CNM Short Takes

Trade office urges U.S. Congress to start legislating privacyThe U.S. Federal Trade Commission has moved from several years of recommending industry self-regulation on privacy to calling for federal legislation on the issue. The commission has asked Congress to enact privacy legislation similar to that recently passed by the Canadian federal government.Hardware handed out to New Media award winnersA different kind of hardware - award trophies - were recently handed out to a dozen winners of the first annual Canadian New Media Awards. A full list of winners, including lifetime achievement victor Ken Reimer, is available on the Awards website: http://www.multimediator.com/cnma/winners.html. The awards show has been archived at http://www.virtuecast.com/tv/cnma/index.htm, including an original "rant" by Vancouver comic and new media entrepreneur, Jamie Olliveri. Wsi, Nurv announce partnershipWsi Interactive Corp, Vancouver, has struck an alliance with a California-based company in which it has already bought a stake. Wsi and Nurv Media Corp will combine rich media web products with Wsi's technical infrastructure to bring down the time and cost associated with building a backend. Image Power joins broadband associationImage Power, a Vancouver-based developer of image compression technology, has joined the Broadband Content Delivery Forum with over 80 other companies. The association was created in April to recommend open architectures for delivering rich multimedia content. Image Power is especially active in developing new JPEG2000 and Motion JPEG2000 compression standards. Bell wins high rise VDSL dealBell Canada and Menkes Developments are partners in an accord to provide residential buildings with super fast new Very high rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) service to deliver DTV, Sympatico Internet and other services across a 26 Mbps connection. The new service will allow residents to view three DTV channels simultaneously, access high-speed Internet on their PCs, and allow caller ID on the television. Torstar jumps on streaming information bandwagonTorstar Corp subsidiary torontostartv.com, launched in November 1999 to support Toronto Star Television clients, has successfully broadcast its first multiple language, multiple stream and multiple bandwidth webcast. The first was for a Magna International Inc AGM. The broadcast was streamed in German and English to shareholders and employees globally. Web pro group joins AIPThe Association of Web Professionals (AWP) has joined the Association of Internet Professionals' (AIP) Certification Accreditation Council to better exploit the strengths of both bodies. The AWP also becomes a member of the AIP as part of the arrangement. CANARIE funds advanced Internet learning projectsThe CANARIE Learning Program has awarded its first round of funding under the program to 10 learning projects. The federal agency will contribute $10 million to the winning applicants, who will top up the public investment with a further $20 million. The Learning Program is intended to help Canadian businesses and learning institutions develop online learning initiatives that use advanced Internet technologies. The ten funding recipients are: LearnCanada (St. John's NF) SavoirNet (Montreal QC) Creating Barrier-free, Broadband Learning Environments (Edmonton AB) Virtual Veterinary Medicine Learning Commons (Guelph ON) Modular Tool for Integration of Contents (Hull QC) Portal for Online Objects in Learning (Vancouver BC) New Integrated Multimedia Learning Environment for Internet Training (Ottawa ON) Broadband Enabled Lifelong Learning Environment (Calgary AB) Distance Coaching System (Montreal QC) Partnerships for Learning, Innovation and Technology (Waterloo ON) A full description of the projects can be found on CANARIE's website, www.canarie.ca. Electronic ballot box goes live soliciting Canadian opinionA new online polling site is going live to give Canadians a chance to voice their opinions on topics such as politics, sports and news issues. eVoteCanada.com promises real-time polling free of affiliation to any political party or lobby group. Multiple voting is prevented by a registration process using email addresses. Polling expert Scott Allen is the brains behind the numbers, and will develop questionnaires in as highly a scientific manner as possible. New media player to hit webGlobalMedia.com, Vancouver, has teamed up with Globalmusiconline.com, FL, to launch the Global Music media player. Globalmusiconline.com is the online division of Global Music Network, a syndicator of television programs in the U,S. Under the terms of the agreement, GlobalMedia will be the exclusive provider of streaming media technology to Globalmusiconline.com which will in turn feature music and videos produced by both major and emerging recording companies. Tories to invest $57 million in new optical networkThe Ontario Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology has announced a massive investment of up to $57 million into a proposed new Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION). The cash will be spent over five years to build a high-speed, state-of-the-art network to be used by researchers, educators and scientists to conduct advanced research and to develop and test new technologies. It's hoped the ORION will also serve as a showcase for the best in new network applications and technologies.Funding for the project is being drawn from the government's $20-billion SuperBuild initiative. ORION will be completed over three phases. In the first, the government will spend up to $3.5 million to link universities to the network. Subsequent phases will connect colleges, research institutes and other research facilities. Adding on to the Ontario government's investment will be up to $17.2 million from other partners, led by the Optical Research Advanced Networks Ontario consortium. Feds back down on Human Resources databaseHuman Resources Development Canada is citing privacy fears in the information age for its decision to dismantle a shared database containing sensitive information about individuals. The Longitudinal Labour Force File (LLFF), a databank for labour market and social programs, is being taken down, and the computer program which linked it to information from the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency and data on social assistance from provincial and territorial governments is being eliminated. The move signals the death of one databank, but the feds haven't closed the door entirely on creating similar pools of information in the future. However, new databases like the LLFF will be subject to strict rules governing privacy and the time information will be allowed to be kept. Envoy looks at joining new media ranks through acquisitionEnvoy Communications Group, a Toronto-based advertising company, is examining an undisclosed acquisition opportunity to transform itself into a new media company. It is eying a company in the ecom back-end, system integration space that would give Envoy new ecom capabilities. Envoy is forecasting $10 million EBITDA this year. Behaviour shareholders ok refinancing and name changeBehaviour Communications Inc, Montreal, has renamed itself MDP Worldwide Entertainment Inc at a meeting of shareholders May 26. Shareholders also agreed to a plan to turn US$5.7 million in promissory notes into Class B voting shares, and will issue another US$5.5 million in shares. The company has also announced the forgiveness of around US$2.3 million in debt. Wireless study indicates slow takeup of mobile InternetFully 87 per cent of respondents in a new usage survey for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association say they don't expect to access the Internet using a wireless device in the next 12 months. A scant 8 per cent indicated they would do so, either using the phone they already own, or using a new, Internet-ready device. The survey was conducted by Decima Research.

CNM Short Takes

Broadcast | May 31, 2000

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us