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RTNDA Canada – The Association of Electronic Journalists – has voted to change the name of the organization to adapt to the changes in the profession. In a vote at the Annual General Meeting at the National conference being held this weekend in Halifax, the membership agreed to change the acronym to include the word “Digital”. For the last 49 years, the acronym was short for Radio-Television News Directors Association. That will soon change to RTDNA, or Radio-Television Digital News Association – The Association of Electronic Journalists.

“Flipping those two letters, from “News Directors” to “Digital News” makes us more inclusive,” said President Andy LeBlanc. “Whether we are the news director, a reporter, a student, or an educator, we are all striving to achieve the same outcome: superb electronic journalism. Digital technology means we are no longer limited to radio and television – electronic journalists are also online.”

In addition to the name change, the membership amended articles in the Association Constitution to make all practicing electronic journalists voting members. Previously, only members who were news directors and news managers were eligible to vote on Association matters.

Amendments were also made to the Code of Ethics to reflect the technology shifts that have affected electronic journalism. Many of the changes amend “broadcast” to “electronic” and other modifications in the language acknowledge that news is delivered online and mobile in addition to television and radio, and that the equipment used is now not only for broadcast. “These amendments are an adaptation to the digital age,” said LeBlanc. “The Code remains the industry standard for electronic journalism – and all the principles of ethical journalism remain.”

Members are attending the annual national conference in Halifax this weekend, concluding tonight evening with the National Awards Gala.

The latest research from custom research company TNS Global, a division of WPP, shows that Canadians are among the most tech hungry and savvy in the world – especially when it comes to latest smartphones and tablets – with men driving this trend.

Commenting on the report findings, Ron Caughlin, Vice President, TNS Canada, said: “TNS’ Mobile Life 2011 survey rings loud and clear: Canadians are leaders when it comes to adapting latest technologies. As part of this, we’re seeing a real mind-shift: it’s no longer what my technology does – it’s what I can do with my technology. We’re past the days of using mobiles to merely text or even email – smartphones are providing us with the ability to seamlessly connect our friends, family and even finances.”

TNS’s Mobile Life 2011 survey is the largest ever global research project into today’s mobile consumer and includes insights from 34,000 respondents globally, including more than 1,000 Canadians. The survey reveals that an overwhelming 41% of Canadians have a smartphone – significantly higher than the global market average of 28% – with this trend being driven by 22 – 30 year old Canadian men.

Interestingly, the number of Canadians accessing social networking sites on mobile rose from 6% in 2010 to 24% this year. When asked how they use their social networks on their handsets, a majority (63%) of Canadians said they check friends’ status or update their own; 62% send messages to friends and 56% check their own inbox. Although only 8% currently use their social networking app on their mobile to check-in their location, 20% would like to be able to do this in the future.

As Canadians look to rely on their mobiles for more complex functions, the ‘brand’ is no longer as important. While 37% of respondents were loyal to their network brand in 2010, this dropped to 28% in 2011. In turn, consumers’ attention turned to what ‘content’ their phone provides – such as Facebook and YouTube programs – as interest in content grew from 24% in 2010 to 36% in 2011.

The Mobile Life 2011 study shows that Canadians have huge interest in the ‘mobile wallet’. While 10% of Canadians have already used a mobile wallet, 4 in 10 are interested in using their cell phone as a credit card or debit card in the future.

In addition, 17% of Canadians want to be able to pay for items in shops, restaurants and bars, meanwhile a further 14% want to pay for water, power or rates bills, and even 8% said they’d be willing to pay rent or mortgage payments with their mobile. Once again, 16-40 year old Canadian men are driving this trend.

TNS’ data also shows while Canadians paid an average $129 (CND) for their current mobile phone, they are prepared to fork-out $150 (CND) for their next handset. What’s more, men are even willing to pay $169 for their next mobile – $30 more than women. Read the rest of this entry »

The wireless rankings released today by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) are based on a limited sample of wireless providers and plans from each of the profiled countries. Although the OECD’s revised methodology better captures the variety of mobile usage patterns in different countries, the rankings should still not be considered representative of International wireless costs.

