“Once again I am proud to be a part of our annual Women in Games Scholarship. Our past winners have gone on to do amazing things in the game industry once they graduated, and we expect more great things from our most recent winners,” says Head of Game Design at VFS, Dave Warfield. “Supporting the growth of women in games is something that I feel strongly about; it benefits the industry to gain new perspectives, creativity, and passion that is reflective of how gaming has changed and expanded in the past 5 years.”
Attendees of the free, day-long Open House will also have the chance to meet faculty and students, and learn more about additional industry-sponsored scholarships for both men and women:

·         G4TechTV -  $7,000
·         Radical Entertainment – $2,500
·         Slant Six Games – $2,500
·         Annex Pro – $2,000
·         Microsoft/BigPark – $1,000

This weekend’s Open House is expected to fill to capacity, those who are interested in attending are advised to register now.

Eligible students from those educational institutes will have completed year one of their studies and be entering second year, demonstrated overall understanding of public relations and communications, its theoretical and practical elements, values and principles. They must hold a student membership in CPRS Calgary.

The first submission deadline for application is February 29, 2012, with a winner determined by a jury of senior public relations professionals in March and announced in April.

Students will be required to submit a curriculum vitae, an application form, letter from their education institute that attests to eligibility and a two-page written submission on a specified topic.   Application forms and detailed information is available from the Communications + Public Relations Foundation, by contacting foundation@prmediaconnection.com. The Foundation will manage the Scholarship including the annual competition and establishment of a scholarship jury.

• Financial Literacy, Youth Programs and First Nations
• Mobile Banking, Technology and Investment Funds with impact
• How microfinance enables global health initiatives
• Rating Microfinance Institutions and Risk Management
• Microfinance in conflict zones

“The Toronto International Microfinance Summit brings together thought leaders in the sector with both international and domestic expertise,” says Reeta Roy, President and CEO of the MasterCard Foundation.  “The Summit is an important platform for knowledge-sharing and The MasterCard Foundation is proud to support students’ attendance.”

“Microfinance is the place where business and international development objectives intersect and social impact is achieved,” adds Jim Louttit, Vice President of Toronto International Microfinance Summit and Rotarian Action Group for Microcredit Secretary.  “For the second year, The MasterCard Foundation is partnering with us so more students can learn about this powerful poverty reduction tool, interact with experts and get involved.

The Honourable David C. Onley, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, will attend the Gala and offer official greetings. Forty Summit speakers from thirty organizations on five continents are scheduled to make presentations,  including:

• Bob Annibale – Citi Microfinance
• Vidar Jorgensen – Grameen America
• Kadita (A.T.) Tshibaka – Opportunity International
• Philip Smith – philanthropist and author
• Joyce Lehman – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Michael Bowles – Aga Khan Foundation
• Damien von Stauffenberg – MicroRate
• Jeff Rayman – Secutor Capital
• Dr. Tanjina Mirza – Plan Canada
• Howard Weinstein – Solar Ear
• Charles Belanger – FINCA
• Francois Montour – CIDA
• Tess Bayombong – CARE Canada
• Deborah Lindholm – Foundation for Women

“The first year program enabled eight entrepreneurs to turn their product ideas into successful emerging wireless companies,” said Mark Payne, Acting CEO of BCIC.  “Wavefront has done a great job working with these startups in our program, which have collectively generated over half a million dollars in external investment, over $350,000 in revenues, 18 new jobs, and new products that are penetrating growing markets.”

Among the first year graduating class is Vancouver-based RewardLoop, this year’s B.C. TIA Award winner for ‘Most Promising Startup’.

“The entrepreneurship@Wavefront was the catalyst that enabled us to work full time on bringing RewardLoop to market.  We have already signed deals with some of North America’s largest retail chains and are expanding our reach through international distribution partnerships , “ said Nigel Malkin, CEO and Co-Founder, RewardLoop. “The guidance, feedback, and support we’ve received from the program at Wavefront were invaluable to us in making these accomplishments possible in such a short period of time.”

Companies selected this year will receive office space in Wavefront’s downtown accelerator centre, access to their wireless expert advisory, training, and testing services, sales and marketing coaching, and connections to key industry contacts. Program participants also benefit from BCIC’s Mentor Program, a network of seasoned entrepreneurs and industry experts who provide entrepreneurs with support that is critical for growing a successful company.

“The wireless solutions being developed by the entrepreneurship@Wavefront companies span from Machine-to-Machine (M2M) to next generation networks to enterprise applications that address issues faced across many industries.  We continue to work closely with BCIC to ensure cross-sector opportunities, creating an environment within our accelerator centre that fosters collaboration and success,” said Jim Maynard, President of Wavefront.

Full details and applications for the entrepreneurship@Wavefront program are available online. The deadline for applications is Friday, August 26th at 11:59 p.m.   Selected companies will be announced September 7, 2011 with the program and access to Wavefront’s downtown Vancouver offices beginning immediately after.

“At triOS, we have always had a strong commitment in supporting the communities that we are a part of,” says Stuart Bentley, triOS College President. “triOS gives individuals the opportunity to restart their lives and get into careers they have always dreamed of. This bursary will open doors for individuals considering career training and give them some financial assistance to get a head start on the next chapter in their lives.”

triOS College offers major benefits for those that want to train for a specific career. Compared to other colleges, triOS offers year-round starting points so students don’t have to wait until September or January to join, triOS has shorter hours of instruction so students can work part-time while they study, programs are shorter in length so graduates can get into the workforce faster, internships are included in most programs and at triOS, students receive substantial career services assistance to prepare them for obtaining a career with their field.

Citytv, Kiss FM and 241 Pizza are glad to be partnered with this bursary program that will help to improve lives for those considering training in Ontario. “It is our pleasure at 241 to be joined with an educational institution that will train and position individuals into the working world,” says Peter Lepidas, Marketing Manager for 241 Pizza.

The evening began with opening comments from VFS Managing Director Marty Hasselbach, who was the MC for the event. Mr. Hasselbach spoke briefly about the school and its successes before introducing school founder and President, Mr. James Griffin, who reiterated that one of the major goals for VFS is to teach students for success, something that I feel the school achieves time and again.

Following Mr. Griffin was guest of honour, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. Mayor Robertson spoke to the City of Vancouver’s commitment to the local digital media industry, and the important role Vancouver Film School plays in the continued growth of the industry. Mayor Robertson also spoke to the revitalization of the China Town community, and that the occupation by VFS of the former OmniTV building will assist in breathing new life to the area.

Several Vancouver City council members were in attendance, including Suzanne Anton and Ellen Woodsworth – in fact there were so many members of council present, Mayor Robertson joked that they could hold a meeting right there at the school. He continued, stating that the show of support from the council members’ attendance speaks directly to how the City is impressed with the remarkable achievements of not only Vancouver Film School, but the creative industry as a whole. The City recognizes the importance of the significant contribution the digital media sector has made to the standing of Vancouver as a global centre for creativity, and it is those successes that drives the City’s efforts in seeking out new opportunities, opening doors to new talent and new companies to come to Vancouver.

Also not one to miss an opportunity, Mayor Robertson noted the low carbon footprint of the digital media industry, and how its low impact on the environment will aid in the City’s quest to become the greenest city in the world – and he wasn’t just speaking to the home crowd, according to his bio page on the City’s web site, Mayor Robertson does indeed recognize digital media as being among important green industry sectors. The Mayor concluded his opening speech by congratulating the school on its scholarship initiatives, recognizing in particular the Women In Games Scholarship, the 2011 recipient of which would also be announced during the evening’s festivities.

Following Mayor Robertson, the Head of Game Design, Dave Warfield took over the podium to talk specifically about the past, present and future of the VFS Game Design program – after he noted that the campus’ location meant he would have a shorter walk to Canucks’ games. Mr. Warfield spoke about how far the school has come since launching its Game Design program six years ago, and how with the opening of the new campus the school will be able to double its capacity, helping 180 students enter the ever-changing world of game design annually.

Mr. Warfield then introduced Women In Games Vancouver representative and independent game producer Bryna Dabby, who announced the winner of the 2011 Women In Games VFS Scholarship. Ms. Dabby spoke about the importance of scholarships like this one, awarding opportunities for more women to become members of what has until recently been a heavily male-dominated sector of the creative industry. The winner of the first Women In Games Scholarship, which was awarded in 2009, was Toronto’s Shannon Lee, who is currently employed at Silicon Sisters Interactive. Last year’s winner, Annie Dickerson of Washington, DC will be graduating from the school this year.

Dave Warfield echoed her sentiments, stating that “encouraging more women to get involved in gaming will create better play experience that appeal to a wider audience, and with the changing variety of gaming today, that is more important now than ever before.”

The 2011 Women In Games Scholarship goes this year to Larissa Baptista of Rio de Janeiro. While Ms. Baptista was not able to be present for the announcement, the school did release a statement from the young woman, who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Communication. According to her background information, when she was just 14 years old, Ms. Baptista made a three hour bus commute to attend a year’s worth of classes in 3D software, as she had no other access to either 3D programs or even a computer.

“I am truly beyond honoured to have been chosen to receive the 2011 Women In Games Scholarship,” she said. “Thank you again – although words cannot possibly express my gratitude right now, I hope my future achievements will. A goal is now within my reach.”

Vancouver Film School will also be announcing the winners of three other scholarships to the school provided by G4TechTV, Annex Pro and 3Vis in the very near future.  The VFS Summer Intensives Program is also now open for registration – students can experience 5 days of fast-paced, eye-opening classes in any one of the many programs offered at Vancouver Film School.

Following the scholarship announcement, Mayor Robertson, James Griffin, Dave Warfield and Marty Hasselbach all took the stage for the official ribbon cutting ceremony, which was then followed by tours of the new school classrooms, labs, offices, arcades and theatre. As we here at Village Gamer look at new ways to form partnerships and support the VFS programs and students, we wish the school every success as it embarks on this new chapter in its history.

Vancouver Film School – Results Matter

Coming Soon: VI Technologies has announced that the company will be releasing VI Racing 964 3.3 Turbo: AI First Drive on April 30th.

Digital Leisure Inc. has launched Word Searcher Deluxe exclusively on WiiWare for 500 Nintendo Points. In this follow up to last years ‘Word Searcher’, gamers will need a sharp eye and a quick mind to complete these 100 themed word search puzzles. Word Searcher Deluxe contains fun words from multiple categories including palindromes, pirates and painting. Packed with a huge assortment of subjects to choose from, there’s sure to be a puzzle anyone will enjoy.

Word Searcher Deluxe will help improve your vocabulary, memory and problem-solving skills with its addictive puzzles. Keep track of your progress and try to beat your own play through times again and again as words are scrambled every time you play. Get your thinking cap on and conquer all 100 today, or take on the whole family and your friends with the full cooperative and competitive multi-player modes. You will also be able to download and enjoy additional puzzles via Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection Pay & Play

Toronto’s Mobile Game Studio will be releasing Web Swinger, the studio’s newest arcade game  in just a few weeks’ time. This new fun packed game will put you in the role of a tiny creature who despite his size, is determined to rule world, reaching incredible heights while defeating enemies in a life and death battle for barn supremacy. Arcade-styled Web Swinger will take you into the world of insects, casting you as a spider and pitting you against numerous insect enemies as you battle against time in your quest to the bottom of the barn.

Click on the down or up arrow to move the spider down or up the web and drag your finger on the screen to swing the spider. Web Swinger features 20 different levels of unbelievable fun, but it is up to you to make your mark and defeat your enemies. You will lose the game if your spider loses all of its lives or is crushed by time.  Stay tuned for the official release of Web Swinger in the Apple Store.

Parksville’s Pixton has been selected as an Official Honoree in the Youth category of the 15th Annual Webby Awards, one of the Internet’s most respected symbol of success.  This year’s Webby Awards received 10,000 entries from 60 countries and 50 U.S. states. The Official Honoree distinction is awarded to the top 10 percent of all work entered. Fellow Honorees in the Youth category include such powerhouses as Disney, Lego, Teen.com, and Nickelodeon.

“We’re incredibly honored that Pixton has been selected. It reinforces Pixton as one of the best websites for youth, and that wouldn’t be possible without our active, vibrant community”, says Clive Goodinson, Creator and Founder of Pixton Comics.

Pixton pushes the limits of creativity on the web by giving anyone the power to create comics, full of original characters with life-like expression and movement. Every element of a comic is controlled with an intuitive click-and-drag motion. Comics can be shared in print as well as across the social web, in browsers, mobile devices, tablets, and interactive whiteboards.

“Kids today want not only to get inside their favorite characters’ worlds, they want to actively shape those worlds, in an online social environment,” says Clive, “Pixton is that place. Kids can carve out their own niche while being part of a shared world of digital stories and comic conversations.”

Already available in 9 languages, the website is continually growing as Pixton expands its reach to homes, schools, and businesses around the world.

Vancouver based interactive digital agency Appnovation Technologies has become an official systems integration partner with San Francisco based Strobe Inc., a company founded by SproutCore creator Charles Jolley, enables the delivery of cross platform mobile solutions using HTML5 and SproutCore technologies.

Appnovation’s expertise lies in designing, building and deploying content rich web and mobile applications using open source technology platforms such as Drupal and Alfresco. By adding SproutCore and Strobe technologies to their services arsenal, Appnovation will now be able to blend the robust content and document management capabilities of Alfresco and Drupal with ability to deploy applications across multiple mobile platforms. Appnovation is already working with Strobe to bring the value of this partnership to market and continue to drive open source solutions for its customers.

Vircom, an award-winning e-mail messaging security software company in Montreal has released directQuarantine™, an Outlook add-on module for its modusGate™ email security software that provides end-user control of quarantine emails directly from Outlook. Vircom’s directQuarantine software is compatible with modusGate 4.7 or 5.0, runs on Windows platforms (2003/2008/2008R2 for the server and XP/Vista/7 for the client) and is available to order today.

directQuarantine provides a Spam folder in Outlook that allows end-users to search for quarantined emails in real-time using the Outlook search toolbar or the blazingly fast native Windows search – no more waiting for nightly quarantine reports, logging in to a Web portal, or depending upon IT to check for and release blocked emails. The directQuarantine folder contains all emails caught and filtered by modusGate and any false positives can be quickly and easily released directly from the Outlook toolbar. Any attachments, viruses, phishing links and all other electronic threats remain safely on the modusGate server and are not downloaded to Outlook, ensuring the highest level of security.

Toronto’s AVIX Technologies, Inc. has announced that its its proposed wholly owned subsidiary, Florida-based Actus Interactive Software, LLC has developed a suite of cutting edge graphical multi-touch capable interactive kiosk and active digital signage products that are intended for broad market and vertical appeal.

Divided between active digital signage and interactive kiosks, these solutions feature self service content management in an easy to use, dynamic way, deploying to countless end point devices in a real time or scheduled manner. ACTUS’ kiosk and digital signage owners can also dynamically brand or “skin” end point devices uniquely or in groups.

Cornelia Volino, President of AVIX stated that, “As the Company moves closer to completing the acquisition of ACTUS, our focus is shifting towards integrating vertical and horizontal industry segments and those that will be capable of supporting the development efforts of ACTUS, which include multi-touch capability and gesture based technologies built on the NUI.”

This suite of kiosk and interactive digital signage products has the potential to significantly affect competition in the kiosk and interactive digital signage spaces across multiple vertical industries. ACTUS kiosk solutions are multi-touch (and eventually gesture) capable based on the latest advances in Natural User Interface (NUI) providing for high levels of usability beyond what is normally seen in today’s web based kiosk software. ACTUS kiosk and digital signage solutions deploy to multiple form factors on multiple platforms including large HD screens, computers, slates, and mobile devices and all leverage a common web & cloud capable back end architecture.

Livingston’s generous support of VeloCity has inspired the University to establish a $1-million seed fund for student startups. Over the next several years the fund will provide at least 30 student ventures with $25,000, four months of office space, incorporation services and mentoring. In addition, 75 student startups will receive $500 prizes as part of the first stage of the screening process.

VeloCity is a unique residence-based program for student entrepreneurs that was established at the University in 2008. The start-up incubator is a community that educates and connects talented, like-minded students with each other and with the surrounding start-up community, support and mentorship. The founder and CEO of Waterloo-based Kik Interactive Inc., Ted Livingston, studied mechatronics engineering at Waterloo between 2005 and 2009 and founded Kik (then called Unsynced) while in the VeloCity residence in Winter 2009.

