Village Gamer

Event: Early Registration for Canada 3.0 2011 has been extended until March 17th.
From GDC 2011: Congratulations to the Bioware Mass Effect 2 team for picking up the Best Writing award at the GDC Choice Awards and to the University of Montreal for winning at the IGF Awards with FRACT being named as the top Student Game.

Catching up with Big Blue Bubble this morning, the studio has released Geeks Unleashed to the Mac App Store for $3.99 USD. This game is a strategic puzzle game that pits the player against some of the smartest, yet geekiest opponents on the planet. The storyline, which for some reason makes me think of Big Bang Theory, follows the player as they enter a collecting convention, attempting to accumulate collectibles from different categories such as Sci-Fi, Fashion, Comics, Plush Toys and Role Playing Games.

Another popular Big Blue Bubble game also made its debut on the Mac App Store this week. Home Sweet Home, available now for $4.99 USD, is a game that invites you to play Interior Designer. You choose the furniture, patterns, and colors to create a masterpiece that will blow your client away. You can email photos of your newly designed rooms to yourself or your friends, and you can also replay levels or your designs.  With simple controls, a fun graphical style, and an easy to use interface, Home Sweet Home allows you to nurture your creative side.

Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney has launched a fun and educational Facebook application that tests your knowledge of Canada’s history, values, symbols and political institutions. The quiz can also be downloaded to mobile devices like iPhone, Blackberry and Android. The 20 questions are randomly selected from a bank of 122 questions, allowing the quiz to be played more than once.

“Download the app, take the quiz, and share it with your friends,” Kenney said. “You might be surprised to find out just how Canadian you are!”

The initiative is part of an on-line resource called “A Fun Path to Learning” that was launched in April 2010 by Citizenship and Immigration Canada for students and teachers. The educational tool draws from material in the popular new citizenship study guide Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship and aims to help students from grades five to 12 learn about Canada’s history and political institutions through games and activities. There are a number of learning resources on the Youth page, making learning about Canada’s history fun.

The “How Canadian Are You, Eh?” application is a cross platform application that can be found within Facebook, at the iTunes app store, in the Blackberry app world, and in the Android marketplace.

Radian6 has announced Radian6 for Salesforce, bringing new social capabilities to the Salesforce Service Cloud experience. Monitoring the overwhelming volume of social conversations that matter to enterprises, and connecting them to existing sales, service and marketing processes is a major challenge for companies today. To address this challenge, the Radian6 integration will connect the social capabilities within both the Salesforce Service Cloud and the Radian6 platform, enabling enhanced social customer service.

The Radian6 platform monitors social media, including blogs, forums, comments, photo and video sharing sites, Twitter, public content within Facebook and more. Radian6 leads the industry with its ability to surface social metrics on everything it gathers, enabling valuable time savings through sorting and prioritization. With its pending arrival on the AppExchange, Radian6 for Salesforce will let agents work entirely within the Service Cloud, with fully automated case creation that adds social media content to Salesforce based on the customizable Radian6 workflow rules engine.

In addition to the recently added feature that allows users to interact with Salesforce Chatter directly within Radian6 Engagement Console™ additional capabilities that leverage the Service Cloud will include the ability to create new or view existing cases, leads and contacts from within the Radian6 Engagement Console™. Radian6 for Salesforce is currently scheduled to be available to early adopters in April 2011 while a full public release is currently scheduled for Q3 of calendar year 2011.

zipzoom is a brand new patent-pending anonymous communication technology changing the way consumers and businesses find each other. The service was officially launched today in Simcoe County, choosing Barrie because it is one of the fastest growing cities in North America.

“A dynamic, friendly and booming community like Barrie is the perfect place to launch this revolutionary service,” said Reg DesRosiers, the founder of zipzoom.com. “We offer residents the ability to make quick, informed decisions about any products or services they need, while also providing new streams of customers to Barrie’s local businesses and salespeople.”

zipzoom.com recently launched a beta version of its site, which acts like a personal shopper for overwhelmed consumers. zipzoom.com-registered consumers just make an anonymous personal inquiry and zipzoom immediately, through its exclusive communication platform, sends the inquiry to all relevant contacts and businesses using a brilliantly designed product keyword search association, saving time, money and effort. Businesses and salespeople also benefit by having direct access to “ready-to-buy” customers 24/7 without increasing their advertising costs. zipzoom is free of charge to register for consumers, businesses, service providers and salespeople. zipzoom finally answers the question consumers ask themselves every day: “How can I find the best deal, person or business to work with?” On the vendor side: “How do I consistently find ‘ready-to-buy’ customers?”

In addition, zipzoom is offering weekly giveaways via their social media networks on Twitter and Facebook, where randomly chosen registered vendors will receive a no-charge lifetime membership subscription.

Staying true to its friendly, down-to-earth and down the street philosophy, Original Joe’s has announced that, starting today, it will be providing a free pound of wings to each individual who ‘likes‘ them on Facebook.

“Each person who decides to participate by liking Original Joe’s on Facebook will be able to print off a coupon which they can redeem at any of our 37 locations for a pound of wings on us,” says Derek Doke, President of Original Joe’s. “We appreciate the support and loyalty of our existing customers and this is one way to express our gratitude to our regulars while encouraging newcomers to find out for themselves why so many people choose Joe’s as their preferred neighbourhood pub.”

Joe’s is expecting thousands of individuals to take advantage of this promotion, and are prepared to give away up to $100,000 worth of wings (estimated Canadian dollar amount based on 10,000 pounds of wings and gift cards). With more than a dozen wing flavours available ranging from dill pickle, Caribbean jerk and industrial strength, to the more traditional honey garlic or salt and pepper, Joe’s has something for everyone.

The 6th Annual Vancouver Women in Film Festival (VWIFF), presented by Women In Film & Television Vancouver (WIFTV), will be held from Friday, March 4 to Sunday March 6 at the VIFC Vancity Theatre on Seymour Street, with the Women In Film & Television International (WIFTI) short film screening on Tuesday, March 8th at Langara College to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Note: Advance online ticket sales close at midnight tonight, March 2nd.

“It’s been yet another tough year in the industry, yet women continue to thrive in front of and behind the cameras,” says Festival Director, Roslyn Muir. Telefilm Canada’s 2010 report on the state of women in the Canadian Feature Film Industry states that while women receive more training than men and attend film school in equal numbers, they work on lower budget films and have “less access” to public funds than their male counterparts.

Muir continues: “With the help of our volunteers, staff and sponsors, we’re very excited about this
year’s Vancouver Women in Film Festival. Submissions and audience numbers continue to grow every year and to me, that proves to me that there’s a need to have women’s stories seen, heard and celebrated in the public arena.” Five features and over 40 short films will be shown, made by both first-time and veteran filmmakers, and spanning all genres.

The festival opens on Friday, March 4 with the return of the Digital Media Forum panels during the
day, followed by Danishka Esterhazy’s Black Field, and the festival’s Opening Reception. The festival will also present the Spotlight Awards, the Legacy Awards, given to the top 3 BC filmmakers at the festival, and the Women in the Director’s Chair (WIDC) Feature Film Award, a $100,000 in-kind award administered by Creative Women Workshops Association. Other festival events include Pitching sessions, an Industry Showcase, the free WIDC Panel, Receptions, Film Screenings on Saturday and Sunday, as well as a Networking Lunch Presentation on “Making your first low budget feature.”

Other films of note include Canadian shorts in the Aboriginal Short Film Showcase, curated by Metis/Cree Director Barbara Hager:

• Wendy Ord & Glen Samuel’s short film TORA, set in the Japanese Internment Camps in World War II and starring David Suzuki in his first acting role
• Sisters in Arms, Beth Freeman’s feature documentary on three military women sent to fight in Afghanistan
• A Window Looking In, Tara Hungerford’s short documentary profiling 12 BC-based artists, including William Gibson and Sarah McLachlan
• John Zaritsky’s feature documentary Leave Them Laughing, on ALS-fated singer/comedienne Carla Zilbersmith
• Katrin Bowen’s Amazon Falls.

CTV WIDC CAM Panel: Thriving on the Curve of Change: Moderated by Carol Whiteman (CWWA / WIDC), industry insiders including Trish Williams (CTV), John Dippong (Telefilm Canada), and MaryAnne Waterhouse (Anagram Pictures) will discuss the current shifts in the marketplace and what it now takes for content creators to tell their stories and sustain healthy careers while navigating the relentless curve of change. This panel is presented by Creative Women Workshops Association through the support of the CTV-CHUM Tangible Benefits and in collaboration with the Vancouver Women In Film Festival and WIFTV.

The Digital Media Forum takes place from 9:30am – 5:30pm on Friday, March 4th and is presented by the BC Film Commission and Telefilm Canada.

9:30 am – 11:00 am – Focus on Innovation: A group of visionary digital media professionals discuss the next-gen applications of technology. From the implementation of new communication technologies to the gamification of everyday life, the discussion will touch on how digital media will affect the future. Moderated by Justine Bizzochi. Panelists: Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin, Rochelle Grayson, Rae Hull.

11:15 am – 12:30 pm: New Trends in Social Media: Social media mavens, veterans and upstarts discuss the new trends in socializing and marketing. How can Twitter grow? Have Facebook members revolted against the marketing machine? What’s next?
Moderated by Sarah Muff. Panelists: Nadia Aly, Rebecca Coleman, Nimisha Mukerji.

1:30 pm – 2:45 pm: Start-Up Upstarts: Digital pioneers partnering in new technologies. Profiling women entrepreneurs in all areas of the digital realm: communication, gaming and social media marketing. Moderated by Danika Dinsmore. Panelists: Kirsten Forbes, Angel Pui, Moyra Rodger.

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm: Nice Work if You Can Get It: How do you turn your passion for digital media into a career? Where do you start and what skills do you need? Panelists include: an experienced game producer, a writer new to the gaming world, and a front-line social media marketer.
Moderated by Dina Grskovich. Panelists: Bryna Dabby, Bonnie Jean Mah, Melissa Wood.

4:30 pm – 5:30 pm: Networking Reception: Join panelists and industry professionals to continue the conversations in an informal atmosphere. Included with the purchase of a Digital Media Forum pass.

Note: The Toronto International Film Festival (September 8 – 18th) is now open for submissions.
Event: WaveGuide™ Technical Workshop: Samsung Bada Code Camp presented by WaveFront. This free seminar takes place tomorrow in Vancouver from 1:30pm – 8:00pm. Pre-registration is required.
Event: Global Insights Conference is taking place in Victoria on March 17th.
Event: The Basics of Intellectual Property is a free seminar on March 10th presented by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and hosted by nGen.

Vancouver’s Decapod Studios, creators of one of my favourite XBLIG games, Murphid, has released iStopwatch for Windows Phone 7. The free app is a simple, fast and elegant stop watch. It features a stopwatch timer, split timer, lap timer and countdown. It supports logging unlimited split and lap times and shares results via email.

The studio has also submitted an update for its measurement units converter app, Convert Units PRO for Windows Phone 7. The update includes faster application loading and adds in-app feedback options. The update will be available for free for all existing users once it receives Microsoft certification.

Convert Units PRO features include:

• U.S., Imperial and metric units.
• Convert length, mass, area, volume and temperature with ease.
• More than 100 measurement units are supported.
• Rarely used and old units are available.
• High precision conversion.

Industrial Brothers has released a new 99 cent USD game on the iTunes Store. 2Bit is a challenging retro-inspired puzzle game that will challenge your nerves and co-ordination as you try to navigate through The Grid, a landscape full of dangers. Yes, that’s right, The Grid is rife with shooting turrets, trip wires, hydraulic plugs, screwblades and more dangerous too frightening to talk about. At launch, 2Bit offers 20 challenging levels contained within 2 Grid areas, each with 10 levels of puzzles to negotiate.

2Bit’s current features include:

• Select between 2D or 3D views
• Personal High Scores and Global Leaderboard and Online Registration
• Original retro-themed sound effects and music
• Additional Grids and Levels to be released over the next few weeks at no extra cost

The Cavechild has released his first non-narrated gameplay video for Dawn of War II: Retribution by Relic Entertainment. His army is the one decked out in patriotic red and white, in Last Stand on The Anvil of Khorne as the Space Marine Captain.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDDh1az2NxU]

Strangeloop has partnered with Exclusive Concepts, Inc. to offer its proprietary Site Optimizer service to Yahoo! store merchants worldwide. Yahoo! Merchant Solutions is the largest hosted platform for ecommerce stores, with more Internet Retailer® Top 500 retailers using Yahoo! than any other hosted solution. Exclusive Concepts, the leading resource for online stores seeking to convert online shoppers into loyal buyers, provides a breadth of marketing services – from advanced search engine marketing to conversion testing – to more than 800 merchants around the world. As an authorized Yahoo! partner, Exclusive Concepts will be the exclusive provider of Strangeloop’s website acceleration technology to this market.

The Strangeloop Site Optimizer, utilized by companies such as Petco, Travelocity, Visa, Sodexo, and O’Reilly Media, is the only automated web performance optimization solution that functions at the scale demanded by global ecommerce sites and enterprise applications. Through partners like Exclusive Concepts, Site Optimizer can be offered as a hosted service, making Strangeloop’s advanced optimization technology accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Calgary tech company Vaenco, Inc. has officially launched its interactive media platform called ZoweeTV. An end-to-end multi-screen media platform that delivers movies, TV shows, music, games and other interactive media to Internet-enabled devices including TVs, Blu-ray players, media extenders, set-top boxes and game consoles for both ‘over-the-top’ delivery as well as integrated solutions for service providers and operators.

Key features include a fully integrated cross-platform user interface that includes a media management system for consumers as well as social networking capabilities through ZoweeTV’s proprietary system-wide network. ZoweeTV was built for content owners by content owners, offering a fully customizable content management system enabling dynamic ‘self’ distribution with a turnkey content management dashboard including asset management, metadata integration, windows, pricing, territories and other key policies with detailed ‘back-end’ reporting.

According to recently released In-Stat research, Web-to-TV Video content revenue will grow by 750% to $17 billion by 2014. “We built ZoweeTV from the ground up, built for complete customization for any platform, any video format on any device, anywhere in the world — ZoweeTV will optimize content distribution opportunities for content owners and deliver a robust, quality user experience to the end user” said Ronald Domes, CEO.

ZoweeTV will be widely available to consumers Worldwide by Summer 2011 through strategic partnerships with device manufacturers as an operating system or through stand-alone apps and web browsers. More announcements will be made in the upcoming weeks.

Four initiatives that support northern innovation and knowledge will move forward thanks to investments by the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor). The Honourable John Duncan, Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, has announced an investment of $426,000 for research and training projects to help the Northwest Territories and Nunavut strengthen information technology (IT), energy, and educational sectors of the economy. With additional contributions from project proponents and the Territorial governments, the projects have a total value of more than $500,000.

“The Government of Canada recognizes that by investing in research and training, we are enabling the long-term sustainability of communities and businesses across the North,” said Minister Duncan, who is also Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians.

“Research has shown that there is a strong positive correlation between investments in IT infrastructure, capacity development and economic growth,” said the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Member of Parliament for Nunavut, Regional Minister for the North and Minister of Health. “These investments will create new educational, social and business opportunities in both territories that will provide long-term benefits for northerners and northern businesses.”

CanNor’s funding will support four projects in the NWT and Nunavut, including new mining and remediation training programs, research into the potential to use local willow as biomass fuel, and two projects to assess and support the potential for establishing broadband internet in Nunavut.

Funding for these projects came from CanNor’s Strategic Investments in Northern Economic Development (SINED) program, which provides funding for northern projects that contribute to long-term economic growth, economic diversification, and capacity building in the three territories. SINED is one of a number of economic development programs delivered by CanNor in Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

On this past Sunday, February 27^th, members of the London RCMP Detachment Federal Enforcement Section seized thousands of pirated DVDs from a booth at the Gibraltar Trade Centre on Dundas Street East in London.

Pirated DVDs in flimsy plastic sleeves were openly displayed for sale at space rented by the accused at the Gibraltar Trade Centre, where it is alleged they sold the pirated movies. The accused were found in possession of approximately 4000 movies for sale including recently released DVD movies, movies still in the theaters and others yet to be released. Titles included: The King’s Speech, The Fighter, Black Swan, True Grit, and Inception amongst many others.

“This isn’t a victimless crime,” stated Inspector Dwight Blok, Officer in charge of the RCMP London Detachment. “We are committed in our efforts to combat this type of criminal activity.”

The accused, a 25 year old man and a 24 year old woman from Toronto, face charges under the Copyright Act for allegedly offering for sale an infringing copy of work where copyright subsists. If convicted the accused could faces fines not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both.

