A friend sent me an interesting article on one way intelligence circles collect information on suspects... they download (or activate) software on cell phones that allows them to turn on the microphone of the cell phone, even when it appears to be shut off, and have the phone connect to them, making your cell phone a surveillance device against you. A BBC article from 2004 reported that intelligence agencies routinely employ the remote-activation method. "A mobile sitting on the desk of a politician or businessman can act as a powerful, undetectable bug."

Thanks to Brewed Fresh Daily, I checked out an article in the 12/03/06 New York Times magazine section online about "Open Source Spying", which is fascinating in many respects. While primarily an analysis of how top US security agencies are using web based tools like blogs and wikis to integrate intelligence information and sources within the secure environment of their shared role in protecting our "homeland", the observations on culture issues read true for how organizations within Northeast Ohio must look to technology, and the barriers still in place here preventing "open source" information and relationship sharing from having the transformational benefit possible. The problem in NEO is the "Iron Majors" and "Little Barons"... missing are the "officials at the very top... intrigued by the potential of a freewheeling, smart-mobbing intelligence community." Read some insightful paragraphs from the lengthy NYTimes analysis below:

On next Wednesday, December 6, 2006,  it will have been two years since I proposed to Northeast Ohio that we can easily and inexpensively bridge the digital divide for East Cleveland, and other communities in need in the region, by deploying mesh wifi networks here and distributing recycled computers running open source software (see original posting below, and linked with other related files here). I called this vision ECHO - originally "East Cleveland Homes Online", renamed "Extending Community Home Online". While I've driven some ECHO progress, over these years, especially deploying to people in need recycled computers running Ubuntu, the mesh is still to come. The time has come.

I've had many "chicken or egg" discussions about the digital divide with many people over many years. To some, the divide is about economics and access to technology and the Internet. To some, it is about environment and culture. To some it is about usability and functionality. I believe a person's position relative to the digital divide is influenced by all these factors, over time, influenced by personal capabilities, and I tend to view the challenges to be overcome to bridge the divide in about that order, starting with economics and access to technology and ending with functionality of technology, applications and information services. I'll point to my 19 month old tech native son Claes and some friends and family to explore this issue further. 

Panelists will discuss the current transformation and the future of news for traditional mainstream radio, television and print at noon on Thursday, November 30, 2006, at The City Club of Cleveland. Denise Polverine, editor-in-chief of cleveland.com, will serve as moderator for this first in a series of four programs.

Location

Over the past few months, Phillip Williams and I have been working with one of the world's most important art galleries, Material Matters Contemporary Glass Gallery, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to develop their virtual community. The site has been up for about a month now, and has generated lots of global traffic (and congratulations to the gallery on that), and this weekend the site really paid off, as we can attribute a first major sale of art by Material Matters to the fact the new website exists - the buyers (from Cleveland, as a matter of fact), saw two major works by an amazing Canadian glass artist they otherwise would not know, and they bought his only available work I know of in the world. The Canadian glass artist made money, the gallery made money, Phillip and I made money, and the collectors in Cleveland got two amazing works of art (for a great price), shown in their new NEO home above. This is just a small beginning for Material Matters' virtual community, which already represents the greatest glass artists of Canada, as they are in the process of going glocal in many important ways, in the process improving Toronto's Glocal arts economy. NEO arts leadership may learn more here...

The NY Times has caught on to what I've been proposing to NEO leaders for two years as a cluster for future economic and workforce development here (don't expect this story in the PD). Can we now show some common sense and give smart IT a try here - connecting social computing, artificial intelligence and cognitive science within our context of regional development... read on and read all the historical links throughout the TOPSOIL area of this site, and let's move on to be leaders in this important sector of the global economy.

Two weeks ago saw the second birthday of REALNEO. I started REALNEO in October, 2004, to provide “Regional Economic Action Links for North East Ohio” and implement for the region some exciting open source social networking technology. While the outcomes have not been entirely what I expected, and these years have in ways been rough, I've been thrilled to help drive and support some great developments in the community.

