There is a Hasbro children’s game called Operation that zaps players who touch an edge when removing a game piece from the game board. Winning requires hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills to carefully keep from venturing too close to the edge.
As I read through a report from the European Investment Bank yesterday, the game of Operation came to mind. Why?
The report examined the total investment required to implement Europe’s Digital Agenda. My first thought was – Europe actually has a Digital Agenda! My thought was that we in Canada are playing a game of Operation, but we’re playing in the dark. We’re guided only when the buzzer sounds without being able to know what the playing field looks like.
Canada has shelves filled with reports from Commissions and Panels without action plans implementing the recommendations; we have had consultations but we have been slow to act in reaching conclusions. For example, last year’s consultation on relaxation of restrictions on foreign direct investment should have resulted in a policy statement and legislation last fall. Instead, the government decided to re-open the issue as part of the 700 MHz consultation. This issue was also studied by a number of expert panels prior to the auction of AWS spectrum, with no action. It took the buzzer sounding on Globalive’s ownership structure to force Cabinet to weigh in. They said that it may look like Globalive strayed close enough to the edge, but we don’t think so.
The policy response to usage based billing for wholesale internet access was just the latest demonstration of buzzers sounding in response to crossing the line. Hopefully, this election will result in the lights being turned on a national digital strategy. It is too serious a game to be played in the dark.