Village Gamer

EA Sports™ Fight Night Champion is now available in North America and will launch worldwide on March 4, 2011. Fight Night Champion is an intense and deep new mature experience that builds on the rich legacy of the Fight Night series, which is one of the most critically acclaimed sports franchises of the past five years. Fight Night Champion full version and demo version are available for the Xbox 360® and the PlayStation®3. The game has been rated M for Mature by the ESRB.

Fight Night Champion features new gameplay innovation that delivers the rawness and brutality of the most realistic boxing simulation ever created. The title is packed with a deep menu of new modes and features, including: the all-new cinematic, narrative-driven Champion Mode; more than 50 licensed boxers including Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and Manny Pacquiao; Full Spectrum Punch Control; the deepest career mode yet, Online Gyms, and much more.

“The EA Sports Fight Night franchise has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation in sports videogames, from ushering in the new console generation in 2006 with Fight Night Round 3, to Fight Night Round 4 which introduced real world physics to the franchise two years ago,” said Dale Jackson, General Manager, Fighting, EA Sports. “Fight Night Champion advances the critically-acclaimed series with genre-defining new gameplay innovation, a deep feature set and an all new type of experience for the EA Sports gamer.”

Champion Mode brings cinematic storytelling to the Fight Night franchise and is the first such story mode in EA Sports history. Written by Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter Will Rokos, Champion Mode allows players to step into the shoes of up-and-coming middleweight prospect, Andre Bishop, as he discovers that the road to becoming a champion in professional boxing is one that is filled with corruption, personal struggle and more than just what happens between the ropes.

Fight Night Champion also introduces a host of gameplay improvements. The refined punching system, dubbed “Full Spectrum Punch Control”, brings the most accessible and responsive controls ever to a Fight Night title. A new anaerobic stamina system tracks individual muscle groups separately, punishing a player’s over-dependence on a single punch and encourages combination punching and diligent stamina management. In addition, improved visuals, multiple control schemes, realistic damage, boxer-specific animations and multiple stun states round out the key gameplay improvements players will experience in Fight Night Champion.

Paramount Digital Entertainment, Electronic Arts Inc. and Behaviour Interactive would like to remind you that Rango The Videogame, rated E by the ESRB, is now available worldwide for the PlayStation®3, Xbox 360®, Wii™ and Nintendo DS™. This action-adventure game is inspired by the forthcoming Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies animated feature film, Rango in theaters on March 4th . Set in the gritty, Wild West town of Dirt and filled with wily and whimsical characters, Rango The Videogame invites players to continue on Rango’s wild journey with all new tall tales, brimming with intense action and outlandish scenarios inspired by the movie.

“Rango’s fondness for telling tall tales allowed us to push the limits in creating new adventures for players of all ages to enjoy,” said Thomas Lesinski, President of Paramount Digital Entertainment. “We worked closely with the Rango filmmaking team on a unique game storyline and integrating stunning visuals from the film to create a game that delivers a great variety of game play that has already impressed the critics.”

Rango The Videogame lets players explore a wide variety of environments featured within and beyond the film and challenges them to achieve near-impossible feats as they work to uncover a plot that threatens the entire population of Dirt. Along the way, players will encounter Zombie rodents, Alien spaceships and even an 8-bit shootout inside an arcade machine. This family-friendly title captures the spirit and humor of the movie, with an extended storyline that goes beyond the vivid world of Dirt. Some of the features include:

Rango’s All New Tall Tales – Play as the quick-thinking chameleon Rango, the best Sheriff the town of Dirt has ever known, and explore a variety of new missions and environments that expand beyond those seen in the film.
Ride Roadrunners and Desert Bats – Speed through the desert atop these unconventional chariots as players engage in extraordinary acrobatic gunplay and more.
Interact with the Dirtonians – From a group of mariachi birds that provide color commentary to a gang of wild rabbits, the townsfolk of Dirt will provide no shortage of fun and entertainment.
Wild West Action and Adventure – Face hordes of hostile zombie rodents as you show the town who’s boss in good, old-fashioned shootouts where fists are flyin’ and spurs are shinin.’

I just realized that I forgot to check on which studios UK-based PocketGamer named to the top 10 and top 20 sections of its Top 50 last week, and upon checking see that GameLoft and EA Mobile were listed at number 1 and number 10 respectively. While neither developer/publisher produces 100% Canadian product, they do have a large number of mobile games developed in Canada, and both have major dev houses in Quebec, so congratulations to both of them. PocketGamer has also revealed the winners of its 2011 Awards, and again Canadian-made products were honoured.

Best iPhone Freemium Game: Lil’ Pirates (Capcom Mobile) – developed by IUGO Mobile Entertainment
Best Developer: GameLoft – in both iPhone-iPod Touch and Mobile categories
Best Publisher: EA Mobile – in iPhone-iPod Touch and iPad categories
Best Developer: Hemisphere Games in iPad Category
Best Action/Arcade Game: Mirror’s Edge for iPad (EA Mobile)
Best Sports/Driving Game: Madden NFL 11 for iPad (EA Mobile)

QuickPlay Media has unveiled Pocket Cinema™ – a service that offers consumers the ability to download, rent and watch popular movies on their video-enabled mobile device. Initially, the service is available exclusively for BlackBerry® TorchTM 9800 smartphone customers in the UK. Over time, QuickPlay plans to extend the service to additional mobile platforms and geographical markets. Customers who purchase a BlackBerry Torch from UK retailer Phones4U in March 2011 will receive a voucher for a complimentary movie download from the service.

Beginning today, BlackBerry Torch users will have access to a catalogue of hundreds of films by simply downloading Pocket Cinema on BlackBerry App World™. Users will then be able to access the movies on their BlackBerry® smartphone. Once downloaded over Wi-Fi®, the film is cached on the device and available for an unlimited number of views for 48 hours. Users don’t need a mobile signal or network connection in order to view films they have downloaded.

Tech Data Canada has introduced the StreamOne^SM Software License Selector, a new application only available on techdata.ca. The Software License Selector is the first in a series of exclusive e-business services the company is building on its new StreamOne software platform, which improves how the channel sells and distributes software by making it more efficient and less complex.

The StreamOne Software License Selector significantly surpasses contemporary software license tools in breadth and ease-of-use. In four simple steps, the StreamOne Software License Selector guides resellers through the entire software-purchasing process, sifting through hundreds of thousands of software SKUs and each vendors’ complex licensing rules to identify the right software part number, the most accurate pricing and the correct license type.

The StreamOne Software License Selector establishes the industry’s most accurate and efficient software license distribution channel, reducing the cycle time from quote to license from days to minutes. For resellers, it lowers licensing processing costs, instantly provides accurate pricing and makes it easy to attach software to all hardware sales. For vendors, it provides the opportunity to increase their channel partners as more resellers will now be able to sell software using the Software License Selector.

The StreamOne Software License Selector automates tasks like SKU selection and order qualification for 27 major software vendors—representing more than 99 percent of the software licenses purchased through Tech Data. The StreamOne Software License Selector aims to quickly solidify Tech Data’s position as the premier software license distributor for the world’s leading software companies. Additionally, the StreamOne Software License Selector will help Tech Data strengthen software sales, especially among small and medium businesses.

Software vendors supported by the StreamOne Software License Selector include: Absolute Software, Acronis, Adobe, Autodesk, BitDefender, Computer Associates, Check Point, Corel, Diskeeper, Double-Take, Filemaker, Ipswitch, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Parallels, Red Hat, Sage Act!, SAP, SCO, SolarWinds, Symantec, Trend Micro, Vasco, VMware.

Mission Against Terror (M.A.T.), a free-to-play shooter published by Toronto’s Wicked Interactive, has teamed with GamerSaloon.com, the world’s largest player-to-player videogame tournament network, for cash prizes. To get things started right, GamerSaloon.com is hosting a special kickoff competition.

“We are very excited to be working with Wicked Interactive. Mission Against Terror is an excellent addition to our competitive roster,” said Justin Becker, Director of Affiliated Partnerships, GamerSaloon.com. “Whereas other pay and free-to-play titles claim to be perfectly balanced for robust, satisfying competitive gameplay, M.A.T. delivers, thanks to the significant investment that was made in developing the title along with the constant user-generated improvements and enhancements.”

“We are thrilled to be part of this opportunity,” said Sam Ho, Director, Wicked Interactive. “GamerSaloon.com is a gamer community unlike any other. Rather than just talking big, games on GamerSaloon.com back up their talk with cold, hard cash.”

How to Get Started:

1. Download M.A.T. from GamerSaloon.com (www.gamersaloon.com) to be entered into a sweepstakes to win $50 Bonus Cash
2. Spend your Bonus Cash however you see fit on tournaments, generating winnings and what-have you.
3. Invite your friends to join you for the chance to win. (4- and 8-man competitions available)

Special Kickoff Competition Prizes:

1st Place: $100 + headset
2nd Place: $25 + headset
3rd Place: headset

More Canadian studios have been named to Pocket Gamer’s Top 50 Mobile Developers List. Congratulations to Trainyard creator Matt Rix, Gamerizon and Get Set Games. Pocket Gamer will reveal the remaining Top 20 over the next two days.

Best Buy Canada is holding a random drawing with one of three new Asus eee Slates as the prize. The Contest runs from February 11 – 24, 2011 and is open to residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province.

An interesting development in the User Based Billing war in Canada is that Netflix has hired two former regulators to help smooth its first international expansion as an Internet billing debate grows. Please see the article over at Bloomberg for the full story.

New software has arrived on the market from several Canadian developers.