Bits Republic Technologies, Inc., a Vancouver-based developer of cloud security applications and licensed technologies, has unveiled the new name for its popular ultra-secure Document Management System. The application formerly known as MOnet has been renamed PrivyDocs in order to better reflect the complete privacy that this application provides.

PrivyDocs is entirely browser-based. Unlike past versions, PrivyDocs requires no software installation and can be run on Mac or PC through most major browsers. This represents a major unique advance in cloud computing in that security and privacy are so complete that neither the application host nor storage hosts have access to stored data, yet control by the user extends to file sharing with other parties replete with advanced file and folder permissions.

“PrivyDocs is designed to replace a key part of in-house systems; that part that deals with guarded data dissemination both within and outside the organization.” explained Charles Chung, owner and founder of Bits Republic Technologies, Inc. “In the past, placing such data online and managing it `through the cloud` has necessitated complete trust in the application provider – they can see your data. With our solution, professionals and enterprises retain control of their sensitive data and the providers have no access to it. Our solution enables the users to control advanced permissions by file, to track file access and versions, and even to customize the look and feel of the application for their particular needs”.

PrivyDocs uses the patent-pending Bits republic security engine which provides a very flexible platform for client-side encryption and server side ‘blind’ hosting and management. This technology assures that only authorized users are able to access secured data and metadata, and that not even the application or storage hosts have access to it themselves.

DHX Media Ltd has been authorized to purchase at market price up to 3,629,576 common shares of the Company being approximately 10% of its public float of 36,295,762 common shares as of February 28, 2011, and representing approximately 5.9% of its issued share capital, by way of a normal course issuer bid (the “Bid”) through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). As of February 28, 2011, there were 61,617,565 common shares issued and outstanding. DHX is making the bid to reduce the number of outstanding shares in the corporation and to improve earnings per share. The Bid will commence on March 4, 2011, and end no later than March 3, 2012, observing the purchasing restrictions during ‘black out’ or ‘close’ periods.

The Company intends to implement an automatic share purchase plan to allow it to purchase shares under the Bid while in such ‘black out’ or ‘close’ periods. The Bid will be funded from the Company’s existing cash resources. Any shares purchased under the Bid will be cancelled. The TSX rules permit DHX to purchase daily, through TSX facilities, a maximum of approximately 26,467 common shares under the Bid, being 25% of the average daily trading volume of 105,870 over the last six months.

In the opinion of the Company’s board of directors and senior management, DHX shares may occasionally trade in a price range which does not adequately reflect the value of underlying assets based on the Company’s business and financial position. Consequently, the Company may, from time to time, purchase common shares of the Company under the Bid. DHX has not purchased any shares of the Company pursuant to a normal course issuer bid during the preceding 12 months.

Calgary-based Veer, a provider of affordable visual elements that makes it easier to be creative, today announced the launch of an exclusive new font collection named Agency 26, as well as the addition of fonts from the Filmotype foundry and several other leading designers.

Other new additions to the Veer font collection include:

•   Steinweiss Script – Known as the father of the album cover, Alex Steinweiss’ distinctive “scrawl” has been faithfully recreated by Michael Doret in homage to the original. Available in three weights, each including a number of variations including simple, fancy and tilting. Steinweiss Script is part of the Umbrella Collection.
•   Yana – Designer Laura Worthingon set out to create a versatile, swashy serif usable in logos, headlines and body copy. Along the way it gained an old-style Victorian aesthetic, upper and lowercase characters, over 200 swash capitals, and regular, bold and italic variants. Yana is part of the Umbrella Collection.
•   Torino Pro – Originally designed in 1908 by Alessandro Butti, Torino is a modern italic Didone that has been revived, redrawn and expanded by Jason Walcott. It contains a large number of elegant swashes, discretionary ligatures and lining figures. Torino Pro is a Veer Exclusive and part of the Jukebox Collection.
•   Hiatus – This is a contemporary script that blends casual and formal elements with the warmth of hand lettering. Stephen Rapp’s low body height and full connection of the characters make for a versatile script. Hiatus, which includes a large number of swash alternates and ornaments, as well as extensive international language support, is a Veer Exclusive from the Umbrella Collection.

An annual IBM global survey of 30,000 consumers in 13 countries, including more than 2,000 Canadians, reveals shoppers here are adopting new shopping technologies faster than most. In fact, the number of Canadians willing to use mobile technologies to shop increased by 160 per cent year-to-year, second only to the US in uptake.

The survey also shows the number of Canadian “instrumented” consumers — who use two or more technologies such as a website, mobile device or in-store kiosk — increased by 65 per cent over last year’s results, almost double the global result, which reported a 36 per cent increase year-to-year.

“It would appear Canadians’ conservative attitude toward adopting new consumer technologies is changing rapidly to the point that consumers are ahead of retailers,” says John Dawkins, IBM’s Canadian retail sector lead. “Wider access to bandwidth at lower rates, an increase in the number of Canadian wireless service providers, adoption of social media and a comparatively faster economic recovery are driving the emergence of a more complex, competitive and sophisticated shopper.”

The study reveals a portrait of the quintessential Canadian shopper: female; frugal but optimistic about her income; influenced more by family and friends’ opinions than retailers; and who regularly shops for more than people in her household such as parents or grandchildren.

The survey polled consumers from a dozen other countries, including both mature and emerging markets and show globally, shoppers have adopted attitudes during the recession that continue to dictate their behavior: they buy what they need, search for items on sale and wait longer to purchase; and they have embraced the use of technology throughout the process to save time and enhance the experience.

Other findings include:

* Shoppers are leveraging social media from Facebook to Twitter, to blogs, YouTube and reviews, more than ever before to discuss retailers, products and brands with friends, family members and strangers.
* Consumers are checking prices in store, where 70 per cent of final product selection happens, using smart phones and UPC tags to check competitive offerings.
* Consumers want a personalized shopping experience and will spend more and be more loyal to retailers who offer them quality, service and promotions on items they regularly buy and remember things such as their preferred payment methods.
* Consumers want to shop seamlessly across channels, check product prices wherever they are, get promotions based on the items they scan, and use a personal mobile device to avoid the checkout lane.

“A new approach to customer intimacy is critical in the new economic environment and this necessitates a stronger commitment than ever before. Organizations that are best at extracting previously undiscovered insights from vast amounts of customer information have a huge advantage in deepening existing connections and creating new relationships,” said Diane Brisebois, president and CEO of the Retail Council of Canada.

The IBM survey of 30,624 consumers was conducted in October 2010 in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom and United States.

The RCMP would like to remind all of you about the top five scams currently in play around the world. Mass-marketing frauds use the internet, email, mass mailings, personal phone calls, texting, television, radio, and all forms of social networking to rip you off. The RCMP has an excellent, highly detailed anti-fraud resource site, please make use of it to protect yourselves and your family.

1. Advance Fee Fraud. This is the scam that victimized John. The most common variation is the prize pitch, or lottery scam. You are told you have won a large sum of money or a big ticket item but to collect you must pay fees or taxes in advance. You will either never hear from the organization again or receive more and more requests for money.

The criminals sometimes include a cheque to cover “taxes.” The victim is told to wire the “tax” amount to the criminals and take the rest for themselves. Just like in the Overpayment Scam, the wire transfer will leave the victim’s account before the cheque is returned as counterfeit.
In another variation of the Advance Fee fraud, criminals exploit the economic crisis by offering guaranteed loans in spite of your bad credit-rating, but with an up-front fee for processing costs.

Solution: If you have won a prize in Canada there are no fees or taxes to be paid. If you have doubts about any organization, contact the Better Business Bureau for further information.

2. The Grandparent or Family Emergency Scam generally targets seniors. Fraudsters will call the potential victim and claim to be a grandchild or other close family member and will ask for money to help with a serious situation. Common themes have been that the grandchild has been in an accident or arrested and the money is needed for hospital bills or bail. The victim is told not to tell other family members as the “grandchild” is embarrassed or doesn’t want to alarm anyone else in the family.

A variation of this scam involves the misuse of hijacked email accounts, where the fraudster sends an email claiming to be the email account holder to everyone on the compromised contact list. The email will claim that the sender has been robbed while traveling abroad and needs money to get home or for living expenses.

Solution: Before you send money anywhere, check the facts. A quick call to other family members can quickly confirm or disprove the information provided by the fraudster.

