Forging Innovation

Viva La Resistance! - Parents Fight Back at USC

2006-03-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

According to the Post-Gazette:

A group of 10 Upper St. Clair families filed suit in federal court this morning claiming five members of the school board improperly voted to terminate the International Baccalaureate program in February.

At a news conference at the Upper St. Clair municipal building this morning, Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and lawyers from the firm Schmader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, said the suit claims five board members retaliated against parents, administrators and students who supported IB because they were publicly critical of the board members during the fall election and actively campaigned against them.

Yes! I am glad that there are some folks in USC that have the good sense to fight to save the IB program. Things like this definitely give me hope that Pittsburgh can continue to grow into a more progressive and forward-thinking region. Happy day. Later fan-boys.

Upper St. Clair Kills IB Program

2006-02-27T18:11:00.000-08:00

I am sad to say that the Upper St. Clair (USC) School Board has officially killed the International Baccalaureate program in a 5-4 vote. According to the Post Gazette:

Dr. Iracki and other newly elected members of the board expressed opposition to the program on the grounds that it is Marxist, anti-Christian, un-American and too costly.

As a native of USC and an older brother to a student that was participating in the program, I would like to go on the record stating that the decision is an embarrassment to the community and a step backwards for education in the region. I mean seriously, does the rationale of the school board sound like a load of "you-know-what" to anyone else? Marxist? Anti-Christian? un-American? Does this reek of McCarthyism to anyone else?

It amazes me that the esteemed members of the school board have elected to take away a key program that affords their most gifted students an edge in an increasingly competitive college application landscape. It only costs $80K/year. You are telling me the USC cannot afford that? Please.

For those of you that are interested in the issue, there is an interesting conversation on Madison's blog on the topic. I would love to hear your thoughts on the issue as well. Sheesh.

Pittsburgh Event - Mike Madison Attending HELP Meeting this Week

2006-02-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Mike Madison, Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh and author of Pittsblog, will be attending the monthly HELP meeting this Tuesday, February 21st, 5:30 - 7:30 pm. Upstairs Room, Doc's, Shadyside. See info below.

Michael Madison is THE hot blogger on entrepreneurship and business development in Pittsburgh. His blog post on the Allegheny Conference a couple of months ago was republished in the Post-Gazette and stirred up lots of discussion. Most of the "movers & shakers" keep a watchful eye on what Mike has to say, as he influences a lot of thought around town.

Mike is really "in tune" with what HELP is working for and is part of our efforts to have quarterly entrepreneurial meetups (see article on the left). Just like last month's meeting with Cori Shropshire, this will be a back and forth session with questions addressed to and from Mike.

It should be an interesting meeting. For those of you that are interested in getting a grassroots perspective on the Pittsburgh economic development scene, I highly recommend that you attend.

Former Allegheny Conference Guru is Blogging!

2006-02-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

Harold Miller, the former Allegheny Conference leader and economic development guru, is back- this time on the web. The Post-Gazette recently had a story discussing his new project Pittsburgh's Future. No surprise that Cori Shropshire did the story. She is always deep into this scene. By the way, Cori recently apprised me that somebody actually reads my blog. Who woulda thunk it!?! Hello Natalia - thanks for your support.

Anyway, I had the pleasure of meeting Harold last summer when HELP approached them for help (no pun intended) with a new "two-way" portal to accelerate entrepreneurial efforts in the region. This was part of my personal "push" to really understand the economic development scene in the region. Unfortunately, I was not overly thrilled with what I found/experienced. Alas, that is another story, for another time...

Long story short, Harold recently reached out to me and was kind enough to let me know that he recently moved into to Pittsburgh's corner of the blogosphere. He is a really smart guy and should have some interesting things to contribute to the discussion. I highly recommend checking out his blog whenever you have a chance.

Picture Story of Oakland Post Superbowl XL

2006-02-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

Pretty.

Pretty crazy.

Pretty Stupid.

You get the picture.

Pittsburgh First!

