Village Gamer

The National Gallery of Canada (NGC), home to the most important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian art, including the extensive collection of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, has launched a completely restructured website. Using a powerful new search engine that makes its collections, exhibitions, events and touring programs much more easily accessible to Canadians and international visitors alike, making a visit to the NGC’s website both more informative and more fun.

The NGC’s five previous sites – the corporate website, the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, CyberMuse, the NGC Foundation and Shop NGC – are now integrated into one at gallery.ca. In excess of 30,000 pages of content-rich information in both official languages have become simple to navigate and easy to use. Social media and a new mobile website are other key components that enhance public accessibility to the Gallery.

“This new site gives our audiences a “one-stop-shop” for everything that is happening at the Gallery,” said NGC Director and CEO Marc Mayer. “Now, an extraordinary wealth of information on the Gallery’s programs and collections are just a few mouse-clicks away.”

Simple and elegant in design, the Gallery’s new site is loaded with exciting features that will appeal to experts and neophytes alike:

Navigation is intuitive. A series of simplified tabs and section signs guides visitors seamlessly through the site. New headings that invite them to Visit, See, Learn, Shop, Give and Join are just the start of unlocking a treasure trove of information.  A new collections’ application allows visitors to search by artist, by category and by century. Art aficionados and researchers will appreciate the enhanced Library and Research functions.

The Visit section of the site offers comprehensive information on everything that the public needs to know before coming to the Gallery. This ranges from admission fees to hours of operation, from accessibility to amenities and much more besides. The calendar function is one of the site’s great features. It gives visitors a complete and up-to-the-minute guide to the Gallery’s exhibitions and programs. A new i-Calendar function allows them to save events they would like to attend directly into their computers or smart-phones.

Retooled for the social media age, the new corporate site features a blog written by staff from all parts of the Gallery which is designed to not only keep people informed but also to let them peek behind the scenes. Public comments can now be posted. The new site enables users to share pages with friends and family and tell the Gallery if they “like” what they see.

The National Gallery of Canada boasts one of the largest On Tour exhibition programs in the world and showcases over 20 exhibitions in 11 cities or more across Canada in any given year. Also, as a result of recently-formed partnerships with museums in Edmonton and Toronto – the National Gallery of Canada@the Art Gallery of Alberta and the National Gallery of Canada@the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art – the NGC also showcases works from its collection on a longer-term basis. Through the new website, the public can now easily find out which exhibition is on view at their nearest geographic location.

In addition to accepting credit cards, a new PayPal service makes it easier to purchase items online, whether it is for merchandise at the Bookstore or a Gallery membership. Tickets for special exhibitions are available through ShopNGC which links directly to Ticketmaster.

Building on the wildly successful voter engagement game Mayor Munch, Onestop Media Group has launched Ballot Blitz – an online game starring animated versions of Canada’s top five party leaders: Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe and Elizabeth May.

Ballot Blitz is accessible online through Onestop’s consumer site and is promoted nationally to the millions of people viewing Onestop’s portfolio of  Digital Out-of-Home Networks across the country. Registration is required in order to play the game.

Ballot Blitz features Live poll results based on the animated candidates’ popularity.  Playonestop.com will also feature a series of fun election-specific polls and content. Over the next few weeks, Onestop will be using its digital media channels, PlayOnestop.com, Twitter, and Facebook, to promote several creative polls as an alternative to the dozens of scientific polls and ‘more-serious’ election media.

“History shows youth engagement leads to next generation voters. As a Canadian company immersed in the digital landscape, we have the mandate and social responsibility to do just that… help the communities in which we operate engage youth in this federal election in a fun fashion relevant to their generation,” says Michael Girgis, President and CEO, Onestop Media Group.

The digital and interactive campaign largely targets what is recognized as an untapped voting community of 18 – 34 year olds. As an incentive, Ballot Blitz players are eligible to win an Apple MacBook. The contest closes Friday, April 29^th at 5:01pm.

Can the number of likes a candidate has on Facebook indicate their chances of winning the 2011 Canadian Federal election? That’s what the teams at Optimum PR and Dare Labs in Vancouver wanted to find out, so they have joined forces to create The Social Election Experiment.

Since there are now over 16 Million Facebook users in Canada, the teams at Dare and Optimum PR decided to look at Facebook support (“likes”) for candidates in each of the 308 ridings across Canada – in real time. They will be tracking the race dynamically, and showing a snapshot of where each candidate stands in every race across the country and any changes in daily trends.

