Value: Innovative Thinking

Entrepreneurial Administration as a Goal for Public Administration

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

“On the conventional telling, public agencies follow specific grants of regulatory authority, use the traditional tools of notice-and-comment rulemaking and adjudication, and are checked by judicial review. In reality, however, effective administration depends on entrepreneurial leadership that spearheads policy experimentation and trial-and-error problem-solving, including the development of regulatory programs that use non-traditional tools.”

Read & Share   sourced from: GovLab

In Crookston, Housing and economic development organizations combine

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

The challenges and methods for dealing with those challenges of cities across the region is strikingly similar. Job creation and economic growth are challenges that nearly every smaller community deals with, and in Crookston, MN, they’ve been managing those efforts from two different organizations. But a lack of resources and overlapping missions forced them into

Read & Share   sourced from: Grand Forks Herald

The biggest infrastructure project in the US is a 3,000-mile bike path

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

It’s called the East Coast Greenway; it connects Maine to Florida, and it’s being funded by private donors, state, and local governments. The goal is connectivity. Read the full story on Quartz.

Read & Share   sourced from: Quartz

Winnipeg economic development agency holding Railside Promenade ideas competition

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

In Winnipeg, The Forks Renewal Corporation, the city’s economic development agency, is looking to spur redevelopment in a neighborhood dominated by wide roads and parking lots. And how are they going about doing it? They’re holding a design competition. They’ve set basic goals of what they want to accomplish and the terms of what’s required

Read & Share   sourced from: Winnipeg Free Press

Watch & Learn: Pennsylvania Kindergartners Swap Grades for Badges

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

A skill learned, a concept is mastered, and a badge is the reward. It’s a simple, beautiful concept present in all areas of our culture, but it’s been less prevalent in our classrooms. Until now. A school district in Pennsylvania has thrown grades out for their younger students and is now incentivizing learning through the earning

Read & Share   sourced from: EdSurge

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Evidence for a New Economic Development Model?

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Economic growth, economic diversity, these are buzzwords in North Dakota and in Minot right now. The City’s NDR application talks about it; our consultant on the project, CDM Smith, even has a $300,000 budget to create an ‘Economic Development Strategic Plan for Minot & Ward County’. We also have the MAGIC fund, a sales-tax-funded pot

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Bismarck High School Solves IT Challenges with Tech Club

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Bismarck’s Legacy High School is on the newer end of the spectrum, but it’s not just the building that has a different feel — there’s also some new approaches to education. One example, instead of employing an IT staff to take care school’s computers and tech hardware, they’ve insourced the job directly to students. The

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Simple oil field invention could save lives

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

A Watford City welder with a good idea that makes the oil-field safer is taking his idea to an Innovation and Energy competition sponsored by Tioga’s Economic Development arm. But the idea is already in production and orders are coming in. Check out the story on the Bismarck Tribune.

Read & Share   sourced from: Bismarck Tribune

Fargo Citizens Discuss Main Avenue Reconstruction

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but in Fargo, citizens are discussing a new approach to economic development via infrastructure. And it’s not about bigger, wider roads. It’s actually focused on slower speeds, more on-street parking, and larger sidewalks. It turns out that is the recipe that attracts pedestrians and businesses.

Read & Share   sourced from: InForum

An Algorithm Is Replacing Bail Hearings in New Jersey

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

When an individual is arrested for a crime, they’re typically required to post a bond in order to be released until their trial. But what is the bond rate set at? Typically a judge sets that rate based on an assessment of risk that the defendant will return to stand trial. But in New Jersey, the

Read & Share   sourced from: Motherboard

Bring Your Ideas — It’s an Opportunity to BuildMinot!

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

The community-minded folks at the Minot Public Library are making some noise for a new idea focused on gathering new ideas. The video below is a minute long and it tells the story of everything you need to know about where to take your idea for the Magic City.

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Idea for Minot? Fargo contractors get stick and carrot from city to get roads done early

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Frustrated by contractors who seemingly never completed work on time, the City of Fargo has begun building both bonus and penalty incentives into the city’s construction contracts. Get done early, get paid more. Get done late, get paid less. Call it the carrot and the stick method if you want, but early results in Fargo

Read & Share   sourced from: InForum

ND teacher talks on technology in education at Twitter headquarters

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Kayla Delzer, A 3rd-grade teacher in Mapleton, is taking tech integration to new places in teaching, and for her efforts, she was invited to speak at a Digital Citizenship Summit at Twitter headquarters in San Fransisco. Here’s the quote you should remember about education today, “Sixty-five percent of today’s schoolchildren will be employed in jobs

Read & Share   sourced from: Grand Forks Herald

Fargo: Plains Museum wins $500,000 for ‘Community Innovation’

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Fargo’s Plains Art Museum will get a boost to its work in engaging the public. The Bush Foundation has granted the museum $500,000 as part of their Community Innovation program. The program is designed to invest in the region’s most “outstanding problem-solving organizations.”

Read & Share   sourced from: InForum

Maine became the first state in the country Tuesday to pass ranked choice voting

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Is there a way to make democracy more democratic? As a country, as a culture, we’ve been locked in a centuries-old mentality when it comes to voting — that’s it’s one or the other. But there are other methods, and the entire state of Maine will be experimenting with one of those other methods at

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How to build smart cities that benefit everyone

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

We were introduced to the concept of a smart house 20 years ago. Today, many of us are living in them. That same revolution is taking place in the way we design and build our bigger living spaces — the towns and cities we go to work in. And the trick to making them really

Read & Share   sourced from: The Gov Lab