What I do

I'm generally reticent to discuss my job, as despite the big picture scope my unit has, I tend to think of it as task-oriented, thus sucking all the "glory" out of it, and I haven't had enough other good jobs to determine how normal that is.

So if you were wondering what I do (I'm an analyst in ASU's Office of Economic Affairs), yesterday's feature in the Arizona Republic , "Opportunities essential for drawing 'knowledge workers" hits on a lot of topics/culture I deal with (it's disconcerting that no one from my office is mentioned, though):

"If Phoenix decides to swap innovation for growth as its core economic driver, finding people with the ideas and thinking skills that lead to new discoveries will be as important as cheap land and affordable homes have been for the past 60 years.

'Knowledge worker' is the term applied across industries for people who create, research, develop and invent. Knowledge economies ride on their work as ideas are turned into new products and services. Knowledge workers may be scientists, engineers, designers, architects, high-level managers, artists or business entrepreneurs. Competition for creative people in these fields is substantial. Cities that want to develop knowledge economies need to attract them with both career and lifestyle opportunities. "

Most of the work I do (60% or so) deals with these issues as it pertains to creating a world class innovation center at SkySong. I started my current position about 3 days before the ASU-Scottsale announcement of the project (in May 2004), and the majority of my job has been contributing to the conceptualization, marketing and development of the SkySong.

Is that good enough?