nGen, Niagara’s Interactive Media Generator, is pleased to announce the opening of its $3 million, state of the art facility designed for digital interactive media advancement. The new facility houses cutting edge digital interactive media technologies and will undoubtedly increase Niagara’s already growing reputation as a hub for digital interactive media. The expanded facility has been branded the Generator at one. Located at one St. Paul Street in downtown St. Catharines the facility has the capacity to enable entire media projects to be created at one location.

the Generator at one is equipped with one of the most advanced motion capture systems in the world, the Vicon MX system with T160 cameras. Motion capturing technology is known for its use in Hollywood for movies such as ‘Avatar’, and its widespread application in Video Game development

The facility is highlighted by its Production Studio, Audio Suite, Research and Development Lab, Datacentre, VFX Suite and Presentation Theatre.

the Generator at one is equipped with one of the most advanced motion capture systems in the world, the Vicon MX system with T160 cameras. Motion capturing technology is known for its use in Hollywood for movies such as ‘Avatar’, and its widespread application in Video Game development as a way of capturing realistic character movements. There are only a small handful of motion capture systems in Ontario, and the T160 camera system is at the top of its class.

Other technologies available at the Generator at one are the facility’s two Red One Cameras, capable of filming 4X HD quality video. It is widely speculated that these cameras, which produce digital video, will eventually replace film cameras in the majority of Hollywood productions.

The technology is already being adopted by some of Hollywood’s most noteworthy directors such as, Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings and District 9. the Generator at one is also equipped with high-end software for editing video, audio and adding visual effects, which is highlighted by Autodesk Flame and Smoke, Pro Tools HD3, and Final Cut Pro. Many of the top film and television production studios in the world use the same software for their projects. The Research and Development Lab houses a 3D printer and 3D scanner for rapid prototyping and reverse engineering, and the powerful Datacenter provides the IT infrastructure necessary to support high-end media creation.

“The building was designed for seamless workflow for digital interactive media projects. Our leading edge technology enables projects to be completed all within one building,” states Chesebrough. “Niagara is an extremely attractive location for businesses to complete their projects. With a lower cost of business, a strong contingent of local talent, a less stressful ‘city’ environment, and an exceptional tourism industry, we are extremely confident that companies will think of Niagara when they are planning their next project.”

David Oakes, Director of Economic Development for the City of St. Catharines and a member of the Ontario Technology Corridor, is excited about the possibilities nGen has created for the Region. “Niagara is a hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurship, with nGen being one of our greatest examples of bringing together the private and public sector in partnership. nGen encompasses the intellectual and physical capital needed to develop a global competitiveness in digital and interactive media.”
the Generator at one is powered by nGen with the technology being managed by its three technology partners; Fourgrounds Media, Furi Enterprises, and morro images. The Technical Leads of the facility are Adrian Thiessen and Kristen Nater of Fourgrounds Media, Tobias Wiegand of morro images, and Thomas Madej of Furi Enterprises.

The $3 million facility was funded by the Community Adjustment Fund, a government fund established as part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan to address the short-term economic needs of Canadian communities impacted by the global recession.
For more info: www.thegeneratoratone.com; Jeff Chesebrough, Executive Director of nGen, 905-685-3460 ext. 201;

Click to download the PDF

International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada (ISTP Canada), the Department of Science and Technology (DST)/ Global Innovation and Technology Alliance or GITA (India), and the Department of Biotechnology or DBT (India) are hosting three Calls for Proposals (CFP) for Partnership Development Activities (PDAs) between Canada and India.

Canadian and Indian funding recipients are eligible to receive up to a maximum of CDN $25,000 (or the equivalent value in Rupees) for their PDA.

The Calls invite university researchers, technology experts and industry leaders to propose PDAs that will help forge new research and technology development partnerships between Canadian and Indian innovators, and stimulate R&D or business collaboration that increases the competitiveness of both countries.

Leveraging investment from the Governments of Canada and India, these program delivery agencies will support dozens of new bilateral PDAs that span multiple technology areas such as photonics, nanotechnology/nanoscience; and industrial sectors such as information and communications technologies (ICT), life sciences, energy, environment, earth sciences and aerospace. Canadian and Indian funding recipients are eligible to receive up to a maximum of CDN $25,000 (or the equivalent value in Rupees) for their PDA.

Complete applications are required by August 3, 2010, Midnight EST. Selected PDAs will be announced in September 2010, and must be completed by February 15, 2011.

To learn more or apply, please download this PDF.

Click to download the submission

Preface

The foundation for a prosperous, sustainable and growing digital economy is a broad base of highly qualified people who leverage an integrated digital environment to engage in activities including basic and exploratory research, development and commercialization activities, and ongoing collaboration across the innovation system.

A critical mass of these highly qualified people are the stakeholders served by the authors of this document: the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN), the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), the Canadian University Council of CIOs (CUCCIO), CANARIE Inc. and Compute Canada.

