It is 1996, and I am a member of a task force examining how the new Internet technologies can be used to better the lives of Canadians. The Chairman of the Task Force is David Johnston, who became the Governor General of Canada.
There was enormous excitement around the possibilities of e-commerce and its implications for how the marketplace would function. And as early as 1996, participants could see snail mail being replaced by e-mail, but Canada Post surviving with the growth of parcel deliveries as e-commerce takes hold.
I was especially intrigued by the implications of Internet technologies on the thousands of communities in Canada located far from major centres. Specialized speakers said that e-medicine would link doctors in remote communities with specialists at major hospitals in the large urban centres.
And more people could work from home, being linked to their offices by the web and e-mail. It seemed that a revolution of opportunity was on our doorstep. But at that time, less than 10% of CFIB members had Internet access. We were in the early stages of something significant.
During the hearings, I began to ask myself if this technology could be used for learning. Training in Europe and Asia was a cornerstone of small business development, but training using traditional stand-up facilities required huge investments in bricks and mortar. My mind started to swim with possibilities. What if training could be provided without physical facilities. This implied a reduced role for the state in financing fixed facilities.
I went into the search engines to see if I had an original idea and discovered two companies already providing courses online, but their focus was employees of large corporations. At least I was now convinced that e-learning was a viable concept.
In 1996, I was in the process of transferring power and authority at CFIB over to my successor, Catherine Swift. So this was an ideal time to get my head around a new idea and possibly a new venture.
I started experimenting with my nephew Michael Bulloch, who was systems and Internet hardware oriented in his training. We created a website called VUSME and rented a platform from a US company. And we started to build some courses. Within six months, I knew we had a viable concept and decided to create another not-for-profit corporation which I called The Learning Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises (LISME).
During this process, my mind went to an economics course taken to secure my MBA that included a discussion of the writings of Joseph Schumpeter, the Austrian economist who eventually became a professor at Harvard. He talked about destructive capitalism that results from innovations that change the way we do things and is the foundation for so many forms of entrepreneurship. Internet technologies seemed to fit into the Schumpeter theology. Even in 1996, I was thinking of the costs for business people and professionals upgrading their skills at community colleges, and the savings if this could be done from their homes.