“This is truly a wonderful development for our students who dream of launching their own successful startup,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president of the University of Waterloo. “Ted exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit that so often defines Waterloo and the need to give back that we seek to encourage in all our students.”

Both VeloCity and the amount of the $25,000 investments have special significance to Livingston, as the $25,000 awards exactly match the amount of money left to Livingston by his grandfather – money that kept Kik afloat and fuelled the company’s development in its earliest days. Livingston’s donation was made possible by the sale of some of his personal Kik shares in a recently completed $8 million round of venture capital (VC) funding. The shares, valued at $1 million, were sold to one of three VC investors to prevent further dilution of other Kik employees’ shares.

“With few responsibilities and surrounded by other talented minds, UW students are uniquely positioned to start world-changing companies,” Livingston said. “Unfortunately, few investors are willing to bet on young entrepreneurs, especially in Canada, so getting the start-up funds they need is a huge challenge. This fund is a step towards changing that.”

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.

The Women in Games Scholarship, valued at up to $50,000, covers the full tuition for a female aspiring game designer to attend VFS’s acclaimed one-year Game Design program, named by the Los Angeles Times as a Top 10 school “favoured by industry recruiters”.

Since the scholarship was introduced two years ago, the percentage of female VFS Game Design students has increased from 2% in 2008 to 8% in 2010, an encouraging trend for the future of the industry. Female VFS Game Design graduates have gone on to work successfully in the industry, including Tara Mustapha and Charmie Kim of Microsoft Game Studios, Pamela Livara of XMG Studio, and Melanie Genereux of Longtail Studios in PEI.

Along with the Women in Games Scholarship, VFS is partnering with Game Design Expo sponsors G4TechTV, Annex Pro and 3vis to celebrate the fifth year of Game Design Expo with an additional $50,000 in scholarships. The ten individual $5,000 awards are open to all aspiring game designers.

Full details of the Women in Games Scholarship will be announced at the free Sunday Open House as part of Game Design Expo 2011 on January 22-23, 2011. Application forms for the $5,000 VFS Game Design scholarships are currently available for download.

Attendees of the Open House will also be able to hear about the program, meet students and faculty, take sample classes, and visit the Women in Games Vancouver (WIGeh) booth. Space is limited, so anyone interested in attending the always-popular Open House is strongly encouraged to register now.

VFS is proud to partner with the following event sponsors to realize Game Design Expo 2011: G4, 3vis, Annex Pro, Pixologic, Radical Entertainment, Sumo Lounge, HP, and The Georgia Straight.

Domtar Corporation has extended the use of HP’s patented ColorLok® Technology to all of its Domtar branded business papers to provide a higher quality printing experience compared to papers that do not have ColorLok Technology. This technology will now be more widely available to customers, allowing them to keep pace with advancements in printing technology found in digital printing systems.

“We are pleased to extend ColorLok Technology, a performance-based standard, to all Domtar branded business papers, and in so doing, providing our customers with high-quality, environmentally responsible paper products, in both virgin and recycled content options,” said Karin Flemming, Domtar Marketing Manager, Business Papers.

Domtar first agreed to support the performance standards of ColorLok in early 2008 by incorporating the technology into its First Choice® line of business papers, a premium quality product with 98 brightness, and soon after with its Imageprint® brand multiuse papers. Now Domtar Copy®, Domtar EarthChoice® Office Paper, Husky® Copy and Recycled Husky® Copy, will be available with ColorLok Technology, providing customers with a 92 brightness alternative in both virgin and recycled content options.

Paper that uses the ColorLok logo must pass a precise set of standards for print quality, as well as physical and electrostatic standards for quality and reliability. Criteria for meeting the ColorLok performance standard includes improved image quality, dry time and consistency for printer performance. For inkjet printers, the benefits of ColorLok include bolder, sharper images and faster drying times. Benefits for laser printers include reliable printing, consistent imaging and an extended printer life, based on testing by Buyers Lab Inc., August 2010.

The Digital Media Production Program offers participants the opportunity to gain work experience in the film, television and interactive media production industry. Funded by the Government of Canada’s Career Focus Program, the Digital Media Production Program emphasizes administration, management and technical skills in today’s rapidly changing knowledge economy in the digital world.

Deadline: November 29, 2010
Spots Available: 40
Duration of Placement: 24 weeks
Intern Stipend: $14,000 (minimum);
$10,000 from the Program and minimum $4,000 from mentor
Age: 15 – 30. Must be post-secondary graduate.

Intern Eligibility

*Open to Canadian citizens or permanent residents legally entitled to work in Canada
*Must be between the ages of 15 and 30 (inclusive) at time of application
*Must be unemployed or under-employed at the time of application
*Must be a post-secondary graduate
*Must be out of school
*Must not be receiving Employment Insurance (EI) benefits
*Must NOT have previously participated in a program sponsored by the federal government’s Youth Employment Strategy
*Cannot be an employee, family member, or current CFTPA participant of the mentor company with whom he/she is submitting a joint application
*Applicants should note that the intern MUST become an employee of the mentor company for the duration of the placement.

Mentor Eligibility

*An eligible member of the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) at the time of application. Eligible companies must be CMPA members and fall under one of the following CMPA categories: general member, service producer, interactive media, broadcaster affiliate or publicly traded
*The mentor company will be responsible for providing career assistance, feedback, guidance during, and debriefing following the completion of the placement
*The mentor company must contribute a minimum of $4,000 toward the participant stipend
*A mentor applicant cannot be an employer, family member, or current CFTPA mentor of the participant whom he/she is submitting a joint application
*Applicants should note that the intern MUST become an employee of the mentor company for the duration of the placement.

The scholarships are provided as a tribute to fallen Canadian Forces personnel by a charitable business group called Canada Company. Each recipient will receive up to $16,000 each – up to $4,000 per year for up to four years – to help defray the costs of their post secondary education.

The third annual awards ceremony was conducted aboard the HMCS Frederiction. The Halifax-based frigate is currently on a five-week Canadian tour, including seven port visits along the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes.

“The HMCS Fredericton is a fitting backdrop to honour these fine students,” said Blake Goldring. “Their parents made a commitment to serve our country and today our commitment is to help them pursue their education. Canada Company provides the means for both businesses and individuals to support our military and their families to ensure they are taken care of with ongoing initiatives like these scholarships.”

“The Government of Canada recognizes and deeply appreciates the ultimate sacrifice these families have paid for their country,” said Minister MacKay. “The Canada Company Scholarship helps the deserving children of our fallen to pursue post-secondary education and start on the road to their future careers.”

“The families of our fallen remain an important part of the Canadian Forces family who need our support,” said Rear Admiral Andrew Smith. “The Canadian Forces greatly appreciate the support that Canada Company and Canadians from coast to coast to coast have shown to the families of our fallen soldiers.”

The 2010/11 recipients of Canada Company’s educational scholarship fund awards are:

* Robert Girouard of Orillia is studying Law and Justice at Laurentian University.
* Kirsten Hess-von Kruedener of Burlington is studying at the RCC Institute of Technology Interior Design.
* Sheralynn Kennedy of Winnipeg is attending the University of Winnipeg working towards a doctorate in Psychology.
* Matthew Mellish of French Lake is attending the University of New Brunswick.
* Myriam Mercier of Quebec City is studying Nursing at Cegep de Sainte-Foy.
* Adam Naismith of Moose Jaw is studying Arts and Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan.
* Jocelyn Ranger of Pembroke is studying business at Algonquin College.
* Natasha Roberge of Hamner is studying English and Music at Laurentian University.

The Canada Company Scholarship Fund provides $4,000 per year, for up to four years, to support the post-secondary education for children who qualify. Children of Canadian Forces members who have died on duty while serving in an active role in a military mission of the Canadian Forces or reserves since January 2002 are eligible to apply. The Canada Company Scholarship Fund will provide scholarship grants to children dating back to January 1, 2002.

Canada Company scholarships have received leadership funding in the amount of $1 million from CIBC. Additional financial support was secured from Power Corporation; Peter Munk, Founder and Chairman of Barrick Gold Corporation; Jim Balsillie, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Research In Motion (RIM); RBH Inc.; The W. Garfield Weston Foundation; The TD Bank Financial Group, BMO Financial Group; Scotiabank; Standard Life; Laurentian Bank of Canada / B2B Trust and AGF Management Limited. Canada Company is calling on other members of the corporate community to contribute to this important initiative.

Canada Company oversees the fund through an independent committee, along with members of the Canadian Forces, to ensure that bereaved children have the opportunity to receive this scholarship.

One way which you can show your support for Canada Company Scholarships is to take part in the upcoming North American Van Lines Tour de Force, an exhilarating cycling trip through southern Ontario and Quebec. The bike/run will kick off at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto with celebrities in attendance including players from the Toronto Maple Leafs and former NHLer’s and will last for seven days ending in beautiful downtown Montreal. The trip will be broken down into seven 85-kilometre intervals. Cyclists can register for the entire trip or certain legs of the journey. At the end of each leg of the trip there will be a celebration in the evening.

_{editor’s note: While this article may not be directly related to Canada’s digital media industry, it is directly related to a game we all play every day: life. As a military family and supporters of our Canadian Forces,  from time to time we carry related stories. We hope that you will join us in supporting those who serve our country now and in the future, and in remembering those whose patrol has ended.}

“The avid Space Empires audience pushed us to expand from the PC to Facebook. We have been extremely pleased by the response to the new social network version of the game both in terms of excellent reviews and the exceptional take up of the game by the Facebook community. Accordingly we are expanding to the iPhone and the iPad platforms which will allow us to make the game available to these popular and growing social game audiences”, said Strategy First’s President Emanuel Wall.

Big Stack Studios has released a new game in the iTunes App Store. In Dead of Night, you will travel back to the 19th century and direct the vampire army through their conquest of Europe. In this 40 level quest you will capture villagers with your vampiric gaze and defend your legions from those of Van Helsing and the Werewolves. This title, which is OpenFeint-enabled, blends elements of castle defense and line-drawing gameplay and is available now for $ 0.99USD.

The Zellers store located at 8925 Torbram Road in Brampton will be holding an in-store BattleTag event with the game’s producer, Gael Seydoux, who will be on hand to talk about the new game and answer questions. The event will run from 10:00a.m. until 3:00p.m.

The Canada Media Fund will begin a new round of consultation sessions with the industry this fall. Valerie Creighton, President and CEO, and Stéphane Cardin, VP of Industry and Public Affairs, will meet with stakeholders across the country to gain input on key issues to be resolved prior to releasing the program guidelines for 2011-2012 in December.

If you wish to attend one of these sessions, you are asked to please register by selecting a location near you. Exact times and locations will be provided to registrants by email prior to each event. New this year, stakeholders who are unable to attend a session in person can participate through an online discussion forum. More details will be provided by CMF in the coming weeks.

Scheduling site Tungle.me has once again expanded its services, allowing users to add their Facebook Events to their Tungle.me account. With this new integration users can now see their entire schedule in one, simple calendar view, allowing them to factor Facebook events into their availability, thereby avoiding those pesky double bookings. As users RSVP to new Facebook Events, those events will be added to their Tungle.me calendar, automatically updating available time slots.

This past Saturday marked a momentous occasion for Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada and its long-standing partner Future Shop as they celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarships program. And what better way to celebrate than to give the gift of education to 25 Boys and Girls Clubs youth across Canada. Presented with scholarships based on their outstanding contribution to their Boys and Girls Club and local community, good academic standing and financial need, the deserving 25 recipients will use their bursary to pursue their careers and life goals through higher education.

“We are thrilled to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarship program,” said Pam Jolliffe, President and CEO, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada. “These scholarships assist our youth in pursuing and accomplishing their educational goals as they grow to become the leaders of tomorrow, and for that we are grateful for the generous support of partners like Future Shop.”

Since the program was created in 2001, 520 young people have received scholarships totaling more than $1.69 million. Each student receives a $3,000 cash award towards their tuition and a $1,000 Future Shop gift card to provide needed technology and school equipment like computers.

“This is a proud moment for Future Shop as it is a true reflection of our ongoing commitment to improving the lives of youth and families across the country,” said Cheryl Grant, Community Relations Manager, Future Shop. “Programs like the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarship program make a difference by giving youth a real chance at achieving their educational dreams.”

Results of an online survey conducted between March 3rd and 26th for SAS Canada by Leger Marketing show that the vast majority of Canadian executives at large and mid-sized organizations say that social media has the potential to impact their corporate brand and as a result are placing more importance on its use. One in six say that social media is the most important means for their organization to engage the public about their brand, while 31% say it plays a major role and 43% say it plays a limited role. Just 10% of organizations don’t bother engaging in social media. These are some of the findings of a SAS/Leger Marketing survey of more than 1,000 Canadian executives conducted earlier this year.

Provincially, Alberta and Ontario, and Quebec executives are more on board than those in Atlantic Canada; with about one in five executives (20, 19, and 15% respectively) saying social media is their most important means of communicating with the public. Just 6% of Atlantic Canada’s executives feel this way. In the public versus private debate, public sector executives are more likely than private sector executives (21% versus 14%) to say social media is their most important means of public engagement.

“Our research is showing that governments in Canada are increasingly embracing social media,” said Dr. Alison Brooks, Director of Public Sector Research for IDC Canada. “Deployment costs are low, participatory gains high, and the ease and immediacy of impact make the technologies hard to ignore. Add this to the fact that much of the fear-mongering about the risks to privacy, security and information management posed by social media have been dispelled and you have a recipe for forward thinking government organizations intent on leveraging social media channels.”

At the industry level, which represents respondents from both the public and private sector, finance and banking leads the way with 28% saying social media is the most important means of communicating with the public about their brand. One in five advertising, media, and communication companies (21%) say the same, while only 6% of the health services/pharmaceutical industry say it is their most important avenue for public engagement. Nationally, 16%t of respondents agree.

“Our research has found that the public sector has some of the most aggressive social media strategies of any market segment,” said Tim Hickernell, Lead Research Analyst with London-based Info-Tech Research Group. “Social networks are the new citizen meeting places, where government can quickly survey the needs of the citizenry. Social channels are also proving to be extremely effective for government outreach and education, because social sharing spreads the desired messages much further than traditional media channels.”

Nationally, 10% of executives interviewed say social media is a waste of time. From an industry perspective, 15% of construction, manufacturing, real estate and legal executives say it is a waste of time. At less than half as many, 7% of retail execs agree. At 7%, the private sector was also more skeptical than 12% of the public sector, saying that social media is a waste of time.

“Consumers are now, more than ever, keeping a close eye on our brands as they continue to engage with social media channels at unprecedented rates,” said Lori Bieda, SAS Consultant and former Marketing Executive. “With corporate trust at the lowest it’s been in several years, consumers are relying on social media and their social networks to shape their buying decisions, making social media a powerful medium that businesses can’t ignore.

Ontario, for all of its leading edge social media commitment, is also the most skeptical province when it comes to social media in general, with 14% saying it is a passing fancy that will be gone in a few years, this compared to just 3% in Atlantic Canada, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and 5% in Quebec. On the industry side, the advertising and communications communities are more likely than the construction/engineering/manufacturing or food/retail industries to say it will all be gone in a few years (21% versus 6% each, respectively). Nationally, 9% say social media is a passing fancy.

“The true sentiment of brands is ‘out there’- in a more public form than ever before – and delivered at speeds that can make or break brands,” added Ms. Bieda. “Mining social media data well will empower marketers, PR professionals, researchers and customer experience experts to drive business forward.”

Additionally:

* 60 % of execs say their organization often or sometimes monitors social media channels for mentions about their business.
* 20% rarely monitor social media and 12% never do it.
* 12% of public sector execs say people who use social media are a vocal minority whose opinions don’t matter much.
* 6% of private sector executives feel the same. Nationally 8 per cent say this.
* 51% of construction, engineering and manufacturing executives say social media has no impact on their business.
* 14% of health services / pharmaceutical executives feel this way.
* 50% of executives say they don’t have the resources to monitor social media.

Super Channel Canada has announced that submissions are now open for its Feature Documentary Award, which aims to provide Canadian documentary filmmakers with an opportunity to make the leap from producing hour-long documentaries for broadcast to producing feature length documentaries intended for theatrical release.

Two winning projects will be selected, and each of the winners will receive the following:

* A senior documentary producer with experience in feature-length documentary will mentor the winners with regard to their treatments, marketing materials, potential buyers and approaches to pitching. Winners will receive 15-20 hours of their mentor’s time.

