The guidance which follows is designed to help local communities assess their own strategies for becoming a learning city and to evaluate the progress they are making. Two assumptions drawn from the research underlie this guide:

• that the learning city will be built more securely by making progress over time along three interconnected strands of development
• that the processes of learning are applied to these strands of development.

There is no common strategy for implementation, but identifying and developing the people who are crucial to the success of the venture is important. Each community will need to work through its own solutions to reflect local characteristics and purposes. Nevertheless, the experience and knowledge gained by the pioneering learning cities suggests guidelines for those who wish to develop these capacities within their own community.