Eradicating illiteracy is a lofty goal, some might say an unrealistic one, but for Joelle MacPhee the fight against illiteracy is a family tradition, a business, and a battle she intends to win.

MacPhee, 25, is director of reading partnerships at Charlottetown-based Ooka Island, a company that develops software that teaches children ages three to seven to read. Ooka was conceptualized by

Nova Scotia Business Inc. on Thursday said it has sold its shares in Halifax-based DHX Media Ltd., almost tripling its money in less than nine years.

Founded by Michael Donovan, a long-time film exec who won an Academy Award for his work on Bowling for Columbine, DHX is involved in the creation, production and licensing of family entertainment rights.  The company owns, markets, and distributes 9,500 half hours of children's entertainment content, and exploits owned properties through its consumer products licensing business.  Its brands include Yo Gabba Gabba!, Caillou, Teletubbies, and

The presentation this week of Deloitte Canada’s tech outlook indicated there are some interesting opportunities for Atlantic Canadian startups, and showed where the region has to improve its ecosystem.

The findings of the 13th annual Canadian TMT Predictions (TMT stands for technology, media and telecommunications) have been well reported elsewhere, so I’d like to just delve into a couple of things that came out of the presentation in Halifax on Tuesday by Duncan Stewart, director of research at Deloitte Canada.

Stewart made stops in Saint John and Halifax this week to discuss the

I’ve been talking to people throughout the startup community about our survey, and the overwhelming message I’m hearing is that the data provided by the survey will definitely help the ecosystem.

In case you missed it, Entrevestor will soon send a two-page survey to every startup we know of in Atlantic Canada – that’s about 300 companies. We will keep all the information on individual companies completely confidential. Yet, by aggregating the information, we will be able to present a more concrete picture of why the startup community is important to the region’s economic future.

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Yan Simard believes 2014 will be the year the market catches up with his company’s capabilities.

Simard is the founder and CEO of Zaptap, the Fredericton-based company that helps retailers market products in-store through consumers’ smartphones. The company has spent the past year refining its product and learning more about the marketing processes, and is now talking to major companies about larger, longer engagements than before.

It is working on a live deployment with a global brand in the automobile sector, which will begin  in the second quarter a paid one-year trial in Ontario. 

Almost three years after striking its groundbreaking partnership with Oxford Instruments of Britain, Fredericton-based Green Imaging Technologies has reached an important milestone, paying its first dividend to shareholders.

Green Imaging was launched by Derrick and Jill Green, who used technology developed at the University of New Brunswick to make it easier, faster and more economical for petroleum companies to study rock core samples extracted during the exploration process.

The Greens funded their growth through angel investment, including raising an undisclosed amount from members

As far as apps go, Halification and Farm To Table have little in common – except that they were both crowned winners at tech competitions in Nova Scotia this weekend.

Halification, which alerts people with public notices in the Halifax area, won two categories in the first Apps4Halifax competition,  capturing $12,000 in prize money. Developers Majd Hussini and Sam Jawich of Bedford received gold awards for the Your City and Go Green categories.

Meanwhile, in Wolfville, a team called Farm To Table, which developed an interactive mapping application that helps people find produce or

Volta Labs, the Halifax-based startup house, is launching a semi-annual accelerator program to complement its office facilities and incubation operations.

The three-month program will be operated by TheNextPhase, an existing mentorship program for startups operated by Toon Nagtegaal, a former venture capitalist from the Netherlands, and David Crow, the co-founder of StartupNorth and the Evangelist in Residence at OMERS Ventures.

Volta opened its doors in May to offer office space and some programing to tech startups in Nova Scotia. Eleven companies are now tenants, and three others have

After several attempts at starting her own venture, Megan McCarthy, CEO of DraftCAM, is optimistic her new business will fly.

The DraftCAM app is still in development, but when complete it will turn any smartphone or webcam into a powerful tool able to detect energy leaks invisible to the naked eye.

 “Ever wonder where that cold draft is coming from or which window is making your heating

Entrevestor will soon launch an exercise that will address one of the shortcomings in the Atlantic Canadian ecosystem – the lack of concrete data on the size and economic impact of the startup community.

Within the next few weeks, we will send a two-page survey to every startup we know of in Atlantic Canada – that’s about 300 companies. We will keep all the information on individual companies completely confidential. Yet, by aggregating the information, we will be able to present a more concrete picture of why the startup community is important to the region’s economic future.

We’re now