Plans for The 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit are progressing well.

We have had a positive response from our sponsors and the agenda is starting to fill up nicely. All of our regular speakers from the Regulatory Blockbuster have already confirmed that they will be back.

In addition, CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein is confirmed to return and we plan to conduct an interview format again this year. The conference website is being kept current as speakers and sponsors are confirming their places in the program.

The major carriers and suppliers to the industry are lining up again to help make The Canadian Telecom Summit the preeminent gathering of Canada’s communications leadership.

We have already started to receive registrations; save by registering early. Be sure to get onto our mailing list. The 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit is a little more than 6 months away. Hold the dates: May 31 – June 2, 2011 in Toronto.

I want to return to the letter to the editor by the Michael Ignatieff. Yesterday, I said in passing that there were a number of issues arising from the Opposition Leader’s approach.

Here is the full text of the letter:

This summer, while I crisscrossed the country on the Liberal Express, rural Canadians told me the struggles they face without access to high-speed Internet (Disconnected: Canada’s Digital Divide – Nov. 16). We often experienced this first hand when our bus left city limits. Today the Internet is a critical tool to connect citizens to banking, tourism, education and health services. Without it, communities cannot develop their economies and create jobs and opportunity for their citizens. Canadians without adequate Internet service will become second-class citizens.

Last May, I outlined my party’s commitment to dedicate $500-million from the next spectrum auction to achieve the goal of 100 per cent high-speed Internet connectivity within three years, and expand mobile phone coverage for rural Canada.

All Canadians should have equal opportunity to succeed, no matter where they live. We must take leadership now to make access to high-speed Internet universal for all Canadians.

The linkage between the next spectrum auction and rural broadband is important. The way the licenses are divided will determine whether rural service providers will be able to compete for spectrum to deliver next generation broadband.

You can’t experience rural broadband challenges first hand when travelling on a bus, without first acknowleding that mobile broadband is indeed a way to provide service to rural Canadians. Along with other wireless technologies, mobile service is part of the solution for rural and remote areas. But as those on board the Liberal Express discovered, some of the companies that have spectrum aren’t deploying services for universal coverage.

The way spectrum has been getting auctioned, rural areas are bundled in with the urban centres. So, the carriers who buy more spectrum to serve the densely populated big cities end up controlling the less dense areas as well – in a sense, they get the rural licenses for free. How can we ensure that rural spectrum isn’t being hoarded without being deployed to the benefit of rural residents? 

Let’s also be sure that we are setting expectations appropriately. I hope this isn’t news for you – not every Canadian will have access to fibre optic gigabit speeds, despite such speeds being available in the urban areas. This is a reality. We need to stop viewing differences in internet delivery as creating different classes of Canadians.

In any case, the challenge of connecting a rural health clinic is very different from connecting all Canadians who live in sparsely populated remote and rural areas. What is affordable ultra-high connectivity for that health clinic is very different from what a consumer might be willing to pay. Rural Canadians don’t need gigabit speeds to benefit from e-Health; Costco won’t be selling MRI machines to have people transmit their diagnostic images from home so let’s get real. Most of the applications mentioned by the Opposition Leader aren’t bandwidth intensive and some, such as banking, don’t even need broadband.

The letter speaks of economic opportunities that arise from internet connectivity, but ignores the biggest problem facing Canadian connections: the large number of Canadians who don’t subscribe to services at their doorstep.

When will we see policy proposals that focus on broadband adoption, rather than broadband plumbing?

There were a couple of digital technology related letters to the editor in yesterday’s Globe.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff’s comment on finding holes in mobile broadband coverage will probably attract the greatest attention. It is a letter that mixes up mobile and fixed coverage, highways and buildings. Most importantly, the Oppostition Leader’s letter fails to address the majority of Canadians who are off the ‘net: those who have high speed service at their front door but haven’t subscribed. 

