Evidence of meeting #28 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 book.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:55 p.m.
Director, University of Ottawa Press, Association of Canadian Publishers
I think Rebecca could answer that one.
3:55 p.m.
Rebecca Ross Coordinator, Digital Initiatives, Association of Canadian Publishers
I would say absolutely, because on Google Books you can do a full search. Even if you have a very specific search term and the book only displays 20%, you can still access 20% of the exact term that you want. Especially for small publishers, academic publishers, and publishers who publish in something specific, it really does drive a lot of traffic, at least to the website and at least to the publisher. I do see it as a tool to market to not only readers in North America, but all over the world. We have web traffic from Google Books from all over the world.
4 p.m.
Conservative
4 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
Thank you very much for your submissions. I enjoyed both.
Ms. Kopak, I was really...not shocked, but I was really interested in some of the work you've done with your phone apps and your other products combining health and digital media. I was wondering, and I'm sure our chair is wondering, if you have a digital phone app to increase the quorum at question period. It's something we've been working on quite a lot.
4 p.m.
Director, Business Development and Operations, Great Northern Way Campus
Actually, we could get a team working on that if you want. They're very good at it.
4 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
I'm interested in where your students come from. Are these graduates of university, or are these high school graduates, or is it a combination? Where do you find and attract students to your programs?
4 p.m.
Director, Business Development and Operations, Great Northern Way Campus
It's a master's program, so everybody has an undergraduate degree. A third of them come from the sciences, such as computer science or software engineering. A third of them are from arts programs, usually either 2-D or 3-D art animation. A third are anything else. We've had Gemini-winning documentary filmmakers come through the program. We actually strive to have it as balanced as we can, because we're big believers that computer scientists work really well with artists and produce the best product when they work in these intensive teams together.
The interesting thing--and this is why I called it a success story--is that we are being courted heavily from outside Canada for our model, because our model is basically to focus on solving a problem, rather than to create a product for the sake of creating a product. When I agreed to come, I was actually going to do what our students do, which is a day in the life of a person using digital media. When somebody wants to create a digital media product, we say, “Why do you want to create this?” Then we work through the problem with them: “Who is your target market?” and “What is that person going to do every day?” Then you give them 13 weeks to create something. They usually can't finish the project, but they can do a proof of concept or a prototype. Then you take it out to someone to pay to finish the project.
We've been working with health a lot. Health information is much more interesting when it's presented in an interactive way rather than through a pamphlet. The day of the pamphlet is dying in terms of exchange of information, because if you want to find out about a drug, you tend to go online to find out about it. If you want to find out about almost anything, you go online. So how do you make that information relevant and reliable and interesting? You let people interact with the information, answer their questions, and then go to a doctor or health professional with that kind of information in hand.
Two of our arthritis projects have been very focused on the drug Methotrexate and the implications of using that drug. Again, that's what's exciting about it; it's because the potential is so huge for how we can change the way we use the media.
4 p.m.
Conservative
4 p.m.
Director, Business Development and Operations, Great Northern Way Campus
Did that answer your question?
4 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
Yes, it did.
There's another question somewhat related to that. You seem to be rather futuristic and ahead of the curve. Do you attribute that to the team concept that you build in your development, or is it because you don't put the cart before the horse? You actually look for a problem in society and then try to develop some sort of application, some sort of digital media, to approach that problem. Is that why you can stay ahead of what's happening out there?
4 p.m.
Director, Business Development and Operations, Great Northern Way Campus
Yes, that's it exactly. What's really interesting is that you can stay ahead of it as long as you're focusing on the problem that you're trying to solve and not just researching and thinking it would be so cool if you used 3-D imaging to do something. In the project that I described earlier, the history project with the Chinese cultural society--actually, with UBC--they wanted to build a boring web portal that would access a digital collection. Well, for a 17-year-old, that's really boring, so we said, “Okay, let's look at the 17-year-old”. We brought in a bunch of 17-year-old students and asked them what they wanted to learn history with, so we built the town.
Those are the kinds of things. If you're looking at using digital media to solve the problem, you're not just doing it to create a digital media product; you're actually using it to enhance something.
I can tell you that you also get much more engagement with the people you're working with if they feel you're solving their problem, not just giving them something that's cool.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Armstrong Conservative Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS
Thank you.
Mr. O'Hearn, do you see opportunity through digital media to deliver Canadian content outside of our country's borders? I know there are some difficulties with adjusting to the new business models that we have to adjust to, but with that, is there opportunity to deliver our content worldwide through these types of investments and these types of structures?
