company he did some work for claimed that ENC was using its technology. The time to defeat the public claim “…put us behind two-and-a-half years after we announced the product. NAIT, among others (possible licensees) who were prepared to move forward, had walked away. They had no choice.”
Crisis created opportunity: It gave Rusnak time to enhance EncryptStick—adding a password manager to store sensitive log-ins securely… an automatic session time-out for drives left unattended… and protection from common hacking techniques like keystroke-logging.
Finally, in May 2009, Rusnak and ENC received a letter of apology and a retraction of the statement and allegations that were made, allowing the official release of EncryptStick to take place.
At 69, Rusnak is certainly not ready to retire. “I’m having too much fun.” In fact, he’s as energetic as ever. He’s looking at even more ways to add functionality. His team is working on version 4.2 that adds enhancements for Windows 7. Versions for Mac and Linux operating systems are just about done.
And while he seems to have come upon a pot of gold, for Ed, it’s not just about the money. “I want to change the entire thinking of the world and to help keep in the forefront of your mind how valuable your data is to you.”
That’s why Rusnak has created this revolutionary, yet easy-to-use product at an affordable price of $39.99US, while offering free updates for the life of the product.
And, it comes at no surprise that he has more ideas, more products at various stages of development. Rusnak chuckles.
“If you’re can’t live on the edge, you’re taking up too much room.” √

From great muffins to great minds

Jenni Salonga, Neil Caarsemaker, David Riddell, Brian Mycholuk, Candace Brimsmead