 “Even when it comes to a problem as big as global warming, doing Just One Thing can have an enormous, positive impact on our planet. For instance, replacing four light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs will keep a ton of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that causes global warming, out of the air. And if everyone in the U.S. unplugged their electronics, such as TVs, computers, DVD players, and stereos when they're not using them, we'd prevent 18 million tons of carbon from being released into the atmosphere. Just One Thing is so easy--and so effective.”

This weekend the Toronto arts and culture scene was world-class beyond belief, featuring the final weekend of the Toronto Film Festival, the opening of the new Four Seasons Opera House (premiering Wagner's Ring Cycle), many smaller community arts festivals, and two major arts festivals – the Queen West Arts Crawl, featuring over 500 artists and galleries along mind-blowing Queen Street) and the august 11th Annual Canadian Art Gallery Hop. The Queen West Arts Crawl was way cool, but I stayed in Toronto an extra day for Software Freedom Day and the Canadian Art Gallery Hop, as that featured a free “Glocal Live Roundtable” of many of Canada's arts leaders. “The term GLOCAL fuses global with local and points to the meshing of macro and micro realms of experience in the contemporary world of Internet technologies and instant information. The speed and collapsing distances of this new reality hold challenging implications for traditional identities and communities, along with promising opportunities.” The roundtable was astounding... see below for detailed notes of interest to all concerned about arts, culture and the economy, local to anywhere in the world and global.

By lucky coincidence, I was in Toronto on international Software Freedom Day and so had easy access to Ubuntu today, right when I needed it, and lots of Ubuntu and FOSS experts, and got to meet the cool people in Toronto who run the Toronto Ubuntu and Linux User Groups, and the Linux Caffe, and the awesome Center for Social Innovation... this city rocks in every way.

I just got the following invitation from my favorite economic development leader in NEO, Cleveland Tech Czar Michael DeAloia, and I am intrigued he is not only a technology visionary but a poet. It will certainly be worth checking out the next event where he is reciting his poetry, as this is also a good cause of a group of other great NEO community leaders who operate "Meet the Bloggers". See more about the event below, and more about the poet Michael DeAloia in our feature of him as poet of the day. From poet Michael DeAloia, you are invited...

Location

An especially exciting project 7GEN Canada is undertaking is the transformation of the premier gallery of the glass art of Canada, Material Matters, into a virtual community. In doing this, we are taking a physical gallery at 215 Spadina Avenue, in Toronto (which 7GEN also calls home), and transforming that into a community of all Canada's glass artists, and a global marketplace for their art.

Lisa Wuohela in front of Material Matters, the premier gallery of Canadian glass art in the world.

The August 14, 2006 REALNEO header (included below) has great meaning, as it introduces a new initiative of 7GEN, LLC, the organization formed by Phillip Williams, Evelyn Kiefer and myself following the attempted theft of REALinks, LLC, property by my former partner, Peter Holmes. This header is of a great NEO art collection, of my parents, Doctors Ann and Norman Roulet, which Phillip, Evelyn and I are documenting on-line as a first service of May Show for the NEO community... in the future, my parents and other NEO art collectors and art dealers and artists may show the world the art they create, sell, collect and exhibit here in Northeast Ohio. The May Show portal being developed by 7GEN, LLC, will be the only interface in NEO to so well document art and make it available to the public, far eclipsing capabilities of even our beloved Cleveland Museum of Art. But that is not the most exciting development for 7GEN I have to share with NEO today, as we are basing future operations at the location shown above, on Spadina Avenue in Toronto, Canada. Read a brief introduction of what, how and why 7GEN will operate in Canada below.

Welcome to the home of Material Matters, and now 7GEN Canada, at 215 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Canada

While researching Lewis Thomas' essay collection entitled "Lives of a Cell", I came across the following article from July 2004 Technology Review.

Conincidence?  I think not.  Lewis Thomas laid the groundwork for much of James Lovelock's "Gaia" philososphy which theorisizes mother earth as massive superorganism seeking homeostasis.

The following article should prove interesting fodder for realNEO/Tribe folks as social networks provide holarchic transfer of knowledge,  thereby enabling a knowledge economy or a spontaneous dodgeball game in the E. 5th alley...

