It began in early February with a Tweet pointing to wherebiobegins.com which turned out to be a site with a large countdown clock and not much more. From there we began to see more tweets, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel and eventually a blog. There were videos posted from people about how bio began and we even shared in some of the fun by holding our own mini contest. Deadline is Saturday midnight by the way so there is still time to enter. Details and rules on our home page at www.genomealberta.ca and you can win an iPOD Shuffle so it is worth your time to enter.




But no one knew who was behind the site and the catch phrase.
I was let in on the secret of the company behind the mystery early on, and today Sigma Aldrich unveiled its full Where Bio Begins website and the rest of the campaign. It appears to be a well thought out plan and on the social media side I'd call it a pretty good success in the biotech field. The United States has many examples of good social media success. Check out I Am Biotech, What Can Biotech Do for You, Comprendia's San Diego network or the Research Blogging site, or the DNA Network which we feature on our GenOmics application.

What about Canada?

It isn't pretty.
We continue to be a polite nation, unwilling to show off our biotech success, and at times fearful of posting opinions in case they are not deemed to be in keeping with political correctness. I attended a major biotech event where one Canadian Executive in the life sciences field said blogs are dangerous, legal minefields and he cannot understand why anyone would read one, let alone write one. Interesting viewpoint considering at the time there were somewhere in the neighbourhood of 130 MILLION blogs being written.
At a social media conference I spoke at recently there was many familiar concerns around the use of social media but what struck me was the lack of creativity around how it could  and is being used. An attendee from the pharmaceutical industry could not get past the notion that if he couldn't simply sell his company's product through social media (which is illegal) then well, discussion closed. Meanwhile Sigma Aldrich (likely one of his competitors) was building momentum, discussion, and interest by asking nothing more that "Where Bio Begins".

There is also a rather troubling note sounded in a U.S. study on broadband access and policies around the world done for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Canada apparently keeps company with Mexico and Poland when it comes to the high speed 3G network, does not keep up with countries like Japan in terms of some high speed to home networks and in the end was ranked 19^th overall in the world. Not particularly surprising given the fact we seem to be risk averse to the new media tools so don't create demand, don't have a particularly competitive communications environment, and there are no initiatives like the soon-to-be-released U.S. FCC plan to ensure high speed 'net access throughout the U.S.

I speak at a number of social media conferences and have seen some brilliant Canadian efforts to use the new tools and I have posted some blog entries about these unique projects and sites.
A Tale of Two Conferences
Social Media and Government in Alberta
Baby We've Come A Long Way

Overall however we just don't get it.
I was to speak in March at a social media event in Calgary which was just canceled because of insufficient registration. It could have had something to do with the economy forcing training budgets to be tightened or it could have been poor advertising. My guess however is the biggest factor is that the business community here just doesn't see new media as important enough to invest the time and effort to use it to keep up with their competitors. Much like the biotech community across Canada, the energy sector definitely lags behind, and as it is still the driver of Alberta's economic bus, everyone else looks to see where they are going before they invest. The resource sector is getting slammed by the environmental community all over the world who are using the tools of the 21^st century and are responding with good old fashioned "Mad Men" philosophy, tools, and tactics.
 
I am continually amazed at the number of local events I attend where the first question asked is often "how many here are on Facebook" , followed by a timid show of hands. If Facebook were a country it would be among the most populated in the world, and roughly 112 million of those live in Canada. While Sigma Aldrich is asking Where Bio Began to the world, we're still asking each other "do you use Facebook".

Some of the leading lights in Alberta include the City of Calgary's social media use and Alberta Education's Inspiring Education initiative, (Education Minister Dave Hancock even does his own tweeting ! ) and even our own GenOmics application has been getting calls and e-mails from as far away as Portugal and Africa from organizations wanting to use the Open Source version of the platform.

Unfortunately even the brightest Canadian stars are having trouble bringing enough light into the new media void we seem to find ourselves in.

If you are finally feeling some social media inspiration enter our video contest. Here is an entry from Susanne Cardwell who is with the Bioinformatics Platform: