Navigate an ancient canoe through Aztec canals to discover why modern Mexico City is sinking, then discover how a valiant gladiator defeated a score of Aztec warriors armed with the world’s sharpest swords. Tonight, viewers will also  discover how a dress worn by the most notorious woman in Mexican history led to a massacre that changed history.

Want to learn more? Watch Museum Secrets tonight on History TV Canada at 10 p.m.

“We conducted in-depth research on the concept for this magazine and every person – without exception – was energized to talk about happiness and eager to hear what makes others happy – so that’s what we’re about!” said Johnny Lucas, the magazine’s editor. “No one didn’t get it. Everyone was interested in reading about positive things and happiness. Advertisers in particular were clear and enthusiastic about wanting to be associated with positive messages.”

Six issues of What Makes You Happy will be published each year.  It will be distributed in the Globe & Mail and individual subscriptions will be available.

This purchase and licensing agreement will start with a first installation of 35 D-BOX MFX seats in March at Cineworld Glasgow, notably the tallest cinema in the world. This marks the first commercial theatre circuit to launch D-BOX MFX Seats in the UK.

“This deal marks a major milestone for us as we continue to experience strong, steady growth overseas with Cineworld Cinemas, the UK’s number one cinema chain (according to 2011 box office sales), demonstrating their commitment to providing the most innovative and technologically advanced theatrical presentations in the UK,” stated President and CEO of D-BOX Technologies, Claude Mc Master. “Ultimately, this agreement reinforces the appeal of our business model and speaks to the growing demand for motion technology in the cinema industry around the world.”

The six initial, confirmed Cineworld Cinemas locations include:

• Cineworld Glasgow Renfrew Street
• Cineworld Milton Keynes
• Cineworld Crawley
• Cineworld The O2 Greenwich, London
• Cineworld Castleford West Yorkshire
• Cineworld Didsbury, Manchester

Steve Wiener, Cineworld CEO comments “We are absolutely delighted to be the first cinema chain in the UK to introduce the cutting-edge D-BOX technology and provide a fourth dimension to the cinema experience. We invite film fans at all participating cinemas to come and enjoy the most immersive motion cinema experience to date.”

Anchored by a tablet-exclusive cover story feature with a groundbreaking artist, each issue will include long-form written features, artist Q&As, original video content, album streams and emerging artist spotlights. The AUX Magazine staff are veterans from the magazine industry.

“We’re going to deliver an incredible experience for music fans,” said Simon Foster, SVP Digital Publishing and Business Development, GlassBOX Media. “Discover, read, watch and listen to the most important music and personalities, all presented in a stunning tablet magazine format.”

GlassBOX is working with its advertising partners on developing high impact full-page ads that engage users on the tablet platform. AUX Magazine offers advertisers the opportunity to reach the key demographic of adults 18-35 with unique full and multipage units as well as integrated opportunities with AUX content.

AUX Magazine will also be available for Blackberry and Android tablets.

“3D movies continue to be very popular with our guests. With more 3D content being released each year, this installation will ensure that we have enough 3D capable systems to satisfy all of our guests and ensure that multiple 3D movies can play in the theatre at the same time,” said Ellis Jacob, President and CEO, Cineplex Entertainment. “Cineplex is committed to using technology to ensure that our guests can have the best entertainment experience possible when they visit our theatres.”

“Many of the highest profile films this year and beyond are being released in 3D and these additional installations will help assure that movie-goers visiting Cineplex locations will be able to see these highly anticipated movies in fully immersive RealD 3D,” said Joseph Peixoto, President, Worldwide Cinema at RealD. “We commend Cineplex for their commitment to giving movie-goers a premium entertainment experience including leveraging RealD’s technology advantage to deliver a bright, crisp and clear 3D image on screens of all sizes.”

In other news today, theatre guests and Cineplex employees showed support across Canada for the company’s fundraising efforts last year in aid of Starlight Children’s Foundation of Canada. Thanks to this support, Cineplex Entertainment will help provide sick children and their families with some escapism as the company announced today that $1,000,000 was raised for the Foundation in 2011. Guest generosity, national programs that supported Starlight and other special events were the catalysts of the fundraising. A cheque will be presented to Starlight in March.

“I’m so proud of the continued commitment Cineplex employees show the Starlight Children’s Foundation throughout the year. Our employees have truly embraced Starlight and they are quick to donate time or money when they can,” said Ellis Jacob, President and CEO, Cineplex Entertainment. “I would also like to commend our guests for supporting the Starlight programs as we could not have achieved this donation without their generosity.”

“Thanks to Cineplex, Starlight has been able to spread smiles and hope to more than 50,000 seriously ill and hospitalized children and their families,” said Trevor Dicaire, Director of Development, Starlight Children’s Foundation Canada. “We are constantly amazed and inspired by Cineplex’s generosity, passion for Starlight and efforts to include us in their fundraising programs and special events.”

Cineplex programs that benefited the Starlight Children’s Foundation include:

Employees at the Cineplex Home and Regional offices support Starlight throughout the year with various other fundraising events. In 2011, employees participated in raffles, themed events, bake sales and Starlight bear and pin sales.

The Starlight Children’s Foundation is a national, non-profit organization that strives to improve the quality of life for seriously ill children and their families. They provide entertainment, education and other family activities to help these children cope with the pain, fear and isolation of an illness.

The Centre has been created to become the policy centre on economic, public and management issues surrounding the digital economy in Canada. The ultimate purpose of the Centre is to facilitate and promote the development of objective and evidence-based knowledge that responds to, and anticipates, managerial and government policy decisions.

CDE Director, professor Jeffrey Church, Department of Economics, University of Calgary, commented that, “It is important for Canadians, as both consumers and producers in the digital economy, that there be a source of independent analysis that engages in the development and assessment of government policies and initiatives, informed by Canada’s unique evolution and circumstances.”

Advising and monitoring the Centre’s outputs and activities, the members of the CDE@ Advisory Board represent a wide range of industry expertise.

Joining the Advisory Board today will be:

• Dr. Leonard Waverman, Dean, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary
• Professor Jeffrey Church, Department of Economics, University of Calgary
• Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla Firefox Corporation, Mountain View, California and HSB Alumnus
• Professor Eli Noam, Director Columbia Center for Tele-Information, Columbia University Business School, New York
• David Krause, Director, Economics Analysis, Bell Canada
• Ken Engelhart, Senior Vice President, Regulatory, Rogers Communications.
• Jean Brazeau, Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Shaw Communications Inc.
• Michael Hennessy, Senior Vice President, Government and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS

Dean Leonard Waverman, Haskayne School of Business, sees the creation of the Centre as another illustration of the important work taking place between the University and Canadian industry, “This is a further example of the ability of western Canada to establish thought leadership on issues of critical national importance. We are grateful to the founding donors for understanding the value of independent academic research that is translated into policy documents. The development of the Digital Economy is critical to Canadian productivity growth and well-being.”

Researchers at CDE@ are already working towards presenting an average of six discussion papers per year, alongside plans to host live roundtable debates and online webinar sessions on key policy and research issues throughout the year.

Dr. Elizabeth Cannon, president of the University of Calgary, says the creation of the Centre for the Digital Economy aligns well with the University’s renewed strategic direction, and its goals to more fully integrate with the community, to provide and to promote leadership, and to support research excellence. “There is tremendous potential in this collaboration with industry, working together to help shape the future of telecommunications, The Centre embodies all the elements of successful corporate partnerships, and supports our Eyes High vision of becoming one of the top five research institutions in Canada by 2016,” she says.

The Centre for the Digital Economy was created through seed money provided by four leading telecommunications companies in Canada: Bell Canada, Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications Inc., and TELUS.

What’s New in ICEfaces 3

Notable new features in this release of ICEfaces include, the most advanced and feature rich data table in the industry, and the ability to extend ICEfaces application beyond the desktop into mobile environments using ICEmobile.

ICEfaces 3 provides a number of powerful enhancements over previous releases:

•     Over 40 new ACE components
•      The most sophisticated data table supporting features such as:
•     Single and Multi-Row sort, filtering, and search functionality
•     In-Cell editing
•     Collapsible columns
•     Advanced lazy loading enabling 3 million+ records to be loaded in seconds
•     Column reordering, pagination, and scrollability
•     Data export of all or selected rows
•     And much more…
•     ThemeRoller integration to allow quick and easy alterations to CSS themes
•     Support for MyFaces 2.1 allowing ICEfaces to extend JSF 2 functionality to JDK 1.5 based application servers and portal containers.
•     Increased control and flexibility to dictate client-side vs. server-side processing.
•     Performance enhancements for IE 7/8
•     Mobility extensions via ICEmobile that allow developers to easily extend their applications to the mobile environment, while tapping into powerful new features and capabilities.

“When we developed ICEfaces 3 we did so with two objectives in mind; reduce enterprise development and support costs, and deliver exciting new capabilities to our developer community.” says Brian McKinney, President and CEO of ICEsoft. “I think ICEfaces 3 delivers on both counts. ICEfaces 3 significantly reduces application development and support costs, and our users will be thrilled with our mobility extensions and with the new additions to the component library.”

ICEfaces 3 is available for download now and is free to use and distribute under the Apache 2 open source license. Developers can access documentation, user guides, and more than 70 new tutorials and code examples available throughout the site. They can also tap into the 150,000+ ICEfaces developer community that are active on the ICEsoft forums.

Synchronized performance is the latest development for professionals who regularly use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc., to provide friends, family and other readers or customers with news. HootSuite is an online service for individuals and businesses who want to synchronize their marketing campaigns over multiple social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google +.

With the new click.to desktop tool, users can now share news, links and distribute any text directly from the desktop, via the Social Media Manager HootSuite, to the most popular social networks.

For those who are not familiar with it, HootSuite is a cross-linker, an online service that allows social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and WordPress to work on a single platform. click.to is an app that links all applications for the desktop and skips intermediary steps between several different actions–essentially, a cross-linker for the desktop.

“With HootSuite click.to, we have two ideas that complement each other perfectly, said Peter Oehler, Axonic COO. “HootSuite allows social networks to operate simultaneously, and now click.to makes this possible with just a single click.”

