The remainder of this ‘blog’ voyage will be dedicated to documenting my thesis–both process and content–which is an opportune chance to start putting on paper what I’ve been blabbing about for years. However, before launching into the full thesis ‘posts,’ I thought I should identify where it all started. In my last job leading the Economic Development Corporation of New Haven, I did much work to figure out the mismatch between how much seemed to be going on in the city, an environment ripe with opportunity despite its small scale, but that New Haven could not get the traction it needed (private and federal resources, mostly), and frankly deserved.
I was amazed by this image, produced by Olivier H Beauchesne in January 2011. A map of scientific collaborations throughout the US. In fact the full map was the entire world, which was equally as inspiring, but as I was working in New Haven CT which is often ‘left off the map.’ Instantly i could see how ‘connected’ all of our centers of innovation were, and In fact New Haven was right in the middle of the brightest line on the map. I used this map frequently in presentations about the City, and of course others were equally amazed. The map shows the connectivity, between places, and it seemed fluid, dynamic, and beautiful. Most importantly, these flows did not seem to be impeded by state (or country) lines. This visualization led to where I am with my thesis topic–trying to understand the connectivity between places to better direct economic development activity/funds especially to support the innovation economy.
Also in the movie ‘Is the Man who is Tall Happy’ was a wonderful exchange between the filmmaker and Professor Noam Chomsky about inspiration. In addition to all the complex theories that Professor Chomsky outlined, he answered very simply about Inspiration–that it just ‘comes.’ And that you can’t explain it–it an just hit you. Of course there are many things that could lead to that moment, but that the moment itself is inexplainable….this image summarized very quickly my intuitive understanding of our situation, and inspired me to keep trying to connect the dots and make sure that New Haven (and other small cities) could be as meaningful and relevant to the overall economy as I know it could be.
images source: http://olihb.com/2011/01/23/map-of-scientific-collaboration-between-researchers/