The sad passing of ZeD, CBC’s cutting-edge participatory media experiment, earlier this year has had some happy consequences: namely, the creation of a new interactive shop in Vancouver. Elastic Entertainment’s founding partners are Jennifer Ouano and Rochelle Grayson, the former of whom was senior producer at ZeD. Ouano is also a 15-year veteran of the production game, having worked as a producer, director, journalist, host, entrepreneur, business development strategist and consultant for a variety of clients in the media sector. She has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Woman of Vision award from Women in Film and Video, a Yorkton award for her documentary Burning to Shine, and a Leo award. Ouano’s work has also been nominated for two Gemini awards. She has worked with a variety of media movers-and-shakers, including recording artist k-os as producer and director of a documentary based on his life; action film director John Woo, for whom she created a mobile game; and webcasts of live events for Spike Lee and David Bowie.
Grayson, meanwhile, also has 15 years experience in "assisting companies with digital media initiatives and activities," according to Elastic’s website. A graduate of the University of Chicago’s MBA in Finance and Business Strategy program, she has held senior positions with such organizations as Agile Business Strategies of Vancouver, Seattle’s FlashLog and e-commerce content portal FlashCommerce.com. She was also instrumental in creating several new ventures, including: Media Mavens, a series of podcasts aimed at women in new media; VidCamp, an event billed as "the Media 2.0 unConference"; the Vancouver chapter of Women in Film and Video; and, the German chapter of Women in Film and Television. Grayson also served as production executive on author Douglas Coupland’s upcoming film, Everything’s Gone Green.

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CTV launches broadband news service
Toronto-based broadcaster CTV Inc. had launched what it calls "phase one" of a new TV-over-broadband service, the CTV Broadband Network. The offering currently consists of four dedicated channels: CTV Shows, which features full-length prime-time programming; CTV News and Docs, composed of current affairs and new programs updated hourly; eTalk on Broadband for entertainment news buffs; and Discovery Channel on CTV, for science, nature and travel programming. More programming is anticipated to be added this fall, when phase two of the network gets underway. Kris Faibish, VP for digital media at CTV Television, says the news clips are "edited for length and content to be more concise and phone friendly," adding that CTV has added additional content creation staff to help manage the process.

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When religious broadcaster S-VOX launched its myGodPod Christian podcasting service last month, it claimed that spiritual podcasts are burgeoning. Given the often-tenuous relationship between religion and technology, it wouldn’t be surprising if some doubted this assertion – but the evidence supports it.

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In 2003 Toronto-based Sailor-Jones Media started developing Fundamental Freedoms, a documentary in seven languages covering the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, for Rogers Media Inc.’s Omni Television. The venture soon morphed into a multimedia, multiplatform project, which includes the recently launched CharterofRights.ca, an interactive website devoted entirely to what many consider the most important document in Canadian history.

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At the heart of every new media project is the desire to make money. In a session on building "active audiences" at Vidfest in Vancouver on June 16, three successful case studies in turning audience loyalty into revenue were outlined.

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Atari Inc. founder Nolan Bushnell has seen the video game industry change a lot – and not always for the better – in the nearly 40 years since he built his first game.

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