Earlier this month the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) asks Canadians to show off their .CA website in their Showusyour.ca video contest.
The deadline to enter has now passed, CIRA has shortlisted the finalists, and now they need your help picking the winners.
The grand prize winner will receive a MacBook Pro and will be featured in a future .CA marketing campaign - a pretty big deal considering CIRA's National marketing budget. As well as the grand prize, the first runner-up will receive a 64GB iPod touch, and the second runner-up will receive a Flip UltraHD camcorder.
Voting closes on March 26th, so head over to Showusyour.ca to vote today.
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is a not for profit Canadian corporation that is responsible for operating the dot-ca Internet... [more]
In a world where we find our personal privacy slipping away First Orion PrivacyStar’s mobile app allows people to take control.
Available for Blackberry, the simple app allows users to block all unwanted calls, ID unknown callers using their caller lookup and makes is simple to report those annoying and unwanted telemarketing violations with all the information needed for the law and regulatory authorities to take action. This is the first and only app available to provide this type of functionality regarding telemarketing calls and it is now available through MobiHand in Canada.
The app became available a few weeks ago and has already seen significant growth in their user base. In the digital world where people are giving away their privacy like never before this app allows you to take some of it back.
First Orion CEO Jeff Stalnaker reports that their data has shown that people are using the app to identify unknown callers with the caller look feature and then they can choose to block the caller or add them to their address book.
What makes this product unique is how it handles telemarketing calls. It is the only application that gets all the information needed for the authorities to investigate. The application also has a personalized web portal that can help you to manage your blocked caller list and provide additional details on potential violations while helping you to manage your PrivacyStar account.
Their partnership with MobiHand will allow Blackberry users in the US and Canada to tap into the power of this app. The PrivacyStar app is free for the first 30 days, after the trial the service is available for USD $2.99 a month. In addition to getting the app through MobiHand, it is also available at the PrivacyStar website, through Blackberry App World or by texting “myprivacy” to 74700.
The following is a guest post from Trevor Doerksen, CEO of Calgary's Mobovivo - a digital media company focused on the challenges Broadcast and Media companies face in marketing and delivering premium content to audiences on alternative platforms.
The new Canada Media Fund, to launch the last week of March, is driving television funding requirements towards alternative-to-broadcast distribution. A core mission of the fund is to support convergence between new and old media. So, what is alternative distribution anyway?
Since the alternative-to-broadcast distribution requirement was announced by the Canadian Heritage Minister a year ago, comprehensive industry consultation has taken place and a new language around television and storytelling has emerged.
Trying to make sense of the requirement, the TV industry has begun using words and phrases like: platform, device, streaming, download, microsite, entitlements, social engagement, user-generated content, app, monetization, white-label, transcoding, mobisode, interactive and so on.
And it seems nobody can decide on common terms. No easy task, as even Apple's product branding is confusing – “is that an iPod, a Touch, or a Classic?” And it's getting more difficult. Consider the iPad – it seems to be a cross between a laptop, e-reader, iPod Touch (not the iPod Classic) and iPhone without the phone.
Of course, we know stories are distributed and communicated. Well scripted, high quality, professionally produced stories are distributed - people will always pay for access to compelling stories. Casual, brief, shocking, funny, emotional stories are communicated - and audiences will pay for access to be part of the communication.
The iPod, iPad and iPhone are, of course, one (or five) alternative-to-broadcast distribution opportunities for the television producer. One (or five) of how many? Which will qualify under new guidelines? Which are profitable? What about rights, copyright and territories? Do distribution windows apply? Where is all the advertising money? Do people pay for content? What about streaming on Facebook - is that an alternative-to-broadcast strategy? This is what an industry undergoing significant change sounds like.
Then of course, there are online services or alternative distribution platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube - three of the most popular websites in the world. These sites have proven to be powerful communication tools, and can't be overlooked as key marketing tools. However, they are unproven when it comes to the sustainable distribution of premium content. Recognizing the difference between successful creative marketing tools and sustainable distribution strategies is very important.
When it comes to distribution of stories, nothing fundamentally has changed. Consumers purchase access to media. People pay for cable, magazines, newspapers and music - no matter the format. This has been the case since free over-the-air broadcast was replaced by cable and VHS was replaced by DVD, then Blue-Ray, then digital download.
So perhaps then, nothing is new. Well, not quite. There are a lot of options that fragment the marketplace and our lives. Households don't have one record player or television. They have devices in every room and in their pockets. This is not new, just more fragmented.
As for creative marketing strategies, many musicians and producers have learned that engaging community and "being interactive" is hard work. Managing communities on YouTube, mySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and a website seems like as much work as directing a feature film - and it never ends.
Understanding the difference between technologies suited for distribution and technologies suited for marketing is key to taking advantage of fragmentation and disruption in the marketplace.
