MDA and industry partners seek innovation to shape the future of books and virtual worlds

As part of the Future of Media initiative, the Media Development Authority (MDA) has once again marshalled leading industry players to collaborate, aiming to stake a claim in the high growth sectors of online publishing and virtual worlds through the calling of innovative proposals.

Dr Christopher Chia, Chief Executive Officer, MDA said: “The Future of Media initiative has created buzz in the interactive digital media sector. Not only are leading companies like Creative Technology, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and ST Electronics (Training & Simulation Systems) joining MDA in shaping the new media landscape, they are actively offering their financial support, development platforms, distribution networks and marketing resources.”

Previous calls for proposals (CFP) on FutureTV, FutureGames and FutureMobile have attracted a total of 73 proposals. This time, the focus will be on FutureBooks and FutureWorlds – two other high-growth areas identified by MDA and the industry.

According to a Deloitte Study (2008), interactive publishing is expected to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14% from 2007 to 2015 while the global virtual and immersive media market, estimated at S$18bn in 2008, is set to grow to S$44bn in 2012 at a CAGR of 25%.

FutureBooks partner network

To spur the development, delivery and managing of innovative applications and content on the e-book platform, a FutureBooks partner network championed by major industry players such as Creative Technology and SPH together with other key industry members such as Personal e-Motion (PEM), Singapore Centre for Chinese Language (SCCL), Popular e-Learning Holdings, Times Publishing Group and Pearson Education has been established. The partner network invites companies with innovative ideas for applications, services and business models, to leverage on the technology, global distribution network as well as educational content offered by the partner network members.
Interested parties are welcome to submit their proposals by 18 December 2009. More details in http://www.idm.sg/cfp/futurebooks/

FutureWorlds partner network
To encourage the development of cutting-edge digital technology with virtual realities, 3D multi-sensory simulations and realistic immersive digital environments, the FutureWorlds partner network championed by ST Electronics (Training and Simulation Systems) with key members consisting of Singapore Tourism Board, Street Directory, KPB and Crystal Computer Graphics. Together, the partner network is seeking proposals for applications, services and business models, to leverage on the technology and global distribution network offered by the partner network members.

Interested parties are welcome to submit their proposals by 4 January 2010, details are in http://www.idm.sg/cfp/futureworlds/.

Local IDM Entrepreneurs recognised as Top Achievers in Asian information and communications technology space

MIS Asia is Asia’s leading IT-Management magazine, with an audited circulation of over 10,600 IT-Chiefs in ASEAN and Greater China regions, has identified three IDMPO entrepreneurs as top entrepreneurs in the Asian information and communications technology space.

They are Terence Swee and Dr Pete Kellock from Muvee and Ilan Ofek from Visual Factory.

Muvee
Muvee Technologies is recognized internationally as the pioneer and leader in automatic video production. Their aim is to leapfrog traditional approaches to video editing and unlock a new world of fast, fun, simple video production for everyone.

muvee’s software and services use patented technology so anyone can create and share professional-quality instant home movies out of unedited video, digital pictures and music. The firm now develops consumer products for a range of platforms and devices including PCs, online, digital cameras, camera-equipped mobile phones and photo kiosks.

Visual Factory
Visual Factory’s technologies and products aims to redefine 3D community immersive tools, and representation of unique smart avatars by setting the standards for 3D assets deployment, interoperability and delivering content that engages people anywhere, at any time. The company provides full virtual community/world solution, starting from fast, efficient and cost effective 3D modelling process, attractive 3D community immersive tools.

http://www.mis-asia.com/magazines/cio_asia/volume-4-2009/success-secrets-of-20-top-achievers

IDMPO Companies Winning the SITF Awards 2009
PGK Media, KAI Square and Hibernator have emerged winners at the recent SITF Awards. The SiTF Awards recognizes the emerging trends, innovations and new developments of the Singapore infocomm industry. It is an important entrepreneurial accolade for Infocomm innovations in Singapore and is organized by the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF). The award provide organisations, both MNC, local enterprises and institution of higher learning, schools, the opportunity to showcase their innovative product and services. It also offers an excellent platform to create awareness, seek investors and identify business partners.

“What is interesting is that amongst the entire list of finalists, several (Human Network Labs, BoxSentry, RedNano) were funded by the Interactive Digital Media Programme Office (IDMPO), this includes some of the winners as well. This means that almost one third of the finalists were funded by IDMPO.” commented Gwendolyn Regina, one of the judges for the SITF Awards.

Our winners, together with the other SITF Award recipients, will once more represent Singapore in the international Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards, to be held in Melbourne this December.

WINNERS
PGK Media – ADME Network & Wish Singapore (Open Category)
Founded in 2001, PGK Media is a Singapore-based broadcaster and operator of innovative digital media networks. PGK digital networks include an advanced out-of-home distribution platform made of interactive large format digital billboards and Singapore’s first independent digital TV terrestrial network offering new ethnic and customized TV channels. PGK is been responsible for many world-first and award winning projects including a first-of-its-kind multimedia in-cab advertising system, the world’s largest floating digital wall launched during Singapore National Day Parade, Singapore’s first Mobile TV broadcasting trial and the latest immersive OOH media platform.
http://www.pgkmedia.com/

KAI Square – Juzz4Logistics (Infocomm Local Enterprise Category)
KAI Square is a young and charismatic company, with the main expertise in multimedia surveillance data processing coupled with wireless computing. Their technological niche provides solutions for a wide range of application systems catering to large corporations and end-users in the internet and mobile devices domains. Kai Square believes in bringing greater business value to their customers and partners by delivering innovative technologies that harnesses the power of Knowledge with Artificial Intelligence (KAI).
http://www.kaisquare.com/

National Technological University – Hibernater (Student Category – Tertiary)
Hibernater is all about the concept of bringing hibernation onto the internet by saving and resuming work states easily. Imagine able to resume your documents, web sites, and so on with one click the moment you log on to another computer. Hibernater also protects us against unintentional overwriting of files. Hibernater also brings the concept of hibernation over the internet, thereby increasing the sharing of resources both for corporate and academic institutions. As compared to remote access applications, Hibernater does not require the host PC to be switched on, thereby saving precious resources and enhancing portability.
http://www.hibernater.com/

FINALISTS
Human Network Labs
Human Network Labs (HNL) is a technology based company, developing mobile software applications on a patent pending technology platform called the PixieEngine, for precise localization of nearby people and objects. With this enabling technology, HNL seeks to develop and implement a new generation information system that is able to link virtual information within our physical space, thereby empowering us with the ability to access information and revolutionizing the way we socialize, communicate, navigate and interact with our physical environment.
http://www.humannetworklabs.com/

BoxSentry
BoxSentry was founded in 2006 to address the challenge posed by conventional anti-spam technologies often misclassifying and blocking legitimate one-to-one email as spam. To meet the urgent need for a solution to this problem with false positives, BoxSentry created RealMail™ and LogiQ™, which today support enterprises, governments and service providers in over 18 countries. BoxSentry’s solutions for email protection integrate the key components of reputation, authentication and protection methodologies to ensure business-safe email for its clients.
http://www.boxsentry.com/

RedNano
Rednano is the local search engine for Singapore. It aims to provide the most relevant search results pertaining to the local Singapore context. Rednano is a product of SPH Search Pte Ltd which is a subsidiary of the media giant in Singapore – SPH Holding.

The Rednano search engine uses federated search function to search across multiple online databases, resulting in multiple information sources with one search query. Federated search makes deep web documents searchable without having to visit each database individually as opposed to traditional internet search engines like Google, that only searches sources indexed by its web crawler.
http://www.rednano.sg/