Recently there has been a lot of talk about broadcast reform in Canada.  Here’s another argument as to why we need legislation to be more consumer-friendly:

A Personal Video Recorder (PVR, also known as a DVR) can be rented from $20-25/month, depending on your provider (Rogers $24.95, BellTV $20).  In the US, they cost $6 (Comcast, DirectTV).  Why so different? In the US, the FCC has consumer-friendly regulations in place that bring the cost of the PVR down to what it’s actually worth. In Canada, TV providers use the lack of regulation to force customers to pay exorbitant PVR rental fees.

Firewire ports are currently disabled on Rogers and Shaw cable boxes. Rogers may currently have it enabled on some boxes in Ontario only, it was enabled on boxes in New Brunswick until March 2009. BellTV and Shaw Direct receivers don’t even have Firewire outputs. Firewire allows for a digital HD (or SD) signal to be sent to a 3rd party PVR. Firewire can also allow your cable box to be connected to a computer so you can burn copies of your favourite shows to DVD. This is actually legal in Canada and covered under fair use rights. In the US, providers are required by the FCC to provide Firewire outputs on their HD cable boxes.

Another dirty trick is to encrypt the digital signal on the cable lines. In the US, they are required to keep the local channels unencrypted. In many places, all basic cable channels are unencrypted. This removes the need to rent a cable box completely; you can just plug your TV into the cable outlet and receive HD channels (as long as your TV has a QAM tuner). Here, we don’t even get the HD preview channel without a cable box.

The cable companies are using their near-monopoly position to shut out any competition for their PVRs. Unfortunately, government regulation is there to protect Canadian companies from foreign competition, not actually help keep Canadian companies from ripping off their customers. The only alternative is an antenna, but only if you’re lucky enough to be in an area that is required to have digital over-the-air service. Maybe it’s time to dissolve the CRTC.

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Q:What’s worse than not having information posted on a website?
A:Having it up on the site, but not linking to it so it can’t be found.

Last week, I posted an article about how the City of Fredericton doesn’t post a lot of information on its website. Imagine my surprise when I Googled something completely unrelated and find this:

http://www.fredericton.ca/en/transportation/resources/2009_ConstructionMap.pdf

It’s exactly what’s needed, but it isn’t linked from anywhere on the main www.fredericton.ca site. The file properties show that it was created on Sept 9th, which was well before my blog post criticizing them for not having it.

It’s really sad that they have this information compiled and ready to go, but they are unwilling to release it. It’s time to tear down the wall between City Hall and the people. It’s 2009, there is no excuse for this.

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The Dillon Consulting Transit Report suggested a new garage for Fredericton Transit as the current one isn’t big enough and is no longer suitable. Last week, city council agreed to spend $5.2 million on a new one.

Some might think that $5.2 million is a lot, but compare it to Saint John who recently spent $23.5 million. Saint John’s will be twice the size so divide by 2 and compare to $11.75 million. That’s only 44% of the cost compared to what they built in Saint John. By building it in an industrial area, a lot of money can be saved by going cheap on the appearance.

I was disappointed with this line though: “It’s also proposing to redirect $423,000 from an anticipated bus purchase in 2010 to the construction of the transit garage.” That means the poor riders of Fredericton Transit will have to endure riding on a rickety old Mulroney era piece of junk that won’t be replaced for another year.

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There weren’t any changes from 2008/09 to 2009/10.

Sadly, they weren’t even able to designate one route as being accessible.

Since I have nothing to compare to from last year, I’ll compare to 1999. The good people at archive.org provide us with an old copy of the city’s web site:

http://web.archive.org/web/19991105011430/www.city.fredericton.nb.ca/bus/bussked.html

On average, most routes had this for service:

• 1/2 hour service during the morning rush
• 2 hour service during the day
• 1/2 hour service during the evening rush
• big 2 hour gap
• 1 or 2 night runs

Today, we have:

• 1/2 hour service during the morning rush
• 1 hour service during the day
• 1/2 hour service during the evening rush
• big 2 hour gap
• 1 or 2 night runs

They also added Route 9 and improved Saturday service on some routes.

We’re much better off than we were 10 years ago. It might not look like it above, but that 1 hour service during the day does help a lot of riders. Hopefully we’ll be much better off in 10 years.

Also, look at the paint scheme from 1999, which is better than the 1980 paint scheme.

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Delays due to construction can be quite annoying. Seeing spray paint on the road in front of your house can be unnerving as you can only wonder what’s going to happen. If you live in Moncton, there is a complete list of projects that are due to be completed this construction season.  In Fredericton, you get nothing. You may get a press release a few days before a road is closed, but that’s about it. For some reason, they don’t have anybody who can add that information to the website. Even Saint John has a weekly report that summarizes the current projects.

I e-mailed my councilor and asked for a list of projects in the hope that I could post them here. On July 13th, I received an e-mail that said that they were compiling the list, but so far, I have not received it. As we’re already in mid-October, I don’t think I’ll be getting that list for this year.

As a citizen and homeowner, I’m disappointed in the lack of information coming out of City Hall. As an IT guy, I’m disappointed that the province’s “Smart City” is losing ground to Saint John and Moncton when it comes to posting basic information on a website.

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After seeing this article in Fredericton’s Daily Gleaner, I couldn’t help but give myself the old facepalm. Do people around here have short memories? Do we not remember what happened to all the other e-learning companies around here? We have a few that remain, but they are only shells of their former selves. The majority of these are out of province companies that go shopping around for which government agency will give them the most money. Once the contracts have dried up, they lay off their staff and go home.

What most people don’t know is that there are 2 different types of IT companies: Product developers and contractors.

Product developers are ones that make their own product and sell it. There are many of these companies around Fredericton, most of them homegrown. A short list: Caris, Radian6, Q1 Labs, Chalk, Indosoft, Measurand, Remsoft, Virtual Expert Clinics, IVS, EDP, T4G

Contractors are ones that do work for other companies or government agencies. A short list: CGI, XWave, Accreon, PQA, Fujitsu, Unisys, Skillsoft

Most of the product development companies started in Fredericton while most of the contractor companies have head offices elsewhere. I’m not trying to say that contractor companies aren’t worth investing in, but that product development companies are better.

Let’s look at 2 relatively recent failures:

1. FatKat, a contract based animation company – They were given a lot of money, but when the contracts ran out, all economic activity stopped and the government lost their investment. No, it’s not an IT company, but there is very little difference between it and the average IT consulting company.
2. Mathis Instruments, a product development company  – They had a great product but couldn’t sell it. They went under, but their product was bought by C-Vision who continues development and is actually able to sell it. Sure, the government lost money, but C-Therm (as it’s now called) still has an office in Fredericton that employs people.

All we’ve been hearing about is how great it is that Company X is coming in and creating 200 jobs after getting lured in by the government. They get a lot of buzz because they’re big numbers, those 200 jobs come fairly quickly and look good politically. Product development jobs come more slowly and therefore don’t look good for the politicians. As any politician knows, true progress doesn’t get you in the newspapers.

If someone seriously wants to attract the good kind of IT companies, a two-pronged approach must be taken. Rather than simply spending all the effort into luring companies away from other jurisdictions, effort also needs to be spent in establishing home-grown companies. A few hints on how to do that:

• Bring back Incutech, but this time, put some effort into it. Don’t just put it in some old run-down UNB building with cheap rent; put it downtown in a nice building. It needs to be more than just office space, there needs to be assistance with things like creating business plans, marketing and other non technical aspects of running a company.
• Venture capital is what brings products to market quickly. Provide assistance to companies who are looking for VC funding. Market NB as a place for investors to invest. Yes, ACOA exists, but it is more focused on spending money than building companies.
• Tap the potential of the universities. There are many great ideas that are stuck in a lab or a student’s head. Opportunities are being lost as these ideas aren’t able to be commercialized.

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