Di-O-Matic Inc. has released Maskarad, a new ground-breaking automatic markerless facial performance motion capture software. With Maskarad, 3D artists now only need a video file featuring an actor’s performance to get started creating lifelike facial animations. Using advanced computer recognition, Maskarad automatically locates and tracks facial expressions all the while using phonetic recognition to create accurate lip motion.

Maskarad is a markerless motion capture technology that literally puts motion capture on the animator’s desktop. You can shoot a video right at your workplace using a webcam or inexpensive digital camera and have it converted to 3D facial animation data in minutes.

“I’ve tested and used a lot of 3rd party software in my years of production on some of the best games of all-time like Bungie’s Halo3, Ubisoft’s Spinter Cell and Prince of Persia to name a few” revealed Jonathan Abenhaim, senior freelance character animator. He continues: “Maskarad is insanely simple, it outputs results in a fraction of the time it used to take me to produce facial animations and I can easily tweak its animation curves.”

No messy or cumbersome face marker setups and no expensive dedicated hardware is required. Maskarad quickly outputs facial animation data ready to be used in your favorite 3D applications. Before Maskarad, realistic 3D facial animation was limited to only a few high-end projects. This was due to the expensive motion capture hardware and laborious post-processing involved either directly or through outsourcing. Maskarad will provide an amazing first pass of animation done in minutes without any complicated setups. This is what Di-O-Matic solutions are about…giving you awesome results quicker than anyone else.

“Maskarad provides a remarkable solution for doing facial motion capture.” share Lee Dickholtz from Meta Motion. “Maskarad is the easiest powerful 3D animation tool that I have ever encountered during 25 years of working with 3D animation and motion capture. Di-O-Matic has done an excellent job creating character animation plugins and standalone programs that greatly simplify the life of character animators. Maskarad is another example of their splendid work!”

Corel has introduced Corel® VideoStudio® Pro X4, the new version of its powerful video editing software that lets anyone create and share professional-quality videos. The Cavechild has downloaded the trial version, and he is very pleased with it. He found it very easy to use and was mucking about with video and audio tracks in no time. VideoStudio Pro X4 gets two thumbs up from him.

With outstanding speed and easy ways to bring great-looking movies to the screen, VideoStudio Pro X4 combines power and simplicity to break down the barriers to video editing. Whether you’re a new user or have a long-time passion for video editing, VideoStudio Pro X4 is an ideal choice with its uncomplicated approach to movie making, impressive effects and outstanding speed-to-results.

This latest version includes all-new, creative features to enable anyone to add Hollywood-style effects to their movies. VideoStudio Pro X4 offers new Time-lapse tools that let you easily deliver the high-quality, photographic look of professional productions as your movie speeds your audience through time. The new Stop Motion feature automates this traditional, time-consuming animation process, taking away the complexity of bringing objects like toys or figures to life. In addition, there are new capabilities that make it easy to create a 3D look from your 2D video, emulating the immersive feel of 3D movies on the big screen.

Making the editing process faster than ever, VideoStudio Pro X4 delivers unprecedented performance with new optimization for 2nd generation Intel® Core™ (Sandy Bridge) and AMD Fusion processors. For users who may not have the latest hardware, VideoStudio Pro offers the unique Smart Proxy feature as well as support for CUDA, GPU acceleration and multi-core processing to provide quick and responsive editing.

New and Enhanced Features in Corel VideoStudio Pro X4

• New! Stop Motion animation: Have fun making movies that bring inanimate objects to life. Capture images from webcams, camcorders and DSLR cameras and use the automated tools and settings to simplify the stop-motion animation process.
• New! Speed/Time-lapse: Easily create time-lapse effects from a series of photos or video clips and give your movies the professional look of speeding up time. With the ability to handle full-resolution files and very large-size image sets, this is a perfect tool for HD-DSLR photographers.
• New! Processor optimization: Offering exceptional power and speed, VideoStudio Pro X4 is optimized for the new 2nd generation Intel® Core™ and AMD Fusion processors.
• Enhanced! Integrated HD authoring and burning: Ideal for upgrade customers, it’s easier than ever to author HD movies to DVD and Blu-ray™ Disc with tightly integrated disc creation tools.
• New! 3D export: Convert 2D video clips into 3D files with presets for 3D output on DVD, Blu-ray™, and AVCHD discs, as well as WMV 3D formats for mobile. Box versions also include a pair of 3D glasses.
• New! Customizable Workspace: Set up your workspace the way you want – including across dual monitors.
• Enhanced! Web sharing: With presets for YouTube™, Vimeo®, Facebook® and Flickr® in both HD and SD formats, it’s easy to upload directly to your site of choice.
• New! Import/Export Movie Templates: Make your own templates and effects that you can upload and share with other VideoStudio Pro X4 users.
• Enhanced! Corel Guide: Get the tools you need to make great movies with free in-product training videos delivered through the Corel Guide. Click on the Corel Guide inside VideoStudio Pro X4 to access an array of useful information, Help, product updates and add-ons, downloadable media packs, and more.
• Enhanced! Smart Package: Automatically gather your entire project – video, photo, and audio files – into one folder you can take with you while choosing a custom compression method and secure with password encryption, powered by newly integrated WinZip® technology.

Corel VideoStudio Pro X4 delivers a complete video editing package for less than $100, giving any business the power to add online video to their marketing mix. With simple drag and drop clips, effects and graphic placement, bloggers and business users can quickly create and share custom branded templates. The enhanced Smart Package, now using integrated WinZip encryption technology, gathers all video, photo, and audio files used in a project into one password protected folder – making it easy to share your work in progress with colleagues or take it to another PC. With presets for uploading directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Flickr, it’s never been simpler to reach your audience.

Corel VideoStudio Pro X4 makes it simple for teachers to incorporate video into the classroom or digital storytelling projects. X4 offers a 3-step interface; outstanding stability and performance; custom template creation and sharing; and easy-to-use creative tools to help kids create something amazing.

“Video is part of our kids’ language. The introduction of video editing into the classroom gives teachers a meaningful opportunity to bring literacy, conceptualization and creativity together in one engaging exercise,” said Piros. “Corel’s flexible and inexpensive academic licensing, in-product training videos and simplicity make VideoStudio Pro X4, hands down, the ideal choice for schools.”

Regina’s NetSecure Technologies, a provider of online transaction security solutions, has announced the availability of its complete product suite – SafeCheckout , PINCheckout and SmartSwipe – to provide security solutions for online transaction security for consumers, financial institutions, credit card companies, online merchants and other organizations under attack by cyber criminals.

The entire product suite leverages NetSecure’s patented Dynamic SSL core technology, an endpoint-to-endpoint online data security system that protects sensitive financial, strategic, or personal information from endpoint threats such as keylogging, keyjacking and man in the browser attacks. Unlike other tokenization solutions, Dynamic SSL can be used to transparently retrofit SSL equipped systems without changing the existing applications.

According to Homeland Security, “cyber threat has become one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face. America’s competitiveness and economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on effective cybersecurity,” cites Daniel McCann, president of NetSecure Technologies. “The government states that cybersecurity is a shared responsibility, urging every Internet user to help secure cyberspace. We believe in this shared responsibility, having developed data security solutions for not only consumers, but the organizations that serve consumers, providing a safer online environment for all.”

The company’s award-winning SmartSwipe, an online purchase security system, enables consumers to swipe their credit cards at home while shopping online. Using the same level of encryption found in ATM’s, SmartSwipe encrypts the card information while being swiped, rendering it unreadable to hackers and malicious programs.

NetSecure’s newest endpoint security product PINCheckout, a chip and PIN technology solution, oversees transactions and enables card issuers and financial institutions to offer their customers a secure online shopping environment for their chip and PIN transactions. With PINCheckout, e-commerce transactions are secured by encrypting sensitive information through an external device and remains protected throughout the entire transaction.

SafeCheckout, which powers PINCheckout and SmartSwipe, is a true end-to-end encryption solution within a web browser session. It replaces consumers’ real information with fake information, while the entire transaction is protected with Secure Socket Layer (SSL). SafeCheckout protects users from endpoint threats, such as zero-day attacks.

NetSecure is now offering their products with or without hardware for licensing and cost effective deployment.

Ottawa’s prairieFyre Software has released prairieFyre Contact Center for Microsoft© Lync™, a modular software suite that provides sophisticated multi-channel contact center functionality for the Lync unified communications (UC) platform. Developed on the Voice-over-IP and UC architecture of Microsoft Lync Server 2010, prairieFyre Contact Center is ideal for those organizations that wish to leverage the advanced enterprise voice features of the UC platform and require a comprehensive contact center solution.

Microsoft Corp.’s UC applications enable real-time collaboration and information flows by combining presence-aware telephony, conferencing, messaging, and mobility functionality in an easy-to-use Microsoft Lync 2010 interface. The prairieFyre Contact Center takes advantage of these capabilities and combines them with a full-featured Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), enabling agents to provide superior customer service through instant access to key subject matter experts, support teams, and business intelligence across the enterprise.

prairieFyre Ignite combines an ACD soft phone, enterprise presence and real-time contact center information in a familiar Lync 2010-based client. From Ignite, agents can login to queues and control their availability with user-defined reason codes. Agent states are fully synchronized with the enterprise presence capability of Lync Server 2010. prairieFyre Ignite also supports the headsets and desktop sets “optimized for” Lync.

prairieFyre Contact Center automates management reporting, forecasting and scheduling allowing supervisors to focus on their Key Performance Indicators and continually improve operational effectiveness. Reports can be run on-demand or scheduled to be automatically generated and emailed at specific times. Supervisors can chose from 120 report templates or use the Flexible Reporting module to create their own custom reports. Powerful Forecasting and Scheduling modules allow supervisors to create and publish agent shift schedules and ensure service levels are met through real-time adherence alarms. All reports and schedules are rendered from the Microsoft SQL Server database in preformatted Microsoft Excel or Adobe® PDF formats. The suite is designed to work on a single Microsoft server platform with Windows 7 on the user desktop.

