Open Source Economic Development FAQ's
Open Source Economic Development FAQ's
I wrote this article in 2005 inspired by my time working with civic entrepreneurs during our team's tenure at Case Western Reserve University. The Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) published analytic research and policy reports to advise industry leaders in matters of regional economic development.
The questions in this short paper were at the time, the most frequently asked questions by civic entrepreneurs about how to begin to engage in Open Source Economic Development.
Our Center's activities were enthusiastically funded by the global telecommunications giant, the SBC Foundation. It was at the weekly Tuesdays@REI civic forum process and through everyone's efforts to catalyze and invigorate the many transformative spin-out civic initiatives, that these questions arose.
Over the course of 78 Civic Forums, 200 hours of open, guided civic conversations (average 40 participants), and with more than 3000 people participating over a seventeen month period, these were the questions most often asked.
I-Open Civic Forums really are a simple way to begin to build open economic networks, experiment with Strategic Doing, and work together on transformative initiatives to re-build, re-invent, and re-vitalize prosperity.
What questions do you have and how will you get started?
Betsey Merkel, Co-Founder and Director
the Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)