A two-part forum on: The Economics of Early Childhood Development

 Awareness: Session; One February 1, 2005, 4:00-6:00PM, Cleveland Museum of Natural History on Wade Oval in University Circle

 Alignment and Action: Session Two, February 14, 9AM to 12PM, Hanna Perkins Center for Child Development in Shaker Heights

Each Tuesday from 2:00 - 4:00 PM REI is holding REALNEO planning and orientation sessions for open dialogue and inclusion supportig the Open Source Economic Development framework for North East Ohio. These sessions are open to everyone - feel free to come anytime between 2 and 4, and stick around after for the weekly Tuesday@REI meetings, from 4:00 - 5:45 PM.

Location

Topic:
"Building Global
Models in NEO: Alternate Strategies for the Arts & Entertainment
Industry"
What
would Northeast Ohio look like as a global leader in the Arts &
Entertainment industry? With world renowned landmarks like Severance Hall,
Playhouse Square, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and so many others, what
opportunities are we missing? What will it take for our region to become a
global leader in Arts & Entertainment? Learn more about alternate proposals
designed by dedicated civic entrepreneurs. Help us build the networks toward
next steps.

Location

There is a fascinating article in the 01/16/05 NY Times on the challenges outstanding international students have finding jobs in the US. Considering the US is an immigrant-based economy and, except for Native Americans, we're all relatively recent transplants, the current "lock the gates" federal policy is probably the most harmful to the US economy of any of the current administration - we are not importing knowledge workers, at a time when the world is eclipsing us in brainpower. As you read on you'll see, there's Ivy League brainpower all over the world and some of it wants to work in America - foolish US policy is keeping it out, driving US companies to send work abroad, as other economies gain competitive advantages over the US. Perhaps smart leaders in NEO can excel as world-experts in bringing global brainpower here, as a unique value of NEO. Tell me, why not! Read on...

Topic: "Regional Economic Development in Indiana: An Update on Best Practices"

Location

Each Tuesday from 2:00 - 4:00 PM REI is holding REALNEO planning and orientation sessions for open dialogue and inclusion supportig the Open Source Economic Development framework for North East Ohio. These sessions are open to everyone - feel free to come anytime between 2 and 4, and stick around after for the weekly Tuesday@REI meetings, from 4:00 - 5:45 PM.

Location

Here's an organic interpretation on the interconnections of TOPSOIL - Technology Optimization Platform for Social Organization, Innovation and Learning - REALNEO - Regional Economic Action Links (North East Ohio) - OSED - Open Source Economic Development - and IP - Intellectual Property - being the ecosystem enabling and nurturing Entrepreneurship and unique value creation and growth.

OSED consists of (B)rainpower, (I)nnovation and (Q)uality atoms, held interconnected with the magnetism of REALink Dialogue and Inclusion. These atoms combine in infinite combinations of Intellectual property molecules, which combine in organic structures forming more complex elements like schools, universities, companies and governments within a community ecosystem, in North East Ohio called NEO. The more supportive the ecosystem, the stronger the elements, and more elements to thrive. At the foundation of the ecosystem is TOPSOIL - the healthier and more nutritious the better. Branding and Marketing promote elements and ecosystems versus others, completing the OSED framework.

Bodwin Theater Company Director Kevin Cronin contributes to
the Cleveland Plain Dealer "Voices in the Arts" series of guest
columns on arts and culture in NEO with a compelling business case for
encouraging more filmmaking and related industry in Ohio. In his analysis, he
explains how this industry "cluster" can generate greater unique
value and economic benefits for this region than may casinos and convention
centers, which tend to monopolize the local development mindspace. To
illustrate the potentials, Kevin highlights data on benefits of the film
industry in Canada and the states of Louisiana, Illinois, Alabama, Oregon, New
Mexico and New Jersey, totaling $ billions... concluding "If Ohio wants
film, commercial, TV and digital-media jobs and income, it needs to take the
legislative steps to compete effectively. They are sensible, cost-effective, necessary
tools to compete with other states and countries to generate employment and
business growth." With elections coming up for Cleveland Mayor (for which
current Film Commissioner Carmody is apparently running) and for Ohio Governor, both of which will
focus on workforce and economic growth, it is timely now to push for the benefits Kevin proposes this creative cluster offers in
the future - make the candidates address these opportunities before they get our votes.

Congressman Sherrod Brown was the speaker at the first Cleveland City Club Friday Forum of 2005, on January 7, where he presented insight from his recently published book on American free trade policy, Myths of Free Trade: Why American Trade Policy Has Failed, and shared personal perspectives on life in Washington, Ohio, and around the world. Appreciative attendees enjoyed the company of an insightful speaker, empowering statesman, and refreshing intellectual – and we may well have been the first to learn Brown is seriously considering a run for Ohio Governor in 2006. Where else but the City Club may we the people of Cleveland get up close and personal to explore the most important issues in the world, with the most insightful people in the world.