2006-01-21T13:52:00.000-08:00

I recently learned of a number of interesting Firsts that occured in Pittsburgh and the surrounding region. This is a great list of things to keep in mind when talking about Pittsburgh. It's a good reminder that Pittsburgh is really a world-class city - and that we can expect many more Firsts here in the years to come! It also means that all of you trying to achieve new Firsts are in very good company!

First Heart, Liver, Kidney Transplant - December 3, 1989 The first simultaneous heart, liver and kidney transplant was done at Presbyterian-University Hospital.

The First Internet Emoticon - 1980 The Smiley :-) was the first Internet emoticon, created in 1980 by Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist Scott Fahlman.

First Robotics Institute - 1979 The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University was established in 1979 to conduct basic and applied research in robotics technologies relevant to industrial and societal tasks. The college is still working on Robots ~~ in fact it is their robots used in the unmanned air crafts that fly over Iraq.

First Mr. Yuk Sticker - 1971 Mr. Yuk was created at the Poison Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh after research indicated that the skull and crossbones previously used to identify poisons had little meaning to the children of today (for most children it means exciting things like pirates and adventure). Covering 27 counties and 33 percent of Pennsylvania's population, the Pittsburgh Poison Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh is the largest such center in the United States.

First Big Mac - 1967 Created by Jim Delligatti at his Uniontown McDonald's, the Big Mac debuted and was test marketed in three other Pittsburgh-area McDonald's restauran ts in 1967. By 1968 it was a mainstay on McDonald's menus throughout the country and eventually, the world.

First Pull-Tab on Cans - 1962 The pull-tab was developed by Alcoa and was first used by Iron City Brewery in 1962. For many years, pull-tabs were only used in this area.

First Retractable Dome - September 1961 Pittsburgh's Civic Arena boasts the world's first auditorium with a retractable roof. (This is still being used although the Hockey team wants to tear it down and build a new building).

First U.S. Public Television Station - WQED - April 1, 1954 WQED, operated by the Metropolitan Pittsburgh Educational Station, was the first community-sponsored educational television station in America and was also the first to te lecast classes to elementary schools (1955).

First Polio Vaccine - March 26, 1953 The polio vaccine was developed by Dr. Jonas E. Salk, a 38-year-old University of Pittsburgh researcher and professor, and his staff at the University of Pittsburgh.

First All-Aluminum Building - ALCOA - August 1953 The first aluminum-faced skyscraper was the Alcoa Building, a 30-story, 410 foot structure with thin stamped aluminum panels forming the exterior walls. (This building is still being used today.)

First Zippo Li ghter - 1932 George G. Blaisdell invented the Zippo lighter in 1932 in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Although hardly a community "in the surrounding area," you can even find the name of the manufacturing location, either Bradford or Niagara Falls, Canada, stamped on the bottom of every Zippo lighter. The name Zippo was chosen by Blaisdell because he liked the sound of the word "zipper" - which was patented around the same time in nearby Meadville, PA.

First Bingo Game - early 1920's Hugh J. Ward first came up with the concept of bingo in Pittsburgh and began running the game at carnivals in the early 1920s, taking it nation-wide in 1924 . He secured a copyright on the game and wrote a book of Bingo rules in1933.

First U.S. Commercial Radio Station - KDKA - November 2, 1920 Dr. Frank Conrad, assistant chief engineer of Westinghouse Electric, first constructed a transmitter and installed it in a garage near his home in Wilkinsburg in 1916. The station was licensed as 8XK. (Now there's a real trivia question) At 6 p.m. on Nov. 2, 1920, 8KX became KDKA Radio and began broadcasting at 100 watts from a makeshift shack atop one of the Westinghouse manufacturing buildings in East Pittsburgh.

The First Gas Station - December, 1913 In 1913, the first automobile service station, built by Gulf Refining Company, opened in Pittsburgh at Baum Boulevard and St. Clair Street in East Liberty. It was designed by J. H. Giesey.

The First Baseball Stadium in the U.S. - 1909 In1909 the first baseball stadium, Forbes Field, was built in Pittsburgh, followed soon by similar stadiums in Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, and New York. Forbes Field closed in 1970 when Three Rivers Stadium opened. PNC Park is the newest replacement, accepted as perhaps the best ballpark in the country, which opened in 2001.

First Motion Picture Theater - 1905 The first theater in the world devoted to the exhibition of motion pictures was the "Nickelodeon," opened by Harry Davis on Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh.

First Banana Split - 1904 The banana split was invented by Dr. David Strickler, a pharmacist, at Strickler's Drug Store in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

The First World Series - 1903 The Boston Pilgrims defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates five games to three in baseball's first modern World Series in 1903. The Pirates lost the final game 4-3, before a crowd of 7,455 in Boston. Four of the series' games were played in Pittsburgh.

First Night World Series Game - 1971 Game 4 of the 1971 World Series was the first night game in Series history. Pittsburgh tied the series in that game with a 4-3 win and went on to win the series, 4 games to 3. This was one of the last big moments in the career of well-loved Pirate, Roberto Clemente. Fourteen and a half months after the 1971 World Series, he died in a plane crash off the coast of his native Puerto Rico as he attempted to take food, clothing and medical supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

First Ferris Wheel - 1892/1893 The first Ferris Wheel, invented by Pittsburgh native and civil engineer, George Washington Gale Ferris (1859-1896) was in operation at the World's Fair (Columbian Exposition) in Chicago. It was over 264 feet high and was capable of carrying more than 2,000 passengers at a time.

Long-Distance Electricity - 1885 Westinghouse Electric developed alternating current, allowing long-distance transmission of electricity for the first time.

First Air Brake - 1869 The first practical air brake for railroads was invented by George Westinghouse in the 1860s and patented in 1869. In the same year he organized the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. With additional automatic features incorporated into its design, the air brake became widely accepted, and the Railroad Safety Appliance Act of 1893 made air brakes compulsory on all American trains.

Not bad for a city known for it's FORMER SMOKE! If you know of some more Firsts, please post them!

Hot Technology Companies Leveraging Carnegie Mellon

2005-12-21T10:25:00.000-08:00

Google has recently been added to the list of technology power-houses that have set up shop in Pittsburgh in order to leverage the top-flight talent and ideas out of Carnegie Mellon University.

Creating and commercializing innovation is the key to creating a self-sustaining economy. By putting together leading academic researchers from places like Carnegie Mellon and Pitt with private sector firms, the probability of creating commercially viable research technologies goes up tremendously. Not only will this fuel innovation, but they create jobs. It is also estimated that Google's move will result in 100+ new jobs in Pittsburgh. Not bad eh?

This is definitely a step in the right direction. I applaud CMU for making it happen and hope that we continue to make it easier for high-technology companies to come to Pittsburgh and build our economy.

Pittsburgh Boom?

2005-12-05T20:36:00.000-08:00

I recently stumbled upon an article in the Post Gazette discussing the burgeoning real estate market in Pittsburgh. According to the author, "the Pittsburgh region is on the verge of another building boom, with more than $3 billion in projects underway or ready to break ground." Oddly enough, in the same sitting I also read an article discussing how entrepreneurs have tended to favor "college towns." That is particularly interesting given the recent post on the HELP blog, as well as my own post regarding creating a research-oriented, college town, focus to economic development in Pittsburgh. Maybe with a couple smart moves by our community leaders, we could bolster the growth spurt associated with real estate and advance projects that contribute to the development of a region driven by academic innovation.

Thinktank in Pittsburgh

2005-11-28T11:09:00.001-08:00

I recently found out about this company from Madison's blog. The folks at Thinktank have come up with a pretty interesting business that enables cash-strapped innovators to take advantage of a communal work space and shared resources. This could lead to some interesting things. Very cool. Best of luck guys!

Building Awareness

2005-11-22T06:42:00.000-08:00

Hooman points out some of the wonderful highlights that our community has to offer. These, among many others, make this a great place to live. Still, we hear complaints about the business environment on a regular basis. I helped survey the entrepreneurial community regarding the business environment last year. We asked about 30 entrepreneurs what they liked and disliked about the region and what they needed more of to be successful. Interestingly, there was no one consistent complaint. Some complained about a lack of capital. Others about a lack of experienced leadership. Yet others complained about a lack of local customers willing to buy their product. All of these complaints ring true to some extent, but it dawned on me that perhaps our biggest problem is a lack of awareness of what resources are already here. For each of these problems you can point to multiple companies that have successfully overcome them without leaving the region. Without a doubt we need to improve in all of these areas, among many others, but let's be sure we're leveraging all of the resources we already have. Pittsburgh is chock full of great companies and people who work tirelessly but don't publicize themselves very well, if at all. Many of these companies are well-known in their industry or niche. They spend their precious marketing dollars targeting high-value prospects, not educating the masses about their existence. We can't expect them to spend their valuable time doing press releases about how much they're doing for our community, but there they are, creating jobs and adding value to customers day in and day out. It's up to us to seek them out and to learn about those areas that are of greatest interest to us. Unfortunately, learning about what's here is often harder than just a quck Google search, although you can find a lot that way. Many resources are only available through networks of people. Some might call this the "old boys network", and that network certainly runs deep in Pittsburgh. I'd claim that the network is open to anyone willing to make the effort to get tied into it. Mark Desantis recently wrote the following article that helps differentiate those who are in the network from those who aren't: http://www.formation3.com/articles.htm. It's up to each one of us to get into the network and find out what's going on. Only through personal interaction will we achieve the kind of collaboration and innovation that will drive our region forward in an accellerated fashion. So, get out there and find out what's going on and how you can help others!

Some interesting resources we have in our community that folks may not be aware of or not taking advantage of adequately include:

Angel investors and the networks that bring them ideas

Blue Tree Investors
AGT
Smithfield Trust
SPAN

Networks and networking events

http://www.scorepittsburgh.com
http://www.productstrategynetwork.org
http://www.pghtech.org/Networks/default.asp

http://www.jessicaleesong.com/ET.htm
http://www.tiepgh.org
http://www.mitforumpgh.com

If you have found sources of capital or expertise that people may not be aware of, I invite you to share them here. See you at the events!

Ed

Pittsburgh Positives!

2005-11-17T17:21:00.000-08:00

As promised, I am going to try to run through the brighter side of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has so many great qualities. There are so many, in fact, that I cannot list them all. I will try to list a couple though. I will probably take a more sophisticated stab at this later. Let me know what you think. Not bad though, eh?

- Nationally leading research institutions (Carnegie Mellon, Pitt)
- Recognized college town (CMU, Pitt, Duquesne, Chatham, Carlow, W&J, etc)
- Recognized center for the arts (Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Museum, Warhol)
- #1 Ranked City that Rocks by Esquire for emerging music
- Home to one of the best health care systems in the world (UPMC)
- #1 Ranked Baseball Park according to Readers Digest
- Home of 4 time superbowl, 5 time division NFL champion Steelers
- 7th best city to "Live and Play" by Men's Journal
- 7 Fortune 500 company headquarters
- Concentration of affluent individuals/families (Hillman, Mellon, Heinz, Scaife)
- History of innovation (Mellon, Carnegie, Westinghouse, Rockwell, Schwab)
- Big city ameneties, small-town values
- Low cost of living
- Fantastic airport
- Beautiful skyline
- Stong non-profit foundations to promote the region
- Strong manufacturing industry

Ed Engler Joins Forging Innovation

2005-11-17T07:09:00.000-08:00

Ed Engler, a regular commenter on the Forging Innovation site, has joined the contributor team. We figured since Ed contributes such wonderful comments so regularly, why not just let him post directly to the site! As founder and CEO of Summa Technologies, Ed is a recognized leader in the entrepreneurial community and should have some fantastic things to say.

Mudslinging in Pittsburgh

2005-11-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

As an active member of the community, I make it a point to follow the news associated with state-funded, economic development organizations such as Idea Foundry, Innovation Works, Allegheny Conference, Pittsburgh Technology Council, etc.

Recently, there has been a lot of noise around the community about the progress that is being made by those organizations. Some of these organizations, like the Allegheny Conference, have received more attention than others. One side of the camp argues that organizations such as the Allegheny Conference serve no purpose. Their efforts ultimately are a waste of money and may even be deleterious to the general growth of the economy. On the other side of the camp, there are those individuals and organizations that staunchly defend these organizations. These folks claim that our economic development organizations have made massive progress and are leading us towards a brighter future. Who do we believe?

