Archive for Showcase
ICF Notes January 8, 2010
The Intelligent Community Forum committees met earlier this week to discuss Dakota Future’s application. Here are the notes from the various sessions:
Marketing Team Notes
Knowledge Works Team Notes
Innovation Team Notes
Broadband Team Notes
Digital Inclusion Programs
Dakota County Libraries - 220 computers for public access computers in ten locations.
Workforce Centers - Computer labs, computer training classes and ad hoc computer assistance.
Dakota County Technical College - 356 particiants with the DCTC Project Work Plan since inception.
Inver Hills Community Collge - is part of a 3 college consortium of a Center of Excellence for Strategic Information Technology and Security.
Dakota County Broadband Advocacy
Dakota Future has been promoting the use of broadband technology in Dakota County for many years. Here are some of our specific activities:
Countywide Broadband Inventory and Assessment
A report detailing the broadband services available throughout the county. Providers were surveyed and the results summarized by provider and community. We hosted a broadband summit where we featured a program with presentations by providers and community representatives engaged in broadband development initiatives. Providers had an opportunity to have exhibits and meet with community leaders and businesses. (See the report.)
Career Training for Students
Marketing high technology careers and training opportunities at DCTC and IHCC in a variety of areas, including computers, health care, nano-technology, pre-engineering, science.
IT Workforce Initiative
In December 2008, Dakota Future launched its IT Workforce Initiative in collaboration with the MN IT Workforce Collaborative. This initiative is made possible by a MN Department of Employment and Economic Development FIRST Grant.
Dakota Future is focusing on two strategy areas: High School Outreach and IT Transitional Workers. High School Outreach Opportunity: In order to attract more prospective workers into the IT field, efforts must be made to educate students about the range of occupations and opportunities in the IT field.
Dakota Future Response:
- Facilitate a discussion that included high school IT instructors, business instructors and guidance staff, community and technical college IT program directors and area corporations. This meeting provided excellent two-way learning about opportunities for education – business collaboration.
- Survey all Dakota County high school IT instructors about their current curriculum and extracurricular IT programs, existing partnerships with businesses around IT, and a “wish list” for business – school collaboration.
Transitional Worker Opportunity:
In order to help both IT and non-IT workers transition to more future-oriented IT careers, establish information, resources, and training to create the appropriate skill set that will enable these workers to find quality IT employment in area companies.
Provide a menu of programs/pathways for repositioning dislocated IT workers for new jobs and/or entrepreneurial activity
Digital Inclusion
Dakota Future has recognized the critical nature of the digital inclusion challenge. In our broadband policy, we state “Broadband access should be affordable and competitively priced when compared to our global competitors. For those who cannot afford home broadband and the necessary computer, public access should be made available at schools, libraries, senior and community centers, and affordable housing developments.”
Dakota County has changing demographics. As a county, we are getting older, more diverse and have higher levels of poverty. Strong action around digital inclusion will be required to ensure that all residents and workers will be able to fully participate in community life. This includes equal access to health care, education and government. It also includes the ability to find employment - finding opportunities, applying for jobs, working from home, starting a business.
Digital access is a critical component of the Dakota County Library System. In its current technology plan expresses this vision - “The people of Dakota County, in and through their Dakota County Library, will have convenient access to library resources through proven technology and telecommunications. Customers will be assisted as needed by a sufficient number of knowledgeable, trained staff who can help them make the best use of both new and traditional information resources”
Digital inclusion also pertains to the business community. From simple DSL to Gb fiber connections, our business community needs price competitive, business class service to compete in the global marketplace. With so many small and home businesses and employees needing 7×24 connectivity, the distinction between home and business connections fade.
Dakota County Intelligent Community
Dakota Future has been leading the effort in Dakota County to apply to the Intelligent Community Forum as a Smart Community. It has been an opportunity to track success and gather stories. In fact, we’ve made the Smart21! 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.
Dakota County’s economic development planning has been successful in bringing an economic development perspective to work traditionally done by the county.
Transportation, housing, workforce development and land use now include economic development considerations as investments are planned and prioritized. The county sees value in working on projects that have countywide impact; communities can be more certain about when and how the county government will become engaged in economic development programs.
In transportation, the county leadership has aggressively pursued funding for projects for transit stations, park and rides and bus rapid transit. One of these projects is fully funded and programmed for construction; the other is moving forward with building blocks towards the future.
Workforce efforts in Dakota County are our most successful and most consistent economic development initiative.
One Story of Success
The Strategic Information Technology and Security Center of Excellence at Inver Hills Community College is active in promoting skills and use in information technology from youth to the business community. The rapidly evolving capability of information and communication technology requires an equally rapid evolution of knowledge and skills. The Center for Strategic Information Technology and Security collaborates with businesses and other organizations to create and deliver information technology expertise for business success and offers resources for student networking, internships and career enhancement. Institutional partners include Metropolitan State University and Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
In partnership with Cisco and to meet the demand for Computer Technology workers with computer schools, Inver Hills Community College started a new program offering Advanced Computer Technology classes after school for high school students. The classes are offered at four locations within a ten-minute drive from their high school. Course work transfers into the two-year college degree at Inver Hills Community College. In addition, Inver Hills hosted a Best Buy Geek Squad Summer Academy. Each year, the Geek Squad conducts about a dozen academies across the country. At Inver Hills, June 10-12 was set aside for middle school students and June 17-19 for high school students. The teenagers explored technology through engaging classes and activities such as computer assembly, web technology, multimedia, green technology, Nintendo Wii, and geocaching.
This outreach to youth takes on several forms - College and High School Teacher Collaboration - 11 teacher teams with over 600 students impacted; Middle School Technology Outreach - 89 students participating; High School Readines Program - over 200 students participating with 88-95% success; Summer Program with 55 students participating; programming for 1st year college students to improve their success - 643 students participating; assisting 75 students make the move to 4 year schools and working with 50 families to increase their support of education.
ICF Oct 9 Notes
Committee notes:
Promoting Technology Programs
Thomson Reuters - Continued expansion of IT-focused operations at its Eagan facility with a recent expansion in its data center.
ImageTrend - ImageTrend is a ten-year old home grown company in Lakeville. They provide software solutions for business, education, health care and government sectors. The company, which employs approximately 100 people, recenly purchased land adjacent to their current building in Lakeville that will be used to build new space. The company has committed to creating another 21 jobs, but the owners believe that it is more likely that they will add another 60-70 jobs during the next four years.
Eagan-area businesses - There is a strong IT cluster in Eagan with Thomson Reuters, Delta Air Lines, Unisys and Blue Cross - Blue Shield. These companies, located in a relatively small area, have large data center operations. This concentration has stimulated huge investments in fiber networks from multiple carriers providing redundancy and competitive pricing for these and other firms in the area. In addition, these firms have been active on the City of Eagan Technology Task Force which has focused on ensuring that big broadband services are ubiquitous throughout the community. They have contributed their expertise to the task force and helped community leaders recognize the importance of connectivity to the long term competitiveness of the community. Through the work of the task force, DSL access rose from 50% to over 90% of the community via Qwest and Frontier. In addition, Dakota County was the first place in the country where Comcast launched their DOCSIS 3.0 service.
Innovation
Innovation has been a hallmark of the Twin Cities economy. The reasons for this innovative behavior are many. The Twin Cities is where three eco-systems come together along the Mississippi - northwoods to the north, great plains to the west and big woods farmland to the east. Some of the world’s global innovators were born and continue to thrive in the Twin Cities - 3M, Cargill, General Mills, Medtronic. Dakota County has its share of innovative companies. In Minnesota, one measure of innovation vitality is the MN High Tech Association’s Annual Tekne Awards. In 2008, the following Dakota County firms were finalists: Thomson Reuters for technology leadership and technology service; Cool Clean Technologies in the cleantech category; Eco-lab in the cleantech category; and Biothera in the biotechnology category.
Innovation as an economic driver is critical to our economic future. Minnesota’s weather (one of four beautiful seasons) is seen by a few as harsh. Our tax climate is generally been viewed as a negative for business development. But innovation has been fueled primarily by a very high quality workforce created through excellent k12 schools, abundant community colleges, technical colleges and state university campuses and the powerhouse University of Minnesota - one of the top research universities in the country.
In Dakota County, we continue to rely on education to drive innovation. At Inver Hills Community College, they partner with CISCO to provide cutting edge education in network security. This supports our area companies who have global data centers in Dakota County - Thomson Reuters, Unisys, Delta Air Lines, Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN. Dakota County Technical College has a unique two-year program in nano technology in a collaborative approach with the University of Minnesota. These students graduate prepared to work across industry lines in biosciences, electronics and other industries.
The four private sector examples below provide a snapshot of the type of innovation occuring in Dakota County. Goodrich Sensor and Integrated Systems is a global powerhouse in all things that make flying aircraft safer. Imricor is a start-up medical device company with a product that will address a widespread medical condition in heart disease. Performance Office Papers is competing in a mature marketplace through strategic use of technology and workplace practices. Thomson Reuters, as Dakota County’s largest employer and Minnesota’s largest software development company, partnered with colleges outside of Dakota County to obtain quality software development work at low costs, exposed college students to career opportunities in IT and created a pathway for recruiting high qualilty, work ready talent.
The public sector examples center out of the Dakota County government but generally rely on collaboration with the cities of the county for their success. The High Performance Partnership (HiPP) institutionalizes collaboration as the preferred approach to problem solving and increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Property taxes in Dakota County are the lowest in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area due to our ability to attract development and to our ability to work collaboratively on problems and avoiding duplicate solutions.
UMORE Park is a new center of innovation emerging in Dakota County. UMORE Park,located in Rosemount, is a 5,000 acre parcel of land acquired by the University of Minnesota after World War II. This land has served as an agricultural experiment station for many years providing the environment for uninterupted soils, crops and climate data. For several years, the University has been engaged in a master planning exercise that will result in a new community. Our goal is to ensure that this development spurs innovation and economic development for our entire region and we are engaged with the University to make this happen.
Knowledge Workers
Demographics
| Less than High School Education |
5.6%
|
| High School Degree |
23%
|
| Some College |
23%
|
| 2 Year Degree |
10%
|
| College Degree |
27%
|
| Graduate Degree |
11%
|
Broadband
Dakota County is fortunate in that they have a wide range of broadband choices: DSL, cable, fiber optics, wireless and satellite. The numbers below indicate broadband is important to Dakota County residents.
|
% with access to broadband
|
% connected to broadband
|
|
| households |
98.6
|
74
|
| Government |
100
|
95
|
| Education |
100
|
100
|
Broadband Costs to Residential Customers
Minimum
| 768k Frontier | $39 |
| 1.5 Mb Comcast | $24 |
| 1 Mb Charter | $19 |
| 1.5 Mb Qwest | $19 |
Maximum
| 50 Mb Comcast | $150 |
| 3 Mb Frontier | $49 |
| 5 Mb Charter | $54 |
| 20 Mb Qwest | $59 |
For more information, check out the Dakota Future Telecommunications Inventory and Policy Alternatives
