I find it absurd when people criticize the Plain Dealer for their "Quiet Crisis" series and challenge area residents to look on the sunny side of life. While REALNEO certainly features plenty of progressive developments and people in the region to celebrate, it is essential we all redouble efforts to correct our failings and support solutions, rather than hibernate in denial - things won't be any better in the Spring.

For one roadmap to a better future, in the 11/28/04 Plain Dealer Forum Section the insightful Joe Frolik offers a blueprint for significant improvement for NEO, taken from lessons learned in our regional diamond Chicago, which not inconsequentially was able to lure away one of our leaders of our sustainability movement because our community leaders were not as supportive and promising as those of the Windy City. For another roadmap, look to Boston, and just down the road to NEO's most progressive suburb, Shaker Heights.

In another new economy domain, the OneCleveland initiative has been nationally recognized at the top of the community bandwidth spectrum but, for lack of concerted comprehension of the connection between connectivity and economic development, we are lagging Philadelphia in visioning on becoming the wired city of the future. Worse, the City of Cleveland has failed to leverage information technology as a foundation for economic development and we're now recognized as the worst of 70 large city virtual communities in the Country. Worse, those who allowed us to become the worst are slamming the barn door and pledging away $30,000,000+ to out-of-state contractors to put us right.

As a more sane strategy, I suggest leaders for the future of Cleveland speak up about this crisis and take ownership to find solutions. I started speaking up on this issues in 2001, writing a "Quiet Crisis" op/ed on our failing virtual community and the digital divide, and I am working with a group of Case and Cleveland State leaders to solve those problems in East Cleveland, where city government is receptive to outside support. I reprint below my op/ed from 2001, which remains true today, and I encourage others to post their thoughts on these issues as comments here, or email me on these matters at norm [at] icearth [dot] com.

Many private businesses in NEO are making life better for area residents and visitors by making their Internet access free to others via WiFi. I'm writing this posting from Talkies, in Ohio City, in a room full of others so unwired, and none of us would be here if the owners weren't so progressive. Unfortunately, most NEO leaders are not as forward thinking as our small business champs, or progressives leaders like in Philadelphia, developing large-deployment mesh public WiFi strategies for all their residents.

WiFi offers immediate economic development impact at many levels, bringing the IT savvy creative class out into the streets and to area businesses, on even the most dismal NEO evening, and making them appreciate the region as progressive and desirable. A smart regional WiFi strategy may have much greater impact bridging the digital divide for residents who cannot afford or gain access without concerted public initiative. REALNEO is supporting effort to create a WiFi mesh for all of East Cleveland, where residents are struggling with so much in life. But, in planning this, we must all realize making computing and Internet access a civil right, so to speak, smacks of socialism in the face of monopoly access providers like Adelphia and SBC, which want to charge as much as possible to those who can pay, and deny access to those who cannot. Accept this truth as we attempt to unbundle economic development from the current monopoly stranglehold on Internet access, as we shall soon face challenges like being faced by Philadelphia, and Ohio in not as progressive as Pennsylvania and so even more likely to fail at the hands of entrenched business interests. Read what's up in PA:

Today I noticed Pennsylvania's license plates feature the catch phrase "WWW.STATE.PA.US" (home of PA's excellent PowerPort - a stark contrast to Ohio's silly little state site). PA is surfacing as a true new economy powerhouse, as highlighted by Philadelphia's struggle to become the world's most wifi'ed city and a recent presentation at the Ohio Wind Power Conference by Kathleen McGinty, Secretary, Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Dept., who drove home the point that PA's effective leadership is putting them a generation ahead of OH with alternative energy generation and manufacturing.

But seeing PA drivers educating America about WWW.STATE.PA.US really made me think about our mindset as "Birthplace of aviation", the truly inept tag-line of our license plates. A feature in Scene Magazine chronicles how OH leaders blew the opportunity to develop the aviation industry here. Scene quotes NEO legacy-powerhouse Frederick Crawford: "You know, there was a time when we had working in Cleveland the men who would later create the greatest aircraft companies in the world. The problem was, the fools running the city did not understand what they had and lost it."

It's bad enough we can't think of anything intelligent to put on our license plates to promote Ohio, but it is far worse we find glory in our failure. For more to think about this subject, read the excellent article "A Century of Bumbling" from Scene, excerpted and linked below. And, what would you like to promote to the world on your license plate? I vote for "New Economy Leadership" - post your thoughts as comments to this post.

In his ED Pro Blog, Ed Morrison surfaces important issues for Northeast Ohio that we can address with effective economic development planning - we have a skills gap, where students and adults are not learning what is needed to function in the new economy - as demonstrated by lack of open source programmers in this region.

How can Northeast Ohio attract and retain educated and skilled employees?  How can businesses in Northeast Ohio gain an increased pool of qualified workers?  A survey conducted by Starting Point, northeast Ohio's child care resource and referral agency, examines family friendly policies in northeast Ohio businesses and institutions.  Read the 2002 Northeast Ohio Work and Family Survey to learn about the results of their work.  Here are some highlights from the executive summary:

We had a small victory in East Cleveland this week. Some days ago, Vic Voinovich and I met with representatives of GE and Nela Park. Although they expressed concern about the long term trends in the city, their most immediate concern was far more mundane: fixing the traffic light at the end of their driveway.

