[Advisors] US Ignite

[michael gurstein]

Thanks for that and interesting comments from Mike Hrybak...

I can see his point but I also think it is something of a cop out.

I've written and said this elsewhere but Canada has been up until fairly
recent times a very significant global innovator in
communications/telecommunications.  A.G. Bell may have been a bit of an
outlier but the early satellites and microwave responding to the demands =
of
a very large and underpopulated country, the work of the CRC and BNR =
around
fibre-optics, Teledon and so on all were an inter-twining of specific
geographically determined need with pro-active government policy and =
funding
response.

Arguably (and I've argued) that government funded community based =
community
informatics responses to various exigencies has been Canada's most =
notable
contribution in ICT innovation and the collapse of funding for this is a
specifically political decision to destroy (or at least not develop) an =
area
where Canada could usefully for itself and globally be an innovator. It
doesn't fit into the current neo-liberal agendas of either the latter =
day
Libs or Harper and his gang but that isn't because a few computer =
boffins in
Canada haven't been up to snuff.

M

-----Original Message-----
From: Garth Graham [mailto:garth.graham@telus.net]=20
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2012 1:19 PM
To: Michael Gurstein; 'TC Advisors
Subject: Re: [Advisors] US Ignite


On 2012-06-13, at 1:45 PM, michael gurstein wrote:  -----Original
Message-----
> Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 4:04 PM
> Subject: US Ignite
> The White House has just lifted the embargo on announcement of US =
Ignite.
The official launch is at the White House tomorrow morning at 9 am.
>=20
> US Ignite is intended to catalyze 60 transformative applications over=20
> the next five years in public benefit areas such as healthcare,=20
> education and workforce development, public safety, clean energy,=20
> transportation, and advanced manufacturing.

Thanks to Mike's alert, I watched all of the launch.  How wonderful to
encounter a community that's excited about the future of the Internet, =
and
one that seems to espouse many of the principles, values and dreams that
community networkers have always shared.  What a contrast with Canada to =
see
what "communities with gigabit initiatives and infrastructure" are =
actually
doing with them (and to recall that Toronto once owned such =
infrastructure
and sold it!!).  And how positive to spot one of our own, former TC =
board
member Mark Surman, at the White House and leading the open network =
charge.

I also asked Mike Hrybyk, head of BCNet the following question:

> On 2012-06-13, at 3:53 PM, Garth Graham wrote:
> Mike, we see this initiative as "community-based" and we believe that=20
> there's NOTHING comparable in Canada.  Are we correct in that=20
> assumption?

Here's his reply:
> On 2012-06-13, at 5:03 PM, Michael Hrybyk wrote:

> We never had a GENI equivalent as well. Slow going north of the=20
> border. Not necessarily govt problem, dearth of people even proposing=20
> such initiatives in detail. Noone seems too interested, and very short =

> on creative technical ideas (use of openflow, software defined=20
> networking, ...). Sigh.
>=20
> This initiative grew out of the CS research community in conjunction=20
> with the research networks and communities with gigabit initiatives=20
> and infrastructure (see gigu). The community is the testbed, but the=20
> GENI gang is leading the charge.

GG