Solar Powered Medical Equipment from Dayton's Creative Class

In early March, under the leadership of SOCHE, Richard, Steven, Lou, Rana, and I worked with 32 catalysts in Dayton, Ohio. The energy of the people, the strength of the art community, the leading universities, and the culture of innovation (from the Wright Brothers to Wright-Patterson) made for an exciting couple of days.

I recently came across a great example of the Dayton's creative assets in action. This article from the University of Dayton highlights the winner of their recent business plan competition.

From the piece:

Salud del Sol, an innovative new business from a team of University of Dayton students aimed at bringing the 'health of the sun' to medical treatment in developing countries, took home the $10,000 first prize to help get the venture off the ground.

Winning the 2008 University of Dayton Business Plan Competition, the team of Lauren Dokes, Lori Hanna, Daniel Hensel and Anna Young created a business plan to develop and market solar cookers and solar-powered sterilizers.

Salud del Sol tapped other expertise at the University including engineering, international development and social entrepreneurship, according to project member Lori Hanna, a mechanical engineering major. The project – the basis of her senior honors thesis – grew from an internship in rural Nicaragua through UD 's Engineers in Technical Humanitarian Opportunities of Service-learning (ETHOS) program.

"Nurses have to travel to bigger health centers or hospitals to use sterilizers, sometimes traveling long distances by bus and spending precious time and money to have access to the equipment," she said.

This type of social entrepreneurship is becoming more and more of a calling card/career choice of members of the creative class and places that offer combinable creative assets -- including universities, mega region/international linkages, entrepreneurial institutions, and scientific talent -- will see sustainable growth and improvements in quality of place.

Who's Your Google?

We (Me, Richard, Avi from Google, Greg from Basic Books) are off to the Manhattan Googleplex this afternoon for the book launch of Who's Your City?  If you are attending or attended the speech, post your comments or questions here...

Happy Birthday, Lego!

Today, the Lego Brick turns 50!  Looking pretty good for something that old.  Props to Google for celebrating the event with a special logo.

As something that has triggered almost as much creativity as the crayon and the empty  cardboard box, it's something worthy of a mention on this blog.

Lego factoids:

• There are about 62 LEGO bricks for every one of the world's 6 billion inhabitants.

• Children around the world spend 5 billion hours a year playing with LEGO bricks.

• More than 400 million people around the world have played with LEGO bricks.

• LEGO bricks are available in 53 different colors.

• 19 billion LEGO elements are produced every year.

• 2.16 million LEGO elements are molded every hour, or 36,000 per minute.

• More than 400 billion LEGO bricks have been produced since 1949.

• Two eight-stud LEGO bricks of the same color can be combined in 24 different ways.

• Three eight-stud bricks can be combined in 1,060 ways

See the full set and a cool Lego timeline here.

posted by Kevin Stolarick

Good and Good for You

The latest issue of Journal of Health and Social Behavior reports on a study that looked at people's health and work.  It turns out that "creative" work is good for your health and that employees who have more control over their daily activities and can do challenging work are likely to be in better health.

“The most important finding is that creative activity helps people stay healthy,” said lead author John Mirowsky, a sociology professor with the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. “Creative activity is nonroutine, enjoyable, and provides opportunity for learning and for solving problems. People who do that kind of work, whether paid or not, feel healthier and have fewer physical problems.”

And although people who work give up some independence, the study found that being employed does lead to better health. One thing that surprised us was that the daily activities of employed persons are more creative than those of non-employed persons of the same sex, age, and level of education,” Mirowsky said.

The study, which appears in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, comprised 2,592 adults who responded to a 1995 national telephone survey and were followed up in 1998. The survey addressed general health and physical functioning, as well as how people spent their time on a daily basis and whether their work, even if unpaid, gave them a chance to learn new things or do things they enjoy.

“The health advantage of being somewhat above average in creative work [in the 60th percentile] versus being somewhat below average [in the 40th percentile] is equal to being 6.7 years younger,” Mirowsky said. It is also equal to having two more years of education or 15 times greater household income, he added.