From Good Morning Silicon Valley, an introduction to the movement of the open source community to block patentability of Software - giving new insight on an issue non-obvious and wrong, in America

Gotta love how the editor of Good Morning Silicon Valley gets his points across. To those not in the know - dump Microsoft Internet Explorer and get the free open source browser of choice Firefox! A world-class holiday gift for everyone - read more

The National Child Care Information Center website contains a wealth of information for NEO about the economic impact of child care. In recent years, researchers and policy-makers have begun to recognize the important contributions the child care sector makes to the regional economy in both the short and long term. Across the country, states and localities are using regional economic analysis to measure the economic contributions of the child care sector. Click here to find a sample of publications and organizations that have information about the economic impact of child care on state, local, regional, and national economies.

Facing the embarrassment of being rated the most impoverished large city in America, Cleveland community leaders became vocal looking for solutions. The following NYTimes editorial indicates we stand out in thinking about this issue at all, as 12 million American families are largely ignored in their struggles for enough to eat. Being ranked worst in poverty drove us to some higher consciousness, offering us the opportunity to address serious problems, if we expand the dialogue and act on good words. Have you thought about our chronic poverty lately? Thanksgiving is an excellent day to talk about that, so we may do more for those who are suffering before the new year.

Highlighting the need for a fresh perspective on childcare, Elizabeth Aldred states, "The availability and affordability of high-quality childcare is an economic development issue, an educational issue, and a human services issue. It has both immediate and long-term impacts on schools and employers, as well as on families and the communities in which they live. And if we continue to ignore its importance, we will pay the economic and educational price." Read this article, Childcare solutions require collaboration, by Elizabeth Aldred.

In considering child development opportunities in NEO, the NYTimes offered this insight:

Life Way After Head Start - By DAVID L. KIRP - Published: November 21, 2004

The power of education to level the playing field has long been an American article of faith. Education is the ''balance wheel of the social machinery,'' argued Horace Mann, the first great advocate of public schooling. ''It prevents being poor.'' But that belief has been undermined by research findings -- seized on ever since by skeptics -- that federal programs like Head Start, designed to benefit poor children, actually have little long-term impact.

Over the past day or so, I've been having an interesting e-mail exchange with my colleagues, Mark Chupp at CSU and David Cooperrider at Case. We are exploring what the next steps will be for our Universities Collaborative.

The Cleveland Botanical Garden Flower Show returns to University Circle on May 27 - 30, 2005. This show is the largest outdoor flower show in North America.



Cleveland Botanical Garden is the country's first urban garden center.

Earlier this week, Governor Taft dedicated a utility-scale fuel cell power substation in Westerville. Learn more. Fuel Cell Works carried the story.

Fuel Cell Today, a publication from the UK, also picked up the story.

Last week, The National Economic Development and Law Center (NEDLC) and Build Ohio produced a report outlining that the early childhood development industry in the state is about $2 billion. Read more about the report.

Here's a press release from the Fund on how the Dashboard project will be launched and administered. Read more. 

Ashland Univeristy and Ashland Economic Development have a good program to help companies in Ashland County connect with Canada. Read more from this article from Mansfield. 

Over the past six years, early childhood development has been gradually moving to the center of the economic development agenda. Investments in early childhood make a lot of sense in a global economy that runs on brainpower.  In Northeast Ohio, we could move to a national leadership position by placing early childhood development in the center of our Brainpower strategy. Here are some good links to learn more:

Last month, Missouri held a workforce summit, and they have posted some interesting presentations on the web. See the list.

The 11/14/04 Cleveland Plain Dealer served up a fascinating contextualization of Northeast Ohio entrepreneurship, our innovation and manufacturing legacy, and its demise under America's Wal-Martized big-box consumer culture. Make note, Americans, Wal-Mart says it is all our fault that our manufacturing jobs have moved to China, as all we want is cheap stuff - "We are a seller of goods, not a producer of goods," (Wal Mart's) Wertz says. "Customers make the choice."

You've probably heard of RFID - radio frequency identification - and perhaps you use the technology in a smart ID or toll pass card, but starting in 2005 RFID will begin appearing in every American's life as Walmart uses this for inventory and then storefloor supply chain management and, as the NYTimes reports today, labels on drug bottles featuring RFID antennas will be used to protect pharmacies and you against counterfeit drugs.

REI Director Ed Morrison describes Economic Development as beginning with the unborn child, which recognizes important issues like reducing unplanned pregnancies, delivering world-class prenatal care, providing excellent early child-care and education, insuring great nutrician for children and protecting them from health hazards like lead exposure, and becoming outspoken to educate our community on the importance of breast-feeding, as mentioned today on Brewed Fresh Daily in a posting from Sandy Kristin Piderit, explained in detail on her LiveJournal blog - contact Sandy for more info

Good Morning Silicon Valley makes an important observation about Google's new free email service, gmail - as per their terms of use, they are able to read/analyze and correlate all data in all message you open - basically, by using this service your life is an open book... giving Google, Inc. and whoever they choose to partner or cooperate with access to all your words and other content shared with whoever you communicate with.

I just noticed a posting on Good Morning Silicon Valley about a blog written by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. I was surprised the owner of a sports team would be into blogging - and his insight so valuable - so I checked out his blog. Turns out he was able to buy the Mavericks because he is a successful IT entrepreneur, and he is an expert in technology matters - so his insight is more valuable than I imagined.