The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)

OVERVIEW
Compiled and written by Betsey Merkel, Co-Founder and Director, I-Open
2010
The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)
4415 Euclid Avenue Suite 301
Cleveland, Ohio 44103

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open), 4415 Euclid Ave Suite 306,
Cleveland, Ohio 44103 Phone: 216-220-0172 Web:
https://sites.google.com/site/instituteopeneconomicnetworks/
 2

Overview

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit
educational economic development organization based in Northeast Ohio with a
national and global reach. I-Open is a learning sharing organization engaged in
the ongoing experimentation of new practices and tools in Open Source
Economic Development (OSED) to advance transformative enterprise positively
affecting education, economic, and workforce development in communities and
their regions. To fulfill its purpose, I-Open conducts programs, which may
include, for example: community forums and seminars on Open Source
Economic Development; discussions in economic development; and student
internships. Strategic activities focus on research, networks, enterprise, and
education. I-Open developed and deployed what I known as “Civic Forums” and
“Strategic Doing”, two symbiotic methods for identifying innovation and building
open economic networks in Open Source Economic Development for regional
transformation.

I-Open’s Business Model - we organize as a hub and spoke.

Our business model is based on a small, multi-skilled core team connected to a

larger talent and resource network capable of recombining to advance changing,
strategic opportunities. Activities are guided by I-Open Principles, guiding
investment of a civic leader's most valuable assets, time and attention. I-Open
publishes research, builds strategic open networks to share knowledge, and
leads by creating in response to weak signals, trends, and emergent industry
opportunities in collaboration with individuals and organizations. Civic forums are
one type of deliverable from our activities.

I-Open Principles – we are guided by a simple set of rules.

We have a simple vision: We will leave to future generations regional economies

that are creative, innovative and sustainable with opportunities for any individual
prepared to grasp them.

We are pursuing a simple strategy: Brainpower matters. Our regions will be

transformed by open networks of innovation and collaboration with colleges,
universities, libraries and schools as nodes in these networks.

We have a simple credo: We will prosper by treating each other in ways that
build respect and trust.

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)
4415 Euclid Ave Suite 306, Cleveland, Ohio 44103 Phone: 216-220-0172 Web:
https://sites.google.com/site/instituteopeneconomicnetworks/
 3

We have a simple purpose: I-Open will help facilitate the transformation already
underway in regions across our country. We will teach and share the best ideas
we can find to build open innovation networks to accelerate regional economic
development.

I-Open Vision – we are informed by transformative initiatives.

Global leader in helping advanced regions to achieve sustainable economic

growth.

Our success will depend on our ability to generate transformative solutions that
grow stronger with replication and scale.

I-Open Mission - we are an educational resource for communities and regions.

Provide civic leaders with the best practices and tools for transforming advanced
regional economies and promoting sustainable growth.

Organizational Model – we connect to individual initiative and shared assets.

I-Open’s organizational model is based on core directors acting in tandem and/or

independently to engage business, organization, and government leaders in
funded collaborative enterprise projects. Costs are limited to time and out-of-
pocket expenses with a percentage of earnings returned to I-Open for operations
and attribution compensation, making cost of organization expenses efficient and
shared. I-Open publishes under a Creative Commons License with Attribution
(this means anyone can re-use I-Open materials, but must publish credit to the
original source).

I-Open Strategic Activities – we focus on a set of tasks and pragmatic next

steps.

Research. – Create and grow a portfolio of actionable hypotheses about open

innovation systems in regional economies

Networks. – Develop collaborative networks that accelerate regional economic

development

Products. – Create and market a portfolio of products and services that generate
revenues from regional economic development initiatives

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)
4415 Euclid Ave Suite 306, Cleveland, Ohio 44103 Phone: 216-220-0172 Web:
https://sites.google.com/site/instituteopeneconomicnetworks/
 4

Education. – Penetrate business and public policy schools with advanced

regional economic development curriculum and activities

Evaluation – we measure success with simple milestones.

o The number of dialogues (civic forums) we successfully convene

o The number of seminars and workshops we sponsored and convene
o The number of leadership training workshops we sponsor and convene
o The number of collaborative online communities we develop
o The number of expanded (existing) networks and new networks we
develop

In addition, we will measure the quality of these activities based on evaluation

feedback from participants.

