Seth Fearey Seth Fearey is a civic entrepreneur in one of the nation’s most dynamic regions, Silicon Valley. His mission is applying information and networking technologies to economic and community development on a regional scale.

In 1992, Fearey played a key leadership role in developing the Valley’s Smart Valley Inc., one of the largest and most successful electronic communities in the world. As a volunteer member of Smart Valley’s board, he championed the development of network-based applications for the local government sector. He encouraged local cities to create their first websites and developed Smart Permitting, a collaboration of 23 Silicon Valley cities that led to putting building permit applications on-line and rationalizing the process across all of the cities. Fearey also consults for Smart Voter, an on-line voter information resource now being managed by the California League of Women Voters.

He contributed to many of the other Smart Valley initiatives, including Smart Schools Net Day, PC Day, Government Guide, telecommuting, the Public Access Network, and Connect ‘96, a global conference for connected community initiatives.

Earlier Fearey worked 20 years for Hewlett-Packard in finance, marketing, and strategic planning. He represented the company on the technology policy committee of the Computer Systems Policy Project, an association of computer industry CEOs collaborating on public policy issues of interest to the industry.

In 1997 he left Hewlett-Packard to take the lessons learned from Smart Valley to other regions in the U.S., Europe and Japan. For seven years his consulting firm, Connected Communities, helped cities and regions assess their readiness for the networked world, and take action to get better connected and compete in the New Economy. He has worked with cities in California and Oregon, with Chicago neighborhoods and suburbs, California’s Central Valley, and the Greater Washington DC region. He partnered with The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California to develop On the road to a GIGABIT BROADBAND, A Self-Assessment Guide for Communities.

In 2004, Fearey joined Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network to reinvigorate Smart Valley and launch new projects in healthcare and wireless communications.

In his spare time, Fearey chairs the board of the Midpeninsula Community Media Center, a public benefit corporation providing public access to video channels on the cable television system and on the Internet. The Center serves the communities of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, and Stanford.

Recent Speeches

  • Why Silicon Valley, the Foundations of an Economic Hotbed — Institut de L’Enterprise, Palo Alto, California, December 2004
  • Riding the Waves of Innovation — Forum Empressa, Zaragoza, Spain, October 2004
  • The Digital Divide - Good News and Bad — Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Stanford University, October 1999
  • Does Place Matter Any More? — California Chapter of the American Planning Association, Bakersfield, October 1999
  • Using the Internet for Constructive Public Engagement — Government Technology Executive Leadership Forum, Pasadena, California, August 1999
  • Civic Entrepreneurship and Creating Regional Opportunities — Silicon Valley Dynamics Conference, San Francisco, March 1999

Last updated February 17, 2004