City of Phoenix offers support for local artists via ICE - Information Community Effectiveness. The following eNews from City Hall highlights "a new pilot grants program designed to assist individual artists living in Phoenix and working in all artistic disciplines." The focus is quite basic and low-level and low-cost - one could say negligible, in the big picture... $10,000 total... yet for individual artists this is a sign the city cares about their development and success. As NEO's Community Partnership for the Arts is now planning how to allocate $100,000s of dollars to artists, it is worth thinking so small with some of that money, to spread the wealth like in Phoenix...

How do cities encourage and empower residents to be great civil servants - to develop an appreciation for social responsibility? Perhaps through appreciation for jobs well done. The mayor of Baltimore used his "Taking Care of Business" eNewsletter to thank local businesses and 1,000s of citizen volunteers for making their schools better, and below is an eNewsletter from Mayor Rybak of the indisputably effective city of Minneapolis thanking "civic leaers" for their contribution to the quality of life of others in that community - from community gardens and a food co-op to developing a social contract for families to have dinner together at least 4 times a week - it seems the least good citizens deserve from their elected officials is an occassional "thanks for the help".

No big surprise NYNY Major Bloomberg is a master of ICE -
Information Community Effectiveness - as that has made him untold $ millions.
But I am always surprised how well he and NYC.gov use the WWW to serve the
diverse needs of citizens - through his virtual outreach he makes clear he is
an ingenious and caring statesman very deserving to lead one of the world's
most remarkable and complex cities. For example, today I received the following
"Health and Mental Hygiene News" on "How to Find a Doctor",
which "tells
you how to find the doctor you want regardless if you have insurance or not,
lists many free or low-cost health insurance programs, and explains how having
a regular doctor can greatly improve your health." How many 100,000s of
people in NEO need this knowledge, from an eGov taking care of citizen needs?

The city of Milwaukee is taking a lead leveraging virtual community to make their physical community safer. Their city website based Compass interface “provides additional ears and eyes to watch out for crime and it will help promote neighborhood security� and "marks a significant collaboration between city government and the community, in order to provide more timely and accurate information.� Through Dialogue and Inclusion, Milwaukee is becoming a higher Quality, Connected Place, just like we want to be here. Read more about Compass and see it in action, linked below:

-----Original
Message-----
From: MilwaukeeE-Notify [at] milwaukee [dot] gov
[mailto:MilwaukeeE-Notify [at] milwaukee [dot] gov]
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 2:09 PM
Subject: Incident Level Data Now Available on the City

I receive lots of great e-knowledge from the city of Indianapolis, which has great ICE - Internet Community Effectiveness - and they (and other high-ICE cities) use the WWW for more than just political grandstanding. Below is a nice example, where Indy Gov is leveraging their eGov excellence in collaboration with their Colts football team to collect money for Tsunami victoms - Colts C.A.R.E. - (Communities Assisting Relief
Efforts). So, a city is leveraging relationships with citizens and an event attracting 10,000s of people to raise money to help 100,000s - that's a smart community and administration - read on about champions working together:

The first mayor who really stood out to me as a master of ICE - Information Community Effectiveness - who understands TQI, and performance management, and WWW effectiveness and other aspects of organizational and IT excellence, was Martin O'Malley, Mayor of Baltimore (other first choices, Beecham. Palo Alto, and Bloomberg, New York). I'll share more about them and their ICE in the future - for now, consider O'Malley's words below about their innovative program to involve businesses and volunteers in saving their schools:

This book provides content and links related to optimizing eGovernment - critical to making NEO a Quality, Connected Place

I monitor economic development ICE - Information Community Effectiveness - of the 50 largest cities in America and see many exceptional practices I'll begin sharing here. Today, I received an outreach from the city of Phoenix sent to their "Neighborhood Legislative Updates Mailing List", to which I subscribe. It points out "The State Legislature will convene next Monday, January 10! Through this e-mail alert system, we will provide information on the state legislative session and will continue to share information on neighborhood-related bills that the city of Phoenix is tracking." This is a city governance best practice, both in using IT to communicate with community stakeholders (and they provide many categories of such electronic outreach) and by involving the city community with legislative matters impacting their city and neighborhoods. Consider how important it is for our state to work effectively as a community, yet how often NEOs complain that Columbus doesn't understand our needs - and how little we do about becoming empowered as a voice in state-wide issues? Phoenix uses the internet to empower the people of that community - in more ways than this.

In a recent REALNEO posting I reflected on the relationship
of optimal ICE - Information Communications Effectiveness - to political
sustainability, thus challenging the survivability of IT-ineffective public office
holders. It then occurred to me I've never seen used the term "political
sustainability" and so googled that and found a fascinating analysis of the
relationship of effective Environmental Management and political sustainability,
thus challenging the survivability of eco-insensitive public and private office holders.

