Village Gamer

Imagine having your child’s immunization record at the click of a mouse, as well as email alerts when they need a vaccination. Or using your cell phone to track the care that you need during pregnancy, your due date, and your ultrasounds.  Or using an app to manage your diabetes, with helpful advice on how to improve your results. These are just a few of the winning ideas submitted to the ImagineNation Ideas Challenge, which asked Canadians how they would improve health and health care through innovation in information and communications technologies (ICT).

“Canadians are passionate about our health system, and we wanted their ideas on how digital solutions could strengthen health care,” said Richard Alvarez, President and CEO, Canada Health Infoway (Infoway).  “The calibre of entries we received surpassed our high expectations and the range of ideas on leveraging ICT to improve access, safety, and efficiency of care is inspiring.”

When the Ideas Challenge was launched in March 2011, Canadians were asked to submit their ideas online. An independent panel of judges selected the top five bold and innovative ideas through two rounds of judging.

The first place submission and winner of a $10,000 award is a web-based system to record and schedule immunizations, based on the latest recommendations from the Canadian Immunization Guide.  The idea comes from Dr. Christopher Clarke based on his experience as a family doctor in Puslinch, Ontario. “I imagined a website where each patient would open an account to contain their comprehensive immunization history. More important, the website would continuously update a personalized plan for each patient’s future immunizations, using the latest Canadian guidelines and including any new vaccines,” said Dr. Clarke. “Modern IT is ideal for communicating this sort of complex information to both patients and clinicians.”

The Canada’s Choice Award winner – determined through thousands of votes cast by Canadians – is “Mom2B”, a mobile telephone app for expectant mothers based on health guidance from Canadian experts. It would offer help at every stage, from fertility planning to tracking contractions. The “Mom2B” idea was submitted by Jeff Biletchi and colleagues at Niagara Region Public Health.

The following three submissions round out the top 5 winning ideas.  Each entry has earned a $5,000 award:

• “Empower persons with diabetes interactively with enhanced reporting on iPads,” including tracking their health condition, viewing information from their health team and lab results, and receiving personalized advice to reduce the risk of complications (submitted by Jonathan Lapointe, Montreal)
• “Head Home, Speak Up:  Empower patients and health care providers with an online voice at discharge” to improve the hand-off between hospital and home (submitted by Pamela Chan and Richard Norman, Toronto)
• “Connected health care…The whole life EHR” to track key health information for individuals with chronic conditions, such as vital signs or medications dispensed, and make it available to them and their health team (submitted by Donna Byrne and her team from Quebec)

“Innovation is a driving force behind what we do at Infoway – and is key to the future of health care,” added Dr. Jennifer Zelmer, Senior Vice-President of Clinical Adoption and Innovation, Infoway. “The ImagineNation Ideas Challenge identified some great ideas and helped to get Canadians thinking and talking about health care in the digital age.”

Today marks the official launch of the call for applications for Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies program 2011. Now in its 19^th year, the nationwide search continues for companies who are demonstrating the power of being the best through their business excellence, calibre of management abilities and practices.

The Best Managed designation is an emblem of excellence and a source of pride for private companies. Canadian-owned and managed private companies and public companies with fewer than 50% of their shares or units traded with revenues over $10 million are invited to submit their Phase One application towards earning one of the country’s premier business awards.

“We’ve been committed to fostering the success of Canadian companies since 1993 and today we call on businesses that embody the hallmarks of excellence to be recognized,” said John Hughes, partner, Private Company Services, Deloitte, and national leader of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies program. “We invite companies to apply and discover the power of the best, and continue to raise the profile of the great work being done by private companies.”

A rewarding experience, the application process delivers insights which further strengthen companies’ business models. It is an opportunity for companies to re-examine their processes, reenergize the organization, and look for new opportunities. Overall, the program provides participants with an exceptional opportunity to gain knowledge from some of Canada’s top business leaders.

New this year, the program has added a Gold Standard designation for companies that have maintained their designation after three consecutive years and demonstrated a commitment to the program, creating a four-tier award program:

• Best Managed winner: first time winners
• Requalified member: repeat winners retaining designation for two years
• Gold Standard winner: designation maintained after three consecutive years
• Platinum Club member: designation maintained for a minimum of six consecutive years

The deadline for Phase One applications is 5:00 p.m. EST on September 23, 2011 and winners will be announced February 2012. Recognition of this great achievement will take place March 27, 2012 during an evening of celebration at Canada’s 50 Best Managed gala.

Montreal’s Transcontinental Interactive was a big winner at the prestigious Magnum Opus Awards for 2011, capturing a total of 30 top prizes.  Showcasing its leadership in digital and content marketing solutions, Transcontinental Interactive came home with some serious industry recognition.  The awards, which recognize excellence in custom-media editorial, design and strategy, were presented by ContentWise and the Content Marketing Institute and were judged by leading custom-publishing professionals and professors from the Missouri School of Journalism.

Transcontinental Interactive was singled out for its outstanding work in design, editorial content, photography, illustration and complete publication. With seven awards for online content, Transcontinental Interactive proved that it has what it takes to win in both the online and offline space.

“Being recognized by these prestigious awards is yet another reason to be proud of the consumer centric solutions we provide our customers,” said Christian Trudeau, President of Transcontinental Interactive. “These awards reflect not only the creative results our teams generate for our clients, but also the commitment to being a strategic marketing partner to fulfill our clients needs every step of the way.”

Among Transcontinental Interactive’s honours:

• Seven gold awards for leading North American brands such as Aeroplan, P&G, Sobeys and Geico
• Nine silver awards for print magazine work; electronic publication or websites; and  all-around publication work
• Five bronze awards and nine honourable mentions

Now in their eighth year, the Magnum Opus Awards are the top recognition for organizations using print and online publications, as well as social media in their content marketing efforts. This year, the judges considered 560 entries in 217 categories, including 18 interactive product categories for magazines, videos, blogs, podcasts, and use of social media, among others.

OpenText’s Metastorm business, a leading provider of business process management (BPM), business process analysis (BPA), and enterprise architecture (EA) software for business transformation, today announced that it has been recognized as a leader in the IDC MarketScape: Business Process (BP) Platforms Report.

The report, released annually by industry analysts at IDC, evaluates the relative capabilities of vendor solutions to support people-centric process applications based on the complexity, abilities and strategy of the solutions. OpenText Metastorm was rated above average and received top scores across IDC’s product, customer and business assessments.

“Metastorm’s view of how work management is evolving is sophisticated, and this shows up in its product,” the IDC MarketScape report states. OpenText Metastorm’s BP portfolio earned high scores for its cost management strategy, ROI planning capabilities, and portfolio strategy, including its technical platform and the vision around integration and content management. The portfolio’s Metastorm ProVision®, an enterprise and business architecture suite which enables process discovery and business process analytics, was identified by customers as a deciding factor for deployment of Metastorm solutions.

The product assessment also examines out-of-the-box functionality around identification of the appropriate worker for a task, prioritization and task assignment. OpenText Metastorm’s Smart Business Workspace was awarded high scores for innovation. It is a composition or “mashup” environment that combines work management and social capabilities to allow for communication and collaboration across workers during process design and as on-going as work is being performed. OpenText Metastorm also received top scores for out-of-the-box business runtime capabilities, technology platform and development environment.

“We are confident that our position as a leader in IDC’s MarketScape report on Business Process platforms further validates our ability to provide consistent and innovative software products that allow customers to align business strategy and execution to improve process and drive meaningful results,” said Kevin Haugh, Vice President of Product Marketing and Management at OpenText Metastorm. “OpenText Metastorm is committed to product excellence and customer service and continues to evolve and improve our offerings.”

