News Articles

That is the title of a column in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about how government is now trying to take advantage of web 2.0 technologies.  Here are a couple key excerpts...

You don't need to have a Facebook account, or to have edited a Wikipedia entry, to understand that the Web is in another highly disruptive period. Online tools under the rubric Web 2.0 are changing how information flows, with social networks letting people communicate directly with one another. This is reversing the top-down, one-way approach to communications that began with Gutenberg, challenging everything from how bosses try to manage to how consumers make or break products with instant mass feedback.

The institution that has most resisted new ways of doing things is the biggest one of all: government. This is about to change, with public-sector bureaucracies the new target for Web innovators...

Daniel Mintz, chief information officer for the Transportation Department, has noted how radical it is for government agencies to engage in wikis. They challenge the traditional notion that "all published information produced by a government agency be 'accurate,'" and that "any material a federal employee publishes can be taken as establishing or implying the establishment of formal policy."

EDA's on-going series continues this week (Wed, 4/9 @ 3:00 pm EDT) with a webcast titled "Connecting Regional Economies to World Markets."

The agenda and registration are available here .

Late last year, the Brookings Institution began an effort called The Blueprint for American Prosperity focusing on how metropolitan areas drive economic growth.  Part of that effort looks at what the Federal role should be.  Specifically, the Brookings Institution states that:

Metropolitan areas cannot resolve their challenges alone. Counties, cities, and suburbs operate within a national policy framework, and face challenges bigger than their own capacities. What’s needed is a new partnership between federal, state, local, and private-sector players to help metropolitan areas build on their economic strengths, foster a strong and diverse middle class, and grow in environmentally sustainable ways. Over the next year, we will publish a series of policy papers outlining specific federal reforms.

Brookings has studied what DOL and our Federal partners have done under the WIRED Initiative as part of this effort.  Keep an eye on their Federal Role website as reports on WIRED and other Federal activities should be released in the near future.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the American Planning Association (APA) have partnered to provide expanded content on a variety of economic development topics including best practices, regional cooperation, entrepreneurship and innovation.

EDA will launch its monthly newsletter, quarterly telecasts/Webcasts and quarterly publication to reflect the changing and growing needs of the expanded economic development community.

Also, each newsletter will feature APA research and provide a variety of tools for economic development practitioners, community leaders and engaged citizens.

Over the next year, EDA and APA will explore various topics at the heart of the economic development community beginning with a focus on "the New Economy in the 21st Century." Throughout the first quarter, we will look at attributes of the changing economy and focus on strategies and investments that connect regional economies with the worldwide marketplace.

Through the partnership, EDA and APA will distribute the information necessary to continue to grow our nation's economy. EDA looks to serve as a clearinghouse of information and will solicit your feedback along the way.

Subscribe to the newsletter here .