After Jim Balsilie’s Phoenix Coyotes bid is for the final time rejected by the American judiciary, RIM remembers to give a specific date to the relase of the new Blackberry Mac Desktop Manager. Turns out it’s tomorrow! The new software will be available as a free download on the Blackberry site to eagerly awaiting Mac users, excited to futher synch their cult-like Mac lives.  I am not a member of this cult, but my wife is. Now there can be synergy between their Mac contact lists, schedules, tasks, and reminders and their Blackberry- I’m surprised society has held it together for this long without this kind of synchronicity. Maybe we can blame the recession on this? The software will also allow users to schedule back-ups, encrypt files, and install new software updates for their ever usefull BlackBerry devices.

In other related RIM news, the software and ICT giant recenlty announced a partnership with Queen’s University. The company will be working with the school to tackle the growing challenges in dealing with massive amounts of customer data. According to the Globe and Mail “…RIM and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada have invested $5-million to create a new industrial research chair in software engineering at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.”  The research will tackle problems of efficiency and optimization in “huge” systems. Citing companies like Facebook and Amazon whose databases include hundreds of millions of entries, the research will be looking for problems in ecommerce transactions, or looking at other processes where deviations, anomolies and irregularities occur; within massive quantities of information these can sometimes be hard to spot and it can also be hard to see trends when they are burried within these large amounts of data. Like looking from above for untied shoolaces at a stadium or hockey rink full of people. You like that analogy? I didn’t want to use needle in a haystack, like chairholder, computer science professor and former RIM employee Ahmed Hassan who spearheaded this partnership. I wanted to really creatively explore my simile options. Maybe I’ve got Vancouver Canucks on the brain. Season opener! Go ‘Nucks! I wonder who Mr. Balsilie will be cheering for this season? Better luck next time Jim. You might not have a hockey team, but you’ve got a great company.

Canadian kids, for whatever reason, are just not that interested in ICT jobs. Which is unfortunate, because we REALLY need IT or ICT professionals to help us grease the wheels of the modern information age economy. This is according to an article in The Star, citing research from a national survey conducted for the Canadian Coalition for Tomorrow’s ICT Skills (CCICT). And parents are to blame supposedly. Computer related programs in Canadian colleges and universities have declined by almost half since 2001- which I can’t believe. But I will for dramatic effect, and I encourage you to as well. The research seems to point to parental advice that puts the damper on dreams of being a tech support guy. Can you imagine dad hanging over his 16 year son and saying “Aim high son, why would you want to fix computers all day when you could be a business man and make real money?” and then 4 years later said son graduates from business school along with the other thousands of students that now have to compete for slim pickings while companies are forced to outsource and offshore all their IT because not enough kids learned how a computer works. Business school Johnny is now serving tables while he could be making 80 large a year waiting for someone to call his extension because they forgot to plug in a coaxial cable. Anyhow…

Business leaders like Jim Balsilie of RIM and others have voiced that they believe we need a new Canadian technology renaissance; A “Renewal” of Canadian leadership and innovation in the technology sector. I pray it happens, because we will eventually run out of trees, salmon, water and tar sand. And then what? Better have a plan B Canada. B for Brand new IT graduates.

Canada may be one of the wealthier countries on the planet, we are a member of the G8 and we are attached at the hip to the largest economy in the world, but that world is changing. New jobs are created as technology and innovation propel an economy forward. In Canada’s case, we’ve been slow in joining the new economy; the one that involves creating those technologies, materials, systems, and jobs, necessary to meet the needs of people and firms in the 21^st century. This is according to an article in the Epoch times. The article quotes Gregory Smith, the president of Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association. Smith voices concern in the article regarding the decline in investment in the Canadian technology sector, as much as 35% in 2008, and emphasizes the importance of an integrated approach to making Canada a competitive and innovative technology producer. As Mathew Little, of the Epoch Times summarizes:

“Those elements include investment, infrastructure, relationships with universities and centers of excellence, entrepreneurs, and large innovation-based companies that provide a snowball effect that grows the entire ecosystem.”

You know…like in other countries.

This comes at the same time that a panel of experts from universities, government, and private businesses, raise concern that Canada is at risk of losing researchers in nanotechnology because of a lack of support from the Government. There’s plenty of support from federal and provincial governments to keep our unsustainable fisheries and tar sand production going though.

We can’t survive on selling raw resources forever here people (er…government). Depending on raw, unprocessed, value un-added resources makes our economy basically a wealthier version of a less developed country. Yes we have Bombardier, yes we have RIM, and yes we have Vancouver’s Thirdi, thank goodness there’s that, but Venture capital has been shouldering the burden of innovation and technology in this country for too long without some help. Subsidies to old and inefficient industries keep us stuck in the old economics, and the old economy. Initiatives and incentives for innovative technology, green tech, and other modern companies will propel us into the new economy. Support for R&D from the Canadian government (like in the US) and incentives (TAX BREAK PLEASE) for venture capital to focus once again on Canadian innovation and technology will create jobs, will create solutions, and will put Canada on competitive footing when the global economy really gets going again. Or we can continue to cut trees down and dig things out of the ground, while the rest of the world makes history around us.