The Excellence Roundtable is pleased to host OneCleveland/OneNEO CEO Scot Rourke, August 9th at the City Club, for an insightful discussion on the latest developments with his influential initiative bringing ultra-broadband communications and related applications to Northeast Ohio.

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Forum features collaboration The Levin
College Forum and Cool Cleveland presents Partnerships &
Collaborations: Arts, Technology and Ingenuity. The upcoming Ingenuity festival,

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Dear Friend,

Just a quick reminder, there is an excellence roundtable today, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM, at the City Club.

Please stop by to brainstorm on the power of NEO's virtual community, which spans the world and is far underleveraged here at home. The outcome of these discussions will be plans for an excellence roundtable we shall hold in New York, NY, August 11, at Jones Day's offices there. The purpose of extending roundtables beyond Cleveland is to better connect our interests here with the more powerful networks found beyond our physical borders.

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The July 11, 2005, Ohio Venture Association (OVA) luncheon featured Mark Coticchia, VP for Research and Technology Management at Case University, presenting a report on the progress of his organization since he arrived in Cleveland four years ago. He demonstrated that the progress has been amazing; all performance metrics tracked are at least 100% improved since 2001.

Bill Callahan, Director of Digital Vision (a coalition of organizations in Cleveland, Ohio working to eliminate the "digital divide" in our city), has posted to his blog an analysis of the extent of the digital divide in Cleveland, and the findings are disturbing... "the percentage of Cleveland households in the sample with active Internet connections may be as low as 40%". The numbers for many sectors of our society are much lower. There is not a simple solution to this problem - not just a wi-fi mesh, or neighborhood computing centers, or school labs, or libraries - there is a need as a community to say that we are all committed to help each resident who wants to participate in the new economy to cross the digital divide, and help in every way every step of the way. Read on about the current state of the divide in Cleveland, and consider how you may make a difference:

CLEVELAND'S DIGITAL DISCONNECT: The data, provided to Digital Vision by Scarborough Research,
is from interviews with more than 300 Cleveland residents, 18 and
older, conducted in 2004-2005. While it's not a perfect random sample
of the city's adult population, Scarborough says the sample is
"stable", i.e. the margin of error is reasonable. Here are some of the
highlights:

With the recent contributions by Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff of 10 laptops and by Progressive Insurance of 75 Pentium II CPUs for donation to those in need of help across the digital divide in East Cleveland, we have tangible evidence corporations may make a positive contribution to people's lives in NEO. Along the same lines of thought, at the last NEO Excellence Roundtable, participants interested in making NEO the world's most empowering learning community discussed the value corporations have had in supporting schools and even individual classrooms.

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Event:     JumpStarting the Future through Technology & Innovation
Date:     7/13/2005 - 7/13/2005
Time:     6:00:00 PM - 9:00:00 PM

Location:     University of Akron Student Union Center (Ballroom A)

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I hope you had a great 4th of July. At today's NEO Excellence Roundtable, we'll celebrate independence and freedom - core concepts of entrepreneurship, the new economy and the Roundtable.

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In a recent article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, posted to the NEO Excellence community, business editor Paul O'Donnell wrote "I really didn't need Forbes magazine to tell me that Cleveland ranks 113th out of 150 metropolitan areas for best places to jump-start a business or career". Based on Forbes' analysis of our assets, O'Donnell observed one would conclude "the region is predominantly populated by reasonably educated engineers who spend discretionary income on the arts or sports, who work at companies that pay well but aren't hiring, and who live in safe neighborhoods filled almost exclusively with native Northeast Ohioans."

The war in Iraq is big news world-wide. Whether reports on casualties or offensives, the news papers, airwaves and internet are on constant high-alert for stories on developments, which they publicize daily. It is thus surprising a major Iraq-related story that has been big news world-wide was not featured in the mainstream US news until this past weekend. The story is of eight secret "Downing Street Memos" - DSMs - which raise considerable cause for global public debate on a lack of US and UK government honesty and openness leading up to America declaring war on Iraq. Why are the DSMs, which the press in Europe starting reporting on May 1st, just now becoming "front page" news in America... seven weeks after the story broke in the UK?

Plain Dealer "reader advocate" Ted Diadiun felt it necessary to dedicate his 06.19.06 Page 2 Sunday column to this question, and his explanation offers critical insight on the state of US mainstream news reporting and American and Northeast Ohio society today.

An unexpected gem of an editorial in the Cleveland Plain Dealer observes "more than two-thirds of pre-school students use computers". "Education must evolve along with the rest of society" - "pre-schoolers who use computers at school regularly make greater gains than those without such technology." "The challenge for community leaders is to ensure that the advantages of the digital age reach all young people, including those of modest means." Read on below...

Please join the NEO Excellence Roundtable for inclusive dialogue and pursuits to optimize the brainpower, quality places and innovation networks of Northeast Ohio. The Roundtable meets 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM each Tuesday for discussions and lunch at the City Club of Cleveland - related content posts here and at a virtual community for the collaboration at http://neoexcellence.realinks.us.

"It's a new day in East Cleveland" is an expression of East Cleveland
Mayor Goggins that was clearly demonstrated from dawn until dusk
Saturday, June 4th, as the city held a neighborhood clean-up, hosted a
bicycle rodeo for kids, and welcomed residents to the MLK Civic Center,
on Shaw Avenue, for a terrific lunch and a Town Hall meeting to discuss
plans for revitalizing the community.

