Village Gamer

Toronto has leapt into the number two spot in the world in the just-released PwC survey of “Cities of Opportunity” – the consultancy’s fourth analysis “of the trajectory of 26 cities, all capitals of finance, commerce and culture.” New York is slightly ahead of Toronto in first place, while San Francisco, Stockholm and Sydney round out the top five.

In its analysis, PwC ranked cities in ten categories – measures designed, as PwC describes it, to favour “holistic capital market centres with vibrant economies and strong quality of life.” According to PwC, “Our thesis is that a successful city going forward will balance both social and economic strengths so the people and infrastructure support each other.”

Toronto ranks particularly highly in two of the categories most closely correlated with global competitiveness: Intellectual Capital & Innovation (2nd) and Health, Safety & Security (2nd). “The successful modern urban economy,” says PwC, “is reliant on, if not yet solely the product of, intelligence and social well-being.”

Toronto also ranks highly on Demographics and Liveability (#3), Lifestyle Assets (4th), Ease of Doing Business (5th), Sustainability (5th) and Cost (5th).

The PwC report sums up with the observation that, “to sustain success, cities today must continually attract and retain highly educated, technologically adept and digitally connected knowledge workers who increasingly make up the core of their human capital and whose definition of quality of life is exacting and not easily compromised… More than a centre of global business and finance alone, Toronto is a community in which people want to live and expect to lead rich and meaningful lives.”

Samsung Electronics Canada and Zip.ca has announced an exclusive partnership that will soon provide Canadians the ability to enjoy thousands of movies and TV episodes streamed from Zip.ca to Samsung’s SMART Televisions, Blu-ray players and Home Theatre products.

“Realizing the changing entertainment landscape and the demand for online entertainment, this new partnership will help Canadian’s access Zip.ca’s expansive catalogue and underscores our goal of developing smart technologies that deliver content with convenience to meet consumers needs,” said David Vitale, Head of Marketing, Samsung Electronics Canada.

A Zip.ca app will be available on Samsung’s Internet connected TV and Home Theatre products soon, offering Zip.ca members the ability to instantly watch movies and TV episodes from Zip.ca.

“For the past year, Samsung and Zip.ca have been working together to solidify a service that would provide Canadians with the latest movies and TV programs at the mere push of a button,” said Scott Richards, CEO, Zip.ca. “Consumers want outstanding technology to watch their favourite programs, so Samsung was a natural choice for this partnership.”

MEGA Brands Inc. has announced that holders of its 10% senior secured debentures passed an extraordinary resolution today approving amendments to the indenture governing the debentures. The amendments, among other things, allow the Corporation to increase available borrowings for working capital purposes under its existing asset-based credit agreement and are effective as of today. The extraordinary resolution was approved by approximately 92% of the votes cast in person or represented by proxy at the special meeting of debenture holders.

When the polls closed on Monday evening Jack Layton had made historic gains.  It was a trend in popularity and leadership that the two-week online election game Ballot Blitz had shown from the beginning. Layton finished at the top of Onestop Media Group’s Ballot Blitz leaderboard on Play Onestop with 36%.

Ballot Blitz was an election themed arcade game which posted poll results based on the animated candidates’ popularity.  Users were asked to play as one of five party leaders – Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Elizabeth May, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe – while the other four candidates whizzed across the scene attempting to steal votes.

Layton’s luster was not confined to Ballot Blitz. He and his party rose to the top of almost every poll on PlayOnestop.com’s polling section as well.  These polls measured several leadership qualities including integrity in a fun way.  For example, most users did not believe Layton would attempt to ring 9 items through an 8 item express checkout line.

Susan Varty, Principal of Wordtree Consulting, has joined HeadStart Solutions Inc. as Director of Digital Strategy. Wordtree is now operating under HeadStart to contribute content marketing, social media initiatives and services for HeadStart’s clients.

“Our partnership will enhance our recruitment and employer branding offerings for our existing client base, as well as attract new clients in the emerging digital technology space. I’m looking forward to working with Sue who brings a wealth of experience in content and social media communications.  This makes it a perfect match for us to collaborate and build upon HeadStart’s foundation,” says Marc Roginsky, Founder and President of HeadStart.

