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Ed Morrison · Signing off
February 3rd, 2012
After a number of years of writing for BFD, I’ll be moving on.
My duties at Purdue are expanding, and I’ll be relocating to Purdue. With my colleagues from around the country, I’ll be building out a national network of colleges and universities to support regional innovation and the new discipline of Strategic Doing. You can read more here.
BFD has been an enjoyable platform for me to share my thoughts on economic development in Cleveland. Best wishes to you all.
Ed Morrison · “The current global development model is unsustainable”
February 1st, 2012
In a major new report, the UN warns that the world is running out of time to make sure that there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of the world’s population.
Governments need to make some major transformations in policy to move the globe to a sustainable development path. You can read more about the report here. For more background, you can visit the UN web site for the panel on global sustainability here.
Ed Morrison · Market opportunities for developing Chicago’s green economy
January 29th, 2012
The Delta Institute in Chicago, which promotes building a “green economy” in the Great lakes region, released an interesting report last week.
The study explores the market opportunities for clean technologies in the Greater Chicago market. You can read more about the event here, including an interview with one of the authors, Bob Weissbourd.
Weissbroud is big on the idea of LED conversion. You can read more here.
Ed Morrison · Plain Dealer flubs its explanation for firing Tony Grossi
January 27th, 2012
On TV3 this evening, Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Thom Fladung, managing editor, squirmed like a worm on a hot brick over his firing of Tony Grossi as a beat writer for the Browns.
The PD is upset about what Grossi tweeted about Browns’ owner Randy Lerner.
Jim Donovan did a good job asking pointed questions of Fladung. Donovan compared Grossi’s mistake — for which Grossi has apologized — with the scathing comments by Brent Larkin. From Larkin’s column:
The Cleveland Browns (second edition) is the worst professional sports franchise in the city’s history….[F]or sustained ineptitude, this atrocious, Randy Lerner-owned Browns franchise has no peer….
Here’s background on what happened to Grossi: PD’s Tony Grossi Removed from Browns Beat After Twitter Remark About Randy Lerner
Look, I grew up with the Browns and used to travel to the games with PD’s sport editor, Gordon Cobbledick, who was our neighbor. My loyalty to the team runs deep based on those experiences.
What’s the big deal? Most many Browns fans agree, I suspect, with Larkin’s assessment: Never in Cleveland sports history have so many given so much to a team that gives back so little. So what if Grossi thinks Lerner is a bozo?
Flautung’s explanations of the PD’s actions were just not very understandable or credible. Flautung’s assertion that the Browns organization had no communication with the PD is, well, just hard to believe.
Unintended consequence for the PD: Seems to me that the editors once again damaged the brand. Here’s a paper that is losing circulation, where sports is about the only content that gives the paper a pulse.
The credibility of the paper — in the face of pressure from the Cleveland business community — has never been very strong, in my view. (I cancelled my subscription after the PD started publishing the Forest City blog.)
Now it’s even weaker.
My guess: The PD just drove their subscription numbers down.
Well played.
Update: In another long explanation of the PD’s action, Ted Diadiun, the “Plain Dealer’s reader representative” (really?), tries once again to justify the PD’s action. What the editors seem to be missing here is that the idea of “objectivity” is not the same for local sports journalism as news journalism.
With sports journalism, if people want objectivity, they go to statistics and box scores. People read sports news precisely because they want views and opinions. That’s the reason that great sports writers — Tom Boswell, John Feinstein, Frank DeFord — have all developed a strong, recognizable voice.
Grossi, as Diadium points out, “is a passionate guy with strong, honest opinions, who cares deeply about the team and its fans”. Precisely. These qualities are what made Grossi, well, Grossi. And made him valuable to the PD. He was a strong, recognizable sports writer covering a beat that people in this city care deeply about.
He had a voice. You did not necessarily agree with him. But that’s the point. His views sparked conversation. He had credibility, knowledge, and he helped make sense of what was going on. Sports is entertainment, not news. Local sports writing and news writing are different.
Conflating the two, as the PD editors have done, simply tells me that the management of this paper is worse off that I thought.