But, I would prefer to look at a letter by Joanne Mackay-Bennett written in response to a Margaret Wente article (Like It Or Not The Book Is Dead).

E-readers win hands down for being “on task,” but what about the long, slow gazing at illustrations while being read to as a child? Or the quizzical lingering upon first seeing the brightly coloured letters of a new word? The remembering of a friend each time I see her inscription on the inside cover of her favourite book, of a grandmother who gave a book that had opened her own young mind, or a father whose insightful letters were tenderly bound into a book for his son.

Just because an electronic reader can accommodate thousands of titles does not necessarily mean that it is always the best form factor. There will certainly be slobber proof and droppable e-readers developed in kid friendly primary colours. But, a paper book will have special meaning for an older cousin reading bed-time stories from a book with their personal stick-drawing annotations.

As the letter writer concluded, E-readers may have gigabytes, but real books have memory.

On Monday, I wrote about Tim Wu’s OpEd from the Wall Street Journal that concluded with a paragraph:

The Internet is still relatively young, and we remain in the golden age of these monopolists. We can also take comfort from the fact that most of the Internet’s giants profess an awareness of their awesome powers and some sense of attendant duty to the public. Perhaps if we’re vigilant, we can prolong the benign phase of their rule. But let’s not pretend that we live in anything but an age of monopolies.

Do the giants demonstrably act from an “attendant duty to the public”?

A paper entitled Responsibility of and Trust in ISPs was published in “Knowledge Technology & Policy” by Raphael Cohen-Almagor, Chair in Politics at University of Hull (UK).

This discussion is about the neglected concepts of trust and social responsibility on the Internet. I will discuss and explain the concepts and their implications to people and society. I then address the issue of moral and social responsibilities of ISPs and web-hosting companies. I argue that ISPs and web-hosting companies should aspire to take responsibility for content and that they should respect and abide by their own terms of conduct.

Let’s tie Dr. Cohen-Almagor’s paper to the conclusion put forward in the Wall Street Journal piece. To me, ISPs and web-hosting companies aspiring to take responsibility for content would be a demonstration by ISPs and internet giants acting from an attendant duty to the public.

The journal already has two responses to Dr. Cohen-Almagor’s paper. It is a provocative piece that should stimulate a public discussion of these issues.

I have a personal interest in the return to service for Carnival’s ship, the Splendor. We are planning to sail over the winter holidays.

So, it was not merely a voyeuristic interest that I took when searching for stories last week about the state of the ship and how the cruiseline was taking care of its customers.

I think there are lessons to be found in Carnival’s response and outreach, helpful for all companies involved in the delivery of services to consumers.

From the beginning, Carnival has kept their current and future passengers informed and they have been proactive in making generous offers to compensate those who have had their vacation plans altered. Part of the communications strategy has been to talk through the blog maintained by Carnival’s Senior Cruise Director, John Heald.

It is important to note that he has been blogging for more than 3 and a half years – cautioning readers that

The views and opinions expressed here represent my own (and some of the commentators that I have included) and not those of Carnival Corporation.

His writing style is entertaining, a little off-colour and most importantly, with 7 million hits, he has built a readership from Carnival’s core client base. It happens that he was the cruise director on board the Splendor for last week’s sailing.

As such, the blog has provided a platform for Carnival to get its version of the story out. Regular updates were being provided and now that the ship is safely in port and the passengers have returned home, he has taken time to record his thoughts.

I have been most captivated by the series of posts irreverantly titled “Smoke on the Water”, explaining what happened from the perspective of the guy charged with getting information to the people on board the stricken ship. I encourage you to start from Part 1 and work your way through the whole series.

The credibility of the posts was earned by the investment of more than 43 months of writing tales of good times and building a readership.

John Heald’s Blog provides a case study for communications professionals.

I am moderating a session tomorrow looking at Social Networking and its impact within financial institutions. The panel is taking place at the “Banking on Israel IT” event in Toronto. Registration is free, but please register in advance with Sharon.