Building the Civic 'Net

"Building the Civic 'Net": Now Accepting Grant Applications

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:54:00 +0000

Building the Civic ‘Net awards small grants to institutions, organizations and / or individuals that propose a creative way to use social media to improve our civic life in Northern Oakland County, Michigan. The program is sponsored, in part, by The Village of Rochester Hills. You can learn more about the program from this recent Village Square YouTube video, or from this article published in the The Oakland Press. You can also learn more about the work of our most recent grantee, the Rochester Oral History Archive, in this recent article in The Oakland Press

In addition to the grant money, recipients will become part of a broader “Building the Civic ‘Net” community. Through social media tools as well as live events, grant recipients will be encouraged to interact with past recipients, program partners and project supporters.

APPLICATION

Propose a creative content program that utilizes social media to contribute to our local civic culture. Demonstrate how your project might do one or several of the following:

• Nurture, protect and teach our families
• Build our creative culture
• Deepen individual connections in our communities
• Provide goods or services to the less fortunate
• Foster entrepreneurship and corporate innovation
• Strengthen our civic institutions
• Promote lifelong learning

Submissions are due by October 10th, 2010. During the month of October, we will choose finalists, conduct interviews, and announce a new round of grant recipients who will receive cash awards ranging from $1,000 - $4,000.

APPLY HERE

August 28th Oakland Press: Oral history project seeks to capture Rochester memories

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:31:00 +0000

"Thanks to a start-up grant from Building the Civic Net, a Rochester Hills-based philanthropy, in February Oakland University launched the Rochester Oral History Project as a pilot project for the department of writing and rhetoric, where Pokrzywa teaches. Oakland University’s Meadow Brook Writing Project provided a matching grant.

The project seeks to record and preserve memories about Rochester from people age 55 and older. They can be memories from any time, even recent ones. The completed interviews are easily accessible and can be shared via the university’s Web site, Facebook and YouTube ..."

Read more at The Oakland Press

"Building the Civic 'Net" Awards Grant to the "Rochester Oral History Archive"

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:19:00 +0000

The Building the Civic Net (BCN) philanthropic initiative today announced that it has awarded a $2,000 grant to the Rochester Oral History Archive (ROHA). Sponsored in part by the Village of Rochester Hills, Building the Civic Net supports local social media initiatives that strengthen the community’s civic culture. The announcement was made by Dr. G. Scott Aikens, Vice President of Leasing for the Village of Rochester Hills and Building the Civic 'Net founder.

Funding for ROHA will be supplemented by a matching grant from Oakland University’s Meadow Brook Writing Project (MBWP). MBWP is a local site for the National Writing Project.

The Rochester Oral History (ROHA) Project will begin collecting oral histories of Rochester residents ages 55 and older for archival on a public access website in early 2010. Residents are invited to participate in the project by sharing memories connected to local historical sites, events and communities. Oral history collection dates will be scheduled at numerous locations throughout April 2010.

Patrons will be guided through a series of prompts to capture their stories using digital media tools. Researchers will upload materials to the ROHA website. The project mission includes making technology accessible to seniors while building a resource for citizens of all ages involved in local history projects.

Visit the ROHA Web page hosted by Oakland University. Get involved in the project by joining the ROHA facebook group.

The ROHA project is administered by Cornelia Pokrzywa, Special Lecturer in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at Oakland University. Pokrzywa, who specializes in teaching first-year, technology-intensive writing courses, is a long-time Oakland Township resident, graduate of Rochester Adams High School and Oakland University alum.

“The greater Rochester area is home to many long-standing traditions and institutions, which act as settings for countless personal stories and memories,” said Pokrzywa. “The ROHA project will create a lasting archive of oral histories tied to people, places and groups.”

Dr. Aikens says of the grant, “We're hopeful that ROHA will create community content online that deepens community understanding. By embedding this content in new social media tools such as Facebook, we also hope to spark a lively conversation in the community about personal memories, community memory, and local history.”

Meadow Brook Writing Project leader, Marshall Kitchens added, "The MBWP is committed to supporting and promoting community projects
such as this that preserve the personal narratives of local residents
and make them available to a broader audience through digital
technologies and social networks. We are pleased to partner with
Building the Civic 'Net to make this possible."

Building the Civic 'Net: Now Accepting Grant Applications

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:22:00 +0000

Building the Civic 'Net, a philanthropic program committed to support local social media projects in the public interest, is now accepting grant applications. You can learn more about the program from this excellent article recently published in the Oakland Press or from this program introduction.

