A colleague pointed out an article in the Ottawa Business Journal that indicated that on March 7, Canada’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology began a study of Broadband and Internet access across Canada. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce was the only witness at that particular session. In the introduction to its testimony, Scott Smith of the Chamber observed:
Canadian business is not online and this is despite the fact that Canada has some of the most advanced and available telecommunications infrastructure in the world. … So the story I want to tell you is one of adoption, or lack of adoption, not about barriers to access. With our relatively small population in a huge land mass, the Canadian market is essentially California with a distribution challenge. Yet Canadians continue to be among the first users in the world to benefit from next generation network.
Access to networks isn’t the problem, even though solving this non-issue continues to be a focus for many politicians at various levels of government.
It is adoption that we need to address.
Digital literacy and adoption are much more difficult challenges than throwing money at regional broadband infrastructure. How do we convince households to get computers and subscribe to connectivity; how do we get businesses to go online and adopt e-business strategies? The Chamber of Commerce identified market certainty as an issue
One of the committee members asked why businesses aren’t investing in ICT, after all, it would seem to be for their own benefit. Unfortunately, the Chamber did not have any studies to cite. I wonder to what extent there are government policies that inadvertently discourage adoption of ICT. Besides CASL, which I have highlighted at length, are there other regulations that discourage e-commerce and ICT adoption.
How do we ensure that individual citizens are not left behind? Among those households with a computer, virtually all have broadband connections. However, nearly 20% of Canadian households have no computer. How do we reach them?
As might be expected, half of the households with no computers are households in the lowest income quintile.
Statistics Canada data has been showing that Canada actually has a bigger urban broadband problem than rural, yet no programs appear to have targeted this segment.
On these pages, I have written about ideas to start with targeting computer and connectivity solutions for low income households with school aged children [see, for example, here]. This needs the participation and cooperation from the carrier community and may be well suited for a network of public private partnerships.
Getting computers into all households with school aged kids would be a good starting point for increasing digital adoption in Canada. Even for those of us who have been on-line since the earliest days of networking, our kids can be a leading source of technical support and improved household digital literacy.
We will see what direction the INDU study takes as the committee continues to explore Broadband and Internet Access in Canada. There will be an outstanding panel at The 2013 Canadian Telecom Summit looking at building an innovation economy. The session will be moderated by Namir Anani (President & CEO, ICTC) and it features Chris Hodgson (Canadian Retail and Tech Practice Lead, Google), Tracey Jennings (Canadian Leader: TICE, PwC), Warren Jestin (SVP and Chief Economist, Scotiabank), Ron Styles (President & CEO, SaskTel), Joan Vogelesang (President and CEO, Toon Boom Animation) and John Weigelt (National Technology Officer, Microsoft Canada).
Have you registered yet?
It may be that the problem is more basic. According to the OECD, “more than 42% of Canadians lack the basic literacy skills required to succeed in today’s society.” While some may think that the OECD’s definition of literacy is too demanding, it is not inconceivable that 20% of Canadians are not literate enough to use a computer. If so, this is not a problem that will successfully be addressed by an isolated sector such as telecommunications or the IT industry. Rather, it requires significant changes to our education system.
As to national strategies: Various people have struggled for decades to come up with a national literacy startegy, the most recent effort being the National Strategy on Early Literacy ([url=http://docs.cllrnet.ca/NSEL/finalReport.pdf]their report is available here[/url]). Success has been elusive. Do you think that a national digital strategy has a better chance?
For what it’s worth, the U.S. issued a national Broadband Plan a few years ago. Do you think that has helped them progress?
Sometimes muddling through may be the best strategy.