You’ll find the Edmonton Research Park at the junction of Parsons Road and Karl Clark Road.
A linear red and grey building marks the spot. That’s the Advanced Technology Centre where Candace Brinsmead has her office. She is the vice-president of technology advancement with the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation.
Brinsmead describes the ATC, built in the 1980s, as “looking like a bunker from the road but it’s actually very cool, still a contemporary looking space. The Advanced Technology Centre was one of the premier buildings and it was designed as an incubator. It’s an award winning architectural wonder.”
The ATC currently houses 33 tenants: startup companies with a focus on biotechnology, information and communications technology and energy technology.
“We also have Research Centre One which was built in the late 1970s. It’s more for second stage companies. And then, more recently, we’ve added the Biotechnology Business Development Centre to our stable of incubators and it focuses on biotechnology development.”
As you wind down Karl Clark Road through the Edmonton Research Park, you’ll pass by a number of buildings which house companies like Micralyne, Schlumberger, C-FER, Syncrude, and Affexa, the company that makes Cold-fx… and then there’s the ill-fated Dell building. Then you curve around a large pond where flocks of Canada geese gather year round, finally ending up at the Alberta Research Council.
Just in case you’re wondering who Karl Clark was, he’s the scientist who, in the 1920s, invented the hot water process for separating bitumen from the oil sands, thereby laying the foundation for today’s oilsands industry. His work was among the first projects of the Alberta Research Council.
Edmonton Research Park covers a quarter section of land. It was much larger until a few years ago when the City sold off the Park’s reserve on the other side of Parson’s Road. That’s where you’ll now find the shopping complex known as South Edmonton Common. Seems at the time, our City fathers didn’t think this “research and technology stuff” would ever amount to much.
But today, not only is Edmonton’s biotechnology cluster taking off, the Research Park is bursting at the seams.
According to Brinsmead, “We only have four lots available, and there are negotiations going on for three of those. So yes, we’re going to need to expand fairly soon. And we will be looking to the Southlands to do that.” The Southlands is 85 acres of provincially controlled land immediately south of the Research Park.
“Because we see a boom coming in the technology sector, it will be a much more dense area than the Research Park is now,” Brinsmead predicts. “Right now we pretty well have a zoning limit of two floors. We see that we’re probably going to have to go up to eight floors and have fairly dense office and lab space.
“We’re also going to have to start initiating conversations with the City and with the Province to look at what we can do to bring rapid transit down here, or at least shore up the mass transit system that we’ve got now.”
This is where’s Brinsmead’s enthusiasm really kicks into high gear. She has that gut sense honed by years of experience that this Research Park holds great potential.
As an entrepreneur, she ran a company that sold low fat muffins to McDonald’s across Canada, then sold it to a multi-national enterprise. She put her banking experience to good use at the Alberta Research Council where she ran an investment fund worth $6 million. Her supervisor at ARC was Ron Gilbertson, the man who is now heads up EEDC.
“I respected him as a visionary, and I think he respected the skills that I had that probably executed towards that vision. So when he came over to EEDC, he approached me because they were looking at an expand role in trying to get technology to market, where the City could play a larger role.”
Brinsmead describes the vision for the Edmonton Research Park as a community where great minds mingle and great ideas are born and nurtured into new technologies.
“It will be a very exciting campus of different technologies, different researchers, different minds but with synergies created between the sectors.
“So we have a gated community where once you’re in, you’re in a whole different world. We plan on having one restaurant, one fitness area, one daycare centre, one social committee where events are being planned. The idea is the more we can get these minds to socialize… to talk… to exchange ideas… to be able to run across the street if they are thinking about something that might be needed in whatever they are working on. That is the vision, where we’ve got a focused, tightly knit community.”
And it doesn’t stop there. The plan is to reach outside the Park by building networks throughout the innovation community across Edmonton, the province, the country, maybe even the world.
“It’s a big vision, but it’s totally doable.”
One of the immediate projects that Brinsmead is involved in is the new regional alliance between ERP, TEC Edmonton, the National Institute for Nanotechnology, novaNAIT, and NABI, the Northern Alberta Business Incubators.
She explains the alliance. “Primarily we create space. The idea is we horse trade. And we will be able to work together, the five of us, to do what’s best for the tenant.” Those tenant needs may be office space, lab space, or services like mentorship, help with commercialization, and so on. But the regional alliance becomes one point of entry for the tenant or inventor who’s trying to move a new concept along the innovation chain.
Then comes the second and third layers of the regional alliance. Says Brinsmead, “The second layer, we’re going to get into the product developers, the people who can help scale up. And, at some point, the third level will be the people who can fund some of these ideas.”
The system Brinsmead describes is very much aligned with the new innovation framework introduced this spring by Doug Horner, Minister of Advanced Education and Technology. There’s the emphasis entrepreneurship and technology commercialization, the concierge concept, and the focus core strengths, energy, health, ICT and biotechnology.
Has Edmonton got what it takes to stand out on the world stage?
Brinsmead is confident we do—given the people, facilities and support both public and private.
“If you look around the world and look at the major research parks, there are none out there that have the technology or the government support and map that we’ve got. Finland is the only one that I’ve read about so far where there’s actual government involvement and collaboration.
“Instead of saying we have to make money from this right off the bat, they are saying create value for us. Create the technologies that are going to create the businesses that are going to succeed and contribute to the city. Create the technologies that are going to save lives. Create the technologies that are going to save our environment.”
And you can count on Candace Brinsmead to make sure the Edmonton Research Park will be front and centre in facilitating these breakthroughs. √

