Economic Development - A Social Approach
Welcome. My name is Hooman Radfar. I am a Pittburgh native and founder of Clearspring Technologies, a Carnegie Mellon University spin-out that is creating the fundamental technologies to power the next generation of the web.
While I am not working to improve the web, I am out trying to make our city a better place. One thing that I have discovered during my adventures in economic development is that there are a lot of good people working hard to improve the region. In fact, it was these good people that inspired me to launch this project with my friends Ed Engler and David Jaffe.
Many of the efforts to improve our city are extremely fragmented. There are a number of positive initiatives, but no initiative has the resources necessary to single-handedly jump-start a self-sustaining pattern of economic growth. The only way that we can move forward as a city is by moving forward together. Imagine the possibilities if all the people that care about Pittsburgh worked in concert, leveraging a shared set of principles to achieve the singular goal of promoting a forward-thinking culture and environment conducive to recombinative innovation.
The goal of this project is simple--connect people with ideas. I will try to update this site as regularly as possible with news, editorials, and other information. I encourage each of you to create your own blogs, post comments, and get your respective ideas on the table. If you send me the link to your site, or another relevant site, I will try to link back in a timely fashion. Economic development should not be left to board room discussions and closed meetings. This is a public issue. Accordingly, the public should contibute to policy-formation efforts. By leveraging our collective intelligence using this social medium, perhaps we can move towards the vision of southwestern PA as a nationally-recognized corridor for innovation.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions. This is a living project. I am not sure exactly where it will go, but that is half the fun!
While I am not working to improve the web, I am out trying to make our city a better place. One thing that I have discovered during my adventures in economic development is that there are a lot of good people working hard to improve the region. In fact, it was these good people that inspired me to launch this project with my friends Ed Engler and David Jaffe.
Many of the efforts to improve our city are extremely fragmented. There are a number of positive initiatives, but no initiative has the resources necessary to single-handedly jump-start a self-sustaining pattern of economic growth. The only way that we can move forward as a city is by moving forward together. Imagine the possibilities if all the people that care about Pittsburgh worked in concert, leveraging a shared set of principles to achieve the singular goal of promoting a forward-thinking culture and environment conducive to recombinative innovation.
The goal of this project is simple--connect people with ideas. I will try to update this site as regularly as possible with news, editorials, and other information. I encourage each of you to create your own blogs, post comments, and get your respective ideas on the table. If you send me the link to your site, or another relevant site, I will try to link back in a timely fashion. Economic development should not be left to board room discussions and closed meetings. This is a public issue. Accordingly, the public should contibute to policy-formation efforts. By leveraging our collective intelligence using this social medium, perhaps we can move towards the vision of southwestern PA as a nationally-recognized corridor for innovation.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions. This is a living project. I am not sure exactly where it will go, but that is half the fun!
posted by Hooman @ 5:40 PM
2 Comments:
At 8:20 AM,
Anonymous said…
I am glad to see that people are starting to speak out about these issues. Looking forward to reading!
At 5:17 PM,
Gary Rosensteel said…
HELP is happy to support one of our founding members in this endeavor as it aligns perfectly with our goals of improving the entrepreneurial environment in Pittsburgh
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