One Cleveland and Case Western, thanks to Lev Gonick, have really put the Cleveland community on the map as one of the world's top 'intelligent communities'.  This was, in large part due to excellence in defining IT infrastructure and strategic planning.   This is a significant follow up to Intel corporation's designation of Cleveland as one of its top three "worldwide digital communities," due in large part to the impact of OneCleveland.

Read the article in detail here. 

Now is the time to leverage this news and really champion an unprecedented effort to embrace cutting edge Open Source technology that best facilitates the anticipated shifts toward a culture of social computing.  This can only augment and enhance the region's effectiveness in terms of sustainabile economic development. As Economic Development Guru Ed Morrison has long maintained - positive economic development happens in the civic space - and antiquated , top-down, command-and-control models are no longer effective facilitators in this scheme.  It is the collaborative, transparent, and sharing nature of Open Source IT that fits optimally with a strategy of Open Source Economic Development.  

    The time for change is  NOW and the strategy is just unfolding.  REALNEO is no longer ahead of its time - but at the right place, at the right time. The movement toward these OS models has started to gain significant traction.

This is nicely supplemented by a significant increase in activity in the sustainability arena : people are finally realizing that strategies involving sustainable implementations, renewable energies, and resource conservation are right on.  These are truly exciting times!