Investing in a new type of infrastructure Wednesday, March 05, 2003 Maine now leads the country in investing in a new type of economic development infrastructure: computers and software in schools. The New York Times (free registration required) reports on the success of former Governor Angus King's initiative to bring iBooks to every seventh and eighth grader in Maine. "Attendance is up. Detentions are down. Just six months after Maine began a controversial program to provide laptop computers to every seventh grader in the state, educators are impressed by how quickly students and teachers have adapted to laptop technology." The state's ambitious program triggered another windfall. In November, representatives of EDS announced a $400 million gift of state-of the-art software tools to Maine’s 7th 12th graders, their teachers, to the Maine Technical College, and the University of Maine Systems. To understand the economic development implications of this gift, the Economic Development Council of Maine devoted a portion of its mid-winter meeting to learning about the scope and impact of the EDA initiative. As EDPros, we need to start thinking through the new types of infrastructure that we need for our economies. Broadband is just part of the picture. As Maine's program shows, a good case can be made that our economic development infrastructure should extend to providing laptops to students. The payback comes in improved lifetime earnings. Here's an example of how that works. posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. links Some Background on EDPro Weblog The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it. One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site: Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber: Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking. Background on Ed Morrison Download some background information on me here.

The Web EDPro Weblog