Mary Treacy sent me a great article from the Twin Cities Daily Planet (Technology: The driving force behind rural Minnesota change). The author, Lee Egerstrom is tracking the 342 Minnesota cities that had fewer than 1,000 people in the 2000 Census and the estimated 150 unincorporated communities that are commercial and residential hubs of rural townships.
This article is the second installment. I think I find the whole series especially interesting as I travel around Ireland to see the economic development that has happened here. Tourism seems to fuel so much here.
Back to MN, Egerstrom talks specifically about Elbow Lakes and Ely in this article. Elbow Lake is using lots of agriculturally-focused technology to farm better and to allow farmers more freedom. In Ely they focused on how people use the Internet (not necessarily broadband – but as those of us who work remotely we know you can’t do it on dialup!) to allow them to work in Ely. They enjoy the beautiful amenities Ely has to offer – but stay in touch and/or run entire business over the Internet.
Egerstrom’s first article (in the series) introduced a theory called Ruttan-Hayami Model of Induced Innovation. It shows a relationship among: Resource Endowment, Cultural Endowments, Technology and Institutions. The health and nature of those relationships can help make a break a town. I’m reducing this quite a bit – but it reminded me a bit of Richard Florida’s Creative Classes – only this theory or perhaps Egerstrom’s fine description seems more suitable to rural areas and small town.