3. Overpayment Fraud, also known as Cash Back Fraud, usually starts when you advertise something for sale- often on a free online classified site. The criminal sends you a cheque, money order or bank draft. The sum is much larger than your asking price, and you are asked to wire transfer the difference. Since cheques take longer to clear than electronic bank transfers, the money leaves your account before the cheque is confirmed as counterfeit or forged. Lawyers, realtors, gift shops, restaurants, and especially landlords are targets.

Solution: Don’t wire money to strangers. Always be wary of buyers offering more than your asking price.

4. The Nigerian/West-African Scam has been around for years:

* You receive an “urgent” business proposal “in strictest confidence” from a Nigerian/West-African civil servant /businessman.
* The sender has come into possession of profit from real estate, oil products, over-invoiced contracts, cargo shipments, or other commodities, and needs an offshore partner to assist in transferring the money out of his or her home country.
* Since their government/business position prohibits them from opening foreign bank accounts, the senders ask you to deposit the sum, usually somewhere between $25-50 million, into your personal account, and you will receive between 15-30% of the total.
* You are told to provide your bank name and address, the name of your beneficiary and, of course, your bank account numbers.
* The criminals will ask for money to pay for shipping costs, bank fees or bribes, and may even resort to threats and intimidation.

Solution: Unsolicited letters are not to be believed. If in doubt, contact E Division RCMP Commercial Crime Section, your local Better Business Bureau, or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Call Centre.

5. The Mystery Shopper Scam usually starts with an unsolicited letter containing a cheque. You are told to deposit that cheque, make a few small purchases, and wire transfer the balance to an account controlled by the fraud artist. The cheque that you deposit will be returned as counterfeit, forged or stolen and you are on the hook for the money that you wired.

A variation is the Work from Home Scam where an “international company” wants to expand but needs someone with a bank account in Canada to process its cheques and keep a small percentage for themselves. Once again, this scam relies on the lag between the time the cheque is deposited and the time that the cheque actually clears.

In all of these scams, fraudsters stress the need for confidentiality. They will tell you that your reward will be lost if you don’t keep the transaction secret. This is to keep you from discovering that you are being scammed.
The solution here is the same as with all scams and frauds. Victims are either blinded by the opportunity to make a quick buck or are too trusting. Victims often represent the most vulnerable members of society- the elderly, the lonely, the poor. Be aware, be skeptical, and do your research. Make sure you have a conversation with your loved ones, and make 2011 fraud-free.

Legal IQ, a division of IQPC, announces the 2nd Annual eDiscovery Summit Canada being held March 28-30, 2011 at the Toronto Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel in Toronto, ON to develop practical skills required to comply with electronic record management regulations.

With the eDiscovery rules in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta in full operation, the climate for eDiscovery in Canada is changing fast. The eDiscovery Summit Canada brings together in-house counsel, IT experts, document management, law firms, solution providers, judges and regulatory experts to demonstrate how to improve your eDiscovery processes, while saving time and money despite heightened regulatory scrutiny and onslaught of litigation.

Each year, Clearwell predicts the top trends for e-Discovery and in 2011 they examined evolving technologies and the global landscape. There are clear challenges when it comes to the cloud, social media and the global marketplace. Clearwell’s article on the top 5 trends in eDiscovery is available on the event’s website.

Discussions at the event include:

* Lessons learned from the GasTOPS v. MxI and Enbridge Pipelines Inc. v. BP Canada Energy Company cases
* Protect your intellectual property during eDiscovery
* Minimize privacy risks during eDiscovery to ensure compliance with privacy principles
* Explore how global companies are successfully implementing eDiscovery principles
* Effectively manage the burdens and cost of eDiscovery
* Address the importance of overcoming in-house politics to implement eDiscovery solutions

Tom Allman, Senior Counsel of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP and Former SVP and General Counsel of BASF Corporation commented on the event: “This is a very distinguished and comprehensive program! Very thorough, very impressive.”

Participating organizations include:

* Bell Canada
* KPMG
* TD Bank
* Vale
* Xacti
* Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
* City of Toronto
* Sedona Canada
* Seventh Circuit Electronic Discovery Pilot Program, Illinois
* Davis LLP

Enterprises will now have an easier time keeping their global workforces productive with the release of Exceed onDemand 8 by OpenText™, an X11 window server that gives users fast, reliable and secure remote access to applications over any network connection. Exceed onDemand 8 offers support for the popular Mac OS X platform along with a number of performance and productivity enhancements that enable customers to centrally distribute and manage access to UNIX, Linux and Microsoft Windows applications.

Trusted by millions of enterprise users, the Exceed family of products is known for its dependability in mission-critical environments and “pixel-perfect” screen and color rendering capabilities. Exceed onDemand offers companies a centralized, scalable and load-balanced platform to manage the distribution of critical line-of-business applications to a geographically disparate user population. Exceed onDemand offers an all-in-one remote application access solution for stock trading, electronic design automation (EDA), computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and high-end 3D modeling, among others, and delivers such benefits as lower infrastructure costs, improved security and easier team collaboration.

“Enterprises are facing increasing pressure to deliver better results on time and on budget. Exceed onDemand helps them improve the performance of their business operations by simplifying and extending their application delivery infrastructure – and we’re continuing the momentum with this new release,” said Eugene Cherny, General Manager for OpenText’s connectivity solutions. “Its industry-proven architecture offers automatic workload balancing and scalability, helping to accelerate access to business applications while boosting user productivity through real-time team collaboration.”

The new version of Exceed onDemand offers a number of significant enhancements:

* Empowers the growing population of Apple Mac OS X users with high-performance remote application access
* Helps enterprises take control of the distribution of Microsoft Windows applications on UNIX, Linux and OS X platforms
* Enhances access security through the integration with LDAP based enterprise directory services
* New dynamic screen scaling capability offers superior user experience and improved productivity

“Exceed onDemand 8 supports the Cadence EDA360 vision by empowering engineering teams to collaborate virtually, fully realizing complex designs as efficiently as possible in a globalized work environment,” said Steven Lewis, Product Management Director of Cadence. “We’ve worked closely with OpenText to ensure that Exceed onDemand 8 works smoothly with the Cadence Virtuoso custom IC technology, maximizing both design throughput and resource utilization, while lowering overall hardware costs.”

Make Technologies® Inc. is proud to introduce the Make Technologies® Enterprise Suite, an end-to-end solution for application portfolio modernization. Customers can expect to dramatically reduce the amount of custom code in their legacy portfolio without changing workflows or the way they run their business.

The Make Technologies® Enterprise Suite is built on top of Transformational Legacy Modernization (TLM®), the company’s proven modernization platform. TLM® is fit-for-purpose software guided by a mature methodology and supported by the best practices of our modernization experts.

The Make Technologies® Enterprise Suite allows customers to build a pragmatic application roadmap that is closely aligned with the strategic initiatives of its business, based on strong data points such as code dependencies and application usage patterns. The result is a marked reduction in code maintenance, giving CXOs the freedom to pay more attention to essential business matters while gaining a competitive edge in their industry.

“The challenge with all organizations is their ability to do more with less and in a resource-constrained environment companies are finding it challenging to support and maintain legacy applications and simultaneously innovate. As noted in Forrester’s Enterprise and SMB Software Survey, North America and Europe, Q42008 showed that a fairly stunning change has taken place in IT leaders’ plans and priorities. Application modernization supplanted the hot topics of prior years: eBusiness, Agile, Lean, cloud, etc. In fact the three most important software initiatives for IT decision-makers all focused on application modernization: 1) update/ modernization legacy applications; 2) upgrade enterprise applications; and 3) consolidate or rationalize enterprise applications. The data highlights a sharp turn in IT leader’s thinking, with them coming to realize that streamlining bloated application portfolios is no longer an optional activity. Rather, modernization is the best new opportunity to cut waste on low-value applications and thus free the corresponding resources for new projects and innovation.” (A Workable Application Modernization Framework is Job No. 1 Now Forrester Research, Inc. independent Report April 26, 2010)

Make Technologies® Enterprise Suite allows businesses to:

* Lower the cost of application maintenance by lowering the amount of custom code and creating an easy to maintain application.
* Maximize the speed and quality of implementation with state-of-the-art, integrated tools supporting collaboration, analysis, code generation and data migration.
* Control the output quality continuously throughout the engagement.
* Verify the functional completeness of the modernized applications.

“As legacy systems continue to age and the speed of business continues to increase, the need to modernize enterprise-level IT is at a record high,” said Bill Bergen, CEO of Make Technologies Inc. “Many companies are investing millions of dollars into a modernization project and cannot afford setbacks or failure. Organizations are looking to understand what they own – to quantify the business value and maintenance of their applications so as to devise a rational plan for streamlined modernization efforts. Make Technologies® Enterprise Suite ensures complete project success through its combined software, methodology, and best practices.”

Canada Post announced today the launch of CentrSource.ca, a new online marketplace that connects advertisers and consumers instantly – where they live. This pay-for-performance model means that small to medium-sized businesses can effectively target consumers in their neighbourhood by offering products and services online and in-store that are relevant to them. It is also possible to search the entire network for offers from businesses across Canada. Until now, there has been a gap for consumers in getting targeted, local, time-sensitive content from traditional search engines.

“CentrSource.ca is an attractive tool for businesses of any size – especially small and medium-sized businesses. It helps them promote their products and services in the online marketplace, even if they don’t have a website, and makes it possible for them to compete on equal footing with larger competitors,” says Laurene Cihosky, Senior vice-president, Direct marketing, Advertising & Publishing business. The newly launched initiative is the result of a strategic alliance between Canada Post and CentrSource SA, a progressive Swiss-based company that provides e-commerce platforms.

“The power of CentrSource.ca is that it benefits both advertisers and consumers equally. Advertisers can reach customers instantly with offers that are geo-targeted, and consumers can improve their online shopping experience with searches that return time-sensitive offers on products and services only in the neighbourhoods they want to shop,” says Bob Westrope, Founder and CEO, CentrSource SA.

Through CentrSource.ca, national businesses such as Walmart and local businesses such as Calgary’s Community Natural Foods have unprecedented access to every type of consumer. This is made possible through the partnership of dozens of media/communications companies that make up the CentrSource network such as AOL Canada and Reader’s Digest. Today, CentrSource.ca features tens of thousands of offers from small businesses and large retailers across Canada. New offers are added daily in the language(s) chosen by the retailer and are targeted based on the location of the business’ customers.

As part of its vision to deliver a modern post, Canada Post is seeking new and compelling ways to extend their services by connecting businesses with their customers – whether it is through physical or electronic channels or a combination of both. CentrSource.ca is part of a growing number of online initiatives recently launched by Canada Post.

Another Telecom wants you to increase your data usage by offering another digital product. Five dollars per month gets you 10 hours of Mobile TV.

Fans of Vancouver Whitecaps FC will be able to get closer to their team anytime and anywhere thanks to Bell’s commitment to make all Whitecaps FC matches available live on Bell mobile phones. It’s the first time ever that all home and away matches of a Major League Soccer (MLS) Club will be available live on mobile.

“Being a fan of the Whitecaps just got better with Bell,” said Loring Phinney, Vice President, Corporate Marketing for Bell. “We committed to an enhanced experience for soccer fans when we announced our jersey sponsorship, and we’re thrilled to assist the Whitecaps in being the first MLS club with access to live matches on the screen of the fan’s choice.”

With TSN already announced as the MLS Official Broadcaster, Whitecaps FC fans will have their choice of watching matches in High Definition on TSN and TSN2, all Whitecaps FC games on the regional broadcast and now on Bell mobile phones and tablets with Bell Mobile TV.

“We promised Whitecaps FC fans that, together with our partners, we would provide a unique experience for our inaugural season in Major League Soccer and today, thanks to Bell, we’re delivering on that promise,” stated Paul Barber, Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Whitecaps FC. “Bell is a world leader in creating great experiences across multiple screens in top level sporting environments. With this historic announcement, our club and our fans will be the beneficiaries of Bell’s innovative market leadership.”

In addition to all Whitecaps FC matches, Bell mobile customers will also have access to 24 MLS matches featuring Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC on TSN and TSN2, as well as the MLS All-Star Game, MLS Playoffs and the MLS Cup.

Bell Mobility customers can purchase 10 hours of the Mobile TV Sports package for $5 per month. This includes access to live games and highlights from the NHL, NFL and now MLS Official Broadcaster matches and Vancouver Whitecaps FC.

A major new trade show serving Canada’s burgeoning digital industry has been announced. The show, Dx3 Canada, will cover three major aspects of the digital ecosystem; digital marketing; digital advertising and digital retailing. Dx3 Canada will take place next year on the 25th and 26th of January 2012, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, in downtown Toronto.

According to the organizers, Hut2Hut Events, the digital market in Canada is well served with conferences, but there is no major forum that brings this industry together, to discuss and do business. Show Director Duncan Payne said, “Every major industry needs its own trade show – a marketplace where people come to buy goods and services that will help to grow their businesses. There is no doubt that the marketing, advertising and selling of goods both online and via mobile devices has become a major industry in its own right.”

Statistics from a number of recent studies back up Payne’s point of view. Canada’s Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) estimates that online advertising grew by 15% in 2010 to top $2.1 billion while Statistics Canada states that half of Canada’s 33 million population have bought either goods or services online.

Anthony Lipkin Dx3 Canada’s Marketing Director said, “visiting Dx3 Canada is free of charge, to anyone involved in marketing, advertising and retail, and there will be plenty to see and do for all companies whether they are just starting out on their digital strategy, or are one of the most tech savvy businesses in Canada. There is just such a fast pace of innovation and change that we are expecting to see thousands of visitors on both days.”

Dx3 Canada Advisory Board Member, Matt Hassell, who is the Chief Creative Officer for OgilvyOne Advertising in Toronto, recognizes the need for this type of event in Canada’s digital calendar, “Canada is a world leader within the digital space and now we will have a trade show where we will be able to see the latest trends, buy the latest products & services, and show the world what we can do.”

MaRS Discovery District is pleased to announce that MMB Research, a MaRS cleantech client, has successfully closed a private placement of $1 million with a group of angel investors from Toronto. MMB will use the net proceeds of the angel round to expand its sales and development teams and further solidify relationships with industry partners in North America, Europe and Asia.

MMB has developed a combined software and hardware platform called RapidSE that significantly simplifies the process of getting home appliances and devices to communicate on a smart grid connected home area network. By automating significant portions of a complex wireless communications standard and adapting to different environments, RapidSE makes it easier and cheaper for device and appliance manufacturers to get connected products to market.

“MaRS has been instrumental in supporting the growth of MMB Research. Through MaRS, we have access to advisors with invaluable knowledge and experience. They have played an integral role in preparing and introducing us to investors and are directly responsible for the addition of one strategic member to our team,” says Daniel Moneta, CEO at MMB.

“Home energy management is a big piece of the emerging smart grid, it helps grid operators match electrical supply with demand,” says Tom Rand, Cleantech Practice Lead at MaRS. “We recognized early on that MMB Research brings real value to companies developing next-generation appliances and smart meters by helping them get to market faster with a more robust solution.”

Toronto-based Guardly today announced its mobile personal safety application and service for smartphones. Guardly changes the way personal safety is delivered by enabling smartphone users that find themselves in an emergency situation to alert, connect, and then collaborate with their personal safety network and authorities with only a single tap on their device.

Guardly aims to significantly decrease the amount of time it takes for help to arrive at an emergency. For example, a heart attack victim in an apartment complex uses Guardly to contact neighbors and 9-1-1 simultaneously; neighbors arrive within 2-3 minutes to provide Aspirin and basic CPR and an ambulance arrives in 6-10 minutes to escalate treatment. Actions taken during the first moments of an emergency can significantly affect the outcome of the incident. Guardly provides peace of mind when walking alone at night, traveling and dating, or for those that may be faced with an abusive or domestically violent relationship.

“Guardly is the first mobile personal safety service to give subscribers access to two safety networks at the same time,” said Josh Sookman, Founder and CEO of Guardly. “Our vision is to complement the existing 9-1-1 infrastructure and ensure that Guardly users are reached as soon as possible by their personal safety network and authorities in the event of an emergency.”

The North American mobile landscape has undergone rapid transformation over the last three years toward location-aware, media-rich and data-centric devices. In the US and Canada, there are currently 153 million smartphone users with 3G data plans^[1] and over 60% of cell phones have GPS functionality^[2]. Guardly leverages these trends and capitalizes on this unprecedented market opportunity to provide a true mobile personal safety service to the masses.