“With over three million SME users and estimated six million by end of year, our goal is to provide a directory of applications that expand the functionality of the HootSuite platform. Developers and partners will highly benefit from the functional and promotional exposure to our influential users with the apps they develop. Brands and businesses want to meet their audiences where they are, and that means engaging across multiple channels and networks; our partner programs and integrations like click.to in the HootSuite App Directory allow us to steadily launch new purpose-specific tools into the dashboard to satisfy these needs,” states HootSuite’s CEO, Ryan Holmes.

click.to expands the Copy & Paste principle by providing logical links between all applications on the desktop and the Web “with one click;” the beginning of an action and the target application are linked with a single step, whilst dead ends that usually inevitably happen when using programs or websites are simply skipped.

Instead of manually opening programs every time, or typing website addresses, re-entering login information, and clicking login, click.to users need only select the action from the click.to menu. click.to creates a series of processes that allow it to skip the usual barriers that arise as a user navigates through multiple programs and the internet.

Sleeping Dogs catapults players into the role of undercover cop Wei Shen, tasked with taking down one of the world’s most fearsome criminal organizations from the inside – the Hong Kong Triads. As players explore the bustling and crowded Hong Kong island, through its neon-lit side streets and sprawling street markets, an incredible story unfolds of loyalty and betrayal, where Wei begins to question his own motives as he is sucked in deeper than he could ever imagine.

“From the moment you pick up the controller and experience the blend of driving, close combat and shooting you know you’re playing something fresh and a bit special,” said Lee Singleton, General Manager of Square Enix London Studios. “Sleeping Dogs has one of the best melee combat systems out there – it’s super brutal with devastating takedown moves, and when added to UFG’s proven heritage in driving games, a first class story and the vibrant backdrop of the Hong Kong underworld we get a fiery recipe with fun written all over it.”

“Working on Sleeping Dogs has been such a huge passion for the team at United Front Games and we’re really pleased to be working with Square Enix London Studios,” said Stephen Van Der Mescht, Executive Producer at United Front Games. “The extensive experience both our studios have in creating compelling openworld gameplay and rich and rewarding combat makes for a perfect partnership. Working together we can make sure that Sleeping Dogs is the most intense and immersive experience it can be.”

Offering players an island packed with action, every street corner, market stall, harbour dock or city skyscraper can become an opportunity for intense shoot-outs, adrenaline-fuelled street races and intense, brutal martial arts combat. Featuring one of the most intuitive and imaginative combat systems, Sleeping Dogs empowers players to perform an extensive set of martial arts moves, singlehandedly taking on numerous opponents. Players perform bone-crunching kicks and combos, vicious counters and a cinematic set of environmental takedowns making use of countless real-world items from circular saws to phone booths, incinerators to refrigerator doors.

In today’s environment, corporations, government, hospitals and educational facilities find it increasingly necessary to protect their employees, visitors, assets and property. Electronic access control provides a secure, flexible, manageable and cost effective means to provide protection and security without causing undue burden to the people who use the systems.

The use of numeric PIN passwords or electronic tokens or cards to access secure areas of buildings, ensures that doors are never left unsecured and there is no longer a need to re-key locks as a result of an employee not turning in their keys. Users or guests can be granted access to certain areas and denied access to others, and access may be restricted based on a flexible schedule. In addition, access control solutions can be used for time and attendance and can be integrated with alarm and security camera systems.

As part of the launch, hands on dealer training sessions are being held in Toronto (Feb 29th) and Montreal (April 26th). Attending dealers will be trained on installation and operation and will be part of the PAX1000 program providing additional ongoing training as well as access to dealer tools and awards programs. For more information on training please contact Aartech Canada at 1-877-760-3105.

Calgary Expo hours are:

• Friday 3 PM to 8 PM
• Saturday 10 PM to 7 PM
• Sunday 10 AM to 5 PM MST

In addition, the full cast will also take the stage for a special once-in-a-lifetime reunion event, TNG EXPOsed™, on the evening of Saturday, April 28, at the Stampede Corral. Doors open at 6 PM MST and the program will begin at 7 PM MST.

Nearly 5,000 seats will be available for this event, with prices ranging from $40 – $125 (CDN). Box office sales for the TNG EXPOsed, will begin at 10 AM MST on Saturday, February 18^th via TicketMaster.

The live evening event will open with host Emily Expo (the Calgary Expo’s mascot), and includes entertainment by local musicians Johnny Summers Little Big Band, special moderators Teddy Wilson, Cynthia Loyst and Ajay Fry (hosts of InnerSPACE on SPACE) and a special video tribute to the cast.
The Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo will also offer a series of unique, must-have collectibles for the serious TNG fan including a commemorative program to mark the occasion.

The Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo made interplanetary history in 2010 when Leonard Nimoy, (Mr. Spock) attended the Calgary Expo as a Guest of Honour. He also made a special “homecoming” visit to Vulcan, Alberta—the Official Star Trek® Capital of Canada. Over 5,000 people paid tribute him in a special ceremony. Leonard graciously left his mark on Vulcan and Star Trek® fans in several ways, with a handprint set in bronze, and by lending a pair of “ears” he used on the set in 1966.

“Our Government supports commemorating important milestones in Canadian history, such as the Diamond Jubilee,” said Minister Moore. “Part of commemorating such a special anniversary involves trying to reach new audiences, including young Canadians. These new applications will provide an opportunity to encourage Canadian youth to participate in this celebration of our country’s traditions, history, and institutions, and encourage all Canadians to learn more about the role of the Crown in Canada.”

The new Crown in Canada iPhone application and mobile site will be a source of information on the Government of Canada’s plans for celebrating The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, including details on the Diamond Jubilee Medal program and key dates for celebrating the 60^th anniversary of Her Majesty’s accession to the throne.

Dell Voice is loaded with free features that Canadians typically pay for as part of their carrier’s plan. Features included with Dell Voice are free local and long-distance calls to most of Canada, free unlimited incoming calls, free Voicemail, free Caller ID, and free Call Waiting to name a few.

Dell Voice uses Voice-Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to receive and place calls with users existing data connection (i.e. 3G, 4G or WiFi) on the Fibernetics network. Fongo enjoys privileged access to Fibernetics, a Canadian CLEC that owns and operates its own coast-to-coast network in Canada. By using the Fibernetics network, users can choose a local Canadian phone number for their Dell Voice line, as well as place emergency VoIP 911 calls.

“Dell and Fongo want to tilt the competitive playing field by offering smartphone users everything we believe they need in a mobile phone service – for free,” says John Stix, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Fongo. “Dell Voice aims to help Canadians reduce the cost or even eliminate the need for a voice plan. I believe Dell Voice is a game changer that has the potential to transform the telecommunications industry, while helping to put money back into the pockets of Canadian consumers and business owners.”

Dell Voice can help small business operators save money on their mobile phone bill, which is good news for small business owners like Conor Gordon, a student painting franchisee who racked up a monthly mobile phone bill of more than $1,500 in August, despite having negotiated with his wireless carrier the ‘best’ package to suit his business needs. “Dell Voice will make a huge difference to a small business like mine that is totally reliant on mobile phones for communication. I’ll have all the features I need in a phone, without the huge bills. It’s a no-brainer to download the app and use my extra data as long-distance and daytime voice minutes,” Gordon said.

David Gair, marketing director for Small & Medium Business, Dell Canada, added, “Dell has been a pioneer in providing clients, whether individual consumers or businesses, with the most advanced, yet cost-effective solutions to meet their communication and computing needs. Dell Voice is part of this commitment and complements our spectrum of technology offerings that help Canadian consumers and businesses to stay connected without breaking the bank.”

There will be a BlackBerry version available soon, and there is also a desktop version for PC available now.

As mobile communications are moving towards a converged IP transport network and leading to the deployment of Carrier Ethernet in the backhaul, the introduction of LTE technology and the transition from circuit-switched to packet-based services are generating key challenges for industry stakeholders. In fact, there is continuous pressure to minimize the time to market for new services, reduce network OPEX, and provide subscribers with ubiquitous coverage, high availability and flawless quality of experience (QoE).

At this year’s edition of GSMA Mobile World Congress, EXFO will demonstrate how its comprehensive mobile network assessment solution addresses critical challenges, from the physical layer all the way to the application layer. Showcased EXFO products will include the Backhaul Tri-Pak, an all-in-one Ethernet, fiber and connector assessment solution that enables complete Ethernet service turn-up in 15 minutes, the BrixHawk Distributed Analyzer, designed for determining subscriber QoE in order to reduce customer churn, as well as the BrixNGN service assurance solution, which enables network performance optimization, bringing unprecedented scalability for both operational and capital cost reduction.

“EXFO has become a choice partner for both mobile network operators and mobile network equipment manufacturers, as our innovative and leading solution enables seamless network convergence”, said Matti Palomäki, Vice-President of EXFO’s Wireless Division. “Our complete end-to-end assessment solution is designed with one purpose in mind: clearly target business imperatives of the mobile industry, such as minimizing time to market, reducing OPEX and optimizing availability and QoE throughout the network lifecycle.”

Germain Lamonde, EXFO’s Chairman of the Board, President and CEO will be chairing the “Connect with Canada Networking Breakfast” on Tuesday, February 28 at 9:00 AM at Restaurante Watatsumi in Arena, Plaza España. Space is limited, please RSVP to chrystelle.carrillo@international.gc.ca to attend.

The advertising-supported service, launched in early November, is using QuickPlay Media’s integrated Live TV and VOD Solutions to stream approximately 70 TV programs and 1,200 episodes to members with Apple® iPad™, iPhone™ and Android™ devices. Just days after its launch, the myTV application was the most popular iPad app and iPhone app on the Hong Kong App Store.

TVB’s partnership with QuickPlay Media enables the company to easily extend its popular catalog of TV content to leading IP-connected devices, while generating incremental advertising revenue. Some noteworthy elements of myTV include:

• Cantonese, Mandarin and English language programming and application modes;
• Full integration of pre-roll and interstitial video ads as well as banner and splash ads;
• Featured content carousels for ease of search, and discovery of new content;
• Single sign-on from a myTV account with complete user authorization and authentication;
• Restriction of content viewing to authorized geographic locations; and
• Flexible WiFi or 3G content streaming options.

“With the launch of myTV, we are able to continue our tradition of delivering excellence in programming and cutting-edge broadcast technology to the people of Hong Kong,” said Mr. Cheong Shin Keong, General Manager of TVB. “We are delighted to be working with QuickPlay Media, a company with a proven history of providing high-quality, managed solutions for large scale premium video services.”

