Village Gamer

Reminder: Final day to vote for your choice in the Independent Games Festival Audience Award
Reminder: Final day to apply for the Astral Media Emerging Documentary Filmmakers Scholarship Program
Reminder: Final day for graduates to apply to Doc U
Reminder: Final day for Early Bird Pricing on Social Media Marketing Best Practices for Small Businesses, Not-for Profits and Organizations at BCIT Downtown Campus
Reminder: Final day to submit proposals for the SIGGRAPH 2011 Dailies, Courses, Emerging Technologies, Game Papers, Panels, Posters, Talks, Technical Papers and The Studio

Digital Alberta is hosting two mixers on March 11th – one at the Alastair Ross Technology Centre in Calgary and one at the Nexen Theatre in Edmonton. The evening’s goal is to open the door for inter-disciplinary collaboration in convergent projects, and members of both the film and interactive digital media sectors are encouraged to attend.

canWIT BC Chapter is holding a breakfast seminar on February 23rd titled How to Get Your Tech Start-up Financed. Being held at the Segal Graduate School of Business, SFU, attendees will hear about getting a start-up company up and running, financeable and financed for future growth. Tickets for this event are $15.00 each, and Thealzel Lee of Rocket Builders, Valerie Mann of Lawson Lundell LLP and Joanne Hausch of Deloitte & Touche LLP will cover:

Investment in tech in BC
How to structure your start-up
Financing options
What makes investors invest in companies
How to attract investors’ attention
Key issues to consider in the early-days of your start-up

One week remains before the Canadian Internet Forum takes place in Ottawa on February 25th. Hosted by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) and its partners, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Media Awareness Network (MNet), this event is an opportunity to present and examine the results of six face-to-face consultations that were held across Canada in tandem with an online discussion forum. A panel of experts will discuss the results, with topics including digital literacy, online privacy, IPv6 adoption, access to broadband, and social media, among others. Participants at the CIF will also have opportunities to provide feedback and commentary on the findings.

Experts speaking at the CIF include:

* Jacob Glick, Canada Policy Counsel, Google
* Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Executive Director, Masters of Digital Media Program at Vancouver’s Centre for Digital Media
* Marc Blanchet, Network Engineer, Viagénie
* Jim Roche, President and CEO, CANARIE
* Sally Wentworth, Senior Manager for Public Policy, Internet Society

Leading Canadian technology visionary Leonard Brody will provide the keynote address at the CIF, which is an important opportunity for Canadians to have their say on the direction the Internet should take in Canada. The results of the consultations, online discussion and the CIF will be presented to the United Nations coordinated Internet Governance Forum, a venue for stakeholders to discuss the future of the Internet, later in 2011. This event will also be webcast in English and French for those who can’t attend in person.

Hot Docs has put out a call for proposals for Doc Summit, asking Canadian producers, directors, distributors, digital and broadcast execs, and policy hawks to share their ideas on the sector’s top issues. Doc Summit is a half-day town hall forum which will be held on Friday May 6th, during this year’s Hot Docs festival, conference and market, taking place in Toronto this April 28th through May 8th.

Congratulations to everyone at Igloo Software, who picked up the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Award for Innovation last evening. Igloo Software was launched in 2004 as an online network, linking researchers at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. Since that time, Igloo has evolved into a for-profit company and its social-networking platform helps clients improve employee productivity and build stronger relationships with key stakeholders.

TELETOON has launched a new online contest that will see one lucky Canadian viewer win a spot as a contestant on the English-language version of its hit Hollywood Squares-inspired animation and live-action show Skatoony, a TELETOON original production from marblemedia.

Starting today and running until Sunday, March 20, 2011 at teletoon.com, eligible kids can enter to appear alongside an assortment of well-known animated characters from TELETOON’s original productions. Hosted by the animated duo of Chudd Chudders and his sidekick announcer, The Earl, Skatoony features real-life and animated contestants competing in four side-splitting trivia-based rounds to win bragging rights as well as a terrific prize. The contest winner will receive a trip to Toronto for the filming and $1,000 spending money.

TELETOON is also running the contest for the French-language version of the series from Monday, February 28 to Thursday, March 31, 2011. Full contest rules and regulations for the English and French-language contests are available online at teletoon.com.

In anticipation of their potential rise to stardom, kids can play the new Skatoony game online at teletoon.com where they can play live against their friends. Kids can register and create their very own avatar then customize its appearance in the online “store” using Skatoony bucks earned by playing the game.

Bong of the Dead, the $5 000.00 zombie movie is in the can. Writer, producer and director of Bong of the Dead, Thomas Newman took a chance of a lifetime to complete his first feature film. Being a veteran of the special effects industry, Thomas was able to turn his love and passion for film into a movie which is now being sought after by multiple distribution companies from across the globe.

The process of creating an entire film and compositing over 350 shots himself by hand – frame by frame is typically usually the work of dozens of people. Driven by passion and fueled by his hunger for success he was able to overcome many personal and technical hurdles throughout the last two years. Along the way turning the movie into what it is today.

Here is the trailer for Bong of the Dead – while it has not been officially rated, Thomas Newman notes on the trailer title that it’s Rated R, so we caution you about the content.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs9F9foULqk]

OpenText has completed its acquisition of global Business Process Management (BPM) leader Metastorm, adding complementary software solutions in the fast-growing BPM market. Metastorm is a key addition to OpenText’s Microsoft partner strategy and will help the company create a new generation of process improvement solutions that demand a combination of content and process management capabilities.

Baltimore, Maryland-based Metastorm is known for its leadership in BPM, but also provides Business Process Analysis (BPA) and Enterprise Architecture (EA) software—all will play a role in OpenText’s product plans. Just like BPM, Metastorm’s BPA and EA capabilities are complementary to OpenText’s and bring together comprehensive views of an organization—from the strategy and goals that drive the business, to the day-to-day systems, processes and people that run it, to the content needed to make the best business decisions. The BPM market has been a fast-growing segment of the software industry over the last few years.

Many processes involve content and thus require content management. With Metastorm, OpenText can now address any type of business process, whether the focus is content-centricity or process centricity. OpenText’s strategy is to add to existing solutions with new, uniquely powerful case management solutions used in areas such as customer on-boarding or claims processing, where the effective delivery of knowledge and content are a critical part of the overall business process.