Weigh in on how to strengthen Greater Providence's knowledge economy

Posted on January 14th, 2008
By Jack Templin

As you may have heard:

The Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and the Providence Foundation -- together with a consortium of the state’s leading businesses, hospitals, colleges and universities – are leading a first-of-its kind effort to create a “Knowledge Economy Roadmap” for the Greater Providence region.

The project's consultant, New Economy Strategies LLC, defines today’s Knowledge Economy as: The industries and workers in a local economy that rely on the continued discovery and application of new knowledge, technologies, and management practices to increase their competitiveness.

Early indications suggest that info-tech & digital media is one of the top sectors on the project team's radar. So here's our chance to weigh in on what's working, what isn't, and how best to move forward.

Take the Survey

And here's some coverage of the study from the Providence Journal:

Greater Providence Chamber commissions study for growing city's knowledge economy

Providence must promote itself better

2 comments

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Chewitt

Submitted on February 1st, 2008 - 12:44pm link

Yesterday I attended the Municipal Wireless Summit in Toronto where I presented an update on the mesh network that provides mobile broadband data service to the Providence Police Department and other municipal agencies.

While there I heard Mayor Brenda Halloran of Waterloo, Ontario, speak about "intelligent Waterloo", a program that we in Providence ought to learn more about. It is an impressive initiative to develop the knowledge-based economy in the region around Waterloo. (For those who may not be familiar with Waterloo, it is the home of RIM, the folks who gave us the Blackberry, and of the University of Waterloo, a respected center of software development technology for the last three decades).

JackTemplin

Submitted on February 4th, 2008 - 4:15pm link

Charlie, Intelligent Waterloo is interesting - thanks. I especially found this intriguing:

The strategy is a direct result of the University of Waterloo's policy on the ownership of Intellectual Property. This revolutionary policy gave students and faculty ownership rights of IP developed at the University and resulted in a wave of entrepreneurship that propelled technology and innovation culture into the community. This rapidly encouraged leading edge intellectual and educational ideas at a grassroots level.

Also there seems to be a huge emphasis on municipal broadband.

And for those of you not aware of the Providence's mesh network that Charlie led the development, check out this Computer World article - it's a big deal.