Wayne Purboo, CEO of QuickPlay Media said, “Asia is one of the fastest-growing markets for the consumption of video on mobile devices. This is an important market for QuickPlay and the successful launch of myTV is a great example of how our scalable technology enables our customers to cost-effectively deliver high quality services to their subscribers. We are proud to partner with such an innovative leader in the television market as we continue to expand our business into new geographies.”

myTV is currently a free service. Users can download the app via the Hong Kong iTunes® App Store or the Android Market™ and then register as a member on the TVB web site or inside the app for accessing the service. The ad-supported service currently offers approximately 1,200 hours of current TV programmes.

1. Prizes: $95,000 in prizes (part seed capital, part products and services)
2. A live pitch event, judged by leading technology and business leaders
3. A full year of follow-up editorial exposure (successes, challenges, advice) in print and online

The winner will receive:

• $20,000 in cash
• $60,000 in related products and/or service
• one year of mentoring and business assistance from a team of Canadian business and technology experts
• one year of on-going coverage in Backbone magazine and online

The runner-up will receive: 

• $5,000 in cash
• $10,000 in related products and/or services

The top 200 applicants will also receive invitations to the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT), Oct. 22 to 24 in Montreal.

The competition application form is available online. Qualified entrants are early-stage companies, with revenue of no more than $2 million annually. Successful entrants will have a ready-to-sell product or service and a complete business plan and market analysis. Any business or technology sector is relevant.

Timing of campaign

Backbone will create an online “Innovation Campaign Portal” in addition to the publication, where readers can monitor the winner’s advancements, successes, resources and challenges in weekly blog posts, tweets and other Web content.

“The campaign is consistent with Backbone’s mandate of inspiring innovation and helping companies learn from other businesses”, says Steve Dietrich, Publisher of Backbone magazine.

Alpha Group, the founding sponsor, is an organization established in 2007 to reinvigorate trading in Canada. With its Alternative Trading System, Alpha Group brought the change the financial industry was waiting for in the trading space. Now, with the formation of its Exchange, Alpha Group is looking at bringing similar change to the Canadian listing space driven by what issuers and investors need.

“We are determined to help build the eco-system that Canadian technology entrepreneurs are currently missing in the initial and early stages of their business.” states Jos Schmitt, CEO of Alpha Group.

Additional Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsors include: HP, ORION, Ceridian, Ryerson Digital Media Zone, Wildeboer Dellelce, BCTIA’s Centre for Growth, Financial Technology Partners, World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT).

“At the Huffington Post, we’ve always done things unconventionally. Last May, we launched HuffPost Canada, our first international edition. Last month we launched Le Huffington Post in France,” stated Arianna Huffington. “I’m delighted today to announce the launch of Le Huffington Post Quebec, an edition encompassing all things Quebec and run by a strong local team. Working closely with our Canada team, HuffPost Quebec will be bringing our signature mix of news, blogging, community, and social engagement to Quebec in a way that reflects the province’s vital issues, rich history, and unique cultural identity.”

Le Huffington Post Quebec combines HuffPost’s powerful engagement platform with local expertise from a talented Quebec-based editorial team led by the site’s managing editor, Patrick White. Jean-Philippe Cipriani is news editor and Tamy-Emma Pepin is managing blog editor. Bloggers who will be contributing to the site include:

• Michel Martelly
• Yves-François Blanchet
• Michel Kelly Gagnon
• Julius Grey
• Anne Marie Withenshaw

“Debuting in Quebec is the next logical step for us following on the heels of our successful Huffington Post Canada launch in May,” said Graham Moysey. “The Huffington Post Canada has more than 2.2 million unique visitors a month – 268,000 UV’s from Quebec alone – and the huffingtonpost.ca site has grown 162 percent since launch. We look forward to bringing to Quebec the smart news, real-time opinion, and vibrant social nature of the Huffington Post platform.”*

Le Huffington Post Quebec launches with advertising partner Bell Canada and its agency, Media Experts, featuring ads for Fibe TV.

The Huffington Post is part of AOL’s Huffington Post Media Group, a leading source of news, opinion, entertainment, community and digital information, which includes Moviefone, Engadget, TechCrunch, Patch, and StyleList. The Group’s diverse network of sites combines journalism, technology, engagement, and video to reach a global audience on every platform.

The Group has over 20,000 bloggers — from politicians and celebrities to academics and policy experts — who contribute in real-time on a wide-range of topics making news today. Among them are Nora Ephron, Larry Page, David Suzuki, Bill Maher, Robert Redford, Madonna, Alec Baldwin, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Gates, and Charlie Rose.

According to comScore, Inc., Total Canada, Home and Work, December 2011, The Huffington Post data from [E] Huffington Post Global, The Huffington Post has 36 million unique visitors a month. The Huffington Post UK and The Huffington Post Canada both launched last year, Le Huffington Post France launched in January 2012, El Huffington Post Spain is scheduled to launch in March, and the recently announced L’Huffington Post Italia is also scheduled to launch this year.

“It’s so important for us to partner with brands who truly get what we’re doing, and NOS has shown they’re serious about gaming and giving gamers great experiences. We’re proud to have their support,” adds Virgin Gaming President Billy Levy about the new agreement.

Competitive video gaming has become a strategic pillar for NOS Energy Drink to connect with current and potential consumers.  The company understands the powerful engagement tool that gaming provides, which led them to partner with the fastest growing brand in the competitive gaming space, Virgin Gaming, who recently surpassed 1 million registered players, each of whom spends an average of 72 minutes per visit using the Virgin Gaming platform.

“NOS is all about fuelling high performance energy, be it behind the wheel or behind the controller,” said Eric Helms, vice president of marketing for NOS.  “Competitive gaming is soaring in popularity, and Virgin Gaming is at the forefront of that surge.  We’re excited to partner with them and look forward to fuelling their million plus members to victory.”

Virgin Gaming has quickly earned a reputation for hosting some of the largest online video game tournaments ever.  The site pairs up gamers of similar skill levels to play head-to-head matches for cash prizes.

Splatalot is a hilarious medieval-themed physical game show geared to the 8-12 year-old audience. The series features a larger-than-life extreme obstacle course with more splats and spills than ever imaginable. Each episode features a different group of 12 thrill-seeking teen contestants, dubbed Attackers, competing in three hilarious rounds: Cross the Moat, Escape the Stockade and Capture the Crown. The Defenders of Splatalot, an international squad of nine costumed gladiators, do their best to protect the castle from the Attackers—leaving only one in each episode to be crowned King or Queen of Splatalot.

“Splatalot launched last year in Canada, the UK and Australia to an overwhelming response from the tween audience. Everyone loves the show’s physical humour and great characters, and this is what Splatalot is all about,” says Matt Hornburg, Managing Partner, Distribution360. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Disney XD to continue sharing this hilarious series with new audiences internationally.”

The Distribution360 team is attending Kidscreen in New York City this week.

For more information, please visit:

www.distribution360.com

www.disneyxd.com

www.splatalot.com

VWIFF recently announced the Spotlight Award winners for 2012, which celebrates outstanding achievements of BC women in screen-based media. Participating in this year’s festival, director Jill Sharpe has been awarded ‘Artistic Innovation Award’ for her most recent film, ‘Bone Wind Fire’ (National Film Board of Canada).

Today, more than ever, women behind the lens are playing a significant role in the film industry; however, in contrast to their male counter-parts, women still face the challenge to receive recognition for their films. According to Telefilm Canada’s 2010 report on the state of women in the Canadian Feature Film Industry, women professionals report they are disadvantaged with respect to visibility at Canadian film festivals.

Festival Director Roslyn Muir states, “The Vancouver Women in Film Festival and Women In Film Television Vancouver programs are an integral part of the industry. Without our support, women filmmakers in Western Canada would not have the same filmmaking opportunities that exist today.” Muir continues, “Each year, our submissions and audience numbers continue to grow and, to me, that proves that there is a need to have women’s stories seen, heard and celebrated in the public arena.”

On March 8, the Vancouver Women in Film Festival kicks off with the Spotlight Awards Gala opening reception, the WIFTI short films spotlight screenings commence and the Digital Media Forum panels return for the festival weekend. The VWIFF will announce the Legacy Awards to the top three BC filmmakers at the festival, and the Women in the Director’s Chair (WIDC) Feature Film Award, curated by WIDC President Carol Whiteman, will present a $120,000 in-kind award to this year’s recipient, which is administered by Creative Women Workshops. Additional events include a Pre-Festival Launch Party, a Digital Media Masterclass, Pitching sessions, Receptions, and Networking Lunch presentation.

Featuring a talented line-up of Canadian, US and International women filmmakers, the VWIFF will showcase six features and over 50 short films, made by both first-time and veteran filmmakers.

Curated by Roslyn Muir, the festival’s feature-length highlights include:

• Seasoned filmmaker Desiree Lim’s horror ‘The House’
• Netherland director Kaat Beels drama ‘Hotel Swooni’
• Director Amy Bohigian’s same-sex adoption documentary ‘Conceiving Family’
• Tracy D. Smith’s ‘Everything and Everyone’, which features some of Vancouver’s premier talent

Curated by Tara Hungerford, the festival shorts and director highlights include:

• Mina Shum’s comedy ‘Hip Hop Mom’
• Rainmaker’s animated production ‘Luna’ directed by Donna Brockopp
• MPPIA winner ‘Move Out Clean’, by Kelly-Ruth Mercier, which was also rated #1 on the Shortsreport blogspot

In addition, VWIFF will showcase the ‘Wise + Wild’ Yukon shorts, curated by filmmaker Lulu Keating, which includes festival awardwinners such as ‘Time Lines’ by Suzanne Crocker, ‘Soft Spoken’ by Evan Rensch, and ‘Longest Dream’ by Kim Beggs, to name a few.

Vancouver Women in Film Festival is grateful to all of their media sponsors involved in the festival this year and would like to thank 24 Hours Vancouver, City TV, Global BC, CBC, MeTV KVOS, WE (Westender), City of
Vancouver, Playback, and Shaw for their support.

Bill White, VP Sales & Marketing for Roaring Penguin Software said, “We are pleased to be able to help support these events.  We really feel that training is key for the MSP industry.  We hope this road show will help MSPs take advantage of our technology alliance with Level Platforms.”