* Each winning team will receive a budget of $3000 to be used to create the maximum benefit to their project. Part of the budget must be allocated toward the cost of the team attending the Toronto Documentary Forum (TDF) at Hot Docs. The remainder of the budget can be used for research, shooting and/or editing a trailer, creating marketing materials, or other justifiable expenses.

* The program will commence in late September, and the winners will work with their mentors to prepare their projects for pitching in time for the TDF in May 2011. Winners of the program will attend the TDF as Observers, and will use this opportunity to meet with potential broadcasters, executive producers or other potential partners. Winners are welcome to apply directly to the TDF to pitch formally from the stage during the conference, but acceptance to the TDF curated pitch is entirely at the discretion of the TDF. The program concludes when the TDF is over. Please visit the TDF website for more information.

Skate 3 will be dishing up a virtual Hawaiian skateboarding vacation tomorrow with the release of Danny Way’s Hawaiian Dream, an enormous skater’s paradise designed by the skating legend himself. Inspired by the tropical paradise of Hawaii, this all new Skate 3 downloadable content comes loaded with everything from original street terrain to flowing skate parks and of course Danny’s signature Mega-madness. Danny Way’s Hawaiian Dream content pack will be available on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network for 560 MS points or $6.99. The DLC will also include new challenges, create-a-skater gear, an all-new Danny Way playable character, and new achievements and trophies.

While skate fans are busy in Hawaii, I’ll be on a mission with Dragon Age’s Leliana as Bioware adds a new chapter to the Dragon Age: Origins saga. Leliana’s Song will allow gamers to play as the roguish bard in a tale that can lead only to treachery – and the reasons which led Leliana to The Chantry. For 560 MS Points ($6.99 PSN), play through Leliana’s Song to earn a new reward that can be transferred over to your original Dragon Age: Orgins and Awakening campaigns. So now you know what I’ll be doing tomorrow after work.

New media makers interested in developing a creative project or reflective essay related to this year’s theme are encouraged to apply to the Interactive Screen Scholarship Intensive, which takes place at The Banff Centre this August 14 to 20th. Participants will benefit from valuable mentorship across a broad range of new media interests. Applications for projects in all stages of development, from early concepts through to fully developed prototypes, are welcome.

Scholarships are available for up to ten Canadian and international applicants and include focused mentorship and public presentation opportunities, a travel stipend of up to $550, and full financial
support for program tuition, meals, and shared accommodations on The Banff Centre campus. Please visit the Scholarship Information Page to apply.

Local (Vancouver) indie game designer Alex Vostrov (Rocket Bear Games) has officially announced his new game. According to his site, the new game will be called Infested Planet, and is “an innovative real time strategy game where you face a humongous horde of mutating aliens with just 5 marines” will hit the gamer waves in the Fall of 2010.

Corus Entertainment and Treehouse are pleased to announce the world premiere of the first ever Dr. Seuss inspired animated series, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! on Saturday, August 7 at 5:30 p.m. ET starring Martin Short as the voice of the Cat.

Produced by Portfolio Entertainment Inc. and Collingwood O’Hare Productions, in association with Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Random House Children’s Entertainment, Treehouse and PBS Kids in the U.S., The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! is based on Random House’s bestselling beginner book collection, The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library.

“We are thrilled to introduce the first ever animated series based on the whimsical adventures of Dr. Seuss, starring Canadian comedian Martin Short,” said Jocelyn Hamilton, Vice President, Programming and Production, Corus Kids. “A delightfully entertaining show that opens young minds to science and nature discoveries, this series is sure to appeal to preschoolers’ curiosity for exploration and the world around them.”

With Cat as their guide, best friends Sally and Nick are transported to all corners of the globe, making natural science discoveries of all kinds. Along for the ride are Cat’s two energetic helpers, the mop-headed zany duo: Thing One and Thing Two. Booting around in Cat’s one-of-a-kind custom vehicle, the Thinga-ma-jigger, the group can travel to the bottom of the sea, shrink down to the size of a bee to discover how honey is made or find out why owls sleep during the day.

In the first episode, Show Me the Honey, Sally and Nick have run out of honey. Luckily, the Cat knows just where to get more. They visit Queen Priscilla Buzzoo who invites the gang to join her in the bee dance to learn how honey is made.

Beginning on August 7, back-to-back 30-minute episodes of The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! will air Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. throughout the month of August. Beginning on Tuesday, September 7, viewers can catch this series in its regular time-slots Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. as well as Saturdays at 2 p.m. and Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Beginning on August 23, viewers can visit Treehousetv.com to catch clips of the show, access 30 different colouring pages as well as six online games.

“Personality+ is the evolution of individual distinctiveness that sees a player’s abilities on the pitch mirrored authentically in our game, creating individual personalities in FIFA Soccer 11,” said Executive Producer Kaz Makita. “We have reached a level of sophistication within our game engine where players in our game will behave and perform as true individuals.”

Personality+ distinguishes individual players from one another by utilizing a database that evaluates and grades each player’s skill-set over 36 attributes and 57 traits. The EA Sports FIFA Soccer franchise utilizes a network of 1,700 scouts, editors and reviewers positioned around the world to evaluate each player, creating one of the world’s most comprehensive databases to drive its market-leading soccer engine. Personality+ will be integrated everywhere in-game. Elite players are now empowered to showcase their world class skills. Real Madrid’s Kaka will deliver crisp, creative passes, Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta will utilize tighter turns and close control to dribble through defenses, Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney will hold off defenders and strike shots from distance with pace, and top-flight defenders like Giorgio Chiellini of Juventus will anticipate, predict and react to offensive players to win back possession. New body types and player models will further distinguish each player on the pitch. In addition, goalkeepers have also been injected with Personality+. The real-life personality of the keeper, whether acrobatic or traditional, will dictate his style in game. Dive attributes will determine the keepers with the ability to reach for further shots while reflex attributes determine reaction times, so a keeper like Petr Cech of Chelsea FC will be able to showcase world-class skills.

FIFA Soccer 11 introduces new Pro Passing where pass accuracy is determined by a gamer’s ability on the control pad, and player skill, situation and urgency on the pitch, yielding a deeply rewarding passing system. Poor decisions or over/under striking the ball will mean error-prone outcomes. New types of passes such as swerve passes will enable players to make a safer and more effective play.

Building on FIFA Soccer 10 gameplay that won 50 sports game of the year awards, FIFA Soccer 11 continues to listen to its growing legion of EA Sports FIFA fans around the world to refine gameplay in ways that matter most to fans.  FIFA Soccer 11 will be available in stores world-wide this Fall for the PlayStation®3, Xbox 360®, Wii™, PC, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Nintendo DS™, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system and mobile.

Interactive Ontario has announced that ‘Open Mobile’ Author Ajit Jaokar, Founder of futuretext in London, UK will keynote the iP3 Forum on June 21st in Toronto. During his keynote presentation, Ajit will explore the future of mobile and web technologies, and how an open ecosystem could drive innovation in technical and business strategies.

“As member of the Economic World Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of the Internet, and with his intensive experience and research into open mobile strategies, Ajit will provide key insights into the world of technological innovation past and future,” says Sarah Baird, Co-Chair of the iP3 Forum Advisory Board and VP, Programmes and Operations at Interactive Ontario. “We are thrilled Ajit will kick-start the iP3 Forum with mind-expanding ideas of where we’re all headed.”

realtech VR has released Beware of the Bad Seed 1.0, a new fast-paced arcade game for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad (in high resolution) where players must protect the magical garden and save the daisy against never ending waves of naughty carnivorous plants. Beware of the Bad Seed is an addictive and sweaty revamped version of the arcade room classic “Whack a mole” with a 3D, vegetable twist. Use your finger to hit all the carnivorous plants and make sure not to hit the daisies that appear on the screen.

Feature Highlights:

* Includes universal version with full realtime 3D rendering for iPhone, iPhone 3GS and iPad with high resolution support.
* Three game modes: Time attack, Arcade and Tic-tac-toe.
* Landscape and Portrait orientation with auto-rotation.
* Personal scoreboard and ever increasing challenge.

Future updates with iOS 4 Game Center integration coming this summer with leaderboard, friends and more. To celebrate this release, realtech VR will be offering a discount on their other titles from June 10th through June 12th.

* Iron Fist Boxing Prestige Edition (with up to 200,000 download on the App Store) for 0.99$ instead for 4.99$
* Iron Fist Boxing Lite Full Version Upgrade for 0.99$ instead of 3.99$
* SkyORB 3D Premium Upgrade for 0.99$ (with up to 200,000 download on the App Store) instead of 2.99$
* Laserlink for Free instead of 0.99$

Victoria’s Tecagora Solutions is pleased to announce that Snapact Photo Manager is now available through the Intel AppUp Center.

The Intel AppUp Center allows netbook users to browse, purchase, download, and install software applications that have been optimized to operate on netbooks and the Intel Atom processor through the AppUp Center on their netbook. The AppUp Center is specifically designed for netbooks as a mobile store font that is launched as an application on the netbook. When launched, users can search for netbook software applications based on category type, or they can view featured software titles, “Staff Picks,” “What’s Hot,” or “New Releases.”

“Snapact Photo Manager has been designed to be fast and light on system resources,” states Bruce Kwan, President and CEO of Tecagora Solutions. “When installed on a computer hard drive, Snapact is less than 6 MB in size. Therefore, the software does not use up a lot of hard drive space making more room available for other software applications and files. Because of its speed and file size, Snapact is a great fit for netbook users looking for a photo viewer, manager, and sharing tool. We are excited to offer our solution for all netbook users to use through the AppUp Center,” says Kwan.

The AppUp Center is a tool for netbook users to quickly search for and find software applications that have been optimized, quality tested, and verified to run on netbooks and the Intel Atom processor. Netbook users can download, install, launch, uninstall, and purchase software applications directly through the AppUp Center on their netbook. Many of the netbooks shipped in 2010 will include the AppUp Center pre-installed, however, the AppUp Center is also available for direct download from Intel.

With more than 200,000 applications available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, more and more companies are reaching their customers through iPhone apps – a trend that is expected to grow rapidly following the recent release of Apple’s iPad touch-tablet.

Push notifications allow companies to stay in touch with app users or to allow them to interact with each other. Manic’s server software puts companies tapping the burgeoning market for iPhone and iPad apps in full control of theiiir push messaging, allowing for unlimited messages without additional cost.

“Our idea for the Manic APNs came out of our experience developing our unique multi-player gaming network,” says Randy Byers of Ottawa-based Manic Networks. “But we quickly realized that a way to reach millions of users within a matter of minutes at no additional cost would have huge appeal to many types of companies doing business on the iPhone/iPad platform.”

Manic’s Linux-based server software runs on company-owned servers or on hosted cloud servers for a fraction of the cost it would take to develop in-house – and with no limits or per-message cost. Depending on hardware and connectivity, Manic APNsServer can send 400,000 messages per minute or more – close to 25 million messages an hour.

Have you ever carried 100 books in your pocket? On June 13, people who own any one of the Nintendo DS™ family of systems can buy 100 Classic Books, a compilation of some of the greatest works of classic literature. But the best part is that the entire collection is available at a suggested retail price of just $19.99. And users with broadband Internet access can wirelessly download 10 additional books at no extra charge.

The postage stamp-sized game card includes a variety of books for all different ages, including seven separate works by Charles Dickens. There are novels that people can enjoy on the beach, such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; adventure and mystery novels that can be devoured during summer travels, such as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle or Bram Stoker’s Dracula; and books that kids can read at home, such as The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling or Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

“100 Classic Books transforms your Nintendo DS system into a portable library,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Readers of any age will enjoy exploring the many worlds, characters and adventures created by these icons of literature.”

Readers hold their Nintendo DS systems sideways like a book. To turn the page, they just swipe the touch screen with the stylus or a finger. The settings can even be flipped for left-handed users. A virtual bookmark lets readers return to where they left off. Up to three bookmarks can be used to mark a reader’s place in three different books. Large and small fonts are available. Each book includes a biography of the author and a synopsis of the plot and characters.

People who aren’t sure which book they want to read can answer a series of questions about their preferences, and the software will recommend some books they might like. Once a book is finished, readers can rate it in different categories and upload the results wirelessly to a central database using Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection. Then other readers can see which books have been rated “funniest” or “most exciting.” Readers can also share demos of select books with other Nintendo DS owners who want to sample some literature for themselves.

The Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) released an important new study (PDF) today showing that independent producers continue to receive little or no compensation from Canadian broadcasters for the digital rights to their programming.

“The results of the study unfortunately only confirm what we’ve been hearing for the past several years from our membership – that we have a long way to go in establishing a vibrant digital rights marketplace in Canada,” says Norm Bolen, President & CEO of the CFTPA. “These results underscore the need for Terms of Trade between broadcasters and independent producers, as the CRTC itself reaffirmed in its recent television group licensing policy framework.”

The study, Towards a Framework for Digital Rights, included a comprehensive survey of the CFTPA’s members. More than half (56%) of respondents indicated that they did not receive any additional compensation for the digital (Internet and mobile) rights to their shows, whether in the form of an incremental license fee or a revenue share. At the same time, a majority of respondents indicated that they were not confident about their estimates of the market value for digital rights in Canada.

“What the study really demonstrates is that independent producers don’t have access to the data they need in order to be full participants in the Canadian digital rights marketplace,” says John Barrack, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer of the CFTPA. “It’s hardly surprising that so many producers are giving away their digital rights essentially for free – they are subject to enormous broadcaster pressure to hand over these rights and they don’t have the informational yardsticks they need to help them effectively negotiate equitable deals for their shows.”

In addition to surveying CFTPA members, interviews were also conducted with broadcasters, distributors and digital aggregators operating in the major English-language markets (Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand) to obtain their views about the state of the digital rights marketplace. In Canada, however, the major private conventional and speciality TV broadcasters declined to be interviewed for the study.

“The lack of participation by the big private broadcast groups is disappointing,” says Reynolds Mastin, CFTPA Counsel. “We believe greater transparency is in the interests of all industry stakeholders, and that this can be achieved without revealing confidential commercial information belonging to either broadcasters or independent producers. We also think that the CRTC has taken a step in the right direction by pushing to obtain more data regarding the online activities of Canadian broadcasters. Provided that it asks the right questions and obtains the right data, we are confident that the Commission can serve as the catalyst for an industry dialog about how we collectively move forward in this complex and dynamic area.”

The study was supported by Ontario Media Development Corporation, with additional funding contributions by a number of key production industry funders, including the Association of Provincial Film Funding Agencies, the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, the Canada Media Fund, the National Film Board and the Shaw Rocket Fund.

“The fact that so many key funders of Canadian programming are seeking the same information as independent producers shows that there is an emerging consensus regarding the importance of having reliable data about the commercial terms for digital rights,” siays Barrack.

Wattpad has launched its annual writing contest, The Watty Awards. During the MTV Movie Awards on June 6th, Wattpad joined thousands of fans online to chat about the show and announce The Watty Awards.

In 2009, Wattpad’s writing contest generated almost 10,000 submissions and contributed to some stories being read over four million times. This year, Wattpad has expanded its annual contest to include even more prizes and awards categories.

The contest is similar to how the MTV Movie Awards work; readers can vote for their favorite stories in brand new categories such as Best Cast, Best Imaginative Setting, Best Fictional Couple, Best Sci-Fi Novel and Best Mystery. Writers will post their stories on Wattpad and then choose their dream cast of celebrities to play the fictional characters. The stories with the most votes will be nominated for the finals.

To accommodate the growing number of users who access Wattpad on their mobile devices and iPads, readers will be able to vote for their favorite stories using the new Wattpad app for iPad/iPod. Additionally, readers can vote for entries on www.wattpad.com, by liking a story on Facebook and by tweeting it on Twitter.

“Building off the success of last year’s event, we expect to see an increase in the number of writers participating in the 2010 Watty Awards,” predicts Wattpad CEO and co-founder Allen Lau. “Wattpad contests are a great way to encourage writers to create original content and take advantage of Wattpad’s unique social networking platform to grow their fan base. Last year’s winning story has been read almost three million times on Wattpad and the author was interviewed by mainstream news media including ITV in the UK.”

The winner of the Watty Award for “Best Overall Story” will win a Masterpiece Package from Wattpad publishing partner Lulu. Thousands of dollars in additional prizes will be awarded to winners in dozens of other categories.

The Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, today announced the results of the Investment Canada Act Review of the Icahn Group’s application to acquire control of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

“The investor has shown its willingness to promote Canadian cultural products,” said Minister Moore. “This decision is good for Canada. It will result in Lions Gate maintaining or increasing Canadian film and television production and protect and preserve Canadian jobs.”

The proposed acquisition has been approved under the Investment Canada Act, based on a number of commitments made by the Icahn Group. Most importantly, if the investor acquires control of Lions Gate, the investor has committed to:

* maintaining Lions Gate’s employment and film production in Canada
* extending the agreement with the Société générale de financement du Québec to produce films in Quebec
* ensuring that once under separate ownership, Maple Pictures has the exclusive right to distribute Lions Gate films in Canada for 10 years
* providing financial support to organizations that help less fortunate Canadians experience Canadian culture
* increasing support for Canadian cultural events

These commitments are in compliance with Canada’s long-standing policy on foreign investment in the film distribution sector. Under the Investment Canada Act, approval of the Minister of Canadian Heritage is required when a business transaction could result in the acquisition of control of a Canadian cultural business by a non-Canadian.

Today, 30 Grade 10 students from coast to coast are on their way to securing a post-secondary education as recipients of this year’s CIBC Youthvision Scholarships, valued at up to $36,000 each. This one-of-a-kind program has already helped 330 previous winners fulfill their academic aspirations in the last 10 years from a multi-year $10 million commitment from CIBC.

Early intervention in Grade 10 makes this scholarship program unique in Canada. CIBC Youthvision targets high-potential young people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to pursue a university or college education. The scholarship supports them in completing both their high school and post-secondary studies.

“Winning the CIBC Youthvision Scholarship means a lot to my family and me because now my mother doesn’t have to worry about where the money is going to come from when it’s time for me to go to college or university,” said Raquel Simpson of Scarborough. “I’m happy that I can now fulfill my goals of what I want to be and not wonder how I’m going to get there.”

To be eligible, Grade 10 students must be enrolled in a mentoring program with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada or the YMCA.

Winners of the CIBC Youthvision Scholarship receive six summer internships through the YMCA that begin right after Grade 10, valued at up to $20,000; and tuition for four years, valued at up to $16,000. They also receive ongoing mentoring from either Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada or the YMCA until they graduate from their post-secondary education.

A comprehensive independent study of the first 10 years of the CIBC Youthvision Scholarship program revealed that early intervention relieves financial stress, and builds confidence and self-esteem. It also encourages independence, enabling students to do more in-depth life and educational planning. Ultimately, the scholarship motivates them to do better. Most graduate recipients of the program have gone on to continue or attain higher levels of education after their undergraduate or college degrees.

“On behalf of CIBC, I congratulate this year’s 30 new scholarship recipients and wish them every success as they work to achieve their academic goals,” said Gerry McCaughey, CIBC’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “I am confident that they, like the hundreds of CIBC Youthvision Scholarship recipients before them, will use this support to go on to post-secondary education and then on to successful lifelong careers.”

In addition to their individual CIBC Youthvision Scholarships, Ms. Nawras Ottawa-Sabih of Hamilton is also the recipient of the 2010 Neil Morgan Volunteer Award for exemplary voluntary contributions to her community. Ms. Alita Mann of Saskatoon is this year’s winner of the Ted Medland Achievement Award for attaining the highest academic achievement of this year’s group of CIBC Youthvision Scholarship winners.

Liam LaTouche received the CIBC Youthvision Scholarship in 2001 and graduated in 2007 from the University of Western Ontario with an Honours Bachelor of Science Specialization in Kinesiology. “The CIBC Youthvision Scholarship opened so many doors for me,” he said. “It gave me the chance to grow as a person and along the career path I always dreamed of. I knew I wanted to go to university to get where I wanted to be, but I didn’t have the means to go. I would have had a ton of debt from student loans. Getting the scholarship was so overwhelming. It gave me the chance to leave home and tailor my career path towards sports medicine by studying at Western, which has propelled me in my field.”

Renowned for connecting people and systems to global mobile broadband networks, Peer 1 Hosting was named Company of the Year at the 2010 Technology Impact Awards (TIAs) hosted by the BC Technology Industry Association (BCTIA).

With a mantra of “Ping and People,” PEER 1 Hosting demonstrates excellence by delivering reliable, high-performance Web hosting solutions for its customers. “Ping” is PEER 1’s superior technology while “People” represents its absolute commitment to customer service. Its private 10GB IT SuperNetworktm encompasses 13,000 miles and 17 data centres and allows PEER 1 to guarantee 100% uptime to over 10,000 customers.

The 2010 Person of the Year Award went to Ward Chapin, former CIO of VANOC, the organizing committee of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, for his responsibility in overseeing the complex IT environment behind the games. Chapin is to be congratulated for recruiting and leading a highly productive, effective and motivated team. Clients of VANOC’s IT infrastructure included nearly 7,000 athletes and officials, 50,000 workforce members, 10,800 media personnel and 3.5 billion TV viewers.

Earning the Community Leadership Award was full-service interactive agency FCV with its corporate HELP philosophy. HELP which stands for Health, Emergency Response, Learning and Participation is a strategic framework to make BC a better place to live, work and connect. At the centre of FCV’s HELP network is the belief that we’re all a part of something bigger – an ongoing movement that inspires people to achieve and to contribute to their community.

Over 800 representatives from BC’s technology and business community came together at the state-of-the-art Vancouver Convention Centre West Building to recognize British Columbia’s top technologies, companies and individuals. This year, over 100 applications for the TIAs were received from technology companies of all sectors and sizes and from all corners of British Columbia. Other winners include:

Most Promising Pre-Commercial Technology: Icron Technologies
Best Application of Technology: Nexterra Systems Corp.
Excellence in Product Innovation: Simba Technologies Inc.
Most Promising Start-up: Indicee Inc.
Emerging Company of the Year: Avigilon Corporation
Team of the Year: MDA Corporation

“Tonight’s winners and finalists reaffirm the diversity of BC’s technology sector, delivering cross-cutting innovations that touch all sectors of the economy,” said Pascal Spothelfer, President and CEO of BCTIA. “We congratulate all winners and finalists for their ingenuity, adaptability and particularly their resilience in a challenging economic climate – they help to put the spotlight on BC by making their mark on the world.”

Also at the Technology Impact Awards, eight British Columbia students were awarded a combined $11,000 in scholarship grants from the BC Technology Industry Association (BCTIA). The scholarship awards were presented by the Honourable Iain Black, Minister of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development.

“Supporting higher education is critical to creating a knowledge economy”, stated Pascal Spothelfer, President and CEO of the BCTIA. “British Columbia has built a reputation for producing and attracting great talent. We are happy to assist in the continued development of great talent through this scholarship program”, Spothelfer added.

The BC Technology Scholarship program is designed to support hard-working and accomplished young people in their pursuit of technology-related education. Applicants must be enrolled in either business or science programs in a technology-related field and are selected on a basis of both merit and need.

Illustrating the continual need for knowledge-based talent, the recent 2010 TechTalentBC Labour Demand study commissioned by the BCTIA showed that despite the recent economic downturn, the British Columbia’s technology industry can expect to re-enter a talent crunch situation within the next 12 to 18 months.

Two grants valued at $2,500 were awarded to post-secondary students currently studying either business or science in a technology-related field. The recipients were:

Mr. Scott Hirsch – Simon Fraser University

Mr. Jonathan Kehler – Simon Fraser University

Six $1000 grants were awarded to high school graduates who are pursuing technology education at a BC post-secondary institution. The recipients were:

Ms. Colleen Chau – Mount Douglas Secondary School, Victoria

Mr. Scott Jennings – Correlieu Secondary School, Quesnel

Mr. Dhruva Nathan – Ballenas Secondary School, Parksville

Ms. Christina Noel – Sa-Hali Secondary School, Kamloops

Mr. Michael Peters – Glenlyon Norfolk School, Victoria

Ms. Riana Sartori – Delta Secondary School, Delta

“Scholarships like these help students to continue developing their abilities, and prepare them for successful and creative careers in BC’s growing technology industry,” says Minister Black. “I congratulate all of the students for their accomplishments – and the BCTIA for its foresight in establishing and funding these scholarships.”

The BCTIA launched the Technology Scholarship Fund at its 2005 Technology Impact Awards dinner, seeding the fund with a donation of $10,000. Since then the fund has grown to over $250,000 with all contributions coming from industry.

The 39 Clues™ is giving 33 lucky children from around the world a reason to celebrate, as Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, announces the seventh round of cash prizes in The New York Times bestselling multi-media book series, totaling $18,060. To date, more than one million children from around the globe have registered to digitize cards, play games and earn points, and over the course of the two-year 10-book series, $125,000 in prizes will have been awarded. Kids ages 6-14 (as of December 31, 2008) can enter to join the hunt at any time for the chance to win prizes. (Prizes vary according to each country’s rules.)

Each of the adrenaline-charged books in the 10-book series offers kids an immersive reading and online experience that involves joining one of four branches of the Cahill family (Lucian, Ekaterina, Janus, or Tomas) — the most powerful family in the world. Once part of the family, they can begin their hunt for The 39 Clues, and have chances to win exciting prizes with each book release through the Book Sweepstakes, Online Mission Sweepstakes and Episode Contests. The 39 participants who find all 39 Clues by the end of the series earn the most points and discover the Cahill secret have the chance to win the grand prize of $10,000 (US).

The seventh round of 33 winners has been selected from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and India, and winners will receive cash prizes totaling $18,060. In addition, Australia has selected 39 more winners and will be awarding alternative prizing including an XBOX 360 and special The 39 Clues prizes.

“In less than two years since this groundbreaking multi-platform series launched, there are more than 7 million copies of the books in print and 1 million online game registered users to date — that’s a lot of readers, gamers, and clue hunters around the world!” said Stacy Lellos, Vice President of Marketing, Scholastic Trade. “It goes without saying that we are thrilled with the success of The 39 Clues.”

The next series of sweepstakes and contest for Book #9: Storm Warning by Linda Sue Park began on May 25, 2010 12:00 AM ET and ends on August 30, 2010 at 11:59 PM ET, but kids can enter at any time before December 31, 2010 to be part of the hunt and be eligible for the Grand Prize of $10,000 (US). On August 31, 2010, Scholastic will be releasing Book #10: Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix.

The 39 Clues launched on September 9, 2008, with “Book 1: The Maze of Bones” by Rick Riordan, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Movie rights for The 39 Clues have been acquired by DreamWorks Studios with Steven Spielberg eying to direct. The script is being penned by Jeff Nathanson whose credits include “Catch Me If You Can” and “Rush Hour 2.” The 39 Clues has been licensed for publication in 22 languages including Japanese, Italian, Chinese, German, Greek, and Hebrew. Scholastic Media recently launched the The 39 Clues Madrigal Maze App for the iPhone™ and iPod touch®, which has been ranked among the top “Paid Kids Games” on the App Store since release.

Fair Copyright for Canada (administered by Michael Geist) also has an active Facebook group which carries updates and opinions relevant to Bill C-32. One point which seems to be an area of contention is the Digital Lock, and CBC News has written a very comprehensive look at what it could entail. I freely admit that I have not had time to read and process all of the information about C-32, and while I will endeavour to do so, I would like to invite someone more expert in the ramifications of C-32 to write a guest editorial explaining the good and the bad of our copyright bill. While many of what we could deem as special interest groups are voicing their opinions about Bill C-32, the most relevant to both us and our readers is what those in interactive media are saying. All of the sites and Twitter accounts above contain links to opinions and press releases from groups such as ACTRA, AFM and the Documentary Organization of Canada, and I invite you to check them out. Here is what ESAC has to say about the reforms:

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada has released a statement about Bill C-32, congratulating the Government of Canada on its introduction of copyright reform legislation which will help protect Canadian content creators and digital media companies. ESAC believes that protecting the intellectual property of industries that contribute to Canada’s prosperity is not only good public policy, but is essential as our economy transitions to more knowledge-based jobs.

“We applaud the government for showing leadership on this complex issue and we look forward to studying the bill more closely,” said Danielle Parr, Executive Director of ESAC. “Without strong protection for our intellectual property, we’re basically operating in a digital Wild West. Promoting piracy under the guise of ‘user rights’ does nothing to defend the livelihood of thousands of Canadians who rely on turning great ideas into world class entertainment,” she added.

“Piracy fundamentally undermines the integrity of the marketplace. It forces creators to compete against black market versions of their own products, affecting their ability to recover the considerable investments associated with digital media production. A strong bill – one which prohibits hacking of digital works, trafficking in hacking tools and that makes those who facilitate digital piracy clearly liable for their activities – is critical to the success of Canada’s digital economy,” says Parr.

In the industry’s view, a bill with clear protection for intellectual property will enable creators to decide how and at what cost their products can be accessed and in turn allow consumers to decide which products succeed and fail by voting with their pocketbook. Further, by supporting a diverse range of business models, strong copyright will facilitate increased competition, which ultimately leads to greater consumer choice and lower prices.

In related news, the Pew Internet and American Life Project has released a report about The State of Online Video. While this study was conducted in the USA, the information can be useful to those Canadian companies and individuals who produce web-distributed products. The study is available as a downloadable PDF, or it can be read online.

And now back to our regularly scheduled Canadian game industry news and updates:

THQ has confirmed in an official press release that Relic Entertainment’s Company of Heroes Online will indeed be released to the North American market this fall. Building on the frenetic Real-Time-Strategy action of the original Company of Heroes, Company of Heroes Online is free to play and offers army specialization, commander customization, and persistent progression, allowing players to strategize on and off the battlefield. Players will also have the opportunity to earn or purchase special units and upgrades and improve their army with each and every multiplayer victory.

Vice President of Global Brand Management Travis Plane commented that, “We are delighted to bring this award-winning franchise to gamers in a whole new way with the online version of the Company of Heroes experience. Players will benefit from the persistent upgrades and the ability to tailor their armies to really suit their play style making this a unique experience for everyone.”

Capcom® Mobile and Classic Media, whose portfolio includes of some of the world’s leading kids, family and pop-culture brands such as Where’s Waldo?®, Casper the Friendly Ghost® and Lassie®, have announced the release of Where’s Waldo?® In Hollywood, the sequel to last year’s top-selling mobile phone game.

“The first Where’s Waldo? game was a run-away mobile hit with its addictive mini games and classic search and find puzzles,” said Midori Yuasa, President, Capcom Interactive, Inc. “For the sequel we’ve built on the winning mix with a whole new crop of puzzles, achievements and even more Waldo fun.”

“Capcom Mobile has done a terrific job translating the search and find experience of Where’s Waldo? for mobile and we are excited to partner with their team on the second game,” said Nicole Blake, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Consumer Products, Classic Media. “With its crowds of celebrities and celebrity-spotters, Hollywood is an exciting place for fans to take up their search for Waldo.”

Based on the international publishing phenomenon, Where’s Waldo? in Hollywood, developed by Capcom Interactive Canada, chronicles the world-famous traveler through a series of tinsel-town themed adventures. Players can join the search with multiple search and find games that are based on classic scenes from the book series, as well as five mini games, including Tic-Whack-Wizard, Odd One Out, and Slide Puzzles. As players progress, they will be able to unlock bonus content and earn in-game achievements. Where’s Waldo? In Hollywood is currently available for download on most North American carriers.

EA has released a new Dev Diary for the upcoming Need For Speed World. Check out what they have to say about the game in this new video.

Meanwhile, over at EA Sports, it seems that the developers have gone out on a limb and predicted that Spain will take home the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. Using the market-leading EA Sports™ football engine that drives 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ on the PS3 iand Xbox 360, EA Sports was able to simulate the 2010 FIFA World Cup and test all 32 teams under the same conditions they will face in the weeks ahead. It was determined that Spain will defeat Brazil 3-1 at Soccer City on July 11 to win its first World Cup. The testers holding the controllers – and thus the “players” free will, determined the following from their simulation:

* World Champion: Spain
* World Cup Final: Spain 3 Brazil 1
* 1st team to be eliminated: South Africa
* Golden Boot winner: David Villa (Spain), 7 goals
* Golden Ball winner: Kaka (Brazil)

EA Sports is also predicting that soccer fans around the globe will compare these astonishing results to the real-world tournament as it unfolds beginning June 11. The Final itself was an epic battle as Brazil put on a dazzling display of free-flowing samba style football early on against the Spaniards, taking a 1-0 lead in the 30th minute with a Felipe Melo strike from just inside the box. It didn’t take long for Spain to level the score after a goalie error that left striker David Villa in the clear. He tapped in his 6th goal of the tournament in the 42nd minute. The second half saw fortunes turn in favour of Spain, as their disciplined build up play and domination of possession paid off with a goal in the 61st minute when Villa connected for his second goal of the match, off of Andres Iniesta’s driven cross. Brazil had several efforts on goal in the final third of the match but couldn’t capitalize on its chances as they pushed all players forward in an attempt to draw even, eventually conceding a splendid counter attack goal in the 88th minute from Cesc Fabregas, which delivered Spain the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Spain’s path to FIFA World Cup glory included a quarterfinal 5-4 penalty shootout victory over Italy after an absorbing 1-1 draw, and a 2-1 win over Argentina in the semi final. Brazil’s journey to the Final included a 3-2 win over the Netherlands in the quarter final and a 5-4 shootout victory over England after the two teams played out a 2-2 draw in the semi.