I don't really care. Why? Because it doesn't matter. Regardless of how we got here, we are here now. Let's do something about it. It is essential that we stop the mudslinging, stop pointing fingers, and start to work together as a community. There is no right, or wrong side. These organizations have done good things for the city. Whether they can do better, or not--that is another question. In my humble opinion, they most certainly can. You can always do better. In this particular case, it is clear that they not only have to do better, but have no choice in the matter if our region is to move forward.

Ultimately, however, critics of the economic development community are right on one thing. Our goal as a city should be to eliminate economic development organizations. These organizations were ostensibly formed to foster an environment of self-sustaining growth. If they are effective in achieving their goals, we should have an economy so vibrant that their presence is no longer required. What do you think?

Ok, we have problems--What do we do?

2005-11-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

I will be the first to admit that I am not the only person in Southwestern PA that recognizes we have some serious economic challenges to address--fast. I will also go so far as to say that there is a select group of folks that actually have uncovered the same systemic problems that are the root of our troubles. Some of these problems include our social network structure, culture of incrementalism, and inefficient innovation architecture.

That's great. We all know we have problems. What the heck do we do about it? People always ask me if I had to pick one thing for our community to go after, what would it be? Would I invest in a particular sector like en silico biology, semiconductors, or robotics? Would I create an investment arm to funnel risk capital into new businesses? Would I create an organization to facilitate programs to help educate and network the local corporate community? Well...no.

If I had to bet on anything, I would put my money into transforming Pittsburgh into a hot-spot for collaborative research between the government, private sector, and academic community. Why? I thought you would never ask. Pittsburgh's greatest strength is its world-class research institutions. Hundreds of millions of dollars are invested each year at Carnegie Mellon and Pitt to produce cutting-edge technology and life sciences research. Creating a collaborative research park will leverage these existing strengths and address the systemic problems in our regional infrastructure, while creating a self-sustaining mechanism to fuel economic growth.

Why would companies participate? It is simple. Universities invest millions to conduct exploratory research that most private sector companies cannot justify investing in alone. This structure would provide companies a simple way to leverage university innovation with minimal risk through the establishment of a research facility in a low-cost city. We could bolster private sector incentive to pursue this unique opportunity with government tax breaks and subsidies. Carnegie Mellon has started the process with their Collaborative Innovation Center. Technology super-powers Intel and Apple have already set up shop. More could follow, if we just stay the course.

This park will have immediate impact on job creation. Just look at how many jobs were created by Seagate coming to Pittsburgh. Imagine how many more jobs could be created if we manage to bring in other world-class technology firms. A collaborative research park will serve to foster cross-sector social ties by putting together folks from variety of communities. Academics, business professionals, financiers, and lawyers will all be connected in order to facilitate the transactions necessary to create and support this initiative. This dense network will provide the essential vehicle to transition the inevitable flood of innovation from concept to commercialization. As rates of innovation increase, it stands to reason that we will see an influx of investor dollars from outside the region intended to capitalize upon new technologies. Capital always flows towards opportunities with the highest return. Wealth creation associated with commercialization will have a positive feedback effect and fuel further development. Service providers will have incentive to set up shop in the region to facilitate the growing business community.

This initiative will also have a profound effect on the culture. Research and university settings tend to be youth-centric. Initially, the best and brightest engineers and scientists will have opportunities to stay after finishing school. As more businesses are attracted to the area such as consultancies and other service providers, students in other disciplines will also have access to the lucrative opportunities available in high-profile cities like New York and Boston. It goes without saying that an increased youth population will not only enliven the region with an infusion of talent, but also with some fresh ideas.

In short, this is a great goal to shoot for. It is not a panacea, however. We still have to work to create a unified economic development community and single brand for our region. Transportation issues remain problematic. Our city and county government need to be streamlined. Universities need to actively work with the private sector and government to shape policies that will increase the rates of commercialization. Bottom line, however, is that this type of move would definitely be a step in the right direction. Regardless of what course our leaders choose, it is essential that they commit to a common vision and economize in mass to achieve it. Stay tuned. I will post more about this and other ideas in the near future.