With its broad functionality and modular design, prairieFyre Contact Center for Microsoft Lync can be tailored to businesses of any size or industry in departmental, standalone, or geographically dispersed deployments.

SpeakFeel, a mobile marketing agency and product development firm based in Guelph, has secured two valuable assets: One of the industry’s top mobile-app developers and a new mobile analytics software that is already generating buzz in the industry.

Harry Scanlan joined SpeakFeel almost a year ago and quickly proved his credentials as one of the industry’s top mobile app developers. Now Scanlan has joined the SpeakFeel management team as a partner and has taken a seat on the Board of Directors of the fast-growing company.

The SpeakFeel partnership group also includes Kelly Brooks, who has over 13 years experience in managing web application projects and online branding strategy, Noel Webb, a nine-year veteran in the field of digital and social media, and Rudy Diemer, founder and President of RKD Web Studios Inc.

“Harry’s unique skill is developing bullet-proof blueprints for mobile apps and then leading a team of developers to bring apps to fruition quickly and effectively,” says Brooks, President of SpeakFeel. “A mobile app developer like Harry who works across all the platforms, including BlackBerry, is an extremely valuable asset and very difficult to find. Harry is key to our growth going forward.”

As the new Director of Mobile Technology, Scanlan will manage the team of developers as well as networks, hosting and security. He will also drive research and development with new devices. The SpeakFeel team works across all major platforms including BlackBerry, Android, iPhone and Windows Phone.

“At SpeakFeel we’ve aligned our business and technical expertise to position ourselves as leaders in both client and in-house product development for mobile,” says Scanlan. “I look forward to the exciting future we have together, not only with Noel and Kelly but also our talented development and management team.”

SpeakFeel has secured another important building block for the future. In joining the partnership team, Scanlan brings Devilytics to the mobile app agency too. SpeakFeel now has full ownership of the impressive and easy-to-implement online mobile application analytics tool. Devilytics enables mobile app developers and owners to track downloads, usage and other items such as errors, GPS and cell tower location from a beautifully simple online interface.

“Acquiring full ownership of Devilytics allows us to give our mobile-app development clients complete transparency into how customers use their apps,” says Webb, Vice-president/Chairman of SpeakFeel. “Now we deliver leading-edge apps backed by a tool that drills down and delivers data to determine return-on- investment.”

And finally today, after more than 12 years as the symbol of Canada’s Walk of Fame, the emblematic maple leaf “star” evolves to shine ever brighter with the introduction of a new icon commemorating Canadian excellence. The Board of Directors of Canada’s Walk of Fame has announced the launch of a redesigned logo to celebrate and symbolize a new era of Canadian excellence. The new mark was developed by recently appointed agency of record, TAXI 2.

“Never before has Canadian pride been so resonant across this great country and our new star becomes the heart and soul of a legacy that future generations can enjoy,” said Peter Soumalias, President and CEO of Canada’s Walk of Fame. “I’m particularly pleased with the new look as it represents the outcome of terrific creative work on behalf of our new ad agency, who truly embraced the brand and with their insight and understanding of the essence of Canada’s Walk of Fame, produced a truly distinctive graphic branding approach.”

The concept behind the new logo — connecting five maple leaves forming a singular star — is inspired by the bond of Canadian pride that we all share. The logo evokes the notion that as Canadians, we all contribute to the success of our country. Occasionally, Soumalias suggested, exceptional individuals rise to be recognized and our appreciation of their achievements as well as our celebration of their fame can make us all feel part of a greater whole.

“Before we started working with Canada’s Walk of Fame, we thought we knew what it meant to be ‘proud Canadians’,” said Dave Watson, Creative Director at TAXI. “But now our pride is at an all-time high. We wanted the new logo and visual identity to reflect the important work that Canada’s Walk of Fame does in shining the spotlight on Canadian excellence from all aspects of our culture.”

A 60-second video spot, also created by TAXI 2, will play nationally in Cineplex theatres starting March 1.  The new logo has been integrated across all Canada’s Walk of Fame branding initiatives and will be implemented for the 2011 inductions.

Note: The World Wide Short Film Fest has opened Screenplay Giveaway to submissions.
Note: Nominations now open to Canada’s emerging technology companies for PricewaterhouseCoopers 2011 Innovator of the Year Award.

The third Game Prototype Challenge ended earlier this week with a total of ten game submissions centering around the theme of Loneliness and Dimensions. There are some very cool ideas in this last round, and considering that they were all done as side projects between February 14th and February 21st just makes them even better. The Challenge just keeps growing with every iteration, and I am looking forward to seeing comes out in the next one in March.

The final installment of the Ask Dr. Mike video series has been released by Hothead Games. Check out the in-studio rivalry between Producer Joel DeYoung and Lead Designer Pete Low as Joel tries to trump Pete’s new high score in the upcoming platformer Swarm.

Watch the gameplay carefully and listen closely to the commentary for some inside secrets on game-play and high scoring tactics. See how the sacrificing of squishy blue guys will lead you to multiplier supremacy and achievement completion.

Post-secondary students these days have so many cool new specialty areas to study, sometimes I wish I could go back to school full-time. Yes, I liked school. Except for Math. And Science. History, Law and English – those were my favourites. There weren’t really any courses leading towards any specific type of creative career when I was in high school, not counting the classes for performing arts or traditional trades like welding and wood-working.

A new graduate studies programme has been introduced at Waterloo University’s Stratford Campus. The Master of Digital Innovation (MDI) is a one year project-based interdisciplinary degree programme. Students will work through the programme as they would if they were working for an employer, in teams, working on core projects. Throughout the process of completing these projects, students will consult with faculty and industry partners, gaining hands-on experience in many areas, including Team Building, Design Thinking and Business Modelling as well as Marketing Strategy and Critical Cultural Analysis. That last one sounds like it involves Math.

This new full-time program, which will be offered for the first time in Fall 2011 pending final Ontario Council on Graduate Studies approval, will take place over three consecutive terms: Fall, Winter and Spring.

The Fall Session will focus on Working in Teams, Principles of Marketing in a Globalized World, Digital Media Solutions Design and New Perspectives on Media History and Analysis.  During the Winter Session, students will continue Working in Teams as they look at Digital Media Solutions: Project Management, Media Innovation and Impact as well as Understanding the Consumer Universe. The Spring session focuses entirely on Projects.

Longbow Games has launched the latest game in their Hegemony series of historical RTS wargames. Hegemony Gold: Wars of Ancient Greece expands upon last year’s PAX 10 finalist Hegemony: Philip of Macedon, adding two new campaigns and an all new diplomacy system plus an open sandbox mode with 26 playable factions and significant gameplay upgrades and refinements. The game is available online from Longbow, priced at $29.99 for the complete version or $9.99 as an upgrade from the original game.

“After spending the last year building a community and talking to fans about what they liked best in the first Hegemony, we’re really excited to show off all that we’ve added for Hegemony Gold,” said Jim McNally, President and Lead Designer of Longbow Games. “Not only do the new features significantly expand the range and depth of the tactics in Hegemony but the new campaigns and sandbox mode exponentially increase the amount of gameplay available.”

Conquer the ancient Greek world in Hegemony Gold: Wars of Ancient Greece, a real-time strategy wargame that expands and refines the award-winning Hegemony: Philip of Macedon with brand new content and features. Experience the full range of warfare from reconnaissance and raids to field battles and mountain blockades as you campaign across a continuous satellite-accurate map of ancient Greece. Siege and starve your enemy by cutting their supply lines or burning their crops, all the while building and protecting your own supply network to support your growing kingdom. Play as Macedonia, Athens, or Sparta in the three historical campaigns, or choose one of the 26 factions in the epic sandbox mode and forge your own empire. With a dynamic new diplomacy system and greatly expanded tactics, Hegemony Gold sets the new standard for ancient warfare.

IUGO Mobile Entertainment has released a trailer for its latest announced title, Pricklees, which has been submitted to Apple for approval. Jump, duck and roll to the beat with the Pricklees in this new music game that features 3 adorable characters you wish you could cuddle, if they weren’t covered in prickles.

There are 3 levels of difficulty in the game: easy, medium and hard for tons of replayability, with more unlockable content through IAP. Dead easy controls and intuitive UI in dynamic 2D/3D environments allow for unique rhythm-based gameplay with 7 Fresh Electronic tracks and more songs coming in future updates.

TVO is pleased to announce the launch of its new digital Public Archive, a free online resource that unlocks four decades of made-at-TVO educational programming that stands the test of time. The centerpiece of TVO’s 40th anniversary celebrations, TVO’s Public Archive is full of rare moments in television history including:

* popular Saturday Night at the Movies host Elwy Yost’s conversations with film legends of the 70s and 80s;
* insights from some of the greatest minds in science and technology like Richard Dawkins, John Polanyi, Carl Sagan and Steve Wozniak;
* interviews with political leaders including every Ontario Premier since John Robarts;
* rare moments with Canadian icons like Mordecai Richler, Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence and John Candy;
* and Canadian heroes like Jane Jacobs, June Callwood and Roberta Bondar.

TVO’s Public Archive is a valuable resource for researchers, filmmakers, writers, bloggers and anyone who wants to learn more about the cultural history that has made Ontario what it is today, and features beloved TVO programs that have defined TVO over the years. It launches with over 375 programs and segments that would take more than five days to watch.

