The sixth post in a series of blogs about what Canada can do to promote and sustain innovation.
There is a real sense of urgency in putting Canada on the map as a digital innovator. I’ve discussed many of them in this series of blogs about how to build an innovation nation. The time is now.
Currently, Canada has strength in the digital media sector. We have a robust IT sector and many foreign-owned IT companies have chosen to expand their operations in Canada. This country attracts digital media investments for many of our innovations in technology and our universities are regularly visited by scouts from multinational technology companies. There are entrepreneurs in all industries in the country, and now is the time to ensure their success and plant the seeds of innovation for future generations.
Ian Wilson Presents The Stratford Report 2011 at Canada 3.0
I’d like to close this series with a quote from the Stratford Report 2011 in the section entitled "A Search for the Culturally Inclusive Digital Nation". It descibes how technology has the potential to extend and enhance our work to make us more productive and innovative—and could be easily expanded beyond the field of arts to encompass every discipline or department in all industries.
“Technology is often seen as our nemesis—a cheaper, easier, virtual version of something real. Many of us battle the technical invasion; performing our own version of the refrain that those who do not remember their own history are condemned to repeat it. The radio and the record album were once thought to herald the death of live music. The VHS tape and cable television were going to end film. Photography was going to replace painting. Colour catalogues were going to obviate the need for museums. None of these innovations led to the death of the art form, but instead contributed to its spread and helped create new audiences. So now we are faced with the Internet, social media, and other new [digital platform] technologies, and I believe the arts field must embrace them and integrate them into our work. Not to replace it but to extend it.” (Rocco Landesman, Chairman, The U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, June 2010).
Read the previous blog, Part 5 of the series.
Read Part 4 of the series.
Read Part 3 of the series.
Read Part 2 of the series.
Read Part 1 of the series.
