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Milinx Business Group

Publicly traded application service provider — OTC: MIXBA (1997–2002)

Milinx Business Group, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: MIXBA) was a publicly traded application service provider founded by Maynard L. Dokken in 1997 and named after the Minix operating system on which his earliest work was built.[1][2] Between 2000 and 2001 it built a Sun/Cisco/Oracle data center in Vancouver, a hosted-application platform (MMAP) and a suite of web-delivered business applications — including an early fully hosted desktop and a mobile-application standard — at a pace Dokken has called unprecedented.[4][11] After a June 2001 funding crisis the company collapsed under a new management and shareholder group; Dokken had stepped down as CEO in August 2001 and resigned as Chairman in January 2002.[4]

Contents Origins and public listingThe data centerMMAP and the "mi" suiteThe hosted desktopWireless and the mobile appPatents and R&DAlliances and recognitionScale, collapse and exitDevelopment of cloud and mobileLegacySee alsoReferences

Origins and public listing (1997–2000) · context: Application service provider

Dokken founded Milinx in 1997, carrying forward the payment and hosting technology developed at Assured Card and Assured Credit.[1] The company became a U.S. reporting issuer through a reverse merger into a shell corporation (formerly Forestay Corp.) in December 1999, began filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2000, and traded on the OTC Bulletin Board as MIXBA.[2][3] Dokken was a director from December 1998, President and CEO from February 1999, Chairman from August 2001, and the company's majority stockholder.[3][4] Milinx positioned itself as a "pure-play" ASP serving small and mid-sized businesses with hosted software on subscription.[11][25]

The data center · context: Data center

In July 2000 Milinx announced, then launched, an owned-and-operated Application Data Center in Vancouver — the company put its cost at roughly eight million dollars and declined to co-locate, running its own servers, routing and storage.[26][10] Its FY2001 annual report records a facility housing "Sun Microsystems servers, Cisco routers, Oracle software,"[4] with back-end software from iPlanet (the Sun–Netscape alliance) and a front end built on Netscape Crossware and Oracle technology.[10][30] Milinx described capacity for 500,000 e-mail accounts and up to 300,000 users, with redundant power, cooling and dual fibre links from AT&T and Telus.[10] (Those are stated capacity figures, not reported usage.)

MMAP and the "mi" suite · context: Software as a service

In August 2000 Milinx announced the completion of the Milinx Managed Application Platform (MMAP™), the infrastructure on which it hosted and deployed its applications as a service.[11] Its FY2000 annual report names the resulting suite of hosted products — miPortal, miOffice, miMessaging, miCRM, miTraining, miBilling, miCommerce and miCast — delivered from the Vancouver data center.[3] The platform shared an Oracle database and an LDAP global directory, with content caching, load balancing and role-based access control.[11] The database layer ran on Oracle 8i; the migration from the earlier Microsoft SQL Server environment to Oracle took place during this Milinx build.[11][30] In March 2001 Milinx launched miPORTAL, an integrated end-to-end offering for small and mid-sized businesses priced from a $10,000 set-up fee, targeting verticals from agriculture and automotive to health care and financial services.[14] miPORTAL descended from the Assured Credit Web Portal — an intranet from 1998, launched as a web portal in 1999 and the proving ground for the 2000 merchant payment gateway — whose Netscape Crossware and Oracle CORBA front end and database schema were re-engineered, over Oracle 8i and toward Oracle 9i, into miPORTAL's advanced search and payment-gateway management (through miBilling), with SDKs and APIs for customization.[11][34]

The hosted desktop · context: Desktop virtualization

Among Milinx's most forward products was miDESKTOP, which it billed in May 2001 as "the world's first fully hosted desktop operating system" — an environment reachable "through any Internet browser … on any computing platform," with miCUSTOMER described as the first fully hosted CRM.[13] The "world's first" phrasing is Milinx's own, but the concept has documentary footing: the company's SEC annual report describes its data center serving a "fully hosted operating system."[4] The hosted desktop incorporated an office suite — word processing, spreadsheet and presentation tools, including a co-branded version of ThinkFree Office (a Microsoft Office–compatible suite, announced November 2000; Dokken also notes a StarOffice base) — on the Sun/Oracle/Cisco/Netscape backend.[13][3] Its front end was built on Netscape Crossware and Oracle CORBA, with a Milinx "OS Database XML Exchange Protocol" implemented in Oracle 8i PL/SQL, and the backend framework and database schema replicated across the Milinx ASP applications.[11] It anticipated, by roughly a decade, the browser-based "cloud desktop" model later popularized by products such as the Chromebook.

