Tuesdays@FUTURE

LIVE BLOG: ART & TECHNOLOGY: CATALYSTS FOR SUSTAINABLE REGIONS

2007-01-16T14:02:00.000-08:00

Spyglass Green Marketing: Jim DiFrangia contact: jimd@spyglassgreenmarketing.com
Knut Hybinette
Abby Maier/COSE Arts Network
Norm Roulet SevenGen/REALNEO
Len Steinbach
Sarah Taylor/First Wind Farm
Shaker Lakes Nature Center
Nancy King Smith/Oct 19-21 Beeming BionEeurs
Bemia Bralie - create performances in public spaces/create energy out of solar
Entrepreneurs Edge - young people connected around sustainability
David Moss - Director, FUTURE
Sudhir Ragupathy
John
James Levine/Ingenuity
Rich Weiss/Ingenuity
Dick Clough
Tom Pool/graphic designer Holden Arboretum
Kevin Cronin/ Cleveland Bikes

James Levine: Showcase and celebrate technology and art. 2005 arts and tech fesitval - installations, exhibits...ramped up in 2006....in 2007 the Festival will focus on Playhouse Square and the festival will ramp up to be a truly formalized art and technology event. Want to show by example how Ingenuity cn be an icon for new ways to synthisize collaborations between technology and art. A model like the Spoleto Festival, for example.

Sudhir Ragupathy: became involved with efforts to "greenerize" the Ingenuity Festival. By building his connections with other like-minded people around sustainability, a Green Team was formed. Sudhir thinks in terms of a holistice view of Quality of Life by facilitating positive outcomes in Technology, Health, Entrepreneruship, Sustainability, Arts, Education, Environment. This reflects a systems approach to change. A synergistic approach helps to identify commonalities and align efforts.

John: interested in measuring and quantifying results in the 2007 Festival

Sudir: Ingenuity would like to benchmark sustainable practices. The Olympics has become a green practicing event and provides a good model. Some categories for metrics to be developed around: emmission, water, waste, energy

Direct Stakeholders/InDirect Stakeholders:

Q: How do you tell the story about the potential impact of Ingenuity activities on those you might not know of or expect.

Contact: info@everythingenergy,org

Some conversations around Ingenuity: how do the activities associated with Ingenuity sustain before, during and after the festival?

Are there companies connected who can talk about how their work interconnects with the Ingenuity activities?

Sarah Taylor: Miller and -- to display demonstration practices for rainbarrel use in homeowner's property

Jim Herget: Why not have a Green Home on display?

Andrew Watterson, City of Cleveland, Cleveland Public Power. What are the sponsorship oportunities? TCPI.com Aurora based company supplier to Lowe's for energy efficient compact florescence bulbs.

Bike activities - Kevin Cronin: Encouraging bikers from the suburbs to ride to the Fesitval. Other ideas: bike based taxi service; truck version of the same.

City Wheels; Myers Motors; Whole Foods

Have opportunities for connection with government and other business leaders available. Local government officials invited to participate; cutting edge researchers to display new and developing IP.

Kurtz Bros.

What are our next steps? What do we need to tomorrow?

Connect with Ingenuity if you would like to contribute to the festival in terms of time. money, ideas.

Movie links to Robotics in Surgery

2007-01-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

Check out the Google page for updates on Surgery Robotics at Stanford University here.

Be sure to cruise the side bars of similar content.

Simple gifts

2007-01-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

Here is an example of people's passions and generosity comming together for the benefit of the larger good. With the offering of simple examples of science and digital media working well together, this is how one science teacher has chosen to make a difference with raising people's awareness about their place in the universe.

Here is the trail of discovery:

1) The Climate Project site - connected to Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth campaign to,

2)the Climate Project's sponsor entity, Participate to,

3)a blogger offering free science pictures off of Participate's blogging page here.

The cool science/digital media link here.

One of a Thousand Inconvenient Truth Leaders...

2007-01-06T10:04:00.000-08:00

Don't miss this week's 2007 Midtown Brews Series kick off conversation -

Thursday, January 11, 2007

''Our Global Imperative,'' conversation is lead by Jeff Friedman, partner in Webtego, an Ohio based technology company. Jeff is one of a thousand Inconvenient Truth National Leaders telling the story about planet sustainability challenges and solutions. You can learn more about The Climate Project here.

Once again, the Brews open conversation will partner with Meet The Bloggers.

[Note: Meet the Bloggers can be accessed at this address http://207.58.206.29 ]

LIVE BLOG: DESIGNING ABSTRACT VISUALIZATIONS: MANAGERIAL AND MUSICAL

2006-12-19T13:52:00.000-08:00

Fred Collopy is our lead this afternoon.

I-Open supports open spaces for the great stories entrepreneurs have to tell.

Len Steinbach
Bob Schmidt
Kevin Cronin - Bikes and Theater
Bob Sopko

Herbert Simon - award winning economist at Carnegie Mellon who contributed in diverse areas across the University. His passion and love was about business education. he was curious to understand how business cross connects with many disciplines. Herbert's work interests and guides Fred's work extensively.

Anyone who designs in any domain has strong connections.

How do we learn about design? How does it work and how does it affect our ability to make decisions?

Fred has desinged several different formats for design from a Desk Organizer to forecasting.

Musical instruments as a design domain: music-making requires both musicians and listeners to function at the limits of theie cognintive capabilties.

[Other...]

Lessons from the Moog's design: Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, Analog Days: The Invetion and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 2002 Go here.

Dimensionality of visual space: Fred has vbeen working on the limitations of visual space versus the sonic space musicians work in. Note: we need to treat light, form, and movement as sound has already been treated. Adrian Klein, 1930

Brian Eno: here.

Results in taking ideas from absttact expressionists and building on those ideas with an element of motion and then interacting with musicians live....Blue Glass

Sample - visual "Blue Glass" From Fred's website Rhythmic Light....'Blue Glass' is the interpretation of a studio jam by Irish-American fiddler Eileen Ivers and her band. The visual interpretation focuses on the transition from simple rhythms to the more dynamic percussive events that characterizes the piece's development. Lisa Lehman collaborated with me on the development of the visuals for this piece. One of the things we were doing with it was exploring color. Though we were unaware of the Chromatek 3D glasses while we were developing this piece, many people have commented that they enjoy the subtle depth changes the glasses produce on this piece. "

In Amsterdam, a conference presented a few years ago, connected visual artisits and musicians in the evening with lectures and historical information presented during the day. Fred was paired with an unlikely partner in hard core rock. Ultimately, both were taken out of their comfort zone and into a new collaborative area of visualization. (!) You can play Sonic Light here.

VJ's (in this environment of light and sound) are analogous to DJ's. Do sampling and sequencing versus synthesizing.

How do we leverate this information for business development? Task: Bankruptcy prediction

Data from NS Umanath & I Vessey 1194

Management representations were developed in 1786 - line graphs, pie charts are the most advanced representations of business still today.

Fred and Richard Boland started with the cycle model of a firm/entity activities. Can we represent the history of a company wiithout using (eventually...) numbers? Julia Grant integrated quarterly financial data. The visualization has evolved...this was developed to find a solution for how healthy a company may or may not be. This is the block for the fundamental unit of viewing an entire company with thousands of groups simulating business activity. When tested with younger CEO's the simulation was widely prefered.

LIVE BLOG: VISUALIZATION AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS IN SURGICAL AND NON-INVASIVE HEALTHCARE

2006-12-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

Dr.'s Jeffrey and Lee Ponsky lead this afternoon's forum about innovation taking place in the health care industry.

When Robots Become Surgeons

Lee Ponsky provides a glimpse of where surgery has been and where it is going.

The Institute of Surgery Innovations (ISI) is a new Center to provide an opportunity to exchange information about applications in new technologies.

In the past, the theory was, the bigger the incision the better. Now, the theory is to be less invasive - this was promoted by gynecological, arthroscopic and other areas of surgery which generated the laproscopic Olympics: there is little we do laproscopically. Even kidneys are removed laproscopically.

It is important to consider innovations and the relationship to what is the advantage for patients.

There are two perspectives that must be considered:

1) The physician's perspective: focused on the aliment, which may not be the perspective of the
2) Patient, who may not have the physician's considerations in mind but other priorities.

Laparoscopic surgery involves only a couple of tiny incisions.

Robotic surgery is something that has been talked about for quite some time. Often today, the surgeon sits at a separate counsel with 3D visualization guiding the robot activity.

The robot gives 6 degrees of freedom to do the fine stitching that is necessary.

Da Vinci Surgical System robot is the mechanism used. You can read more about it here and the company Intuitive surgical here.

Applications for distance surgery are in place.

New technologies:
Cryotherapy - freezes tumors with nearly no invasion
Radio frequency ablation
High intensity focused ultrasound

Cryotherapy: High intensity ultrasound - destroys tissues within extreme close and precise. Surgery requires ultra high sound waves to destroy specific tissue; because of the level of precision, we can preserve tissues and nerves.

What is in the future?

ViaCath System is a portable device that expands endoVia Medical's software and robotic technology platform. The compact system, which includes a user interface and instrument control platform, allows the endoscopist or surgeon to precisely manipulate catheter instruments deep inside the patient.

Battlefield robotic applications can assess and treat remotely. You can read more here.

Tele-robotic rounding allows a resident/physican to visit patients remotely. Once the robot enters the door, a barcode of informaiton is read and uploaded.

You can read about telerobotic surgery here.

Non-invasive surgery - "Novalis" - allows the ability to treat patients without any invasion at all. Currently, use laser treatment revolutionizing the ability to treat kidney stones and may be used for tumors in the future. Read more about shaped beam surgery here. The division of laser beams can be pin pointed to exact locations to deliver heat or radiation.

Jeffery Ponsky: Surgery of the Future

Here are three evolving areas of surgery today:

The Medical Image Group practices image guided surgery.
Endoluminal - the University of Virginia practices endoluminal repair of aneurysms. Read more here.
Transluminal surgery technique is used in cardiac treatment. You can read more here.

Surgeon's have been exploring non-invasive surgery for a long time. Their performance has been hindered by the inability to provide the support team needed in surgery. With the technological advance of coupling the video camera to the surgery taking place, immediately others could support the surgeon and approach could be leveraged.

Areas of evolution

A sewing machine can devise stapling

Where are we going in the future?

There is a need to develop a system of tools to accelerate new techniques.

This has caused tremendous debate - how do you practice and train? The approach of "See One, Do One, Teach One" no longer works. The way we have taught in the past no longer works.

How will we train people for the future to do this? The VA has a simulator for training and this is a new way of learning.

How will you train? Through simulations, then on to animals, then on to patients.

Innovative therapy - modification of the existing technique.

Surgeons must look at many different implications for human cases.

If you are not living on the edge you are taking up too much space!

Surgical education needs to change.

What drives you to do what you do?

Since the laproscopic (removal of the gall bladder) and the advent of the stones crusher...the technology makes a huge difference in how events take place. New energy sources are used.

People have started to use their imaginations. When new courses are offered for training, courses fill up immediately.

Most of the talks with industry -

Leverage the simulation opportunities to accelerate innovations.

The medical community is just beginning to realize the benefits of collaborations.

The Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology studies haptic feedback for surgery in robotics. You can read more here.

LIVE BLOG: DIALOGUE & INCLUSION: AMPLIFYING CIVIC JOURNALISM WITH SOCIAL SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS

2006-12-05T14:05:00.000-08:00

Bob Sopko, Strategic Technology Alliance (STA) collaborate on purchasing and leverage assets as a community and technology at Case Western Reserve.

Today's leaders are the team at Meet The Bloggers: George Nemeth, Gloria Ferris, Tim Ferris

Mathew Book, Studio of Five Rings an arts/winery based gallery looking for ways to work collaboratively in art and winery. Art show up to Jan 6.

That Blogs arise out of necessity. To address a lack of access to mainstream media and communications. Weblog was first used in 1997. Tim and Glore experimented with blogging and its affect on their ability to communicate with the public.

Meet The Blogggers was started with Bill Callahan, ....at the time of the Mayoral race, minor candidates had no access to media. The group wanted to provide information out about the candidates earlier and to explore unanswered questions. Each person brings a different and multiple perspectives; contrasting to mainstream media which may offer a limited number of viewpoints and may be published unsigned.

Through conversations and connectivity of the Blogging community the extremes of the blogging community can often align with synergy. Materials, now that there is a year and one half history, are often referred to.

