[Advisors] Convergences

[Garth Graham]

Some interesting convergences in my email this morning.
 
First.
i-CANADA Alliance.  The Digital Adoption Campaign for Canada now Launched: http://www.cata.ca/Media_and_Events/Press_Releases/cata_pr10191301.html
i-Canada says, “many Canadian enterprises, particularly small and medium-sized ones, have not moved their use of mobile much beyond e-mail or surfing. Pointedly, they have failed to adopt more advanced mobile capabilities such as e-commerce, inventory and supply chain management, remote diagnostics and monitoring, and other operational areas, that, if adopted could significantly contribute to improving the Canada’s productivity and innovation performance.”
 
In spite of James Van Leeuwen’s excellent efforts to provide real substance to CATA’s appropriation of “community-based projects,” none of the executive “thought leaders” (the campaign’s critical element) show evidence of any such perspective.
 
Second.
What’s the latest on SparkLab?
http://www.telecentre.org/2014/01/whats-the-latest-on-sparklab/
“The basic idea of bringing under one roof the best practices of the global telecentre community, and combine that with the latest software, technology, content and training, along with a unique network of mentors and other strategic partners, continues to captivate many.  More than a next-generation telecentre (Telecentre 2.0), the SparkLab is envisioned to become a true center of innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship, a place in which mobile technologies will work seamlessly with the normal infrastructure of a telecentre. “
 
To me, this is evidence that community, and “community-based projects” is, once again, leading the way forward to effective moods of development BEFORE the business “community” figures out how to implement its rhetoric. Three loud cheers. But how can this model influence public policy in Canada?
 
 
Third
I was pleased to note that the same January edition of the Telecentre.org newsletter that contained the SparkLab update http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/1038651/430a97602a/521759637/4494a47eee/ also has a link to the Community Informatics Declaration:
 An Internet for the Common Good - Engagement, Empowerment, and Justice for All
 
To me, that’s evidence that the theory and practice of community online is not as entirely separated as I had feared.
 
GG