Canada’s “Moonshot”,the Intelligent Communities Movement

and the Role of Public Libraries

OLA Superconference 2011K. Dubeau, SDI, Newmarket PL

There’s something happening …• Multiple conversations about Canada’s Role in the

Digital Economy– Canada 3.0 – “Moonshot”– i-Canada – a New National Dream– Intelligent Communities Foundation

• Today: share some of the thinking, and ask the question:

What is the role for Public Libraries?

• Started in 2009 in Stratford, Ontario• Collaboration with University of Waterloo• In 2010: More than 2000 attendees• Key Message: “Take stock of today so you can

imagine tomorrow”• Shared Goal: 2017 - Canada’s “Moonshot”

By 2017, any one, can do anything online in Canada

Five Streams:

• Creating – developing content & commercialization opportunities

• Learning – finding and retaining talent and research opportunities

• Changing – how digital rights, regulations, policies need to change

• Empowering – focusing on networks, infrastructure and mobility

• Revolutionizing – focusing on Health ICT

Creating:• The tools have changed us; the medium for opportunity -> Digital Experience

Management• How to manage and create distribution techniques• How to monetize the channel• Learning how to rally communities around your content : new trust models• The trust enabled by the community allows transactions at a higher value• Role of “packager”, role of “distributer” in an era of explosion of content

• Risk fund to support artistic experimentation• Single, integrated portal for gov’t services

Learning:

• Not only about the technology, but the practices and processes• Innovation occurs at the margin – true innovation is experienced

by the majority as uncomfortable• Innovation-based leadership – is Canada ready?• Google’s recipe for success – 98% failure rate

• National and provincial plan to integrate digital resources across K-12 curricula

• Develop open source repository of resources

Changing:• Become more strategic with Canadian content policy• Begin to develop a taxonomy for facilitating open and cost-effective

rights management and transactions• Commercial and technical infrastructure to build strong companies

Empowering:“Next generation networks are going to be as important to where businesses locate today, as railways were in the 50’s”

• Approach next generation network infrastructure as a public utility• Wi fi networks made widely available and accessible (on par with

basic cable)• Harness the energy, momentum and vision of the attendees to keep

moving development forwards

Revolutionizing:• Call to digitize the health care system by 2017: enabling practitioners

with digital tools, automating processes to increase productivity and allowing patients to manage own health care

• All levels of government to standardize and harmonize Health ICT standards

• Call for an innovation strategy that leverages the current 182 billion spent by Canadians annually on health care.

Wireless – Future of Mobile Technology

• Opportunity: multi-lingual, multi-cultural, new tactile interfaces -> poised @ massive explosion of creativity that will shift paradigms

• Need to nurture “folks in the garage” -> innovation coming from outside traditional channels – how can you identify, harness?

• Pace of technology change is an issue• Devices – continued fragmentation, yet 60-70% of gross margin $

being eaten up by a relatively small # of manufacturers• Applications eating up all available bandwidth – wired networks are

becoming full; hybrid networks• VC Investment – lowest level in 14 years• Thin client devices - cheaper to get to developing world than a

truckload of books

Digital Strategies Around the World

• Ignore other countries at our peril• Sense that Canada does not recognize the _scale_ of what is

happening across the world• Taiwan – 10 years ago, launched e-Taiwan, 4 years ago, launched

M-Taiwan (M-Learning: schools, museum, library, gallery, M-Services – warehousing, local gov’t, harbour, healthcare, M-Life – entertainment, culture) now launching U-Taiwan – ubiquitous network

• Singapore – iN2015< Imagine Your World: combining research, teaching, incubators

• Asia – slowly turning back on Western world – are becoming the innovation leaders

• R&D $ -significant shift in last 5 years; lg. Multinational companies now spend 62% of R&D in China and India

iCanada Declaration

• Program from the Canadian Advanced Technology Association (CATA)

• Need for high speed (ultra-fast) networking to support/spur innovation

• Statistics: • Canada is 22nd out of 30 countries – broadband adoption network capacity, pricing• Canada’s speeds are 1/100 to 1/1000 of the top 20 competitive nations• Canada ranks 33rd globally in download speeds to the home