Candidates that may be interviewed ask for a list of questions....may set guidelines for what is to be discussed....

George has identified about 500 Blogs in NEO.

Anyone who posts on the Internet should consider all information as public. The Creative License is the appropriate

Dr. John Green, for example, thinks that within 8 years there will be a political third party because of the Internet.

There is a huge number of people who have wonderful ideas but not access, not controlled by one or a small number of controlling managers.

This is like the printing presses - but it morphs, moves quickly and evolves.

The Blogging community is trying to avoid the financial dependence that newspapers are limited by. This is an evolving platform that becomes whatever it is. Zen like.

Since the beginning of Meet The Bloggers, the group has been capturing images. You can zero in on the culture here.

George: People will listen for about 10 minutes.

The You Tube phenomena is fascinating and this is a format, interwoven with the other formats that can be interconnected.

Here's a summary - Like to collaborate with other multimedia bloggers. Would like to distribute more widely - Live CD runs exclusive to the hard drive. This platform provides the speed and scale for others to practice the interviews too.

How can a platform, ultimately, be leveraged in new ways to support large change?

How can Meet The Bloggers (and blogging in general) be leveraged as a research mechanism? Chalep Hill NC community set up rules and guidelines for their blogging community. Here.

The issue is in the mangagement of huge quantities of information. This is where the value is now. From dated information to data to knowledge. The closer you get to the pinacle the higher the value.

Bob Sopko listened to a MTB interview with Dennis Althur. Go here.

LIVE BLOG: BRAINPOWER: SERIOUS GAME & IMMERSION ENVIRONMENT INNOVATIONS in EDUCATION and PREVENTIVE MEDICINE

2006-11-28T14:22:00.000-08:00

Defrag conference to identify and connect Ohio resources and capabilities in rich media. The program is free and open to the public. Open conversations will identify program deliverables and next steps for initiatives.

The digital generation is accusomed to informaiton on demand - this kind of world takes for granted the idea of instantly connecting to information and learning opportunities.

In education, the next opportunity is to move away from teacher centered lectures. There are new interactive applications that can amplify new learning.

Lots of data to demonstrate the effectiveness of e-learning, cost-effectiveness and learner satisfaction

Medicine meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) Medical Education conference is the premier conference on emerging data-centered technologies for medical care and education. You can learn more about collaborative working groups and the application of design in MMVR's multidisciplinary forum for computer scientists and engineers, physicians and surgeons, medical educators and students, military medicine specialists, and biomedical futurists. At MMVR, developers and end-users collaborate and innovate here.

Time spent investing in creating end product development is valuable: design for the end user not for yourself. The article Digital Natives offers a good overview of the changes in learning between the last two generations.

Games create a rapid cycle of forming a hypothesis, experimentation and analysis. In a successful game, these fundamental steps of critical thinking are embedded.

New language application includes: serious based learning application as opposed to "serious gaming"

The pedagogue strives to teach something new to the user so that power can be transfered to enable others.

Tower of Learning is a project to teach students about Clinical Cancer Genetics. This program will be implemented in 2007 for undergraduate students. They are experimenting with At&T voices provided by CrazyTalk.

To Tom's knowledge there is no other similar application in education.

Students seek to interact with several others at once. Second Life is one platform that has developed IP to do this and Tom and his team will be exploring how the Tower of Learning can leverage Decond LIfe. This platform is big on simulation and very appealing to women.

Even though Tower of Learning is Pass/Fail the production team is integrating ways to improve quality of learning.

Other models for gaming and business development:

This model leverages many links to resources and models that are successful and informative. One slide of chromosomes links directly to the Human Genome Project and provides deep information about each chromosomes.

By the third floor, designed activities attached to learning objectives are introduced. The various resources (linked) are leveraged for points awarded to the participants. The focus is on learning and application of information in a game format (interactive and fun).

The objective is to ceate a comprehensive environment with interactive activities. The subsequent survey responses indicated a high level of acceptance. Students desire fun and a high level of challenge. Another challenge is to create environments that other students can occupy at the same time. Aware if a potential to include adaptive learning. The project needs to be finished in one year. They would like to integrate the benefits of collaborative learning. The students must engage the material and assimilate the skill required.

When the medical school created the e-curriculum, many students stopped attending classes. The Professor required students attend the class and respond on their computers. Over time the 50% of students who did participate this way, learned significantly more than those who did not. Proving that for a higher level of learning there needs to be interactivity with the material.

Customization is the key to meet the needs of the constituents and the content material. Tom does not use "vanilla" apps because the product has been created with one target in mind. The experiential component is also a high value.

Jesse Schell is a leading designer of games. Following working at Disney, he now teaches at Carnegie Mellon. Jesse's private company is Schell Games.

Austin, Texas has produced this paper on the economic impact of Austin's entertainment software/digital media industry. Go here.

Q: this model challenges teachers to present information in a new way. Is there an application for teachers?
A: When you are trying to communicate these new applications to large numbers of teachers there is significant opposition. The students will be the ones, probably, to forward these "new" concepts.

ION Medical Designs, Inc. - a multimedia publishing company located in another state. Baldwin Wallace Business Clinic is supporting the business development of this company. BW has been very helpful in strategizing how these efforts can be leveraged to make m oney. Case University is not interested in developing these materials. ION is negotiating with Case to further develop and market appllications created at Case during Tom's tenure as Director of Informatics.

The opportunity is to customize applications based on individual Professor materials.

Funding: Small Business Administration Grants SBIR and STTR with funding going to small companies who then collaborate with colleges or universities. Translational research is criticzed by NIH for being too slow in translation. NIH is requiring marketing criteria to guarantee company success.

DxR Group

Opportunities: First Response Opportunity,

LIVE BLOG:SOUND DESIGN: CUSTOMIZING THE DIGITAL COGNITIVE EXPERIENCE

2006-11-14T14:11:00.000-08:00

The Tuesdays@FUTURE blog posts the social network maps from the early community development begun at FUTURE in June 2006 to November 2006. You can view the maps here.

Steve Simmons, Sound Director, EDR Media LLC,creates, composes, engineers and casts talent for projects involving sound design.

Steve starts with the sound design for products, such as childrens digital toys. Our example is the Fisher Price Digital Arts & Crafts Studio.

3D animation, as a content piece, comes with no sound. Steve adds audio design for contemporary audiences who have a much higher expectation for abstract sound than ever before associated with real or unreal objects.

Sound gets absorbed, reflected, diffracts and transmits as it travels. Lower frequency sounds are heard for longer lengths of time. Sound can be absorbed through matter- sound travels slower in cooler temperatures and faster in warmer, more humid environments.

Sound waves are distorted in transmission and are subject to the Doppler Effect and Refraction.

Question: what about intermodulation? High frequency mixing with ----

Steve thinks alot about PSYCHOACOUSTICS, a field of study that recognizes the impact of emotions on our ability to process sound. Here is the Wikipedia description: "Psychoacoustics is the study of subjective human perception of sounds. Alternatively it can be described as the study of psychology of acoustical perception." Learn more. Go.

Basic human perception of sound depends on many factors: position, composition, humans have a 360o awareness, beyond line of sight, humans can track about 7 lines of sound at one time: in essence, we are constantly monitoring our environment.

In the real world there are dozens and dozens of emitters at any one time and always in motion

We calculate how sound is received constantly and in highly complex ways

The linear environment is very easy to control compared to an experiential environmental - industry is just in the opening stages of exploring this.

There are exciting customizations happening in the audio industry such as,

- BOSE designing "quieting" headsets

- Using surround sound for the cell phone

- Home surround sound - do we need to keep adding multiple speakers to our listening space, OR, do we need to get the sound more directly into the cochlea? Is the solution instead localization of sound? Challenges are in the front and rear sounds. (This is an opportunity for Intellectual Property development.)

Sensura is working with sophisticated 3D audio. Learn more here. Their technology helps to simulate the surrounding real environment.

Orbz is a game that Steve worked on. Most people listen to their MP3 players as they play rather than listen to the audio provided. (Is this because the audio is not quality?). The Orbz game relies more on affects than on music. Power ups are available and will sound differently to who is giving and who is receiving. (There are about 300 audio files in the game says Steve.)

The interactivity between the ear and the mind is significant. Once the eye spots an object, the ear is already several steps ahead in realizing the sound.

Streaming audio is constant from several different stero fields

Garage Game produced Orbz and BuggOut.

AE = After Effects

Other partners were created to play with the real life player, so even at 3AM any player will have someone to play with! Sound is rendered, just as 3D is rendered, "on the fly".

Steve also designs sound for toys - ie., a gas powered weed wacker. This is interactive audio in a toy.

Q: What about constraints for size of files? This used to be a problem but not so much any more. Faster bandwidth helps to eliminate these challenges.

Visit Wild Republic, an early project Steve worked on that was very successful.

Q: Are there standards for age demographics?

Generations striving for greater and greater fidelity...

How has our concept of sound matured? Are we teaching a lower grade parameter of sound? Listeners will demand high quality. Because of the ram available today, we have the ability to demand extremely high sound quality.

The context will determine the level of sound quality acceptable to consumers.

Comment: The opportunity is to explore how psychoacoustics react with the other sensory sources.

Other resources: MIT, the Engineering Society has published severla White Papers...

We need to understand the role of sound in our world.

Latency, for example: light travels so much faster than sound

Affect of expectations in quality

An opportunity: Connect the IMax experience with the Home Theater experience. Homes need space - Dolby is leveraging the head phone systems.

Delay and phasing of sound and time distortion

To align the psychoacoustic with the other sensors is where the power is as well as capitalizing on how these integrate.

Comment: Does anyone do acoustic games?

Comment: In music recording, there is often a need to boost the oboe to compensate for lack of sight of seeing a Sax player stand up and prepare for his/her solo. NEO has alot of expertise in how sound is heard and seen. There needs to be much more attention paid to acoustics.

Comment: The opportunity is to leverage the imagination: the illusion of what and how sight and sound work together to create the full experience of sound

Comment: explore Training applications - purely acoustic

Defining Gaming and our Economic Opportunities

2006-11-14T08:53:00.000-08:00

When changes occur in markets and society new language emerges. Words and their meanings can shuffle around for months, years, decades before clarity settles - and sometimes resolution never happens.

This is the case with the emerging gaming cluster. People easily mistake "serious gaming" for "gambling". No problem. Just talk to an avid gamer and they will set you straight about the big picture and all the details.

This happened with the word "sustainability" a few years ago. What may be obvious to thought leaders who think deeply about sustainability is, at best, hazy to most other folks. (BTW, if you want to connect with cool people thinking about sustainability in NEO, just participate in Entrepreneurs for Sustainability. Visit E4S's website here.)

It's important for all of us to remember how much we know and to offer a little leeway for those who know less. So, just help people get up to speed.

Here is a post from Ed Morrison on the Brewed Fresh Daily blog with reference to gaming:

This market (gaming) provides a remarkable opportunity for Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.

Here are some useful reports to get you up to speed:

- Excellent Overview report from Austin (published in September) Here.
- Reports available from the Entertainment Software Association. Here.
- Video Games: Serious Business for America’s Economy. Here.
- Essential Facts Here.

You can visit the entire BFD conversation here.

The Music Genome Project

2006-11-01T07:18:00.000-08:00

From David Fleming:

Visit the Pandora website, a way to create streaming music radio stations that customize around your approval/disapproval.

[David Fleming, is an entrepreneur and regular at Tuesdays@FUTURE forums. David thinks alot about new bands, new sounds and how to better connect music lovers. Visit David's company website DiscConnected here.]

Tuesdays@FUTURE Social Network Maps: Connecting Brainpower

2006-10-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

I-Open maps social networks built at Tuesdays@FUTURE forums. Maps are courtesy of Valdis Krebs, social technology entrepreneur and Inflow software. Learn more about Valdis' work at Orgnet.com here.

Each map provides a picture of emerging connectivity between entrepreneurs. Depending on the levels of trust, new opportunities will emerge at different rates. Social network maps offer a visual picture of the growth or death of networks. Maps not only help us to track the exchange of information between individuals, but allow us to visualize emerging communities of interest around forum topics presented at FUTURE.

Our opportunity as a group is to act as "connectors" - to close the gap between individual or team need and resources and capabilities.

For a close up view of the maps go here.

