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With digital development forming the next frontier of local search, Yellow Pages Group (YPG), Canada’s leading performance media and marketing solutions company, launched today a program devoted to supporting Canadian application developers and aspiring entrepreneurs in building location-based services they can take to market.

YPG’s YellowAPI Developer Program will help web and mobile application developers, across all platforms including iOS, Blackberry and Android, in producing their apps through BETA funding as well as access to internal YPG resources such as consultation on design, quality assurance, legal guidance and technical assistance.

“Entrepreneurship in Canada has long been a focus of ours as we’ve been helping small and medium-sized business grow through our marketing solutions. With the YellowAPI Developer Program, we continue to foster small businesses and also help drive forward local search innovation,” said Stéphane Marceau, Chief Marketing Officer at Yellow Pages Group. “It’s also a natural extension of our existing business model to extend the reach of our advertisers by feeding our listings to up-and-coming apps developed using our public platform.”

The program marks the latest step in the company’s commitment to fostering home-grown mobile and web-based innovation. YellowAPI.com, the open and public API (application programming interface) of YPG was launched last year, providing developers access to 1.5 million verified and regularly updated Canadian business listings, forming the most accurate source of local business information in the country.

Over the last year, YPG has sponsored and hosted a series of “hack-a-thons” across Canada under the banner of YellowAPI.com. These events saw developers gather and compete to produce a viable web or mobile application using a given API within a set period of time.

“It was from these events that the idea for a developer program was born,” continued Marceau. “We were seeing so many incredibly original and really cool apps being created in a matter of hours by local developers. However, these guys have day jobs and obligations. Often because of time or resource constraints, these amazing apps weren’t making it out of the event and into the app stores. With this program, we’re hoping more home-grown apps will make it into the hands of users.”

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT5RIQS2Dbw]

Five participants in these hack events have already been accepted into the YellowAPI Developer Program, with application concepts devoted to original search methods for restaurants, contractor and renovation services as well as location-planning for social events. The first four participants in the program, will push their applications live over the coming weeks:

• Reservely: An automated text to voice (speech) restaurant reservation system
• MoodFood: A restaurant discovery app based on users’ moods of the moment
• Rendezview: A social meet up and recommendation app which suggests convenient meeting locations for friends
• FinishMyBasement: A home improvement tool guiding users through the steps of renovation and provides contractor recommendations
• DealScanr: A shopping app devoted to locating the best deals near a given location

YPG expects to be accepting more developers into the program over the coming months.

Submissions to the YellowAPI Developer Program are accepted on a rolling basis and evaluated by a YPG selection committee based on criteria such as:

• Originality of concept
• Addressing a user need
• Ability to generate local search traffic
• Integration of YellowAPI
• Commercial viability
• Developer commitment to application support for a minimum 12-month period

The program also provides developers the opportunity to monetize their applications. If their app is successful in driving significant amounts of quality traffic, they can be compensated by YPG.

Calgary-based electronic payment processor E-Debit Global Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary Westsphere Systems Inc. has commenced transition of its communication network for its financial switching operations from analog to digital.

“Over the past 14 months WSI, our electronic payment processing unit has been working with our communication partner Shaw Communications to transition our switching communication from analog to digital (copper telephone lines to fiber broadband).

Our WSI business unit offers debit and credit payment processing solutions and connectivity to the Canadian Interac Network and Credit Facilitators. Our initial introduction of our ATM network to our fiber communication system has been exceptional. Our experience to date has met the challenge of the new requirements related to chip based card product processing and EMV protocols and at the same time has increase speed of transaction processing by a minimum of 25%,” advised WSI Chief Operating Officer Sonja Dreyer.

“Once we transition over our ATM and POS estates we will be able to expand our focus towards our custom payment solutions across a wide range of communication protocols including private-label, travel & entertainment and fleet cards as well as expanding our reach within the Canadian ATM and POS marketplace with contracted switching services to the Canadian ISO (“Independent Sales Organizations”).

With this transition we are now in total control of our communication protocols and significantly reduced our reliance on non affiliated contracted managed services to connect, operated and service our switching platform and to give our guarantee of the best of industry transaction processing in the most secure, stable, reliable and high performance environment to our existing client base and our future ISO potentials which we are going to aggressively pursue,” Ms. Dreyer stated.

