High Road Communications

There has been some interesting experimentation with mobile applications in Canada thanks to the Mobile Experience Lab. Started in 2005 at the Ontario College of Art (OCAD), the Lab aims “to pursue research projects that bring together art practice, design and research methodology with software and hardware engineering capabilities.” They focus on the areas of user interface, locative experiences, collaborative games and augmented reality narratives.

One of their coolest applications has been a “Your News” newspaper box to which people could text in their own headlines. The project was just one example of how mobile technology could be used to create an interactive cultural statement in the urban core.

Compared to other countries, Canada has been a bit slower to adopt mobile applications, so it’s great to see OCAD students embracing Bluetooth, WiFi and other technologies to engage Torontonians in creative, and amusing ways. A full video of all their mobile experiments can be found on YouTube (check out the bicycle wheel that spins with human movement).

(Cross-posted to Next Great Thing)

Today you can check out The Branham 300, a listing from Backbone Magazine of Canada’s highest performing technology companies. Scanning the list shows that it is dominated by players in the software category and the IT prof services category. ‘Software as a service’ and ‘unified messaging and communications’ are definitely trends to watch from last year and it will be interesting to see how clean/green tech will impact the list for 2008.

Nominations for the CATAAlliance Innovation and Leadership Awards are open, and can be submitted until April 8. An overview of all the awards categories and the nomination guide can be found here.

High Road is again sponsoring the High Road Communications Award for Excellence in Science and Technology Reporting. The award is presented to a journalist or writer raising the public profile of science and technology and contributing to the building of a science and technology culture in Canada. Last year’s winner was the Globe and Mail’s Mathew Ingram (blog), and Shane Schick (blog), now editor of ComputerWorld Canada, won in 2006.

The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance and High Road have been strategic partners for many years. High Road president Mia Wedgbury and senior vice president Sarah Burns are CATA board members.

Well, the Writers Guild of America strike has been resolved, and we can soon return to our regularly scheduled programming. With the clatter of keyboards starting up again south of the border, I can’t help but think about the power play behind those weeks of withheld words.

At some level, every writer hopes the words he or she types  or scratches onto a piece of paper, mean something to somebody, and that they will affect change—whether it’s a scathing political article in a newspaper, a pulpy romance novel or a straight-ahead press release. But few are in a position to witness their impact in the way that the WGA has over the last few months. So imagine for a moment what would happen if the world’s writers put down their pens, closed their laptops and refrained from writing for a day. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that the world as we know it would grind to a halt. News broadcasts would be done on the fly, business proposals would be stymied, university students would run amok and Jeff Probst and Howie Mandel would rule the airwaves.

So, to celebrate the strike’s end, and avoid the dystopian world I’ve described, give the writers in your life an extra little pat on the back. It might leave them speechless, but in a good way.

Silicon Valley buzz maker Tom Foremski (formerly of Financial Times, now prominent SV blogger) made some news of his own today with this post in which he states that he will only receive PR pitches through FaceBook.

The switch up is really an experiment to try and ensure pitches are more customized, personalized and fit with what Foremski normally covers. But it isn’t all virtual, all the time. He says that face-to-face communications still trumps all other channels.

Something tells me he might be receiving a few friend requests this afternoon.