The following is an “open letter” to the readers of the PASCAL website.  This follows my reading of a white paper (Open Innovation 2.0: A New Paradigm) composed by Martin Curley and Bror Salmelin, which I shared in a posting on 15 July.

During a recent gathering hosted by the University of South Africa, PASCAL Co-Director Paul Crawford (Northern Illinois University) had the opportunity to visit the Soweto YMCA. Soweto (an abbreviation for South Western Townships) is an urban area incorporated in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, and is remembered as the locus of student-led anti-Apartheid protests in 1976. Soweto also gave birth to Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. For these and many other reason, Soweto has a "sense of place" where social capital and learning are of the essence.

At The Atlantic Cities (Place Matters), Richard Florida has been sharing reports on class divides across America's largest cities and metros.  These reports examine the residential locations of today's three major classes: the shrinking middle of blue-collar workers; the rising ranks of the knowledge, professional, and creative class; and the even larger and faster-growing ranks of lower-paid, service workers, using detailed data from the American Community Survey.

I've hardly ever seen anyone make a comment on the PASCAL website.  I find this disheartening -- and I implicate myself (although I've replied a couple of times).  When an organization exists to stimulate "community engagement" but ends up being chockfull of folks who DO NOT engage with each other it is time to see some provocation.  

Consider yourself provoked!  

A webinar on BUILDING REGIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP SYSTEMS will be held in the United States on Thursday, January 31, 2013 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., U.S. Central Time (17:00 - 18:30 UTC/GMT).  This event is supported by a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to the bi‐state “State of Ingenuity” (SOI) regional collaborative.  This is the first in a series of webinars that is being developed by Northern Illinois University in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin‐Whitewater, the SOI project coordinator, and other SOI partners.  The SOI region has a membership with PASCAL International Observatory.