To get re-oriented to what really matters in today’s market, perhaps the editors should read this post from the student-run blog at Missouri School of Journalism: What’s the Point of Objectivity in Sports Journalism?
Ed Morrison · Linking and leveraging university assets to strengthen regional economies
January 27th, 2012
On Sunday, we are launching our week-log Strategic Doing certification course at Purdue. The first class — 23 economic and workforce development professionals — draws from Indiana. We are focused on making our 14 county region around Purdue a hot spot for intensive collaboration using the new strategy disciplines for open networks.
Extending collaboration has been a focus at Purdue since former President Martin Jischke appointed Vic Lechtenberg to lead the effort. Purdue has launched Discovery Park, an expanded Purdue Technical Assistance Program, and the Purdue Center for Regional Development, among other initiatives. The process continues. Last week, Purdue announced a new Innovation and Commercialization Center.
Strategic doing provides a disciplined framework for extending these collaborations, a kind of core technology to designing and managing complex collaborations in open, loosely connected networks.
We are building a national network of universities committed to this new discipline. So, for example, Michigan State is using this discipline in its engagement activities and Arizona State has used strategic doing to design its initiatives to build a solar cluster in Arizona. Virginia Tech is collaborating with Purdue to incorporate strategic doing in a new executive education course on regional engagement, through its Engagement Academy. The Virginia Tech course — scheduled for May — is designed to help regional leaders link and leverage their university assets to strengthen competitiveness.
The University of Akron is collaborating with Purdue, Michigan State, Arizona State and the University of Michigan, among others, to create a platform to explore federal policies to support extended collaboration among higher education, business, government, and non-profits. The discipline of strategic doing sits at the core of this new network focused on Transformative Regional Engagement.
In the coming months, we’ll be announcing details of a national initiative to bring the disciplines of strategic doing to national scale. Michigan State, The University of Akron and Arizona State have been at the core of this effort.
One of the important opportunities comes in transforming the Great Lakes economy, where we have the highest concentration of colleges and universities in the country. In an important paper, James Duderstadt, past president of the University of Michigan, has explored this core strength of the Great Lakes economy.
In the most recent issue of Michigan State’s Engaged Scholar magazine, I explore the possibilities and the practical dimensions of how we can build collaborations across organizational and political boundaries with a common strategic framework and a simple discipline to manage this complexity.
Ed Morrison · Can Cleveland’s politicians learn the lessons of Oklahoma City?
January 19th, 2012
We started the transformation of Oklahoma City in 1993.
In an NPR interview, Mayor Corbett talked about how the transformation took place and how we built confidence with the voters.
Contrast how the Cuyahoga County Commission crammed down the Med Mart.
Big mistake.
Brian Cummins · HOT AIR – Gasification, risk of $180 – $300 million, future of Cleveland Public Power
January 18th, 2012
The following posts are related to the proposed Municipal Solid Waste – to – Energy proposal, recently dubbed the CREG Center by the City of Cleveland municipal electric company, Cleveland Public Power.
White Paper on Waste Processing Technologies – highlights of risks associated with GASIFICATION as an emerging technology
REF:
Meeting the Future: Evaluating the Potential of WasteProcessing Technologies to Contribute to the SolidWaste Authority’s SystemSolid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County, Florida http://www.swa.org/pdf/SWAPBC_White_Paper_9-2-09.pdf
Prepared by: Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc. 8550 Arlington Blvd, Suite 304Fairfax, VA 22031September 2, 2009
Found an interesting and what appears to be a very useful report (Sept. 2009) that reviews waste management technology for the Palm Beach County FL.
Even though the information from this white paper was developed over 2-years ago, it marks the same time that Ivan Henderson, Commissioner of CPP lead the trip to Asia to explore emerging technologies (Aug. 2009). Some of the information may have become slightly outdated, but nonetheless, the most interesting factoids and statements are presented below:
(See further excerpts and references to useful PowerPoint slides here)
Note: CPP has yet to explain how this project, that has been estimated to cost between $180 and $300 million, will be financed.
See full post here.
