IT association called a must for New Brunswick
New Brunswick is the only province in Canada without an established provincewide knowledge sector association.
The time has come to change this, says Trevor MacAusland, a solutions adviser for Skywire Software Moncton.
"A lot of the communities in New Brunswick are working independently right now," says MacAusland.
"There is strength in numbers, the province's knowledge sector needs to have overall co-ordinated goals."
All the other provinces in the country have non-profit knowledge sector associations, which are comprised of individuals and companies in the field who meet and work together to tackle issues facing the industry such as: promoting the sector, attracting skilled workers, training new workers and lobbying the government.
The knowledge industry is the second-largest industry in New Brunswick, with more than 700 firms employing more than 30,000 workers and generating revenues of over $2.1 billion annually, according to the government of New Brunswick website.
Each province, except N.B., has an association that is a part of the Information Technology Association of Canada.
ITAC, which represents more than 1,000 companies in the computing and telecommunications, hardware, software, services and electronic content sectors, is a non-profit organization that serves as the voice and advocate for the knowledge industry on the national level.
In the past two decades several community non-profit knowledge sector groups have been founded in New Brunswick, such as propelSJ, the Moncton Technology Planning Group and Geeks on Ice, which MacAusland co-founded.
While these groups, which are mostly found in Saint John, Fredericton or Moncton, have been successful in bringing individuals in a particular city together, the lack of a formal provincial association has meant it has been challenging for knowledge workers from various cities to connect and form common provincewide goals, says MacAusland.
"For example, when I'm trying to get the word out about Geeks on Ice, I find I'm really tapped into the Moncton scene," says MacAusland.
"And I'm starting to get more involved in Saint John. But it's pretty hard if you're not part of a local market to get to know people in the sector in other parts of the province."
If New Brunswick were to start its own provincial knowledge sector association, MacAusland says, municipal and provincial levels of government would most likely be involved to help with startup costs.
Once established, the association would be autonomous from the government and be self-sustaining through membership fees, says MacAusland.
Members would range from young people with their own IT startup companies to executives from established local companies, says MacAusland.
Eric Pelletier, manager of investment attraction and community relations for Enterprise Greater Moncton, says he has heard some talk among corporate and government people about the topic and he says he is in favour of anything that would get N.B.'s knowledge community working more regularly on collective goals.
Stephen Downes, research officer for the Internet logic group at National Research Council Canada in Moncton, has not heard much chatter about starting a provincial knowledge association, but he is also in favour of the idea.
"Things like that are in general a good idea," says Downes.
"Anytime people get together to share ideas and collaborate it's a good thing. The province as a whole is only the size of a medium-sized city, so it's important that we all work together."
Tim Workman, vice-president for strategic initiatives with Acron Capability Engineering in Fredericton, is also in favour of anything that brings N.B.'s knowledge sector together.
In 2007 MacAusland co-wrote a research paper and conducted a survey to see if local IT insiders would want an association.
That survey found that of 36 respondents, just over 95 per cent supported the creation of a provincial knowledge sector association.
While there clearly is some interest in starting an association, the idea has yet to get off the ground.
But MacAusland is hopeful that it will happen and will bring N.B.'s knowledge sector to the next level.
"There is this big myth that, after the tech-bubble burst, all the province's knowledge workers just disappeared," says MacAusland.
"We're still here and we could be much better at increasing our visibility and co-ordinating common goals if the sector worked together."
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Their industry association, ContactNB, advocates on the behalf of its members and promotes awareness of techlology improvements and best practices to its members. Annually it holds two major events, an Awards Gala honouring the achievements of its members, and 'Contact Atlantic', a conference that serves as an educational venue to bring in top class industry guest speakers that address a variety of topics related to the state of the industry worldwide.
That is not the truth for ICT. The ICT industry is made up of producers and sellers of information technology products and services. Period. We're all users of ICT.
The ICT industry is one of the highest paying, cleanest, and most creative sectors of our economy in this province and your help would be appreciated to make the distinction so we can encourage education and participation in this dynamic and booming industry so our province is not left out.