Information Communications Effectiveness (ICE) is now the key to governmental and political success. The benefit to citizens of effective government technology (IT) and telecommunications - from process improvements and knowledge management to ecommerce, communications, collaboration, individual empowerment and optimal economic development - is so powerful and transformational, it is inconceivable a less tech-savvy up-start could upstage an effective ICE-savvy incumbent. We have never seen an ICE-savvy politician surface in NEO, so all communities here are just waiting for information revolution.

The insightful and socially conscious civic entrepreneur Adele DiMarco Kious cooks up valuable vision for all in a recipe for prosperity posted to her Sicilian Soulfood blog - she surfaces a concept I hold dear, which is the value of developing a knowing and loving community. More than ever in our history, the American psyche is rooted in fear, but we have nothing to fear but living in fear itself. The recent natural disaster in South East Asia shows man is not in control of destiny.

The Fund For Our Economic Future recently publicized insight from their first Minority Forum, which features a link to an interesting presentation from the keynote speaker, Dr. John Powell from Ohio State, on issues related to diversity and regionalization. Also included is a presentation from Ray Leach, CEO of NEO entrepreneurship supporters JumpStart, which expresses a commitment to be diverse and an interest to support minority entrepreneurs and help place minority business people in companies Jump Start supports. Page 3 of the presentation also says one thing that is "Different about Jump Start" is "We believe we can serve as a convener for all interested parties to build a social network". As this is a purpose of REALNEO, and this social network is committed to all parties in the region interested in entrepreneurship, it is clear we should all work together - we're all working with Case and dedicated to bettering this region. Time to start co-convening! Later in January, Jump Start is hosting an "Exchange", which should be a nice opportunity for local entrepreneurs to form physical connections... in the mean time, REALNEO will continue developing virtual connections and explore collaboration with Jump Start.

REI Director Ed Morrison sent me a link to an excellent
case study that well demonstrates the value of ECHO - East Cleveland Homes
Online... this article highlights a Philadelphia program that is helping bridge
the digital divide isolating some of the most troubled households in that
region, and we need to do exactly the same types of things to gain exactly the
same types of benefits here - read this story and case study!

This issue is about to become explosive in this state as,
like in Pennsylvania, Ohio politicians are trying to legislate
protections for special telco interests that will take many options away from
communities trying to bridge their digital divides. Ohio is about to become the
battle ground (and joke) for the national digital divide war because a State Representative from Mount Vernon (near Columbus), Thom Collier, has
introduced a bill in the Ohio state legislature that amends existing Ohio cable
competition law by restricting political subdivisions from providing
"telecommunications service using telecommunications equipment".

There is an interesting posting in Hindu Business about a development by a Carnegie Mellon professor working with academe and government in India to bridge the digital divide there, which serves all people of the world. Of course, where good happens first benefits first. At a recent Tuesday@REI it was proposed a solution for helping the disconnected in Cleveland is te deploy "dumb terminals" - thin clients designed to provide exclusive top-down solutions to limited problems community leaders consider important - whereas the Carnegie Mellon model is to provide the most functional, capabilitiy rich solutions to the most disconect people of India - the illiterate - to empower them at the highest possible level in the greatest range of ways. This is the correct model, and Case has the opportunity to help demonstrate the value of this approach as we work to bridge the digital divide in East Cleveland. Read on...

Today's Tuesday@REI session was organized and moderated by James Harris, Partner with H/L Communications, who brought together an innovative panel of proactive experts addressing workforce development issues, challenges and successes in NEO. For context, James starts the discussion by illustrating that between 2000-2004 Cuyahoga County has had a 22% drop in manufacturing jobs and a 8.1% in all sectors - a report on the state of poverty in Ohio is attached. In talking about eliminating impoverishment in a context like that, it is clear it is very difficult actually having measurable impacts - you need innovative approaches to create work opportunities providing a living wage, to get people thinking about employment in sophisticated ways, and helping employees to keep their jobs once they are placed in them. James starts the discussion on innovative approaches to workforce development with Walter Ginn.

In his ED Pro, Ed Morrison highlighted important observations about the importance of broadband internet access... in this case highlighting a foundation initiative to improve access for rural regions of Minnesota, but the same thinking must be applied to underserved, disconnected urban populations, like in inner-city Cleveland and East Cleveland. Note, in the grand spectrum of Internet access, dial-up is the minimum need of every citizen of the new economy, the level of broadband discussed here (e.g. DSL or Cable, via wires or wifi) is a valuable step beyond dial-up, and beyond that is ultra-broadband, like with OneCleveland, which provides even higher speed communications for large institutions. Toi consider what action is needed here, read the insightbelow, inserting "urban NEO" for "rural MN" and replacing "Blandin" with "Cleveland", "Gund" or any other area or national foundation.