Therefore, if using the OECD rankings as part of an overall comparison of international wireless markets, the following limitations must be considered:

• The OECD rankings typically only consider a couple of wireless plans from two different carriers – Canada’s complete OECD wireless price ranking across six different calling profiles is based on fees from only four different wireless plans (two each from Bell and Rogers).
• The OECD compares post-paid, pre-paid and ‘friends and family’ plans to develop rankings within a single calling profile.
• The OECD rankings do not recognize that nearly half of the wireless subscribers in the OECD countries outside of North America pay for more than one mobile plan.
• The OECD rankings do not measure the affordability of wireless service by considering average incomes in each of the profiled countries.

Typical Canadian mobile calling patterns are also not reflected in the OECD calculations. In fact, the OECD calling profiles closest to the average Canadian cell phone usage profile are based on 187 less, or 194 more, minutes-of use per month than the average Canadian usage. Consequently, Canada ranks as having above-average wireless costs in four of the OECD’s six Calls Baskets.

International wireless cost comparisons that address the omissions of the OECD rankings reveal that Canada’s average per-minute wireless costs are in reality $0.02 below the international average, 11^th– lowest of all OECD countries. Also, as a percentage of average income, Canadian’s pay 10 per cent less for wireless voice service than the international average and 12 per cent less for wireless (voice and data) service overall.

Nordicity’s International Wireless Market Comparison (PDF) report analyzes other key wireless market conditions. In doing so, it reveals that Canada has the least densely subscribed network of any developed wireless market with only 12 subscribers for every square kilometre of coverage. This density compares with 37 subscribers per square kilometre in the United States and 312 subscribers per square kilometre in the United Kingdom.

Canada is now served by three national wireless providers and six regional providers, resulting in one of the most competitive market structures of any developed wireless market. In fact, Canada is one of only six OECD countries where the two leading providers serve fewer than 70 per cent of all subscribers and the top three providers serve less than 95 per cent of all subscribers.

Hatch Inc., a North Carolina provider of classroom technology innovations for early learning and SMART Technologies Inc. have announced the creation of CoreFocus by Hatch^TM. The content solution, designed to work within SMART Notebook™ collaborative learning software, includes more than 2,500 research-based math and literacy activities for kindergarten and first grade and is aligned with the new U.S. national Common Core State Standards.

The robust set of activities will assist teachers in integrating SMART Board interactive whiteboards into their daily lesson plans and curriculum and also provide a content management system for all of their existing interactive whiteboard content. Early learning experts designed CoreFocus by Hatch to provide critical math and literacy skill development for young learners.

“Hatch is excited to work alongside SMART Technologies to develop a comprehensive content solution that supports teachers in accessing research-based math and literacy activities, with a focus on Common Core State Standards for kindergarten and first grade. The team who developed the TeachSmart® Learning System, the first interactive whiteboard solution proven to impact math and literacy outcomes for early education, led the development of CoreFocus. This product will have a definite impact on the development of children and provide teachers with proven strategies for success,” said Hatch President Ginny Norton.

“We are pleased to enter into a new phase of our relationship with Hatch, collaborating with their research and development experts in the creation of standards-based activities for SMART Board interactive whiteboards that educators can easily integrate into their curriculum,” said SMART Products Vice President Linda Thomas. “CoreFocus by Hatch supports our commitment to meet the needs of educators with innovative products and services to further engage their students with high quality content made in SMART Notebook software and fully aligned to Common Core State Standards.”

Ontario document management company MES Hybrid Document Systems has received a Controlled Goods Certification allowing them to handle and convert documentation relating to controlled goods and ensures the highest level of security while handling this information.

