Connecting and Protecting People and Technology Across Disciplinary, Social, and Sectoral Digital Divides

Preface

Digital divides exist in Canada between research disciplines, economic sectors, social groups, rural and urban environments, academia and industry, and digital users and industry. In our commentary on Digital Games, Mobile Media Infrastructure and Wireless Communications, and IT and Cyber Security we discuss perceived gaps in the consultation paper followed by a brief discussion on related key issues and recommendations. The message throughout our submission is the importance of investing in the kinds of collaborative research, knowledge dissemination, technology transfer, policy development and public engagement activities touched upon in our three topic areas. It is imperative that the Government of Canada invests in these areas if we are to mobilize our creative ingenuity, cultural richness, spirit of entrepreneurship, and technological know–how in ways that will optimize social well–being and economic prosperity hand–in–hand.

Summary

The creation of a national digital strategy that will guide the development and sustainability of a strong digital economy to be the "backbone of Canada's future prosperity and success" is a vast and multi–faceted undertaking. In this submission, we have chosen to focus on the themes of connecting and protecting that cut across the five discussion themes which frame the consultation paper, Improving National Digital Strategy: Strategies for Sustainable Prosperity. In our theme of connecting, we look at the potential of digital games to galvanize multidisciplinary, cross–sectoral, and user–creator collaborations to generate sophisticated digital games and creative content that reach out to the widest variety of audiences possible. The benefits to be gained include health, education, community, social, and entertainment. The notion that technical knowledge alone is not sufficient to lead social well–being and economic prosperity underlies this discussion. This perspective is echoed in our next discussion on mobile media infrastructures and wireless communications. In this section we posit that Canada's digital economy, strategy and prosperity will be served best by an approach that sees Canadians not only as consumers, but also as citizens and workers as well as members of communities, families and cultural organizations. This view necessitates an integrated strategy that incorporates an understanding of Canada's infrastructure, mobile media economics, regulatory environment, public discourses on mobile media, and key issues concerning mobile media practices in regard to people and place. IT and cyber security is another critical dimension that must be addressed by any national digital strategy. Under the theme of protecting, we recommend that Canada invests in R&D that allows industry and academia to work together to identify and mitigate threats that could have enormous impacts on both businesses and individuals throughout society.

Submission

1. Digital Games¹

THE GAP: In 1959 C.P. Snow gave his famous lecture, "The Two Cultures" which lamented the breakdown in communication and collaboration between the intellectual cultures of the natural sciences and the humanities. Snow articulated the well–worn thesis that scientific and technical knowledge on its own could not lead to social and economic prosperity and well–being.

The "two cultures" gap has closed in some ways and deepened in others over the years but nowhere is the problem of the gap more acute than for Canada's digital social and economic strategy. While investment and support for science and engineering research in new digital technologies and applications is essential, it will be the nations that can leverage this research across broad sectors of the public that will take the lead.

Following C.P. Snow, the key strategic question for the nation must be on how we can facilitate citizens to become active creators rather than passive users of digital technologies and digital media? The solution for bridging the gap in a Canadian context is double edged — Canada must promote and expand access to digital media across all socio–economic brackets while at the same time fostering "creative literacy" in which citizen–users customize, adapt, appropriate and develop technologies and applications specific to their needs and interests.

One core economic and cultural sector in which this can be developed is digital games research, design and development. Digital games as cutting–edge new media objects already cross the various social and economic strata of Canadian society and the games industry increasingly understands that future innovation is literally in the hands of players. In addition, games as digital objects collapse the "two cultures" gap in requiring both technical competence and humanistic creativity in their commercial as well as social realization.

KEY ISSUES: The impact and cultural importance of games have moved beyond the digital game industry's capacity to meet demand. Industry leaders are increasingly calling on experts to help identify and explore the technical, aesthetic, economic and social–political potential of the medium. In addition, numerous sectors of society from the military to business and education have recognized the importance of game media and 'serious games' as tools for learning and training. There is a pressing need not only to develop new knowledge and tools for innovation in game design but also to evaluate and assess the impact of game media in terms of the needs, desires and experiences of users. The key receptors of a holistic digital games strategy will be the games and multimedia industry, educational and health systems, and university researchers and students/trainees. Other citizens will benefit from achieving high level digital literacy and exposure to new social and cultural opportunities. As game development becomes costlier and more complex, industry will search for increasingly sophisticated design content, story lines and digital narrative development.

