Terms To Know

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Common and uncommon terms used by entrepreneurial leaders in open economic networks.

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Civic Forums – are a platform for new experiences in civic engagement. Forums are most effective as weekly, programmed forums gathering business, civic, government, and academic leaders in guided, open discussions focused on information sharing and knowledge exchange for the purpose of building networks and community for transformative enterprise collaboration. Civic Forums Page on I-Open
Civic Space – the civic space occurs at the lateral intersections of social and economic complexity, and is the most volatile, opportunistic situation for transformative innovation to occur. It appears as the area outside the four walls of any organization, comprised of leaders in academia, civic, business, and government who are equally affected by disruptive social, economic and environmental change.
Civic Insight Library – The I-Open Video library is a collection of searchable interviews, stories, conversations, and transcriptions begun as a pilot in 2009. Civic leaders have contributed over 100 interviews, nearly fifty conversations with over 1000 voices participating, and over 150 hours of content to I-Open research. Interviews share civic leader insights, stories of innovation, and strategic investment through the lens of The Innovation Framework. I-Open Video Library on Vimeo
Collaboration -- is the ability to work together toward a goal larger than what is capable by any one member alone. Collaboration in OSED is accelerated by conversations; networks, collaborative leadership and a process called, Strategic Doing - a simple, disciplined process of moving ideas to action quickly.
Collaborative Community –is a networked, co-branded, thematic community that shares information, knowledge, talent, and resources for projects focused on a social and/or economic opportunity. Collaborative communities often result from Civic Forum conversations focused on a next step initiative, sustaining and amplifying activity between face-to-face meetings and who may remain loosely connected to each other.

Convener— Civic Forums are convened by colleges, universities, and libraries; places associated with civility, culture, knowledge, and research. Institutions are stewards of previously gifted industrial economy assets that include buildings, administration systems, parking, cultural artifacts, research and knowledge, inter-generational activity, curriculum, project work spaces, technology and Internet access.
Connector— is a person who, acting as a goodwill intermediary, ‘connects’ people who may or may not know each other via e-mail introduction and/or face-to-face for mutual benefit.
Contextual Communications – I-Open publishes media interviews and conversations across it's technology infrastructure to accelerate member learning and catalyze meaningful social network formation and community building.
Creative Commons License – let people distribute their work under specific conditions. It is increasingly valuable to address accountability in collaboration and multiple, varying, degrees of sharing and co-creating across industries. I-Open publishes all content under the Creative Commons License with Attribution back to the original source. Creative Commons
Economic Development -- is any strategic investment that leads to sustainable communities, including, but not limited to, urban, real estate, social, and community development.
Enterprise Collaboration – is the result of acting with others in an entrepreneurial way to identify new innovation opportunities, locate human talent, and accessing resources connected to civic forum networks, that results in collaborative opportunities for business development.

Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) industry – is a meritocratic community of software developers, their projects, and project teams whose combined enterprise comprises the greater majority of operating systems servicing operations of the World Wide Web. The F/OSS community offers lessons and deep value to civic leaders working in Open Source Economic Development. Wikipedia: F/OSS
Innovation Economy -- an economic model centered on knowledge, technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
The Innovation Framework -- is a heuristic model for a balanced approach to investment in OSED. The Framework is flexible enough to be applied to the health of an individual, business, community, or region. The five areas are: (1) Brainpower; (2) Innovation and Entrepreneurial Networks; (3) Quality, Connected Places; (4) Dialogue and Inclusion; and (5) Branding Stories. The Innovation Framework
"Link and Leverage" -- strategies guide how we invest our time and attention in civic networks. To leverage the value of networks, we begin by "connecting on our similarities and innovating from our differences", says Valdis Krebs, Founder, Orgnet.com. By continually asking, "What can we do together?" and "What are our next steps?" we explore how to re-combine interests and resources to innovate. In OSED, link and leverage strategies allow us to connect closely with specific interests through networks to leverage larger industry goals. A Conversation About Networks With Valdis Krebs on Vimeo
I-Open Civic Process -- is designed for flat, open networked architectures that integrate face-to-face activity and collaborative technologies to attract and grow human knowledge.

Networks – human relationships exchanging knowledge, information about innovation, talent, tools and resources.
Network Weaving -- "A network weaver is someone who is aware of the networks around them and explicitly works to make them healthier (more inclusive, bridging divides) and they do this by connecting people strategically where there's potential for mutual benefit, help people identify their passions, and serve as a catalyst for self-organizing groups." - June Holley, Network Weaver. Networks: Weaving People, Ideas and Projects on Vimeo
Open Conversations – are guided, public conversations that share knowledge and are informed by civic leader insights into aspects of social and economic change and innovation opportunities. Our conversations us today set the direction for what people will do tomorrow. I-Open conversations help people to make important cognitive shifts, such as thinking in terms of networks, to utilize information effectively.
Open Source Economic Development -- Open Source Economic Development (OSED) is a methodology, an inclusive system of practices and tools to advance transformative enterprise opportunities positively affecting education, economic, and workforce development in communities and their regions. OSED happens in the Civic Space. Insights in Open Source Economic Development on Vimeo

Open, neutral spaces -- I-Open builds the open, neutral spaces for new experiences in Civic Forum discussions that, over time, develop a reputation for trust, practices of civility, and non partisan dialogue attracting higher levels of participation, conversation, and contribution.

Strategic Doing – is a simple, but disciplined process based largely on the scientific method of inquiry to connect civic leaders, ideas, and assets to enterprise initiatives. I-Open Co-Founder, Ed Morrison, leads this practice largely at the Purdue Center for Regional Development (PCRD), the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, in collaboration with education, economic, and workforce development leaders and their organizations. Strategic Doing

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