LIVE BLOG: The Creative Economy: Building innovation in creative digital media

2006-10-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

A well filled room for the NEO Gaming Initiative. Attendees include educators, game entrepreneurs, technology

console games thousands of games on the market
China emerging large market; certain country requirements with advancing local requirements such as the display/not of blood, customization

Machinima - using a game engine to create films; George Lucas have used game visualization to play out sets and story

The NEO Game Initiative is focused on education and especially for high school level. Dan is working on a proposal to support game incubators and game desing in the schols. There are 2 (?) companies in town who supply game camps teaching game design. Many contacts are offered with connections in Collinwood...and various community centers

Dan also started a game development centers/labs

Talk with Kristen Baumlier and Knut - what about assigning faculty with these labs to work with the students?

Another large project has involved the Third Frontier project for pre-seed early stage funds. Require a min $500,000 matching funds for work over a 10 year period. The RFP is due Nov 7th.

"Simulation" is a word that is accepted better by investors than "gaming".

Events: Winter Game Expo (December 2) to show off some of the projects currently being done in town; simulations; student projects and FUTURE incubator entrepreneurs. Summer Game Festival offered in conjuction with Ingenuity 07'. Projected 5000 people attending - this is a successful model offered in other parts of the country and Europe; including game events, boot camp, provider expos, and concerts/rock band .

With funding of the Civic Innovation Lab...what is the best company structure: non-profit or non-profit?
What will happen if pre-seed funds are not awarded?

What can be done to move this initiative forward? Questions and brainstorming...

Company Structure
-Non profit of For Profit? Hybrid?

Pre-seed Alternatives
-Intermeidary/Consultant

Other Local Partners
-Hyland
-American Greetings
-NASA
-Others?

What about seeking funds from NorTech? They are into clusters...and should be addressed.

What about new language? What is the definition of gaming: the 30 -40 year old definition is casinos. Today, teaching how to use computers, etc. is all a part of the gaming industry.

[Many contacts are offered in private industry who might be helpful to gaming entrepreneurs]

Q: Are game designers very collaborative? A: Game palyers are!

When approaching schools, get the instructors on board first, put together a formal presentation, and schedule far in advance...the schools have lost more good ideas die to scheduling...what about forming/connecting with School Clubs? You need a good contact to develop good relationships....put labs in the community schools for use during the day and open access for the school kids in the evening.

Focus on the available lab space.

End of E 4th space is being held for gaming labs space. Mentor on the Lake...David Buster's is getting more involved in providing gaming abilities. ISP, computer vendor and equipment supplied. This is not a sustainable model...what about building a partnership with vendors?

We encourage strengthening these new industries in NEO. What

Live Blog: THE CREATIVE ECONOMY - BUILDING NEW GLOBAL MODELS

2006-10-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

[in process] I-Open Forum October 17

An energizing discussion about Open Source Economic Development, learning how this cutting edge practice accelerates innovation and new business development in the creative industries transforming Northeast Ohio's regional economy.

participants introduced themselves and the initiatives they are passionate about and/or are involved in:

WIRED grants Indiana
WT Tyler Complex
FUTURE
NEO Video Game Initiative
Ingenuity
Visual Design
Information Design
Developing new collaborative business models: It is difficult to locate support professionals (lawyers, accountants, etc.) who are flexible enough and knowlegeable in dealing with new businesses developed using a more open source model.
Skateboarding Due to local community involvement and innovative minds, the Lakewood skate park is attracting skateboarders from all over the county. It is a quality connected place that is attracting new businesses (coffee shop) to the area.
Attracting people to Lakewood vs keeping people from leaving: "Making Lakewood Sticky"
Cleveland Museum of Art
Freelance writing
Serial entrepreneurship
Business-to-business marketing assistance, Chinese translation, and cultural advice about China: see The Wu Way here.
STA
Waterloo Arts District
I-Open Impact Survey measuring changing behaviors and metrics associated with those changes. Your stories and comments are important to us as we move forward. Complete survey here.

Value of Creative Industry (see I-Open Creative Cleveland website here

Live Blog: INGENUITY FESTIVAL

2006-10-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

I-Open Forum October 10-

The attendees updated the group on their own activities.

Industrial real estate WT Tyler Building
Indie music - creating a Cleveland voice
Ingenuity celebrating creativity and technology
Teaching cognitive sciences and visualization
Bike stations - Cleveland Bikes
NE Ohio Video Game Initiative - video games supporting math and engineering - working on funding for a digital media initiative
Startup Ink & Digital media Incubator FUTURE
Open Source Economic Development
Cleveland Public Schools vocational schooling & visual arts
Neighborhood development in Collinwood & Waterloo - ethnic artisan & crafts initiative
Waterloo Arts community- growing the neighborhood
game design -teaching digital art
teaching drawing
collaborative innovation networks
Business Innovation Factory Collaborative Innovation Summit in Rhode Island
Nortech Innovation Awards

Midtown Brews is scheduled for December 7 -

Thursday 4pm October 12 recption at Idea Center at Playhouse Square: Steve Dietz, curatorial expert on Digital art (click here)

What can we do together that will be transformative?

Creative Economy Online click here or go to: www.creative.org.au

Collaborative innovation SummitLink click here or go to : http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=461&Itemid=199

Rich Weiss of Ingenuity:
Ingenuity Festival celebrating arts inspired by technology, technology inspired by the arts. attendence of 80,00 despite weather, construction, and negative admonitions from the radio media. The existing image of Cleveland is often an older image: burning river, steel plants. The festival is moving from lower Prospect to Playhouse Square for 2007.

In Cleveland there are wonderful new initiatives:

reanimation of paralyzed muscles- helping people walk again, use arms and hands again
hydraulic delivery systems new ways of trucks delivering goods
exercise programs for astronauts- collaboration of Cleveland Clinic and NASA
LCD books
Cancer solutions

How do we leverage the arts – utilizing our cutting edge arts to promote the area, sharing creativity.

Celebrating brainpower – there are cool things going on in Cleveland.

In 2007 there is a new partnership with Cleveland State University.

Discussion:

There is a lack of vision of value of community benefit. The festival needs a crital mass of participants as well as attendees. Other cities are watching and waiting. Issue 18 should be helpful to support the festival.

Next steps: keep in touch with Rich Weiss with ideas on how, using strategic doing, Ingenuity may be moved forward.

LIVE BLOG: DIGITAL AIRPORT INITIATIVE

2006-10-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

On October 3, 2006 at Tuesdays@FUTURE, those at the table participated in a discussion of the Digital Airport Initiative (http://digitalairport.pbwiki.com/) which is a local organization attempting to bring innovative communication to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. (http://www.clevelandairport.com/)

The goal of this initiative is a public/private economic development collaboration that transforms the airport into an ultra high-speed high-tech communication venue for regional activity in Northeast Ohio. The airport is visited by 11.5 million passengers annually. These are the people who bring money into the community. Also most often these are the decision makers in their businesses. There is limited exposure by travelers to Cleveland with most exposure at the airport, then on the freeways and hotels.

This new initiative is designed to embrace the technology revolution. There is frustration with the same old technology, same as other airports. It provides for free standing displays in food courts, in baggage areas, and wherever people are standing around waiting.

What is particular to this initiative is its local ownership and direction which provides a greater degree of openness to local stories. The current airport contract is with a French company which provides much the same advertising at airports nationwide. This initiative not only would provide more local stories and content but also will provide income and taxes feeding the local economy. The new contract will be for a period of ten years.

Some of the activities of the initiative are:
Dynamic collaboration
Unique experience within airport
Self sustaining and revenue building (not non-profit)
Phase 1 Cle-TV Network: narrow cast network
Touch screens
Kiosks- engagement w/travelers
Short form content
Stories: clusters, universities, non-profits, virtual tours, what makes Cleveland distinctive
USB port downloads connections to maps, hotels, events
Phase 2 Idea-Port Interactive : Digital environment assets
Unique display applications
Early stage technology incubator for display applications
Video

A great presentation of the initiative may be found at http://www.iq-digital.com/airport/

Two more Information Design links...

2006-09-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

A case study noted by one of this week's Tuesdays@FUTURE attendees. Go here.

And another website noted by Mari Hulick for additional information about visualization: here.

LIVE BLOG: INFORMATION DESIGN: A NEW FIELD PERFECTING THE VISUALIZATION OF DENSE, COMPLEX INFORMATION

2006-09-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

Information Design: A new field perfecting the visualization of dense, complex information

Forum Leader: Mari Hulick, Associate Professor, Chair, Department of Communication Design Cleveland Institute of Art

Definition of Information Design - how is this practiced?

Mari is originally from NY and used information design around mapping and mapping ideas - systems where people could share information and with the web being so complex how do you management information.

Ben Fry at MIT - Working on Opti project - way of tracking information. One computer going from one type of internet setup to a similar type of internet setup in one day. Huge amount of information. Genome Valence. Human genone - Visually display DNA in visual. Go to website and see visuals. Valance maps information. Processing a way to convey complex visuals more simplistically. Looks at visuals from the standpoint and quality of information rathern than quantity.

Inform - critical part of design - what does it mean to be informed. What are we using? Traditional - newspapers. NY Times has taken traditional way and brought to Web.

1950s most literate period in world history.

Question of ethics - what kind of info are we getting and what is impact? One of biggest issues is knowledge - what does it mean to know (inform to information to knowledge) andimparting that knowledge - wisdom. Is there a linear progression. The power to inform is massive - but does this mean we hve the power to know and what is the wisdom behind this.

Building a global mind. E.O. Wilson upcoming book about "Impact of World Poverty on Ecology".

Statistics based on best estimates. Looking at world population GDP (gross domestic product - wealth) concentrated in Asia (South Central) & North America. In some areas, economic ability to make money dies off (Australia). Looking at population North American and East Asia producing wealth. Africa diminshes. Looking at gross national income & dividing by popoulation, US, Canada and Mexico dominates the world. If you take Mexico out of the mix, North America would get bigger. Looking at subcontients, if you divide by population by individual income, North America drops down and Australia and Western Europe jumps up. Lots of money in America but looking at population, quality of life goes down in NA and goes up in Western & Northern Europe, East Asia. Because there is so much information we need to sift through it all to get meaning and understanding. (Fry does it through visuals and they are visually wonderful but how do people get meaning out of them.

Wealth is concentrated in very few areas in comparison to the world. When you look at population and wealth, NA growing and South Africa is shrinking. South America GNP doing okay but still a great amount of poverty. At one time, Africa was growing cocoa for a particular company but no biodiversity and product died out. Has a huge poverty population. Individiuals are suffering in this country (poverty) but it is not as bad in Western Europe.

Communication and intercommunication. Information Design: Thought process for research - conception, purpose, intention, create, plan, project (some examples).

NY Times: History of hurricane Katrina online. Shows all players and what they did on each day. Showed satellite images - shows different pieces of information; see what is being proposed. Shows everything you need to know about hurricane. Design is figuring what to convey - information through facts and showing visually.

Studying design information could help with economic decisions. Example: McDonnough sold Ford on redesigning one of its plants to green building and they saved money because of it. McDonnough's book "Cradle to Cradle" is about green artchictecure & creating things that are reusable. Cradle to cradle means a product is born, use it until it is not relevant anymore, take it apart & reuse it and it is born again.
Most look at Cradle to Grave - product is born, useit and then it dies.

First person to speak about information design is Edward Tufte (Edward Tufte.com). His book is: "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information". He realized the value of design about complexity. Started self publishing and get it produced the way he wanted it. "Envisioning Information" - another book. Superb dislays of high-dimensional complex data. Information disign is also experience design. How a book is made, what letter forms to use, color, how it holds up, the smell of the paper, etc. We remember things that are immersive. We remember things that hit our senses. Visibility of book design - so many text books are so hard to read.

Mari thinks all communication is information design.

Interesting websites:

http://deo.icio.us/tag/
Tag cloud: list of tags where size reflects popularity

xplane.com/cases/ - information design firm that develops visual maps & stories to make complex business issues easier to understand.

http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager - will tell you statistics and history of your name.

http://jkevinmchugh.com/ - Clear a path to truthful communication

Dialogue & Innovation: Carnegie Mellon School of Design hosts Ben Fry 2006-2007

2006-09-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

Innovation and idea creation is accelerated by exposing new thinking through dialogue. This year Information Designer Ben Fry is the Nierenberg Chair of Design at the Design School at Carnegie Mellon. Read here.Theodore D. Nierenberg, a founder of Dansk International Designs, realized that the presence of innovators like Ben will accelerate new idea creation wherever they work by the conversations they participate in.

