The Triangle Business Journal has reported that North Carolina is ranked as the 7th most active clean energy job creator in the third quarter of 2012 (article). I'm remembering reading about quite a few solar and other clean energy projects coming on-line recently in the local area.
I'm sure that this number changes from quarter to quarter, but it is good for NC to have this ranking.
What do you think about clean energy in NC?
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
Citizen Diplomacy in Cary
If you are watching the Sister Cities Association of Cary (SCAC), you will note that there is rarely a time without lots of activity going on.
Citizen Diplomacy is a high visibility program started by the Sister Cities Commission in 2008 with an ambitious weekend-long program featuring Mary Jean Eisenhower*. (This was before the Town Commission was dissolved into the Association.**)
We only have ~4 months until the event which will be on March 21, 2013 from 6:30-9pm. Normally groups take a year planning something like this, but SCAC has event planning down to a seat-of-the-pants science! Some preliminary work was done to get the announcement in the Town's quarterly brochure so we are locked in on several details which may be constraining, but we will work with those.
SCAC will have a dinner program with a panel of 3 speakers; one from Business, one from International (State Department?) and one from the Non-Profit sector.
I'm looking forward to another great Cary program in the spring. Cary has a long history of citizen diplomacy, but I will leave that for another blog posting.
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* Mary Jean Eisenhower is the Executive Director of People to People International and is the Grand Daughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower who got the whole citizen diplomacy movement started with his summit on September 11, 1956.
** At their April 14, 2011 meeting, the Cary Town Council voted to approve Staff Report PR11-32 which included the removal of the Sister Cities Commission from the Town Ordinance. At that time the responsibilities of the Commission were transferred to the Association.
Citizen Diplomacy is a high visibility program started by the Sister Cities Commission in 2008 with an ambitious weekend-long program featuring Mary Jean Eisenhower*. (This was before the Town Commission was dissolved into the Association.**)
Side note: Thursday night was our latest 5th Thursday Social held at Mahoney's Pub. Several people showed up who had attended the last Citizen Diplomacy event at the Cary Arts Center on March 15, 2012 and want to get involved. Citizen Diplomacy is a great development tool for SCAC.The Citizen Diplomacy committee held our first planning meeting at Bocci's for lunch. Lots of good ideas, decisions and planning. This will be our 5th program in the series.
We only have ~4 months until the event which will be on March 21, 2013 from 6:30-9pm. Normally groups take a year planning something like this, but SCAC has event planning down to a seat-of-the-pants science! Some preliminary work was done to get the announcement in the Town's quarterly brochure so we are locked in on several details which may be constraining, but we will work with those.
SCAC will have a dinner program with a panel of 3 speakers; one from Business, one from International (State Department?) and one from the Non-Profit sector.
I'm looking forward to another great Cary program in the spring. Cary has a long history of citizen diplomacy, but I will leave that for another blog posting.
-----
* Mary Jean Eisenhower is the Executive Director of People to People International and is the Grand Daughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower who got the whole citizen diplomacy movement started with his summit on September 11, 1956.
** At their April 14, 2011 meeting, the Cary Town Council voted to approve Staff Report PR11-32 which included the removal of the Sister Cities Commission from the Town Ordinance. At that time the responsibilities of the Commission were transferred to the Association.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
P-TECH: Innovation in Education
The focus of the talk was different in that it dealt with how IBM is working in Corporate Citizenship / Socially Responsible Investing, or "whatever you call it," as Stan stated simply. The majority of the talk was about a way to change the education system to prepare students to start filling the gap of jobs going unfilled due to a lack of available skills in the workforce.
P-TECH
IBM has become very involved with the initiative at the P-TECH High School in Brooklyn. This is a 3-way partnership between IBM, the local College and the Department of Education.
What is P-TECH? Their website shows:
Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) is a new type of school that brings together the best elements of high school, college and the professional world.
P-TECH has an innovative grade structure of 9-14. Students can begin taking college courses in 10th grade and they graduate with a High School Diploma, an Associates Degree and a qualified record of skills.
Each student is paired with an IBM mentor and is part of a 4-5 member team competing against the other teams on some project-based topic. Curricula is taught more about how you can use it to bring value to a problem that you and/or your group is trying to solve.
Early College Model
The Early College Model is currently being looked at in North Carolina to solve the same skills gap.
With another P-TECH school ordered up in NYC and 5 in Chicago, maybe the Wake County Schools, Wake Tech and some big employers in the area can look at the P-TECH model as well?
More Information
For more information about P-TECH and the issues Stan Litow discussed this morning, a good resource is this article in the US News and World Reports: "U.S. Needs New Educational Model for Economic Growth"
IBM released a playbook designed to outline "how to develop an innovative grades 9-14 school that connects education to economic development and good-paying jobs."
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Cary Ranked #9 in Competiveness
Cary (actually the Raleigh-Cary MSA) just ranked #9 in competitiveness and job growth across the 100 most populous U.S. metros.
EMSI (Economic Modeling Specialists International) have just published an analysis using "a standard economic analysis method called shift share, focusing on overall job change from 2010 to 2012."
Richard Florida has also commented on this in his latest article "These Are the Cities That Can Show Us How to Create Jobs".
The hard work of Economic Development in the area is really paying off!
EMSI (Economic Modeling Specialists International) have just published an analysis using "a standard economic analysis method called shift share, focusing on overall job change from 2010 to 2012."
