Finding a new approach to economic development requires experimentation. A lot of it. 

The old approaches to economic development emerged in the South in the 1930s. The idea was simple. Provide a low cost alternative to higher cost manufacturing locations in the industrial centers of the Northeast and Great Lakes. 

This model worked well for the South into the 1980's. Then, like the rest of the country, the collapse of costs to global trade began eroding U.S. manufacturing. 

In the 1990's a development took place that no one anticipated: The fast commercial application of the Internet. With the invention of the web browser in about 1994, connectivity -- a trend already underway with the shift to PC's and local area networks -- exploded. 

We are still in the midst of figuring all this out. The Internet is our first interactive mass medium. It will take us time to adjust to new realities. In the interim, we know one thing for sure: Our old approaches to development -- based on low costs -- won't work.