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The creation of a smart
community, even a Smart
Canada, first requires the
formulation of a shared vision
of what that community can
and will become.
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Despite their struggles, or maybe because of them, Canada's rural and remote municipalities might actually have an advantage over Canada's larger centres.
Dear Reader:
There is a international movement underway called the Smart Community movement.
Citizens and governments world wide are recognizing that the provision of high speed Internet service to a community does not just enhance their ability to communicate with the world, but rather provides an opportunity for these communities to metamorphose into a new kind of community, �. A Smart Community.
Despite their struggles, or maybe because of them, Canada's rural and remote municipalities might actually have an advantage over Canada's larger centres. In the smaller communities it is well understood that in order to justify the costs of bringing high-speed connectivity to their location, they must immediately find ways of transforming how they do business, and how they run their governments, in order to fund the services they need to survive.
Many of Canada's larger centres, governments and corporations have been able to delay, but not escape this reality.
The broadband revolution begins, but by no means ends, with the provision of the physical infrastructure components of high-speed connectivity.
After talking to dozens of leaders in government, business, and the community, a realization emerges. That is: Canada's government agencies and larger corporations are providing a prescription to rural and remote communities that they may need, but are not be able to take themselves.|
Our current status on the national level, and in many cases the provincial levels, is that we solve each community's problems in a piecemeal and disconnected fashion. We have no national vision.
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The creation of a smart community, even a Smart Canada, first requires the formulation of a shared vision of what that community can and will become, once these services are in place and fully utilized.
Our current status on the national level, and in many cases the provincial levels, is that we solve each community's problems in a piecemeal and disconnected fashion. We have no national vision. Nor do we have a process of vision creation, which could guide our governments and corporations while making national and provincial level decisions about how Canada should proceed in transforming itself into the ultimate Smart Community.
In the hope that we may be triggering some larger process, we are pleased to offer in this, our first edition, the personal views of 20 Canadian visionaries, each of whom is passionate about helping to bring about the creation of a Smart Canada. With this and future issues our goal will be to foster thought and discussion, among the diverse stake holders in Canada's Smart Community transformation.
As readers I would ask you to look beyond the bandwidth and imagine the possible.
Thank you, and welcome to our premiere edition of Canada Connects.
Philip Carr
Managing Editor
Canada Connects
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