Controlled Goods Certification also ensures that MES Hybrid Document Systems complies with the Controlled Goods Program, a Canadian industrial security program that helps strengthen national defense trade controls and prevents the proliferation of strategic and tactical assets including military equipment, weapons, communications equipment and global positioning systems and related intellectual property.

“MES Hybrid Document Systems’ Controlled Goods Certification ensures the highest level of security of controlled goods and related technology by regulating possession, examination and transfer within Canada,” said Kevin D’Arcy, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of MES Hybrid Document Systems. “In addition to ensuring a high level of security, this certification allows controlled goods organizations to consolidate all their document management services with us as opposed to outsourcing a portion of their document management services and managing controlled goods information internally.”

MES Hybrid Document Systems Inc. has been successfully supplying and supporting document scanning solutions in public and private organizations across Canada since 1971. MES provides document management solutions to improve business processes, reduce paper-based tasks and focus key knowledge workers.

Security and compliance solutions for email and documents provider TITUS has been selected as a finalist for the Microsoft Public Sector – Public Safety and National Security Partner of the Year Award.

“Together, Microsoft and TITUS provide joint solutions that enable public sector and national security customers worldwide to classify, protect and securely share their data,” said Tim Upton, President and CEO of TITUS. “To be recognized among the top finalists of Microsoft’s Public Safety and National Security Partners validates the need for classification and data loss prevention solutions in this sector and the importance of our ongoing relationship with Microsoft.”

Awards were presented in multiple categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 3,000 entrants worldwide. The Public Sector – Public Safety and National Security Partner of the Year Award honors partners who have exhibited excellence in providing innovative and unique services or solutions based on Microsoft technologies to public safety and national security customers. This award recognizes TITUS for demonstrating industry knowledge and expertise, as well as consistent, high-quality, predictable service or solutions to public safety and national security customers. This partner also has shown business leadership and success through strong growth in new customer additions and revenue. Read the rest of this entry »

In May 2008, the Greenland Group announced that important funding had been allocated by Canada’s National Research Council – IRAP to assist with further developing the CANWET (or CAnadian Nutrient and Water Evaluation Tool) modelling software. This week, CANWET-4 was launched in Newmarket, ON at the offices of the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority and also with representatives from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and local Municipalities.

Three years ago, GREENLAND^® developed an earlier model version that was later used for source water protection, assimilative capacity, nutrient management and water allocation projects. CANWET was also used last year by the Government of Ontario to prepare the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. The total public (research) and private sectors investment to complete CANWET-4 was over $600,000 and included one of the largest grants from the National Research Council – IRAP initiative.

CANWET-4 is a continuous, GIS-based software suite to inform decision making around river basin and watershed management; water supply and waste water treatment infrastructure; food security; and, climate change adaptation. Its ability to quickly and accurately estimate daily water balance, nutrient, erosion sediment, and bacteria loadings from GIS input data allows CANWET-4 to serve as a powerful decision support system. This latest release of CANWET is VB.Net database-driven and web-aware, and features an integrated open source GIS environment. Its relative ease of use and ability to take advantage of commonly available spatial data makes it a solid choice over other water quantity and quality computer models. In addition to the integration of current watershed and climate change science from renowned researchers at the University of Guelph and Penn State University, CANWET-4 also incorporates a large suite of Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) for assessing proposed reductions in phosphorous, nitrogen, sediment, and animal coliforms from rural and urban lands. Multiple practices can be added in parallel or in series. CANWET-4 also calculates costs for typical BMP applications based on unit-costing. The completion of CANWET-4 was important for GREENLAND^® to support other Canadian and U.S. collaborations now underway about the Lake Winnipeg, Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay Basins.

“I am extremely pleased with the completion of CANWET-4 and sincerely thank Canada’s NRC-IRAP for its funding assistance over the past few years,” says R. Mark Palmer, the President of GREENLAND^{®. “}Our P3 completion announcement, affirms the commitment of the Canadian Government for environmental research, as well as lake and river basin management programs. The development of CANWET-4 also highlights our niche Mission Statement that recognizes the environment first while complying with best available science and proven technologies.”