The experiment was inspired by research published after the 2010 House and Senate Elections in the US. The team at Facebook went back after the election was over to see if support for a candidate on the popular social network translated into real world support in a few key ridings. Their analysis showed that more than 80% of Senate races and 74% of House races could have been accurately predicted based on which candidate was more widely “liked” on Facebook.

“We have decided to keep our methodology very straightforward”, explained David Brodie, Vice President, Western Canada at Optimum PR and former Prime Ministerial advisor. “We’ve identified the nominated candidates for each party and will be measuring the number of likes each gains throughout the race looking for trends. This is the first time anyone has ever tracked an election on Facebook in this much detail, and we are excited to see what the results can tell us about the important role social media plays in both shaping and reflecting public opinion.”

“Our goal is not only to see what is happening throughout the race, but also to encourage all candidates to become more social online” added Angele Beausoleil, VP, Strategy and Innovation Dare North America. “We have added tips on our site explaining how candidates can establish their own presence on Facebook if they don’t already have one, and we hope we can help this become the most social election in Canadian history.”

Meanwhile in other election news, canada.com has partnered with the community-powered news organization OpenFile to offer Canadians a new way to participate in the federal election. Readers can click on the “Your Idea” icon on the canada.com home page to suggest election stories that they feel deserve more attention. The goal of this collaboration is to gather information from Canadians to help shape the way the federal election is covered.

“More than ever, this election is influenced by Canadians setting ‘the real agenda’,” said Scott Anderson, Senior Vice President, Content at Postmedia Network. “We’re asking Canadians what they want their candidates – local and national – to be talking about during the campaign.”

OpenFile.ca is a collaborative news site where readers suggest stories and journalists are assigned to report and write on those deemed relevant. OpenFile’s community-driven news platform will be used to manage the flow of user-suggested stories, to assign journalists and to enable Canadians to view and interact with the proposed stories. The stories will be available to canada.com, Postmedia Network newspapers and online properties, and to OpenFile’s seven city websites.

“This partnership provides Canadians with a unique opportunity to shape the way this important election is covered at the local and national level,” said Wilf Dinnick, CEO of OpenFile. “Working with canada.com and Postmedia Network, our editors and journalists will report the stories that might otherwise get missed along the campaign trail. We’re excited to tell the stories that matter to Canadians in the communities where they live.”

Last week Canada Post released the following warning on its web site:

A spam message is circulating which may contain a link to a virus. The email appears to come from Canada Post, and contains the tracking number RT094860142HK. We are aware of one version which is falsely reporting delivery of a package from the Heart and Stroke lottery foundation, but there may be others circulating with different package senders being spoofed.

This email is not coming from Canada Post, and is fraudulent. Please do not click on the links or open any attachments. The anonymous authors of this email virus unfortunately are using the Canada Post name to get you to trust the message.

Steps you can take to protect yourself if you receive an email that appears to be from Canada Post:

1. If you feel the email is suspicious or there is an attachment, delete it.
2. Whether you are expecting a package delivery by Canada Post or not, and there is a tracking number in the email, you can do the following:
   • Check the tracking number by going directly to www.canadapost.ca and entering the tracking number on the home page where indicated.
   • If the tracking number is not valid, “Invalid Tracking Number format. Please check your entries and try again.” will appear on the screen in red letters. Delete the email without clicking any links which may be in the email.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause and are taking this matter seriously. We will provide further updates as information becomes available.

Yesterday Frima Studio hosted the Quebec Minister of Family, Yolande James, in a press conference at Frima’s office to announce the new Work-Family Standard for local businesses— the first such business certification standards in the world. Frima Studio’s offices were chosen to host the press conference because of Frima’s notable respect for and contributions to the advancement of work-life balance for their employees.

The new standard announced by the government of Quebec yesterday aims to attract and retain employees. Similar to environmental standards established years ago, businesses will soon be able to apply for work-family certification, which when granted will serve as a demonstration of the company’s respect for a healthy balance between work life and family life.

“We truly believe in work and family balance as an investment for our company, rather than an expense,” remarked Steve Couture, CEO, Frima Studio. “We care about our employees’ lives outside of the workplace and we plan to be the first in line to apply for the new standard certification.”

After being recognized with an award in 2010 from the Quebec government for their efforts to balance employees’ work and family lives, Frima continues to put an emphasis on progressive programs that make Frima Studio one of the best places to work in the world. Frima employees are provided with the freedom to care for their families as needed, offering benefits such as flexible work schedules, free bus passes, in-office massage therapy, and a performance rewards system that trades points for services that can help in the home.

Frima is currently hiring to fill more than 35 open positions in art, design, and programming.
Photo Credit: Frima

Canada Media Fund announces preliminary program budget and performance envelopes for 2011-2012, and the creation of a new Convergent Stream Digital Media Incentive.

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) announced today that its preliminary program budget for the upcoming year (excluding the $100M program funding allocation that was proposed in the federal budget) will amount to $271M.  The funding allocated to each of the CMF’s programs is outlined on the CMF’s web site as a PDF.

All programs without exception received a preliminary funding allocation based on approximately 73% of the expected total program budget for the year ($271M/$371M).

The CMF also announced that it will issue broadcaster agreements tomorrow which will outline the performance envelopes allocated to broadcasters for the upcoming year.  In order to enable broadcasters to ask any questions they may have pertaining to their envelope allocations, the envelope allocations will be posted on the CMF’s web site by April 15, 2011.

Two distinct performance envelope amounts will be indicated in each broadcaster’s agreement: the first amount is based on the preliminary program budget of $271M and represents the amount that the CMF will commit to in the broadcaster agreement. It excludes the amount related to the 5% Digital Media Investment factor which will be released in mid-April, as this factor is based on amounts spent in the current year and therefore requires data validation as of April 1, 2011.

The second amount is based on the expected total program budget of $371M (including the $100M program funding allocation that was proposed in the federal budget) and is provided to assist the industry with licensing and production planning.  It also includes the currently estimated amount related to the 5% Digital Media Investment factor, prior to data validation.

As stated in the CMF’s prior release on March 26, 2011, the preliminary program budget of $271M is based on confirmed sources of revenue, including the projected monthly contributions from broadcast distribution undertakings, as well as the allocation of funding of $34.6M included in the budget of the Department of Canadian Heritage which is targeted for the CMF.
Read the rest of this entry »

Canada’s ICT sector, representing the country’s information, communications and technology employment base, is facing alarming skills and labour shortages in the next five years. Today’s release of Outlook for Human Resources in the ICT Labour Market, 2011-2016 by the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), in partnership with the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), underscores the shortages, and paints a picture of a new job market for ICT that has radically changed. ICTC also reported that all stakeholders in the sector—industry and education, the associations that represent them, and government—recognize the looming shortages and are poised to act.

The new report underscores that in most regions in Canada and for most ICT occupations, demand will far exceed supply.  Employers will encounter systemic shortages when recruiting for ICT jobs that require five or more years’ experience. The severity of these shortages will increase when employers are seeking to recruit ICT people with leading edge skills such as marketing, accounting and finance competencies.

The results also show a new job market for ICT, one that has radically changed. Industry now needs workers with the leading edge package of skills, for example systems analysis and design combined with marketing, operations management and HR management, or people with particular combinations of domain experience (such as e-health, e-finance and digital media) together with ICT expertise.

Over the next five years, Canadian employers will need to hire an estimated 106,000 ICT workers. Other key Report highlights include:

• There is a pervasive mismatch between the industry skill requirements and the available skill supply in the labour market. This mismatch affects all regions of the country;
• Information Systems Analysts and Consultants, the largest ICT occupation in Canada, will continue to drive the shortages with demand for this complex mix of skills being much greater than the available supply;
• Recent graduates with co-op or internships as part of their education will, for the most part, be able to obtain relevant employment. Those graduates without co-op or internships will experience prolonged frustration in finding a relevant job;
• The gender imbalance for ICT occupations (males make up approximately 75% of all ICT employees) limits the qualified pool of employees for industry recruitment. This compounds the skills shortage in Canada.
• Recently arrived internationally educated professionals (IEPs), who have no Canadian experience, will have considerable difficulty in securing an ICT job that is commensurate with their qualifications, unless their English or French language skills are strong. Read the rest of this entry »

The Canada Media Fund and Telefilm have made the following applications available for download:

To download the forms that are available, simply go to the “Create” section of the CMF Site and then choose the Convergent Funding or Experimental Funding links.

Programs are listed in the left column; click on the desired program and select “Guidelines & Application”. The application form is in the right column under “Downloads”.

To apply for funding on e-Telefilm, please visit the Telefilm site.

Given that the federal budget tabled on March 22 was not adopted, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) announced today that it will shortly be releasing a preliminary program budget for the upcoming year which will not include the 100M$ program funding allocation that was proposed in the budget, as it cannot be confirmed at this time.

The CMF can only release a program budget based on confirmed sources of revenue. Therefore at this juncture, the program budget will include the projected monthly contributions from broadcast distribution undertakings, as well as the allocation of funding of 34.6M$ included in the budget of the Department of Canadian Heritage which is allocated to the CMF.

