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

The Role of Colleges and Universities in Regional Transformation: A Model

The Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) Summary provides an overview of the important role of universities and colleges to strengthen innovation and enterprise for regional economic transformation.

The Center, originally created from a recommendation by the Rand Corporation to advise then Fortune 500 corporate leaders in Northeast Ohio, was first housed at the Cleveland Federal Reserve, Cleveland State University, and then at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

Ed Morrison, Executive Director, working with Betsey Merkel, Susan Altshuler, Matt Kozink, and Dennis Coughlin as an open team, led the Center from 2003-2005. The report details what was accomplished, the alignment of Center activities with University strategy, and results of working with regional leaders to build networks, social capital, and accelerate transformative initiatives in education, economic, and workforce development.

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) is the spin off of the Center and continues to develop and deploy new practices in Open Source Economic Development in Northeast Ohio and the world.

COINS / I-Open paper published to KMAfrica - Knowledge Management Africa KnowledgeHub

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Colleague Steve Banhegyi, KMAfrica Knowledge Hub, posted the recent I-Open paper, "COINS: Open Source Economic Development for Education, Economic and Workforce Development" as a Group Discussion Topic for Emerging Technologies on KMAfrica.

"KnowledgeHub is a community platform for knowledge creators in African colleges and universities to role-model knowledge sharing using social media. There is know-how that helps expand the role of libraries in communities and KM professionals can keep current with a network of consultants and academics. Knowledge entrepreneurs will find useful know-how and ideas. It is by growing connections that communities emerge that make innovation and breakthrough possible."

Please explore the space and participate in the discussion, add your insights, and build your knowledge networks!

Posted by Betsey Merkel

COINS: An Economic Development Tool for Education, Economic, and Workforce Development in Open Source Economic Development

COINS 2009 Paper 10-12-09

Betsey Merkel, Co-Founder, Director, The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) contributed this paper to the COINS 2009 conference at the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) October 8- 11, 2009.

This paper describes I-Open's approach to a higher level of organization, process, and tools needed to build networked collaborative communities from our experience working in the "Civic Space" (everywhere outside the four walls of any organization) over a six year period from 2003 to 2009.  It offers a starting point for us to take a closer look at how to integrate COINS and apply CONDOR, an analytic and mapping software tool, to improve creativity, collaboration, and communications to accelerate Open Source Economic Development.

We're suggesting an accelerated networked model of Civic Forums hosted in collaboration with colleges, universities, and libraries. Let us know if you or your organization is interested in collaborating to build a three to five site Civic Forum model to advance creativity, collaboration, and communication.

You can learn more about COINS and Condor on the Swarm Creativity blog.

Please add your comments and suggestions! Thanks!

Posted by Betsey Merkel.

New York, New England, New Jersey, Cincinnati July 2009 - a set on Flickr

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I worked with one of my daughters this summer to learn more about how people are engineering solutions to accommodate rapid economic change. We traveled in New York, New England, New Jersey, Cincinnati this past July, 2009.

Our trip lead us to connect and learn from people across several States about their insights and innovations in education, economic, and workforce development. Typically, I do the interviewing and Alice does the photography.

This photograph set helps to frame a context, provide hints about where and what influences people, and begins to broaden our experiences with you from the perspective of civic, business, academic and government leaders.

(I recommend the Slideshow view and click "show info" to easily see our photo comments so you can understand more.)

The interviews share important insights from people from working in organizations and living as individuals. They begin to tell the story of people building networks, reflecting on the value of collaboration, and offering their ideas about what success looks like in communities and regions. You can learn more about I-Open's video interview research here.

If you care about economic development, employment, philanthropy, government, citizen journalism, education or just want to learn neat things about technology, art, energy, for example, take a look.

We're working on posting interviews and their transcriptions, and designing a way for you to easily access this amazing knowledge (all suggestions welcome!). We should have that soon so please check back -- or you can sign in to the I-Open site and recieve weekly site updates.

In the meantime, listen to a few here on Vimeo or choose from more selections on I-Open's Livestream channel. If you enjoy reading, we're posting download-able transcriptions to Scribd here.

Created and posted by Betsey Merkel.

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

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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.

I-Open Interview Research

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I-Open Interviews on Vimeo

By Betsey Merkel

I-Open video interviews are rich in tacit knowledge and present personal perspectives - stories of human insight and innovation through the lens of an Innovation Framework, a guide to sustainable investment in education, economic, and workforce development.

Gathering the best knowledge from theoretical and practical research across diverse sectors such as health care, the creative industries, technology, business development - interviews strengthen community connectivity and opportunities for collaborative leadership.

What you'll discover over time, as you watch the videos and read the transcriptions, are the similarities we all share. You may be reminded of your own ideas and insights, and those of your colleagues and friends - a collective intelligence in Open Source Economic Development.

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I-Open Transcription Collection on Scribd

More about I-Open Interview Research.

I-Open publishes video interviews and transcriptions under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License - meaning you are free to share information, but are accountable to attribute source to the interviewee and I-Open. 

(Article revised July 20, 2011.)