Champions of Innovation

2005-10-29T15:53:00.000-07:00

Pittsburgh is a great place. It is going to take some bold execution and great deal of vision, however, to transform the area into a hotbed for innovation. As I have explored the economic development scene, I have had the opportunity to meet with some folks that might just be able to pull it off. Some key players to keep your eyes on our listed below. If you know any other folks that are making waves--let me know!

Jared Cohon
The visionary president of Carnegie Mellon University is hard at work rallying Pittsburgh super-powers to join forces to improve the region. As a highly influential Pittsburgher, Jerry is leveraging Carnegie Mellon's vast resources to pump-prime innovation in the region. Under his leadership, Carnegie Mellon attracted technology tech titans Apple and Intel to Pittsburgh to conduct cutting-edge research in the brand new Collaborative Innovation Center.

Frank Demmler
As part of a new leadership team at Innovation Works, Frank is working hard to spur radical innovation in the area by embracing high potential start-ups at the earliest stage and helping them take root in Western PA. Frank has been around the block and back, so look for some great things out of IW in the near future.

Bill Peduto
This city council member has been shaking things up in the local Pittsburgh political scene, pushing some bold ideas including consolidating city and county services and creating a unified economic development front for our region. This no-nonsense politician has already turned some heads with his fresh perspective. I am excited to see what he can pull off.

Gary Rosensteel
The outspoken CEO of local IT startup DigiBrix has taken economic development into his own hands with a grass-roots effort called HELP (Helping Entrepreneurs Learn from Peers). This group's mission is to provide a safe-haven for leaders of entrepreneurial companies to discuss challenges they face. This tremendously successful effort has garnered the attention of some of the established economic development forces such as the Allegheny Conference and Pittsburgh Technology Council.

Cori Shropshire
Local reporter Cori Shropshire knows the state of innovation in the region and has made it her mission to make sure Pittsburgh does too. Cori makes it her business to stay in tune with the local technology scene using her vast network of connections to start-ups and local business leaders. Her "tell it like is" like it is attitude is helping the community actively understand our strengths and weaknesses as a region. I expect that we will only see more of her work gracing the Post Gazette in the future.

Don Smith
As VP of Economic Development for the twin towers of education in the city, Carnegie Mellon and University of Pittsburgh, Don has the unique ability to forge the economic development policies of these two academic powerhouses and improve the region. One of the key initiatives that Don has championed is the KIZ (Keystone Innovation Zone) program. The goal of the KIZ program is to create "knowledge neighborhoods" around local universities, transforming these communities into technology incubators.

Editorial: Brain Drain

2005-10-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

Today I had the pleasure of participating in a Career Cluster Event hosted by Chartiers Valley Highschool. One of the primary goals of this event was to help young people in the south hills area to "chart their course" and promote Western PA. During the event, I had the opportunity to chat with Bill Peduto and some other folks about the state of our local economy. One issue that seemed to resonate with all of the folks was the "brain-drain" issue.

For those of you that are not familiar with this issue, it is pretty simple. Lots of smart young people are fleeing Pittsburgh. Why are all of our best and brightest leaving? Simple--lack of opportunity. What opportunities are young people most concerned about? I thought you would never ask.

1. We want to have ample opportunity to establish relationships with other young people
2. We want a chance to make it big--high-powered jobs, rapid advancement, $$$
3. We want to have fun--it has to be easy to get around to a variety of places that provide (1)

That's it. How does Pittsburgh rate on this list?

1. Well, I wouldn't be writing this if that was working out ok.

2. I doubt anyone would say Pittsburgh is the place to go to strike it big. How many investment banks, management consulting firms, venture capital firms, and start-ups, do you see here? Better yet, how many young executives (under 30) do you see in Pittsburgh?

3. I always hear about our bus line. When was the last time you hopped on a bus to go out Friday night?

For those of you that do not seem to think this is a big deal, I challenge you to find a single person under the age of 28 that: (a) has not seen the majority of their friends leave the city, (b) does not have friends that plan to leave in the near future, or (c) or are not planning to leave the city themselves. If you are older and think, "this does not affect me," think again. This is a simple situation. Young people leave. Old people stay. City go bye.