Although the authors didn’t examine specific job positions that may confer this health advantage, professions considered not to involve a “creative” environment were those such as assembly lines.

Rather, jobs that are high-status, with managerial authority, or that require complex work with data generally provide more access to creative work, Mirowsky said. However, “People with a wide variety of jobs manage to find ways to make them creative. People with higher levels of education tend to have more creative activities, paid or not. Something about education helps individuals to find creative things to do and get the resources to do them.”

Sub required to get to the full journal article, but the American Sociological Association's press release is available here.

posted by Kevin Stolarick

Shameless Promotion

But, it was a really fun event, part of a Toronto series on the CreativeCity.

They posted a summary here.  It's interesting and it does reflect on both Toronto and why we are here.

posted by Kevin Stolarick

Want It All

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of 'heat maps' that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Want It All Map

Place to Retire

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of 'heat maps' that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Place to Retire Map 

Come back Monday to see next week's map: Want It All

Loyal Employees Stay Home

Andrea Coombes of the WSJ (sub req'd) wrote a piece last week highlighting a recent survey that found, "workers who telecommute from home or elsewhere, while still a very small portion of the work force, report the highest levels of satisfaction with their jobs and loyalty to their employers." The article has some great insights and mini-cases. Longer snippet below.

posted by David

Retired, Not Dead

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of 'heat maps' that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Retired, Not Dead Map

Come back Monday to see next week's map: Place to Retire

Good Second Home

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of 'heat maps' that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Good Second Home Map

Come back Monday to see next week's map: Retired, Not Dead

Just Wanna Have Fun!

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of 'heat maps' that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Just Wanna Have Fun! Map

Come back Monday to see next week's map: Good Second Home

Kids First

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of 'heat maps' that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Kids First Map

Come back Monday to see next week's map: Just Wanna Have Fun!

Room to Grow

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of 'heat maps' that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Room to Grow Map

Come back Monday to see next week's map: Kids First

Like Being a DINK

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of 'heat maps' that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Like Being a DINK Map

Come back Monday to see next week's map: Room to Grow

Starting a Family

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of 'heat maps' that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Starting a Family Map 

Come back Monday to see next week's map: Like Being a DINK

Big Corporation on Campus

Richard has written extensively on the role of the University in the Creative Economy... (check out the library for pieces by Richard including The University and The Creative Economy by Richard, Gary, Kevin, and Brian). His work has informed my work on the benefits of starting new ventures on campuses.

A recent story in the WSJ by Thaddeus Herrick (available w/out a sub via AOL) shows that corporations are beginning to try new strategies in leveraging the benefits of the university in the creative economy. Express Scripts, Inc., a company that does $18 billion in pharmacy benefits management, is relocating its HQ to the University of Missouri's St. Louis Campus. From the piece,

Getting Ahead

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of 'heat maps' that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Each map shows the best regions based on a variety of criteria all evenly weighted.  In this case, "Getting Ahead" shows the combination of cities that rate the best based on:

    Tolerance (higher is better)

    Growth

    Number of Creative Class young & single in the region

 

The criteria used for each map are listed & described in the region to the left of the map. 

Only data for major US cities (populations above 250,000) has been included.

The map itself is a heat map overlay on a standard Google Map.  So, all of the usual Google map features are available: pan, zoom in , zoom out, change the background, etc...

The "hotter" -- yellow areas are those places that do the best on the combined criteria.

Getting Ahead Map

Come back Monday to see next week's map: Starting a Family

Money to Party

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of 'heat maps' that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Each map shows the best regions based on a variety of criteria all evenly weighted.  In this case, "Money to Party" shows the combination of cities that rate the best based on:

    Overall Cost of Living (lower is better)

    Nightlife

    Rental Affordability (lower is better)

    Number of Creative Class young & single in the region

 

The criteria used for each map are listed & described in the region to the left of the map. 

Only data for major US cities (populations above 250,000) has been included.

