The foundation for each has been affordable rent for both live and work, public transportation or ease-of-movement (foot, bike), decent schools, cheap yet good food, and easy access to transportation hubs to be accessible to, and to connect with, the greater area. These elements attract boot-strapping creative professionals who both live and work locally, and lead towards greater prosperity, not only for themselves, but for their overall neighborhood (increased property values, greater choice of services, more infrastructure attention, safer streets).

Google’s new FastFlip news “reading” tool is a giant robot sent to crush the “real” people, the peer-to-peer peeps, using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to share news links. The people will prevail!

A strong solution to the ills of our current economic disaster, and the way to assist the 9.7% of residents now out of work, is to get creative. I’m urging creative leaders to step up, to match themselves with producers, with engineers, with do-ers to get this economy turned around…

Trends swing like a pendulum, creating waves of fashion, art, culture, business, you name it…there is a cycle to trends (if not everything). In order to find, uncover and act on burgeoning innovations I visualize this cycle (as the folliwng slides will display) and play with this visualization as a “game.” You can use almost any trend, idea, history, business for this game and see what you uncover. Let’s set-up the game-board:

Instead of opening your idea up to the entire world, offer participation to a trusted “cluster” of people.

The recent analysis of YouTube’s earning potential by Credit Suisse (reported here and here) points to a big red blot of ink, YouTube is losing lots of money, remains totally subsidized by Google earnings…

Technology can be a friend to creatives, offering them tools to enrich their creative process. However technology is not a friend to the produce, which enables copy/paste virality by the millions. In order to compensate, Creatives need a shiftable “value grade”

In social media, however, since there is less “real” money in play (time and effort vs. $dollars in investment) being “spent” within an immense amount of uncharted waters, delusions are freely adopted (mermaids!)…

Let’s take Twitter. Their search difference-maker is the natural data of their system; followers and friends. Currently I’ll search for “lost” and I can see who is talking about it.

An Expansive Creative Economy (ECE) is a forward thinking creative cycle that rejuvenates neighborhoods and launches economies that grow.