November 25, 2006

The Digital Content Association of Japan (DCAJ) and Korea Culture & Content Agency (KOCCA) is holding the Digital Creators Competition 2006 (an animation competition) which is now international and replaces the previous "Digital Content Grand Prix, International Division."

A recent article in the New York Times explores the topic of serious games:

The Partnerships Fund (Canadian Culture Online) is designed to assist partnership initiatives between not-for-profit, public and private organizations and institutions to connect all Canadians with the riches of Canada's heritage by making Canadian cultural collections held by provincial, municipal and local cultural organizations available via the Internet in both official languages.

Sun, Oct 29 to Fri, Nov 3 (Washington D.C.)

The emerging "serious games" sector represents a significant new opportunity for companies to use cutting-edge entertainment technologies to solve problems and provide simulated training experiences that educate and inform. Many commercial games are already in use for purposes other than entertainment. Titles such as SimCity, Civilization, America's Army and others have been used as learning tools in schools and industries across the globe.

For a round-up for entertaining games with non-entertainment goals (serious games), be sure to check out the listing at Social Impact Games. All sorts of games for education, public policy, health, political, business, military, advergames, and commercial games are featured here. A great primer into the field of serious games.

The Serious Games Initiative is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector. Part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy.

At the recent information sessions on Serious Games, Patricia Elliott joined us from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada where she looks after cultural industries in BC, Alberta, and Yukon. She shared some information about what kind of federal assistance and support is available for digital media companies looking to enter international markets.

• Trade Commissioner Service - 140 offices abroad, 12 regional offices in Canada, 900 Trade Commissioners, 800 based overseas
  

At the recent Serious Games Summit information sessions, I had the privilege of discussing and highlighting some serious games related activity in Alberta. The following are some notes and links to the information I was able to share.

• 3 major areas of activity in Alberta: research, projects that are similar to serious games and projects that are under development
• at the time of the presentation, no specific completed serious games that had been produced in Alberta, if you know of any please let me know

The TELUS World of Science Edmonton recently unveiled their plans for a new Digital Visualization Theatre and Content Development Lab. It will be one of the most advanced digital visualization facilities in the world. Partners in the project include the University of Alberta, TELUS, TRLabs, University of New Mexico, Lodestar Astronomy Center, San Diego Supercomputer Center, and many other institutions.