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Read about recent releases, updates and new activities in the areas of information and communications technology, and science and technology.
Information and communications technology
Science and technology activities
Information and communications technology
Internet use by individuals
The 2007 Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS) was conducted in October and November 2007. Data on Internet use were released in The Daily on June 12, 2008, followed by Internet shopping data on November 17, 2008.
Outreach activities that demonstrate the
relevance and analytical potential of CIUS data are ongoing. These include:
A series of presentations on the results of the 2007 CIUS, including to the survey’s federal partners
(Industry Canada, Service Canada, Treasury Board,
Canadian Heritage), and to the Rural Development Network
of the Rural Secretariat;
A presentation to the Netspeed 2008 conference in Edmonton, Alberta, as well as to the Alberta government; plans to visit other provincial governments are underway.
A presentation on the diffusion of the Internet at the 55th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International.
A number of analytical studies are underway. They are grouped under two themes: Internet privacy and security and online shopping; and online participation and social impacts.
A study of Internet use and social cohesion, based on several sources, is forthcoming in the Connectedness Series (Catalogue no. 56F0004M).
Business and government Internet use
Trends in e-commerce, including 2007 results from the Survey of Electronic Commerce and Technology (SECT), were presented at the International Association for Development of the Information Society Conference 2008 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Telecommunications
Annual survey of telecommunications service providers
The 2006 statistics for the telecommunication services industries were released on September 2, 2008 in Broadcasting and Telecommunications (56-001-X, Vol. 38, no. 1, free).
This is the final issue of this publication in its current form. The Annual Survey of Telecommunications was merged with a similar data collection undertaken by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Selected results from the first cycle of the joint survey were released by the CRTC in their Communications Monitoring Report 2008. Summary results will be published by Statistics Canada at a later date.
Quarterly survey of telecommunications service providers
The processing and analysis of the 2007 and 2008 data from the redesigned survey is on-going. The first release is planned for early in 2009.
Broadcasting
Annual surveys of the radio, television and cable industries
The 2007 statistics for the television and radio industries were released on July 8 and August 25, 2008 in The Daily. In both cases the releases were accompanied by a more detailed publication, they are Television Broadcasting Industries, 2007 (56-207-X, free) and Radio Broadcasting Industry, 2007
(56-208-X, free).
The processing of 2007 data for the program distribution industry is on-going. The next release is planned for November 27, 2008.
Science and technology activities
Research and development in Canada
No updates to report.
Industrial research and development
The service bulletin ‘Industrial research and development, 2004 to 2008’ (Catalogue no. 88-001-X Vol. 32, no. 5) was released on September 5, 2008.
Federal science expenditures
No updates to report.
Higher education sector research and development
The service bulletin ‘Estimation of research and development expenditures in the higher education sector, 2006/2007’ (Catalogue no. 88-001-X, Vol. 32, no. 4) was released on August 14, 2008.
Human resources and intellectual property
No updates to report.
Federal science expenditures and personnel, intellectual property management annex
No updates to report.
Intellectual property commercialization in the higher education sector
No updates to report.
Innovation
Innovation in manufacturing
Tables presenting results from the Survey of Innovation 2005 are now available on CANSIM (Tables 358-0062 to
358-0117). Custom requests for non-standard tables are
being produced.
Analysis of the micro-data of the Survey of Innovation 2005 by external facilitated access researchers continues. The OECD sponsored project to study the relation between innovation and productivity in selected OECD countries is wrapping up with first results to be published soon.
Estimates from the Survey of Innovation 2005 were incorporated into the OECD’s Science and Technology Indicators Scoreboard 2007.
Innovation in advanced technologies in manufacturing and logging
First results from the Survey of Advanced Technology 2007 were released on June 26, 2008. This survey of advanced technology use sent to almost 9,500 manufacturing plants and about 370 logging operations shows that almost all (92%) manufacturing plants and more than half of logging operations (58%) currently use at least one advanced technology. More than two-thirds (69%) of manufacturing plants and about one in five logging operations (18%) currently use at least five advanced technologies.
A follow-up to the Survey of Advanced Technology 2007 examined plants that modify or create technologies. First results will be available in early Fall 2008.
Innovation in advanced technologies in mining
Lack of funding has resulted in the cancellation of this survey.
Community Innovation
No updates to report.
Preliminary results for the 2007 Survey of Business Incubation were released in The Daily on August 27, 2008.
Emerging Technologies
Functional Foods and Natural Health Products
The Functional Foods and Natural Health Products Survey, undertaken in partnership with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, is currently in progress and data are expected to be released in early 2009.
Knowledge management practices
Knowledge Transfers between Canadian Business Enterprises and Universities: Does Distance Matter?
This study examines whether the transfer of knowledge flows from universities to enterprises in Canada is hampered by the geographical distance that separates them. The transfer of knowledge flows are measured by the amount of R&D payments from business enterprises to universities that are directly reported in Statistics Canada’s survey on Research and Development in Canadian Industry. Data from the 1997 to 2001 surveys were used.
After controlling for unobserved individual heterogeneity, selection bias as well as for other covariates that could affect the extent of industry-university R&D transactions such as absorptive capacity, foreign control, belonging to the same province, past experience with a given university and other firm and university characteristics, it is found that a 10% increase in distance decreases the proportion of total R&D paid to a university by 1.4% for enterprises that report tacit transfer of knowledge flow, and by 0.7% for enterprises that report codified knowledge flows.
The authors are Julio M. Rosa, SIEID and Pierre Mohnen, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, Netherlands, and CIRANO, Canada.
