Welcome

 I-Open provides new approaches to civic engagement. We design and deliver civic forums that encourage citizens to engage in conversation about complex topics, while building stronger civic networks. These forums point toward action: translating ideas into transformative initiatives. 

In a very real sense, I-Open is the architect of a new type of civic infrastructure. This infrastructure connects civic and business entrepreneurs with more established organizations and institutions. 

Through these connections, a community finds new ways to innovate: new ways to build prosperity by "linking and leveraging" its assets. 

  • For colleges and universities, I-Open provides a roadmap to stronger community engagement and new, broader avenues of service learning for students.
  • For libraries, I-Open creates an opportunity to expand the role of the library into the community and strengthen these vital ties.
  • For economic development organizations, I-Open provides a convenient and flexible format to support high-growth companies and emerging clusters, the real source of job growth in any economy.
  • For workforce development organizations, I-Open provides a roadmap to build the alliances that workforce developed organizations need to tie together education and training providers, workers, and employers.
  • For community foundations, I-Open creates new "civic spaces" for community leaders to engage in more effective thinking and doing.

From Twitter: "rotkapchen @betseymerkel What's not to like? Key elements others don't cover: dialogue, tapping human potential, providing a place for it all to happen. Even better, [I-Open] understands the value/concept of heuristic and so attribute their model as such." - Paula Thornton, The FASTforward blog, a hosted discussion on Enterprise 2.0, sponsored by Microsoft

    I-Open develops and deploys new practices and tools in Open Source Economic Development to connect people and their innovative ideas to education, economic, and workforce development.