These national organizations are responsible for the development and management of components of Canada’s digital infrastructure for Research, Innovation and Education (RIE), and for leveraging digital media to capture and capitalize on commercial opportunities.

The creation of a strategy to ensure the availability of an integrated digital environment supporting research, innovation and education, and in turn the entire innovation system, is fundamental to Canada’s success in building a strong digital economy.

Given the respective roles of these organizations in supporting RIE in Canada, it is our clear responsibility to provide the Government with a broad view of the digital infrastructure issues facing the RIE community and an innovative framework for addressing them.

We are responding to Questions 3 and 4 of the Digital Economy Strategy consultation document, specifically the section entitled, “Capacity to Innovate Using Digital Technologies”. The authors contend that a robust integrated digital environment will support a strong digital economy and position Canada as a nation successfully leveraging its digital advantage.

Executive Summary

A successful digital economy hinges on success in Research, Innovation and Education (RIE) which is in turn increasingly reliant on a robust digital environment, a fact recognized in jurisdictions around the world where they are empowering their RIE community through digital technologies to create a competitive economic advantage.

The elements of the digital environment to support RIE have been evolving and include: the preservation and management of huge repositories of data and rich digital content; ever-larger compute capacity; digital devices and distributed sensors; low-latency, high-bandwidth networks; middleware that integrates the infrastructure and supports its use; and the expertise required to manage and operate them.

While some of these elements are offered under the authors’ mandates, many are not, or are offered in a fragmented or one-off manner creating gaps. Additionally, there are increasing interdependencies between the elements of this digital environment requiring strong integration and alignment but the existence of these gaps is compounded by a lack of roadmap or vision to which the organizations may align.

The existence of these gaps and absence of a vision have severe consequences, including sub-optimal leverage of funding dollars, stalled or prevented discoveries resulting in lost or delayed opportunities for commercialization, and a “hollowing out” of Canada’s highly qualified personnel (HQP).

Canada has developed a strong digital foundation, but the five organizations participating in this joint submission believe strongly that Canada must move beyond ad-hoc development of the separate elements of the emerging digital environment for RIE and take a systemic view

Canada has developed a strong digital foundation but the five organizations participating in this joint submission believe strongly that Canada must move beyond ad-hoc development of the separate elements of the emerging digital environment for RIE and take a systemic view.

Canada needs a strategy for an integrated digital environment, together with a vision of how the various elements, and the organizations that provide them, must align. We further assert that the framework presented has the potential to spur broad downstream positive effects across private and public sector domains within the innovation system.

This strategy would include:

• Development of a vision, management and operational strategy;
• Adoption of an integrated approach to planning and funding;
• Creation of new coordination mechanisms;
• Creation of new approaches for managing sustainability;
• A mechanism to ensure global coordination of activity; and
• Elimination of institutional, regional and disciplinary disparities.

Countries such as The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Australia are prominent among those that have accorded digital environments for RIE a high priority

Benefits of evolving towards an integrated digital environment include:

• Enhanced capacity for innovation for a multitude of domains including the priorities identified in the S&T strategy;
• Strengthened leverage of Canadian talent, mining a rich vein of entrepreneurship and creativity
• Increased support for content creators and innovators from the humanities, social sciences and cultural and creative industries; and
• Maximized leverage of the intellectual capital of Canada’s HQPs and return on investment for programs and policies designed to attract and retain them.

The organizations participating in this joint submission are working with each other, and are ready to work with the government of Canada and others to develop and implement this strategy.

Introduction

This submission focuses on the need for an integrated strategy relating to the digital environment required to support the highly qualified personnel that underpin Canada’s innovation system: the Research, Innovation and Education (RIE) communities. While the authors of this document provide components of digital infrastructure, the integration of these elements within a comprehensive vision and operating and management strategy is required to realize maximum benefit from Canadian intellect, talent and creativity.

Countries such as The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Australia are prominent among those that have accorded digital environments for RIE a high priority. These and other countries have identified the competitive economic advantage created when the RIE community is fully enabled through an integrated digital environment.

While each of the organizations submitting this joint proposal manages a component of the current digital infrastructure, the gaps that exist in the system have far-reaching and negative consequences. These gaps create a significant opportunity cost for the highly qualified personnel in the RIE communities, as resources are stretched to fill the void and discovery and innovation are stalled or prevented altogether.

The foundation for a globally competitive digital infrastructure for RIE in Canada has been laid successfully, but trends in technology and in RIE demand an evolution of this environment

Another risk is the potential “hollowing out” of Canadian talent, as they migrate to jurisdictions with more robust digital environments. In addition, our current ability to manage and preserve a wide range of digital content is extremely limited; we risk losing opportunities for leveraging this rich and uniquely Canadian content in innovative ways.

