NOTES: 8:30-9:45 Open source economic development

8:30-9:45 Learning - 1 hour, 15 minutes

Seminar on open source economic development

• Ed Morrison - Universities Collaborative
  
• Valdis Krebs – Social Network Mapping
  
• Laszlo Kozmon – Cooperative Processes
  
• June Holley - Civic Entrepreneurial Networks
  
• Jack Ricchiuto - Appreciative Leadership

Comments from this session - Overview - post your comments below

PANELIST 1: Valdis Krebs

Valdis starts by asking who invented the iPod - shows network created it in
8 months from concept to shipping product with developer all over the world -
old and new relationships - invented in Asia, etc. Included developing iMusic
store, etc., so many boundaries were broken down in very short time as result
of a network

Meanwhile, back in Cleveland - shows picture of Dawg Pound - if we take our
dog brain to work Monday morning we have problems. Asks who has a dog - who has
an invisible fence - cool product - train dog to stay in zone and then whether
the device works or not, it still works because the dog remembers - and
everyone who the dog interacts with knows where the fence is... even the
squirrels. So, do we know any organizations or companies that live inside an
invisible fence, whether it works or not.

We all want some "famous people" to come and give us solutions -
shows list of famous inventors and jests these people did it alone - airplane
to rock-and-roll - media et al spend lots of time looking for the hero but
Henry Ford knew better ... "I invented nothing - I just assembled together what
other people..."

So Innovation happens at the intersections of people - networks - those
people in better network locations tend to have better ideas - in certain
places there's better cross flow of ideas which leads to better innovation.

Technology brokers span disconnected worlds and innovate by moving existing
ideas from where they are to where they are not.

Shows chart of multiple complex networks interconnected by a few
interconnections.

To wrap up: Ed points out networks can be analyzed – mapped – connected –
and networks can be built across and between networks and organizations – which
is objective of Making Change

PANELIST 2: Laszlo Kozmon

Laszlo – try to summarize where we are on universities
supporting making change.

“Creating Collaborative Communities – getting real results
from the networkâ€? 

Archimedes wrote the text on the lever- give me a firm place
to stand and I’ll move the world.

Leverage the foundation of REI/Change effort to form firm
points for building collaborative communities… groups of entities or beings
that create a scale advantage in an agile form – can accomplish more faster
than individuals can 

How does this fit with what Ed is doing – we have group on 1) brainpower – 2) learning network – 3) quality places – 4) collaborative communities with
branding – when you put Krebs model on top of a quadrant of 1-4 and you have a
framework image –

Collaborative community leverages commonality and diversity
– expands access to resources and info – improves utilization, etc. 

Who can participate –

1) Shaper – founder and provides initial vision – rules -
attract and nurture members

2) Members work with shaper and add own abilities and
capabilities – must fit objectives of community

3) Tool and service providers – work with the communities to
help members meet their objectives – 

Works if they set up the right objectives and right rules
with flexibility to meet interests of all members

How to form - find commonalities of entities – agree on
common vision and define and document – purpose, charter, agenda, measurable
objectives – agree on governance with oversight structure – define rules and
ensure members have a say in rules – agree to member focus and contribution –
specific performance and progress measures – roles – document and communicate
to members – develop a resources allocation plan – action plans –
accountability – document… all needed for collaborative community... and REALNEO development.

Need to then form and empower the community

1. Relevant
   knowledge –
2. Broader
   reach – access/share contacts of each member to others – how to grow and strengthen/leverage goals
3. Achievement
   capabilities – capabilities needed – formal and ad hoc approaches – must constantly
   communicate expectations and progress
4. Motivation
   systems – contributions must be recognized and rewarded – system of
   graduated sanctions for non-compliance

Key is communications – complex adaptive – feedback – need to
publicize the success and failure of everything you do – public forums –
knowledge repositories need to me keep up to date – review content and
practices and report performance – Establishing Priorities and Plan 

Will then hit first barriers and so Community Activities
must remove barriers to success – and as new members and supporters come in you
need new priorities and plan revisions – new knowledge is developing – barriers
get smaller – objectives can be achieved

University collaborative partnership – move through
roadmap/network framework for collaborative approacht o economic development –
REI Role is forming and launching 3 new collaborative communities by next
summer – working with U’s to define how best to do this – new to ED and this
arena - U’s role in helping to form other collaborative communities –
methods and tools – IT – Infrastructures – ops support – PR – is positioned to
provide all that to help attendee’s collaborations 

Initial areas of support are help forming communities and
refining vision – helping shapers refine approach and get right access and set
up right incentives – will create visibilities and help new communities gain
access to new members and other resources – decision makers – expertise –
R&D and Technology Transfer

Ed explains this is a corporate perspective – and points out
this in new approach here and we’re designing as we go – have gone through one
cycle of this – one year into cycle – have shared responsibility for doing work
– and transparency

PANELIST 3: June Holley - Civic Entrepreneurial Networks

June is in a rural community – practitioner developing
collaborative networks – more like urban network

ACEnet – 20th year – regional entrepreneurship network – spent last
6 years catalyzing region to all work in a comprehensive environment for
support for entrepreneurs. In common with our urban areas, they have poverty, pollution, job loss,
tons of government with no money – can’t plan your way out of a situation like
that – need to get the blinders off, and we don’t even know how many blinders
we have.

