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The growth of network-based models continues. Here's an article from Western North Carolina. It seems that Asheville and Buncombe County are moving toward a network based approach to their regional strategy. They have launched an intiative to map regional economic development assets. You can read more here.

Sam Powers is adopting some of the frameworks developed by I-Open, our nonprofit organization that is dedicated to spreading these network based models. You can read a white paper on these new approaches here. Sam uses the language of the white paper to explain why networks are important.

Regions that have thick, open networks will be more prosperous, Powers predicts: They will learn faster, spot their opportunities faster, align their resources faster and act faster.

You need more than a building and some commercially attractive technologies for an incubator to flourish. That's the lesson for the Arlington Technology Incubator. 

The new director seems to be heading in the right direction. He is taking concrete steps to create the business support networks needed for entrepreneurial start-ups to take root. Read more. 

He would do well to learn the lessons of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development in Research Triangle. CED does not operate an incubator, but the organization has mastered the challenge of building open, supportive networks. Learn more from the CED web site. 

One of my favorite incubators is the Youngstown Business Incubator. Run by a firebrand, Jim Cossler, the YBI is at the center of transforming the economy in the 

Another one of my favorites: An incubator network promoted by the National Renewable Energy Lab  (NREL). The Clean Energy Alliance is an impressive bunch, all working as a national network to assist each other with clean energy start-ups.  

One other thought: I'm not sure that a chamber of commerce is best suited to oversee this kind of work. It will always be a distraction from the core mission of a chamber: serving its members.