Guardly is unique in that it enables a user’s personal safety network to collaborate with them and amongst each other using the mobile web and web incident pages, SMS and voice conferencing for the duration of the emergency event. “You can think of Guardly as the mobile complement to your home alarm and monitoring service,” added Sookman.

Guardly’s LocationAssure™ technology uses intelligent algorithms to help mitigate common GPS and other location positioning errors during emergency incidents and enables responders to quickly determine their proximity to each other and the individual in need of emergency response. The Guardly mobile application is expected to be available in March 2011 through the iTunes App Store. A free and premium service will be offered. BlackBerry and Android versions are planned for the near future.

Syncapse Corp., a provider of cloud-based software and strategic services to help enterprises build, manage and measure their social media presence, has announced that ABS Capital Partners, a leading growth equity investor has committed to invest $25 million in the Company; $20 million of which has already closed. ABS Capital is the Company’s first institutional investor.

Syncapse will use the funds to invest in sales, marketing, and product development for the Syncapse Platform™. As a result of the financing, ABS Capital General Partners Ralph Terkowitz and Deric Emry will join Syncape’s board of directors.

Because social networks were designed for posting by individuals, they do not offer the management tools necessary to support the workflow or publishing requirements of a global enterprise. The Syncapse Platform combines social media publishing, customized workflow, content management and analytics. The Company’s professional services and agency relationships complement the Platform, creating a full service social media management offering. In October 2010, the Company added David Nelson-Gal as its Chief Product Officer to lead its team developing new products around the Platform. David has led many teams in content, community, mobility and systems solutions for enterprises for over 25 years. He has also held executive positions at numerous global technology companies, most notably Sun Microsystems and Interwoven.

Syncapse’s suite of enterprise solutions helps organizations such as BlackBerry®, Electronic Arts and others effectively manage and scale their social media marketing efforts across disparate social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, YouTube, WordPress and MovableType. The Platform connects enterprises with millions of consumers worldwide, enabling corporations to create and maintain meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships with their customers. Syncapse also delivers critical analytics that enable chief marketing officers to measure their return on investment in social media marketing. This is Syncapse’s first round of venture funding, and RBC Capital Markets acted as the sole placement agent to the Company for this Offering.

Mississauga-based electronic health care software service PointClickCare has announced that it has received a minority strategic investment from Baltimore- and San Diego-based JMI Equity, a leading software and healthcare IT growth equity firm. With the investment, JMI Equity will work with the PointClickCare leadership team to continue to expand the company’s innovative software-as-a-service (SaaS) product offerings and advance its market leadership through organic and inorganic growth.

PointClickCare’s web-based products and services are uniquely designed to help long-term care providers manage the complete lifecycle of resident care. The company serves over 5,000 facilities throughout North America, from single-home independent facilities to seven of the ten largest operators. PointClickCare’s SaaS offering seamlessly integrates clinical, billing and administrative processes to maximize reimbursements, enhance quality of care, improve operating efficiencies and increase staff productivity and satisfaction.

As part of the transaction, JMI Equity Founder and Managing General Partner Harry Gruner will join PointClickCare’s board of directors. “Mike and the rest of the PointClickCare team have done an excellent job positioning the company for continued success,” said Mr. Gruner. “The company’s SaaS offering provides customers with an affordable platform to manage the complete lifecycle of resident care, and its offerings align well with the market’s demand for tools that yield greater efficiency while improving patient care. We look forward to working with Mike and his team to build on the company’s success, further develop the company’s offerings and realize the many growth opportunities in front of the company over the long term.”

RBC Capital Markets served as placement agent to PointClickCare. Harris + Harris LLP served as legal advisor to PointClickCare, while Goodwin Procter LLP and Stikeman Elliott LLP served as legal advisors to JMI Equity.

For the last three years we’ve spent the final weekend in January periodically checking in on a group of people who shut themselves in a big room full of computers and ideas for 48 hours. Each of those years has seen this event grow, and 2011 was Vancouver’s largest Global Game Jam event ever, with about 120 participants. One other note of importance – 20-25% of the 2011 Jam participants were female. Awesome.

Held in the Main Hall of BCIT’s main Burnaby campus, this year’s Global Game Jam opened with presentations from Scott Jones, co-host of Electric Playground, and Kelly Zmak, the former president of Vancouver’s Radical Entertainment. Unfortunately, due to the demonic nature of traffic in the Lower Mainland, especially for those of us who live out in the Fraser Valley, we completely missed Scott’s opening comments as well as the first few minutes of Kelly’s presentation. I freely admit that I never tire of hearing a talk given by Kelly – he doesn’t pull any punches, and he will tell you exactly the way things are in this fine industry. Even while he is forcing you to face the reality of how many titles actually become blockbusters, he is still encouraging developers new and veteran, to get out there and give it their best shot anyway. You don’t have to work in a creative studio to benefit from the advice Kelly shares, either. Many of his suggestions are applicable to any discipline, and I never fail to be anything but inspired whenever I’ve been to a Kelly Zmak presentation. Many of the participants in this past Global Game Jam obviously took Kelly’s words to heart as well, because there were some very good products that emerged from this 48 hour exercise in innovation and creativity.

Before I go too much further, I would like to note that the Global Game Jam is an initiative of the International Game Developers Association, and this year took place in 169 registered locations around the world. This total does not include the informal game jams that were also held over the same weekend, such as the one taking place at New Media Manitoba called So Many Rooms, which was a unique twist on the jam concept, but more about that in a different post. For more photos of the BCIT event, please see our GGJ Gallery. There are more photos on the Global Game Jam Vancouver web site as well.

The jams also would not happen without the support of venues, schools, corporate partners and of course, volunteers and industry mentors. A large part of the Vancouver Game Jam support comes from these post-secondary educational facilities: BCIT and UBC with the assistance of the Centre for Digital Media and SFU. Other supporting sponsors include the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, AirG, Microsoft, Wacom, Radical Entertainment and Electronic Arts Canada. Other supporters and friends of the local Global Game Jam are the Canadian Video Game Awards, the Vancouver Silverlight User Group, and ourselves. It was also very cool to see Electric Playground attending and interviewing participants, as well as giving the jam some airtime on its February 8th episode. You can watch the EP video here.

Global supporters and sponsors of Global Game Jam include Game Salad, Intel AppDeveloper Programme, Autodesk, GameSpy, gamesauce, triOS College and ACM. Once again, a huge thank you to the volunteers, the instructors and the corporations who all work together to make the Global Game Jam such an awesome weekend of inspiration.

This year’s Jam began with everyone gathering in groups based on their disciplines. Each person had a coloured “skill dot” on his or her name tag, which made it very easy for others to find artists, programmers, designers or the very elusive audio folk. Note to those of you with audio skills: come out to next year’s Game Jam, your skills are in high demand. You will be very popular. Once the skills groups were formed, attendees were put through some ice-breaking exercises, discussing their favourite games, super-powers and why their respective disciplines are the best. With the announcement of this year’s theme of Extinction, the jammers were encouraged to come up with some quick game concepts that would then be pitched to the entire room.

Needless to say, in a room full of creative people, there was a huge variety of game concepts that covered everything from dinosaurs to aliens and time travel. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly and reasonably clearly the ideas are formed and presented. After the presentations, it was time to start the team recruiting and previs work before settling in for the next several hours of coding, drawing, editing, testing and reiterating with maybe a bit of sleep mixed in.

When we returned to the Jam on Sunday afternoon, the BCIT Main Hall was still a hive of activity. At first glance you wouldn’t know that a good part of this group was heavily sleep-deprived and that for some, thought processes were by now running at something akin to dial-up mode. However, as we moved among the developers and asked for demonstrations or their thoughts on the weekend, as tired as they were, each team managed to talk about their projects with energy, enthusiasm and passion.

Without a doubt the team with the best game trailer was RawR Games, developers of, coincidentally, the game chosen as Top Pick for the Vancouver event. Dino Fling is a 2D game that asks the player to save dinosaurs from rising post-Ice Age waters by flinging them onto a rescue boat.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk4jods47dY]

Naturally the game gets more challenging as the water rises, covering the beach and making the distance you need to fling each dinosaur wider and wider. The RawR Games team perhaps had a bit of hand-up as members of the squad had been to previous Jam events and also work in the game development industry, but it was still important to them to get a product completed within the 48 hour time limit, and that the game be fun to play.