Best Buy Canada is hosting The Windows Experience Tour at select Best Buy stores in Ontario and Quebec. Beginning May 6^th until June 26^th, the tent activation will be set up in the parking lots of select stores where customers can check out the hot new hardware while experiencing how Windows 7 and free Windows Live services can help them create, connect and share using their PC and the cloud. In addition, customers can speak with Windows brand ambassadors and Best Buy blue shirts and have the chance to win prizes including one of seven ultimate jet-setter experiences to a music festival somewhere around the globe, or many other prizes as part of the Rock the Globe contest.

Two Best Buy locations will feature a Windows “tailgate” parking lot party, complete with a free barbeque and music. The parties will be at the Newmarket location on May 14^th and May 15^th and the Leaside location on May 21^st.

Dates and locations of the Windows Experience Tours:

May 6 – 8: Sherway – 167 North Queen Etobicoke
May 13 – 15: Newmarket – 175 Green Lane East, Newmarket
May 20 – 22: Leaside – 147 Laird Drive East York
May 27 – 29: Laval – 1560 boulevard Le Courbusier Laval
June 3 – 5: Woodbridge – 7850 Weston Road Woodbridge
June 10 – 12: Sherway – 167 North Queen Etobicoke
June 17 – 19: Kitchener – 215 Fairway Road South Kitchener
June 24 – 26: St. Catherine’s – 420 Vansickle Road St. Catherine’s
June 24 – 26: Ottawa East – 380 Coventry Road Ottawa

Ahead of the release of its final report later this month, Pixel To Product’s Justin Kozuch will be making an appearance on the Nat&Marie show tonight at 9pm EST.

Justin will be Wikileaks-ing a handful of new results from the company’s recent research study, and I encourage you to tune in and catch the segment. On deck are some interesting insights into the types of skill-sets companies are hiring for this year, hiring projections, perceptions of bias (ageism, sexism, etc), and some other very interesting findings the study has uncovered.

If you’ve got a question for Justin about the findings, tweet them to @49pixels or post your question on their Facebook fan page, or call into the show via Skype (add “NatAndMarieShow” to your Skype contact list), and they’ll do their best to answer it on the air.

They’re also giving away a copy of Scott Stratten’s “UnMarketing” for the best question; so think one up, tune in and you could be the lucky winner of a book I personally highly recommend.

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has released a report on the findings from its national consultation on how the Internet is run. The report will be presented to the United Nations coordinated Internet Governance Forum, a venue for nations to discuss the future of the Internet.

The Canadian Internet Forum (CIF) was a national consultation hosted by CIRA, along with its partners, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Media Awareness Network (MNet). It consisted of face-to-face consultations that took place across Canada along with input received from an online discussion forum, and culminated at a national event held in Ottawa and webcast across the country in February 2011.

The consultations were broadly themed under two topics: the digital economy and digital literacy, and Canadians identified numerous issues that are important to them. These issues included online safety and security, the development of a ‘Canadian vision’ for the Internet and the cost and speed of broadband.

CATAAlliance has sent out the following call for survey input:

PRO5, a research group whose team members are students of graduate studies in project management at the Université du Québec, are conducting research on “The Forgotten Dimensions of Success and Failure“. While the survey should only take a few minutes of your time to complete, the data collected will yield rich results in support of project management research, and will be shared with the participants. Your participation in this study is greatly appreciated. All completed surveys are strictly confidential.

Research on the success and failure of projects has generally focused on three traditional criteria: time, cost and scope – known as the “Triple Constraint”. The purpose of this survey is to explore what other dimensions may exist – beyond the triple constraint – that are worthy of exploration as to their discrete or collective impact on project success or failure, and how these results may be similar or different, across a number of industry sectors. We call these “The Forgotten Dimensions of Success and Failure.”

Agent Wildfire has also sent out a request for survey input. The 3rd annual Buzz Report survey is conducted by Agent Wildfire and  is comprised of 30 questions, which should take 10-15 minutes to complete. The survey provides a pulsecheck among business leaders for shifts in attitudes, adoption and perceptions of marketing, media, digital life and customer culture.

In 2009 and 2010, over 300 people responded to our survey each year and we hope over the next six weeks to have an even bigger pool of talent responding and establishing a third annual benchmark on how these trends are changing.

