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.

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!

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!!

The other day, Jason DeRusha asked Christ Mitchell (from Institute for Local Self Reliance) about it this week, “Why Is Our Internet So Slow?” Chris gave a concise description that touched on the difference in policies, monopolies, adoption and cost.

Here’s a quick excerpt from the show:

In Europe, it’s a different set-up.

“They have greater competition in the broadband market and that all comes from government policies,” said Mitchell.

In Europe, there’s often one company that builds the network (often a non-profit cooperative or a government-run agency), and separate competing companies that are allowed to pay for the right to sell service to customers.

That creates a market for innovation and lower prices.

You can show your support by joining the Dakota Future Fiber Facebook and LinkedIn groups.

More information is available here.

We have now published our 2009 Dakota Future Annual Report.

We would like to thank Patti Neuman, formerly of HGA, and Dakota County Commissioner Will Branning for their service on the Dakota Future. Commissioner Branning was a founding member and strong supporter of Dakota Future and countywide economic development.

For a brief time, we mourned the fact that we did not make the Top Seven Intelligent Communities list, kind of like getting the bronze medal at the Olympics. Then we got over it and are back at work aiming for next year. Our Intelligent Community Initiative work groups around broadband, knowledge workers, innovation, digital inclusion and marketing/advocacy are in full swing to reach their May 7 deadline for developing goals, objectives, leadership and resources in their topic area. It is exciting to hear about their progress and creative thinking.

Today is our IT Entrepreneurs networking event in Apple Valley. We have a great group of business owners on our panel discussion. We are going to take a look at the Dakota County broadband video and do some socializing, enjoying some food and beverages. We hope that some college students to participate as we have marketed to our area colleges. It is a beautiful day for networking!

Wednesday, January 20, 4:30 – 6:00 p.m.
Enjoy! Restaurant

Complimentary Hors d’oeuvres with cash bar.
Please RSVP to info@dakotafuture.com