According to a 2009 Entertainment Software Association of Canada study, more than 14,000 people are directly employed by more than 247 video–game companies making Canada the 3^rd largest centre for video game development in the world after the United States and Japan. In Quebec, communications and information technology and digital arts are highlighted as pillars in Quebec's innovation system in the recently launched Stratégie québécoise de la recherche et de l'innovation 2010–2013. As Quebec's new media innovation hub, Montreal is ideally positioned to leverage its thriving game industry, creative economy, and vibrant cultural and bilingual infrastructure.

In addition to the many game development studios, and game related middleware and service industries in Montreal and Quebec, universities and colleges have been critical in supplying industry with skilled labour and technical innovation. Universities in Montreal have also partnered with game developers in the Ubisoft Campus program which echoes the educational programs for game technology, programming and design at the Great Northern Way campus in BC; Algoma University in Northern Ontario; and, most recently, the partnership between McMaster University and Silicon Knights.

Unlike these more dedicated vocational programs, Concordia is using the advantages of its unique infrastructure and far more broadly based research and training programs in digital media to develop an approach to digital game studies and innovation that focuses on technical design and programming skills as well as aesthetics and expression and the social conditions and cultural contexts of gameplay. If digital games are to find their place as a pillar of cultural production and expression in Canada then programs and policies must look beyond the immediate labour and technical needs of mainstream industry players. As with the development of other media forms before it, digital game media will mature and become even more socially and culturally relevant as the knowledge base and expertise of game designers broaden.

In the last five years, numerous universities in the United States, Europe and Asia have established technical undergraduate training programs in game design and programming. Yet few institutions have adopted the kind of wide–ranging, interdisciplinary approach to games research and design that is required not only to sustain industry innovation and long–term viability, but also to address the variety of social, political and economic concerns endemic to the proliferation of digital gaming as a dominant cultural form. Canada is ideally positioned to cement its status as a world–leader in liberal arts and technology–oriented digital games research and design. Canada has already made progress in this direction through Industry Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence funding for a network in Graphics, Animation and New Media (GRAND) in which fine arts, humanities and social science research on games figure alongside engineering research.

Canada needs to continue to galvanize transdisciplinary studies that link artistic, technical, and analytical expertise across academe in partnership with industry. This holistic approach to new media and games will drive innovation in the Canadian games industry by producing a more sophisticated discourse around the role of games in society. It will also create new and distinctive training opportunities for digital games designers who will foster innovative game designs, spark exciting new commercialization opportunities, and stimulate critical reflection on games and society. A coordinated strategy for the creation of new content and game play for broad audiences such as youth and adults on the one hand, and marginalized groups, including aboriginal communities and the elderly on the other hand, can yield significant economic, social and cultural benefits.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1: Mobilize user–generated content to unleash innovation

Part of Canada's overall digital strategy should include attention to the question of digital literacy at all levels of education across all sectors of the population. Digital literacy — and creative digital literacy — includes more than a simple awareness of digital tools and their appropriate use. Digital literacy should entail the development of knowledge about digital infrastructure and architecture so that citizens are not content to be application users, but also application developers and content creators. Canada's success in the digital economy depends on mobilizing user–generated content, applications and new technologies from the broadest possible segment of the population including by encouraging and nurturing students as tinkerers, modders (modifiers), creators and critics of technology.

2: Widen the benefits to include health, education, culture and social networking

Canada is extremely well positioned to harness its research, cultural and industry strengths in French and English and to realize the enormous potential of digital games for health, education, culture and social networking. New games and interfaces can and should be developed for therapeutic environments. 'Serious games' hold great potential to simultaneously act as education and learning tools for use across multiple domains while fostering high levels of digital literacy. Digital culture research on game content and game cultures can deepen our understanding of such pressing social questions as social ethics, addiction, violence and appropriate technology. Policy–relevant research can shed light on such issues as social transformation and community mobilization through social–networking games and virtual communities. The Government of Canada should promote and support all these directions.

3: Connect small studios and independent designers to major infrastructure

Small to mid–level studios and independent designers would benefit from greater access to Canada's R&D infrastructure, including university labs and testing venues. Canada needs to provide creators of digital content with opportunities to network and produce co–licensed applications and tools.

