Canada 3.0 Blog

Important lessons learned at Canada 3.0

From May 2-4, 2011 upwards of 2,000 delegates gathered in Stratford, Ontario to discuss how we can reach a moon shot goal for Canada – that anyone can do anything online by 2017.

There were many common themes discussed throughout the conference. Here are some of the hottest issues raised:

• The moon shot goal requires an unprecedented level of collaboration across Canada
• Canada must advance its position as a global ICT technology leader or get left behind
• Investment in a better infrastructure is key to supporting new technologies
• Social media opportunities exist to drive change across almost all industry sectors
• We need to build a supportive ecosystem to help entrepreneurs to succeed in Canada
• It’s important to tell effective stories about our successes in order to inspire others
• We need to share data openly in order to uncover new opportunities for advancement
• Better education, training and skills are required to prepare ICT workers for the future

According to Ian Wilson, Executive Director at the Stratford Institute, the next step is to build a plan of action in order to ensure that all of the issues are addressed. That’s because “vision without implementation is hallucination.”

Insights from the break-out sessions at Canada 3.0

On the afternoon on day two at Canada 3.0, conference delegates attended break-out sessions focused on eight key sector streams: Education, eHealth, Entertainment & Media, Telecommunications & Distribution, Natural Resources, Public Sector, Research and Human Resources.

Below are some of the key ideas that were generated from each of the streams.

Education

• Mobile devices are changing the way we live, learn and play. Therefore, the design of the learning and task tools is critical. Learning on mobile devices will have many forms (i.e. SMS, 3D gaming, etc.).  Building an infrastructure to support learning on mobile devices is key.
• Gaming can be an effective tool for education by driving engagement, fostering problem solving skills, learning about working in teams and teaching students about strategy development. However, gamification of learning is still in its infancy and there is a lot of experimentation happening right now.
• There are pros and cons to harnessing the power of social media for collaborative learning. The pro argument is that it teaches students that they have a voice and helps them to overcome social isolation of their thoughts and ideas. The con is that overuse of social media means that students are unable to self-regulate their compulsions and leads to procrastination.  In the session, panelists agreed that there is tremendous potential for the use of social media in education but that it must be regulated.
• ICT technologies can enhance productive and ongoing learning for the Canadian workforce.   Panelists discussed the idea that our country’s competitiveness in ICT will improve the quality of life for our people.  Therefore, Canada needs to establish leadership in design, development and marketing in technology and media.

eHealth

• Cost-effective digital eHealth solutions are needed to:
  • Improve quality of care, information flow and connectedness of healthcare system
  • Increase access to care and reduce errors made in treatment for the elderly
  • Improve health outcomes and create tools to support social connectedness of aging population
  • Focus on wellness versus treatment and patient/clinician engagement
  • Manage system efficiencies to save time and money
  • Governments need to embrace organic idea and solution generation
  • Build social networking solutions that bridge the gaps between patients and caregivers, and patients with other patients

Entertainment & Media

New devices are changing the way content is produced and consumed:

• Consumers are adapting and migrating to mobility, portability (ie: tablets, PDAs), where convenience to consume content is driving industry growth. The audience is enfranchised; de facto interactive and participatory.
• "The culture of speed" is Canada's greatest digital media challenge. It’s necessary to prioritize content and manage the demand for immediate content.

Advice for media and entertainment companies on managing their digital roadmap:

• The cloud is supporting the new era of high-demand, quality and quantity capability, and fast becoming a critical component supporting rich media and speed of delivery.
• Social media strategy has become the new cornerstone of business relationship building.

Issues exist around Canadian content creation, financing and management:

• A stark contrast exists between old media and traditional publishing versus new media in regards to regulation, risk financing, support of innovation and in privacy. This continues to be a volatile experiment.
• The practice of financing content must diversify and capitalize on the changing digital landscape. This will ensure that the end product is a marketable commodity.

