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Building on the success of a 480,000 signature petition launched earlier this year, award-winning public engagement organization OpenMedia.ca today released a citizen-powered report that exposes the weaknesses of closed communications models. Titled Casting An Open Net, the report counters popular arguments by major telecom companies that want to impose punitive pricing schemes, in which Canadians pay more for Internet and get less. The findings are clear: there is no technical or economic justification for restricting access to legal online content.

The report is the first of its kind: a comprehensive look at economic, technical, cultural aspects of Internet openness, as well as Canadian views on net neutrality and international comparisons. It shows that the Internet’s open architecture has become central to the success of our economy, our culture and our society, but that it is under threat by large, vertically-integrated telecom companies that seek to control, and even to discourage, use of the Internet. Read the rest of this entry »

Sign up now to pitch your launch at Launch Party 11, being hosted at the Grow Conference 2011 in Vancouver. Launch @ Grow will be held on August 17th and organizers are looking for 15 of the hottest Canadian tech startups – but wait, that’s not all! Four of those 15 startups will pitch live on stage during Day 2 of Grow.

Digifest 2011 wants you to participate in First Person Show – a meet & greet show & tell for the video game and animation communities in Toronto and Ontario. Hosted at Gaming Inc., the new George Brown video game incubator and game development classrooms, the First Person Show will be held as part of Digifest 2011 during the day on both Saturday October 29th and Sunday October 30th. Apply now to participate.

3Vis is holding a presentation night on May 31st at the Caprice Club in Vancouver. Make Your Ideas A Reality will feature sessions by Louis Marcoux, Lee Fraser and Mark Schoennagel. In addition to these informative sessions, there will be networking opportunities and some great prize give-aways.

D-BOX Technologies Inc. has signed its first agreement with Maya Cinemas to equip its Bakersfield and Salinas locations in California with 24 and 30 D-BOX MFX Seats respectively. D-BOX Motion Effects create a completely immersive experience with subtle, refined motion sensations that pitch, roll and heave theatre seats in perfect sync with the onscreen action.

“New partnerships like these coupled with an incredible lineup of new movie content continue to drive our growth forward, allowing us to continue to expand our presence in U.S. markets and abroad,” said President and CEO of D-BOX Technologies, Claude Mc Master.

“At Maya Cinemas we strive to create a highly entertaining experience with the most advanced technologies and exceptional services,” said President of Maya Cinemas, Frank Haffar. “D-BOX is a natural fit for our theatres and provides our customers a new way to experience the movies.”

Media Awareness Network (MNet) and the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) today unveiled the theme for this year’s annual Media Literacy Week – Digital Citizenship – calling on Canadians to encourage young people to reflect on their online lives, and their rights and responsibilities as they navigate the digital world.

“Through digital media, young people have a platform for communication and engagement that was nonexistent a generation ago. Adults have a huge role to play in ensuring they also have the critical thinking skills to use this technology wisely and responsibly,” said Cathy Wing, MNet’s Co-Executive Director. “With this year’s theme, we want to encourage youth to use digital media for positive activities – for advocacy, creative expression and civic engagement.”

For her part, CTF President Mary-Lou Donnelly explains how teachers play a pivotal role to help their students become active and responsible citizens in a global and increasingly complex world. “Technology has opened doors on issues related to the environment, civic engagement and social justice. Teachers’ fundamental role will continue to be in helping students develop lifelong skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, information literacy, global awareness and multiple knowledges.”

This year, the week will take place Nov. 7-11, 2011, and events are already being organized in homes, classrooms and communities across the country. The list of collaborators include Manitoba Education, the Canadian Library Association, the London Public Library, the Gulf Islands Film & Television School, TeachKidsNews, and The Manitoba Museum. Whether a student film festival, online challenge, panel discussion, workshop or film screening, Media Literacy Week offers events for all ages.