Lastly, the lack of an overarching vision to coordinate and integrate the organizations responsible for elements of the current infrastructure leads to potential duplication of effort (and sub-optimal use of funding) at one end of the spectrum, and a complete lack of necessary digital support at the other.

The elements of Canada’s digital infrastructure for RIE have been evolving for several years, enabled by increasingly powerful computing and networking technology. Canada’s investments in these areas are part of a world-wide response to the growing reliance on ever-increasing volumes of shared research data. A parallel shift towards greater reliance on collaborative models is a response to the flood of data and the collective need to manage it in a cost-effective way.

The combination of highly skilled personnel, collaborative models, and appropriate supporting infrastructure were identified as key elements supporting Canada’s innovation system in the Science, Technology and Innovation Council’s 2008 State of the Nation Report.

Traditionally, a digital infrastructure is thought of in terms of hardware and software which has evolved to include such elements as: the preservation and management of huge repositories of data and rich digital content; computers and servers; a wide range of network-accessible research equipment, digital devices and distributed sensors; low-latency, high-bandwidth networks; and the middleware and related tools and services that integrate the infrastructure and support its use.

More recently, the definition has expanded to include the technical staff that develops the hardware and software and supports its use, as well as the analytical and modeling skills needed by researchers, students and private sector innovators to effectively leverage the digital tools.

In short, the digital “infrastructure” is an integrated and comprehensive digital environment that supports research, innovation and education.

The next two sections of this document provide examples of Canada’s and the world’s digital infrastructure for RIE, indicating the ways in which that that infrastructure is evolving, and outline the main requirements for a successful Canadian digital strategy in this area.

Trends in Digital Infrastructure

Canada has been making extensive investments in the country’s digital infrastructure for RIE for several years. With funding provided by the federal and provincial governments, the granting councils, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Genome Canada, the post secondary institutions as well as the private sector, and with great vision and effort on the part of individual researchers and research communities, the foundation for a globally competitive digital infrastructure for RIE in Canada has been laid successfully, but trends in technology and in RIE demand an evolution of this environment.

Elements of the country’s emerging digital infrastructure can be found in virtually every field, from humanities computing to particle physics.

Examples that illustrate the breadth of these investments in Canada include:

• Since the creation of CFI in 1997, approximately $250 million has been invested in the development of High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities by Compute Canada and its seven university-based consortia members. The integrated resources represent close to a petaflop (a million billion operations per second) of computing capability and are available to academic researchers across the country.
• CFI, NSERC and others have made significant investments in the creation of the world-leading Neptune and Venus cabled observatories off the coast of British Columbia(click map below). These projects exemplify a new generation of data collection capability based on distributed sensors, high bandwidth networks and sophisticated data storage and retrieval capability.
• Genome Canada has supported the development of a Bioinformatics Platform that provides infrastructure and tools for Genome Canada-funded projects and academic and industrial researchers across Canada. This platform offers over 1,000 software tools, major databanks and computing power dedicated to bioinformatics, including a Bioinformatics GRID solution, which allows users transparent access to a multitude of bioinformatics tools.

As research and innovation become more global, a coordinated national effort is required if Canada is to participate in global activities. Increasingly, the various elements of this environment are being built using common standards, supporting ease of use, widespread access and interoperability. Canada must continue to be part of this global effort.

These and other elements of Canada’s digital environment for RIE are part of an evolving global environment for RIE. CANARIE, Canada’s national fibre optic backbone network, for example, is interconnected with peer networks in virtually every country, providing a seamless and powerful capability supporting collaboration and global data sharing.

Significant though these past infrastructure investments have been, there are several trends that indicate that future investments in digital infrastructure for RIE must take on additional dimensions.

Among the more significant trends are:

• The development of new data resources supporting social sciences and humanities collaboration within and beyond these domains, based in part on population data, census data and other longitudinal studies.
• The development of more extensive sensor-based networks, collecting environmental and other data relating to sensitive ecological areas, the state of critical infrastructure such as bridges and buildings, emergency preparedness and environmental threats such as tsunamis and earthquakes, to name a few.
• The emergence of rich digital media networks, sharing not just numbers but extensive textual resources, repositories of three-dimensional depictions of cultural artifacts, libraries of medical images, high definition audio and video materials, and other data . These new data sources provide an opportunity to fully leverage Canada’s cultural and creative talent pool to create new economic opportunities.
• The development of new architectures and tools to support data sharing and collaboration, often called “middleware”, and the emergence of a new layer of “services” built on the combination of underlying infrastructure and the new middleware.
• The paradigm shifts occurring across research, education and innovation communities; successful research is increasingly reliant on a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach based on the ability to effectively access, manipulate and analyze vast amounts of research data, wherever it may be; “digital natives” expect that social networking, multimedia publishing, videoconferencing and shared authoring tools will be part of their learning environment and increasingly they are demanding a tailored approach to their learning based on personal learning profiles and learning styles; and entrepreneurs and innovators are identifying and leveraging talent wherever they find it, using digital tools to create powerful teams that reinvent processes and create new products and markets.
• The expansion of the intended user community for digital infrastructure beyond the traditional core of the research, innovation and education communities to include support for new public services and innovation across the economy. This includes public access to research data, as is currently being done with data from the Neptune underwater ocean observatory.

