GSA Technology Council

Wikia, Inc., formerly known as Wikicities, has raised a $4 million Series A round from Bessemer Venture Partners, Omidyar Network and its angel investors, including Marc Andreessen, Dan Gillmor, Reid Hoffman, Josh Kopelman, Joichi Ito, and Mitch Kapor.

Wikia is an advertising-supported platform for developing and hosting community-based wikis. Specifically, Wikia enables groups to share information, news, stories, media and opinions that fall outside the scope of an encyclopedia. Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley launched Wikia in 2004 to provide community-based wikis inspired by the model of Wikipedia–the free, open source encyclopedia founded by Jimmy Wales and operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, where Wales and Beesley serve as board members.

Wikia is committed to openness, inviting anyone to contribute web content. Authors retain their own copyrights, but allow others to freely reuse their content under the GNU Free Documentation License, allowing widespread distribution of knowledge and ideas.

Wikia supports the development of the open source software that runs both Wikipedia and Wikia, as well as thousands of other wiki sites. Among other contributions, Wikia plans to enhance the software with usability features, spam prevention, and vandalism control. All of Wikia’s development work will, of course, be fed back into the open source code.

Wikia already hosts some of the world’s largest wikis outside of the Wikimedia Foundation, including: uncyclopedia.org, a parody of Wikipedia; memory-alpha.org, a Star Trek encyclopedia; starwars.wikia.com, a community devoted to Star Wars, and hundreds more including topics ranging from politics to pets. Since the site’s launch in November 2004, over 1000 Wikia have been created and edited by over 20,000 registered users. Wikia are available in over 35 languages.

via Wikia

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The Greenville Area Development Corporation announced today that Level One will expand its operations in Greenville. Currently located on Rocky Slope Road in 5,500 square feet of office space and employing over 110 employees, Level One will occupy an additional 5,500 square feet adjoining its current office to accommodate 125 new employees scheduled to be hired in 2006. Approximately 100 of these jobs will be in-bound phone sales positions.

Level One provides central leasing support for apartment communities owned and/or managed by property management companies. Having moved to Greenville from Atlanta in January of 2003 with 5 employees and 17 customers, Level One today works with over 650 communities nation-wide and continues to grow.

Agencies instrumental in supporting Level One’s expansion include the Center for Accelerated Technology Training (SC’s Technical Workforce Development Agency), Greenville Technical College, Greenville County’s Building Permits Department and the SC Department of Commerce.

“The most common feedback we receive from our customers is ‘your people are outstanding’. In a business where your employees are your product, there is no higher compliment,” said Todd Baldree, President and Founder of Level One. “I am convinced that a large part of our growth and success can be attributed directly to relocating to Greenville.”

“We’re committed to improving our underlying business climate, so that more companies like Level One can continue to expand and grow in our state,” Gov. Sanford said. “Creating jobs and raising income levels of South Carolinians continue to be our administration’s top priorities.”

“Level One’s expansion news is just another positive example that South Carolina is a great place to do business,” said Secretary of Commerce Joe Taylor. “Since coming to South Carolina in 2003, the company has experienced significant growth. We hope they continue to grow and we’re happy Level One calls Greenville home.”

“Thank you, Level One. 125 new jobs is great news for Greenville County!” said Butch Kirven, Greenville County Council Chairman. “County Council remains committed to ensuring that job opportunities are available for anyone that wants to work.”

“Expansion of entrepreneurial businesses seems to be this year’s theme for Greenville,” said Ray Lattimore, GADC Chairman. “We are very pleased with Level One’s expansion.”

Persons desiring more information regarding employment opportunities should contact Level One by emailing to hr@levelone.com.

via: GADC

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Acumen, a professional technology firm located in Greenville, South Carolina has anounced that they have signed an agreement to acquire Complete Computer Services, Inc., a network and software consulting, implementation, and support company based in Jacksonville, Florida.

Founded in 1989, Complete Computer Services, Inc. (CCSI) has been responsible for more that 500 network and software implementations throughout the Southeast and in ten Caribbean countries. Clients include aircraft, construction, distribution, manufacturing, retail, service and transportation industries.