The target audience for this survey are: business executives, marketers, media people, consultants, strategists, digiterati, PR, creative and communications staff, web operations staff, academia and other new media enthusiasts regardless of level of skill or experience.

The coolness factor? To our knowledge, there isn’t another survey that attempts to get after insights about the ecosystem surrounding new and progressive alternative media and marketing formats.

In return for filling out this survey, we are also offering the chance to win one of five Wikibrands books and opportunity for free workshop. Please let us know in the contact information area at the end of this survey whether you’d like a copy of the top-line results and we would be happy to share them with you when they are finalized.

Also, if you’re interested in attending our Buzz Report live event in Toronto (June 14th) and webinar (June 21st) with the first release of these results, discount codes will be provided for survey respondents.

Researchers at Queens University have found a strong association between computer and Internet use in adolescents and engagement in multiple-risk behaviours (MRB), including illicit drug use, drunkenness and unprotected sex.

“This research is based on social cognitive theory, which suggests that seeing people engaged in a behaviour is a way of learning that behaviour,” explains lead researcher Valerie Carson, a doctoral candidate in School of Kinesiology and Health Studies. “Since adolescents are exposed to considerable screen time—over 4.5 hours on average each day—they’re constantly seeing images of behaviours they can then potentially adopt.”

The researchers found that high computer use was associated with approximately 50 per cent increased engagement with a cluster of six MRB, including smoking, drunkenness, non-use of seatbelts, cannabis and illicit drug use, and unprotected sex. High television use was also associated with a modestly increased engagement in these MRB.

One explanation behind this finding is that a considerable amount of advertising that used to be shown on TV is now being shown on the Internet. In addition, computer usage by adolescents has increased considerably in recent years.

“TV and video games have more established protocols in terms of censorship, but Internet protocols aren’t as established,” says Ms Carson. “Parents can make use of programs that control access to the Internet, but adolescents in this age group are quite savvy about technology and the Internet. It’s possible that these types of controls aren’t effective in blocking all undesirable websites.”

This research, recently published in the Journal of Preventative Medicine, suggests that future studies should examine the specific content adolescents are being exposed to in order to help strengthen current screen time guidelines for youth.

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While this study may have some merit in regards to adolescent behaviour, I find that I must add my own thoughts as a parent to its findings. Those of us who are intimately familiar with the video game industry know that this study will give those who blame video games and technology for many of society’s woes more fuel for their fires.

As a parent, I have never used parental controls to limit what my children saw on television, the internet or in video games when they were younger. Instead I used the oldest parental control of all time – conversation. I did not use spy ware to see where my children had gone while on the internet, and while I bought age-appropriate games for my kids when they of elementary school age, when they were nearing or in their teens, I was not quite as strict because I knew that through conversations with my children and in playing alongside them, they knew the difference of what was real and what was not.  My kids may at times shock my parents with the things they do or say, but they aren’t bad children and they aren’t out emulating the behaviours they saw portrayed in media.

Just because I let my son watch Power Rangers when he was in elementary school did not mean that he was going to go out and beat on his class mates. He knew that what he saw on the screen were stunts, and that to try the same moves on a friend in real life would hurt his friend – and him, when his friend retaliated. Instead of banning him from watching the show like his school wanted all parents to do, I had a conversation with him and we compared Power Rangers with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We talked about how getting hit with big sticks or shot by a ray gun would hurt, and how pretend can be fun, but hitting with sticks, hands or feet will hurt – and now that he’s all grown up, he every once in awhile puts on armour and hits other grown adults with swords made of rattan and wrapped in duct tape – and he knows that it can hurt, even with the armour.

There are those parents who will use the “well we had parental controls in place” as a scapegoat for not taking responsibility for the basics of parenting – interaction with their children. There are those bleeding heart Liberals who will blame television, advertising and video games for the errant behaviour of teens. We all know that new media is not the base cause of bad behaviour. It may be a catalyst, and in rare occasions the trigger, but seldom is it the root cause.  Children need to know the difference between acceptable and non-acceptable behaviour, and as parents that is part of our contract with society, a responsibility we take on by becoming parents.

