Winnipeg has once again made it on the Intelligent Community Forum’s (ICF) list of the top seven intelligent communities in the world. The University of Winnipeg’s Cisco Innovation Centre for Collaborative Technologies is part of the reason why, as cited in the submission to ICF.
Rapidly evolving technologies generate new possibilities for collaboration and exchange in our globally connected world. New communication philosophies are needed to keep pace with the technology and ensure that the human and social needs of society are well served in the process. Exploring those philosophies within real world applications is one of the roles of the Cisco Innovation Centre for Collaborative Technologies (CIC) at the University of Winnipeg.
Herbert Enns
“Innovation in the sciences, the arts, and industry is dependent upon communities of collaborative, creative and transdisciplinary thinkers,” says Dr. Herb Enns, Director of the CIC.
Dr. Enns leads a team of researchers who are plugging into an international alliance of creative thinkers. Today, the Winnipeg centre is the most productive node in a network of nine innovation centres across Canada that are investigating different application uses for Cisco’s networking technology. It hosts about 300 teleconferences each year.
The Communication Enabling Technologies for the North virtual workshop is one example of the many notable activities that have occurred within the telepresence lab. This was a collaboration between Cisco Canada and the Conference Board of Canada’s Centre for the North. About 25 people participated through teleconferencing sites in Alaska, the Yukon, northern Manitoba, Ottawa, Toronto, and the Arctic Council Secretariat in Tromsø, Norway.
The greatest benefit of the system is gained through the knowledge sharing among university faculty and students as they tap into the international collaboration system. It adds a rich layer of personal connectivity to distance education courses and supports more effective collaboration with research sites around the world. And, there are significant time, money and energy savingsfrom reduced travel.
The 2016 Top 7 Intelligent Communities are:
- Hsinchu County, Taiwan
- Montreal, Quebec
- Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany
- New Taipei City, Taiwan
- Surrey, British Columbia
- Whanganui, New Zealand
- Winnipeg, Manitoba
