“The X factor is the support of the surrounding community, including local governments. That support always includes a positive regulatory environment, but the most important feature—the one I focused on as head of JV:SV–is that the community promotes connectivity. I don’t mean Internet connectivity here—although that is increasingly the medium of choice. Here connectivity means helping the members of the community connect to each other and then helping the entire region connect to the outside world. Communities can do many things to improve their regional economies and competitive position—everything from investing in research to providing superior or specialized infrastructure—but if they do one thing well it must be to connect participants and promote collaboration and cross-pollination. ”

So, the formula seems to be…

Regional Success = f(connectivity, collaboration, cross-pollination)

For you non-Math types, the above formula reads: Regional success is a function of the connectivity, collaboration and cross-pollination [3Cs]. Of course the links for the 3Cs are both within the region and out to other regions — tight internal connections and wide radial connections to other regions and economies.

So how does Cleveland perform in the 3 Cs? Do we get a least a C [grade]?

Read the whole SV post here…
http://tombomb.typepad.com/tombomb/2008/03/how-local-econo.html

Thanks for coming to Purdue to share your expertise. As you have seen, we have a number of good opportunities on which to collaborate, as we build new tools around Open Source Economic Development.

In some respects, these tools are designed to manage an “open source” process in which deliberation and decision must be balanced. That, in essence, is what “strategic doing” is all about.

The challenge, of course, comes in building these new civic habits. Your work on networks creates the perspectives we need to balance the long view — the strategy — with the imperative to act — the doing. We need these new civic disciplines because we have forgotten — or in some cases never learned — not only how to talk together, but also how to think and act together.

Purposeful conversation requires managing networks, as your article shows. This step requires new sets of leadership skills, new approaches to civic decisions, and new designs for civic process. (In my view, it’s not very wise to simply throw out any kind of process in frustration, as the County Commissioners have done: Cleveland is very likely to end up with a white elephant convention center/Med Mart, not justified by market demand.)

Across the country, as regions continue to form, leaders are finding new ways to develop and implement these skills to engage in complex development within an open civic environment. Understanding networks and connectivity provide the key leadership insights.

David Lazer, an expert on networks in politics and government, writes a brilliant post on having the right connections…

http://www.iq.harvard.edu/blog/netgov/2008/03/the_deliberative_presidency.html