Internet's impact explored in Rock Hill

Businesses take part in Rock Hill workshop

By Jason Foster - jfoster@heraldonline.com

Leaders from a variety of businesses gathered Friday for the 2009 Old Town Conference in downtown Rock Hill. The theme of the conference was “The Internet and Our Community,” a discussion on how the Internet and technology are changing the way we live and work in York County — and what the future might hold.

Here are some of the highlights:

Economic development

In the Internet age, location is largely irrelevant for determining whether a business will be successful, said Stephen Turner, director of economic and urban development for the city of Rock Hill.

“Work can be performed anywhere. The low-cost provider wins,” Turner said.

Research shows the most productive and economically viable communities are those with clusters of young, well-educated people, sometimes referred to as “knowledge workers.” The clusters of workers tend to be located in compact, urban areas. What's more, these young professionals tend to look for jobs based on where they want to live.

“The jobs are going to have to come to where to knowledge workers want to be,” Turner said. “Cities that can attract and retain these mobile knowledge workers will reap the economic benefits. Communities that get people when they're in their 20s are going to be the ones that win.”

So what does this mean for Rock Hill? The city plans to renew partnerships with Winthrop University to focus on the knowledge economy. The two are working on a “College Town Action Plan” to help create that environment to appeal to college students and young professionals. “It's not enough that we educate students in Rock Hill. We've got to keep some of those kids in Rock Hill,” Turner said. Also, among other aspects, the community needs to support the creation of knowledge economy businesses around the Winthrop campus. That means luring tech jobs and other industries that appeal to young workers. On that, “We've got a long way to go,” Turner said.

Can Rock Hill pull this off?

“I think the answer ultimately is leadership,” Turner said. “If we want to, we can make it happen.”

Electronic medical records

In 1889, a high-tech medical record was a handwritten report on lined paper with hole punches and preprinted prompters.

“It was so high tech that it was the state of the art until around 1950,” said Dr. Richard Patterson, chief medical officer at Piedmont Medical Center.

But the future of health records will be digital, and it will present challenges.

For example, with an electronic health record, any group or organization that's been involved in your health care — pharmacies, doctors and others — will have ability to access your information, Patterson said.

“Your entire health history can be captured and accessed instantaneously,” he said.

But privacy and access issues will need to be hammered out before such a system would be successful.

Once a successful application is in place, it will save doctors time and labor and will provide a richer experience for patients and providers, Patterson said.

“The potential with this is overwhelming,” he said. “We really don't know how big this can be.”

Journalism

Is social media a fad or the biggest shift in communication in decades?

Anyone who doubts it's anything but the latter might want to visit YouTube and search for “Social Media Revolution.”

In the 21st century, the journalism game has changed.

We no longer search for news, the news finds us. And we think it should all be free.

So how does this translate into cultivating the next generation of journalists?

“It's no more where I used to go to the office and type my story and go home. … A student today has to be a jack of all trades,” said Guy Reel, a journalism professor at Winthrop University. “You can't just be a writer. … You have to be a master of technology, a multimedia storyteller.”