Across our causeway in the coming weekend (26-27 July 2008), our Malaysian friends have organized Barcamp Malaysia at Jalan Ampang (near KLCC), Kuala Lumpur. Other than showcasing the up and coming technology discussions among the developers, entrepreneurs and investors over there, they have also invited us over, for example, Widgeous will be presenting their platform in the Barcamp, and some of us from both SGE and E27 will be attending the event as well, with our editor Bernard Leong also presenting on a panel with his Malaysian counterpart on the state of investment, valuation and funding between both countries & Preetam Rai, who will present his overview on the development of interesting web companies across Asia with his travels. Do check out their blog for the most exciting developments and the schedule of the event. If you happen to be in town, you should check out the event.

We are honoured to have RADM (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister Of State For Education And Information, Communications And The Arts as our guest of honour to announce the launch of i.MATCH, a matching program to bridge companies ready for investments and potential investors.

Global new platform players such as HP will be announcing their intention to jointly call for new IDM projects with the IDMPO. Through these partnerships, our IDM companies now have the opportunity to reach global audiences through their partners’ platforms.

Details:
Date: 30th July 2008
Time: 3-8pm
Venue: Swisshôtel Merchant Court Ballroom

Highlights include:
- Announcements by industry players such as HP, Friendster…and more.
- Panel discussion by investors such as Ms. Lauren Liang from GE Commercial Finance. Mr. Pierre Hennes from Upstream Ventures and Mr. Eric Chan from ST Electronics on the topic of “What do investors look for?”
- Project showcase by companies including Umondo, Personal e-Motion and Wireless Intellect Labs.
- Presentation by Mr. Michael Yap, Executive Director, IDMPO on 2 new Call for Proposals: (1) New Media Applications (2) i.MATCH

Registration for this event is free, but places are naturally limited so kindly register early to confirm your seat. For more information, please visit www.ijam.sg or contact Julian at 9788 9470.

Click here to register. Click here for location.

From SGE team, we congratulate (1) the Tech65 team for winning the best podcast/videocast award from the 2nd anniversary Ping.SG awards. Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: (2) Shoutout to Singapore GarageBand Meetup, (3) E3 Round up - (a) (i) New Dashboard for xBox360, (ii) Portal : Still Alive on XBLA, (iii) Play Without your Disk, (iv) Access Live Marketplace remotely from your Browser (v) Finally Final Fantasy XIII comes to xBox360 and (vi) Microsoft Lips, (b) Wii - (i) Wii Speak, (ii) WiiMote Motion Plus, (iii) GTA for Nintendo DS, (iv) Guitar Hero : On Tour Sequel for Nintendo DS (v) Wii music, (c) PS2 Bundle - The 256-player MAG, (4) Starwars : The Force Unleashed for the iPhone, (5) The Intel Centrino 2.0 launched in Singapore, (6) Apple says turn-by-turn GPS coming to iPhone, copy / paste not a high priority, (7) Apple files suit against Psystar for copyright infringement, mellow-harshing, (8) MIT opens new ‘window’ on solar energy, (9) Hands-On With the Voodoo Envy’s Instant-On OS, and finally, Byte of the Week : Google Gears.

A few days back, Gwen and Weichang notified me that our blog is finally reaching our third birthday and our official birthday is 18 July (the day which we registered the domain). Hence it is that time of the year to have the third state of our blog. Believe it or not, our blog has already made it to the third year and we are still growing. Instead of really talking about things which we did this year or not, I like to use this third state of the blog to open up how SGE has maintained its position over the years with her partners, and the many more things which we hope to do within the two years or more.

In the last year, SGE has more or less transitioned from a start-up blog to a normal group blog that services the community. We have streamlined our focus towards the technology entrepreneurship and remains committed to market the events organized by different communities, from our partners: E27 (Garag3), The Digital Movement, Singapore PHP User Group (which will transition to an official society soon), and many others that helped to service Singapore like the Start-Up@Singapore competition. With the rising tides of social media, we are beginning to bring Tech65, the Geek Goddess Show and E-Conversations to bring the elements of audio and video which gives a different feel for our audience. Our Facebook group has already surpassed the other groups on user numbers now at 1000+, and we have passed a quarter of a million unique visitors and half a million page views over the course of the year. We do hope that we will hit the tipping point sometime in the future and reach a million unique visitors within the next two years. Yes, we have made an April Fool’s day joke out of TechCrunch and organized an event with one of TechCrunch editors last month too.

