Documentary Organization of Canada
• 1983 – First meetings, first intervention letter. CIFC is founded in Toronto.
• 1985 – First newsletter is sent - by fax. It eventually becomes POV Magazine.
• 1988 – Montreal chapter (later to be known as Quebec chapter) is formed.
• 1991 – A National Executive is formed - John Walker, President.
• 1991 – First edition of POV Magazine, edited by Wyndham Wise – Geoff Bowie, first Publisher.
• 1994 – The first edition of Hot Docs is held- Paul Jay was Chair of CIFC and Founding Chair of Hot Docs!
• 1995 – Atlantic chapter is formed.
• 1996 – BC chapter is formed.
• 1997 – Hot Docs incorporates as a separate charitable organization.
• 1998 – First coast-to-coast National Executive elected - Gary Marcuse, Chair.
• 2003 – The CIFC changes its name to DOC.
• 2006 – Ottawa chapter is formed.
• 2006 – Newfoundland chapter is formed.
• 2007 – Winnipeg chapter is formed.
• 2008 – Alberta chapter is formed.
• 2009 – Newfoundland chapter folds.
Martin Cooper (inventor)
Cooper left his first job at Teletype Corporation in Chicago in 1954 and joined Motorola, Inc. (Schaumburg, Illinois) as a senior development engineer in the mobile equipment group. He developed products including the first cellular-like portable handheld police radio system, produced for the Chicago police department in 1967.
By the early 1970s, Cooper headed up Motorola's communications systems division. Here he conceived of the first portable cellular phone in 1973 and led the 10-year process of bringing it to market. Car phones had been in limited use in large U.S. cities since the 1930s but Cooper championed cellular telephony for more general personal, portable communications. He believed the cellular phone should be a "personal telephone – something that would represent an individual so you could assign a number; not to a place, not to a desk, not to a home, but to a person." While it has been stated Cooper's vision for the device was inspired by Captain James T. Kirk using his Communicator on the television show Star Trek, Cooper himself later said that his actual inspiration was Dick Tracy's wrist radio.