Biz Talk - Business Blog Roanoke and Beyond

From a government perspective of connecting communities to the creative class of workers, a couple of sites quickly come to mind as useful tools in capturing best practices from other region.

First, Richard Florida author of the Rise of Creative Class and the Flight of the Creative Class has a great blog on the topics relating to his two books. A person of his stature, he and his staff are quite accessbile and update the blog several times a day. You will find very provocative material at CreativeClass.org.

Second, CEOS for Cities is another interesting blog. This organization was instrumental in contracting with Joe Cortright to produce the Young and The Restless in the Knowledge Economy piece that has garnered a ton of exposure over the last 24 months. It is a consortium of larger cities tackling greater problems they all trying to overcome.

Third, Suzanne Morse puts out a nice blog post daily about some current topic. Her credentials are spectacular based on her wonderful book - Smart Communities.

There are many others, but these are good reads to get you going.