WIRED Watch: California Monday, November 06, 2006 This week, I'm starting in new feature, WIRED Watch. the series of posts will explore how all regions are using the new Department of Labor initiative, Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) to develop new initiatives combining workforce and economic development. You can larn more about WIRED from this fact sheet. It is the most at innovative economic development program to come out o the federal government in the past twenty years. The Department of Labor is providing unprecedented flexibility to these regions to experiment with new alignments among their education, workforce development and economic development systems. The Employment and Training Administration, which administers wired, is also providing remarkable coordination among other federal agencies with in these regions. The WIRED initiative recognizes the remarkable challenges facing our country, challenges that have been clearly outlined in a series reports on innovation and work skills. You can read summaries of the 13 regions involved with WIRED here. In California, the WIRED regions stretches to 13 counties, called the Innovation Corridor. You can learn more about what is happening in California from this article. To learn more about the competitive challenges we face, download and reviewed these reports: Rising Above the Gathering Storm Innovate America Task Force on Future of American Innovation Tapping America's Potential Are They Ready to Work? Manufacturing Skills Gap Report Manufacturing in America 2004 Reports by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills 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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