Cleveland Museum of Art CIO Len Steinbach recently presented
to the Community of Minds network on his work to leverage state of the art
information technology for extended learning and virtual community development
and in-house experiential enhancements, ranging from multi-player student games
and videoconferencing for conservation to touch screen displays in the
galleries to help teachers explain advanced concepts to students while visiting
the museum. If this doesn’t sound like our founding fathers’ CMA, it isn’t.. it
is better. Leveraging IT is essential for all great museums to
best fulfill their missions in the modern world, and the CMA’s future value and
reputation in this region and in the global community will increasingly be
evaluated for virtual effectiveness. Read more about the high tech side of
museum operations from the NYTimes, excerpted and linked below, take
satisfaction Cleveland is in the same league as the world’s best – be
supportive of CMA’s efforts to further these world-class objectives as they
expand and evolve.

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.

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.

One drive through Shaker Heights makes it clear this is an historically significant community. The Clevelend Plain Dealer recently reported Shaker leaders recognize their historic character as a valuable asset and they have taken steps to protect that, at the City Hall level. While much of the great historic architecture of Northeast Ohio has been detroyed over the years, regional community leaders should take action like has Shaker to preserve what remains - consider the great buildings in areas of Cleveland like Glenville, and in East Cleveland, and picture a future of historic buildings restored to their potential prime, rather than gone forever. Read on about the Shaker initiative, introduced and linked below.

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:

Today I noticed Pennsylvania's license plates feature the catch phrase "WWW.STATE.PA.US" (home of PA's excellent PowerPort - a stark contrast to Ohio's silly little state site). PA is surfacing as a true new economy powerhouse, as highlighted by Philadelphia's struggle to become the world's most wifi'ed city and a recent presentation at the Ohio Wind Power Conference by Kathleen McGinty, Secretary, Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Dept., who drove home the point that PA's effective leadership is putting them a generation ahead of OH with alternative energy generation and manufacturing.

But seeing PA drivers educating America about WWW.STATE.PA.US really made me think about our mindset as "Birthplace of aviation", the truly inept tag-line of our license plates. A feature in Scene Magazine chronicles how OH leaders blew the opportunity to develop the aviation industry here. Scene quotes NEO legacy-powerhouse Frederick Crawford: "You know, there was a time when we had working in Cleveland the men who would later create the greatest aircraft companies in the world. The problem was, the fools running the city did not understand what they had and lost it."

It's bad enough we can't think of anything intelligent to put on our license plates to promote Ohio, but it is far worse we find glory in our failure. For more to think about this subject, read the excellent article "A Century of Bumbling" from Scene, excerpted and linked below. And, what would you like to promote to the world on your license plate? I vote for "New Economy Leadership" - post your thoughts as comments to this post.

In his ED Pro Blog, Ed Morrison surfaces important issues for Northeast Ohio that we can address with effective economic development planning - we have a skills gap, where students and adults are not learning what is needed to function in the new economy - as demonstrated by lack of open source programmers in this region.

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

Facing the embarrassment of being rated the most impoverished large city in America, Cleveland community leaders became vocal looking for solutions. The following NYTimes editorial indicates we stand out in thinking about this issue at all, as 12 million American families are largely ignored in their struggles for enough to eat. Being ranked worst in poverty drove us to some higher consciousness, offering us the opportunity to address serious problems, if we expand the dialogue and act on good words. Have you thought about our chronic poverty lately? Thanksgiving is an excellent day to talk about that, so we may do more for those who are suffering before the new year.

The 11/14/04 Cleveland Plain Dealer served up a fascinating contextualization of Northeast Ohio entrepreneurship, our innovation and manufacturing legacy, and its demise under America's Wal-Martized big-box consumer culture. Make note, Americans, Wal-Mart says it is all our fault that our manufacturing jobs have moved to China, as all we want is cheap stuff - "We are a seller of goods, not a producer of goods," (Wal Mart's) Wertz says. "Customers make the choice."

You've probably heard of RFID - radio frequency identification - and perhaps you use the technology in a smart ID or toll pass card, but starting in 2005 RFID will begin appearing in every American's life as Walmart uses this for inventory and then storefloor supply chain management and, as the NYTimes reports today, labels on drug bottles featuring RFID antennas will be used to protect pharmacies and you against counterfeit drugs.

