SLIS Faculty member Toni Samek is a Collaborating Researcher on a five year project titled Digital Labour: Authors Institutions and the New Media which has been awarded 2.8 million dollars in funding by Graphics, Animation and New Media (GRAND) Canada Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE). The project is one of 32 funded by GRAND Canada NCE in its debut year. Sam Trosow (Western) is the Principal Investigator. Other Investigators are: Wendy Adams (McGill), Jonathan Burston (Western), Nick Dyer-Witherford (Western), Lisa Lynch (Concordia), Tina Piper (McGill), Matt Stahl (Western), and Siobhan Stevenson (Toronto).
New Media, Animation, and Games examine how technologies are the building blocks of the Digital Age. The Science, Technology and Innovation Council report in 2008 recognized this as a priority research sub-area within Canada's Science and Technology Strategy. This application responds to the needs identified in that report.
GRAND NCE undertakes a comprehensive research program whose goal is to understand the underlying technologies and to make selective advances in a coordinated, multidisciplinary setting that lead to social, legal, economic, and cultural benefits for Canadians.
Toni's contribution to the Digital Labour project aims to provide a first stage answer to the question of how digital labour features in LIS education.