Launch of a New Flickr Image Set: Prime Minister Louis Stephen St-Laurent, Library and Archives Canada (Feb 2)
Interesting: 1) the photos, and 2) that LAC uses Flickr - owned by Yahoo, situated in the United States. What happens when Yahoo sells Flickr - as might happen, or changes it in some extreme way? Also, should Library and Archives Canada be outsourcing to a US based service? What's wrong with buy Canadian? Cost would be the reason - that's how strapped cultural organizations are in Canada.
Why Isn't YouTube Canadian?: My Appearance Before the Industry Committee, Michael Geist (Oct 31)
This is very shocking. There have been several inventions in Canada - wasn't Stumbleupon one? - that were bought by companies in the US. There were also startups that were just squashed by the regulatory and competitive environment in Canada. Micheal Geist has the stories, and some recommendations about changing policies.
Why have Canadian consumers embraced e-commerce, but Canada has failed to produce many significant global e-commerce success stories?The Canadian consumer success story is well-known. We are among the global leaders in Internet use and online video consumption. For several years, Canada was the world’s largest per-capita user of Facebook. Netflix launched online-only first in Canada and quickly grew to one million subscribers. Digital music sales have grown faster in Canada than in the U.S. for each of the past five consecutive years.
CPPIB eyes stake in Yahoo, TARA PERKINS AND BOYD ERMAN, Globe and Mail (Oct 19)
"The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is actively considering joining a group that would make a takeover offer for Yahoo Inc., (YHOO-Q16.180.241.51%) the California-based Web giant that has fallen on hard times. If such a bid were to materialize, it would likely be led by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT-Q27.04-0.09-0.33%) and involve a number of other institutional investors, including Silver Lake Management LLC, a U.S. private-equity firm that was CPPIB’s partner in the Skype deal."
Doesn't sound like a good investment to me - and why isn't the board buying Canadian?
Canada’s Anti-Spam Law Coming Into Force, Osler, July 5, 2011
Canadian government has passed legislation to address spam (though it is still awaiting proclamation).
"Known as Canada’s Anti-Spam Law, or CASL1, the new rules go much further than restricting bulk, unsolicited e-mail messages, by creating an express consent regime that applies to almost all e-mails and other electronic messages sent for a commercial purpose. And unlike the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act, which applies only to e-mail, CASL’s anti-spam provisions also apply to other forms of electronic communication, such as text messages, instant messaging and social media messaging."
Heavy web downloaders face broadband fees , Matt Hartley, Globe and Mail (Mar 27)
In the United States it is dead simple to view movies and television shows with streaming media and at no extra cost. In Canada, we don't have the selection, and what selection we have will cost a fortune to download.
Rogers and Bell Canada charge substantial premiums / penalties.
"Bandwidth hogs who exceed their allotted limits on Rogers's networks will face service-fee penalties of up to $5 a gigabyte, to a maximum of $25 a month."
"On Tuesday, it was revealed that Bell Canada is rolling out a new strategy that restricts certain types of online traffic on its own networks and those it provides to third-party ISP wholesalers."
Google-like search site connects 60 million pages of Canadian history, Stephanie Levitz, Globe and Mail (Jan 17)
They are calling this specialty site on Canadian history Google-like, because it has a simple search box on a blank page.
"An ambitious new search engine has been launched by an alliance of digital heritage advocates designed to allow one-stop searching for centuries of Canadian history.
The Canadiana Discovery Portal combs through more than 60 million pages of information from 30 different library, museum and archive collections across the country. "
Fourteen institutions are contributing at present. The article noted that - "Back in 2005, Library and Archives Canada officials started a national discussion on a digital information strategy for the country. But after issuing their final report, they closed the books on a national approach. "
The mission of Canadiana.org (the centre piece), as stated at the web site, is "to support enduring access to Canada’s digital documentary heritage for Canadians and the world." It must not be getting any formal funding - there is a Donate Now box at the site.
Yellow Pages launches Web unit , SUSAN KRASHINSKY, Globe and Mail (Oct 26)
Yellow Media, parent company of Yellow Pages, has seen the writing on the online wall and is expanding its virtual reach. It is launching Mediative - an online advertising and marketing company. To do this it has acquired a few online marketing companies in Canada.
"In recent weeks, Yellow Pages has bought Internet ad firm Uptrend Media; Enquiro, which handles search engine marketing and research to help companies get their brands noticed through searches on websites such as Google and Bing; and retail advertising agency Ad Splash Media. All those companies will now be folded into Mediative. "
Some numbers: Mediative can access 17 million unique visitors through the "37 websites owned by Yellow Media, such as YellowPages.ca, AutoTrader.ca, and through the websites where it now sells display ads, such as CFL.ca and MarthaStewart.com. "
Google eyes Canadian expansion , LuAnn LaSalle, Globe and Mail (Aug16)
Google is working on attracting more clients in Canada for its many business services.
"Google could provide not only advertising, but business applications like email, Google maps, the Google business channel on YouTube, co-marketing opportunities and product integration, he [Chris O'Neill ] said. "
Of interest:
"Two-thirds of Canadian retailers are using e-commerce but their websites are generating just five per cent of total sales, according to a study released this summer by the Retail Council of Canada.
Another study recently suggested that businesses spend only 11 per cent of their marketing budgets online. "
Yellow Media, online Yellow Pages) is the main competitor - "Yellow Media is transitioning to an online company and is targeting small- and medium-sized businesses with services such as website building, email marketing, video production and search-engine marketing. "
Internet use in Canada continues to grow: StatsCan, CP via Globe and Mail (May 10)
More Canadians are using the Internet, but there are still significant differences according to age group, income, and urban vs rural.