Powerhouse moves to Ottawa

Denise Carpenter

If history is any indication, the Canadian Nuclear Association is about to get booted from obscurity into the limelight.
That’s because Denise Carpenter is coming on board as the association’s new president and CEO.
No pun intended, but Carpenter is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to getting the message out.
This public relations diva honed her skills in the 1980s and 1990s at Palmer Jarvis and Weber Shandwick Worldwide. Since 2003, she’s been the senior vice-president of public and government affairs with EPCOR and, until July, she guided the company through many hot issues.
Twice chosen as one of Alberta’s 50 most influential people, Carpenter is now setting her sights on Ottawa. Her task is to build public confidence in one of the most controversial industries in Canada.
When asked what someone from a province devoid of nuclear power could possibly bring to the industry, Carpenter replied, “I have a very strong track record of developing and executing really strong strategies for industry. And I also think they may have picked me because I have advocated for almost every fuel source in Canada. So I understand the importance and the regionalization of fuel sources.”
Carpenter looks upon the nuclear industry as one that is not well known to Canadians. Nor are its benefits, she says. “The reason people are interested in nuclear energy quite frankly is because it is an emission free method of producing power.”
And, what about the public’s concern over nuclear waste?
“That’s certainly something I’ m going to want to learn,” says Carpenter. “I certainly don’t know a lot about it right now, other than the government has put together a commission and there is a body that is working quite aggressively on solving that problem.”
Carpenter takes a global view when it comes to the immediate challenges. “The world needs energy… how do you produce energy that people want to consume? I don’t see that people will stop driving their cars or stop heating their homes. The consumption of energy is growing and growing. So how do we do that in a responsible manner as a society? On the other side, there are special interest groups that advocate for and against every energy source. So that’s the challenge. How do you meet the industrial and the residential need for individuals and companies, and at the same time, build bridges with all the special interest groups?”
With the current interest in developing nuclear power to supply Alberta’s oilsands development, there’s no doubt the nuclear industry is gearing up for a major campaign.
Carpenter will be missed by the many people and organizations she has helped over her years in Edmonton. She’s lent her energies and PR expertise to the arts community and many boards like the Space and Science Centre, to name but a few of her commitments.
“I cherish all the relationships that I’ve developed and people I’ve worked with more than I could ever express. And I really cherish the fact that there were a lot of people along the way who taught me a lot: Eric Newell, Jim Carter and George Ward, they were always great mentors. So I think I had the privilege of being mentored by a lot of people in this community.” √

Re-thinking HEMP

Dr. John Wolodko

Hemp was an important industrial material before World War II, but then it was supplanted by the development of petroleum-based products.
Sixty years later, hemp is making a comeback as an environment friendly biofibre.
The Alberta Research Council has developed a new technology to separate the very long fibres of the hemp plant from its inner core. And according to Dr. John Wolodko, a program leader in the Advanced Materials Group, when these fibres are chopped and formed into a mat, they make a very good substitute for energy intensive glass fibres used to make fiberglass.
One potential application for this hemp fiberglass is in the production of molded automotive parts.
Wolodko says, “We’ve been working with a company out of Calgary called Motive Industries who are developing prototype cars for electric vehicles, for example. The big advantage with the hemp material is that is very light weight compared to fiberglass. So it offers an incredible value in terms of energy savings, as well as reducing the weight of the vehicle, which is of paramount importance for increasing that kind of driving distance for electric vehicles. So it’s a very good fit. “
Wolodko’s group at ARC is also working with a boat manufacturer in the Okanogan to produce hemp fiberglass parts for boats. √