Music makers who play games will soon be able to play, record, edit, save and playback their own song creations on their Xbox 360 drum kit peripherals in the form of Vancouver’s All Seeing Eye Games‘ debut title Drum Studio. Drum Studio utilizes the full potential of the drum kit to put the power of music creation in the players’ hands.

No longer will players merely play along to pre-determined drum lines. Instead, they will create their own jams on drums they’ve customized from a library of over 320 sounds. A simple & elegant recording interface allows players to layer in multiple tracks and hone their songs to perfection before they save the song, kick back, and watch an animated drummer play back their creation.

The past few years have seen the music game genre explode into a cultural phenomenon only to fizzle out in its own stagnation & over saturation. Drum Studio aims to push the genre forward in meaningful ways with its robust customization & creation tools and re-ignite some of the passion players felt that first time they sat down at a plastic instrument peripheral.

Drum Studio is the inaugural product of All Seeing Eye Games, a Vancouver-based independent game development studio founded in November 2009. It is dedicated to making accessible games that push the boundaries of innovation. Drum Studio is releasing in June 2010 exclusively on the Xbox LIVE Indie Games channel of Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 80 Microsoft Points.

Twenty-five Boys and Girls Clubs youth from across Canada will get the opportunity to pursue their careers and life goals through higher education as recipients of a $4,000 Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarship.

“I am extremely honoured to be selected as a recipient of the 2010 Future Leaders Scholarship,” said Scott McKinnon, a longtime member of Boys and Girls Club of Saint John. “Without this award, I may not have been financially able to attend university next year and continue towards the completion of my degree. This scholarship will allow me to better focus on the requirements of my courses without worrying about the stress incurred by having to find a way to cover the costs associated with a year at university. I am very thankful that Future Shop has partnered with Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada to provide this opportunity.”

Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, through the generous support of Future Shop, has been supporting the education dreams of youth for ten years through the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarships program. The program provides vital financial support at a time when tuition costs continue to rise. Since the program was created, more than 550 young people have received scholarships totaling more than $1.5 million. Each student receives a $3,500 or $3,000 cash award along with a $500 or $1,000 Future Shop gift card to provide needed technology and school equipment.

“I am the first person in my family to go to university. My parents couldn’t afford to go and I feel really blessed to have come to Canada and been given all these opportunities,” said Majda Miljkovic, a past Future Shop Future Leader Scholarship recipient who is currently studying Education at the University of Manitoba. “The Future Leaders Scholarship has helped me keep up with paying for school on my own, stay out of debt in doing so, and also look around me and realize just how lucky I am to be here today.”

Building on the ten year success of the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarships, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada and Future Shop have developed a new program, Future Generation, which will launch later in 2010. An evolution of the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarships, Future Generation will aim to provide young people in Grade 10 with the financial resources to achieve their long term education goals and the skills and technology needed to be truly successful.

“Future Shop is committed to investing in creating positive opportunities for young people and together with Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada we have helped hundreds of young people over the past ten years realize their dream of post-secondary education,” said Cheryl Grant, Community Relations Manager, Future Shop. “Through the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarships we have improved the lives of youth and families across the country, and we will continue to make a difference through the upcoming Future Generation program.”

Recipients of the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarships are selected based on their outstanding contribution to their Boys and Girls Club and local community, good academic standing and financial need.

2010 Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarship Recipients

Alberta

Amaira Hanson, Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary
Erin Hutchinson, Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary
Tammy Morgan, Stettler and District Boys and Girls Club
Courtney Johnson, Boys and Girls Club of Brooks and District

British Columbia

Reid Neilson, Boys and Girls Club Community Services of Delta/Richmond
Janette Wheeler, Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs
Eileen Zheng, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Vancouver

Manitoba

Sabreen Shahin, Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg
Hope Akello, Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg

New Brunswick

Sarah Stewart, Miramichi Boys and Girls Club
Scott McKinnon, Boys and Girls Club of Saint John

Newfoundland and Labrador

Alexandria Hemeon, Botwood Boys and Girls Club Inc.

Nova Scotia

Carlos Beals, Boys and Girls Club of Dartmouth

Ontario

Kaitland Thompson, Toronto Kiwanis Boys and Girls Clubs
Mike Ali, Boys and Girls Clubs of Peel
Osman Omar, Boys and Girls Club of London
Mahdi Hussein, Eastview (Toronto) Boys and Girls Club
Meagan La Plante, Boys and Girls Clubs of Kawartha Lakes
Prince Sunama, Boys and Girls Club of Kingston and Area Inc.
David Francis, Boys and Girls Club of East Scarborough
Ismail Abdulle, Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa
Richard Lorde, Braeburn Boys and Girls Club

Prince Edward Island

Donald Gallant, Wellington and Area Boys and Girls Club

Quebec

Lois Boateng, Boys and Girls Club of LaSalle / Club Garcons et Filles de LaSalle

Saskatchewan

Kayla Krawetz, Battlefords Boys and Girls Club

Established as a means to encourage aspiring female game designers and provide them with greater opportunities for a career in the game industry, the scholarship is valued at $49,250 and covers the full tuition to VFS’s acclaimed one-year Game Design program, named by L.A. Times as a Top 10 school “favoured by industry recruiters”.

A worthy recipient, Anne was an elementary school teacher at a challenging city school when she first began designing games in an effort to increase literacy and math skills, address behavioural issues, and encourage a love of learning amongst her students. The scholarship to VFS will allow Anne to experience one intensive year learning every facet of game design, from game theory to level design to game interface design, and help further Anne’s ambition to create educational games.

“I am beyond thrilled to receive this great honor,” says Anne. “As an elementary school teacher, I realized the significant impact games can have on student achievement, and since leaving the classroom, I have aspired to create effective educational games. I am confident that this award, along with the excellent education I will obtain through the VFS Game Design program, will bring me one step closer to achieving my goal of effecting systemic change in the field of education through games.”

“Anne was the clear winner, despite intense competition with an increased number of applications compared to last year,” says Benjamin Colling, Director of Admissions at VFS. “Anne applied to VFS’s Game Design program with the intent of expanding her storytelling ability and game design skills so that she can learn how to make groundbreaking educational games that rival titles across all genres, including popular blockbusters. We are pleased to support her, and are confident that with her talent and drive she will be successful in accomplishing this goal.”

Female VFS Game Design graduates have gone on to work successfully in the industry, from Tara Mustapha and Charmie Kim of Microsoft Game Studios to Pamela Livara of Vancouver’s Slant Six, and Melanie Genereux of Longtail Studios in PEI.

In addition to the Women in Games Scholarship, VFS also awarded three other scholarships, thanks to the contributions of a number of Game Design Expo 2010 sponsors.

Congratulations to the following scholarship winners:

Aubrey Tennant (Ontario) – $7,000 G4TechTV scholarship
Jie (Jacky) He (British Columbia) – $5,000 Annex Pro scholarship
Brooke Fargo (British Columbia) – $2,500 Radical Entertainment scholarship

ThoughtFarmer 3.7, a social intranet application from OpenRoad Communications has been released with many new features guaranteed to not make your IT staff pull their hair out. According to the product’s website, ThoughtFarmer 3.7 opens up new deployment options, introduces Active Directory password management, improves cut & paste from Word, and includes several other useful enhancements.

Vancouver’s dimeRocker has also released a product update today. Version 1.3 of the dimeRocker API is now available for download via their website. Also recently announced their Game Tune-up Programme, where developers can submit their best ideas, prototypes or finished games and dimeRocker will provide the support and expertise to help the project grow. Check out the programme’s information page for more details.

The World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications is an annual conference organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). The event serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications/distance education. The Conference will take place June 29th through July 2nd in Toronto, and there is still time to register.

If you  missed TO JAM #5, held recently in Toronto, but would like to try out the fruits of labour produced by Toronto’s indie game developers, then you need to head out to the Imperial Pub at 54 Dundas Street East this Saturday and check out the super-showcase TO JAM Arcade event. Sponsored in part by Tall Tree Games, Big Blue Bubble and Notebook Empire, the To Jam Arcade is guaranteed to be lots of fun.

Modeling and simulation are becoming increasingly common in our corporate, educational and personal lives. From video games to flight simulators, we are becoming accustomed to these new and powerful tools that entertain and educate us. To better understand where the world of modeling and simulations is going, CeLEA has invited the Mr. Jacques Hamel (President, Artifact Software), to join us in a webinar on Thursday June 3 at 12:00 PM Eastern, to chat about this growing and important field, and to talk about the upcoming MODSIM WORLD Canada conference that begins on June 14 in Montreal.

The webinar is designed to provide you with an overview of the kinds of technologies that are driving this field, and how modelling and simulation are being applied in many different contexts and sectors. There is no charge for attending this event, but you must register to receive additional information on how to access the webinar site.

Toronto’s TransGaming Inc. has announced a new partnership with Netherlands company Metrological, which will see TransGaming’s GameTreeTV Games Platform globally deployed  to cable operators and managed service operators, as part of Metrological’s Mediaconnect TV. Through this partnership, Metrological’s customers around the world will have the ability to offer video games to their subscribers as part of a fully integrated digital entertainment solution.

The GameTreeTV Games Platform delivers a unique and compelling interactive entertainment video games experience to consumers from the comfort of their living rooms. Consumers will have access to a rich catalogue of games through an easy to navigate on-demand service model. With GameTreeTV consumers can browse, download, and play their favorite video games from leading content creators, through an on-demand business model of games purchase, rental, or subscription.

Mediaconnect TV, a next generation hybrid consumer TV entertainment platform based on Intel CE Media Processing technology and powered by the Metroconnect Operating System, provides consumers with a wide range of high-value applications and services. The GameTreeTV Games Platform will be integrated into Metrological’s master catalogue of services, thereby offering TV viewers a broad set of on-demand games.

“Metrological has developed a comprehensive and highly interactive turn-key digital home entertainment solution that advances the consumption of interactive services and applications for consumers”, commented Vikas Gupta, CEO & President of TransGaming. “Mediaconnect TV is transforming the living room experience and we are thrilled to announce Metrological as a strategic deployment partner for GameTreeTV. Video games are the primary source of leisure entertainment around the world and this partnership will make high quality video games available to million subscribers over the next few years.”

Metrological Media Innovations’ software allows managed service operators to extend home media entertainment services to their respective subscribers. TV viewers are able to access an extensive range of additional next generation, interactive applications, while simultaneously viewing regular TV programming. Mediaconnect TV combines cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcast with IPTV and Internet TV services through a connected interactive media device to ensure consumers have the highest quality experience available.

“Metrological has created the leading software platform that combines all of the features of interactive television into a single convenient and easy to use solution,” said Albert Dahan, CTO and co-founder of Metrological. “The addition of GameTreeTV will provide Mediaconnect TV users with the best gaming experience that interactive television currently has to offer.”

Three Quebec companies, Alchemic Dream, Monde Media Solutions and Laboratoires Bug-Tracker, have announced a new partnership which will see them join forces to create the first Virtual Universe Consortium.

“We are re-inventing the B2B service model by supporting and representing multicultural e-communities for the publishers and developers,” says Aurélien Merville, President and CEO of Alchemic Dream.

For the past twelve years, the three service providers have lead the outsourcing business by supporting video game publishers and developers and increasing players’ immersion in virtual worlds. As a part of this synergy, the online game specialists will benefit from multicultural localization and quality management.

Jean-Robert Michel, General Manager of Monde Media Solutions, explains the partnership, “Social and MMO gamer communities from all over the world, across all regions, languages and platforms would prefer a bug-free gaming experience in their own language and well managed virtual worlds. By being an active member of this consortium, Monde Media Solutions provides access to video game localization professionals to assist product republishing.”

“Quality Assurance is based on client and user satisfaction. In the era of virtual communities, Bug-Tracker has found the right partners to reach its objective of enhancing the game experience of world-wide players,” added Antoine Carre, President and CEO of Bug-Tracker.

Letting the development and design teams concentrate on the development cycle, the consortium share resources and knowledge to build solutions designed for the online gaming publishers and developers in a one-stop-shop for cultural adaption, localization and translation. This will see improved community management, increased customer retention through outstanding customer support, role-playing events and community entertainment, monetization implantation and analysis, along with deep game-play and focus group analysis, robust load & stress testing, functionality and compatibility testing and automation testing.

A pilot study of teens and their use of Web 2.0 technologies confirms what most parents probably already know: Teens are really good at it – but what surprised the researcher doing the study is how the teens she talked to were able to use technological tools in new and innovative ways to connect with each other – ways that the creators of the tools had probably never thought of, which she suggests is evolving into a whole new multi-dimensional way of communicating.

Natalia Sinitskaya is a PhD candidate at York University’s Faculty of Education in Toronto who is exploring digital literacy with the idea of examining the potential of using Web 2.0 environments in education. To further her research, she did a pilot study involving interviews with a handful of adolescents to sound out their uses and views about Web 2.0 technologies.  The results of that research will be presented in a paper to be delivered at the university during the 2010 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Sinitskaya says the teens she interviewed were not only adept at using the technology to connect with each other socially, they were using it in innovative ways. For example, she said one teen took to watching video diaries posted on the Web in places like YouTube. She would then make friends (technologically) with people she liked based on their video logs.

Sinitskaya says teens are also quite sophisticated when it comes to assessing the Web tools: Her respondents, for example, were able to offer thoughtful evaluations of the different features, style and uses of Facebook versus MySpace, and as a result would carefully weigh whether they might choose one platform over another.

“That goes counter to the popular expectation that teenagers don’t know what they are doing,” she says. As well, she says her respondents had all investigated privacy settings on their platforms and selected ones they thought appropriate. Sinitskaya believes that the ability to use Web 2.0 tools is a new form of literacy, and as adolescents learn to manipulate them, their communication will move away from plain writing to a new form of multi-dimensional communication.

Organized by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences brings together about 9,000 researchers, scholars, graduate students, practitioners, and policy makers to share groundbreaking research and examine the most important social and cultural issues of the day. Montréal’s Concordia University is hosting Congress 2010, which began on May 28th and runs until June 4th.

Also, just a reminder that there is still time to enter Level Up 2010, the Intel® Visual Adrenaline Game Demo Challenge. This is a worldwide competition providing developers greater exposure to the gaming community and a chance to win exciting prizes. There are two phases to the entry process in 2010—bringing more opportunities to win prizes and to show game ideas and demo versions of your applications to the wider gaming community, the renowned judges, and the Intel® Visual Adrenaline experts.

In the first phase, submissions in the form of “game concepts”, comprising a game description with optional screen shots and/or videos, will be accepted from professionals, hobbyists, and student game developers from March 29, 2010 through June 21, 2010. Pre-qualified finalists will be selected from the pool of game concept entries. All entrants, as well as the pre-qualified finalists, can submit demo versions of your gaming applications and abstracts to be considered for prizes in both main contest and Judge’s Choice categories.

• Professional/hobbyist game concepts will be judged bi-monthly by designated Intel Community Managers to select pre-qualified finalists. Pre-qualified finalists will be notified by July 11, 2010.
• Student game concepts will be selected as pre-qualified finalists in one random drawing per student block (see student block dates in these rules).

In the second phase, entrants submit demo versions of your gaming applications and abstracts by August 31, 2010. These will be judged in three main contest categories: Best Game for a Desktop, Best Game for a Laptop, and Best Game for a Netbook. Additional prizes will be awarded for the following “Judge’s Choice” categories: (1) Best Art Design, (2) Best Graphics Performance, (3) Best Sound Design, and (4) Best Character Design.