There is nothing wrong with saying there is a problem. No place is perfect. What is wrong is to acknowledge the problem and then refuse to do anything about it. Pittsburgh is an amazing city. It is absolutely beautiful. We have strong universities and a strong community. But we can do better. We are a city forged by innovators--let's act like it. Our leaders need to work together, get out of the boardrooms, and start talking to people. When was the last time you saw a 20-something in a meeting involving the formation of economic development policy? Probably never. If you want to know why young people are leaving--ask. If you want us to stay, give us a reason to.

That's all folks. Go Steelers.

A Call to Action

2005-10-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Economic development advocates have long debated the appropriate mechanisms through which they can effectively stimulate the growth of the regional economy. Although economic development organizations and community leaders have undoubtedly made progress positively impacting the growth of the region, their fragmented efforts have clearly not gained the critical mass necessary to establish a pattern of self-sustaining growth. This is evident from the mass exodus of our youth population and low start-up retention rates.

We must recognize the reality of the situation. These issues need to be addressed with an increased sense of urgency. If we do not act as a community, the long-term path dependent effects may become irreversible. It is incumbent upon local leadership to take immediate action together. No single group, policy, or investment plan can affect the magnitude, or trajectory, of our economic growth. Our leaders must work in concert to institute a coordinated set of policies to revitalize the region. These policies must be derived from a fundamental set of guiding principles. Guiding principles must be simple and involve the entire community.

Policies derived from guiding principles must leverage our strengths as a region and harness the core competencies of organizations already in existence. The goal is not to reinvent the wheel, but to instead to promote a unified economic development while minimizing the amount of change with respect to current infrastructure over time. More importantly, these policies must address the systemic nature of the problems afflicting the region and contribute to the singular goal of promoting a forward-thinking culture conducive to self-sustaining, recombinative innovation. Recombinative innovation is the reorganization of capital into value-generating structures that attract further capital and contribute to positive feedback mechanisms and agglomeration effects. This force is responsible for the patterns of self-sustaining growth associated with high-impact, economic clusters such as Silicon Valley and Route 128.

This is not going to be an easy. A few brave leaders must step forward. These leaders must abandon individual politics and act selflessly for the greater good. They must make choices in the face of uncertainty. They must be willing to persevere as the very people they are fighting for provide the greatest opposition to the changes they seek to institute. That is the price of leadership.

Who is willing to pay the price?

Quotes for Friends

2005-10-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

You ever have one of those weeks? Well, this week was most certainly one for your friendly neighborhood Hoo. Well, to all my friends out there who are daring to be bold in the face of adversity, be strong. Here are some fun quotes for you. In the coming posts, I will dive into some fun economic development issues. Good night fan-boys. Back to work for this cat. Enjoy!

"A big wave carries a lot of surfboards"
- Californian venture capital adage

"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats."
--Howard Aiken

"There's no idea that an MBA cannot analyse to the point where it's not worth pursuing."
- General Doriot, America's first VC

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"An inventor is simply a person who doesn't take his education too seriously. You see, from the time a person is six years old until he graduates form college he has to take three or four examinations a year. If he flunks once, he is out. But an inventor is almost always failing. He tries and fails maybe a thousand times. It he succeeds once then he's in. These two things are diametrically opposite. We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work."
-- Charles F. Kettering

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself."
-- Prefontaine

"We will either find a way, or make one. "
-- Hannibal

"God is with those who persevere"
--The Holy Koran

HELP Pittsburgh Blog Goes Live!

2005-10-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

I have started to update the "links" section of this blog. The first link on this site is to my good friend Gary Rosensteel's blog. Gary is the ring-leader behind HELP. HELP is a grass-roots organization that is basically a bunch of entrpreneurs helping other entrpreneurs out. It is a fantastic project and I hope that it continues to pick up steam. Please check out his blog for regular postings on HELP's efforts to improve the state of entrepreneurship in the region. That's all for this fanboy--back to weaving a better web!

Economic Development - A Social Approach

2005-10-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

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!