For my last post, here is the latest news coming from the ICT sector in New Zealand.

“Vodafone’s general manager of corporate affairs, Tom Chignall, labels the New Zealand Institute’s latest broadband report “a bit myopic” for being focused on fibre.  “Fibre is important, but it’s not the only way of delivering broadband,” he says. Even as a means of increasing fibre penetration, “the model is flawed”, Chignall says. “It seems like a step backwards, effectively renationalising Telecom’s assets.” The free market “may not  have satisfied everyone”, but it has produced significant improvement in communications, and too much re-regulation might do more harm than good, he says.”

“The New Zealand Institute suggested, in its final report on broadband, that a single company be given monopoly ownership of “last-mile” connections between exchanges or street cabinets and user premises.
Existing telcos, utilities, local and central government, and other private investors, would have shares in the hypothetical company, christened FibreCo, and contribute resources, including fibre ducting and electronics to the company’s operation.”Read more at: http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/netw/780DEA3A6A492D66CC257422003381A9

Till next time…

GS

Today in my blog posting I will speak about one of the ICT clusters most important support systems, Mars. MaRS is at the heart of the “Discovery District” — two square kilometers in downtown Toronto and the city’s centre of innovation. MaRS brings science and technology researchers together under one roof with business and investment capital firms. MaRS Discovery District is a not-for-profit corporation founded by a group of business and community leaders to help foster research and innovation and take discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. The McGuinty government’s goal is to support the research and development of the best ideas, and help turn those ideas into products and services — because that will create jobs and prosperity for Ontarians.

MaRS will help the government deliver on its four research and commercialization priorities:

·         Strengthening support for commercialization

·         Attracting, retaining and developing the best and the brightest researchers

·         Sustaining research excellence

·         Building innovation networks.

The Ontario government has invested $50.5 million in MaRS.

Read more at: http://www.premier.gov.on.ca/news/Product.asp?ProductID=471

Till next time….

GS

“By 2020 the terms “interface” and “user” will be obsolete as computers merge ever closer with humans.  It is one prediction in a Microsoft-backed report drawn from the discussions of 45 academics from the fields of computing, science, sociology and psychology.  It predicts fundamental changes in the field of so-called Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

By 2020 humans will increasingly interrogate machines, the report said. In turn computers will be able to anticipate what we want from them, which will require new rules about our relationship with machines. The ever-present network will channel mass market information directly to us while disseminating our own intimate information. The report dubs this the era of so-called hyper-connectivity and predicts it will mean a growth in “techno-dependency”.  

This ever more intimate relationship between humans and computers will be a double-edged sword, it suggests.

The widespread introduction of the calculator – widely blamed for a fall in the standard of mental arithmetic – with what may happen as computers become more intelligent and take on new responsibilities. We can see where the future is heading, the future is now. The rapidly advancing world of ICT and clusters will make this prediction true sooner rather than later.

Read more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7325004.stm

till next time….

GS

Dr Kortuem and colleagues at the University of Lancaster are working on a project that combines smart tags and personal identifiers to keep an eye on people working on construction sites using heavy machine tools.

“It’s to keep track of how long they are used, to figure out vibrations generated by these tools,” he said. “It’s for health and safety. We create personalised health and safety records for every worker.”

The future of the internet is an internet of connected objects Jean-Francois Kitten

“The current way of generating this data is after the fact and no-one really cares about it,” he said. “There is legislation and companies need to generate the data, they need to prove that they comply with the legislation.”

Many hardware makers, such as router maker Cisco, are also starting to put smarter tags on devices so they can keep a record of their working life and can call for help if they are about to fail or are in need of servicing.

For more information, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7207514.stm

Till Next Time…. 

GS

Interesting new development from ICT:

Normally fragile and brittle silicon chips have been made to bend and fold, paving the way for a new generation of flexible electronic devices. The stretchy circuits could be used to build advanced brain implants, health monitors or smart clothing. The silicon chips can be bent, stretched and folded whilst maintaining the electronic capabilities of traditional microchips. The circuits are built from ribbons of single crystalline silicon supported on very thin plastic and rubber-like layers.

Possibilities and opportunities with this advancement are limitless.

read more- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7313203.stm

 Till Next Time….

GS

This past February, the budget tabled by the Finance Ministry was presented to the ICT industry. The Budget proposed to increase the expenditure limit for Canadian-controlled private corporations in the ICT sector.  ITAC has called for a move to full refundability to ensure that all R&D investors in Canada, regardless of their ownership or their profit positions, have access to the credits. The changes shown constitute a 1.1 percent improvement on the support the program provides. These measures simply aren’t enough to incent substantial R&D investors to keep high-valueknowledge jobs in Canada.  

According to the report, the ICT industry faces major shortages of skilled workers and several measures take steps to address the talent shortage. This has been deliberately been caused by Canada’s immigration system. Skilled Immigrants are not being accepted into the workforce, which is slowing the global competitiveness of the ICT industry. The budget hints at more of an effort to modernize the immigration system.  

 A little bit about ITAC,  “The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) is the voice of the Canadian information and communications technologies (ICT) industry in all sectors including telecommunications and Internet services, ICT consulting services, hardware, microelectronics, software and electronic content. ITAC’s network of companies accounts for more than 70 per cent of the 589,000 jobs, $137.6 billion in revenue, $5.2 billion in R&D investment, $22.6 billion in exports and $11.5 billion in capital expenditures that the industry contributes annually to theCanadian economy.”

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:bWoQ9xG8BmwJ:www.itac.ca/MediaCentre/ITACNewsRelease/26Feb_Release_Budget_2008.pdf+Information+Technology+Association+of+Canada+(ITAC)&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=ca

Till Next Time….

GS

I have recently come across the website of an organization called Wired Woman. The organization is all about fostering a community that encourages women to explore opportunities and build successful careers that allow them to actively participate in the growing technology sector. Wired Woman achieve their mission by establishing a strong network of national volunteers who design, develop, and deliver monthly programs to members and the community at-large. These programs are supported by a national volunteer board and the corporate sponsors and partners.

Their vision is to become known as the pre-eminent, non-profit Canadian society and advocate group for women seeking education, networking and mentoring opportunities in the broadly defined technology sector. With chapters in Toronto and Vancouver, they are already capitalizing on the existing ICT clusters there, and are focusing on collaborating with them. Including more women in the ICT sector is an excellent way to plant new ideas and viewpoints into the system, leading to increased creativity and innovation.   check them out at www.wiredwoman.com

Till Next Time….

GS

Today, I will be concentrating my blog posting on the Mississauga ICT Cluster, in particular, the potential growth of the sector. The following stats were taken from the city of Missisauga’s complete study on their ICT Cluster. http://www.mississauga.ca/file/COM/ICT_Study_complete.pdf 

“Employment in the ICT sector is estimated to reach 41,000 employees by the end of 2008

Mississauga’s ICT sector’s real GDP is forecasted to grow from $4.87 billion (2004),to $6.07 billion by year end 2008, an average growth rate of more than 6% annually”

Now, how can the ICT sector achieve this projected growth and more? Firstly, we need to see more integration with all the businesses, schools, and organizations in the area. It is clear that the strong and expanding Mississauga ICT sector allows for sharing of resources and ongoing opportunities for convergence and collaboration. This cluster will continue to be a major catalyst for growth, powering advances in all sectors and synergies for further innovation. As we have learned, ICT is going to be the cluster that will fuel convergence and integration with other clusters. This has already been seen in the Markham ICT sector, where the focus is shifting from high tech to a collaborative Life Sciences cluster. Mississauga can protect their position in this highly advancing world wide sector by focusing on converging with other similar clusters in the city. This would ensure their continued spot atop the greatest and most innovative ICT clusters in the world. 

Till Next Time….

GS 

The following is a comment made by Graytek Management in accordance to ICT clusters in Canada:

“ICT is a mature sector dominated by a small number of large global companies surrounded by an array of smaller niche players and component suppliers. In Canada, the large companies are increasingly foreign multinational enterprises and they are dominant players in all of the clusters studied except Vancouver. The multinational enterprises need to be encouraged to develop stronger local roots, particularly in the R&D and commercialization/production areas to ensure that they remain in the cluster. The multinational enterprises are also in a position to assist local companies by developing supplier relationships, something that is generally not evident at present.” http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/ict-tic.nsf/vwapj/107730e.pdf/$FILE/107730e.pdf

The statement suggests something about clusters that I haven’t acknowledged until now. I always assumed that all surrounding organizations would be readily welcomed into a cluster to stem further growth and innovation, but it seems that as a cluster matures competition to even belong to the cluster intensifies. The amount of small support software companies that can spring up in a mature ICT cluster are quite high, especially in the GTA, and competition amongst them to remain in the cluster and receive all its benefits can be quite competitive. This goes to show that only the most innovative and creative members in mature ICT clusters have their future presence guaranteed in the cluster. The image dictates the distribution of GTA ICT facilities by sector in 2003, and can provide a hint on where the sector is heading in this increasingly competitive marketplace.  

Till Next Time….

GS

“DVD 21st Century Learner: A glimpse of the future has been distributed to schools and provides an opportunity for the school community to take a journey into the future, showing the likely impact of information communication technologies (ICT) on classrooms over the next few years. The DVD outlines the ways in which schools can use and are using ICT in innovative ways to improve teaching and learning.”

We now see how clustering in ICT is being taken to a new level. The DVD is focused on promoting key aspects of clustering, including connectivity, access to information, relationships with the community, and capacity building. The release of this DVD directly supports the New Zealand Minitry of Education’s e-learning action plan. The site also takes advantage of emerging internet technologies by allowing content to be streamed directly online. The links can be found below.