Roaring Penguin Software features anti-spam solutions for the client site that can be run as a centralized service at the managed service provider’s network operations center or as a completely outsourced service run by Roaring Penguin.  Roaring Penguin’s CanIt anti-spam software combines high-performance e-mail filtering with ease of setup and administration, making it the ideal solution for Small and Medium Enterprise environments looking for accurate, plug-and-play anti-spam/anti-virus filtering and e-mail archiving.  The software can be clustered to handle very large mail volumes.  All versions of the software feature automatic updates.

The CanIt line of anti-spam software has been integrated with Level Platforms’ Managed Workplace’s central dashboard.

The Level Platforms Managed Services Education and Collaboration Road Show is a day-and-a-half event featuring top MSPs sharing winning strategies and best practices, educational panels delivering the latest industry intelligence, and the launch of Managed Workplace 2012.

Cisco Videoscape is a comprehensive TV platform allowing service providers and media companies to extend content across devices and networks to create a new, truly immersive home and mobile television experience. Videoscape utilizes the cloud, network, and client devices together to deliver new, high-quality video experiences over the Internet.

Through the use of Cisco Videoscape, TELUS is differentiating its consumer video experience in an increasingly competitive market, while simultaneously extending opportunities for revenue generation to its growing customer base of Optik services subscribers and TELUS wireless subscribers in Alberta and British Columbia.

“Our vision for Optik on the go is to offer customers a simple, straightforward way to view Optik TV content across any number of mobile screens or devices,” said David Fuller, chief marketing officer, TELUS. “With Cisco Videoscape we can now mobile-enable content and offer customers an innovative, world-class TV experience — at home and on the go.”

With Videoscape, TELUS will offer Optik customers in Alberta and British Columbia a unique TV experience, allowing them to take their TV service with them on the go. TELUS has employed Cisco’s technology and service delivery expertise in managing synergies between the cloud, network and client devices, to launch a fully hosted video content management platform to increase service velocity. Optik on the go allows users to start, pause, rewind and fast forward their shows just like they do at home.

“Service providers like TELUS are well-positioned to do for the TV experience what the mobile Internet did for the cellphone — allow anywhere, anytime access,” said Pankaj Patel, senior vice president, Engineering and general manager, Cisco Service Provider Business. “Today’s consumers want a personalized video experience, regardless of location or device. With Cisco Videoscape technology powering ‘Optik on the go’, TELUS further enhances their premium video customer experience.”

“At TELUS, we’re listening to our customers and introducing more fun, flexibility and mobility to their Optik TV experience,” said Joe Natale, Chief Commercial Officer, TELUS. “Optik TV for Xbox 360 and Optik on the go are two more examples of fun and innovative services that make it clear Optik TV is not your average TV service. It’s exciting for us at TELUS to bring this kind of innovation to life for our customers. Stay tuned, we are committed to bringing a steady stream of cool, leading edge ideas to Optik TV.”

With Optik TV, TELUS customers can use their Xbox 360 as their digital television box. Now, with the addition of an Xbox 360 Kinect sensor, users can employ a range of voice commands and hand gestures to control their television. This means Optik TV customers can change channels up or down, mute or unmute the volume, and pause, replay, and fast forward without the remote control.

Additionally, Optik on the go offers TV On Demand shows and movies from Super Channel, Hollywood Suite, Family Channel, Disney XD, Disney Jr, and Baby TV in English, French and Mandarin. The content library will continue to grow throughout 2012 and beyond as new shows and movies will be added constantly.

Optik on the go is a free application. There is no additional charge for Optik TV customers to watch select TV On Demand shows and movies from channels they already subscribe to. Tablet and smartphone users can enjoy the service without incurring data charges by using Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet. When connecting via a mobile network, data usage charges would apply.

With no fees charged for data access, maintenance or system storage, Senomix Timesheets is purchased with a one-time license cost and saves all data on a company’s own network. Allowing an office to streamline their billing and payroll process while retaining full control of their time and expense tracking information, Senomix reduces administrative costs by automating the process of tracking billable effort hours and project expenses.

With effort hour and expense data immediately available for in-house billing or project tracking the moment a user clicks ‘save’ on their computer screen, Senomix Timesheets can be used on its own or as a front-end for an office’s QuickBooks or database billing and payroll system. Ready to work in all-Windows, all-Macintosh OS X or mixed Windows, Mac, Linux and BlackBerry offices, Senomix Timesheets also connects directly with Microsoft Excel, enabling managers to create reports in their familiar spreadsheet workspace.

“Over the years, when we picked up our video cameras and recorded the exciting events in our lives, we wanted to have them forever. Now, so many of these irreplaceable memories like weddings, graduations, children’s birthdays and other special family celebrations are locked away on old tapes that are degrading over time while the devices to play them are disappearing. With this simple-to-use product, anyone can convert their aging video tape to digital and save and share the movies that tell their family’s unique story,” said Sean Penn, Vice President of Product Management for Roxio Products at Corel.

Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus makes it easy to transfer your old analog video tapes to digital by simply plugging in your video camera or VHS player to your computer and letting the software guide you through the process. Bringing together a high-quality video capture device with easy-to-use software, the new Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus includes many enhancements in three key areas:

Great looking video and projects: New image enhancement tools remove noise, stabilize and color correct your videos. Give your final productions a more professional look with Hollywood-inspired titles and credits, new menus, transitions such as wipes and dissolves, and fade-to-black.

Easier than ever to use: Find thoughtful, time-saving features throughout the product, including ‘smart’ contextual help; a new USB device that simplifies setup by automatically detecting the video source format; and new capabilities that make it easy to burn large videos across multiple DVDs if extra disc space is required.

Easy Sharing for Today’s Lifestyle: Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus makes it easy to preserve and share your videos in today’s formats, whether you’re burning a DVD, posting to YouTube or Facebook, or saving to mobile devices like iPhone. Supported formats include MPEG-2, WMV, H.264 AVC and DivX®.

Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus is now available for purchase from Roxio and will be offered in retail stores later in February. Suggested retail pricing in the US and Canada is $69.99. Registered owners of previous versions of the product are eligible for a special software-only upgrade for $19.99.

The above release news comes on the same day that Corel has announced completion of the acquisition of the Roxio® business from Rovi Corporation. With this deal, Corel has expanded its product portfolio to include Roxio’s broad range of digital media and security solutions, including Roxio Creator®, the industry’s most popular digital media suite and Roxio® Toast®, the leading media conversion software on the Mac® platform. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Corel now adds the Roxio product line, including the following well-known products, to its portfolio:

• Roxio Creator® – Software to enhance, preserve, capture and share your digital media
• Roxio® Toast® – The ultimate multi-media toolkit for your Mac
• Roxio® Game Capture – Software and hardware solution to record your console gameplay
• Roxio® Easy VHS to DVD – Convert analog video tapes to digital video for sharing on DVD, online and mobile devices
• Roxio® CinePlayer® DVD Decoder – Watch your favorite DVDs on Windows Media Player
• Roxio® BackOnTrack™ Suite – Complete media protection solution that automatically keeps your memories safe and protects your PC from both hardware and software disasters
• Roxio® Secure Products – Powerful encryption for optical media and USB flash drives

“We want Roxio’s customers and partners to know that these products are an important addition to our portfolio and they will have a great home with Corel,” said Shawn Cadeau, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing at Corel. “We look forward to bringing together the best of what Corel and Roxio have to offer as we work to deliver even richer, more rewarding experiences to our customers.”

With this acquisition, Corel will take advantage of its well-established global infrastructure to dramatically broaden distribution of Roxio products into new international markets. In addition, the company will draw upon the complementary video, photo, audio, and disc burning technologies found in both Roxio and Corel software to give users even more capabilities and further enhance Corel’s overall product portfolio. Corel also sees significant opportunities in combining the strengths of Corel’s and Roxio’s established retail and direct sales channels and large customer bases.

“We wanted to create a regularly scheduled program that mom, dad and even the grandparents can enjoy with the kids,” said Pat Marshall, Vice President, Communications and Investor Relations, Cineplex Entertainment. “Families can share and celebrate the experience of taking a child to their first movie in a theatre or the return of a beloved movie back on the big screen with the selections that will be a part of our Family Favourites program.”

Tickets are only $2.50 and can be purchased at participating theatre box offices, online on the Cineplex mobile site m.cineplex.com. Family Favourites will be presented year-round. The 2012 schedule includes:

Family Favourites will play at the following theatres:

“Safer Internet Day serves as an important reminder to all Canadians that we all have a role to play when it comes to staying safe in an online world.

Through the National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet, the Government works to enhance the tools required for prevention, investigation and prosecution of those who prey on children online. We will continue to address this serious crime through the RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre and our valued partners such as the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

Combatting online sexual exploitation is part of the Government’s efforts to make the Internet a safer place. That commitment also includes protecting Canadians and our digital infrastructure from cyber threats, as reflected in Canada’s Cyber Security Strategy. “Get Cyber Safe”, our national public awareness campaign, is a key component of the Strategy. The campaign website, GetCyberSafe.ca, helps Canadians understand the cyber threats they face online and the simple, straightforward steps they can take to minimize these risks. We all benefit from being safer online.”

Canada is proud to be part of Safer Internet Day 2012, an international effort, which draws attention to the need for individuals, families, and the public and private sectors to be aware of the risks and to use the tools and resources available to help them stay safe online.

Developers are increasingly choosing eMMC instead of raw NAND flash as their main storage media in embedded devices. Presentations provide a background on eMMC on the Linux Kernel and the current state of the Android platform in regards to eMMC. Presenters will share insights on how to effectively measure your eMMC performance, and tips to improve it. Topics covered include: filesystem bearing on MMC/SD performance, IO scheduler configuration, and optimal partition layout.

The Android Builders Summit, February 13 – 14, 2012 at the Hotel Sofitel San Francisco Bay, Redwood Shores, CA, is a technical summit for OEMs, device manufacturers, integrators, custom builders, and the growing Android and Linux Kernel developer communities. The Android Builders Summit provides an intimate forum for collaboration at the systems level and discussion of core issues and opportunities when designing Android devices.

The Embedded Linux Conference (ELC), February 15 – 17, 2012 at the Hotel Sofitel San Francisco Bay, Redwood Shores, CA, is the premier vendor-neutral technical conference for companies and developers using Linux in embedded products. This conference, now in its 8th year, has the largest collection of sessions dedicated exclusively to embedded Linux and embedded Linux developers.

Tom Foy, Embedded Software Developer for Intrinsyc Software, will present at the Android Builders Summit. Tom has worked on multiple embedded Linux based products, specializing on e-readers and tablets. Mainly focusing in the areas of power management, ARM platform support and system performance he has experience in taking the often rough initial platforms provided by silicon vendors and making them ready for consumer use.

