Introduction to Open Source Economic Development, Ed Morrison, Co-Founder I-Open and Policy Analyst, Purdue University
Ed Morrison prepared this presentation for the April 2008 I-Open Leadership Retreat hosted at the beautiful Punderson State Park in Newberry, Ohio.
The presentation offers a succinct outline of the concepts and knowledge areas important to civic leaders building networks and collaborations in communities and regions.
The material draws deeply from Ed's life work as a brilliant economic development strategist.
From our time working together at Case Western Reserve University's Center for Regional Economic Development (REI) from 2003 to 2005, we added process extensions and additional refinements.
These contiguous developments included the Tuesdays@REI Civic Forum process for civic entrepreneurs (designed by Betsey Merkel) and the Strategic Doing process (Ed Morrison). Both were refined out of the REI work building civic networks and strengthening entrepreneurial initiatives in Northeast Ohio.
Regional practitioner thought leaders - and there were many - offered strong influences in the areas of network mapping, Open Space Technologies, Appreciative Inquiry, social technologies, design, knowledge management, and visualization during our tenure.
These are typical of the practices and tools entrepreneurs and leaders of organizations, business, academia, and government need to be proficient in today to build competitive networks and collaborations for global economies.
It is this re-tooling of capacities that will strengthen entrepreneurial innovation in such important industries as alternate energies, manufacturing, health care, land use, creative digital media, technology, and water efficiency in Open Source Economic Development.