Yet, deep in our hearts, we still think that we are far away from where we really want to go. Let me tell you a few things that people have often asked during community meetings. Why do SGE not have their own events? The answer is that most entrepreneurs (including ourselves) have too much things to do, and we thought that it is better that we can help with the content and bring the awareness of events online organized by our partners. After all, if we are not good as practitioners, then what we say on this site would not be so credible. Speaking of which, one of the co-founders Weichang was recently featured in Zaobao for graduating with his honours in physics, overcoming his cancer illness and have started three businesses successfully on his own.

We consolidated our core competency that we are committed to content and not the rest. We have started publishing press releases for innovative tech companies and venture capital because we are filling a gap that traditional media (like Business Times) do not want to go. We are not against simple businesses by removing their comments because they are often spamming the blog with their advertisements. Sincerely, we want this to be a forum to discuss business issues and not an advertising platform. Other than committed to quality of content, we also want to ensure that the quality of comments and the way how the rest of community view the blog: credible and professional. We believe that this strategic focus is right, otherwise, the government bodies (ACE, SPRING) will not have added us to their resources links. That’s what separates us from the “me-too” sites who failed to replicate what we do.

We don’t want to rest on our laurels and continue to believe in a win-win approach. We work with our partners and groups in Singapore, particularly in helping people to be aware of events and bringing together mainly on the entrepreneurship in the tech sector and service those who happens to be in the niche business of entrepreneurship.

When we first started, no one believed that a business blog like this can create impact and value for the community. In fact, I was ridiculed by some in NUS and government officials that starting a blog like this is the dumbest idea possible. Today, we see people like Prof Wong Poh Kam, director of NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, have followed our lead to start blogging about issues in entrepreneurship and the government websites have acknowledged our presence here.

That is what entrepreneurship is all about: the determination and passion to start something against what others think and in the process convince the detractors that your ideas are correct. So, we have succeeded in a way as a small enterprise (thankfully to a group of contributors and partners who some of them have made it on their own as entrepreneurs) and remained the pioneers of the journey even if the rest who followed after do not acknowledge what we have done.

So what will we like to see in the next two years? In fact, we do have some thoughts and ideas about how we should move forward.

• - A new theme design for the site: Yes, we know that our present theme has been stuck here for almost one year two months. We like to have more features for the site to allow more interaction among readers.
• - Working with groups beyond the shores of Singapore: In fact, we are slowly reaching out to the other Asian countries around us, particularly our neighbour across the causeway. So, watch this space.
• - More content on how to start a business: We really hope to have professionals and practitioners writing for us and see the need to help young entrepreneurs to grow. We have seen all the nominees for Asian young entrepreneurs in Business Week all have done their interviews in SGE, and we hope to see more out there.
• - A possible gathering?: Actually, the founders (Gwen, Weichang and I) hope that we can amass the resources someday to hire an event management group to do an event someday. We thought about it but we usually end up not moving forward because maintenance work for the site is too much to do. In case you do not know, Weichang has spent time to do the backend maintenance like upgrading the site and ensure that our bills to the hosting server are paid while Gwen is busy with her editorial work behind the scenes.

Personally for me, I hope to pass to on the baton of my current role within the next two years and be a chief evangelist for the site, where new people can come and move this blog or site to the next frontier.

We thank all our friends and partners, and many out there for their growing support to our site, and we wish everyone well. As entrepreneurs, we want to remain optimistic and hope that something will grow in the future here in this little red dot.

Yours sincerely,
BL
on behalf of the founders of SG Entrepreneurs

In the latest episode, we move back to the web 2.0 universe back in China and Singapore. First of all, Estee and Peter talk about the demise of one of the video sharing sites, 65.com in China. Following on, Peter interviews Ming Shen, co-founder of Nuffnang where he shares his recent experience in the Ad-Tech event, a conference focusing on digimarketing and online advertising. Finally, one of our producers did the uncanny job of interviewing Kevin Lau, Project Manager of eBay SEA about the eBay developer program and eBay developer challenge and also his thoughts about eBay.Dev.Shack event organized by E27 in the Arts House. Of course, do check out the other shows in Podfire.sg.

