<>Celebrate Holiday Jingle Bells at REI! - Join us Tuesday for a Network Celebration!

We would like to show our appreciation for the wonderful
work that everyone has devoted to REI. Stay and join us for a REALNEO orientation around 3 and an important Tuesdays@REI
following at 4:00PM.

Location

Location

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.

REALNEO’s development strategy involves building a suite of
open source collaborative tools and capabilities offering our residents unique
value, whether for economic development and entrepreneurship or just good
quality of life. For example, we use the global standard FOAF (Friend of a Friend)
for user identification management, and Drupal for content management, and we
see immediate opportunities to enable free, effective VoIP (Voice Over Internet
Protocol), Video Conferencing, Rich Content Management, and more capabilities
all free and open source – REALNEO’s system engineering and unique value
opportunity is bundling together the world’s best such capabilities to give
people and organizations of our region the world’s best collaborative,
intelligent operating environment, for FREE. For example, the Dec. 15 Source
Forge newsletter mentions developments for providing effective open source
streaming media, ideal for City Club forums, Cleveland Institute of Music
performances, and REI presentations – perhaps all hosted on the Ultra High Bandwidth
OneCleveland…

1. What is REALNEO?

1.1. What is a "Virtual Community"?

"Virtual community" is a term used to describe a wide variety of computer-mediated communication, particularly long-term, textually mediated conversations among large groups. Such groups are comprised of people who may or may not meet one another face-to-face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer networks and a variety of web formats, such as blogs and bulletin boards.

Thanks to REI for hosting this session, and Peter Holmes for leading the discussion. Our focus was to "collaborate on unique services provided in connection with application for service mark registration". In attendance was a range of community leaders with varied interests - entrepreneurship, consulting, change management and technology, so the discssion was lively, rich and diverse. And, it seems one of the greatest areas of unique value of REALNEO is the bottom-up, diverse interaction it enables, as represented by this physical community today.

Ted Takacs will post his detailed notes from the orientation, and we'll link in Peter Holmes' discussion documents and notes as soon as they are available - I'll limit my comments today to saying thank you to the scores of people in NEO who have embraced this environment as an enabler for change, and who are now contributing content and value in ways not possible before - to me, that is a greatest realization of the unique value of REALNEO, being empowering the unique value of great individuals here.

Civic Strategies has posted a reference to REALNEO on their directory of "URBLOGS", which the explain as: Urban
blogs are those that are focused on a metro area, provide
interesting commentary about local politics, culture or urban
life and aren't so ideological that they're painful to read. So
how much ideology is too much? Hey, it's our list, so we get to
decide. -

Here's
our list of urblogs worth spending time with:

Most
blogs are the work of individuals. But that's not the case with Cleveland's
REALNEO (it's an acronym standing for Regional Economics Action Links North East Ohio).
REALNEO allows large numbers of people to share resources, news and
ideas about revitalizing the region's economy. Along the way, it
hopes to create a virtual community mirroring the real one. You can
find it at http://realneo.contenthosting.org/.

And REALNEO is not the only URBLOG in Cleveland to be recognized

Bill
Callahan's blog is a jewel. He writes frequently and well, not only
about Cleveland politics but economics. And he does so with
an independent point of view. You can find Callahan's blog at http://cleveland_diary.blogspot.com.

Here is an overview Powerpoint presentation prepared to share with attendees at the REI orientation sessions and for your review by downloading here.

Providing childcare and pre-K advantages to more children cannot be considered only an issue of increasing the quantity of centers. Quality matters. The National Association of School Boards of Educations (NASBE) recently issued a policy update addressing this issue and the need to focus on the manner in which we assess young children. The Association states that “there is actually a fairly broad consensus today about many issues related to early childhood testing. For example, there is general acknowledgement that issues of technical adequacy are more difficult to address with young children, who have shorter attention spans and go through periods of fluctuating development. Experts also agree that…no single assessment should be used to rank, label children, or exclude youngsters from educational experiences.�

Suppose you wanted to expand the reach of preschool to low-income families not able to pay for these benefits. To whom would you turn? A recent article in the Washington Post tells of the Freddie Mac Foundation providing a $450,000 grant for a free preschool program in Alexandria, Virginia. The program, Child and Family Network Centers, enrolls over 170 children whose families earn too much to qualify for Head Start, but not enough to pay for a private preschool. The founder of this program, Barbara Mason, states, "I think every city's going to need a program like ours because there are always going to be kids that fall through the cracks." She started the center twenty years ago in response to the large discrepancy she saw between "the kids coming out of the projects and their middle-class peers." The $2.3 million budget of the center comes from three sources: one-third is from city, state, and federal funds, one-third from foundations, and one-third from fund raising.Â