Clearly, the digital environment needed to respond to these trends will be much more comprehensive and integrated than what has been built over recent years. It is important to recognize that, while elements of the digital environment relating to RIE will be developed and planned by the provinces and provincial level organizations, pan-Canadian coordination will be required, given the interdependence of research and education at the post-secondary level.

As research and innovation become more global, a coordinated national effort is required if Canada is to participate in global activities. Increasingly, the various elements of this environment are being built using common standards, supporting ease of use, widespread access and interoperability. Canada must continue to be part of this global effort.

For these reasons, it is critical that Canada move beyond ad-hoc development of the separate elements of the emerging digital environment for RIE and take a systemic view. Canada needs a strategy for an integrated digital environment, together with a vision of how the various elements, and the organizations that provide them, must align.

Requirements for a Successful Digital Strategy

Major portions of the emerging digital environment will be common across applications and domains. Accordingly, they can be thought of as systemic in nature, independent of specific research projects and even of discipline-specific initiatives.

The underlying network is the most obvious example, but such elements as the server platforms, pieces of the middleware, compute capability, analytical tools, collaboration tools, elements of the security system and the overall data and server architecture can be viewed as generic in this sense. The breadth of these systemic elements leads naturally to the view that the digital environment for RIE is evolving towards a single, integrated global environment.

As such, a successful integrated digital strategy must include the following:

• A comprehensive vision, together with an operational and management strategy to enable alignment and efficiency among the organizations responsible for the various components;
• An integrated approach to planning and funding is required given the integrated and systemic nature of the digital environment
• Creation of and support for new coordination mechanisms that cut across current organizational, discipline and jurisdictional boundaries;
• New approaches for managing sustainability to ensure the continued evolution and support of the digital environment for future generations of researchers and other users;
• A vision for the preservation and management of digital content created across a range of scientific, cultural, educational, creative and technical domains;
• A plan to address institutional, regional and disciplinary disparities, especially relating to access, as maximum benefit is realized with the widest base of users; and
• A strategy to ensure and support development of the analytical, modeling and collaborative skills needed to use such shared resources effectively .

Conclusion

The creation of a strategy to ensure the availability of an integrated digital environment supporting research, innovation and education, and in turn the entire innovation system, is fundamental to Canada’s success in building a strong digital economy.

This document has described a strategy for the evolution of a digital environment for research, innovation and education in Canada. It recognizes that the success of such a strategy require all participants to create and actively participate in new approaches to coordination, sustainability and funding, as well as new efforts to promote access and skills development.

The organizations participating in this joint submission recognize the need to work with each other, with the Government of Canada, and with other institutions and organizations across the country in order to develop and implement such a strategy, and join with all Canadians in reaping the benefits of a strong and growing innovation system.

Appendix A: About the Submitters

In the interests of time and space, this section has been left out. If you’d like to read it, please download the complete submission.

“Mind that bird”, Taiwan and other outliers

According to OECD, China had been innovating its way past competitors in the same fashion as “Mind that Bird” at the 2009 Kentucky Derby.
The biggest outlier, however, was Taiwan. China received more patents than Korea and Germany for third place – behind only US and Japan. Not only was Taiwan innovating in ICT, but it was also a major hitter in nanotech – again, behind only US and Japan. See the first Motion Chart below for details. The “Taiwan Miracle” had propelled Taiwan as one of the major hitters in Asia alongside South Korea, Singapore, and China.

Taiwan’s Moon Shoot

Relative to other countries, Canada’s unique intellectual property was in biotech . . . the organic and non-organic chemistry community in Canada had been creating more intellectual property than the computer community

In the 1950s, 90% of Taiwan’s residents lived in farming communities where agriculture was 30% of Taiwan’s GDP in 1950s. Fifty years later, only 5% of the labour force worked in agriculture and it comprised only 2% of their GDP. Their Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) per capita was $31,834 – just $6,000 behind Canada (IMF, 2009). This industrial revolution was their “moon shot” of the 20th century. Michael Porter of Harvard Business School gave a presentation underscoring this transformation at the Global Leaders Forum in Taiwan last month.

What was Canada’s unique intellectual property on the global stage? Relative to other countries, Canada’s unique intellectual property was in biotech. Not only did Canada edge out Japan for second place behind the US in terms of number of patents granted at USPTO (where patents are granted on a first-to-invent basis), but Canada was also more efficient in the process.

There was another twist in the data. According to CIPO, biotech patents were the least granted in Canada. In fact, biotech patents were second least filed out of the seven categories. What category of patents were granted the most in Canada? Would you be surprised to learn they were civil and mechanical patents?

What are the scorecards and internal metrics used across the digital media ecosystem at the operational level?

There were more non-organic chemistry patents than computer-related patents since 2006. The number of computer-related patents granted per year fell one spot further last year to fourth place. The organic and non-organic chemistry community in Canada had been creating more intellectual property than the computer community. Canada’s ability to create ICT intellectual property with less foreign borrowing and public debt was noteworthy – ranking ahead of Germany and UK.

Visitors to the virtual world site can explore Canada click-by-click

“The Experience Canada pavilion is designed to showcase Canada through compelling images, interactive displays, and access to experts who can elaborate on Canada’s valued attributes as a modern and innovative country”

“All eyes will be on Canada during the G-8 and G-20 Summits, and the CDMN is serving as a conduit to the high-tech sector, demonstrating the power of Canadian innovation and potentially attracting future investment,” said Kevin Tuer, managing director of the CDMN, which is dedicated to furthering commercialization of digital media in Canada. “Experience Canada at the International Media Center will be high-impact, with imaginative displays, giant video walls and creative use of technology capturing the essence of Canada’s tech leadership.”

The CDMN, which links digital media-related organizations across the country, has attracted tech companies, universities, research houses, and public sector organizations to participate in the 20,000 square foot Experience Canada marketing pavilion. The experiential pavilion will have a global impact, as key displays will be digitized, virtualized and shared over the Internet.

The Cityscape presents Canadian success stories through an audiovisual experience

A unique feature for the more than 3,000 media expected to cover the summits, is a mobile social networking platform enabling journalists to have information and access to content experts at their fingertips as well as collaborate using secure software. The link to the network is: www.g20net.org. The G-8 Summit will take place in Huntsville, Ontario, June 25 and 26 and the G-20 Summit will take place in Toronto, Ontario, June 26 and 27, 2010. Experience Canada will be housed within the International Media Centre in the Heritage Court of the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto from June 23-27.

About the Experience Canada marketing pavilion:

As Canada hosts world leaders for the G-8 and G-20 Summits, thousands of media will participate to bring coverage of developments back to their national audiences around the world. This offers a unique opportunity to draw media attention to Canada’s many strengths as a destination for business, investment and tourism.

Set up in the International Media Center for the G-8 and G-20 Summits, Experience Canada is designed to showcase Canada through compelling images, interactive displays, and access to experts who can speak to Canada’s many strengths, all content that can form the basis of national and international print and broadcast stories.

For more information about Experience Canada, please visit http://g20.gc.ca/for-media/experience-canada/.

Editor’s Note: Justin Kozuch recently won the Mesh prize, an annual award dedicated to projects that improve our digital media industry. Justin won for his concept of a “Pixel to Product” research study, a year-long look at digital media in Canada. CDMN supports Justin’s efforts.

Canada needs a solid definition of digital media, so I’d like to invite industry professionals to have a conversation about what it means and how we might promote Pixel to Product across the country. This definition will help shape the creation of a classification system as well as tasks related to the study.

I’m kicking the project off with a 2 hour casual working session. Registered attendees will help define digital media and share ideas on how to promote the 49Pixels research study across Canada.

Agenda

Date: Monday June 21st 2010
5:30pm: Pre-event networking
6:00pm: Gather in the event space to set the context for the conversation
8:00pm: Wrap-up and break for the evening

Many thanks to Yahoo Canada for donating their space to convene this working session.

What to expect

This event is being styled as a roll up your sleeves, break-out-your-moleskine working session with clear goals and deliverables. Expect a casual working session with smart and creative industry personalities working in groups towards a larger outcome.

Registration Process

1. Register at http://unconversation01.eventbrite.com/
2. Select the ticket type that best describes you in the list.
3. Add your contact information, and tell us what gifts you’re bringing to the table.
4. Check your inbox! You will receive an email confirmation of your registration.

Online Participation

If you’re unable to attend, you can still contribute to this conversation. We’ll be curating a liveblog of the event that you can follow and add your voice to. Our liveblog can be found at http://49pixels.ca/live

I hope that you’ll be able to join us on Monday June 21st 2010 for a fun-but-focused working session!

The Bill itself can be found here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/32401372/Copyright-Bill-C32

“Flawed but fixable” (video) by Michael Geist

The Problem with Bill C-32 by Jonathan Fritz

Bill C-32: The Latest Attempt to Amend the Copyright Act by Jeremy Costin

C-32 Attention, un train peut en cacher un autre! by Jean-Robert Bisaillon

Canadian Association of Research Libraries commends C32

More to come, stay tuned. If you want to share a link or blog post, please contact us on twitter or at info@cmdn.ca

Canada’s broadband speed is 1/100 to 1/1000 slower than 20 major competitors

The Chair of the new i-Canada Alliance, William Hutchison, has issued a call for a Declaration of Support to yank this nation into the 21st century, bringing it alongside countries that already enjoy ultra-fast, blanket broadband coverage.

