Advice for Long Island's high-tech initiatives
Portion of the cover of the Long Island Index report in 2011 Credit: The Long Island Index/
The Long Island Index, an ongoing project of the Rauch Foundation, gathers data about our region's challenges and goals, in the hope that the data will drive good public policy. The Index launches its latest report on Wednesday at Farmingdale State College.
The keynote speaker is Mary Walshok, a University of California sociologist. She co-founded Connect, San Diego's effort to develop a cluster of high-tech innovation. Connect was a model for Accelerate Long Island, an initiative to build science-industry collaboration, to keep innovative companies on Long Island, after our research brainpower spawns them.
The report offers an Innovation Index and argues that Long Island is at a tipping point: We can become an innovation powerhouse, but only if we make sound decisions, work together, and persist doggedly.