"Strong Schools = Strong Communities" emphasized a workshop held at the Enterprise Foundation Annual Network Conference in October. Lessons learned from the Baltimore Education Project are relevant to education issues faced in Cleveland. "Intervene with the youngest ages possible," urge the practitioners of this initiative. "Because standardized testing usually begins in the very early years of formal public education..., it is important to equip students with the skills, tools, attitudes, and behaviors that will make them successful at learning before they arrive in First Grade." The list of lessons also speaks to a long-term approach and establishing formal partnerships among community stakeholders.  To learn more about the Baltimore Education Initiative process, click here.

REI has scheduled a REALNEO orientation session from 2 - 4 PM for anyone interested in becoming more familiar with our Regional Economy Action Links for North East Ohio. We'll walk through basic site administration, like setting up a user account and adding content, and setting up a Drupal site from scratch. We'll discuss how to best use this transformational technology to transform the NEO economy. This is of course free and open to the public - when you sign in with the security desk at the PBL building (the Gehry) the guard will tell you how to find the session... room 401

Immediately following is Tuesday@REI: "Unique
Value: Cleveland & Northeast Ohio,"
with
Guest Moderator Charles D. Weller, Cleveland Author, Lawyer
and Health Care Entrepreneur. Chuck is Editor and Contributor of the new book
(Released 12/04) "Unique Value:
Competition Based On Innovation Creating Unique
Value

Any questions, please email norm [at] icearth [dot] com

Location

About
REI

REI@Weatherhead integrates
high quality economic research and analytic tools to understand
and accelerate regional economic development.

REI@Weatherhead operates as part of a network of
university-based economic development centers in Northeast Ohio.
Each of these centers has its own particular strengths. Together,
we form an important support network to civic entrepreneurs who
want to make change.

In
Memoriam
- Benjamin
R. Stinner, 1954 - 2004

First
holder of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation-endowed chair in ecological management in
Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental
Sciences.

I had the chance yesterday to meet with the Hanna Perkins Center director, Tom Barrett, and several staff members of the Shaker Heights facility. This is one of several institutions strengthening the fabric of our community. The Center includes four integrated branches: a therapeutic preschool with programming for children from toddlerhood through kindergarten, a psychotherapy clinic, a research center, and a training program for early childhood educators and care givers. It’s exciting to talk with these professionals who seek to utilize their knowledge to reach a broad base of our region’s children with programs that show such a depth of understanding for how children develop.

CoolCleveland mentioned REALNEO in their 12/1/04 issue, and that is appreciated. As a driver behind this effort, I appreciate anything that creates awareness of this virtual community - please know it is not "my site" or owned by anyone - it is provided freely to everyone in the region interested in enhancing our value of economic development and entrepreneurship... everyone in the world is welcome to visit, register and add content.

 If you haven't been to REALNEO recently, you've missed lots of exciting developments in our virtual and real community. For a chance to get up to speed, and become more involved in the REALNEO development process, join folks supporting this effort at Case/REI for a hands on orientation (and can get involved with the developing Wind Power industry right after - see below).

As we all consider the
transformational impact of wifi on our daily lives and this community, there’s
another wireless technology to receive in your mindspace and soon to your business or even home – WiMax… worldwide interoperability
for microwave access… which has blazing speed with a stable range of 15-30 miles and is already prevalent in major cities around the
world, and should be considered part of NEO’s long-term technology portfolio strategy.
The questions are, how does WiMax help NEO and when? Read the NYTimes article posted and linked below – I’ll explore this further as
it relates to bridging our digital divide from the most out of box position
possible.

Consider what it means to have a community that communicates and collaborates effectively together. REALNEO allows everyone in Northeast Ohio or beyond, as interested, to participate in a free, standardized, open source virtual network, and so share solutions beyond how to invigorate our regional economy. When connected together in such a smart way, we may leverage a wide range of world-class technologies as never before done or even conceived in a physical community. Take VoIP and videoconferencing, as examples.

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:

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:

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