Prime Time is gradually uploading the presentations of last week.
Brent Bernie’s opening address
Mobile Entertainment – Understanding The Value Chain
Foreign Ownership Policy? Hmmm.. It looks like the Globalive decision was not going to be just a one time affair.
Copyright Reform: There have been two statements by DFAIT regarding trade agreements. 1) Canada will not accede to ACTA unless it’s in the best interest of Canada, according to Van Loan 2) Trade talks not the place for ‘fundamental business regulation’: former trade official
However, with the prorogation continuing on until March, we can’t expect a copyright bill to be introduced. Maybe that is the plan: releasing everything at once.
Cyber-security: Canada leads the way as the privacy commissioner does another inquiry into Facebook. We did the first one, and facebook changed its policy. But we didn’t like it. But…. wasn’t there also a bill to allow internet surveillance?
Digital media/New Media: there was going to be a study on new media, but prorogation cut that short too. I don’t remember any consultations or interviews happening for this “wide-ranging study.” I suppose that there will be enough flak and food for though over the year as many filmmakers and television producers lose their jobs because of the recent changes to the CTF.
Broadband access: From what we saw at the traffic shaping hearings, the big ISPs (read BDUS and wireless companies) are more willing to use illegitimate filesharing as an excuse for why they aren’t innovating. Sure Shaw, Rogers, and Vidéotron have upgraded their networks to 100 Mb/s, but that’s really quite slow compared to the rest of the world. Last year it was torrents that took up traffic, this year it will be illegal streaming sites, and next year it will be blogs. All the while, Rogers, Bell and Vidéotron will build up their own portals and force traffic into them. Other countries have invested in national broadband strategies, but really these countries are not as huge as Canada and require the same kinds of capital infrastructure. Perhaps a national wifi initiative?
Electronic Medial Records: We should work on this, or at least have some project managers that don’t exploit the funds for their own nepotistic uses.
Of course Canada will invest in a bunch of generic terms: r&d, ICTs, NGNs, etc. However, there is no initiative for open government information access, digitizing our archives or heritage, digital employment skills training opportunities, or facilities construction. What can we expect, the Cons are an Industry Canada party, not a Heritage Canada one. They want to lift us out of a recession by empowering us through more investment capital so that we can participate on a global stage. I thought that you needed to create labour, as well as capital to increase your production. I suppose that as long as Canada becomes a branch plant of foreign investment that we’ll have plenty of jobs, but all the revenues out of the country.