"A new study says 80 per cent of Canadians aged 16 and older, or 21.7 million people, used the Internet for personal reasons last year."
+ The vast majority (94 per cent) of people from households with incomes of $85,000 or more used the Internet, compared with 56 per cent among households with incomes of $30,000 or less. "
+ In 2009, 98 per cent of people aged 16 to 24 went online, up slightly from 96 per cent two years earlier.
+ Many more peple 45 and older are using the Internet - now at 66%.
+ Use by people 10 to 24 was 98%
+ Urban (cities over 10,000) 83%. In smaller places, 73%
Publisher's Letter: PCWorld.ca to cease publication, Yasmin Ranade, PCWorld (Oct 21)
PCWorld Canada and MacWorld Canada will close on October 31. Economic downturn, they say. Does that mean advertising?
IT World Canada's and itBusiness.ca will continue.
itBusiness.ca claims to be "the site of choice for Canadian information workers, line of business professionals, and small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).". It will be opening a small business centre..
Guess the rest of us will have to turn to the US PCWorld for consumer interests.
Legendary Clairtone zeal takes a digital turn , Globe and Mail (Sep 28)
David Gilmour, an entrepreneur once known for Clairtone stereos in Canada, now sells digital magazines through Zinio. Started in the US, this will be coming to Canada.
"This week, Zinio and trade association Magazines Canada unveil a bilingual newsstand (magazinescanada.zinio.com), through which consumers will be able to read, retrieve, search, and save Canadian magazines in digital format.
Initially, about 100 titles have signed up for the newsstand, a mini-version of Zinio.com, which distributes 2,000 magazines and whose various offerings, Mr. Gilmour says, have a paid subscription list of five million people. "
You can view some single issues. Subscription prices look similar to print.
Digitization of Canada's heritage left to Google by Michael Geist, The Star (Sep 7)
Digitization of books in Canada hardly (if ever) receives any mention at all. Michael Geist notes that Library and Archives Canada was charged with looking after this, but has received little support from the federal government. Thus it looks like Canada will leave digitization of Canadian content to whatever Google finds through its partnerships.
Meantime, the European Union lauched Europeana as the fruit of its work on digitizing public domain materials with "more than 4.6 million digitized books, newspapers, film clips, maps, photographs and documents from across Europe."
"By comparison, Canada seems stuck at the digitization starting gate. Library and Archives Canada was given responsibility for the issue, but was unable to muster the necessary support for a comprehensive plan. The Department of Canadian Heritage, which would seem like a natural fit for a strategy designed to foster access to Canadian works, has funded a handful of small digitization efforts, but has shown little interest in crafting a vision similar to Europeana.
Digitization law and policies have also gone missing-in-action. The national copyright consultation wraps up next week, but the digitization issue has scarcely been raised. "
Geist doesn't mention that the University of Toronto Libraries have been working with the Internet Archives and Open Content Alliance for several years to digitize books - though these are not necessarily works by Canadians.
The unknown tomb of the soldier, found at last, SUSAN KRASHINSKY, Globe and Mail (Aug 11)
With help from the archivists at McMaster University and the university's Peace and War in the 20th Century website, Pipe Major John Spoore in England located the site of battle on Halloween, 1914 in Belgium
"Mr. Beck searched university archives for descriptions of the battle, and triangulated the location on his maps. After much searching, he happened upon it: a square topped with a tiny X, the sole indicator that a windmill once stood there."
"The site, pw20c.mcmaster.ca, is free and searchable. It's a way of making history accessible, said map specialist Gord Beck, instead of locking documents in a rare-archives room where they must be handled with special gloves."
Ministers finally embrace Canada's digital future, by Michael Geist, Toronto Star (Jun 29)
The Government of Canada has started to show an interest in the digital economy.
"With attention mounting on the need for a national digital strategy, Industry Minister Tony Clement brought together 150 leaders from across the country last week for a major conference called Canada's Digital Economy: Moving Forward."
Connecting Canada to the digital world, Michael Geist, Toronto Star (June 13)
Canada is slipping in telecommunications and commitment to the digital economy. We need leadership and a national plan.
"The need for a federal strategy stems from the realization that Canada is rapidly falling behind much of the developed world on digital issues. The gradual hollowing out of the Canadian technology sector (one-time giants such as Nortel, JDS, Corel, Newbridge Networks and Entrust are all either dead or unrecognizable today), the absence of a strategy to digitize Canadian content, the inability of the CRTC to make sense of its legislation as it applies to the Internet, and the plummeting rankings of Canadian high-speed Internet and wireless services all point to a problem that can no longer be ignored."
Ottawa finally announces anti-malware legislation, By: Howard Solomon, itWorldCanada (Apr 24)
"The Electronic Commerce Protection Act, tabled in Parliament on Friday morning, would give the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which regulates Internet and wireless providers, and the federal Competition Bureau the right to charge Canadian-based senders of malware with breaking the law and face up to $10 million in fines for an organziation or $1 million for an individual. The wording, which would cover system builders, forbids anyone from installing a comptuer program on a computer for sale that would send an electronic message without the consent of the owner or user."
Major Cuts Planned at Canada’s National Science Library Draw Protest, Resourceshelf (Apr 8)
Resourceshelf picked up this alarming news item about federal government cuts to NRC-CISTI, National Research Council and Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information. Canadian Association of Research Libraries sees a 50% cut.