Social Media 101

The age of participation proves too scary for some.
Life is unscripted, uncontrolled and unpredictable—yet government in general proceeds under the premise it can control all things. This unfortunate reality resulted in a lost opportunity for many elected officials and civil servants who didn’t attend ChangeCamp Edmonton, an unconference in mid-October at the UofA’s Lister Hall. More than 150 people participated.
Ironically, I was unable to attend due to health, so I relied on real-time information on Twitter for some of the unscripted play-by-play. Chris LaBossiere, a colleague on the organizing committee, was able to provide me with his on-site perspective. “There would have been no better way in Alberta to engage in discussions with citizens yesterday than at ChangeCamp. People contributed easily, and volunteered to lead discussions. The success of the day was based on the individual participants. I was surprised and happy to see such age diversity in the room.” That statement by Chris is supported by pictures posted online. “Many stepped up and pitched new session ideas, we planned 25 and ran 27.”
I asked Chris why he thought more politicians or government employees didn’t attend ChangeCamp. He speculated that “Politicians didn’t see this as an opportunity. They didn’t realize that this wasn’t about talking about the past but talking about change.”
In response to the same question, Laurie Blakeman, Liberal MLA for Edmonton Centre, said plainly, “You didn’t ask.” This, despite the fact that she and other politicians, including City Councillors Don Iveson and Ben Henderson and Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell, were in the room or on the list to attend.
Doug Elniski, PC MLA for Edmonton-Calder, said he was there because “the more I know about social media the better I feel about using it. People in government have created a reluctance to use social media and I think it’s a symptom of a lack of understanding of what it’s all about. There’s still a belief that social media is this interesting novelty, the government infrastructure has not caught up. The speed of it is remarkable. You can’t manage this like an ad in the newspaper, it’s not static.” I couldn’t agree more.
“There’s an old saying in politics,” Doug chuckled. “The loudest thing you hear in politics is the grinding of the axes.” This was his light-hearted response to my query about whether the tone of the discussion changed when he entered the room at ChangeCamp. “Sure the tone changed to some degree, but I focused on listening to what other people had to say. The overall flow of the conversations was really good and, for the most part, people followed the rules of engagement. People were building off of the ideas of others.”
Laura also felt the tone changed with her in the room. “Well, in the first session I attended, I got outed. I made no attempt to engage in the discussion, but was asked direct questions. By the second session, everything was fine.” When asked why she attended ChangeCamp, she replied, “I’m interested in new ways in engaging my constituents. I was there to learn.”
Laurie’s opinion of the unconference structure seemed positive. “It was the self- generated structure, people seemed to be less stressed and approached things with an open mind.”
Arguably, the most interesting perspective was provided by Andrew Knack (who, as I write this, is at City Hall announcing his intent to run for councillor in Ward 1). Andrew came on my radar after he announced on Twitter that ChangeCamp Edmonton had helped to solidify in his mind that he should run for election in 2010.
“When politicians walk in, there’s an aura and perception that they are a little different than the rest. The best thing that I heard were the opinions and ideas that were not my own. I think it’s important to see how ideas can fit within your values. If you’re willing to listen to other people, then the value of an event like ChangeCamp is large. I took a lot away from the event,” explained Andrew. “A lot of the group discussion went back to citizen involvement and getting community leagues involved in the process.”
Personally, I understand why people in government may be afraid of getting into a dialogue about meaningful topics with everyday citizens in an unscripted format. That still doesn’t remove the point that it’s a shame to miss such a terrific opportunity. ChangeCamp Edmonton is just one positive manifestation of citizen engagement… an interesting format that many believe we need to build on.
Folks at all levels of government should realize that despite their fears, citizen influence through the use of social media is growing. Online influence is the new currency and wallets within government will remain empty until politicians and policy-makers engage with the rest of us. √