To understand alternative-to-broadcast distribution, producers and broadcasters need go no further than file-sharing tools to determine which distribution formats are popular. They will realize that there is no illegal trade in webisodes. Short clips may be there, but nothing compared to the popularity of full programs. They will see that both streaming and downloading premium movies and TV shows are extremely popular. They will notice there are several hundred programs to transcode videos from one device or format to another. In addition, they will notice that not only is a lot of this illegal, it is extremely complicated to search, download, transcode, and sync a video to your device. Despite the complications, doing so is extremely popular.
As an industry, we must make it easier, not harder, to purchase access to media for particular devices and favourite mobile and web destinations. This is what the Canada Media Fund should help the industry achieve.
A creative marketing strategy requires that television producers continue to do what they have always done - give people something to talk about. They need to engage with community by seeding the conversation with their shows, ideas, themes, experts, actors, and so on in a sustainable way. This is only possible if producers embrace the communications power of innovative new technologies, and provide the means for audiences to join conversations about their stories. Communications and marketing drive distribution and distribution feeds the overall strategy towards sustainability. Winning creative marketing strategies recognize that the human desire to communicate is fundamental.
The Canada Media Fund will ask the industry for proposals that bring great made-in-Canada stories to the world, supported by sustainable and innovative made-in-Canada solutions for marketing and distribution. Creative marketing plans leverage cost effective and powerful communications, social networking, and user-generated content tactics. And the alternative-to-broadcast distribution plan earns money by taking advantage of the numerous ways people choose to view TV.
Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Parliament through the Department of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montréal, Telefilm... [more]
Earlier this week PayPal Canada GM Darrell MacMullin blogged about their new iPhone App that lets Canadians send money for free. With the PayPal Send Money application for iPhone, Canadians can now pull out their phone instead of their wallet when they want to send or receive money.
If you are like me, whenever you leave your house you check to make sure you have three things – your keys, your wallet and your phone. With the launch of our next generation Send Money application, PayPal took one step closer to a future where your phone will become your wallet.
We’ve also added some unique and useful features that will make Send Money one of your favourite apps. Send Money features integrated Bump technology which lets two iPhone users transfer money by bumping their phones against each other. Split Check helps you divvy up a restaurant bill and then request as many as 20 people chip in their share. Collect Money helps people remind their friends to square up for group gifts, team dues or concert tickets.
The new PayPal iPhone App is free at the iTunes Store.
Earlier this week Calgary's Mob4Hire released a first look at the results of their Global Wireless Satisfaction Survey conducted in collaboration with Business Over Broadway in February of this year.
The unprecedented 111 country survey analyzes the impact of mobile apps on operator’s churn - # of new customers acquired minus # of existing customers lost - as well as many dimensions of the app ecosystem as it relates to mobile user behavior and satisfaction.
This Mob4Hire research results demonstrate the importance of mobile apps to today's sophisticated mobile phone users with 75% of respondents reporting that mobile apps are important when choosing their new operator.
While Mob4Hire's research indicates that the dimensions of wireless coverage and service are still the MOST important factor when choosing their new operator, the importance of mobile apps are a close second and will no doubt raise the bar for operators.
Kudos to Mob4Hire for assembling this data - it demonstrates a great use of their community of more than 40,000 people in 146 countries on 364 network operators.
Mob4Hire has made the research available free of charge on this 8-page report on Slideshare.
Mob4hire is crowdsourced mobile application testing. [more]
This blog post is part of a series about Coworking around North America & is sponsored by The Network Hub. To learn more about The Network Hub, visit www.thenetworkhub.ca.
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The future of work is evolving. The recent economic downturn has encouraged the growth of independent knowledge workers and entrepreneurs willing to strike it out on their own. This group of workers, armed with their laptops, smart phones, and web apps, can work from their homes or coffee shops. However, an alternative option has been gaining popularity amongst this group over the past few years. Referred to as ‘Coworking’, it’s a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents. Pioneered in San Francisco by the Hat Factory and Citizen Space, these places provide a space for web workers, consultants, freelancers and entrepreneurs to work independently, together. In the coming weeks, we will be highlighting a few spaces that have embraced this philosophy and its new breed of workers.
A perfect example would be Rachel Young and Wayne Lee. Seven years ago they were freelancing out of cafes with friends and local writers for, what they called, ‘creative’ sessions hoping to get out of the isolation and rid the distractions of working from home. Realizing that they were building the same foundations for a business, they recently launched Camaraderie, a coworking facility located in Toronto.
"Wayne knew firsthand the value of co-working, so we decided to open a space we could both work from and open it up to the community,” Rachel says, “because cafes have their own set of issues. "There's the expectation to purchase something every hour so it's not considered loitering, the noise of the coffee grinder whirling mixed in with the music in the background, and to face the dilemma of what to do with your laptop when nature calls.” And when you're working from home, "sometimes the video games call too strongly or the bed is too comfortable, says Wayne, "regardless, isolation is still an issue any freelancer has to deal with. While it can be great to focus, we are still human and still need some sort of social interaction to maintain balance.”
