Archive for Dakota Future News
2010 Intelligent Community - Suwon, South Korea
Suwon, South Korea was named the Intelligent Community of the Year last Friday. They won over the other six finalists, including some of my favorites – Dublin, Ohio; Tallinn, Estonia; and Eindhoven, Netherlands. Stockholm, Sweden was the 2009 Intelligent Community of the Year. Suwon is just 15 miles from Seoul. South Korea has now produced three of the last five Intelligent Community winners.
What I find most fascinating about this competition and these communities is how it reveals the culture of the participating communities and countries. “Happy Suwon” is the marketing tagline for the winning community. “Fast-fast” is their operating style. They get input from the people, make decisions, do things, measure results, move on. Always fast-fast. Eindhoven and Tallinn are fiercely strategic and highly encouraging of collaboration and innovation. The US communities seem more haphazard and free-flowing. In the European and Asian communities, there seems less conflict about the proper government role in moving a community forward. They seem to talk more about what should be done rather than to argue the proper approach to getting it done.
All of these communities put a strong emphasis on world class infrastructure – telecommunications, transportation, and education systems. They are working hard to put these in place and to make use of them to increase their economic competitiveness.
Notes from Building the Broadband Economy in NY
Participating in the Intelligent Community Forum’s Building the Broadband Economy has been very interesting and fun. Last night I sat with people from across Canada and learned about the emphasis that their leaders are putting on broadband as an economic development strategy – from the Atlantic Provinces, to Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. They saw the support of their top government leaders as essential to their successful efforts. On behalf of Dakota Future, I was pleased to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that formalizes a culture of collaboration between communities adopting the Intelligent Community approach.
Today I co-facilitated a session entitled “Five Burning Issues in Rural Communities“. Our five issues were demographics, gaps in broadband services and the difficulty in forming effective partnerships with private sector providers, funding for infrastructure, digital inclusion and application development, creating a culture of use and the many barriers to application adoption for problem solving, and leadership. It turns out that the list from the urban group was amazingly similar!
I am awed by the strategic thinking and doing going on around the world as communities and country’s strive to create and maintain competitive economies. In the same way, people from around the world are very interested in the Blandin Foundation’s approach to our MN Intelligent Rural Communities project. I have been asked many detailed questions and have received very positive feedback. I look forward to reporting lots of progress next year!
Setting the Course - May 7, 2010
Last year, we set our goal – Top Seven by 2012! Since then, we completed our Intelligent Community benchmarking. We launched our Intelligent Community Initiative. We achieved “Smart 21” Intelligent Community status. Now, together, we set our sights even higher!
Join us as we receive the reports of our Intelligent Community Initiative cross-sector work groups
Broadband :: Knowledge Workers :: Innovation :: Digital Inclusion :: Marketing / Advocacy
Dakota County Intelligent Community Initiative
“Setting the Course!”
Friday, May 7, 2010
8:00–10:00 a.m. :: Dakota Room
Dakota County Technical College, 1300 145th Street East, Rosemount, MN
Each group will present their strategies, leadership and resources that, if implemented, will enhance our chances at Top Seven Intelligent Community designation in 2011, and more importantly, increase our long term community vitality and economic competitiveness!
Many thanks to our work group members who have followed through with their commitment to the
Intelligent Community Initiative. Our progress to date would not have been possible without your efforts!!
Dakota County seeks Google Gb fiber network
Dakota Future, in collaboration with Dakota County CDA and our Dakota County communities, has announced plans to seek the Google Gb fiber network investment for Dakota County. Landing Google would mean a $300 million private sector investment in Dakota County, attract new tech-savvy residents and be a magnet for innovative companies. A project web site is launching at www.dakotafuturefiber.com.
You can show your support by joining the Dakota Future Fiber Facebook and LinkedIn groups.
More information is available here.
Update on Smart21 Pursuit
We are pleased to announce that Dakota County, MN has been named a Smart 21 Community by the Intelligent Community Forum. We are anxiously awaiting to see if we make the Top Seven Intelligent Communities in the world in 2010. (See our application for the Top Seven.) This recognition is based on five critical factors – broadband availability and use; digital inclusion initiatives; creation, support and attraction of knowledge workers; strategies to encourage and implement innovative practices in government and business; and marketing/advocacy to attract people and investment into our community.
