Canada 3.0 - chock-full of Culture and Collaboration

Great event full of lots of great ideas and thinking. And best of all, my two favourite words, Culture and Collaboration, kept coming up throughout both days.

As a student of culture I enjoy discussing the impact of digital media tools on society. I believe they will make quite their mark on history, and as social media explodes we are smack dab in the centre of the information revolution. For Canada 3.0 this became quite clear in Dr. Michael Wesch, Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Kansas State University presentation as he shared powerful stories about how humans search for identity and recognition. His brief history of the word "Whatever" was particularly fun and enlightening. It also connected with the debate that raged in Day 2 in the Education Stream discussion - Harnessing Social Media for Collaborative Learning - where my two favourite words collided.

Collaboration may be our strongest advantage going forward as we work to expand the abilities of Digital Media and Canada's presence and role within the evolution. With the free and safe sharing of ideas we can all get smarter together. Creating safe venues where sharing can begin, like Canada 3.0 and fostering continued collaboration and support in incubators like Communitech Digital Media Hub are critical going forward. This region has collaboration built into our culture. We all have a role in building and protecting that spirit. Let "Hunt for new ideas and foster collaboration" be our rallying cry!

Hubbub is growing - Communitech Digital Media Hub to expand

The doors were just opened last fall but there is already a need to expand the space! The Hub currently occupies 30,000 square feet here at the Tannery and will expand to occupy another 12,000 square feet on the first floor of the Tannery by early 2012.

The expansion will accommodate more Peer2Peer program space, expanded strategic partner space, and more room for established companies.

Hubbub has an interesting mix of tenants:

- 28 start-up companies – and growing

- 5 leading tech multi-nationals

- 14 innovation partners, including legal, advertising and accounting firms

- 3 post-secondary institutions: Conestoga College, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo

- provincial and federal government partners

I love this space because to me it represents what is at the heart of the uniqueness of this community – collaboration. In a recent conversation with Communitech EOR Lillian Bass, she shared a story about how Toronto startups are coming to the region because of this unique spirit. As a community we are developing a reputation not only as a technology centre but a centre for collaboration and support of growth and development. We work together to help all be better and stronger and smarter. To me that is really exciting.