Designing the Intelligent Public Way

The Designing the Intelligent Way process was initiated by Meridian Design Associates & David Isenberg in November of 2008 in response to our concern that America's standing processes of urban design and community, commercial and economic development had yet to add consideration of the new public rights-of-way conveying Information and Communications Technology into the spectrum of consideration in comprehensive planning.

We were also concerned that the visionaries and businesses inventing and deploying ICT infrastructure, resources and products were doing so as though their medium was deploying in an ecosystem separate from the communities all of us inhabit.

We'd noticed that America's trusted and beloved Ma Bell was long dead, and that many communities hadn't noticed that they could no longer rely on her to do the right thing when it came to designing the communications systems we depend on. These same communities needed to prepare themselves for a whole different type of dialectic with Ma Bell's successor incumbents.

Just as this new nervous system is a new capability evolving within our living communities, so our cultural dialogue and design processes now need to find ways to discuss, plan and shape this new digital right-of-way, and the mediated spaces it provides the world access to.

So, we thought we'd get on about it. We invited a growing list of people from the worlds of ICT visioning, design, community media, academia, etc., to a series of salons and to participation in 2 web collaboration sites.

The first was a general exploration of the issues at hand.

The second was an exploration of the practical application of these ideas on the borough of the Bronx in NYC.

The Salon process has been on hiatus for some time, however its participants have been very busy doing just what the process set out to do - experiment with practical steps to assure that the deployment of this new infrastructure and these new cultural capabilities serves the broad public interest.

Many of the participants in the DIPW process will be present at Fiber Fete sharing what they've been up to.

Elsewhere on this blog you'll find some examples of just such undertakings.

If you would like to participate in the renewed salon process and related collaboration sites, just me me know - bice@meridiandesign.com.

DRAWING WORLD CLASS I.C.T. RESOURCES INTO THE HEART OF THE BRONX

The Bronx is nominally served by Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

While new fiber networks are being installed, NYSERNET passes through, and dark fiber abounds, adoption and subscriber rates are lower there than any other part of NYC, and lower than most urban areas. Essential broadband resources are beyond the reach, and outside the ken of the majority of Bronxites.

The South Bronx Social Venture Center (SBSVC) will draw world-class ICT resources, services and capabilities into the heart of the Bronx while providing a gateway to livelihoods and skills that will allow Bronxites to thrive in our contemporary economy.

A MARKETPLACE FULL OF SHARED RESOURCES

SBSVC’s whole premise is that the access to programs and shared resources it offers will significantly increase the rate of community, cultural and commercial development in its environs. For School children, youth-at-risk, and college students, nascent leaders and entrepreneurs, this will be a cross-roads, gathering place and gateway to livelihoods in the Knowledge, Human Services Industries and the Creative Economy.

SBSVC is not an Incubator – the new careers and businesses it’s services will engender will happen throughout the Bronx, with a concentration in households and commercial spaces in its immediate neighborhood – an area once famous as “Fort Apache”, when the Bronx was burning – a neighborhood now home to 1,500 new residences and the home of the new campus of Boricua College.

Complementing SBSVC’s educational and workforce development programs in the Creative Economy, Knowledge Industries and Human Services sectors will be a Small Business Mentoring Program specifically to help citizens inspired by its programs to create thriving businesses.

THE MARKETPLACE MODEL

The 100,000 square feet at SBSVC is both dedicated to the use of those social ventures whose services are essential to supporting the well-being and development of its catchment area, and also dedicatedly flexible in terms of the use of its shared resources.

Like any Marketplace – the gathering place itself is permanent, while the services and goods available to the public will change as the needs of the catchment area evolves.

Certain demographic needs will be perpetual – there will be children to raise, youth to find a way in the world, elders to care for and learn from. There will be a need for skills building and mentoring, for community access to education, technology, social networks and workspaces not found in the typical home.

BronxNet, with its stable operating budget, long-term mandate and technical and training resources will serve as the Anchor Tenant in the facility.