Digital Journal has reported a strong response to its updated content assignment and tracking technology, launched earlier this month across the Digital Journal media network. The technology allows Digital Journal to effectively manage and measure content assignments among its global group of freelance writers and bloggers, known as Digital Journalists.

“In a traditional newsroom, you have editors who work with teams of journalists to assign content and map out the content flow for the day,” said Digital Journal CEO, Chris Hogg. “But if you work with thousands of freelancers and bloggers, managing that workflow is far more difficult. Our Assignments technology improves the efficiency of a virtual newsroom and assists in executing on virtually any content goal.”

Digital Journal Assignments are editor-created content assignments that are pushed out to a network of Digital Journalists who file stories and complete assignments based on particular geography, content verticals or trending topics. Assignments can range from editorial to photographic to video. Digital Journalists who fulfill Assignments before their deadline are paid a bonus for their work, and Assignments can scale from individual to group reports around particular subjects. Read the rest of this entry »

Almost half of Canadian executives still say the amount of information they have overwhelms them, showing no statistical improvement from last year, though there has been some change at the provincial and industry level, with some showing improvement while others are facing an uphill challenge. These are just some of the findings from a SAS/Leger Marketing survey released yesterday. Overall, 45 per cent of executives in 2011 said they are overwhelmed by information, compared with 47 per cent last year.

This year, executives from Ontario and British Columbia are far less likely to say they suffer from information overload. In 2010, 52 per cent of B.C. and Ontario-based executives said they faced information overload, versus 38 and 44 per cent (respectively) this year.

While most provinces and business sectors showed little change, there were a few that saw things deteriorate. Those in the academic and education sectors were far more likely to say things have gotten worse – 42 per cent in 2010 versus 61 per cent in 2011 saying they suffer from information overload.

“Organizations often need to make significant procedural changes to effectively address information overload,” said Kathryn Brohman, Professor, Management Information Systems, School of Business, Queen’s University. “For organizations to be successful combating information overload they need both the right technology and the right procedures.”

Canadian executives understand that in today’s information age it is not about having all information, rather having the right information. Eighty per cent said they’d make better informed business decisions if they had the right tools in place to analyze information more effectively, yet 1 in 4 (24 per cent) say they do not have the right information to make effective business decisions about their business performance. Read the rest of this entry »

Alberta-based Axia NetMedia Corporation has announced that its partner in Covage, VINCI Networks has entered into a share purchase agreement with Cube Communications Infrastructure and Cube Infrastructure Fund SICAV-SIF and, together with Cube Communications, pursuant to which Cube will purchase all of the shares held by VINCI in Covage and Covage’s sister company, Covage Services SAS .  Upon closing, which is subject to certain government approvals, Axia will enter into a shareholders’ agreement with Cube with Axia and Cube each holding 50% of Covage and Covage Services and will have equal representation on Covage’s executive committee. Cube will make an initial payment to VINCI of €30 million with a commitment to pay an additional €36 million during the next three years depending on Covage’s results.

Art Price, Chairman and CEO said, “Covage is our first business outside of Canada and through continuing growth in market penetration, it is now beginning to generate positive cash flows creating a solid platform for future profitability.  To date we have invested approximately €55 million into Covage.  We remain committed along with Cube to expand Covage’s business. With Covage focused on growing the business and operating its network segments, we believe that partnering with a company specializing in investing in the further development of the telecommunications infrastructure is the logical next step in the evolution of our European business.”

Mr. Price added, “The Cube investment is an important step in Covage’s evolution as a growing operating company.  VINCI has provided the partnership with the benefit of their skills while Covage was focused on network construction and has been a major influence on Covage becoming a major player in the French marketplace.  Axia has appreciated VINCI’s support and commitment.”

Created in 2006, Covage has established a nationwide Next Generation Network comprised of 15 regional network segments and a 3,700 km national fibre network backbone.  Covage’s enhanced service level and national reach has attracted a wide range of local, regional, national and international Retail Service Providers as they deliver retail services to their customers.  In addition to traditional RSPs, Covage’s efforts are also focused on attracting new customers that are specialized in the provision of Web Services and that offer services remotely using fibre-based connectivity, such as video security surveillance or enterprise data management.

