Category: Articles

Navigator is proud to be a gold sponsor of the 2019 Canada Winter Games being held next year in Red Deer, Alberta. Up to 3,600 youth athletes from across Canada will gather in Red Deer to compete in the 27th edition of the Canada Winter Games in 19 different sporting events, providing a platform for Canada’s next generation of international athletes to cut their teeth on one of our country’s biggest sporting stages and experience the thrill of competing at the highest national level.  

Jaime Watt, Navigator’s Executive Chairman explains, that as a national firm, “Navigator understands the importance of sport to Canadians, as well as the benefits that youth sport brings to communities across the country. Navigator has a history of supporting large-scale sporting events such as the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto. At Navigator, we understand the important role events like the Canada Games play in building strong and healthy communities – and we are thrilled to support the hard working and talented athletes across the country. 

Lessons learned from participating in sport at a young age are applicable throughout life. Teamwork, discipline, and leadership are valuable traits which help shape today’s young athletes into the leaders of tomorrow.” 

Jason Hatcher, Managing Principal of Navigator’s western Canada operations, is a former Canada Games athlete. Jason competed in the 1989 Saskatoon games as a swimmer and has taken lessons learned in the pool as a teenager and young adult and used them throughout his career. “Sport teaches life lessons like almost nothing else can. Those hours training develop qualities such as hard work, commitment and leadership which I still use today. These kids competing at the games are not just Canada’s next generation of athletes, but also Canada’s next generation of leaders and business people.” 

Navigator also understands the importance of corporate sponsorship in keeping grassroots events like the Canada Games alive. The benefits of these events stretch far beyond the personal stories of former athletes. The economic and cultural benefit that these events create is equally important. The 2019 Canada Games has given Red Deer the opportunity to new community infrastructure such as the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre which will be used by members of the Red Deer community and athletes from across the province for generations to come.   

For the first time ever, the 2019 Canada Winter Games will feature a major cultural festival including concerts by local and national Canadian musicians, indigenous artists, and local groups. Another new addition to the Games is the MNP torch relay in which the torch will travel from coast to coast stopping in 48 communities across Canada before finishing in Red Deer for the opening of the Games. 

Navigator is proud to partner with the Canada Winter Games and is looking forward to watching the success of athletes from all across the country in Red Deer.  

A look at the state of energy in Ontario ahead of the provincial election.

As the world watched Facebook hauled before the court of public opinion over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the sense of outrage has reached a fever pitch. Hunched over his microphone before a U.S. Senate committee, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg apologized on April 10 for not doing enough to prevent his platform from being used for harm.

The collection of the personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users, including 622,000 Canadians, by Cambridge Analytica for the purposes of selling influence over voter opinion was a massive breach of public trust.

But in the age of the Internet, is the notion of privacy dead?

Even as big data companies come under increasing scrutiny, Canada is now building its artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem in earnest. The federal government invested $125 million in a Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy in this year’s budget. Ontario has committed  $15 million to fund AI entrepreneurs and start-ups. Quebec is setting up a new $5 million international AI organization to reinforce Montréal’s status as a global AI hub.

These are not insignificant investments in an emerging technology that relies heavily on the mass collection of data. They are important investments, but they face the same challenges as Facebook when it comes to user privacy and the use of predictive models for consumer behaviour.

Given the fallout from the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, the promise of AI cannot happen without finding a meaningful solution to the issue of privacy — and Canada will not have to venture further than its own backyard for the answer.

Enter, blockchain, a technology most of us know by its first iteration, Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency used by computer geeks, criminals, and now Canadians.

Blockchain is the second wave of Internet innovation, introducing the notion of digital scarcity.

Our current Internet of Information enables people to send copies of information; when you send an email, PDF or Powerpoint, you keep the original and a copy is sent over the web.  

Blockchain technology — also known as distributed ledger technology — is an immutable online record book where transactions are encrypted, validated, timestamped, and settled in a matter of minutes. For the first time ever, we are able to send digital value over the Internet.

You can imagine what the profound implications are for a technology that essentially cuts out the middleman. When I send you Bitcoin, there is no bank, credit company, or Paypal needed – just a change in the permanent online record and the transaction is settled. You don’t have to wait 2-3 days for the e-transfer to show up in your bank account; the transaction is instant and secure.

The technology further introduces some interesting dynamics for the notion of user privacy.

Today, the world’s data is stored on centralized servers in physical locations. Data on a blockchain is stored on thousands, if not millions, of computers around the world.

