The Smart Community: innovation and creativity are hallmarks
The Smart Community Concept
A smart community is a community that has made a conscious effort to use information technology to transform life and work within its region in significant and fundamental rather than incremental ways. The goal of such an effort is more than the mere deployment of technology. Rather it is about preparing one's community to meet the challenges of a global, knowledge economy.
Founded in 1997, the Smart Community program was created by John M Eger Van Deerlin Endowed Chair of Communications and Public Policy and Executive Director of the International Center for Communications at San Diego State University.
Creativity & Innovation
As we anticipate a whole new economy based upon creativity and innovation, the dawn of the "Creative Age," as the Nomura Research Institute put it, we are more acutely aware of the importance of reinventing our business strategies, our corporations, our communities, our schools, our housing and land use policies and more.
While creative industries, according to the Americans for the Arts, are defined as "arts-related," creativity and innovation are vital to the success of all businesses. To ensure our success and survival in this new economy, we must sharpen our focus on training, nurturing and retaining the next generation of leaders for the Age of Creativity and Innovation.
Ten Steps to a Creative and Innovative Community
- The " Creative and Innovative Community" must be well understood.
Becoming a creative and innovative community is about understanding the basic shift in the structure of the economy and society; and organizing to reinvent your community to meet these challenges. - Ownership of the Creative and Innovative Community Concept must be broadly communicated.
Because of the devolution of power, or the reverse flow of sovereignty, all individuals and individual communities -- down to and including the smallest neighborhoods, now have the ability to take ownership of this new future. Policies and programs, therefore, whether developed at the local, state or federal level, must be communicated broadly and well understood by all stakeholders in order for them to be successful. - A New Decision-making Mechanism must be created.
Because power has devolved, every individual must be persuaded, indeed enticed, to change the way life and work take place within his or her community. Toward that end, a new decision-making mechanism – or "collaboratory" -- involving all of the stakeholders, must be established. These stakeholders include businesses large and small, academe at every level from K-12 through the university, non-profit organizations throughout the community and government itself. - The Needs of the Community must be assessed and the community defined.
Geographical boundaries -- cities, towns, villages, and states, indeed even nation-states -- are being redefined by the convergence of technology and economics (the technology of telecommunications and computers, and the economics of a global economy). A first step to launching such an initiative, therefore, is determining the size and geographic limits of the community; and determining the community's needs and interests. - A Vision and Mission Statement must be developed.
Only after understanding the interests and concerns of a community can a vision and mission statement be developed. Often, this can be done in one day through a facilitation of key stakeholders and/or a survey of key stakeholders; and then codification into a one-page vision and mission statement prepared for widespread acceptance, leading to action. - Specific Goals and Priorities must be established.
After a community develops its vision and mission statement, the next step in the process is to articulate specific goals and priorities. These are best developed and refined by a number of working committees, which the collaboratory should establish. While each community may differ, most communities usually organize around functional areas such as health care, education, transportation, law enforcement, government services, economic development, and so forth. It is important to spend some time in defining the committee structure before establishing the committees themselves. - A Strategic Plan for the Creative and Innovative Community Concept needs to be drafted.
At this stage in the process, after a vision and mission statement is created, committees formed, and priorities established, a plan must be put in place to implement the development of an agenda for changing the laws, rules, regulations, and attitudes that must be changed in order to facilitate the development of both the new infrastructure and services that are deemed to be needed to nurture, retain and attract the creative and innovative workforce of the global knowledge age. - Responsibilities must be clearly defined and Timelines established.
At this juncture, it is also important to determine how this plan will be financed. Private/public partnerships and outsourcing may be the best methods for accelerating implementation of the plan. This is the opportunity to bring together private and public interests, to seek collaboration among and between industry, government at several levels, and the community at large. - Community Linkages must be made.
The vision of the future must be coordinated with all other elements of the community that affect, and are in turn affected by this fundamental plan. There is, for example, a new "architecture" to be developed that will involve zoning, land use and development; and art and culture initiatives to provide a magnet for downtown redevelopment. - Metrics must be established and progress constantly monitored.
After the headlines and the ribbon cutting, the real work must take place. Indeed, the business of creating a creative and innovative community is truly a multi-year and ongoing process. Mechanisms must be established to keep the energy and focus and commitment alive.
Civic pride, freedom of speech and action, a sense of place, sustainable environment are all part of making a community smart and creative. Too often being "civil" is misconstrued as simply being nice, getting along, or conflict avoidance. In fact, a civil society is one with a shared sense of mission and common goals - a "commonwealth." Being or becoming a civil society goes to the heart of the 21st century "city of the future."
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