The site includes episodes of Polka Dot Door, Today’s Special, Prisoners of Gravity, Imprint, Realities, Studio 2, the interviews portion of Saturday Night at the Movies, The Education of Mike McManus, Between the Lines and more. It also includes the new “Think Again” podcast series where programs are re-cut and re-mixed, examining important issues and placing them in context of the world today. New content that can be searched by program title, year, guest, subject or playlist will be added to the Public Archive regularly.

The Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) today launched a major international TV, print and online campaign to showcase Ontario’s thriving cultural media sector. The campaign encourages consumers and investors to “be part of it” by buying Ontario’s award-winning cultural media products and investing in the province’s dynamic companies.

The six-week television campaign, showcasing more than 80 Ontario companies and world-renowned cultural exports, features a soundtrack by indie band Metric, which won the 2010 Juno Award for Best Alternative Album. The campaign was created by Toronto ad agency Brandworks International Inc. and will be supported by print and online ads in a variety of Canadian, U.S. and U.K. publications, along with an interactive website.

Ontario’s entire creative cluster includes: book and magazine publishing, film and television, interactive digital media, music, performing arts, radio, advertising, architecture and design. Together, they contribute more than $ 12.2 billion to the provincial GDP and employ more than 300,000 people.

Ubisoft is going on tour with its Kinect titles, but it seems BC is not on the list, at least not yet. One would think that BC would be on the list considering that Ubisoft has a development studio in Vancouver. The only confirmed locations thus far are for Halifax, when they will be visiting the Halifax Discovery Centre on February 25th and 26th before moving on to the Wal-Mart at Halifax Shopping Centre on February 27th. All other provinces are listed as “Coming Soon” with BC and all three territories not appearing on the schedule at all.

Frima Studio has earned two of the five nominations given out for the Best PS3/PSP Mini Game by Sony Computer Entertainment of America for its 2011 PlayStation®Network Gamers’ Choice Awards. Frima’s latest effort, the aptly named A Space Shooter for Two Bucks!, has recently crossed the 100,000 downloads mark, and Young Thor is one of the most critically-acclaimed Minis in history.

Voting will be open for one week until Tuesday, March 1st, with PSN users across North America choosing their favorite game in each of the four categories by downloading a free XMB theme corresponding to that game, voting for one game in each category. When the voting is over, the winning game from each of the four categories will go on sale for 30% off at the PlayStation Store and 50% off to PlayStation Plus subscribers.

Nexon America has kicked off the second round of the Nexon iNitiative, a million dollar program designed with the intent to seek out the most promising independent video game projects and provide funding to support the next generation of game developers from around the world. Open for submissions until April 30th, the Nexon iNitiative will award game developers a share of $1 million in development funds for projects that align with Nexon’s focus on community building and long-term user engagement.

The first Nexon iNitiative was launched in March 2010, which saw Canadian developer Antic Entertainment and Polish developer one2tribe chosen from a pool of more than 100 candidates in 2010. Each of the studios earned a share of more than $1 million in development funding. Both companies are currently creating online game projects that will be co-developed and published through Nexon’s global distribution network, which currently services 30 games in more than 71 countries.

Through the Nexon iNitiative, Nexon is looking for potential games that have wide-ranging audience appeal and which encourage community and social interaction. Flash, client-based games or ports from other platforms are all welcome submissions. Games with strong online and multi platform elements will get serious consideration, as will game concepts that align with Nexon’s goals.

Rogers Media (RMI) today announced the appointment of Jason Tafler to the newly created position, Chief Digital Officer.  A veteran of the U.S. and Canadian digital sector, Tafler comes to Rogers from PointRoll, a leading provider of innovative digital marketing solutions and technology based in Pennsylvania.

Tafler will be responsible for strategic and operational leadership for the Digital division of Rogers Media with accountability for financial and operational targets.  Rogers Digital Media is responsible for over 250 Rogers Digital products including brand websites, mobile products and client microsites as well as pure digital plays such as Sweetspot.ca,  BRANCHEZ -VOUS!, PoolExpert and Canadian Parents.  The range of partnerships and acquisitions brings Rogers Digital Media over 16 million unique viewers per month and reaches 65% of Canadians online.  As well, Rogers Digital Media provides ad solutions and content for Rogers Communications and ad representation for foreign clients.

Tafler grew up in Toronto and has spent most of the past decade of his career in the U.S. building, advising and investing in entrepreneurial growth-oriented companies in the media, advertising and technology industries.  He joined PointRoll in 2005 and became CEO in 2008.  Prior to PointRoll, he worked in a boutique investment bank in New York and with Zoomer Media and First Marathon Securities in Canada.

Reminder: IGDA Vancouver soft-launch and Global Game Jam Post-Mortem takes place tonight. More info on the event’s Facebook page.
Reminder: Ontario companies, get your submissions in for the INplay Ontario Show & Tell Kids Interactive Showcase, the deadline is April 1st. Also note that the INplay Kick Off registration rate for attendees will end tomorrow.
Reminder: There is one week left to get your nominations in for the Canadian Video Game Awards. I nominated at least a dozen, is your favourite Canadian-made-in-2010 game nominated? No? Make it so – nominate it today.

Congratulations to VFS Game Design graduate Zach Williams, who has been named as the very first recipient of the Brian Wood Memorial Internship, an internship that will be awarded three times annually to celebrate the life of Relic employee Brian Wood, who was killed in a tragic car accident last year. Zach, who has previously worked in the local industry as a QA Tester, will begin a four-month internship at Relic Entertainment.

Relic’s General Manager Jonathan Dowdeswell stated on the VFS blog that “Zach’s personal drive to become a great game developer, his broad skill base across a number of the disciplines, as well as his passion for Relic and knowledge of the culture and practices that we maintain were the things that made him stand out as a clear choice for this internship, he even had a Relic shirt ready to put on when we announced the winner to the class!”

Unless you have absolutely no interest gaming, you will be well aware that today is the launch of the demo for Dragon Age 2, available on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.  Bioware will, as we told you last week, unlock two perks should the demo be downloaded and played by 1 million gamers before March 1st. The key to answering this Call To Arms, as the demo phase has been dubbed, is that you must sign in to your EA account. So in our house, at least, that has been achieved by two of us on two separate Xboxes. I’ve played a few minutes of the demo, and thus far Dragon Age 2 looks awesome – the only part I’m concerned about is that the text is awfully small and sometimes difficult to read on a CRT television, even with a large screen.

Of course downloading two demo files also burned up 3.96gb of our new lower monthly cap of 100gb, and upon checking our nifty new Shaw Bandwidth Monitor we are now at 80gb with two weeks still to go on our billing cycle. Yes, we’ll be over – again. We are such bandwidth hogs – especially since Shaw decided we could do with 25gb less per month, but still pay them the same amount of money. Good thing that Shaw is holding off on charging for overages until after they hold their Customer Consultation sessions. I know there will be one in Langley next month, and Shaw has confirmed that my request to attend a session, but I have not yet been emailed about the exact location and time. 

Speaking of User Based Billing, Open Media is still fighting the good fight, and have issued their own call to arms as Rogers and the other obese telecoms meet to find ways to defeat the right of Canadian consumers to have access to fair and affordable internet services. In a post on their site, Open Media asks for the support of consumers in continuing the fight for our rights, and yes, this fight will require funding. We don’t have a huge amount of disposable income in our house, but honestly I would rather help Open Media with a $20.00 donation than pay it to any telecom for an already overpriced cable plan. If Open Media can raise $15 000.00 in the next 48 hours, indie ISP providers TekSavvy and Acanac will match those funds. Please help if you can.

What really, really irks me – besides the high prices for less service, that is – is that the telecoms are telling the CRTC how we internet hogs are clogging up the interwebs so steps must be taken to curb our overuse, yet they continually come up with new “limited special deals” to sign up new customers. If those of us already using the Net are clogging it up, stop trying to sign up more people, because they’re just going to clog it up even more!

While I want to direct you over to Open Media’s site to read their plan in full, here is a quick look at their initial plan of action:

1. Unleash the creativity and ingenuity of Canadians. People from all walks of life — innovators, educators, students, entrepreneurs, and everything in between — are getting together on February 26th for a Day Of Action to educate our fellow Canadians about Internet metering.

2. Put together a united front of public interest groups, creators, indie ISPs, online service providers and half a million Canadians to put forth a well-researched, evidence-based submission to the CRTC.

I would like to add to this plan of action by asking all of you to write your MP and Industry Canada – don’t just accept the bullying of the telecoms as a done deal. We can fight back – we’ve already shown that with the delay of User Based Billing – and we can make a difference. I found an old flyer the other day when I was making an attempt at cleaning up the clutter in my office. This flyer was from our local MP, Mark Warawa (Conservative) and the headline phrase on this flyer is that the Conservatives stand up for Canadian consumers. Well? Let’s see some action behind that statement. Not sure how to contact your MP? Check here. And don’t forget – the CIRA-hosted Canadian Internet Forum being held in Ottawa on February 25th will be available via webcast (yup, burning up more of those gigabytes), so remember to tune in and watch the discussion about the future of Canada’s internet and digital economy. There is also an active discussion group on the CIF site, registration is required to view and post on it.

