You calling me a socialist? Tuesday, May 13, 2003 Governor Rendell in Pennsylvania has proposed an aggressive investment program to build Pennsylvania's innovation economy. He has touched off a vigorous debate about the role of state government in making the investments needed for the future. Learn the details. What we have here is a failure to communicate. Rendell, a Democrat and former big city mayor, looks at the world inductively. He sees a problem and looks for pragmatic ways to solve it. He looks for what works. Conservative state legislators look at the world deductively. Taking their cue from national politics, they start out with a model of the national economy and make logical, ideological arguments. My own view is closer to Rendell's. At the state and local level, ideological arguments do little to address the real problems we face. Today in our history of innovation... Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla received a patent for an electric generator. A highly productive electrical engineer, Tesla teamed with George Westinghouse, head of the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, who bought the patent rights to Tesla's polyphase system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers, and motors. The transaction precipitated a titanic power struggle between Thomas Edison's direct-current systems and the Tesla-Westinghouse alternating-current approach, which eventually won out. 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.

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