 

The map itself is a heat map overlay on a standard Google Map.  So, all of the usual Google map features are available: pan, zoom in , zoom out, change the background, etc...

 

The "hotter" -- yellow areas are those places that do the best on the combined criteria.

Money to Party Map

Come back Monday to see next week's map: Getting Ahead

The Car of the Creative Class

The Creative Class clearly brings its own ethos to work, leisure, cities, and consumption. From the San Jose Mercury News (hat tip: ValleyWag), The Prius is the number #1 selling car in Silicon Valley. Thats right, the large US metro with the greatest % of CC in its workforce has made the Prius its car of choice by buying more Prii in June than any other model. "That puts the Prius ahead of Toyota's Camry and Corolla and Honda's Accord and Civic, all cars that outsell the high-mileage, gas-electric sedan nationwide."

"Are we ahead of the curve, or what?" asked Rod Diridon, executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University, and a Prius owner.

The Prius' newfound status reflects the continued greening of Silicon Valley. Diridon listed sustained higher gas prices, the availability of carpool-lane stickers for solo Prius drivers - no more are being issued - and the intelligence of local residents as factors in the Prius' popularity."

posted by David

 

Colbert Report

Update: Click here to watch. Looking forward to your reactions.

Don't forget to tune-in (or set your Tivo) to the Colbert Report tomorrow night at 11:30PM on Comedy Central.

So, trusted readers and advisors, what in the world do you think he'll ask me about - cities, the gay effect, flight of the creative class....?

Lets see who out there can get it right.

Money Can't Buy Happiness

Or so writes Robert Samuelson: 

The psychology of prosperity -- striving, taking risks -- feeds on ambition and insecurity. Our system often seems an insane rat race. But over time, it has created huge gains in material well-being. Air conditioning may not have made people in the South and elsewhere happier. But it surely has made them more comfortable.

Roadtrip Nation

How do you define your road in life?

Today Richard Florida met with the team from PBS's Roadtrip Nation. 
Read more about their cool project on their website.

The Colbert Report

Brain Drain leaving America? 
Learn more by tuning in to The Colbert Report on Monday, July 16 to Comedy Central at 11:30 EST.  Richard Florida speaks to Stephen Colbert about the 'Flight of the Creative Class.'

Learn more about The Colbert Report and the upcoming episode here.

Looking Inside Google from Inside Microsoft

This is just so cool because it like being in a hall of mirrors.

An email making the rounds at Microsoft that purports to be an HR interview with a former Microsoft employee who ended up at Google and is now back at Microsoft.  So, it's Microsoft takes a look at Google for internal marketing at Microsoft.

If that's not confusing enough, read the whole memo here.

It says a lot about Google but probably says even more about Microsoft in the way that they have chosen to portray Google.  In any case, it's a peek "under the covers" at a couple of major Creative Economy organizations.

posted by Kevin Stolarick

CNN's In The Money...

Check out this short article and video clip from CNN this weekend.

Tune in this weekend to CNN's In The Money with Richard Florida, on the effect of gay neighborhoods on cities.

Read more: There Goes The Neighborhood

Posted by Abby.

Google + Bloomberg + YouTube

More Bloomberg. Video piece at YouTube. Google VP Sheryl Sandberg talks with NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg during an Authors@Google event. Topics include talent attraction and retention, technology, and cities. BTW, does your company offer an authors series?

This is Why I Wrote Rise

Check out this Wall Street Journal story on Pennsylvania's efforts to stem its brain drain:

The common refrain in Pennsylvania is that the state is a "net importer" of college students, but a "net exporter" of college graduates. ... But many students take their diplomas and run, leaving Pennsylvania with the third-oldest population in the nation as measured by the number of people 65 and older. The result: The state is struggling to attract the type of cutting-edge companies that would make it a major participant in the "knowledge-based" economy -- one driven by highly skilled workers and industries like technology, science and health care. The state is on a mission to change that.

