It is critical the people and organizations of Northeast Ohio become effective working with open source software. This will support moving all our people across the digital divide (Open Source is free) and prepare our workforce to participate in the evolving global Information Technology economy, which is increasingly build with open source.
Whether hosting open source servers or coding in PHP, there is already a growing need for related talent here and, as the supply of talented open source professionals grows, more people and organizations will become aware of the opportunity offered by open source and demand for such professionals will increase.
To get the ball rolling, we need to distribute Linux to students and teach them how to use it and related applications (OpenOffice, GIMP, etc.). We need to develop more informal and formal training and classes in these matters in secondary, graduate and non-traditional learning environments. And those of us working in the IT space here need to lead by example.
I believe the result will be a more sophisticated, desirable, valuable workforce and lower cost public and private economies that will attract and retain people, organizations, enterprises and business, which will lead to NEO being a world center of IT
Links:
[1] http://66.228.45.157/forum/controling-access-to-the-internet
[2] http://66.228.45.157/forum/toxic-plume-from-haz-waste-fire-released-in-cuyahoga-urban-air