Richmond BC-based briefcase manufacturer Mezzi is excited to expand its product line with a variety of new cases. The company has added a number of distinctive aluminum cases, including Netbook cases, cases for Mac laptops, a tool kit set, makeup/jewelry cases, and CD cases.

The expanded line gives consumers a broader selection when it comes to choosing an aluminum laptop case or other metal carrying case, according to the company’s president, David Mezzi. “It is our goal to be the No. 1 aluminum case manufacturer, with an aluminum case for every possible use,” he said. “This new product line brings us one step closer to that goal.”

Mezzi’s new product line features the “Royal Collection”, which is a set of molded aluminum laptop cases in various sizes. Perhaps the most impressive component of the collection is a Netbook case with a classy purple velvet interior. The product, which is perfect for smaller laptops, iPads and other mobile devices, comes in three different sizes to accommodate laptops with screens up to 13.5, 15.5 and 17.5.

The company’s new Mezzi M-ZERO Molded Aluminum Laptop Case is especially designed to carry Mac laptop computers. It features an eye-catching glossy white aluminum exterior and fits laptop screen sizes up to 17 inches. The case is accented with a padded black leatherette interior, chrome handle and an ergonomic shoulder strap that make it suitable for men or women.

Calgary’s ComicBookBin has updated its iPhone app that helps comic book collectors find comic book conventions, locate nearby comic book stores, as well as provide access to over 10,000 articles published about comics, toys, movies and books since 2002.

The global store locator has been enhanced with several search options. Clicking on a city’s name in the store locator opens a map featuring all local stores and your location. Added to the existing English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese store locator searches is support for Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Farsi, Filipino, Finnish, Hebrew, Irish, full Japanese, full Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Swahili, Swedish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. Several enhancements were added to the article browsing features, and ComicBookBin 1.5 now launches in portrait mode with small thumbnails in the newsreader next to each article.

iPhone app reviewer Connor Turner of yycApps writes, “one of the beauties of the Comic Book Bin App is the interface. It’s quite mind blowing the amount of information stored within this tiny little app. But the developers of the Comic Book Bin have done a great job utilizing the iPhone’s portrait and landscape views, to allow the user to tailor the search results interface for their own benefits. Users can either browse through a long list of results in portrait mode or if they switch to the landscape mode, they can flick through a carousel of thumbnail images of their query. Either way, it’s a great design feature and one that makes the overall experience that much better.”

The user interface continues to be one of the top qualities of ComicBookBin. “Few iPhone and iPod Touch apps feature full support for both portrait and landscape modes,” said Comic Book Bin publisher and app developer Hervé St-Louis.

Purple Forge Corp., known for its mobile applications for community engagement, today announced a partnership with ZipGive, the mobile giving division of Zipstripe Corp., to deliver mobile applications for fundraising, volunteer and donor engagement for charities, non-profits and political campaigns in North America.

“Purple Forge’s award-wining mobile application services combined with our leading SMS fundraising capabilities offer fundraisers an unmatched suite of mobile fundraising and donor engagement solutions,” said Andrew D’Amico, ZipGive account manager. “Mobile applications create a deep, personalized interaction between fundraisers and their donors, allowing them to share news, events, videos and photos before, during and after fundraising drives. This allows fundraisers to demonstrate the value of the donors contributions, thus ensuring sustained levels of giving.”

Purple Forge’s mobile application services offers charities, non-profits and political campaigns the ability to broadcast news, events, pictures, video, Twitter and donation calls to the leading smartphone platforms leveraging best practices in content management, making the solution easy to support and maintain. Coupled with a powerful survey engine tied-in with social networking, organizers can now share the latest information, and obtain opinion and feedback from donors and volunteers in real-time.

“ZipGive is an innovator in mobile marketing and fundraising, and our partnership further demonstrates their commitment to offering an unmatched set of services to their customers,” said John Craig, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Purple Forge. “Social networking, new media and mobility are the must have tools for donor and volunteer engagement, and we are excited to partner with ZipGive to deliver on these powerful services.”

WordPress Buddy, a WordPress-focussed website installation and customization service based in Ontario has launched its new website with their new Premium WordPress Theme service which will concentrate on helping new bloggers get started using WordPress as a Content Management System easily and affordably, with an initial offering of 5 popular blog templates with 35 possible variations which can be further customized in over 1100 layout combinations.

As an efficient and affordable WordPress Blog service in Canada, WordPress Buddy hopes their new website will enhance the way they serve their customers providing a turn-key solution to the installation and customization needs of those people and businesses wanting to begin a blog or use WordPress as a Content Management Service, but who lack the skills necessary to get started.

As a dedicated WordPress service provider, WordPress Buddy offers their customers a “Standard Service Pack” that includes a Premium WordPress Theme , popular and premium plugins, full installation and set up service, as well as site customization, all for one low price of $125, plus applicable taxes, for a self-hosted site – a sales package that would usually cost several hundred dollars. Conversely, for those clients who want a complete turn-key solution, WordPress Buddy also offers a Hosted option. With the “Standard Service Pack with Hosting,” WordPress Buddy clients also get their website hosting included for a package price of only $249.

For those of you who are researching family trees – and even for those teachers whose classes require students to work on their family tree, Richmond Hill-based ObituariesHelp.org has made finding just the right family tree chart to organize or display your ancestry research much easier. This new Free Printable Family Tree section offers specific family trees and family tree resources neatly organized on 18 new web pages. All the family trees have been designed by a professional graphic designer, Lia Rodriguez and are available to download for free.

ObituariesHelp.org is the fastest growing genealogy and ancestry website online today because it offers free resources. It’s a one stop website that’s continually updated to include new family trees, new family history information and new reviews of subscription websites.

“Our goal is to add as many free resources to the website as possible in a neat and well-organized format. I’m really excited about this family tree section because we’ve taken a lot of care to produce accurate and beautiful family tree templates and charts. I’m confident that we have the largest selection of unique family tree charts online today,” says ObituariesHelp.org founder, Melanie Walters. “Working on these family trees with a great graphic designer like Lia Rodriguez was a huge benefit to me. She has a great eye for design and a genuine interest in genealogy. She was particularly helpful to me for rejecting tired old family tree designs that I found online. Lia designed really unique family tree concepts that were both accurate and beautiful. In the coming days, we’re going to be launching Lia’s new abstract family tree designs and scrapbooking ideas for family trees that I think will appeal to younger generations as well as crafty genealogists. We actually rejected quite a few concepts and we’re left with some great final family tree charts that I think our visitors will like.”

Coming soon, a free guide to getting started with your genealogy research and ancestors search. This free guide contains the best information for researching your family history and where to search for vital records.

Flowfinity® Wireless Inc., a leading provider and enabler of adaptable smartphone business applications, today announces platform support for the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad. With platform support, all of Flowfinity’s application products, including Flowfinity Forms and Flowfinity Actions, can be used with iPhone and iPad. The Flowfinity Platform has been extended to iPhone/iPad to offer the same usability, productivity, manageability and adaptability that has made Flowfinity a choice of many large enterprise customers.

“We spent a lot of time to make sure usability and security issues were addressed properly with this release,” said Dmitry Mikhailov, CEO of Flowfinity Wireless. “We’ve made the look and feel familiar for iPhone and iPad users and made interactions very touch-friendly. We also found a good balance for security and manageability that administrators will appreciate.”

The newly announced iPhone and iPad support is currently available for existing Flowfinity customers, and promotions for new customers will begin shortly with carrier and integration partners.

“I’ve had customers looking for a solution with our level of adaptability and productivity for the iPhone. Now, that is available from us, with the flexibility of support on multiple Smartphone platforms.” said Larry Wilson, Flowfinity’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “And the iPad opens up new opportunities to replace clipboards for audits, inspections, checklists and surveys.”

And in the final word today, as pretty well anyone who isn’t living under a rock knows, Burnaby’s EA Sports™ campus is developing their first ever NHL® hockey title for the Wii™ Console. In the official press release which was sent out this morning, EA Sports announced that NHL® SlapShot will also feature  NHL Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky on the game’s cover. NHL® SlapShot introduces a revolutionary hockey stick controller that allows players to shoot, pass and body check just like the pros. In addition to having his likeness on the front of all packaging, Gretzky will be available as a playable character in the game when NHL® SlapShot is available in retail stores this September.

“Making our games as close to the real thing has always been our focus,” says EA Sports Creative Director, David Littman. “Now we are giving players an actual plastic hockey stick that the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ controllers plug into. Players can then use the new NHL® SlapShot Hockey Stick to do all the moves in the game.”

“We are tremendously excited to have Max join our team at IO,” said Ian Kelso, President and CEO, Interactive Ontario. “Max has a keen understanding of the Canadian entertainment industry and has a track record for delivering high very quality services in the not-for-profit sector.”

Max will be leading the charge in building partnerships around IO’s flagship event IN 2010, as well as for a new business skills training programme specializing in interactive media and digital games entrepreneurship.

Prior to joining Interactive Ontario, Max Berdowski spent ten years in Ottawa as the Executive Director and CEO of the recently closed Canadian Screen Training Centre (CSTC) — presenter of the Summer Institute of Film and Television. The national film, television and digital media training institute trained 500 filmmakers each year with all of its programming led by top working professionals. Max was responsible for the STC’s strategic planning, branding and programming. He directed its sponsorship and business development efforts.

Before leading the CSTC, Max’s work aired on broadcasters including CTV, Global television, CBC, CHUM, TLC in the U.S. and TQS in Quebec. From lifestyle series to network specials his numerous credits included Creative Director, Senior Producer and Director. Max was Producer/Director for a number of award-winning station and news image campaigns, most significantly, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters – C.A.B. Gold Ribbon Award for the country’s top Television Station Promotion and the PROMAX International Silver Medallion for the Atlantic Satellite Network’s innovative on-air look.

Max received a Master of Fine Arts in Motion Picture Production from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cinema from Concordia University in Montreal.

Women in Games Vancouver have released a three part interview with Vancouver Film School student Shannon Lee. Shannon was the recipient of the first ever Women In Games Scholarship, which was awarded at the Game Design Expo in 2009. You can watch Part One of the interview here, while Parts Two and Three have been posted on the WIGeh! You Tube Channel.

Based on the overwhelming success of their PC utility software launches, PC HelpSoft™ is pleased to be able to offer Smart System Info & Smart Toolbar Remover free to the public.

“We are so touched by the support and feedback we have received on our products that we felt as though we would like to say thank you to the public by making these next software applications free to the public,”  says Vancouver’s PC HelpSoft™ Director of Product Development, Matthew Foland.

Smart System Info is a free tool that complies all the information you need on installed hardware and software. Specific information includes computer ID, processor, BIOS, memory, disks, video, motherboard, monitor, and more. Smart Toolbar Remover deletes annoying toolbars with just a click of the mouse. No more fighting with unwanted toolbars that take up valuable space in your browser.

In breaking news from Felderen, the Darkspawn Chronicles DLC for Dragon Age: Origins is now available (and waiting in my 360′s download queue) from Bioware. As announced earlier this month, players will now be able to play as the evil (or just misunderstood) Darkspawn. Instead of saving Denerim, players can burn it to the ground and watch Alistair weep in despair.  The Darkspawn Chronicles expansion is rated M and costs 400 BioWare Points, 400 MS Points or $4.99 PSN.

Happy 6th birthday to Maid Marian Entertainment Inc.’s free browser-based MMO game Sherwood Dungeon and to celebrate, the company’s creator has launched the new Sherwood Dungeon: Prophecy of Bane quest series to players.

“Sherwood started out as a hobby while I worked in the console games industry and grew organically. It’s been a game that’s in constant development while it’s live,” says Maid Marian founder, Gene Endrody. “Originally players came back just to see what I had added and this created an interesting player culture because their feedback affected my choices. It’s also a bit of an anti-corporate entity; more like the crazy guy who turned his house into a haunted castle and invited people in to make suggestions.”

In a massive and expanding MMO space, Sherwood Dungeon stands out from a long list of cookie cutter competitors by creating a high-quality 3-D retail-style game experience that’s easy to access for new MMO players with simple controls, runs in any browser and doesn’t require a log-in, monthly fee or sign-up process. It’s the type of formula that might make any seasoned business person cringe but for Maid Marian’s one-man team, the result equals a global fan base of more than a million monthly unique visitors without any marketing plan.

Sherwood Dungeon also deviates from the tenets of modern MMO games. Combat is based on twitch reaction skills with minimal leveling up required to be potentially competitive with any other player in the game. Relying on 100% melee combat with a mere eight actions (attack, five power moves, tally and block), battles with monsters and players is kept close by not including ranged weapons – thus giving it more of a Fight Club-style of play where respect is earned, not given. Unlike other MMO games, Sherwood Dungeon allows players to change their avatar and identity and since skill is the motivation here, there are no classes.

Socially, Sherwood Dungeon players have also dictated how they communicate, even with 99 rooms that often serve as meeting areas for clans. Such behaviors make for exciting clan vs. clan wars as players merely move to their opposing clan’s room to get the battle started. A dominant chat interface also keeps communications flowing between friends and foes and with combat being Sherwood Dungeon’s primary goal, none of the chat keystrokes interfere with combat (and yes, there are still control keys for dancing).

Sherwood Dungeon grew from an underground secret to global success through basic word of mouth. And those words come in many languages as 29% of the game’s players live in Poland, 19% in Brazil, 8% in the United States, 6% in Turkey, 5% in France and 4% in Argentina, worlds away from Maid Marian’s humble and suburban Vancouver headquarters.

eLATED is presenting an evening of  discussion about virtual worlds such as Second Life, which provide eLearning professionals with a new generation of real-time, highly immersive and engaging learning environments. As a learning technology, Second Life has increased learner test scores by over 28%, enabled the delivery of soft skills online and provided a revolutionary new platform for the eLearning community.

This demonstration presented by Serious Worlds founder Doug Dyson, will include 3D instructional design concepts, walk-through an actual virtual classroom, review current challenges and take a look at the future of learning in virtual worlds. The presentation is geared for eLearning professionals who are interested in the application of virtual worlds in their current eLearning tool set. This session will take place at The Boiler House Restaurant (55 Mill Stree in Toronto) on Thursday, May 20th beginning at 4pm.

Congratulations are due to ModNation Racers and Mass Effect 2. Both titles were honoured by the UK’s Game People in association with Family Gamer Awards for the 2010 Spring FGAs. United Front Games’ ModNation Racers, which will be released on May 25th, picked up the top award in the Games for Juniors (5-10 years). As the winner, they also get to pick a lucky charity which will receive £100 from the Family Gamer Awards organization. Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 won in the Games for Workers (18 & over) category.

The mesh conference is excited to unveil the mesh prize today, a new initiative to support the Canadian digital media industry. The mesh prize, which will be awarded annually to a project or groups of projects, aims to encourage projects that will create new understanding, capabilities or tools to benefit the digital media community. Mesh prize winners will be announced each year at the mesh conference, and will receive $40,000 to be used to successfully complete of their project or projects.

“Canadian companies need to reinvest in our industry in a significant way, and the mesh prize is a way to do that,” said Jon Lax, a partner with Teehan+Lax, which established and financed the mesh prize. “I am excited about the projects that this prize will fund and the ideas that will emerge from them. I want to encourage other companies in our industry to follow our lead and participate in the mesh prize”

The first recipient of the mesh prize is Justin Kozuch, whose project involves a research study on the size and scope of Canada’s digital media industry. The study will focus on suppliers of digital media services, as well as the needs of digital media customers.

“We’re doing this because there doesn’t currently exist a unified, industry effort to truly understand our industry’s makeup, or a grassroots campaign to catalogue and report on the size and scope of our industry,” Kozuch said. “This is an amazing opportunity to do something significant for the Canadian digital market. The mesh prize is the perfect launching pad for any initiative that will help us improve the Canadian digital media landscape. This is an first important step in continuing to nurture and grow our digital community.”

Submissions for the 2011 mesh prize will be accepted later this year. Anyone interested in becoming part of the advisory board can learn more about how to apply at meshprize.org. Recipients of the mesh prize are required to complete their stated objectives and project plan. An advisory board ensures that the projects are completed. The prize winner will present their project at mesh ‘11, and the new winner or winners will be announced at that time.

Montréal will host the 8th edition of webcom-Montréal this May 26th at the OACI Head Office, and Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales, named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, will be the guest of honour.

