Issues/Your Take

Digital Distraction

Hi, I wanted to share with you a new that I read this weekend from The Globe And Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/your-smartphone-is-making-you-stupid/article37511900/  It is about how smartphones have changed the way our brain works, how it has been influencing our way to communicate and to access media. Family interaction is affected starting from breastfeeding. Apps would have been […]

Question of the Week (Class 2): U.S. Super Bowl Commercials on Canadian TV – Good, Bad, or Indifferent?

Question of the Week (Class 2): U.S. Super Bowl Commercials on Canadian TV – Good, Bad, or Indifferent?

Journalistically one should never  “bury your lead”, so the story above (click on it) tells you the current state of play. The CRTC’s (17 page) decision to make removing authorization for simultaneous substitution under it’s regulations can be found below if you are hungering for lots of background detail… The Simultaneous Substitution Regulations can be […]

Ontario Court of Appeal upheld Vice production order ruling

Ontario Court of Appeal upheld Vice production order ruling

The Ontario Court of Appeal released a decision today, in which they upheld the lower Court’s ruling that forced a Vice reporter to hand over some materials to the RCMP. Interesting to see if it does end up going to the SCC.

Updated Slide Deck FOR SECURITY

Updated Slide Deck FOR SECURITY

Here is the updated PowerPoint from today’s presentation, with all the functioning hyperlinks. Enjoy!

Old TV networks get another win against online providers

Old TV networks get another win against online providers

Here’s a story about a 9th Circuit decision, from Ars. Apparently the internet doesn’t count as a “communication channel,” according to the “expert” from FOX. Those alternative facts are pretty convincing, it would seem.

“Why Mobile Game Ads Look Nothing Like the Game” (Motherboard)

“Why Mobile Game Ads Look Nothing Like the Game” (Motherboard)

Hi all, I came across an article which makes an interesting addendum to the topic on which I presented last week: “Why Mobile Game Ads Look Nothing Like the Game” (Motherboard). As the title implies, it focuses on ads for mobile games (on TV and elsewhere), and has more of an American perspective than our […]

“Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds – New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason”

“Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds – New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason”

Hello everyone, Here’s a very intriguing article from The New Yorker about information processing and human perception. I suspect that many of you will find this piece interesting and (perhaps more importantly) enjoyable to read. The author relates modern phenomena (e.g. fake news) to key developments in our ancient past, with references to a variety […]

2016 Updated Communications Monitoring Report

2016 Updated Communications Monitoring Report

Communications Monitoring Report 2016: Telecommunications sector overview Specifically, the “forborne services” portion:

CRTC Submissions on Canadian Content

CRTC Submissions on Canadian Content

  The CRTC took submissions from interested parties on the topic of a “Netflix Tax.” It is not available on the main CRTC site (that I’ve seen) but the submissions made are available on a separate site: http://www.canadiancontentconsultations.ca/home Notably, the submission from the CBC is essentially in favour of letting Netflix continue to operate as they have, as […]

The Cloud

The Cloud

The “cloud” has come to mean the storing and accessing of data (including programs) over the internet rather than on on our device (computer, phone or otherwise). The official definition of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology is: “Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of […]