NMBC keeps rolling with industry surveys for National Research Council

New Media BC (NMBC) has finished polling companies across Canada working in fields related to video games as the trade association works to complete yet another industry "map". Firms in the gaming field were invited to take a 10-minute questionnaire until March 31, and NMBC has now begun the process of analyzing the data after more than six weeks of collecting responses. The project is being conducted by NMBC on behalf of the National Research Council (NRC) and its Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP), which has been active in working with it to analyze various sectors of the new media industry in B.C. and Canada. The study follows on the heels of the recently-released map of the digital content delivery sector (CNM, June 9/04) and an earlier project looking at e-learning. NMBC head Linda Brown is keeping details close to her chest as approval for discussing the project must come from the NRC, but she does say the video game survey is being conducted with the same methodology, and for the same reasons, as the recent content delivery study. "It’s the same thing, just a different sector, and it’s meant to be similar because what we’re trying to do is identify both in B.C. and across Canada who’s in which of these sectors. What are they doing? What do they need? Then the NRC can go in with their programs and their strategies and start supporting and working with them." As with the digital content study, the NRC appears to be looking at the games sector with an eye towards export. Says Brown: "The reason they’re doing it - and I’ve laid this out with them, too - is you need to look at the building blocks of how you get to an international technology business strategy. The first part of that is actually knowing who’s doing what. So, that’s what a map tells you. We’ve found these people and we’ve categorized them. From this analysis we can say that we’ve got strengths in these areas and we know that these companies are interested in these trade markets." NMBC has been active in recent months in spearheading research efforts to better understand Canada’s new media sector, and not always in partnership with the NRC. Besides the recent digital content study, which was unveiled publicly on March 16, NMBC was also a key driving organization behind the BC Mobile Industry Map. Published on April 5, the mobile study highlights nearly 200 companies in B.C.’s mobile industry, 40 of which develop or publish content for mobile applications. That map was created by the Mobile MUSE initiative led by NMBC. Financial support for it came not from the NRC, but from Canadian Heritage’s Canadian Content Online Program.To complement the map, an industry directory has also been made available online highlighting mobile content companies in B.C. Brown can give no indication yet about when, or even if, the video game survey results will be made public. In other studies done with the NRC, the public sector research body has kept some data proprietary.

NMBC keeps rolling with industry surveys for National Research Council

News | 04/15/2005 4:00 am EDT

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