The offices of New Media BC are Spartan. Cheap, multipurpose carpet covers the floors, and the walls are simple whitewashed cinderblock. It feels like being in an elementary school, waiting to see the principal, which is a surprising setting for an organization that represents the digital media industry. It’s a deviation from the
industry-standard glass, chrome, and reflective lighting.
Lynda Brown, president of the industry association, assures me that the office is temporary. She and her staff are squatting here while waiting for the construction of the World Centre for Digital Media on the Great Northern Way Campus. The affable Brown—who, the day after we meet, is to leave on a business trip that will take her to the London Game Career Fair—is visibly excited about her future workspace.
The parcel of land on which the building is to be erected is currently vacant of anything but scrub and the occasional abandoned tire. It’s tucked along the south side of the CP Rail tracks just east of Main Street, a postindustrial seam that appears ideal for reinvention as part of Vancouver’s cyber-fantastic future.
In 2003, New Media BC conducted a survey of its membership, asking companies to project their growth. By 2004, organizations had already surpassed where they thought they’d be at the end of 2005. Office space and financing requirements aside, it was clear there was going to be a shortage of smart, skilled employees to meet the requirements of digital media companies in B.C. “We have a solid base of undergraduate and diploma programs in the new-media area,” Brown explains. “It’s hard to find a person who has the three domains of art, technology, and business. We need to address this talent gap.”
Currently, companies import the talent they can’t source locally, but the best solution is to train the required workforce. So the World Centre for Digital Media will be home to, among other things, the new Masters of Digital Media program, a terminal degree not unlike an MBA. Bachelor’s-degree, diploma, and certificate programs in new and digital media are popular in postsecondary institutions, but master’s programs are rare. This one will be unequalled because of the institutions that are partnering to deliver it and the industry support for the idea.
Gerri Sinclair, executive director of the MDM program, talks on the phone from her temporary office at GNWC, which is possibly as elementary school–like as that of her colleague. Sinclair will soon be departing for the 2006 Serious Games Summit in Washington, D.C., followed by a visit to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where students can get a master’s degree in entertainment technology. She’s checking out the competition, but she doesn’t sound concerned about how the MDM program will stack up. “We have a very unique competitive advantage,” she insists.
For one thing, students who are awarded the MDM will find their degree bearing the seals of four renowned academic institutions: BCIT, Emily Carr Institute, SFU, and UBC. The practical technological-application courses at BCIT, the art and design curriculum at Emily Carr, the communications department at SFU, and the creative writing and film studies programs at UBC are all second to none.
Sinclair, who has a doctorate in Shakespearean drama, has been working in the technology industry and digital media for 20 years. She became interested after she and her son learned the BASIC programming language for their Commodore VIC-20. She also set up the ExCITE (Exemplary Centre for Interactive Technologies in Education) research and development lab at SFU in 1987. It was Canada’s first multimedia centre and created some of the first Web sites in the country. “The opportunity to be right at the ground floor and execute on the challenge of creating a world-leading centre in Vancouver? I’m gratified to be able to participate,” she says.
Students of the MDM program will be expected to participate fully in designing their learning experience, Sinclair says. In their first year, they will take such courses as The Visual Story and Building Virtual Worlds. In the second year, following a summer internship, students take electives at any of the four partner schools. The curriculum is now being accredited by each of the participating institutions. Sinclair expects to have that process completed by early 2007, just in time to select a first cohort of 35 students to enter the program.
Prospective students are expected to be recent graduates of bachelor’s programs or professionals who are looking to upgrade their skills and position in the industry. Sinclair and Brown expect most will be coming into the MDM program with degrees in computer science, arts, performing arts, or fine arts.
Tuition for the two-year program is $40,000 for Canadians, and $60,000 for international students. Applications for the first MDM cohort are currently being accepted (see www.gnwc.ca/mdm/admission.htm for more information or to request an application), and GNWC is holding an open house on November 25. It will be an opportunity for prospective students to learn more about the program and meet its industry partners.
Industry involvement is an element that makes the MDM program world-class, Brown says. “The graduate program is at the nucleus of a larger initiative which is embraced by industry.” Not only are digital media companies in B.C. aware of their personnel requirements, a problem they expect to be addressed by graduates from the program, but the industry recognizes the need for things like professional development, continuing education, incubation, and commercialization. She says that, for example, “There are great innovations being created, but how do you get those to market?”
Governments are certainly aware of what the future holds, and are supporting the new degree program. The province of B.C. recently committed $40.5 million to the project. Add to that the $8 million promised by the industry and nearly half the budget is accounted for. “Bell [Canada] will commit another $10 million if the feds come on,” Brown tells me, “and we’re asking the feds for about $48 million.
“It’s a low-risk investment,” she insists.
Digital media is defining the future of Vancouver, and the province. Abandoned lots covered in broken asphalt are being converted into chrome office pods. Big name video-game development—Electronic Arts, THQ through Relic Entertainment, Disney/
?Buena Vista through Propaganda Games, Vivendi Games through Radical Entertainment—forges the new economy. Digital entertainment companies like Mainframe Entertainment and Rainmaker are dominant in their fields of animation, visual effects, and post-production services.
The growth of the industry will be further fuelled by the graduates of the MDM program, giving Vancouver the opportunity to lead the world in the field.