How do you alter the course of history?
How do you attack wicked problems and reverse decades of blight, hopelessness and destitution?
One Sharpe Byte at a Time.
I just spent 72 straight hours with programmers, developers, graphic designers, UX experts, techies, homeless activists, conservatives, liberals, vegetarians, business owners, CEOs and philanthropists, all maniacally collaborating to attack the “wicked” problem of homelessness.
Some suggested that we soft pedal the issue or ignore it all together for fear of reinforcing the negative image held by others regarding the area. We called BULL – literally. We reached out to our USF Bull partners, along with Florida Hospital, Moffitt Cancer, Busch Gardens, the University Mall and the Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative, plus the 140 and growing members of the Alliance network to mount a full frontal assault on the issue. No soft pedal – no wilting violet – no “hey look kids a deer” approach to shield sensitive eyes from a vexing societal problem.
Instead, we turned conventional wisdom on its head and ran straight into the maelstrom. Locking arms with our presenting sponsor PEAK 10, and host Crossover Church, aided by Red Hat – Tampa Bay Food Truck Rally – Hillsborough County & Code for Tampa Bay – the Executive Advisory Group & Silverthorn Investments to create viable solutions using innovative applications to help solve the problem. Next, we intend to work with the winners to forge an application that Hillsborough County can adopt and we can showcase to other communities struggling with this challenge.
The Tampa Innovation Alliance is determined to reverse the course of economic despair, such as homelessness, in the University area, leveraging every asset at our disposal. We know how great our community is and the opportunity that we have to build something powerful.
To build a place where people want to truly want to live, work, play study and stay.
We also know it will not happen by itself and that the conventional formula – steeped in orthodoxy – will only generate conventional results. So it’s time to dump the convention hats and embrace the innovative spirit which built a great nation and promises to recharge the Alliance area.
My admonition: Byte orthodoxy – instead embrace creative thinking and maniacal collaboration to awaken from the sleepy lethargy that can doom grand efforts such as this. Be Brave and Confident for the future is ours!
Check out this YouTube of the ABC news story of the event: ABC NEWS
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