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Vol 1, #6, April 21, 2009
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April 21, 2009




Headlines

Suite101.com most popular Canadian-owned site
Publishing platform saves time and money
New OHA site promotes better public access
Daylight Touch delivers productivity on the go
iPhones a boon to bottom line, Forrester
MySpace Canada brings radio online
Online currency exchange cuts costs
Transparency-in-government website launched
McAfee research reveals environmental impact of spam
Integrated toolkit streamlines digital media planning
GlobalTV.com re-launch good for consumers, advertisers

Suite101.com most popular Canadian-owned site
With an audience of 14 million unique visitors in March 2009, Suite101.com is now the most popular Canadian-owned content website. The numbers, gathered by Alexa Rank, put the site ahead of the former number one Canadian Broadcasting Corporation website.

Suite101.com is an online magazine published by a network of over 2,000 freelance writers and currently contains 160,000 original articles covering more than 400 topics.

“Here’s further proof that the web loves great writing,” says Peter Berger, CEO of Suite101.com. “One reason for our success is that, unlike our competitors, we focus solely on online writing and do this very well.”

Although it is a Canadian site, Suite101.com’s audience doesn’t stop at the border. The site is attracting a growing number of readers from other English-speaking countries and last year began tapping into additional language markets by opening their first European office.

The other companies to make it into the top five are:

  • cbc.ca
  • canoe.ca
  • canada.com
  • thestar.com

Top of Page

Publishing platform saves time and money
North Plains Systems, Inc., a provider of digital asset management (DAM) software solutions, has unveiled its new TeleScope Publishing Platform™ (TPP) - a modular, totally integrated solution that addresses every aspect of the digital publishing workflow. The design redefines how publishers create, distribute and sell their content by streamlining their production workflows and capitalizing on emerging revenue opportunities.

"The TPP revolutionises the publishing process by totally removing the need for conventional typesetting and editorial mark up," said Hassan Kotob, CEO, North Plains Systems, Inc. "Production quality PDFs and eBooks are produced automatically, delivering up to a tenfold reduction in page production costs and up to 75 per cent reduction in production times."

From receipt of manuscript, editing and production of published content, storage and cataloguing of titles and components through to promotion, distribution and sales of content, the TPP achieves substantial reductions in cost and time to market for both print-based and digital content. Titles are securely stored in a flexible format that is reflowable, delivering fully formed and validated PDF, POD, eBook and HTML output on demand.

Publisher content can be quickly accessed by an online book reader and widget technology, while eBooks can be sold and delivered to individuals or as content collections to partners and institutions. Because of the granular nature of the securely stored content, compilations, mashups and custom learning objects can be produced in real time with powerful metadata providing tracking and usage reports.

The modular nature of the TPP gives publishers the option to choose the area of their business that they would most like to improve, while a full deployment of the TPP will provide a completely integrated publishing solution. To achieve all of this with existing solutions would require working with several separate solution providers to conduct a complex and often expensive integration exercise. Top of Page

New OHA site promotes better public access
The Ontario Hospital Association believes that Ontarians deserve to know how their local hospitals are performing so as part of their new public relations strategy they have created myhospitalcare.ca.

The easy-to-understand and navigate site promotes better public access to hospital performance information. Users can search the site by location, type of care or one of 39 different indicators.

“By making the information on myhospitalcare.ca easy for people to access, the OHA is empowering patients while also helping hospitals become even more accountable than they already are,” says Tom Closson, OHA President and CEO. Top of Page

Daylight Touch delivers productivity on the go
Daylight Touch from Marketcircle Inc. is an iPhone/iPod touch business productivity application that gives users the ability to monitor and control large projects in real time, eliminating the need for time-consuming emails.

Available as a free trial on Apple’s App Store, Daylight Touch delivers business productivity features to Mac-based small businesses. Instead of passively observing your business via remote email, Daylight Touch puts users in the middle of the action with the ability to assess a project’s status or an open sales opportunity, then dive in and direct the work so everyone delivers on time and stays on track.

Users can create multi-user meetings, send out notifications and create appointments using muti-touch gestures on the calendar and a dedicated tasks screen allows users to bulk edit tasks, create subtasks, and link-tasks to projects, opportunities and contacts.

Daylight Touch periodically syncs back to the office using EDGE, 3G or WiFi. Top of Page

iPhones a boon to bottom line, Forrester
In 2007, Forrester Research claimed that iPhones were “unfit for corporate workplaces”, citing lack of encryption for confidential data, lack of Microsoft Exchange support for calendars and email, and a lack of applications for the phone as the top reasons for their lack of confidence for the product.

Now, Forrester analyst Ted Schadler has issued a new take on the iPhone. He says that large-scale adoption at Oracle, Kraft Foods and Amylin Pharmaceutical has shown that the iPhone can be a boon to these companies’ bottom line.

Schadler gives the following reasons for his change of heart:

  • iPhone now works with Microsoft Exchange
  • Safari browser and iPhone mail application are comparable to netbooks in quality
  • iPhone 3.0 software due this summer will have better support for VPNs and workplace security, such as disabling the camera and creating encrypted backups
  • employees often buy their own iPhone, rather than waiting for the IT department to issue one to them and individual phone ownership lowers company costs

Top of Page

MySpace Canada brings radio online
In partnership with Corus Entertainment and StreamTheWorld, MySpace Canada has launched a new live streaming service that allows users to listen to their favourite radio stations online.

Corus Entertainment will provide MySpace users real-time access to over 50 radio stations across the country while Canadian-based StreamTheWorld will provide the technology backbone for MySpace Radio, including an intuitive flash player that incorporates MySpace social networking features and allows users to integrate radio stations into their profiles.

Top of Page

Small businesses can save money with online currency exchange
PeerFX has launched its online peer-to-peer currency exchange service with an aim to cut through the clutter and offer simple service at lower rates.

The service, which has already attracted initial customer sign-ups plus a waiting list of over 250 people, allows customers to exchange Canadian and U.S. dollars at the “interbank or median”, a rate typically accessible only by large financial institutions.

For small businesses this can mean a savings of up to 80 per cent on their currency exchange transaction fees. Top of Page

Transparency-in-government website launched
At last week’s Mesh Tech Conference in Toronto, Mayor David Millar told the crowd that the City of Toronto has created a one-stop site aggregating all of the city’s public records in order to increase transparency at the government level.

The idea is based on successful efforts in American cities and is set to launch this fall. The site, www.toronto.ca/open, plans to integrate iPhone apps and Google maps among other features, tracking everything from carpool collectives to bike routes to construction zones to building vacancies. Most of the data will be live with new information streaming in as it goes public. Top of Page

McAfee research reveals environmental impact of spam
The global annual energy used to transmit, process and filter spam e-mail could power 2.4 million homes and has a huge financial impact on businesses.

In their “Carbon Footprint of Spam” released last week, McAfee Inc. and climate researchers ICF calculate that the annual energy used globally to deal with spam totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours. Results also showed that filtering and processing spam produces the same GHG emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using 2 billion gallons of gas.

“As the world faces the growing problem of climate change, this study highlights that spam has an immense financial, personal and environmental impact on businesses,” said Jeff green, senior VP of product development for McAfee Avery labs. “Stopping spam at its source, as well as investing in state-of-the-art spam filtering technology, will save time and money, and will pay dividends to the planet by reducing carbon emissions as well.” Top of Page

Integrated toolkit streamlines digital media planning
comScore and MediaBank have developed a way to integrate the two company’s digital platforms in order to streamline the media planning and buying processes. The platform integration will enable media planners and buyers to more seamlessly navigate between the planning and buying, execution and billing processes.

“A common problem among digital media planners and buyers today is the lack of integration between vendor services used during various stages of the media planning and buying process,” said Linda Boland Abraham, executive vice president of comScore. “An integration of ComScore’s and MediaBank’s platforms will make the lives of the media buyer easier by directly linking these processes, mirroring the process that exists today in TV.”

According to Yaakov Kimelfed, SVP, Director of Analytics at MediaBank, the digital environment represents the future of media planning but it will continue to take a backseat to television until the end-to-end media planning process is as fluid as its traditional media counterparts.

“This powerful new link between (comScore and MediaBank) will accomplish just that, further facilitating the flow of advertising dollars to this medium and fulfilling the promise of cross-platform integration.” Top of Page

GlobalTV.com re-launch good opportunity for consumers, advertisers
The debut of the newly-designed GlobalTV.com offers over 30 refurbished show microsites, complete with online exclusives, behind-the-scene sneak peaks, cast interviews, comprehensive photo gallery and redesigned video player.

According to Graham Moysey, senior vice president of Canwest Digital Media, the improved site will offer increased opportunities for advertisers while expanding the viewer experience.

“With the site redesign, increased access and fantastic content, we’re building on our status as the number one online destination for TV’s biggest hits,” says Moysey. Top of Page



Upcoming Events

The 3rd Atlantic Internet Marketing Conference
April 22-24, 2009
Halifax , Nova Scotia

April 27-29,2009
next:2009
Toronto , Ontario

Convergence 09
May 11, 2009
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June 5-7, 2009 nextMEDIA – Banff
Alberta