Ken Tough, Principal Engineer with Intrinsyc Software, will present at the Embedded Linux Consortium. Ken led the platform development on Linux and Android-based embedded products, including system engineering on the several e-readers and tablets. He has broad experience in the areas of power management and charging, system performance, component qualification, USB, and product-hardening of reference BSPs.

“DISH is pleased to announce that Industry Canada has approved the transfer of the Canadian spectrum licenses held by TerreStar to DISH. In granting its approval, Industry Canada reached the conclusion that the transfer would be in the public interest in light of ‘the capacity that would be available in Canada,’ among other reasons.

U.S. bankruptcy courts approved DISH’s acquisition of the spectrum licenses held by TerreStar and DBSD in the middle of 2011.

DISH is prepared to immediately close both transactions upon receiving Federal Communications Commission approval of the transactions and associated waiver requests, which will enable DISH to move forward with its planned wireless initiatives.

DISH believes that immediate Commission approval will be a win for consumers, competition, infrastructure investment, and American jobs.”

“We only need to look in our own backyards to witness firsthand the exponential growth of social media and the impact it is having on law enforcement,” commented Chief Dale McFee, president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. “As a community outreach, crime prevention or forensic tool, law enforcement is rapidly embracing this global phenomena — as it must! The CACP is thrilled to work in partnership with Lauri Stevens and LAwS Communications in bringing this first-class learning opportunity to Canada.”

The SMILE Conference brings together one of the largest assemblages of law enforcement professionals from around the world to address the topics of social media strategy, reputation management, policy and other issues pertaining to community outreach. There will be an emphasis on the changing role between law enforcement, social activists, and traditional media.

“We are extremely proud to have our fifth conference in Vancouver,” stated Lauri Stevens, SMILE Conference founder. “We’re now going into our third year. Over the past two years the SMILE Conference has pioneered the adoption of social media by law enforcement agencies across the world for public outreach, crime prevention, and forensics. Hosting the conference in Canada for the first time is only appropriate as adoption of social media by law enforcement grows exponentially.”

The influential speaker lineup and international panel of experts will lead attendees through three days of in-depth social media and Internet education specific to law enforcement professionals. Lectures and sessions will cover topics such as online officer safety, including use of Facebook and Twitter, social engineering, mobile video and geo-location threats.

A town hall meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 27, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. It will provide everyone an opportunity to further explore and discuss at length issues concerning social media and law enforcement that could not be fully addressed during the plenary session. The town hall will be highly spirited, interactive and wrapped in a social media context.

Adele Diamond and Clyde Hertzman, both Canada Research Chairs, are experts in the factors and activities that determine whether a person thrives or struggles in the face of challenges that require a nimble, resilient and creative mind. They will share their perspectives in a public lecture sponsored by UBC and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Diamond, a professor in UBC’s Department of Psychiatry, is one of the world’s leading researchers on the development of executive functions – reasoning, working memory, self-control, flexibility and problem-solving. Executive functions are key to children’s academic success, Diamond says; improving them will reduce the number of diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, cut school dropout rates and slash the incidence of crime and drug addiction.

With help from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Prof. Diamond is conducting a pilot study in British Columbia of a program called Tools of the Mind, which aims to promote the development of executive functions in young children. Diamond found that the program, with its use of props and dramatic play, significantly improved children’s academic performance.

“While it seems logical that if you want to improve academic success you should concentrate on academic teaching, that’s not correct. You also have to address children’s social, physical and emotional needs,” she says.

Hertzman, meanwhile, examines how the conditions of early childhood, including parents’ stress levels, stability of a neighbourhood or availability of books, can leave permanent marks on a person’s brain – or on an even deeper level, the functioning of their genes.

“Even 40 years later, there’s an imprint on their DNA,” affecting up to five per cent of their genes, Hertzman says.

B.C. was the first jurisdiction in the world to carry out a complete population-based monitoring of children by neighbourhood.

“We have demonstrated here in B.C. that when you go from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, there’s a huge difference in children by the time they reach school age,” he says. “In some neighbourhoods less than five per cent of the children are behind where we’d like them to be in physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. And in other neighbourhoods it’s more than 60 per cent.”

The survey’s data have affected hundreds of policies and projects, Hertzman says. Victoria’s library system, for example, built a new branch in a neighbourhood with particularly low scores in language and cognitive skills, and started an outreach program to families living there.

In the lead-up to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting this month in Vancouver, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the University of British Columbia are teaming up to present a four-part lecture series celebrating Canadian innovation. These lectures will cover a range of Canadian research, from brain imaging, to child development, to quantum computing.

Event: Canada Foundation for Innovation Dialogues at UBC Robson Square presents Adele Diamond and Clyde Hertzman – a public lecture on early child development

Date/Time: 6-7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012

Location: Plaza Lounge, UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson Street, Vancouver

Details: Everyone welcome. Admissions free, no RSVP necessary. Talk will be followed by Q&A and light refreshments. Visit innovation.ca or aaas.ubc.ca for more info.

Female Eye Founder and Executive Director, Leslie Ann Coles, an award winning filmmaker and actress, was working the festival circuit with her debut 40 min. debut film, In The Refrigerator, when it dawned on her that women were a minority on the indie scene and a pitiful minority in Hollywood and its various outposts. She launched an event so women could have an exclusive showcase in order to get their work to a wider audience.

The Female Eye Film Festival (FeFF) held its inaugural event in November 2001 showcasing 42 films directed by women. The FeFF honours local filmmakers with the annual Toronto Filmmaker Series and presents an impressive program of films from women directors from around the world.

Coles recalls the original tag line “FeFF flicks, not just for chicks” the intent was to attract male attendees to the festival by dispelling the myth that women directors create films for women. The tag line “Always honest, not always pretty” sprang to the forefront in 2005 when Coles was asked to describe the films presented annual at the festival.

In 2003 Coles determined that women, like men, enjoy competition so she hosted the first competitive filmmaking event in Canada presenting juried awards for Best Films. In 2004, the FeFF opened the doors to her male counterpart with the first annual Script Development Program, a two tiered competition for male and female screen writers. In 2004, the FeFF commenced a series of community outreach programs which included the December 6th Program, a memorial screening in remembrance of The Montreal Massacre (1986) showcasing films that dealt with issues of violence.

In 2006, The Female Eye produced the first Young Filmmaker Development Workshop involving teenage females on the production of short super 8 experimental films that were premiered at the festival. The FeFF produced the 3rd edition of the YFDW in 2011 involving Aboriginal woman and girls, these films will be showcased at the 2012 10th Anniversary FeFF.

The Female Eye continues the tradition of presenting extraordinary films by local, national and international directors and boasts the inception of the Honourary Director and Honourary Maverick Award. In addition now attendees of this five full day event see Films, Script Readings, Industry Panel Discussions, Round Tables, Workshops and Best in The Biz Tribute Series along with the Honorary Director Brunch and Tribute.

The Female Eye continues to entertain and educate audiences while offering a perspective of the world through the female eye. This year’s exciting line up of filmmakers and celebs builds on the ever-growing success of ten years of The Female Eye Film festival to include the first LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD.

Honourary Award Recipients: A sampling of past Honourary Award recipients.

Directors:

• 2011 Mary Harron, New York City, USA (American Psycho, The Moth Diaries, I Shot Andy Warhol)
• 2010 Catherine Hardwicke, LA, CA (Twilight, Thirteen, Red Riding Hood, Lords of Dogtown)
• 2009 Patricia Rozema, Toronto, Canada (Kit Kittredge: American Girl, Mansfield Park, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing)
• 2008 Kari Skogland, Toronto, Canada (Fifty Dead Men Walking, The Stone Angel, Liberty Stands Still)
• 2007 Deborah Kampmeier, New York City, USA (Virgin and Hounddog)
• 2006 Gail Harvey, Toronto, Canada (Some Things That Stay, The Listener)
• 2005 Ann Marie Fleming, Montreal, Canada (The French Guy, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam)
• 2004 Deepa Mehta, Toronto, Canada (Heaven On Earth, Fire, Earth, Water)

Mavericks:

• 2011 Anne Tait, former Casting Director, CBC, feature films, television series
• 2010 Kit Redmond, Executive Producer, RTR Media, former Broadcaster
• 2009 Linda Schuyler, Co-creator / Executive Producer, the Degrassi franchise

Actresses:

• 2011 Mackenzie Phillips, (One Day At A Time, American Graffiti, So Weird)
• 2010 Karen Black, (Nothing Special, Black Christmas)
• 2003 Elisabeth Moss, (Mad Men, Virgin)

Additional honoured guests have included Alanna Masterson and Tyler Blackburn stars of the award-winning feature film, Peach Plum Pear, along with celebrity guests, Carson Kressley and Hallee Hirsh.

The $1.26 billion in production activity accounted for almost 30,000 full-time direct and spin-off jobs. The increase was led by domestic spending which accounted for $852.1 million in total, a 32% increase over 2010′s figure of $646.2 million. Foreign spending was also up contributing $412.9 million total – a 30% increase over the previous year’s $318.1 million.

“The McGuinty government celebrates the success of Ontario’s creative industries as we are committed to creating jobs and a stronger economy,” stated Michael Chan, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport for Ontario. “We are proud to partner with our film and television industry, continuing to foster an innovative, competitive climate that will drive Ontario forward as a leader in the global market.”

Karen Thorne-Stone, President & CEO, Ontario Media Development Corporation added that “We are delighted by the outstanding performance of the film and television industry. It is a testimonial to the fact that Ontario offers a ‘total package’ of incentives to attract foreign and domestic productions, including: the right mix of government support, stable and competitive financial incentives, world-class infrastructure, superb talent and skills and diverse locations.”

The rise came despite the continued strength of the Canadian dollar, aggressive competition from other jurisdictions and a soft global economy. Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) programs also support the book and magazine publishing, music and interactive digital media industries. The entire entertainment and creative cluster supports almost 300,000 jobs and contributes $12.2 billion annually to the province’s GDP.

“Ontario provides a wide variety of options that make it very desirable for us to shoot our productions here. With its strong infrastructure, consistently reliable tax credit, a deep, professional crew base and many architectural styles and diverse locations available throughout the region, each of our series is able to find all of the resources they need in Ontario,” Said  Mark Binke, Senior Vice President, Cable and Digital Production for Universal Cable Productions/NBC Universal. “Additionally, we have great relationships that we have built over the past decade with local vendors and talent. OMDC President and CEO Karen Thorne and her team are great partners.”

