You will not find a successful entrepreneur who hasn't had at least one failure. One of the things about building an innovative culture is giving people the freedom to fail. And that's a difficult thing for a lot of universities. That's part of the reason many of them have been reluctant to go forward.
There's no question that the principal success of the digital media zone is in the model of experiential learning and life-changing experiences it's created for the students. It's too early to tell how many of those companies are going to survive. If they survive at the same rate as start-ups across the country, we've got something.
I can tell you about two. I don't know if you've seen the bionic arm. It's an arm that operates based on brain waves. It sounds likes science fiction. It costs 20% of what a surgically implanted artificial arm costs. These kids are 19 and 21 years old, and they're being chased by investors all over the world. Now they're working on a walking wheelchair. It's mind-blowing.
Another post-doc student developed a context-aware computing application, which he sold to the Paris Métro. It is being implemented by Metrolinx in Toronto and looks as though it's going into the Vancouver airport.
You only need a couple of these mega-successes to make the investment worthwhile. But my message is that you can't have success without failure. And we have to start creating an environment where people can take those chances.