So, get 100s of collaborative projects going – overlapping projects
– make mistakes – have some successes – take first steps and learn from
transformation – get going – do stuff

Collaborative projects are when a group of people get
together and do something – assets build year after year – as you have
overlapping collaborative projects you get a network. She doesn’t believe in
trust but more how to evaluate people – weaving and insights – breakthroughs –
new ways of thinking – conflicts are essential... if you can stay in the same
space you must move to a new level of understanding. 

Example – 1992 – 6 food processing businesses in Athens
region (idea from Spokane, WA) – started collaborative kitchen with network of
all the code, health inspection folks, etc – leveraged into other businesses –
added job training – trainees ended up in incubated businesses – started food
service – joint purchasing – product innovation – regional branding “Food We
Love�.

We could use all this in NEO 

Regional Flavor Projects… way of branding  â€“ what makes a region ‘tastyâ€? and unique – In Albany,
OH they have many festivals, etc – one entrepreneur developed the Paw Paw into multimillion industry – took abandoned
coal town and built tours around it – led to arts coop – computer training center

To tackle poverty, group of people started used furniture
business, then started training program to make bunk beds for poor…

<>Tomato growing
is big business there but growers waste lots – started group to harvest unwanted
tomatoes and made money with them… grass roots, finding small steps to generate
wealth 

Suggests that as our organizing idea, everyone take responsibility
to start at least one joint project! (may want to go short term at first) Find
$. Set up communications systems. Set up networking hubs. Set up opportunities
for digesting what you’ve done and setting strategic direction.

Keep in mind, everyone needs to be part of the doing –
everyone must become a social entrepreneur...  opportunity seeking and action
oriented – need diversity to make breakthroughs – joint design and continual
improvement 

Roles for Universities

Voinovich center with Business Development group supporting
high growth entrepreneurs – facilitation training – introduce local government
officials to entrepreneurship – convening colleges and K12 to catalyze
entrepreneurship education – cluster focused certificates (e.g. food products) –
never do training without including entrepreneurship 

Close – who is your network now – what project are you going
to go home and initiate – have you thought about where you’ve been going the
last 5 years and how you want to change

If you want to get in touch, feel free - juneh [at] acenetworks [dot] org 

Ed points out through our U’s we have the ability and
resources to add value to the community – support entrepreneurship. As June says
– look for the project – the opportunity to connect – Recommends book “Love is
the killer ap� by founder of Yahoo about personal code of how you interact with
others – can’t continue to hide info from each other – trying to get ahead by
pushing others down – can’t tolerate bad civic behavior – there is a behavioral
aspect to all of this

PANELIST 4: Jack Ricchiuto - Appreciative Leadership

New collaborations come from new concersations – new regarding who we’re
talking to – new regarding what we’re talking about 

Everything we see here started as a conversation – the $
billions – so who should we be talking to – the first circle is the people we
know the best (who can meet us, greet us, connect us) – the second circle is the people we know of but don’t
know – the third circle is who we can connect in the margins and overlap and leverage to expand our
community

What should we be talking about – From foundation of strengths
and passions we need new collaborations to build opportunities – look 20 years
out 

We need to start giving ourselves credit – audience is the
geniuses in the room – start listening to each other – stop thinking anyone is
smarter or has more strengths outside – switch from a deficiency perspective to
an appreciative perspective – be dream focused – what is the ideal space and
the best possible outcomes – be transparent and talk about our opportunities

Ed says now we switch the tables – Ed reflects on the hierarchies
of the past and how when he came back to Cleveland he was overwhelmed by the
resources here. First his brother came back and became director of housing in
Hough – he built four houses the first administration – and by circumstances
became the planning director – and when Ed saw all that was being planned he
couldn’t believe it was possible – but Hunter had a network and big picture
vision and integrity. He’s in Chicago exploring how UK is dealing with movement
beyond industrialization now.

Three questions - creativity, sustainability, urban prosperity: What would it look like for NEO to be a
GLOBAL LEADER in these areas?