Dakota Future is leading this initiative in Dakota County. As a non-profit organization that links business, education and government, we strive to ensure that Dakota County has a globally competitive economic environment. We have adopted the Intelligent Community approach to organize and drive our efforts. For more information, check out our Intelligent Community Showcase by clicking on the link to the right. Please join us in this exciting initiative by clicking here and providing your contact information.
Dakota County IT Youth Fair
On Saturday morning, November 14, Thomson Reuters, the state’s largest IT employer, hosted “GotIT?” the IT career exploration fair at their Eagan campus. The event included exhibits of area companies, presentations about IT careers, and hands-on activities. High school students and their parents, as well as undecided college students came to discover the range of activities included in the IT career area. The event was well attended and the feedback overwhelmingly positive.
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- Thomson Reuters staff get ready for the event to start.
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- Frontier Communications and Delta Air Lines staff talk answer student questions.
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- Students listen to presentation on web design by Clockworks
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- Students get hands-on experience in computer security.
Dakota Future on ThisWeekLive
Dakota Future’s Executive Director Bill Coleman and Chairwoman LaDonna Boyd were interviewed by Jeff Achen for This Week Live, a web show for Burnsville, Eagan, Apple Valley, Rosemount, Lakeville, & Farmington.
Bill and LaDonna were there to talk about Dakota Future’s projects past, present and future, including the bid for Intelligent Community Status.
Recap of Intelligent Community Project Launch
Dakota County Technical College recently posted a great review of our project launch on October 9. They called the project “of one of the most ambitious undertakings in the county’s 160-year history”. It helps us recognize what exciting stuff this really is.
We’ve been energized by making the Smart21 list but we’ll need that energy to push ourselves to the next level – the Top Seven. We’ve start a discussion on the Dakota Future LinkedIn Group to discuss what it will take to get us to that Top Seven. If you have some ideas, please join the conversation.
GOT IT? IT Career Exploration Fair Promotes Opportunities for Students
(Press Release) Dakota County is home to many companies that employ Information Technology Professionals. This includes Thomson Reuters, Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Unisys and, Frontier Communications. In addition, just about every company has one or more employees whose main job is to keep the computer network and web site up and running. According to the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development and the MN IT Workforce Collaborative, Minnesota will be short over 1,000 IT workers per year in the coming years.
To make sure that these and other companies can grow to their potential right here in Dakota County, economic development, workforce and higher education partners are working with local companies to promote to the workforce of tomorrow the opportunities that an IT career can provide.
On Saturday, November 14, from 8:30 a.m. – noon, Thomson Reuters, the state’s largest IT employer, will host “GotIT?” the IT career exploration fair at their Eagan campus, 610 Opperman Drive. The event will include exhibits of area companies, presentations about IT careers, and hands-on activities. High school students and their parents, as well as undecided college students are invited to discover the range of activities included in the IT career area. There are a variety of events throughout the day. Students and parents can come at any time between 8:30 – 12, but to get the most out of the day, we encourage you to attend the whole morning. The event is FREE, but please pre-register online http://www.mnitcareers.org/node/453
Dakota-Scott Workforce Investment Board, Dakota County Technical College, Inver Hills Community College, Metropolitan State University, Center for Strategic IT and Security and Dakota Future are the event sponsors. The three colleges have campuses in St. Paul and Dakota County and offer a variety of IT programs that cover all levels: certificate, associate, bachelor and master degrees. The Center for Strategic IT and Security is a MNSCU Center of Excellence that partners with these IT programs and others in MNSCU to enhance recruitment, curriculum alignment, industry involvement and career preparation. Dakota Future, a countywide economic development organization, recently launched its Intelligent Community Initiative that includes a focus on creating, supporting and attracting knowledge workers, including IT workers. According to executive director, Bill Coleman, events like the “Got IT?” are one component of a broader strategy to improve Dakota County as a place for business investment.
More information and online registration for Got IT? http://www.mnitcareers.org/node/453
Contact: Bill Coleman info@dakotafuture.com or 651-491-2551
ICF Documents Now Online
In preparation for the next stages of the Intelligent Community Forum process, Dakota Future has worked with Robert Bell on our Dakota Future Community Metrics and Dakota Future Accelerator. Having support from Robert has been a big help and will help set us in the right direction.
