Government unveils Canada Interactive Fund for social media and mobile projects

The federal government is merging two web-focused funding initiatives for cultural groups into a single $37.5 million program scheduled to come online next April. The new Canada Interactive Fund (CIF) is designed primarily to help Aboriginal and ethno-cultural communities adopt new and emerging technologies such as Web 2.0 applications and mobile platforms. “As a historical society, our focus is the promotion of our heritage,” says Hélène Martin, representing the Madawaska Historical Society, which preserves the history of Madawaska region of New Brunswick. “We tend to use traditional means to do this – exhibits, publications, conferences, et cetera. But we have to be aware that we are not reaching the younger generation because that is not how they communicate. Tools such as the CIF help us... make our resources more available to a wider audience.” Last week Canadian Heritage introduced the CIF: $37.5 million over five years to support new interactive cultural content and applications by Aboriginal and ethno-cultural communities, official-language minority communities (French-speaking communities outside of Quebec), and other not-for-profit cultural organizations. It comes as two other government funds – the Partnership Fund and the Gateway Fund – come to an end. Introduced in 2001, they supported projects to bring cultural collections online, and to increase the amount and quality of Canadian culture on the internet, particularly from Aboriginal and ethno-cultural communities. According to Canadian Heritage spokesman Charles Drouin, the Partnership and Gateway funds will continue to operate through to March 31, 2010, at which point the CIF will kick in. Whereas the earlier funds focused on web site creation, the CIF goes a step further, “incenting the creation of new forms of interactive content and applications, including the adoption of new and emerging technologies such as Web 2.0 applications and mobile platforms,” Drouin says in an e-mail exchange. The Madawaska Historical Society is one group that used Partnership Fund financing for two interactive web sites: Knock on Wood presents historical vignettes and learning tools to teach visitors about the social and cultural heritage of people living and working in the Madawaska area’s forestry industry. Partners included the Centre international pour le dévelopment de l’inforoute en Français (CIDIF), and Université de Moncton – Campus d’Edmundston. And a new project called Unravelling the Fresco, officially unveiled last week, presents an interactive historical tableau based on local artist Claude Picard’s 1985 bicentennial painting, depicting scenes from Madawaska’s pioneer past – fur trading, farming, making maple syrup toffee, et cetera. Each scene is enhanced with text providing miniature history lessons on the pictures. The site also presents artistic and historical vignettes – web pages, songs, video clips – created by elementary school children in northwest New Brunswick. Lyne Lèger from the CIDIF says Unravelling the Fresco was already attracting attention in the summer, during a soft launch. “There were 30 visits a day,” she says. “Now we’re seeing more than 400.” According to Lèger, it’s important for cultural groups to be able to keep up with technology. Otherwise Canada’s cultural history wouldn’t get as much attention in the global milieu. “It wouldn’t be accessible,” she says of the material behind Knock On Wood. “All of this information was in boxes.” Drouin explains that the CIF aims to help cultural groups develop applications for mobile handsets and social media sites, so their voices continue to be heard. “Without government support, many Aboriginal, ethno-cultural and official-language minority communities, as well as other not-for-profit cultural organizations, will be left behind in their attempt to engage Canadians with compelling content online,” he says. The CIF isn’t the same as the Canada Media Fund (CMF). “Where the Canada Media Fund provides support for commercial content across multiple platforms, the Canada Interactive Fund will provide not-for-profit cultural organizations with access to content-development funding,” Drouin says. The CIF is a welcome next step, says Martin from the Madawaska Historical Society. She explains that the funding could help organizations like hers extend their existing web sites into social media systems, such as Facebook. “The challenge will be to have the resources to do this,” she says. “We are a mostly Francophone historical society working in a mostly Francophone region and yet our two sites are fully bilingual. We include the cost of translation in the project. This allows us to reach a greater audience and eventually to work with Anglophone groups in neighbouring regions on projects of common interest.” Martin says the Society will consider applying for CIF funding, but it’s too soon to say just how great an impact it will have. “We will have to see how it actually rolls out, but we have to recognize the importance that the new media have taken in our everyday life.”

Government unveils Canada Interactive Fund for social media and mobile projects

News | 10/04/2009 9:35 pm EDT

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