Why Atlantic Canada Governments Got It Right With Broadband

Atlantic Canada. We nestle up to the edge of one of the most turbulent and unforgiving oceans in the world - the atlantic. Compared to central Canada our total population of 2.6 Million is less than the city of Toronto. Yet we are a proud people, facing not just climatic challenges, but business challenges to export, encourage immigration and find skilled workers. In late 2007 and 2008, (New Brunswick started in 2005), the provincial governments realized that rural communities, suffering from outward migration and loss of youth, faced the challenge of competing globally in the information age as even harder than urban areas.

So we saw New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland Labrador take measures to deliver broadband (high-speed) Internet access to rural areas. Their programs to do so are more aggressive and better planned than our close friends in the Northeastern U.S. It may also become one of the most important infrastructure undertakings these governments have made.

Today, all urban areas of developed nations have ample broadband access for citizens and businesses. The result has been more active engagement of businesses, academia and the general public. Access to information is vital in a knowledge economy.

In the past, Atlantic Canada was a rich and vibrant economy. This was due to shipbuilding in the days of wooden hulls, vast and rich fish stocks and some minerals for mining. Their position close to New York, Boston and Maine with a good stopover on the way to Europe and Britain gave them the added bonus.

Today we no longer use wooden hulls, the forests aren't as good as they once were and the fish are all but gone. The world is more connected and the North American economy is moving from a manufacturing base to a knowledge economy.

By bringing broadband to rural communities, governments are giving them access to the rest of the connected world. With the advent of Web 2.0 and the ability to better converse and build relationships for exporting, these communities now have a fighting chance. Coupled with marketing initiatives like the Pomegranate Phone (despite controversy locally) help showcase that we've grasped what it will take to engage the world.

Given the tenacity and survival traits of Atlantic Canadians and some of the innovations taking place here, I suspect we'll see some interesting tales of success from rural areas in the years to come...and more inward migration to these areas.

Civil Unrest, Social Media and the Recession: A Heady Cocktail?

I don't doubt we're in a recession at this point. How much of one I don't really think anyone knows in Canada and the USA or Western EU. Economists are entirely contradictory. Scotiabank says we'll start growing by mid-2009 while TD Bank analysts say we'll contract well into next year. The Feds say it'll be short and painful while others say it will be shallow but long.

What we are seeing however, is an impact in marginally and recently developed nations, those on the edges of the EU and Mexico on the border of the USA. Iceland is an oddity in that it has always enjoyed a somewhat upper middle class idyllic existence...but yesterday the population held protests and egged the Prime Ministers car. Relatively new EU members have seen sudden drops in earnings and jobs. Mexico, fortunately, has seen a halt in rising inflation, which may temporarily hold major protests at bay.

A few years ago, the Ukraine Orange Revolution was largely and quickly organized using a Social Media tool - SMS/txt messaging. A year or so later the same started happening in Belarus. This time though, the government reacted swiftly and shut down the mobile networks and nipped it in the bud.

In more democratic nations, such actions by a government would be harder to implement. The broader availability of broadband access and connected homes would still enable civilian organizing of protests.

We're sharing more now as a society. While this is good, it can also have it's risks - such as organizing protests that turn violent. If we do go deeper into a financial tail-spin, though I doubt that, we may see protests in North America we haven't seen for decades.

If we do see protests, I suspect Social Media tools will play a key part in organizing them. They will be a mixture of SMS/txt, mobile apps connecting to microblogs such as Twitter and general blogs. Groups will organize and evolve in a very fluid fashion, and dissolve just as quickly.

Although we're still some way off from such a reality, it will be a fascinating study in the use of Social Media in terms of group dynamics and how change results from such actions. What do you think?

Social Media Predictions for 2009. Oh Dear.

Ok so there's been tons of Social Media predictions, and many of them very good and most likely right. So as my agency hangs around in this space, I figured I might as well jump into the fray. Here for Peter Kim and here from Max are some good predictions and discussions.

I stepped back and decided to look at "people" from a "social" perspective and did some digging through some of the research we did for clients over the past year in the U.S., EU and Canada.

So I wanted to look at 2009 from a behavioural/societal perspective, rather than a business model, technology platform or marketing communications point of view;

More Hiding: As consumers/people become more aware of marketers and companies paying attention to what is being said, people will start to put less personal information online. More and more comments will become "anonymous" and we'll begin to see the rise of the Avatar. So people will create more and more, their "online persona."

More Activism: As people begin to understand the ability to "organize" into groups they will begin to rally more and more to "causes" sometimes for a day or a few hours and sometimes over the longer term. Online petitions will come into their own.

Governments Will Engage: Local, State/Provincial and national governments will begin to communicate in Social Media channels. There will be some wonderful flops and some amazing feats of engaging with citizens in a whole new way. But they will start to delve a little deeper in 2009.

More Local: As mobile apps take off with Smart Phones and WiFi availability, mobile Social Media apps will result in a more local feel of the Web. SMS and GPS will marry with mobile apps and the primary victims will be restaurants with poor service who will lose business faster than ever before. Word about local businesses will spread fast, creating a whole new set of issues for the small business operator.

Boomers Will Bloom: Baby boomers and current retirees will begin to be more engaged with the Web and Social Media tools and they will have two priorities; 1) Check the daily obits in towns they lived in before and 2) Share photo's and videos with the kids and grandkids. They will become active and Boomers are likely to find their activist 60's era spirits kindled again and may just hold Virtual Protest Rallies...not sure how, but someone will figure that out. Maybe using SMS services with their in-car GPS devices...

So in summary, people will figure out more how they want to use the tools for social and civil benefit, to enact societal change. Marketers and PR pro's will be running to catch up and we'll be trying to figure out, still, at the end of 2009 how to monetize those changes...OK, I jest a little...what's your social predictions?

The Rise of the Writing Class

A fellow Twitterer (new verb?) recently commented that "anyone can now write content and contribute" so true and something many have discussed. I recall the Web 1.0 era circa 1996 so many Internet Era's ago and the pundits crying "Content is King" and the adage rings ever truer these days.

Every day vast quantities of new content are published to the Web; blog posts, Microblog postings, images, videos, films, documentaries, books...anything that can be translated digitally can be put somewhere on the Web using various types of instruments (thanks to Shannon Paul for her blog on "instruments" not "tools".)

So in the Web economy we can safely say the adage "Content is King" rings true. Which got me to thinking that if "Content is King" then a truly good writer must be Emperor. A good documentary or film can live or die by the writing. A blog can die with bad writing. As can a proposal or a website.

Yes, anyone can write anything and put it on the Web. But the blogs, news sites, microbloggers and such that write well are the ones that truly get the eyeballs and the chance at monetizing their words. Some pundits have argued that the English language (and many other languages) are dying due to abbreviations in email, microblogs and txt messaging etc.

I argue quite the contrary. If you're a wordsmith, you can shape ideas and opinions, spark discussion and debate. If you can't convey ideas well and concisely, you lose the ability to gain an audience, unless of course, your audience is small and just some friends, then that's fine.

Regardless, what you write is who you are. Writing therefore, is an art still and perhaps ever more so. Good blog writers like Chris Brogan, Beth Harte, Connie Reece, Shannon Paul and even topical writers like Benjamin Boudreau who writes about his Dachsunds gain followings because they write well. If they wrote poorly and without purpose and passion, they would have few followers (which in some cases is fine.)

If you want to be regarded as knowledgeable and gain attention in the "Attention Economy" then the best writers who wield words deftly and craftily will be the emperors.

Is this the rise of the writing class? Is being a good writer essential to online success?