Ontario Film And TV Production Quick Facts

• Ontario’s 2011 film & TV production activity contributed $1.26 billion to the economy – an increase of $300 million or 31% over 2010
• Increased spending was seen in virtually all areas, including domestic film, which spiked in 2011 contributing $165.9 million in 2011 compared to $62.6 million in 2010 – a 165% increase.
• Domestic television series grew 34% -  to $626.7 million in 2011 from $467.9 million in 2010
• Foreign feature film spending was $231.6 million compared to $159.3 million in 2010 – a 45% increase.
• Foreign television series spending continued to grow contributing $150.2 million in 2011 compared to $119.0 million in 2010 – a 26% increase.
• Total domestic production spending contributed $852.1 million, a 32% increase.
• Total foreign production spending increased by $94.7 million or 30%.
• The $1.26 billion in production activity accounted for almost 30,000 full-time direct and spin-off jobs.
• Every million dollars of film and TV production in Ontario generates 23 full-time direct and spin-off jobs.
• Ontario’s entire creative cluster includes: book and magazine publishing; sound recording; film and television; interactive digital media; performing arts; radio; advertising; architecture and design

2009-11 Ontario Film and Television Production activity chart broken down by format with foreign and domestic levels.

1991-2011 20-year graph showing Ontario production levels comparing foreign and domestic activity.

e-Value™ is a software as a service tool designed to calculate the cost-efficiency of corporate social media campaigns by comparing natural (earned) engagement behavior of online communities against the paid promotion and management efforts deployed by companies to build these followings. All performance results are measured against a growing list of benchmarked social media accounts from global brands with a strong social media presence. As of today, over 1500 brands have their e-Value™ benchmarked.

According to Parta Dialogue, e-Value™ is a critical starting point that will allow brand managers to establish ROI for social media spending – a major request from top marketing management in 2012.

“We welcome the brands that have joined us as early adopters of our e-Value™ service. With their help, we are on the way to creating a new industry benchmark that will answer brand managers most pressing questions,” states Parta’s CEO, Paul Allard.

]]> http://www.villagegamer.net/2012/02/07/rona-and-air-transat-to-evaluate-parta-dialogue-e-value-analytics-tool/feed/ 0 http://www.villagegamer.net/2012/02/07/financial-consumer-agency-of-canada-offers-teens-a-chance-to-win-a-new-laptop/ http://www.villagegamer.net/2012/02/07/financial-consumer-agency-of-canada-offers-teens-a-chance-to-win-a-new-laptop/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:19:06 +0000 Tami http://www.villagegamer.net/?p=23985 The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) is offering Canadian students the chance to win one of three laptop computers while they learn about budgeting, savings, credit, debt and financial planning. The City provides students with a fun and effective way to learn important money management concepts. Using The City and entering the contest is class work that really pays off.

The City is a free, Web-based learning program developed by FCAC and the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC). The City is easily accessible and can be used by teachers and students online or on paper. In order to qualify to win the laptops, students face a “100% challenge”: they must complete four modules in The City and score 100 percent on a follow-up quiz. The three winners will be chosen randomly from a draw of all qualified entrants. The contest is open until March 31, 2012.

The contest rules are available on FCAC’s website, or can be obtained by calling the Agency’s Consumer Services Centre toll-free at 1-866-461-3222.

Teachers and students who have used The City talk about their experience in FCAC’s Success Stories videos featuring students in Alberta and New Brunswick.

“As technology continues to evolve, it is more important than ever for young people to understand the importance of protecting their privacy, and their right to control their own personal information. Encouraging youth to create videos for a contest is a wonderful way to spread this message,” said Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. “To that end, my Office recently launched several teacher resource guides to teach students Privacy by Design, and how this can be designed into information technologies, business practices, and networked infrastructure, as the default condition.”

Trend Micro continues to team with leading organizations involved in educating schools, parents, and youth about the safe and responsible use of technology. The 2012 judging panel includes:

• Common Sense Media
• ConnectSafely
• Cyberbullying Research Center
• Facebook
• The Identity Theft Resource Center
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner/Ontario
• Twitter
• The Wireless Foundation
• Yahoo! Safely

“When ‘What’s Your Story?’ first started, I couldn’t imagine the success we would build. On this matter, young people have a lot to say. And they have proven their ability to tackle some pretty difficult topics in smart, thoughtful and creative ways,” said Lynette Owens, director of Trend Micro Internet Safety for Kids & Family. “Their videos have traveled far in educating their peers – from the screens of Times Square to classrooms around the world. I am extremely proud of each and every contestant and I am grateful for our partners, both past and present, who have helped make this possible.”

What’s Your Story? will award a grand prize of $10,000 to the winning entry, with special categories for schools and individuals who submit entries. For the 2012 contest, Trend Micro is introducing new categories in the U.S. and Canada challenging anyone 13 years and older, (outside of Quebec) including teachers working with their classes, to create videos that offer thoughtful and compelling solutions in the following categories:

1. Take action against bullying: How would you help a friend being bullied online?
2. Keep a good rep online: What’s the right way to share?
3. Be cell smart: How can someone new to cell phones use it wisely?

Contest winners will be announced in early May. Follow @WYSContest on Twitter for updates on the contest.

“I’m honored to be part of the Genies, and I’m always proud to participate in anything that helps promote Canadian cinema,” said Sutherland, currently starring in Season 2 of the Showcase hit series “King” opposite Amy Price Francis.  His recent feature credits include I’m Yours, opposite Karine Vanasse and directed by Leonard Farlinger, and he received a Genie nomination for ‘Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role’ for his work in High Life, starring Timothy Olyphant and Stephen Eric McIntyre.

As previously announced by CBC and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, Andrea Martin and George Stroumboulopoulos will host the 32nd Annual Genie Awards on Thursday, March 8, which will be broadcast from Toronto on CBC Television at 8 p.m. (8:30 p.m. NT).

Prior to the televised coverage, CBC Genie Awards Live will bring all the excitement and glamour of the CBC Live Red Carpet.  Canadian supermodel Stacey McKenzie will host the Genie Awards Red Carpet live stream for CBC Live from 5 to 5:30 p.m. ET, sharing an exclusive look at the arrivals, red carpet fashion and pre-gala emotions. Fans can join in the conversation on Twitter via @CBCLive using the hashtag #GenieAwards.

The Genie Awards Gala Pre Show brings fans the non-televised broadcast portion of the awards gala live from 6 to 6:45 p.m. EST on CBC Live. And then from 7 to 8 p.m. ET it’s the Genie Awards Gala and Backstage Lounge.  Audiences can watch the live stream of the awards show online at CBC Live, where commercial breaks will be replaced by exclusive backstage access and interviews with presenters, nominees and winners, hosted by CBC Live’s Jamey Ordolis, who will also be taking questions for the stars on Twitter via @CBCLive.

As an introductory offer, GoGoNews will provide free access to GoGoTeach for the current academic term ending June 2012. The trial is open to educators in public, private and charter schools and requires students have access to Internet-ready computers. All training and support will be provided by GoGoNews.

Enrolled educators simply log into GoGoTeach daily to access worksheets that are engaging, promote inquiry learning and teach students to become internationally minded. All worksheets are created by the GoGoNews team and tie directly to global current events featured on GoGoNews.com and in the weekly newsletter.

The Web-based tool offers teachers an easy way to track students’ interests based on topics they have flagged; create online task lists that identify areas where a student may need assistance; and issue e-assignments to students via their personalized “My Actions” tab. E-assignments may range from a quiz about a specific article, to making and defending an opinion about a hot news topic. Each area is designed to develop writing, reading and comprehension skills. Content is currently specific to Grades 2 – 5, with plans to expand content to Grades 6 – 8 in the 2012-2013 school year.

“The GoGoTeach program has been the most beneficial resource I’ve added to my classroom in almost 10 years of teaching,” said Zein Odeh, elementary and E.S.L. teacher at Toronto Elementary School. “As teachers, we plan out lessons for students months in advance. With GoGoTeach, I am equipped with all the elements I need: a relevant headline news article from GoGoNews for everyone to read, questions to help spur discussion, suggested assignments, and a points-based reward system. GoGoTeach makes it easy, fun and achievable for both the teachers and the students and the time I save is further invested in my students’ education.”

As private and public education systems face challenges imposed by reduced resources, GoGoTeach provides an affordable, alternative tool that fosters both academic and social development, without placing additional time, planning or curriculum demands on educators. GoGoTeach lessons are planned by a team comprised of children’s education, psychology and development experts. Their collaboration results in devising comprehensive lesson plans that address a wide range of global events, from natural disasters and civil wars, to scientific discoveries and cultural arts.

“GoGoNews was developed in response to the overwhelming feedback from educators who shared their stories of how they introduced and incorporated newsletter content to their classes,” said Golnar Khosrowshahi, founder and editor in chief of GoGoNews. “By creating GoGoTeach we’ve been able to provide a structured yet flexible forum for enhanced lessons that makes teachers and their students self-sufficient. In addition to greater reading comprehension, improved vocabularies and richer classroom discussions, teachers are reporting ancillary benefits of increased confidence, focused attention and proactive learning. We are excited to extend the reach of this program to additional grades and schools in upcoming months.”

2012 Desjardins Entrepreneur Award Categories:

Woman of Influence Award, given to an outstanding woman of exceptional accomplishments and who is an inspiring model of success.

Innovation & Productivity Award, which highlights innovative strategies set up by a small or medium-size business to considerably increase productivity in the long term.

Agricultural Award recognizes sound management practices and leadership of businesses in the agricultural sector, in collaboration with Metro, a partner in this prize.

International Commerce Award, sponsored jointly by Export Development Canada, recognizes a business that stood out thanks to strategies specifically designed for international trade.

Co-op Award, presented in partnership with Capital régional et coopératif Desjardins to a cooperative that stands out for its financial performance, sound management and outstanding application of the cooperative model.

Sustainable Development Award, given to a business that demonstrates effective management, sound governance and socially-responsible leadership. Co-presented with Bell.