Other Anchor Institutions will have Community Access Offices on site and will schedule the use of classrooms, gathering spaces, and human and technical resources at SBSVC in order to serve their demographics and fulfill their missions. For many of these partners at SBSVC, the nature of their short term, program oriented funding and scale of their needs for program space will scale and evolve. By limiting their permanent leaseholds to the Community Access Offices – walk-in spaces sharing the first floor lobby where Bronxites can connect with opportunities and receive mentoring as they shape their skill-sets and talents – by limiting the partner leaseholds to these small spaces, those partners are not burdened by long term fixed costs, while they are also able to ebb anf flow in the services they provide.

SBSVC’S GROWING LIST OF PARTNER INSTITUTIONS

To date, BronxNet has established preliminary partnering relationships with 5 Borough and Neighborhood Anchor Institutions:

1. RAIN Inc Senior Center

a. RAIN will produce and manage Senior Programs at SBSVC, and all Bronxites will have access to RAIN’s Mentoring & Knowledge Center.

b. SBSVC will provide connectivity, data telecom and multi-media content management to this facility.

2. Bronx Community College (BCC) will:

a. Coordinate college and continuing ed programs in support of the missions of SBSVC and its other partners, as well as career and educational counseling. BCC Students will have access to SBSVC programs, classes and shared resources.

3. Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) will:

a. Coordinate arts related programs in

i. Intro to Creative Economy

ii. Fine Arts

iii. Applied Arts

iv. Career & Business Skills in the Creative Economy

v. Arts related careers, i.e.: Arts Handling, Arts Administration, etc.

b. Administer Art studio spaces and Artists-in-Residence programs at SBSVC.

c. Provide career and small business mentoring in the arts

4. Nos Quedamos (NQ) will:

a. Produce health related educational programs in association with its nearby Community Health Center.

b. Realize it’s long held dream of opening an urban design academy, to be called: “Nos Quedamos Center for Bronx’s Future”. The academy will utilize faculty and program resources from BCC, Pratt and other educational partners, as well as the shared spaces & broadband resources of SBSVC.

5. Renaissance EMS (REMS) will produce, provide and manage:

a. Physical Fitness programs utilizing the existing gym, pool and facilities.

b. K-12 after school programs using SBSVC Shared Resources.

c. Music Education to all generations, with a particular focus on youth, in association with El Sistema USA.

d. Performance Rehearsal Hall & Multi-Media Recording Studio Spaces

BronxNet is engaged in active discussions with the following Anchor Institutions leading toward a partnering relationship:

6. Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (BOEDC) may:

a. Provide Small Business and Entrepreneurial Support services, including:

i. Mentoring

ii. Social Networking

iii. Classes

iv. Finance Assistance

7. New York Botanical Garden may:

a. Use SBSVC to make their educational and career development programs readily accessible in the South Bronx.

b. Assist in the design and management of the Urban Rooftop Ecology and Agriculture elements of SBSVC

i. The Greenhouse Commons

ii. Roof Gardens and Orchards

c. Produce Multi-media content originated at SBSVC modeling urban ecology policies and activities for web viewers

8. Pratt Institute (PI) may:

a. Be the lead educational institution supporting the Nos Quedamos Center For the Bronx’s Future

It is SBSVC’s intention to ever broaden this list of partners.

It is also central to our business model that the list will evolve, over the years, with stability provided by BronxNet’s long term lease, and those of certain other key partners. One of the important replicable models in the facility is its “Social Venture Flex Space”, 40,000 sf of leasehold space whose users will change as the needs of the community change.

BronxNet has had working relationships as a Community Media Access provider with all of these partners over the past 18 years.

Each Partner will be a member of the advisory board responsible for coordinating SBSVC programs and resources, and will be responsible for funding their use of SBSVC spaces and resources. In this way, these partners will be provided the use of SBSVC resources with minimal capital investment and operational outlay, while making SBSVC whole for its investment through payment of rent and fees for SBSVSC services.

Each partner will responsible for raising the program funding required to operate the programs they organize, while SBSVC & its advisory board will coordinate and collaborate on fund raising.