Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Seattle The Pacific Council on International Policy published a paper on what the city of Seattle needs to do to retain its status as an international city.  The report recognizes Salt Lake City and Vancouver, BC as two western cities seeking to expand their international status.  Other cities and areas might wish to review the paper's recommendations: develop a compelling vision for the future and a strategy to realize it do a better job of cultivating a new generation of globally minded leaders. better exploit growing strengths. build alliances to deal with local issues. reach out to the other Washington. Certainly, the loss of a company the size of Boeing is a huge wake-up call.  At the same time, Seattle has been effective in siting businesses that are key in assuring its role in the new economy such as Microsoft, Adobe, Amazon, RealNetworks, etc. Washington's positioning as an egovernment leader is also no accident.  Several important think-tanks, in Seattle and Olympia, including the GSPA at the University of Washington continuously forward recommendations for government re-engineering that drive innovation.  The partnership between government and higher education is strong and effective. 6:20:19 PM    comment []

A Busy Week I just returned from Chehalis, WA.  Once I got back, the weather finally reverted to normal after their heat wave. Meanwhile, Utah's Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC) has a new look.  And while I was gone, the executive director of the Department of Human Resource Management announced her retirement, while Commerce's director is joining the Public Service Commission.  The new director will be Klare Bachman, an enterprise project manager and member of the Utah eGovernment Product Management Council. Government West magazine is making more material available on their website, including an article from their current edition, entitled "Cross-Departmental Cooperation Key to Integrating e-Government." With the drought continuing in the West, the Imaging and Geospatial Society Intermountain Region is focussed on fire management and control issues. Also last week, the Whitehouse issued a new Spectrum Policy for the 21st Century, which includes the creation of a Federal Government Spectrum Task Force to focus on improving spectrum management policies and procedures to stimulate more efficient and beneficial use of Government spectrum.  One of the primary motivations is for designation of spectrum to homeland security issues and interoperability. 1:15:18 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.