By Holland, Originally Posted 12/20/2020, updated 1/25/2021. Originally posted here.
After two posts of starting conversations, continuing them through Alaska Startup Week, I’d like to take a breather and just provide you with a simple update today.
First, I’d like to thank my friends and community colleagues Pascual Reig, Ryan Witten, Sarah Katari and Joel Cladouhos for their support—particularly the heavy lifting Pascual is doing to develop a Alaska V3 website, Facebook Group, and LinkedIn Group. These will be released in the near future.
For anybody who has expressed interest in Alaska V3 work, we are currently meeting regularly on Tuesdays and would love to have you join the discussion.
If you are interested in helping with this work moving forward—even if you’re not sure what that work might be—please add your name to the list below to receive updates on these meeting times, notes, and forward steps.
And if you’re newly introduced to this project and would like to see a detailed outline of the project, here is the downloadable version.
Alaska’s still focused on the here and now
That’s all for updates today, but something tempted me to create further content for Alaska V3:
Today’s discussion in today’s paper.
Specifically, today’s article about using permanent fund earnings to balance the state budget—all while still giving out large dividends to citizens.
Talking about this further will only drag us into the here and now, where Alaska V3 does not intend on being. These are worthy issues to be engaged in, but should not be the focus of an exploration of future economies.
The history of how we got here is important, as is an understanding of where we are, but it’s not the focus of Alaska V3. Our focus is jumping past the current situation to imagine what the future(s) could be for Alaska.
For example, we could’ve never imagined the way the iPhone changed our world in less than 15 years if we’d tried. And yet it was the exploration of futures by Asimov, Roddenberry, Clark, and many more that set our sights to wonder and pursue that very same future.
Alaska V3 is creating a new narrative
I hope we can contribute to the public dialogue by building a new narrative about the Alaska We Want To Build. That is, the Alaska those dedicated to its’ future generations want to build.
I’m reminding myself that this unique focus will still be on challenging and interesting issues, but with a focus on ones that attract and engage forward thinkers about the choices of the state’s future opportunities.
Opportunities that not only develop clarity of what we want to become in a V3 economy, but what it will take from us, our community, and our policymakers to take effect.
The long term role of the permanent fund would be fair game for v3.
The 2021 debate over using earnings to balance the next budget and pay one time dividends? Not so much.
I don’t know if that subtle fork in the discussion focus will hold up over time, but it suggests we need to keep the time horizon of discussions out 10 years or more. That risks being too far to be engaging, but it also avoids the short term opportunistic thinking.
Perhaps Alaska V3 could also be the next Alaska we want in 3 years and by 2030—close enough to matter, but not too far to be impractical.
No matter what, Alaska V3 will be for horizons that look past the immediate but can lead to meaningful legislative focus and long term perspective.
As always, this is just food for thought and eventually guidelines for content.
I’d appreciate your feedback with comments here or sent directly to me that I can share with Pascual, Ryan, Sarah and Joel for our next discussion about the website and content strategy.
Thank you for the many ways you support Alaska, Alaskans, and our state’s future.
Ky
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