Digital 'declaration' on its way to Ottawa

by Brian Shypula, reprinted by permission from the Stratford Beacon Herald

Business, government and academic leaders created a four-point plan for the future of digital media in Canada during two days of brainstorming in Stratford.

The so-called "Stratford Declaration" says:

• every Canadian should be connected
• all Canadian content should be online
• the ownership model of content should be fair and transparent and respect copyright
• common activities in society should be just as easy in digital as they are in analog.

"What I saw here today was the first national project we've had in this country in a generation," Ken Coates, dean of the faculty of arts at University of Waterloo, said Tuesday (photo above by Stephen J. Edgar). "The idea of being a digital nation is our national project."

He was speaking at the wrap-up of the two-day Canada 3.0 Forum, which brought together more than 1,000 leaders from the high-tech sector, academia and government with the goal of defining Canada's digital media future.

Digital media — which includes content such as video, audio and text in addition to the means of moving it on and off the Internet with computers and handheld devices — is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, worth a projected US$2.2 trillion over the next five years. England, France, New Zealand and Australia are countries with digital media strategies already in place.

While Canada lags behind in both policy and content, the conference created a feverish buzz and high expectations. "What you're experiencing is blindingly fast for policy development — here we are on June 9 with the opportunity on June 22 to have a real impact," said Tom Jenkins, executive chair and chief strategy officer of Open Text Corp., one of the hosts of the conference together with UW's Stratford Institute and the Canadian Digital Media Network.

He and fellow conference participants, Helen McDonald of Industry Canada and Bernard Courtois, president and chief executive officer of the Information Technology Association of Canada, will take the Stratford Declaration to Ottawa on June 22, when Industry Minister Tony Clement will host the Digital Economy Forum. Mr. Clement spoke at Canada 3.0 on Monday, pledging Canada will be the world leader in the digital economy.

Mr. Coates said organizers thought it would take one to two years to get to where the conference got to two days, with talk of being the best in the world and not being embarrassed by it.

"There is a hunger from every sector to get together and better understand what this opportunity is called digital media," said Kevin Tuer, managing director of the Canadian Digital Media Network.

At the conference, delegates broke into groups to talk about issues in digital media including infrastructure needs, mobility, attracting and retaining talent, research and commercialization and enterprise information management. Mr. Jenkins said a "firehose" of information came out of the workshops.

At the wrap-up session, panelists Ian Wilson, strategy advisor to the Stratford Institute, Mike Lazaridis, co-chief executive officer of Research In Motion, Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the Canadian Radio and Television Commission, and Mr. Courtois commented on the Stratford Declaration.

"We've hit this at the right time," said Mr. Wilson, former national archivist and librarian. But like others over the two days, he pointed to the lack of Canadian content on the Web as a problem. Less then one per cent everything Canada has produced in text, television and film is available online, he said. "We're moving into a competitive position in a knowledge society and we only have one per cent of our resources. It's like landing in Normandy on D-Day and leaving 99 per cent of your army behind," he said.

Mr. Lazaridis said Canadian high-tech companies are at the core of digital media and driving wealth creation, but are under-appreciated. "I hope I'm not being politically incorrect, but we really take our high-tech industries for granted in this country," he said.

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Convocation for math today, then engineering

Four more sessions — today at 10:00 and 2:30 for mathematics, and Saturday at the same times for engineering — will wind up UW’s Ninety-Eighth Convocation, which has already seen thousands of students graduate from the other four faculties, and honours including the installation of Prem Watsa as UW's chancellor.

In the photo at left (Chris Hughes, UW Graphics), UW provost Amit Chakma keeps an eye on things as registrar Ken Lavigne helps Watsa into his robe of office.

"It is a wonderful honour Waterloo is bestowing on me,” Watsa said in a statement before Wednesday’s installation, noting that he knows his father would be proud of him today. "He was an educator, a school principal in India who valued learning and made sure his children all got an education," said Watsa, one of Canada's leading business figures. He praised Waterloo for its history of boldness, unconventionality and penchant for seizing opportunity. "This university was founded by businessmen, built by initiative and taking the unconventional path, a strategy that has resulted in a world-class institution," said Watsa, who heads the successful investment firm of Fairfax Holdings.

Here are some of the anticipated highlights of the remaining convocation ceremonies, all to be held in the Physical Activities Complex.

Friday morning: A total of 521 students will graduate. Vincent Chan, receiving a degree in applied math and pure math, will give the valedictory address.

Murray Martin, CEO of Pitney Bowes Inc., will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree and give the address. Martin's desire to apply the best research in information security has led to a close partnership between Pitney Bowes and Waterloo researchers and the establishment of the NSERC/Pitney Bowes Industrial Chair in Cryptography, which resulted in the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research.

Arkadi Nemirovski will receive an honorary Doctor of Mathematics degree. A leading researcher in optimization for more than 30 years, Nemirovski is the author of Interior Point Methods for Convex Optimization, a fundamental work in the field. In 1991, he received the most prestigious prize in optimization, the Dantzig Prize.

Two major medals will be presented to top BMath graduates. Paul Skoufranis (pure math) receives the alumni gold medal, and Xiaoheng Wang (who graduated in actuarial science and pure math at last October’s convocation) receives the Governor General’s Silver Medal.

Friday afternoon: Morgan Grainger, who is receiving a BMath in computer science and peace and conflict studies, will give the valedictory address on behalf of the 219 students who will graduate.

Andrew Chi-Chih Yao will receive an honorary Doctor of Mathematics degree and address convocation. One of the world's most prominent computer scientists, Yao was the first to identify and study what now is known as the field of communication complexity. In 2000, Yao was awarded the Association for Computer Machining Turing Award, considered the Nobel Prize for computer science.

The title of University Professor will be formally awarded to Ming Li of the school of computer science, and the Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision to Robin Cohen, also of CS.

The J. W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation, given in memory of UW’s pioneer computer scientist, will be presented to this year’s winner, Craig Eisler, a UW graduate who is corporate vice-president for entertainment client software at Microsoft Corp.

Saturday morning: A total of 558 students will receive engineering degrees, and Erica Waugh, graduating in civil engineering, will speak on their behalf as valedictorian.

Martha Salcudean will receive an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree and address convocation. Salcudean is a professor emerita of mechanical engineering at the University of British Columbia and the Weyerhaeuser Industrial Research Chair Emerita in Computational Fluid Dynamics. She has published widely in the area of heat transfer and fluid flow, especially in computational fluid mechanics and the modelling of transport phenomena in industrial processes.

Gerhard Kennepohl will also receive an honorary DEng. Scientist, engineer and musician, Kennepohl is one of Canada's leading authorities in road and pavement technology. Formerly with Gulf Canada and the Ontario government, he is a founder and ongoing member of Waterloo's Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology.

Donald Grierson, a retired professor of civil engineering, will receive a Distinguished Professor Emeritus title. Gordon Stubley, professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, will receive the Distinguished Teacher Award that was announced earlier this year.

Saturday afternoon: Joseph Huang (electrical and computer engineering) will give the valedictory address as a total of 369 students graduate.

Mike Lazaridis, CEO of Research In Motion Ltd., will address convocation after being installed as Chancellor Emeritus. He served as UW’s chancellor from 2003 until April 30 of this year.

James Tien will receive an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree. Tien is dean of the college of engineering at the University of Miami and has written more than 150 refereed publications in systems evaluation, systems modelling, systems analysis, information systems and general systems. His seminal paper on systems evaluation in 1979 was the first to address the topic from an engineering perspective.

Manfred Conrad will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Conrad, a local entrepreneur, established the Cora Group, Waterloo Region's largest commercial real estate development company, in 1980, and was a leading figure in the development of buildings in the UW Research and Technology Park.

Other awards for Saturday’s convocation sessions haven’t been announced yet and will be revealed in the printed program for the day’s activities, which is expected to arrive from the UW Graphics print shop just in time.

A final note: Melissa Onn, marketing officer for the Federation of Students, reports that the Bombshelter pub in the Student Life Centre "will be opening Saturday at 9 p.m. for those who graduated this week to have one last night at the Bomber before leaving Waterloo." The pub isn't usually open Saturdays at this time of year.

CAR

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