Telecommunications & Distribution

• We need to develop a coordinated and unified national strategy for both public and private infrastructure operators.
• All Canada 3.0 attendees should sign on to the "i-Canada Declaration."
• Social media can help to drive public leaders towards community focused "digital" applications (i.e. i-health, i-learning, etc.).
• We need to embrace, educate and promote quality of life applications via machine-to-machine (M2M) networks.

Natural Resources

• Can digital media save our cities? Key insights uncovered in the discussion were that: 1. It is about culture; 2. We need an attitude of collaboration; 3. We need open data; and 4. A smart cyber-infrastructure is required.
• A challenge was raised at Canada to create 20 new Smart Cities by 2017. Why the urgency? The need is critical and our opportunity as we succeed is global.
• Clean tech could be Canada’s next competitive advantage. The key message was that Canada has the potential to have twenty $100 million revenue per year clean tech companies by 2020. Systemic barriers need to be addressed to make that a reality.
• The challenges and lessons from clean tech and digital media are very instructive and should be viewed together.

Public Sector

• Canada has a home court advantage in the ICT space. Strengths include: CANARIE, excellent colleges and universities, and world scale 95:5 companies. We need to figure out how to leverage these strengths in the rising digital content world of the future.
• The Role of Government, Universities and commercial enterprises must change to accommodate the hunt for new ideas and collaboration to produce many RIMs made in Canada.
• Historic regulation must become digitally smart regulation to enable the growth and development of 95:5 enterprises.

Research

• We must align colleges and universities with the new realities of the digital media industry.
• It’s necessary to recognize the crucial role of the social sciences and humanities in the digital age.
• Canadian public policy on digital media needs to be  formed by cutting edge research.
• We must determine how to meet the challenge of bridging academia and industry in regards to gaming.

Human Resources

• The skills required for Canada’s workforce for the most part are hybrid business-technology skills as well as specialized technology skills within ICT and multidisciplinary.
• We need to improve the gender balance. Currently, 25% of workers are female in a 700,000-person ICT workforce.
• The biggest labour market gaps are in greatest, most high-value career areas (i.e. leadership and project management areas).
• There is a lack of understanding of the careers available in what is still an “immature” field where the roles and the pathways to them are not defined. Students perceive roles in ICT as “blob” careers (i.e. generic programmer jobs).
• Current market data does not reflect today’s labour market, which creates a barrier to liquidity abd responsiveness.
• Canada’s productivity gap in large measure is a consequence of these problems.

You can access presentation summaries from day one and day two of the conference via the links provided.

Do you have suggestions on how to help Canada reach its moon shot goal? Please share your thoughts and ideas on this blog.

 

Preparing Canadian entrepreneurs and ICT workers for a brighter future

Day two at Canada 3.0 began with an introduction from Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur, President, University of Waterloo. Hamdullahpur explained that our interconnected and rapidly changing digital world is creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs. However, it also opens us up to new global competitors who are competing with us for talent and to lead in new markets.

He said that the next digital media idea could come from any corner of the world – not just the Silicon Valley. Canadian high tech and digital media sectors are heating up rapidly. Hamdullahpur argues that we need to advance our position as a global leader of ICT technology innovation or get left behind.

He then introduced Kunal Gupta – a former University of Waterloo student and now President and CEO of Polar Mobile. Gupta embodies the creativity and spirit that defines what other Canadian digital media entrepreneurs should strive to achieve.

Building an ecosystem to support digital media startups in Canada

Kunal Gupta has worked with companies like RIM, Samsung, and Microsoft as Polar Mobile’s President and CEO. Gupta says that there are huge opportunities for technology companies to innovate in Canada. The key is that organizations need to trust their employees and give them room to experiment and share new ideas.

Blockbuster, which has been blown away by Neflix in the past few years, is a great example of a missed opportunity in the digital media space. “I guarantee you that someone at Blockbuster came up with the idea for Netflix but someone in leadership likely did not listen to them,” says Gupta.

