In my posts about CAP sites and Canada's now sad position globally on the web - I mentioned Doug Hull - whom I see as being the best public servant in the country. I forgot to mention, that of course he was pushed out. Here is the record of his time at Industry Canada:
From 1992 to 2001 Mr. Hull, working as Director General of the Information Highways Branch of Industry Canada, successfully envisioned, designed and executed major elements of the Government of Canada’s Connectedness Strategy, which aimed to place Canada at the forefront of Internet access and usage.
On completion of his work Canada had indeed moved from 7 th to 1 st place in terms of Internet penetration levels. (Canada is now #12)
Have a look at what he did - this is truly visionary - it was organic too - for instance the Digital Collections Program enabled teen agers to get paid experience - silverorange on PEI was born out of this program as the then boys worked for Veterans Affairs. Doug knew how to get at the points of leverage. As you look over his work you can see that he did not take a blockbuster approach but was a Gardener - he created an ecosystem that supported itself and interacted with itself.
In significant part this was due to innovative Internet programs including SchoolNet, LibraryNet, Computers for Schools, NetCorps, VolNet, the Community Access Program, the National Graduate Register, Digital Collections, Web4All, Campus Connections and the Smart Communities Initiative.
These programs have won scores of awards in Canada and internationally and have been adopted in various countries. He has also played a formative role in guiding Canadian policies regarding e-commerce, multimedia content development and information technology skills training, particularly for youth. His efforts have helped all Canadians and their communities get connected through 20,000 schools and libraries, 9,000 public access points and 10,000 voluntary organizations.
Inclusion in Canada and building voter and government support for further major public investments in information technology as a national and local development enabler. These programs included:
␣ SchoolNet, a multifaceted partnership that moved all 16,000 schools on line with three years, including over 900 rural and remote learning sites through the largest public deployment of KU- Band satellite services. Canada was the first country to achieve universal school connectivity.
␣ GrassRoots Learning, this leading edge pedagogical and teacher-training model has involved more than 20M students in over 40,000 easy and inexpensive on-line collaborative learning projects. As noted by an independent evaluation: “This is the stuff of national innovation.”
␣ LibraryNet, which championed connectivity for all 3,500 public libraries, helped reposition these institutions to play a critical knowledge-brokerage role in their communities.
␣ VolNet, a extensive collaborative effort of civil society organizations which brought computer technology and Internet access to over 20,000 volunteer and charitable organizations in 3 years.
␣ Community Access, which established 9,500 telecenters throughout rural and urban Canada, exposed more than 10M people to ICT and created powerful new skills and business capacities throughout the country at the local level. This program “precluded a Digital Divide in Canada”.
␣ Computers for Schools, a program involving hundreds of business, volunteer and government organizations aimed a creating a critical mass of computers in schools, libraries and telecenters. Over 500,000 computers have been recycled under this program.
␣ Digital Collections, a program that won the prestigious Stockholm award in its inaugural year, forged the way in capturing and sharing Canada’s cultural heritage on-line by hiring young people as “digitization interns” in hundreds of national and local museums and libraries.
␣ Smart Communities, a program which selected 15 communities to stimulate and demonstrate Canadian innovations in harnessing connectivity for local economic and social innovation.
␣ NetCorps Canada, which engaged tens of thousands of young Canadians to work in their communities to create Internet awareness and skills in communities, small business and civil society organizations. Many NetCorps graduates went on to start successful Internet enterprises.
␣ NetCorps International, which has trained and placed over 500 technically advanced youth in overseas developmental assignments aimed a fostering ICT and Internet skills and innovation. ␣ SkillNet, a highly effective portal and matching software linking thousands of employers and
graduates on an on-going basis. This government-owned operation was profitably privatized, ␣ Campus Connections, another key application underlying the creation of Canada’s Virtual
University and Virtual College initiatives, and ␣ Web4All, an application facilitating Internet access by those with hearing, sight and motor
impairments, this application is now deployed in telecenters in several countries.
The sum effect of this suite of Connecting Canadians programs, which together have won hundreds of national and international awards and been adopted by various countries, was to move Canada into the position of “most connected nation” by 2001 according to various international assessments. As recently noted by a national newspaper “connecting the country might be most visionary development” of the federal government over the last decade.