Please join us for a special alfresco Community of Minds! Enjoy fine
outdoor weather (or indoors if inclement) as we explore a hot topic:
blogging.

Blogging has been garnering extraordinary media attention lately. It
has been hailed as everything from a landmark technology that will
change the way we communicate, share knowledge, and entertain
ourselves... to mere hype. The answer likely lies in the way that we
choose to leverage this new tool. Join Community of Minds as we explore
the strategic value of blogging, as it pertains to business.

As we explore blogs as a business tool, Cleveland Public Library will
also highlight its enabling technologies... such as WiFi and database
archives.

Guest Speaker: George Nemeth, Cool Cleveland's CIO and creator
of the Brewed Fresh Daily blog (www.brewedfreshdaily.com) will lead the
discussion, share insights and answer questions. Bring your wireless
laptop to surf along in real time, on CPL's free WiFi hotspot.

Food & Drink: Community of Minds provides complimentary Hors d' Oeuvres. Cash bar available.

Parking: Self-parking is available across the street at the BP
Building, located next to the Hyatt. Limited metered street parking may
also be available.

This event is sponsored by Thompson Hine.
Established in 1911, Thompson Hine - www.ThompsonHine.com - is among
the largest business law firms in the United States. For the last three
years, the firm has been named as one of the Best Corporate Law Firms
in America (in an annual survey of 32,000 corporate directors conducted
by Corporate Board Member magazine). With more than 350 lawyers and
offices in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio; New York
City; Washington, D.C.; and Brussels, Belgium, we serve some of the
world's premier businesses.

This event is co-sponsored by REI (The Center for Regional Economic Issues).
According to REI, economic development insight comes from combining
different perspectives into a composite view of "What's next?". REI
combines the work of academic researchers with the disciplines of
management consulting. The goal is to develop actionable insights into
the types of investments that can accelerate productivity in a regional
economy.

This event is co-sponsored by the Cleveland Public Library, CPL (www.cpl.org).

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This is a joint meeting with Community of Minds, a business networking group - http://www.communityofminds.com

It's
going to be held in the reading garden at the Cleveland Public Library
along with the blogger meetup to talk about the impact of blogging (and
podcasting) on business.

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The Community Technology Centers'
Network (CTCNet) was founded on the recognition that in an increasingly
technologically dominated society, people who are economically
disadvantaged will be left further behind if they are not provided
access to and training on information tools. CTCNet envisions a society
in which all people are equitably empowered with these tools and is
committed to achieving this end.

Admiral
Thomas H. Collins, who is committed to effective use of emerging
technologies and developing innovative methods to improve Coast Guard
mission performance, will be speaking on homeland security as it
relates to the protection of shipping and ports.

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Designing For Technology in our Neighborhoods - C V (Charlyn) Wood is a civic entrepreneur focusing
on developing technology initiatives which integrate technology access
and applications across communities.

Integral to promoting technology use C V Wood
develops strategies to identify new channels toward aggregation of
demand and resources for “niche� market development.

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I'm worried about my country. I love America. I think it's the best
country in the world. But I also think we're not tending to our sauce.
I believe that we are in what Shirley Ann Jackson [president of
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute] calls a "quiet crisis." If we don't
change course now and buckle down in a flat world, the kind of
competition our kids will face will be intense and the social
implications of not repairing things will be enormous.

About the NEO Excellence Roundtable: an ad hoc group of people who care about Northeast Ohio are collaborating to make
NEO the world leader in social computing and openly
strategizing on how NEO as a region may achieve world-class status -
we are establishing benchmarks for success and taking action in pursuit
of measurable outcomes. Current pursuits include bridging the
digital divide in East Cleveland, deploying the optimal social
network for Northeast Ohio, and expanding understanding of the issues surrounding Whiskey Island.

In the interest of supporting open collaboration, we've established a virtual Community Of Interest Link (COIL) called NEO Excellence - please visit at http://neoexcellence.realinks.us. To access the community, you must
create an account using the link found at the home page - or, if you
have an account at another REALinks site... like here at REALNEO... you may log-in with your
username from that site, followed by @ that site's URL (e.g. your username [at] realneo [dot] us), and then enter your password from that site.

The topic of the 05.03.05 Tuesday at REI was "Exploring New Models of Funding the Civic Space" - a panel discussion at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History about what are the existing models, how can we improve effectiveness, and what are some of the challenges we need to address for the future? Attendees represented the community of practitioners, research and philanthropy.

Panelists were:
Ensign Cowell, Greenleaf Capital & Giving Back Gang, member
Henry Doll, Founder, The Giving Back Gang - a Giving Circle
Stuart Mendel, Assistant Dean and Co-Director, Center for Nonprofit Policy and Practice, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Georgia Reash, CEO, Institute for Creating Community
Chris & Judy Schenk, Tinamou Consulting
Linda Springer, Executive Director, Cleveland Social Venture Partners

Find out how and why in what will be the first Northeast Ohio Teleworking Summit sponsored by Regional Economic Issues (REI) @ Case, to be held Monday, May 9th from 8 AM to noon at the Metropolitan Campus of Cuyahoga Community College in downtown Cleveland. Directions to the event may be found at:

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For those who still don't get IT, an explanation for the evolution of Friendster's open source architecture should help...consider: "There were discussions of ditching open source. Should we just buy off-the-shelf software that would do what we want?" Pattishall explains. "We investigated the market but found there wasn't anything close to what we wanted to do, and it was way too expensive. We wouldn't be able to execute on any business plan because we spent too much just on the software." Read on...