Two times per year “Building the Civic ‘Net” awards several small grants (anywhere between $1,000 - $2,000) to institutions, organizations and / or individuals that propose a creative way to use social media to improve our civic life in Northern Oakland County, Michigan.

We define social media as a participatory use of the Internet through interactive forums such as a web log (blog), video log (vblog), or online services such as youtube, facebook, flickr, etc. .

In addition to the grant money, recipients will become part of the “Building the Civic ‘Net” community. Through social media tools such as facebook, twitter and youtube, as well as live events, grant recipients will be encouraged to interact with past recipients, program partners and project supporters. As the power is in the network, we believe this participation may be the most valuable prize for grant recipients.

APPLICATION

Submissions are due by October 7th. During the month of October, we will choose finalists, conduct interviews, and announce the new grant recipients.

APPLY HERE

The Oakland Press reports on the "Building the Civic 'Net" philanthropic initiative

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:04:00 +0000

The Oakland Press published a terrific article today about the "Building the Civic 'Net" (BCN) philanthropic intiative.

The initiative, sponsored by the Village of Rochester Hills, helps local groups and individuals in northern Oakland County with social media projects in the public interest.

You can learn more about the four recent grant recipients, as well as the program, by reading this recent Village Square blog post.

You can become involved in the program by joining the BCN facebook group, following the BCN blog, and / or following the BCN Twitter feed.

National Contest Offers Funding for Foundation-Backed Local News and Information Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:54:00 +0000

Aug. 11, 2009

(Miami) The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications from place-based foundations for the second year of a matching grant program seeking to inform and engage residents on pressing issues through news and information projects. The deadline for the Knight Community Information Challenge contest is Sept. 23.

"In a democracy, access to information is essential for a community to function properly. It's a core community need - and one we believe place-based foundations should be addressing at this critical time," Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation's vice president for communities, said.

More local foundations are doing just that: a Knight-funded report by J-Lab: the Institute for Interactive Journalism, recently found that 180 community, family and other foundations have contributed nearly $128 million in grants to news and information initiatives in the United States since 2005.

Knight Foundation created the $24 million, five-year Challenge to help place-based foundations find creative ways to fund media projects to inform residents about the issues that matter most to them. To help foundations identify opportunities, techniques and technologies that could benefit their communities, Knight provides free consultants who are well-versed on tools and projects from across the country. Also, Knight Foundation will host its third Media Learning Seminar March 1-2, 2010, where place-based foundations can learn more about media trends and the information needs of communities in a democracy.

In the challenge's first year, $5 million was awarded to 21 projects. The ideas included asking donors to fund news beats at a non-profit Internet start-up, launching neighborhood news bureaus run by citizen journalists and creating "digital public squares," or online news hubs where people can view and discuss important local information.

The challenge is part of Knight's Media Innovation Initiative, whose seven projects include an effort to explore national media reform, increase broadband access nationally and transform journalism education, among others.

To apply, or learn more about the challenge, visit www.informationneeds.org.

For more on Knight Foundation's Media Innovation Initiative, visit http://www.mediainnovation.org.

Contact: Marc Fest, Vice President of Communications, 305-908-2677

Meadow Brook Hall Young Writers Camp

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:11:00 +0000

The Meadow Brook Writing Project's first week-long camp for young writers at Meadow Brook Hall is now complete. Two more sessions for children between 3rd and 6th grades are set for July 6 - 10 and July 20 - 24.

With the help of their grant from Building the Civic 'Net, project leaders have so far produced two videos available here for your viewing pleasure.

This first video gives an overview of the program:

This second video focuses on a day in the life of camp attendees:

Introduction to "Building the Civic 'Net"

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:30:00 +0000

"Building the Civic 'Net" is a philanthropic initiative sponsored by the Village Square blog and the Village of Rochester Hills. We are currently introducing our first group of four grantees at the Village Square blog.

"Building the Civic 'Net" awards grants to institutions, organizations and or individuals in Rochester Hills and the surrounding areas that propose a creative way to use social media to improve our shared public life. We define social media as a participatory use of the Internet through interactive forums such as a web log (blog), or online service such as twitter, facebook, youtube, flickr, etc.