Children have been pushing the envelope of risky behaviour ever since the time when there was more than one child. It’s what children do, it’s what teenagers do, it’s what young adults do, and it’s even what some aged adults do when they check items off of their bucket lists.  There also people who, no matter what you do or say, will do bad things. The important part of the equation is that as parents we give our children the tools they need to know the difference between right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, and how to live lawfully in a law and order society. Have we raised our children to have compassion for their fellow human beings and the other living things who share the planet with us? Have we raised them to have a social conscience? I can honestly answer yes to those questions, because I had and still have those conversations with my kids – and while I know they aren’t perfectly angelic examples of the modern child, we can at least talk about it.

Ninety-seven per cent of organizations in a Conference Board of Canada survey have an employee rewards and recognition program in place. Yet, fewer than half of the survey respondents believe their employees are satisfied with the organization’s rewards and recognition practices.

This Conference Board of Canada study, Making it Meaningful: Recognizing and Rewarding Employees in Canadian Organizations, found that the average annual amount spent on recognition is $175 per employee. Public sector organizations average $123 in expenditure per employee; those in the private sector spend $208 on average.

The survey was completed by 166 primarily medium- and large-sized organizations across Canada. Respondents represent a cross-section of public and private sector organizations and include all major industry categories.

“Recognition from a manager carries meaning and motivation for employees, whether or not it is accompanied by a reward,” said Karla Thorpe, Associate Director, Compensation and Industrial Relations. “Organizations should keep in mind that recognition is personal, in that what motivates one employee is different from what motivates another.”

“Organizations that take into account the preferences of their employees will see a greater impact from their investment in rewards and recognition programs.”

Responding organizations spend, on average, 0.26 per cent of base pay on rewards and recognition programs. This level of expenditure indicates that maximizing the investment should be top of mind for managers of these programs.

Rewards and recognition programs can be used to increase employee engagement and to create a positive work environment. However, organizations often struggle with how to effectively use their rewards and recognition program to connect with employees.

The most prevalent type of recognition program among survey respondents is long-service recognition, with almost all organizations rewarding employees for their tenure with the organization. The most common types of reward given to these employees include gifts, pins, and plaques. Almost half (45 per cent) of recognition spending goes to long-service recognition.

Some of the main challenges in managing rewards and recognition programs include:

• Getting employees and managers to actively participate in their programs;
• Ensuring employees are being rewarded and recognized fairly and consistently;
• Making the business case—finding the budget, showing a return on investment; and
• Administrating and communicating the program.

The full report, Making it Meaningful: Recognizing and Rewarding Employees in Canadian Organizations, is available to subscribers at www.e-library.ca.

Canadians say they don’t need extravagance to be happy. So what inspires them? It’s the simple things in life, like spending time with family and friends, experiencing the majesty of Canada’s landscape and participating in charitable acts. These are among the top activities that bring Canadians happiness, according to a new survey from Coca-Cola, aptly named the Coca-Cola Happiness Monitor.  The survey is the most comprehensive online study on happiness in Canada.

The Coca-Cola Happiness Monitor, conducted in celebration of Coca-Cola’s 125^th anniversary, canvassed 5,000 Canadians 16 years and older. Respondents were asked about all things “happiness” including social networks, active living, work and the influence of Canadian icons and landscapes in their lives. Results showed more than half of Canadians believe they are happier than the average person. The number-one contributing factor to personal happiness is family or a significant other at 71 per cent.

“For 125 years Coca-Cola has championed the values of optimism, positivity and happiness,” said Nicola Kettlitz, President, Coca-Cola Ltd.  “The Coca-Cola Happiness Monitor will help us inspire and encourage more of those happy moments that allow us to pause, refresh and experience life’s simple pleasures.”

Throughout the year, Coca-Cola will release additional results of the Coca-Cola Happiness Monitor. Further insights will include those moments, locations and times Canadians are happiest, as well as the happiest occupations in Canada, stress levels, ambitions and views on money.

Coca-Cola Happiness Monitor Highlights

Go Canada Go! Canada’s gold medal win in men’s hockey at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games was the happiest national sporting event for almost half of the country (47 per cent).  The 1972 Canada vs. USSR series was a distant second at 17 per cent. (Why wasn’t the Women’s gold medal win included in this? I feel it’s just as important for national morale as the men’s gold medal win.)