Social Lives of a Cell Phone

New wireless services will maximize your connections to others and minimize your need to plan ahead

As real NEO is a huge place, with years of content or every sort on a broad range of subjects from 100s of sources, I thought I'd share some of my experiences navigating this community.

First off, remember you can simply "Search" the site for any keyword... go to SEARCH here.

If I'm browsing rather than searching, the first thing I check out is the center column of recent posts to see what's new - always surprising.

Then, I watch the blocks... in the right margin top are comments - those are always fascinating, and I like to interact with the other members here.

Then we have today's popular content, and below that is especially revealing... "Last Viewed".

On February 21, 2006, Peter Holmes fraudulently received a trademark for my intellectual property REALNEO in his name as an individual, at his home address - see entry below and go here to search yourself. The following day, February 22, 2006, Peter Holmes participated with REALinks, LLC, chief technologist Rob Hawkins in formation of a new company called 315 Caxton, LLC, to compete against REALinks, LLC, functionally diverting the intellectual property of REALNEO and the business opportunity of REALinks, LLC, to a new enterprise and new partners, clearly with intent to bankrupt REALinks, LLC, and harm all staff and stakeholders. Rob Hawkins formed 315 Caxton, LLC, with Peter's long-standing friends Rick Decosky, the Chief Finanical Officer, who personally signed the articles of Incorporation for 315 Caxton, LLC, and February 22, 2006, with William Tuttle designated on the 315 Caxton, LLC, website as CEO, Rob Hawkins designated as COO, and with "Blair Whidden... the penultimate networker, able to bring in further outside expertise when it is identified", whatever that means. Peter has admitted he provided funds to William Tuttle, and Peter funded 315 Caxton, LLC, staff to establish this operation in competition with REALinks, LLC. funding from Peter Holmes, to divert all assets and opportunities from REALinks, LLC, to a new company formed on February 22, 2006 and registered with the Secretary of State of Ohio on February 27, 2006, as 315 Caxton, LLC.

The origins of REALNEO.US live at http://clevelandcause.tribe.net/ where I first organized this revolution, while I was based in Northern California and fighting to help the real NEO economy from afar. Read the manifesto that was the CAUSE for REALNEO.US  below... the very first copy sent to my friend and co-conspirator with REALNEO.US, Louis Carl Edwards, via Tribe.net on December 21, 2003 at 4:19 AM, West Coast time:

I heard today an interview with Chris Abani, of Nigeria, a poet, writer and activist who was imprisoned many times in Nigeria, and placed on death row, for his art and activism. He spoke of "illiterate soldiers with guns" and the struggles of his people in Nigeria and in other global conflicts around the world, including involving America, and I realized how little I pay attention to poetry and how much is offered to my mind therethrough, so I will begin adding "Poet of the day" to the "of the day" series on realneo... and the first will honor Chris Abani, from a struggling nation of which I have friends. Feel free to add favorite poems and poets as comments as you please.

Voices and Choices is a groundbreaking initiative of the Fund for Our Economic Future to develop a far-reaching, comprehensive regional dialog for setting a course for our region's future that will produce more jobs and create better economic opportunities for our families and businesses. Voices & Choices is also educating hundreds of thousands of people about the realities facing the regional economy.

I've certainly paid much more attention to my alma mater, Tulane University, and home for many years, New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA), since hurricane Katrina hit last year, and what I have seen is inspired regional planning combined with collaborative community building, from which we in NEO stand to learn many great lessons.

I am really appreciative, this morning. After posting what was certainly the saddest news I can imagine, about the hardship my staff has suffered as a result of a lack of appreciation from my former business associate, Peter Holmes, I opened up this week's CoolCleveland and found that their crew had featured TWO postings from REALNEO. I am very touched and thankful to Thomas and his team for noticing REALNEO and taking an interest in the thoughts posted here - thank you. Please show appreciation back to CoolCleveland... if you are not a member, see what you've been missing... subscribe at CoolCleveland - all free - this is a real NEO must,  and send feedback to CoolCleveland letters at the links below, and supporting the upcoming CoolCleveland/Tech/Ingenuity party at Fat Fish Blue, July 13, and the Ingenuity Festival, as described below... but first, here's the nice write-up about REALNEO from CoolCleveland today, July 5, 2006: