Here is a dance video which NEO should watch and understand - and understand how to program.

A dance that union workers, and all workers, need to learn. 

When I asked one of the Obama volunteers at my ward campaign headquarters how she thought Obama would do in our poor, urban, distressed part of town, she said she was the first African American to move to East Cleveland, and she knows everyone there, and they will all vote for Obama... and then I realized it was Mrs. Jones.

Sometimes the intersection of politics and policy is comfortable, sometimes uncomfortable, and sometimes you have to "connect the dots." One very uncomfortable "dot connecting" involves President Bill Clinton, philanthropic fundraising, the uranium industry and Clinton's private activity that ran contrary to US foreign policy and reinforced a country, Kazakhstan, with an antipathy to human rights and open media.

Polls are open for voting from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm Tuesday, March 4, 2008.... more related information at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website.

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Coming up this week...

Creative Capital for a 21st Century Digital Media Marketplace @ Insivia

Learn how Creative Capital transforms regions. Get started now by listening to this conversation with guests Geof Pelaia, Virginia Marti College; Eric Purcell & Laura Wright, Insivia; and Experience Artist, Melissa Daubert.

I voted absentee – to give me time with my ballot to consider each candidate – and I found that many candidates have no internet record whatsoever.   That’s a bad sign for NEO.

During the very cool Meet the Bloggers spin segment I saw televised after the Obama/Clinton Cleveland debate, one of the bloggers said the response in the blogsphere was split on who won - 50% Obama and 50% McCain. Today, a different window into NEOs cyberspace opened for Obama (and McCain), with endorsements on CoolCleveland. If you visit REALNEO often, you know where I stand... I am one REALNEO member strongly supporting Obama. But I am only one small voice in REALNEO, and I'm curious how other "bloggers" and cybercats in NEO stand on the primary... no matter what, this is an historic election, so why not speak up with your vote, voice and support for whomever you like, while you can really make a difference.

So, please, use this posting to add a comment of support for your candidate. If you have a blog or place in cyberspace where you voice your feelings about this, feel free to link that in. Note, to leave a comment you must be a REALNEO member... use the create account link to request an account and we will confirm that for you as quickly as possible.

The day Ohioans and others around America failed the world and allowed Bush and his clan 4 more years was the saddest of my life, and I was depressed by life after that until I posted the following...

The Mayor of 10-5 is now in the office, as Snag now hosts the Inner Circle. I help make coffee and keep the WiFi live. We're going to feature Gypsy Beans baked goods and items from Hot Sauce, and surprises from all around the REALNEO... feel free to stop by any time from 10 AM to 10 PM and say hi.

The ward office is open from 9 AM until..., each day through March 04, 2008, so feel free to come early and often to see how you may help, pick up campaign literature and signs, talk Obama, and proudly cheer with fellow champions for change.

I've been around the Inner Circle of Obama supporters enough to say their enthusiasm and love for Barack can't be beat. This will be a great experience and I plan to watch the debate here, and I encourage you to join the fun.

Cleveland City Council should rescind its involvement in AMP-Ohio's proposed coal-fired utility in southern Ohio. A fifty year commitment to coal is the wrong direction, for Cleveland Public Power (CPP), its customers and the environment. Instead, CPP should develop a comprehensive plan for energy need and energy sources, that includes efforts to reduce demand through conservation, insulation, wind, solar and other alternative sources.

One minor question involving subprime vacant houses which I haven't seen asked much is: Where did the occupants go?  And the answer I can tell you  is: UNDERGROUND.

When a foreclosure takes place, and a lender gets a judgment against a homeowner/borrower, that judgment is good in the courts for decades – in some states for 21 years. 

The Mad Potter covers my home town
Written by: George Nemeth
Got this email from a friend who was at last night’s Midtown Brews free-for-all:

Here's an email from our partner in Smaller Indiana,  Bruce LaDuke. Bruce participated in the Midtown Brews Open Conversation. Be sure to click through to the website to learn more about how other leaders are innovating to illuminate solutions through open forms of conversation.

Near-Time, Purdue Center for Regional Development Partner to Launch First Nationwide Community of Regions Focused on Workforce Innovations

Today Near-Time announced a partnership with the Purdue Center for Regional Development to launch the first nationwide community of regions focused on innovation and economic development. This partnership is a spinoff of the U.S. Labor Department's WIRED Initiative. The new nationwide community is accessible at www.wired-nation.net.