Thought Leadership and Practitioner Network – we evolve through

redevelopment, reinvention, and redistribution.

I-Open has engaged in conversation with hundred’s of people to talk about

thought economies in the Civic Space. As a non-profit organization involved in
open source practices, the I-Open network builds on and evolves other people’s
contributions, and models and encourages new behaviors. I-Open believes that
Brainpower is the most important asset, which is to be shared. In appreciation,
we highlight a summary of I-Open thought leaders (below) and extend thanks to
all those not listed here.

I-Open draws upon the knowledge and practice of leaders Bruce Perens,
Founder of the Free/Open Source Software industry; economist and political
scientist, Joseph Schumpeter, who popularized the term “creative destruction”;
American philosopher and logician, Charles Sanders Peirce’s work in the theory
of inquiry, categories, and pragmatism; modern economic development
practitioner, Ed Morrison, who donated much of what is Open Source Economic
Development and the process “Strategic Doing” to I-Open and continues as a
proponent of I-Open principles and practices; and the late Richard Shatten,
Executive Director, and Paul Gottlieb, Director, Center for Regional Economic
Issues (REI), Case Western Reserve University. I-Open activity is influenced by
contemporary leaders Bill MacDermott, civic leader in solar power; Curt Lindberg,
Chief Learning and Science Officer, Plexus Institute, Complexity Science; Gloria
Ferris, civic leader in government process and Blogger; George Nemeth, civic
Leader in technology and Blogger; Jack Ricchiuto, DesigningLife; June Holley,
Network Weaving; the late Matthew Theobald, CEO, Internous and Founder,

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)
4415 Euclid Ave Suite 306, Cleveland, Ohio 44103 Phone: 216-220-0172 Web:
https://sites.google.com/site/instituteopeneconomicnetworks/
 5

Internet search Environment Number (ISEN) and the semantic Web; Peter Gloor,
Research Scientist, MIT, COINs-collaborative innovation networks and Cool
Trends 2.0, trend identification software; Scott Crawford, Writer and Brand
Strategist; Valdis Krebs, CEO, InFlow, relational social network mapping and
analysis; Betsey Merkel, Dennis Coughlin, Susan Altshuler, Co-Founders and
Directors, I-Open; and many others.

Our Work

I-Open Civic Forums introduce, teach and coach Strategic Doing principles to
accelerate network building, collaboration, and strengthen entrepreneurial
culture.

Strategic Doing is for individuals, organizations, and businesses in communities

and regions. Strategic Doing is a simple, but disciplined process to move ideas to
action quickly. It is based on Appreciative Inquiry: connecting the insights and
innovations of civic leaders to assets for transformative initiatives.

Examples

I-Open Civic Forums create the open, neutral spaces for new conversations to
take place focused on powerful issues affecting communities and their regions.
Conversations help people share information and connect to accelerate the
growth of transformative, entrepreneurial enterprise.

A regular schedule of I-Open Civic Forums attracts people, strengthens

collaborative behaviors, builds open networks and community, generates asset
inventory, and accelerates enterprise. Successful civic forum processes are
cyclical, evolutionary, and may catalyze other emergent thematic conversations.
Consider this evolution of I-Open Civic Forums in Northeast Ohio:

In early 2006, I-Open, in collaboration with Myers University, a Cleveland, Ohio

university now called “Chancellor University” hosted “Midtown Wednesdays,” a
weekly I-Open Civic Forum funded with the support of a small City of Cleveland
grant to strengthen economic development activity in Midtown Cleveland, a two
mile wide urban core of the city.

Link: http://realneo.us/content/midtown-wednesdays-marketing-and-branding-
innovation-zones-telling-midtown-story

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)
4415 Euclid Ave Suite 306, Cleveland, Ohio 44103 Phone: 216-220-0172 Web:
https://sites.google.com/site/instituteopeneconomicnetworks/
 6

From Midtown Wednesdays, “Midtown Mornings” formed, an early morning

coffee and bagels gathering for civic entrepreneurs led by Cleveland marketing
and branding company, Boondock Walker, to connect leaders interested in
designing projects to revitalize urban Cleveland.