Now read this from the Post-Gazette:

A local startup that last year got off the ground with help from a venture capital firm that received money from the state is moving to Boston.Logical Therapeutics Inc. officials said they are making the move to tap into a deeper pool of talent that they hope will help their firm get their promising painkiller out of the lab and into the commercial marketplace....Logical's co-founders and sole employees, former University of Pittsburgh official Carolyn E. Green and Dr. Mitchell Fink, Pitt's chief of critical care medicine, in recent months visited roughly 30 investment firms around the country that, "almost without exception, asked if we'd be willing to relocate,'' said Ms. Green, the company's chief operating officer.

The Wall Street Journal article goes on and on about how the key is to create tech jobs. But then the jobs also move away. So much for those chickens and eggs. Hmmmmm....
Your thoughts?

Teenage Entrepreneurs

In today's NYT, my colleague Tyler Cowen writes:

Michael S. Dell (of Dell Inc.) sold stamps to collectors when he was 12 and Bill Gates founded Microsoft when he was 19. Facebook, the social networking site, was the brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard University sophomore at the time. A study by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor showed that the United States was unusual among developed countries in having a higher business start-up rate among its 18- to 24-year-olds than its 35- to 44-year-olds.

But why has America produced so many successful young entrepreneurs? Ben Casnocha, 19, author of the new book “My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young C.E.O. Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley,” offers clues.

Tyler's right. And do read Ben's terrific book.

Those Damn Kids

Teens in America are in touch with their peers on average 65 hours a week, compared to about four hours a week in preindustrial cultures.

Read more here via Tyler Cowen via Two Blowhards from an interview with Robert Epstein in Psychology Today, here: His new book is The Case Against Adolescence. Tyler writes:

The problem, of course, is that a contemporary wise and moderate 33 year old is looking to climb the career ladder, find a mate, or raise his babies.  He doesn't have a great desire to educate unruly fifteen year olds and indeed he can insulate himself from them almost completely. He doesn't need a teenager to carry his net on the elephant hunt. Efficient capitalist production and rising wage rates lead to an increased sorting by age and the moral education of teens takes a hit. 

I agree. It is worth pointing out, though, that adolescence is a relatively new life stage, invented by the American psychiatrist G. Stanley Hall who originally announced that adolescents were a distinct social group in a 1904 study. Of course through the course of the 20th century teenage became a demographic phenomenon first with Sinatra and the bobby-soxers, then of course around Elvis Presley and James Dean and the Beatles and the baby-boom. The construct of a separate age of retirement is equally a product of  industrial society’s increased affluence and extended life spans through advances in medical science. Over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first century as our society has evolved and become more affluent and our healthy years have been dramatically extended, our lives have come to be seen as unfolding in a series of discrete stages. Consider two fairly recent ones - young adulthood - the period of being single and living between one's parents house and one's own nuclear family and that of empty-nester, when the kids are gone bur before retirement.

In Who's Your City, I argue that each of these stages comes with an additional set of locational decisions - and a broader set of options and choices than ever before.

Your two cents?

Google Chases Talent to SF

A little article in yesterday's WSJ, highlights how even the most popular companies are having to alter their plans/strategies in order to attract the most talented. Here is the blurb:

"One trend affecting those markets: Some traditional Silicon Valley employers have been looking for space in San Francisco because they have found their younger work force prefers an urban environment to the sprawling tech campuses. Google Inc., based in Mountain View, Calif., already subleased space at San Francisco's Hills Plaza from Gap Inc."

posted by David

Florida in the Northland

Richard is headed to the Northland today to speak at the Duluth,MN-Superior, WI Area Community Foundation's annual meeting. The area is one of amazing beauty, interesting history and familiar challenges:

News story today in the Duluth News Tribune:

Fur trading put what became the Duluth area on the map in the late 17th century.

In the late 1800s, iron ore and timber made Duluth a boomtown.

But in this century, creativity, or the ability of workers to synthesize new ideas and efficiencies, will be the defining resource the Zenith City must mine if it is to flourish.

Read the full article here.