Covage’s business strategy is three pronged.  Firstly, Covage continues to identify and respond to new network segment opportunities that complement its existing assets.  A recent example is its win to activate and operate the submarine cable between Corsica and the mainland of France. Secondly, it is targeting business parks which take advantage of a government initiative to encourage migration of business parks from DSL to fibre optic services.

To date, Covage has 210 business parks with Fibre to the Premise services available to 9,400 potential end users and recently Covage was selected to operate an enterprise network for a period of ten years for the city of Nîmes in southwestern France.  Thirdly, Covage is taking active part in the French government’s Fibre to the Home initiative in semi-dense and rural areas.  Covage was awarded the Chevry-Cossigny FTTH Pilot Project in Seine-et-Marne on December 17, 2010. The Chevry-Cossigny Pilot Project will connect 1,250 residences to Covage’s existing Sem@for77 network segment.

Dave Shworan, the CEO of QuoteMedia Ltd., an Arizona-based company with offices in Parksville, Vancouver and Toronto, along with Ungad Chadda, Senior Vice President of the Toronto Stock Exchange, opened TSX  trading today in celebration of the selection of QuoteMedia as the market data and applications provider for TSX InfoSuite™.

“Toronto Stock Exchange is excited to have QuoteMedia open the market today to celebrate the recent launch of TSX InfoSuite,” said Mr. Chadda. “We value QuoteMedia’s expertise as a Canadian data aggregator and their robust and dynamic financial solutions, which is why TSX decided to partner with them on this value-added initiative for our issuers.”

TMX Group Inc. and QuoteMedia, Inc. previously announced the launch of TSX InfoSuite, a new market data and shareholder solution powered by QuoteMedia, which was introduced to enhance the suite of services for TSX and TSX Venture Exchange listed companies.

“We are very proud to have been selected to work with TMX Group to create, host and manage the new TSX InfoSuite services,” said Mr. Shworan. “The selection of QuoteMedia to be the market data and service provider to TMX Group and its issuers is a gratifying validation of our company’s abilities.”

Don’t miss your chance to vote for Game of the Year for the 2011 Canadian Videogame Awards.  Voting is open to the public until midnight, Friday, May 13th (note: Facebook Connect is required to vote).

The five 2011 Game of the Year finalists are:

·       Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
·       Dead Rising 2
·       FIFA 11
·       Mass Effect 2
·       Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

There are still great seats available for the 2011 Canadian Videogame Awards – and tickets start at just $30.00.  Come out next Wednesday night and enjoy an evening with the top developers and publishers in Canada! The show will be hosted by Victor Lucas and his team from The Electric Playground, and you can even get some autographs post-show!  Internationally renowned Video Games Live will be back to provide the musical entertainment AND Nintendo will be offering attendees a special opportunity to play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for Nintendo 3DS.  

Don’t miss the 2011 Canadian Games Conference – there is still time to register.  This year’s event features sessions in business, production, design, programming, social games, and iPhone games, as well as a special line-up of “Best of GDC” speakers, and offers visionary keynotes, an expo hall, and evening networking events.  The Conference takes place May 19-20th at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Just over a month ago Tiny Hippo became part of the RIM family, and the developers have announced that they are adding support for BlackBerry WebWorks 2.0.0 to their flagship product, Ripple Mobile Environment Emulator. This support includes most of the APIs in the WebWorks stack as well skinning for 3 supported BlackBerry devices (The BlackBerry Torch, BlackBerry Bold, and the BlackBerry PlayBook). Check out Ripple’s docs page to see the extent of the WebWorks support as well as what else is new in this release.

Decapod Studios has released a free version of its hit match 3 title Murphid for Windows Phone 7. The full version of Murphid is also available for 99 cents.

• Engaging Campaign spawning more that 70 levels of marble blasting madness.
• Three game modes for players to choose from to suit their playing style.
• More than 10 powerups to help players redefine the game field and wreak havoc in a blink of an eye.
• 8 exclusive Awards to boost the replay value further by throwing extra challenges at the player.
• Pre-filled Leaderboard to give the game nostalgic, old-school touch.
• Awe-inspiring HD visuals with full widescreen support.
• Charming sound effects to create the ambience.
• Adaptive gameplay technology for challenging and fun gaming expirience for players of all ages.

If you don’t have WP7, you can always play Murphid on your Xbox 360, too – it’s available in the Games Marketplace for only 80 MS Points.