Media Literacy Week is proud to be welcoming back YouTube as a Gold Sponsor and Bell as a Silver Sponsor. To find out more on the week and how you can get involved, visit the Media Literacy Week Web site.

Justin Kozuch, 2010 Mesh Prize winner and lead researcher for the Pixel to Product research study has released the first yearly report on the state of the Canadian digital media economy.

“The state of the Canadian digital media economy is strong”, said Kozuch. “Digital agencies in Canada are projecting between 10% and 24% growth in revenue when compared to their revenue generation efforts in 2010. When you compare this data against the 68.1% of reporting agencies who indicated they have a labour force size between one and 10 employees, this is incredible growth and is a good indicator of the strength of our economy.”

The Pixel to Product report also found:

• The average salary of a Canadian digital media professional ranges between $40,000 and $59,999,
• 73.4% of digital media agencies are increasing the size of their labour force in 2011; skills in mobile application development, social media marketing and community management are in high demand,
• 35.5% of women indicated they saw a 10% to 24% increase in salary from 2010 to 2011, compared to 26.3% for men,
• Women earned a higher number of salary increases than men in the 1-4%, 11-15%, and 16-20% range.

“This research is an important first step in understanding the size and scope of the Canadian digital media industry. As we continue this research on a year-over-year basis, we’ll be able to better plot the growth of our industry and how technology changes its business behaviors and perceptions. It is our hope that this research sparks a local and national dialogue on how to better understand who we are, what we do and the impact of the digital media industry on the Canadian economy as a whole.”

The final report with these and other findings, as well as the full data tables, can be downloaded free from the Pixel to Product website

Via the Canadian Media Production Association:

The CMPA has successfully negotiated, on behalf of its members and the entire Canadian independent production sector, a Terms of Trade (PDF) agreement that comes into effect June 1st 2011. This is a historic deal that will redefine the relationship between producers and broadcasters.

The agreement has been signed between the CMPA and Astral, Bell Media (CTV), Corus, Rogers and Shaw Media. Negotiations with the CBC will begin later this year. Canadian Producers and Broadcasters will be required to adhere to Terms of Trade on a go-forward basis – it will apply to all independently produced projects developed and commissioned by the private broadcast groups. Please note that while Corus (PDF) signed a separate Terms of Trade agreement, it contains no substantive differences from the agreement signed with the other broadcasters.

The deal applies to the entire life cycle of a show – from first pitch, through to development, production and broadcast on all platforms. Key areas covered by the deal include:

The agreement will come into the force as of June 1, 2011 with the exception of certain parts related to the financing of programs, which will come into force as of August 1, 2011. Please see section 13 for specifics relating to the timing of implementation of the various elements of the agreement.

The CMPA will shortly be providing a guide regarding key provisions of the agreement to assist producers in understanding its interpretation and application.  The Association will also be organizing a series of workshops across the country, through the summer – to be informed about dates and venues please contact Emma Grace.

Hosting Controller a developer of Hosting Automation Solutions headquartered in Richmond, announced that it has removed the cap of 1000 licenses till 31st May 2011 on a special discount promotion that offers up to a 90% percent discount on control panel software licenses after seeing an enormous surge in demand for HC8 software during the initial two weeks of promotion.

In this promotion web hosts can buy a Hosting Controller Automation Control Panel license for $99 only instead of $500 and may also purchase Click & Install Apps just for $19 instead of $199, Automated Backup & Recovery just for $19 instead of $199 and VPS Hosting Provisioning just for $19/Server (5 VPS) instead of $690.

“We have been overwhelmed by the response from our customers for HC8 during first two weeks of promotion and it is very encouraging. It would seem that people have been waiting for a lucrative promotion during this bad economic time,” said Babar Zaman, Vice President of Business Development at Hosting Controller Inc. “We are passionate about our products and our customers; therefore we are not surprised at the popularity of this promotion.”

According to the company it received requests from many new customers for additional time to evaluate the software before making the purchase therefore Hosting Controller decided to remove the initial cap of 1000 licenses till 31st May 2011. HC listened and took the necessary step to ensure that customers get sufficient time without worrying about any limit. This promotion is aimed for Web hosts to build or expand on Windows and Linux servers in a cluster environment.

Intertainment Media Inc. has announced that a Guinness World Record was established for the Most Nationalities In An Online Chat on May 20th when 92 countries were officially recorded as participating in KISS Live & Global hosted by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons on Ortsbo. The event also marked the official launch of Ortsbo’s plug-in email translation platform for Microsoft Outlook, the world’s largest email platform.

Broadcast around the world from the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA, participants were able to watch a live video stream on their computers, iPhone, iPad, Android devices as well as submitting questions in 53 languages for KISS co-founders to answer. Thousands of questions were in the queue throughout the broadcast, allowing participants from over 92 countries, representing every geographic region globally to ask questions of the legendary rock stars.

“In addition to establishing a world record, Ortsbo has become a name known around the world as the leader in real time translation,” said David Lucatch, President of Ortsbo and CEO Intertainment Media. “We have already received follow up business opportunities, media requests and advertising inquiries increasing the value opportunities for Ortsbo.”

The event was covered by media around the world, including CBS, FOX, AOL and a wrap-up live broadcast interview with CNBC. Copies of all media, as it’s available, will be posted on the Intertainment and Ortsbo web sites.

During the event, Ortsbo announced the launch of its much anticipated email platform plug-in, allowing users to instantly translate and send emails in 53 languages. The first plug-in for Microsoft Outlook, known as Ortsbo for Outlook, or “O4O”, is now available for registration. Ortsbo will initially make up to 10 Million copies of O4O available globally to consumers and businesses on an introductory basis from mid June through mid September 2011.

With the launch of O4O, Ortsbo Cruise Into Translation is a new promotion that gives users who register and install O4O through August 2011, the opportunity to win 1 of 5 trips on the KISS Kruise in October as well as other VIP prizes. Additional contest ballots will be available for people who refer friends that register and install O4O.

Ortsbo’s flagship product for social media continues to accelerate. When initially launched in July 2010, Ortsbo’s social media translation platform infrastructure was designed to handle the expected first 2 to 3 years of operations or 12 Million monthly users.

Ortsbo has exceeded all growth projections in its first 9 months and has maximized existing platform capabilities and consequently the Company is now accelerating its move to Microsoft’s Window Azure Cloud platform to accommodate the continued viral growth of Ortsbo.

The new Ortsbo Azure platform is expected to be active by mid June as the priority for Azure development has been the KISS Live and Global event technology. This transition will provide virtually unlimited access to Ortsbo from anywhere in the world on almost any computer, smartphone or tablet device.

Many businesses have not tapped the full potential of a growing number of mobile business applications rapidly becoming available. According to Enterprise Mobility, a study conducted by the Canadian Financial Research Foundation (CFERF) and sponsored by SAP, many workers continue to mainly use their mobile devices for email and web browsing. Why? Concerns about risk management, data security, cost, logistics and technology limitation are stalling the adoption by businesses of a wide range of applications which can greatly enhance productivity, improve responsiveness to customers and reduce employee downtime.

The study shows that a lack of knowledge and awareness of the potential benefits of mobile business apps have hindered the development and use of customized applications. Some companies prefer to use cloud computing and/or web-based interfaces for employees instead, believing that this offers increased security and the flexibility to be compatible with any mobile device and across platforms.

“More and more, companies are allowing employees to access company data through mobile business applications housed on smartphones and tablets. While this brings benefits such as improvements in productivity and flexibility, these advances are accompanied by security risks that executives should be aware of,” said Michael Conway, Chief Executive and National President, FEI Canada.