“Acumen acquired CCSI because Acumen wanted to expand its Accounting Software services and support. CCSI has some of the most experienced and professional staff on the east coast,” said David Pence CEO of Acumen.

“Entering into this agreement with Acumen made the most sense for our employees and our client base, said Brian Phillips, President of Complete Computer Services. “This allows us to offer a broader range of services to our existing customers and to band together with a highly knowledgeable, highly motivated team of professionals.”

With the acquisition of CCSI, Acumen remains a Microsoft Gold Partner but they also become a Microsoft Business Solution Partner for Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft Customer Relationship Management and Microsoft Retail Management Systems. Employees from Complete Computer Services will relocate to the Greer office of Acumen in March.

via Acumen

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Microsoft Corp. has confirmed that Windows Vista™, the next generation of the Windows® client operating system, is on target to go into broad consumer beta to approximately 2 million users in the second quarter of 2006. Microsoft is on track to complete the product this year, with business availability in November 2006 and broad consumer availability in January 2007.

Windows Vista will deliver great value to businesses by seamlessly connecting people to information, enabling increased mobile and remote productivity, significantly reducing deployment and support costs, and providing a more secure and compliant desktop platform. For consumers, Windows Vista will bring clarity to the world of personal computing, enabling people to more safely and easily accomplish everyday tasks, instantly find what they want, enjoy the latest in entertainment, and stay connected at home or on the go.

More than half a million customers have received the latest community technology preview for Windows Vista, and have been providing consistent and positive feedback.

“Product quality and a great out-of-box experience have been two of our key drivers for Windows Vista, and we are on track to deliver on both,” said Jim Allchin, co-president for the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft. “But the industry requires greater lead time to deliver Windows Vista on new PCs during holiday. We must optimize for the industry, so we’ve decided to separate business and consumer availability.”

Because of the way businesses test and deploy software, it makes sense for Microsoft volume licensing customers to receive windows Windows Vista starting in November of this year. Availability for consumers and on new PCs will follow in January.

“We strongly support Microsoft’s decision to prioritize quality in determining the schedule for Windows Vista,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president of the Personal Systems Group at Hewlett Packard. “A January launch of Windows Vista allows us to execute in a consistent way throughout the holidays, and will provide the right opportunity for a large, exciting launch industrywide after the New Year.”

Said Ron Boire, executive vice president and general merchandising manager at Best Buy, “When people come to our stores to buy a new PC or new software for their PC, we want to be able to offer them a broad set of choices, immediate availability and a great retail experience. We agree with Microsoft that it’s best to do this right — and in this case it’s delivering Windows Vista-based PCs with confidence in January 2007.”
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From the Spring VON 2006 conference, Empirix® Inc., which helps organizations adopt complex communications solutions with confidence, announced that NuVox Communications, a leading provider of voice, data and security services to business customers across the Southeast and Midwest, has begun monitoring its carrier VoIP network with Hammer XMS.

Empirix Hammer XMS is a carrier-class monitoring and analysis solution that VoIP service providers use to ensure service quality meets the high standards their customers demand.

According to Keith Coker, Chief Technology Officer at NuVox, the company selected Empirix based on its long track record of helping service providers ensure high Quality of Service for VoIP services.

“NuVox had two main criteria in mind as we evaluated monitoring solutions,” said Coker. “First, we were looking for a vendor with proven experience in carrier-class networks, and second, we wanted a solution with extensive diagnostic capabilities that would give us rapid trouble resolution. Ensuring our customers’ Quality of Service is paramount to our continued success. Empirix excelled in both areas making it a perfect fit for NuVox.”

