Brewed Fresh Daily

"From a Hard Place to a Rock Chicago is about to become the home of a Hard Rock hotel. That in and of itself is hardly news. What is interesting however is that this hotel is moving into a building formerly know as the 'Carbide & Carbon' building on E Wacker Dr. Talk about a Rock and a Hard Place! "

"I wish an interdisciplinary investigation of human cooperation and collective action would begin to emerge in 2004, bringing together scientists, scholars and practitioners in self-organizing Internet politics, peer-to-peer computation, the sociology of managing common pool resources, the economics of open-source production, the biology of symbiosis, and the evolutionary psychology of cooperation around the nature, dynamics, barriers and multipliers of human cooperation. "What probably will happen is that my colleagues and I will begin to put together a map of this emerging field and then stalwartly paddle upstream against the institutional tides of specialization -- because universities, corporate research, and foundation funders succeed by specializing and risk failure by broadening their interests across disciplinary boundaries, thus building into our civilization's knowledge-gathering institutions a strong negative incentive against seeing (or looking for) big pictures."

[W]e don�t yet know how to operate as whole human beings in this business-oriented interconnected interactive world. It takes new skills, new logic, new emotions and different dynamics. Most of us still only know how to interact in prescribed ways with the large institutions, the commercial and political systems that govern our lives. We haven�t yet learned how to create, how to sustain ourselves and help others sustain themselves, even though we are (usually) interconnected and (often) concerned that we are at the mercy of these institutions and commercial and political systems.

Arts advocate George Nemeth is baffled by the proposed levy. "I am disappointed that [the commissioners] didn't have the language and details worked out in advance of their announcement about the levy."

"Cynthia Typaldos has created a database listing various social software applications. I, for one, am very glad to see this, and am not surprised that Cynthia is the one who has done it. Thanks, Cynthia!"

Shares of Trinity Biotech plc rose as much as 51 percent on Monday after it said it received US regulatory approval to market its HIV test in the United States.

Valdis Krebs, a management consultant who studies connections between people and organizations, said the sites can reflect real networking like sitcoms reflect real life. People often hoard friends, many of whom have no real business connection.

"Drinking coffee may or may not lead to something better." - Thomas Mulready

With the described Only One service the user controls what happens to incoming calls. Subscribers at work can have calls automatically forwarded to their cell or home phones if they fail to pick up, or vice versa, changing the settings quickly on their computers or cell phones. Callers are asked to give their names before subscribers answer and can be sent directly to voice mail without ever knowing they were screened; they also have the option of leaving a message without ringing the phone. When subscribers do pick up, no indication is given as to where they are, or at what number they have been reached. [F]ull report by Ryan Mahoney on this Ohio based service.

next week we will be picking up our biggest donation of PCs ever - about 170 PCs from First Energy in Akron (we worked with our pals at National Cristina Foundation in CT to get this). We will again rely on a caravan of volunteer's personal vehicles for the trip (U-haul's get to be very expensive). If you want to join the caravan or know of a truck that we can use, please let me know.

Who is this Mulready guy? Why does that whining wuss have an actual friggn' column. What, cuzz he knows well how to pucker up. This, this guy wants us genuflecting and kissing that Old Dope Head Peter Lewis' ass, begging for money to run cultural and scholastic establishments. This is how a society should be run? What are you kidding me or what? Oh yeah, that's the solution: Open the cafeteria or whatever at Severance Hall to the teachers at Case. Oh thank the gods, Peter Lewis might then not smite us and may wave his philanthropic wand in our poor pathetic direction. I'm certain (Christ, I hope) I can't be the only one who looks at shit like this and goes, �Wha'?� Trust me, Mulready, there are more than a few of us who realize Cleveland was much more culturally fecund, if not as �Cool,� 25 years ago, before we were �saved� by the elite using our own money to dress this city up for themselves and their pals. I'd explain further but I ain't gettin' paid for this and I'm now cutting into my drinking time. And Lord knows I gotta' drink if guys like Mulready are the, watchacallit, �Creative Elite,� who are gonna' �Not Blame Cleveland� or �Save Cleveland.� Thanks for your time. Love to all of you this Holiday Season. Ed Tarbush Cleveland

In the context of a city, the thing about having someone "in charge" of developing strategy is that it's kind of a mug's game. For one thing, the basic fact that 2.5 million people will improvise its implementation should be enough to make planners give up the notions of tight control of its development. Howdo you anticipate the hive mind of 2.5 million people? You can't do it by decree, not in a democracy at least (and not truly in a dictatorship either, or so says Jonathan Schell). Instead, you need to create spaces where improvisation can flourish and thereby invite the citizens create their own city.