Taking on Goliath in the Cloud

Ayman Hassan President of 4WEB.CA

Tucked away in a non-descript commercial strip on 118th Avenue in Edmonton’s northwest is a 1900-square foot datacentre. It provides web hosting, co-location (server-hosting), web design and data back-up services. You won’t see Telus, Bell or Shaw on the sign—just a rather humble white and red adornment displaying 4Web.ca.
But don’t let that fool you. ”Inside you’ll find a fibre-optic pipe—enough Internet capacity for the entire Whyte Avenue corridor. And it’s a long street,” says Ayman Hassan, president of 4Web.ca.
His company is like David in the land of Goliaths: In just two years, it has experienced steady growth. Hassan proudly declares that he has a close ratio of 80 percent among the people who walk through his door.
“Datacentre” sounds so 1970s. What with today’s computers being so powerful and hard drive so cheap, it seems counterintuitive for people to use them.
“Keeping everything at your own location is great for CAD (computer-aided design) or web development but for an average user, it’s dangerous for storing files. Desktops fail, laptops fail. Outages can happen any time; the fire at Rice Howard Way… storms, tornadoes, not uncommon in Alberta…”
Loss of data can also mean lost business—but even photos, many of which are never printed, cannot be replaced—so having back-ups are critical for everyone.
“We’ve really come full circle,” says Hassan. “Think of it as the datacentre of the future, rather than the old ’70s mainframes,” except there is Internet galore—Multi-homed (Internet redundancy)—with multiple connections so, if one drops, the other kicks in within seconds.
“We have enough for a neighbourhood like Callingwood. It’s clean inverted power. Dirty power, spikes and surges are causes of equipment failure.” 4Web.ca has an 80 kilowatt UPS (uninterrupted power supply) and-a battery backup that can supply ample power for a full hour. System up-time is 99.9 percent.
Maintaining data safety security is critical. All clients regardless of their service needs get a personal tour of the 4Web.ca facility.
Hassan sees a paradigm shift from desktop computing toward “cloud” computing—the use of any Internet-based application. Examples include gmail, Google’s e-mail, Google docs, and business applications like Collin Snowball’s Easy-Bill OnLine, featured in Edmontonians in October 2008.
“We’re going back to days of dumb terminal where information is stored in datacenters—anything on the desktop can be pushed to the cloud.”
Even Microsoft Exchange Servers, traditionally kept in-house, are now moving off-site, further fueling the demand for datacenters.
“For some businesses, e-mail is more important than the phone.”
Economics also affect decision-making. During the last spurt, a major manufacturing customer of Hassan’s would have gone with everything in-house had the rally continued. “They would have brought in fibre from TELUS at a cost of about $80,000 plus $2-to-4K/monthly plus power.”
The company decided to co-locate its equipment; its on-site tech still maintains it, but 4Web.ca manages the fibre, power, cooling and security. In-house centres are costly to set up, they need managing, and qualified IT personnel are difficult to find.
So how does Hassan manage to compete and snag business away from the giants?
“It’s not always easy, but can be done. Companies like Telus have money for promotion and have funds to acquire any customer.” Even he purchases bandwidth from the giants.
“Ayman is an alternative to the big guys who weren’t responsive,” says Dan Charrios, president of Syzygy Research & Technology Ltd., which co-locates its servers at 4web.ca for its ExamBank.