Richard Florida has also commented on this in his latest article "These Are the Cities That Can Show Us How to Create Jobs".
The hard work of Economic Development in the area is really paying off!
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
When is Technology Counterproductive?
This is a good question. Is all Technology helpful? Do you need a sledgehammer to swat a fly?
I'm troubled that the Technology Task Force (TTF) for the Town of Cary is suffering from a continuing onslaught of technology tools to assist us with our mission. Each technology offering comes with its own adoption curve due to training and/or paradigm change. The onslaught is self-inflicted to be sure.
It seems that the TTF has succumbed to the lure of technology tools to creatively tell our story rather than just telling our story. We now have a hodge-podge of tools we should be using. Time will tell, but we only have a few more meetings...
What is your experience with technology adoption?
I'm troubled that the Technology Task Force (TTF) for the Town of Cary is suffering from a continuing onslaught of technology tools to assist us with our mission. Each technology offering comes with its own adoption curve due to training and/or paradigm change. The onslaught is self-inflicted to be sure.
It seems that the TTF has succumbed to the lure of technology tools to creatively tell our story rather than just telling our story. We now have a hodge-podge of tools we should be using. Time will tell, but we only have a few more meetings...
What is your experience with technology adoption?
Saturday, August 18, 2012
NC Startup News
Exciting things are coming to North Carolina for startups! The Startup America Partnership Program is coming to NC with the Startup NC Launch event at the RTP Foundation headquarters on Monday August 20! On Tuesday August 21, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) will be hosting the Startup Resource Fair held again at the RTP Foundation headquarters. Tickets are still available.
What a great place to network and find out what is going on with the startup environment in the area. I will be there and will let you know what I found interesting at these 2 events.
What a great place to network and find out what is going on with the startup environment in the area. I will be there and will let you know what I found interesting at these 2 events.
Monday, August 6, 2012
A Change in Perspective and Back...
Tonight was one of those rare moments where you get to see another side of the story, especially another side of a story that up until now irked you. A story that you had researched and could find no reason for why the story was playing out the way it was.
I sat in on the Information Services Advisory Board (ISAB) for the Town of Cary. As the newly appointed Chair of the Technology Task Force, I wanted to find out why the Task Force was needed in the first place and why the recent social media channels rolled out by the Town seemed to be so primitive in their use of these new media channels (Note - These are my opinions only and I am the only one responsible for them...) See here, here, here and here.
I will mention that I was the only citizen sitting in on this open meeting. My views had already been sent directly to the Town PIO, Susan Moran, and despite her claiming very bad vision, it is possible that all of Susan's comments in the meeting were skillfully directed at me. After a quick thought about my relative self-importance, I must discount this possibility and realize that Susan's comments and the meeting in general was a normal ISAB meeting.
All that the ISAB discussed in the meeting was social media!
What I will quibble about is the amount of time that the group will devote to developing their annual report to Council... Most of this ISAB meeting was devoted to brainstorming and trying to develop a "creative" way to deliver their report to Council. Since they *cannot* discuss anything ISAB related outside of the meeting, this will mean they will spend their next meeting (which will be extended beyond their normal 1 hour meeting) to develop their scripted and produced presentation of the annual report that was approved within minutes of the start of tonight's meeting...
If the volunteers develop a creative way to report a decision that was made by the public body, and if they will not expand upon or change this information, why do they need to meet in public??? When staff is directed to develop a report do they have to do it in a public forum? The presentation draft would have to be reviewed and approved at the next ISAB public meeting anyway so that it can be presented to Council... What a waste of volunteer time with over ~1/6 or ~17% of their time developing a way to report on their activities to Council!
Now I know why the Technology Task Force is required. How much time does the ISAB really have to advise?
I sat in on the Information Services Advisory Board (ISAB) for the Town of Cary. As the newly appointed Chair of the Technology Task Force, I wanted to find out why the Task Force was needed in the first place and why the recent social media channels rolled out by the Town seemed to be so primitive in their use of these new media channels (Note - These are my opinions only and I am the only one responsible for them...) See here, here, here and here.
I will mention that I was the only citizen sitting in on this open meeting. My views had already been sent directly to the Town PIO, Susan Moran, and despite her claiming very bad vision, it is possible that all of Susan's comments in the meeting were skillfully directed at me. After a quick thought about my relative self-importance, I must discount this possibility and realize that Susan's comments and the meeting in general was a normal ISAB meeting.
All that the ISAB discussed in the meeting was social media!
What I will quibble about is the amount of time that the group will devote to developing their annual report to Council... Most of this ISAB meeting was devoted to brainstorming and trying to develop a "creative" way to deliver their report to Council. Since they *cannot* discuss anything ISAB related outside of the meeting, this will mean they will spend their next meeting (which will be extended beyond their normal 1 hour meeting) to develop their scripted and produced presentation of the annual report that was approved within minutes of the start of tonight's meeting...
If the volunteers develop a creative way to report a decision that was made by the public body, and if they will not expand upon or change this information, why do they need to meet in public??? When staff is directed to develop a report do they have to do it in a public forum? The presentation draft would have to be reviewed and approved at the next ISAB public meeting anyway so that it can be presented to Council... What a waste of volunteer time with over ~1/6 or ~17% of their time developing a way to report on their activities to Council!
Now I know why the Technology Task Force is required. How much time does the ISAB really have to advise?
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