Fiber optics: There are currently about a hundred communities (older listing) that are implementing a comprehensive fiber optic infrastructure.  What’s imperative to know is that the cost difference is negligible between providing a fiber vs. a copper network in new communities, yet the profit potential is tremendous.  In other words, establishing a fiber optic network in a new community is kind of a no-brainer.

Wireless: Wireless goes hand-in-hand with fiber.  One investment group is

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There’s already a well-established market for going wireless (making technology invisible) at home and at the workplace, but even at your local bakery?

If you frequent Newbury Street in Boston, chances are you’re pretty productive as well, as many of its cafes and shops provide free wireless internet access.  Thanks to the work of the Newbury Open Network, there’s a national trend afoot to provide wireless internet access at every public establishment, as common as a bathroom or a payphone

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In the industrial age, the basic infrastructure is a road network with cars.  In the experience age (aka the CoolTown era), it’s a fiber optic network with people.  The good news is the fiber is invisible, the people aren’t.

Case Western Reserve University’s fiber optic network is setting the bar with gigabit/second access, 1000 times faster than a typical home connection.  What does this mean?  Major job creation for economically-disadvantaged communities if they get focused, perhaps on a

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Understanding that people will be more apt to use technology they don’t see, a town-wide broadband infrastructure may do wonders for the local economy and quality of life.

Quality of life:  For urban dwellers, a fast network means one less reason to have a car, probably our least invisible technology.  It essentially means you can work at home, or at your local third place w/ free wireless broadband. This magazine focuses on achieving this quality of life.

Job creation:  I’m awaiting some

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CoolTowns are most definitely state of the art, and that means incorporating the latest, most useful technologies.  However, the more invisible the technology, the less afraid people will be to use them.

CoolTowns are first and foremost about building community and enabling face-face interaction.  That mindset just doesn’t seem as sincere when your friend across the table is talking through his cell phone headset while adding entries to his PDA, as both of you sit on a sidewalk flanked by

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Using the Experience Town steps, here’s how an investment group looks to invest in their next generation communities:

1. Discover and extract commodities:  Utilize capital in institutional investment network, leverage student/graduate market of universities and seek currently undesirable/economically-disadvantaged sites.
2. Develop and make goods:  Team with the best urban designers to build a new urbanist neighborhood fabric, although more European/international in density/intensity.
3.

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The economic steps to achieving an Experience Town can be compared with the progression to self-actualization in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

1. Discover and extract commodities:  The land/site, financial capital.
2. Develop and make goods:  The physical town, ie New Urbanism.
3. Devise and deliver services:  The right mix of dining/shopping/entertainment tenants coupled with community center for the residents.
4. Depict and stage experiences:  The integration of the first three into both

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One CoolTown goal is for its residents to exclaim, “Now this is a living and working experience!“

The authors of the Experience Economy listed five guidelines:  1) how well the theme or organizing principle is carried out; 2) the degree to which there is harmony of the impressions or “take-aways” of the experience; 3) the elimination of “negative cues” or distractions from the theme; 4) the memorabilia associated with the experience; and, 5) how well the experience is designed for all the

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We’ve gone from an agricultural economy, to manufactured goods, to services.  What’s next? Experiences.

The experience economy (fast becoming common language) is based on providing continuously unique experiences that can’t be commoditized by competitors, as services and goods increasingly are.  Experiences must be holistic, and examples include Southwest Airlines’ people-first mission, theatre restaurants, and Progressive Insurance’s commitment to improving the customer experience, to name

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There’s no question the entrepreneurial creatives won’t frequent shopping malls and strip centers (it was even an AOL headline last week), but there’s something they desire much more than the popular-again main street:

The piazza, pronounced like “pizza” with an extra syllable and not like a certain popular baseball player.

Why?  Because it’s designed around the concept of being a place rather than a thoroughfare, making it a much better venue for people-watching and people-meeting.  It also

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