Nick Waanders, co-founder of Slick Entertainment, said that one of the challenges for him personally was having each new iteration of Dino Fling better than the last, each one topping the features and fun factor of the previous. He said that it’s very important to get into the habit of taking notes throughout the development cycle, don’t count on your memory to keep all of the ideas straight. He feels that this is a very important part of development discipline that will help keep your work flow from getting all tangled up. Flash Punk creator Chevy Ray Johnston and Tatham Johnston, a Junior Gameplay Programmer at Klei Entertainment while Rachel Simpson is a Game Jam veteran, Daniel Ritchie is a UBC Computer Sciences student and Celeste Medina is a Layout Artist at Luximation (by the way, they’re hiring). One other cool footnote before moving on, Chevy’s Flash Punk engine was used by other teams at the Jam for their games.

Pod Panic was another title which was high on the list of favourite games, with the premise of this title to both learn about the Orca pods who inhabit our coastal waters and the dangers they face every day through pollution and over-fishing. Designed and built by James Karg, Douglas Richardson, Shane Morin, Jacob Kwitkoski, Spencer Daemore and Travis Hilliard, Pod Panic was developed on the XNA platform for Xbox and Windows. The premise of the game is to help your pod of Orca whales navigate several levels, each named for a coastal area and with increasing levels of difficulty. Pod Panic was inspired by the David Suzuki Foundation and the real-life plight of our whale populations and other endangered species.

Another friend of ours, indie developer Jake Birkett, was on the team which created the germ-ridden game Invasion of Giant Planet-Eating Bacteria From Outer Space, along with Alex Vostrov, Steven Pugh, Khadija Ghazi and Samppa Raski. Jake and Alex are the co-founders of Full Indie, a meetup and resource group for independent developers. The premise behind their flash-based game is to rocket about outer space jabbing the giant bacteria with your Inoculazer, thereby curing different diseases and saving the planets. Of course it’s not as easy as that sounds – each type of bug requires a certain type of cure, and every cure has a side effect. You must match the colour of the cure to the colour of the bacteria, and due to the aforementioned side effects, strategy and timing do play an important part in winning this game. Jake’s advice on game design is to not be afraid to think big and add loads of features to your list, but also don’t be afraid to wield a big axe when it comes time to pare down what parts make it into the game and which don’t. His main take-away from the Jam weekend was a reinforcing of his knowledge and the sharing of experience both as a giver and as a receiver.

Meanwhile another galactic planet-destroying game with yet another twist was being developed just a few tables away. MDP Earth Defender was built using the Unity platform and is for two players who are required to switch between Savior and Destroyer roles. The Destroyer literally tries to destroy Earth with nuclear bombs while the Savior sends up Claw Satellites which need to intercept the bombs before they blow the Earth into tiny little bits. The player with the most survivors at the end of the round wins. MDP Earth Defender was developed by Clayton Campbell, Don Lee, Eric Raue, James Xia, Jason Tseng, and Tiva Quinn.

Another game of galactic proportions (and name) was Super Hyper Mega Deluxe Earth Annihilation – it seems more than just a few people were trying to make Earth extinct, but then I guess it’s an easy target, what with being big and round and floating around in space on a pre-determined path. In this game, instead of defending Earth, the player must protect the mother ship death ray that is trying to destroy our fine planet. The Earthlings have the nerve to try and defend themselves by sending out waves of spacefighters, and it’s the player’s job to remove them from existence. This team took their development cycle practically to the wire, finishing up just one hour before the deadline. Developers Alex Mcgilvray and Ryan Sheffer said that one of the most important pieces of advice that they could pass along about participating in a game jam is to get as much coding done as possible early on in the event, because a lack of sleep means coding errors.

One of the most imaginative titles we took a look at over the weekend was Squishy Squid Sex, whereby the gamer must ensure that the squid population increases through recreation…or, re-creation – they both apply.  This team, which learned the importance of early iteration, prototyping and software compatibility, showed a great deal of creativity and imagination in their product. The development team for Squishy Squid Sex was Airlia Hansen, Ben Sheftel,  Nathaniel Kopjar, Jonathan Clark and Alice Tai.

Moving back to the germ theme was Containment, a top-down infestation elimination game. This browser-based game is kind of like a blind man’s bluff, because the player doesn’t know until a character is killed if it was one of the germ carriers or not, and a process of elimination must be used to search out the three germ bearers. The catch, and you know there’s always a catch, is that if you kill the entire population you lose. You win the game by saving the highest number of citizens as you possibly can. Oh, and of course there’s a timer, too. When this team was formed to come up with a product, they were all strangers, having never met each other prior to the jam weekend. Ben James is a computer programmer by day, but not in the digital media sector, and he said that he has realized how hard it is to make games (actually, we heard that a lot over the weekend), and that it’s important to focus the scope of your project early.  Other team members included Jen Kim, Arnold Ip, Colin Cove and “Got Quail”.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87RDRXFEeg8]

We did not have time to visit with every game team and participant, that’s something I’d like to be able to accomplish next year, but over-all, the consensus about Global Game Jam is that the event is a lot of fun and a fantastic learning experience. The sharing of knowledge between students, professionals and hobbyists is something that is not always easily obtainable, and there is a combined sense of collaboration and competition – because while there isn’t a prize for making the best game or finishing first, there is a sense of pride and accomplishment that goes along with the lack of sleep, the software glitches and the new friendships. Much of the success of any Game Jam event, whether it’s a part of the Global weekend or otherwise, falls on the shoulders of its organizers, volunteers and supporters. The willingness of both industry mentors and teachers to help and guide those who strive to be a part of this wonderful industry is sometimes a “thank you” that may not be said loudly or often enough.

If any of you reading this got the “wow this is cool” feeling, I hope you will carry that feeling forward and participate next year, in any capacity be it participant, volunteer, sponsor or leader. In 2011 there were at least a dozen Game Jam locations across the country (72 across North America), wouldn’t it be great if next year there were twice the number of locations, participants and sponsors?

Reminder: Early Bird Registration for the Toronto Screenwriting Conference closes on February 28th.

Contest: Enflick, Inc. is holding a logo re-design contest for the PingChat logo.
Contest: Best Buy Canada and HP Canada have teamed up to revitalize someone’s home office
Contest: SteelSeries is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a huge giveaway.

Giveaway: The iPad HD version of Garage Inc from TransGaming Studios is free until February 28th. Get it now.

Pre-Order: Mac Gamers can pre-order Dragon Age 2 and The Sims Medieval from GameTree Mac. Release dates are March 8th for Dragon Age 2 and March 22nd for The Sims Medieval.

Appointment: Michael MacMillan has been appointed to the Fuse Powered Board of Directors. In his role on the company’s board, MacMillan will be responsible for working closely with Fuse Powered’s senior management team in solidifying and executing the company’s strategic direction.

Taking Over The World: Electric Playground is now available for American users of Hulu. Congratulations to everyone at the EP studio!

New Release: IUGO’s first music game Pricklees is now available on the App Store. It’s free so go download now! More characters and tracks may be unlocked for $1.99 USD.

“We see room for creativity and innovation in the music genre,” states IUGO’s VP of BD Sarah Thomson “What companies like Tapulous have done is incredible. They have proven their formula to be successful time and time again. But we feel there is so much opportunity to create a unique game mechanic and appeal to an even broader market. We wanted to combine the brilliance of music-based games such as the Tap Tap series with the cuteness and personality of broad appeal titles such as Angry Birds.”

Cinematic Intro: A preview of the opening moments from Dawn of War II: Retribution by Relic Entertainment is now live on YouTube. This latest chapter in the Warhammer 40 000 saga will be on store shelves on March 1st

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MwJK2_jYxI]

A special pre-launch event for Retribution was just announced on the Dawn of War community forums. A four hour game play special with members of Relic’s game test team facing off against members of the community. The fun begins at 2pm PST on Sunday, February 27th.

Yummy Interactive Inc. has announced a partnership agreement with BattleFront.com, worldwide publisher of wargaming and strategy combat video games. BattleFront.com has selected Yummy Interactive’s GameShield to securely manage licensing and activation of downloadable and mail order game products at its game portal.

“Delivering our games in an unobtrusive, simple download and mail order experience to our community members is paramount to us. With GameShield, we will be able to securely extend our digital products to new channels and also be able to offer game bundles and extra downloadable content, such as add-ons and expansion packs, with a smooth user interface for end users,” said Martin van Balkom, President of BattleFront.com.