The number of high-speed lines connecting U.S. businesses and homes to the Internet jumped 18 percent to 23.5 million lines during the first half of 2003, according to statistics released on Monday. High-speed Internet service via cable showed a 20 percent jump, narrowly outpacing the 19 percent growth in digital subscriber lines (DSL) offered by traditional telephone lines, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

In the birth stories of Luke and Matthew, only one person seems to grasp the mysterious nature of what God has set in motion: the old man Simeon, who recognized the baby as the Messiah, instinctively understood that conflict would surely follow. "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against..." he said, and then made the prediction that a sword would pierce Mary's own soul. Somehow Simeon sensed that though on the surface little had changed - the autocrat Herod still ruled, Roman troops were still stringing up patriots, Jerusalem still overflowed with beggars - underneath everything had changed. A new force had arrived to undermine the world's powers.

"Don't "hard sell". In fact, don't sell at all... network. Build relationships that lead to sales opportunities. Coming right out and treating someone LIKE a prospect (aka "a piece of meat") in an online or offline networking community will only get you the cold shoulder as people learn to avoid your tactics."

For those not in the know, Mulready is the man behind Cool Cleveland, an internet newsletter consisting of press releases and items pilfered from other papers... Yet somehow, Mulready found room to be unsatisfied. In his newsletter last week, he carped that piece could "have included the more salient points of [Cool Cleveland's] mission, civic accomplishments, challenges, and business development potential." Unfortunately, that would have required noting that 'zines have the commercial upside of a Kool-Aid stand.

stay tuned for next week's installment, in which The Plain Dealer reveals that The Guy Who Plays The Sax Outside Cavs Games is actually pioneering a new form of jazz, and that hipsters from Paris to Prada are frothing with envy. Or perhaps they're just disoriented, due to the quivering space-time continuum.

That's the sort of e-democracy I would like to see in corporations. Not the manipulative and corny participatory meetings where employees are expected to voice their concerns to the management, and where the manager exercizes his "communication skills".

"once again dear readers, this stuff is too good to invent: researchers have found that regular consumption of a hearty dash of cinnamon -- just like you toss on top of your steaming morning cappuccino -- seems to improve blood sugar levels in those with diabetes and also benefit cardiovascular health."

I recently received an email from a management professor who ran across my web site somehow (a "George N.", she said), and she wondered about how she might improve the use of blogging for her class, in order to enrich or accelerate learning. Did I have any ideas ?

I'm not so sure they are... I'm inclined to think it's mainly on the surface - people are being taught how to interact more effectively, and meetings are no doubt carried out less autocratically in many workplaces. Along with that, I think that with competency models, 360-degree reviews, "fit-in-or-f-off" cultures and a society that is caught up in reverence for money and "free markets" that aren't really free, many individuals may not be offering the critical thinking and alternative points of view that make increased democracy useful and real. The "command-and-control" dynamic has indeed (I believe) become less visible, and more subtle ... power is attractive, manipulation occurs in many forms and I think many middle managers are trying to hang onto some power and control as their world is indeed shifting in front of their eyes.

Some of you are tired of hearing this, but Cleveland doesn�t have a convention center. It needs one to help restore life to its downtown. Detroit, which at least has a functioning convention center, isn�t content with what it has. Leaders there have proposed a sales tax hike to raise $1.3 billion for two convention centers. I�m sure Cleveland�s hotels, restaurants and visitor-dependent businesses would be thrilled to have just one. Cleveland isn�t alone in trying to restructure its business groups to more effectively stimulate economic growth. Baltimore�s business group has a new name � Economic Alliance of Baltimore � and a very young, age 31, new leader.

There is a myth in organization theory that order and structure comes from some strange place out there, that it can be simply imposed upon organized action. This can be seen in project management, for example in habitual planning beforehand, where master plans and masses of charts are put together to impose structure on the project. In jazz this is reversed. Initial structures are kept to the minimum needed to keep the group together, and order is allowed to grow organically out of the collaboration between the players. As projects always retain some unique elements, neither does their order exist solely in the pre-determined master plans of the project. Just as the jazz musicians find new and functional structures in the act of playing, project managers find ways of doing things in the acts of building.

