CNM Short Takes

Talking the dot com talkAs the year-end approaches and the Canadian new media sector appears poised for growth in 2003, we thought it would be interesting to take a look through our archives to see how industry language has changed. On an unscientific basis, the following chart illustrates the number of stories in a given year we wrote that contained at least one occurrence of the words listed. Decima Reader Online Poll, October/November 2002Attracting skilled workers was a key theme from the Speech from the Throne, delivered on September 30. In relation to the communications sectors, do you believe that: there is no skills shortage; the skills shortage has been mitigated by heavy layoffs in the communications sectors; Canada must immediately attract skilled workers from overseas with incentives and reduced red tape; Canada must immediately invest more heavily in education to train Canadians for skilled jobs in the communications sectors; or a poor investment climate, and not a lack of training, is responsible for the skills shortage? Prix Boomerangs come back for second yearFollowing are the winners of the 2002 Boomerang Prizes, awarded on December 4 to the best of Quebec's interactive content industry. Use of the Internet in a traditional marketing campaignJobpoche.ca - Une famille ordinaire Cossette Interactif Use of the Internet in a public relations campaignrebelles.com Marketing Numérique PortalProducteurs laitiers du Canada COGNICASE, web department and Bonjourquebec.com In-house production team TourismeQuébec Corporate siteTriplan design Triplan B2C promotional site jobpoche.ca Cossette Interactif B2B promotional siteTourisme Montréal Diesel Marketing Arts and cultureCirque du Soleil Diesel Marketing EducationLa Mission - Une grande aventure scientifique! Studio Animation/Jeunesse du programme français Youth Zone jeunesse de Radio-Canada.ca Radio-Canada Nouveaux médias FinanceWebfin Canoë HealthPharmacies Essaim Media 514 Internet version of printCyberpresse.ca Cyberpresse.ca Internet version of radio-televisionBunker BlueSponge Transactional siteJetsgo.net Agence Braque Technological innovationPlateforme de e-formation BMG BMG Multimedia and Jeu Bombardier - Mission Ski-Doo Twist Image Alliance touts influence on French delegation to Quebec A visit by multimedia professionals from France to Quebec in October has led to the surprisingly quick establishment of a new Alliance numérique France. The organization is modeled after the Alliance numériQC, though no direct affiliation between the two bodies has been established. The French group's mission is to promote the use of new technologies in education, facilitate communication between different national and international players, help the industry reach an economically viable level, and represent the sector before government and trade unions. Teens spending less time in front of television Statistics Canada says that while television viewing has remained stable among the overall Canadian population at 21.1 hours per week, teens are watching two hours less per week, and children are watching one hour fewer on average. This is despite increased access to cable and satellite transmission. Industry analysts, not surprisingly, attribute the decrease partly to greater use of the Internet. Overall, says the bureau, specialty and pay television stations continue to attract more viewing time, with Canadians now spending 22% of their viewing time watching Canadian pay-TV and specialty stations, and 10% watching American ones, up from 6% and 3% respectively in 1992. Private online elementary school launched as first in OntarioLinkonlinelearning Inc. is now offering privately-run online JK-8 courses recognized by the province. The service has a principal, teachers and tests, but courses are offered entirely over the Internet. Linkonlinelearning is available 24 hours a day, and offers over 10,000 lessons spread over nine courses and three levels. Lessons are aligned with provincial goals and standards, and offered across a broad variety of subject areas. It is being targeted at students who are home schooled, need tutoring in specific courses, or those who need extra help or additional educational challenges. Each course, says a media release, is fully interactive and auditory in order to accommodate students' different learning styles. The school will be accepting new students as of December 9. The company is based in Newmarket ON. Full membership in anti-copying-levy group disclosed The Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access (CCFDA) has finally gone public with its crusade to fight a dramatic increase in the private copying levy proposed by the music industry (CNM, June 14/02). Canadian NEW MEDIA previously reported on the early stages of the group which is conducting some of its lobbying through GPC International consultants Michael Thompson, Brian Smith and Michael Von Herff (CNM, Aug. 21/02). The full list of companies now includes: AMD, Apple Canada, Best Buy Canada/Future Shop, Costco Wholesale, Creative Labs, Dell Canada, Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co., InterTAN/RadioShack, Intel of Canada, London Drugs, Micron, Motorola Canada, the Retail Council of Canada, Sony Canada, STAPLES Business Depot, and Wal-Mart Canada. The group has made clear its intention to lobby the government for changes to the Copyright Act to fight the levy, and a GPC source told CNM last summer that the group won't be concentrating on the latest tariff proposals scheduled for public hearings in January in ffront of the Copyright Board of Canada. Rather it will seek changes through the section 92 process of reviewing the Copyright Act (CNM, Oct. 16/02). A media release announcing the new coalition's formation says the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage is scheduled to examine the private copying regime in 2003. It's not immediately clear whether such a review will actually take place next year. The recently-tabled s.92 report explicitly stated that the private copying regime is on the table only in the medium-term in the next two to four years. The committee is, however, scheduled to look at the overall s.92 report, giving the coalition an opportunity to lobby to have the private copying component moved to the front burner. ZAQ focusIN sale completed Montreal-based ZAQ Inc. has completed the sale of its focusIN Specialty Web Network division to Mamma.com Inc. for $2.8 million, which includes $2.5 million in cash and $300,000 in retained working capital. ZAQ president/CEO Paul Allard states in a media release: "We will begin 2003 with no debts and sufficient cash on hand to support the growing demand for our ZEGO products." The company recently reported an operating loss of $1.2 million in the third quarter of 2002. Games to take over as mobile revenue driver, says Euro report Telecom.paper is reporting that a new study released by Analysys predicts downloadable games will replace ringtones as the service that drives Western Europe's growth in mobile content and entertainment service revenue. The report forecasts a more than tenfold increase in revenue from games, but a lack of interoperability and the absence of a common standard for digital rights management still hampers the sector. Hemera introduces new royalty-free graphics for business users Gatineau QC-based Hemera Technologies Inc. has launched two new image collections for business users. The catalogs are available through a free downloadable interface offered by the company that lets users browse and subscribe to thousands of online royalty-free images. Poker.com loses domain to hijacker Poker.com Inc., Vancouver, has found its domain name hijacked as of December 6. All traffic is now being driven to a new URL, www.thepokerclub.com, by the rightful owners of Poker.com to continue operations. The site, still under attack, features prominent advertising and links to competitor Aztec Poker. A spokesperson for Poker.com tells Canadian NEW MEDIA he's been informed by Aztec that one of its affiliates has taken over the domain, though the party hasn't yet been identified. Internet playing important role in children's lives, says report A new study by Outermedia says the Internet is playing an increasingly important role in the lives of children as young as six. The study, which was conducted by the partners of the Oscar eContent Project, show that 50% of children aged six to seven are online. The authors conclude that kids are using the Internet mostly for fun, with online games cited as the number one activity. Older children, though, do balance fun with school, research, hobbies and chat. Homework was cited by 14% of the younger children and 25% of the older kids as a reason they use the Internet. The study was done with 2,100 European children aged six to 13 and their parents and teachers. Outermedia is a German web design and services company.

CNM Short Takes

Broadcast | December 11, 2002

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