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Category: Innovation

La Nausée des Supergrappes

So, yesterday, the Government of Canada ended two years of tediousness by announcing the winners of the supercluster process. To briefly recap.  At some point in 2015 or early 2016, the Liberals became enamoured with the idea of technology superclusters, mainly because they got to spend money on hip-sounding industries in a spatially-restricted manner, which meant they could claim points on both the economic growth and regional development scorecards.  To this end, they invited groups of businesses (large, medium & small

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February 16, 2018 1 Comment

Less Nonsense about Technological Change, Please

University leaders have to put up with a lot of crap from politicians and business people.  There’s a lot of genuflecting to whatever the fads and feelings of the day are, just so they can appear “relevant” and “in tune”.  Superclusters? Oh yeah, superclusters are a great idea, Minister, really terrific, why has no one thought of them before?  When you are after public money, saying soothing things about the delusions of the powerful is just part of the game.

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February 9, 2018 2 Comments

Some Quick Naylor-related Federal Budget Advice

I see from this CTV story that Federal Budget Trial Balloon Leaking Season has begun.  This is the time of year when Liberals decide they would like to get applause for a decision more than once, and so they pre-announce various bits of the budget so they can have good news spread over more than just budget day (the Tories, whatever you think about the news management policies generally, tended to be much more fastidious about budget secrecy).  And the first leak

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February 8, 2018 1 Comment

Artificial Intelligence

I am getting pretty sick of AI hype.  It’s not that I think AI is without value or a mirage or anything, but I think people are getting weirdly reluctant to challenge even the most obviously nonsensical claims about the industry.  But, since apparently others don’t seem to want to play skeptic on this, I guess I’m “it”.  So here goes: My critique of current AI-mania is basically three-fold. The Term Artificial Intelligence is Being Stretched Beyond Meaningful Use This

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December 12, 2017 3 Comments

A Book Unaware of its Own Argument

One minor Canadian publishing event of note this fall was the release of Anthony Lacavera’s How We Can Win (or possibly, Kate Fillion’s How We Can Win, since it’s fairly clear she’s the one who actually wrote it).  Lacavera is a minor celebrity in Canada for having been a serial CEO, most notably of WIND Canada, which briefly challenged the Bell/Telus/Rogers telecom oligopoly.  Since the book is about innovation policy, it sort of falls into the ambit of this blog, so here we are.

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December 8, 2017 No Comments

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