Natural wonders….Drawn to the vast landscape of astonishing natural and rugged beauty, close to one third of Canadians (32 per cent) say that the Rockies in Banff, Alberta, make them the happiest.

• The runners up? The dance of the Northern Lights, which light up 26 per cent of the population, and Niagara Falls, a popular tourist destination and source of natural happiness for 15 per cent of the country.
• The rugged Rocky Mountains are a popular source of scenic happiness amongst men and older citizens, while women and younger Canadians were more likely to cite the Northern Lights.
• Third-generation Canadians, also partial to the Northern Lights, were less likely to choose the thundering waters of Niagara Falls as the natural phenomenon that makes them the happiest.
• The Falls scored big points with Canadian parents, who cited this natural wonder most often.

Happiness is a helping hand. Whether by giving time or money, nearly half of Canadians (49 per cent) say that they feel happy when they support charitable causes, with 14 per cent saying it makes them extremely happy. Read the rest of this entry »

Wordcamp Montreal, which is taking place this July 9th and 10th at Coeur des Sciences, Agora Hydro-Québec – UQAM has put out a call for speakers. Early Bird tickets are also on sale now for $30.00.

Game Prototype Challenge has announced its development theme for April – Companion and Rising. Participants have until 11:59pm on April 25th, 2011 to submit their game prototypes. That’s one week away, with a preview event known as Screenshot Saturday taking place on – you guessed it – this coming Saturday. This is the fifth round of prototype challenges, and if the previous four are anything to go by, this one will also see some awesome entries. You can check out all of the previous entries on the challenge’s web site.

The Early Bird registration rate for Interactive Ontario’s INplay 2011 conference has been extended until April 27th. Get your tickets now for what promises to be a great event. If you are a Canadian digital media designer, don’t forget to send in your submission for the CMF Canadian Interactive Showcase, the deadline is May 2nd.

Interactive Ontario has also released the results of its recent eLearning survey. Designed to examine the challenges faced by the province’s eLearning and cultural industry sectors, the 63 page PDF report (which I am still working my way through) looks at opportunities for growth and cross-pollination among all industry genres, including books, gaming, film, television and music.

Sticking with Ontario for the moment, OMDC is now accepting applications for 2011/12 cycle of the OMDC Export Fund – Interactive Digital Media. This program provides eligible Ontario interactive digital media content producers with funding to participate in export development activities that correspond to a strategy for company growth. Primary activities supported are market event attendance and targeted sales trips that relate to the strategy.

In order to be eligible, all applications must be submitted electronically through the Online Application Portal (OAP.) Interested applicants must register their company’s corporate information here prior to commencing an application.

For technical assistance with registration or the application process send an email to OMDC. Applicants are encouraged to commence the application process well in advance of the deadline in case technical support is required. Complete Guidelines and the link to the OAP are posted on the OMDC website.

In lieu of an information session, applicants will have the opportunity to receive feedback on a first draft of their OMDC Export Fund application through a one-on-one pre-application meeting with an OMDC Consultant. Participation in pre-application meetings is not a requirement and is offered as a courtesy for applicants who may be unfamiliar with the program and/or require additional assistance. Applicants are also encouraged to contact OMDC at any time with questions regarding this program.

Pre-application meetings will take place on May 9 and 10, 2011. Please send in an email to schedule a meeting please email programs@omdc.on.ca. Once your email request has been received, OMDC will contact you to schedule a time on one of these two days.

Here is a look at Part Two of the EA Sports video series on re-launching the SSX franchise with SSX: Deadly Descents:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69cGRZ3pzbs]

Manitoba’s MTS has joined the “PVR from Anywhere” movement with the the launch of its My PVR (Personal Video Recorder) service which enables MTS Ultimate TV customers to add, change or delete their Whole Home PVR recordings using any computer with an Internet connection or from select mobile devices. This service is available free of charge to all MTS Ultimate TV Whole Home PVR subscribers.

“My PVR is a great addition to our MTS Ultimate TV service and will give customers the freedom to manage their Whole Home PVR from outside their home,” said Stan Kurtas, Vice President, Marketing, MTS. “We are always working to bring our customers the latest in technology in order to enhance, what we consider to be, the most feature rich television service in Canada.”

