Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Maryland's EDPros are predicting a rebound in manufacturing. The state's Business and Economic Development mailed a survey to 3,400 manufacturers in April and received a 34% response rate.
That's remarkably high for a mail survey.
Just image, though, if you did this type of interview over the Internet. Instead of waiting for months to get the results -- it's now 3 months after the survey was mailed -- the Internet enables us to get these results in days.
That's the area I've been working on...creating engaging Internet interviews to enable EDPros to build on-line communities with their local companies.
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.
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.
Maryland predicts uptrend for manufacturers