Tuesdays@FUTURE offer a place for strategic conversation. Open Source Economic Development process leverages a disciplined approach to what we call "strategic doing" - moving ideas quickly to action. This simple process is anchored in four basic questions: "Where are we going?" (Set a clear vision with understandable metrics), "Who's on the bus?" (explore & connect interests), "Who can contribute what?" (align resources), "What's next?" (focus on practical next steps).

The goal in establishing the Nierenberg Chair of Design is to enhance the vitality of the School of Design for students and faculty by encouraging dialogue on important issues of the field, the exploration of contemporary forms of design practice, and promoting research that will affect future practice and understanding.

Ben explains: “For the type of work that I do, one of the most common questions that I get is: how do I do this? And where can I find other people that can do this type of work? Addressing the first part is a personal goal, that I'm always trying to learn how to explain it better. If I'm successful in that, then I'll have a better answer to the second part because there will be more students exposed to this kind of thinking.”

What would this look like in NEO?

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

2006-09-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

In addition to reading Edward Tufte's book on the subject (click here), take a look at this interesting interactive visualization of zip codes in the United States on Ben Fry's site here.

More on Edward Tufte - Icon of Information Design

2006-09-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

Advances in industry and innovation require leaders thinking in new and different ways.

Edward Tufte is one who has spent a lifetime thinking deeply about new ways to communicate through new forms of visualization. Tufte goes beyond the visual presentation of concepts, demanding that content drive the visual intent. Wikipedia offers a good overview of Tuft's work here.

Tufte's work is important in such fields as information design and visual literacy, which deal with the visual communication of information. He coined the term "chartjunk" to refer to useless, non-informative, or information-obscuring elements of information displays such as Power Point presentations. Tufte says these reduce thinking to bullet points of information and attributes the Challenger disaster to information miscommunicated through such a presentation. See the WIRED article here and Tufte's detailed essay on the disaster here.

The City of Boston's has asked Tufte to take a new look at visualizing the mapping of the Boston Airport to lower incursions. Visit the link here.

Tufte has written extensively on various subjects relating to information, visualization and design. Check out his book page here.

More on Info Design

2006-09-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

This Travel-Time Map, is a new way of visualizing travel time to and away from destinations. Visit the Flickr page here.

Working in a networked world demands moving quickly and spotting opportunities faster. One of the ways we can do this is to learn about emerging techniques to access information.

Visit the blog of Paul Nixon, a 29 year old graphic/web designer for the University of Arizona in Tucson Arizona, who thinks Info Graphics is cool. Click on NiXLOG.

FUTURE Social Network Map June 2006

2006-09-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

(Click on the image above for more detail.)
Regional economies grow organically and just like growth cycles in nature, mature through birth, growth and death curves. Economists call these curves, "S" curves.

The Northeast Ohio region needs to move out of the past industrial "S" curve and into the next innovation "S" curve quickly. A lack of speed and failure to recognize value in non-tangibles is why Cleveland, the former hub of Northeast Ohio industry, is rated the poorest in the country. Speed is everything.

The good news is there are many entrepreneurs in NEO building what we call "next generation clusters". Next generation clusters are the new footholds for the next "S" curve.

I-Open civic forums focus on early stage thinking for these non-tangible next generation clusters. This is what nascent innovation looks like; presenting as forum topics, aggregating interest and accelerating shared group learning. Next Generation Entrepreneurs contribute by leading forums and participating in fast moving conversations. This is a new process of civic engagement that takes ideas to action (we call this "strategic doing") by leveraging the practices and tools for Open Source Economic Development developed by I-Open.

Next generation clusters can be identified, mapped and measured. Examples of clusters are gaming, digital media, software development, design. The social network map above offers a snapshot of early stage next generation cluster activity.

Forums support and cultivate transparent environments for information exchange, essential to enable individuals and teams to realize new opportunities sooner and faster. This is how business development occurs in flat, open networked economies.

Mapping growth or isolation in social connectivity is a standard metric for building innovation economy infrastructure. We will be mapping again soon.

LIVE BLOG: TYPEFRAG

2006-09-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

4:30 to 5:00 Networking

Attendees:
Law
NEO Game Initiative
Strategic Technology Allliance (STA)
Green building/Real Estate development
Case Engineering School/Network development
Kent State University - School of Arts - Prof. of Fashion
Game developers

Is where gaming is happening between Case and the gaming culture. David Grampa and TYPEFRAG is a good example. David Moss met Michael DeAloia who in turn, several weeks later, connected David and David. David Grampa's Initiative is now an incubated company at FUTURE.

In 2003:
TypeFrag - is a licensed service

David Grampa is leading a second new initiative customizing the audio experience in gaming

With a $400.00 investment, the team innovated a better way of providing server service. Pricewaterhouse Coopers has predicted that by 2012 there will be over 80.2 subscribers.

Targets: more reliabe, easier to use, higher quality sound and better features.
Gamers want better things they can be using as they are gaming. The New Initiative is integrating better tools in the interface. Next steps will develop a product website and a community/social website for customers.

Demo of the New Initiative talking off site with two partners in Connecticut. They are developing the Beta site. We are comparing voice quality using Ventril (a competitor)...the competitor service is less defined.

Updates on the social site: with profiles of gamers, user information and contact/profile information. This will provide the ability to (geographically) locate other players.

Hope to have a satble version out by 2007. To target game developers so that they can integrate voice into the games and produce revenue...other bits and pieces of IP will be available for licensing (available OS for non-profits) . Will be branded as the leading voice provider.

Hope to creat a young tech community and get them interested in gaming in NEO for the future. Lure talent first and then anchor with employment and business development.

Question: How are you going to pull talent from Ventrilo? The New Initiative is connecting with sports providers - as gaming is now viewed as a sport.

The New Initiative has an exclusive with EU compnay supplier of headsets. The New Initiative will have an embedded offer with every headset purchase.

Q: What about Skype? Skype is a cllient to client; the New Initiative is Client to Server

The New Initiative will provide a searchable database of users. Q: Will you host tournaments? No. Will probably sponsor.

Q: What attracts D Grampa to FUTURE? Good rent; access to artists, Case game capabilities; artists at FUTURE.

Q: Aren't there many other opportunities in education? The New Initiative will offer a GPL license for access to different components to non profit organizations. This has been picked up by the Army but the New Initiative turned it down due to reliability issues.

Plan to use the FUTURE environment to release the Beta version. Will be hiring 2 full time and 2 part time developers to work toward a release in 2007.

Events: The Northeast Ohio Game Initiative Network: Meets the 3rd Tuesday of the Month: 5PM. Go here for more information. Contact Dan Carl at: Daniel@neogameinitiative.com

It's Been Done Before: Grading Economic Development Investments in Gambling

2006-09-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a note from Ed Morrison - providing another perspective on how our Northeast Ohio leadership is choosing to invest in economic development. Read and learn.

My experience on gambling in Louisiana fuels my opposition to this option for Cuyahoga County. I worked on three major projects involving casinos. I started out neutral, but came to see that the downside risks are considerable and not balanced by the promised gains.

I am not alone.

The Baton Rouge Advocate editorial from today...

Ed

http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/3915741.html

Our Views: Don’t waste time on gambling lure

Opinion page staff
Published: Sep 14, 2006

Louisiana officials frittered away the 1990s by focusing on expansion of various forms of gambling as a cure for Louisiana’s economic woes.

Alas, gambling has not delivered the promised pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and Louisiana continues to lag much of the country in economic development.

Louisiana would be much better off today if we had spent the past decade paying attention to more fundamental reforms to grow business, such as investing in education, reforming our tax laws, streamlining state government and dramatically tightening our ethics code.

Now, in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which produced perhaps the most profound crisis this state has ever faced, we are in danger of repeating the errors of the past by indulging yet another protracted debate over promoting even more gambling in Louisiana.

It is a distraction this beleaguered state cannot afford. Yet the prospect of another push to expand gambling was raised at a recent closed-door meeting among riverboat casino officials, legislators, regulators and bureaucrats.

The meeting, which was not open to the public, was held in a conference room in Attorney General Charles Foti’s office. Foti, who did not stay after making opening remarks, said the meeting was aimed at starting a dialogue.

The presence of the public might have inhibited a free and frank discussion, he said.

Among the issues on the table, as best as we can gather from some of those who attended, was the presumed need for more generous tax policies for Louisiana casinos, as well as the possibility of allowing riverboat casinos to relocate on land.

Gambling promoters have suggested that such changes are necessary to make Louisiana’s gambling industry more competitive with the casinos in Mississippi.

One would think that the members of the public, who would be most affected by changes in Louisiana’s gambling policies, would have a seat at the table when gambling interests and those who regulate them meet to discuss the industry’s future.

We’re puzzled by Foti’s role in fostering the closed-door meeting. While the attorney general has some statutory authority regarding gambling, questions about the location, size and tax arrangements for casinos are policy matters decided by the governor and the Legislature.

This is the second prominent example of the attorney general involving himself in matters that aren’t the natural purview of his office. Foti has also involved himself in investigating the possible euthanasia of New Orleans hospital patients after Hurricane Katrina — a probe more properly handled by local police.

For real leadership on the issue of gambling, citizens should look first and foremost to Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who has repeatedly said that she will not approve any legislation that would expand gambling. Nobody from the governor’s office attended the closed-door meeting at Foti’s office.

Blanco’s deputy press secretary, Marie Centani, said that the meeting “was in Foti’s arena” and that the governor would not answer any other questions about the state of the gambling industry.

The governor’s reticence does not suggest strong leadership. The absence of such leadership creates a vacuum that others will attempt to fill — including, oddly enough, the attorney general.

In the wake of last year’s storms, many have said that Louisiana should honor the tragedy of the hurricanes by rebuilding even better than before.

We do not believe Louisiana can fulfill the promise of that vision by hanging its star yet again on legalized gambling.

9/12 Forum Notes: Ripon

2006-09-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays @ FUTURE 9/12/06

In attendance: Dennis Coughlin, David Moss, Diann Mistelske, David Grampa, Tom Nosek, Brad Kleinman, Councilman Joe Cimperman, Jessica Cavoletta, Troy Richards, Knut Hybinette, Kevin Cronin, Jim ?, Steve Simmons, Dan Carl, Hyunsoo Byun

5:03 Dennis Coughlin Introduces I-Open, talks about open-source

David Moss talks about agenda for next couple weeks. It will focus on gaming. FUTURE’s first Incubator winner, Game Communications, LLC is a gaming business. Owner, David Grampa will be talking next week. Dan Carl still going after Third Frontier money but needs to match $1 million. How can we help?

David gives summary of upcoming show at FUTURE, Startup Ink, opening October 13th from 6-9 pm. Show will be the first in a twice-a-year series focusing on businesses that are successful Cleveland startups. Participants in this exhibition include Alternative Press, Derek Hess, Jak Prints, GoMedia, Factory 13, Voodoo Monkey Tattoo, 252 Tattoo and Gen X Tattoos. Spring’s Startup Ink exhibition will focus on high-end design firms and botiques.

Councilman Cimperman talks about the Arts Initiative, now assigned Issue 18. If it passes, arts & culture organizations in Ohio will receive $20-22 million per year for the next 10 years. National arts money was not allotted to Ohio, so this money is crucial. There is now funded opposition by the smoking companies campaigning against this issue. More arts organizations in Ohio are in the red—now at 64, several years ago it was only 20. Money would not only benefit organizations, but could also go to individuals. This is not only money for the orchestra and dance companies, which is the myth, but also for visual arts. This is about sustainability of our arts & culture. It is proven that the arts help students learn better. The Cleveland School of the Arts graduates over 90% of it’s students and shows 100% writing and reading proficiency.

How can you help? Volunteer on Monday, September 18th at noon at the Beck Center!

October 18th will be Cuyahoga Arts & Culture day.

Knut & Troy talk about their game, Ripon. Idea formed out of series of drawings Troy created—influenced by hometown of Ripon, Wisconsin. Exploration of violence. Game took 7 months to complete. Graphics hand-drawn and then imported and digitized, giving the game a very unique look. This is the anti-game—makes us question the violence of video games. You can only play once. When your character dies, the game is over and you get a DVD of your “life.” Knut and Troy received a grant from Ingenuity and were able to exhibit this past summer. Currently looking for more funding to perfect the game. Ripon is more an art piece than a game.

