01:00 AM EST on Monday, November 28, 2005

ON NOV. 17, the Business Innovation Factory announced that global leader IBM was expanding its role in the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) partnership, an effort to make Rhode Island the first state with a border-to-border broadband wireless network.

Even better, IBM's arrival triggered the formal launch of the RI-WINs pilot, a small-scale test to check the network's effectiveness and demonstrate how a statewide wireless network could benefit a spectrum of public- and private-sector users.

Launched by the nonprofit Business Innovation Factory in 2004, RI-WINs seeks to create a statewide border-to-border broadband wireless network that breaks down barriers to innovation, enables cross-industry collaboration, and establishes Rhode Island as an ideal place to test new business models. But rather than look to the state to create a network like this -- an approach that has seen only limited success in other parts of the country -- RI-WINs is using a unique public-private partnership model to build the network through cross-sector and cross-industry collaboration.

Take a look at the partners in the RI-WINs pilot: Atrion Networking Corporation, Brown University, Cox Communications and Cox Business Services, CVS/Pharmacy, the Ocean State Higher Education Economic Development and Administrative Network (OSHEAN), the Rhode Island Department of Administration, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, the Rhode Island Port Security Communications Network, Stratum Broadband, Verizon Communications and Verizon Wireless.

Why is this good news for Rhode Island? Because it proves that Rhode Island can turn its size and closely connected community into a competitive advantage. Few places have been as successful at getting a team of this caliber together for a meeting, let alone to collaborate on a such a trend-setting and challenging project. That's real news.

It's not to say, however, that RI-WINs has no major hurdles to overcome. Getting public-private partnerships to work is hard -- so hard that this topic is on the agenda at almost every business school, leadership forum and global business conference that you can name. Why? Because public- and private-sector organizations have different ways of doing business. Getting them to understand how to work together requires radically new ways of connecting resources and talent across organizations.

In the end, however, public- and private-sector organizations have two important things in common: Both want to prosper and both want to deliver value to the people they serve, whether customers, clients or citizens. It was this common thread that let the Business Innovation Factory move RI-WINs from idea to reality.

Although we've only just started down a long and difficult road, we commend the organizations participating in the RI-WINs pilot for taking on the challenge. Not only are they paving the way for prosperity in Rhode Island; they are also paving the way for others around America who want to make public-private partnerships more commonplace.

Sure, these pioneers are innovating for the good of their organizations. But, whether they know it or not, they are also innovating for the good of every Rhode Islander who will benefit from their efforts to build a stronger, more collaborative economy in Rhode Island.

Saul Kaplan is the founder and chief catalyst of the Business Innovation Factory and deputy director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. Robert Panoff is the RI-WINs project manager and president of RPM Strategy.