A Blog of Her Own

OK, so I’m in Calgary for a short conference put on by the Van Horne institute to explore the opportunities SuperNet brings to Albertans. I’m here more from a sense of duty than because I think I’ll learn new things…I’ve been taking notes and now I’ll post a little of what I’m hearing and thinking about.

One person did comment on the irony of a conference in the Telus Conference Centre that has NO wireless connectivity at all. Not even Telus paid wireless connectivity. Maybe that’s something Bell can provide.

It’s been a long day, and there’s actually still more to come, so I’m just going to go with my rough notes from sessions today…I’m not going to guarantee I’m coherent.

Opening session was just a discussion of what SuperNet is. Dennis Mudryk from RGE, Lisa Shackleton from Axia, and James Schultz from Bell were the presenters. Well, after some opening remarks from such notables as Hon. Luke Oulette (Minister, RGE), Dr. David Mitchell (UofC), Dr. Frits Pannekoek (Athabasca U), and a lady representing the Van Horne Institute.

But on to a session (since there’s no point recapping the ‘what is SuperNet’ - I know that already). The eBusiness - eEconomy session was my first for the day. Let’s see how well MS OneNote pastes into the blog…

The panel today is made up of Dr. Richard Field (UofA), Wayne Cao (MLA, Calgary-Fort), and Darrell Toma (Alberta Chamber of Commerce)

Dr. Field compares a quote from ‘Until the Sun Falls’ about mongol tribes, comparing the sweep of the mongol advances to what we are seeing with globalization today. SuperNet is bringing the playing field to rural communities, putting them on the global path, and exposing them to things and competitors that rural communities didn’t even know existed. So, in essence, rural communities (small businesses) have to be prepared for this new world in order to play on this new field.

Dr. Field’s research involved surveying rural businesses to look at many things - non-computer users, some computer use, some Internet use, power users who would like to have a high-speed network (and used whenever possible). In one case, had a music studio that used Internet to deliver content. The customers for the power users were located around the world while the others were focussed on local customers only.

There are issues with supporting computers in rural communities - there is not the technical support locally yet (a support infrastructure) - there is a need to travel to another location for repair, training, etc. This definitely reflects my limited experience with trying to help rural libraries with attaching to SuperNet. Even when there is some computer expertise in the community, SuperNet requires a deeper understanding of networking technologies than most rural computer technical people have-they don’t normally need to understand VLANs and MPLS VPNs and diffserve and … So, I can see how it will be difficult to encourage technology take-up if there is no support structure to help novice users choose technology and keep it running. Libraries can help deliver training, but it would tax their resources to try to truly support increased technology in a small community. Perhaps this is an area for opportunity. We could have the travelling computer doctor that moves through the province fixing and supporting computers in rural communities. Anyone want to help me build a business case/model?

Darrell Toma

Darrell brings to us a discussion from a business background, the AB Chambers of Commerce view of SuperNet. SuperNEt has not yet been a topic of interest in Chambers meetings that he’s attended so far. Around the rural theme…

As a theme - future is around the knowledge-based economy (technology businesses). Right now, though, rural businesses particularly need access to markets while the primary need in urban settings is infrastructure to handle the intense growth.

While Internet can help rural areas by opening up communication channels and electronic delivery means, there is still a gap. Quality of websites is not there yet - a need for some of those support services that fit around technology and the use of computers. So now the traveling computer repair person should take a traveling web-developer with them. More seriously, though, I know Three Hills has already identified another option for addressing some of the ecommerce elements identified here - Summer web developer camp for high-school students. Train your most tech savvy community members to create quality sites for rural businesses. And by tech savvy here, we don’t necessarily mean the most ‘geeky’ folks - the people who are comfortable with technology as users and know what the web should look like. You’d learn job skills such as graphic design, business communication and PR, maybe even work flows for order processing. Combine that with simple tools and some programming and you’ve exposed a range of students to career opportunities. And you build connections between local youth and business people. There’s definitely something here (but I still think we need to over-rule Ken’s suggested name for this camp - “re-boot camp”).

Principles, though - Keep it Simple and Proven. That’s the only way you’ll get existing businesses to adopt new technology and processes. This will need to come with education and building relationships. Darrell actually said “you can’t build relationships on the Internet or the SuperNet.” I beg to differ. He might not be able to. And I might have trouble doing it. But you ask any 12 year old and they have no problem building relationships online. The increasing popularity of social software is a clear indication that we are learning how to build relationships online, we can connect with this new tool once we get used to the technology - once we get over our ties to the old ways of doing things.

Wayne Cao

The government views SuperNet as part of the strategy for building Alberta’s image as a great place to work and live and do business.

Talk about how much economic growth the province has experienced over the last 10 years. But since this is my blog, I get to rant now…Investment in Alberta is primarily (almost exclusively) in the Energy sector. If you have oil and gas projects, you can find investment funds. BUT, if you are trying to build businesses in other areas - if you’re trying to capitalize on the new ‘knowledge economy’ - there is no access to capital. We have no venture capital funds for non-energy sector initiatives. The province doesn’t provide any incentive for VC firms to locate here (ie Tax Incentives). So, if Albertans want to access VC funds, they have to go elsewhere (Toronto, the US) which will bring with it a requirement to have a presence of some form in that remote location.

So, Alberta has the ICT infrastructure now to support business anywhere, the infrastructure needed to truly support knowledge-based businesses. But we don’t have the rest of the package - an environment that attracts knowledge workers and entrepreneurs - mentors, funds, tax incentives. I could even go so far as to say (in the province of *many* good Universities) a lack properly educated workers. I know there are a lot of really smart people out there, the Universities and other post-secondary institutions are doing a good job of educating people…but, in fairly traditional areas. We pump out engineers and trades to support the oil and gas industry. What do we need to support different types of businesses, businesses that are not based on natural resources or agriculture (the traditional strengths of Alberta)?

I’m all for this vision of the government to enable new businesses. But I don’t think ICT infrastructure (SuperNet) alone will do the job. I think the government is still thinking of new ways to do existing business - extend your customer base, become more efficient, increase communication - but there is still no vision for *new* business models, for whole new types of business and work. Our Alberta vision is actually rather grounded and ‘practical’ it’s not innovative, really. We’re not breaking brand new ground. So how do we do that? How do we come up with the next disruptive business model - the next Amazon.com?