I-Open Leadership Retreat Shares New Practices and Tools for Community and Regional Economic Transformation

By Susan Schaul

Special Presentation: Open Source Economic Development
    Ed Morrison and the Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)

Ed Morrison has a different way of looking at economic development, by using open source thinking and networks to encourage innovation. This approach sounds easy, but it is not.

“We need to shift the conversation,” says Ed Morrison, Director of the Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open). Morrison, speaking at the I-Open Leadership Retreat, Punderson State Park in Newbury, Ohio, April 23, 24 and 25 paints a picture of economic expansion by first describing the history behind 20th century business development.

“Our grandfather’s economy, the first curve economy, generated enormous wealth using top-down models created in vertical business silos. But the forces of globalization, started back in the 1960s and accelerated by the Internet in the 1990s, have collapsed costs and integrated markets. In Japan,” he explains, “the automakers organized production differently focusing on flatter organization, networks of suppliers, more flexible production, simpler product design, and faster build cycles. This is an example of networked production. And it proved to be an effective model”

The shift in the economy, declared by economists as moving from manufacturing to services, was too simplistic. Traditional business models based on command and control hierarchies are now being replaced by business models based on more open, porous networks and collaborations. The second curve economy, a new form of capitalism, has emerged based on networks. Morrison uses cell phones as an example. “What value is there if only one person has a cell phone?” he asks. “As the number of people with cell phones increases, the nodes of the network also increase raising the value of the communications network exponentially in a knowledge economy.”

Punderson State Park in Newbury, Ohio, was a beautiful venue for 18 workshop participants from Indiana, southern Ohio, the Mt. Pleasant Community, Akron, and the greater Cleveland area, to share ideas, brainstorm, and learn new concepts to grow their own programs. “We need to build new habits of thinking together,” Morrison advises. “This is not about who needs to be at the table, but who is at the table and what can we do?” He is a firm believer in the value of civic forums, creating the civic space where people can convene and talk together, developing trust and forming collaborations. Linking and leveraging together - these are the tools for the open source economic development process. With people linked together in clustered networks, they are in a collaborative position where they can conduct strategic doing, a disciplined approach to taking action toward economic revitalization. Even though the workshop participants came from non-profits, universities, and businesses, they were all eager to learn about these economic development tools realizing this approach made sense and could be applied to any situation.

Many people talk about economic development, but few people have actually worked in the field, plumbed the depths and shaped new strategies. Borrowing from the open source software developers, Morrison has created a new economic development paradigm called Open Source Economic Development harnessing the strength of open participation and network clusters. Morrison has spent close to 20 years in economic development, starting his career in Washington as a legislative assistant, taking on an analyst position with the American car manufacturers, then working in economically depressed areas in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Kentucky. After a three-year stint at the Case Western Reserve University Center for Regional Economic Initiatives (REI), he started his own business, I-Open, along with three former colleagues. Presently, he serves as the economic policy advisor to the Purdue Center for Regional Development at Purdue University and coordinates the federally funded WIRED (Workforce Innovation for Regional Economic Development) grant for North Central Indiana.

 

This is a 2.0 Mb Powerpoint Slideshow on the current building boom in Dubai that a friend sent to me. I think that it is very educational: Please "Click" Here for the Slideshow (it will take a little time to download & start...)

Thanks Everyone for your comments and support...on last week's I-Open Retreat..

Here is an initial followup. More information will be posted soon by retreat participant and writer, Susan Schaul...

The Leadership Retreat was a productive experience for everyone who participated last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the beautiful surroundings of Punderson State Park in Newburry, Ohio. We enjoyed brilliant weather in addition to meeting and spending time with great people and learning about assets, passions, and next steps toward regional transformation.

Ed Morrison guiding participants on the new practices and tools for Open Source Economic Development.

Gathering for dinner and conversation and learning.

Jeff Miller, Exec. Dir., Innovative Leadership Solutions joined us from Indiana, specializes in curriculum development.

Tom Stone, Exec. Dir., Mt. Pleasant NOW and Debra Lewis-Curlee, Mt. Pleasant Community Zone.

Here's an outline of the material we worked on together guided by workshop leader, Ed Morrison (below) and You can view the Live Show broadcast (just click "On Demand" at the lower bar and the selections will display) on the iopeneducation channel.

