On February 3, Ontario minister of culture Madeleine Meilleur announced a new award, the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, which would provide $50,000 to two individual artists annually. Along with professions such as writing and publishing, film and television production, visual arts, and music, practitioners in digital art and media are also eligible for the prize. Below is an edited version of the minister’s remarks, delivered at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre.

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Dominique Brown, president and GM of Montreal-based game development and conversion studio Beenox, has been recognized as the most prominent youngest businessperson in the field of technology and research by the Quebec Youth Chamber of Commerce. The annual distinction is given out to a young entrepreneur who is remarkable for the effect they have on their local business community as well as their determination, vision and work-life balance. Brown is also in the running for IT personality of the year at the upcoming OCTAS 2006 awards event, sponsored by the Quebec IT Federation.

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Hexagram taps six new projects
Six new interactive media projects have been chosen for the sixth round of funding from Hexagram, a consortium of Quebec universities. The projects – by second- and third-year students from Concordia University and l’Université du Québec à Montréal – are experimental in nature and range from wearable instruments to building installations that react to the movements of passersby. Hexagram’s investment capital totals approximately $400,000 and is funded by entities such as the Cirque du Soleil, Clear Channel Entertainment, le Groupe Spectacles Gillett and Daniel Langlois; other partners include Valorisation Récherche Québec, Economic Development Canada, and various Quebec government and quasi-governmental groups.

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Remember the phrase, "Content is king"? At one time, Internet video services, interactive TV shows and other new media initiatives seemed set to drive the economy. Although the idea seemed to die with many of the unsustainable business models of the dot-com era circa 1995 to 2001, new endeavours to make homes more tech-enabled could return content to its throne.

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The Family Channel is claiming a Canadian first with its new series Life With Derek, a television show that will actually premier on the Internet before it airs to television audiences.

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Mobile video content has gained a toehold in the Canadian wireless user market and the industry is bullish on its future, according to industry specialists at a conference in Toronto last month.

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Canada’s new media sector will reach a developmental milestone over the next two years with the admission of students to Ryerson University’s management of technology and innovation masters program in Toronto this fall, and to the professional digital media masters program at Vancouver’s Great Northern Way Campus (GNWC) a year later.

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