Yesterday I attended leadership training for MIRC partners. There were two great sessions. We had almost 30 attendees. Our first trainer/facilitator was Nehrwr Abdul-Wahd and our focus was Effective Collaboration. Our second speaker was Robert Bell from the Intelligent Community Forum. I took notes that I thought would be helpful to BoB readers…

Effective Collaboration:

What are the elements of collaboration?

• Equal partners
• Shared risk/reward/resources
• Create something new
• Self motivated (not forced)
• Greater good (put aside individual differences)

Identifying resources at our disposal:

It’s really easy to miss something you are not looking for. (e.g.: the moonwalking bear)

Community resources available:

• People
• Organizations
• Informal and volunteer associations
• Cultural resources
• Natural resources
• Infrastructure
• Product and service exports

Of these, what kinds of resources are the hardest to identify and what can we do about it?

• Getting businesses to the table and trying to figure out what they want. They are busy doing their business.
• Finding a champion makes a big difference.
• Critical links is an important concept. Ex: having representatives from the “target” community involved. Bear in mind that representatives from a given (say, minority) community can be a great link, but they also can be a wall.
• It’s easy to come up with possible organizational partners. Harder categories to address include natural resources; product and service exports. Examples of possible partners in these groups: environmental education; remote sensing technologies.

Session with Robert Bell: Intelligent Community Indicators

Introduction to Intelligent Community Framework
We are interested in models that folks can learn from. We identified the five indicators of intelligent communities by studying best practices.

Broadband: Globalization is really connectivity. That is, globalization is made possible because of connectivity. Connectivity starts with broadband. Broadband is the new infrastructure. It’s as necessary as clean water in your community.

Workforce: Broadband is important because it empowers the knowledge workforce. This means everyone.

Innovation: Innovation is the engine of prosperity today. Communities need to be in the innovation game. Everyone, every community, can be, IF you have broadband.

Digital Inclusion: You need to work at this, or the digitally distant/digitally marginalized will become more so.

Marketing/Advocacy: Intelligent Communities tell their stories well.

This framework describes a virtuous cycle. The characteristics of intelligent community are the same. We are trying to get the engine to turn.

Key factors for success across the entire cycle:

• Leadership (vision – not necessarily positional or elected)
  • Ask: who can “cast glory” on the project
• Collaboration

What are your biggest challenges? (Answers from attendees.)

• The pace of the exclusion that is about to take place. I see that the exclusion here is going to be brutal. If you are not able to do the digital stuff you are just doomed. You won’t be able to be a worker, to get a good job, to access services.
• I think a lot of us have just coasted along… woe is us, we don’t have the resources, we are going to be stuck with dial up forever. Actually, our participation rates are similar to rural areas when we do have access. Farmers are businessmen, they need to be on line too. So it has been a kick in the pants for those of us in the public sector to realize that we can and need to roll up our sleeves and work to get this done. Just because you are small doesn’t mean that you are not smart.
• We’re good on the innovation and broadband indicators. We are lacking in digital inclusion efforts and need to focus on addressing knowledge work force and advocacy/marketing. To address workforce we are partnering with University, foundations, industry, local technical college. The real challenge is in middle management.

Community colleges are unsung heroes of this work. Who your friends are is a key indicator of our success at adoption. One of the things I’ve seen work – get champions of the excluded communities to be your ambassadors. Digitally literal older folks talking to digitally uninitiated older folks.

How can we work more effectively with internet providers?

• Sometimes incumbent providers have little incentive to invest and innovate. That’s just the way it is. The more effective question is: what are you going to do about it? There are a range of possible responses, from controversial to not controversial. Government can build its own communication network. If you do this, you change the conversation. Providers have just lost a big customer, and they know you know how to do what they do. Another community passed zoning regulations that required all new construction. Set up your own non-profit coops to offer your own telecommunication services.
• What are some ways that other communities are talking about broadband without talking about broadband?

The most important thing to talk about is that it is about your children. Every community wants to be a place where you can raise your children and where their children can stay and find work. That’s a great starting place: do you want your community to be a place where 20 years from now it is still here, and still a great place to live? It’s absolutely about the people. Technology is the easy part.

• It’s also about change. People are always resistant to change. A phrase: you may not like change, but you’ll like obsolescence even less. Change is going to happen whether we are on board or not. Intelligent Communities have decided to cease their own destiny, rather than let others decide.
• Advocacy is a particular challenge. Talking about BB as the “new infrastructure,” especially with our elected officials, being of the generation they are, there is a disconnect in terms of their priorities for infrastructure. They tend to focus on roads, sewers, keeping the schools open. There are a lot of hard choices. What’s your best elevator speech for why this?
• It is the past and the future. You do need septic system and the lights need to stay on. But with lights on and good roads, what have you really done for your community? You need to create the next growth opportunity. You are not going to do that by keeping the roads nice. It is about the future.
• It’s not about broadband. It is about a quality of life issue. You almost have to make a personal connection with someone before they “get it.” There is a great opportunity for us to use the baby boomer generation to stay in their home longer… those applications.
• We are not just promoting broadband… we need to be using broadband ourselves. What I am most excited about is learning from• There could be five different elevator speeches. You could lead with any of the innovators…. Innovation, broadband, workforce, etc. They all interconnect.

Which Intelligent Community indicator gets the most attention in your community?

• In Benton County it is digital inclusion.
• Access…. Because without access we can’t think about the other indicators. Thanks to ARRA funding we can now look at other indicators.
• City of Windom: We’re getting most attention by focusing on knowledge work force and innovation aspects.
• The projects we anticipate through RFP process will most likely focus on digital inclusion. But as an economic developer, we are leading with innovation. But all of the indicators are inter-connected and inter-related. It all moves forward together. But it makes sense to pick an indicator to be the focal point. With our college we are linking our college to our high school and middle school, using science clubs, for example. We’d like to link the elementary schools, middle schools and high schools to make science labs digital and linked up with one another and across the globe. To allow students to have interactions with the universities. That should help to develop the knowledge work force, and that will facilitate innovation.
• When we bring in big companies, they usually have 2 questions: 1) where is the skilled work force coming from? and 2) we need access to a major university. I think broadband access is the backbone for addressing both questions.
• In Worthington we are trying to get our elderly out of their homes, because we have housing shortages. We are building a lot of senior living environments to free up housing stock.
• Yes – when we say “stay in their home,” we mean stay in the community. That’s where they want to stay.
• The goal is keeping them as independent as possible.
• Funding for assisted living is going to go away. You have to be careful in counting on that solution.
• You need to create an environment to attract/retain workers who can in turn support seniors. Seniors often shop locally.

Are boomers an obstacle?

• Yes!
• They do have disproportionate wealth and power.

The advocacy box is in my mind where our charge is. Is that the role of RDCs? Am I right?

• RDCs can focus within the advocacy role, but helping to match need with resources.
• We’re seeing a focus on need to increase the number of government services through broadband.
• We see big barriers for expanding e-government in our area because of the need to avoid violating open meeting laws.
• Are there data that show what is “acceptable” and what is not “acceptable” broadband?
• Don’t think of it as a number… ask the question, what do you need it for?
• What’s fun about this project is that we are building tools that citizens can actually access.
• Crow Wing County has cut 7 people in the Assessors’ office. They have been able to keep up with their workload because of their adoption of technology.