http://www.innovations.harvard.edu This section spotlights innovations taking place in public infrastructure, which is comprised of topics including community networks and services, energy supply and distribution, highways, public transit, sanitation, traffic control, and water supply and distribution. en-us Copyright 2009, Government Innovators Network Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:38:00 -0500 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:38:00 -0500 info@innovations.harvard.edu http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/597117.html The purpose of this note is to help both local and national government officials think through possible strategies for addressing one of the fundamental issues facing Serbian municipalities today: How do Serbian local governments increase the revenues they need to improve their public infrastructure while simultaneously creating an environment favorable to private investment and local economic ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/570238.html Four Massachusetts cities are receiving $3.56 million in grants for public infrastructure projects. Gov. Deval Patrick announced Thursday that Lawrence, Fitchburg, Hopkinton and Lowell will receive the community development grants as part of a 2008 housing bond bill. http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/143211.html Three of Connecticut's key industries - defense, health insurance and alternative energy - stand to benefit from the massive federal stimulus package being hashed out in Congress, Sen. Joseph Lieberman told a business audience in Hartford on Monday. http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/144261.html The following information was released by the office of Michigan Rep. Sandy Levin: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, released today by U.S. House Leadership, is a comprehensive recovery package that will bring many positive developments to the State of Michigan and our residents. This recovery package focuses on both short-term stimulus measures and long-term investments and covers many ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/151991.html SAN MARCOS - Put down those markers. In an effort to slow taggers and their graffiti, city leaders are considering an ordinance that would make carrying certain graffiti tools illegal in some areas. It would also hold parents responsible for a child's second offense. http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/707604.html When New Orleans recovery czar Ed Blakely packed up his office earlier this summer and left the city he had come to fix, few outside the yet-to-heal region took notice. Buried under news of the current economic storm, the headline came and went like an obituary for a past-her-prime TV actress. Yet for those living here, the unexpected departure of the single official charged with making their hometown ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/856753.html Rep. Vern Buchanan has it on his BlackBerry so he can communicate with his colleagues. David Hersenhorn, reporter for the New York Times, uses it while reporting on the Hill. Adam Conner, Facebook's Public Policy Representative, needs it to lobby Congress. But what is "it"? "It" is a smart phone application that creates a Facebook-like directory of members of Congress ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/825548.html In which nuPOLIS social innovators—Plastrik & Taylor—talk with network maven Beth Kanter (and her video camera and blog)Beth's Blog By Email  <http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/> Drawing Networks on Napkins with Peter Plastrik and Madeleine Taylor, Co-Authors of Net Gains <http://feedproxy.google.com/r/bethblog/3/FipS640PYn4/drawing-networks-on-napkins.html> Posted ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/708559.html The newspaper columns of nuPOLIS friend Amber Arellano shed light on the turmoil and promise of one of America's worst performing school districts. For many years we and other education innovators working in Detroit wondered when, if ever, the city's school system would reach a "tipping point" that would unleash opportunities for large-scale change. That time has come. District ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/595800.html Outdoor public art has always had to be waterproof, but beyond that, its relationship with nature has been pretty haphazard. But as I was cruising the web looking for cool summer art offerings, I noticed a trend: There seems to be a shift happening lately, indicating that artists who prepare public outdoor art want their works to be evocative of the nature surrounding them, or even involve the ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/142611.html Jan. 12—The overheated real-estate boom that brought a row of new high-rises to Biscayne Boulevard has ended in a crash. Economic calamity follows, leading to rising joblessness, collapsing public budgets and unmet needs for schools, transportation and affordable housing. Responding to a call from a new president in Washington, local leaders in South Florida lobby for an ambitious wish list ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/741419.html The fact sheets examine the transition to adulthood for two groups of youth using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 cohort. Low-income African Americans are compared to low-income white youth, and youth from low-income "high-work" families are compared to low-income youth from moderate-work and nonworking (i.e., low-work) families. Low-income African American youth are vulnerable ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/885785.html Since Twitter evolved from obscurity to media obsession (yes, we see the irony in that comment), an entire new economy has launched around the platform, including social media consultants offering advice on the best way for organizations to conduct themselves on this new social medium. The advice, called everything from twitter manners to twitterquette, provides at the very least some puzzling ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/858344.html The case for expanding the EITC for workers without qualifying children is compelling, as the current EITC provides little help to this group. We argue that the EITC for these workers should: - provide these workers with a strong incentive to increase work effort; - provide a significant subsidy to low-earning workers working near a full-time work level; - begin phasing out only after an individual ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/725205.html How communities can become social innovation hot spots. Communities—cities, towns, villages, regions—can create the conditions that stimulate social innovators to transform the performance of local systems like education, economic development, health care, and more. But in most places, civic leaders don't know enough about how to do this and often shortchange their efforts or ...