Author: <span>Tracy Davis</span>

Businesses

Fluff

There’s a lot of talk about sustainability lately. I’m sick of the buzzword, but I love the concept; I’ve often run processes, projects, and goals through my own sustainability filter…

Environment Gov't & Policy

The Intelligent Community Forum will be announcing its Most Intelligent Community of the Year award in May. The Intelligent Community list isn’t based on Ph.D’s per capita; if it were, Northfield would have a shot at it. No, the communities on the list have been evaluated and ranked based on their deployment of broadband, their development of a knowledge-based workforce, and fostering of innovation, among other things.

Significantly, there are no American cities among the finalists. In the last five years only three American cities have even been nominated, and we’ve never gotten top honors. Rightfully so; we’re way behind the curve in the New Global Economy despite having pretty much invented it.

What’s going on here?

According to the ICF, in the broadband economy, “adaptability outweighs legacy, skills rather than resources are the keys to the future, and innovation, not location, creates a competitive advantage.” Sounds good: Creative Class plus tech infrastructure equals economic strength.

I wish Northfield had a good technological infrastructure. We’re working on it, but there’s a lot of catching up to do. I’m preparing a broadband/tech primer which I’ll probably present to the EDA in February, and when I have that together, I’ll post it here as well, to provide some definitions and an overview of the issue.

This year’s Intelligent Community finalists are:

Businesses Technology

Fluff

Gov't & Policy

California rail transit agency Caltrain wants to replace its diesel locomotives with efficient Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) rail cars, whose benefits include faster speeds, lower fuel costs, and lower maintenance,…

Businesses Environment Gov't & Policy

Ross Currier, Griff Wigley, and I are NOT one big Locally Grown monolith with three heads. We have different opinions, different ideas, and different priorities. We don’t represent any organization,…

Fluff

Thank God, I’m not alone in the universe… There’s at least one other human being out there who thinks like I do. Witness the new design for a cell tower…

Environment