I'm pleased to say that REALNEO is participating in the upcoming defrag conference at Lorain Community College - a series of powerful sessions on " Digital Media & Strategic Doing: Bringing Ideas to Life" organized by iOpen, LCCC, Case, CIA and others. The session we will participate in, led by our techie Derek Arnold, is on social computing, with a focus on developing a shared calendar for Northeast Ohio, by leveraging the wealth of open source technology we and other social networks in town use to connect together the people of the community... here is the write up - more on defrag follows and is found here, along with a link for registration (which you should do asap)...

• Practices in Social Software Technology: Gateway solutions to regional calendaring, Green City Blue Lake, REALNEO, Meet The Bloggers, Lakewood Observer, Shout Youngstown, and others

Defrag Ohio Lorain, a creative digital media conference
Dates: Thursday April 12, Friday, April 13 & Saturday April 14, 2007
Place:Lorain County Community College 1005 N. Abbe Rd. Elyria, OH 44035
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Defrag is your business development network in Ohio. "Business development in creative digital media represents a major opportunity for Ohio." Read the article by Ed Morrison here.

Defrag connects you to innovation in the creative digital media industry.Defrag conferences attract creative digital media industry leaders from across the state and the country. Learn about things you never thought of, expand your resources and sharpen your knowledge to build Web 2.0 collaborative e-businesses.

Participate in a very special lunch conversation Friday, April 14. Preamble: Culture and Creativity at the Nexus of Innovation," Philip Malloy Jones, Resident Artist, Aesthetic Technologies Lab, Ohio University. Interlude: Valdis Krebs, "The Music of Networks", Orgnet.com; Jazzin' and Jam Session: "Open Source Meets Open Source Economic Development, An Interactive Conversation", Bruce Perens,Vice President of Developer Relations & Policy, Sourcelabs, Inc., Author of The Open Source Definition and Co-Founder of The Open Source Initiative, Founder of Linux Standard Base & Co-Founder of Software In The Public Interest; Ed Morrison, Center for Regional Development, Purdue University and Economic Policy Advisor, WIRED, NC Indiana, Director, The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open); Valdis Krebs, Orgnet.com; Philip Mallory Jones, Aesthetic Technology Lab, Ohio University; George Nemeth, Meet The Bloggers, Chief Blogging Officer, BrewedFreshDaily.com, CIO, CoolCleveland.com CTO, MeetTheBloggers.net

Join business, academic, government and civic leaders working in:

Video games, and education

• Map of Future Forces Affecting Education, David Moore, Knowledgeworks Foundation, Washington, D.C.
• Entrepreneuship Curriculum for Business Schools in the 21st Century, Dr. John Crooks, Associate Provost, University Partnership at Lorain County Community College, Education and the University Partnership; Edward M. Caner, Director, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Programs, College of Arts & Sciences, Case Western Reserve University; James Gaudino, Dean, College of Communication and Information, Kent State University and Scot Rourke, President, OneCommunity
• Nintendo Wii Bowling, Scott Baker, Cleveland Videogame Developers Meet-Up Group with an Introduction and Overview of the Video game Industry, Rick Pollack, Dan Carl, Doug Reichard, Lou Diggi, Robby Freidman, Michael Irby II, Morgan Adams, Scott Baker, Northeast Ohio Videogame Initiative
• Advancing Education, Research and Economic Development in Renewable Energy, William Spratley, Exec. Dir. Green Energy Ohio (GEO) and Chair, SOLAR 2007, July 7-12, 2007 National Organizing Committee, will be discussing economic development around OH in renewables, and Blake Andres, VP GLSC, education and research activities at the Great Lakes Science Center
• Development of the Ion Field EduGame, Giant Revolving Brain, Terrance Green Ph.D., Douglas Reichard, Michael Irby II, Robby Friedman, Lou Diggi with Lawrence Atkinson, Computer Forensics
• Virtual Worlds Laboratory, Marc Buchner, Ph.D., Exec. Dir., CWRU
• Red Hat High: Open Source Software Use for Secondary Education, Hand Turkey Studios & Red Hat, Inc., Jason van Gumster
• Serious Games for Juvenile Detention Facilities, Law Roundtable
• Serious Gaming for Health Education, Thomas Nosek, Ph.D., Gregg Wrenn, Brain software, CWRU;Karen Riggs, GRID, Ohio University
• The Emerging Economic Paradigm of Open Source, Bruce Perens, VP, Sourcelabs, Inc.
• Building On-line Collaborative Communities in alternate environments such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, Barbara Oney, Digital Airport Initiative; James Levin, Ingenuity; Karen Riggs, Dir., Game Research and Immersive Design Lab (GRID), Katherine Milton, Dir., @Lab, Philip Mallory Jones, Ohio University, Case Western Reserve University, Rick Pollack, Knowledge Information Technology Inc.; Len Steinbach, Cultural Technology Strategies, Moderator
• BrainAge: Intergenerational Learning, Karen Riggs, GRID, Ohio University
• The Temple of Zeus: Five Educational Games for the Children's Museum of Manhattan, Zender + Associates
• Connecting Families, Kids and Students Thorugh Digital Media: 3D Modeling with Blender, Jason van Gumster, Hand Turkey Studios; Audio Into Gaming, Steve Simmons, EDR Media; Computer Game Creation Session, Ted Jordan, Funutation LLC
• Innovations at the Intersections of Art & Technology, James Levin, Ingenuity, the Cleveland Festival of Art & Technology

Social Softare Technologies

• Social media and citizen journalism: research, culture and trends - Mashups, You Tube and My Space, Matthew Bernius, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Ken Warren, Lakewood Public Library, Jim O'Bryan Lakewood Observer, Meet The Bloggers, Shout Yongstown
• Workshop in Building On-line Communities with Near-Time, Joel Bush, Near-Time
• Education & Social Software Technology: Wiki Know-How: A Demonstration and workshop of usability of wiki websites in education, business and other pursuits, Rebecca and Clif Sipe, PBWiki.comMashUps, YouTube & MySpace: Writing Media and Social Identity, approaching the MashUp phenomenon from a literary media making perspective to examine cycles of consumption, mediation, and remediation for new economic models of production and distribution, and how MashUps can be seen as ways of displaying identity and group knowledge, Matthew Bernius
• Practices in Social Software Technology: Gateway solutions to regional calendaring, Green City Blue Lake, REALNEO, Meet The Bloggers, Lakewood Observer, Shout Youngstown, and others
• 20 Years of Social Network Analysis, Valdis Krebs, Orgnet.com

Entrepreneurship and Business Development Networks

• Keith Krach, CEO, 3 Points, LLC
• Cultural Innovation Zones for 21st Century Innovation and Entrepreneurship , Hunter Morrison, Dir., Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Youngstown State University
• How to Succeed in Making a Movie Within the Digital Age, Johnny Wu, Media Design Imaging
• Building Defrag collaborations with "Strategic Doing: Open Source, Collaborative Leadership and Social Networks "

Modeling, Robotics, Simulation, Visualization

• "Overview of the Envision Center, Technology Base & Discussion of Current Projects," Steve Dunlop, Envision Center for Data Perceptualization, Purdue University
• FALCON: Design and Operation of Industrial Motion Systems, Lucian Fogoros, Cleveland Motion Controls
• CGI Photograpy; Photographic Images from CAD Files, TRG Studios, Michael Roth, Marty Horvath
• Cognitive Haunting in Collaborative On-line Communities, Katherine Milton, the @Lab, Ohio University
• Sweet By and Bye: Migration and Transformation of Concept and Form, Philip Mallory Jones, Guest Artist, @Lab, Ohio University
• Visualizations of Ancient Ohio Civilizations with an Overview of CERHAS, Current & Future Projects, John Hancock, CERHAS, The University of Cincinnati
• Suguro Goto, internationally renowned Japanese composer and multi-media artist, inventor Virtual Musical Instruments

Marketing and Branding

• Repurposing and Monetizing Existing Content, David Walker, Stephen Brand, Ph.D., Mindgrab Media LLC
• Dr. John L. West, FLEXMatters, LCD Institute, Kent State University

Here's what entrepreneurs are saying about Defrag:

I'm working with people to find high tech employees to help teach at our camps. Before finding resources were like pulling teeth; because of Defrag/IOpen I found 10 qualified employees within a matter of days. - Ted Jordan, JordanTeam Learnng LLC

There is an energy within the meeting like none I’ve felt in any other conference. The attendees are extremely diverse in terms of industries and are open, excited and engaged. - Barbara Oney, Digital Airport Initiative

If you work in the digital creative arts, or are focused on a new web-based project or company, you owe it to yourself to plug into Defrag in April at LCCC. These are "your kind of people!". - Mike Gesing, www. NEOhio.org

Read more on the Defrag Blog. We'll be posting conference updates and stories of successful models from across the world.

Questions? Contact: Betsey Merkel The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) 4415 Euclid Ave Cleveland Midtown Innovation Center Suite 210 Cleveland, OH 44103 USA C: 216-246-2447

Defrag Ohio Lorain is a collaboration between I-Open, Lorain County Community College and the LCCC Foundation and is generously supported by Case Western Reserve University and FUTURE: Center for Design and Technology Transfer @ The Cleveland Institute of Art.