Ubisoft has finally confirmed a release date for the PC version of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Those of you who prefer to battle the Templars and Borgia on your computers will be able to do so beginning on March 22nd.  Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood for PC will be available at retail stores and for digital download in two different versions:

Retail and Digital Standard Edition:

Main game + Abstergo Project Update 1.0 and 2.0 and The Da Vinci Disappearance

Digital Deluxe Edition:

·Main game + Abstergo Project Update 1.0 and 2.0 and The Da Vinci Disappearance

o Assassin’s Creed® Lineage: discover the story of Giovanni Auditore, Ezio’s father, by watching this three episodes short movie.

o Exclusive additional content featuring the Assassin’s Creed® Brotherhood original soundtrack, galleries, Making-of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood…

o Exclusive unlockable content:

* One Multiplayer Character: The Harlequin, a deadly assassin lying behind a gaudy costume and a twisted smiling mask
* One Multiplayer Character: The Officer, a stealthy assassin who can assassinate his targets with a swift and powerful attack
* One exclusive single player indoor map: The Trajan Market
* One exclusive single player outdoor map: The Aqueducts map
* Ezio “Drachen Armor”

Both the Standard Digital Edition and the Deluxe Digital Edition can be pre-ordered at the Ubiworkshop Store.

Microsoft has announced that it will release a non-commercial Kinect for Windows software development kit from Microsoft Research later this spring, followed by a full commercial version of the SDK later in the year. This “starter kit” for application developers is intended to make it easier for academic research and enthusiast communities to create even richer experiences using Kinect technology. Through its collaboration with the Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB), Microsoft Research is hoping to support a growing community of academic researchers and enthusiasts who are exploring potential applications built using Kinect.

The starter kit will give academic researchers and enthusiasts access to deep Kinect system capabilities such as audio, system APIs, and direct control of the sensor. Microsoft has deep investments in R&D in natural user interfaces (NUI), which is a part of the company’s long term vision of creating computers that are intuitive to use and able to do far more for us. The fruits of those investments manifesting across many of Microsoft’s products, including Kinect for Xbox 360, Windows Phone 7, Microsoft Surface 2.0, Bing for Mobile and Office 2010 Mini Translator.

Reminder: Final day to vote for your choice in the Independent Games Festival Audience Award
Reminder: Final day to apply for the Astral Media Emerging Documentary Filmmakers Scholarship Program
Reminder: Final day for graduates to apply to Doc U
Reminder: Final day for Early Bird Pricing on Social Media Marketing Best Practices for Small Businesses, Not-for Profits and Organizations at BCIT Downtown Campus
Reminder: Final day to submit proposals for the SIGGRAPH 2011 Dailies, Courses, Emerging Technologies, Game Papers, Panels, Posters, Talks, Technical Papers and The Studio

Digital Alberta is hosting two mixers on March 11th – one at the Alastair Ross Technology Centre in Calgary and one at the Nexen Theatre in Edmonton. The evening’s goal is to open the door for inter-disciplinary collaboration in convergent projects, and members of both the film and interactive digital media sectors are encouraged to attend.

canWIT BC Chapter is holding a breakfast seminar on February 23rd titled How to Get Your Tech Start-up Financed. Being held at the Segal Graduate School of Business, SFU, attendees will hear about getting a start-up company up and running, financeable and financed for future growth. Tickets for this event are $15.00 each, and Thealzel Lee of Rocket Builders, Valerie Mann of Lawson Lundell LLP and Joanne Hausch of Deloitte & Touche LLP will cover:

Investment in tech in BC
How to structure your start-up
Financing options
What makes investors invest in companies
How to attract investors’ attention
Key issues to consider in the early-days of your start-up

One week remains before the Canadian Internet Forum takes place in Ottawa on February 25th. Hosted by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) and its partners, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Media Awareness Network (MNet), this event is an opportunity to present and examine the results of six face-to-face consultations that were held across Canada in tandem with an online discussion forum. A panel of experts will discuss the results, with topics including digital literacy, online privacy, IPv6 adoption, access to broadband, and social media, among others. Participants at the CIF will also have opportunities to provide feedback and commentary on the findings.

Experts speaking at the CIF include:

* Jacob Glick, Canada Policy Counsel, Google
* Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Executive Director, Masters of Digital Media Program at Vancouver’s Centre for Digital Media
* Marc Blanchet, Network Engineer, Viagénie
* Jim Roche, President and CEO, CANARIE
* Sally Wentworth, Senior Manager for Public Policy, Internet Society

Leading Canadian technology visionary Leonard Brody will provide the keynote address at the CIF, which is an important opportunity for Canadians to have their say on the direction the Internet should take in Canada. The results of the consultations, online discussion and the CIF will be presented to the United Nations coordinated Internet Governance Forum, a venue for stakeholders to discuss the future of the Internet, later in 2011. This event will also be webcast in English and French for those who can’t attend in person.

Hot Docs has put out a call for proposals for Doc Summit, asking Canadian producers, directors, distributors, digital and broadcast execs, and policy hawks to share their ideas on the sector’s top issues. Doc Summit is a half-day town hall forum which will be held on Friday May 6th, during this year’s Hot Docs festival, conference and market, taking place in Toronto this April 28th through May 8th.

Congratulations to everyone at Igloo Software, who picked up the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Award for Innovation last evening. Igloo Software was launched in 2004 as an online network, linking researchers at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. Since that time, Igloo has evolved into a for-profit company and its social-networking platform helps clients improve employee productivity and build stronger relationships with key stakeholders.

TELETOON has launched a new online contest that will see one lucky Canadian viewer win a spot as a contestant on the English-language version of its hit Hollywood Squares-inspired animation and live-action show Skatoony, a TELETOON original production from marblemedia.

Starting today and running until Sunday, March 20, 2011 at teletoon.com, eligible kids can enter to appear alongside an assortment of well-known animated characters from TELETOON’s original productions. Hosted by the animated duo of Chudd Chudders and his sidekick announcer, The Earl, Skatoony features real-life and animated contestants competing in four side-splitting trivia-based rounds to win bragging rights as well as a terrific prize. The contest winner will receive a trip to Toronto for the filming and $1,000 spending money.

TELETOON is also running the contest for the French-language version of the series from Monday, February 28 to Thursday, March 31, 2011. Full contest rules and regulations for the English and French-language contests are available online at teletoon.com.

In anticipation of their potential rise to stardom, kids can play the new Skatoony game online at teletoon.com where they can play live against their friends. Kids can register and create their very own avatar then customize its appearance in the online “store” using Skatoony bucks earned by playing the game.

Bong of the Dead, the $5 000.00 zombie movie is in the can. Writer, producer and director of Bong of the Dead, Thomas Newman took a chance of a lifetime to complete his first feature film. Being a veteran of the special effects industry, Thomas was able to turn his love and passion for film into a movie which is now being sought after by multiple distribution companies from across the globe.

The process of creating an entire film and compositing over 350 shots himself by hand – frame by frame is typically usually the work of dozens of people. Driven by passion and fueled by his hunger for success he was able to overcome many personal and technical hurdles throughout the last two years. Along the way turning the movie into what it is today.

Here is the trailer for Bong of the Dead – while it has not been officially rated, Thomas Newman notes on the trailer title that it’s Rated R, so we caution you about the content.

OpenText has completed its acquisition of global Business Process Management (BPM) leader Metastorm, adding complementary software solutions in the fast-growing BPM market. Metastorm is a key addition to OpenText’s Microsoft partner strategy and will help the company create a new generation of process improvement solutions that demand a combination of content and process management capabilities.

Baltimore, Maryland-based Metastorm is known for its leadership in BPM, but also provides Business Process Analysis (BPA) and Enterprise Architecture (EA) software—all will play a role in OpenText’s product plans. Just like BPM, Metastorm’s BPA and EA capabilities are complementary to OpenText’s and bring together comprehensive views of an organization—from the strategy and goals that drive the business, to the day-to-day systems, processes and people that run it, to the content needed to make the best business decisions. The BPM market has been a fast-growing segment of the software industry over the last few years.

Many processes involve content and thus require content management. With Metastorm, OpenText can now address any type of business process, whether the focus is content-centricity or process centricity. OpenText’s strategy is to add to existing solutions with new, uniquely powerful case management solutions used in areas such as customer on-boarding or claims processing, where the effective delivery of knowledge and content are a critical part of the overall business process.

I imagine that many of you have already heard of this new search service, but I only learned of it this morning because someone Tweeted about it, and I must say that this looks like something I would find very useful, because right now I have an unmanageably-huge bookmark file called “On Twitter” which is chock full of the interesting links I get from people I follow on, you guessed it, Twitter. It’s one of those folders that I keep meaning to get to and organize properly, but I just haven’t gotten there yet. It appears that with Wajam, I will be able to go back and look for further links to knowledge shared by my friends and contacts. Unfortunately the service is apparently over-subscribed at the moment, so I can’t get in right now to take a closer look at what the service offers.

In January Montreal-based Wajam launched a beta version of its ‘social search’ browser extension that works in Google, Bing and Yahoo. Wajam adds a layer of results, above the usual search engine results, where users can find content that their friends have shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Users can also search for their personal browser bookmarks and those from Delicious.

“We’re excited to launch Wajam and allow users to start finding results from their friends in their favorite search engine,” said founder and CEO Martin?Luc Archambault. “Using Wajam is like having unlimited access to an online library packed with your friends’ knowledge. I recently searched for information on ‘pitching startups’ in Google and Wajam added personalized results that my friends had shared on Facebook and Twitter. Wajam saves me hours of research and lets me find content from my social feeds that I wouldn’t be able to retrieve any other way.”

When users download Wajam and link their personal sources (Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, and Bookmarks), Wajam starts showcasing relevant, social content right in their search engine. Wajam is certified by TRUSTe and Verisign, and each user’s content and personal information is kept confidential and secure on Rackspace cloud servers.