Digital Airport Initiative

2006-09-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

The Digital Airport Initiative is a regionally-based business collaboration, supported by advertising revenues, presenting regionally-based content and providing a sizable revenue return to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

Congratulations to the team lead by Barbara Siss Oney on demonstrating how regional economic development should now be done: through collaboration and "strategic doing": Set a clear vision with understandable metrics ("Where are we going?"), connect interests ("Who's on the bus?"), align resources ("Who can contribute what?"), focus on practical next steps ("What's next?").

This activity demonstrates new civic habits for Northeast Ohio: balancing open participation with leadership direction.

Regions that figure out how to "link and leverage" in this way gain a major competitive advantage: speed. They will learn faster, spot opportunities faster, align resources faster, and act faster.

Check out the NEW Digital Airport Video here. Learn more about the Digital Airport Initiative here.

CONNECT: News on San Diego's technology and life science's industry

2006-09-07T10:11:00.000-07:00

CONNECT is a model for us to follow in Northeast Ohio.

It is a good example of many activities purposefully connecting to many interests at once. The result is the development of networking (activity) around systems of open innovation. In Open Source Economic Development these are called "open economic networks."

Sign on here.

Canadian Research Network: Innovation and Intellectual Property

2006-09-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

Check out the latest reports and announcements about innovation, intellectual property and related policy from the Ontario Network on the Regional Innovation System/University of Toronto.

here and here.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
* Ontario Focusses on Cutting-Edge Technology in $46M Program

EDITOR'S PICK
* INNOBAROMETRE 2006

INNOVATION AND RELATED POLICY
* Information and Intellectual Property: The Global Challenge
* The Emerging Knowledge Governance Approach: Challenges and Characteristics
* Industry R&D Location: The Role of Accessibility to University R&D and Institutions of Higher Learning

CITIES AND REGIONS
* New Jersey's New Economy Growth Challenges
* The Influence of Geographic Clusters and Knowledge Spillovers on the Product Innovation Activities of New Ventures

STATISTICS AND INDICATORS
* Measuring Informal Innovation: From Non-R&D to Online Knowledge Production

--
Jen Nelles
PhD Candidate, political science
University of Toronto
Editor, OREDI newsletter
Research Associate, ISRN
1 Devonshire Place
Toronto ON M5S 3K7 Canada
(416) 995-8593
jen.nelles@utoronto.ca

The Case for Openness and Investing in the Long Term

2006-09-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

Our partner, Prof. Traore from the Kent State University School of Fashion, contributed this perspective on intellectual property at last week's Tuesdays@FUTURE forum led by Steve Cencula. Prof. Traore sent his remarks for us to read in his own words, below....

Intellectual property (IP) is a global as well as a local concern. In particular, private and educational institutions, across the world are struggling with the concepts and strategies of protecting their IP with the hope to recover their investments while making a profit.

However, a plethora of novel ideas stay more often engulfed under the shelves of back offices with a zero contribution to knowledge creation and to the betterment of human life. IP has different meanings for different institutions or people.

Understandably so, it has been a colossal wedge between the proponents of it pseudo-radical protection on one hand, and in the other hand, the champions of an open source constructs that will enable free or quasi free uses of the IP in an effort to accelerate economic growth in our fast-paced globalized environment. While IP protection for profit-making to motivate research, creativity and innovation is legitimate, the sharing and dissemination of knowledge to all users display nobility and humanism with a potentially more potent impact on the global growth and local prosperity.

Well, powerful lessons can be gained from scores of traditional doctors or healers acting in the nodes of social networks in valleys and mountains of Africa. Many times, they seem to give away their ancestral secrets that may annihilate a headache creating a cohort of human billboards carrying their good names across constellation of villages. This is word-of-mouth marketing in practice and branding at its best. The reasoning for the rest of mortals is, if they can cure this ailment, they certainly can problem solve any discomfort including the not-so-minute cases, which cures or IP, so to speak, are jealously guarded in secrecy. Because of that belief in addition to their built reputation, people experiencing disruption in their natural health management system will come to them for help with the promise of giving a larger compensation. Sometimes, it is just in kindness and good faith that the IP is given away. The recipients of the gift, after satisfaction, will come back and give to the masters whatever they believe is an adequate compensation for their know-how, IP, or savoir faire. And more often the compensations do surpass all expectations. Perhaps, our masters have just stolen from nature by observing the natural delay between planting and harvesting. We have a choice and we can opt for openness and invest for the long term.

The IP holders, instead of letting the IP collect just dust in drawers or actively searching for short term profit could embrace this simple principle or adapting it to their own circumstances guided by an open source philosophy. Not all the healers participate in the dissemination of the knowledge for the betterment of their village communities. By the same token not all institutions will or should join the movement. It is hoped thus that by opening the drawers and making IP available, open source behavior will be the pivotal key to bring about exponential economic growth and accelerated expansion of wealth in the new complex experience economy.

The Kept University

2006-08-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

Commercially sponsored research is putting at risk the paramount value of higher education -- disinterested inquiry. Even more alarming, the authors argue, universities themselves are behaving more and more like for-profit companies.

Read the report here.

LIVE BLOG: Open Source Intellectual Property

2006-08-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

Resources for today's forum:
1) First Monday - Lessons for Open Source: Intellectual Property and Courseware, Jan Newmarch

In this competitive age, universities are seeking ways to protect their intellectual property, for fear that it might be stolen or used by others without financial benefit coming back to the university. Increasingly, universities are using mechanisms of secrecy to secure their property. This paper argues that this approach is wrong on both moral and business grounds, and that a better model can be found in the Open Source movement of the software industry. Read more here.

Contents: Intellectual Property Ownership by Secrecy/Arguments against Secrecy/Courses aren't just Courseware/Open Source/Copyright/Advantages of Open Courseware/Conclusion

2) Creative Commons License - A non-profit organization devoted to expand the range of creative work available for others legally to build upon and share. Read more.

3) Relax. Let Your Guard Down From Inc.com. Why patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property protections are bad--that's right, bad--for business.

4) The Wikipedia page on Open Source. A guide including definition, history of origin, founding leaders and sectors of application. Go.

Forum start:

Bob Sopko, Director, Strategic Technology Alliance (STA) announces the new wireless canopy for the Case campus. Read more here. The wireless mesh will go from the railroad tracks to the Nottingham Spirk to ---- Q: How can this be extended via local commujnity development organizations? Contact OneCleveland. East Cleveland is also now a part of OneCommunity wireless access.

The Case IT department seeks to strengthen collaborations in University Circle.

Steve Cencula: an entrepreneur in the creative digital industries. Deep background in 3D and visualizations....Steve's business depends on open source access. FORM creates new applications for customers. Steve serves in many support capacities at CIA. How Open Source affects his business profit is the primary purpose. Much of the advancements and releases of IP are made by private industry.

FORM develops online games and often for the purpose of making website experiences stickier and last longer.

FIDO (Fully Integrated Desktop Objects) is a new product FORM has just released. Read the Crain's article here. This application is not appropriate for all content...but can work well for accessing existing content in a more compelling way. This is an interface that is updateable.

FORM also creates a desktop platform that content developed by for example, American Greetings, can change daily. This heightens the experience of the consumer updating automatically. This provides a platform to change experience daily. Another example: the passionate gardener whose desktop may include temperature, bulb ordering information, and gardening tips.

Q: How could this be applied to intranet company applications.

Alot of companies came out with organized desktops. Apple, Yahoo, Google, etc. Fearing being swamped by exceptionalcompetitiopn, FOPRM was hestiant and anxious to release their desktop platform. However, what did happen is that the consumer market became much more savvy about what they value in product. None of the large company products released focused on niche markets and focused experience.

The ability to address bugs in an Open Source environment is huge; so is the opportunity to capitalize on innovation. The benefit of a large community's brainpower is tremendous. Everyone is fairly equal and each has access to accelerating individual innovation. Open Source tends to correct itself and evolve naturally.

FORM as a company encourages failure and bad ideas to accelerate quality solutions quickly. In a myopic organization, a company can spend years going down ultimately failed paths.

There is a dearth of dead wikis and blogs in cyberspace that lack large scale activity. Open Source by definition requires large scale engagement and strong leadership by an individual or a core team consistently responding and communicating.

The test of product and leadership is strength of passion. The ability to spot quality open source material is paramount. Few are making large profit. The larger companies - such as Googel - can afford to share source. How can smaller companies participate this way? Some companies give away operating systems and sell customer suppport. Or, give away limited versions.

"Narcotic marketing" = seed the market and sell suppllies.

Linux - Red Hat - Wikipedia - are examples of powerful mass open support. Google maps is another accessible tool that is open for development and innovations. This provides a new set of tools for communities to drive innovations. Users can find classmates, Italian resturants, etc.

Blipstar uploads google maps based on excel sheets of your stores. This is an open source platform thathas been developed

The "Kept University" is an evolving phenomeon where corporations are becoming more involved in Universities and "guiding" IP development.

Can you open source items, design, architecture? Open Architecture is a new approach to design competition with the requiirement that plans be published.

What is the role of CIA? Is the role - to manufacture ideas - or to become a conduit for new ideas and the release of content.

What is the cost of pursuing patents? Compared to the cost of paying lawyers to protect the patnets? How can we creatively look at an open approach that will be productive?

The i-Pod is a highly closed process from design, material storage and IP. This was not innovative because it was first, etc. but because of the vision of the design team. Innovation can happen in a closed room without a 50 member team...

Q: What do we do with technology from CIA?

Creative Commons - and other variations of licensing - is an elegant solution for the benefits of scale but still protecting the individual rights.

What does it mean to possibly become the first design school to embrace open-source policy regarding Intellectual Property?

What would that mean to industry growth and hiring of students with new product innovations offered publically? This might be a way for CIA to become a hub of innovation. Designs become a brand...

CIA teaches creative problem solving. Will CIA take a leadership in design

Artists build on other artists work.

There is probably not a definitive answer but a hybrid approach.

The Megacommunity Manifesto

2006-08-24T23:12:00.000-07:00

Strategy-Business just published its latest Resilience Report.

It talks about the value of building "megacommunities" and describes how these look differently from what we have known before. It also offers rational for why these new directions are important.

I-Open organizes practices and tools to help individuals act entrepreneurially together in this new environment of change.

Download the report here.

More Activity = More Networks = More Innovation

2006-08-24T23:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a recipe for success.

Check out what is happening in San Diego this week. Here.

You can sign up for the e-letter for free.

AUDIOBLOG: Ed Morrison on Network Capitalism

2006-08-24T22:53:00.000-07:00

Just Released...CFI's AudioBlog "Network Capitalism" with Ed Morrison, Director, I-Open

Wealth creation in the innovation economy is dominated by “network capitalism”, where flexible, adaptive, and connected companies integrate new knowledge with products and services. In contrast with the old “command-and-control” industrial economy, particularly in rural areas, the innovation economy provides abundant opportunities to increase in-flows of outside capital (“good money”), increase velocity of capital circulated among local businesses (“neutral money”) and reduce capital out-flows (“bad money). Through “strategic doing” and civic collaboration, communities can move proactively to participate in the innovation economy and build local and regional wealth.

Listen and learn here.

Capital Formation Institute (CFI) promotes seed and early stage investing and enterprise development discussions.

LIVE BLOG: Design Districts

2006-08-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday there was a forum introducing the participants to a Design Area in Cleveland for which an overlay of Cleveland was shown with display areas as well as work and live space for designers. There are no specific boundaries to the area but rather a core. Major stakeholders are being aligned in this project which is quickly moving forward.

What is being asked for is continuing support and assistance in increasing buzz.

Forum comments:
The teaching of Industrial Design in Cleveland is one of the best in the country but there is not connection between teaching and industry.
Dan Cuffaro does more than stir the pot – he breaks the pot and rebuilds.
There is no density in the design industry in Cleveland.
Story: Public Square is not a neighborhood, but Playhouse Square has become one.
People make markets
The Design District is trying to be non-threatening in its development
“Never ask for institutional support – ask for personal support.”
Dan Cuffaro: Setting Cleveland as “next Milan”.
Purpose to identify design identity for the City of Cleveland.
The design culture if it exists is secondary to other activity
Companies such as Rubbermaid, MTD, Royal Appliance, Little tykes, Hoover, Moen, interDesign, Step2, Saeco: major design needs
In cities such as Boston and Chicago with the benefit of a design culture, concentration of talent, and with design treated as strategically important, there is a draw for CIA graduates.
We need to be better at managing the design process.
Cleveland – “sketches by the pound”
There needs to be an understanding of how to use design to connect.
Companies in Cleveland are fearful/worried about losing design talent.
Opportunities: internship programs
“Happy accidents don’t happen in silos”
Out of myth and into markets
To foster creation around a design district something is needed to grease the wheel.
Design award
Model perhaps Merchandise Mart in Chicago but in a more virtual concept. more locations on Euclid Avenue
A central location for putting manufacturers and wholesalers together.
Labor pool: deep locally shallow internationally
The “salmon” view: Clevelanders come home to breed.