• Vision:• Come together across many sectors, share ideas, best practices, strategies to form a national plan, a national collaborative• BY 2020: Canada is one of the world leaders in global Smart, Ubiquitous and Intelligent Communities• http://www.cata.ca/Advocacy/iCanada/default.aspx

iCanada Declaration

”We need a new approach to community transformation which calls for leaders to use technology to inform and connect people. We need to convert the social safety net into a social safety network through the creation of smarter communities that are information-rich, interconnected, and able to provide opportunities to all citizens”;

•Informed and Interconnected: A Manifesto for Smarter Cities, (2009); Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard and Stanley S. Litow, IBM*.

ISSUE: HOW TO STIMULATE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, CREATE JOBS AND DRIVE THE SOCIAL AGENDA IN THE 21ST CENTURY?

ANSWER: CREATE GREAT PLACES AND SPACES WITHIN A

FRAMEWORK OF ESTABLISHING THE WORLD’S LEADING GREEN AND SMART COMMUNITY

ANSWER: CREATE GREAT PLACES AND SPACES WITHIN A

FRAMEWORK OF ESTABLISHING THE WORLD’S LEADING GREEN AND SMART COMMUNITY

ANSWER: CREATE GREAT PLACES AND SPACES WITHIN A

FRAMEWORK OF ESTABLISHING THE WORLD’S LEADING GREEN AND SMART COMMUNITY

The Waterfront Toronto Example From This To This

And Much More……………!

i-Waterfront: The 21st Century Intelligent Community

INNOVATION

SOCIAL

ENVIRONMENT

ECONOMIC

Buildings, Parks, Ravines, Mountains, Waterfronts

Communications, Roads, Rail, Trails, Transit, Water, Energy, Waste

Creativity Index, Open Innovation, Synergy, Facilitation, Community Animation, Social Networks

Live, Learn, Work, Play

e-Health, i-Building, e-Education, e-Arts, e-Government, e-Community, e-Business

How Do We Create Intelligent Communities?

LIFE

APPLICATIONS

COLLABORATION ECOSYSTEM™

INFRASTRUCTURE

PLACE

i-COA®: Intelligent Community Open Architecture®© 2010 All Rights Reserved: Hutchison Management International

The Foundation for Innovation?.....The Open Access Intelligent Ultra Broadband Communications Infrastructure

Computing

Data Gathering

Networking

Revolution in Information Systems

New Frontiers For Digital CommunitySolutions

Technology Push Application Pull

InternetComputation

Tele-communication

WWWOpen Access Intelligent Infrastructure

First-wave Second-wave

Adapted from: Dan Atkins – Chair NSF, Cyberinfrastructure Panel

Third-wave

Intelligent Communities

The Winning Characteristics:•Economic Growth and Investment•New Knowledge Economy Employment•Social Prosperity•Community Collaboration•Digital Democracy•Effective Marketing •Sustainability •Advanced Communications Infrastructure

Intelligent Communities

"I think one of the great triumphs was the recognition of Waterloo as one of the most Intelligent Communities in the world in 2007. That was not simply the existence here of good ICT tools, it was how well the community was using these tools to improve not simply the prosperity of the community but the lives of everyone.“

– David Lloyd Johnston is a Canadian academic and author, and the outgoing president of the University of Waterloo. He succeeded Michaëlle Jean as Governor General of Canada on Oct. 1

Intelligent Community For

http://www.intelligentcommunity.org

What role do public libraries play in this transformation?

Opportunities

• Join the conversation; engage• Libraries uniquely positioned to advocate for

residents: • Education/awareness• Digital Inclusion: access, affordability, support• Community-based collaborative strategies • Knowledge repositories• Support Innovation engines

What Next?

• Raise the i-Canada declaration• Plan to participate (even virtually) in Canada 3.0• Become involved in advocacy issues (UBB)• Educate the local community – roundtables, guest speakers;

identify champions• Engage with other libraries on Intelligent Communities• Investigate fibre/broadband infrastructure• Discover what is happening in your community by reaching

out to Town, Chambers, schools, post-secondary etc.• Take a leadership position