These grants aim to help catalyze a larger opportunity for Northern Oakland County. With the closing of the Rochester Observer and Eccentric, we believe it is more important than ever that communities use new tools to inform themselves and one another in new ways. We call upon a wide variety of civic, cultural, and educational leaders to pioneer the use of social media to support their missions, build community, and deliver important information to their constituents. If this were to happen, this array of institutions could then form multiple inter-connected hubs online. The sum of the parts would inform, strengthen the ties that bind, and enhance the quality of life for local residents. It might also make Northern Oakland County into a vibrant hub for innovation and experimentation in the local use of social media to enhance the standard of living.

Our hope is that current and future “Building the Civic 'Net” grantees will help the communities of Northern Oakland County pursue this goal of innovation.

Participate in the Building the Civic 'Net initiative by joining our facebook group.

You can also follow us on Twitter.

Detroit Public Television & Digital Content Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:56:00 +0000

Given on-going travails in the newspaper business, Detroit Public Television has an opening to step up its game.

Newspapers are sanctioned in the U.S. constitution as a great search light, a critical check in our democracy on government and other powerful local stake-holders. Yet The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News cut home delivery to three days per week. The Observer & Eccentric Newspapers closed five local editions, including Birmingham, Rochester, Troy, West Bloomfield, and Southfield.

With these institutions battered and weakened by the ‘Net, it is imperative that other institutions emerge to ensure the health of local democracy in new ways. Some of these can and must grow organically out of the creative capacities unleashed by the ‘Net. Nimble old institutions intent on reinvention, though, also have tremendous new opportunities to contribute.

It’s not clear in this topsy turvy media landscape that DPTV can emerge free and healthy. Old institutions in the digital age, with all of their legacy assets and liabilities, can struggle to choose a path free and clear to a prosperous future. The newspaper business has learned this. The Detroit automobile companies, with their vast dealer networks, health plans, and pension funds, also understand how burdensome legacies are.

Some of DPTV's assets are favorable, though. First, DPTV has approximately 1.6 mm viewers; a solid foundation built over decades. Second, DPTV is locally connected, in an era when local content and voices are badly needed; yet they can also draw on strong national resources. Third, DPTV is a non-profit institution. The problem for commercial newspapers and broadcasters is that the ‘Net and digital technology have killed their business models. They are increasingly unviable financially. DPTV’s hurdle to cover costs is less because it doesn’t have to answer to profit-seeking shareholders or equity investors. The metric against which DPTV measures success, how well it fulfills its public mission, is cheaper. Some in Congress are exploring non-profit models for the newspaper industry; but DPTV is already there.

To emerge into the future as a strong and vital organization, it is necessary for leaders at DPTV to focus on two specific short term strategies. These must be coupled with a critical medium to long-term strategy.

First, DPTV must protect and nurture its main asset; the broadcast stream and its 1.6 mm person audience. This is the vital anchor. One problem, however, is that a large percentage of these viewers are older. They aren’t well connected to the ‘Net. As the group ages, it will deteriorate through attrition. The people will be replaced by an audience with consumer usage patterns transformed by social media. If DPTV pursues this as a stand alone strategy, the 1.6 mm person audience will slowly evaporate.

Second, DPTV must invest as heavily as possible in a ‘Net infrastructure tilted to social media. The emphasis should be, first, on the exploitation of free applications such as youtube, google, blogger, facebook and twitter; second, on the purchase of low cost production and distribution technologies; and, third, on investment in a broad array of semi-affiliated content creators, as well as user-generated content.

The users of social media are different than the audience for the TV station. It is a younger demographic, and therefore more culturally progressive. For this reason these efforts should, in the near term, be considered a separate venture. It is a major but necessary investment without an immediate and commensurate return. Such an investment is as critical to the future of DPTV as the Volt is to the future of General Motors.

To emerge in the future as a vital service for local communities, DPTV needs to keep a close eye on medium and long-term strategy. Most young professionals using social media will choose a partner, buy a house, have some kids and become the older audience that has long been served so well by DPTV's Channel 56. A re-christened Detroit Public Media must hustle, as soon as this can be made to happen, to square the circle between the powerful broadcast stream and the new social media ventures. If the station leadership and the Board can maintain the discipline to patiently execute this natural but extended process of convergence over a number of years, than Detroit Public Media can emerge into a radically altered media landscape as a valued service provider for local communities across South-East Michigan

Building the Civic 'Net

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:34:00 +0000

The Village Square blog, an online service hosted by the Village of Rochester Hills, is sponsoring “Building the Civic ‘Net”; a philanthropic program committed to support local social media projects in the public interest.

Two times per year the program will award a grant of $3,000 to an institution, organization or individual that proposes a creative way to use social media to improve our shared public life.

