Pinker is best known for his books on language: The Language Instinct (1994), How the Mind Works (1997) and Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language. In 2002 he published The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, which explored the political, moral and emotional colorings of human nature. The Distinguished Lecture series is designed to bring prominent

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You might not think of a public library as the "in" place to be, but some teenagers do! The Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago reports on ideas being developed for new roles that public libraries can play in developing our youth. Here's what they say: "With growing numbers of teenagers visiting libraries to socialize, do homework, and use computers as well as the Internet, libraries have found themselves pressed to address the needs of this group. Although nearly a fourth of library patrons are teenagers, libraries traditionally have devoted less of their space, personnel, and financial resources to services for teens than to any other age group. An evaluation of the Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development, a nine site demonstration project funded by the Wallace Foundation, suggests that communities should take a closer look at the role that public libraries can play in strengthening the skills of teenagers, building the capacity of libraries as institutions, and connecting libraries more closely to communities. The study suggests that library-based youth programs, especially in low- income communities, can teach teens specific job skills at the same time that they make libraries more visible assets in the community." Click to read New on the Shelf: Teens in the Library

Center for Greater Cleveland's Future topics: Detroit’s Gamble: Lessons Learned, Robin Boyle, Associate
Dean and Professor, College of Urban, Labor, and Metropolitan Affairs,
Wayne State University; Gaming and Tax Revenue: Who is the House?,

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NOTES POSTED FROM SESSION. Fascinating, whirlwind two hours focused on NEO as a global center for applied cognitive learning, arts, technology and their convergence. This Tuesday@REI brought together the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Case, Mark Turner, the Chief Information Officer of Case, Tom Knab, the Chief Information Officer of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Len Steinbach, and the Director of Integrative Studies, Department of Neurology, Case, Peter Whitehouse, M.D. REI Executive Director Ed Morrison makes introductions and moderates... share in the outcomes...

Everyone knows MIT is a remarkable university - now you can learn how, exceptionally. Through their OpenCourseWare site you can access their free, open publication of MIT Course

Materials. They invite you to view all

the courses

available at this time... for example, from their Brain and Cognitive Sciences offerings:

The Center for Regional Economic Issues promotes the understanding economic development begins with the unborn child, and many area community leaders realize effective early childhood development improves the economy. Two recent benefits of this enlightenment are a community of interest called NEOchildhood, pursuing a wide range of childhood development related opportunities for Northeast Ohio, and NEOBEAN, creating the Northeast Ohio Breastfeeding Education and Advocacy Network - all for parents, family, employers, policymakers, educators, researchers, caregivers and ultimately children. Good work!.Â

Participants at the 02.14.05 session 2 of the forum on The Economics of Early Childhood Development were asked to connect the dots from early childhood development to regional economic development. The goal of this interactive session was to broaden the discussion on early care in three ways... visit the NEO Childhood COIL for a wealth of insight on this initiative and next steps!

A two-part forum on: The Economics of Early Childhood Development - see NEO Childhood for support site and services

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At the 02.08.05 Tuesday@REI on Intergenerational Learning, Catherine Whitehouse gave an exceptional PowerPoint (1.73 Mgs) on the Intergenerational School she directs - this is a globally unique "Charter School" with about 100 students - read more here and by reviewing the meeting transcript and other attendee notes and comments posted to REALNEO - please feel free to add your comments.

Betsy Merkel of REI introduced Peter Whitehouse, who
introduced the panelists and facilitators:

• Dr. Cathy Whitehouse, the wife of Peter Whitehouse, is a
  founder and the Principal of The Intergenerational School, the only such school
  in the world and a charter school serving eastern Cleveland.
• Kirstin Frei-Herrman is the Project Director of Experience
  Corps/RSVP of Greater Cleveland, a program providing an intergenerational
  tutoring program in the Cleveland Public Schools.
• Crystal Davis is from the Office of Family and Community
  Engagement, Cleveland Municipal School District, an office dedicated to
  stimulating family and community involvement in the education of our children
  and implementers of aspects of the No Child Left Behind program.

The facilitators for the panel discussion were Monica
Dumitriu and Betsey Merkel, both Consultants at REI.

