Create West Virginia

Huntington Gets Even Greener

Richard Cobb is an advocate for Cabell County's neighborhoods. He is the chairperson of the Huntington Human Relations Commission, a member of the executive committee of the Cabell-Huntington Chapter of the NAACP and a past citizen member of the Herald-Dispatch Editorial Board. He founded Adopt YOUR Block - Be a Litter-Gitter, a litter abatement group that now numbers more than 1,400 community volunteers.  In 2006, Richard was a recipient of the national Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service.

Each resident of Huntington and Cabell County, who has joined the mission to make the area clean and green, has pledged to keep just the block on which they live free and clear of cigarette butts and litter. They focus on eliminating litter - one block at a time.  To date, the volunteers have removed over 250-tons of litter from their streets.  Plans include an advertising and educational campaign that will focus on changing the attitude and behavior of individuals who senselessly litter the area and state.

The group is now participating in the collaborative effort of the Create Huntington organization and are proud to be a part of this creative force of community political and business leaders, business, civic and fraternal organizations, along with private citizens. For more information, check out Richard's "Neighborhood Issues in Huntington and Cabell County" blog at http://media.herald-dispatch.com/blog/cobb/.

The Questions, My Friend?

On June 23, 2008, I posted an article called, “The Answer, My Friend?”  Its focus was wind energy as an alternative to mountain top removal mining.  Obviously, the title winks and tips its hat to Dylan; but it also paved the way for today’s post, “The Questions, My Friend?” 

Ken Ward writes in the Gazette today about the coal forum event engaging wind energy advocates and the coal industry:  “Dueling campaigns like the Coal Forum and the Coal River Wind Project offer competing views not just of the answers to the nation's energy problems, but conflicting ideas of what the questions themselves should be.”

Ward is right on the money.  Continued wrangling about the same old questions is intellectually and practically bankrupt.  New frameworks and fresh questions are necessary to propel West Virginians and the nation into the kind of innovation and problem solving necessary in the face of the 21^st century crucible of energy, environment, and economy.

Is it time to get serious about reforming the coal industry, or is it time to get serious about abandoning it for alternatives?  Or neither?  What are the short and long term consequences of the many different directions available to us?  Create West Virginia is committed to bringing open, honest dialogue to bear on these questions.  That is the dynamic we want to strike at the annual conference in October (see www.createwv.com for registration).  There will be a special breakout session on these questions and more, featuring top representatives of both the coal industry and of alternative energy.

It is going to take all of us to establish the right questions, and then to answer them with integrity and vision.  We hope you will come to conference ready to help rebuild the conversation about West Virginia’s future in these areas.  Please also post your thoughts here!

Posted by: Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200808181550

Making a New Generation of Innovators

One of the most exciting speakers at this year's Create WV Conference is Dale Dougherty. You may not have heard of him, but those in the publishing and Internet worlds certainly do. He was the co-founder of O'Reilly Media, one of the earliest and largest publishers of computer and software manuals. Today, he is credited with coining the term "Web 2.0" and is the publisher of one of the hottest new tech/innovation magazines, Make.

Dougherty spotted a new trend in 2002 that incorporated many diverse elements:

• Powerful, cheap electronics
• A software development and "hacker" community
• The crafting industry
• The green/recycling rage

The result? Make magazine, called a "recipe book of invention" by Forbes. It now has a paid circulation of 120,000 and is growing fast. Even more impressive, "Maker Faires" are popping up all over the country (one in San Mateo, CA, drew 65,000).

Dougherty says that "stuff", or physical objects, are becoming as customizable as software. He believes from innovative hobbyists will spring new technologies, companies and industries. "Why can't I do to my car what I do to my computer," he says. "We're seeing the collision of computers and stuff."

This is a keynote that you don't want to miss. We're even going to have a mini-Maker session of our own at the conference. What ramifications does the intersection of the physical and digital have for West Virginia and our heritage of handmade "stuff"?

Creative Class Roadkill

Dr. Richard Florida, the leading voice of the creative class concept, often highlights the fact that creative class workers cluster together in just a handful of major creative hubs in the U.S. and the world.

What does this mean for those regions that do not currently have the creative magnet industries? Should we give up and stick to traditional "old economy" industries, or work harder to develop critical mass and momentum in the creative industries?

Clearly we in the Create WV initiative believe in the latter. West Virginia may never achieve the creative industry scale of Southern or Northern California, or Boston, New York or Washington, DC/Northern Virginia. However, the creative sector already accounts for well over 1/4 of all West Virginia's jobs, and it is the fastest-growing segment according to Workforce WV reports.

Although West Virginia will never be a Detroit in terms of auto manufacturing (which is a good thing, these days), we can still be the very best we can be by building a high-tech auto manufacturing niche (which we have been doing). In the same way, there is no reason that West Virginia can't become a unique, attractive base for creative class entrepreneurs and workers who are more inclined to set up their creative shop in a rural setting than a major urban center. 

WV Student Voices Shout Disrupting Class

Read the comments from a just-released survey of WV's  middle and high school students. 

http://wvde.state.wv.us/tt/2008/survey2008.pdf

Compare that to the central themes of Disrupting Class - the customization of learning opportunities made possible by technology,  new roles for teaching professionals, making the case for different schools.

A match made in (Almost) Heaven

Education Innovation

  Dr. Curtis Johnson, co-author of Disrupting Class, will bring many stimulating ideas to the 2008 Create WV conference in October on how West Virginia schools can begin delivering children with the skills they'll need for 21st century success. The Charleston Daily Mail recently ran this story about his ideas on how schools need to be architected in order to foster the innovation required for global competitiveness.