“By selecting our complete DRM solution for their PC and Mac game downloads and mail order products, Battlefront.com can further expand their online distribution channel and storefront, confident they can support their partners and optimize digital sales with our flexible license management tools,” said Chris Hennebery, VP Software Distribution at Yummy Interactive. “The premium DRM technology that GameShield provides not only protects content but enables new and secured ways of bringing gamers downloadable games and post-sale content.”

Launch Trailer: Rango The Video Game, developed by Behaviour, will be released next week for  the Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Here is the newest game trailer.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5NMmtncf4k]

Source Studio has released Proto Defense – free downloadable content (DLC) for their space shooter game ProtoGalaxy, on Steam for the PC. The downloadable content delivers a brand new level of play for ProtoGalaxy, enabling players to experience the game’s enhanced editor powers and map-building features.

The DLC will be downloaded automatically for anyone who owns ProtoGalaxy, and to celebrate the DLC launch, ProtoGalaxy is available for 50% off until March 2.  Proto Defense is a completely different genre than the previous levels. The original release of the game consisted of action and adventure levels, where the players were constantly on the offense. The new downloadable content consists of  a tower defense-style level, where players must strategically defend themselves against incoming attacks.

“We’re showcasing a brand new level of game play in ProtoGalaxy that gamers have yet to experience,” said Alex Brown, CEO and founder of Source Studio. “We have been gathering valuable feedback since we released ProtoGalaxy last October, and with the new level added, the game takes on a different dimension of play,” Brown added.

Proto Defense contains the following:

• New level with tower defense tactics
• Pick from a big selection of turrets.
• Reposition your turrets at any time to deal extra damage.
• Take down huge bosses.
• Compete in leaderboards for the highest score.
• Tackle 8 new challenging achievements.
• Built using the ProtoGalaxy Editor.

In ProtoGalaxy, up to four players can team up, configure their ship and upgrade their weapons in order to defend earth from powerful alien invaders. Throughout the game, players brave fierce battles, solve challenging puzzles, and explore the far reaches of the galaxy in order to end the attacks and rebuild a home for the survivors.

Game features:

• Level editor
• Single and multi-player mode (up to 4 players)
• Array of weapon choice
• Ship customization with large selection of parts
• Use physics to solve problems
• Save progress online and play from anywhere

Source Studio will be attending the Games Developers Conference and will showcasing  ProtoGalaxy, along with the DLC at the Newfoundland and Labrador booth (booth #1924).

Reminder: Submissions for Digital Launch Pad at Banff World Media Festival Close April 22nd. ($100.00 entry fee)

The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, will meet with representatives from the Waterloo-area information and communications technology (ICT) industry tomorrow morning to discuss issues of importance to the industry, including Canada’s forthcoming digital economy strategy. The meeting will be held at The Research Advancement Centre in Waterloo University’s Research and Technology Park.

TransGaming Studios has released a new update for Garage Inc in the iTunes App Store. The time management strategy title now features an Endless Day mode and you can now compete against other players via the Game Centre Leaderboard, fixing as many cars as your mechanics possibly can. Battle for automotive supremacy and you help Angelo work towards his dreams and fend off the Mafia.

Kung Fu Master for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad is now available at the iTunes App Store for 99 cents USD. Developed by Big Bad Brush, this Retina Display and Game Centre-enabled features the venerable Kung Fu Master, who has fallen victim to hordes of zombies and pandas intent on stealing his magic gems and shiny gold. Show them who’s boss by mastering the bamboo poles and gathering all your gold and gems back.

Get set for some action-adventure play time with Rango The Video Game from EA and Behaviour Studios, because it will be on store shelves this March 1st. Based on the Paramount Pictures full-length animated feature film Rango, the video game invites players to continue on Rango’s wild journey through new adventures inspired by the movie. The game is set in the Old West town of ‘Dirt’ where players romp through a gritty, pint-sized, Wild West filled with wild rides, off-color characters and frantic shoot-outs.

The Quality Assurance Division of Beenox Studio in Quebec City has launched an unprecedented recruitment campaign in order to fill 100 summer jobs for video game testers this summer. Interested candidates must submit their applications (French) before Friday, March 4th. Candidates chosen for the next stage of selection will be invited to the official recruitment day on Saturday, March 19th. These summer jobs are a great opportunity for gamers. We are seeking candidates with an excellent sense of observation, are energetic and who perform as a team.

The 11th edition of the CEO Vision Forum for CEOs of technology companies in Quebec ended on a high note on Saturday, February 19. Record numbers of company CEOs and their partners participated in the “Davos” of Quebec technology organized by the Quebec Technology Association, an indication of the interest it is generating and its importance in the IT and Communications industry. The 117 CEOs who registered took advantage of the opportunity to discuss issues and business practices, recharge their batteries by listening to the well-known conference speakers and meet potential buyers and partners in the industries present.

Decision makers representing major technology buyers and an American investor participated in the VIP Salons, an excellent networking opportunity. VIPs were invited from the following organizations: Aveos, CCSR (a group of purchasing departments for educational institutions in Quebec and Ontario), Cisco, Kirchner Private Capital Group, The Desjardins Group, RBC and Public Works and Government Services Canada.

On the evening of February 17, the 2011 SGF CEO of the Year, (Claude McMaster, President and CEO, D-BOX), was chosen by the CEOs in attendance by using of secret ballots; an article on the subject will appear this week in the newspaper Les Affaires, the media partner for the Award. A video clip of the 2011 SGF CEO of the Year and interviews with the three company heads vying for the title are also available in the file on the Award.

“The ever-increasing interest shown by Directors and the exceptional support for CEO Vision on the part of governments and private partners confirms the level of confidence they have in the role the AQT plays in representing ITC companies in Quebec and in supporting their growth. My warmest thanks to all who contributed to the remarkable success of the 2011 CEO Summit”, said Nicole Martel, Chief Executive Officer of the Quebec Technology Association. Attendance at the forum is limited exclusively to industry partners, the many 2011 CEO Vision sponsors and partners actively participated in the success of the summit meeting. They are as follows:

– Prestigious Partner: Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton
– SGF CEO of the Year Award Partner: Société générale de financement
– Platinum Sponsors: BCF, BDC, The DynaVision Group, Heenan Blaikie, NATIONAL and RBC
– Gold Sponsors: Essor Insurance and GCWL-Desjardins Securities
– VIP Salons Pavilion: Public Works and Government Services Canada (partner) and Cisco (sponsor)
– Media partners: Direction informatique and Les Affaires

The Economic Development Agency of Canada and Développment économique, Innovation et Exportation Québec also provided financial support for the event. The 12th edition of CEO Vision will take place from February 23 to February 25, 2012, at the Fairmont Tremblant.

With the business world being reshaped by mobile technologies, companies are moving to embrace the highly portable, Internet-linked tablet computer. Four in 10 (40 per cent) of CIOs in a recent survey said their companies will increase the use of tablets in the next two years.

The survey was developed by Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of information technology (IT) professionals on a project and full-time basis. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on telephone interviews with more than 270 CIOs from companies across Canada with 100 or more employees.

CIOs were asked, “To what extent, if any, do you think your company’s use of ‘tablet’ computers will increase or decrease in the next two years?” Their responses:

Increase – 40%
Decrease – 6%
No change – 49%
Don’t know/not applicable/no answer – 5%

“More organizations are discovering that tablet computers offer yet another way to increase employee mobility, while maintaining & even improving productivity,” said Lara Dodo, Canadian regional vice president of Robert Half Technology. “It’s no secret that these computers have quickly gained popularity in the market over the last year, and CIOs have recognized the potential of these devices. However, the challenge that IT departments will soon encounter is providing enough support and security in the workplace. ”

Dodo adds that businesses will likely need to hire skilled IT professionals, either on a full-time or project basis, to help manage the implementation, maintenance, development and security of tablets. This will ensure companies makes greater tactical use of these mobile devices, in order to augment their customer service and profitability.

    - Prestigious Partner: Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton
    - SGF CEO of the Year Award Partner: Société générale de financement
    - Platinum Sponsors: BCF, BDC, The DynaVision Group, Heenan Blaikie,
      NATIONAL and RBC
    - Gold Sponsors: Essor Insurance and GCWL-Desjardins Securities
    - VIP Salons Pavilion: Public Works and Government Services Canada
      (partner) and Cisco (sponsor)
    - Media partners: Direction informatique and Les Affaires