In order to compliment the focus of our fourth annual Canada 3.0 Digital Media Forum on April 24th and 25th 2012, national tour delegates have discussed and debated the necessary resources and support required to achieve the following key objectives:

•       Connectivity for Canadians of any financial status and geographic location;
•       Productivity improvements through the adoption of digital media technologies and the infrastructure to support it;
•       Mobilizing digital Content, from ensuring Canadian content is accessible to realizing commercialization opportunities created through content development or management; and
•       Capital, from the digital skills and talent required to meet these rapidly evolving needs, to the access to capital and investments required for technology and business growth.

Even though each Canadian region has its own specific needs, the issue of connectivity has remained prevalent in every CDMN digital media workshop held to date. Connectivity can improve local access to content and information, and enhance collaboration and sharing of resources. But it’s not possible without the right infrastructure in place to facilitate broadband internet access.

Likewise, the need for a national digital strategy continues to be more and more important as we uncover the challenges faced in each region. In order to unite the North with the rest of the nation, and ensure that the ability to obtain digital media skills and access to content, capital and infrastructure is universal, we need to develop a digital plan of action now, more than ever.

Below is a quick recap of what has been discussed at each of the CDMN National Tour workshops to date.

Fredericton, New Brunswick – November 2011
A half-day of digital media strategy workshops focused on how to grow the appreciation and understanding of the ICT and digital media sector in New Brunswick – as it relates to building a national digital strategy. Delegates also discussed ways to close the significant productivity gap between New Brunswick and other national and international jurisdictions. For a full summary of the discussions that took place in Fredericton, download the report.

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario – January 26^th, 2012
At these workshops, delegates again emphasized the need for a consolidated national digital strategy, an improvement in the way that SMEs collaborate and connect via a regional and national network, and a desire to educate regional businesses on how to use social media effectively.  For a full summary of the discussions that took place in Niagara-On-The-Lake, download the report.

Ottawa, Ontario - February 1^st, 2012
At the Northern Canada digital media strategy workshops, delegates emphasized the need to overcome constraints specific to our Northern broadband infrastructure, develop stronger bandwidth capabilities, facilitate e-commerce and e-readiness, and support digital strategies for Northern health care. For a full summary of the discussions that took place in Ottawa, download the report.

We will continue to share the reports from each regional workshop as they become available. As always, we welcome your comments and ideas on how we can accelerate the growth of Canada’s digital economy.

]]> http://www.cdmn.ca/cdmn-national-tour-reports-for-fredericton-niagara-on-the-lake-and-ottawa/feed/ 0 http://www.cdmn.ca/graduating-communitech-startup-formulating-change-inc-revolutionizes-charitable-giving/ http://www.cdmn.ca/graduating-communitech-startup-formulating-change-inc-revolutionizes-charitable-giving/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:20:36 +0000 Andrea Wahbe http://www.cdmn.ca/?p=3942 After joining the Communitech Venture Services program just 16 months ago, Waterloo region startup Formulating Change Inc. (FCI) and their game changing service called ChangeIt^® is poised for rapid expansion and growth. The company is already creating new jobs for the region – with nine team members on staff, and plans under way to hire another employee by the end of the month. FCI also employs a number of part-time consultants and developers who help them on special projects off site. This startup is a vibrant example of how Canada’s digital media sector is thriving.

The ChangeIt® team is grateful to many people from CDMN node Communitech who gave their time, advice and resources to help FCI grow from the bottom-up, and commercialize in Canada. “In general, we’ve found that people in the Waterloo region are extremely collaborative and supportive of the local startup ecosystem,” says Beaton.

The startup was recently selected as a runner-up in the 2011 Innotribe $100K Start-up Challenge to find the world’s most innovative banking products, a competition that included hundreds of entries from 19 different countries. The company’s mission is to revolutionize charitable giving by incubating philanthropy among the masses.

ChangeIt® is an automated charitable giving program that provides cardholders with a simple and secure way to donate small amounts of Virtual Change® to their favourite charitable causes with every debit and credit transaction – all through the comfort and security of their trusted financial institution.

ChangeIt® enables cardholders to roundup their transactions, creating Virtual Change®. The Virtual Change® accrues monthly and is then debited from the user’s account in one simple, automated transaction and dispersed to their chosen charities. Sales receipts remain unchanged and there is no point of sale intervention.  Cardholders set their rounding preferences and can manage their portfolio of charities using the simple portal at www.changeitcanada.com. This makes it easy for people to give to charity – without having to be constantly reminded to donate.

