Equity and Opportunity Economic Cluster Reports Educational Technologies For additional tools and resources related to this and other topics and projects supported by the Lane Livability Consortium, visit the Livability Lane Toolkit webpage: www.livabilitylane.org/toolkit EduTech Cluster Report Analysis, Report, and Recommendations Regarding Secondary Education, Technical Services, Information Technologies & Applied Social Science in Eugene-Springfield MSA Acknowledgements Prepared: William R. Ellis, City of Eugene July 4, 2012 The work that provided the basis for this publication was supported by funding under an award with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The substance and findings of the work are dedicated to the public. The author and publisher are solely responsible for the accuracy of the statements and interpretations contained in this publication. Such interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government. Table of Contents Body of Report Purpose of the Report ................................................................................................1 Executive Summary ...................................................................................................1 Education Technology Definition .................................................................................2 Video Game Studios and Education Research in Eugene ............................................... 3 Scale of Local Software Publishing Industry and Firms ................................................. 4 Strengths and Weaknesses ........................................................................................8 Workforce Analysis ....................................................................................................9 Postsecondary Education in Computer Science ............................................................ 11 Game Education and Research Centers at NYU and NCSU ............................................ 13 Internships ...............................................................................................................15 Why National Cluster Definitions Don’t Fit Locally ........................................................ 16 Why it Matters ..........................................................................................................18 Recommendations .....................................................................................................19 Downtown Quality Assurance & Compatibility Testing Work and Meeting Space for Student Coders .........................................................................................................19 Marketing Eugene’s Distinctive Advantages ................................................................. 20 Regional Cooperation with Corvallis Businesses and Institutions .................................... 21 Enhance Local Software Publishers’ Access to University of Oregon Research in Education..... ............................................................................................................21 Formalize Collaborations Between Local School Systems and Education Technology Businesses and Research Organizations ...................................................................... 22 Tables, Charts, and Graphs Table 1: Software MSAs by Payroll ..............................................................................3 Table 2: Location Quotients of Professional, Technical Services ..................................... 5 Table 3: MSA Compare of Social Science and Humanities Researchers ........................... 6 Table 4: SWOT Analysis .............................................................................................7 Table 5: Workforce Indicators by Age Cohort ............................................................... 8 Table 6: Earnings by Education Level in Lane County ................................................... 11 Table 7: High Wage & High Demand Software Occupations .......................................... 14 Figure 1: Average Monthly Earnings by Cohort.............................................................8 Figure 2: Oregon Software Publishing Job Creation ...................................................... 9 Figure 3: Rate of Employment Growth in Lane County, Oregon, US...............................10 Figure 4: Job Creation in Information Technology Cluster..............................................17 Figure 5: Job Creation in Education and Knowledge Creation Cluster..............................18 Industry Composition of National Cluster as defined by NAICS Code..............................23 “When an industry has thus chosen a locality for itself, it is likely to stay there long: so great are the advantages which people following the same skilled trade get from near neighbourhood to one another. The mysteries of the trade become no mysteries; but are as it were in the air, and children learn many of them unconsciously. Good work is rightly appreciated; inventions and improvements in machinery, in processes and the general organization of the business have their merits promptly discussed: if one man starts a new idea, it is taken up by others and combined with suggestions of their own; and thus it becomes the source of further new ideas.” Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall (1890) Purpose of the Report Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to analyze the Regional Thinking Big, Starting Small and Acting Fast Prosperity Economic Development Plan’s list of key target industries from a cluster analysis perspective. It Eugene’s video game companies, social science builds upon the identification of regionally specialized research organizations, and academic computer science industries put forward by the Eugene Chamber of departments are undergoing internal changes that Commerce’s consultant, Creative Class Group. In addition present opportunities to collaborate more effectively to their study, this report considered County Business as a cluster [Think Big]. A small and important step Patterns, Bureau of Labor Statistics Location Quotients, towards this collaboration lies in amplifying a commonly and US Census Quarterly Workforce Indicators. Most shared asset: the local pool of available workers importantly, the report takes into consideration the [Start Small]. Changing marketplace demands opinions, observations, and characterizations of nearly happen fast, so to keep up local government must two dozen local educators and industry managers to initiate consultation with busy industry leaders often arrive at a series of recommendations for policymakers to identify areas where it might best provide support seeking to strengthen these key industries. [Act Fast]. While there are a variety of public funding sources for this report’s proposed recommendations, The significance of the famous quote from economist regional industry must act in concert. The significance Alfred Marshall shown above has increased as cities, of their direct investment to each recommendation’s at an accelerating rate, continued to grow larger and success cannot be understated for strengthening the denser. Despite predictions that have accompanied cluster’s tie. each advance in communication or transportation technology, that either the need or desire to live in close In the summer of 2012, both the University of Oregon proximity to one another would obsolesce, the benefits Computer Science Department and Lane Community of multiple supplier inputs, the ability firms have to College Game Development Program are revising “shop for workers” in cities, and other synergies referred their curriculums. Education research organizations, to jointly as “agglomeration economies” continues to partly in response to perceived opportunities and help explain why individuals and businesses choose to partly in response to declining federal and other public locate near one another and why urban areas function resources, are looking to commercialize their research productively. content and find new private clientele to supplement and sustain their operations. In a similar circumstance However naturally occurring agglomeration economies of changing revenue sources, video game companies can appear, it remains true that children do not learn are on the constant outlook for new ways to exercise things unconsciously and will not become high-wage, their coding capacity. software developing adults simply by playing at one of the many retro and contemporary video game Meanwhile, qualifications to participate in the game arcades now scattered throughout Eugene. Therefore, industry are transforming once more. Gaming firms this report and its recommendations consciously and are pulling closer to “mainstream” software as well as deliberately examine not only what the potential diversifying and specializing in surprising ways. Hiring benefits are for the sectors and related trades located English literature majors to help with storytelling is in close neighborhood to one another, but how their nothing new for a video game company, but hiring skills, knowledge, and abilities might be passed more behavioral economists is a more recent phenomenon. efficiently to upcoming generations who would like to The traditional console gaming market is sloughing off, live and work in Eugene. and users of social gaming are reported to be declining. Mobile device games are considered a growth area, as is “serious gaming”—or the development of games for EduTech Cluster Report page 1 uses