The 02.08.04 Tuesday@REI continues an important collaboration exploring unique value in Northeast Ohio child development - today expanding focus to "Intergenerational Learning", which leverages the value of all ages learning together. Here we see notes on presentations and discussions featuring:

"Intergenerational Learning"

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The Economics of Early Child Development initiative for Northeast Ohio kicked off February 01, 2005, with a fantastic forum at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where 11 important community leaders representing organizations ranging from the Gund and Cleveland Foundations, Treu-Mart Fund, CCC, Cleveland Public Schools and Hanna Perkins, were moderated by REI leaders Ed Morrison and Roberta Waxman-Lenz in insightful presentations and Q&A on what NEO will look like in 2010, when we are the world-leaders in Early Child Development - join the over 160 attendees as we plan next steps at a special NEO Childhood Community of Interest Link here!

Notes from the first Early Child Development Forum:

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

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"Monuments differ in different periods. Each age has its own."

"Maybe, just maybe, we shall at last come to care for the most important, most challenging, surely the most satisfying of all architectural creations: building cities for people to live in."

Philip Cortelyou Johnson: July 8, 1906 - January 25, 2004

What will NEO look like in 2010 if we focus on Early Childhood Development (ECD) supporting pregnant women, babies and children - for them and for economic development

Forum 02/01 is part of a process leading to regional action plan. Roberta Waxman-Lenz at REI, Joe Gauntner (sp?) Dir. Cuyahoga County Center for Family and Children and Joyce Bressler (sp?) at Starting Point.

In anticipation of the 02.01.05 REI forum on Early Childhood Development, being held at the Natural History Museum in University Circle, WCPN is featuring the topic on their 90.3 at 9 radio broadcast on 01.25.05 - tune in and get up to speed on this most critical issue for our community... and visit the NEO Childhood Community Of Interest Links for more insight!

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There is no experience to compare to hearing a genius present the future of the world's most complex situation, realizing that genius is leading NEO's most important institution, and is a leader of the world's most important industry, and will save our local economy.

Cleveland Clinic's incoming CEO Delos Cosgrove M.D. presented a full house at the Cleveland City Club with a clear vision on the current and future state of the healthcare industry that is critical to understanding global quality of life, economic development, and our region's national and global potentials - there will be no more important discussions initiated in this region this year.

Bottom line, while it is awesome the Clinic represents over 5% of our area economy, what is remarkable is they are a global leader in the largest and fastest growing industry in the world, and positioned to play a dramatically greater and changing role in our economy and their global industry. They offer much more than their $2.5 billion contribution to the 2004 regional economy, their 29,000 NEO jobs (65,000, with trickle-down), their $310 million in NEO taxes paid, and their $250 million in uncompensated services for area residents in need - the Clinic is our world-class leader in the industry most responsible for improving people's quality of life, and global productivity, at the time when the potentials of the greatest breakthroughs and innovations in the history of healthcare are just becoming apparent, and while more centralized and socialized policy is inevitable. While the fact is the Clinic is a world-class hospital, the true excitement today is not that the Clinic saves lives but that the Clinic is positioned to save the region's life, making Cleveland one of very few true healthcare capitals of the world.

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

Who cares about open source? The world's teachers, and countries, for example. Today on ZDNet UK there's a headline that could be about NEO college students, but is not - it's about some students in the UK, who developed an open source Linux operating system package for schools, which is also being embraced by nations and industry (and they're seeking US distributors, if anyone here wants a good second tier opportunity - see http://SchoolLINUX.com. How many open source savvy students are we nurturing here to be such innovators? And how soon will we at least use such open source innovations to transform our schools here, so they may better serve our students, so we'll have effective global innovators in the future. These are the brainpower challenges for our region to become a quality connected place for new economy development in the future. Time for NEO leaders to push these issues to the very top of the agenda to drive economic development here. Read how it's happening beyond our island...

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.

If you for some reason like Microsoft you will not like this news, or the fact the world's progressive governments are mandating or expressing preferences for eGov development with open source applications and technologies - mandates include in Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil,
Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, France, Italy and Peru - preferences include in Bahrain, Belgium, China and Hong Kong, Costa Rica, France, Germany,
Iceland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Philippines and South
Africa - noteworthy is that "The Venezuelan government has founded an Open Source academy in the city of Merida in an effort to provide a supply of capable staff." Hello America, Ohio, and regional governments... are you serious about participating in the global economy? Better get open about using IT, and developing our workforce...

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: