My #can30 thoughts - Broadband, #opendata, Copyright & Tax Incentives
I went to last year's Canada 3.0 conference. I came out of it energized and ready to take on the challenge of a digital nation for Canada. And then the recession happened and that kind of consumed my attention (as with a lot of people I assume).
I had hoped to be re-energized by this year's conference but I found it a lot of the same material that was presented last year. At first I had a negative outlook on this and was disappointed.
HOWEVER, I meant some really cool people who are driving the agenda forward and what I realized is that it is up to us in private industry or even the robust non-profit sector to get things rolling. If we wait for government to take the lead we will be too far behind the rest of the world. We had several analogies passed around from the moonshot to the "beyond the last spike" in the railroad. Let's explore the railroad analogy for a little bit.
The completion of the transcontinental railroad was a condition for BC to enter confederation. People were already there in BC. Commerce was already there. People wanted to be connected to the rest of Canada but they did not need the railway to get there in the first place.
I feel this is similar to today's situation where we have to move into new territories, pioneer, create and invent and THEN look to Government and say "Hey, we're over here now - a lot of us, really - could you finish that railroad please?" Had the pioneers of old waited to move west until the railroad was completed it would have taken much longer to populate BC.
I had hoped to be re-energized by this year's conference but I found it a lot of the same material that was presented last year. At first I had a negative outlook on this and was disappointed.
HOWEVER, I meant some really cool people who are driving the agenda forward and what I realized is that it is up to us in private industry or even the robust non-profit sector to get things rolling. If we wait for government to take the lead we will be too far behind the rest of the world. We had several analogies passed around from the moonshot to the "beyond the last spike" in the railroad. Let's explore the railroad analogy for a little bit.
The completion of the transcontinental railroad was a condition for BC to enter confederation. People were already there in BC. Commerce was already there. People wanted to be connected to the rest of Canada but they did not need the railway to get there in the first place.
I feel this is similar to today's situation where we have to move into new territories, pioneer, create and invent and THEN look to Government and say "Hey, we're over here now - a lot of us, really - could you finish that railroad please?" Had the pioneers of old waited to move west until the railroad was completed it would have taken much longer to populate BC.
So moving forward let's do our part to do the pioneering and then let the government support us with improved infrastructure, policy, etc.
The four main things I think government should lean towards are:
- Broadband infrastructure - much like the railroad in the past, we have to have ways of moving digital goods cost effectively across this country if we are going to be successful
- Open data - Encourage all levels of government to make data available to our citizens. We will do cool things with this data. You don't need to spend tax dollars doing these things, we'll do it for you if we have access to the data. This INCLUDES health care data - allowing consumers to access their own medical health care records will be critical to stabilizing the health care field.
- Copyright Laws - We have to fix this - we have to be able to re-use, mash up, re-create and re-display content in a digital world, we have to be able to do it quickly, and we have to be able to do it without getting sued
- Tax Incentives - I actually consider this one optional as lots of great things can happen without it - but perhaps more can with more strategic investment. However, the system is way too complicated right now. A great driver of growth and innovation in the digital media area is going to be startups and small companies. We do not have the resources to fill out the applications and paperworks for grants.
The lesson learned for me in the second Canada 3.0 conference is there is no point waiting for the government to do anything about 1 - 4; they will, in time, when there is a significant economic pressure to make those changes.
So we must, my digital friends, get to work and start pioneering.