Another great ChangeIt® feature is that users can set a monthly maximum for their donations and select up to five of their favourite charities at a time as part of their portfolio. The optional maximum provides users to control their donation activities during heavy shopping periods, like the holidays.

Charities truly benefit from this program because they receive recurring donations – which they often spend a lot of money trying to obtain through traditional fundraising activities. Also, ChangeIt® does not cannibalize other donation channels for charities.

The ChangeIt® program resonates well with the coveted youth demographic, which tends to have a high social responsibility drive but low donation record – another great win for charities.

There is no cost for charities to join the program and ChangeIt® only charges charities a 6.9 per cent monthly administration fee on money raised. This fee comes with added-value, such as branded marketing collateral, real-time support for charity employees and practical insights into how charities can use the tool to recruit more donors.

Financial Institutions also gain a lot from joining the ChangeIt® program. They enable their customers to more easily give to charity, an activity that 85% of Canadians commit to doing each year.  Angus Reid market research has confirmed that financial institutions will also attract the youth demographic and users that have a high card spend.

In essence, ChangeIt® is a triple threat because everyone benefits – cardholders, charities and financial institutions.

Prior to starting FCI, co-founder David Beaton worked as a math and physics teacher for 18 years. One day, he was discussing the business concept with his co-founder (then teaching colleague) Lucky Sharma. They knew they were on to something, so Beaton took the lead in building the business, and secured an exclusive patent license agreement from the American Cancer Society to power the ChangeIt® program. Ready to take on their project full-time, Beaton soon quit his teaching job, recruited an experienced team and joined the Communitech Hub in October 2010.

Canada’s relatively strong economy and stable banking system made it a good place for ChangeIt® to launch. “We began our search for financial institution partners with the national credit unions,” says Beaton. The Ukrainian Credit Union was FCI’s first customer in September 2011. Then, in late November 2011, FCI partnered with Saskatchewan’s Affinity Credit Union – one of largest Credit Unions in Canada. ChangeIt® will be launching with numerous other Credit Unions across Canada in 2012.

“Many of the most popular and innovative financial products started with credit unions first. We see ChangeIt® as another such product. What we learn will help us build a scalable product to then launch with larger Financial Institutions down the road. We’re very lucky to work with these amazing credit union partners to help us on our journey,” says Beaton.

ChangeIt® has gained the attention of nearly all of the major Canadian financial institutions. Conversations are also under way with three large US regional banks. “We believe that we will sign our first bank from this mix,” says Beaton. “Banks tend to be conservative. But once we sign our first few partners, we anticipate it will be a domino effect.”

Beaton is thankful to Iain Klugman, CEO at Communitech for introducing FCI to their COO, Jim Stirtzinger – who joined the team in September 2011. “Jim is a strong and invaluable member of our team,” he says.

Even though FCI just graduated from the Communitech Venture Services program, they plan to stay close by and give back to the Communitech Hub startup community as they continue to grow.

Digital media innovation is a top priority for the high-tech sector this year, a focus that will advance competitiveness for Canadian businesses and fuel job creation. As such, I predict we’ll see a major ‘hockey-stick’ upturn in the number of startup companies focusing on aspects of digital media to meet user demand in 2012.

According to Deloitte Canada’s 2012 Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions some of the digital media initiatives to watch this year include:

• Mobile payment transaction opportunities. Deloitte Canada forecasts that “the number of mobile devices with Near Field Communications (NFC) chips will double by the end of 2012. NFC has been dominated by the ‘wave and pay’ notion, which, in effect, incorporates a credit card into a mobile phone, thereby creating a ‘digital wallet.’” However, in order for this application to take off, consumers will need to overcome misperceptions about the security and battery-draining aspects of NFC. In the meantime, Deloitte Canada foresees “thousands of other applications for NFC – from gambling, to gaming, to healthcare and security – will gain traction this year.”

• Big job opportunities in Big Data. By the end of 2012, “more than 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies will have some ‘big-data’ initiatives underway in an attempt to manage their overflowing data warehouses,” says Deloitte Canada. As a result, “’big data’ will experience accelerating growth and market penetration. Globally, as much as $1.5 billion worth of new development projects (up more than ten-fold since 2009) will signal the start of a demand for skilled talent, which, in Canada, could grow to 15,000 more professionals within the next five years.”

• Access to content via mobile devices continues to grow. Deloitte forecasts that “five percent of owners of full-screen smartphones and one in ten tablet owners will use their devices at least once a month to catch up on TV viewing while commuting. Globally, this could represent an additional five billion hours of television viewing for the year.”In addition, PriceWaterhouse Coopers predicted in a June 2010 report that by 2014, 10 million Canadians will have access to the Internet via their mobile devices including smartphones and touchpads. And, as reported by eMarketer, there are currently 24.5 million mobile phone subscribers – which is just over 72 per cent of Canada’s total population. Canada is outpacing the U.S. in terms of wireless-only households – that is homes that have no traditional ‘land line’ connections, relying solely on mobile devices.

• Consumerization of mobile devices impacts enterprise. The millions of Canadian mobile device subscribers will soon define apps development to meet the kinds of experiences and services they seek. Consumer devices are finding their way into the business world, so there’s a melding of technologies that enable individuals to access, internalize and utilize information as never before. Lubor Ptacek, VP of Strategic Marketing at OpenText states in his 2012 predictions blog that “facing the rapid pace of innovation in consumer devices, companies will not be able to keep up and they will have to give in. People will simply buy the latest gadget and use it for work. The consequences of consumerization will be the number one topic for the records management and information governance crowd in 2012.”

CDMN is an organization dedicated to bringing together academia, industry and government to further Canada’s competitive position in digital media. CDMN links digital media hubs across Canada with the intent of shoring up Canada’s strength in digital media solutions, and it’s the organization that hosts Canada 3.0 annually.

Here are some examples of how CDMN nodes are working to grow the digital media sector across Canada:

• In November 2011, we hosted our first CDMN National Tour event in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Delegates discussed ways to put New Brunswick’s ICT sector on steroids. We’ve already seen huge success stories come out of this maritime province. Just last year, Radian 6 was acquired by Salesforce.com for $300 million in cash and stock.  Instead of packing up their office to move to Salesforce headquarters in the US, Radian 6 has decided to stay in New Brunswick –creating more jobs for Canadians. Check out this CDMN blog about how investments in New Brunswick’s ICT sector could create event more jobs and wealth for the province and our nation as a whole.

• Our network partners at Wavefront in Vancouver have been making great progress towards advancing Canada’s wireless communications sector. Just last month, they joined forces with Rogers Communications to launch the Rogers Wireless Innovation Centre. The new Centre enables technology innovators to develop wireless products and bring them to market faster. In addition, Wavefront recently partnered with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) to facilitate and accelerate the flow of wireless business between our two countries. The first opportunities from  this partnership arose when Wavefront introduced ten innovative Canadian wireless solution providers to Indian carriers on December 6^th – 9th during the India Telecom 2011 conference in New Delhi.

• The Communitech Hub in Waterloo, Ontario, where CDMN headquarters are located, was established to house and nurture digital startups.  The 30,000-foot facility acts as a sandbox of innovation to enable startups to rub shoulders with multi-nationals and spark the kinds of R&D programs and apps development not always possible in the traditional tech environment. The Hub has already outgrown its premises and is adding another 14,000 square feet of space immediately to accommodate startup companies and the support structure needed for companies of any size to flourish.  The Hub has also created 390 digital media jobs, from 165 startups in less than 18 months after opening. The response and success stories that have emanated from The Hub in the first year of operation are a testament to the rising tide of innovation in digital media.

The world economy is going digital and along with that goes digital marketing, ecommerce, e-delivery and more. Any country that does not adopt and innovate in digital solutions will be left behind. So the progress in the Canadian digital media sector to date is encouraging and a trend we expect to see continue during 2012.

In 2005, the stages of development were often assumed to be similar across industries (i.e., Clean Tech, ICT, medical device and drug discovery) with the chart above providing a standard model. Today, models suggest that each industry goes through its own specific inflection points prior to sustainable growth. View the chart below to see a model of how each industry differs.

Commercialization challenges
Today, digital media startups face unique commercialization challenges. According to Thomas, many new media and ICT businesses launch with a minimum viable product. However, these startups often have to hire more developers and spend money developing the market to get them to version 2.0 of their product –the one that is market driven and can sustain the company. As a result, they often get into cash flow problems because early revenues don’t always grow at the same rate as their needs for full-time employees and other resources. SaaS business models help with customer acquisition but revenue lags as the subscription fees are often paid monthly and most of the cost is up front.

But gaining access to capital is only one piece of the puzzle. Thomas believes that if a startup is going to be successful, their technology should also intersect with market opportunities at the right time, based on real customer feedback.

A great example is the Canadian-made social media monitoring platform HootSuite. “They entered the market with their social media monitoring platform when Twitter had around 5 million users. Now they have a product that individuals and businesses appreciate and their timing was great as Twitter has grown to over 100 million users,” says Thomas.

Placing our bets for growth
Rocket Builders has been studying the British Columbia IT market for the past ten years. They publish annual “Ready to Rocket” Lists which feature BC’s top technology companies that are best positioned to capitalize on growth trends in industry.  “There is a clear trend of B2B-focused companies adopting more Web 2.0-based technologies. Cloud computing is also growing rapidly in the B2B sector,” says Thomas.

He suggests that if the government wants to see a big impact in the Canadian digital media sector, they could match traditional industries with Internet and Web 2.0 technologies. An example is the development of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication. “We need to build a digital data strategy around Canada’s large, natural resource industries such as oil and gas, mining, forestry and petroleum and pipeline,” says Thomas. “These sectors are poised to adopt more and more Internet technology and increase investments in M2M Communications as they upgrade legacy systems.”

Thomas suggests that a consortium approach, like Sustainable Development Technologies Canada (SDTC), should be an option to support Canada’s digital media startup infrastructure. This will help the smaller players work with large industrial clients to develop scalable technology and business models. It also reduces the risk for large investors and clients – ensuring that they’re buying into a new technology that will be sustained over time.

DAIR  was a great success and the impressive results of the program are available via the CANARIE press release. CANARIE intends to expand the program and has incorporated this proposal into its mandate renewal request to the Government of Canada. But they need help from SMEs to assist in the  development of the next phase of such a valuable program.

In order to build the most beneficial program for SMEs, CANARIE is looking for feedback from digital entrepreneurs across the country on how best to meet their cloud-computing needs.

CANARIE is asking SMEs to tell them what’s important to you by filling out the survey below. Each survey participant will be entered for a chance to win a $250 iTunes gift card.

English: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DAIR_Survey
French:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Sondage_ATIR

For more information, check out the DAIR Video, or visit the CANARIE website  http://canarie.ca/en/dair-program/about.

Here’s what UWS is offering as an enhancement to their Master of Digital Experience Innovation:

• Earn your Project Management Professional designation

The Master of Digital Experience Innovation now includes the 35 hours of project management education required for the Project Management Professional designation. You will also have the opportunity to practice what you learn during your team-based industry projects.

• Complement your full-time career with part-time studies

The part-time option can work with your already full schedule. Instead of completing the degree in one year, it will take you 24 months. Take two courses per term, and finish the program with a final project in the last spring term.

Says Ginny Dybenko, Executive Director, University of Waterloo Stratford Campus, “This makes our leading edge Digital Media program even more valuable and accessible! Our new PMP certification gives graduates one more tool in their kit bag – an additional advantage in competing for jobs in the new Knowledge Economy. And the part-time program makes this amazing curriculum accessible to those who need to continue working while they pursue furthering their education.”

For more information, visit the UWS website.

Further information and applications are available at  www.servicecanada.gc.ca/csj2012.  Please review the program guidelines and consider participating in this program.  The deadline for applications is February 29, 2012.

It is the intention of ClevrU and China Telecom to develop a long-term strategic partnership relationship to research and develop a business model for the mobile online education market in China and 50 other countries that China Telecom has operations.

China Telecom and its subsidiary China Communication Services Corporation Limited and its subsidiary’s will support ClevrU’s market development with assistance in market research, business model development, platform deployment and operational implementation.

ClevrU agrees to support China Telecom and its subsidiaries with adapting ClevrU’s education platform and applications to the needs of the Chinese market and 50 other countries supported by China Telecom.

