Evidence of meeting #26 for Canadian Heritage in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was music.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President, Jumpwire Media LLC
I'm so sorry I can't speak better French. It's one of my priorities.
President, Jumpwire Media LLC
I'm in.
No, I'm very embarrassed, as a Canadian; I go to France every six months, to Cannes, and I speak okay French, but I really am embarrassed that I don't speak better French.
At any rate, to go back to your question about being a legislator, that's a very difficult question. I would really need to think about it. If I can get your e-mail, I'll send you an e-mail because I don't really....
We're doing pretty well. Canada is doing okay. We have a great governmental system. We didn't get hit with the mortgage thing because we didn't follow. We didn't go into Iraq because we didn't follow, right? And I think what we're doing right now....
I was talking to some people yesterday saying I was coming down to this, and they said, “You know what? This is so great that they're actually doing this, that they want to hear from people.”
So I think we're doing everything right. In terms of what legislation, I really like the CMF idea of investment, of taking over the VC idea, the venture capital idea, for the government. I think it's new, I think it's innovative, I think it's unique. Do I think it's going to work?
It's difficult when you get the government involved in things like that, but that's what we do best. We're a socialist country. We want to give everyone an opportunity, right?
NDP
Conservative
President, Jumpwire Media LLC
I'm sorry, Mr. Pomerleau, that I don't have a better answer.
October 28th, 2010 / 5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. McGarry, I have to tell you--this is in all honesty, I'm not blowing smoke--you are one of the best witnesses I have seen since I was elected in 2006. I have enjoyed your testimony immensely.
In fact, I'd be very happy--you can take this to the bank--if you and Jacob Glick ever want to go for dinner, I'll pay.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
I find these conversations fascinating. I want the forward-looking view, and I think that's what you're giving us. You're telling us what's already out there, what's possible, and where the model is going.
I think we do spend an awful lot of time.... I say it every meeting, so I might as well get it out once again: I'm demanding, if I can get it, a review of the Broadcasting Act, because I think we really have to get things squared around not where they are or where they've been but where they're going. The monetization and the opportunities to earn money are so much greater today under the new model than they ever were under the old model, and I think that is something people struggle with.
When Jacob was here, he talked about the long term, and I think that's kind of what you're getting at, that the Internet opens up these opportunities. You're asking students, if they're not making a thousand bucks a month on YouTube, what they're doing, then.
Last night I was in kind of a foul mood. I went home and watched 1980s music on YouTube for three hours just to make myself feel better, but every artist that I watched received a royalty from YouTube. I don't know if people know that they're doing that stuff.
You've said a lot of glowing things about Canada, and I appreciate that, but ultimately what we want to do.... I've said several times that I really think it's about content. Content is going to be king. As for how we get it out there, there are so many platforms. We're still fascinated by radio stations and television stations, but ultimately there are just so many platforms.
I guess this isn't a legislative thing. You also talked about electronic and digital rights for artists. Right now, the reason artists lose that, I think, has to do with the way the Canada Media Fund is structured and that relationship.
Could you give us a piece of information about how we unshackle creators and unshackle artists and make it so that they can see the opportunity that's out there? How would you direct us to do that?
President, Jumpwire Media LLC
Well, if you start talking legislation, as Mr. Pomerleau was--and I've been sort of downloading in the back of my mind--what we really need to do is this. If you could do something for me, it would be to free up data. Give the data to people. That's the big thing.
The ISPs need to provide us with the data: what are people doing online? We can see it. I look at it every day. I know what people are searching. I get it all from Google. But the ISPs in Canada are very closed situations. You saw Verizon and Google and their deal in the U.S. We've talked a lot about net neutrality.
Conservative
President, Jumpwire Media LLC
I want to know everything. I want to know what people are doing. I don't want to know who's doing it--I want the privacy to be linked to that--but I want to know how many people in Fergus, Ontario, are watching YouTube. How many people are watching Metacafe? How many people are making phone calls on Skype? How many people are using e-mail or instant messaging?
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Why would they have interest in protecting that data? If it's not specific to a person, why aren't they releasing it, in your view?
President, Jumpwire Media LLC
Maybe no one has ever asked. When I came here, I was trying to get the data.
We tried to do something at Endemol. I created an idea in 2005 called “mood mapping”. I wanted to find out what people's mood was in a particular city. All I wanted to do was track the words that were going out in the morning and all through the day. So happy, sad...basic words that might be involved in an e-mail or an instant message.
I couldn't get access to that in the U.K. because of the privacy laws. I didn't want to know who was doing it. I just wanted to know which city so that I could create a mood map in the morning and say this city is happy, or this city is very unhappy. That's simple, right? But then you start extending that out.
So for me, when you say legislation, it all comes back to how we can get more access to data. People in Canada are using the Internet so much, but I don't feel I have any visibility on what people are actually doing. We have Nielsen and comScore, but they use panels. I want to see the ones and zeros without infringing on people's privacy, and that's something only you guys can do.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
It sounds like a replacement for the long-form census, to me, Mr. Chairman.