Hassan’s four-phase business plan positions his company right in the middle—in size and price—and uses a consultative, collaborative approach. Meaning, he educates his customers and gives them value, while developing long-term relationships. Collaboration includes his competitors—smaller providers who can better compete against the Golaiths by working together. “This is the key to success in any business,” he believes.
Hassan was born in Egypt and moved to Canada in 1972, when he was four. He understands sales and marketing. He admits becoming a tenacious salesperson early—selling ladies shoes and encyclopedias. It taught him determination.
To avoid leaving Edmonton in the rocky mid-90s, he took a position at CompuSmart. Lacking computer knowledge, he got off to a shaky start, and wanted to quit after a week. But Hassan persevered, acquiring the necessary technical understanding.
Combined with his customer relationship building skills, he consistently became one of CompuSmart’s top performers. And when its sister company Interbaun Communications decided to create an independent sales team, Hassan became the vendor rep to develop and expand partner channels. Soon, he was promoted to vendor manager and sales manager.
Hassan recalls the relationship he developed with London Drugs which, for years had shown no interest in what he was selling. “An exercise in perseverance and persistence. I wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Friends joke about that, saying that’s how I caught my wife.” He eventually made the connection by offering Interbaun’s product, a Retail-Box Internet DSL Kit—the first in Western Canada. It meant retailers no longer had to sign up customers, they simply had to sell the box.
Ironically, the retail kit also caught the eye of Vancouver’s Uniserve Communications which later acquired Interbaun. At first, the synergy of expansion appeared to foster the possibilities of positive growth. Eventually, Uniserve became a disappointment to Hassan. “They lost the Mom and Pop feel…trading customer value for shareholder value.”
This was totally against his principle, so he took of the role of Mr. Mom for six months. While pondering job prospects, phone calls and e-mails came in. Friends and past customers were asking his advice and recommendations for hosting, designers and developers. He realized that he wanted to be his own boss.
Hassan envisioned setting up his own data centre—the cloud would be here in Edmonton. It was a huge risk. “We were in debt… it was never a good time. But, if I didn’t try then, I may have never tried.” But he and his wife, Kim, decided to get a second mortgage and put their savings at risk so he could follow his passion. In 2007, he started planning his datacenter.
“Ayman puts everything on the line, sets goals and get stuff done.,” says Shaun Betchuk. “(One day) I went over after work in sweats and a T-shirt. Ayman shared his vision asking me to co-locate my equipment. Jokingly, he said, ‘I’m going to need a network guy…maybe apply for a job.’”
Betchuk went home, created a four-page proposal, got dressed-up, drove back to Hassan’s office, and declared, “I’m here to apply for the job.” He became  4Web.ca operations manager. “We’ve grown together.”
Since then, Hassan has hired Mark Philips, a designer and two contractors; Kim helps part-time. He’s extremely busy with design work for the next year, but never stops looking for new opportunities, including additional Canadian datacenters. With large network of relationships, his goal each week is to reconnect with at least five.
“We don’t have large resources like the big players, but we do have the yellow pages and get many referrals by word of mouth.”
Hassan has carved out a small niche. Perhaps it’s more about living in harmony among the giants rather than battling them. √

