In 2017, Canada will mark its 150th birthday. What kinds of stories of nationhood and identity will we celebrate? How will we share them? In 1967, at its centennial, Canada was a two-channel country. Today, we have an infinite number of channels to share stories, but we haven't yet fully graduated from an institutional-era infrastructure of storytelling to a networked one. These past few months, however, we've had an incredible model - Commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency and recent Commander of the International Space Station - who managed not only to do his formal job well, but to exceed that job and harness the power of social networking to bring space back into the minds and hearts not just of Canadians, but of the world. This presentation - part of the 2017 Starts Now conversations hosted across the country in 2013 under the hashtag #Canada150 - argues that we need networks as well as our traditional institutions in order to move forward with a revitalizing, inclusive narrative for Canada's national identity. Commander Hadfield didn't go to space alone, but his pictures and tweets and socially networked engagement helped all of us see space travel and our place on the planet differently. We need to make the most of all of our voices.

1. A Connected Legacy
Building a Canada 150 Community
2017 Starts Now
Bonnie Stewart
University of Prince Edward Island
May 2013

2. What stories will we tell ourselves for
Canada 150?

3. “The truth about stories is that’s all we are”
- Thomas King

5. Networks = a way to share
& amplify stories

6. Networked Identities:
many-faceted, connected,
participatory

7. 1967 was an Institutional Age
h#p://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/28/Canada_1967_Centennial_Logo.svg/500px-­‐Canada_1967_Centennial_Logo.svg.png

8. 2017 will be a Networked Age
h#p://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/5066287053

9. Online networks enable
different forms of identity,
legitimacy,
and belonging
than institutions do

10. Newly emerging species:
open, public, hybrid

11. Own your story

12. Own your perspective

13. Own your purpose.
Make it powerful.

14. Own your silliness

15. Own your humanity.
Let us see it. Help us see our own.

16. A new sense of public commons

17. Institutions are a vital part of
the Networked Age

18. CONNECT.
Thank you.
@bonstewart