4:05 p.m.
Director, University of Ottawa Press, Association of Canadian Publishers
Well, yes. For example, we sell our books through Amazon.fr so that we can go through Europe. We combine the old model with the new. As any publisher would, we still have on-the-ground sales representation in Europe, for example, but they also use various forms of electronic media as well.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
Thank you very much, Mr. Armstrong and Mr. O'Hearn.
Go ahead, Mr. Simms.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
Thank you, Chair.
I'm very intrigued, Ms. Kopak, by what you're doing. What are the revenue streams by which you support your centre? Where does your funding come from for your day-to-day operations?
4:05 p.m.
Director, Business Development and Operations, Great Northern Way Campus
Tuition is primary. We were originally given $40.5 million from the provincial government; $2 million went into start-up, $17 million went into an endowment, and $20 million is going to a new building that we're building next year.
Because of what happened in 2008, our $17 million turned into $13 million, so we're very dependent on tuition. The tuition is full recovery, and these projects help us. We actually believe we're going to be in a profit situation, because there's more demand for getting into the school than we have seats for, so we're expanding our cohort intake next year.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
I'm very intrigued for several reasons, primarily because I'm from a rural riding. It's hard for me, because 30% of my riding is not connected via broadband. Last year one of the top students in my riding, in the whole province of Newfoundland and Labrador, was able to do long-distance education, and it was primarily dial-up, the old-fashioned way of getting onto the Internet. I don't know how he did it, but he managed it.
What he missed was the collaborative atmosphere that comes from contact with other students with the same interests. I'm sure that if an opportunity existed for him to be in your school, he would dearly enjoy it, but the problem is that there's just the one centre, and that's why I asked about the funding. I'd like to see economic development agencies get more involved in what you're doing in terms of the collaborative spirit of education.
Is that something you think we should be doing from an economic development perspective?
4:05 p.m.
Director, Business Development and Operations, Great Northern Way Campus
That's exactly it. It's funny, because we're also going to roll out a remote version of the program next year. We're experimenting with how you could actually develop the collaborative aspect online and how you could develop it in a different way.
I really believe that's the future. I met yesterday with the executive director of the congress of social sciences and humanities, and he was talking about the digital strategy and how to get money. I said, “You know what? You need to focus on how Lakehead University can actually participate in a conference with Memorial. You need to focus on these long-distance collaborations.” If you can work out these long-distance collaborations and get that intense collaborative spirit, I actually think we would dominate the space.
I worked at CBC for many years, and the one thing we used to dominate was long-distance communication. Now I think we have the potential to dominate in long-distance collaboration, if we could get Cisco to reduce its prices a bit.
There is a huge potential. Canada is a very big country with very few people. If we could apply some economic development funding to the technology to do this distance collaboration.... Vancouver is the most expensive place to live in this country. The reason we don't get more students is that it's too expensive for them to come. If we could democratize that a lot and get this collaborative leading-edge thinking, I think we would dominate.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
I'm very interested in what you're saying because I think the Shangri-La of technology would be to be able to connect and live in all places in the country and be able to work and function as we do in the city. I think this issue of collaboration is very important, because without that, it's not really going to happen.
That's why a lot of people in rural areas feel frustrated; it's because they can't necessarily work from anywhere in the country. They still have to move and they still have to go for jobs that require technical expertise and computers.
I thank you for that.
Mr. O'Hearn, I want to get your comments on the proposed legislation in Bill C-32. One of the issues, and it's a very contentious issue, is TPMs and digital rights. I want to get your thoughts about the fact that the current legislation as it exists is very strict about circumventing digital locks. What are your thoughts on that?
4:10 p.m.
Director, University of Ottawa Press, Association of Canadian Publishers
Do you mean my personal thoughts or the thoughts of the ACP?
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
I'm really interested in the personal stuff, because that's always the best stuff.
4:10 p.m.
Director, University of Ottawa Press, Association of Canadian Publishers
Even within the ACP and the Association of Canadian University Presses, which tend to work together, there's some discussion on whether they should or should not be there.
Rebecca, would you have a more intelligent answer than that?
We find ourselves personally in a slightly different position because of where we work. As a publisher at the University of Ottawa Press, we're quite committed to open access, but I can't really speak for others.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
4:10 p.m.
Coordinator, Digital Initiatives, Association of Canadian Publishers
I'll only reiterate what Michael said. We don't have DRM on our books. They are open. That's really all we can say.