The way Dean's campaign is being funded, the people won't let him forget his pledge to restore Truman's way: "The only expansion we are interested in is the expansion of human freedom and the wider enjoyment of the good things of the earth in all countries. The only prize we covet is the respect and good will of our fellow members of the family of nations. The only realm we aspire to eminence exists in the minds of men, where authority is exercised with the qualities of sincerity, compassion and right conduct."

Others, such as 36-year old George Nemeth, who co-founded Cleveland-based SmartMeetingDesign six months ago, aren't sure things will look that different in the new group's executive suite. "How long are we going to wait until we can start sitting on boards?"

self Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural selves 1 a : the entire person of an individual b : the realization or embodiment of an abstraction
2 a (1) : an individual's typical character or behavior <her true self was revealed> (2) : an individual's temporary behavior or character <his better self> b : a person in prime condition <feel like my old self today>
3 : the union of elements (as body, emotions, thoughts, and sensations) that constitute the individuality and identity of a person
4 : personal interest or advantage
5 : material that is part of an individual organism <ability of the immune system to distinguish self from nonself> or�ga�nize Pronunciation: 'or-g&-"nIz Function: verb transitive senses
1 : to cause to develop an organic structure
2 : to form into a coherent unity or functioning whole : INTEGRATE <trying to organize her thoughts>
3 a : to set up an administrative structure for b : to persuade to associate in an organization; especially : UNIONIZE
4 : to arrange by systematic planning and united effort
intransitive senses
1 : to undergo physical or organic organization
2 : to arrange elements into a whole of interdependent parts

What emerging leadership do you want to control, and what leadership do you want to liberate?

Forest City develops Brooklyn with Gehry World-reknowned architect Frank Gehry, who designed CWRU's Peter B. Lewis Building, and Bruce Ratner, president of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprise, are collaborating on a $2.5 billion development in Brooklyn, NY that will include 2.1 million square feet of commercial office, 4.4 million square feet of housing, 300,000 square feet of retail space, and an 800,000 square foot sports arena. The arena, still in early planning stages, now appears to be clad in titanium and has two glass facades and a roof garden/rooftop skating rink. See Architectural Record here.

Have: really smart students, lots of research ideas about life in organizations, great husband & daughter Want: jobs/internships for students, guest speakers, research partners, friendships w/working moms Interests: education, business, work/life integration, career success for working parents, professionals, change management, managers, consultants, accountants, doctors, dentists, lawyers, entrepreneurs, nurses Says: I'm new to Ryze and am interested in its potential for two purposes.... first, making face-to-face connections with likeminded folks in the Cleveland area.... and second, making e-connections with individuals anywhere who would be interested in talking with me or my students by phone to share their wisdom about the challenges of integrating work and life. So, if you sign my guestbook, and we haven't already met, please be sure to mention if you live in Cleveland or not, and if not, what kind of work you do (since my students have a variety of career interests). Thanks in advance!

Cuyahoga County commissioners will ask voters to approve a property tax increase that will raise millions for economic-development efforts. The commissioners last night approved putting the 0.7-mill levy on the March 2 ballot. The tax increase would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $22.41 a year. State law does not allow the request to specify the arts as a beneficiary, but commissioners made clear that supporting arts and culture is part of their intent because the arts stimulate the economy.

"Wish I could be there to see George, Valdis and the rest of Ryze Cleveland!!"

Here is an interesting article on how 'link diagrams' were used to capture Hussein.

Purposeful action requires: a. goals b. motivation c. ability - financial, structural NEOorgs (or quasi orgs and panels and the like) - lack a and possibly c Energetic young people - hazy a; strong b; little c (So strong motivation is being spent on talk and meetings-unclear goal -no clarity-no ability-----lots of energy, nowhere to go). Remember, you cannot affect networks being a weak node outside. You cannot beg or cajole to be let in - earn the right - demonstrate success - energy alone does not qualify someone to become a player. The city - lacks a - too much re-packaged glib talk of the halycon tech days - other cities have moved on and away. So....one possibility- The city (new leadership - no retreads) sets clear goals. Engages people with c [GN: ability - financial, structural] without b [GN: motivation]- that is people with ability and no motivation - large and midsize corps and young leaders within the large corps - they have the ability (resources and means to effect change). This is a different path from the present futile approach. The energetic young people - just do their jobs well, become successful enough to be part of the network and then effect change.