Among the renowned speakers also in attendance will be Tara Hunt, marketing and online community expert and pioneer, and author of the book The Whuffie Factor, Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era, and Chris Heuer, founder of the Social Media Club. Furthermore, early on during the presentation, the Centre francophone d’informatisation des organisations (CEFRIO) will present the exclusive results of a study on the progress of social media and Web 2.0 in Québec.

webcom-Montréal is the world’s foremost francophone conference on new technology. It features a series of conferences divided between four different fields, namely Corporate 2.0, Marketing 2.0, Solutions 2.0 and Public Relations 2.0. These workshops enable participants to learn more about several 2.0 case studies within each theme, all grouped under three main themes: real-time Web, online communities and Wiki’s collaboration. Please note that as of 3:30 p.m., all conferences are presented free of charge as Speed-Keynotes.

“I tweet, therefore I am”. Canada’s first Twitter conference: Jeff Pulver, special speaker at WebTweet-Montréal. For the first time in Canada, and in collaboration with webcom-Montréal: a conference on Twitter – a micro-blogging site and pop culture phenomenon, as well as media, politics, nanoliterature, music, etc.

For this first edition, WebTweet-Montréal will host none other than Jeff Pulver as keynote speaker. Vonage founder Jeff Pulver is the mastermind behind the “140 characters conference”, the inspiration behind WebTweet-Montréal. The complete schedule is available: www.webcom-montreal.com.

Surviving ahead of expectations from last year’s recession, CEOs of Canadian emerging software companies are very optimistic about the year ahead. This is according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) 2010 report on Emerging Canadian Software Companies: The CEO Perspective, which shows that close to 60% of respondents are expecting at least 25% growth in 2010.

A majority of respondents (60%) have a positive view of the software industry in Canada this year, compared to 38% for last year. “There is definitely a sense of optimism,” says Peter Matutat, PwC’s partner and national emerging company practice leader. “Companies in this sector weathered the recession well and even in 2009, CEOs found ways to continue to invest in their operations. We were surprised at how little downsizing and turnover there was despite a decline in exports last year and almost a third did not engage in any cost-cutting activities at all.”

The survey results indicate that in 2009:

- Forty percent of companies enjoyed revenue increases of more than 25% while 28% had revenues increase by 10-25%
– Share of total sales to U.S. markets declined from 40% in 2008 to 36% in 2009
– More than half (53%) of companies were profitable while another 29% expect to be profitable in 2010
– Thirty-seven percent described themselves as investing in their business

With respect to raising capital, companies basically had to do it themselves, or turn to family or angel investors, says Matutat. The report shows that venture capital activity reached all-time lows: only 21% of funds raised in 2009 came from venture capital versus 46% from angel investors. The good news is that of the 54% of respondents who tried to raise capital within the last two years, the majority (75%) were successful. The remaining 46% did not need to raise capital.

As a sign of growing maturity and confidence, more CEOs are looking at 2010 to expand through acquisitions as 42% of respondents with an M&A strategy are planning to acquire a competitor, says Matutat. Overall, 29% of respondents are pursuing growth opportunities and another 26% are open to growth opportunities.

However, exiting through M&As is still the main goal of respondents as 80% expect to be acquired within five years, which is consistent with prior years. The PwC report predicts that 2010 will be a very active year for M&As in this sector. Some of the reasons are that companies were holding off selling in 2009 for better valuations of their companies in 2010, certain industries (such as mobile, healthcare and infrastructure) are buying and many baby boomer CEOs are ready to cash in.

The report notes that software companies are in a good position to take advantage of a wide-range of government incentives – some of which were established to help emerging companies during the recession. “We’ve been able to help a significant number of our own clients to choose among the broader array of programs and funding available and we encourage companies that think they may be eligible to seek out this assistance while the stimulus programs are still available,” says Matutat.

The number of companies seeking intellectual property protection outside of Canada is an area that decreased this year from 56% in 2009 to 39% in 2010. However, there has been a consistent increase since 2008 in the number of Canadian companies seeking IP protection in India and China which reflects the growing role that emerging countries are playing within an increasingly global software industry.

The survey also reports that 43% of CEO emerging software leaders believe that “cloud computing” is critical to their model, while 32% find the cloud provides no significant impact on the way they operate or their bottom line. In spite of this uncertainty, 52% of respondents are cloud users. Some 46% of survey participants are already developing cloud computing applications for their clients’ use, while another 8.6% are planning to do so.

The results of the survey were based on the responses from 130 CEOs, identified from a national cross-section of emerging Canadian software companies from publicity available lists. The full report includes additional commentary from John Beardwood and Mark Penner from Fasken Martineau on intellectual property, a global perspective on M&A activity from Bruce Lazenby of Corum Group Ltd. and an overview of government incentives from PwC’s Neal Madan and Elliot Edell.

Performance-based online marketing and technology solutions corporation Cyberplex Inc. has announced that it purchase agreements are now in place for the company to acquire online media publisher Tsavo Media. This transaction, valued at approximately US$75 million and a C$30.25 million bought deal private placement of subscription receipts, is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed on or about June 8, 2010.

“We are focused on delivering the best performance marketing solutions to our clients,” said Geoffrey Rotstein, President and CEO of Toronto-based Cyberplex. “This is a highly strategic and transformational event for us as it takes our leadership position in developing performance based advertising campaigns and combines it with a leader in targeted distribution. By matching Tsavo’s media properties and search marketing capabilities with Cyberplex’s network of over 10,000 publishing partners, Cyberplex will offer an unprecedented value proposition to tier one advertising clients and an extremely targeted advertising platform. The individual capabilities of Cyberplex and Tsavo are complementary and together the combined entity will constitute one of the largest online advertising companies in Canada.”

Tsavo’s ability to drive search traffic to the hundreds of campaigns being promoted through the Cyberplex network will provide for an enhanced client experience and represents considerable growth potential for both organizations. Search marketing is and continues to be one of the most effective methods to target and understand consumer intent and is an essential part of performance marketing.

“We are thrilled to be combining our efforts with Cyberplex,” said Hastings. “There are meaningful synergies between our two companies that will provide value to our combined customer base. We have been investing in our traffic platform for several years and believe that the combination of our business with Cyberplex will allow us to leverage those investments and diversify our revenues while expanding margins. By bringing together two of Canada’s top Internet companies and their respective expertise and skills, we are creating the foundation for a next generation Internet company – integrated performance from the initial click to a desired outcome for our clients.”

Headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Tsavo Media is a leading online publisher, featuring a dynamic and diverse family of Web properties. The company has a demonstrated track record of growth and profitability and in 2009 generated revenue of approximately US$110 million and EBITDA of approximately US$16.7 million, excluding management fees paid to its owners. Tsavo Media’s current portfolio includes over 300 unique consumer websites, informational properties and social media blogs which generate over 30 million unique visitors per month. Ted Hastings, President and CEO of Tsavo Media, will take on the role of President in the combined organization and all other senior executives of Tsavo Media will remain with the organization. It is expected that this transaction will be immediately accretive for the combined entity.

Over 85 percent of Canadian parents, of 7-17 year olds, were found to be most concerned about the “online over-sharing” of personal information by their Web-savvy kids among online friends and strangers — even more so than watching inappropriate content like violence and pornography, or getting virus infections on their computers – according to an IPSOS Reid survey commissioned by Trend Micro that consisted of over 1,000 Canadians, predominantly parents, but also included educators and caregivers.

Unwanted contact by online strangers and accessing inappropriate content tied closely for second, with 84 percent of parents stating these as top concerns; 82 percent said security issues such as virus or malware infections were most troubling; 67 and 52 percent cited aggressive commercialism and illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing, respectively, as most vexing.

So just how vigilant are parents when it comes to protecting their children from these stated concerns? The survey found it to be a mixed-bag: Parents who exercised caution in some areas were found to be lacking insight or knowledge in others. For example, while 93 percent of those surveyed said they are running security or antivirus software to prevent virus and malware infections, fewer than 30 percent are running parental control features, which make it possible to limit and track the Web sites their children are visiting. And even though 76 percent of parents said they make sure their Internet-connected computers are in a public/common area room of the house, nearly 62 percent of them allow unsupervised access. This increases to more than 75 percent for parents of children aged 13-15.

“Trend Micro extends its commitment to Internet safety through its Internet Safety for Kids & Families initiative,” said Lynette Owens, director of corporate outreach, Trend Micro. “This survey was commissioned to help us better understand the areas of concern to the public and the biggest gaps between their perception and the reality of those concerns. Like other countries, these findings confirm that a combination of education and available technology can go a long way in helping to keep kids safe online.”

The survey also found that some parents live in a state of ignorance over their children’s Internet relationships when it comes to knowing exactly with whom their children are having online interactions, only 23 percent of parents believe they’ve personally met and know all of their children’s online contacts.

Other notable findings from the survey:

– The older the respondent, the greater the concern for safety across the board. Younger respondents 18-34 were less concerned than older respondents.
— Parents of children less than 8 are less concerned than parents of children 9-12
— 17 percent of children aged 7-15 have a computer in their room.
— Younger parents are better at checking the history of where their children have surfed the Internet than those over 35.
— Women are more likely to provide a great deal of guidance on issues of Internet safety than men.
— Lower income households are more likely to provide a great deal of guidance against aggressive commercialism than families with income over $45,000.

Vancouver

Colourful 3-D graphics, nature sounds and original music bring nature to life on screen where children can join Mr. and Mrs. Bunny as they visit their friends living in The Meadow. With the simple press of a key, your child can guide the animals through the beautiful meadow environment.

“Any parent can tell you that when they’re working on their computer, the little one will come along and want to sit on their lap and press buttons,” said Ken Kavanagh, developer of The Meadow and president of Clicktoy Interactive. “As every key has a function, children are free to interact with the computer without worry.”

With The Meadow, parents and children can explore this charming and peaceful place together, featuring:

* Four detailed scenes
* ClickSafe locks the keyboard, prevents your child from exiting the application
* Stunning graphics and immersion in a virtual nature-walk
* Make up your own stories and imagine together

Available on the PC since 2008 “The Meadow” is now available for the Mac OS. Offered in over 17 languages the game sells for $24.95 and is available now for the Mac or PC.  Village Gamer congratulates Ken Kavanagh and Clicktoy Interactive with this new release – and fully recommends “The Meadow” to anyone who has a toddler and/or pre-schooler in their family.

Vancouver – Vancouver Film School is pleased to present the $30,000 Women in Games Scholarship for the second straight year. This Scholarship covers the full tuition for a female aspiring game designer to attend VFS’s acclaimed one-year Game Design program, named by L.A. Times as a Top 10 school “favoured by industry recruiters”.

With International Women’s Day on March 8 highlighting the achievements of women and the need to create a more equal and rewarding future for girls, the announcement of the Women in Games scholarship is timely. In an industry traditionally dominated by men – around 90%, according to Game Developer Magazine’s 2009 Salary Survey – the scholarship was established as a concerted effort by VFS to encourage greater opportunities for females wishing to pursue Game Design as a career.

Last year, the inaugural scholarship was awarded to Shannon Lee of Toronto, who is just beginning her third term of six in the program at Vancouver Film School.

“The Game Design program at VFS has been a very rewarding and enjoyable experience thus far,” Lee says. “Applying for the scholarship was the best decision I’ve ever made and I’m sure that the next recipient will feel the same.”

Female VFS Game Design graduates have gone on to work successfully in the industry, including Tara Mustapha and Charmie Kim of Microsoft Game Studios, Pamela Livara of Vancouver’s Slant Six, and Melanie Genereux of Longtail Studios in PEI. Full details of this year’s Women in Games scholarship will be announced at the Game Design Expo 2010 being held in Vancouver on April 10-11, 2010.

Vancouver – Ninja Robot Dinosaur has announced its first game: The Ongoing Adventures of Ray Ardent: Science Ninja, an episodic 2D action-platformer where players run, jump, slide and dive their way through dangers that only a man who is a scientist and a ninja can survive.

Doctor Ray Ardent is a man of adventure, a man of the world, but most importantly, he is a man of Science. When the world is threatened by weird and mysterious threats too dangerous for traditional forces, Ray Ardent is the only man who can save the day.

Dr. Ardent charges into battle wearing his Science Gi, the most technologically advanced piece of clothing on the planet, and fights with the support of his elite squad of Science Scouts.

Edmonton – Bioware will be hosting a Dragon Age Awakening live demo and chat session this Friday (March 5) on Xfire at 5:oo P.M. PST. Viewers will be able to follow Lead Designer Ferret Baudoin as he plays through parts of Awakening. According to Bioware Community Co-ordinator Chris Priestly, ” this session will offer unique insight into  the level design and show off some of the new features found in the expansion. Following the live gameplay demo, there will be an interactive chat session where your questions about Awakening will be answered. “

There are also going to be some prizes handed out – 10 PC copies of Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening and 10 copies of the Dragon Age novel The Stolen Throne signed by author David Gaider. (I already have one of those – the copy I bought at our local Chapters outlet was signed – I didn’t even notice until I got home. Score!)

Toronto – Morningstar Entertainment is pleased to announce the signing of a multi-year distribution deal to represent Turbo Dogs in the U.S. DVD market. Produced in association with Scholastic Media by CCI Entertainment, Turbo Dogs is a children’s favorite on the 24-hour qubo network as well as the Saturday morning qubo block that airs on the NBC television network. The series also airs on the Ion TV and Telemundo networks. Based on the book Racer Dogs by award-winning illustrator Bob Kolar, Turbo Dogs brings the unique world of Racertown to life with rich animation and high octane storylines. Geared to kids 4-7 years of age, the show combines laughs, learning and the thrill of the open road.

“We are extremely excited to be ‘teaming up’ with Scholastic Media to maximize this very popular children’s brand in both the U.S. Scholastic’s reputation for quality kids’ content is unparalleled. The Dogs – Dash, Mags, GT, Strut, Stinkbert and Clutch are engine-revving additions to the Morningstar Home Entertainment Catalogue that we are thrilled to be providing to our customers.” said Blair Moody, Vice President of Sales and Development at Morningstar.

“We are thrilled that Turbo Dogs will be available on DVD. Turbo Dogs is a delightful story featuring the hilarious antics of a wacky dog-filled community wild about racing that also delivers valuable life lessons about friendship and fair play” said Leslye Schaefer, SVP Marketing and Consumer Products, Scholastic Media, which is a division of Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company.

During 2010 it is expected that 4-5 bilingual English and Spanish DVDs will be released, each DVD containing eight episodes with the first installment, “Racing With The Team”, due out June 01, 2010.

Toronto - VQ Mileage Tracker™, a new business app for BlackBerry® smartphones that automatically tracks business mileage has been officially launched. This new app will enable employees to save time while also increasing accuracy and accountability for employers and for people who are self-employed.

“VQ Mileage Tracker saves business people time and spares them the frustration and inefficiency of manually tracking their mileage”, says Harris Korn, president of Xpressions Inc., creators of VQ Mileage Tracker and VQ CarFinder. “Most existing mileage tracking apps are what we call ‘digital pencils’, in that they require you to manually key in everything”, adds Korn. “VQ Mileage Tracker does all of this for the user. It automatically notes the date and time, how far you drove, and the address you drove to every time you drive your car, then emails you all this information when you’re ready to submit an expense report”.

VQ Mileage Tracker uses the BlackBerry smartphone’s GPS along with in-vehicle Bluetooth® to automatically determine when the user starts and ends a drive. Owners of vehicles without built-in Bluetooth can use VQ Mileage Tracker in semi-automatic mode – they just click on the app when they start driving, then click the app again when they finish their drive. VQ Mileage Tracker does the rest.

When users want to prepare an expense report or travel log, they just start VQ Mileage Tracker and click “Generate Report”. A report is automatically emailed to them that lists the date, time, distance and end address for every time they drove.

“The business community’s response to VQ Mileage Tracker has been exceptional. Salespeople and Field Service staff see this as a great time saver. Management in Sales, Field Services and Finance see VQ Mileage Tracker as an efficient and cost effective tool to increase staff productivity and reporting accuracy. We’re also exploring Enterprise-level licensing opportunities for companies to distribute VQ Mileage Tracker to their staff as a productivity tool.”

A free trial of the full version of VQ Mileage Tracker is being offered as part of the launch of this time-saving app, along with introductory pricing of just $6.99 (regularly $14.99).

VQ Mileage Tracker is currently available on the VQ Mileage Tracker site as well as on BlackBerry App World™, CrackBerry®, GetJar®, Mobireach® and other leading online app stores. VQ Mileage Tracker works on all current model BlackBerry smartphones that have built-in GPS and run on 4.5 OS or higher.