Technology and Organization Opportunities to Accelerate Innovations in Open Source Economic Development

The February 7, 2008 Midtown Brews forum, Our Ohio Energy Portfolio: Economic Development in Your Backyard, brought together perspectives of Cleveland government, foundation and citizen decision makers. Elisa Young, traveled from Meigs County, Southern Ohio, to share her perspective as a seventh generation land owner, report on current local costs to human life, and natural resource devastation in proportion to the affect of current concentration of, and construction of future power production facilities. The Open Conversation was generated by about 100 participants and joined by 30 members of the Smaller Indiana social network contributing questions and observations via broadcast video and chat. Government leaders City of Cleveland Councilman Matt Zone, City of Cleveland, Ward 17; Nolan Moser, Law Fellow, Ohio Environmental Council ;  Andrew Flock, Painesville Councilman; Andrew Watterson, Cleveland Sustainability Programs Manager, City of Cleveland Department of Utilities; and Foundation leader, Richard Stuebi, BP Fellow for Energy and Environmental Advancement at The Cleveland Foundation, NextWave Energy, Inc., Founder and President.

The Open Discussion focused on issues and revealed the magnitude of the topic, the enormity of consequences, and our failure to innovate.

Was this conversation really just a result of a lack of technology and organization innovations, a long-term lack of citizenry participation and business leadership? ...

How did we get to this point?

Our situation has changed. We're required to make decisions at a level of comprehension beyond our capability, exaggerated by unforeseen forces and at a new speed. Tomorrow, the forces will be more complex, the speed will have increased and window of time, shrunk.

Why should we be surprised?

Consider what's involved. Of all animals on earth, humans score the lowest in cognitive capability to plan for the future, and our brain capacity based on size is miniscule in proportion to the scale of the new kinds of decisions we are responsible to make.

Leaders are experiencing previously unexperienced - 

• Forms of change
• Quantum levels of change
• Leaders are required to interact with new economic systems
• Required to respond to unforeseen future forces
• Navigate a landscape comprised of a few resource rich decision making entities verses a pool of burden bearing constituents (you can flip ownership of burden with the same disastrous unbalanced outcomes, the point is responsibilities are not shared)

We are all in this together, and ultimately, we are all affected equally. Regions and their communities are experiencing a whiplash of issues, topped with a new misunderstanding of speed, lack of planning, strategy, and metrics to guide regional decision-making in this new landscape. What will be required for people to halt uniformed guesswork, lavish and desperate spending of resources on quick stop solutions? Because of a confluence of perfect storm factors, every decision made will affect our survival sooner than our experience tells us.

This is not about finger pointing, back slapping, or deal making between a few individuals or corporations, it is about the power of collaborative leadership, employing critical thinking skills to scale brainpower, engaging high end technology innovation, and designing new models of organization.

Moving forward.

• There is a need to dramatically increase alternative energy innovations
• Dramatically increase funding for research
• Ensure open access to results
• Regular apolitical theoretical and practical summation of research
• Identify future forces affecting energy
• Build open networks to engage the public, private business leadership, government
• Design technology tools for a new rate of speed and visualization

Navigating these new landscapes requires new learning. Adopt the practices and tools of Open Source Economic Development (158.5 KB) deployed by I-Open. I-Open is creating the open spaces to build the open networks for new conversations focused on regional transformation. With our technology partner Near-Time.net, we are building online collaborative communities to sustain the conversations between face to face meetings, share information, and accelerate enterprise development for regional transformation.

 
Some next steps to learn about new practices and tools:

To help "Cleveland School" Neon Artist Extraordinair Dana Paterson celebrate, show-off and profit from his cover story feature in the Free Times newspaper, this week, the Inner Circle will feature an exhibit of Dana's recent and past work, with installation beginning this Friday, February 8, 2008, when you may meet the artist, from 4-7 PM... the exhibition will have a formal opening next Friday, Fenruary 15th, from 6-9 PM, and will remain on display through the end of the month.

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Here is an e-mail from Ed Morrison inviting/summarizing the WIRED Nation, a result of the collaboration between the Dept of Labor, I-Open, and Near-Time.net.

What can we learn, replicate, and continue to apply from this model to accelerate our economic development work here in NEO?

Smaller Indiana and REALNEO please meet each other!

I would like to introduce the REALNEO  network to Smaller Indiana, an online community based in Indianapolis with a state wide reach. Smaller Indiana connects creative indeas and was recently begun by Pat Coyle, and is growing to 600 members!

Cleveland365.com (what persons/names/$ are behind this anyway?) is sponsoring what they call a 10,000 little ideas convo. 

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