They're taking proposals on how you will use social media on the Web for the public interest of a local community near Rochester Hills, MI. Demonstrate how your project will do one or several of the following:

• Foster entrepreneurship and corporate innovation
• Nurture, protect or teach our children
• Promote lifelong learning
• Build healthier, safer, more vibrant communities
• Provide goods or services to the less fortunate
• Strengthen our civic institutions
• Strengthen our creative culture
• Deepen our individual connections in our communities

Detroit Public TV in the digital age

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:18:00 +0000

Online e-zine Metromode has recently published an excellent profile of new DPTV CEO Rich Homberg. Here's an except explaining some of Homberg's vision for the station:

"Detroit Public Television will involve considerably more community engagement, as the station plays the role of "collaborator, catalyst, co-conspirator, storyteller. … how to help tell a story, how to capture it, how to edit it, how to post it," says Homberg. "That's a new role for us. "Right now we only see ourselves as a big TV station. Documentary is really an important thing that we do, but a lot of times you need start as little TV," with programs that may not be scripted but evolve into something significant. Invariably there are surprising twists and turns.

Homberg anticipates stronger public affairs programming and community engagement, he says. "It probably starts on the Internet and ramps up over time and always offers more depth, longer versions, more content."

It's not just the content, but also the content's influence on the community that interests Homberg. It's this sense of corporate responsibility that impressed Dan Krichbaum, while he was president of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion.

"Rich brings a passion about improving Metro Detroit," says Krichbaum, who now is COO for the State of Michigan. "He will get very involved in civic leadership. I would look also for more programming focused on educational, economic, and other issues that are critical to get people and organizations working together more cooperatively. He will bring great creativity to helping media of different sorts combine their offerings and reach larger audiences. Look, also, for more emphasis on diversity and inclusion as Rich has a good understanding (of their importance)."

Crain's Detroit Business: "Use the new media to inform"

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:08:00 +0000

Hey Everybody,

Crain’s Detroit Business published in the August 11, 2008 issue my letter to the Editor, “Use the new media to inform”:

I’ve included the text below.

Cheers,

Scott

--------------------

Editor:

It's sad to watch The Detroit News struggle, though it's happening to local newspapers across the country. To simplify Bill Shea's excellent July 7 article (“More bad news for The News”), Internet sites such as Craigslist are starting to dominate the market for local classified advertising. Publishers have to make up for the losses by decreasing news and increasing advertising within the paper. The resulting degradation of the news product fosters a vicious negative cycle that depresses the valuation of the asset and creates financial jeopardy.

Such a course of events in local news is particularly damaging here because good, deep coverage is the life-blood of a desperately needed, vibrant civic culture.

Now here's the rub: The counter-trend to the demise of the newspaper is the rise of the Internet. The shift in power from one to the other is the primary reason that clumsy media companies such as Gannett are in trouble in the first place. The problem in Michigan is greater than elsewhere because, for whatever reason, innovation in local news and information over the Internet using the Web, blogging, YouTube, and social networking sites like Facebook lags other states and metropolitan areas.

Because a vibrant civic culture is critical here, those that care about Michigan can and must make a major push to enable and encourage citizens to inform one another through “self-generating content” platforms such as blogs and social networking sites. Investment of time, energy and resources by civic, political and business leaders into this sector will foster the critical new media ecology for our state. Such investment will pay off by spurring on a vibrant civic culture that serves the information needs of our local democracy despite the unfortunate demise of competitive markets for local newspapers.

Scott Aikens
Birmingham

Manchester, England is a good example for Detroit, Michigan

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:53:00 +0000

mediacity:uk
Originally uploaded by GScott

Recently I watched the movie 24 Hour Party People which is as much about regeneration in Manchester, England as about anything else. Manchester is another leading example of an important industrial hub that, like Detroit, fell on hard times. The movie shows a slice of how it subsequently reinvented itself by exploiting impressive assets such as its architecture, an enduring brand, and artistic talent (not to mention a thriving sports culture).

Detroit has a dated but once glamorous brand that’s similar to Manchester’s, and a pristine stock of mid-20th Century architecture. The metro’s also the place of origin for premier artistic talents such as Jack and Meg White, Marshall Mathers, Madonna Ciccone and Stevie Wonder. Like Manchester it also has a thriving sports culture. So, what’s stopping Detroit from navigating a path like Manchester has? Nothing!

