FundAid: ‘Community Crowdfunding Division of Glacier Media’ arrives in Thompson, Manitoba

Thompson Citizen readers got their first glimpse today of FundAid, a new initiative by the “Community Crowdfunding Division of Glacier Media” in Vancouver to  tap into a new revenue stream from groups and individuals looking to raise money for things ranging from “a friend or relative who is facing financial hardship because of an illness or accident” to “paying for equipment or travel costs for your sports team” to  creating “a lasting legacy through a memorial fund” or how about celebrating” your birthday or retirement by asking for donations to your favourite charity.” The Wednesday Thompson Citizen and Friday Nickel Belt News are owned by GVIC Communications Corp. of Vancouver’s Glacier Media Group.

FundAid has partnered with FundRazr, another Vancouver-based company that recently won the City of Vancouver Excellence Award for small technology companies, to provide the dynamic platform to power its venture into crowdfunding.

While the contributors to fundraising campaigns are not required to pay FundAid a fee, recipients of the money raised normally pay a  a seven per cent FundAid fee, plus a payment provider fee of 2.9 per cent, plus $0.30 cents per transaction.  According to its corporate website, FundRazr has a similar operational structure, although its FundRazr fee is listed as five per cent rather than seven per cent. Its payment provider fee of 2.9 per cent, plus $0.30 cents per transaction, however, is identical to Glacier’s FundAid. No word on exactly how the two companies are divvying up their share of the fundraising pie between themselves as they work together. FundRazr also notes “contributors have an option to cover the fee to give 100 per cent of donations to recipients.”

In the case of Glacier’s FundAid roll-out today at its community papers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Martha Perkins, executive director at FundAid in Vancouver, told readers both FundAid and FundRazr have “waived the service fees as their contribution to the campaign” because the crowdfunding effort, “We Stand On Guard for Cpl. Nathan Cirillo’s Son,”  is for Marcus, the five-year-old son of Cirillo, the 24-year-old reservist from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (Princess Louise’s) in Hamilton, Ontario, shot and killed Oct. 22 in Ottawa by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau while taking part in an honour guard at the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial in Confederation Square. One of Perkins’ tasks with FundAid is to work with  newspapers and individuals to facilitate campaigns, enhance a campaign’s success and engage potential donors through social media. As of 10 p.m. CDT Oct. 29, FundAid had raised $3,595 for the Cirillo campaign from a total of 83 contributors over six days.

Indiegogo, another crowdfunding company from San Francisco, through its “Fund 4 Officer P Vincent & Cpl N Cirillo” has also been raising money for  Cirillo’s son, and the family of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, 53, who died in hospital Oct. 20 after hit-and-run driver Martin Couture Rouleau aimed his vehicle at two members of the Canadian Armed Forces, who were on foot in a strip mall parking lot, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, located about 50 kilometres southeast of Montreal. The other soldier suffered minor injuries. The Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign which closes at 11:59 PDT Oct. 29, had raised $397,119 as of 10 p.m. CDT Oct. 29 from 3,430 contributors and was at 397 per cent of its $100,000 goal. With $650,000 committed, it set a new goal of $750,000.

As with most of its new initiatives, Glacier Media Group launched FundAid close to home, in this case in early July, starting in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, telling readers that “every week we will be advertising FundAid in our community newspapers: the Vancouver Courier, WE Vancouver, North Shore News, Surrey Now, Langley Advance, Delta Optimist, Richmond News, Burnaby Now, Royal City Record, Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times, Tri-Cities Now and Bowen Island Undercurrent.

“These ads will sometimes promote specific campaigns but will also draw attention to FundAid:

•  editors will be told of any campaign that might be of interest their readers;
•   when newspapers write about a campaign, a “donate now” widget will be embedded in the online version;
•   every newspaper will host FundAid campaigns on their websites;
•   our sales staff can approach businesses who might want to get involved by offering perks or      sponsoring a campaign.”