“What sets Wajam apart is that it takes less than a minute to get started and it brings users value without asking them to change the way they do things – they can keep using the same search engine and continue sharing content on their favorite social networks,” said Archambault.

Funded by startup lab and accelerator Bolidea, Wajam is compatible with major browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari, and works on PC and Mac. The company plans to add more social network sources to the service and support more search engines in the near future. “Wajam wants to bring your friends’ knowledge with you anywhere that you search online. The future goes beyond search engines,” said Olivier Cabanes, partner, Bolidea.

Social search is the next big trend for web search. Search and social networks are already ingrained in users’ daily life ? Google and Facebook are holding strong as the two most popular sites online. According to Compete, the average Google user conducts 5.6 searches per day and Facebook claims that their users share an average of 60 pieces of content per month. That means a lot of content gets lost in the social network cloud that Wajam can help users find.

For the first time ever, Staples Canada has awarded a computer lab valued at $50,000 to Dover Bay Secondary School in Nanaimo, BC, for eco-responsible improvements made within their school, community and families. Canadian students were invited to enter the contest by writing a 500-word or less online essay about the actions they took to help their school and community become more eco-responsible.

“We were absolutely delighted with the sheer number of responses from schools! After pouring through all the essays, it was clear that students care deeply about preserving the environment and do want to make a difference to the future of our planet,” said Steve Matyas, president of Staples Canada. “It’s great to see students getting their hands dirty and making compost, recycling cartons, putting together solar panels for the school to use, and taking learning from the classroom into the community. I’m happy Staples can donate new technology to further develop their research and understanding of the environment.”

The office supply retailer has also awarded a second place prize of a $5,000 gift card and a collection of eco-supplies to W.C. Miller Collegiate, Altona, MB, and a $1,000 gift card to Heritage Park Secondary School in Mission, BC. Staples would also like to acknowledge their partners, Earth Day Canada, earth cycle planning inc., Green Learning, and Direct Energy for their work in judging the contest entries.

His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston Governor General of Canada has agreed to be the Patron of the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation for the duration of his vice-regal term. The Museum is pleased that the Governor General has accepted to become Patron of an institution whose vision is to inspire all Canadians to engage with their scientific and technological past, present and future.

“We share with His Excellency the same understanding of the importance of education and innovation to Canada’s future,” says Denise Amyot, President and CEO of the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation. “Every day at our museums, and across the country online and through travelling exhibitions, we inspire Canada’s youth to engage with the rich cultural connections among science, technology and society.

As stated in his installation speech on October 1, 2010, Governor General Johnston’s vision for Canada is for a Smart and Caring Nation where it is essential to support families and children, to reinforce learning and innovation, and to encourage philanthropy and volunteerism.

The Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation comprises three Ottawa-based museums: the Canada Agriculture Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum and the Canada Science and Technology Museum, all of which boast a rich and varied collections of Canada’s scientific and technological heritage as well as exhibit and interpret current and future discoveries and innovation.

Jobdeals, Inc. has launched its powerful online local services search product in Canada, focusing initially on serving the Greater Toronto Area, but its Canadian service provider database is growing and Jobdeals will expand nationally in the near future. Jobdeals enables consumers to find and book appointments online with local service providers. It goes beyond previous local search attempts by allowing consumers to receive multiple price quotes and schedule appointments with local businesses and freelancers all in one place – and the company is currently running a free promo for service providers, and consumers always book jobs free.

Jobdeals.com changes the way consumers shop for local services. “You should be able to go online to look for and purchase services from a tutor, wedding planner, dog walker, plumber or other local pro – the same way you would buy a product online,” says Robert Platek, Co-founder and CEO of Jobdeals, Inc. “You can search for a verified provider in your area that fits your schedule – all for a price that works for you.”

Jobdeals.com is an invaluable resource for both consumers and service providers. Advanced technology selects relevant service providers for specific job requests based on their schedule and work area proximity. Service providers compete for jobs by submitting a price quote; consumers receive the best value by choosing the quote that suits their budget. Both parties benefit from the convenience of booking service appointments online. Consumers can also request specific services, at which point service providers receive free job leads and have the opportunity to submit price quotes at no charge.

Safety for the consumer is of utmost importance to Jobdeals, Inc., who offer multiple levels of optional verifications for service providers, including phone and address checks, virtual verifications such as email and Facebook, and background checks from a national agency. Providers that successfully pass these verifications are rewarded with a higher search ranking as well as badges on their profile page, showing consumers that they are a trusted business.

ecobee, the award-winning green technology company, today expanded its mobile offerings with the release of a free Android app for the ecobee Smart Thermostat. Downloadable from the Android Market, the ecobee Android app will allow customers to control their ecobee Smart Thermostats anytime, anywhere from the convenience of their Android devices.

The ecobee Android app looks and operates just like the ecobee Smart Thermostat and works on any Android device with OS 2.0 and up. Users can remotely adjust the thermostat’s temperature, schedule or update a vacation event, change the system and fan operating settings, and receive important alerts.

ecobee also offers a free iPhone app which has proven immensely popular with tens of thousands of downloads to date.

Toyota Canada has embraced the social media movement, launching a brand new Facebook page, plus an enhanced twitter feed and YouTube channel, and invites these customers and enthusiasts to share their passion and stories by joining the conversation. The online conversation kicks off with a new contest to find Toyota’s #1 Fan.

“Canadian Toyota owners are proud of their trusted cars, trucks, minivans and SUVs, and there will certainly be lots of competition to find our #1 Fan. Our Toyota enthusiasts love to share their stories with one another and with Toyota Canada, and these social media outlets will enable us to better connect with our customers,” said Stephen Beatty, Managing Director at Toyota Canada Inc. “As we celebrate the sale of our 4,000,000th vehicle in Canada and a quarter century of manufacturing Canada’s most popular Toyota vehicles at our assembly plant in Cambridge, Ontario, it’s a great time to offer Canadian Toyota fans this new venue for communicating not only with Toyota Canada but also with one another.”

Toyota enthusiasts are encouraged to enter the contest by sharing their stories about why they believe they are Toyota’s #1 fan through photo or video. Finalists will be determined by the number of views of their individual submissions as well as by a panel of judges, and participants are encouraged to use their own social media channels to increase their unique entry views. Finalists will be selected for a final round of voting, after which six finalist videos will be created. One lucky entrant will receive the grand prize, a Toyota of their choice (up to $50,000 value). Two secondary prizes of a Panasonic HD camcorder will be awarded. All submissions and votes are eligible to win weekly prizes of $100 gas cards.

Toyota Canada has created a dedicated social media team to feed information and entertainment into the portal, including:

* Contests, including the “Toyota’s #1 Fan” contest, through which customers can share their stories through words, pictures and video and win prizes, including a new Toyota vehicle;
* Hot off the press vehicle and business intelligence, such as tours of the refreshed Corolla and Matrix, the celebration of Toyota’s 4,000,000th vehicle sale in Canada, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Inc.’s 25th anniversary, and more;
* Intriguing videos, from ownership stories and favourite Toyota commercials to information to ensure Canadians get the most from their Toyota ownership and driving experience;
* Updates on Toyota partnerships with celebrities such as Steve Nash to business partnerships with Tim Horton’s, Home Hardware, Delta Hotels, and more;
* Access to a dedicated team of Toyota experts to answer questions on Toyota forums.

Reminder: Banff World Media Awards submissions closes on February 18th.

Note of Interest: Are you looking for funding sources? Check out the searchable database on the MaRS Discovery District website.

Indie game developer Matt Rix has put his super-hit puzzle game Trainyard on sale in the iTunes store – and 25% of February’s profits will go to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.  The goal in Trainyard is simple: get each train to a goal station. Red trains go to red stations, blue trains go to blue stations, etc. You control the trains by drawing track for them to follow. There isn’t a time limit or even a score; the only thing you need to do is figure out a solution for each puzzle – which is often easier said than done, believe me. Trainyard is very much worth the price, plus for this month you’ll be helping to support a very important organization. If you haven’t bought this challenging puzzler yet, now would be the time.

XMG Studios has released its latest title on the iTunes App Store. Cows vs Aliens is a game of bovine protectionism.  Aliens are invading and amid all of the chaos, you need to get your cattle in the barn as fast as possible. Featuring a fun and unique multi-touch interface, Cows vs Aliens challenges your herding skills as you  squeeze as many cows through the barn doors as possible before time runs out. Not all cows are created equal, either – you’ll soon learn that some beefy beasts are more valuable than others, and the more heifers you herd at one time the higher your multiplier. Remember you are battling spacemen, though – Aliens are sneaky and determined to free you of your beef. Make sure you keep those visitors from the outer limits out of your barn or they’ll take off with your herd. Cows vs Aliens is currently priced at 99 cents USD and offers Game Center integration.

Congratulations to our Canadian developers on multiple BAFTA 2011 nominations:

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood topped the total number of nominations, being named to seven categories: Action, Artistic Achievement, Best Games, Gameplay, Multiplayer, Technical Innovation and Use of Audio, while Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 received nominations for Artistic Achievement, Best Game, Gameplay, Original Music and Game Award of 2010.

Toronto studio Digital Extremes developed the multi-player components for Bioshock 2, and that title is nominated in the Action and Story categories. EA Sports‘ FIFA 11 is nominated as Best Game, Sports and the Game Award of 2010. Vancouver’s Smoking Gun Interactive is the developer behind 20,000 Leaks, which is a component of Kinect Adventures, and that title is nominated in the Family category.