Toon Boom Animation Inc. has announced that Flip Boom Classic for K-6 students and its respective curricula, are now compatible with the SMART Board™ 600 series interactive whiteboard. Compatibility with the SMART Board 800 series will be completed in time for the International Society for Technology in Education Conference, to be held in Philadelphia from June 26-29, 2011. Demonstrations will be given at Booth 1403 during the conference.

Porting Toon Boom’s entry-level educational product to SMART Board interactive whiteboards is a natural step towards offering engaging creative applications on collaborative and interactive learning devices. Students will be able to create and export finished files for easy inclusion in the teaching resources of SMART Notebook collaborative learning software.

“Having Toon Boom products integrate with SMART Board interactive whiteboards raises the creative learning and visual communication potential,” says Linda Thomas, Vice-President, Products, SMART Technologies. “The combination of these products will create a more dynamic and stimulating classroom environment by getting students truly involved in lesson activities.”

“All our award-winning software applications and curricula targeted for K-12 are a perfect fit for SMART Board interactive whiteboards, which will surely make cross-curricular learning a whole new experience,” states Joan Vogelesang, President and Chief Executive Officer at Toon Boom Animation Inc.

In conjunction with this announcement, Toon Boom is launching the Flip Boom Classic Teacher Kit for SMART Boards, which includes a license of Flip Boom Classic as well as its respective curricula for $149.99. A Classroom lab license is also available for $499.99. Flip Boom Classic runs on MAC and PC.

Annex Pro will be hosting a free seminar session along with Atempo titled Managing Digital Content Throughout Your Workflow with Backup and Archive. This July 7th evening session will be held at the Annex Pro office on Dunlevy in Vancouver, and will teach attendees how to:

• Preserve and protect your digital content throughout the workflow
• Optimize your SAN or NAS storage by rolling out a low cost disk or tape archive
• Create a content archive that’s easily accessible to all your users
• Reduce clutter in shared work areas through automatic archiving
• Manage your content’s metadata for more effective search and retrieval

This event is recommended for:

• Creative or IT professionals who manage digital content and/or the storage systems supporting creative workflows
• Anyone looking for a better way to control storage growth, especially HD, 3D and stereoscopic
• Anyone wanting to simplify content reuse and monetize their existing content

The doors will open for registration, refreshments and networking at 5:30pm, with the speaker session running from 6pm to 7pm.

ComplyWorks is pleased to announce the release of ComplyWorks Management System 3.9. The new release includes multilingual capabilities, with English and French user interfaces available initially.

With the release of ComplyWorks Management System (CMS) 3.9, ComplyWorks improves its ability to provide contractor and supplier management to global industries. CMS is currently used on three continents in a wide variety of industries to conduct due diligence, improve risk mitigation and increase performance of employees, contractors and suppliers in relation to productivity, safety, health, environmental, financial and other indicators.

The multilingual capabilities of CMS 3.9 will allow user interfaces to be added in an unlimited number of languages as ComplyWorks and its customers enter new regions and countries. Currently, end-users can choose between English and French user interfaces.

“Contractor and supplier management is a global issue, and we’re providing global solutions,” says Cal Fairbanks, President and CEO of ComplyWorks Ltd. “The multilingual features of CMS 3.9 are a direct result of consulting with our customers, listening to what they need to manage contractors and suppliers around the globe, and meeting those needs. This release is an example of how ComplyWorks provides solutions that are relevant to our customers, their compliance requirements, the language they do business in, and the countries in which they operate. ”

The previous version of the CMS, 3.8.2, was released in January 2011 and included new Multiple-Level Compliance capabilities that are in use by 100% of CMS customers. CMS 3.8.2 also included significant enhancements to the TrackWorks tool that have resulted in its rapid adoption by ComplyWorks customers.