HITS Your Ryze page: 1,849 (cumulative) Average Ryze home page: 93* Average Ryze home page w/photo: 310* FRIENDS & GUESTS Friends you link to: 156 Friends linked to you: 115* Confirmed Friends: 113 Friends of Friends: 1720 Guestbook entries: 178

A long time ago in a land far away - OK, In Inside Business about 18 months ago - I first wrote about weblogs - blogs - where people without skills in HTML could publish their thoughts on the web for others to read and comment. To tell the truth it is a royal pain to keep it current. I moved my blog from its old location to http://dhanson.blogspot.com/ but frankly I don�t update it much. I am not alone. According to a recent Perseus survey, over 50% of bloggers are not updating anymore. More than 25% of new blogs are �one-day wonders.� Even well-established blogs are fading - over 132,000 blogs are abandoned after a year of constant updating. It doesn�t help when the mass media acts likes blogs are a new thing. That�s the kiss of death from a techie perspective and part of the reason that the trade press has announced that �Blogs are now officially uncool!�

Of Friendsters and Foes is a Village Voice article about the Whitney Museum's display of the social-network-related art of the late Mark Lombardi, who drew pencil diagrams of the tangled relationships among people involved in the BCCI scandal (including the Bush family and Saddam Hussein). Lombardi killed himself in 2000. The Voice article was prompted by the revelation that the FBI requested access to the materials (and was told that the material was on public exhibit during normal museum hours). The author speculates that perhaps nothing as elaborate as Poindexter's Total Information Awareness boondoggle is necessary when people voluntarily expose their social networks.

"'I remember my first impression,' says friend and Cool Cleveland contributor Jack Ricchiuto, a corporate leadership coach. 'It was, like, what part of Europe is this guy from?' People think Mulready is intentionally unpredictable, says Cool Cleveland editor Tisha Nemeth. But it's not a pose. 'That's the way he is,' she says."

This kind of gray area is called a conflict of interest: A black hole with a gray area can lose its pull. "I think it's a potential risk, and I think it's one that Thomas is going to take," says Ricchiuto. "He's walking the edge between where you should be and where you shouldn't be." Mulready knows it. "It's very complicated and tangled. I believe in the impact of all the things that I do," he says. But "I've sorted that out now. I'm able to compartmentalize the different roles that I play. "Anybody who knows me knows that I don't do these things out of self-interest." That may be. "Because he's paying attention, I don't think he's going to get himself into trouble," Ricchiuto says."

How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up? Regionalism is like the United Nations: great idea in theory that rarely works in reality. Reason: There's no powerful, committed constituency demanding greater cooperation among neighboring cities and counties. But maybe one is developing. The clearest sign of "creeping regionalism" is in the Miami area where business and political leaders from Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties have teamed up recently on several high-level economic development projects. The counties worked together, for instance, in lobbying for an international trade office in Miami (called the secretariat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas) and for state aid for a biotech research center in Palm Beach County. This doesn't come naturally to politicians in these places. "We grew up thinking of ourselves as three separate counties or three separate cities," said an economic development official in Broward County. "Today we're more like Los Angeles. We're one big megalopolis." More interesting than the cooperation itself is the small but growing constituency for cooperation, not only among business leaders (who have traditionally favored regionalism) but among good-government types as well. Example: The community leadership programs in South Florida have banded together to create a regional group called the Tri-County Leadership Council. Politicians are taking note. Said one Dade County commissioner of his county's increasing friendliness with its neighbors, "I like to tell people that when we wave at each other now, we actually use all of our fingers." Footnote: Miami isn't the only place where regionalism is developing a fan base. In Cleveland, 14 of the city's largest law firms banded together recently with the League of Women Voters and Cleveland Civic League to underwrite a study of regional government options. Said one attorney, "It's about time that, as a much larger group, with a much strong voice, we got involved in helping turn this place around, because God knows our political leadership isn't doing it."

Memphis! WTF? ...maybe the next article like this will be about 'cool cleveland' or 'connected cleveland'?