Continuing in the awards recognition theme, this year’s winners for the Exploriem.org 2011 Bootstrap Awards (PDF) have been announced, and receiving recognition for their achievements in the interactive, digital and social media industy were:

Favequest received Gold Best Micro Business medal
Ideavibes received Gold for Most Innovative Source Bootstrap Capital, while VirtuStructure received Silver and Purple Forge received Bronze.
Zeebu Mobile received Gold for Best Guerrilla Marketing Idea/Social Marketing, while NetGen took Silver and ContestMob received Bronze.
Select Start Studios received a Silver Medal for Best Value Proposition/Value Differentiator/Pixie Dust
Threedify took home Bronze for its corporate website
NetGen also won Silver in the Most Innovative Social Enterprise Fundraiser category, while Civiside received Bronze.
Ideavibes took Silver for Most Innovative Business Model, while Arkli took the Bronze.

There is one more Bootstrap award to be presented – the top Ottawa start-up will be named at the OCRI Awards in April. IDM nominees for that award are: Purple Forge, Dual Code, Inc., GPS To Go (who also won a Bronze medal for Best Value Proposition/Value Differentiator/Pixie Dust), Blindside Networks and Pretzil.

OMDC is reporting that Ontario’s film and television industry contributed $964.3 million to the provincial economy in 2010- an increase of almost $18 million over 2009 — despite fierce competition from other jurisdictions, a sluggish U.S. economy and a high Canadian dollar. The $964 million in production activity accounted for more than 23,000 full-time direct and spin-off jobs.

The film and television industry held and gained ground over 2009, a year which experienced dramatic growth over 2008 and marked a return to production levels not seen in Ontario since 2002. Increased spending was seen in foreign television series, reflecting the continuing influence of the Ontario Government’s 2009 enhancements to the Ontario Production Services Tax Credit (OPSTC), which was expanded from 25% of eligible labour to include all eligible Ontario production costs.

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.

Calgary marketing firm Rare Method Interactive has experienced recent stock activity that prompted a statement from the company this morning, whereby “Rare Method Interactive Corp. wishes to confirm, at the request of IIROC, that the Company’s management is unaware of any material change in the Company’s operations that would account for the recent increase in market activity.

Mood Media Corporation has acquired PELIKA Business Music Oy (Pelika) for US $9.8 M, implying an acquisition multiple of 4.9 x EBITDA. Pelika is a dominant market leader in digital business music solutions in Finland, predominantly serving clients in the hospitality sector.

Endras BMW, one of Canada’s most innovative BMW retailers, is offering the ultimate job for a social media savvy, BMW enthusiast. Beginning today, anyone in the world who loves to be “in the BMW know” can attempt to make a career of it by applying to be Endras’ Ultimate Blogger at EndrasBMW.com. The most qualified and connected applicant will land the job of a lifetime. This in-house social media gig pays the chosen candidate $65K a year to drive a brand-new BMW, attend BMW events around the world, find the latest BMW news, and blog, Tweet and Facebook about it all. If these responsibilities aren’t enough to pique interest, the job also comes with a downtown Toronto condo for the Ultimate Blogger to call home for the duration of his or her contract. Stage One of the application process closes on April 1, 2011.

Happy first anniversary to Snowed In Studios. The Ottawa studio is currently working with Eidos Montreal on the upcoming Deus Ex: Human Revolution and recently worked with Artech Studios on The Undergarden for Atari. The Snowed In team has also worked with two other studios on our Favourites List, Behaviour and TransGaming. Here’s to many more years of gaming goodness for the team at Snowed In!

Vancouver indie developer Josh Brown has released his first Android title. Vertigo Towers is a physics based 3D action puzzler with 3 game modes which requires the player to match sets of three or more bricks and create chains for huge points. Vertigo Tower is OpenFeint-enabled complete with a Leaderboard and Achievements. There is both a paid version (1.99 USD) and a lite version available in Android Marketplace. I would buy this game if it became available for iPod Touch.

Relic and THQ have opened up the Warhammer®40,000®: Dawn of War®II – Retribution™ BETA to anyone who has bought a Dawn of War game through STEAM or has registered a Dawn of War II product on their STEAM account. In addition, gamers can get access to the beta by registering on the Dawn of War Community site and following the instructions under the Beta Key giveaway tab.

Featuring all six multiplayer races including the new Imperial Guard faction, the beta will run through the end of February to test the new Steamworks network and matchmaking features and help balance the multiplayer mode. All new units for each race will be available in the beta along with the new multiplayer maps that will ship with Retribution. The Dawn of War II – Retribution multiplayer beta is currently planned to run until midnight on February 24th, at which point the developers will take all feedback into account to create a day-zero balancing patch.

The Cavechild checked out the Retribution Beta last week, and his thoughts thus far are: HOLY WTF WIN! FREAKIN’ EPIC OMG WEEEEEE. That pretty much sums it up, there is more and all but that is for another time.

Retribution is very very VERY pretty, it a new thought out army panter so that you can see what many of you squads will look like, they made it a little less shiney and more grungy like the old dawn of war which is freaking amazing! The sound in the game, the effects, ambiance, voices, yelling, gunfire, tanks, orcs and so on are very clear even in the middle of a giant war with 2 Imperial guard armies taking down Orcs, more Orcs and some weird looking Eldar.

In my opinion the Imperial Guard are just a little OP considering I was able to beat down the Orc Warboss pretty easy, same with the Eldar Farseer. The game play is the same as the two games previous so none of you have to worry about changing style and how to do things. If I remember correctly you are allowed to import everything for Last Stand mode which is you versus a ton of AI which aren’t too hard then casually grow in difficulty. Dawn of War II: Retribution is by far one of the best games for 2011 and the year has only started…

Congratulations to the Mass Effect 2 team on all of the hardware they picked up at last evening’s AIAS Awards, winning in three categories: Outstanding Achievement in Story,  Role Playing / MMO Game of the Year and Game of the Year – and of course congratulations to Bioware co-founders Doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk on their induction into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame. Congratulations also to the FIFA 2011 team over at EA Sports for picking up the Sports Game of the Year award.

Frima Studio titles Widgets Odyssey I and Widgets Odyssey II are now available in Europe as a single game bundle for the super low price of £1.74 / €1.99! As PlayStation®Mini titles, Widgets Odyssey I and Widgets Odyssey II are playable on both PlayStation®3 and PlayStation®Portable. Both titles are rated as PEGI 7 (ESRB rated E for Everyone).

In the Widgets Odyssey saga, five robots aboard their space vessel have just one simple mission…to save the universe from the tyrannical Yagor and his evil henchmen! Armed with the unique abilities of Spad, Cosmo, Bruce, Helmut, and Monk, players will guide each robot along their exciting adventures filled with puzzles, mazes, minigames and intense platforming challenges.

If you’re in the Vancouver area on March 9th, you may be interested in attending BCTIA’s TechBrew event being held at the Stanley Park Pavilion. The mega-mixer invites entrepreneurs, investors, professional service providers or anyone interested in technology companies to meet, talk, and make new connections in a casual setting. Featured companies at the March event include: D2D Campaign Solutions, Gogiro, ikamobile, Jostle, Nexterra Systems Corp., NGRAIN, REV, Rx Networks, SewerVUE, Snap Technologies, Solegear Bioplastics and Wishpond. Tickets for TechBrew are $34.95 for BCTIA members, $44.95 for Non-Members or $19.95 for Students.

bant, an iPhone based application to help adolescents improve diabetes self-management by capturing, analyzing, and sharing their blood glucose data, is being tested by teenagers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) Diabetes Clinic in Toronto. The pilot program will assess the impact that social networking and rewards that encourage and reinforce self-management behaviours have on young teens as they become more independent in managing their diabetes. The pilot will run for three months.

bant was developed by University Health Network (UHN) in collaboration with SickKids and with input from patients, families, doctors, nurses and engineers. The multidisciplinary teams from SickKids’ Diabetes Clinic and Division of Adolescent Medicine worked closely with colleagues at UHN to design the application. bant is partially funded by the Saint Elizabeth Health Care ACT research grant program.

People with type 1 diabetes need to maintain their blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible to decrease diabetes-related complications, such as kidney and heart disease. Optimal blood glucose is very hard to achieve; requiring frequent measurement of levels, detailed analysis of the results, and continued adjustments of the treatment plan.

A free version of bant is already available in 10 languages at the Apple App Store. An advanced version of the application has been developed for use in the pilot which will use a LifeScan OneTouch Mini blood glucose meter to collect and wirelessly transfer readings directly into bant using a Bluetooth adapter developed by the UHN team. The data are then displayed and organized visually. Teens can customize the tool to categorize readings according to their activities and daily schedule to enable accurate decision-making and medication adjustments. They will also be able to share their experiences in a private social network within the app and earn experience points leading to rewards in the form of iTunes redemption codes to purchase music and other apps. bant is integrated with TELUS health space, Powered by Microsoft HealthVault, giving pilot participants the ability to store, review, and control the sharing of their personal health information with their care team and family members.

Sierra Wireless has unveiled a multi-purpose wireless gateway that defines next-generation intelligent machine-to-machine (M2M) networking. The powerful Sierra Wireless AirLink™ GX400 gateway offers a leading-edge combination of features, including cloud-based device management, extensive hardware and software enhancements, mil-spec ruggedness, GPS and associated location-based services, and advanced configuration options with comprehensive expandability for both hardware and software features.

Flexible and powerful enough to meet the needs of a wide range of applications in the transportation, industrial M2M and enterprise markets, the AirLink GX400 will make solution deployment faster, easier and less expensive for mobile system operators, OEMs, application service providers and end customers. With the AirLink GX400, system integrators can standardize on a single gateway platform to serve the needs of all of their customers.