On a related note, many folks aren't aware of the Mountain State Academy that exists in Beckley, WV. The private school is managed by Mountain State University and is one of the few private schools in Southern West Virginia. One of Dr. Johnson's mantras is that innovation in education must be achieved by setting up separate, small centers of experimentation so that innovative, effective educators are free to follow what they find works. Would setting up new pilot schools sponsored, managed or at least "adopted" by colleges and universities a way to achieve this in West Virginia?

Global Challenges CEO's Face

In a brief post on Harvard Business Publishing's blog (thanks Rich Shaffer), Umair Haque highlights four major challenges that CEOs and other leaders face in developing growth and long-term prosperity. The short summary:

• A crippled global financial system
• Endemic underinvestment in innovation
• Accelerating disequilibrium
• Shallow strategy

To a certain extent, West Virginia's long history of not being on the cutting edge of economic growth has shielded it from economic ups and downs the rest of the nation has faced (especially the bubbles of disequilibrium); instead, we are more at the mercy of coal economics. But as we seek to diversify our economy and grow new innovation-oriented sectors, these issues will become more relevant and urgent. Of particular concern is our lack of investment in innovation. Hopefully, Bucks for Brains is a small step in the right direction towards serious innovation and R&D investment, but we have a long way to go.

Disrupting Class-The Charleston Visit

On Aug.5-6, Dr. Johnson, co-author of Disrupting Class, spent some serious face time with individuals and organizations involved with public education in our state.  I don't know if it was his engaging manner, engaging message or just the fact that people wanted to be engaged, but he started a conversation about how WV could begin to manage its own disruption, that struck a positive note everywhere he went.  I believe the Education Track sessions will be Standing Room Only this year as we kickoff the Disruption.

I apologize that I cannot continue my summarization of Disrupting Class this post.  While Dr. Johnson and I were sitting down at the Charleston Marriott, a highly recognizable WV media entrepreneur, sat down close by.  It seemed a no-brainer at the time to give him my copy of the book and ask him to spend a few minutes with Dr. Johnson.  Dr. Johnson promised to send me a new copy of the book and, if our strategy works, you might see him on a Sunday morning talkshow in October. 

However, I can include a couple of thoughts from Turning Learning Right Side Up which I finished last week.  No, better yet, visit this website  http://www.sudval.org/ .  This is the school that the co-author of the book, Daniel Greenberg, helped to start.  Please take a moment to read their essays and learn about their approach to learning. 

Benchmarking Our Creative Efforts With the World

Now and then, it's a good thing to check in on other regions and their efforts to build a creative economy and attract the creative class of entrepreneurs/employees that are required for it to thrive. Here are a few groups around the country (and world). What can we learn from their successes and failures?

• Innovation Philadelphia
• Creative Alliance - Baltimore (Arts-centric)
• Midcoast Magnet - Maine
• EngenuitySC - Columbia, South Carolina region
• Creative Scotland
• Creative Economy - Australia
• China Daily - not a group, but a fascintating news article outlining China's approach

Most groups seem to tilt towards art or technology, but rarely both (with the exception of Innovation Philadelphia, which seems to "get it" the most that these things go together). Very few mention the critical role of 21st-century education and the innovation we desperately need in our school systems to prepare kids to be lifelong, creative thinkers/workers vs. "trained" employees.

In most cases, the broad pillars that support the creative economy are shared goals by several West Virginia groups. For example, Generation West Virginia seeks to attract and retain more young professionals. The Young Entrepreneurs Support Network seeks to connect budding business start-up owners. A few groups are focusing on strengthening the technology (TBED) and arts/cultural industries. Two groups are merging to focus more effort on community development. Most are associated in some form with Vision Shared funded by the Benedum Foundation.

One thing seems certain: West Virginia needs to carve out a creative niche in order to compete with the myriad of other regions seeking to build this aspect of their economy. It's critical that all of our West Virginia-based groups collaborate closesly for maximum impact. The good news is, in the creative economy, it's not a zero sum game. The more ideas, the more entrepreneurship, the more wealth that can be created and hopefully enjoyed by numerous regions.

Is Charleston Dying?

West Virginia ends up at the bottom of a lot of "best of" lists, but Forbes Magazine seems to take particular sadistic glee in showcasing what they perceive as our unworthiness. The latest? Charleston ends up on their "Top 10 Fastest-Dying Cities" list.

Our capital city ended right up there with Flint, MI, Buffalo and Detroit as cities where people continue to migrate out and jobs are scarce. Granted, Charleston continues to lose population (prompting Mayor Danny Jones and other leaders to seriously consider metro government as a stop-gap solution). However, even Forbes acknowledges that our job situation isn't nearly as bad as the other "dying" cities:

Of all the cities on our list, only Charleston currently has employment above the national average. Though its economy has grown slowly and the population of the area is older and shrinking, the West Virginia capital is a transportation hub for the region and is home to the state's banking and health care industries, as well as a cultural center.

Is Charleston dying? With the rise of FestivALL, the Clay Center, Appalachian Power Park and many other positive developments, it sure doesn't feel that way.

One discouraging impact of these lists, however, is the attitudes that can develop after so much bad news. Take a look at the "comments" section of the Charleston Daily Mail article about this ranking, and you get the sense that Charleston residents are pretty negative about their future. That's not a good sign. If we want our communities to change, it will be up to us...not the evil "others" who often get blamed for the state of affairs.

Charleston is a great small city. Visit almost any city of its size and you have to come away feeling pretty positive about what we have. The big question - how can we turn around the growth trends and get more people excited about this area?