What Happens When the Federal Government Can’t Get Emergencies Right? And what does it say about our level of preparedness for disasters, wrought by nature or terrorists, even after the 9/11 disaster and the debate, planning and funding that all follows?

Date/Time: Saturday
September 10, 2005 at noon
Location: Martin
Luther King Civic Center - 14801 Shaw Avenue, East Cleveland
Contact: Norm
Roulet, REALinks - (cell): 216-534-1732 (email): norm [at] realinks [dot] us&YY=57644&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">norm [at] realinks [dot] us

City of Cleveland Chief of Staff Chris Ronayne spoke at the latest NeoExcellence Roundtable, held at the City Club of Cleveland, delivering an excellent overview of the issues faced by a City working to facilitate economic development.

Ronayne started with mention of a significant project with New Orleans working to help the city find footing in the devastating wake of Hurricane Katrina. The latest news issued was that Cleveland would accept 400 evacuees Thursday and create an assistance network for the plagued city.

In NEO today, we see a growing consciousness in the alternative energy and sustainability movement, a resounding catalyst in the digital cities OneCleveland phenomenum, and many other indicators that we are finally developing a vibrant new economy mentality.

Location

Earlier this month, REALNEO IT Analyst Derek Arnold attended the O'Reilly Open Source Convention and Drupal Conference in Portland, Oregon, and he brought back more than new code, knowledge and relationships - he brought back the State of Oregon's vision of being "an epicenter for Open Technology (Linux and Open Source-enabled hardware, software and services)". The State of NEO needs to embrace such a vision!

Engaging the Next Generation

Do you think all Gen X'ers are lazy apathetic slackers? Think
again...they are entrepreneurs, stay at home dads, and are making
political waves. In this session, Rebecca Ryan shares the results of
over 7,000 interviews and focus groups with the next generation: what
they think of their politicians, what they're looking for in their
communities, and how they prefer to make a difference at work and in
their neighborhoods.

Location

The August 11, 2005, NEO-X Roundtable, at the Jones Day building in New York, New York, brought together a fascinating cross section of former Clevelanders now living or working in the New York area, sharing the common bond that we all still care about NEO.

On Tuesday, August 2 to Sunday, August 7, 2005, I (Derek Arnold, Technology Analyst for REALNEO) will be in Portland, Oregon for the 2005 Drupal Conference which also runs concurrently with O'Reilly Open Source Conference, also in Portland.

A resounding theme among entrepreneurs in NEO has for a long time been "I don't get respect". Now, a new study by Stuart Mendel, Assistant Dean of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University and Co-director of the college's Center for Non-Profit Policy and Practice, validates that "Cleveland could foster small-business growth as a way to erase the "Poorest Big City in America" distinction it earned last year".

In a recent article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, posted to the NEO Excellence community, business editor Paul O'Donnell wrote "I really didn't need Forbes magazine to tell me that Cleveland ranks 113th out of 150 metropolitan areas for best places to jump-start a business or career". Based on Forbes' analysis of our assets, O'Donnell observed one would conclude "the region is predominantly populated by reasonably educated engineers who spend discretionary income on the arts or sports, who work at companies that pay well but aren't hiring, and who live in safe neighborhoods filled almost exclusively with native Northeast Ohioans."

Please join the NEO Excellence Roundtable for inclusive dialogue and pursuits to optimize the brainpower, quality places and innovation networks of Northeast Ohio. The Roundtable meets 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM each Tuesday for discussions and lunch at the City Club of Cleveland - related content posts here and at a virtual community for the collaboration at http://neoexcellence.realinks.us.

Wednesday's East Cleveland Extending Community Home Online (ECHO) meeting will be held from 9:30 to 11:00 AM at the McGregor Home - see http://www.mcgregoramasa.org/guest.asp and below for directions. We shall be the guests of McGregor CEO and President Rob Hilton, who will join us to discuss transforming the quality of life for seniors in this community.