What this means is hacking a blockchain is not like breaking into a house, it’s more like breaking into a whole town.

Blockchain is not only a form of money, but a store of any thing of value, including data. Records like patient data, supply chain management, and even votes can be stored on a blockchain securely. Through encryption, only the user and the person on the other end of the transaction see the data, the rest is simply a note on the ledger that the transaction has occurred and been settled.

Consequently, users are put back in the driver’s seat of their own data. As a user, I have control over my digital identity, choosing how much information I want to share with each new entity that I interact with. There is even a future where the user is paid for their data and not forced to relinquish their data for free to access online services like social networking or instant messaging.

For both blockchain and AI, it’s less important for you or I to understand the mechanics of the underlying technology, but more to understand the many benefits it will bring to society. Most people don’t understand the algorithms that bring them content from their friends and pages on Facebook (although arguably after all that’s happened, maybe they should), but they do enjoy the features that allow them to chat with friends, play games, and stay in the loop on the things they care about most. In short, it allows them to feel more connected to people that they would not otherwise engage on a regular basis.

The benefits of blockchain and AI together should be complementary and perhaps inextricable. Blockchain provides a level of trust, transparency, and training that the AI black box is sorely lacking. AI could help blockchain overcome its scalability and sustainability challenges in terms of its high energy consumption and settlement rates. At the end of the day, consumers are the real winners if we take the same level of care in cultivating both the AI and blockchain ecosystems in Canada.

So governments take note: a world of big data and AI will need the decentralized future offered by blockchain.

 

Views expressed are those of the author and may not necessarily represent those of Navigator or its affiliates. 

Canadian communicator and philosopher Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 declaration that the medium was the message offered prophetic insight into today’s era of digital content.

To put a complex subject simply, the vehicle used to consume information determines not only how we read, but what we read. Insightful communicators know that content not devised for digital consumption, dissemination and discussion will be left behind.

Most editors realize the expanding role digital platforms play in broadcasting their message. Studies now suggest that more than half of Canadians consume news digitally. This number can only be expected to grow.

We have seen Canadian outlets, with varying degrees of success, try to bolster readership by displaying content on social media channels and improving readability on tablets and other devices. But communicators who view digital promotion and accessibility as ancillary to content creation miss the mark.

In an era where content is not only read online, but curated, presented and promoted through social platforms, concepts like shareability and interactivity must be part of the initial formula, not an afterthought.

Many news producers have struggled to adapt to this shifting landscape. It’s this dynamic that has allowed for the emergence of “media advocacy” groups like Ontario Proud.

Ontario Proud boasts over 350,000 Facebook followers, devising and sharing Facebook-friendly content, including videos, memes, polls and short statements, usually aimed at disparaging Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. For context, its 350,000 followers substantially exceed the followers of all four Ontario provincial party leaders combined.

While Ontario Proud has been criticized for inflammatory content, its producers clearly understand that socialization must be at the heart of content. In response to Ontario Proud’s success, we have seen countervailing left-of-centre Facebook pages emerge in recent months, such as Ontario Pride and North99, both of which use similar tactics to create an opposing message.

Facebook’s display algorithm is not publicly disclosed, but we know it heavily promotes posts that generate strong reactions, positive or negative. As such, it’s imperative for organizations to reach their audiences in ways that trigger such responses.

This is not to suggest that credible news organizations should aspire to create content like that displayed on Ontario Proud. Canadians expect a much higher standard of accountability and truthfulness from news providers than social media advocates.

But the lessons learned from the success of Ontario Proud demonstrate that controversial positions are worth writing and are more likely to be virally discussed. Editorial boards have obligations to be accurate and fair, but not to be neutral.

Still, some would argue that the current landscape inherently favours vile, cruel and negative content that doesn’t contribute to positive discussion forums.

This is a fair observation, but ultimately raises more questions about the obligations of social media platforms than the merits of any specific content. If the recent appearance of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation gave any indication of public sentiment, it’s that Facebook is not seen as a neutral information vessel, but a public space that people and organizations depend on. Principles of respect are expected and required to be enforced.

Necessary rules and restrictions do not have to conflict with the driving forces of social media content: shareability and buzz. Content can be created in a way that meets these principles without sacrificing the depth and veracity that set top news organizations apart.

For example, the New York Times, recently announced its 2017 subscription revenue exceeded $1 billion with over 157,000 new digital subscribers in its fourth quarter alone. Its success reporting on President Trump, a vocal critic of its content, offers a case study of how thoroughly-investigated stories can generate the strongest reactions, building relevance for online and social media use.

These circumstances are unique and what works for the New York Times will not necessarily be a universally winning formula. In a constantly-changing digital media landscape, the most sustainable practices remain unclear. And as organizations seek to adapt to the current landscape, many will fail.

But if the increasingly tribal nature of digital media tells us anything, it’s that organizations not looking to integrate socialization into content are firing at the wrong goalposts.

It’s time for communicators and journalists alike to accept that the medium is the message. And that medium is increasingly digital.

Views expressed are those of the author and may not represent those of Navigator or its affiliates.

As relations between the West and Russia plunge into a deep freeze not seen since the Cold War, there are growing concerns that Moscow is weaponizing social media to undermine its rivals. While this isn’t the first time Russia has engaged in the spreading of disinformation, this time we’re seeing official Kremlin accounts trolling adversaries through snarky digital diplomacy. Let’s take a closer look at how Russia has transformed the way nations communicate and why this could be the end of traditional diplomacy as we know it.

Russia has a long history of using social media to go after its adversaries, most notably with the use of fake news in the 2017 US presidential election that many argue helped Donald Trump win the White House. Just as unconventional as President Trump’s willingness to blast off half-truths over Twitter to get his message out, Moscow has ramped up its online attacks on Washington and London. The Kremlin has scaled up up the tempo of official tweets in hopes of shifting the conversation in response to the coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats after an alleged chemical agent attack on a former double-agent in the English countryside.

In any major news event or crisis, there’s always a race against time to set the narrative. Britain, recognizing it needed international support from its allies to leverage pressure against Russia, quickly shaped its argument that the use of a military-grade chemical agent on its soil during peacetime was unprecedented and put the lives of Britons at risk. To Prime Minister Theresa May and her government, this was bigger than the attempted assassination of a former spy.  

Russia, on the other hand, decided its best defence was to try and manipulate the public’s view of the attack and undermine the investigation by sowing the seeds of doubt through the use of memes that are easily shared across social platforms. In what surely enraged the British and its allies, Russia’s ability to thumb its nose at 10 Downing Street by taking lighthearted swipes at what many would consider a very serious provocation and violation of international law seemed to have gained some traction.

The fact that Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Her Majesty’s official opposition, has been accused by the governing Tories of being a Russian lackey and not fully siding with the government’s response shows this disinformation campaign has managed to drive a wedge into Westminster in what in another time would likely have seen bipartisan condemnation of the attack.

By some accounts, Russian tactics are working, and it is emboldening the Kremlin’s trolling efforts, even by going so far as to suggest the British were behind the attack. We have now entered the phase where official government spokespeople are lobbing ludicrous accusations that fly in the face of facts and reason, which is incredibly dangerous.  If nations cannot rationally communicate with one another during a time of crisis, situations can quickly spiral out of control.

By dismissing the mass expulsions of its diplomats from more than 20 countries around the world, the Kremlin has managed to appear unfazed by the seriousness of the situation — despite the fact that its ability to gather intelligence has been diminished.

By denying basic facts and deflecting any responsibility, Russia’s digital diplomats are engaged in what is known as “whataboutism”— a strategy of consistently drawing attention to “Western hypocrisy” when it’s accused of any wrongdoing. While this may not be new in international affairs, Russia  has taken this strategy mainstream with memes and online polls and is doing a good job at countering any rational arguments.

The bigger issue at play here is that when governments counter serious allegations with outlandish accusations, they further erode the public’s trust in the very institutions that are supposed to be held to the highest standards of trust and accountability. Through the use of politically charged memes, Russia is blurring the lines of fact and fiction that is causing many people to contemplate nonsensical theories they would have never considered before.

The Kremlin recently decided to shut down a US consulate in St. Petersburg based solely on the response it received from a poll it published on Twitter, which could have involved American citizens voting for the closure of one of their own diplomatic outposts. This is a prime example of how emboldened the Russian state has become in squaring off with the West and how the days of old fashioned diplomacy might be dead. Any thaw in relations between East and West may be a very long way away.

It’s important that governments, just like companies, remain committed to transparent communications or risk losing their credibility and damaging their reputation. But for Russia, its credibility and reputation doesn’t appear to matter as long as its strategic objectives are met, no matter the cost.