Roaring Penguin Software Inc. has announced the release of CanIt 8.0.5. which adds several major improvements to the CanIt Archiver software. Several major new features were added including:

• CanIt-Archiver keeps an audit trail of searches and message accesses. Administrators and end-users can see the audit trail. (End-users can only see audit trails relating to their own archive.)
• CanIt-Archiver has a hook for archiving internal email that normally would not be seen by CanIt.
• CanIt-Archiver stores only one copy of duplicate messages received on a given day for a given realm.

CanIt Archiver, “The Uninteruptible E-mail Supply”, is a highly configurable e-mail archiving solution focused on e-mail continuity. CanIt Archiver ensures that e-mail is accessible in the event of a mail server outage and queues e-mail to make sure that it is delivered when mail service is restored.

CanIt 8.0.5 is available as:

* CanIt-PRO, an anti-spam software solution suitable for small and medium business.
* CanIt-Domain-PRO, spam filtering software for MSPs to host anti-spam for their customers.
* Hosted CanIt, a fully outsourced, hosted anti-spam service.

Scott is a retired volunteer firefighter and my grandfather, father and two uncles were volunteer firefighters, so we are both very happy to see that construction has officially begun on a permanent, national memorial to pay tribute to Canada’s fallen firefighters, thanks to an investment by the Government of Canada. The announcement was made today by Pierre Poilievre, Member of Parliament (Nepean-Carleton), on behalf of the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, as part of an official sod-turning ceremony alongside the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

“No job is more important than protecting the lives of Canadians and their families,” said Minister Moore. “This memorial will be a permanent reminder of the sacrifices firefighters across Canada make to keep us safe.”

“Our gratitude to those who put their lives on the line to make Canada safer is often difficult to express,” said Mr. Poilievre. “This memorial will serve to remind all Canadians of the men and women who put their lives at risk for their communities.”

The Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation is building the monument in the Lebreton Flats area of the National Capital Region, near the Canadian War Museum. This monument, the only official memorial to Canada’s firefighters, will be located at the exact location where the Great Fire of 1900 was finally brought under control after destroying 1400 buildings and killing seven people in Ottawa, and destroying 1300 buildings in Gatineau.

The Government of Canada announced funding of $2,529,800 for the construction of this monument in 2009. This funding is being providing through the Commemorate Canada component of the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Celebration and Commemoration Program. This component provides financial support to initiatives of national significance that commemorate various aspects of Canadian history.

INplay 2011 has announced the five successful kids interactive projects that will be showcased at the upcoming INplay Conference; the unique, international event that connects kids creative industries with insights and opportunities in the interactive space. INplay is taking place at the Liberty Grand in Toronto on May 17 & 18. For tickets, schedule and speaker information please visit the event’s web site.

INplay has partnered with the Canada Media Fund (CMF) to create an exclusive opportunity to showcase Canadian interactive projects. The Canadian Interactive Showcase presented by CMF will provide Canadian companies with a chance to share their interactive project, product or service with an audience of investors, potential partners and peers. The following five projects will be presented to the INplay audience at the conference on May 18, hosted by Mike Wise, Anchor: CBC News Toronto, and Host, iDesk

PO-MO Inc. – Meghan Athavale, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Project: Customizable projection software
PO-MOtion is a free, customizable motion-reactive projection software that can be installed on any computer. The software can be used with any projector or large display (including TVs) and any kind of web camera. The software allows childhood educators and special needs educators to install their own motion reactive floors and walls.

Soma Creates – Josh Heidebrecht, Calgary, Alberta
Project: OLIVIA Paints iPhone app
Soma Creates will showcase two iPhone Kids games. Paint like never before by mixing colours together in OLIVIA Paints, make your very own fruit smoothie with none other than Strawberry Shortcake, and catch a glimpse into their next upcoming project.

Tactica Interactive – Kevin Glasier, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Project:  Tiga Talk Speech Therapy Games for the iPhone
Tiga Talk Speech Therapy Games is an innovative iPhone/iPod app that helps children improve speaking clarity and confidence. Voice-controlled games give children a fun and engaging way to master 23 core phonetic sounds. The product was developed and tested in direct consultation with speech and language pathologists.

