Computing Research Policy Blog

Richard Florida re Creative Class

Here's a pointer to an interesting article by Richard Florida, courtesy of Spaf: "Creative Class War", http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0401.florida.html. Very interesting article. I personally have to discount the Democratic Party biases, but what's left is still quite meaty in terms of understanding how IT outsourcing has taken place so much faster these days than in the past by the very nature of the subject matter. Intellectual hotspots that support entrepreneurship are springing up worldwide. I still feel that we in the U.S. should move foward by emphasizing the value of complex interactions among fields of expertise, such as bioinformatics, nanobiology, and information science, where we can maintain a competitive advantage. The arguments Richard Florida makes are interesting to consider.

Purdue and the Lafayette community hosted Richard for a 2-3 day visit about six months ago. I had an opportunity, along with several others in the admin, to have a sit-down lunch discussion with him on his new book. The Provost got us each copies a couple weeks before. He's a fascinating guy. He travels with an entourage/research team, including an ex-rocker, and spends almost all his time away from CMU, where he feels an outcast. Go figure.