Sierra Wireless also announced AirLink Management Services (AMS), which will facilitate comprehensive cloud-based device management for the AirLink GX400, as well as other AirLink intelligent gateways and routers. Based on the Sierra Wireless AirVantage™ Platform, this powerful hosted device management service means small and large deployments can affordably take advantage of the comprehensive AMS management features from any location with Internet access.

Sierra Wireless boosted processing performance five-fold, basing the AirLink GX400′s design on an ARM 11-class microprocessor architecture operating with high-capacity DDR memory. This provides a powerful foundation for exploiting existing and new features and functionality. Other hardware enhancements include external antenna connectors, Ethernet, Serial and USB “OTG” (On-the-Go), as well as an expansion slot to accommodate future integrated add-on capabilities such as additional physical interfaces and wireless local and personal area networking and communications.

Congratulations to the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood writing team who picked up the Writers’ Guild of America award last night for Video Game Writing: Story by Patrice Desilets, Jeffrey Yohalem, Corey May; Lead Script Writer: Jeffrey Yohalem; Script Writers: Ethan Petty, Nicholas Grimwood, Matt Turner; Ubisoft

TELETOON Canada Inc. is taking the original TELETOON Pilot Project concept and turning it into an online, user-generated contest called the TELETOON At Night Pilot Project, which began yesterday, February 6th. This initiative calls on aspiring and professional animators to put their creative skills to use for a chance to win $10,000 CDN and the opportunity to attend North America’s largest animation conference and festival, the Television Animation Conference and Ottawa International Animation Festival.

“The TELETOON at Night Pilot Project is an important initiative which offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for animation enthusiasts,” said Russell Ward, Vice President, Marketing, TELETOON Canada inc. “As an active player in the animation industry, this project gives TELETOON the opportunity to recognize and open a door of possibility to raw and undiscovered creative talent.”

From Sunday, February 6 to Friday, July 15, 2011, contestants are invited to submit original, funny and unique animation or animation-related short films. Eligible submissions must be no more than five minutes in length and can either be entered through the English-language contest on teletoonatnight.com or the French-language contest on teletoonlanuit.com. The winner of each English and French contest will be awarded:

* $10,000 CDN
* Two roundtrip airline tickets from the closest Canadian commercial airport to the winner’s residence to Ottawa
* Four nights accommodation in Ottawa
* Two delegate passes to the Television Animation Conference and Ottawa International Animation Festival

All eligible submissions will be featured in a video gallery on teletoonatnight.com and teletoonlanuit.com, where the public can select their “Fave of the Week” each week. The five final contenders selected by a TELETOON jury for each of the English and French contests will be revealed on Sunday, July 31. The public can then vote for their favourite video until Saturday, August 28. The video that receives the most votes by the end of the voting phase will be crowned the winner and revealed on-air and online on Sunday, September 18.

The original TELETOON Pilot Project launched in fall 2007, exclusively inviting Canadian producers to submit proposals to produce a pilot in either English or French to be broadcast on TELETOON. Ten projects were selected as finalists from over 200 submissions, straddling a wide range of topics, animation styles and comedy sensibilities. TELETOON recently announced that the first TELETOON Pilot Project winner, Fugget About It, has been officially greenlit for production into a 13-part series in English and French.

And just to add to the bandwidth cap angst, Sony of Canada has launched “Video On Demand powered by Qriocity™”in Canada with titles such as “A-Team,” “Get Him to the Greek,” “Inception,” “The Last Airbender,” “Salt,” and Disney-Pixar’s “Toy Story 3.”

“Video On Demand powered by Qriocity™” is a premium streaming video service that allows film fans to rent from a growing library of hundreds of Hollywood blockbusters from NBC Universal Television Distribution, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, The Walt Disney Studios, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, as well as films from local studios, straight to their Sony 2010 and 2011 network-enabled BRAVIA® TV, Blu-ray Disc™ player, or Blu-ray Disc Home Theatre system.

Rental prices for High-Definition content will range from CA$4.99-5.99 while those for Standard-Definition content will range from CA$3.99-4.99. After renting a film, consumers have up to 30 days to start watching their movie, and once playback is started, they have up to 24 or 48 hours to watch the film as many times as they like.

“Video On Demand powered by Qriocity” started in Japan on January 26 and is already available in the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. and is an entertainment network service platform that connects many of Sony’s network-enabled devices and allows consumers to enjoy high quality entertainment across multiple devices. Via Qriocity, Sony will deliver a variety of digital entertainment content and services that are “powered by Qriocity”, including video, music, game applications, and e-books over time. Through these services, and in combination with its networked devices, Sony aims to bring new and exciting entertainment experiences to customers.

When Ontario’s students need answers to their research questions, or access to multimedia archives or authoritative databases, they can turn to Knowledge Ontario’s online services, and the Ontario School Library Association (OSLA) showed its appreciation of these valuable services by presenting a Special Achievement award yesterday to Knowledge Ontario’s executive director David Thornley and chairperson Peter Rogers.

“The OSLA’s Special Achievement award goes to Knowledge Ontario for its capacity-building leadership and collaborative partnerships that make it possible for school libraries in Ontario, regardless of size or location, to provide students with equal access to virtual resources and technology tools needed by 21st-century learners,” says OSLA president Ruth Hall.

KO’s services reflect many of the priorities of the Ontario Ministry of Education, such as fostering digital literacy and providing equitable access to students across the province, including students in remote, rural, northern, Aboriginal and Francophone schools.

KO’s digital services include the following:

* eResources, a range of authoritative, age-appropriate collections of information, periodicals, newspapers and other learning tools;
* Learn Ontario tech help and tutorials for teaching and quick “how-to’s”
* Our Ontario, a digital collection of heritage photographs, videos, audio recordings, newspapers and other historical records; and
* askON and ONdemande, which allow students to get real-time research assistance in English and French after school and on weekends from public library staff.

Knowledge Ontario (KO) is gratified by the recognition. “I’m delighted to receive this award, along with my colleague David Thornley, because Knowledge Ontario deeply values our close partnership with teachers, students and school boards throughout Ontario. Educators at every level tell us that our digital tools are extremely useful to students, supporting them in school and in transitioning to college and university,” says Rogers. “We thank the OSLA for this recognition.”

Since January 2007, through negotiated province-wide licences, KO has turned an annual $1.2-million investment from the Government of Ontario into a suite of e-resources that would have cost individual school boards over $10 million. Before KO, over half of Ontario’s school libraries had no online database access for their students, and many others had only limited resources. Now, students use KO resources over 6 million times each year—and it’s making a difference to their education.

“Knowledge Ontario has proven to be a catalyst for change and improvement,” says Anita Brooks Kirkland, a library consultant with the Waterloo Region District School Board. “Having a broad range of quality, reliable resources, differentiated by instructional need, topic and audience, has been a powerful motivator for deeper learning and critical thinking for our students.”

At the school board level, administrators recognize the value of leveraging collaborative investment to prepare students for lifelong learning. “Knowledge Ontario’s services help Ontario’s students develop the skills they need to thrive in an increasingly high-tech world,” says John Stadnyk, director of education with the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board and a KO board member.

Parents, meanwhile, appreciate the fact that their children can quickly access the information they need to further their education after school hours. “Knowledge Ontario is an excellent choice for the OSLA award,” says Gay Stephenson, online communications manager for People for Education, a parent-led organization that supports Ontario’s public education system. “The research is reliable and can be found in one place! For parents, it’s the perfect homework helper.”

The February 14^th deadline to submit entries for the 2011 Weston Youth Innovation Award is fast approaching. The Ontario Science Centre is looking for young Agents of Change – Canadian youth who are actively motivating positive outcomes in the world by creating solutions for real issues.

The Weston Youth Innovation Award was established in 2008 to support and acknowledge young Canadian innovators. It provides students ages 14 to 18 a unique channel to share their ideas and get the word out to a much larger audience. The winner (either an individual or team) is granted a $2,000 cash prize and the chance to work with a Science Centre multimedia team to produce a short animation showcasing their project. This video will be broadcast in the Science Centre’s Weston Family Innovation Centre, and will also be posted online.

Entrants are asked to showcase how they have demonstrated leadership and initiative in tackling a real-world issue, for example, energy conservation or climate change, and to illustrate the impact of their efforts. Submissions will be judged on demonstration of the characteristics of innovation: inspiration, creativity, collaboration, risk-taking and problem-solving.

Last year, Kimberly Gulevich from Fort St. John, British Columbia was granted the award. Her innovative project presented a potential method of reducing the carbon footprint of small rural households that use sewage lagoons – by exploring the use of methane capture as a way to provide energy to these homes.

“The Weston Youth Innovation Award is a great opportunity for Canadian youth to showcase the work they are doing on a larger scale,” said Gulevich. “For me, winning the award was not only about showcasing my work, but showcasing how communities can come together to benefit youth pursuing science. I not only believe that we are the next generation of scientists, but that we Canadian youth are making great progress today. The monetary portion of the award was also useful, as I was able to use it to further my education and am now studying Environmental Engineering at the University of Northern British Columbia.”

Entries will undergo a two-step judging process. A panel from the Ontario Science Centre will assess all entries in February and will then send a shortlist to a second panel of external judges. The winner is scheduled to be announced on April 30, 2011 and will receive their award during a special ceremony in May where a multi-media presentation of their project will premiere.

The Weston Youth Innovation Award was named in recognition of The W. Garfield Weston Foundation’s $15 million lead gift to the Ontario Science Centre’s Agents of Change initiative. This national award honours the Foundation’s dedication to education and contribution to the Canadian cultural landscape.