City leaders in San Francisco have launched a bold initiative and are being touted as visionaries! The mayor has announced the creation of an innovation lab called Superpublic. This project is so timely it has caught the attention of community leaders, government officials and business executives throughout the country.
The lab is designed as a home for problem-solving coalitions and its mission is to strengthen partnership bonds between the public, private and nonprofit sectors. The lab project’s objective is to encourage aggressive and diverse collaboration for the betterment of city services in the future. It will be managed by the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation, the City Innovate Foundation and the federal General Services Administration (GSA). Private sector firms and three major universities will also be major stakeholders.
The City Innovate Foundation, with experience in creating public-private partnerships (P3s/PPPs) that solve urban problems, will help facilitate new partnerships as well as provide expertise. The organizers believe that focused collaborative efforts will result in product development, enhancement of services and their delivery and new processes that allow government to be more cost effective and efficient.
A steering committee will select three to four initial projects for study and the lab will provide the necessary workspace for stakeholders involved in problem-solving efforts. Some early projects may overlap with work already underway in San Francisco. For example, the city is already studying the use of technology to solve its transportation issues. San Francisco is one of seven finalists for the U. S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge, where up to $50 million will be awarded to the city demonstrating the best plan for the funds.
Being located in the same building with teams from GSA and U.S. Digital Services will provide expertise and resources if digital services become solution options for any of the problem-solving efforts. One of the federal group’s mandates is to institute online services that reduce costs while making government services more user-friendly for citizens and businesses.
Superpublic, once operational, will invite other cities and private-sector firms to join in the collaborations. Participants will have access to numerous types of expertise available in San Francisco. Organizers hope that some may choose to invest in projects formulated by the lab as they head to market. Depending on the success of Superpublic, consortiums in other areas of the country may decide to use the model and begin their own collaborative innovation labs.
Change occurs quickly at the municipal level of government and population growth is creating challenges of every size and type. City budgets cannot possibly cover immediate or future critical needs, so innovative labs and collaboration may be the silver bullet that is needed. Many hope that is the case!
Experts say that by 2020, about 70 percent of the world’s population will live in major urban areas. If collaboration and innovative partnerships that involve business, government, academia and the nonprofit world are successful, the U.S. will be a better place.
SPI’s team of government consultants are experts in public-private partnerships. Contact them today.