I-Open Press Release 20100118
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The document outlines the efforts of the Institute for Open Economic Networks (i-open) in promoting education, economic, and workforce development through civic forums in Northeast Ohio. These forums aim to foster collaboration among citizens, businesses, and government to build networks that drive regional innovation and address key community issues. i-open's approach includes engaging over 1,000 participants through interviews and conversations, showcasing best practices for open source economic development and building trust within communities.
I-Open Press Release 20100118
- 1. Advancing Innovation in Education, Economic, and Workforce Development Civic Forums lay the foundation for entrance into the innovation economy for regional economies reliant on legacy industries January 2010 Written by Betsey Merkel The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open), a not for profit economic development organization based in Northeast Ohio, celebrates over six years of public service to advance education, economic, and workforce development. Since August 2003, I-Open led Civic Forums in collaboration with organizations, universities and colleges, businesses, and government to convene citizens to build valuable civic networks to advance Northeast Ohio regional business development. Civic Forums lay the foundation for entrance into the innovation economy for regional economies reliant on legacy industries. From September 2006 through July 2007, I-Open Co-Founders and Directors, Susan Altshuler, Dennis Coughlin, and Betsey Merkel, hosted forty-six face-to-face conversations in collaboration with leaders in education, government, business and civic organizations to address timely global issues affecting Ohio communities. George Nemeth and Gloria Ferris of Meet The Blogger’s, a Northeast Ohio based network of leaders experienced in guiding conversations focusing on civic journalism, advocacy, democracy, and government process, led many of the conversations in collaboration with I-Open. Civic Forums focus on innovation opportunities in industry. Since 2006, 40% of I-Open conversations exchanged information and updates in water, advocacy, health care, creativity, land, energy, transportation, and technology; another 40% of the conversations targeted innovation in education, economic, and workforce development; the remaining 20% shared insights into lifestyle, civic service, and regional culture. Betsey Merkel, Co-Founder and Director of I-Open, designed the Civic Forum process to bring people together to build trust, civic networks and collaborative communities to identify citizen priorities and entrepreneurial opportunities. 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
- 2. 2 Civic Forums teach “Strategic Doing” – a simple, but disciplined method to advance ideas to action quickly - designed by Ed Morrison, a member of the staff of the Purdue Center for Regional and Development and Economic Policy Advisor for the WIRED initiative in North Central Indiana. He is also Co-Founder and a Director of I-Open. The I-Open Civic Forum process offers communities and regions a place to start to strengthen good habits of collaboration, engagement, and civility. Civic Forums model collaborative behaviors drawing from such disciplines as Appreciative Inquiry and Servant Leadership – important ‘soft’ skills for every entrepreneur to thrive in locally based, global business environments. Since 2006, the I-Open conversations focused on five priority areas for regional economic development: the importance of strengthening education; the relationship of social and behavioral economics to build prosperity; how to grow resilient, attractive communities; how to build innovation and entrepreneurial networks; and the intrinsic value of quality communications sharing stories of regional culture. To inform the strategy and design of civic forum conversations, civic leaders have contributed over 100 interviews, nearly fifty conversations with over 1000 voices participating, and over 150 hours of content to I-Open research. Interviews share insights, stories of innovation, and civic priorities. During the thirty-one month period, I-Open educational communications reached over 195,000 (opt-in) subscribers mailed who read over 48,000 email communications, exploring 14,000 information web links to people, research, and innovation in energy, health care, land, food, and water. Civic Forum conversations are broadcast live with chat and archived to the web in an on- demand library for public access. Since early 2008, the Midtown Brews channel, for example, has quickly grown in value, accruing over 250,000 viewer minutes sharing citizen priorities focused on global issues. The forty-six public conversations cost an average of $50.00 per month (for technology related fees) for a total of $1550.00 generating over 4,000 contacts at about $.01 cost per contact – proving that building the open civic networks for communication and collaboration to strengthen businesses and emergent cluster industries can be strategic, efficient, and financially prudent. Gary Murphy, Professor of Undergraduate Economics Program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, describes I-Open as “a sophisticated center of civic dialogue that furthers the community’s understanding and engagement of issues.” To conclude, I-Open Civic Forums build the open, neutral spaces for important new conversations to take place focused on citizen priorities, acting as a catalyst for civic networks to connect people and resources. The resulting exponential growth of business strengthens universities, colleges, and libraries, and rewires institutions, organizations, 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
- 3. 3 and government, connecting people and their ideas to revitalize education, economic, and workforce development in communities and their regions. The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) shares best practices and tools for Open Source Economic Development, a method to accelerate enterprise collaboration in communities and their regions. All information is published under a Creative Commons License Attribution-Non- Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States. Please share freely with Attribution to I-Open and Betsey Merkel. Mailing address: The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) – Cleveland Innovation Center, Euclid Avenue Suite 306, Cleveland, Ohio 44103 USA E-mail: info@i-open.org On the Web at http://i-open-2.strategy-nets.net/overview/welcome and http://i-open.org/ 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