“ClevrU is excited with the opportunity to work with China Telecom and its affiliated companies to jointly study and develop the mobile online education market and the need to provide greater access to quality education services both in the enterprise training market and the consumer education market.” said Dana Fox, CEO and President of ClevrU Corporation.

About ClevrU Corporation
ClevrU is focused on WEB 3.0 applications that intelligently leverage Cloud Computing in a mobile environment. ClevrU has developed an e-teaching content delivery platform with advanced tools to assist in interactive teaching and student/instructor collaboration. This application uses an intelligent engine to adapt course content to users personal needs in a mobile environment. ClevrU is initially focused on international education markets. ClevrU’s technology combines video e-teaching with semantic based intelligent social network tools for educational institutions universities and colleges, cellular phone/ tablet computer manufacturers and cellular carriers to deliver course content to students anywhere, anytime. ClevrU branded the platform ClevrU EDU and registered a patent pending on its Intelligent Collaborative Platform Technology.

About China Telecom
China Telecom Corporation Limited is the world’s largest wireline telecommunications and broadband services provider and the world’s largest CDMA mobile operator. Serving as a full services integrated information service operator, China Telecom provides basic telecommunications services, such as wireline telecommunications services and mobile telecommunications services, and value-added telecommunications services, such as Internet access services and information services in the PRC. As of the end of March 2011, the Company has wireline access lines in service of about 173 million, wireline broadband subscribers of over 66 million and mobile subscribers of more than 100 million. The Company’s H shares and American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”) are listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited and the New York Stock Exchange, respectively.

It is the intention of ClevrU and China Unicom Beijing to develop a long-term strategic partnership under China Unicom Beijing’s WO+ Project to develop the mobile on-line teaching market.  China Unicom Beijing will provide marketing and service launch assistance, system and client feedback, and business model development.

Dana Fox President and CEO ClevrU Corporation said “ClevrU is excited to work with China Unicom Beijing on the opportunity to jointly launch ClevrU’s educational platform into the mobile online education market.” Fox went on to say that, “the need to provide greater access to quality education services in the Chinese consumer education market is great and our strategic partners like China Unicom Beijing make it possible.”

About ClevrU Corporation
ClevrU is focused on WEB 3.0 applications that intelligently leverage Cloud Computing in a mobile environment. ClevrU has developed an e-teaching content delivery platform with advanced tools to assist in interactive teaching and student/instructor collaboration. This application uses an intelligent engine to adapt course content to users personal needs in a mobile environment. ClevrU is initially focused on international education markets. ClevrU’s technology combines video e-teaching with semantic based intelligent social network tools for educational institutions universities and colleges, cellular phone/ tablet computer manufacturers and cellular carriers to deliver course content to students anywhere, anytime. ClevrU branded the platform ClevrU EDU and registered a patent pending on its Intelligent Collaborative Platform Technology.

About China Unicom Beijing
China Unicom Beijing is a subsidiary of China Unicom. By the end of 2008, China Unicom had 273 million subscribers, among which the broadband subscribers totaled 30.16 million, GSM subscribers 133 million and fixed-line (including PHS) subscribers 109 million. China Unicom was among the Top 500 in the world in terms of its revenue, and ranked in the top of the world leading telecom operators in terms of its customer base and market capitalization of its listed company.

Aimed at providing comprehensive and high-quality broadband communications and information services for customers, China Unicom has been speeding up the construction of mobile communications network, strengthening the development of fixed broadband network, and promoting broadband-based fixed and mobile networks. Committed to raising its overall competitiveness and sustainable development capacity and becoming a world leading provider of broadband communications and information services, China Unicom will further enhance the development of its services, expand its business scope and improve the quality of service while adhering to the market-oriented and customer-focused principle and emphasizing the development of mobile broadband Internet services.

Here’s a list of networking opportunities offered by TCS at HIMMS 2012:

• Access the Export Café, B2B meetings, and the support of the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) at HIMSS
• Promote your company’s offerings @ the “Canada Mobile-Health Knowledge Center”
• Attend the Canadian Networking Reception – The Canadian Reception @HIMSS
• Engage with Industry Leaders @ the Canada Breakfast Panel Discussion
• Hear Canada’s industry thought leaders in the “Mobile – Health Knowledge Center Theatre” @ HIMSS

Please visit the TCS website for more details and registration information:
http://www.tradecommissioner.gc.ca/eng/document.jsp?did=125696