"CISTI will no longer be able to maintain a comprehensive and current collection of STM journals, technical reports, conference papers, and other research documentation. This is a national misfortune inasmuch as CISTI has maintained one of the greatest STM collections in the world and this provides the foundation for its cost-recovery research intelligence and document delivery programs."
But Canada is not blessed with a farsighted, science minded, knowledge valuing government.
It's time for Canada's digital revolution by Tom Jenkins, Globe and Mail (Mar 2)
The digital revolution is one area that is not slowing down. This article has some startling figures. Tom Jenkins at Open Text asserts that the digital revolution will be the engine for the next recovery (though I think green industry will be too). Will Canada be competitive?
Starting figure: "It has been estimated that less than 1 per cent of Canada's information is available on the Internet. As Canadians embrace these new technologies to help them with their tasks in education, research and commerce, they find themselves being connected to websites outside Canada. Our researchers, educators and business people are forced to take information from other places in the United States or Europe and adapt it to Canada's situation."
Tom Jenkins points to some initiatives that provide some momentum. One of these was:
"Library and Archives Canada, with strong support from the private and university sectors, has a plan to digitize Canadian content and is ready with the digital equivalent of a shovel-ready knowledge infrastructure project. It is time to implement. To succeed, we have to move quickly to take advantage of our strengths and opportunities."
We do need to stay on this to create more content, work collaboratively with the new tools, and be more digitally creative.
Full-length movies going online by Michael Geist, Toronto Star (Dec 8)
There is a shift taking place to longer-form video. Comcast figures on video watching in July 2008 showed an average of viewing time of 2.9 minutes - but that is sure to change.
Michel Geist mentions several films that are available for download or streamed viewing.
Geist himself released "Why Copyright? Canadian Voices on Copyright Law", a 47-minute documentary on copyright reform." ... "Finding ways to distribute films may have once posed a significant barrier, but that is clearly no longer the case. Why Copyright? was posted to online video sites such as YouTube and Blip.tv, which offer free streaming distribution. Another version was posted to Dot-Sub, a video-streaming site that enables viewers to create subtitles in other languages. Further versions were made available via BitTorrent, allowing people to download the entire DVD of the film."
Other examples are Michael Moore's Slacker Uprising (Blip.tv) and the Finnish parody, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, at Google Video.
Conclusion: "These experiments point to the potential for taking films from the big screen to the computer screen. Combining free Internet streaming or downloading with a commercial model that may include DVD sales, merchandise sales, broadcast license fees and advertising revenues hold the promise of generating wider audiences and providing a financial payback for creators."
As Canada faces political upheaval, what are Canadians searching for? by Jacob Glick, Canada Policy Counsel, Google Public Policy Blog (Dec 6)
Who would have guessed that Google has a public policy blog to air its views on government, policy and politics, and that Canada would ever be a topic?
Also of interest, this entry points to Google's Insights for Search. Here's the search on coalition - and the combination of parliament and prorogue
Note: These links are for the last 7 days of searches - and probably won't be useful or meaningful after December 15. Interest peaked on December 4.
Library and Archives Canada Brings Canadian Content to Popular Online Communities Flickr and YouTube, Press Release (Oct 30)
"Library and Archives Canada is pleased to announce that in anticipation of the 2008 Irish Studies Symposium, that will be presented on November 3 and 4, 2008, a selection of digital images related to Irish-Canadian documentary heritage are now available on Flickr.com, a popular photo-sharing community. As well, a selection of video presentations from the upcoming Symposium will be added to YouTube.com in November 2008."
More information a Library and Archives Canada - Flickr/YouTube Albums
Canada leads globe in broadband access, not speed, by Rafael Ruffolo, Computerworld Canada (Sep 24)
Broadband reaches 80% of the population of Canada and Canadians are spending an average of 17 hours a week on the Internet, but "Canada’s current networks are barely good enough to deal with today’s online traffic, due to a lack of investment by providers."
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online has been updated and improved. It has biographies on prominent persons in Canadian history who died between 1000 and 1930.
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is a major research and publishing project launched by the University of Toronto and the Université Laval in 1959
CBC has set up a new member centre that sounds more web2ish.
There will be new CBC Newsletters
What's On CBC Television and CBC Radio, Documentaries, and CBC's digital channel bold
What's On in your area
Digests from CBC News and Sports
Need to create a new membership (CBC wasn't able to use existing ones, it seems)
There will also be a community - "As a member of CBC.ca you can share your thoughts, discuss and share stories with other members - your comments may even be used on-air! "
Here you can build a profile and connect with other CBC users.
Any chance that one of these users will be Richard Stursburg and we could talk to him about the closure of the CBC orchestra, moving to pop music on CBC Radio 2.0, reducing support for Canadian drama on TV, cancelling excellent shows such as Intelligence, and turning CBC Radio 1.0 into a place for kids?
Regardless, it is a place where CBC fans can gather and maybe add people's voice and choice to influence CBC management decisions.
If you love CBC - head over to https://membercentre.cbc.ca/
Privacy commissioner probes cloud computing By: Shane Schick, Computer World Canada (May 29)
"Ann Cavoukian’s office looks at services to host software and data over the Internet and raises questions about the protection of users’ information. Consider her key identity management suggestions"
"The privacy commissioner of Canada’s largest province has raised concerns about the use of third-parties to host data on the Internet, otherwise known as cloud computing, urging companies to adopt responsible identity management before it’s too late."
"In a white paper published Wednesday, Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian discussed the changing landscape for individual information as software moves to Web-based services from companies such as Google, IBM or Amazon. The 30-page document provides an overview of cloud computing as well as the technological building blocks Cavoukian says are necessary to protect data from those who shouldn’t see it. These building blocks include identity management software based on open standards; federated identity so that registering their information for one service will mean they are recognized elsewhere; audit tools to track what happens to user data; and, policies that stipulate how information will be used in a cloud. "
A Nation's Chronicle: The Canada Gazette Library and Archives Canada
Pre 1998 issues of The Canada Gazette, dubbed "official newspaper of the Government of Canada" will be available back to 1841 through a digitization program that is now underway and expected to be completed by early 2009.
"The database comprises images taken from microfilm, microfiche and rare original copies of the Gazette held by LAC. The digitization of this material, which began in 2007, is still underway. By the end of 2008, visitors to this site will be able to access all issues of the Canada Gazette, from its beginning in 1841 until 1998. For those issues currently available on this site, please go to Search the Canada Gazette."
Post 1998 and current issues are at the Canada Gazette site.
CBC Archives has nearly 12,000 radio and tv clips from their years of programming. This is a rich site of interviews, sports, politics, history, and much more.
There is a weekly newsletter for "Featured the week". This week the lead item is Quebec City: 400 Years of History with 9 TV clips and 4 Radio clips.
Museums should end fees for public domain Michael Geist, The Star (Apr 15)
The annual Museums and the Web conference held in Montreal last week had many presentations on the digital presentation of their holdings.
"For example, the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal has poured significant resources into digitization, amassing more than 135,000 digital images that are freely accessible online. Similarly, the Canadian Museum of Civilization (which includes both that museum and the new Canadian War Museum) attracted a record 1.8 million visitors in 2006, but more impressively hit 66 million page views for Web-based content."
Some museums are making the presentations free, but not the National Gallery of Canada.
"According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, however, the National Gallery of Canada appears to be taking the opposite approach, treating public-domain works as a profit centre."
Do-not-call faces challenges by Michael Geist, Toronto Star (Apr 7)
Dealing with tele-marketers is like swatting at flies - there is always another one, and some escape every swat. Michael Geist writes about the serious shortcomings of Canada's do-not-call list and has introduced one of his own - iOptOut.ca - where we can say absolutely no to all the exemptions that were allowed.
"The iOptOut.ca site is based on a simple premise, namely that Canadian privacy law already gives Canadians the right to withdraw their consent over the use of their personal information (including phone numbers) for telemarketing calls. Visitors to the site are asked to enter their phone number (and email address if they wish) and to indicate their privacy preferences for nearly 150 organizations."
But what about all the telemarketing calls that now originate in the United States?
GeoSearch2006 from Statistics Canada - an interactive mapping application for finding places in Canada to get geographic and demographic information. Uses 2006 census figures.
"To find a specific place of interest, users can click and zoom in on a map of Canada or they can search by place name, street name, street intersection or postal code. GeoSearch will display the appropriate map showing boundaries and other features. GeoSearch automatically displays population and dwelling counts for the selected places, and shows what kind of geographic area it is and its relationship to other geographic areas."
Canadian Demographics at a Glance
Publihsed by the Demography Division, Statistics Canada, "Canadian Demographics at a Glance is designed to present a maximum of demographic information, giving users an up-to-date picture of the various aspects of the Canadian population. Each page of the document contains a chart or table, accompanied by a brief analytical commentary. Most of the charts contain both historical statistics and the most recent projections, so that phenomena can be analysed within a fairly broad timeframe. It is intended for a variety of users, including those working in government, educational institutions, businesses and the media, as well as any other organization or individual interested in Canadian demography."
Oscar Peterson, Canada's supreme jazz pianist, died December 23, 2007.
http://oscarpeterson.com/news/
The legacy of a jazz great - video
Happy Canada Day, A Few Web Resources: From Smart Answers & Special Logos To the CBC Video Archives and The Canadian Encyclopedia, Resourceshelf (July 1)
ResourceShelf features several Canadian sites. Also points to Ask.com smart answer for Canada Day
Also - Project Gutenberg Canada Officially Launches.
SES Toronto and the Canadian Search Landscape, Rebecca, SEOMoz.org (June 15)
"This session was pretty rife with Canadian search statistics (but in an interesting way). According to Ken Headrick from MSN Canada, Canadians made 12 billion search queries in 2006 and 1.4 billion queries in April 2007. Searching is the #2 activity that Canadians do (I'm assuming that the #1 activity is either wrestling moose or harvesting maple syrup). Ken also mentioned that, in Canada, searcher loyalty is declining. In February 2007 10.4 million searchers were uncommitted to a specific search engine, and the number jumped to 13.1 million in April 2007."
Has a few photos of slides from the Canadian Search Landscape session.
Canada's New Government Supports the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, Alouette Canada - Open Digitization Initiative -
On March 14, 2007, "the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, Royal Galipeau, Member of Parliament (Ottawa-Orléans), announced ... new funding of up to $328,600 for the AlouetteCanada Metadata Toolkit, a project of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. This initiative will lead to the development of software and standards to assist organizations in generating metadata for digitized collections. It will foster a level of cohesion and improve functionality within the growing body of digitized content in Canada."
The Business Plan has more details. "AlouetteCanada will aggregate the metadata that points to already digitized content in ways useful for Canadians. Its participants do the work of content creation, create and organize the metadata describing the material and facilitating access to and use of that content in local or regional systems of their own. We will work together to promote awareness of these new and unique resources to local, national and international audiences."
