Fostering Community-Based Technological Innovation

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US Ignite (NSF 15-508) lays a foundation for the rapid deployment of next generation networking to all Americans. It originated with the recognition that next generation networking is a fundamental tool for addressing both US societal problems and continued US economic growth. The primary goal of US Ignite is to break a fundamental deadlock: there is insufficient investment in gigabit applications that can take advantage of advanced network infrastructure because such infrastructure is rare and dispersed. Both well-established research literatures and recent efforts to promote development of gigabit applications suggest that individuals, organizations and groups within local communities are a potentially important source of innovative activity that may be harnessed to address this challenge. A key lesson learned from previous efforts to build effective technology infrastructures is that, while centralized investment in standards and core infrastructure technologies is valuable, much of the innovation with respect to application and use of the infrastructure arises from individuals and groups embedded in the local environments. There is already a long-tradition of studying and encouraging local innovation in a diverse collection of disciplines,including: Technology and innovation management, entrepreneurship, information systems and many other fields of knowledge. In order to broadly replicate successes, the US Ignite projects need to be studied by experts in relevant fields.This project funds a workshop to be held at the University of Maryland on understanding, managing, learning from, and evaluating efforts to foster local communities as sources of technology innovation regarding next-generation broadband infrastructure. The workshop's purpose is to: (1) assess the state of current knowledge, (2) articulate a research agenda for critical future work; and (3) begin the process of forming cross-disciplinary, collaboration networks in this multi-disciplinary area. A more systematic understanding of efforts to promote community-based technology innovation will allow us to better design, evaluate, and learn from the ongoing investments. This will ultimately break the deadlock that hinders large-scale development of advanced network infrastructures and allow the potential economic and social benefits for these foundational technologies to be realized at the individual, local, and national levels.