In the event that the CMF receives a further allocation of funding as a result of the adoption of a federal budget later this year, the CMF will release a supplementary program budget shortly thereafter.

Performance Envelopes will be calculated on the basis of the anticipated full program budget that was approved by the CMF Board including the $100 million funding allocation announced by the Government, in order to assist the industry with licensing and production planning. However, the contractually confirmed amounts of the Performance Envelopes will be based solely on the preliminary program budget described above.

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I for one am very concerned about what this election could mean to our Digital Media industry and all of the hard work so many of us have been doing to work towards a Digital Economy in this country. What ever your political affiliation, please, if you do nothing else leading up to this election, ask your candidates the hard questions – don’t let them wallow about with non-answers. Make them move beyond the finger-pointing and talk about the issues at hand. Do not let our industry fall back down between the cracks of the political landscape. Most of all, exercise your privilege – get out and vote on election day!

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) thanks the Government of Canada and particularly the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, the Honourable James Moore, for announcing in the Budget that the CMF will receive funding support on an ongoing basis starting April 1, 2011.

“This is a very significant commitment,” declared Louis Roquet, Chair of the CMF’s Board of Directors, “one that will enable the CMF to truly play its part in Canada’s Digital Economy Strategy by providing ongoing funding support for the creation and promotion of content for all Canadians on the platforms of their choice.”

The Government’s contribution of $100 million, combined with the funding the CMF receives from Canada’s cable and satellite distributors, will enable the CMF to provide over $350 million to the television and digital media industry in 2011-2012.

“With the help of this commitment, the CMF will continue to drive innovation and to support Canada’s creative talent in contributing to our competitiveness in the global marketplace for content,” stated Valerie Creighton, President and CEO of the CMF.  “This is most welcome news for the industry as a whole.”

Canada’s technology and digital media sectors stand to reap some major benefits from today’s budget, as laid out on the Government of Canada’s Action Plan site. In addition to the above announcement regarding the Canada Media Fund, and as stated on the Action Plan site (meaning I did not write any of the following, I grabbed it from the Government), the next phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan sets the stage for the Digital Economy Strategy to make Canada a leader in the creation, adoption and use of digital technologies and content. Budget 2011 measures include:

• Providing $80 million in new funding over three years through the Industrial Research Assistance Program to help small and medium-sized businesses accelerate their adoption of key information and communications technologies through collaborative projects with colleges.
• Announcing $60 million over the next three years to promote increased student enrolment in key disciplines related to the digital economy.

The digital economy is woven into the fabric of our modern economy. Digital technologies power activities in all areas of the economy, from manufacturing and transportation to advanced telecommunications and Web-based services, and provide a platform for all sectors to be more innovative and productive. Leadership in the creation, adoption and use of digital technologies and content will help Canada to increase its world-class standard of living.

In the summer of 2010, the Government held nationwide consultations to seek the views of Canadian industry, creators and consumers on how Canada can build a globally competitive digital economy by 2020. Budget 2011 sets the stage for the release of Canada’s Digital Economy Strategy later this spring by introducing new measures focused on accelerating adoption of information and communications technologies at small and medium-sized businesses, preparing students for careers in the digital economy, and building Canada’s digital content through the Canada Media Fund.

As Canada enters the digital age, the small and medium-sized businesses that drive our economy have an opportunity to maximize their growth potential by adopting information and communications technologies. Colleges, with their linkages to local industry and access to cutting-edge technology and skills, are ideally placed to develop technological solutions that respond to the challenges faced by small and medium-sized businesses. The National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program has experience in working with colleges and innovative small and medium-sized businesses.

To support the development of Canada’s digital economy, Budget 2011 announces $80 million in new funding over three years for a pilot initiative, delivered through the Industrial Research Assistance Program, to support collaborative projects between colleges and small and medium-sized businesses to accelerate their adoption of information and communications technologies.

In addition, as part of the Government’s effort to strengthen Canada’s research advantage, Budget 2011 announces $53.5 million over five years to support the creation of 10 new Canada Excellence Research Chairs. Some of these new research chairs will be active in fields relevant to the Digital Economy Strategy. The Government is also renewing the Community Access Program for an additional year.

The ability of Canadians to effectively use new digital technologies will be crucial to Canada’s success in the global digital economy. Budget 2011 announces that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada will reallocate $60 million in funding over the next three years to promote enrolment in key disciplines related to the digital economy such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.