Fostering Community-Based Technological Innovation

US Ignite （NSF 15-508）为所有美国人快速部署下一代网络奠定了基础。它源于这样一种认识，即下一代网络是解决美国社会问题和美国经济持续增长的基本工具。US Ignite的主要目标是打破一个根本性的僵局：由于先进的网络基础设施稀少且分散，对能够利用这些基础设施的千兆应用的投资不足。成熟的研究文献和最近促进千兆应用发展的努力都表明，地方社区内的个人、组织和团体是创新活动的潜在重要来源，可以用来应对这一挑战。从之前构建有效的技术基础设施的努力中吸取的一个关键教训是，虽然对标准和核心基础设施技术的集中投资是有价值的，但是与基础设施的应用和使用有关的许多创新来自嵌入在本地环境中的个人和团体。研究和鼓励在不同学科领域的本地创新已经有了悠久的传统，包括：技术和创新管理、企业家精神、信息系统和许多其他知识领域。为了广泛复制成功，美国的Ignite项目需要相关领域的专家进行研究。该项目资助了一个将在马里兰大学举行的研讨会，主题是理解、管理、学习和评估促进地方社区作为下一代宽带基础设施技术创新来源的努力。研讨会的目的是：(1)评估当前知识的状态，(2)阐明未来关键工作的研究议程；(3)开始在这个多学科领域形成跨学科的协作网络。更系统地了解促进以社区为基础的技术创新的努力将使我们能够更好地设计、评估和从正在进行的投资中学习。这将最终打破阻碍先进网络基础设施大规模发展的僵局，并使这些基础技术的潜在经济和社会效益在个人、地方和国家层面得以实现。

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.