Notables - November 21, 2018

By Craig Bamford

Blackberry/CIGI Founder talks about economic

welfare in the digital age

Welcome to Notables for November 21, 2018!  First up this week: Jim Balsille on economic welfare.

Jim Balsille, founder of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, provided a keynote address for the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Sixth IMF Statistical Forum on "Measuring Economic Welfare in the Digital Age". The Stats Forum examined a wide range of issues and indicators when it comes to economic welfare in 2018: the ongoing delinking of welfare and GDP thanks to digitalization and the need for substitute metrics; the value of "unpriced software and data" like open source software and free services; and the need to move beyond standard measurement frameworks.

Balsille's talk, recorded on Facebook, brought in the Canadian perspective, and focused on the role of innovation and intellectual property (IP).  He brought up the security issues being grappled with by innovators in the Internet of Things (IoT); the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a "strategic technology" leading to "AI Nationalism"; and the combination of big data, AI, and machine learning creating both a "technological sixth sense" and the rise of machine-generated IP that replaces many "white collar" IP-generating jobs.  The question of "who owns Machine Generated IP?" will rise as well, as wealth inequality explodes between (As Balsille describes it) "those who own ideas (intangible goods) and those who don't". These disruptions may require rebuilding the entire social welfare system of countries like Canada, as programs like employment insurance and pensions shift from being "job-centred" to "person-centred".

Balsille follows this with a call for "a new Bretton Woods", which fundamentally re-examines IP and wealth generation. It must address cyber-era national security, examine the distribution of intangible assets, enable fair access to the digital economy and protect rights like privacy and data security. That may come into conflict with current free-trade agreements - but Balsille believes this is so vital that it may be worth expanding "national interest" exemptions in existing agreements to take it into account.

FedDev Ontario renews support for

TechAlliance BURST program

Next: FedDev reinforces their investment in Southwestern Ontario.

The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) announced on November 15th that they would be adding additional funding to renew Southwestern Ontario's successful BURST program. The announcement of the additional $440,000 in support, made by London North Centre MP Peter Fragiskatos, happened at an entrepreneurial showcase by the TechAlliance of Southwestern Ontario.BURST was created by TechAlliance as an incubation program to support "early-stage, high-potential medical technology companies" in Southwestern Ontario. BURST has already supported 30 companies over three cohorts, which have attracted over $5 million in investments; the new money is intended to continue the program by enabling the support of a new cohort of ten companies.

Fragiskatos said that the investment will "help more entrepreneurs develop their business skills and launch promising start-up companies"; while TechAlliance President and CEO Marilyn Sinclair said that "The first three cohorts of the BURST program have been a tremendous success through the tireless efforts of our entrepreneurs, who have brought their ideas through development to market, delivering on BURST's promise of changing life science entrepreneurship in London".

Women Enterpreneurship Strategy

applications close tomorrow 

Finally this week: last chance for the women entrepreneurship strategy!

Intake of applications for the Women's Entrepreneurship Strategy is closing tomorrow. The program, described by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada as "a centrepiece of Budget 2018", is built around the new WES Ecosystem Fund: an investment of up to $85 million over five years that will provide not-for-profits with resources to support women entrepreneurs. Appropriate organizations can include entrepreneur support organizations, innovation hubs, accelerators, Indigenous organizations, post-secondary institutions, and any other organizations that support social enterprises or cooperatives.

Women in innovation, especially female entrepreneurs, are an ongoing issue in the tech and innovation spaces. Last month's R$ editorial by Kelly Nolan, "How Technical Conferences Are Contributing to the Talent Inclusion Crisis", examined a variety of the issues that women face in the space, and the negative consequences for innovation that organizations will face in their absence. The Government of Canada created this program to help in resolving that issue, saying that "when women succeed, everyone succeeds".

To get your organization's application in, look at the requirements here.

Notables is a weekly collection of interesting science, technology, investment and innovation reports, press releases and other news bytes from around the web. Notables are curated and written by Craig Bamford.

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The views and opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of RE$EARCH MONEY.