Excellence in Innovation (cont.)

Moving Kentucky forward

Effective economic development today requires unprecedented levels of collaboration among business leaders, local and state government, education, healthcare, agriculture, tourism and community leaders. For example, attracting business means providing attractive communities for employees, with access to the best in education and healthcare. It also means providing prospective employers with a well-educated workforce that can manage today’s technologically intensive equipment and processes.

Acknowledging that technology is the key to successfully addressing these needs and that broadband infrastructure is a must, Prescription for Innovation was launched in October of 2004. Today, more than 25 ConnectKentucky employees are based in four regional offices across the state, hard at work to ensure that every community can realize the promise of technology expansion.

Prescription for Innovation focuses on four primary goals:

• Full broadband deployment by the end of 2007;

• The formation of eCommunity Leadership Teams in every county – local leaders who assemble to develop and implement technology growth strategies for nine sectors: local government, business and industry, education, healthcare, agriculture, libraries, tourism, and community- based organizations;

• Dramatically improved use of computers and the Internet by all Kentuckians; and

• A meaningful online presence for all Kentucky communities, to improve citizen services and promote economic development through e-government, virtual education and online healthcare.

Realizing the challenge of implementing such an ambitious economic development plan in all of Kentucky’s 120 counties, ConnectKentucky formulated a grassroots plan for technology acceleration at the local level. Instead of taking a top-down approach, the implementation of Prescription for Innovation hinges on a sense of ownership and excitement in each individual county.

Each county’s eCommunity Leadership Team includes representatives from the nine sectors mentioned above. Each team benchmarks and scores its community’s current use of technology and sets two-year goals for improvement. After much brainstorming and collaboration with local leaders, ConnectKentucky then formulates a business plan to accelerate technology among each of the community’s nine sectors.

Representing a national first, ConnectKentucky created broadband service maps that illustrate current broadband coverage – or lack thereof – across the state, by all types of providers and technologies. The broadband inventory, which is updated regularly, is then combined with data regarding population density and number of households. The detailed maps further develop a case for broadband deployment in unserved areas. Numerous broadband providers use the maps as a tool for extending existing service or for developing plans to offer new services.

Having broadband service available across the state is expected to have a significant impact on the lives of Kentuckians. It is estimated that full broadband deployment will add 14,000 jobs in Kentucky and $5 billion to the gross state product. In addition, the average wage of information technology workers in Kentucky is 50 percent more than the statewide average. Given these possibilities, communities across the state tend to welcome ConnectKentucky with open arms and aggressively establish eCommunity Leadership Teams to lay the groundwork for their cities and counties.

« Page 1 | Page 3 »