The Australian Community Network

The main benefit of this social network is that it helps to breed activity in the community, new connections are made with new people. The network helps to inform customers and also re-connect friends.

The Austcom network has been designed to support rural communities.

The Austcom network is self supporting, always growing and improvements are constant.

What makes the Austcom network valuable is:

1. The networking happens in a geographic community website that already serves many people in many ways.

2. The network is about us and supported by us in our communities.

3. As a not-for-profit community enterprise we are focussed clearly on building strong, sustainable communities from within.

Here are some more tangible benefits...

An example of online and place based community network building from Geoffrey Grigg, a builder of sustainable communities.

Geoffrey is responsible for client support at Austcom, "The Australian Community Network". You can learn more at http://austcom.org.au and at Sustain Magazine http://sustain.org.au where Geoffrey is publisher.

More:
Austcom - The Australian Community Network
http://austcom.org.au is a shared network shaped by a real community. It is a collection of groups who, by their presence, have crafted a working array of tools such as web pages, on line database applications, events notices, news systems, public access areas, email mailing lists and more. Our core precept is that we help build social, economic and environmentally sustainable communities.

Elsevier: Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences - 2009 COINs Proceedings

 The COINs2009 Proceedings are available online at:

Volume 2, Issue 4, Pages 6387-6626 (2010)


The 1st Collaborative Innovation Networks Conference - COINs2009
Edited by Kenneth Riopelle, Peter Gloor, Christine Miller and Julia Gluesing

 The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-OPEN) publication is # 15 entitled:

COINS: An economic development tool for education, economic and workforce development in Open Source Economic Development

Coolhunting Academy 2010 Invitation

Invitation to Half-Day Coolhunting Training Course -– Afternoon of Thursday, October 7, 2010

What is it that distinguishes Apple, LEGO, and P&G from their competitors? Why are they launching one killer product after the other? This is because they are taking a huge page from the playbook of creativity. They organize their business as a swarm business, applying the principles of swarm creativity by listening to and becoming a member of their swarm of loyal users, immersing themselves into their swarm. This swarm tells them what’s going to be cool, and how to make it even cooler.   Knowing where in the swarm the collaborative innovators are allows them to determine what’s going to be cool, too – before everyone else. The art of coolhunting involves zeroing in on the fresh idea that will be the genesis of a hot new trend. It also involves finding the people responsible for the idea – the trendsetters who will cause others to jump on board.

Practical applications of Swarm Creativity and Collaborative Innovation Networks are

  • Discovering cool trends for your field by tapping into the collective intelligence of your audience and potential customers (coolhunting)
  • Finding the trendsetters who convert an innovation into a trend
  • Run with the new trends you find and tap their business value through coolfarming
 The Coolhunting and Coolfarming framework developed at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence and field tested at dozens of fortune 1000 companies, offers a novel way to find the latest trends by discovering the online communication patterns of the trendsetters.

Plan to participate with us October 7-9 in Savannah to share and connect to new opportunities.

For more information, stop by for a visit and sign in to the COINs2010 community at http://www.coins2010.com

Connect to COINs2010:
Facebook: Collaborative-Innovation-Networks-COINS2010-Conference
Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/SwarmCreativity
Twitter: http://twitter.com/coins_2010
Website: http://www.coins2010.com

COINs University Partners:
http://cci.mit.edu/index.html
http://www.scad.edu/
http://wayne.edu/

COINs2010 Sponsors:
COINs University Partners
Galaxy Advisors http://www.galaxyadvisors.com/
I-OPEN http://i-open-2.strategy-nets.net

Background Information:
http://www.swarmcreativity.net/
http://www.ickn.org/
http://wiki.soberit.hut.fi/virtualbrownbag/tiki-index.php?page=homepage
http://www.galaxyadvisors.com/

 

Collaboration Accelerates Creative Innovation

Experience Artist, Melissa Daubert of Cleveland, Ohio, talks about the benefits of building personal relationships to develop new ideas, expand know-how, and access resources.

By having the opportunity of working with a local leader in digital technology at a near-by university, her opportunities to remix fine and digital art instantly went fast track.

This is a good example of the power of growing purposeful networks to advance place-based industry innovation.

Links to learn more:

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35942064712
Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/i-open/sets/
I-Open http://i-open-2.strategy-nets.net
Livestream http://www.livestream.com/iopen
Posterous http://i-open.posterous.com/
Scribd http://www.scribd.com/I-Open
Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/iopen2
Twitter http://twitter.com/iopen2
Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/user1999383
You Tube http://www.youtube.com/user/IOpen2

Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel and I-Open. Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works. Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) 4415 Euclid Ave 3rd Fl Cleveland, Ohio 44103 USA

Innovating with Higher Levels of Organization, Process, and Tools

The 2003-2005 Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) Civic Forum Program Matrix was designed by Betsey Merkel while working with the REI team (Ed Morrison, Susan Altshuler, Matt Kozink, Dennis Coughlin) to organize Civic Forum conversations in Northeast Ohio from 2003 through 2005.

