Cybera News July 2008

"The projects announced today will be developing tools and infrastructure that will support sharing complex data sets, facilitate the use of remote equipment, and enhance the capabilities of collaborative research teams" said Andrew Bjerring, President & CEO of CANARIE Inc.

The NEP program supports projects which:

• Accelerate the development, implementation and use of sustained research platforms;
• Facilitate the development of virtual organizations;
• Increase international connectedness of Canadian research platforms;
• Advance the use of platforms by Canada's leading researchers; and
• Promote the sharing of best practices and standards related to platforms, associated middleware and virtual organizations.

In Alberta, two projects were approved, both of which involve Cybera Inc. One is GeoChronos, a collaboration between Cybera, the University of Calgary, the University of Alberta and the University of Victoria. The goal of this project is to develop a gateway to equip earth observation scientists with tools to develop new collaborative approaches to data analysis. The expected result is an innovative platform that will harness the benefits of social networking technologies and extend them into the scientific community.

The other Alberta project is the Canadian Space Science Data Portal, a project involving Cybera, the University of Alberta, the University of Saskatchewan and the University of New Brunswick. The goal of this project is to enable and simplify researcher access to space science analytic tools and data. It is expected to shape the development of the space science community as well as help refine productivity safeguards for Canadian industries impacted by space weather phenomena.

All projects are expected to take 2-3 years for completion. To view videos of Cybera's projects, click here.

CANARIE received funding from the Government of Canada in Budget 2007 to further develop the advanced network for Canadian researchers and scientists and to enable network-based technology innovation. More information may be found at www.canarie.ca.

Cybera Announces Partnership With EDM Studio

EDM Studio is a Calgary-based design firm that specializes in custom interactives. Its aim is to create unique and compelling technology-driven exhibits for museums and interpretive centres. As apilot project, Cybera has partnered with the Grid Research Centre (GRC) to develop middleware that will create workflow efficiencies for EDM. The middleware has been in development at the GRC for a year with a team of three working full-time on the project. Once completed and tested, Cybera will allow the product to be licensed by other organizations with similar needs. Stay tuned to Cybera.ca for more information on this exciting project. 

Cybera Confirms Second Annual Summit: Driving Business Innovation

Cybera will host its second annual Cyberinfrastructure Summit on September 29 and 30, 2008, at the Banff Centre in Banff, AB. Thisyear’s Summit will bring together cyberinfrastructure users, collaborators and innovators. The focus will be to build, strengthen and expand the cyberinfrastructure foundation in Alberta's private sector and research community.
This year's Summit will be presented in tailored streams including "Green IT /CleanTechnology," "Grassroots Innovation," "Cyber-Venture Opportunities,"and "Disruptive Technologies". More streams may be announced later this summer.

For more details, visit www.cybera.ca/summit. 

Cybera Announces New Employees in Calgary and Edmonton

Adam Lukaszuk
Adam began work with Cybera on March 10, 2008. Adam has worked in IT his entire career, and has developed business for companies spanning North America. His most recent stops prior to Edmonton were Toronto and Austin, TX. He holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and has a number of projects in the works with Cybera.

Dale Hudjik
Dale Hudjik joined Cybera on June 2, 2008, as an Edmonton-based project manager. Dale was most recently the program director at Guru Digital Arts College in Edmonton. He has over 15 years of project management experience, and is very interested in bringing his organizational experience to bear on the high-tech nature of Cybera's projects. Outside of Cybera, Dale is proud to be a board development program instructor, an expert in not-for-profit governance and an invited expert of the WWW consortium working on the next generation of HTML. He's the proud father of 2 boys, ages 5 and 8. In his spare time he's interested in cycling, and is internationally known for his photography. Check out his work at spunwithtears.com. 

Karim Teja
Karim Teja joined Cybera on June 2, 2008. Since September 2007, Karim has been a consultant advising pre-commercial and early commercial technology companies on financial, operational and strategic matters. From June 1999 to September 2007, Karim served as an officer of Imaging Dynamics Company Ltd., a TSX listed company. From June 1999 to June 2006 Mr. Teja was the Chief Financial Officer and from June 2006 to September 2007 he was the Chief Operating Officer. Karim was instrumental in transitioning the company from a strictly R&D organization to a high-growth company with revenues in excess of $30 Million and product installations and distribution partners in over 35 countries. Prior to Imaging Dynamics, Karim was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Erasoft Technologies Inc., - aprivate software company – where he helped negotiate a successful acquisition by Viasoft Inc., a NASDAQ-traded company. Karim holds a Bachelor's degree in business administration with honours from Simon Fraser University and an honours certificate from the Canadian Securities Institute. He received the designation of Certified General Accountant (CGA) in 1992.

Natasha Kapty
Since March 2008, Natasha has been working as Cybera's Senior Systems Manager. Natasha graduated from the University of Calgary in Computer Science. Prior to joining Cybera's team, Natasha was working to provide computer support for a small Calgary-based business. In her spare time,she enjoys baking and traveling.

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Cybera News Goes HTML

Cybera's newsletter is now being created with MailChimp, an HTML email marketing tool. Our new format will allow users to view previews of stories and lets you easily forward this information to other people. Web 2.0 is all about encouraging the flow of information, and this tool is our way of providing you with more options when it comes to reading Cybera news. We'd appreciate your feedback on this new format. Please forward any comments to info@cybera.ca. Thank you and happy reading!