Strong and smart are good, but flexible is better, conference told

A1

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

In the century between 1870 and 1970, about 112 million people on Earth moved out of abject poverty.

That's a laudable accomplishment, and a sign of how much changed in the extraordinary recent past.

But it pales next to the 10 years between 1990 and 2000, when one billion people made the same leap from abject poverty.

What accounts for the remarkable change in the world's fortunes in that one decade?

Broadband, says Robert Bell.

Bell, the co-founder and executive director of the Intelligent Community Forum, used that one remarkable pair of numbers from the United Nations to illustrate for a Moncton audience just what economic impact the spread of the World Wide Web and other communications technology has had on our world and the lives of the people in it.

Bell was speaking on the opening day of the City of Moncton's Intelligent Communities Conference, which wraps up today at the Delta Beauséjour, and with a tech savvy, educated audience well versed in the knowledge economy, it was clear he hadn't flown in from New York just to sing the praises of the Internet.

He noted how, for instance, the rise of broadband has presented unprecedented challenges to the newspaper industry, how 95 per cent of music being produced is being downloaded for free and how the U.S. Postal Service will deliver 43 billion less pieces of mail in 2010 than it did just in 2006.

Just as easily as the broadband economy can leave industries behind if they don't adapt quickly, it can leave whole communities behind.

That was a theme picked up by Richard Bendis, the president and CEO of Innovation America.

Bendis quoted what Charles Darwin really said about survival of the fittest: "it's not the strongest of species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change."

While globalization and broadband communication have removed many of the old concerns about a business's proximity to markets, giving a place like Metro Moncton a chance to compete here far from North America's population hubs, that same fact means "the people of Mumbai, Shenzen and Jakarta now live next door to the people of New York City, Athens and Moncton," as well.

While even small businesses now have global market opportunities, they now also have a whole world of competitors, he noted. They also face a product cycle in IT especially that has shifted from years to months.

"It's changed the rules, but it doesn't mean we can't learn those new rules," Bendis said.

The need to adapt readily was also echoed by a local voice. "If intelligent communities around the world share one thing, it's that we're dedicated to constantly re-inventing ourselves," Moncton Technology Group head Doug Robertson said.

Fortunately, Moncton has proven itself capable of re-tooling and re-inventing throughout its history, and the very fact the municipality and a keen business community have sponsored this week's conference about leveraging technology, highlighting success, and sharing best practices is that the city doesn't plan to rest on its laurels of being named one of the world's Top 7 smart cities by the international Intelligent Community Forum.

"People say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but I think Moncton has proven that a small intelligent city is a marvelous thing," Mayor George LeBlanc said.

The trick now is to keep the intelligent city moving ever forward.