Civic Forum conversations connect people and their ideas to education, economic, and workforce development through the generation of transformative industry cluster initiatives.

REI.Tuesdays Civic Forums were convened from the Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI), Case Western Reserve University at the Weatherhead School of Business. Leaders from business, academic, civic, and government created new conversations about exploring civic priorities, shared ideas for industry innovation, and worked together to launch transformative initiatives. Learn more about REI Civic Forums.

The Civic Forum Matrix points to the need for communities and regions to participate at higher levels of organization, process, and tools to identify, connect, and align creativity and resources for transformative, sustainable innovation.

The REI.Tuesdays Matrix offers an example of a tool to strengthen the design of new conversations focused on aspects of Open Source Economic Development.

You can learn more about I-Open here.

Learn more about the I-Open Civic Forum process designed by Betsey Merkel and how your community or region can begin to adopt a sustainable practice of building networks, generating social capital, and collaborating to build transformative initiatives for prosperity.

Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel http://www.betseymerkel.extendr.com/ and I-Open http://i-open.org/. Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works. Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) 4415 Euclid Ave 3rd Fl Cleveland, Ohio 44103 USA

I-Open on Livestream: Saul Kaplan's story of building innovation networks in education, health care, and energy

Saul Kaplan, Founder and Chief Catalyst, Business Innovation Factory in Providence, Rhode Island, talks on I-Open's Livestream channel about his rich experience and present work identifying innovators, building networks and community for new systems to implement new solutions in education, health care, and energy.

You can download the transcription of the interview to your desktop from the I-Open library on Scribd or Slideshare.

Learn more about I-Open innovators like Saul Kaplan in Open Source Economic Development at I-Open's collaborative community space here.

Copyright 2009 Betsey Merkel and I-Open. Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works. Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) 4415 Euclid Ave 3rd Fl Cleveland, Ohio 44103 USA

Interview: Dr. Peter Margolis, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Director, Center for Health Care Quality, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Dr. Peter Margolis, M.D., Ph.D. talks about his work in collaborative medicine as Co-Director of the The Center for Health Care Quality at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. He shares an overview of his efforts over the last twenty years to improve quality systems health care delivery for children.

Dr. Margolis discusses health care systems, and the value strengthening social network practice, mapping, and analysis bring to improving innovative practices and knowledge sharing. His research is discovering the value of networks, collaboration, communication and community to advance medical innovation and health care service amongst large networks of health care center staff, patients, and their families.

By discovering new collaborative practices, people and institutions can advance new forms of health care quickly.

As you listen to this interview [00:29:46] be sure to watch the slide show and videos on Flickr. Photos by Alice Merkel.

Related post at I-Open: Interview: Dr. Peter Margolis, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Director, Center for Health Care Quality, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Copyright 2009 Betsey Merkel and I-Open. Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works. Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) 4415 Euclid Ave 3rd Fl Cleveland, Ohio 44103 USA

 

Collection: I-Open Insight and Innovation Networks

 

Welcome to the networked 12D world of Open Source Economic Development!

Insight and Innovation Networks is a snapshot collection of leaders in government, civic, academic, and business sharing their insights and experiences in education, economic and workforce development. Their stories make up Open Source Economic Development, a networked approach to enterprise collaboration.

This collection is an introduction to deeper interviews posted to I-Open Conversations where people share their passions and insights about what matters most to them in their work and how they live.

Leaders everywhere are envisioning new systems, building the networks they need, addressing challenges to strengthen transparency, and grappling with the realities of why collaboration is so important to generating sustainable enterprise. You'll learn directly from a community of leaders focused on innovating from within these new contexts and their stories of pursuing meaning to deepen connectivity.

We hope you'll consider contributing an interview about your work and connect with this dynamic community. We welcome your insights about what Open Source Economic Development is today.

Thriving on the New Economic Development Frontier - Ed Morrison, Purdue Center for Regional Development and I-Open

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photos by Alice Merkel, Ohio High School student and Dennis Coughlin.

Here's a link to a Flickr collection that brings together pictures of I-Open's work in Open Source Economic Development over the last several years.

The pictures begin to tell the story of I-Open's activity building open networks of collaboration, and strengthening communities to stimulate enterprise collaboration.

You can easily find additional resources from this page that will connect you to the people, their individual interviews, open conversations, and transcriptions.

Our biggest thanks goes to the people who continue to build the powerful open conversations and contribute stories of insight and innovation. By learning together, we can accelerate meaning and connectivity for each of us in this unprecedented networked world.

Created and posted by Betsey Merkel.