Summer Innovations

Gabriel Cossette
Aug 31, 2018 · 3 min read

Hello world! I’m Gabriel and I joined the GC Entrepreneurs about two months ago from Shared Services Canada, the IT provider of federal departments. Unsurprisingly, I’m passionate about IT and I also have a particular interest in Open Source, from both a software and collaboration perspective.

As a GC Entrepreneur, I have this wonderful opportunity to learn and think about innovation at my workplace… But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen outside of work too! Today, as a light summer topic, I want to share with you some interesting innovations I encountered during my vacation.

Stranger in the forest

My girlfriend and I went to the Eastern Townships for a few days. One of the places we stayed at was a beautiful inn located on top of a hill. While exploring the site, I noticed what looked like some kind of very tall antenna. As I’ve previously worked with this kind of IT equipment in my career, I was rather curious. But when I looked closer, I realized that the antenna was actually mounted on the ladder of a real fire truck! When I later asked our host about it, he told me that their son had bought this old fire truck and decided to use it to perform some wireless connectivity tests. What a very clever way to do it! Maybe we’ll see telecom companies do the same someday…

Fire truck in the forest

Intriguing adult tricycle

We also like to bike and one day, we went to a long biking trail which was formerly a railroad. Next to the trail, we discovered what seemed to be a rail tricycle. An odd design, but what a novel idea! A possible means of transportation? A new sport? Maybe these “railcycles” could become a popular thing. Of course, some potential challenges popped into our heads, such as: What to do if we want to overtake another cart? Should we need dedicated rails?

Rail tricycle

A tractor?

Finally, we had the opportunity to visit l’Isle-aux-Grues, a small inhabited island not far from Quebec City (where we live). When my girlfriend initially told me that we would be on a train pulled by a tractor for the tour, I thought to myself, “This place could certainly use some innovation!”. However, when we embarked on the journey, I realized that my initial assumption was wrong. Considering factors such as the remote location, the sometimes harsh coastal environment and the limited selection of shops, a tractor may be the best balance between technology and maintainability. And it can be used for agricultural activities too. ;-)

Which shows that certain ways of doing things don’t necessarily benefit from being improved. A reminder to closely assess a situation before jumping to make changes…

Train pulled by tractor

As you can see, innovation can take on many forms, such as creating novelty or generating new ideas combining existing elements. And sometimes, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. After all, using intelligently and optimizing what already exists, isn’t it innovating as well?

If you also discovered something in that regard recently, feel free to share it!

GC_Entrepreneur

A collection of blog posts published by Government of Canada Entrepreneurs (GCE) / Une collection d'articles publiés par les entrepreneurs du gouvernement du Canada (GCE)

Gabriel Cossette

Written by

GC Entrepreneur (https://medium.com/gc-entrepreneur) interested in Open Source Software (OSS), Web 2.0 and AI. Active in OSS communities. Opinions are my own.

GC_Entrepreneur

A collection of blog posts published by Government of Canada Entrepreneurs (GCE) / Une collection d'articles publiés par les entrepreneurs du gouvernement du Canada (GCE)

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