Sign the i-Canada Declaration today, and together we’ll bring Canada up to speed.

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The collective ambition? Nothing less than to identify a transformative national vision, a compelling shared goal of a society empowered and connected through the creative use of new technologies; an innovative, informed and engaged society which is a leader in the new global digital economy; a society in which our governing institutions, our health care and educational institutions model the benefits and in which our private sector, drawing inspiration from the creative arts, markets Canadian ingenuity to the world.

Delegates left Stratford and Canada 3.0 2010 with a firm determination to . . . challenge each other to rise to the central challenges of the 21st century: global competitiveness, technological innovation, rapid commercialization, socially-responsible change, and sustainable transformation of Canadian society

Canada is well advanced in many areas but a sustained, collective national effort is required to build on this foundation. It may be a dream but it is a noble dream, worthy of Canada as it celebrates its 150th birthday in 2017. This is Canada’s ‘moonshot’: an aggressive target for our joint efforts, inspiring and energizing all Canadians to ensure that we can do anything online, from anywhere, anytime, at reasonable and appropriate cost by 2017.

A country goes digital

Conference delegates were charged with assessing the legitimacy of this goal and discussing the barriers, tools, requirements and processes of ensuring that Canada becomes a truly digital nation.
They quickly realized that the discussion was about more than the digital economy: it is now about a digital society. The issues can no longer be left to technological experts and specialists: the digital now underlies how we create, communicate and store information in all media at home, amongst our friends and associations and through our institutions.

Our workplaces are being transformed, old business models and habits are challenged and replaced and our children, the digital natives, function in significantly different ways than generations who have gone before. This is a transformative technology. It is not some passing fad. And we are still in early days. “ The times they are a changing”. Canada has difficult choices to make. All Canadians need to understand and engage in forming Canada of the 21st Century.

For two days, over 2000 Canadians – entrepreneurs, government officials, academics, students, members of the general public, creators, service providers, international business leaders and others – debated the most fundamental questions about Canada’s capacity in the digital media space. With frankness and passion, some nervousness about the intense global competition, a measure of frustration with our progress to date, and a unique determination to overcome barriers, Canada 3.0 delegates worked hard to move beyond general objectives and problem identification.

The conference sought, instead, to develop practical and achievable goals – what can we do collective in the short-term – that would move Canada quickly and decisively toward the central objective. The conference was suffused with realism – this was not a meeting of dreamers promising immediate achievement and global leadership without massive effort – and determination.

The 2000 participants at Canada 3.0 had come together because they believe in Canada, understand the digital media landscape, know that coordination and cooperation are essential, and understand the urgency surrounding this fast changing sector. To succeed, an unprecedented level of collaboration is essential across all sectors of society.

Highlights of Canada 3.0

If Canada 3.0 last year was dominated by a formidable commitment to Canada’s digital media future, this year’s meeting focused on the global situation and the widely shared perception that Canada is falling behind. Canada 3.0 2010 addressed the formidable challenge of charting this country’s path toward global competitiveness and engagement in digital media. The participants found general consensus in defining the challenges and opportunities and identifying options for governments, businesses, post-secondary institutions and citizens seeking to prepare Canada for a digital tomorrow.

The discussions oscillated between optimism and concern, frustration and commitment, an enthusiasm for innovation and a preoccupation with barriers to change. There was no doubting the collective passion, the enthusiasm for real and sustainable growth, and the belief that Canada had the human, intellectual and entrepreneurial resources to carve out an impressive place in the global digital economy.

The benefits of an inclusive, digitally literate society were clear. But there were concerns, about everything from digital divides to the difficulties involved in mobilizing the national political will for the decisions that are needed, the challenges of our education and training systems and the difficulties involved with launching new companies in Canada. The real issues are not technological but cultural as we seek to transform our institutions, our habits and our workplaces. In the process we must respect and carry forward the values that define Canada.

Conference attendees refined our collective understanding of the digital media revolution in Canada. At the highest level, they agreed that:

• The focus in the new economy has shifted from the digital tool makers to the digital tool users.
• The emerging foundation of the digital era is not digital media (the technology) but rather connectivity (the social and cultural outcome of the new technology).
• Canada faces formidable international competition in the digital media space and has to rise to the challenges of a fast-changing, intense global environment.
• Responding to the realities of the digital age carries great urgency. Canada does not have the luxury of time in developing comprehensive, collaborative and integrated approaches to education and training, business development, infrastructure provision and policy-making.

Canada can assume an important position within the global digital environment, but has to chose carefully and then move decisively. The country’s response has to capitalize on Canada’s creative, cultural, economic and policy advantages.

With this context, the Canada 3.0 Conference has identified the following top priorities as being the best means of advancing the Canadian digital agenda:

1. Canada must ensure that Canadians have access to world-class Internet connections at rates that are affordable and appropriate. This could come through either a more competitive private sector environment or the development of the Internet as a public good or public utility.
2. Canadian culture and heritage must have pride of place on the Internet. We must pursue the systematic digitization of existing Canadian content so that people in this country and around the world have ready and appropriate access to the film, television, music, writing, photography, art, research and other content that defines who we are as Canadians.

   This material must be delivered in a manner that protects and preserves copyright and creator privileges and that ensures the long-term preservation of these assets as the integral core of our intellectual capital.

3. The development of viable, sustainable and Canadian digital media enterprises and new dynamic Canadian digital products must be a top priority across the country, with careful attention to the regulatory issues, incentives and entrepreneurial development efforts necessary to make Canadian firms and creators visible and competitive internationally.
4. Canada must remain globally aware and responsive, developing its programs and initiatives with a view to international activities and innovations. The digital media sector is one of the fastest-changing and most globally-connected economic, social and political environments in history. Borders have no meaning online or to digital natives. Canadian firms, governments, universities, colleges, students and the media need to find new means to collaborate, identifying emerging opportunities and threats around the world.

Each stream provided the Canada 3.0 conference with three action items for collective deliberation and rapid implementation

Action Items

Canada 3.0 consisted of a series of elements: plenary sessions that drew all the delegates together, a digital media showcase, informal network events and activities, and a five dedicated discussion streams

In the latter, delegates met over the two days of the conference to explore what it means to aspire to be a Digital Nation in each field. They were charged, under the direction of co-Chairs, with identifying practical and immediate action steps that could advance the digital media agenda in Canada. Each of the streams reported to the last plenary session of the conference, offering all delegates an opportunity to share in the learning, energy and ideas from the thematic sessions.

Each stream provided the Canada 3.0 conference with three action items for collective deliberation and rapid implementation. In each instance, they identified dozens of other priorities and possibilities — many of them medium and long-term ideas –for further consideration. (The longer report on the conference, available at the end of May, will incorporate many of the more detailed suggestions from the streams).

Theme: Learning, Talent and Research

This stream examined the state of digital education (K-12 and Post-Secondary Education) and the development of the Canadian digital research eco-system. The three main recommendations from this group were:

1. Canada requires a federal/provincial/territorial digital literacy initiative, with an emphasis on the development of a K-12 and post secondary open source digital learning repository.
2. Given the importance of industry/business in supporting digital media training, the country should create a national facilitator for digital media cooperative education programs and placements.
3. Given the importance of accelerating research and development, there is the need for increased collaborative research funding and commercialization support for digital media at the federal and provincial level. The program innovations launched by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada provide a model for action.

Changing Policy: The stream emphasized the manner in which digital rights, regulation of the digital sector and the Canadian policy environment needed to change in order to facilitate the development of digital media in Canada. Their top three recommendations were:

1. Take immediate steps to spark public understanding and debate about the importance of digital rights management;
2. Create a strong sense of urgency surrounding the need to address this issue.
3. Take clear action on the regulation of digital media materials, even if the solution is less than elegant or ideal. Action is needed now.
4. Not able to limit themselves to the three requested items, the stream also suggested that the country realize that scale does matter in digital media commercialization, that a concerted effort had to be made to retain talent in Canada, and that the country adopt a more strategic approach to Canadian content in the digital space.

Theme: Empowering Mobility/Infrastructure

This theme focused on the developments of networks, digital infrastructure and digital mobility, all of which are key elements in any effort to advance the digital media sector in Canada. Their top three recommendations were:

1. This country requires a Next Generation Internet service available to all Canadians as a public utility. On this much can be built.
2. WiFi, following the lead of the City of Stratford, should be widely available in Canada.
3. Canada requires a stronger focus on the development and provision of technologies for innovation. Governments and the business sector need to provide focus and motivation.

Creating Content

1. The country needs an “online concierge,” which will provide creators and companies with direction regarding the availability of funding and other support for creative initiatives.
2. There is a need for changes in Canadian copyright law to permit greater flexibility in changing for creative content.
3. Establishing a Creative Risk/Idea Experiment Fund to launch new entrants to the digital media field.

Theme: Revolutionizing Health

This stream emphasized the development of digital media solutions within the critical e-Health sector. Their three top recommendations were:

1. Canada should continue its electronic health records implementation, with a strong emphasis on serving patients.
2. Governments should collaborate on the development of harmonized standards and practices in e-Health.
3. Canada should leverage its formidable investment in health care and develop an Health Information Technology strategy for the country, with that policy ready for implementation by May 2011.

Final Thoughts

Canada 3.0 has tapped into a powerful combination of global awareness, technological understanding, appreciation of social change, and commitment to Canada. Delegates agreed that the country has great potential but is not yet well-situated to capitalize on international opportunities and meet global competition. Nor are we making full use of the technology our governments and institutions have already acquired in coordinating action, building our knowledge base or providing efficient citizen-oriented services.

There is uniform agreement of the need for intense collaboration between the academy and business and unified action by all levels of government. Conference attendees agreed that Canada can compete – but that a new level of engagement, determination and cooperation is required for the country to rise to the challenge of the global age.

The Honorable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, launched the Canada 3.0 conference by announcing a national consultation on digital media strategy. The Government of Canada has established a very aggressive time-line for garnering responses to the consultation document, with a view to having a digital media strategy ready for release in Fall 2010. Conference delegates took Minister Clement’s call to action to heart, and his sincere request for input animated much of the discussion in the following days.

Over the next two weeks, conference organizers will expand this report into a comprehensive statement on the state and future of digital media teaching, training, research, regulation, application, commercialization, entrepreneurship and awareness of societal impacts and implications. That larger document will, after review by the 2000 person Canada 3.0 community, be forwarded to the Ministry of Industry for inclusion in their national consultation.

Delegates to the Canada 3.0 2010 conference indicated a determination to compete on the global level, to collaborate and innovate in the national interest, and to seek the means of rising to the challenges and opportunities of the digital age. This is no easy challenge. Despite impressive performance in certain areas, it is well-known that Canada has started to lag behind in the digital race. Concerted action – fast, thoughtful, cooperative, commercially-driven, socially-aware – is essential if this country is to remain among the elite digital nations in the world.

If nothing else, delegates left Stratford and Canada 3.0 2010 with a firm determination to work together on common problems, to seek shared opportunities and to challenge each other to rise to the central challenges of the 21st century: global competitiveness, technological innovation, rapid commercialization, socially-responsible change, and sustainable transformation of Canadian society. We share a powerful and compelling vision. It is time for action.

]]> http://cdmn.ca/blog/?feed=rss2&p=163 0 http://cdmn.ca/blog/?p=122 http://cdmn.ca/blog/?p=122#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 12:05:35 +0000 Trevor Stafford http://mongoose.lewismedia.com/~cdmnca/blog/?p=122 Penticton, B.C. and Waterloo Region, ON (May 4, 2010) – The Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) today announced that the Okanagan Research and Innovation Centre (ORIC), a BC-based non-profit organization providing high-tech business incubator and accelerator programs and facilities, has joined the CDMN. The CDMN is working to connect organizations such as ORIC in a nationwide network to collaborate and share digital media research, technology development and commercialization expertise.

“Our goal at ORIC is to encourage creation of start-up companies and nurture sustainable growth of fledgling high-tech companies,” said Peter Haubrich, President of ORIC. “Given our mandate and the complementary agenda of the CDMN, we are delighted to join the nationwide initiatives of the CDMN.”

The CDMN was formed in 2009 and is focused on increasing opportunities for companies and employment in the Canadian digital media sector. Organizations and associations across the country have been joining the network to create a corridor of collaboration.

“Having ORIC as a node in the national network is a great asset,” said Kevin Tuer, Managing Director of the CDMN. “The digital media sector holds great promise for future technology innovation and job creation which will benefit all Canadians.”

ORIC supports a growing cluster of digital media companies in the Okanagan Valley through guidance, networking, knowledge and resources sharing, and will support programs that enhance research, product development and product commercialization.

About The Canadian Digital Media Network:
The Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) www.cdmn.ca, a federal Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, is dedicated to establishing Canada as a world leader in Digital Media by enabling connections and collaboration of people across the country – entrepreneurs, companies, research institutes and government – and bringing more digital solutions to market. The CDMN comprises Canada’s largest concentration of business-driven digital media research, technology development, and digital commercialization expertise; it connects digital media expertise and capability from coast-to-coast, creating a digital convergence corridor. Digital Media covers a broad spectrum of technology and services, and includes any information created and shared virtually.

About the Okanagan Research and Innovation Centre:
The Okanagan Research and Innovation Centre (ORIC) www.oric.ca, is a non-profit organization established in 2005 to create high-tech jobs and sustainable economic value for the Okanagan Valley in BC. ORIC manages several high-tech business incubators and supports start-up companies in Information, Communication and Clean Energy Technologies. ORIC’s headquarters is located at the National Research Council of Canada’s Radio Astronomy facility south of Penticton and has also offices in Kelowna and Penticton.

Media Contacts
Shelley Grandy, Communitech Sr. PR Advisor, 905-866-2656, shelley@cdmn.ca
Peter Haubrich, President ORIC, 250-486-7644, peter@oric.ca

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