Young Entrepreneur Awards, in partnership with the Secrétariat à la jeunesse du gouvernement du Québec, as part of the Défi de l’entrepreneuriat jeunesse, is awarded to young entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 to 35 who demonstrate exceptional creativity and achievement, along with employment development. Furthermore, Fondation Desjardins will award a $10,000 prize to the winner of each region (Eastern Quebec, Central Quebec, Western Quebec and Ontario).

Business Ownership Transfer Award, sponsored jointly by Samson Bélair/Deloitte & Touche, for a business that has carried out a business transfer with superior results.

In addition, in partnership with Fasken Martineau, the Business Leadership Award – Major Corporation is back this year to pay homage to a key business leader for his or her vision and performance. The award’s recipient is selected separately by a Desjardins committee.

Nominations will be evaluated by a jury composed of leaders from the business and academic communities, according to the criteria established for each category. Finalists will be announced in June.

In partnership with La Coop fédérée and the Fédération de la relève agricole du Québec, Desjardins is also launching the 2012 edition of the Fonds coopératif d’aide à la relève agricole (Cooperative Fund for Future Farmers), Farm Transfer Grant component. This fund helps young entrepreneurs develop their management reflexes and pursue their goal of starting up or developing an agricultural business. The six winners will be announced at the same time as the winners of the Desjardins Entrepreneur Awards at the Gala to be held at Complexe Desjardins during Cooperation Week, in October 2012.

Businesses have until March 30, 2012 to enter. To submit a nomination or learn more about the awards, please contact your Desjardins account manager or visit the official site.

“Innovation is a top priority at Ceridian. With this acquisition we are gaining development and delivery expertise and innovative technology that are the perfect complement to Ceridian’s experience, established customer base and tremendous market reach,” said Stuart C. Harvey, Jr., Ceridian’s chief executive officer and president. “We are well positioned to deliver the most advanced human capital management cloud platform in the industry.”

Ceridian introduced its new workforce management solution in 2011 using the Dayforce platform. The customer response to the new workforce management offering has been overwhelmingly successful, with over 450 accounts sold in less than a year.

“Our partnership with Ceridian has been a perfect match from the outset,” said David Ossip, Dayforce chief executive officer and president. “Ceridian’s large customer base and robust distribution channels are an ideal outlet for Dayforce’s innovation and development expertise.”

Ceridian’s new platform will be marketed as Dayforce|HCM and in 2012 will include human resources, payroll, benefits, self-service, time & attendance, and scheduling. Clients can access the solution via the web and on mobile devices.

Dayforce|HCM has been designed for both existing and new clients, including two-way interfaces with Ceridian’s current HR, payroll, benefits, and paycard solutions. This allows Ceridian’s 130,000 existing customers to benefit from the new Dayforce|HCM modules while continuing to use their existing Ceridian products.

The transaction is expected to close in March, at which time Ossip will become president of Ceridian Dayforce, the new organization responsible for the development and management of Ceridian’s Dayforce|HCM application and services. Closing of the transaction is subject to customary conditions, including approval of Dayforce’s shareholders and of the Canadian court with jurisdiction over the transaction.

Storval the Whale has also joined the ranks of the helpful Sea Buddies and can glide through the water and air with the touch of a finger.

Swim and master each Sea Star character to unlock two brand-new ocean worlds, Twinkling Tides and Polar Plunge.

Life Preserver items are also available to save you when you hit a hazard, along with 14 new missions, 20 new Game Center achievements, 80 unique rank titles, and permanent upgrades for Starter Jelly Shields and Speed Blasts. Now that’s enough to get any daring sea-farer excited!

“Canadians have told us that with more and more technology, their lives have become more confusing and complicated. We now have a seamless and easy-to-use solution for them with Rogers One Number,” said John Boynton, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Rogers Communications. “By extending your Rogers wireless number to your computer, we’re transforming and simplifying how Canadians connect with family and friends.”

With Rogers One Number, customers can use their mobile number to manage everything from their computer. Features of the service include:

With Rogers One Number, texts, calls and emails – Yahoo! Mail and Gmail are currently available with the service – can be organized into one unified inbox and contacts can be synched across customer’s wireless phone and the Rogers One Number website.

Wireless calls can be instantly switched to your computer, or vice versa, with the click of a button. You can also text with friends from your computer. Canadians already spend more time on the internet than any other nation and the amount of time Canadians spend online is nearly double the worldwide average – according to The comScore 2010 Canada Digital Year in Review (March 8, 2011). The study analyzes overarching trends in digital media usage in Canada, including overall Internet usage, high-growth categories, online display advertising, online video, search and mobile.

Whether you’re a student abroad or travelling on business, by using Rogers One Number on your computer, all calls, video chats with other Rogers One Number users and outgoing text messages sent to Canadian wireless numbers are free of charge, even if you are in the US or an international destination.

“When you’re a Rogers wireless customer it’s not just about you and your phone, Rogers One Number extends your mobile number to your computer, unifying your communication and giving you an enhanced identity,” said John Boynton. “This service reflects our commitment to customer-driven innovation and creating world-leading internet experiences that evolve with our customers’ relationship to technology.”

Rogers has brought many new advances to the Canadian market, building on a proud history of innovative firsts and commitment to investing in Canada’s digital future. Rogers was the first to launch LTE in Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver and surrounding areas, and the first carrier in Canada to launch a complete and robust network in Toronto. Rogers was also first to launch Android smartphones, and the iPhone in Canada; the first carrier in the world to launch BlackBerry devices, rolled out the first coast-to-coast GSM network in 2001 and one of the first 10 carriers worldwide to offer HSPA+.

“At the moment, we have a mixture of March Networks hybrid recorders in some schools and the server-based Command software in others,” said Brian Johnson, a network systems analyst with the school district. “The solution is ideal, because it allows us to continue using analog cameras where they are already installed, and eventually transition all of our schools to IP surveillance as our budget permits.”

The fact that the Command software is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh operating systems was another key consideration for the school district, as most of its administrators use Macintosh computers. In addition, Command’s web-based client interface eliminates the need to install and maintain new software on each individual system, saving the school district both time and resources. The web-based software also makes it easier for Escambia to open the surveillance system to law enforcement and other first responders if needed – providing them with a real-time view into a school in an emergency situation.

“Security is a top priority for school communities worldwide, with video surveillance playing an increasingly important role,” said Net Payne, Chief Marketing Officer, March Networks. “Our solutions offer the ease-of-use and management capabilities needed to efficiently oversee large school districts and campus environments, as well as the proven reliability educators, students and their families demand.”

1. Kingston, Ontario
2. Guelph, Ontario
3. Kelowna, British Columbia
4. Oakville, Ontario
5. Victoria, British Columbia
6. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
7. Regina, Saskatchewan
8. Calgary, Alberta
9. Kamloops, British Columbia
10. St. John’s, Newfoundland
11. Richmond Hill, Ontario
12. Red Deer, Alberta
13. Langley, British Columbia
14. Winnipeg, Manitoba
15. Burlington, Ontario
16. Thunder Bay, Ontario
17. Barrie, Ontario
18. Brantford, Ontario
19. London, Ontario
20. Burnaby, British Columbia

A closer look at Amazon.ca’s “most romantic” data reveals that:

• Sex and the (Smaller) City: Though nearly half of Canada’s 20 Most Romantic Cities lie in Ontario, both Toronto and Ottawa don’t rank as passionate as their less populous neighbours.
• Always a Bridesmaid: Guelph, Ontario claims the No. 2 spot on the overall most romantic list for the second consecutive year.
• Your Love is King(ston): Not simply the overall winner, but you’re also most likely to curl up on the couch with both a “Rom-Com” and a Danielle Steel novel in Kingston, Ontario than in any other Canadian city.
• Bublé-ing Over: Kamloops is crowned Canada’s largest buyer of Michael Bublé albums per capita, proving size (of a city) doesn’t matter.  Overall, British Columbia’s crush on their local crooner remains at an all-time high, with five of the Top 10 Michael Bublé-loving cities within its borders.
• Prairie Love: Residents of Saskatchewan are heating things up in the living room. Both Regina and Saskatoon make the overall Top 10, keeping the flame burning, especially with date night DVDs.  Red Deer, Alberta and Winnipeg, Manitoba also place in the Top 20.
• Heartbreak City: Last year’s most romantic urban centre, Victoria just barely flirts its way into the Top 5 in 2012.
• Love Struck: No one does it better in Newfoundland than the people of St. John’s, whose love of love makes them the only Atlantic Canadian city on the list.

Amazon.ca has a large selection of last-minute gift ideas for Valentine’s Day – check them out today and help contribute to your city’s future romantic ratings.

Users can specify what they’re offering, the price they charge (could be free), and when it is happening. People can instantly discover, book, and pay for the listing through the website.  Uniiverse enables anyone to become an entrepreneur, meet like-minded people, share their passions – and live a smarter, happier, more sustainable lifestyle.

The opportunities Uniiverse brings to people are endless:

• Organize a jogging group, tapas party, or yoga session
• Offer a service such as a photography workshop, language lesson, or a sushi-making class
• Use your extra time by posting your availability for errand running, babysitting, or pet walking
• Share your stuff that is rarely used such as a drill, a bike, or a guitar
• Rent out your space when you’re away, or offer your unused parking spot
• Organize a ride-share to save money on gas, and help the environment

Users are encouraged to rate and review each others’ shared experiences.  Uniiverse enables people to get a full understanding of each other’s trustworthiness by showing social proximity, ratings, reviews, and participation across categories.

“Uniiverse is building the sharing economy, where access and experiences are more important than ownership. This movement will help the environment, global financial issues, and build stronger communities,” says Craig Follett, CEO & chairman of Uniiverse.

Through this platform, Uniiverse is resurrecting old marketplace behaviors, such as sharing, on a scale that was never before possible.  The company aims to kick-start the sharing revolution.

“We are searching for romantic hopefuls from across the country that represent the true scope of the vibrant, fun and fearless women here in Canada,” said Claire Freeland, Director of Original Programming, Rogers Media, and Executive Producer of The Bachelor Canada. “This is an extraordinary opportunity for bachelorettes currently on a quest for love and willing to put it all on the line to find it.”

The nationwide casting tour is calling on all eligible Canadian women over the age of majority to take part in what could be the most important blind date of their lives. Whether single and ready to settle down, unlucky in love, or never been kissed – The Bachelor Canada is looking for 25 lucky ladies who are ready to find their happily ever after by winning the heart of one special bachelor.

Please read the show’s complete rules and regulations on what it takes to be eligible for The Bachelor Canada. For example, participants must be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada.