While the Thompson Citizen online and print story Oct. 29 simply identified her by the byline “Martha Perkins,” the executive director of FundAid in Vancouver is a  well known former community newspaper editor, particularly in Southern Ontario, where she won  numerous  writing and photography awards from the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and the Ontario Community Newspaper Association during her long tenure with The Haliburton County Echo and Minden Times. She started out as a reporter at the Haliburton County Echo in September 1985 and was named editor in 1989. She later became editor of several of its  sister papers, including the Minden Times, Bancroft This Week and Barry’s Bay This Week, editing the papers until October 2009.

She started working for Glacier in November 2009 as managing editor of the Bowen Island Undercurrent on Bowen Island, British Columbia. She also worked for Glacier at the North Shore Outlook in North Vancouver and the Westender  (WE Vancouver).

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Newspapers turn to Augmented Reality (AR)

Remember Virtual Reality (VR), the computer-simulated environment that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world or imagined worlds? Sure you do. Or at least one derivation of it known as simulated reality, as long your virtual memory goes back as far as Sept. 28, 1987 and “Encounter at Farpoint,” the pilot episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation, written by D.C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry, and the first appearance of the Holographic Environment Simulator, better known simply as the “holodeck.”

Data, who was fond of Sherlock Holmes, loved it and in later episodes would often play the 221B Baker Street detective in holodeck programs, often accompanied by Geordi La Forge in the role of Dr. Watson. Prior to the late 24th century, Federation starships were not equipped with holodecks. In 2151, the Starfleet vessel Enterprise NX-01 encountered a vessel belonging to an alien race known as Xyrillians, who had advanced holographic technology in the form of a holographic chamber similar to the holodeck, which Starfleet developed two centuries later. A holo-chamber was also later installed aboard a Klingon battle cruiser, given to the Klingons by the Xyrillians in exchange for their lives.

Here in the 21st century, most current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones.

Some advanced, haptic systems now include tactile information, generally known as force feedback, in medical and gaming applications. As for the origin of the term “virtual reality,” it can be traced back to the French playwright, poet, actor, and director Antonin Artaud and his 1938 book The Theatre and Its Double, where he described theatre as “la réalité virtuelle.”

While newspapers have added a lot of bells and whistles to our various online “platforms” in recent years, they’re not quite at the Holographic Environment Simulator or holodeck reality. Yet. But they do have something new now called Augmented Reality (AR). And it’s not science fiction. The technology makes use of the camera and sensor in your smartphone or tablet to add layers of digital information – videos, photos, and sounds – directly on top of items in your newspaper.

Vancouver-based GVIC Communications Corp., which operates as the Glacier Media Group and owns the Thompson Citizen and Nickel Belt News here in Northern Manitoba, launched Augmented Reality for editorial and advertisements throughout its Lower Mainland media properties in British Columbia in February 2013, year, teaming up with Dutch businessman Quintin Schevernels’ innovative Layar application, which can be downloaded on your iOS or Android smartphone or tablet. The Winnipeg Free Press also launched its own Augmented Reality (AR) last September with Blippar, a British first image-recognition smartphone app.

“Western Canada’s  largest local media company is pleased to announce the enterprise wide launch of augmented reality throughout its Lower Mainland, British Columbia properties,” Glacier said on Feb. 7, 2013, adding it was the “First company worldwide to build augmented reality into its digital sales platform.”

Layar, with over 35 million downloads worldwide, is the world’s most downloaded AR app, and continues to grow at an average of almost a million downloads per month. It operates as image recognition software invisibly tagging images, logos and icons with codes to allow the augmented reality components to appear instantly on a reader’s smartphone or tablet while scanning the AR content.

The Toronto Star and Bermuda Sun are among other publishers and newspaper using Layar.

Rather than a Quick Response Code (QR) matrix barcode in print, Layar provides the ability to link to multiple assets; watch video/listen to audio/share the content on social networks and even buy a product – right from the page, eliminating the gap between print and digital.

Maybe we won’t have to wait until the late 24th century after all for the Holographic Environment Simulator.