Link: http://midtownwednesdays.pbworks.com/MidtownMornings

From Midtown Mornings, “Midtown Brews” was created by a small group of

business, civic, and government leaders interested in identifying and connecting
technology businesses in Northeast Ohio. Webtego and Insivia, two Cleveland
based technology companies, hosted Midtown Brews. In the second and third
year of the program the Midtown Brews community expanded conversations to
include creativity and energy, land, food, water, transportation, civic service,
culture, creativity, spirituality, and Futuring.

Link: http://midtownbrews.net/overview/welcome

In July 2008, I-Open launched a second civic forum called, “Let’s Talk!” in
partnership with Judson Smart Living and the Women’s Enterprise Network, an I-
Open online community of women dedicated to the empowerment of one
another. These intergenerational broadcast conversations were co-led by Judson
residents whose average age of ninety years old brought deep insights, and
wise, experienced perspectives on the economic contributions and insights
women bring to education, economic, and workforce development. Women from
other parts of the nation and globe frequently joined “Let’s Talk!” live broadcasts
and contributed to the conversation on chat, sharing experiences, insights, and
building relationships focused on economic development.

Link: http://womens-enterprise-network.strategy-nets.net

Network Feedback

“@BillNigh: Talk to Open Source maven @betseymerkel about how she is

enabling loosely coupled communities of interest to change our world.” – Bill
Nigh, IT/Web Contractor, Course Developer, Trainer, Writer,
http://www.twitter.com/billnigh, New York City, N.Y.

“I-Open Civic Forums give people hope.” – David Moss, Director, FUTURE
@The Cleveland Institute of Art

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)
4415 Euclid Ave Suite 306, Cleveland, Ohio 44103 Phone: 216-220-0172 Web:
https://sites.google.com/site/instituteopeneconomicnetworks/
 7

“I-Open is a sophisticated center of civic dialogue that furthers the community’s

understanding and engagement of issues.” - Gary Murphy, Professor of
Undergraduate Economics Program at Case Western Reserve University in
Cleveland, Ohio

“In November 2006 when Meet The Bloggers joined the Midtown Brews
collaborative, I had no idea of where the conversations would lead. The ongoing
relationships forged by these monthly get togethers have been nothing short of
amazing. Beyond the conversation is where the true value of Midtown Brews
lives.” - Gloria Ferris, Meet The Bloggers

"Your volume on 'The Role of COINs in the Civic Space' is impressive and well
structured and thought through." – Graham Leicester, Director, International
Futures Forum, Glasgow, Scotland

"I have been listening to some of the interviews and have found them touching
my thoughts and heart. I look forward to contributing to the community." - Jackie
Stevenson, CEO, The Spirit of Leadership LLC, Cleveland, Ohio

“As Midtown Brews host, Webtego has strengthened and built new connections,
enhanced the company’s visibility, and positively affected new business
opportunities. Open conversations help small to medium businesses meet the
challenges that we face in 2008 and beyond” - Jeff Friedman, Owner, Webtego

"I-Open is a dynamic missionary organization for the new economic model of

collaboration...in a world of dwindling resources, the old model of wasteful
competition is no longer appropriate. I-Open suggests ways to pursue non-
destructive win/win scenarios, which are good for society." – Jim Herget, James
Herget Ltd"

Hi, I am only starting to discover what amazingly rich content and ideas u have
on I-Open!" - stevebanhegyi on Twitter - Facilitator & Media Developer at
www.storytelling.co.za and ThoughtFormz.com, Johannesburg Area, South
Africa

Support for I-Open – I-Open seeks partners to design networks for funded
collaborations.

I-Open is supported through foundation, community, and funded project work.

Our leadership team brings a combined experience of more than 64 years in
managing funded projects.

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)
4415 Euclid Ave Suite 306, Cleveland, Ohio 44103 Phone: 216-220-0172 Web:
https://sites.google.com/site/instituteopeneconomicnetworks/
 8

Thank you! Please contact us at:

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)

4415 Euclid Ave Suite 306
Cleveland, Ohio 44103

Phone: 216-220-0172

Visit our website at: https://sites.google.com/site/instituteopeneconomicnetworks/

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)
4415 Euclid Ave Suite 306, Cleveland, Ohio 44103 Phone: 216-220-0172 Web:
https://sites.google.com/site/instituteopeneconomicnetworks/