Casting tour details are as follows (doors open one hour prior to indicated start times):

*all venues are subject to change

The Bachelor Canada is the Canadian version of the perennially successful The Bachelor franchise currently in its 16^th season on Citytv and OMNI Television. This nine-episode, original reality series is produced by multiple award-winning Force Four Entertainment, with John Ritchie, Sean De Vries, and Joyce Sawa serving as Executive, Supervising, and Series Producer, respectively. Claire Freeland is the Director of Original Programming for Rogers Media and an Executive Producer of The Bachelor Canada.

Additional production and broadcast details will be announced at a later date. Participants unable to attend the casting tour can submit their application online. Follow the show on Twitter @BachelorCA and “like” us on Facebook for the latest updates, info and announcements.

The survey was developed by Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of information technology (IT) professionals on a project and full-time basis – who already has its own free App. 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, “Has your company developed a mobile application for customers and clients, or do you plan to offer one in the next 12 months?” Their responses:

You have one now..................................................... 31%
You don't have one now but plan to offer one in the next 12 months ...12%
You don't have one and don't plan to offer one in the next 12 months .55%
Other/don't know ......................................................1%
                                                                       ------
                                                                       99%*

    *Responses do not total 100 per cent due to rounding.

As mobile applications become more prevalent, there is no shortage of issues for the IT teams tasked with developing them. In the same survey, CIOs said the two greatest challenges for IT teams developing these applications are keeping them up to date and finding IT professionals with the skills to build them.

CIOs were asked, “What is the greatest challenge for IT teams when developing a mobile application for the business?” Their responses:

Keeping the application up to date .................................. 41%
Finding and hiring IT professionals with the necessary expertise .... 18%
Collaborating across departments .................................... 16%
Gaining approvals from the application store or market ............... 5%
Other/don't know .................................................... 20%
                                                                     ------
                                                                      100%

“The use of mobile media, such as smart phones and tablets, is taking off at an exponential rate and as a result, firms are looking to create mobile applications that compliment their business strategy,” said Lara Dodo, a Canadian regional vice president of Robert Half Technology. “When developing these programs, it’s critical that these IT professionals not only have the necessary development expertise, but also the ability to effectively and frequently update the application’s content.”

As more companies look to develop mobile apps, the demand for IT professionals who specialize in this area has increased, according to the Robert Half Technology 2012 Salary Guide, which shows starting salaries for mobile applications developers are expected to increase 8.2 per cent next year — one of the largest increases of any IT position researched.

The latest version of Fairshare Traffic Management interoperates with third-party vendors to offer “mobility- awareness”. True mobility-awareness can accurately identify a moving subscriber’s cell location, dynamically evaluate the congestion level of the cell and apply traffic management policies in real-time, in order to alleviate any congestion. This is the only solution that offers true mobility-awareness; competing products can identify the initial location where the mobile subscriber’s device connected, but not subsequent network locations to which the subscriber has moved.

Sandvine’s Fairshare Traffic Management 4.0 for mobile enables:

• Sector-based congestion management based on dynamic congestion detection capabilities, superior to statically-provisioned cell capacity
• Fair-use network policies to maintain the highest quality of experience during times of congestion for the maximum number of users’ interactive applications
• Real-time network location-based policies such as charging, advertising and communications
• Support for location-based pricing for mobile data to create bundled and tiered services that match subscriber usage, dependant on the subscriber’s location
• Location- aware network analytics and reporting that provides visibility of the impact of congestion management policies and supports proactive network capacity planning

“Sandvine has been a leader in congestion management for the past decade. Our latest version of Fairshare Traffic Management brings a powerful and dynamic congestion control system that works in concert with our policy decision and enforcement capabilities,” said Don Bowman, CTO, Sandvine.   “Operators can cost-effectively manage their mobile networks to deliver optimal performance without resorting to crude approximations such as daily or hourly network-wide traffic management policies.”

Sandvine’s Network Policy Control is a complete system that gives mobile operators visibility of application traffic, per-subscriber usage, device identification and network congestion. This data powers the integrated policy decision and enforcement engine, enabling a myriad of solutions for service providers, such as fair-use management policies, network capacity planning, and tailored, tiered service plans. Sandvine’s Fairshare Traffic Management product has been deployed in over 50 service provider networks worldwide in 2011 alone to address congestion management across all access technologies.

Sandvine has also won five new broadband service provider customers, including two that purchased Sandvine’s market-leading Network Analytics product.

“Sandvine’s Network Analytics is a powerful enabler for our customers, who want to leverage the kind of business level insight that standard reporting tools don’t provide,” said Tom Donnelly, Sandvine’s COO Global Sales and Service. ”Network Analytics allows operators to use real-time information to create differentiated service offerings that satisfy rapidly evolving consumer demands.  Innovative service offerings allow operators to ensure efficient utilization of network resources while giving consumers the opportunity to tailor plans to match their Internet usage, whether for real-time streaming media, gaming or social networking, for example.”

The new customer orders reflect the breadth of Sandvine’s network policy control capabilities and include:

• Usage Management, to help service providers move from all-you-can-eat data plans to consumption-based service tiers;
• Traffic Management, to allocate network resources fairly and efficiently during times of network congestion;
• Application-specific Traffic Divert to third-party optimization solutions, including video optimization and content caching.

The new customers are located in the United States, Western Europe and Asia, and involved various access technologies: DSL, mobile, and converged fixed/wireless networks.

For more information on Fairshare Traffic Management and other Sandvine products, visit Mobile World Congress booth 2H57 from Feb 27-March 1.

The iStock e-card App can be accessed via its own page or any existing iStockphoto Facebook page. In a matter of seconds, a user can create, customize and personalize a card that can be posted to a friend’s wall or sent privately via Facebook message. With over 50 free images, illustrations and videos representing major holidays, celebrations and milestones, iStock’s e-card app makes it easy to customize an electronic greeting for virtually any occasion.

“One of the greatest things about Facebook is that it lets you stay in touch with a wide range of people simultaneously,” said Rebecca Rockafellar, general manager of iStockphoto. “If you’re one of the more than 800 million people who frequent Facebook, chances are on any given day at least one of your friends is celebrating something special. The iStock e-card app makes it easy to mark the occasion with something more meaningful than a simple comment or wall post.”

iStock also announced the results of a survey it recently conducted on Facebook, which revealed the following:

• Environmentally conscious women are OK with e-cards over paper cards (even on Valentine’s Day)*
• Most women prefer Valentine’s Day gifts to e-cards *
• Most men find Valentine’s Day e-cards a fine substitute for paper cards, but say a naughty outfit can negate the need for either (shocker)
• For recipients aged 50-years and up, a handwritten card is more meaningful than an e-card in most cases*

* Above survey replies according to a panel of iStock relationship advisors, an e-card on Facebook is rarely an acceptable substitute for a traditional card when it comes to mothers or anyone over the age of 60. They also caution that the inappropriate use of an e-card with a sensitive spouse or significant other – particularly for birthdays, anniversaries or Valentine’s Day – can result in spending the night alone on the couch. In cases where a physical card is necessary, advisors recommend creating something unique using images procured from the iStockphoto website.

The iStock e-card App is available immediately. International versions of the Facebook app have been created in German, Italian, French, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and English. The application is free and available to anyone with a Facebook profile.

Shank 2 drops players into a stunning pulp fiction world as Shank, an ex-mob hitman who is forced down the road to redemption after his village comes under brutal attack. With precise and fluid controls, tons of new weapons, stronger enemies and the most advanced combo system of any 2D brawler, Shank 2 delivers a dynamic and evolved combat experience. Players have access to a diverse arsenal of guns, knives, chainsaws, baseball bats, and more as they move through Klei’s beautifully drawn environments that earned the indie studio IGF’s Excellence in Visual Arts nomination in 2010, and the Canadian Animator of the Year award in 2011.

Shank 2’s all-new multiplayer Survival mode drops players into fast paced and action-packed interactive environments where they tactically take down hordes of goons and mini-bosses in an arcade-style fight to protect objectives and stay alive. Teams of two can play locally or online as they battle wave after wave of smarter, stronger enemies and use fallen weapons and on-the-fly purchases in gory brawls.

The series premiere drew 1.6 million viewers on Global (Ind. 2+ National, confirmed data) making it the #1 new Canadian original drama premiere for the Fall 2011/2012 lineup with 2+ and A18-49 viewers*. Bomb Girls has seen continued success with more than 1.2 million viewers tuning in on average during the five-week period since its launch, becoming the #1 new Canadian program average this season.

“With six powerful episodes, Bomb Girls has struck a chord with Canadians and we’re thrilled with the grassroots initiatives and overwhelming support this original series has generated,” said Barbara Williams, Senior Vice-President, Content, Shaw Media. “As we work with our production partners at Muse and Back Alley, viewers will have the opportunity to continue the journey with these brave women facing a new reality during this fascinating time in Canadian history.”

In tomorrow night’s explosive finale, “Element of Surprise,” the season culminates with dramatic twists for all of the characters set against the attack on Pearl Harbor. Gladys’s (Jodi Balfour) secret job is exposed, while Lorna (Meg Tilly) grapples with a possible pregnancy and Kate (Charlotte Hegele) struggles to stand up to the return of her manipulative father.

Bomb Girls profiles the life-altering experiences of five brave Canadian women who risk their lives working in a munitions factory during the Second World War. Shot entirely on location in Toronto, Bomb Girls stars Academy Award® nominee Meg Tilly (Agnes of God, The Big Chill) alongside a talented cast featuring Jodi Balfour (The Sinking of the Laconia), Charlotte Hegele (Murdoch Mysteries), Ali Liebert (Hellcats), Antonio Cupo (L’Ombra del destino), Anastasia Philips (Skins), Sebastian Pigott (Being Erica) and Peter Outerbridge (ReGenesis).

Commissioned by Shaw Media’s original content team, Bomb Girls is produced by Muse Entertainment and Back Alley Films. Muse Entertainment’s Michael Prupas (The Kennedys, Pillars of the Earth) serves as executive producer, along with Back Alley Films’ Janis Lundman (Durham County) and Adrienne Mitchell (Durham County). Mitchell is also the series’ co-showrunner alongside Michael MacLennan (Flashpoint, Queer as Folk), who is also an executive producer and serves as head writer.

* Source: BBM Canada PPM Data – contains confirmed and overnight data (9/12/11 – 2/1/12), Total Canada.