Georgia Institute of Technology

The knowledge-based economy is, as Richard Florida suggests, very "spiky": Some places have it, a lot of places do not. This is clearly true in Georgia. The hallmark of the knowledge-based economy is that existing knowledege is applied to creating new knowledge, which requires collaborative and creative capabilities as well as technical and scientific knowledge.

While Atlanta has a significant knowledge-based economy, most of the state does not. Local economies are based on agriculture, manufacturing, or services. And, even Atlanta is quite uneven in the distribution of knowledge-based activities. But many private sector firms -- particularly technology companies -- and public agencies would greatly benefit from growth of knowledge-based economic activities and knowledge resources. And, knowledge-based activities would add value to and improve the outputs of other forms of economic activity (agriculture, manufacturing, services, etc.).

My "big idea" is a coordinated effort across Georgia Tech and with our corporate partners and public agencies to greatly increase knowledge-based economic activities across the state. The starting poing would be an economically, geographically, and socially broad-based vision of a knowledge-based state: Enagaging citizens from all across the state to create a new vision for Georgia's economy. The second step would be intensive work with private firms and public agencies to create "collaboratories" that would work across functional divisions and sectors to identify critical knowledge needs and resources. The final step would be private-public partnerships to incubate of knowledge-based enterprises throughout the state, linked to current economic strengths, addressing needs and capitalizing on resources, that would involve citizens in almost literally cradle-to-grave knowledge creation.

This would require a major investment by Georgia Tech -- no other institution could lead such an effort -- but I believe it would have huge returns in the form of major investments in Georgia (especially Georgia Tech) by the private sector and greatly increased the domestic (i.e., in the state of Georgia) demand for our graduates and our innovations. More importantly, it would transform the possibilities for so many persons across the state that are facing marginalization in the global knowledge economy, and make Georgia a model for other states and nations.