I spoke with urban planner and OSU teacher Kyle Ezell yesterday about his new incubator concept called "FreeDigs". Essentially, it's a rent-free creative incubator designed to bring the best and brightest minds back to Ohio Cities.

 

He's got some more info here: http://www.geturban.com/

 

And you can download or listen to an mp3 of Kyle and I talking about the project here: http://a19.video2.blip.tv/2090000664138/ColumbusUnderground-ColumbusUndergroundcomPodcastEpisode07591.mp3

 

What do you all think of this idea? Does Kyle's concept have any legs to it?

 

<img src="http://www.columbusunderground.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/freedigs.png">

I love it, though it sounds like lot of pressure if you get one.  At what point does someone decide that a resident's ingenuity has faltered?  That could get touchy.

It's not his concept, it's more like the current trend that's catching on. It works great though. My aunt's husband has a technology firm - it's an incubator. They have an office at University of Wisconsin. They also use various university resources. Free rent for his firm, and in exchange, NTT -a company he works with in Japan takes on a bunch of computer engineering interns from the UWisc. branch. It makes the school look good by having global internships and spurs economic development in Wisconsin at the same time by giving the firm very little overhead so they can acquire the capital to expand. It never would have been at that location without the untapped dark fibre optic infrastructure in southwest Wisconsin though.

 

I think universities are the best incubators. There's always rooms laying around in buildings that aren't being used.