Creative Knowledge Economy
Champaign Transformation Project
A joint venture of the Community
Improvement Corporation of
Champaign County (CIC), Ohio State University Extension (OSUE), the
Center for Communities of the Future (COTF), and Urbana University (UU)
Consider the following US trends:
By next year, it is expected that 80% of all households in the US will have computers.
By the year 2013, 30-35% of all diseases will be treated using genetic therapy in combination with telemedicine.
By the year 2015, direct manufacturing will provide only 4-8% of all jobs.
By the year 2018, it is expected that over 50% of all goods and services will be bought over the Internet.
What are the implications of this future context for planning and accomplishing comprehensive development in Champaign County to prepare for a constantly changing society and economy? The Champaign Transformation Project seeks to answer this question.
"All of us live in a time of cultural
transformation unequaled in history. As population, technology,
and information explode beyond the ability of present
institutions to adapt, we face the need to rethink and retool
the underlying assumptions
of how we do economic development, how we govern, how we create
learning environments, how we lead, and especially how we think.
Today we face three types of economies in churn... the last stages of an Industrial Age, the beginnings of a Creative Knowledge Economy, and the weak signals of a Web-based, networked economy.
We are in the early stages of a new type of society. The fast pace of change is transforming our society from one based on hierarchies and standards only to one based on multiple structures and webs of diversity."
- Rick Smyre
Center for Communities of the Future
