Wednesday's East Cleveland Extending Community Home Online (ECHO) meeting will be held from 9:30 to 11:00 AM at the McGregor Home - see http://www.mcgregoramasa.org/guest.asp and below for directions. We shall be the guests of McGregor CEO and President Rob Hilton, who will join us to discuss transforming the quality of life for seniors in this community.

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Following several months of meetings and discussions, the East Cleveland ECHO - Extending Community Home Online - initiative is making great progress. A strong and diverse team of volunteers has come together to develop for East Cleveland a virtual comunity where there was not one, and we'll begin distributing donated computers to area organizations and residents the week of April 18th, starting with the Helen S. Brown Senior Center and next flowing to students at Shaw High School. Computers will run free open source software, making everything we distribute free for recipients. All related developments, ECHO public meetings (usually Wednesday at 9:30 AM), and other East Cleveland events will be highlighted at the new East Cleveland portal, currently being developed at http://eastcleveland-org.bryght.net - check in often!

The 04.11.05 Ohio Venture Association (OVA) luncheon at the Cleveland Union Club featured City of Cleveland Senior Executive for Technology Development, aka “tech czar�, Michael DeAloia. Michael is responsible for expanding information technology focused business development in Cleveland, and his results to date are impressive, as highlighted below. Preceding Michael’s talk was a “5-Minute Forum� by Anthony Margida, Ph.D., the Battelle Company Formation Advisor to GLITeC, making this a very important, tech-centric innovation immersion event.

The NEO Telework roundtable will expand the open source dialogue on
redefining Northeast Ohio as the world-leader in telecommuting - please
come together at this special Tuesday@REI.

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WIth insightful perspectives from an information technology (IT) professional in India, the article below offers an excellent overview of the origins of Linux, what it is, where it fits in the IT world, trends in use, and implications on workforce demands. This is the perspective from India, and the global perspective, and the trends referenced are global, like Linux has 14 percent of the $50.9 billion market for server operating systems. Business professionals who do not understand these trends and implications risk tragic consequences.

Good news was published in the 04.13.05 Cleveland Plain Dealer about a program called "Computer Learning In My Back Yard" (see below) to provide more computer training to disadvantaged area residents. The article points out that while around 85% of Americans have Internet access at home, less than 50% of Clevelanders are connected. This is an essential program for Northeast Ohio to rebound from the grip of our old economy depression, but a premise of the article - "to transform Cleveland's Luddites into digital literates" - is telling of why we are in this sorry state. "Luddite" is a modern term for " one who opposes technological change", and that is not an accurate description of the common residents of NEO - nothing indicates that they oppose technology. Rather, the area Luddites are those in command and control positions who for too long have failed to grasp the fact that all area residents must have ready access to mainstream information technology to participate in the new economy. Thus, as we begin testing tightly controlled programs in limited areas of Cleveland, "Philadelphia on Monday started free classes for everyone from well-off architects to high school dropouts. That state-supported program wants to help establish basic digital mastery for the entire work force, which will attract businesses into the city, said Carole Smith, executive director of the Mayor's Commission on Technology in Philadelphia." Read on, and realize more must be done, and immediately.

An insightful opinion editorial in the 04.15.05 New York Times declares "Bush Disarms, Unilaterally", claiming over the past few years the US has abandoned the new economy war. The author states what he "can't figure out about the Bush team is why an administration that is so focused on projecting U.S. military strength abroad has taken such little interest in America's economic competitiveness at home - the underlying engine of our strength" - ultimately the question posed is why Americans are allowing ourselves to fall behind the rest of the world in deploying information technology research and access to our masses. The same reasoning can be applied to our homeland economy for Northeast Ohio - why do we allow 100,000s of area residents to stagnate in the old economy, divided apart from the digital economy?

Creating Web User Interfaces that Work - After 10 years of changing web design trends, the
enduring truth is that web sites are most successful when form and function work
seamlessly together. A website’s orientation, the clarity of layout and
terminology, and a common-sense, visitor-oriented approach are consistently
rewarded by internal and external customers.

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 Jurgen Faust has developed a vision for a "Future Center"
- an innovative collaborative strategy to address NEO's "Design Crisis" 

Q. What is design?

A. Design is a different way to think. At the beginning it is relatively
opposed to scientific thinking - image based thinking and method to solve
problems - thus has largely surfaced from art schools.