Gupta got the idea for Polar Mobile while in University. He realized that building media and entertainment software for smartphone devices would be a good strategic bet. That's because he and his colleagues knew that people were going to be constantly mobile and constantly connected in the future.

As of last week, Gupta says that there were 530,605 apps available to buy for smartphones and tablets. Having contributed almost 1,000 apps to that number already, Polar Mobile has taken advantage of an exploding business opportunity.

During his presentation, Gupta appealed to the Canadian government, private sector and media to help build a supportive ecosystem to enable technology startups to flourish in Canada.

Government: He asked that the federal and provincial governments make funding more accessible to digital media startups. Gupta says that grants take too long to apply for – especially since digital media companies are moving at such a rapid pace.

Corporate: Gupta asked that big businesses make it easier for small companies to do business with them. For example, his first client at Rogers media took a huge risk to bring Polar Mobile on board. That's only because the Rogers client understood the entrepreneurial mindset.

Media: Gupta says that the Canadian media needs to play a role in celebrating our small business successes. They can do this by telling inspiring stories to motivate the next generation of entrepreneurs.

How Canadian digital media entrepreneurs can capitalize on their social influence and gaming

Juliette Powell, Author, Digital Media Consultant and Co-founder of The Gathering Think Tank spoke about the new ways that digital media companies are making money from a social media ecosystem.

She spoke about three key trends: crowd Funding, micro-transactions in social gaming, and rapidly scaling affinity networks.

Powell explained how companies like KickStarter and EmpireAvenue are great resources for helping startups and individuals to seek funding. She said that it’s important to evaluate your social influence via through these channels.

She then discussed how the North American virtual games market is made-up of tiny micro-transactions. Social gaming is still in its infancy right now but it is already enabling Facebook to become a business broker for virtual goods.

Powell recommended that entrepreneurs in the audience follow the money (or virtual currency) in social gaming. She says that virtual goods revenues will actually surpass real world goods by 3:1 in 2011. Social gaming companies like Zynga, the makers of FarmVille, are now making $1 Million a day on average.

By 2013, Powell says that social games revenue will reach $6 Billion USD - and Facebook is aiming to reach 1 Billion users. The opportunities to make money from virtual goods, social capital and gaming are just beginning.

Privacy in the age of Wikileaks

The final main session presentation at Canada 3.0 was focused on how Canadians can and should protect their privacy online in the age of Wikileaks. Ian Wilson, Executive Director at the Statford Institute introduced the session.

Some of the key takeaways from guest speakers Mark McArdle, former CEO of Tiny Hippos (until it was acquired by RIM) and Jennifer Stoddart, Privacy Commissioner of Canada were that:

• Technology companies need to incorporate privacy policies onto the front-end of their online services. Stoddart argued that there is a myth that privacy gets in the way of innovation.
• We are leaving traces of our identity all over the Internet. The speakers urged conference attendees to be aware of what that means for their own online identities and the privacy of their customers' identities.
• The Privacy Commissioner has launched a new tool to help organizations self-assess their privacy compliance. If you want to avoid situations like the launch of Google Buzz in Canada, check out the the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada website for information on how to protect your users' privacy.

Road to Banff Pitch Off competition winners

At the end of the day, the Canadian Digital Media Network announced the grand prize winners of the Road to Banff pitch off contest.

One of the biggest barriers to overcome in order to succeed in Canada is access to capital. The pitch competition was an opportunity to foster better access to capital and a community of supporters within Canada for ICT entrepreneurs.

The top three winners, who received an all-expense paid trip to the Banff Venture forum were:

1         Viafoura

2         CleverU

3         Swift Mint

Canada needs an ICT action plan

Overall, the key message of the day was that Canada needs to build a supportive ecosystem to enable our ICT entrepreneurs and innovators to make their new business ideas come to life.

Ian Wilson, Executive Director at the Stratford Institute introduced the new “Stratford Institute Digital Media Report” that was released at Canada 3.0. You can get a copy of the report at http://talk.canada30.com.

Wilson also invited the conference attendees to take a look at the “2011 Stratford Index” in the report. The Stratford Institute wants your feedback on what you think are some of the key items that should be measured over the next 10 years to make Canada a stronger digital nation.

Wilson said that “vision without implementation is hallucination.” Therefore, Canada needs a plan of action to ensure our future success.

Stay tuned for a summary of some of the highlights from the afternoon break-out sessions in my overall conference overview tomorrow.

 

Collaboration and effective storytelling – key themes discussed on day one of Canada 3.0

The Canada 3.0 conference officially launched in Stratford this morning with great energy and excitement. Kevin Tuer, Managing Director of the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) opened up the conference and spoke about the importance of working together as a nation to help Canada reach a moon shot goal – that anyone can do anything online by 2017.

Throughout the day, there seemed to be a reoccurring theme in the presentations about the need for collaboration, effective storytelling and open data sharing to help make Canada’s moon shot goal a reality.

Tom Jenkins, Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer at Open Text and Chair of the CDMN advisory board explained how Canada has fallen behind in terms of innovation in information and communications technologies (ICT). According to Jenkins, investment in ICT innovation and infrastructure is imperative for Canada. He reinforced the urgency for Canada to lead in the new digital economy.

Storytelling and cultural connections

Canada’s “intellectual can of Red Bull,” Jeremy Gutsche from TrendHunter.com was the first guest speaker during the morning session. The key focus of his presentation was around the idea that brands need to prioritize the development of cool, trending products rather than simply focus on the most current, popular products. In other words, companies (and Canada as a digital nation) need to look for “upcoming trends” and continue to experiment in order to stay competitive and relevant to consumers.

Gutsche said that many successful companies are actually developed in times of economic chaos. That’s because people see an emerging trend and develop a solution to meet an important consumer need at that time. A great example of this is Canadian-based company Community Lend, which provides group advanced loans for consumers who need to consolidate their debt.

Once you are ahead of trends and are developing the right products, Gutsche told the audience that it is very important to make a cultural connection with your customers. “When people perceive your brand as part of their team, they want you to win,” said Gutsche.

Again, this was a very important message for all of the delegates at the conference. Canada will rally behind the development of a digital society and economy if they are made to feel part of the team. Canada 3.0 is just the starting point for building that sense of camaraderie.

Gutsche explained that the best way to connect with your audience on a cultural level is through relentless obsession with your story.

He offered three key rules for telling a winning story: it must be simple, direct and supercharged. He said that if you cannot tell your story in seven words or less, then your audience will not be able to repeat it for you via social media and word of mouth.

It would be interesting to know what the readers of this blog think the 7-word story should be about Canada 3.0?

Defining ourselves through media

Dr. Michael Wesch, Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University followed Gutsche’s very inspiring presentation. Wesch focused on the intellectual explanation of how media helps to define who we are as a individuals and how we relate to each other in our world.

He says that we come to "know ourselves through our relations with others." Therefore, "media impacts how we define ourselves."

Wesch told the audience that university students have become increasingly bored and disconnected with the information that they are taught in the classroom. He explained that over-stimulation through multiple media sources breeds indifference and leads to a “whatever” or “meh” mentality on the part of young people.

However, even as Canada's youth feel disconnected, there is an opportunity to connect to them via social media. Wesch explained that a lot of young people perceive themselves as the “next American idol” or other super star figures. Therefore, they seek outlets to express their individualism.

Wesch says that an interesting side-effect of the pursuit of individualism is that it actually creates a need to belong to a community. Therefore, social media plays a significant role in linking disconnected youth, who are striving to stand out in a sea of anonymity, through a platform that introduces them to other like-minded individuals who can share in their experience.

Therefore, we should leverage the individual contributions of Canada’s youth via social media and collaboration as we build a roadmap for Canada’s digital society and economy in the future.

Canadians will increasingly share more data in a Web 3.0 world

Soniya Monga, Global Marketing Solutions Account Manager at LinkedIn Canada kicked-off the afternoon session by speaking about what Internet companies will look like in a Web 3.0 world. Monga explained that all of the data that people now willingly share through social media "provides a powerful weapon for marketers" to match products and services with consumers’ purchase intentions and web analytics data.

She says that successful web technology companies in the future will be the ones that are best able to make use of this data. There are a number of Canadian companies who are already experimenting in this area such as Radian6, Lymbix, HootSuite and Sysomos.

Monga also walked through some examples of how social media has transformed various industries including customer service, government institutions and eCommerce sectors. She explained how opening up the city of Vancouver’s statistical data for public use has enabled the development of new tools like “Van Trash” which helps the people of Vancouver to understand their garbage collection schedules more effectively.

Collaboration drives innovation in Web 3.0

Anthony Williams, co-author of Wikinomics and Macro-Wikinomics was a great speaker to follow Soniya Monga. He shared examples of how collaboration via online platforms like social media can help to drive further innovation in digital media.

Williams started off by explaining how Linux was first developed by software programmers from around the world working collaboratively together for the first time. Williams then posed a question to the audience “if you can build a collaborative piece of software with thousands of people, what more can you do?”

He said that around the year 2000, P&G was going through a period of stagnant growth. So, the company decided to collaborate with thousands of product innovators outside of their company to spark ideas for new product lines. They took a risk because they needed to think differently about innovation. By turning to people outside of their organization, they were able to increase their chances of developing the most relevant and cutting-edge products for their customers.

Williams also talked about how the world has become extremely transparent. Wikileaks has proven that even the most private organizations are not bullet proof.

Healthcare is the perfect example of how taping into patients' data records can help to drive research and innovation forward. In addition, social media is enabling patients with similar ailments to connect and share in their experiences to help each other to heal and learn about different solutions that may work in other jurisdictions.

Williams closed by urging organizations to re-think how they collaborate and share information about internal talent and resources. He suggested that by opening up the stage for innovation and collaboration with your customers, business partners and suppliers, you might be pleasantly surprised to see what could transpire.

Where we stand and where we need to be

The final presentation of the day was from Darren Henderson, who leads PwC Canada's Technology, InfoComm, and Entertainment & Media consulting practice at a national level. Henderson believes that if Canada invests in ICT and broadband, we will see economic growth. Yet, there are conflicting views on where we currently stand.

According to comScore, Canada is the most engaged online audience in the world. However, a recent Waverman study showed that we placed 9^th out of 25 countries in terms of connectivity and infrastructure. That same study found that there is a strong correlation between countries that are more digital and a strong GDP, quality of life and social strengths (i.e. health care).

Apparently, Canada was once considered a leader in connectivity but we are starting to fall behind. Henderson says that we need to keep up government support for ICT, where other countries are investing at an alarming rate.

In addition, it is essential that Canada invests in a Next Generation Broadband (NGB) infrastructure as part of our broader digital strategy. NGB provides Internet data transmission speeds in excess of 10 MBs per second in both directions. Our future demands for services like Telemedicine, digital media, and automotive require an NGB infrastructure to be in place.

Henderson closed by saying that Canada should draw from the lessons and best practices learned from other countries in regards to their policies, content, adoption and infrastructure – the four key pillars to success as a digital society and economy.

He also provided some clear guidelines on how to prepare Canada for the 2017 moon shot goal:

1. Infrastructure is key. We should also look at our digital ecosystem and strategy.

2. Focus on services and applications to stimulate use and drive further demand for bandwidth.

3. Strategy should include a framework for decision making and prioritization.

4. Success is measured on multiple dimensions including:

• increased infrastructure investments
• increased value in services and applications
• increased adoption of services

Because the world is changing so quickly, Henderson argues that it is difficult to develop a benchmark to say that “we have arrived at our desired destination.” However, by bringing together the individuals and institutions that are willing to share data openly, tell stories about our successes and collaborate on driving innovation, then we can certainly move Canada forward as a stronger digital nation.