My PVR, which can be accessed through the customer’s MyAccount portal, offers customers the opportunity to browse through MTS’s online program guide to see what programs will be on in the next 12 days, search by title and create a shared login so anyone in the family can manage recordings over the Internet.

Independent media site rabble.ca is celebrating its 10th anniversary by launching Media Watch, an initiative committed to dispelling myths perpetrated by ideologically driven reporters and sensationalist media. “We don’t want people to be blinded by SunTV,” said rabble.ca Publisher, Kim Elliott. “Our new media watch blog will feature a media consumer Twitter feed #sunwatch and the keen eye of Alheli Picazo.”

Coordinator of Media Watch and rabble.ca blogger, Alheli Picazo, wrote an expose in 2010 entitled “Ezra Levant vs Reality – A Prelude To Fox News North” in which she thoroughly challenged Levant’s characterization of George Soros. Following this piece Soros filed suit against Levant and Sun Media, resulting in a full retraction and apology printed in The Sun’s editorial section 13 short days after Levant’s original column ran.

“With the official launch of Sun TV News – featuring none other than Levant himself – there has never been a better time to establish a media accountability service,” said Picazo.

Though it’s starting off small, Media Watch aims to cover a wide range of media, from uninformed editorials and inaccurate reporting. rabble.ca’s team of dedicated spin decoders and lie detectors won’t just point out misinformation, but will provide readers with links to, and information about, the sources from which we cite accurate information. Be it scientific data, peer reviewed research, documented fact or expert analysis, we’ll share the tools you need to further investigate the issues.

Canadian voters are invited to tune in to rabbleTV on April 18 to watch special election coverage (“for the rest of us”) with the launch of the show Real Issues. Host Trish Hennessy (researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of the Hennessy Index) will be joined by guests Canadian Auto Workers economist Jim Stanford, Greg Elmer, Director, Infoscape Research Lab and Bell Globemedia Research Chair, and Atkinson Foundation’s Olivia Nuamah. This first panel responds to the leaders’ debates and the campaign so far, and will tackle the issue of strategic voting. 

Important Reminder: The April 15th deadline for the Pixel To Product industry survey is two days away.

Whether you’re a game developer, visual designer, HTML5 coder, design wireframes, make apps, teach or engage in social media marketing – if you work in any digital media sector – please take the time to participate in the Canadian digital media workforce survey. It only take 8 minutes to complete, and the final report will be made available free of charge upon completion in May 2011. Participants are also encouraged to provide feedback on what data in the survey is important to them, essentially giving you all a hand in the final look of the survey’s report. I can’t stress enough how important this survey is to our industry. Please take the time to answer the questions, and if you already have, send the link along to someone who hasn’t. You can check out a sampling of the data already collected on the project’s site.

When Judith Chinn launched JAC GeoDesign in Nanaimo last year she had little doubt that her new 3D geo-modeling company would work towards excellence, achievement and innovation in her community. Little did she know that her community would extend beyond the rocky coast of Vancouver Island. She soon found herself involved in a number of international volunteer projects that would have her helping showcase Olympic host city London, England, recreating earthquake damaged L’Aquila, Italy, and supporting relief efforts in Saitama City, Japan. “I manage to participate on all of these projects remotely from my Nanaimo office,” says Chinn, who has become Canada’s first Google Certified Geo 3D Developer.

The Google Earth 3D geo-modeling community is a very active group of individuals and businesses. They host community 3D workshops, participate in school program, and participate in youth mentoring programs. When a colleague like British Architect, Barnaby Gunning proposed an ambitious project to build a digital 3D model of earthquake damaged L’Aquila, Italy to help stimulate discussion about its reconstruction, the 3D geo-modeling community responded by creating over 1000 3D buildings to help L’Aquila. “The images out of L’Aquila, Italy are shocking. Two years after the earthquake the city core is abandoned and citizens remain displaced,” says Chinn.