Based on years of facing these challenges, the two made sure their space provided a perfect harmony of seclusion to find focus and communication for networking. At coworking spaces, you can expect to meet a diverse community of outgoing entrepreneurs and freelancers with many opportunities to participate in open source projects. “It's a productive work environment where one could hold client meetings, leave their laptop when they run out for lunch, and drink unlimited coffee or tea. Most things that an entrepreneur or freelancer would need is already here, plus more. All they need to do is walk in with their work implements, take a seat, and get going.”
Camaraderie’s large workspace includes two meeting rooms and a communal kitchen surrounded by white walls and dark floors. Adding to that, tenants are welcomed to a stunning view of a beautiful park right by the building. Transportation is also made easy as the nearest subway station is in walking distance. Rachel and Wayne plan to get a transit pass discount program for their tenants and even want to work on healthcare coverage for their full time members!
Camaraderie truly presents a great relaxed, organized, idea-driven, resource-sharing workspace by integrating the basics of a cafe in a functional environment so lonesome entrepreneurs and freelancers are able to mix and share ideas to progress and gain… camaraderie.
The Network Hub provides various options to meet different working styles, from private offices, coworking, shared work space, meeting rooms, as... [more]
Imagine a shared office space with the best elements of café culture and a productive, functional work environment that is affordable for... [more]
Whether Canada owned the podium or not, one thing is clear: The Olympic Consortium, headed up by CTV, owned the Olympics. Over the course of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, over 28 million videos were viewed and more than 215 million pages were viewed on CTVOlympics.ca and RDSolympiques.ca.
According to their press release, the 28 million+ videos totaled more than 7 million hours of video consumption. Furthermore, more than 12 million unique visitors viewed the more than 215 million pages.
Want some more stats? Check these out:
Alan Marcovici is the Vice President of Digital Media and Research for the Consortium:
These are staggering numbers. As proven by the average length of online viewers, the Consortium set a benchmark for what can be achieved through a quality video experience online. Canadians were given choice as to how, when and where they wanted to experience the Games, and we’re ecstatic they responded with such enthusiasm.
What are your thoughts on these Olympic games? How did you consume them? Are you also watching the Paralympics?
With all the talk of Canadian brain drain to the United States and the lack of a strong tech startup ecosystem in Canada, it's great to hear about companies like San Francisco-born A Thinking Ape moving the opposite way.
Founded by three twenty-something Canadians who met in the Bay Area, A Thinking Ape relocated to Vancouver in January with the blessing of their three Silicon Valley Angels. A Thinking Ape is "creating the future of social gaming experiences online" and their first title is the popular Kingdoms at War massively multiplayer online game.
Co-founders Kenshi Arasaki, Wilkins Chung, and Eric Diep are excellent examples of what happens when you don't make it easy for talented entrepreneurs to move to a country, start new businesses, and ultimately create jobs.
Arasaki and Chung originally arrived in the Bay Area to work together on Y Combinator-funded Chatterous and met Diep along the way - it's amazing how Canadians always seem to find their fellow countrymen when working abroad.
While Diep's claim to fame is creating the first Facebook App (Quizzes), his recent hassles in trying to remain in the United States are well documented. He was profiled in a video called GeeksOnaPlane: A Tale of Two Erics along with Eric Ries talking about the Startup Founders' Movement.
So what's next for Vancouver's newest social gaming company?
A Thinking Ape is working with Mochi Media and their new social gaming platform that will allow them to build social features into Kingdoms at War and future gaming properties.
Arasaki sees Vancouver as the ideal place to start-up in the social gaming space. He believes that while Vancouver is deep in engineering and programming talent, the convergence of games and social platforms has yet to heat up competition locally for that talent.
And, of course, they're very eager to take advantage of all the government programs that Canada has to offer.
If you're passionate about creating amazing software and working on a team of like-minded visionaries at an early stage startup, A Thinking Ape is currently hiring Engineers.
A Thinking Ape, creators of the popular Kingdoms at War massively multiplayer online game, is a company of young technology entrepreneurs based in... [more]
As a professional in the technology or social media space, chances are that you are an independent contractor or are considered a small business owner.
A new online business solution is now available to those of you whose most dreaded job is accounting and bookkeeping: Wave Accounting.
Kirk Simpson is the President and Co-Founder of Wave Accounting:
There are 1.8 million small business owners in Canada with less than five employees. We’ve designed an accounting tool that will help them understand and take control of their financial management in an easy and straightforward way. Wave Accounting is specifically designed for the business owner and not for an accountant or bookkeeper. We want to encourage business owners to give up their spreadsheets and really take charge of their business.
