Welcome to the late September issue of the Button Insight newsletter!

Button creates meaningful digital services and we are excited to share our work, research, and learnings with you in our twice-monthly newsletter!

The insight you’ll receive in your inbox every two weeks will help you up your digital communications, user experience, and customer relationships.

We’d love your help to create the best pro tips, stories, and insights that will help you build reliable technology that maximizes citizen impact. So tell us what you’d like to learn from the Button newsletter by taking this survey. Yes, there are prizes!

Alec Wenzowski | President & Co-Founder | [email protected]

In This Issue

1. Why the Canadian Universal Broadband Fund matters

2. Case Study: Trans Care BC

3. Employee Showcase: Meet Jeff. He enjoyed collecting parking gate arms in college!

Need To Know

The Importance of the Canadian Universal Broadband Fund 

A $2.75 billion program that will provide funding to a range of high-speed Internet projects across the country to rural and remote communities. 

All Canadians deserve equal access to opportunity, whether that’s through education, employment, or support services. While these things are widely available to most through the internet, many Canadians still don’t have access to the internet or their connections are unreliable or slow.

The Universal Broadband Fund from Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada is in motion right now and looks like it will solve the challenge for citizens, the government, and the greater good.

So what is it? The Government of Canada defines it as “a $2.75 billion program that will provide funding to a range of high-speed Internet projects across the country. It has been designed to fund broadband infrastructure projects that will bring Internet at speeds of 50/10 Megabits per second (Mbps), with a focus on rural and remote communities.”

‍Rural and remote communities stand to benefit

In 2020, two-thirds of Canadians had slow internet which inhibited access to online education, remote jobs or applications, and some government services. Since 2019 the Universal Broadband Fund has had the mandate to connect Canadians to high-speed internet, especially those in rural and remote communities. In partnership with the Universal Broadband Fund, across the country provinces and territories launching programs like the Connecting Communities British Columbia initiative to increase rural and remote connectivity in their regions.

‍Battling the Digital Divide

The Universal Broadband Fund should really help to address another challenge the rural and remote communities face. The digital divide is a significant gap between people who have and do not have, access to the internet and the technology tools required to access the important and critical information available online.

If people are on the wrong side of the digital divide, they faced even more challenges trying to gain access to healthcare, for kids to participate in online classes and education, stay in touch with family and friends, and simple access to urgent care or other emergency services. The Universal Broadband Fund will put these Canadian communities on the road to accessing high-speed internet.

‍The goal and timing

Contributions made by large Canadian telecommunications service providers are managed by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. The federal government has committed to getting 95% of Canadians connected by 2026 and 100% by 2030. The government is currently on track to achieve this lofty target, which is great news for all!

Read the full story, including the challenges and opportunities for the Universal Broadband Fund, on our website.

Case Study

How Button helped citizens access publicly funded chest construction surgery

The Challenge

The B.C. Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) and their Trans Care BC program wanted to offer a guide and application process that outlined the steps for accessing publicly funded chest construction surgery. Surgery recipients needed to be understood and heard all in one resource. They needed valuable information, and guidance to connect with other people who have had this surgery and learn from their experiences.

The Solution

Expertise: Web Dev, User Research, UX Design, Medical Illustration

Deliverables: Architecture, User Research, UI/UX, Web App, DevOps

Technologies: WordPress, React, PHP

The Outcome

A caring process and tool were created to support gender-affirming surgeries for people who sometimes felt like they were on a long and confusing journey.

Employee Showcase

Meet Jeff. He enjoyed collecting parking gate arms in college! 

NAME Jeff Hamilton (He / Him)POSITION VP, Sales & Marketing WITH BUTTON SINCE June 2021

Jeff is a software & technology veteran, in both leadership and enterprise sales. His very first sales job was selling parkade gates and cashier systems, which is ironic after collecting parking gate arms in college.

With a passion and focus on building long-term relationships, his contacts and connections have grown in scale globally and have allowed him to gain broad experiences in start-ups, medium-sized and large enterprise organizations such as BlackBerry, CWT, and American Express. Jeff has also served three times as a Vice President of Sales & Marketing (including one mulligan) and is adept at focusing on the end-to-end business process to deliver against aggressive growth strategies, ROI goals, and align with strategic business plans.

After heading west years ago from Toronto and London, Ontario, Jeff now lives the Vancouver West Coast lifestyle of biking, hiking, skiing, still playing hockey twice a week, relaxing by the beach, and sampling many different red wines. Lesser pursuits include suffering regularly as a long-standing Canucks fan.

Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn!

Worth Your Attention

What We’re Reading: Scar Tissue, by Anthony Kiedis

Scar Tissue is a different, fun, and lighter read diving into the rock and roll lifestyle of Anthony Kiedis, lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It’s an autobiography and compilation of the band’s career and conducted interviews which reached No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller List.

While the book may have gained popularity as an exceptional account of a rockstar life, the story of addiction and trauma is anything but extraordinary. However, listening to and understanding other peoples' stories and perspectives ultimately helps us build empathy. It also provides learnings from lived experiences without judgment or reservation; the good, the bad, and the completely screwed up.

🎯 Join Button in Edmonton on Oct. 12Button is partnering with Public Sector Network for their upcoming Digital Government & CX Roadshow in Toronto, Edmonton, and Victoria.

Working in close partnership with Service Alberta, Button is delighted to bring the Public Sector Innovation Show to Alberta. Plus, we have free swag (above), so come by our table and get to know our team.

Alberta’s public sector is ripe for digital innovation. Public sector organizations are using technology to connect with citizens to build a more resilient, innovative, and diversified economy.

The Public Sector Innovation Show – Alberta, is a one-day, in-person event designed to help you navigate the future digital landscape to benchmark best practices, leverage emerging technologies, and harness the latest innovations to deliver life-changing outcomes for your citizens. This event will examine how to streamline operations and provide improved citizen services by empowering the public sector with best-in-class tools and applications.