In this month’s issue,

• $12m Awarded to Co-Space™ Projects
• A Closer Look at the Co-Space™ Projects
• IDMPO Entrepreneurs Nominated for BusinessWeek’s Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs
• IDMPO Companies’ Found Success through Facebook

$12m Awarded to Co-Space™ Projects
The IDM R&D Programme Office recently announced the selection of 15 projects on the concept of Co-Space for funding through the inaugural Co-Space (industry) Call for proposals. Awarding a total of $12 million, these projects range from transport to heritage planning and have the potential to propel Singapore’s IDM industry and pioneering new innovations.

Collectively, these projects involving 15 companies will achieve for Singapore an increase of some $37 million in Total Business Spending, 240 new jobs, and create platforms and services that will support some 1300 third-party applications. Hands-on training and development will also be provided for some 5600 students and professionals.

Details are in the press release available at http://www.idm.sg/2008/10/idm-captures-the-imagination-of-companies/

A Closer Look at the Co-Space™ Projects

Users will soon be able to navigate Singapore in true, first person 3D view, where there will be realistic simulation of building interiors and waterways; and information will be organized with reference to actual locations.

For example, the MagicStitchTM platform being developed by Visual Factory, in collaboration with NHB will soon allow museum curators from around the world to design and curate their own virtual 3D museum galleries; showcasing precious art works from the national archives of countries around the world.

The Call also saw innovation in new media experiences, where proposals touched on new forms of interactivity and multi-platform broadcasting for more pervasive and engaged media choices. Soon, computer interaction will no longer be confined to the keyboard, as VeeV Interactive Pte Ltd, a wholly-owed subsidiary of Sky Media, will offer users the ability to ‘hold’ and ‘use’ tools to draw, paint, colour and create pictures using an affordable haptic device. PGK Media’s AdMe service will also allow users to interact and send video clips and other media-rich content to more than 40 live-sized mobile billboards located across Singapore

Sun Microsystems and Open Solutions Innovation aim to break new grounds in the creation of new dynamic virtual worlds that allow seamless immersion and interaction with the real world. For example, a wave of your hand in the real world could correspond instantly with your avatar waving in the virtual world. Voice communication is equally realistic as virtual parties can phone outsiders to the virtual world for private calls or conference group calls. These technologies could be applied in conducting real world-virtual world conferences and command centers, in real-to-virtual world classrooms, virtual demonstrations and exhibitions, among others.

Mariko by Thales Technology Centre Singapore will demonstrate its effectiveness particularly in the maritime domain through virtually enhanced sailing scenarios, open to the public on the internet. Mariko targets sailing enthusiasts wishing to enhance their sailing experience.

The relevance of virtual media-rich environments will be brought into a variety of consumer services. For example, taxi commuters can expect shorter queue times at taxi stands as new services such as Stratech System’s Dynamic Vehicle Allocation System will detect commuter queue lengths and convert such data into media rich visual applications on the Internet and commuters’ mobile phones. The system will also allow the capturing and sending of video images from taxi stands to taxi operators’ call centres so that taxis can be better deployed to meet commuters’ demand.

We see Co-Space as the key to unlocking the unfulfilled promise of an information society. To see a complete list of projects and how its influence can seep into our daily activities, please see http://www.idm.sg/co-space/projects/

IDMPO Entrepreneurs Nominated for BusinessWeek’s Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs

Eight local entrepreneurs are running to win BusinessWeek’s Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs, making Singapore the country with the most individual entries. We congratulate the entrepreneurs of the 5 companies nominated. We are pleased to note that 3 of the 5 companies are in the IDM sector and we will continue to root and support them.

Stanley Han – Stanley Han wrote his own success story when his company created KooBits, a platform for children to create interactive stories, publish e-books, and network with other KooBits users. KooBits has just been launched in more than 60 schools in Singapore and several hundred training centers in Indonesia. Han, a National University of Singapore engineering graduate, plans to launch KooBits in China, Europe, and Australia in 2008.

Aileen Sim – Aileen Sim saw the potential of starting a business in the virtual world before others did. In 2006, Sim co-founded First Meta, a leading provider of financial services for virtual worlds. A year later, her company launched the first virtual-world credit card, the MetaCard. A graduate of the National University of Singapore, she has helped raise $1.7 million for her company and together with her team has brought First Meta to the forefront of integrating real and virtual economies. Her company has been featured in such leading media as TechCrunch, CNET Asia, Wired, and BBC World Service.

Other local entrepreneurs nominated for Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs

• Darius Cheung, Varun Chatterji, Rishi Israni and Indradeep Biswas from tenCube
• Leonard Tan from PurpleClick Media and 9 Minutes
• Ryan Lee of Xm-i, Metacommunique

Voting is still on, please show them your support!

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/10/1008_asia_young_entrepreneurs/index.htm

IDMPO Companies’ Found Success through Facebook

My Paper featured two of i.Jam funded projects (Tyler Projects and Fresbo) in a two-paged cover story on 8th October. The story is angled on how local IDM or game companies made use of social networking sites like Facebook to distribute their products/games.

Fresbo and Tyler Projects received IDMPO’s i.JAM funding of S$50k about one year ago.

Vincent Ng, Co-founder of Fresbo, said “The fund came at a time when we were doing third party web projects to sustain the company, as Fresbo World was still in development phase at that time and cash flow was extremely tight. The injection of funds allowed us to stop spending time and effort on sustaining the company and channel all focus into developing the technology and the actual product.”

Read the full story at http://www.idm.sg/filesrepo/08/10/8.pdf