CNM Short Takes

Digitized sheet music posted by National LibraryThe National Library of Canada has posted a searchable database of digitized sheet music spanning the pre-Confederation and First World War periods.The sheet music covers are also available for viewing. This spring, a further 900 pieces of music will be added. Full music scores are added once copyright clearance is obtained. Future phases will include digitized sheet music published between 1867 and 1913. In all, the National Library’s collection of sheet music (unbound songs, piano pieces, etc.) includes over 20,000 pieces. BC e-learning company strikes deal with ElluminateVancouver’s Odyssey Learning Systems has entered into a strategic relationship with Calgary’s Elluminate (formerly TutorsEdge) which will see Odyssey act as a marketing agent for Elluminate’s vClass product. vClass will also provide virtual classroom capabilities within Nautikos eLearner, Odyssey’s latest module for the Nautikos platform. Roughing it on the webThe National Archives of Canada and National Library of Canada have posted a new web site to help students and readers explore the lives and letters of sisters Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill – two of this country’s most important writers. The site brings together important collections held by the two institutions, information about the writers, and makes available a number of their surviving letters and selections from their works. Digital Rooster cleared for Nasdaq BB tradingToronto’s Digital Rooster.com Inc., a developer and distributor of online adult entertainment, has been cleared for trading on the NASDAQ over-the-counter bulletin board. The company has also announced the launch of www.SexyGreen.com, a web site that uses multi-level marketing to sell adult entertainment web site memberships. CANARIE awards $2.5-million e-biz contractCANARIE Inc. has awarded $2.5 million in new funding to The Electronic Commerce Council of Canada to accelerate the development and expansion of ECCnet, Canada’s multi-industry online product registry. The network was launched in early 2000 to standardize common business documents and help trading partners synchronize data. While six other countries in the world have similar systems, CANARIE officials tout it as the only one to cover a range of industries. ExpressVu offers ITV games with partner VisiwareSatellite TV company Bell ExpressVu has teamed with European-based Visiware to offer subscribers with model 3100 or PVR set-top boxes a variety of games. The service is dubbed Ludi TV, and comes with over 40 game titles. The service was launched with Carrot Mania, Golf, bowling and basketball games, as well as Solitaire. Ludi TV is available for $4.99 a month for five games, with titles rotating every two weeks. Besides Ludi TV, ExpressVu has also introduced a trivia game for $1.99 a month and designed in-house. "Bell ExpressVu is the leader in digital TV and offers its customers the latest in digital home entertainment; it’s a natural progression for ExpressVu to introduce the first in many new and exclusive ITV services," Jason Anderson, marketing manager for ITV at Bell ExpressVu said in a media release. Ecentricarts revamps CWC site with new interactive featuresToronto’s ecentricarts Inc. has redesigned the Canadian Women in Communications web site to include a new back-end infrastructure to support members’ needs, including improved security in the members-only section, administrative functions such as membership renewal, online event registration and online profile updates to the organization’s database. No financial terms were disclosed. "The behind-the-scenes workings of a site like this are meant to make time consuming tasks such as membership updates, event registration and newsletter production quick and simple," Sean Kozey, ecentricarts’ CTO, says in a media release. "We’ve just made it easier for CWC to streamline administrative tasks and efficiently service its community." Wallace Studios to launch entertainment e-learning portalWallace Studios, Toronto, will announce a new e-learning portal and directory for the entertainment industry in partnership with Dante Entertainment Group. Further details will have to wait until a press release expected shortly, but a preview of what the site will offer should be available at a learning session organized by the studio to be held on April 23 at the company’s facilities at 258 Wallace Avenue. March touts successful telehealth projectOttawa’s March Networks says in a media release that its trial providing remote video conferencing homecare has resulted in a 95.5% satisfaction rate among patients. Access to care was shown to have doubled as nurses could conference with patients, a benefit which also included lower visitation costs. The study consisted of patients with chronic diseases including heart and lung disease as well as cancer. Nurses could remotely monitor a wide variety of vital signs. Bell Globemedia partnerships chosen for mentoringThe Banff Centre, Canadian Film Centre (CFC) and l’Institut National de l’Image et du Son (l’INIS) have each chosen a project or projects to mentor through the Bell Globemedia Content Innovation Network on a yearly basis over the next five years. The projects will be aided with $5 million in funding from Bell Globemedia that was announced last year as part of its benefits package in the CTV Inc. takeover (CNM, April 19/01). For its part, the Banff Centre will mentor Anxietyville, an episodic drama for television and the web currently in co-production at the Banff New Media Institute and created by Patrick Crowe and Thomas Wallner of Xenophile Media. At the CFC, two projects, Pax Warrior and White Noise will be supported. Pax Warrior is a multimedia documentary by YYZee, and White Noise is an episodic comic mystery by Trapeze Ltd. French journalism hard-hit by Quebecor cuts: GazetteThe Montreal Gazette reports that April 16 cuts by Quebecor Inc. eliminating all original reporting for its Internet sites will cut by one-third all such French-language journalism in the province. The media company announced that its Netgraphe Inc. arm would lay off 64 staff, 31 in the Montreal office and 33 creating content in Toronto; 129 staff will remain. The company’s French and English sites will now be populated with content from the Canadian Press, the Journal de Montréal, and papers in the Sun Media Corp. chain. The decision will reportedly save $7 million in annual wage and overhead costs. The Gazette reports that executives at Netgraphe and Quebecor either dispute or have no comment on the one-third figure. Modem Media wins Maritime Life marketing dealModem Media’s Toronto office has won an agreement on undisclosed terms to support the develpment and implementation of Maritime Life Assurance Co.’s interactive marketing strategies. Maritimelife.ca, re-launched last week, is the first product to be announced as a result of that relationship. SMARTTech offers interactivity with multiple-source videoCalgary’s SMART Technologies Inc. will release new software in June to enable users of its products to annotate over moving or still video from sources such as DVD, VCR, document cameras and computer files. The software will be offered free as an upgrade to SMART customers currently using its whiteboard software. Users can write over top of the video, pause or freeze frames and save or clear annotations. When viewing computer files such as .avi and .mov files, a presenter can also stop, pause or continue playing from any point, and play the video in either a SMART player window, or in full screen mode. Telefilm new media winners expected to be announced soonTelefilm Canada tells CNM that it will announce winners in the first round of the Canada New Media Fund within just a few days. In the meantime, the deadline for the second round is April 29.

CNM Short Takes

News | 04/19/2002 4:00 am EDT

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