CFERF, the research arm of FEI Canada, conducted the survey of financial executives across Canada and gathered insights from executive research forums held in both Toronto and Calgary. Mobile devices in the study referred to smartphones, such as the Blackberry and iPhone, and tablet devices. Laptop computers and net books were not included. Read the rest of this entry »

Interactive media is the fastest-growing segment of the media and entertainment industry, according to a recent report from Ernst & Young, Spotlight on profitable growth (PDF). Its rise to the top of the heap is fuelled by a renewed push to provide consumers with access to information and entertainment content through a variety of Internet-based formats.

“It’s all about content, and while that’s nothing new in the industry, this time, it’s becoming clear that the majority of future revenue both from advertisers and consumers will come from services rather than products. So everyone ? from venerable newspapers to social media networks to conglomerates ? is scrambling to find new and innovative ways to marry content with distribution channels,” says Neal Clarance, leader of Ernst & Young’s Media and Entertainment practice.

Interactive media continues to benefit from consumers’ ongoing shift away from traditional media and towards online platforms. A good example is companies that provide streaming video services, which are changing the way people watch television. These companies in particular are pushing hard to find a wealth of content to entice users. Newspapers are trying new subscription models to push readers to their online content. Internet retailers also want in on the content action.

“To be sure, there is increased competition for established media conglomerates, but in spite of a difficult operating environment, media and entertainment companies continue to show resiliency,” says Clarance. “With advertising and consumer spending on the rebound, and digital initiatives gaining speed, improved growth and profitability lie ahead for the industry.”

Spotlight on profitable growth is a five-year study on the growth and profitability of the media and entertainment industry, based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of margin percentage and dollars. The new report ranks the top 10 media and entertainment industry sectors on both their profitability and profitability growth rate, and provides a performance comparison of the overall media and entertainment business to other stock market indices.

The ranking of overall average profitability during a five-year period according to margin percentage:

1)     Cable operators, 37.6%
2)     Interactive media, 34.6%
3)     Cable networks, 31.4%
4)     Satellite television, 27%
5)     Publishing, 20%
6)     Conglomerates, 18.8%
7)     Television broadcasts, 17.6%
8)     Film and television productions, 10.6%
9)     Electronic games, 10.6%
10)   Music, 10.6%

CDW Canada, a provider of technology solutions for Canadian organizations in the public and private sectors, today announced the winners of its third annual Teaching with Technology™ Story and Sweepstakes Contest.

This year’s grand prize winner of the Story Contest is a teacher from Campbell River, and the two runner-up winners are teachers from Richmond Hill and Barrie. All three were chosen by a panel of judges to receive grand prize technology packages. Ten sweepstakes winners (five educators and five IT professionals) were picked by a random draw to win various technology prizes. Finally, one winner was selected to win a prize bundle in the Tweet UR Tech Tale Contest. Introduced last year, this contest challenged educators to tweet their submissions in no more than140 characters.

“Educators across Canada are so passionate about their jobs and have really taken the time to implement great technology-based learning strategies,” says Mary Ann Yule, Vice President and General Manager, CDW Canada. “This year’s submissions are true testaments to that passion and to the dedication they have — engaging the future generations with inspired creativity and IT. Through these stories and by speaking with our customers, we know the significant impact technology can have on a student. We hope to inspire Canadian educators to go above and beyond in teaching with technology,”

Educators from across Canada were asked to write about how technology has improved or enhanced the learning experience in their classrooms. CDW Canada’s panel of IT experts reviewed the 200-500 word entries and selected three winners. Each prize bundle – ranging in value from approximately $5,000 to $6,000 – contains technology products that are useful in the classroom, such as projectors, personal computers, whiteboards, digital cameras, and networking software and equipment. The prizes will allow the winning schools and teachers to continue to make a difference in the classroom.

Winner #1: Southgate Middle School in Campbell River, B.C. – Robynne Fraser, special education teacher
Robynne submitted a story about how the use of technology in the classroom has had a drastic impact on students, including a teenage girl with select mutism who was able to speak for the first time; autistic students who learned how to make eye contact with the use of a digital camera; and children — not expected to be literate — who learned to read. Read the rest of this entry »