————————————
Sources of Information regarding the City of Cleveland CREG Center Proposal
Here are the major sources of information available on-line pertaining to the project:
- Cleveland Public Power (CPP) CREG Center site
- CPP Air Permit Application
- EPA Draft Air Permit for proposed project
- Initial EPA Public Hearing Notice for Jan. 9th 2012 Public Hearing, NOTE: City of Cleveland has requested Ohio EPA to extend Public Comment period an additional 30-days to February 23rd, 2012. (Spanish version)
- Earth Day Coalition Clean Air site
- Ohio Citizen Action Cleveland Incinerator site
- Estimated maximum emissions as stated in the CPP application for air permit operating at 72.24% heat input
- Max Mercury Emissions CPP Facility vs Actual Reported Mercury Emissionsfrom Operating Power Plants 2010
- Max Potential Total PM (F+C) Emissions CPP Facility vs. Actual Total PM Emissions from Major Industrial and Utility Sources 2009
- Research on Gasification – Excerpts from work conducted by Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc. pertaining to energy technologies.
- Public Comment submitted by Claude Lawrence Cornett, Jr.
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CPP Announces meeting on gasification facility, provides no meaningful data on emissions
NOTICE – Cleveland Public Power has announced a meeting to be held regarding the proposed Gasification-Municipal Solid Waste-to Energy facility being proposed for the Ridge Road Transfer Station. The meeting is scheduled to be held at the Estabrook Recreation Center, 4125 Fulton Road, at 6:00 pm, Thursday, January 23rd, 2012.
See the initial Public Hearing Announcement from the EPA for the one and only Public Comment Hearing held on January 9th. NOTE that the City of Cleveland has requested from Ohio EPA a 30-day extension of the Official Public Comment Period from January to February 23rd. See the original announcement for where and how to submit comment.The CPP statement, linked here, see specific text regarding emissions, is an insult to the process. CPP has applied for an Air Permit to operate a gasification facility. I find it incredulous that while their Draft Air Permit is being reviewed for public comment (closing 2/2012), that CPP cannot communicate clearly what the emissions are estimated to be; what they’ve actually stated within their permit application.
See full post here, for a listing of maximum annual emissions reported in the application and for information regarding Environmental Justice (EJ) issues and EPA’s Environmental Justice Policies.
————————————
NOTE: CPP Credibility Issues:
- The Mysterious Mister Tien
The man who sold Cleveland on visions of prosperity isn’t all he claims to be
by Maude L. Campbell, Scene Magazine, December 7, 2011 - Cleveland’s LED lighting plan – BOLD…but SENSIBLE? | Brian Cummins, May 20, 2010, Brewed Fresh Daily
- Mayor Frank Jackson kills Sunpu-Opto deal, says city will start over again to find LED light supplier
Mark Gillispie, Monday, May 24, 2010, The Plain Dealer - Cleveland’s narrow escape from Sunpu-Opto
Brent Larkin, May 30, 2010, The Plain Dealer - Two companies submit bids for Cleveland’s controversial LED lighting proposal
Mark Gillispie, Thursday, December 02, 2010, The Plain Dealer - American Municipal Power will not build coal-fired power plant
By John Funk, Wednesday, November 25, 2009, The Plain Dealer
Ed Morrison · Forming a new creative media cluster in Shreveport by following some simple lessons
January 13th, 2012
We have been hearing a lot about regional innovation clusters lately. The Obama administration, bolstered with policy work by Brookings and the Center for American Progress, have been integrating federal programs in an effort to promote these clusters. The Economic Development Administration has launched a new website designed to connect clusters and create a new type of “infrastructure” to support this strategy. At Purdue, we have done a lot of work developing interactive tools to identify and analyze clusters. You can check them out on our regional innovation web site.
Yet, when it comes to actually designing and launching regional innovation clusters — “activating” clusters — we are at a very early stages of developing a professional practice. We have just now started the work of developing protocols, disciplines and frameworks in order to make these practices replicable, scalable and sustainable.
