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Pay-per-use may be coming to the Internet as Canada's major service providers look for ways to make more money off their infrastructure investments.  The controversial issue of pricing based on the amount of bandwidth used came to the fore this week with Bell Canada and Telus Corp. telling the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto that new business models must be implemented to meet users' growing appetites for high-bandwidth-consuming movies and music downloads.  Full article.

Tech, telecom firm faces 'talent crisis'

A talent crisis is threatening to jeopardize the success of Canada's technology and telecommunications companies that are faced with unprecedented growth opportunities at a time when they can't find enough skilled help to fill their jobs. Some 95 per cent of the country's technology and telecommunications companies say finding skilled help to fill jobs is the most critical issue they face today, yet only 10 per cent have talent strategies in place, according to a survey released Tuesday by Deloitte and the Information Technology Association of Canada. More.

Disposable phone numbers

A small California company that makes it possible to place a non-long-distance call to anyone around the world as long as you have their e-mail address is bringing the service to Canada.  Jangl is one of a growing number of companies getting into the "social phone number" business that allows users to give out a phone number that is disposable so that callers never need know that most coveted piece of information -- your personal phone number. It essentially lets you use your phone with the same anonymity of a Hotmail account.  Source.

Information & Communications Technology

A not-for-profit sector council, the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), formerly the Software Human Resource Council. ICTC strives to create a strong, prepared and highly educated Canadian ICT industry and workforce. ICTC is a catalyst for change, pushing for innovations that will provide skills definitions, labour market intelligence, career awareness and professional development for the Canadian ICT industry, educators and governments. We forge partnerships that will help develop the quantity and quality of ICT professionals needed to maintain and improve Canada’s position as a leader in the global marketplace.

To achieve these goals, ICTC focuses on four main areas that are proven building blocks for a healthy, successful and forward-looking sector:

Skills Definition
Labour Market Intelligence
Career Awareness
Professional Development

Wiki?

A wiki is a database of pages which visitors can edit live. The building blocks of wikis are the "comments" from visitors. You can generally edit a page in real time, search the wiki's content, and view updates since your last visit. In a "moderated wiki," wiki owners review comments before addition to the main body of a topic.Additional features can include calendar sharing, live AV conferencing, RSS feeds and more.

A wiki makes it easy to swap ideas and information on projects--whether for a family vacation or a complex business enterprise. A wiki opens the door to experts and shy silent types alike, increasing creativity, expertise, and productivity all around. Wikis end the waste of ricocheting emails and communication breakdowns--wikis literally get everyone "on the same page."  Source.

Federal Budget: R&D, Science, Technology

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will make a serious nod to Canada's researchers, innovators and graduate students in Monday's federal budget, followed up soon afterward with a major government policy paper on science and technology. The plan now is for the policy framework to come out possibly within days of the budget, insiders say. It will dovetail with an upcoming policy paper on the environment, which will have a heavy emphasis on research and technology.  It will also mesh with increased transfer payments to the provinces for post-secondary education included in the budget. Full article here.

High fees leave cellphones on hold

The average cellphone bill is one-third more in Canada than in the United States, and although the price gap is closing, it continues to hinder the adoption of wireless communications in this country, a report to be released on Monday says.  Just 56 per cent of Canadians have a mobile phone, compared with an average of about 90 per cent in the rest of the developed world. The discrepancy leaves the country at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to using a basic productivity tool that has become the world's most common communications device.  Full article here.

10 new ways to make money online

So you want to join the ranks of web workers? But you have a mortgage, maybe a dependent or two, and a taste for Venti Mochas from Starbucks? You can make money in the new economy, though it might not be as easy or cushy as keeping your old economy job.  I’m not talking about advertising or affiliate marketing or selling your junk on eBay. Those are so last millennium! I’m talking about the new new economy.  Full article here.

BC needs 9,000 tech workers

British Columbia's high tech companies need to add 9,000 new employees in 2007 at the same time as they face a critical shortage of talent, according to a report issued today by the British Columbia Technology Industry Association.  The biggest need, said the report, is in the marketing and sales end where companies now bringing products to market are looking for more than 1,400 well-trained specialists. Another 500 program and product managers are being sought along with 800 technical support personnel at higher levels.  Also being sought are more than 500 people to fill entry-level engineering positions in software, hardware and software testing and general areas. The report said that at the same time as this need to expand employment in the tech industry is occurring, the labour pool is tightening. BCTIA says it will have to market the strengths of living and working in B.C., collaborate on recruitment levels, work to retain the people they have, strengthen the province's role as a key centre for research and development and develop a provincial technology training program.  Sourced from here.

Dawn of the Internet Office

Since the earliest days of the personal computer, word processors and spreadsheet programs have been the must-have software tools for digital desktops. But a revolution in the way we create documents is under way, led by a number of new — and free — online productivity applications.  Full article here.