Today (Thursday) the Knight Center of Digital Excellence was launched in Akron, Ohio. I am deeply invested in the vision and language of Digital Excellence, and I hope the Center lives up to it’s name. Some words of wisdom for those undertaking this mission:
The path towards excellence starts with purpose, and not with technology. Be clear in your purpose, be strong in resolve, be prepared to fall and rise again. Digital is a word that often gets in the way: Strive first and always for human excellence and towards our higher individual and collective purposes. Excellence is a matter of character.
The Chicago Digital Access Alliance put this vision before our City, a vision of great ambition. We echo the historic Chicago mantra: Make no small plans. Has Chicago missed an opportunity? No. We have not. Not if we yet take up the challenge and establish what has been called for: A Digital Excellence Trust.
The wind left our sails when the Chicago wireless plans were put on hold. It was fortuitous that the vendor-driven segmented-technology model fell through, but the call for Digital Excellence didn’t have to stop there. We’re the windy city and our model was never tied to wireless technology. We have Olympic aspirations and Greenest-city-in-the-world goals. We know that these are deeply tied to a vision of excellence.
Excellence is our noble human calling. We’re not one of the Knight communities. How will we rise here and now to the challenge of digital excellence? Will we stir the soul of the city? Will we stir the soul of the nation?
Tags: economy
Yes, never let it be forgotten that it was the Chicago Digital Access Alliance that put the notion of digital excellence – and the plan for achieving it in Chicago – before the City Of Chicago and the Mayor’s Committee On Closing The Digital Divide on February 5, 2007 at the MacArthur Foundation (acknowledged on page 56 of the Digital Divide Report).
It was the Chicago Digital Access Alliance – a coalition of community groups, tech activists, community development corporations and community technology centers – that lit the flame of digital excellence in Chicago that is now blazing nationally with the news of the Knight Foundation grant.
It is the Chicago Digital Access Alliance and its growing list of allies throughout the country that will keep the fire burning. We are here. And there is much, much more to come from us. Stay tuned.
Pierre Clark
Michael Maranda
Lowry Taylor
Co-Founders
Chicago Digital Access Alliance Inc.
Communities Empowered – Communities Informed(tm)