Now in its 6th year of promoting Singapore Entrepreneurship the Spirit of Enterprise Awards 2008 is now open for online public voting. Singapore. July 16, 2008 – It isn’t easy to cast away the perfunctory 9-to-5 route and live your dream. The Spirit of Enterprise (SOE) Awards was coined to salute the courage, wit and creativity of entrepreneurs who have valiantly walked their talk, even if it meant repeatedly conquering hurdles and pushing boundaries. This event also serves to inspire budding entrepreneurs who just need that gentle push to attain remarkable heights.

This year, the SOE Awards 2008 sees 144 nominees, interviewed by students from local tertiary institutions.

Your vote is an encouragement and an impetus. Join in the meaningful buzz by casting your vote. Voters can vote for a minimum of 5 nominees and a maximum of 43 nominees. Voting ends on 31 August 2008 and results will be announced on 10 October 2008.

Mr. Richard Eu, Group CEO, Eu Yan Sang International Ltd-cum-Patron and Past Chairman of SOE commented, “It is not the purpose of the Awards to sieve out solely the richest companies and adulate the people behind these, but to find people who have the richest minds, in terms of their ideas and attitudes. We all need recognition from time to time, and it is my hope that the SOE Awards would push our spirited honorees to even greater heights.”

Profiles of all nominees and their success stories can be found in the SOE website here.

In conjunction with the Awards, a new collection of success stories of entrepreneurs will be published as the latest in the SOE Books On Entrepreneurship series. The book will be released in October this year.

For more information:
Kelly Teoh
Spirit of Enterprise
Mobile: +65 9763 9054
E-mail: kelly@soe.org.sg

About Spirit of Enterprise
Spirit of Enterprise (SOE), an Institute of Public Charter, promotes and advances entrepreneurial spirit in Singapore by honouring local self-reliant entrepreneurs operating small and medium-sized businesses, and serves to inspire Singaporeans, especially the young, to become entrepreneurs by facilitating interaction, communication and knowledge dissemination between students, the entrepreneurs and the general public. Its key programmes include Spirit of Enterprise Awards, Student-Entrepreneur Programme, and SOE Books on Entrepreneurship distributed free to local university and polytechnic business school courses.

SOE is funded by the private sector and its board of governors which consists of established entrepreneurs, corporate senior management, students, public service and political leaders. For more information, please visit www.soe.org.sg.

Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: (1) Creative launches the ZEN X-Fi with Wireless LAN, (2a) The Singapore iTunes Store is live! Sort of… - Side story: (2b) SquareEnix’s Song Summoner RPG for the iPod Classic and iPod Nano, (3) The International iPhone Launch. What will ours be like?, (4) Seagate comes up with new 1.5 terabyte hard drives, (5) Xbox 360’s Mid-range console receives further price drops. What is Maxsoft doing with the Wii?!?, (6) Konami lodges patent suite against Harmonix, MTV over Rock band, (7) Google launches their own Second Life called Lively and finally, the Byte Of The Week: Evernote: Remember Everything. Do click and check out their podcast.

During the E27 Unconference 2008, Michael Cheng, founder of Podfire.sg, has launched a new show: E-Conversations where he profiles a new generation of start-up entrepreneurs and finds out what drives them, what motivates them and how they work as a team. With his tools in the social media space, he has started off with the ZopIM team which we have interviewed. So, now you can see actually how the ZopIM works and their trials and tribulations.

Kudos to the E27 team, the Unconference Singapore 2008 held in Matrix, Biopolis had been a fantastic and well-organized event. It had an overwhelming turnout, hitting between 200-250 people. From a surprising excellent keynote from Daniel Ingitaraj (Director, Developer & Platform Evangelism, Microsoft) to the enthusiastic pitches from many start-ups in the event, it was a gathering of many enthusiastic minds for a growing and emerging Internet industry.

