Internet technologies

One interesting difference between Canada and the US (and there is a similar thing to be said about Australia compared with the US) is the way that the size of the country, the great distances, low density populations etc have given rise to a higher buy-in nationally for internet technologies --- especially with regard to government spending on infrastructure. As a result, these countries are far ahead of the US in some respects: especially in how they get used on a day-to-day basis.

I gave a presentation this evening on some technologies I worked with last year while I was in Nova Scotia: most of them were built on using the internet to build remote collaborations, conduct seminars and colloquia etc.
Or rather, I gave the presentation four times: once for a video taping, for posterity (*waves* "hello! posterity!") (which was awful, since I didn't have an audience) and then three more times for audiences of about twenty or thirty a time: it was fascinating the way that, although I had the same material prepared each time, the different interests of the audiences shaped the direction to the extent that in 90 minutes I gave three completely different presentations. A great deal of fun, and I think that most of the people in the audience got a lot out of it.



Still, I'd almost always rather give a presentation in person than over the net...

Yours, not keeping my distance,
N.