As part of the IDC MarketScape report, customers were interviewed about their use of OpenText Metastorm products and customer support, and identified faster install time, quick process development time, graphical design, low and flexible pricing, and governance tools as reasons they selected the provider. OpenText Metastorm received top scores for customer references, reflecting the company’s ability to provide service excellence and the company’s commitment to developing best-of-breed solutions.

OpenText Metastorm is known for its ability to provide a comprehensive and highly-proven BP solution that allows organizations to quickly implement, manage, monitor, and analyze core business processes. In addition, the Metastorm BPM® suite’s seamless integration as part of the Metastorm Enterprise platform – which includes the Metastorm ProVision® software for EA and BPA – enables effective alignment of process execution activities with business goals at all levels of the organization. The Metastorm Business Transformation Practices Framework leverages the entire Metastorm software portfolio and industry templates to provide organizations with a successful methodology for managing change and achieving successful, ongoing transformation to meet key strategic and operational objectives.

Security and compliance solutions for email and documents provider TITUS has been selected as a finalist for the Microsoft Public Sector – Public Safety and National Security Partner of the Year Award.

“Together, Microsoft and TITUS provide joint solutions that enable public sector and national security customers worldwide to classify, protect and securely share their data,” said Tim Upton, President and CEO of TITUS. “To be recognized among the top finalists of Microsoft’s Public Safety and National Security Partners validates the need for classification and data loss prevention solutions in this sector and the importance of our ongoing relationship with Microsoft.”

Awards were presented in multiple categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 3,000 entrants worldwide. The Public Sector – Public Safety and National Security Partner of the Year Award honors partners who have exhibited excellence in providing innovative and unique services or solutions based on Microsoft technologies to public safety and national security customers. This award recognizes TITUS for demonstrating industry knowledge and expertise, as well as consistent, high-quality, predictable service or solutions to public safety and national security customers. This partner also has shown business leadership and success through strong growth in new customer additions and revenue. Read the rest of this entry »

Submissions are now open for the brand new Desire2Learn Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning which was announced last week by Desire2Learn Incorporated and The Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education at the STLHE 2011 Conference, held at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon last week.

This Award, to be initially awarded in June 2012, has been established to celebrate and recognize innovative approaches that promote learning in new ways at post-secondary institutions. Up to five awards will be presented annually. Recipients will be the basis of a community of knowledge, expertise and innovation that can be drawn upon globally to enhance learning for all.

“With the launch of the Desire2Learn Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning, STLHE is proud to offer the most comprehensive national awards program in the world,” explains Arshad Ahmad, Ph.D., President, STLHE and 3M National Teaching Fellow. “Recognizing innovation not only complements existing STLHE awards in teaching excellence, educational leadership, collaborative learning, and lifetime achievements, but also fits strategically in the Society’s mission to promote learning through change.”

Instructors currently teaching at a post-secondary institution are eligible to apply. A demonstrable record of innovation(s) in areas including pedagogical approaches, teaching methods, course design, curriculum development, assessment methods, various tools and technologies that enhance learning and have had a significant impact on post-secondary education is required.

Ahmad adds, “The Desire2Learn Award also promises to build community as cohorts, who will be recognized each year, will have the opportunity to spend time together, learn from each other and collaborate in future undertakings. Desire2Learn’s legacy of innovation is matched by its enthusiasm to unlock the potential of learners globally. This is one of the many reasons why there is a natural fit between our organizations. Above all, we share a mutual interest in improving the quality of the student experience before anything else. We look forward to a long-term partnership with a common purpose to make a qualitative difference in the lives of our students.”

Patrick Lyons, Director, Instructional Technologies Educational Development Centre / Carleton University OnLine, Carleton University has been appointed as the inaugural coordinator. Lyons is well known in the Canadian post-secondary community as an advocate for effective teaching and use of technology.

“STLHE is the most important organization in Canada supporting the development, recognition and encouragement of excellent teaching and learning practices,” notes Lyons. “The Desire2Learn Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning is a powerful and concrete opportunity to encourage and promote innovative learning initiatives in post- secondary institutions across North America and from around the world.”

“We are pleased to be partnering with The Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher in Education in recognition of teaching that is truly innovative,” states John Baker, President & CEO, Desire2Learn. “Through this award, instructors who are providing a notable and sustained impact on student learning and development will be acknowledged for their inventive approaches to education. These individuals emulate our mission of transforming teaching and learning.”

Telefilm Canada has awarded its Guichet d’Or Prize to the director of Piché: entre ciel et terre, Sylvain Archambault, as well as to the film’s writer, Ian Lauzon. The prize comes with a cash award of $20,000 for each of the winners. The Guichet d’Or has been awarded annually for the past four years to the Canadian writer and director of the French-language feature film with the highest-grossing domestic box-office sales during the previous year. In 2010, Piché: entre ciel et terre was a major success, taking in $3.7 million at the Canadian box office.

“Normally, prizes that reward box-office performance are given to a film’s distributor or producer,” said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. “At Telefilm, we believe it’s crucial to also congratulate the artists behind the camera, those who bring movies to life. This prize, awarded for a fourth year running, enhances the visibility of our industry’s success stories, which underlines our goal of stimulating demand for Canadian content.”

The film’s director, Sylvain Archambault, added: “I’m extremely touched by Telefilm Canada’s initiative in awarding the Guichet d’Or. By honouring artists in this way, Telefilm proves that it is deeply committed to supporting, not only the film industry, but the creative forces that ensure the industry’s continuity—which is so important for our culture. Bravo!”

“As a screenwriter, I am very humbled by the award I am receiving today,” said Ian Lauzon, the film’s screenwriter. “It seems to me that my role in the project was simply to serve as an air-traffic controller. I didn’t invent the life we see onscreen. That life was lived—and continues to be lived—by Robert Piché. So it is with much humility that I accept the Guichet d’Or.”

Piché: entre ciel et terre was produced by Pixcom’s André Dupuy and stars Michel Côté. The cast also includes Maxime Leflaguais, Sophie Prégent and Normand D’Amour. The film received funding from Telefilm Canada through its Canada Feature Film Fund.

About Piché: entre ciel et terre (produced by Pixcom, distributed in Canada by TVA Films)
The films tells the story of pilot Robert Piché who, drawing on his keen instinct as well as his rowdy past, finds the strength and the presence of mind to safely land his plane after it has run out of fuel, thereby saving the lives of his 306 passengers. While subsequently seeking treatment for alcoholism in the aftermath of his heroic act, Piché must relive the momentous event as well as the time he once spent in jail. Only by accepting his past will he ever be able to make sense of his life.

The film Piché: entre ciel et terre recounts how this man, yearning for adventure, was always able to land on his feet. The movie also shows the human being behind the man who saved his passengers in 2001, the man who continues to fascinate, to attract large crowds wherever he goes, the man whose biography sold 65 000 copies. The human being behind the hero, with his feelings and his weaknesses, all of which make him seem both more real and larger than life.

The 2009 winners of the Guichet d’Or prize were Émile Gaudreault, director and co-writer of the hit comedy De père en flic, and Gaudreault’s co-writer, Ian Lauzon.

SIGGRAPH has announced the Computer Animation Festival’s Best in Show, Jury Award, and Best Student Project recipients for the SIGGRAPH 2011 Conference taking place in Vancouver this August 7th – 11th. A total of 77 films will be shown during the Computer Animation Festival. Nominees were chosen by an expert panel of jury members from 891 submissions representing 44 countries.

“The level of quality and technical expertise exemplified by this year’s submissions continues to raise the bar for the extreme innovation and leading technology the Computer Animation Festival delivers year after year,” said Joshua Grow, Computer Animation Festival Director and 3D Stereo Coordinator for The Creative-Cartel. “The submissions selected to be featured at SIGGRAPH 2011 are a true testament to the leaps and bounds the Computer Animation Industry has achieved since the Computer Animation Festival first debut at SIGGRAPH and promises a very exciting road ahead.”

The Computer Animation Festival is recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a qualifying festival. Since 1999, several works originally presented in the Computer Animation Festival have been nominated for or have received a “Best Animated Short” Academy Award. This year’s selections will be featured during the Computer Animation Festival through a series of daily Festival Screenings and the iconic Electronic Theater allowing attendees to get a glimpse behind the making of computer generated effects, visualizations, and animations.

Best In Show Award

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, Moonbot Studios

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg present a hybrid style of animation that harkens back to silent films and Technicolor musicals.

Jury Award

Paths of Hate

Directed by Damian Nenow, Platige Image

Two pilots, driven by blind hate, chase each other in their airplanes and thereby write cryptic messages of madness into the firmament. On their way into the abyss they transform into inhuman and distorted creatures that finally become part of the history of hate.

Best Student Project Prize

Flamingo Pride

Directed by Tomer Eshed, The Konrad Wolf Potsdam-Babelsberg Film and Television University

Frustrated being the only straight flamingo in a gay flock, our hero falls in love with a lady stork that flies by. Unable to convince her of his serious intentions he isolates himself and goes through an identity crisis. An intensive encounter inspires him to make a bold move.

Jury Award Runners-Up

Escape of the Gingerbread Man!!!

Directed by Tod Polson, The Monk Studios

A young storyteller challenges the old master in a pub on the Irish west coast. The “Escape of the Gingerbread Man” is a mad romp through the Irish countryside. As well as a subtle commentary on the changes in traditions, and culture that is happening throughout the “emerald isle.”

The Experience of Fliehkraft

Directed by Till Nowak, frameboX

Humans mount themselves onto gigantic robots and try to get centrifuged through space. Sounds like science fiction, but it is what happens in theme parks. Machines with the power of tanks offer five minutes of anti-gravity therapy. An attempt to escape this world … driven by 10,000 horsepower.

Best Student Project Prize Runners-Up

DreamGiver

Directed by Tyler Carter, Brigham Young University

A regular night of dream delivering turns into a literal nightmare when an orphan’s book of Ancient Aztec Mythology comes alive. The Dreamgiver must save the orphan from his own nightmare!

Sweater Dog

Directed by Gina Moffit, Ringling College of Art and Design

A normally happy go lucky dog is put into a restricting sweater by his owner but tries to go on with his normal every day activities.

From the telephone to the BlackBerry, from satellites to walkie-talkies – it’s all telecom, and it’s all Canadian. Today, Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame proudly announced that the 2011 Telecom Laureate Awards will be held Wednesday evening, November 2nd, 2011 at the new Ottawa Convention Centre in Ottawa. Mark your calendar now and plan to join over 400 telecom business and government luminaries to celebrate excellence in Canadian telecommunications and to honour the Class of 2011 Telecom Laureates who have made significant contributions to the industry throughout their careers.

The Telecom Laureate Awards gala is the annual flagship event staged by Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame, the not-for-profit organization with a mission to safeguard, promote and celebrate the past, present and future excellence of Canadian telecommunications. The Telecom Laureate Awards Gala is an important celebratory night for the telecommunications industry featuring extensive networking reception opportunities, speeches and awards presentations by key industry and government leaders, as well as exciting audio-visual staging and lighting. It is one of the few annual events where the industry can unite together to celebrate its success and promote its future.

“We are expecting an excellent turn-out for our 7^th annual gala dinner and induction ceremonies,” says Lorne Abugov, Founder and Director of Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame. “Over the years, our guests have included senior executives from Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, suppliers to the telecommunications industry, Government of Canada and Provincial officials, members of the CRTC, Industry Canada and the Competition Bureau and the family and guests of the Telecom Laureates and award winners. This is a premiere networking event.”

The Class of 2011Telecom Laureates and a Special Recognition Award recipient will be officially inducted into Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame joining a prestigious list of 42 other remarkable Laureate and Special Recognition Award inductees who have received the industry’s highest distinction since 2005. Profiles of previous inductees can be found in the virtual Hall of Fame, along with photo and video galleries that display images of the past six Awards gala events.

“The Telecom Laureate Awards gala is always the culmination of a year’s work for Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame, and we are very pleased this year to have secured one of Canada’s most spectacular event venues in the new Ottawa Convention Centre”, adds Lorne Abugov. “On behalf of all of our volunteers and the members of our Board of Governors, I cordially invite all of those who serve within or support this great Canadian industry to gather on November 2^nd in Ottawa for what has quickly become Telecom’s Golden Evening.”

The Quebecor Fund Board of Directors is pleased to announce the names of the four production companies and three distributors whose projects will receive second-round funding under the Event and Film Production Assistance Program (EFPAP), following June 3, 2011 submissions. The distributors whose projects were selected will share a total of $675,000 in funding. The following companies are involved in those productions: feature film producers Go Films L.P.R.S. Inc., Christal Films Productions Inc., Les Films Camera Oscura Inc. and micro_scope inc.; and distributors Alliance Vivafilm Inc., Christal Films Inc. and Filmoption International Inc.

Quebecor Fund’s EFPAP program seeks to capture synergies with all industry stakeholders in order to:

• support the production of Canadian French-language feature films;
• support multiplatform exploitation of feature films and, in particular, foster integrated marketing strategies with an interactive component, starting from the development stage;
• enable the creative and production teams to produce a work as close as possible to their original creative vision;
• support television coverage of French-language events with Canadian content;
• support television coverage of events with integrated promotion and distribution on multiple platforms, including TV on demand;
• help recipients realize a return on investment in order to increase the Fund’s impact.

Quebecor Fund, a major source of financing for the production of Canadian television content, is an independent fund with a mission to support the production of Canadian content intended for television broadcast. Quebecor Fund backs television and film production, as well as the production of related interactive multimedia components that use new information and communication technologies, particularly platforms such as high-speed Internet, interactive television (ITV), video on demand (VoD), and/or various fixed and mobile devices.

Quebecor Fund was established through Videotron Ltd., which provides over $7.2 million annually in broadcasting distribution undertaking (BDU) contributions to the Canadian industry. Under its new Event and Film Production Assistance Program (EFPAP), launched in September 2010, Quebecor Fund has granted financial assistance totalling more than $1.5 million in its first two rounds of funding.

RECIPIENTS

FILM PRODUCTIONS

L’Affaire Dumont

• Producer: Go Films L.P.R.S. Inc. – Distributor: Alliance Vivafilm Inc.

Michel Dumont is charged, tried and convicted of sexual assault, all the while protesting his innocence. A 10-year-long David and Goliath saga set in modern times that raises basic questions about guilt and innocence.

Pee-Wee

• Producer: Christal Films Productions Inc. – Distributor: Christal Films Inc.

A 12-year-old hockey player must overcome multiple obstacles to lead his team in the world pee-wee hockey tournament in Québec City.

Roche-papier-ciseaux

• Producer: Les Films Camera Oscura Inc. – Distributor: Filmoption International Inc.

A young Aboriginal man and a depressed crime kingpin become friends; a ruined Italian man risks everything to save his wife; a banned doctor flees the Chinese triads. Because of a mad Mafia boss, their paths intersect.

Inch’Allah

• Producer: micro_scope inc. – Distributor: Christal Films Inc.

Chloé, a young Québec obstetrician, works in a Palestinian refugee camp. She experiences the checkpoints and the separation wall; she sees war and those who wage it.