Toronto – Canadians will soon be able to leave their wallets at home thanks to a wireless payment sticker trial launched by EnStream LP, Canada’s leading mobile commerce company. The Zoompass Tag™ is a wireless payment device designed in the form of a sticker that can be attached to a mobile phone. The Zoompass Tag ushers in the future of mobile payments by allowing consumers to tap their phones at checkout to make purchases at retail stores.

In 2009, EnStream launched the revolutionary Zoompass™ mobile application and began offering Canadians the first version of a mobile wallet. Available online and accessible on most mobile phones in Canada, Zoompass already allows users to send money quickly and securely to friends and family.

“The new Zoompass Tag goes even further by allowing Canadians to make their regular store purchases quickly and securely, using only their mobile phone.” said Robin Dua, President of EnStream LP. “All Zoompass users will soon be able to pay for their morning coffee, gas at the pump, and lunch at a fast-food restaurant with a quick tap of their mobile phone.”

By tapping a mobile phone with the Zoompass Tag on a contactless reader at the point-of-sale, payment is automatically drawn from the user’s Zoompass stored value account. Contactless payments remove the need for coins and cash, plus time spent waiting in lines and digging for change. Canadians can look forward to having exact change ready via their mobile phones whenever they need it.

Customer’s financial information is stored on secure servers, not on the mobile phone, so even if the phone is lost or stolen, the customer’s Zoompass account remains secure. Together, the Zoompass Tag and Zoompass application allow consumers to monitor their purchase transactions in real-time.

“Every transaction is logged in the Zoompass application and can be instantly seen on the mobile phone. This is very handy to track purchases and budgets in real-time,” added Dua.

The sleek and appealing sticker measures 43 mm by 33 mm and can be easily affixed to any mobile phone.

“This is the most advanced wireless payment sticker available in the Canadian market today. Our Convego(R) Air Mobile sticker is the only sticker of its kind with a flexible body and a unique shuttle distribution method. It is the only sticker being trialed by the leading Canadian wireless carriers for use on their mobile phones”, said Kim Madore, VP Emerging Technology and Market Development for Giesecke & Devrient, producer of the Zoompass Tag.

The Zoompass Tag can be used at most contactless payment ready locations. Leading retail merchants such as Tim Hortons, McDonalds, Petro Canada and Loblaws will accept payment through the Zoompass Tag as these merchants are rapidly adopting contactless payment terminals in an effort to offer convenience to consumers and save costs.

The trial is offered to select Zoompass clients and is expected to last up to 3 months. The pilot will allow EnStream to evaluate many aspects of the mobile payment experience and shape the way Canadians pay for goods and services in the future.

Toronto – Tax credits are increasingly important during this economic environment. MEUK Corporation, leaders in SR&ED (Scientific Research & Experimental Development) Tax Credit programs are presenting two must-attend featured sessions at IT360 Conference & Expo, April 7, 2010 in Toronto.

The morning session, “3 Steps to Simplifying Your Software Development Projects for Tax Credits,” is presented by David Sabina. To survive in any industry today, one’s business must be innovative and resourceful. Even the slightest improvements to products or processes could be vital to business survival. This course will focus on the SR&ED Tax Credit Program and Software Development eligibility.

“No matter how small one’s business is if there are eligible projects, these businesses may qualify. Attendees will become educated on the subject and learn about a new methodology to simplify the SR&ED process benefiting business models in a great way,” said David Sabina, Director, MEUK Corporation.

The afternoon session, “Advanced Issues – SR&ED Income Tax Cases – Analyzing what is Black vs. White vs. Grey,” is also presented by David Sabina and will illustrate how various technological and financial issues require the use of professional judgment. It will include an overview of recent SR&ED tax cases and related implications for claimants.

“SR&ED has taken a front seat in assisting organizations to significantly upgrade and develop their software development cycles to improve their company’s productivity and ROI. These programs will demystify criteria and access to these funds,” said Bruce Cole, Show Director, IT360 Conference & Expo.

Vancouver – Suite101.com Media Inc., a global content site that provides consumers with trusted and reliable information, announced it will be expanding its use of search engine optimization (SEO) to help its writers and editors build quality content online that is more apt to be found by search results. Suite101 has hired writer and search strategist Aaron Bradley as SEO Director to implement the new tactics and strategies.

The newly created senior position will help the company’s writers and editors benefit from opportunities related to the growing role of search in the creation of articles for Suite101. As Director of SEO, Bradley will be responsible for educating editors about keywords and search terms, and help them to strategically tag stories submitted by Suite101.com’s growing writer base. Suite101 is known as a great source of SEO learning for writers. Bradley intends to expand on this by building better online tools for writers and creating advanced learning opportunities to help them succeed at SEO.

“Making sure well-written articles get found online involves continuous hard work and search engine knowledge,” said Peter Berger, CEO and President of Suite101.com Media Inc. “We know that in order to help our writers get their stories found, we need to increase our expertise in the area of search. Aaron is a respected expert in this area and he’s also a teacher. It’s a huge plus for writers to have an in-house expert resource who can share what they know with our writers and editors, while also making sure our sites are architecturally sound.”

“I look forward to working with the thousands of quality writers that make the Suite101 sites such an important resource for people, and so rightfully attractive to search engines,” said Bradley. “I’m committed to ensuring these great articles are made easy to find by search engines. In concert with this effort, I’m also committed to making sure Suite101 writers receive the maximum exposure and remuneration for their work.”

Bradley began his web-related career in 1995 as a librarian at the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College Library in Toronto, Ontario. Over the next decade Bradley worked as web designer, creating sites such as Infomine.com, an industry-leading mining information portal. In addition, Bradley held roles as Search Engine Marketing Manager at online entertainment site Bodoglife.com, and SEO Manager for online jewelry retail sites Diamond.com and Ice.com (Internet Top 500 Retailer). Bradley also is a regular contributor to the “In-House” SEO column for Search Engine Land. He also pens his own blog at SEO Skeptic, founded Montreal SEO Meetup group.

Vancouver

Hosted by the Game Design program at Vancouver Film School (VFS), Canada’s premier post-secondary entertainment arts institution, Game Design Expo begins with the perennially sold-out Industry Speaker Day on Saturday, April 10: a chance for pros and enthusiasts to come together for a day of talks and panels.

This year’s speakers include Armando Troisi, Lead Cinematic Designer on BioWare’s runaway hit Mass Effect 2, to discuss the game’s groundbreaking approach to interactive narrative, and United Front Games’ William Ho, who will explore user-generated content through the lens of the highly-anticipated PS3 title ModNation Racers.

Other speakers include creative movers from the legendary California-based developer Obsidian Entertainment (Alpha Protocol), Blue Castle Games (Dead Rising 2), Propaganda Games (Tron: Evolution), and Big Sandwich Games (Sky Pirates of Neo Terra). The day culminates with a spirited industry panel hosted by Electric Playground’s Victor Lucas called “The Future of Gaming.”

Tickets to Industry Speaker Day, which have sold out quickly every year, are on sale now at $75 (CDN). For ticket purchases, schedule, and more about the event, visit gamedesignexpo.com.

On Sunday, April 11, VFS will throw open the doors to its acclaimed one-year Game Design program, named a top 10 school “most favoured by video game industry recruiters” by the Los Angeles Times, for a free, day-long Open House. Sunday’s event offers a hands-on look at the program, providing visitors with the opportunity to test-drive student- and alumni-created games, take sample classes, and meet faculty and students.

The Open House will also launch the 2010 Women in Games $30,000 scholarship to VFS. Inaugurated last year, the scholarship is part of VFS Game Design’s ongoing initiative to actively support women entering the game industry – the only one of its kind in the world.

Because space is limited, anyone interested in attending the Open House is strongly encouraged to register now, before it fills to capacity.

“We recognize that for prospective students, the financial costs associated with graduate studies can sometimes seem daunting,” says Deborah Loosemore, Algoma University’s Director of Advancement and External Relations. “I’m pleased that over the last several years we have been able to continuously introduce new financial awards, on-campus work opportunities and program-specific benefits for students studying the MSc (CGT) here at Algoma U.”

In addition to scholarships, MSc (CGT) students also have the opportunity to offset the costs of their studies by working on-campus, pursuing internships and participating in the Dare to be Digital international games competition held annually in the United Kingdom.

Other benefits of taking the MSc (CGT) at Algoma U include paid travel and accommodation to the annual Future Play conference in Vancouver, BC and being able to network with invited expert speakers from the games industry on-campus.

Current MSc (CGT) student Eric Stock understands the importance of having different financial aid and on-campus work opportunities available. He received a scholarship valued at $17 300 from the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), a $5 000 entrance award from Algoma University and has participated in Dare to be Digital and worked on-campus as a Teaching Assistant.

Says Stock, “The NSERC award, along with working as a Teaching Assistant and being paid during the Dare to be Digital competition, will allow me to finish my Master’s studies with near-zero debt. Also, the recognition of receiving an NSERC will help me to promote the research I am conducting for my Master’s dissertation.”

First offered at Algoma University in 2007, the MSc (CGT) is among the world’s foremost graduate-level programs in the field of computer games. The program, which takes between 12 to 16 months to complete, is offered on the Algoma University campus by the University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland. Classes are taught by Abertay faculty and lectures are delivered in real-time using videoconferencing technology. Students graduate with a Masters of Science Computer Games Technology degree from the University of Abertay Dundee.

“Congratulations to Su Yon, Jason, Ryan and Matt on winning Zynga’s first scholarships to the MDM Program,” said Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Executive Director of the MDM Program and CEO of the Centre for Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus. “I’d also like to thank Zynga for their support through our Industry Affiliate Program and now through funding these scholarships. To have our students recognized by Zynga, the world’s leader in social gaming, is a testament to the remarkable next-gen talent pool we are developing here at the MDM Program.”

“At Zynga, we’re pleased to offer our support to Su Yon, Jason, Ryan and Matt who will be graduating in 2010,” said Colleen McCreary, Senior VP and Chief People Officer at Zynga. “Zynga commends these students on their academic excellence and for their experience in and passion for social gaming and we look forward to their contribution to Zynga’s mission of connecting the world through games.

The scholarship winners are:

• Su Yon Sohn and Jason Chang, who received $7,000 and;
• Ryan Nadel and Matthew Schroeter, who received $3,500.

The scholarship was based on talent and experience in the area of Game Design, Art or Programming.

Toronto

Dr. Mary Cone Barrie specialized in the art and science of teaching adults as the Director of Continuing

Mary

Studies at the University of Toronto. Mary was committed to the community, learning and had a passion for the implications of technology on adult learners. “Dr. Mary Cone Barrie was an inspiration and mentor to Destiny Solutions, providing her vision and leadership during our first decade,” said Shaul Kuper, CEO of Destiny Solutions. “Destiny is honored to present this scholarship in her name as recognition of her contribution to so many during her lifetime.”

The Mary Cone Barrie Scholarship is distinctive because there are few scholarships devoted specifically to continuing education (or “non-traditional”) students. Not all employers offer financial assistance and many students are between careers.

Destiny Solutions also announced that it has doubled its commitment to supporting continuing education by offering $2,500 scholarships to two qualified students seeking financial assistance while fulfilling their continuing education goals. “During these transformative times, continuing and professional education plays a significant role helping people achieve their dreams,” continued Mr. Kuper. “Often, many are not able to advance due to economic circumstances and it is our hope that the Mary Cone Barrie Scholarship can help two exceptional people this way.”

Margaux Wisniewski of Lawrenceville, New Jersey was the 2008 Scholarship Recipient. Mrs. Wisniewski attended the Rider University College of Continuing Studies in Lawrenceville, NJ, where she was in the final year of her degree. Her ultimate goal is to become a teacher so that she can better support her family while making a positive difference in the lives of her students.

“Destiny Solutions is absolutely wonderful for offering this scholarship to continuing education students and for helping out my family and I,” said Margaux Wisniewski. “Other continuing education students get to see, through benevolent companies like Destiny Solutions, that no matter your age or financial status, pursue your passion.”

The deadline to submit applications for the Destiny OneCE Scholarship is 5:00pm on July 31, 2009. Destiny Solutions Inc. will announce the scholarship winner in August.

Vancouver

“At MDM, we’re thrilled that Zynga is keen to support our Masters of Digital Media students,” said Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Executive Director of the MDM Program and CEO of the Centre for Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus. “The backing of an industry leader such as Zynga is a testament to the quality of the students joining our two-year program, and we thank the company for their support not only of our program, but of the digital media industry in Vancouver and throughout North America.”

This is the second initiative between Zynga and the MDM Program. Earlier in the year, a team of MDM students and faculty scoped, designed and prototyped a social network game. The team pulled elements of traditional game design into the social gaming space, a novel approach to developing games in this genre.

Zynga, based in San Francisco, is the largest social gaming company with 10 million daily active users and 45 million monthly users. Zynga was recently named the largest application developer on Facebook with more than 40 million monthly active users, according to AllFacebook and AppData. Zynga’s games are also available on MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Tagged, Yahoo! and the iPhone.

The Masters of Digital Media Program is a ground-breaking Master’s degree in entertainment technology and digital media. Students are offered team-based experiences focused on project learning in close collaboration with B.C.’s vibrant games and digital media industry. The degree is jointly awarded by four major post-secondary institutions: the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr University of Art Design and the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Vancouver

The unique scholarship was launched in early February at Game Design Expo 2009 as a means to support and foster talented female game designers in an industry traditionally dominated by male gamers and designers. More and more women are forging successful careers in the game industry and now make up 20 percent of the workforce, up 17 percent from 2004, according to findings in The Game Industry: Now & in the Future, a 2009 report released by VFS. The school established the Women in Games scholarship to encourage this positive trend.

Shannon will have the opportunity to experience one intensive year learning every facet of game design, from game theory to level design to game interface design. The Game Design program’s industry-led curriculum reflects a professional game development and production environment, so that when Shannon graduates, she will be prepared to begin a career in the game industry.

“It is an honour to have been chosen, and I am so thankful for this chance to fulfill a long-held dream of mine,” says Shannon. “I cannot wait to start the Game Design program at VFS and to take advantage of the opportunities that the Women in Games scholarship has afforded.”

“In an industry that has typically been male-dominated, it’s exciting for me to see not only a depth and quality of work by the women that are interested in being game designers, but also the high level of interest that our scholarship generated,” says Dave Warfield, Head of Game Design at VFS. “I believe it is a very positive step for the industry to know that our next generation of game designers will be bringing a new perspective on the games we play.”

In addition to the Women in Games Scholarship, VFS also awarded six other scholarships, ranging from $2,500 to $7,000, thanks to the contribution by a number of Game Design Expo 2009 sponsors. Five of the six recipients of these scholarships are women.

Congratulations to the following scholarship winners:

Katharine Craig, Vancouver, Canada. – $7,000 G4techTV scholarship
Jessica MacGaul, Surrey, Canada – $5,000 EA scholarship
Denver Thomas, Parsippany, U.S. – $2,800 Big Fish Games scholarship
Thi Bao Vo, Hanoi, Vietnam – $2,500 Annex Pro scholarship
Sara Moore, Ottawa, Canada – $2,500 Obsidian Entertainment scholarship
Bunthita Nijathaworn, Bangkok, Thailand – $2,500 Crystal Dynamics scholarship

Dr. Yosef Wosk+

The Dianne Sinclair Memorial Fellowship Fund was established by Dr. Yosef Wosk, a supporter of digital media and the Masters of Digital Media Program, a member of the Order of British Columbia and an Honorary Doctor of Letters (Litt.D.) from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. “I wanted to provide financial support for a truly outstanding female student entering the Masters of Digital Media Program in honour of my high regard for MDM’s Executive Director, Dr. Gerri Sinclair and her mother, Dianne,” said Dr. Wosk. “The fund is named in the memory of Dianne Sinclair who believed passionately in the importance of a graduate school education for women.”

“Dr. Wosk’s contribution is a poignant tribute to my mother who strongly advocated for women’s education insisting it played an integral role in supporting a woman’s economic and professional development throughout her life,” explained, Dr. Sinclair. “We are delighted that the number of women applying for admission into the MDM Program has increased steadily since we launched in 2007, and we believe that Dr. Wosk’s generous scholarship award will inspire even more talented women to pursue a Master’s degree in digital media at our school.”

The inaugural Dianne Sinclair Memorial Fellowship will be granted in September 2009, and thereafter the $1,000 scholarship will be awarded annually for a period of ten years. The MDM application deadline is June 30, 2009.

+ Photo Credit: Joshua Berson