Michael C. DeAloia

- Senior Executive for Technology Development

- City of Cleveland - “Technology Development in the City�

Monday, April 11, 2005

- 11:30 Networking/12:00 Lunch Served/1:30 Adjourn

The Union Club - 1211 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland Ohio

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Exploring Community through Technology - Notacon is the second iteration of a yearly technology, arts and music event held in Cleveland, Ohio.
This year's focus is on how technology and community intermingle. The event itself hosts
speakers, events, games, live music and a whole lot more.

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Could cultural consciousness icon David Byrne truly " PowerPoint"? Co-founder of the groundbreaking and fascinating Talking Heads, Byrne is known for creating globally relevant music and art, making it surprising he would go on tour championing the close-minded "Office" anti-intellect of big brother champion Microsoft, the icon of anti-culture. Yet, as Byrne posts to his website, I have been working with PowerPoint, the ubiquitous presentation
software, as an art medium for a number of years. It started off as a
joke (this software is a symbol of corporate salesmanship, or lack
thereof) but then the work took on a life of its own as I realized I
could create pieces that were moving, despite the limitations of the
"medium." Before the talk, attendees were treated to some of
Byrne's EEEI PowerPoint art project, which was striking.

The inventor of Moore's law and a co-founder of Intel spoke recently of the loss of competitive advantage in Silicon Valley that offers either a warning or opportunity for NEO, highlighted with "Other areas have picked up on the technology - it's spread around to a lot of other places", "We have very formidable competition in the world. I think the
impact of China is just beginning to be felt," and "Chief among the challenges ahead for Silicon Valley is the
relative weakness of the U.S. public education system, which Moore
characterized as a problem for the entire country."

Key is sponsor and speaks of importance of diversity and
praises Xerox for their vision on this. Introduction of Anne Mulcahy speaks of her lifetime success
within Xerox and then rising to the top of what was a very troubled company.

NEOSA Hits the Alleys at NeTT Tech Thursday
Networking, spares and
strikes will be in order as NEOSA holds its first NeTT Tech Thursday networking
event for 2005, sponsored by Aztek, on March 24 at Winking Lizard Lanes in
Lakewood. Click HERE
to register.

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How Search Engines Can Rev-up Your Business
“Search Engine
Optimization� is the topic of the next NEOSA Monthly Meeting on Wed., Mar.
16 from 7:30 to 9 a.m. in the Cole Center at CSU. Click HERE

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The social structure of free and open source software development - by Kevin Crowston and James Howison - Abstract: Metaphors, such as the Cathedral and Bazaar, used to describe the organization of FLOSS projects typically place them in sharp contrast to proprietary development by emphasizing FLOSS's distinctive social and communications structures. But what do we really know about the communication patterns of FLOSS projects? How generalizable are the projects that have been studied? Is there consistency across FLOSS projects? Questioning the assumption of distinctiveness is important because practitioner-advocates from within the FLOSS community rely on features of social structure to describe and account for some of the advantages of FLOSS production.

The media's portrayal of hacking, hackers, and hacktivism
before and after September 11 - The intensified
national debate on the security of cyberspace after September 11,
2001 negatively influenced online political activism, which is now
forced to defend itself against being labeled as a form of
cyberterrorism. Many of these socially or politically progressive
activities remain unknown to the public, or if reported, they are
presented in a negative light in the mass media. These conclusions
are based on a analysis of of hackers, hacking, hacktivism, and
cyberterrorism in five major U.S. newspapers over a one-year
period.

REALNEO is a free open source social network established to
support dialogue and inclusion among all people interested in Northeast Ohio, at all levels. Visitors are
welcome to create an account and add content. Volunteers developing these social networking capabilities host this
oriantation on how to use these virtual tools for collaboration -
please join us all at the Peter B. Lewis building as we focus on
collaboration

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Ed Morrison opens the session explaining how his research has identified
telework as an important process and lifestyle shift that will have an impact
on our economy here, as it has impact world-wide. He shows several recent
expert based articles showing how the business world, government and academe
have gravitated around aspects of this issue.

The RAMTEC session had a remarkable attendance of leaders in education, workforce
and economic development and all aspects of manufacturing, drawn from many
counties throughout NEO - full house. REI Executive Director Ed Morrison
introduces the context of this session from his historical perspective
working with GE and in manufacturing, and observing manufacturing in NEO decline in many
ways - challenges are many - some manufacturers don't employ optimal practices
- lean manufacturing - basic common sense in regards to management. Some
manufacturers don't invest in product development - automation solutions - are
operating in isolation from each other - this decreases competitive strength opportunities.

"Telework:
Building New Technology Applications for Northeast Ohio"

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