Unlike many desktop applications, Wave Accounting is web-based. As a result, Wave Accounting offers the benefit of being able to enter data from anywhere and at any time from any computer. An added feature allows multiple users to collaborate on the same account, entering figures and conferring on reports.
For a free 30-day test drive of Wave Accounting please visit their site at www.waveaccounting.com.
Wave Accounting is aimed at small business owners who hate doing accounting. It’s been designed to be easy and to give business owners a view of... [more]
In the past, Chris Taylor has been mistakenly referred to as Chris Anderson, which although is not a cardinal sin (he suffers fools gladly), it does make the conversation a little bit more awkward for him to relate some of his rich experiences.
After all, not many people can claim to have rubbed shoulders with Seth Godin, or have crushed goals and grapes (in that order) with Gary Vaynerchuk, that too, in personal, private face-to-face interviews. And that's only a start.
As the President and Co-Founder of Toronto's Goose Educational Media, Chris has managed to funnel his love for business literature into building up a company, and a personal brand, that's dedicated to helping businesses accelerate their personal development and tweak business processes towards higher grades of efficiency.
He ploughs through some of the leading business and personal development books released on the market, gleans the core messages from them, and then works on them to turn them into actionable insights for businesses to adopt. Using this knowledge, and his site, he then offers consultancy services to businesses that want to push themselves towards more efficient operational activities.
I recently got in touch with Chris - long enough for me to fire 5 questions at him.
As the President and Co-Founder of Goose EMI, you regularly generate synopses of influential business books, and interview key players and thought leaders in the business and marketing disciplines - how has being in regular contact with these influential figures shaped your worldview?
Speaking and working with some of the big name authors of our time is inspiring, but not in the way I'd originally assumed it would be. Getting to spend some time with these people reminds me constantly how we're all human - we all have fears, concerns and aspirations. The people who rise to the top are those who are crystal clear in their objectives and push through the fear. Since starting "The Goose", I've seen countless examples of Zig Ziglar's quote, "You can have anything in life if you help enough people get what they want." Success truly goes to those who are passionate enough about their cause to help others around them whenever they can. I strive to live that philosophy every day.
Are there any sources of inspiration or key figures who have significantly influenced both your personal and professional lives? How?
Seth Godin has been a hero of mine since I read Tribes 2 years ago. His approach to life is one that I aspire to emulate as much and as often as I can. One of the biggest things I picked up from him during our time together in January {link to interview} was the fact that he spends a solid portion of his day not doing; not responding or developing. Instead, he consciously chooses to disengage from his work and look at it with perspective and an inquisitive mind. His work, as a result, is always poignant and built with laser focus. I have a lot of respect for that ability and willingness to constantly look for ways to improve the effectiveness of his message.
You attended the Art of Marketing conference a few weeks ago, were you introduced to any new insight and thought-processes that were new to you, but were logical and actionable enough to stick with you immediately? How do you plan to proceed with them?
As with all the workshops I attend, books I read and authors I speak with, I find the sheer volume of potentially useful information can be enough to put us in a state of "analysis paralysis". My #1 tip to everyone (myself included) is to takeone message from each encounter and find a way to make it actionable today. It's the small, 1% changes that, over time, can completely rework the way we interact with the world around us. Think about it - if you were to make one small behavioral or attitudinal change every week, you could effectively reinvent the way you interact with the world over the course of a year. I went on that mission in 2008 and it's held me in good stead.
Are there any companies you can cite that have implemented your business insights successfully and rewired their processes for the better?
I get emails regularly from Goose readers who have found ways to increase their enjoyment, performance or confidence in their jobs and lives due to our free weekly articles. It's an honor to be able to take material from leading thinkers, make it actionable (and bite sized) and then hear of real world success from people who have taking the initiative to change their habits.
On your website, you retrace the inspiration that led you to start Goose EMI - what are your future plans for it? Where do you see your business going in the next 3-5 years? Beyond that?
My goal with the Goose has always been to make actionable the core messages from leading business and personal development books. There are some great books out there, but not all of us have time to read them. If I can distill an actionable takeaway that impacts those who might not otherwise have had a chance to find it themselves, I'm satisfied.
I do want to explore new mediums moving into the future. We recently launched the "From the Horse's Mouth" author interview series, where we're travelling around North America and video-interviewing leading authors. I'd like to continue to grow and expand that program. These are some very smart people, and their books - however great - are mere snapshots of their ideas. I'd like to create something less static and more fluid moving forward.
We're also (very soon) introducing a program that will allow team leaders to quickly and easily share (and make actionable) the messages from the Goose articles with their team members. We're calling it InFlight Leadership - employee engagement on the fly, and it will provide people who want to be strong leaders with the tools to do so.
Goose EMI is a company dedicated to simplifying and making actionable the core messages from leading business and personal development books. [more]