Of course, the event started with registration till lunch. There was an exhibition area where Microsoft had a booth allowing the audience to try out their latest Xbox craze, Guitar Hero II. Other than that, we have the founders from several start-ups, for example, Homespace, ZopIM, Eteract, Widgeous, Phlook, GoThere, Podfire, Hibernater, Yum.sg, PatSnap and many others featured here. Surely with the good food and drinks, we mingled around the area to watch demos from the entrepreneurs about what they have worked on for the past few months.

Following on, the event started with a keynote by Daniel Ingitaraj, (Director, Developer & Platform Evangelism, Microsoft Singapore) entitled ““Innovation: Persevere or Perish”. In the talk, Daniel went from a slow start in defining two important ideas from Ted Levitt’s “Marketing Myopia” article from Harvard Business Review and Christensen’s “Innovator’s Dilemma” about disruptive technologies and talked about how technology has evolved from the past to present. He went to discuss the three major trends that is to come: (i) user experience, (ii) collaboration and (iii) cloud computing. The talk ended with some interesting demos (likely we will get a video soon). After that, the keynote was followed by the start-ups pitching about their products and demos.

Once that ends, the event is followed by the six major breakout sessions split between 2 hours: (i) Enterprise 2.0, (ii) What’s so difficult about valuing and investing in Internet Companies? (iii) Mobile Platforms, (iv) Social Media in Asia Pacific, (v) Web2.0/Mobile Startups in Eastern Europe/Africa/East Asia, and (vi) Interoperability for Startups.

The event has drawn a lot of people together, bring back old friends and new ones to the grassroots movement. Sometime back, Preetam (a well-known web evangelist in Asia) and BL (our editor in SG Entrepreneurs) have expressed a worry that they have been meeting the same people over different events in Singapore. Since the eBay.dev.shack till this event, we are heartened to realize that we are now meeting new and enthusiastic people from all walks of life who come and share their ideas and thoughts on the industry. Of course, we do have interesting photos to share with you for this event. :)

Related Links

• 1. Mohd Hisham, e27 Unconference LIVE Update using Plurk and e27 Unconference Summary.
• 2. Thinking Nectar, Unconference 2008.
• 3. Thinking Nectar, Unconference 2008 - More Start-Up Pitches.
• 4. Young UpStarts, Singapore Startups at the e27 Unconference Singapore 2008 and Photos from the event as well.
• 5. Claudia, E27 Unconference Singapore.
• 6. The Armchair Theorist, The E27 Unconference was Definitely Unboring.
• 7. BL, The IVF Drip - Realities about Raising Capital for Tech Companies in Singapore on the breakout session he conducted for the Unconference 2008.

Photo 1: Unconference Singapore 2008 Exhibition Area.

Photo 2: Peter Du and Michael Cheng at the Podfire booth.

Photo 3: Ridzuan evangelizing about the Widgeous platform at his booth.

Photo 4: Royston pitching Zopim to interesting enthusiasts.

Photo 5: Talk by Daniel Ingitaraj (Director, Developer & Platform Evangelism, Microsoft).

Musion® Systems names Elasticity as their Singapore Partner and Elasticity announce an alliance with the Show Company. Wednesday, 9th July 2008 - PALME Asia: Today, Musion® Systems UK are pleased to announce that Elasticity will become the Singapore partner for its products and services. “Elasticity’s ground-breaking appointment as the Eyeliner™ licensee in Singapore will develop the use of holographic technology in this mature market and act as a driving force in the development of top quality, high definition video content in Singapore.

Elasticity joins a 30 strong network of international Eyeliner™ resellers carrying out pioneering work maintaining the position of Musion® as the world leader in holographic projection,” said Ainsley Henn, Channel Development Manager for Musion® Systems.

Elasticity is also pleased to announce that it has forged an alliance with the Show Company. This partnership will further enhance the services of both companies in the areas of content and production development of new experiences. Joseph Gan, Director of the Show Company said; “We are pleased to form this strategic alliance with Elasticity as it will clearly enhance products and services for our clients as we move forward with our business. We are particularly pleased at this opportunity to further expand our potential in emerging technologies and concept development opportunities.”

“The formal partnership with Musion® is crucial to us and Musion® expertise, technologies and connections are pivotal for our success in developing new experiences. The Eyeliner™ System will play a central role in everything that we create when it comes to content development. The alliance with the Show Company further enhances our position and forms a synergistic platform in the development of new ideas and production support. I am truly grateful to both companies for their support in us,” said Graham Perkins, Managing Director of Elasticity.

