[Advisors] FW: CAP?

[Michael Gurstein]

Colleagues,

 

I've had several private responses to this (I must admit that I'm (naively?)
quite surprised that folks would think that this was a potentially sensitive
topic of discussion).

 

Anyway, I'd be interested in more comments either on the list or privately
before I reply to my colleague in Ottawa on this.  Note that I'm spurred by
what I've seen so far to do up a blogpost with some personal
reflections/critiques/praise-songs for CAP and (with permission) it would be
great to have some (more) quotes/comments.

 

(Note, that I think this discussion is not simply of theoretical interest.
>From some discussions with my Ottawa colleague and others it would appear
that the Feds are currently looking for useful ways of spending their
infrastructure funds and the $500 mill assigned to rural and remote
Broadband.  If CAP is in such bad repute in Ottawa as my colleague indicated
then the possibility of funding for a CAP like program (as I was arguing for
in my Repurposing Post Offices
<https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/repurposing-post-offices-as-commu
nity-innovation-hub-inclusion-equity-and-deconcentration/>  blogpost) would
sadly and incorrectly I think, clearly be out of the question.

 

(BTW, what I've heard privately so far on this is that one of the reasons
CAP is in bad repute is that it was slagged significantly by the Harperites
and these criticisms were absorbed by the bureaucrats who haven't yet
figured out that there is a new regime in town.)

 

Thanks in advance,

 

M

 

From: Michael Gurstein [mailto:gurstein at gmail.com] 
Sent: April 28, 2016 11:25 AM
To: 'advisors' <advisors at tc.ca>
Subject: CAP?

 

I'm having a back and forth with a colleague in Ottawa re: my blogpost on
Post-offices as Community Innovation Hubs
<https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/repurposing-post-offices-as-commu
nity-innovation-hub-inclusion-equity-and-deconcentration/>  .

 

In a recent email he made the following comment:

 

In your blog post, and some of the community informatics threads, I noted
direct reference to the - now very clearly defunct - CAP program.
Apparently, even mentioning that program is extremely problematic and
strongly discouraged if you don't want everyone in Ottawa to go running. I'm
not exactly sure why, but that's what I understand. 

 

I must say that this rather surprised me. 

 

This is how I replied to him:

 

It had some success in rural areas, less in urban areas (it was terribly
terribly mismanaged) but for those involved and for a fairly large number of
rural communities it was something of a success.  It was one of the very
very few Federal Programs which were delivered directly to communities to
the Feds who really didn't understand what they were doing (they set up and
for a long time treated it as a training ground for e-commerce which it
never was.

 

Any  comments or explanations why CAP should be in such disrepute in Ottawa
(and is that consistent with the experience of others)?

 

M

 

 

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