Locally, 3D geo-modeler Chinn has been busy participating in a number of youth mentoring programs like Science World’s Opening the Door Program that encourage high school students to pursue careers in science, and the National Geographic/ESRI GeoMentor Program that inspires volunteers who use geography in their work to work with teachers or youth leaders to help kids see, use and do more geography in and out of the classroom. “I try to include 3D models, 3D animation and videos into my geography and geoscience presentations. The kids love it, ” says Chinn.

Chinn recently supported the Rebuild Canada Pilot Project in Cumberland, BC. Cumberland Junior School students created 3D buildings from images of old buildings to help showcase the historical evolution of their community. The intention now is to roll out this program to other schools on Vancouver Island. Chinn also has her eye on Google’s Project Spectrum. Google created the program to give people with autism the opportunity to express their creativity and develop a life skill using Google SketchUp 3D modeling software. “Both of these projects would be excellent programs to develop on Vancouver Island,” says Chinn.

Belzberg Technologies, Inc. and Frontline Technologies Corp. have announced the closing of the acquisition of Frontline by Belzberg and the change in company name to Frontline Technologies Inc. The combined company will change its trading symbol to FLC which is expected to take place during the week of April 18, 2011.

Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, the key elements of which were approved by Belzberg shareholders at a Special Meeting held on April 11, 2011, on closing, Hoss Astaraki, President of Frontline was appointed CEO and Chairman of the combined entity and Judith Robertson resigned as President and CEO and from the board of directors of Belzberg. Resignations were also accepted from board members Robert Forbes, William Gnam and Steve Scarff. New board members, Keith Harris, Richard Ness and Deborah Robinson were appointed. The Company would like to thank the resigning directors for their years of service and contributions to the Company.

UK-based PlayJam has struck a deal with LG Electronics to bundle PlayJam’s games service with LG Smart TV for worldwide distribution via its own platform, Netcast™. The PlayJam games network will offer a rich and compelling casual gaming destination on LG Smart TV and Blu-ray players from April 2011 – but not until May in Canada, according to media spokesperson Diane Mckaye. Highly visible within LG’s own service platform Netcast™, PlayJam will use its existing world-wide billing, CRM and games servers to deliver thousands of social, casual and skill titles as well as tournaments, leader-boards, editorial, messaging and more.

LG Smart TV enables viewers instant access to the latest Hollywood releases, TV shows, games, news, weather and music. The PlayJam service will sit alongside notable entertainment offerings from Netflix, Roxio Cinema Now, Pandora and Vudu.

In addition to promoting their own titles, PlayJam is working with games developers worldwide to bring much loved and renowned titles to TV. PlayJam is a dedicated TV games publisher, delivering thousands of branded casual games to a global network spanning multiple connected TV vendors as well as digital TV operators Sky, Dish TV (US), Freeview and UPC. A pioneer in connected and Over The Top (OTT) TV games content with over 12 years’ international operating experience, PlayJam has generated over 6 billion downloads during the last 5 years.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada has announced that Mobile Advertising Revenues in Canada exceeded budgeted expectations of $18 million, and grew by 169% over 2008 numbers, to just over $31.9 million for 2009. For 2010, Canadian Mobile Advertising Revenues are forecast to grow by 60%, to $51 million.

The Top 10 Earners in IAB Canada’s Mobile Advertising Revenue Survey accounted for 90% of Total Net Revenues in 2009. Revenue concentration among the Top 10 earners has increased substantially over levels recorded during previous years, which ranged from 79% in 2006 to 81% in 2008.

In order to get an update on Ad Spend as per other Media, but also keep track of the rapidly growing Application (App) development industry; for the first time, Mobile Advertising Revenues were separated into mutually-exclusive Ad Placement/Spend and Production-Only categories within IAB Canada’s Survey.

Ad Placement/Spend was the main engine behind the 169% increase in overall Canadian Mobile Ad revenues in 2009, growing at a rate of 325% year over year, driven primarily by Mobile Messaging, with $15.65 million in Net revenue. Mobile Search also grew dramatically in 2009 — to $6.7 million — exceeding Mobile Display/Sponsorship Ad Revenues, which grew to $5.1 million.

Production-Only Ad Revenue was led by monies received for the development of Mobile Applications, which experienced a massive 1377% growth rate compared to 2008, due to the proliferation of smartphones of all makes and models, following the iphone launch in Canada in April 2008. Read the rest of this entry »