LIVE BLOG: Open Discussion

2006-08-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

Open Source Economic Development is based on investments in five areas of innovation: Brainpower, Innovation, Quality, Connected Places, Dialogue and Inclusion and Marketing and Branding.

Cindy Barber - Beachland Ballroom
Kevin Cronin - downtown Bike station
Jessica Columbi - Arts Campaign
Daniel Car - Dir NEO Video Initiative
Bob Sopko - STA
Jim Herget - Management theorist for the second curve
Diane Mestelski - FUTURE - Co-ordinator for FUTURE
David Moss - FUTURE
Len Steinbach - Cleveland Museum of Art
Rick Pollack - Nine Sigma

Topics for the Tuesdays@FUTURE. How can the Museum support needs and skills and capabilities?

What are the next steps involved in follow up for the forums? How can each of us follow up?

Up the through put by leveraging the FUTURE website for industrial and product design.

About FUTURE:
Dot Project - php based - will be used the projects that come into FUTURE. To include design blogs.
The biggest challenge at FUTURE Center is the professional partnership program. The incubator offers structured work on-site as well as off site real work activity.

5 projects are required for each student as they go through the curriuclum. Challenging marketing opportunities: many students are niche related...

The Business Advisory Network is an important network being built now. The Professional Partnership is a 16 week session. Research projects are welcome. Relationships are the most valuable outcome of the activities. Through a relationship with the Museum of Art virtual reality content...the sharing of resources accelerates innovation where there is initiative.

Jessica Columbi, Events & Volunteers, of the Arts & Culture Action Committee, (contact: jessicavioletta@gmail.com/216-402-7990) - introduces and reviews the upcoming Arts Levy for the Nov ballot. See the open Forum Discussion on REALNEO.US. The link also contains documentation on the specifics of the campaign. Go here.

The next steps for this forum and attendees is to vote, learn more about the initiative by reading the downloadable documents off of the link above and pass along the information.

Bumper Slogans
"Cuyahoga Arts & Culture Really Smokes", "Rollin on the Numbers for the Arts Tax", Filterless, "Arts Light Up the Region", "Fire One Up for the Arts", "The Unfiltered Truth",

GAMING and SIMULATION
Put together a gaming fund. David Carl. Need to find a pool of money - $500,000 to $2,000,000 - to match.

Reference: The Third Frontier technology grants here.

Ben Caulkins, Pres of the OH Venture Capital fund. Need to raise a fund in the next 90 days in order to qualify for a match.

XBox 360 just came up with a new platform. Train people to use it, test games and play games. Thinking of models...consulting firms came out of this market opportunity. What industry will this start? Is this a whole new start for independent users - grass roots - to start new work?

What gaming can do is very broad spectrum - 3D space is going to broaden...because 3D are the basic tools - where is the next curve on this? The new XBox is pushingnt the next level of games, democratization, programming opportunities, is the venture just simulation and gaming....or is it about getting children to

This is going to be in the forefront in 3 years...what is new and different about this frontier?

The storytelling component that is imbedded in gaming is invaluable.

Harry Potter does with books....XBox does with gaming...UTube does with

Workforce development: Artists, modelers, storytellers, musicians, Case engineering are here...just need the place. These are stories that haven't happened yet...this is the know how...the appliled side...

How do we leapfrog to the innovations? There is a need for alignment. keep the bottom wide...for initiatives that come up what is the gaming/simulation opportunity?

The trend is consumer created content. The technology is powerful enough so that an individual can initiate transformation innovation. Make the new innovations available to the masses and bank the money for advanced innovations.

What is the hook for the VC?
3 minutes, make some money, 40% per year

Where is the No 1 training center to exploit all the angles? XBox for Medical? XBox for kids in hospitals? This will attract Sony...who will provide new software, some new updates, etc. This creates a head of the pack - a skilled knowledge vortex. Find out what there is not a center of gravity for and create the center.

Jumpstart will not go for creative content for funding...but perhaps NORTECH will.

Creating the environment for gaming/simulation here will enable NEO graduates to walk across the street and open up business and fail. There is a need to fail and build. Build social philanthropy.

There is a fertile ground that needs to be created. There is a lack of seed capital and new technology clusters.

Focus on the Diabetes opportunity. Focus on developing the templates, the guides for publishing, where is the first convocation - Case, CIA, Sony - XBox affordable gaming in health...build the momenteum. Teach inner city school kids.

A Small Town Big on Design

2006-08-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a link Dan Cuffaro, Chair, Industrial Design, The Cleveland Institute of Art, sent from MetropolisMag about design and small towns, entitled "In a financial crisis, a small, Swedish town resorts to the business of design." Check it out here.

And another: "Docklands emerges as 'brain gain' capital" - a story about Internet savvy mulitnationals remaking the Irish economy. Read on.

All pretty exciting stuff to build innovation and accelerate brainpower.

798 Dashanzi Art District

2006-08-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

The Economist magazine reports that when businesses move out....artists move in. Read on here.

"Dashanzi Art District" (Chinese: 大山子艺术区; Pinyin: Dàshānzi Yìshùqū) is the informal name of a part of Dashanzi in the Chaoyang District of Beijing that houses a thriving artist community, among 50-year old decommissioned military factory buildings of unique architectural style. It is often compared with New York's Greenwich Village or SoHo, but faces impending destruction from the forces driving Beijing's urban sprawl.

Read about leveraging 5000 year old space in Beijing, China. Visit what's going on in 798 Space.

Design and The City of Toronto

2006-08-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

Design Review Panels are used successfully by many cities in Canada and internationally to improve the design quality of buildings and public spaces. They exist in the United States in cities such as Boston and Seattle, in England and across Europe. Canadian Design Review Panels include the National Capital Commission in Ottawa and those of the Cities of Vancouver and Montreal. In Ontario, Design Review Panels have been established in the City of Ottawa and Niagara Falls. In Toronto, two independent Design Review Panels have recently been established by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) and the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (TWRC).

Read here for an update on Toronto's Design Review Panel pilot project.

Really Large Commercial Buildings Displaying Design

2006-08-11T10:27:00.000-07:00

Here are two mega buildings housing merchandise and design displays:

Merchandise Mart in Chicago: here.

Watch Amsterdam's Aalsmeer Flower Auction Distribution Center in action. Click here.

Coming Up: FringeNYC

2006-08-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) is the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues – that's a total of more than 1300 performances! FringeNYC generates an atmosphere of extreme excitement, and our energy is contagious!

Learn what cool festivals bring to cities here.

Milan's Biggest Design Trade Show is Bigger Yet

2006-08-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

This year's installment of one of the design world's biggest trade shows, the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, held from Apr. 5-10, was larger than ever with 2,550 exhibitors, up from 2,100 last year. The roster featured a slew of fresh new talent, as well as forward-thinking technology from big brands such as Siemens (SI). Added to the mix were inventive experiments by famous designers who usually work in non-furniture arenas, like Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake. Of course, the latest sleek offerings from fashionable furniture labels like Italy's own Kartell were also on view. More than 670 nations were represented.

One of the design highlights was the venue itself -- Fieramilano, a 220,000-square-meter complex in the Rho-Pero district. During the event, about 200,000 visitors passed through the hallways of the recently opened site. It's situated at one of Italy's most innovative architectural destinations, a sprawling, undulating metal-and-fiberglass roof designed by Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas using a complex system of rhomboid and trapezoidal meshlike grid

Business Week Online reports from Milan here.

LIVE BLOG: STRENGTHENING Entrepreneruship Support Services Network

2006-08-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

Brad Kleinman presents information about one of NEO's investments in the entrepreneurship support services industry.

Visit BSK Consulitng here. Brad is an entrepreneur who has started several businesses.

The Corporate College offers several different curriculums and tools. Wiki's offer collaborative platforms for online work. MindManager and 80/20 principle.

Cuyahoga College mission = growing NEO's Economy one company at a time.

Key Entrepreneurship Development Center offers a wide variety of curriuclum, programs and event planning.

On Sept 27th CC will present FASTTRAC curriculum primarily targeted toward young entrepreneurs. New, growth and tech ventures are addressed in a 10 week session. A key focus area is in technology.

A major focus is Collegiate Entrepreneurship via Entrepreneurs on the Cuyahoga.

A partnership between Corporate College and Case is a program will focus on engineering and management.

The eShow - smart tv for Smart Entrepreneurs, first Wed of every month for 30 minutes and includes podcasting

Back burner project: Game Show for Entrepreneurship

Other projects include upcoming partnerships and collaborations with the City, Chambers, Universities and Colleges, BusinessWire, Six Sigma Conference, WECO Fund, Grow Cuyahoga County Fund, COSE

Questions:

Q: What is a recurring point of barrier with entrepreneurs?
A: Lack of money is a recurring point; Seed captial is rare in NEO. We need to begin thinking about how to create multiple options that combine seed and micro financing, resources, access to software and capabilities. NEO lacks an Angel Network.

August 4, 2006 - The Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) released a request for proposals (RFP) for funding awards under the Third Frontier Project's Pre-Seed Fund Initiative. The purpose of the Pre-Seed Fund Initiative is to meet the need for early stage capital through the establishment of professionally managed, pre-seed capital investment funds to Ohio start-up technology companies primarily in the imagining and incubating stages. Read more
here.

Youngstown facility focuses on keeping entrepreneurs from locating their new companies in high-tech hotspots by offering lower business costs. Read more here.

Why not declare NEO as the entrepreneurship center of the world?

LIVE BLOG: Creative Industries Networks

2006-08-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

Attendees includes real estate commercial development with an interest in urban development, entrepreneurship services, the creative industries, technology, law, fashion design, energy, the Museum of Natural History, manufacturing, social science, and human resources.

COSE Arts Network includes initiatives focusing on the arts incubator for ethnic arts, role playing for building honest relationship development, cultural institution development, operations professsional in manufacturing and process improvement, energy efficient housing, arts faculty, Cleveland Art Association

I-Open is based on open source development technology - sharing brainpower and building on the lessons learned for all.
How do you measure effectiveness? Social network anaylsis is one measurement tool for the second curve economy. Cleveland is home to Valdis Krebs, a global thought leader in social network analysis software and services. Learn more about InFlow here.

COSE Arts Network information - Abby Maier, forum leader

Creative industries have a significant impact on the regional economy. There are about 4,000 artists in NEO. Our region is known for rich arts assets...with a shift in funding, new questions arise. How can the region continue to support the arts industry inNEO? What can be done to further support the entrepreneurs? The partnership between CPAC and COSE started with a conversation between the directors and discovered many common needs. Artists are typically individual entrepreneurs working on their own. The solution: THE ARTIST AS AN ENTREPRENEUR - a program to support artists with the general business services.

These efforts will integrate artists networks with the businesses in NEO. Officical start of the ArtsNetwork in March 06'. Next meeting to look at IP development. An Arts Roundtable is starting to exchange new ideas and connect. COSE helps with supporting artists who want to exhibit at trade shows. Lots of other additional services and programs for artists. Stay connected to the website for upcoming information. New ideas forthcoming to take a closer look at the health insurance opportunity.

Q: What challenges do musicians have - or other artists - acquiring health insurance?
A: There is no difference in the needs of artists for health insurance from any other industry.

50 members of the arts network. 120 people signed up for the newsletter. 20,000 readership for the newsletter that is distributed by COSE.

The Arts Network is just beginning. It is a membership based organization that also strives to build collaborations. Here are some developing benefits:

Strength in numbers: group buying
Marketing tool: software tool access
Getting artists to take advantage of the tools and services that COSE offers
Energy saving program
Workers comp
Educational programming: a model - the artists entrepreneurs program...bring back topics
Start new and additional roundtables
Accessibility to work

Q: How does this benefit artists who do not have income and access to cash?...Dan Cufaro teaches a class on artists and business development.

Comment:
There are three things needed for a successful initiative:

Great product
Administration
Connecting with customers

Q: How is COSE helping artists to connect to customers?

A: There is a large gap between ethics and art...artists have a wide range of needs...
Get the word out about the efforts of the COSE network and contact Abby...get more people involved who understand these areas of development...

