More of my musings from 2009! Definition of Oxymoron: “a Knowledge Worker in Cape Breton!!!” Seriously though, in the early days of Silicon Island when it operated as an Incubation Centre for I.T. Firms I had the privilege of working with and around a group of new age alchemists who were attempting to turn “Information Technology” into “Gold”. It was an ambitious endeavor with a great deal of support from government agencies and the community at large driven by a vested interest in shifting Cape Breton’s economy from the traditional Fishing and Coal and developing a center for “Hope & Change”. This was politically important at the time as the TAGS program launched to assist displaced fisheries workers and the Federal Government got out of the businesses of steel and coal. Ironically, this all coincided with the bursting of the global “I.T. Bubble”. To put this into prospective, approximately $5 Trillion of market value in Information Technology firms disappeared between 2000 and 2002 and government agencies that invested in Cape Breton’s I.T. companies watched those funds evaporate as the market realigned. The unfortunate truth is how this has shaped government policy and support for the I.T. Entrepreneur in Cape Breton. The fact that market volatility and the lack of hard recoverable assets is a real obstacle for financing I.T. firms in the region leaving a void for those seeking early-stage investment. This signifies a real problem for economic development in Cape Breton considering that companies such as MySpace, Facebook and Google are dominant forces in the global economy. They have created business models that are proving both equitable and sustainable while more recently Amazon.com and many others have set in motion the age of “Cloud Computing”. The “Cloud” is driving global investment in Data Centers as all the mainstream software companies are positioning their products towards the Software as a Service model (SaaS). Cape Breton is again slipping in its ability to monetize these changes simply the result of the regions broadband infrastructure. With two primary carriers and bandwidth rates that are higher than what can be found in North America’s large metropolitan areas, Cape Breton is not in a position to compete for these opportunities as a result of cost and disaster recovery issues. This is compounded by a lack of commitment by support agencies that are focused on manufacturing as a means for economic development at a time when manufacturing is shifting to Asia and South America. This again signifies the need to reevaluate public policy and create an I.T. friendly environment designed to spur innovation if we are to curb the persistent outward migration trend. To highlight this further, the CFIB recently announced that Nova Scotia sits towards the bottom of Canadian provinces in terms of tax burden. Small businesses are faced with having to carry even more as the newly elected NDP struggles with the provinces fiscal state and has designs on increasing taxes. But on the bright side, In the aftermath of the “Bubble” it is important to note that some of those early stage companies still exist today in various forms. Albeit was a difficult time for Cape Breton’s I.T. industry, not all was lost and those that could adapt, did so. It is also important to recognize that a number of new startups have come to life as a result of seed funding from organizations such as InnovaCorp and the NRC. Combine these approaches with a number Entrepreneurs who have the tenacity to push forward and I suspect the results would be phenomenal. I guess not all has been lost and success can be achieved if we create the proper environment.