Net Neutrality: A Public Discussion on the Future of the Internet in Canada, Feb 6, 2007 (7 pm) in Ottawa Public Library Auditorium to be moderated by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.
Panelists will be:
* Michael Geist: Professor of Law, Research Chair of Internet and E-Commerce Law, University of Ottawa
* Ren Bucholz: Electronic Frontier Foundation Policy Coordinator, Americas
* Andrew Clement: Professor, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto; Principal Investigator, Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking
Announcement on the CLA List included a list of other resources.
Battle over 'net neutrality' arrives in Canada
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2006/11/02/tech-neutrality.html
The Telecom Policy Review: The Rest of the Story
http://michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1181&Itemid=85
The Alternative Telecommunications Policy Forum
http://www3.fis.utoronto.ca/research/iprp/cracin/alttelecompolicyforum.ca/
Net Neutrality in Canada
http://www.neutrality.ca/
Video of the event will be available later.
See CLA posting for details.
Time's choice could prove inspired by Michael Geist, The Star (Jan 8)
Time magazine's selection of Internet participants as the "person of the year" has made Geist ask about the reaction of Canadian government leaders and policy makers to the development of a participatory Internet and user-generated content. He suggests that "the role of government will be to support the enormous economic and cultural potential of user-generated content, while avoiding steps that might impede its growth. It can do so by focusing on the three "C's" – connectivity, content and copyright."
Culture online: Made in Canada - announces revamped Culture.ca site (Dec )
"Culture.ca, Canada's cultural gateway is for everyone who wants to explore, find, and share the best of Canada's cultural and creative life.
This latest version of Culture.ca has more than a new look, it offers you more content organized under new subject categories that include: Arts, Heritage, Nature, Recreation, Society and Tourism.
We're more current with timely cultural articles updated regularly and daily cultural news. The site is also more interactive with popular links as chosen by you, cultural polls and the best of Canada's cultural blogs."
Library and Archives Canada has announced a Government of Canada Web Archive (Dec 2006). LAC received permission to begin preservation in 2004 of Canadian web content. First part of this project has been mainly of the Federal Goverrnment pages, and some provincial.
"The Archive includes 1, 489 Federal Government web sites which were harvested using the Heritrix web crawling software between December 22nd, 2005 and March 24th, 2006. Approximately 1.8 TB of data was collected, comprising over 40, 000,000 digital objects. "
"A second harvest of the Federal Government web domain (.gc.ca) was started on October 25th, 2006. LAC also began harvesting the web sites of Canada's provincial and territorial governments during that same week. Further study of the archived websites will help to determine the frequency of future harvests. Analysis performed on the results of the first .gc.ca domain harvest has greatly aided in the configuration of the web crawling software and the development of other software tools utilized for the second harvest."
Government of Canada Web Archive Now Available But Not Online, Internet Access Planned for the Future, Resourceshelf (Dec 20)
Library and Archives Canada has begun to save Canadian web sites.
Oral Histories of the First World War Veterans 1914-1918
"Library and Archives Canada (LAC), in partnership with Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), presents Oral Histories of the First World War: Veterans 1914-1918."
Listen to the accounts from CBC's radio broadcast In Flanders Fields. There are also transcripts.
Building a Just Society: A Retrospective of Canadian Rights and Freedoms, Collections Canada
"Building a Just Society is an eclectic Web exhibition created to mark the 25th anniversary of these constitutional milestones. LAC invites all Canadians to explore the documentary heritage collections that record the story of governance and political culture in Canada, and the achievement of rights and freedoms that have marked our national evolution as a just society."
Moving Here, Staying Here - The Canadian Immigrant Experience - new online exhibit from Library and Archives Canada.
"This ambitious project was developed with two key goals in mind. The first was to facilitate improved access for genealogists and other researchers to some of LAC's frequently used immigration documents, such as passenger lists and land grants. ... The second goal was to provide Canadians with a unique history of Canadian immigration for the years 1800-1939. "
Passenger lists may be of greatest interest to many. LAC has them for 1865 to 1935, but before 1925 they are not indexed by name. You'll need to know the date and port of arrival. LAC plans to make digitized versions for 1865 to 1935 available online "soon".
CBC.CA LAUNCHES TWO NEW SECTIONS: TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, AND CONSUMER LIFE (From the announcement email Aug 23)
CBC.ca has added two new sections: Technology and Science, and Consumer Life.
"Technology & Science looks at the latest advances in science and technology, provides the inside scoop on new gadgets and games, and makes sense of how leading-edge developments will affect your life. News stories, columns and in-depth features will help you keep abreast of developments in the fast-paced science and tech sectors, cutting through the jargon and giving you the information you need in plain language.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/
Consumer Life is a guide to the news and information that savvy Canadian consumers need to know. From retail to e-tail, it's a buyer-beware world out there. How can you tell the knockoffs and snake oil from the real deal? Is a product safe, or has it been recalled? Is the latest thing really something worth spending your hard-earned dollars on? What do the experts recommend? Get the knowledge you need to ask the right questions, avoid the pitfalls, find the bargains and make the smartest deals when shopping around for goods and services. http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/ "
Google eyes bigger Canadian office by Simon Avery, Globe and Mail (Aug 6)
Google is aiming to grow an R&D staff of 100 to 200 people in Southern Ontario.
Collections Canada has added the digital book, Codex Canadiensis. This features an illustrated manuscript (ca.1700) by Louis Nicolas about the flora, fauna and peoples of early America. This is a joint project of Library and Archives Canada, Gilcrease Museum and the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art.
HTML version works better than Flash (which seems to have some blank pages).
$65,000 study nets obvious answer about web "Federal government paid pollster to conclude people use search engines to find websites" Ottawa Citizen (July 24)
Duh - Health Canada paid The Strategic Counsel $65,000 to find out "the impact and recall of vanity URLs." Health Canada may have been considering obtaining a new domain name so that people could more readily find their site. However, the study's conclusion suggests that it really doesn't matter - people look for web sites through search engines rather than chancing on remembering a url or, I presume, using bookmarks.
That's how I re-find sites - just plug in the name at Google - and 99% of the time the desired site shows in the first spot.
This study also questioned the domain name used by the Government of Canada, gc.ca, since people didn't seem able to remember it.
"The federal government site was even more problematic: "There was very little spontaneous recall of the Government of Canada website. Guesses range from ocanada.ca to canada.gov.ca to gouvcanada.ca. The .gc extension is always forgotten."The report later recommended the federal government consider changing the current "gc" suffix in www.canada.gc.ca address to "www.gov.canada.ca". It cites the U.S. government's "www.us.gov" site as an example of the use of "gov" rather than "gc.""
gov somewhere in the domain name is used in many countries - United Kingdom uses gov.uk, Australia is gov.au. Canada chose .gc as a compromise between .gov and .gouv in order to be language neutral. It's not a bad solution. Let's just get on with improving the content and services of those web sites so that people will want to find them and making sure that they will place well in the search engine results.
Thanks to LT for the news item.
New Online Exhibition from Library and Archives Canada; Canada’s Virtual Gramophone Continues to Grow, ResourceShelf (July 5)
Aboriginal Documentary Heritage is the new online exhibit with essays concerning government administrative records (1872 - 1950s), treaties and agreements, and WW1.
Virtual Gramophone has 300 new audio files.
Jack Kapica on who's watching your surfing, Globe and Mail (June 28)
Discussion about changes at Sympatico to monitor customer activity -- "Bell Sympatico has announced a new service agreement with customers, allowing the company to "monitor or investigate" how their customers use their service and to "disclose any information necessary to satisfy any laws, regulations or other governmental request." The new customer service agreement took effect June 15."
This along with a raise in rates!
CBC clicks online by Tara Perkins, Toronto Star (June 19)
CBC.ca is Canada's most visited website according to figures from comScore in this article. Sue Gardner, head of CBC's website, at a celebration of the 10th year of this site said, ""We have 160 people working for the website. We have 750,000-plus pages of material online. ... Over the years, I think we've won every major award out there. ... Our audience over the past year has increased 60 per cent ... and we are the Number 1 news media website in Canada since December, and still holding steady at the Number 1 spot ..." Costs are between $10 and $20 million.
Because of the cost of buying rights to material CBC doesn't own, podcasts may be incomplete (without a theme song) and shows may not be archived. CBC will be adding more clips but not necessarily with the context or writing that has been true with existing archives.
There is some mention of difficulties in producing podcasts and archiving material.
We stand on-line for the Tories, by
IVOR TOSSELL, Globe and Mail (May 5)
What can Canadians expect next from their politicians and governments? More propaganda. The Government of Canada website, intended as the gateway to federal departments and information about Canada, has turned Blue and become a publicity podium for the Conservative government.
Tossell writes , "Our national website has become a party organ. The trouble is, the Canada Site has never looked better." .... "But turning it over to political cheerleading of any stripe removes any sense of ownership from citizens, and drives users away."
Canadians beware - you are about to be bamboozled.
Moving Here, Staying Here - The Canadian Immigrant Experience at Library and Archives Canada. Documents such as passenger lists and land grants and some thematic material about immigrants settling in Canada.
Bell buying online music store by Catherine McLean, Globe and Mail (Mar 2) -- "Bell Canada is buying a majority stake in Canadian Internet music store Puretracks as the phone company pushes further into the on-line entertainment market."
Northern Blue Publishing specializes in publishing Canadian history. Its latest project is to put the History of Canada online. This website is companion to their print text, Canada, Our Story, Our People.
See Canadian History Goes On-line, Globe and Mail (Feb 7)
Northern Blue Publishing also produces web portals and web magazines on Canadian history covering the military, sports, business, aboriginal, and people.
CanWest has just announced an advertising partnership with Google for its portal, Canada.com . Canada.com is now "powered" by Google and will provide users with search-related advertising.
In light of this announcement, I thought it was time for me to look at this site again. Canada.com has undergone a makeover and now sports a grey-blue background and border with a red accent (likely chosen because red is associated with Canada, eh?)
There is easy jump-to navigation to Canwest's papers and TV stations, and also to the marketplace and announcements.
Of all the features, I think easy access to the obituaries (with guestbooks) might be the best. Obituaries stay online for 30 days.
There are city guides for events, movies and restaurants for all the major cities.
News is organized by World, National, and Local where headlines can then be viewed by newspaper.
Archives are typically 7 days, but I've pulled up stories that were over 30 days old. Search results from Canada.com do not show the date and do not seem to be in date order, making selection a little harder.
The Web search display has only headline, short description - often drawn from a metatag for description, and url. The database also seems smaller. Search on Olivia Chow in the title at Canada.com found 51, and at Google.ca, 298.
Canadian-related ads do appear. Olivia Chow shows as a sponsored ad through Shoptoit.ca. "Canada's shopping search engine" has cleverly glommed onto the election by having a section for comparing candidates in the ridings.