Musion® Systems
Musion® Systems Limited is a privately owned company and the exclusive master global Licensor for the Eyeliner™ projection system. Eyeliner™ is unique worldwide and protected by patents granted in countries all over the world. Musion® is principally an Intellectual Property licensing company.

Elasticity
Elasticity are protagonists of next-media experiences with fresh ideas for new canvases. Leveraging from new technologies such as holography, LED and 3D imaging, Elasticity integrate these technologies to develop a platform of interactive ideas in the areas of Design, Art, Media and Entertainment.

The Show Company
The Show Company is an integrated production and gear hire company based in Singapore. Specializing in large arena production work, the Show Company are often appointed as the official production company for major league shows in Singapore and other international venues.

For further information please do not hesitate to contact either of the following:

Ainsley Henn
Channel Development Manager
Musion® Systems
ainsley@musion.co.uk

Graham Perkins
Managing Director
Elasticity
graham@elasticity.sg

Joseph Gan
Director
The Show Company
jogan@show-company.com

Helmed by three founders, Joanne, Mark and Sean, MotionElements.com is a unique marketplace that allows digital artists to browse, buy and sell Asian-themed keyed live footages, 2D / 3D animation, 3D models and other stock motion elements. We speak to them to find out more about their story.

Gwen: Hi MotionElements, thank you for accepting this interview at SGE. First, what is MotionElements and who is it for?
MotionElements: MotionElements is an online marketplace for the buying and selling of digital assets - the eBay of stock footages, animation and 3D models. It’s for post-production houses, 2D/3D animators, motion graphics designers and creatives in the media industry and anyone who wants an easy way of creating and enhancing videos.

Gwen: How did the idea come about?
MotionElements: Pain. The idea was borne because we personally felt that if such a platform existed, life would be so much sweeter. It was a need that was not met in the market.

Gwen: Tell us more about the team and your backgrounds before this.
MotionElements: 3 friends – Joanne, Mark and Sean. Joanne and Mark are partners in a post-production studio that they started called Emoxis (www.emoxis.com). Sean was in consulting and finance and does not pretend to know anything about digital media previously.

Gwen: How did you guys get together to work on MotionElements?
MotionElements: We met through common friends a while ago, and also briefly worked together creating corporate videos in our previous roles. Mark and Joanne had pondered on the idea a while ago, and Sean was roped in only later over a weekend lunch at Robertson Quay.

Gwen: What is your business model?
MotionElements: MotionElements is a platform that connects buyers and sellers. We want to make it simple and fruitful for the user to come and find exactly what elements he/she needs for his/her job for a reasonable price. Conversely, we allow the user to monetize his/her previous creations which are sitting idle on a hard-disk by using our platform to sell to other users.
Our role is one of quality control, creating an effective search tool and gathering a lively community of creatives to exchange and enhance each other’s works.

Gwen: How are you different from other video aggregation sites? And how do you intend to keep out competition?
MotionElements: We focus on content with Asian influences and aim to gather a large database of quality stock footage, animations and 3D models from the top creatives in this region. This stock motion video-exchange space is not as crowded today as say, the still picture-exchange space. Thus we want to forge ahead quickly to establish quality standards; build an easy-to-use and secure site to attract the best quality creations.

Gwen: At what stage of development is MotionElements at currently? And do you intend to add any more features?
MotionElements: We’ve soft launched MotionElements at the recent BroadcastAsia and CG Overdrive in June 2008 to a notably receptive crowd. A substantial number of enquires have been made regarding the contribution of content material and the purchase of elements.
The site is open for business!

We do not rule out any new features, but at the moment we want to focus our energies on continuing to enhance the experience of using MotionElements.

Gwen: How has the journey been so far?
MotionElements: We have not killed or sacrificed anyone yet so guess that’s a good sign.

Gwen: What experiences can you share with other entrepreneurs?
MotionElements: Do not DIY – find a team where each person has a set of complementary skills. Also, make plans to the best of your abilities, but allow room for massive changes.

Gwen: Thank you for your time, and all the best!

Editor’s Note: Bernard and Gwen are with Thymos Capital, an investor in MotionElements.

Singapore – 7 July, 2008 - Real estate search engine HomeSpace.sg has unveiled their latest feature, HomeValue, which allows Home buyers to determine their negotiation advantage on real estate that they are interested in.

“Homebuyers are usually very helpless when it comes to negotiation. They usually rely on an agent to advise them on the price to offer.“, said Vinod Nair, CEO of HomeSpace.sg.

With HomeValue, home buyers can now be well informed of the pricing trends and past transactions of comparable homes, which means that they are empowered with data that helps them determine the best price they should pay for the house.

HomeValue is unlike any other price trend feature available. HomeValue actually does a radius scan for similar property in the area and pulls up the past transaction and listing data for those units.

“To derive an accurate offer price, you have to refer to similar properties in the area. You cannot compare 5 room flats with 3 room flats. Even units of the same type within the same neighbourhood differ in price based on proximity to amenities.”, explained Vinod.

HomeValue cuts down more than 90% of the workload and information gathering one has to go through before making a price decision on the house. Potential buyers can track the past transaction mean of similar houses within the area of their desired house up to 2 years back.

With this latest feature added into HomeSpace’s arsenal, it now boasts of the most number of pro-consumer features to help consumers effortlessly obtain relevant information on their desired homes.

Contact
Vinod Nair
Email: vinod@homespace.sg
Contact No.: 92722692

About HomeSpace
HomeSpace is a real estate search engine that helps home buyers and sellers to find and list homes in Singapore that are for sale in the simplest and fastest way possible. Founded in May 2007, HomeSpace is the brainchild of enterprising NUS graduates Vinod Nair,  Zhuo Weifeng, Jarrold Ong, Staelen Yew and Timothy Kua. HomeSpace is supported by Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore, the National University of Singapore Enterprise and Entrepreneur27 Singapore.

For more information on HomeSpace, visit www.homespace.sg

Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: (1) Technology library to loan test gadgets for disabled. - The Infocomm Accessibility Center of the Society for the Physically Disabled, (2) The Creative ZEN X-Fi rumored!, (3) Hutchison Telecom (Hong Kong) has revealed its pricing and service plans for the iPhone 3G, (4) iCall App Enables GSM to WiFi / VoIP Switching On The iPhone, (5) Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today revealed Diablo® III, (6) Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. introduces Blizzard Authenticator, an optional extra layer of security for World of Warcraft® and finally, Byte of the week : Mozilla Labs - Introducing Weave. Do click and check out their podcast.

Now we have the part 2 from the HP TouchSmart Blogger’s event held in Brotzeit restaurant, Vivocity, with the well known tech & lifestyle bloggers to tell us their thoughts and opinions about the HP TouchSmart PC. Through Estee and Peter, we have interviewed many friends from the Tech65 team (Jerrick, Daniel and NTT), Howie and Su Yuen (The Digital Movement), Nadnut, Linda, Mohd Hisham, Sheylara, Brian, Mark, Nicholas and Hillary (from CNET Asia). We thank also the HP Asia Pacific together with Melvin Yuan and his team (Daryl and Jael) from Waggener Edstrom. So, enjoy the videocast here:

The theme for the event is “Something big is brewing…”. So what is going to happen to the Singapore PHP User Group from here? If you want to know, do attend the coming the Singapore PHP User Group Meetup by RSVP here in Facebook. The event will be held next Wednesday July 9 2008, in Microsoft Singapore. Other than the major announcement, a session for “Introduction to Cake PHP” is happening too.

Here are the details for the event:

• Date: Wednesday, July 9, 2008
• Time: 7:30pm - 10:00pm
• Location: Microsoft Singapore, NTUC Centre, 22nd Floor, One Marina Boulevard

==============================
+++ Program for July Meetup +++

1) Launch of PHP Society

Presenter: Michael Cheng, President, PhP Society

2) Intro to CakePHP

Open Call for Volunteers / Speakers
=======================

We’re on the lookout for volunteers and speakers for our monthly meetups and year-end events. Do email us at meetup@php.com.sg. Many thanks.

Sponsors
==============================

Venue:
Microsoft Singapore

Prizes:
Zend Technologies Ltd
http://www.zend.com