Empirix Hammer XMS incorporates the strongest signaling and media analysis and call correlation capabilities on the market, evaluating live network traffic to provide the most accurate assessment of network performance. Its patent-pending signaling analysis, high-performance probes and highly scalable architecture enable VoIP service providers to quickly identify and troubleshoot problems and efficiently monitor VoIP service quality. Hammer XMS gives service providers the confidence to deploy new services faster, with higher quality, at a lower cost. It helps reduce customer churn by detecting and resolving problems faster, often before customers are affected.
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NuVox Communications, a leading provider of voice, data, and security services to business customers across the Southeast and Midwest, has named Keith Coker as Chief Technology Officer. With over 15 years in telecommunications, Coker has proven experience planning, deploying, and maintaining both voice and data networks. As CTO, Coker will be responsible for fully leveraging the capabilities of NuVox’s 16-state network and operational support systems to provide reliable and comprehensive services to the company’s 43,000 business customers.

“Our growing customer base absolutely necessitates the effective and efficient use of technology,” commented Jim Akerhielm, CEO of NuVox Communications. “Keith understands that our network must run flawlessly, and that the intelligent selection and deployment of technology is a critical competitive advantage; it provides the foundation for us to provide unparalleled voice, data, and security services to our customers.”

Since joining NuVox in 1999, Coker has been instrumental in developing, deploying, and maintaining the entire network. He led the engineering effort to merge and optimize the resources of the networks of NuVox Communications and NewSouth Communications following their merger in 2004. Most recently, Coker has led efforts to build an IP-centric network to provide carrier-class VoIP services. Prior to his work at NuVox, he managed carrier services for Knology, which was one of the first companies providing voice, video, and data services over a hybrid fiber coax plant.

Coker holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University and an MS in Electrical and Optical Engineering from the University of Arizona.
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The History Channel® and Invent Now® Inc., a subsidiary of the National Inventors Hall of Fame® Foundation, announced today the 25 semi-finalists of the Modern Marvels Invent Now® Challenge, a national competition that provides an opportunity for independent inventors to be recognized and to influence the ever-changing face of invention. The Challenge, which is named in part for Modern Marvels®, The History Channel’s long-running signature series that showcases this nation’s passion for ingenuity and innovation, is searching for America’s next great invention idea. The semi-finalists, who hail from 17 states across the U.S. and range in age from 19 to 80, were chosen from nearly 4,300 submissions entered, a number that confirms that the inventive spirit in America is alive and well. This spring, the Challenge will ultimately name the invention of one of these 25 semi-finalists as the 2006 Modern Marvel of the Year during Modern Marvels: Great Inventions Week on The History Channel May 24-27th.

Greenville Surgeon, Dr. David L. Cull, has made the list of semifinalists with his Hemoaccess Valve System, a device that is able to regulate blood flow in arteriovenous (AV) grafts which are used to connect patients with kidney failure to a dialysis machine.

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Columbia, SC based Integrated Business Systems and Services, Inc. has announced the commercial availability of the SynTrack ™ Mobile Dispatch and Transport for Healthcare system, a fully integrated solution empowering hospitals to more efficiently manage the central dispatch and transport of patients, equipment, supplies and special services within and between their hospital facilities. The SynTrack ™ Mobile Dispatch and Transport for Healthcare system was recently showcased by IBSS at the AHRMM Healthcare Supply Chain Technology Conference and Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois earlier this month.

Al Cook, past President of AHRMM and Director of Materials Management and Purchasing at The Regional Medical Center, stated, “Increasing asset utilization while improving patient care services through location of available equipment is a high priority within healthcare. IBSS’ integrated dispatch functionality, added to the powerful asset tracking capability of SynTrack ™ , offers a technology platform, available today, with which to achieve this goal.”

“The demand for a dispatch and tracking solution for central transport applications in medical institutions was recently confirmed at the Chicago conference. We expect the healthcare version of our technology, originally designed and developed to address the dispatching challenges for special needs passengers in airports, will prove to be a powerful new addition to IBSS’ product platform,” added Lee Dunston, Director of Sales for IBSS.

via IBSS
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The pioneering $100 laptop program, designed to give children in developing countries access to knowledge and educational tools, came a step closer to realization in January with the signing of a partnership agreement in Davos between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and One Laptop per Child (OLPC).

Under the Memorandum of Understanding, signed at the World Economic Forum by UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis and OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte, the project’s innovator and director, UNDP will work with local and international partners to design and develop programmes to deliver OLPC technology and learning resources to schools in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

“We are delighted to be part of this venture, which has the potential to break through the digital divide between rich countries and poor countries,” said Kemal Dervis.

“Though the price of access to knowledge has dramatically decreased in recent years, new technologies remain out of reach for most people in developing countries, especially children, who rarely have access to the educational resources that could enhance their opportunities and lift them out of poverty,” he said.

UNDP’s global network is on the ground in 166 countries, and has extensive experience in using information and communication technology for sustainable development.

“One laptop per child is key, making learning more seamless with living, play and family life, versus being limited to school. Teacher preparation is important, in parallel with peer-to-peer and self education,” said Nicholas Negroponte.

The $100 laptop is an inexpensive, robust computer, with open-source software, and very low power consumption. It can also be powered by hand cranking. The computers form a ‘mesh network,’ which means that they can talk to each other and several hundred machines can share a single point of access.

OLPC, the non-profit organization set up to oversee the project, was launched one year ago at Davos, and a working prototype of the product was showcased at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November 2005.

Corporate interest in the project has been high. After reviewing several bids, OLPC announced in December that Quanta Computers would manufacture the laptop; and six companies – Google, AMD, Red Hat, News Corporation, Nortel, and Brightstar, have already provided $2 million each to fund OLPC and the initial laptop design.

OLPC will first implement the program in seven diverse and very large countries. In each of those cases, the government will buy the machines to be given cost-free to students in well specified but large pilot projects. In the case of LDCs and poor countries, the UNDP will work closely with OLPC and other UN agencies on the ground to assist national governments to deploy the laptops to targeted public schools with a variety of internal and external funding sources.

It is expected that the cost of each laptop will come down over time. Manufacturing will begin when at least five million machines have been ordered and paid for in advance, and the preliminary target is to have units ready for shipment by early 2007.

“World demand and goodwill for the $100 Laptop has been boundless because any Head of State realizes that a nation’s most precious natural resource is its children,” said Negroponte.

via laptop.org

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Sealevel Systems, Inc. announces the Relio R2000 ruggedized industrial computer designed for use in harsh environments. Available with up to a 1.4GHz Intel Pentium M processor, the R2000 offers exceptional performance and flexible I/O expansion. Fanless operation is possible to 50°C, and using an embedded operating system such as Windows XPe allows applications to execute from CompactFlash for the ultimate in reliability – no moving parts.

Packed with standard features including dual 10/100BaseT Ethernet, two RS-232/422/485 serial ports, and two USB 2.0 ports, the R2000 excels in I/O intensive applications. Expand with up to three PC/104 kits that terminate to real-world connectors using the Sealevel Porthole mounting design. A Sealevel SeaI/O module or a CDRW/ DVD can also be installed in the front of the chassis. Available I/O expansion options include RS-232/422/485 serial ports, Reed and Form C relay outputs, optically isolated inputs, TTL interface to industry standard solid-state relay racks, A/D, D/A, and wireless communications.

The R2000 is designed and maintained with strict attention to long-term availability, avoiding the obsolescence problems inherent with motherboard-based industrial computers. Measuring just

11.4” (W) x 8.0” (D) x 4.4” (H), R2000 systems are housed in rugged metal enclosures designed for convenient table or wall mounting. The system is powered by 5VDC, and a redundant 18-30VDC power input option is available.

Windows XP Embedded is a perfect operating system choice for Relio systems. Sealevel offers application assistance for efficiently transferring customer applications to the XP Embedded platform. Other supported embedded operating systems include Windows CE .NET and embedded Linux. R2000 systems are priced beginning at $1095, and product is available immediately from stock.

Sealevel Systems, founded in 1986, provides communications and I/O solutions for multiple platforms including PCI Bus, PC Card (PCMCIA), and PC/104. Their product line includes multi-port RS-232 and RS-422/485, high-speed sync/async, digital and analog I/O. Sealevel also provides related software, technical support and customer service. The company is known for its ability to customize products to meet customers’ unique application needs.

via Sealevel
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