We should not be discouraged that our work in activation lags our advances in analysis. Activating regional innovation clusters — designing and launching them — represents a formidable challenge. We need to integrate insights from large group intervention practices (like Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space, the World Cafe and Asset-Based Community Development) with new strategy disciplines (Strategic Doing), lessons from open source software development, new tools (like social network analysis), and traditional financial, marketing and project management. While we’re at it, we need to throw in a few insights from the rapidly evolving field of complex adaptive systems (one of my favorite books on the topic — Managing the Unknowable — describes the fog in which we must operate). Is it any wonder that there are cynics in the grandstand? In truth, as a recent analysis out of Europe demonstrates, most cluster initiatives do not work very well.
This weak record of accomplishment does not mean that developing clusters is not a worthy policy. No, the path is just fraught with difficulties.
For the past year, I have been working on the Space Coast in Florida promoting the development of a clean energy cluster. That experience has helped me understand how we can use the disciplines of Strategic Doing to accelerate the development of regional innovation clusters.
Here are some simple lessons.
The most effective approach to designing and launching regional innovation clusters is privately-led and publicly-supported, not the other way around. (When the public sector tries to lead cluster development, the result is usually a mess.) This principle carries significant implications for how initial meetings are structured and how conversations are framed and guided.
Company executives who initially engage in cluster development are impatient. We are dealing with tight time constraints, usually no more than 2 hours. Within that window of opportunity, we need to demonstrate the tangible value that can come from sharing non-proprietary information and building new collaborations from shared assets.
We can illustrate this point with that example from creative media cluster that is beginning to form in Shreveport, Louisiana. My colleague, Kim Mitchell, led an initial meeting of a new creative media cluster yesterday. He saw how government representatives and staff from economic development organizations can, without some guidance, take over the conversation. They can quickly move it in a largely irrelevant, confusing direction.
By inserting himself into the conversation, Kim was able to steer the focus back to defining new market opportunities. In Florida, to deal with this problem, we adopted the practice of bi-furcating our meetings. In the first half, industry members sat around the table and support organizations observed. In the second half of the meeting, support organization representatives joined the conversation to address the agenda items outlined by the private sector representatives.
Here’s another lesson. Among the different collaborations that can arise, we want to select those that have a relatively large potential impact and that are relatively easy to do. As we demonstrated in the Arizona Solar Summit, we can use these two dimensions to select priorities quickly.
Finally, we need to work with a thirty day time horizon. If we cannot accomplish tangible progress in the thirty days after a meeting, no one will come to the next one. The good news in Shreveport: the founding members of the cluster agreed to come back together again in two weeks.
Ed Morrison · The role of universities in promoting new strategies of transformation
January 13th, 2012
The folks at Michigan State have become big supporters of Strategic Doing. The Memorandum of Understanding between Purdue and Michigan State sets the groundwork for a national network of colleges and universities committed to teaching this discipline.
We are moving faster than we anticipated in establishing this network. Right now, over ten universities have expressed interest in anchoring this network. While we were initially focused on the Great Lakes, our network has grown nationally. We will be announcing more details in the coming months. To set the stage for developing the network, Michigan State asked for an article on Strategic Doing for their Engaged Scholar magazine.
We are moving faster than we anticipated in establishing this network. Right now, over ten universities have expressed interest in anchoring this network. While we were initially focused on the Great Lakes, our network has grown nationally. We will be announcing more details in the coming months. To set the stage for developing the network, Michigan State asked for an article on Strategic Doing for their Engaged Scholar magazine.
Ed Morrison · Huh?
January 11th, 2012
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland has lost $2 million for cleaning hazardous lead paint and dust from homes because officials failed to spend the federal money in a timely manner….
Losing the money is an embarrassing setback for Cleveland, which ranks among the worst areas in the nation for lead poisoning in children. Researchers say elevated levels of lead in blood can cause brain damage, loss of concentration and aggressive behavior….
And the loss comes as the federal government is slashing money the city uses to evaluate and monitor children with lead poisoning and educate families on how to avoid exposure.
Cleveland loses $2 million for removing lead from houses
Adults suffer permanent brain damage from early exposure to lead. Learn more.
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