The Honourable Mitch Murphy, Minister of Agriculture and Foresty, and the Honourable Michael F. Currie, Minister of Development and Technology, together with Dave Cody Chair of the Board of Directors of the KenNet Level II Community Access Point (CAP) site, today announced Kensington will be home to Prince Edward Island's second Regional Information Technology ( RIT ) Centre.
The 3300 square foot "Knetwork Centre" will be located on Garden Drive in Kensington. Construction is scheduled to begin in 4-6 weeks and be completed this summer.
The facility will be connected to the same network as the Atlantic Technology Centre in Charlottetown and the recently announced RIT, FutureTech West in O'Leary, creating a network of technology integration centres across the province which will allow users to work together on projects and share resources.
The Knetwork Centre will feature state-of-the-art office space, a development lab, incubator space for new IT companies and entrepreneurs, and a sophisticated network infrastructure based on Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data) technology that will enable ‘smart services' such as video conferencing.
Agriculture and Forestry Minister Murphy says the centre will allow residents and businesses in the area to access resources previously unavailable to the area.
"Increasingly, technology is being used to deliver services, and it is important these opportunities be extended to residents across the province, not just in larger communities," said Minister Murphy. "Socially, this is an important development for the area. The video conferencing capabilities will allow for opportunities for online training, workshops and presentations, and for the delivery of e-services."
Development and Technology Minister Mike Currie says the facility will also allow for new economic opportunities.
"Having access to this type of technology will allow IT companies to continue to operate in a rural setting and will assist with efforts to attract new investment to the area," said Minister Currie. "There are real benefits for IT companies with export opportunities and e-commerce, while new entrepreneurs will be able to further develop their business ideas.
The facility will feature a 1,000 square foot incubator space, where developing IT companies and entrepreneurs will have access to reduced rent and shared resources and mentoring to assist with their development into sustainable companies. The incubator program will be funded and administered by Technology PEI Inc., the Government of Prince Edward Island's lead agency in the development, adoption and use of information technologies in business and community in the province.
The Knetwork Centre will also house the level II KenNet CAP site. "This new facility will allow KenNet to better serve the smaller CAP sites with ongoing training and support for which it is responsible," said David Cody, Chair of the KenNet Board of Directors.