Part 1 of the DemoCampMontreal1 Report is here.
Based on more information provided to me during a recent meeting with Raj Vadavia (CEO) and Thomas Fedoryak (Chief Strategic Officer) of Sygenics, I have updated the description of the fantastic Sygenics Evolution technology today so that it portrays the technology more accurately. Thanks to Thomas Fedoryak for the more accurate wording. Josh – 17th of May.
3. DARWIN by Evonium Inc. – Kingsley and Alden Woodward
John set the tone for the presentation as usual and practised his Bruce Buffer John McCarthy impersonation. He also posed for a photograph in a cheeky Wasnot@BarCampbutgotaT-ShirtNaNaNa stance.
Note to self: the UFC will be in Montreal later this year. Attend. Mixed Martial Arts events have done a lot to change how I think about Martial Arts in general.
The Evonium team demonstrated DARWIN, a modular and customizable framework for Information Management. The demonstration itself at DemoCampMontreal1 showed just a small subset of DARWIN’s possibilities, focusing on the ease of adding new data within the framework and updating a form to access the contents.
The real Wow factor here is Alden Woodward mentioning that DARWIN could evolve with your business process. Now, this statement seems innocuous like this, but what if you factor in that you can re-engineer your business process, easily and rapidly customize your whole Information Systems within and with DARWIN to reflect this while the system is still running LIVE?
A nearly real-time evolutive Business Information System – that’s nothing less than the grail of Business agility! Absolutely fantastically impressive, considering that it is time-consuming and sometimes difficult to re-design your Data models, especially if you using a relational DBMS and rewrite your access code. Now, how do you think Evonium achieves so much flexibility within their framework to do that?
Just imagine tracking the efficiency of multiple business processes per business domain to find what works best in each type of business.
The presentation itself could have been geared more towards showing these benefits. It was difficult to grasp the benefits of DARWIN with the demo as I am not familiar with the interface and based on the feedback I heard here and there, many people did not get the message, which is unfortunate as I strongly believe that Evonium have a winner with DARWIN.
DARWIN is applied to Manufacturing and to Science Laboratories and Science Research in addition to Businesses. Kingsley Woodward is the President and CEO of Evonium Inc.
During Question Time, Raj Vadavia popped a question about the underlying technology.
“Don’t you guys work together? PLANTED QUESTION!!!” said John playfully.
But actually, that was the whole point and the subject of the fourth demo, Evolution or Part 2 of my “Wow!” moment.
4. Evolution by Sygenics Corp – Raj Vadavia
Raj Vadavia started by saying how most modern programming languages are object-oriented (like our beloved Ruby) but RDBMS and these languages do not mesh well together.
He then described Evolution, a new technology that frees business logic from being locked into a given data schema, by installing a true real-time dynamic data model directly within Relational DBMS. Raj said that with Evolution, DB administrators need not go down to the level of the relational tables to modify them. Instead, modifications are initiated from a higher level through an API, and instantly reflected in real-time by the adaptive (or ‘plastic’) Evolution data model. Raj added that Evolution was the result of more than four years of research and development and that the technology is patent-pending. Sygenics Corp, the makers of Evolution, found out during their research that RDBMS and their fixed schema models are actually a bottleneck in data-centric business systems.
Raj said that Evolution uses mathematics, more precisely Set Theory, to manipulate the data. Woah! I was transfixed by the idea. Raj continued to speak about Evolution while looking at me but his words had become a blur as I was lost in metaphysics territory. Could it be that there are other things we take for granted within either our Information Systems and the Businesses they integrate into and that applying a new mathematical model could open up amazing optimization opportunities?
From Sygenics’ website:
The fixed table schema that are used by relational databases are the core bottleneck in the development, lifecycle and flexibility of any data-centric software solution. These fixed schema are the weakest link because they were never intended to change or adapt once activated.
Suddenly, a loud booming voice resonated throughout the SAT room.
“Raaaaj?… Raaaaaaaaj?……”.
OhmigodTheSATisHauntedThere’sAGhostInTheMachine!!?!!
“Raj, it’s your subconscious…. You have five minutes left for your demo.”
It was John, of course.
Evolution dynamically modifies its own data structure (within your relational DB, like Oracle and MS-SQL) without having to manually re-tool access routines or migrate existing data to a new schema. This enables fast reconfigurable data models without having to stop your production system, and is the reason why Evonium’s DARWIN can enable you to dynamically rewire your business logic as your business process changes.
If I were an investor looking for innovative Business Information Systems opportunities that night at DemoCampMontreal1, this is where I’d put my money: Sygenics’ Evolution and Evonium’s DARWIN framework. Their concepts and technologies made my mind reel for a few days.
Interface Ruby and Ruby on Rails with these two technologies and you have the core of the ultimate flexible full-stack Business Information Architecture. Couple this with a Cognos and Google Analytics type of analysis and reporting and you have a fantastic arsenal to track different business processes’ efficiencies so as to select the best one based on practical results.
The presentation also suffered from the ‘unfamiliarity with the interface’ phenomenon, but it did show that there was no need to go down to the level of the relational database schema for modifications. But here again, I cannot help but wonder whether the message did get across.
Nevertheless, I’m totally amazed by Evolution. Revolutionary as the website says and I’m inclined to believe it.
Raj Vadavia is the CEO and majority shareholder of Sygenics.
Notes:
- Always distinguish form from content. The two presentations above might have been better formulated with respect to conveying the benefits to the audience, but the technologies and concepts beneath were the most impressive that night and probably the most impressive I’ve seen in the past two years as I’ve mentioned in Part 1.
5. ilovetoplay.com – Marc Chriqui
Marc Chriqui’s stated goal for ilovetoplay.com is to help make people fit, which is a laudable initiative. His demonstration showed the website which helps people find partners for sports activities. He showed the fields within the user profiles and also how photos are added within the site.
Marc also found a creative way of using his 15 minutes of DemoCampMontreal1. After the main presentation, he asked the audience feedback about the marketing aspect for the website and showed us an image with a teasing tag-line.
Tamu, who was sitting in the row behind me, voiced some valid observations about how it can get tiring for people who do not look like the model to see yet another photo not representative of themselves, but Marc replied “You don’t want to be fit?” which created a ripple of laughter in the audience, effectively drowning Tamu’s message.
Well, it’s a good idea to ask for feedback at DemoCamp. Some audience members are even willing to give you that feedback for free, so you might as well listen carefully to their contributions. Another audience member also gave Marc feedback, and John added his perspective too – all relevant.
Note:
- You can use DemoCampMontreal to get feedback on your product and marketing. But make sure you lend an attentive ear if you do get it.
Wrap-up
John announced that the DemoCampMontreal1 team would go to the Ste. Elizabeth afterwards. Then Fred and Simon took turns with the microphone to thank all parties involved and inform people about upcoming events.
Post-demo conversations
Heri and I had talked a little in between demos and I had also caught up with John who said he was away for a while since CUSEC but came back to Montreal. After the wrap-up, I greeted Robin and asked him whether he was going to attend the first Mashpit in Montreal, and he said he’d most probably be there.
I also met Carl Mercier who is a successful serial entrepreneur based in Montreal. Carl, Heri and I swapped business cards spent quite a fair amount of time happily discussing the Montreal Tech Scene. Carl’s business card is a sight to behold – classy and beautiful.
After this, I checked with John whether he was going to the Ste-Elizabeth and then I moved near the bar where there were still a handful of persons around chatting.
Silicon Valley North
I wanted to meet Austin Hill and he was there generously giving the Evonium team and Raj Vadavia feedback on the presentations from his perspective as a VC and Angel investor. Alden, Kingsley and Raj were attentive and open to the feedback. Raj proposed that Austin try to apply Evolution to the problem of sifting and sorting email messages as Austin had mentioned this as an example of a real-world problem that a VC or investor could easily relate to and which would have been advantageous to demonstrate to make the presentations more effective.
I didn’t have the opportunity of speaking to either Raj Vadavia or Alden and Kingsley Woodward about their technology but I did talk to Austin. I asked him about Silicon Valley and the state of the Tech Scene in Toronto and Montreal. Austin mentioned that SV has a lot to do with the mindset but that it was also a question of economics. He said that Toronto is currently ahead of Montreal in terms of activity in the Tech scene, but that he is convinced that Montreal has the potential of becoming the next best SV-North.
That was precisely what I wanted to hear. And with the kind involvement that Austin has in the community, I have no doubt that his words are becoming a reality.
We talked about my background and the Python-wrangler video. Austin said that they were tracking views both on Youtube and from his blog. His blog is an absolute must-read and is a gateway I found when I looked for people in the Montreal Tech community online.
Austin was very approachable and generous with his time, information and even will to help me connect with other people. Generous and friendly, just as I had imagined him from reading his blog and it was a pleasure to talk to him. If SV has Reid Hoffman, Montreal has Austin Hill.
Happiness has a reddish hue
After speaking with Austin, I talked to David Fugère and he was enthusiastic about Ruby on Rails’ support for REST and web services APIs. Aha! Code Genome is using Ruby and Ruby On Rails. That may well be why David is smiling all the time. Ruby and RoR make happy coders and happy businesses.
Sébastien Pierre said goodbye, but I caught up again with him at the metro, and we talked about Software Engineering in France. I told him about INSA de Rennes, where I did my degree. We spoke of Sugar, which I saw him demonstrate at DemoCampCUSEC1, and of the Recent Changes Camp, or RoCoCo, which is forthcoming in Montreal. This will definitely be an event to attend.
The many faces of the DemoCamp format
DemoCampMontreal1 was astonishing for me. Evolution was especially superb as a singularly original enabling technology and concept which in turns makes Evonium’s DARWIN a reality. I saw that a DemoCamp was not just a meeting among geeks but also an avenue to pitch your startup to willing investors since Austin Hill was present and Tom Sweeney of Garage Technology Ventures Canada was there too, a way to get feedback and advice on your product, marketing, an opportunity to hone your presentation skills and meet smart people and even probable partners. A DemoCamp is all these things simultaneously.
Thanks to Fred for getting me involved, Simon and John and all those who helped with the event and thanks to all those who took some of their precious time to chat, especially Heri, Carl, John, Austin, David and Sébastien. I couldn’t talk to everybody but I would have loved to talk to Simon about his recent trip to Norway, his work for Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux distribution and his omelette-engineering demo, and I would have asked Ben about the passion podcast and whether he had had submissions. I will gladly see you all next time.
Memorable quotes
“Let get it on!” – John (imitating
Bruce BufferUFC referee, John McCarthy)
“Julie, I hadn’t seen you for a while – I liked it that way.”- John (to Julie)
“Mon français n’est pas très bien aujourd’hui.” – John
“Planted question!” – John
“Raaaaj? Raaaaaj, it’s your subconscious. You have 5 minutes left” – John (to Raj Vadavia)“80% de notre objectif est atteint…on avait besoin d’un deadline” – Thierry Poitras
“I want people to get fit.” – Marc Chriqui (on his objective for the presentation)
“It was a metaphor!” – Simon (about his omelette engineering demo)
“We use mathematics to manipulate the data.” – Raj Vadavia
