Defrag Ohio takeaways
It's too bad more folks didn't attend Defrag Ohio ("Linking Ohio's Rich Media Resources and Renegades") two weeks ago -- some excellent stuff going on there.
I took that Friday off work and bicycled out to Lorain Community College for the second day of the conference. Very pleased to have gone; heard some inform/inspir-ational presentations and panels, got to meet some greats (like social networking guru Valdis Krebs, a few from The Institute For Open Economic Networks, and multi-faceted Susan Miller,) and enjoyed my rides out and back, despite the wind-tunnel I strained against, and the sickly suburban sprawl further out.
Here are a few take-aways and thoughts from the sessions I attended:
Advancing Education, Research and Economic Development in Renewable Energy: Bill Spratley, (Green Energy Ohio (GEO)), Blake Andres (Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC)):
- American Solar Energy Society and GEO are holding the SOLAR 2007 conference in Cleveland July 7th-12th. All-day the 8th is free and open to the public. (See who's going (and show your interest) on Upcoming.)
- The GLSC is installing a solar array to complement the new wind turbine.
- Ohio is host to 30 of the 50 most polluting coal plants in the US.
- thought: The Science Center has the resources and positioning to transform itself into a center for community discourse around renewable energy and emerging green tech, instead of being just a showcase.
Open Source Meets Open Source Economic Development: Bruce Perens (Sourcelabs), Ed Morrison (iOpen), Valdis Krebs (Orgnet.com), George Nemeth (MeetTheBloggers):
- Your organization will monetize and find success it its differentiation. Open-source (or use open source for) the non-differentiating aspects.
Research: 20 Years of Social Network Analysis: Valdis Krebs (Orgnet.com):
- Social connectedness within an organization correlates to commitment to that organization.
- Innovation happens at network intersections.
- Who needs to be introduced to whom? For example: A good bridge in a network can become a bottleneck if too much traffic must pass through them. Directly connect the people between which this bridge is the only connection.
- thought: With many web organizations opening up their data (web 2.0 companies with open APIs, Google Groups, open source project revision control systems, etc.), there's opportunity for (low-cost) large-scale analysis.
- thought: Orgnet's InFlow software could be amazingly useful in re-defining how we understand and view social interaction on all sorts of levels, if made more accessible and extendable. Orgnet's no longer alone in the industry; the field is growing and other solutions are emerging. I'd love to see InFlow open-sourced, or at least made to be web-based and extensible. Orgnet can monetize on differentiators of experience, expertise, and consultation, and allow the tool widespread use and evolution.
Strategic Doing: Open Source, Collaborative Leadership and Social Networks: Ed Morrison (iOpen)
- Everyone's got an idea or two about what needs to be done to strengthen the region. How do we aggregate these ideas and passions? The aggregates are the really important things, and, made material, will gain critical mass.
comments
Jeff,
Nice to meet you again in Lorain. Thanks for the link to my multifaceted blog entries. Today I have been working on spreading the word about lead poisoning in our schools, yesterday on the on research in the arts, Monday on phytoremediation on the newly bare lots in the city of Cleveland and water quality issues -- downspout disconnects. It is a multi-faceted world and dividing it in a Cartesian manner no longer works. Though it may be a big picture, we will all have to adjust our sights to see a bigger interconnected vision of our world. Networking is a start. Hope to see your comments on realneo someday soon... Hello to Jenita, too.
-- Susan Miller (April 26, 2007 10:52 AM)
Cleveland needs more phytoremediators like you, Susan!
See you around...
-- jeffschuler (May 1, 2007 10:58 AM)
While the intent for conference was good, sessions were not well organized or maintained; sessions ran over, there appeared not to be one general 'host' to help drive the timing and setup of speakers. Didn't appear that there was good communication with speakers (as to where they were going to be, etc.) and it appeared as though there was too much scheduled over too long of a time (3) days which took away the 'splash' of the conference. I would suggest less conflicting sessions, maybe have 2 max at same time and really drive attendance. This was extremely poorly attended. Some sessions had no attendees while others had a dismal turnout. The panel discussion - while intent was good - left me puzzled as to why you had the four speakers...I got Bruce P. and Ed M. but the other two really did not fit and felt that this was a distraction to the entire session. It kept session from truly being as valuable as it could have been and some of the consensus was feeling sorry for such a presence in having someone like Bruce P. - he looked confused as to where he was supposed to be and i felt the topic misleading given the other two up there.
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Seema
-- seema (August 9, 2008 1:46 AM)