4: Connect multidisciplinary university expertise to mainstream players

There is a misperception that universities should be producing fully–fledged high end games (e.g. for educational purposes) or training software programmers for industry. Given the size of the dominant players in industry and the cost of making such products, Canada's strategic plan needs to recognize when researchers should work within the mainstream industry rather than trying to duplicate it. The Government of Canada needs to recognize that universities can best contribute to the games industry by fostering the type of research that plugs into specific niches in the industrial games process. This includes breaking down disciplinary silos to train highly qualified personnel with knowledge across a spectrum of disciplines; offering innovative types of consulting; supporting smaller companies and connecting them to mainstream players; targeting technical improvements; co–developing content and narrative; and, prototyping lighter types of games (e.g. new content for nextgeneration gestural and 3D games and interfaces for broad audiences). Strategic planning should likewise encourage the understanding within industry that there are huge benefits to be derived from training highly qualified personnel with a broad research formation and multiple skills.

5: Understand and communicate the social utility of games

In the public, and public policy, realms it remains a challenge to communicate the social utility of games as educational or therapeutic tools. Art, design and digital culture researchers are equipped to open up new avenues of critical communication around games and to stimulate knowledge transfer through publicly accessible presentations of research results. The Government of Canada should support research that clarifies why commercial games have been so successful but often controversial.

2. Mobile Media Infrastructures and Wireless Communications²

THE GAP: Canada's digital strategy needs to foster and be informed by critical interdisciplinary assessments of the current state and potential future developments of mobile wireless communication in Canada. While infrastructure commonly refers to the physical resources that are part of the built environment (sewage systems, electricity, roads), infrastructure is also a central element in information–based cultures and social organizations. Information networks, their design, range, and management constitute a "key infrastructure for citizen economic, social, and civic participation". Canada's digital economy, strategy and prosperity will be best served by an approach to mobile media infrastructures and wireless communications that sees Canadians as consumers as well as members of communities, families, cultural organizations, citizens, and workers.

KEY ISSUES: As the Internet nears the end of its second decade, one of the most important aspects of its evolution has been the transformation of the digital way of life from a state of being "wired" to that of being "wireless" and "mobile". Canada is unique in its development of telecommunications infrastructure. While Canadians are eager adopters of broadband services, including those that are 'bundled' together to include mobile devices, internationally Canada ranks close to the bottom — 22 out of 30 nations studied — when costs and services are measured. What do these patterns reveal about the potential social divides that may be cemented by these underlying disparities in costs and services, nationally?

A multi–disciplinary Canadian focus and strategy is critical now given the academic and public interest in the subject of mobile media, nationally and internationally. Researchers working primarily in the UK, US and the Nordic countries have argued that a new research paradigm emphasizing mobility has taken place. A leading Australian researcher has asked the question of what it means for "mobiles" to go "media," as a host of media industries (film, television, radio, news, gaming) are migrating to mobile devices. Industry projections on the uptake of these devices worldwide predict economic growth in this sector. Industry anticipates that more than 52 million wireless devices will be sold in 2010, generating nearly $17 billion (US) in revenue. Deloitte's Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions report released January 19, 2010 claims that while Canadians want to access data "anywhere, anytime and on any screen" in affordable ways, "Canada's infrastructure can't keep up with consumer demand". As the number of mobile devices entering the market increases, Canadian researchers have been concerned with the ability of wireless broadband services to accommodate these burgeoning data flows, to function in times of disaster and emergency, and to provide adequate service to rural or remote communities in ways that may breech existing inequities rather than bolster them. Reflecting this widespread public relevance, research on mobile media and wireless communications is a burgeoning area within both the academy and industry.

Variations on the term 'mobile media' are rapidly entering the lexicon of academia, popular culture, the news, government and industry in English and French Canada. This interest is sparked by the growing visibility of a multitude of mobile wireless devices on the market, including G3 and G4 smart–phones, Wi–Fi enabled MP3 players, ultra–light netbooks, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), radio frequency identification devices (RFID) and Bluetooth–enabled gadgets. Heralding yet another new technological "revolution" on the horizon, these discourses promise mobility to potential users: the dream of anywhere, anytime personal communication and instant access to information. They have spawned new communication practices, from SMS text–messaging, to tweeting, to flash–mobbing, to mobile banking. Linked by satellites, towers, routers and software that enable one device to "talk" to another, this assemblage or veritable mobile media infrastructure is being integrated into our workplaces, leisure activities, educational agendas, cultural experiences and commercial ventures.

