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Ideas Unleashed Your Ideas... Our Support
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
Ideas Unleashed provides an easy to use web based communication platform to serve the needs of a variety of communities of interest to achieve shared learning, collaborative activity with an eye toward developing public policy change and support.
URL:
http://ideasunleashed.org
City:
Elyria
State/Region:
Ohio
Country:
United States
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
Ideas Unleashed was established to provide an inexpensive, easy-to-use web-based communication platform to serve the needs of a variety of communities of interest to achieve shared learning, collaborative activity with an eye toward developing public policy change and support. The structure of the platform will facilitate conversation across national boundaries and time zones. It will bring the world to Lorain County.
Established in 2006, Ideas Unleashed is a not for profit oraganization that provides free or inexpensive social software tools (blogs, wikis, webcasts and podcasts), as well as the training and support necessary to use these tools, to educators, civic leaders, and the local philanthropic sector in order that these clients may create collaborations in and amongst their communities as well as around the globe.Content for the shows produced by Ideas Unleashed come from the non-profit educational and philanthropic sectors, which have demonstrated a need for a platform to discuss issues of common concern. One example, developed in collaboration with other social software advocates and the Nord Family Foundation, is called EducationBridges (http://www.educationbridges.org). In January 2006, The Nord Family Foundation piloted the concept. For several months teachers from Lorain County as well as educators from the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, the SMART Consortium engaged in discussion and problem solving with teachers in the U.S. (especially teachers from areas of geographic interest to The Nord Family Foundation) as well as South America, Africa and Asia. In less than four weeks, this site received over 2,000 hits from people all over the world. A second example is Language Lab Unleashed (http://languagelabunleashed.com) which uses blogs and broadcasting to reach teachers in the language field.Ideas Unleashed will market the service by making it available to a variety of not for profit organizations and/or non-formal affiliations of community members such as teachers, day care providers, social service providers, as well as men and women from around the world who share common interests.Ideas Unleashed provides a secondary service. In addition to a communication platform, it is linked with the Lorain County Community College and is used as an incubator to train young people from a community in the nations “rust belt” for practical applications of web-based communication tools as a means of practical job training
Sustainability (financial) model:
Ideas Unleashed was granted monies by two small family foundations for initial start up costs. These funds allow us to provide a suite of tools and the necessary support for 6 month period for each of our clients. At the end of 6 months, the clients will be asked to secure outside funding to continue this support.Ideas Unleashed is partnering with Entrepreneurship Innovation Institute EII (formerly known as the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise – GLIDE) on the grounds of Lorain County Community College. The agreement with EII allows the Ideas Unleashed organization to have free access to offices space and high speed dark fiber in exchange for creating two jobs for residents in Lorain County. To date, Ideas Unleashed has hired five people. In addition EII provides all administrative back-office activities such as handling paychecks and the like. There is an office space for small conferences and a large conference center at the Community College that we have already used for the first training summit.LCCC is also partnering with the University of Toledo and their Masters in Computer Engineering program. The University of Toledo has a need to find internships, work experience and jobs for their students during as well as after the completion of their degree programs. Ideas Unleashed has hire two students from this program to serve as technical support personnel.
Potential obstacles:
Ideas Unleashed was developed from tools and conversations primarily among educators who are very adept at using the tools and accustomed to writing. We did not anticipate the amount of time required for adults in a non-educational setting to adapt to the technology. In our initial summit which included fourteen nonprofit leaders, www.ideasunleashed.org/summit the participants were required to bring laptops and not only understand the tools but could see immediate application to their work. Shortly after the meetings we were asked to come to each organization to go through the process again in a more intensive hands-on training. There is a fear or lack of confidence among adult users that have caused us to readjust the time required for person-to-person training. This challenge has caused us to readjust our assumptions about the time in which the organizations would actually be able to implement the tools and pay for the service. At Ideas Unleashed we have readjusted our original budget and have asked for additional foundation support for the elongated first phase.
Resource Needs:
We see great interest on the part of community foundations to not only support, but use these tools to increase interaction with grantees and to foster communication among the nonprofit organizations they support. We have approached two community foundations and requested support such that our organization can serve as a partner with them in fostering these conversations. We anticipate providing the services on a fee-for-service basis.
Key Milestones:
We have successfully met our own milestones in the first 180 days of operation.Secured local office space through the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE) at Lorain County Community College (LCCC).
Purchased, installed, and configured server and broadcasting equipment and accessories in collaboration with GLIDE, LCCC, and Microsystems USA.Purchased, installed, and connected sound system for broadcasting and recording of skype conversations.Produced 7 episodes of Language Lab Unleashed; 5 episodes of Issues in EarlyChildhood Education; 8-10 trainings and demonstrations (“sandboxes”) for non-profits in the Education and Social Services sectors.Developed and supported online communication platforms for nine organizations, including six from Northeast Ohio, one from the Columbia SC area, and one from the Boston MA area.Created and filled five half-time positions with Lorain County residents.Received a grant from the Stocker Foundation in the amount of $ 15,000 to help fund our general operations budget.Secured a grant from the Upper Valley Teachers Institute in the amount of $42,000 to develop e-portfolios to facilitate collaboration among participating teachers.Currently, we are actively searching for two additional part-time employees to meet existing demand and expect to add at least one full-time position in the next six months.Our greatest success to date is the 1st Annual Ideas Unleashed Summit which was held on Saturday, January 20th at the Spitzer Conference Center at Lorain County Community College. This summit hosted eleven non-profit organizations from all types of program areas, including education, health and social services as well as the arts. This event was a training session to teach organizations how to share information and stream-line the way they connect with their fellow colleagues. It was such a success that we plan to host another event in the summer of 2007 and every quarter there after. On May 22, 2007 will provide a customized training session for a DC-based education outreach organization that will use the tools to connect teachers from around the country who have used their services. This session will be supported by a local foundation.Over the next ninety days, we plan to finalize agreements for financial support from two community foundations. We are currently in negotiation with another funder who will pay to use the platform to support conferences on mental health in NE Ohio. We anticipate seeking support from additional foundations and nonprofits to provide services on a fee-for-service basis.
Project Summary:
Ideas Unleashed is a newly formed not for profit organization in Lorain County that will function for the first year under the Entrepreneurship Innovative Institute at Lorain County Community College. Ideas Unleashed will provide an inexpensive, easy-to-use web-based communication platform to serve the needs of a variety of communities of interest to achieve shared learning and collaborative activity with an eye toward developing public policy change and support. The structure of the platform will facilitate conversation across national boundaries and time zones. It will bring the world to Lorain County. It will also create jobs for students at the Lorain County Community College/University of Toledo engineering program.