BioAlberta

Ryan Radke President, BioAlberta

BioAlberta chose National Biotechnology Week in late September to release its State of the Industry 2009 Report. And, to no one’s surprise, the long tentacles of the global recession touched even Alberta’s biotechnology sector
“It’s been a tough year,” says BioAlberta President Ryan Radke.
“The life science industry in Alberta is not immune to what’s going on with the general economy, so generally I’d say a lot of the categories were down anywhere between 10 to 30 percent. Revenues were down in the past year. Definitely investment was down. This is one area that is key to the life science industry in Alberta. For all elements of biotechnology, whether it is health biotech, ag biotech, industrial, environment, the key element is for companies to be able to access capital. And, unfortunately over the last year it just wasn’t there.”
This is the third time BioAlberta has surveyed its members; the previous two reports were issued in 2005 and 2007.
The 2009 report was developed in collaboration with Deloitte & Touche LLP, the results based on a questionnaire sent to the executives of 124 life science companies in Alberta. In all, 105 companies responded, giving at least partial if not complete answers, providing a response rate of 84.7 percent.
“Essentially we were looking to get in touch with our constituents, our members and get a sense from them how things are out there,” explains Radke. “How is the economy impacting the company? What could we be doing better here in Alberta? What’s working? What isn’t working? Just to get a state of the industry and see how things are going.”
Edmonton has the largest biosciences cluster in Canada and the city is certainly the life sciences kingpin for Alberta. The report shows that 58 percent of bio-industry companies are located in the Edmonton region, 33.6 percent in Calgary, and 8.4 percent in other areas.
Health biotechnology and medical devices account for 60 percent of the bio-industry. Agriculture biotechnology accounts for 12.3 percent. The rest of the industry is devoted to such things as specialty packing for infectious substances, biological specimens, natural products, industrial chemicals, and engineering services. What’s interesting is that most companies are active in more than one sector.
About one-third of companies are involved in manufacturing and another third in research and development.
As well, almost half have lead products that are already in the market; 16.7 percent are in pre-clinical testing, and 20.8 percent of companies are testing their lead products in clinical trials.
The State of the Industry report indicates some disturbing trends. For example, two-thirds of Alberta’s life science companies were created before 1999. Only one-third of Alberta’s life science companies have been formed since 2000. The report shows a downward trend in the creation of new life science companies, with only 10.5 percent being established between 2005 and 2009. It’s not exactly the sort of thing you want to hear when the province says it is trying to build a strong life sciences industry here.
Also on a downward trend is the ability of companies to raise capital for ongoing operations and research and development.
Radke points out, “Here in Alberta the investment situation has always been a tough one. Even during good times two years ago, we weren’t securing necessarily as much investment as the rest of Canada was. I think here in Alberta in all of the technology sectors, we don’t see as much venture capital action as we would like. Our public companies tend to struggle a little bit on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the venture exchanges. And so we saw a fairly large dip in this area for the 2009 report. We saw investment capital raised was almost at an all time low. It was just over $100 million, which is okay. But for the technology industry that we have here, we should be securing a lot more investment than that.”
This drop in investment is having a significant impact on cash flow for companies, most of which are small with fewer than 30 employees. The amount of cash on-hand for companies has decreased from an average of 15 months to less than 10 months. Companies are tightening their belts by letting employees go, some shutting their doors, and most cutting their R&D spending.
And revenues? The report indicates these will drop by 22 percent for 2009, although most companies also express a certain degree of optimism that they will see a recovery through 2010.
Radke suggests, “It’s not all terrible news, really. Some of the areas didn’t decrease as much as we thought they would. Employment numbers weren’t down all that dramatically, about 10 percent. So, compared to some industrial sectors, that’s not bad. This industry has managed to weather the storm really well, actually.”
He says the report indicates that companies are looking to a brighter future for the life sciences industry.
“When we started asking companies about what they saw one and two years out, I think they see the end in sight to the recession or the economic downturn. They can see that perhaps lenders will be coming back into the market, looking for good opportunities. So there’s something on the horizon that looks like a bright spot and it’s just a matter of weathering the storm right now.”
What’s significant is that the most common source of capital is what the report calls “government-facilitated programs”. Fully half the respondent companies have used these in the past and almost two-thirds intend to pursue these programs to raise capital in the future. These include the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Tax program, NRC’s Industrial Research Assistance Program, along with funding from Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, Alberta Ingenuity Fund, AVAC, and the Alberta Innovation Voucher Program.
The report concludes that the number one issue for Alberta’s biotechnology companies is securing financing. And, as for government initiatives, they believe the most important thing the Alberta government can do to stimulate growth for the companies is improve the provincial tax environment through the SR&ED and other tax incentives.
“This kind of information gives us some solid data that we can talk about with members of the community, members of government, members of the industry, and say, ‘What do we want to build here in Alberta?’ And then what we need to do is figure out the roadmap of how we’re going to get there.”

Radient Technologies Leaves Lotus Land for Edmonton

Dr. David Cox

Radient Technologies Inc has pulled up stakes and is moving from Vancouver to Edmonton.
This is good news for the Edmonton’s biotechnology sector which has experienced some tough times over the past few months.
Radient has commercialized technology first developed by Environment Canada for use in environmental remediation. Called a microwave assisted solvent extraction process, it also has applications in other areas including flavourings, herbs, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and biochemicals.
An investment of $5.5 million from AVAC, Foragen and Agriculture, and Agrifood Canada will boost Radient’s marketing efforts.
And the man leading that charge is Dr. David Cox. He was lured from his position as the head of TEC Edmonton to become the new CEO of Radient.
According to Dr. Cox, “It’s a business exercise in understanding the market. We have a nice problem. The problem is there are so many things that you can do with this technology. so many problems that you can solve, we’re spoiled for choice. And if we’re not careful, we can get distracted on too many interesting things rather than the necessary few. So job one is to understand the global market for this kind of application and then target those companies where the Radient solution will be transformative for them. And they don’t know that they need us yet. It’s my job to show them how they need us.”
Cox expects Radient will achieve this growth through licensing its technology to other companies and by manufacturing its own products.