Decisions taken now on spectrum policy, bandwidth, electronic surveillance, and public and private access will affect future developments for the Canadian public, as well as creative content developers. While survey data (already available through industry, Statistics Canada and our own tracking studies) provide a useful overview of trends, there is also the need for close, critical examination of this data and more qualitative inquiries into the experience of this "revolution" for members of the public. Attention needs to be paid to children who are often figured as the 'next generation'; seniors who are considered too 'old for 'new' media; rural and northern communities who do not constitute a large 'target market'; First Nations communities whose concerns are often completely bypassed; as well as ethnic, religious and racial constituencies who are often the targets of electronic surveillance. National strategy must ask what Canadians want; not just as consumers, but as members of communities, families, cultural organizations, citizens, and workers.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Broaden government's understanding of mobile media discourses

National strategy needs to be informed by the meaning and impact of public discourse and rhetorical claims made in popular culture concerning key terms such as mobile media, mobility, wireless, infrastructures, and migratory media. Historical, theoretical and popular discourses that inform academic and public understandings of mobile media need to be better understood by decision–makers and users of mobile media at large.

2. Increase knowledge of mobile media economics

Canada's digital strategy needs to be informed about the economic issues, industries and commercial stakeholders engaged in the ownership and control of the mobile media industries. How mobile media may be affecting work–life balance and what is termed the new social economies tied to mobile wireless technologies is another important social phenomenon that needs to be considered in formulating national strategy.

3. Factor in the impact of mobile media ownership and regulatory issues

Legal and public policy analysis of the regulatory issues that arise in the wake of mobile and wireless communication (e.g., spectrum allocation, public service provision, privacy, and surveillance) need to be factored into Canada's digital strategy. Key questions include who are making the decisions, how these decisions are made, and who is left out of discussion and debate. Other questions that need to be addressed include how the mobile media infrastructure is being regulated and governed; what new legal challenges their presence present; and, how our current adoption of these practices and systems build upon previous telecommunications infrastructures and policies?

4. Situate mobile media practices in the context of people and place

Canada's national strategy needs to be founded on a sophisticated understanding of key issues around mobile media practices in regard to people and place. How are different social groups and social actors adopting and implementing mobile wireless media devices in distinct locales? How are these devices being incorporated into family, leisure, education and cultural institutions? How are divergent constituencies, and their practices, using mobile media technologies and how are citizens, communities and users are being re–configured as mobile 'subjects'? What individuals, groups or organizations are using these devices in Canada? How is the incorporation of these new devices, systems, services and practices changing our patterns of work, personal interaction, and cultural experience?

5. Connect and engage our publics to bridge divides

How might we mobilize the potential of mobile media creatively to instigate new media genres and forms that will engage a variety of publics (knowledge mobilization)? How might these tools be used to bridge digital, economic or social divides, rather than augment them? What is the potential for creative productions and innovative prototypes that could deploy the specificities of mobile devices for the purposes of discussion, debate and knowledge mobilization? Scholars and creators should be supported by Canada's digital strategy to learn more through empirical exploratory use of these devices to allow us to decipher their promise and limitations.

3. IT and Cyber Security³

THE GAP: The consultation paper's approach to online security and cybercrime fight focuses on such topics as increased cyber security awareness and practices as well as legislation that ensure such things as secure online transactions in the online marketplace, privacy protection, and the protection of intellectual property for creators of digital media content. It addition to these essential points of concern, however, is the pressing need to identify and mitigate emerging threats to online security systems and the capacity to conduct criminal investigations into cybercrime. Canada's national digital strategy must complement and reinforce its legislative and awareness–based perspective with a sound technologically–based approach that will protect Canadian consumers and businesses. This will, in turn, build confidence in the reliability and security of digital and online computer and network systems and will also allow for the secure operation of the infrastructure underlying our digital economy.

Key Issues: The secure operation of computer systems and networks is a major concern in today's digitally driven economy. This is emphasized by the fact that security breaches into these systems keep appearing at an alarming rate in spite of numerous updates and patches that are constantly being issued. The impact of these security breaches is extremely damaging when the underlying systems are part of the critical infrastructure realm. Recent events demonstrate that such computer systems and networks could be subjected, at the speed of light and in full anonymity, to debilitating and disrupting attacks that might lead to severe security and economic issues, and even to the endangerment and loss of life.

At the national level, Industry Canada has identified Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to be one of the most important sectors in Canada. Security solutions are needed to respond to many different types of challenges — challenges that Canada's nearly 700 ICT security companies overcome daily. With applications ranging from cyber security to wireless asset management, Canadian security technologies are being developed. These are used to: (1) protect people, sensitive data and assets; (2) ensure the efficiency and success of business operations; and, (3) guarantee adherence to privacy legislation.

At the international level, there is a high demand for secure and privacy–preserving information systems for both the public and private sectors. The number of reported incidents of successful and unsuccessful security attacks has been increasing rapidly in the past five years. The situation is more severe when attacks are coordinated which has led to the coining of the terms of "cyber warfare" and "cyber terrorism". Hospitals, banks, power plants, and communication services are examples of heavy dependency on computer systems and networks. It is crucial that such systems be immune to malicious attacks.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Invest in the training of highly qualified personnel in the university sector

Two critical actions need to be taken to bolster Canada's ability mitigate threats to online systems. One, the training of highly qualified personnel is critically needed to operate and administer the security of Canada's cyber infrastructure deployed at governmental and corporate organizations. It is of paramount importance that students be trained in these areas. And two, in order to do so, the Government of Canada must also seriously invest in the university sector so that universities can be equipped with the necessary and best resources possible to train highly qualified personnel to enter the workforce well prepared to deal with incident handling and cyber forensics.

2. Promote more secure engineering of software systems

A strategy to promote the secure engineering of software systems involves the use of appropriate standards, processes, methodologies and techniques that inject security at the early stages of the design lifecycle of software and systems. This would be improved by the use of technologies for assurance and certification especially when software/systems are meant to be part of a safety/security critical application or infrastructure.

3. Promote more secure architectures, designs and deployment of computer networks

The promotion of more secure architecture, design and deployment of computer networks can be enhanced amongst major cyber service providers by the provision of explicit plans for high availability of the services in question. Plans for the prevention, detection and mitigation of intrusions/attacks as well as their attribution can be extremely important in the case of forensic investigations.

4. Promote the use of more modern processes, techniques and methodologies in digital investigations by law–enforcement agencies

The promotion of the use of modern processes, techniques and methodologies in digital investigations by law–enforcement agencies is another critical step in protecting Canadians. As discussed above, this requires the training of professional personnel in state–of–the–art training facilities to be able to cope with new and emerging threats.

5. Improve vulnerability and risk assessment capability

With regard to critical infrastructure, Canada's strategy should promote the enhancement of the ability of key stakeholders to formulate well–articulated sensitivity (vulnerability and risk assessments) analyses.

6. Preserve the privacy of Canadian citizens through improved designs and mechanisms

The Government of Canada should promote the design and implementation of mechanisms to preserve the privacy of Canadian citizens when it comes to information–sharing between governmental and corporate organizations.

Appendix

CONCORDIA KNOWLEDGE ADVANTAGE

Digital Games — Concordia is a research leader in the design, technical innovation and cultural analysis of information and learning technology, new media and digital arts across disciplines. Concordia's reputation in new media arts and design is most prominently represented by Hexagram (Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts and Technologies). A considerable number of researchers at Concordia are devoted to new media, digital culture, learning and technology. Concordia has graduate and undergraduate programs in a variety of areas: BFA in Intermedia/Cyber Arts and Computation Arts; Graduate Diploma in Digital Technologies in Design Art Practice; MA in Educational Studies, Film Studies, and Media Studies; PhD in Communications Studies, Educational Studies, and Interdisciplinary Humanities; and, MEng plus PhD in Computer Science.

Mobile Media Infrastructures and Wireless Communications — Communication studies, cultural production and analysis, and gender and sexuality studies are areas of research and creativity at Concordia well known for cross–faculty collaboration and social impact. Analysis, creation, production, and social engagement activities characterize the diverse range of knowledge generation, co–generation, and transfer in this area. The undergraduate and graduate programs of Concordia's Department of Communication Studies explore a diverse range of approaches to media analysis, user testing and design of mobile technologies, critique and media creation. Central to its programs of study is an integration of knowledge based in the humanities, liberal arts, social sciences and fine arts.

IT and Cyber Security — The Computer Security Laboratory (CSL) at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE) is at the forefront of research in IT and cyber security. Concordia researchers aim to elaborate, design and implement techniques to protect computer and network systems from attacks that may affect information secrecy, integrity, authentication, and availability. The CSL collaborates extensively with leading industrial partners and is frequently consulted by government organizations. Concordia University is in a unique position within Canada as it contributes to the training of hundreds of IT security and cyber forensics experts. Concordia is, notably, the host institution for the National Cyber Forensics Training Alliance Canada (NCFTA Canada) in which governmental, industry and academic institutions work together on R&D projects in the area of cyber security and cyber forensics.

¹ See Appendix for Concordia's knowledge advantage in the area of digital games.

² See Appendix for Concordia's knowledge advantage in the area of mobile media infrastructures and wireless communications.

³ See Appendix for Concordia's knowledge advantage in the area of IT and cyber security.