The first phase of a project to establish citywide wireless Internet access is slated to begin next month. Ultimately, anyone with a laptop or wireless device will be able to surf the Web from virtually anywhere in the city's 8.6-square-mile (22-square-kilometer) area. Scores of wireless networking transmitters are being placed atop public buildings, traffic lights and other structures to blanket the city. The project is being touted by Aiirnet Wireless, its operator, as the largest wireless networking, or Wi-Fi, deployment in the nation.

Even innovative organizations have to evaluate their product portfolios and long/short terms goals before making growth decisions. Not all growth can or has to come from new projects � you need cash to support shooting stars that can fizzle. Now, cash can either come from built up internal reserves (cash cows) or a surfeit of outside capital. When the internal situation is poor � and the external environment is clearly barren � the same strategy of fostering risky stars cannot work. Not clear thinking for organizations or cities. Meetings and NEO organizations to talk about it may appear to be cost free but they have an opportunity cost.. worthy alternatives are not being considered. For some related and unrelated thinking, here are some stories from cities the size of Cleveland�.. �fresh� beans�roast and brew them as you choose� - Harvard Business Review Dec '03 interview with the Mayor of Atlanta - A story this week from another city - http://newsobserver.com/business/story/3116916p-2823309c.html And.. when time is short - short-term growth strategies should be the focus - not the epemeral long term. So, the two key priorities are battening down the hatches (keep the existing cash cows) - and growing through acquisitions - a time honored, short-term growth strategy where Cleveland can compete instantly - not 15 years from today. The true innovators will continue to foster and they should be helped, during all this. But, the focus should be on securing the working person's lunch that is about to be stolen...not on painting visions of grand suppers...

I have to cop to reading the Maxim-esque Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Your Boyfriend on an irregular basis, but I was surprised Brewed Fresh Daily didn't make the list. So was BFD's author, George Nemeth, who fumed: "Do you think Jim Vickers reads BFD? Does he know about the Northeast Ohio Blogroll?"

"Ryze was launched in 2001 by Adrian Scott, an early investor in file-sharing site Napster. Ryze users create individual personality profiles for free on the company's site. It makes money by charging $9.95 a month for advanced searches. Scott Stratten, a marketing consultant in Toronto, joined Ryze in June. He built a network of 470 others interested in marketing. Surfing through that network, he started e-mailing others with similar interests. Over five months, he landed 10 clients, doubling his customer list."

"Providing a recipe for 'reproducing Ohio City's success in other neighborhoods' is pretty much impossible. In my experience, successes such as these are often the result of a confluence of many factors that simply can't be duplicated. Ohio City always has had fantastic historic housing stock, which was the original attraction for many of the neighborhood's urban pioneers in the 1970s. Of course, we've also been blessed by the West Side Market, an anchor of the neighborhood for a century. Throw in our proximity to downtown and the lakefront and you have some good basic ingredients for rejuvenation. The people aspect is, by far in my opinion, the 'secret sauce' in the success story. The residents and business owners in this neighborhood are active and engaged. They're also incredibly diverse in so many ways--ethnicity, incomes, political philosophies, etc. This, more than anything, has resulted in a level of energy and enthusiasm that's not common across the city proper. For whatever reason (and maybe this is where luck comes in), Ohio City has attracted the types of people who want--need--to be an active part of shaping and improving their neighborhood. And that has translated into what's going on today--and it's especially visible in the development corporation, whose excellent staff and committed volunteer leadership have made numerous developments possible when no private developer was willing to stick his neck out by himself for a risky project. Many of the projects created by Ohio City Near West Development Corp. in the past decade have played a huge role in raising the level of awareness of the neighborhood. The easiest, most succint advice would be to identify your neighborhood's principal assets on which you can build; anand get a group of committed, talented people together who are willing to work tirelessly, for no glory, to maximize those assets and create new ones."

If I had my druthers, I'd rather have Cleveland thought of for it's people, not it 's companies (sorry, I know Crain's is a business publication). But when you think about Apple you think Steve Jobs, Micro$oft, Bill Gates. If we're talking about Progressive, why should we think about car issurance? Why not think of the eccentric chairman who's creativity carved out a niche in a traditional industry and created value where there wasn't any? We'll be much better known by telling the stories of the hundreds (thousands?) of cool, creative people we have living here, then we will by talking about the handful of companies on the magnitude of a Progressive. Besides, Peter B. Lewis isn't the only cool person there. There are probably dozens of people at a company like Progressive that make it what it is. What our their stories?

