Presented by Carleton University's School of Computer Science
March 19 2003, 4351 Herzberg, 10:20 a.m.
Look a few years into the future. You're finally using that pocket sized, picture-pda-phone-mp3-player that everyone has been talking about and zipping to work in your own personal, self-directed car... but what does your computer look like? Do you even have something that people today would recognize as a computer? And how do you interact with the devices that you use to collect and manage the flow of information around you?
On Wednesday March 19, four computer visionaries will talk about the future of computing. Come, hear, and talk with the presenters about what technologies will be important, what companies will be worth investing in, and how a company needs more than a good idea to be sustainable.
The day is guaranteed to question your own preconceptions of computing in the 21st century and will be invaluable in providing direction for your own computer studies to meet the challenges of the future.
Defining the investment landscape from angels through venture capital to the public markets, understand how you get interest at each stage of a company's funding requirement. What do sophisticated investors look for and how will you be evaluated? What are some of the common pitfalls that can destroy your start-up? [ppt] [pdf]
In November of 2001 IBM donated software worth a reported 40M dollars to the eclipse.org open source community. Was someone at headquarters asleep at the wheel or was this a carefully thought out business decision that added up? Open source software can be a game changer but there are no guarantees. This presentation will take a look at how that bet has paid off so far. [ppt] [pdf]
The question every entrepreneur gets is: "Would you do it again?" And although many waffle on the answer they do usually agree that they would do it again, but that they would definitely change a number of things. Founding Texar, hunting down and securing $20 million in venture financing, hiring 100 people, and unexpectedly riding the dot com wave for three years resulted in an understanding of the psyche of investors, employees, executives, and, most importantly, customers. And although the notion that the customer is always right is generally wrong that doesn't mean the vendor has a clue, either. This short journey in one entrepreneur's life will hopefully enlighten those yearning to attempt entrepreneurship by providing lessons learned, what was done right, what should never be attempted again, and how any "next deal" will be structured if I ever do it again! [ppt] [pdf]
Espial envisions a Pervasive Internet in the near future, where end users will be able to access their data, their way, anywhere, anytime, on any device. As the market shifts to the Pervasive Internet, both new and existing users need a more simplified Internet user experience. PCs are still too complicated for the next tier of mass-market adoption. We need to make technology work for users, we can’t make users work for their technology.
Characteristics of today's Internet include bandwidth, browser-based computing, vertical developer criteria. When the Pervasive Internet evolves, we will see simplified user experience, customized service level, "my data, my way" personalization, and the speed of delivery will be significantly different.
In this session we will discuss our vision of the Pervasive Internet. We will also give a sense of what skill set and knowledge will be important for anyone interested in working towards making the Pervasive Internet a reality. [ppt] [pdf]
Rainer Paduch has a proven and successful track record as a serial entrepreneur, leader and manager. Rainer has 22 years of in-depth business management and team building experience as well as expertise in software design, telecommunications and data networking. Rainer is currently a local Ottawa angel investor, founder of the Band of Scoundrels investment partnership as well as serving on the Advisory Board of the Entrepreneurship Center of Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI). Rainer was most recently a venture partner at Novacap, a Montreal based venture capital firm investing in early stage technology start-ups and later stage operating companies. Prior to that he was also a co-founder of Coventus Inc, a service provider developing offerings for the business traveler while on the road or in conference centers and hotels. Rainer was the founder of iSTAR Internet Inc. where he served as President, Chief Technology Officer and Vice Chairman. He successfully led iSTAR from start-up to rapid growth and through IPO. Under his leadership and technical expertise, company sales rose to $40 million annual rate. He also led a team that raised $76 million during the early development stages of the company. In February 1998, PSINet Inc acquired iSTAR. He was also an investor in and a Director of Milkyway Networks another Ottawa based start-up that achieved a successful IPO. Over the course of his career, Rainer has held senior-level positions including Vice President of Technology at fONOROLA Inc., Director Application Engineering at Newbridge Networks Corp. and co-founder and Vice President Engineering at Enfin Technologies Inc. Rainer held technical positions at Mitel Corp., EDS-Systemhouse Ltd., and Canadian Marconi Ltd. He holds an Honors Bachelor of Engineering and a Masters of Engineering from McGill University in Montreal.
Paul Buck, Director IBM Ottawa Lab and worldwide Director, IBM OTI Labs, dedicates his career to advancing software application development and supporting the community of software developers. Previously the director of IBM's Center for Java Technology and Product Manager for IBM's award winning VisualAge for Java, Paul founded the VisualAge for Java project. His leadership guided release of the Eclipse Platform and formation of the eclipse.org open-source community. Paul currently is IBM's representative to the Java 2 Micro Edition Executive Committee of the Java Community Process. Paul's IBM career started in 1984 at the company's Toronto Development Lab in Canada. Paul holds both M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in computer science from Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario.
Eugen Bacic heads up Cinnabar Networks' Research and Development division. He has been a leading designer of information security technology for nearly two decades, including research and development work on firewalls, public key cryptography, trusted audit, network and infrastructure security, malicious software detection, composable systems, policy engines, and security criteria. Before joining Cinnabar, Eugen founded Texar Corporation, was the author of the Canadian Criteria, and was the only non-US Citizen on the congressional subcommittee tasked with developing the replacement for the US Orange Book, the US Federal Criteria. His many contributions while Senior InfoSec Research Scientist at CSE have been recognized by the IT security world. He has been a frequent member of security task forces in Canada and the United States. Eugen holds Bachelor and Master of Computer Science Degrees from Carleton University.
Ella Mar, in her role as Vice-President, Operations, heads up the product development, verification, customer documentation, customer care and professional services groups at Espial. She has over 10 years experience as a senior manager in the high technology sector, managing all aspects of a product lifecycle. In her previous role as Vice-President of Engineering at CrossKeys, Ella helped launch the company into carrier-scale product maturity, and was part of the executive team that took the company public. Ella holds a Bachelor of Science in Computing Science from the University of Alberta in Edmonton.