Q: What is the immediate short term goal? A: Membership development and service offerings.
Q: Can you identify the top ten leaders of the current Arts Network?

What does NEO Look Like as a Global Leader in the Creative Industries? Put Your Two Cents In

2006-07-29T07:36:00.000-07:00

Here's an email exchange between Y'Town Blogger John Slanina ( Shout Youngstown) and Ed Morrison. Read the exchange and join a growing community of trans-NEO people thinking and talking about how Northeast Ohio can become a global leader in the creative industries.

7/27 email from John to Ed Morrison:
Hi Ed,
Today I was thinking about the fact I know so little about the neighborhoods of Cleveland as a resident of another NEO city. I have had Ballpark mustard while watching the Browns in their stadium downtown, but never pierogies in Parma, or blintzes in Beachwood.

Maybe various institutions in addition to our economic development agencies throughout NEO can begin to network together. That is, if many more of our pieces are joined culturally, we can move together economically as a region.

The more connectivity the average NEO citizen sees, maybe the more they would support a regional agenda. But how can we build a regional culture?

For example, maybe that Cool Cleveland newsletter that lets me know what is happening in our biggest city every week can also have a small section on the "event of the weekend" in Akron, Alliance, and Warren. Maybe the Youngstown Symphony can provide the music for an event in Cleveland where wines from Ashtabula County are served. Maybe there can be one NEO website which can centralize every play and every concert in the region in a clickable, interactive calendar. Maybe we can have a "taste of NEO" contest where we have inter-regional competitions for the best pizza, best wedding soup, or best fried chicken as judged by the public.

Just brainstorming there for a moment, but perhaps connecting more of our cultural components can help NEO as a whole.

John S

7/27 Ed Morrison wrote to John:

Hello John:

Yes! You have the picture. A network of cultural institutions across our region will strengthen us economically. Just this week, Toronto published a strategy for a Creative City. You can view the report here.

Read an article here.

Canada has a lot of interesting work in this area: Click here.

Now let's get busy.

I am copying a bunch of people to explore how to make this happen. We have a great group of creative people in Cleveland, Akron, Y'town.

So, here is the challenge to all those I am copying on this e-mail.

1. Please spend three minutes and consider this question: How do we move John's idea of a regional cultural network forward? What simple steps could we take?

If you have time, you can view these web sites to get some ideas on what other regions are doing with their cultural industries...

Creative Clusters

Creative London

Creative Northern Ireland

Creative HQ

New England Foundation for the Arts

Dept. Culture/London

Creative Tampa Bay

The Creative Coast

2. Share your responses

3. Forward this e-mail to more people you know, and ask them to e-mail me (Ed Morrison at email: edmorrison@i-open.org) your responses.

We'll digest what we receive at I-Open and figure out a way forward.

Ed

Send your ideas to Ed, John and the rest of the community and look for next steps from I-Open. If you want to be included on the follow up and connect with the rest of the community, send your email to Betsey Merkel at betseymerkel@gmail.com and I'll add make sure you're on the network list.

CIA's Spring Show: The Tradition of Industrial Design

2006-07-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

Business Week Online covered the Cleveland Institute of Art's 2006 Spring Show, held from May 10th to 12th , featuring the work of 50 industrial design majors, with 17 emphasizing transportation design.

Read the article here.

LIVE BLOG: Entrepreneurial Readiness: Fitness for Entrepreneurs and How to be Self-Reliant in a Networked World

2006-07-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

Introductions...attendees represent small manufacturing, Chinese language translation, IT, small business connections, bike stations.

Mental toughness of leaders is a subject reserved not just for a military environment. Mother Teresa, for example, is probably one of the world's toughest leaders.

Jim Herget, our leader today, spent most of his time working and growing up in Xerox - a typical, first curve, heirarchical model - and understands there is a new model of leadership that involves collaboration. Corporations are learning trust is a major component of successful business development today.

Our forum today focuses on how entrepreneurs and leaders can go beyond expectations and age. Lessons are drawn from the Navy SEALS and referenced authors. (Throughout the forum, Jim suggests books for in depth reading.)

READ: Younger Next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You're 80 and Beyond, by Chris Crowley, Henry S. Lodge

With effort, discipline and taking care of your physical health, entrepreneurs can be effective in new ways. This approach represents a scaling up to meet the new demands of global market environments. What can an individual do to wind up our body, mind and spirit? Everything is about self discovery - we are born complete as human beings - but need to strengthen our physical, mental and spiritual assets.

DIET: THREE BIG IDEAS
1) Do not diet
2) Read labels
3) Smaller portions

NAVY SEAL NUTRITION The SEALS model: developed by President Kennedy. Navy SEAL nutrition. There are no bad or good foods - it is just how we make our choices. Maximize the good food and minimize the bad food. Move a little more and eat a little less.

EXERCISE: THREE BIG IDEAS
1) Get a physical
2) Long slow distance (LSD)
3) Six days a week

MEDITATION/PRAYER: THREE BIG IDEAS
1) Max the moment/"Awareness"
2) Breathing/ "Aliveness"
3) Visualization/"Openness"

READ: Awakening the Buddha Within: Eight Steps to Enlightenment: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World, by Lama Surya Das

READ: Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Meditation exercise...

One SEAL is worth 200 soldiers; this is the exponential affect of SEALS techniques. 75% of SEALS do not make it. The valuable lesson is that people find out who they are and are not driven instead, by their dream of themselves. Live your life like your life depends on it.

IN RELATION TO SELF
1) Be a volunteer (not a victim)
2) Be Aware
3) Be Yourself
4) Be tough

Whatever you do you should be your fullest. There is nothing "laid back" about practicing Zen.

IN RELATION TO TEAM
1) Be committed (steadfast): Bound emotionally and perhaps spiritually to an idea, principle or person
2) Be an operator (anywhere/anytime): Extraordinary pro/ multi-talented/multi tasker; master the details; reliable in all circumstances
3) Be a teammate (succes is a group effort)

The best idea wins; not agendas.

IN RELATION TO SOCIETY
1) Be disciplined (trainable): trust your mentors; learn from everyone; humility helps
2) Be willing to fail (or part of success): SEALS Ethos: "If knocked down, I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every once of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission."; Be "at one" with your commitments so there is "zero recovery time" between failures; "No one can make you feel inferior w/o your consent"
3) Be interrelated/resourceful; reach beyond your team as necessary; keep it simple; be practical/improvisational

READ: Awakened Mind System 2.0, by Dr. Jeffrey D. Thompson

Humans are set up to live palenlithetically

Spiritual Awakenings

Man's Search for Meaning

Commentary:
Be mindful of the power of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

How do we distinguish between those we can trust and those we cannot?

Be your best - dieting, physical development, etc. - and then be your best in the team. As a leader, your best contribution is to teach others to be their best. This is all about being who you are and being reliable. A SEALS motto: "Fail Forward".

There is no easy way round the hard stuff in life and business. Find your passion and move forward.

Be in line with things that make sense to you and continue to move forward.

READ: This is reinforced in Jack Ricchiuto's book, "Appreciative Leadership." Download this excellent book to your desktop here.

READ: "Unleash the Warrior Within: Develop the Focus, Discipline, Confidence and Courage You Need to Achieve Unlimited Goals," by Richard J. Machowicz

From the SEALS website: "Navy SEALs have distinguished themselves as an individually reliable, collectively disciplined and highly skilled maritime force." What if this were to describe a new breed of entrepreneurs? Teams built to collectively target and succeed in initiative objectives?

READ: "Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner," by Dean Karnazes

07-11-06 LIVE NOTES: Tuesdays@FUTURE

2006-07-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

MIKE DeALOIA – SPEAKER: "THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON - CATALYST GAMING CENTER"

How can a city be catalyst and do something that comes out of grass roots? Cleveland is unique in virtual reality and gaming.

January forms working committee to review “best practices”, case studies/action plants to create hybrid commune/entertinmanet complex

In March – CIA, CASE & City of Cleveland present proposal to Third Frontier

Key Players: CIA/Case, NASA
How to capitalize: build some industries

WT Grant Bldg. site – downtown – 3 doors down from House of Blues (May Co. side of the Euclid Avenue). Bowling alley going in on E. 14th – comedy club – unique area for an entertainment center. Fits in with the idea of “live, work, play”. With Playhouse Square/idea center - more and more professionals moving downtown.

When you come into Center you will use a debit card – card will control everything you do. Attached to cell phone
Main station and multi stations against wall (east) to decide what to play
2 story incubator area for collaboration & gaming development - pay by the month
Poker tables
Western wall – one mainstream wall to play games on the wall. 11:00 at night will cost less than AM

Now in discussion about what kind of gaming technology will be in Center and how much it will cost. Working with Microsoft as well as other companes. This community gaming concept new in the US – already do in Europe & Asia

To build the Center it will cost $2.3 M – city has agreed to put .5M into it. The city is commited. Mike thinks grassroots can build this. Need many partnerships to make it happen.

Might also have gaming system on rooftop of building – also on E. 4th so a person could play on the street (in a kiosk).

This is not a gambling type institution. It’s gaming technology. Mike needs to educate people on commercializing gaming technology. Huge opportunity for educational applications as well. Case & Cllinic working on gaming technology for autism. Also developing videos for doctors – ex. Gall bladder surgery. The Game Hub would attract $50M to $60M in investments – Hub would be focal point of product design, development & delivery including R & D & business development, accelerate sale cycle & capital attraction for companies seeking to commercialize gaming, education, health care, financial services, aerospace & defense.

Center will not be a non profit – outsourced to a mangagement company. Outsource everything. Revenue plows back into the Center.

Open source business plan.

Also plans for a design center downtown – someone will be able create anything – office space, etc.

Music plays a very important part in gaming – should merge the two.

Show history of Cleveland – how text has changed to virtual reality

7.11.06 Tuesdays@FUTURE: Building Gaming and Simulation Industry Networks

2006-06-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

BRAINPOWER FOR THE INNOVATION ECONOMY

ON 7.11.06: Mike DeAloia, Tech Czar for the City of Cleveland, and a team of collaborators discuss efforts to establish a downtown Gaming Center, with deep ties to regional game design and development networks in the Region.

ON HORIZON: Dan Cuffaro, Chair of Industrial Design at the Cleveland Institute of Art and former Creative Director at a leading Boston-area product design firm, Altitude, presents innovative concepts for the Cleveland Design Prize and Design District.

ON TOPIC: The new economy demands fresh thinking and relentless networking. Tuesdays@FUTURE is attracting an eclectic crowd most passionate about open source networking as a model for innovation in Northeast Ohio. We are engaging in open dialogue high on collaboration, with a regional focus on the Creative Industries and Technology.

If you are part of an initiative or organization that could benefit from this exchange, or have a new initiative to present bring it to the open forum.

Send your comments, suggestions, and feedback to:

FUTURE: Center for Design and Technology Transfer @ The Cleveland Institute of Art, 11610 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44106 collaborate@future.cia.edu

Betsey Merkel, Network Development, The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) Cleveland Midtown Innovation Center, 4415 Euclid Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44103 USA Tel. 216-246-2447

Tuesdays@FUTURE: Building Innovation Networks: Our Digital Opportunity

2006-06-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

Speaker: Rick Pollack, Manager, IT and Operations, Nine Sigma

Date: Tuesday, June 27
Time: 4:30 P.M. to 6:15 P.M.
Place: FUTURE: Center for Design and Technology Transfer @ The Cleveland Institute of Art
11610 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Map Link

Join us Tuesday to learn from Rick who has over twenty years of experience in the software industry and currently manages IT and Operations for NineSigma of Beachwood, Ohio. NineSigma offers a collaborative process that allows large, primarily Fortune 500, companies to tap into a worldwide network of scientists, businesses and inventors to compliment and amplify their internal R&D capabilities.

We'll learn from Rick the challenges and sweet spots in building global information networks. Check out your opportunities. Ride the wave with us in your next brainstorming session to build product for a new digital experience.

More about Rick... In addition to working fulltime for NineSigma, Rick is the owner of Knowledge Information Technology, Inc.; the company is currently developing AdvancedPlay, an innovative, online, multi-user environment for children and families.

He has founded several companies including:
Software Management Group, Inc. (SMG) of Cincinnati in 1997. SMG developed a telecommunications billing platform and custom software. SMG is now BlueSpring Software and has raised over $16M in venture capital.

eCCS, Inc. of Cincinnati in 1998. Rick worked as managing partner and Vice President of Product Development during the design, development and implementation of the premier CRM platform for the automobile retail industry. The company grew from start-up to a revenue-generating firm with 25 employees and was acquired by The Reynolds & Reynolds Company, the $1B leader in automotive information technology, in 2000.