Contact your Commissioners now It's crunch time for Cleveland's future. Within a week, the County Commissioners will either decide to support Cleveland arts and culture now, or they'll put it off indefinitely. An arts & culture measure could go on the ballot as early as March. Contact your Commissioners, let them know you vote, and remind them of all the great stuff they've been saying about how the arts in Cleveland are essential to our region's future. And ask them to act now. Your children's children will thank you. And so will their children.
Jimmy Dimora on 9/26/03 said, "As taxpayers, public funding for artistic and cultural endeavors is sometimes the last priority. Now is the time to make it our first." Ask him to support arts & culture now: cnjcd@www.cuyahoga.oh.us
Peter Lawson Jones chaired the Cuyahoga County Cultural Leadership Taskforce which, on 9/25/03 approved the following language, "Cuyahoga County's taxpayers' investment to sustain and cultivate their arts and cultural industry and creative workforce will be recognized as a national model..." Ask him to support arts & culture now: cnplj@www.cuyahoga.oh.us
Tim McCormack on 9/26/03 said, "Public funding for the arts is more important than a convention center." Ask him to support arts & culture now: cntmc@www.cuyahoga.oh.us. For more info and ammunition: www.supportartsandculture.org

Thanks George for the publicity. It takes a lot of energy on my part to be optimistic - it's not my nature. But we have a chance to turn change into progress. It'll be a shame if we all sit back and dismiss this change as insiginificant and don't try to exploit it.

Beverage companies need to work together to find a solution for obesity problems, Coca-Cola Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Douglas Daft said on Monday.

In last Tuesday's CrainTech MegaByte Breakfast on BioScience, Dr. Chris Woolverton of Kent State said that Ohio should concentrate on growing our own bioscience businesses instead of importing from other places.  Support that, I found this from Ed Morrison in his blog. The findings are from Angelis Angelou, the economic developer that engineered Austin's rise.

In Austin, 92% of the job growth comes from expansions and entrepreneurial start-ups. Only 7% to 8% comes from relocations.

>Considering Austin's consistent ranking above Cleveland in almost all categories, don't you think that this basic change from our policy of 50-50 business creation should change?

Starting today, you can get a daily dose of local tech news on my Web log, called Chat Room Live. I'll discuss my own work, other notable news as well as details on the local tech sector and national issues you wouldn't otherwise read. I'll post a new item at www.cleveland.com/weblogs/chatroomlive every afternoon I am at work.

$tarbucks$ announces plans to open it's first cafe in Paris and the locals are suspicious. "It's an absurd idea," said Jean-Paul Bedel, a regular at the cafe. "The whole point about cafes in France is that you can sit over a coffee as long as you like, read the papers ... taking away a coffee in a Styrofoam cup is anathema, unthinkable. It's the kind of thing you'd only think of doing at a railway station." I wonder how long it lasts before being set on fire?

Please join us on Sunday, December 14th at Tremont Scoops for a Waffle Breakfast to benefit Tremont WiFi Neighborhood Network. Two TWiFi Hotspots up: Tremont Scoops and Jefferson Branch Library. We want to have 4 more by February 2004 . Help us create new wireless hotspots to serve our community in places like Merrick House, Pilgrim Church Interfaith Hospitality Center and more.... Waffle or Pancakes, Sausage, Juice or Coffee. Sunday, December 14th 9:00 am � 2:00 pm Donation $5 Tremont Scoops 2363 Professor Avenue Raffle tickets will be sold and the drawing for the TWiFi Wireless Raffle will be at the Waffle Breakfast. Raffle Tickets available at Tremont Scoops, Grumpy's, Civilization, and Shaker Cycle. The mission of Tremont Wireless Neighborhood Network (TWiFi) is to build a community-based wireless network to provide Internet access to all residents of Tremont. TWiFi is a group of Tremont residents who volunteer their time and believe technology can help build strong communities. TWiFi is a resource for residents and local businesses. Tremont West Development Corporation is the fiscal agent for TWiFi. Please make all contribution payable to TWDC and note TWiFi.

Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert have launched Dodgeball 3.0, a social tool for New Yorkers accessible through the phone, accompanied by New York magazine coverage. Dodgeball has three core features: Guide, Circles, and Scout. The Guide is a simple ratings thing (bars, restaurants), but the interesting things are Circles and Scout, because they deal with the intersection of social life and location. Circles is �I am here. Where are you?� It gives you the mailing list pattern for location: group re-direct of of your location to people in your Circle. Scout is �What is going on near me?� It gives you the ability to shout a message to any subscriber in a 10 block radius, and to listen to other messages broadcast in that same area...

Found an interesting search tool called Eliyon Networking that allows you to see lists of people who have worked at a particular company. Apparently, it scraps the web for data, analyzes and weights in and generates a results page on the fly. For a free, you can search for people currently at a company.

The Monday Plain Dealer Tipoff column a Monday ago regaled us with the "news" that Forest City Enterprise's big cheese Sam Miller, the charitable wonder, was putting together a $50,000 gift basket for Cleveland safety workers... Sam, why not just pay your taxes? Then there will be no need for Cleveland city workers being tossed the payroll at Christmas. Sam told Tipoff, "I read about the layoffs in the paper, and my heart went out to these people who are going to be laid off right before Christmas. How can someone go home for Christmas with no pay envelop." What a guy... If Sam were really interested in the police and firefighters and in the City of Cleveland, he wouldn't have sought tax abatements and deductions in the value of his buildings (while the city, county and federal governments were building everything around his Tower City). Sam's Ritz Hotel got a $7,663,000 UDAG (urban development action grant) with no interest for 20 years. His old Post Office Building received the same deal on $9.2 million. The Tower concourse section of Tower City got $9.7 million and another portion of Tower City got $1,921,258. The payment dates on all these interest-free loans have not been reached yet. Sam's Ritz Hotel also was 100 percent tax abated for 20 years, ending in 2009. By 1995, it was being abated at a value of $9.7 million, costing $623,000 a year, $340,000 from the Cleveland schools. At that average for 20 years it would be $12 million diverted from the schools, city, county and city libraries. Diverted into Sam's pockets. I guess he can afford the $50,000, most of which likely will come from others and for gifts from his Tower City businesses. This is not to mention the tax abatement Miller's interest have at the Halle building, other Tower City buildings. That's to say nothing of the building of the $176-million federal court building constructed behind Tower City and on Miller land. One can't help notice that after his retirement Cong. Louis Stokes, who must have had a say in where a federal building would go, was added to Miller's Forest City Enterprise board of directors. Further, might it not have been less propagandistic to say that Sam, the guy who wants the $400-million Convention Center be built on land to be bought from him, as part of Tower City, owned by him, and to be paid for by all of us, firefighters and police families together.

Heywood Sanders�The reality is that dozens and dozens of cities are building convention centers, all using similar financing, in a market that is not growing... I've looked at a lot convention centers in a lot of cities. Every last one comes wrapped with a set of promises and forecasts, usually from a major accounting firm, that suggests hundreds of thousands will come, stay for many nights, and spend lots of money. If you look seriously at how a great many of the centers around the country actually perform, by and large, it doesn't even come close to the promises... You've got to ask the Missouri question: "Show me." Show me the city that's been turned around by a convention center. Show me the evidence that this has worked. Show me where the consultants did a great job of forecasting the actual performance in city after city after city.

"Diversity makes whole systems possible: You need diverse parts to make a bicycle. A barrel of handlebars won't do the job. Likewise, an ecosystem is made up of diverse species, making up complex food chains and cycles that keep the whole thing going. Relationship, community, interdependence, mutuality -- even the entire economic system with all its different jobs and products and services and forms of exchange -- are all totally dependent on diversity."

"George is wandering Cleveland finding all the Wi-Fi spots. I picture him walking with his laptop, occasionally stopping, and typing 'Can you blog me now?'. It's neat to see Wi-Fi spreading, though my enthusiam is somewhat mitigated by the fact I have no functioning laptop."

"At lunch the other day with local Green Architect, Bill Dodi, talking about the principle of local self-sustainability. This is the idea that an area uses its local talent and natural resources to produce goods and services for local people who use and reuse these goods and services in ways that continue to grow and sustain the local value cycle. The opposite is instances and trends where a local market-ecology tries to use imported talent and resources to produce goods and services for non-local people in ways that grow non-local value cycles - in the process, creating a spiral of local degeneration and unsustainability. Let's use this lens as we think and act on global and local scales."

