Sunday, January 09, 2005
Here is an interesting commentary on the proposed Emerging Technology Fund in Texas. The writer, a business columnist for the Houston Chronicle, points to a good distinction between the technology fund proposal and the Texas Enterprise Fund, which is used as a superfund to attract companies to the state. Read more.
Investments in technology development, when properly structured, have a nigh potential payoff. The tricky part of technology investing comes in structuring investments to manage risk appropriately. The design of the Small Business Innovation Research grant program, first developed by the National Science Foundaiton in the late 1970's, provides a good model of risk management between public and private sectors.
Incentives for recruitment are a different story. These investments -- like the money North Carolina put in the Dell deal -- tend to leverage far less investment. The chances of finding high leverage pay-offs is very low.
posted by Ed Morrison |
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.
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.
Evaluating the Texas technology fund proposal