Kidobi – Eric Sorenson, Toronto, Ontario
Project: Kidobi
Kidobi is a revolutionary technology that creates personalized programming blocks for preschool children, helping them get the most out of their media. Extensive parental controls and reporting tools give parents peace of mind, while our subscription-based business model helps content partners generate new revenue streams.

Pixton Comics Inc. – Clive Goodinson, Parksville, BC
Project: Pixton Click-n-Drag Comics
Pixton introduces the world to Click-n-Drag Comics™, a revolutionary new patent-pending technology that gives anyone the power to create comics on the web.From fully posable characters to dynamic panels, props, and speech bubbles, every aspect of a comic can be controlled in an intuitive click-n-drag motion. Pixton Comics was named a “leading Web 2.0 pioneer” and “one of the 20 companies driving innovation and changing the way we use the Internet” by Backbone Magazine / KPMG.

On May 18, May 19 and May 20, the 36th Congress of the Quebec Association of Business Economists (ASDEQ) will be held in Gatineau. This year, the delegates will discuss the challenges raised by the rise of information technology. Under co-chairs François Delorme, president of the Quebec Association of Business Economists, and Marc Duhamel, executive director of the Canadian Institute for Research on Public Policy and Public Administration, the congress will bring together over 200 economists from across Quebec to discuss emerging economic, social and cultural issues related to information technology.

Several guest speakers will be on hand for the event, including:

Dr. Preston McAfee, vice-president and research fellow at Yahoo!
Dale Jorgensen, economist
Samuel W. Morris, professor at Harvard University
Bruno Guglieminetti, director of digital communications at National Public Relations
Gina Desjardins, journalist and blogger

Political representatives will join us as well, including:

Denis Coderre, MP for Bourassa, known for his effective use of Web 2.0
Clément Gignac, Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade

Also in attendance will be figures from the business, university and IT communities to discuss topics such as the digital economy, the media weight of economists, economy and innovation, and many other ideas.

“The constant growth in the use of information technologies within our organizations has led to many new challenges. At the 36th ASDEQ Congress, we will discuss the means we should develop to allow us to make the most of this technological revolution,” said Marc Duhamel, co-chair of the 2011 Congress.

“In a period of economic and social transition like the one we’re experiencing today, the ASDEQ Congress will give stakeholders an opportunity to discuss their experiences and the means at our disposal to build bridges between the economy and information technology,” said François Delorme, president of the Quebec Association of Business Economists.

We invite you to join us at this important event and follow us on Facebook and Twitter (#ASDEQ2011).

The commercial value of unlicensed software installed on personal computers in Canada reached US$1.066 billion in 2010 as 28 per cent of software deployed on PCs during the year was pirated. These are among the findings of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) 2010 Global Software Piracy Study, which evaluates the state of software piracy around the world.

“At 28 per cent, Canada’s piracy rate is at an all time low, dropping six percentage points since 2006,” said Michael Murphy, Chairman of the BSA Canada Committee. “While these findings show that progress has been made in reducing the software piracy rate in Canada, there is still more work to be done on behalf of Canadian businesses and consumers alike. The further we reduce software piracy, the better it will be for the Canadian economy.”

This is the eighth study of global software piracy to be conducted by BSA in partnership with IDC, the IT industry’s leading market research and forecasting firm, using a methodology that incorporates 182 discrete data inputs for 116 countries and regions around the world. This year’s study also includes a new dimension: a public-opinion survey of PC users on key social attitudes and behaviors related to software piracy, conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs.

The opinion survey found strong support for intellectual property rights in Canada, with 68 per cent of respondents saying we should reward inventors for their creations to promote more technology advances.  Strikingly, the global survey found that support for intellectual property rights was strongest in markets with high piracy rates.

The survey also found widespread recognition among Canadians that licensed software is better than pirated software when it comes to technical support (92 per cent), security (83 per cent) and reliability (81 per cent).

However, across the globe the survey found that many PC users lack a clear understanding of whether common ways of acquiring software, such as buying a single program license for multiple computers or downloading a program from peer-to-peer network, are likely to be legal or illegal. In Canada, a majority of respondents said that peer-to-peer, lending software and street markets are illegal, but 59 per cent believe that auction sites provide legal software.  Almost two-thirds said installing multiple copies at home is legal. Read the rest of this entry »