Rick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from The University of Cincinnati.

Read about NineSigma in:
Wired 6/06 – The Rise of Crowdsourcing

Harvard Business Review 3/06 cover article: Connect and Develop: Inside Procter & Gamble's New Model for Innovation

BusinessWeek:
4/24/06 cover article: The World’s Most Innovative Companies

6/19/06 cover article:
Innovation Champions

Check out more opportunity on the University Circle Innovation Zone Wiki here.

LIVE BLOG: Building Brainpower in the Second Curve

2006-06-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

This is the first social network map for the Tuesdays@FUTURE forums. This map shows the social networking activity resulting from the first two Tuesday@FUTURE forums.

Participants at today's forum include people who work in engineering, Phil Bessler Director of the Baldwin Wallace College Business Plan Center, the creative and arts industries, technology, innovation networks and arts placement.

We begin by cruzing through global examples of new and different ways learning can be approached today. Far surpassing documents, the creative learning environment includes kinetic and visual learning.

Here are links we discussed below:
"Digital Natives", by Marc Prensky, is a fantastic description of the cognitive changes affecting the way students learn today. Lev Gonick, Case's IT Director, summs up the U.S. capability to educate as not 10 years behind, but not even in the race.

Informal Learning and Community Libraries.

Ned Kahn creates kinetic sculptures. Learn more here.

Ned's brother, Ted, is an educator in the Bay area. Ted works on Collaboratories. Learn more at his site DesignWorlds for Learning.

The University of Michigan does extensive work on the concept of collaboratories - spaces of shared learning and resources connected by the Internet. Go here.

Arts Wisconsin has integrated the arts into everything they are doing. Check it out here.

Nine Sigma is creating new opportunities in technology - to address specific challenges in industry by outsourcing capabilities on a global scale. Nine Sigma has a program that will pay others for their connections.

See the article, "The Rise of Crowd Sourcing," in the June issue of WIRED. Large companies are now reaching out to the global space to identify the few companies that may specialilze in disruptive inventions to solve a specific challenge. The hardest challenge is to overccome the first level barrier of sharing and perception of value.

"The World is Flat", Tom Friedman version II is excellent reading. Between ubiquitous computing and inovations in service the competition barriers to international trade are gone. Take for example FedEx, who does all of the repair on Toshiba computers in 3 days to accelerate innovation and customer service. Read the WIRED review here.

The best IT skills are coming out of E Europe - Romania. If you are a lone inventor you can outsource all skills and services on an internet basis. This is a great time for being an inventor!

The Kahn Brothers: Innovation at the Intersections of Science, Technology and Design

2006-06-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

Last week we met with Ted Kahn, Founding Director, DesignWorlds Bay Area Science Education Collaboratory. Ted lead a workshop for Cleveland Museum of Art staff sharing his approaches to learning, creativity, visualization and cognitive science.

Ted thinks alot about new ways of connecting existing resources and assets - such as the plethora of treasures museums curate - by creating virtual work spaces kids can self-create to explore and innovate. Teacher national standards are taken into space design and function; as well as methods to promote transparency to facilitate connecting and leveraging diverse areas of project content.

Ted says the biggest problem is sustainable engagement. This is certainly the commonly missing part of the education puzzle today and it is what Open Source Economic Development is all about: leveraging new practices and tools to strengthen process catalyzing unprecedented and exponential growth in innovation and entrepreneurship. And in a networked world, building from the core to the edges.

Visit the San Francisco Exploratorium - a virtual platform focused on inquiry, stimulating kids to develop different perceptions enabling their ability to move forward. The material strengthens the connection between science, art and human perception.

Ted's brother, Ned Kahn, creates kinetic sculptures. These are awesome learning modules that express design, nature and offer a hands on approach to learning about natural systems. Visit his work here.

You can read more about Ted's work and visit some of the outstanding institutions he works with below:

Ted M. Kahn, Ph.D., President and CEO/Chief Learning Officer, DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc./DesignWorlds for College
20370 Town Center Lane, Suite #235, Cupertino CA 95014 Tel: 408.252.2285 Fax: 408.516.9920 Cell: 408.569.4875
Email: ted@designworlds.com

Founding Director, Bay Area Science Education Collaboratory
Adjunct Faculty, Foothill College— Krause Center for Innovation
NMC Fellow : New Media Consortium
CSTS Fellow, Center for Science, Technology & Society
Santa Clara University

A Technology Mentoring Program for Young Women

2006-06-01T11:38:00.000-07:00

Fifth-Third Bank Supports Digital Animation Summer Program: Digital Animation: A Technology Mentoring Program for Young Women is a free summer program that teaches rising 8th and 9th grade girls how to create computer-generated animation. Each year the program selects fifteen young women with exhibited artistic potential to work with mentors from arts and technology fields at The Ohio State University.

Read more here.

LIVE BLOG: Tuesdays@FUTURE: Strengthening the Creative Industries and Technology in NEO

2006-05-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

This is the first Tuesdays@FUTURE forum: a platform for civic engagement to strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship in the creative and technology industries to accelerate business opportunity in Northeast Ohio.

The Golden Ground Rule: We will behave toward one another in ways that build trust and respect.

Europe has invested in creative industry models such as The Irish Creative Design Community and the The Creative Scotland Awards. How can we elevate, connect and strengthen our regional assets in the creative industries?

David Moss: There needs to be a higher level of awareness about what is here in NEO; to refine the story.

Creating high value for media and creative industries. There is a strong need to establish and strengthen a network for infrastructure to support new forms of media and design.

FUTURE Advanced Partnerships program; will rely on networking and canvasing of the appropriate partnerships between industry and student talent.

CIA faculty seek to set up relationships for working partnerships.

What can be done together to strengthen the creative industries and technology initiatives for the future? What kind of conversations can be shaped? Here are some suggestions:

1) FUTURE Design Summit
2) Dan Cufaro: Design District
3) Michael DeAloia: Gaming Center
4) Innovation Awards/NorTech can a tandem exhibition be created and hosted at FUTURE Center?
5) Region wide initiative to create conceptual renderings
6) RTA Corridor - clear messaging ; via portable device?
7) Summit Spring 07: Regional collaboration for PhD studies

The Strategic Technology Alliance (STA) is a 26 nonprofit member organization; there is a need to further collaborative abilities to strengthen networks and next steps. What are some easy/low hanging fruit/projects? How can we leverage OneCommunity fiber? There is the need to innovate in all organizations.

When people begin to behave differently, eventually new activities will result.

What can happen when activities are worked together, aligned and move forward on projects?

Here are some updates on Ideation/Visual mapping software available:
Inspiration software
InFlow.com
Brain.com
Mindmap.com
Curio.com

How can we get this content and new conversations out across the region in a speedy way? Can we contact and send content on mulitple formats, such as: Adlephia; iPod; Internet; Web casting

Recommended: See the Viktor Schreckengost: Exhibit at the Cleveland Institute of Art here.

Exploring New Frontiers: The STA @ FUTURE

2006-05-25T06:26:00.000-07:00

Strategic Technology Alliance is meeting at FUTURE: the Center for Technology Transfer and Design...

We are gathered at FUTURE and listening to David Moss, FUTURE Director, of an overview of the Center and how it started from the collective thought of a brainstorming group of Professors and creatives. The Business Incubator will occupy ultimately over half of the space here for business incubation. Cross institutional efforts will be supported with talent and creatives from across the region.

Other FUTURE partners include One Cleveland

Production network will be created to handle the enormous demand for creative projects; the underlying mission is to create pathways for students and industry to slow brain drain. VR labs are being networked regionally, drive every design curriculum project we have across the region.

Kristen Baumlier, Chair of T.I.M.E. provides an overview of the work of students. Team projects will be needed for the students to push game design further. We are looking at a medium that math theory has generated. Students have combined techniques to build narrative and messaging for new virtual spaces. Students have explored the application of 2-D to 3 D spaces. In the future, we will have the capacity to navigate space in any way we desire.

Carnegie Mellon has connected with research strongly and we are starting to make these connections here. A media clip is shown the visualizes information - and in this case, sound.

Amanda Almon, new Chair of BioMedical Art - BioMedical Art, formerly known as medical illustration. Looking forward from textbooks to virtual applications. There are only 2 programs in the Country. NEO has good assets and investments in capabilities to visualize research for innovative solutions within digital media. Educational applications of VR example: macro degeneration.

Media goals for the program include digital illustration; 2 and 3D modeling and animation; medical sculpture; multimedia design, motion graphics; TV, film, web applications. Over 10,000 new models exist at CIA. Think in terms of virtual applications of 3D animations.

CCF BioMedical Department partners with CIA to produce new media information models. VR 3D Anatomy is also explored. Examples show and demonstrate media animation in small samples. The opportunity is to explore large scale applications. Student can be contracted out on a free lance basis. Any professional project that cross references different departments and capabilities goes through FUTURE.

Beyond Journals! New and Different Approaches to Research

2006-05-21T13:40:00.001-07:00

As advanced computer and imaging technologies generate more and larger data sets, the capacity to visualize and interpret that data becomes problematic. To promote new scientific visualization research, the National Science Foundation provided Major Research Instrument funding to develop the HIPerWall visualization system at the University of California, Irvine. At 200 megapixels, HIPerWall provides twice the resolution of any other display in the world and approximately ten times the resolution of typical tiled displays. Read more here and here.

The Digital Economy: A New Report

2006-05-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

Be sure to read the Committee for Economic Development's report released recently, "Open Standards, Open Source, and Open Innovation: Harnessing the Benefits of Openness."

The new report details the benefits of openness in three areas – open standards, open-source software, and open innovation – and examines the major issues in the debate over whether openness should be encouraged or not. The report explains each of these three kinds of openness, details the public policy issues involved with each, and provides policy recommendations for dealing with these issues.

For practitioners of open source economic development this is great information and useful research!

Summary Report available here.

Full Report available here.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography: See the Big Picture

2006-05-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Put on your workforce development goggles: what are our opportunities to train people to make the required cognitive shifts and develop skills for the information economy? And, just how fluent are you? Think about this...

Scientific research is generating larger and larger data sets, largely due to the proliferation of sensor networks and advances in computational technology. The sheer volume of data, along with its complexity, makes it imperative to develop more sophisticated visualization tools to help scientists discern the significance of their data and to facilitate collaboration among scientists working with the same data.

Large-scale displays have proven very effective over the years at facilitating collaboration. However, the size of today’s data sets exceeds the resolution of earlier generations of display systems. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) set out to build a very high resolution display system capable of displaying large data sets at full resolution.

Read more.

Getting Creative in Philadelphia

2006-05-21T13:38:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting article about accelerating innovation in Philadelphia:

Philadelphia Business Journal - April 7, 2006 by Bernard Dagenais

The buzz surrounding the so-called "creative economy" has been around for years. Authors have made good money exalting artists. Now, the issue is coming to roost in Philadelphia, which will soon hold a Global Creative Economy Conference Summit.

The summit, which is being produced by the city-backed economic development group Innovation Philadelphia, provides the region with an opportunity to help mold creativity into a stronger economic force.

Peggy Amsterdam, president of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, thinks Philadelphia business leaders are missing something important and should be helping to drive the growth of the region's creative economy.

"This is something that the corporate community should be talking about, thinking about, promoting and seeding," said Amsterdam, who was one of the leaders of a group that set out to capitalize on the region's creative economy assets three years ago as part of a "Roadmap for Regional Growth." Read more.

We're Building an Innovation Zone in University Circle!

2006-05-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

Join us for Tuesdays@FUTURE - forums to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship at the very heart of the Innovation Economy: in the Creative Industries.

I-Open and partner anchoring organizations will collaborate to highlight the latest innovations in the creative industries in Northeast Ohio. We'll talk about global models and how other regions are strengthening existing and new economic development initiatives. Together, we will identify resources and capabilities and design transformative intiatives together to build the Innovation Economy in Northeast Ohio.

I-Open Innovation Zones are networked hubs of Open Source Economic Development activity. Open Source Economic Development practices help us to adjust our rate of activity to the volume and speed of innovation in new and different ways. The I-Open Strategic Process teaches people how to identify local innovation, envision transformative initiatives together and begin to work toward next steps.