Build Momentum

Gather a team that represents a broad range of community interests behind a unified vision

To guide efforts and establish broad community impact, you need a diverse, committed group of community leaders to head up your Connected Community initiative. At this point, you’ve developed strong community interest, generally agreed as a group on high-level community issues which to focus, assessed relevant community activities and projects, begun to develop a growing roster of important project champions and stakeholders, and begun to think in terms of potential application-based focuses and initiatives. Now you and your core team are ready to develop the vision for your connected community project and refine your project team and their roles.

Your connected community project vision unites your stakeholders to work toward a common goal – universal broadband access and impactful community programs. Your vision serves as a guiding principal and rallying cry to anchor your team’s work from start to finish. At this point, you and your colleagues must determine which area(s) of community need, interest, and/or opportunity you will focus on. Projects often focus on one or two major areas, whether they are community strengths or weak spot. However, by bringing together representatives of many different sectors and interests, your group is likely to discover opportunities to collaborate and utilize resources to address multiple concerns, such as a workforce development initiative operated in conjunction with a local hospital. Based on the unique issues or opportunities that you have determined your project is addressing in your specific community, your vision statement articulates the end-game or objective that you wish to accomplish. For example, in Rockford, Ill., the community envisioned achieving a safer environment with fewer crimes. While technology provided the means to make this happen, it was the community’s goal of improved public safety that provided the basis for the project’s vision, not the specific technology infrastructure and tools.

With a distinct community-driven focus and strong vision, your project is usually in a position quite naturally to select a leader.  Remember that your leader must rally the troops, carrying your project’s vision throughout your team and throughout the community for the duration of your project execution and beyond.

Once you know your community’s specific focus, have articulated your desired outcome, have agreed upon your project’s vision, and are working with a strong leader and core team, you’re usually ready to take stock of your assembled group of stakeholders. You may find that you have too few or that you don’t have the ideal mix of interest and expertise represented in your stakeholder group. This can happen because the articulation of your vision has either sharpened or broadened the scope of your community’s project.

The great news is that the project definition will enable you to gain an additional set of engaged, active stakeholders who are typically subject matter experts that add significant value to your core team. The refined group of stakeholders ultimately will be critical to the successful transformation of your community. Therefore, whether your initiative has five or fifty, it is crucial that your stakeholder individuals or organizations are engaged partners. They are investing (people, funds, space, in-kind resources, etc.), partnering, helping to deliver, or committed to using the programs, services, or applications your initiative is delivering. In order to achieve this level of investment and commitment from your stakeholders and other potential sponsors, it is crucial to develop and refine a set of value propositions that motivate and engage each one. 

It is at this stage that you’re often ready to further flesh out the application ideas that you brainstormed when you were getting started and initially bringing folks in your community together. In fact, it’s time to go one significant step further and modify this list. The goal is to simultaneously narrow the scope of application ideas to those that relate specifically to the areas of community need and/or interest on which you’ve decide  to focus and  to deepen list, adding more ideas based on the sector or sectors where you will focus your project’s efforts.

With the vision in place and application ideas in mind, you and your team are usually ready to begin an existing technology asset assessment. Here you identify what relevant technology infrastructure is already in place (if any), where it’s located, and who owns or controls it. This inventory will become critical in your planning and executing phases because you will use it to help determine what technology your project will us, where it will be located, and who will operate it.

Next Step: Form a Plan