In fact, an old friend and colleague of mine is heavily involved with the BBC’s major new MediaCity:UK project being developed on Manchester’s waterfront, the Salford Quays. This is another inspiring example for Detroit; and deserves closer scrutiny.

Civic group Detroit Renaissance publishes important new report on "Creative Business Accelorator Strategies".

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:06:00 +0000

Detroit Renaissance recently published an important report exploring how other communities such as Orlando, London and Charlotte set up “creative incubators” to spur innovation through networking and support of start-ups. Check it out.

E-Democracy & Michigan

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:22:00 +0000

On Monday, March 28th the Board at the Birmingham Community House agreed to invest in a partnership with e-democracy.org to develop an Online Issues Forum for Birmingham / Bloomfield Hills. The Online Issues Forum is like an electronic town hall in a local community that allows citizens to engage in a civil discourse about relevant local issues with stake-holders in government, the school board, the library board, in the media, and others. This is an exciting development and I'm eager to dig in and help the project evolve over the next year.

Roman columns in Corktown

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:19:00 +0000

Roman columns in Corktown
Originally uploaded by GScott

I really like this picture of a building in the Corktown area of Detroit. The building appears to have fallen on hard times, but it's also full of energy and fun.

Corktown Mural

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:18:00 +0000

Corktown Mural
Originally uploaded by GScott

This is a cool mural found on one of the buildings along Michigan Avenue in Corktown.

The Olde Tigers Stadium

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:18:00 +0000

The Olde Tigers Stadium
Originally uploaded by GScott

The old stadium used to be the "anchor tenant" in Corktown. The stadium's been abondoned now, but the area is working to keep itself vibrant as a funky arts district.

L.J.'s Lounge in Corktown

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:17:00 +0000

L.J.'s Lounge in Corktown
Originally uploaded by GScott

The fourth photo in my series of images of Corktown focuses on the street-level advertising at Wabash Street and Michigan Avenue.

Michigan E-Democracy

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:36:00 +0000

[This article was first published as an opinion piece in Crain's Detroit Business]

I was one of those Michigan kids that journalists have written about so much lately. I couldn't wait to leave South-Eastern Michigan after graduating from U of M in 1988 for exotic locales such as, in my case, Manhattan, New York, Cambridge, England, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and San Francisco, California. Like so many others, apparently, I felt that I was growing up in a bland, suburban waste-land. So I set out in search of that something that was missing.

I've returned to Michigan now at the age of 40, and the region is clearly on the ropes. There are many jobs to be done here, not least of which pertains to the economic dysfunction of the automobile business. When things are truly dim, though, political energy can often flow to out-of-the-box ideas that can pay serious dividends over the course of many decades.

Civic, business and media leaders are correctly, in my opinion, identifying the need for robust new civic infrastructure as a long-term well-spring for regional cooperation, creative energy, and youthful entrepreneurship. Having been deeply involved for over a decade with civic initiatives in several high functioning communities, I can tell you that nurturing a culture of civic creativity is the ticket in the long term for retaining more of our own talented children, as well as for attracting dynamic new people from across the world to set up shop here.

More specifically, I urge leaders to consider the idea of creating and implementing a robust e-democracy strategy for the State of Michigan.
E-democracy is the effort to harness the digital revolution to deepen civic life in a geographic community. E-democracy is one cutting-edge area of public policy in which Michigan can seek to lead, and in so doing, set up the seeds for a profound shift over the course of decades for the better in our civic culture.

Of course, Michigan would not be alone. Minnesota, for its part, is commonly regarded as a world leader in e-democracy, as well as in civic culture in general. In fact, when I went there in 1994 to research the impact of the Internet on politics for my Ph.D., I found there what my home – the Detroit area - had led me to yearn for, a deep sense of civic engagement. One also finds in Minneapolis and St. Paul a vibrant youth culture, a huge variety of cultural institutions, and a strong base of entrepreneurial businesses. These good things are built generation after generation on the back of this engagement.

E-democracy.org started in Minnesota in 1994 with the first interactive political Web site, the first U.S. Senate e-debate, and the first community Issues Forum, Minnesota Politics. That august beginning has yielded Issues forums in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Roseville, Winona, Northfield, and Duluth. It has inspired innovation by media companies across the Twin Cities, as well as spawned a robust constituency of citizen journalists that operate their own blogs, pod-casts, YouTube Videos, and Web sites.

I am convinced that a careful process to develop an e-democracy strategy, and a modest investment in Michigan by civic and business leaders in a number of carefully thought out seed-beds can over many years blossom into a rich stew of nutritious and creative self-expression. With good fortune, whole new systems can emerge over time that enrichen our thinking as a community by deepening the analysis of our political and media expressions.

I know too well that this thinking is a world away in Michigan from business as usual. But business here is not so good. This place should think different. Give people what they yearn for before kids leave to find it elsewhere.

Winter in Birmingham, Michigan

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:56:00 +0000

winterinbham3, originally uploaded by GScott.

Here's another image of the deep freeze in Birmingham, MI during Winter 06 / 07.

Detroit Basketball: A lesson in civic entrepreneurship

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:36:00 +0000

[Ed - This article was first published in the June 2006 issue of Crain's Detroit Business]

Pistons President Joe Dumars and owner William Davidson should be given honorary doctorates from the Harvard School of Public Policy. At Harvard, after all, a group of professors focus on connections between civic engagement and long-term prosperity. Right now, the Detroit Pistons are staging a clinic on this topic worthy of a Ph.D..

Here's how, in five steps, the Pistons have made this connection.

First, if talented people subordinate their egos for the greater good, a powerful and dynamic culture can emerge. This culture of sacrifice for the group is civic in the finest sense. Time and again, Dumars and Davidson have made tough decisions to nurture this culture. Most recently, Dumars dealt away Darko Milicic. While very talented, Milicic was not patient enough to work within the culture and earn time. Dumars would not force the issue. According to Dumars, "You lose all the credibility of what you're trying to build with a coach and environment if you start doing stuff like that."

Second, the output of this culture can be a marketable commodity. One sees the result clearly on the floor at the Palace almost every game in the extra pass by Billups, the extra block by Prince, or the extra rebound by Wallace. These men trust each other and their environment.
This trust has given the team an extra gear, which allows them to accelerate the game beyond the reach of frustrated opponents and brilliant stars such as LeBron James.

Third, team success leads to individual successes. Four Piston starters, for example, made this year's NBA All-Star squad. Individual success also operates in more fulfilling ways. Because of how these men conduct themselves, each will be treated around Michigan as a civic hero. Not only does this open many doors, it is also personally fulfilling. The lesson here is this: A strong CIVIC culture breeds success and leads to a thick network of connections in the community.

Fourth, this culture attracts people like a magnet. Players want the discipline of the culture in order to earn the rewards. Tayshaun Prince, for example, didn't pursue a maximum salary when he was a popular free agent last summer. He must feel that he is positioned here to receive richer rewards than the extra millions from a maximum contract. Joe Dumars, in fact, no longer seems to have problems luring top talent to Detroit. No problem attracting talent to Detroit?

Fifth, the connection between civic culture and success is inter-generational. This aspect creates the opportunity for long-term prosperity. Past champions Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer, and Rick Mahorn all work for the Pistons. When the current players are middle-aged men, they will in turn be the well-educated human assets that drive the culture forward.

Harvard Professor Robert Putnam has studied the connection between civic culture and prosperity for decades. In the 1970's he studied Italian city-states such as Bologna, where local self-government and civic republicanism were born during the middle ages. He realized that these communities had track records of success that spanned centuries, and he documented how this on-going success emerges from great civic culture.

The Pistons have staged a brilliant local demonstration of this connection for everyone in South-Eastern Michigan. The lessons need to be applied broadly.

Urban Planet in Grand Rapids, Michigan

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:27:00 +0000

Rapid Growth is a great Web site in Grand Rapids, MI, that focuses on development and the built environment. Lately, they've been producing a series of videos about cool things around town.

For example, check out this video about Urban Planet. It's a new media community that uses the Internet to help folks discuss community issues similar to those that Rapid Growth focuses on. Urban Planet is based in North Carolina, but the Grand Rapids community is one of the largest in the country with over 250 users, 2100 conversation topics, and 70,000 replies. Perhaps, most importantly, as you'll see in this video, the social media site is also spurring face-to-face gatherings.

Winter in Birmingham, MI

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:24:00 +0000

winterinbham1, originally uploaded by GScott.

While this picture was taken a couple years ago, Michigan was pounded again and again this year with snow. For the past couple of weeks, though, the weather's been great, and nothing beats Michigan in the summer!

Art Bus

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. G. Scott Aikens) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:29:00 +0000

artyschoolbus, originally uploaded by GScott.

I saw this art bus on a random corner lot in downtown Detroit. The area around the bus seemed to be pretty barren and burnt out. It was a pleasure to me to come across something so cool driving through the neighborhood.