REI Director Ed Morrison describes Economic Development as beginning with the unborn child, which recognizes important issues like reducing unplanned pregnancies, delivering world-class prenatal care, providing excellent early child-care and education, insuring great nutrician for children and protecting them from health hazards like lead exposure, and becoming outspoken to educate our community on the importance of breast-feeding, as mentioned today on Brewed Fresh Daily in a posting from Sandy Kristin Piderit, explained in detail on her LiveJournal blog - contact Sandy for more info

Good Morning Silicon Valley makes an important observation about Google's new free email service, gmail - as per their terms of use, they are able to read/analyze and correlate all data in all message you open - basically, by using this service your life is an open book... giving Google, Inc. and whoever they choose to partner or cooperate with access to all your words and other content shared with whoever you communicate with.

I just noticed a posting on Good Morning Silicon Valley about a blog written by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. I was surprised the owner of a sports team would be into blogging - and his insight so valuable - so I checked out his blog. Turns out he was able to buy the Mavericks because he is a successful IT entrepreneur, and he is an expert in technology matters - so his insight is more valuable than I imagined.

As NEO looks toward sustainable development, our scientific research and engineering community should become involved in Earth friendly technology development - an interesting example was just reported out of MIT, showing fuel cells in a green light.

At the fascinating November 11 NEOSA/REI Future Forum, EcoCity Cleveland's David Beach discussed frightening challenges for our global ecology, and proposed the best place for anyone to start being a solution is at home - NEO. Let's make NEO energy sustainable, all agree. This week, Cleveland was also home to the Ohio Wind Conference and there 100+ global sustainability experts proposed NEO can develop a significant wind generation capacity, and become a center for wind power generation equipment manufacturing, expertise, and innovation. This is one well developed objective our millions of regional citizens should embrace - see notes posted from that important conference, which highlights valuable opportunities, and provides a foundation for actionable planning, all rooted at REALNEOWIND

I participate in a Harvard Law School open knowledge sharing program called H2O, which this week posed an inspiring issue regarding the origins and impact world-wide of Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS), which is the foundation of REALNEO. If you're interested in this subject (if you're into IT you should be), then consider the topic posed, take a look at my viewpoint, and feel free to visit Harvard H2O to review other viewpoints and the discussion. If you like what you see there - feel free to sign-up and participate, for free.

REALNEO Wind is covering and supporting the Ohio Wind Power conference
by posting all available insight from
this important event - held November 9 & 10, 2004 in downtown
Cleveland. See comments post at the close of the event and develop thenafter - all linked together at a special "Community Of Interest Link" at the REALNEO Wind Power COIL

Congratulations to Akron-based Ayalogic and Cleveland/NEO entrepreneurship catalysts Jump Start for good economic development news for NEO. We'll let Crain's Tech tell the story unfolding:

Crain's Cleveland reports growth and savvy development by a NEO logistics company, further distinguishing the region for SCALE (Supply Chain and Logistics Economy excellence. Read on...

From Crain's Cleveland Business, a very cool story about a local industry leader taking the lead in alternative energy vehicles - an electric scooter, with many key components manufactured by NEO's Parker Hannifin.

If you visit their website and check out the product brochure you'll see this product is hot. May be a while before we see any in the streets of Cleveland... but perhaps we can convince Parker & Vectrix to make us one of the first communities for USA distribution (how about putting an assembly line here, as well?!?)... beginning in 1996... read on, in Crain's:

Crain's Cleveland reported today that Open Source programmers are in high demand, which means NEO universities and businesses should train and certify our residents for this opportune sector of the IT industry. The benefits go beyond skilling our folks for the new economy, as this will insure businesses in the area are able to find the workers they need to locate and grow here.

Here's an interesting addition to NEO energy-related economic development, reported in Crain's Cleveland today - "Ethanol plant will go into production by the end of 2004 in Medina". Congratulations to Liquid Resources, CEO Tim Curtiss, and Sky Bank for making this happen here and now, where and when the need is so great! Be sure to read the comment posted below, featuring an eye-opening editorial from Tim.