PAUL SALVINI

DEPARTMENTS
HI-TECH CANADIANA IN THE BLUE LIBRARY AT GOOGLE’S NEW KITCHENER DIGS
PAGE 14
From the Editor ........................9
PAUL KNOWLES
The Internet of Us
Business Monitor .................. 10
Brand, brand, everywhere a brand; Waterloo
Regional Arts Council is reborn; Pauli Awards
honour venture capital investment; Product
Profile: Swan Dust Control mats can help prevent
slip and fall accidents; Making a microfinancing
difference at home; A new address
for the Internet of Things; New Google headquarters
a nod to the past, a glimpse of the
future.
Watercooler .......................... 33
$250,000 for Emmy-winning UW prof; four
new start-ups at Communitech; Trudeau in
town; Cooperators sign Montreal Carbon
Pledge; New VP at Economical; Ted Scharf
honoured; Dybenko appointed to TVO Board;
Jowett heads GRCA; CIGI ranks high;
$100,000 donation to Cambridge hospital;
early learning research at Conestoga; space
station experiments; Motzes fund college lab;
Manfred Conrad new Renison Chancellor; Expansion
mode for Velocity.
PAYING FORWARD MICROFINANCING AID
PAGE 13
BRZUSTOWSKI’S DOWN-LOW ON INNOVATION
PAGE 16
FROM THE EDITOR
THE INTERNET
OF US
Interconnectivity is in our Genome
by PAUL KNOWLES
PAUL KNOWLES is editor of
Exchange Magazine. He is
an author and public
speaker
email: paul.knowles@
exchangemagazine.com
The Internet of
Things” –
that’s a phrase
that is appearing
more and more
frequently in articles
and conversations.
Several of
pieces in this edition
of Exchange
touch on IoT, as
we cover local
innovations like
the Catalyst 147 project, the new
Google headquarters, and the Making
a Difference article about a guy
who had to include IoT innovation
in what is essentially a safety device,
just so people would use it and
make their homes and offices safer.
As I edited the articles for this
issue, I realized that our entire ecosystem
here in Waterloo and area is a
perfect IoT symbol. We understand
and practice collaboration, interconnectivity,
and interdependence. Our
whole system – what historian Ken
McLaughlin calls our “genome” – is
“internetted” together.
Our tech innovators collaborate
and cooperate. Our veteran businesspeople
mentor students launching
start-ups. Our business leaders interact
with our educators. When a new
incubator space is launched, representatives
of other such institutions
show up to forge connections.
We are entering a world where
everything will interconnect with
everything. It can seem a bit scary –
and there certainly are issues to be
solved, such as internet security.
But perhaps we can find some
sense of security in realizing that,
right here in Waterloo Region, we
have a living, breathing example of
human interconnectivity – and we
are all better off for it.
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