Agenda:

Wednesday

As part of its mission of conservation and preservation, Cleveland Metroparks should be a leader in promoting sustainability. Documenting and then decreasing utility and fuel use, cutting back on herbicides and pesticides, recycling beyond paper goods or state mandates - showing the way to greener lifestyles. Except for water conservation at the zoo and the purchase of a few hybrid SUVs (while still maintaining a huge stable of on and off road vehicles) there has been little effort to change.

by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04.28.08

Good Video From The Article Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S6oyTdkOWc&eur

Here's a note just received from Marlon Solano..which we offered to post for the REALNEO community to build connectivity and new opportunities for art in NEO. I've suggested they link to NEO online communities and other communities such as SmallerIndiana.com to leverage resources and capabilities focused around mutual interests...

Cigarette smokers should be burned up.

The following figures tell why smokers should be fuming. Cuyahoga County smokers have been taxed for the following reasons and amounts since 1990:

As we begin a new Spring - a new beginning - what are you doing to green your republic?

The article in the Plain Dealer this a.m. on plans to "fix" the "messy" intersection at Van Aken and Chagrin roads gives my tummy some growls.

 

No one doubts that the intersection could have been devised better at some point.

Some praise the public effort to keep Eaton Corp., a Fortune 500 company, in Cleveland’s downtown. They are even willing to pay a price to see it happen.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority will help to keep the company in Cleveland, we are told, by selling land to the Wolstein/Flats project and by helping to “finance $150 million of the Eaton project,” according to a Plain Dealer editorial praising the deal.

Hope you can join us online for this week's workshop on new practices and tools for Open Source Economic Development. The retreat is lead by Ed Morrison, I-Open, Director, and Policy Analyst and Director of the WIRED initiative in North Central Indiana, Purdue Center for Regional Development, Purdue University. 

This will segue nicely to my next post on Romanian cinema, but in the meantime, pay close attention to the future star/campaigner pictured below:
 

Three year old Owen clinches Pittsburgh as the site for the 2009 G-20 summit with a high five. 
 

Corsair, a private pot of money and investors that seems poised to bail out National City, is an interesting development, but if you're concerned about housing and local investment, where is the encouragement for the future in a bank that got into this mess, at least in part, through poor lending practices and weak management oversight on home lending?

I would not be alarmed. We may continue to get a break on the pie in the sky dreams of the "quick and dirty delivery system - Opportunity Corridor"  for University Circle, Inc. (UCI) and Cleveland Clinic as well as the "curbcuts for developer's - West Shoreway" due to this news:

Join us Thursday, May 1, for the next Midtown Brews with Meet The Bloggers for an open conversation with guest Ben Cipiti, native Clevelander, and author of The Energy Construct. Ben will be joining us via web stream from Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

On April 5th, 2008, the Fine Arts Department presented a program of classical guitar by performers Jonathan Godfrey and Benjamin Kunkel, both Master of Music candidates at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The music performed featured solo guitar works by Scarlatti, Sor, Villa-Lobos, Torroba, Mangoré, and Brindle. If you happened to miss this great performance, the Fine Arts Department did record the event. Here are two MP3 files you can listen to and download:

Jonathan Godfrey performing Choros No.1 by Heitor Villa-Lobos

Benjamin Kunkel performing Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios by Agustín Barrios Mangoré

On Monday, April 15, 2008 when I went to open my SBC Global.net webmail account, I got a message that said that “I had stumbled on a temporary yahoo problem”, and that I should be patient and check back later to see if the problem had been cleared. 

AuthentiCITY--Mrs. Seifert at City Hall puts the REAL in RealNEO.   I have to love this woman who answers the phone for the City of Cleveland.  She knows her job and she does it well.  I called to comment about the recycling program was patched through to the Mayor's Action Line and patched through to Nicole in Public Service.  I felt like I was heard today.  Thanks to Nicole, too.  The whole transaction took 5 minutes.  No music, no endless button-pushing.  Results.

Join us for the biggest gathering of cycling interests and activities ever in Northeast Ohio as we celebrate, educate and collaborate for a stronger cycling community. Whether you bicycle for transportation, recreation, health or sport, did in the past, or want to again in the future, we have something for you. Come join us for week-long activities during the month of May, national Bike Safety Month, including:

Possibilities for Medical Mart Mischief

 

What do you think MMPI will do with nearly $1 billion to spend on the Medical Mart and Convention Center?

If the past has anything to do with the future, you might be very surprised at how enterprising the Chicago developer Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. can be.

The Plain Dealer is reporting tonight on its Cleveland.com site http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/04/enlarge_image_pdfmost_of_a.html tonight  that a deal is in the making to further subsidize the Wolstein project in the Flats, already in line for tons of public money.