The mustached man steps out of the Popcorn Shop in Chagrin Falls, clutching a cup of frozen yogurt. His eyes scan passersby. He's looking for that stare of recognition, that sideways glance of familiarity. But no one seems to track him as he walks back toward his car. He climbs in and sets the rest of his frozen dessert onto the passenger seat, next to the oil paints he bought at the art store earlier. A hint of a smile appears. Another successful day of anonymity. Then the man notices the large 4X4 truck parked in front of him. There it is -- that mocking decal, stuck on the back window. It's Calvin, urinating on a Ford logo, grinning with gleeful malice. The man's smile disappears. "My boy," he mutters ruefully. "Oh, my boy." Who knows what Bill Watterson expected out of life once he abruptly stopped drawing Calvin and Hobbes, his wildly successful comic strip, in 1995. Always media-shy, he apparently sought to disappear altogether when he moved back to his hometown of Chagrin Falls. But surely he has seen the sacrilegious sticker -- it seems to be attached to every Chevy in the state.

The Northeast Ohio Competitiveness Initiative is one of six regional efforts designed to improve regional prosperity by developing strong innovation-based economies. At today�s Northeast Ohio summit, EDA Assistant Secretary, Dr. David A. Sampson and Council on Competitiveness president, Deborah L. Wince-Smith joined more than 150 local participants at The Club at Key Center in Cleveland. The program included remarks from University of Akron President Luis Proenza, and Kent State President Carol Cartwright. It also featured break out sessions with national and local leaders. Results of the regional analysis presented at today�s summit identified three critical issues for the region to address: 1.) Filling the Innovation Pipeline: Strategies for Strengthening Regional Research and Technology Development Efforts; 2.) Strengthening NEOs Manufacturing Base: Leveraging Innovation and Global Strategy; and, 3.) Fostering Brain Gain: Developing a Regional Strategy to Attract and Maintain Talent. For each of the three issues, the project team identified national experts who spoke at today�s summit and will provide technical assistance to their efforts.

"Cool Cleveland readers know all the cool places that are underground, off the beaten path and not marketed. Everything from cool restaurants, clubs, ballrooms, galleries, sports, poetry, and more. Tell us what you think is cool about Cleveland. We will incorporate these into our promotional materials for a more authentic view of Cleveland. Your nomination could win a free Cleveland Getaway complete with overnight accommodations, dinner, and tickets to Cleveland attractions."

"Don't make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up." �Tom Watson (founder of IBM)

"Not long ago a strange package arrived from my sister-in-law Becky. Her birthday gift was a device manufactured by Toddy Products of Houston -- little more than a bucket with a hole in the bottom blocked by a filter and a cork. Inside, ground coffee soaks overnight in cold water. When you remove the cork, a thick coffee syrup drains from the bucket into a carafe. You store the concentrated coffee in the refrigerator. When you want a cup, you pour a little into your mug and add boiling water or hot milk. It's incredibly smooth and mellow. Cold processing takes 8 to 12 hours to make the syrup, but it's worth the wait. In that time, you get about 36 cups of delicious 'instant' coffee that also works wonderfully for cold coffee drinks or baking."

[Ed Morrison, the executive director or the Center for Regional Economic Issues] unveiled a new method of thinking about economic development investments in five key areas. Three main sections of this model are investments in Brainpower, Quality Places, and Innovation. At the center of this is Dialogue and Inclusion, because sharing information is crucial in a network economy. Encapsulating all of this is the Branding of these ideas and of the region to attract, as Mohsen Anvari put it, "really talented people" and businesses to feed this system and keep it growing and continuing forward for regional economic growth. The next point that Ed addressed, and the core message behind Thursday's meeting, is Making Change. The fundamental idea of Making Change is to get the information that REI collects and generates out into the streets for everyone to know and use. Our purpose is simple, Ed stated, �we are going to leave the future generations a sustainable, innovative economy that provides opportunities for anyone prepared to grasp them�. This idea, continued Ed, is not from REI, but from the community. For the past three months, we have been conducting workshops and talking to people to see what it is that they want and need. In completing this endeavor, REI has declared rule number 1, �we will behave toward each other in ways to build trust and mutual respect�. Other rules may follow, but this is paramount in ensuring that our networks flourish in a network economy. Trust is a competitive advantage.