Wireless and the mobile application · context: Mobile app

Milinx positioned itself in what it called the Systems/Mobile Application Provider ("S/MAP") sector.[11] In September 2000 it announced SMAP, a mobile-application standard it billed as the "first true universal mobile app," developed with Tantalus Communications to render applications on wireless telephones and PDAs using XML and XSL.[12] A related December 2000 release described a Universal Conversion Service for delivering messages and documents to wireless devices.[20] Milinx also maintained a wireless subsidiary, Milinx Wireless Inc., recorded in its SEC filings.[4]

The SMAP effort produced a working mobile application built on the Nokia 9210 Communicator (Symbian OS 6 / Series 80), developed in C++ on the Carbide.c++ toolchain, with a voice-command layer built on CMU Sphinx and the Java Speech API / VoiceXML, an XML/SOAP front end over the Oracle backend, and a SIS install package — delivering Milinx CRM data to the handset. The build is set out in Dokken's Milinx mobile development-architecture record.[34] Its underlying wireless networking — a CDPD/GSM protocol for delivering ASP alerts and data to mobile devices — is the subject of a 2001 Milinx patent application naming Dokken as an inventor (WO 2001/076262).[35]

By Dokken's account the application was prepared as a demonstrable build for a shareholder meeting that the 2001 management change pre-empted; he has recovered the development-architecture record and is searching for the original device image, which would be added here as a primary exhibit. "First mobile ASP application" is his characterization — anchored here to the dated architecture record, the SMAP release, the Milinx Wireless subsidiary and the 2001 CDPD/wireless patent.

Patents and research · context: Patent

Milinx filed a cluster of patent applications during this period. The anchor is the March 2000 "Client-Centered Secure E-Commerce" application (CA 2,300,347; PCT WO 2001/067408), a payment intermediary that authorizes payment without disclosing the consumer's banking details to the merchant.[5][6] The company also announced, and the patent record confirms, filings for threshold biometric authentication — combining voice and fingerprint verification with encryption (CA 2,311,871)[7][18] — and voice-context e-mail (CA 2,299,980), alongside text-to-speech and VoiceXML work built on Sun's Java Speech API.[8][19] Milinx's FY2000 annual report states it then had "eight patent-pending applications … under review in both Canada and the United States."[3] These were published applications of the period; most were not carried through to grant.

Alliances and recognition · context: iPlanet

Through 2000 Milinx recruited senior technologists from iPlanet, the Sun–Netscape alliance, including a chief technology officer who had directed systems engineering there.[17] Its FY2000 report names a marketing alliance with AOL Canada;[3] an October 2000 release announced a payment-gateway alliance with Heartland Payment Systems through the CreditAssure subsidiary;[22] and in November 2000 Milinx announced an agreement to acquire Big Online Systems Corp. (MetaSoft).[21] Dokken, as CEO, was featured on Alexander Haig's World Business Review — the syndicated business program produced by Multi-Media Productions (USA), Inc. — in a segment ("IT & Commerce Optimization Solutions," show 814A) announced via Business Wire on 13 November 2000, on which internet pioneer Vinton Cerf appeared as an expert panelist;[16] he was interviewed by The Wall Street Transcript in December 2000.[9] On the commercial side, Milinx announced a $1 million investment from Glentel Inc. (TSX: GLN), a public wireless-telecommunications company, in July 2000,[36] and reported its user base growing from about 2,500 in November 2000 to 30,000 active users by March 2001.[36][15]

Scale, the 2001 collapse, and the exit · context: Dot-com bubble

At its height Milinx was a substantial operation: its FY2000 annual report states "all of our 106 employees,"[3] The Wall Street Transcript put the figure at 125-plus by December 2000,[9] and Dokken recalls a peak approaching 150. The reversal is equally documented: amid the 2001 dot-com downturn and a June 2001 funding crisis, the company's FY2001 annual report records that Milinx had "lost all of its employees but two."[4]

Dokken stepped down as President and CEO on 30 August 2001 and resigned as Chairman on 29 January 2002, citing disagreement with a new management direction approved by shareholders.[1][4] The company's subsequent decline — its 2002 Chapter 11 filing and the 2008 revocation of its SEC registration — occurred under the management and shareholder group that followed his departure, not under his leadership.[2]

How Milinx related to the development of cloud and mobile · context: Cloud computing

Milinx built, early, several patterns that became central to how software was later delivered. The connection is lineage and anticipation, not a claim that later firms used its systems.

Legacy · context: Cloud computing

In summary, Milinx was the point at which Dokken's two decades of work became a public company and a full platform: a Sun/Cisco/Oracle data center, the MMAP platform and the "mi" application suite, an early fully hosted desktop, a mobile-application standard, a client-centered payment patent, and a cluster of voice and biometric filings — much of it documented in its SEC reports and dated 2000–2001 press releases.[3][11][5] It was also, in the end, a casualty of the dot-com collapse and a management change: a company that had grown to roughly 150 people was reduced to two within a year, after Dokken had left.[4] The thread runs unbroken from SuccessInc's 1988 gateway, through the Assured Card and Assured Credit payment work, to the platform here — and on to MarkCrest and the later work.

See also

References

Primary and documentary sources
  1. Maynard L. Dokken / Milinx — official site and history. milinx.co; maynardldokken.com.
  2. U.S. SEC EDGAR — Milinx Business Group, Inc., CIK 0001088815 (filing history 1999–2008; reverse merger from Forestay Corp.; 2008 registration revocation). sec.gov EDGAR.
  3. Milinx Business Group, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year ended 30 June 2000 (filed 13 Oct 2000) — 106 employees; product suite; AOL Canada alliance; "eight patent-pending applications." sec.gov.
  4. Milinx Business Group, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year ended 30 June 2001 — Sun/Cisco/Oracle data center; "lost all of its employees but two"; Milinx Wireless Inc.; Dokken as Chairman. sec.gov.
  5. Patent CA 2,300,347 A1, "Client-centered secure e-commerce," assignee Milinx Business Group Inc.; filed 10 Mar 2000; later abandoned. patents.google.com.
  6. Patent WO 2001/067408 A1 (PCT family of CA 2,300,347). patents.google.com.
  7. Patent CA 2,311,871 A1, "Threshold biometric authentication," assignee Milinx Business Group Inc. patents.google.com.
  8. Patent CA 2,299,980 A1, "Voice context e-mail," assignee Milinx Business Group Inc. patents.google.com.
  9. The Wall Street Transcript, "Maynard Dokken — Milinx Business Group Inc (MIXBA)," CEO interview, 11 Dec 2000 (125+ employees; founded 1997). twst.com.
  10. Milinx news release, "Milinx Launches ASP Data Center — Sets Industry Standard" (July 2000). milinx.co.
  11. Milinx news release, "MMAP™ Platform for Proprietary Applications Launched" (30 Aug 2000). milinx.co.
  12. Milinx news release, "SMAP To Set Mobile App Standard" (29 Sep 2000). milinx.co.
  13. Milinx news release, "World's First Fully Hosted Desktop OS" (15 May 2001). milinx.co.
  14. Milinx news release, "miPORTAL Launches Integrated PaaS MMAP & SMAP Technology" (20 Mar 2001). milinx.co.
  15. Milinx news release, "Milinx Exceeds 30,000 Active Users" (8 Mar 2001). milinx.co.
  16. Milinx news release, "Milinx CEO Featured on World Business Review" (segment 814A, Dec 2000; Vinton Cerf as expert panelist). milinx.co.
  17. Milinx news release, "ASP Opportunity Attracts Netscape Alumni" (26 Jun 2000). milinx.co.
  18. Milinx news release, "Breakthrough in Biometric Threshold Security & Encryption Technology" (7 Mar 2000). milinx.co.
  19. Milinx news release, "Revolutionary TTS, Voice Commands & Patent" (2000–2001). milinx.co.
  20. Milinx news release, Universal Conversion Service for wireless devices (7 Dec 2000). milinx.co.
  21. Milinx news release, "Strategic Database Services Acquisition — Big Online Systems Corp. (MetaSoft)" (16 Nov 2000). milinx.co.
  22. Milinx news release, "Heartland Payment Systems Alliance with Milinx Subsidiary CreditAssure" (Oct 2000). milinx.co.
  23. Milinx news release, "Early to Market — Server, Storage & Network Subscription Services" (18 Oct 2000). milinx.co.
Concept references (mixed sources)
  1. Milinx news release, "Next-Generation ASP Powered by Sun Microsystems and iPlanet" (11 Jul 2000). milinx.co.
  2. TechTarget, "application service provider (ASP)." techtarget.com; also Application service provider on Wikipedia.
  3. TechTarget, "software as a service (SaaS)." techtarget.com; also Software as a service on Wikipedia.
  4. National Institute of Standards and Technology, The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (SP 800-145). csrc.nist.gov; also Cloud computing on Wikipedia.
  5. IBM, "What is a data center?" ibm.com; also Data center on Wikipedia.
  6. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), "Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML)." w3.org; also VoiceXML on Wikipedia.
  7. Oracle, "What Is a Database?" oracle.com; also Oracle Database on Wikipedia.
  8. U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, biometrics program. nist.gov; also Biometrics on Wikipedia.
  9. Desktop virtualization — Wikipedia; and Mobile app — Wikipedia.
  10. Dot-com bubble — Wikipedia.
  11. Maynard L. Dokken, "Milinx ASP Mobile App Development Architecture, 2001" — development record (Nokia 9210 / Symbian Series 80; C++/Carbide; Sphinx & JSAPI/VoiceXML; XML/SOAP over Oracle; SIS install), held in the project record.
  12. Patent WO 2001/076262 A2, CDPD/FM IP wireless communication system, inventor Maynard Dokken, assignee Milinx Business Group Inc. patents.google.com; also Cellular Digital Packet Data on Wikipedia.
  13. Milinx Business Group, Inc., period news releases 2000–2001 (Milinx news archive; several distributed via Business Wire and GlobeNewswire) — including Alexander Haig's World Business Review appearance (13 Nov 2000), the Glentel Inc. $1M investment (20 Jul 2000), the ThinkFree Office alliance (14 Nov 2000) and user-milestone announcements. milinx.co/news.
Draft prepared for review — not yet published. Facts are glued to sources: SEC filings and the patent record where available, the company's dated press releases otherwise, with "first" and capacity claims attributed to the company and independent corroboration (SEC, patents, TWST, World Business Review) noted where it exists. The dispute surrounding later events is kept off the page; the influence section describes lineage, not any claim that other firms used Milinx's systems. A working mobile-app prototype is held as Dokken's account pending a primary image.