Location

Following several months of meetings and discussions, the East Cleveland ECHO - Extending Community Home Online - initiative is making great progress. A strong and diverse team of volunteers has come together to develop for East Cleveland a virtual comunity where there was not one, and we'll begin distributing donated computers to area organizations and residents the week of April 18th, starting with the Helen S. Brown Senior Center and next flowing to students at Shaw High School. Computers will run free open source software, making everything we distribute free for recipients. All related developments, ECHO public meetings (usually Wednesday at 9:30 AM), and other East Cleveland events will be highlighted at the new East Cleveland portal, currently being developed at http://eastcleveland-org.bryght.net - check in often!

Northern California has a unique combination of incredible brain power, the world's highest quality, connected places, and innovation networks - and its booming'. It rode through the bubble-burst with little disruption and now ideas, deals and dollars are flowing freely. The sun is shining, the skies are blue and the limits. While this place and reality are far removed from NEO, there are connections to make and lessons to learn - there is knowledge to tranfer. Details to post here.

Starting in San Francisco and spanning to Cleveland...

On Saturday , April 4, 2005, Mr. Stanley Lowe, Vice President for Community Revitalization at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, spoke about the preservation of historic architecture at the Mount Zion Congregational Church. His message was one of education, perseverance, and hope.

Each Tuesday from 2:00 - 4:00 PM REI holds REALNEO planning and
orientation sessions. These sessions are free and open to anyone
interested in this initiative - and excellent time to work with
volunteers on your Community Of Interest Links - feel free to come

Location

Each Tuesday from 2:00 - 4:00 PM REI holds REALNEO planning and
orientation sessions. These sessions are free and open to anyone
interested in this initiative - and excellent time to work with
volunteers on your Community Of Interest Links - feel free to come

Location

Each Tuesday from 2:00 - 4:00 PM REI holds REALNEO planning and
orientation sessions. These sessions are free and open to anyone
interested in this initiative - and excellent time to work with
volunteers on your Community Of Interest Links - feel free to come

Location

Each Tuesday from 2:00 - 4:00 PM REI holds REALNEO planning and orientation sessions. These sessions are free and open to anyone interested in this initiative - and excellent time to work with volunteers on your Community Of Interest Links - 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

The inventor of Moore's law and a co-founder of Intel spoke recently of the loss of competitive advantage in Silicon Valley that offers either a warning or opportunity for NEO, highlighted with "Other areas have picked up on the technology - it's spread around to a lot of other places", "We have very formidable competition in the world. I think the
impact of China is just beginning to be felt," and "Chief among the challenges ahead for Silicon Valley is the
relative weakness of the U.S. public education system, which Moore
characterized as a problem for the entire country."

Jack Ricchiuto sent out 12 emails to convene a meeting to explore the
state of "facilitation" in NEO and 40 or so people showed up - 20
more said they can't come but want to come to a future event... all here are
interested to know each other. He convened this group to determine who are
facilitators in region, how may they work together as a "practice
area" and how can we help our community and clients understand what we do
and the value to the community. So he asks four questions:

Joe Stanley a 5th year interior design major at the Cleveland Institute of Art gave a presentation on his senior project to an enthusiastic crowd at the Peter B. Lewis building at 2 p.m. today as part of REALNEO. Joe's senior project is an ambitious vision for CIA, University and the City of Cleveland. It was exhibited at 1300 Gallery this past fall along with the work of several of his classmates. Joe's project and those of his classmates were destined to be forgotten after the exhibition (which only lasted one night), but Joe's project has been given new life through REALNEO. Joe has his own COIL at REALNEO called neomainstreet. neomainstreet contains images of Joe's models and drawings, a discussion of his design philosophy and its context within contemporary and historical trends in architecture and civic planning. Its a fascinating site of local, national and international interest!

In the March First Monday - An interesting transposition has happened. It used to be that the farther things were, the more difficult it was to know them. Today, thanks to communication technologies, we often develop relationships with what is far at the expense of what is immediately around us. This paper explores the increased irrelevancy that the near acquires through our use of online technologies. But by proposing a model of praxis that incorporates our actions online as well as offline, this paper also argues that online technologies can play an important part in bringing the epistemologically far near to us, and making the physically near relevant again.