RECODING OF STREET MESSAGING SYSTEM IN FULL SWING
With funds awarded by TELUS to advance the architecture of the Street Messaging platform, recoding of the website is well underway! Our mighty team is hard at work to incorporate feedback and features suggested by community workers and clients to improve the system.
Follow the project’s new twitter account @SMS_VCN for the latest news and updates!
VCN PROTECTS PRIVACY AND INFORMATION OF USERS
Do you ever notice after perusing or purchasing an item online, pop up ads touting similar products would appear on Google or Facebook?
In this day in age, data mining plays a large and increasing role in market and consumer analysis. Data mining occurs when computers, high-level algorithms, cluster-analysis sift through and collect data to elicit patterns, relationships, future behaviours, and trends.
There are many positive purposes of data mining, with collected information used to improve healthcare, weather forecasting, and transportation. Companies are able to determine the future behaviour of customers, allowing companies to target their marketing strategies and provide the products people want.
While the benefits are many, data mining is often an opportunity for misuse. Some companies have been aggressive in data collection, with contention stemming from what is done with the information once collected.
Canadian privacy law requires companies and organizations to obtain consent for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. Data processing poses risks when the data is used in ways that was unintended or unethically.
It is VCN’s policy not to collect data and to protect the privacy and information of all registered users. All client information is kept confidential and secure, unless VCN is legally obligated to release the information.
DONATE TO VCN
VCN has a monthly bill of $1100 to for our Internet Service Provision. The servers there host hundreds of organization’s websites that without us would fail to truly have the web presence they need to keep diverse messaging available in a commercialized realm.
Support VCN’s work by donating here: https://www2.vcn.bc.ca/get-involved/donate/
NEW REINVESTMENT OF CANADA’S SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
PM Trudeau and the Liberal Party have dissolved Industry Canada and consolidated federal efforts to foster science and technology innovation, appointing Ontario MP Navdeep Bains as Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.
Industry Canada, which has administered VCN’s Youth Internship Program since 2009, could not confirm whether the department would continue to exist in its current form. Analysts say that the move will result in an advancement of federal research and development in Canada.
Since ushering in the new Liberal Party, the government has pledged to invest $900 million in Canada’s burgeoning tech community with a significant amount of funds earmarked towards small tech start-ups in various regions of the country.
Writer Ivan Semeniuk for the Globe and Mail writes, “With virtually all areas of industry under rapid transformation because of digital technologies such as data mining and additive manufacturing (3D printing), a revamped federal ministry could help spur innovation culture in Canada.”
BC TECH SUMMIT 2016
On January 18-19, 2015, BC Council for Innovation will be holding a two-day #BCTECH Summit aimed at showcasing BC’s flourishing and dynamic technology industry. The event will offer cross-sector networking opportunities to exchange ideas aimed at reshaping how the industry does business.
Entrepreneurs, investors, industry buyers, researchers, students and government officials will be in attendance, and participants will exchange fresh ideas.
To register and for more information, visit their website http://bctechsummit.ca/