Free registration allows users to customize viewing, use a Canada.com email account, participate in discussions. If you also have a print subscription to one of the papers, you can register for more privileges (presumably archives).
Bon appétit! - A Celebration of Canadian Cookbooks from Library and Archives Canada
"Compiled from the Library and Archives Canada collection, the exhibition portrays the evolution of cooking in Canada. It begins with an introduction to the foods and cooking methods of Canada's indigenous peoples; and continues through to the culinary traditions of the early settlers, noting the coming of science to the kitchen at the beginning of the 20th century. It concludes with the multicultural heritage that is an integral part of how food is enjoyed today.
The site includes two fully searchable nineteenth-century cookbooks, as well as appetizing resources for students and teachers."
Fascinating site with cookbooks and descriptions of cooking utensils and methods since the 1700s.
Cool Canada puts Canada first - first in inventions, in interesting people, fascinating people. This is a project of Collections Canada.
"This site uses digitized collection material from Library and Archives Canada to highlight lots of fascinating people, places, inventions, achievements and events that make Canada cool. Project themes include Incredible Inventions, Canadian Giants, Interesting People, Fascinating Places and Amazing Events and Phenomena. Some of the unique materials that have been digitized include UFO documents, patents of invention, documentary artworks and photographs."
How about the light bulb? Thomas Edison? No. Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans in Toronto took out the patent in 1875 - and sold it to Edison later.
CBC hooks up with AOL in Web deal - AOL to sell ad space for broadcaster - by Grant Robertson, Globe and Mail (Nov 22)
"AOL Canada Inc. has forged a partnership with CBC that will see the on-line giant sell advertising for the broadcaster's website and tap into its vast pool of video content."
Canada leads in Internet Banking: Study, Jack Kapica, Globe and Mail (Oct 26) - Report from comScore Media Metrix Canada states that "more than 13.3-million Canadians visited on-line banking sites, representing 68.9 per cent of all Internet users in the country". Not only are more Canadians doing online banking, they are reading more pages and spending more time. Forty percent (40%) of Canadians visit online banking sites. Figures for use are higher in Canada than United States, Britain, France and Germany.
Framing Canada, A Photographic Memory Library and Archives Canada: Website has a searchable database of photographs from 1840 to present selected from the collections at the Library and Archives, as well as history of the collection and a learning resource. There are several of the Victoria Bridge in Montreal. More detail on how to use this from ArchiviaNet.
CANARIE, Rogers to connect researchers Globe and Mail (Aug 29) -- "CANARIE, Canada's research and education network organization, and Rogers Telecom Inc. (formerly Sprint Canada), a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., have announced a multi-million-dollar contract whereby Rogers Telecom will provide a wide range of network services to support the CA*net 4 network."
Many new online exhibits mounted at Collections Canada.
August 26, 2005
Tales from the Vault!: Canadian Pulp Fiction, 1940-1952
www.collectionscanada.ca/pulp/index-e.html
[http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/pulp/index-e.html]
August 18, 2005
Virtual Silver Screen is Macromedia's site of the day for August 17, 2005
www.collectionscanada.ca/silverscreen/index.html
[http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/silverscreen]
August 17, 2005
Canada's UFOs: The Search for the Unknown
www.collectionscanada.ca/ufo/index-e.html
[http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ufo/index-e.html]
Backcheck: A Hockey Retrospective
www.collectionscanada.ca/hockey/index-e.html
[http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/hockey/index-e.html]
Backcheck: Hockey for Kids
www.collectionscanada.ca/hockey/kids/index-e.html
[http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/hockey/kids/index-e.html]
The 1911 Canadian Census Online Research Buzz
If you want to use the 1911 Census you'll need to know the geographic area. It's not searchable by the person's name. These are images of the pages. The handwriting is very difficult to read. Shows surname and given names in a family, month of birth, country of birth, racial or tribal orgin (many Irish and Scotch), religion, employment, insurance held, education and language. There can be more than one set of pages per town. There is a very serious danger of spending too much time looking for names.
City of Montreal/Canadian Historical Portraits Virtual Exhibition: Personalities Who Have Marked the Country's History CCNMatthews via Marketwatch (Jul 11)
"The city of Montreal and its archivists are pleased to invite the public, for the second consecutive year, to a virtual exhibition highlighting heritage photographs and prints from the municipal archives. This year's edition features personalities who marked the history of Quebec and Canada between 1534 and 1940, from Jacques Cartier to Henri Bourassa."
View by region (West, Ontario, Quebec, Martimes) or alphabetically. Has some teaching materials.
Canadian Historical Portraits at http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/archives/portraits/
How'd They Vote? is keeping statistics on the Members of Parliament in Canada -- "voting history, dissention, attendance and speaking habits." Find your MP by postal code. Page will have full contact information as well. Finding the record of the MP takes a little doing: click on MP Statistics, locate your MP on the page (use find in page), click on person's name -- get voting history and quotes from debates.
Cory Horner of Kamloops put this together. Thank you Mr Horner.
Website keeps tabs on MPs, by Sue Bailey, CP via Globe and Mail (July 6) - picks out some snapshots:
+ "Ten MPs, led by a trio of members with cancer, have missed more than 50 votes during the 38th Parliament, which began last October."
+ "Liberal MP Paul Szabo ranked No. 1 for the most words spoken in the Commons -- 107,873 -- out-talking Speaker Peter Milliken, the runner-up, by more than 6,000 words."
+ "MPs averaged about 30,000 words."
AOL Canada revamping web portal by David Paddon, CP via The Star (Jun 28)
AOL Canada has revamped its site to give visitors free access to multimedia and other previously premium content. Notice says that this is for broadband users only.
"Now a standard web browser and a high-speed broadband connection from any service provider will be enough to take full advantage of the revamped aol.ca."
"Wallace [Craig Wallace, President of AOL Canada] said his goal is to move AOL Canada to the No. 2 spot in terms of Canadian visits by the end of this year and to No. 1 by the end of 2006, surpassing Sympatico.msn.ca, a joint venture of Bell Canada and Microsoft."
The new AOL Canada is quite promising. Video and audio are featured on the front page. News page does have Canadian news. Has a daily news poll on whether video lottery terminals should be banned.
However, the search engine is still the old one - doesn't have clustering from Vivisimo or extra aids.
Canadian Feds Ponder Spam Options by Enid Burns, CLickz (Jun 10)
"A Canadian task force enlisted to draft recommendations to combat spam has submitted its report to the country's Minister of Industry. The group was assembled by the Canadian government, which set up the May 2004 Anti-Spam Action Plan for Canada to evaluate existing legislation and make recommendations for revisions and new laws to reduce spam."
See Stopping Spam Creating a Stronger, Safer Internet "Report of the Task Force on Spam May 2005" - Industry Canada.
Canadian Landscapes Photo Collection from Natural Resources Canada, has more than 1000 images and descriptions of Canadian landscapes and landforms. Search by province, landform keyword, or your words.
http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/landscapes/index_e.php
The site - Celebrating Women's Achievements - in Collections Canada has added a segment on Film with biographies of film producers, directors and editors, and one actress - Mary Pickford.
Built for Expo 2005 in Japan, Virtual Canada "connects seven Canadian museums, the Canada pavilion in Japan, and Canadian schools and public users in an international network of virtual landscapes and exploration of themes.
Virtual Canada now available, Globe and Mail (April 12)
Describes Virtual Canada as "An initiative of enormous scale in both the real and virtual realms, the project connects seven Canadian museums, the Canada pavilion in Japan, and Canadian schools and public users in an international network of virtual landscapes and exploration of themes."
A study from Accenture - Leadership in Customer Service: New Expectations - places Canada at the top of a list of 22 countries for e-government service delivery.
Study looked at the e-government services and the experiences and perceptions of the customers. Generally the offerings were found to be well advanced, especially in Canada, but customer satisfaction with delivery less so.
Of interest: "The survey found that while most citizens prefer a number of different methods of communicating with governments, they continue to rely on more traditional, offline channels. Despite the relative Internet-savvy and familiarity with online government in some countries, the telephone continues to be the predominant means citizens use to communicate with government."
Research indicated that online delivery alone is not sufficient for good government. "This year's research shows that governments cannot afford to invest all of their effort and resources in developing the online channel alone to keep pace with citizen demands."
Canada again leads in e-government by Jack Kapica, Globe and Mail
E-government still falling short - ITWeb in South Africa
Full report and video presentation is at Accenture - eGovernment Leadership—Realizing the Vision.
Free online atlas of Canada launched at CBC News (April 5) -- The Royal Canadian Geographical Society with the help of Government of Canada, TD Bank Financial Group and Microsoft Canada have put up an interactive atlas of Canada -- http://canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/. Explore by theme or region, do quizzes and games, or explore the maps. Warning: the maps are extermely slow to load. They do support searching for a place name and have a "zoom slider tool".
More information about the contributions of the sponsors in the Canada News Wire news release Putting Canada on the Online Map: Geography Leaders Launch First Interactive, Web-based Canadian Atlas (April 5)
" "The Internet and online research have become essential parts of today's
learning experience," said Beth Dye, Chair of the Canadian Council for
Geographic Education. "The Canadian Atlas Online will encourage students to
learn more about the country they live in and foster a greater understanding
of the geographical differences that exist in Canada from coast to coast.""
Canada considers file-swap crackdown by Angela Pacienza, Globe and Mail (Mar 24) -- Canada is getting closer to amending the Copyright Act to control file sharing on the Internet.
"The changes would include the signing of two World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties and forcing Internet service providers to keep records of those who share high volumes of copyright-protected material such as songs, Hollywood movies and TV shows."
"The reforms, which will be introduced in the House of Commons later this spring, would give the music industry greater power to stop such behaviour through the courts via lawsuits. Currently, it is not illegal in Canada to upload material to programs like Kazaa and BearShare."
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online was reviewed in Internet Scout who described it as "tremendously helpful source of brief and informative profiles of those personages of importance throughout Canadian history from the year 1000 to 1930." Site uses Macromedia Flash.
Library and Archives Canada has a new collection -- Backcheck: A hockey retrospective - covers early days, French-Canadian tradition (an essay), women's hockey and community hockey.
+ Hockey stories from newspapers - choose by decade all the way back to 1820.
+ Bocks and Links - enough information to ask your library.
+ Educational resources - some ideas.
New online Arts magazine from CBC.ca at cbc.ca/arts covering new "ideas and trends in arts, media and entertainment."
"Our mission ... is to explore Canada and the world through the fascinating prism of the arts. We're operating on the premise that the culture surrounding us isn't just about diversion we think it's more important than that. Lots of Canadians define themselves through their cultural allegiances; the entertainment industry is a massive economic force; today's movie or pop tune is tomorrow's social history."
It looks eclectic - film, tv, stage, books etc - but it needs an alerting service or RSS news feed.