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Saturday the 26^th of August was a day of firsts: It was our first MTB foray into the Toledo area and Lucas County, our first convivial cup at Downtown Latte, our first session discussing open-source software in the context of community building, and our first field trip to Tony Packo’s — not to mention the first time ever we saw the face of Ben Konop, an engaging young man who’s recently returned home from Washington to run for county commissioner. When it comes to running an internet campaign, this guy is an early adapter; the first 2 pages of Ben’s Google-dom reveal the following:

ü His website: http://www.benkonop.com/

ü His blog: http://www.benkonop.blogspot.com/

ü Ben in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Konop

ü Ben’s profile on Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/profile/18227055

ü Ben on MeetTheBloggers, next to old dude with purse: http://www.meetthebloggers.net/2006/08/28/meet-the-bloggers-ben-konop/

ü Ben on Daily KOS: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2004/10/5/154456/026

ü Ben at Ohio Northern University: http://www.law.onu.edu/faculty/konop/

ü Ben on Toledo Talk: http://www.toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/comments.pl/16/2289

ü Ben at Brian Patton’s: http://brianpatton.org/2005/01/14/prof-ben-konop/

ü Ben at BFD: http://www.brewedfreshdaily.com/2006/08/27/downtown-latte-tony-packos-ben-konop/

ü Ben at Answers.com: http://www.answers.com/topic/ben-konop

ü Ben talking at The Nookular Option: http://nookularoption.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=120478

ü Ben at Give It Back, George!: http://www.giveitbackgeorge.com/

Are you getting the picture yet? Ben’s also spending most of his time walking door to door and listening, listening, listening to the constituents. He also has the encouragement and support of Marcy Kaptur, with whom he’s worked since he was 17—about 13 years.

So what did we talk about? Open Source and OpenOffice (the old StarOffice from Sun Microsystems), for starters, proposed by George after an inspection of Ben’s campaign site; Ben proposes this as one way of putting Lucas County “on the cusp,�? a position it hasn’t had for a while. They’re doin’ it in Europe, in Madrid and in Bristol, England; they’re gearing up at the Department of Defense (DoD), it’s safer from viruses, and it can save the county about $1,000,000.00 every three years in software licensing fees. The county auditor felt compelled to start a witch-hunt to counteract such foolishness; spending less may mean less to audit, but who can speak to motive here? And, despite this troglodytic stance on the part of the auditor, Toledo is recently reported as one of the 10 “most un-wired�? cities in an Intel wifi survey.

We took off from talking about Connie and Pam and their Downtown Latte venture to touching on local production for local consumption, “sense of place,�? the study of Thackeray’s bookstore versus Borders, keeping profits in the regional economy, Richard Florida, local flavor, distinct character, unique propositions, networking opportunities, underutilization along the Maumee, J.R. at ToledoTalks.com, the 125 acres of the Marina District, The West End, Owens Corning, The University of Toledo, the Glass Pavilion, Owens Illinois, Perrysburg, regional poaching, accounting and Steve McCracken at OI, Marcy Kaptur, the spread-out 4^th District, Ada Ohio, megafarms, issues discovered door-to-door, John Savage (one of our heroes and role models) and holistic venture capital, ground zero for CoinGate, home of Tom Noe the native son, bribes in scandalous Toledo where “the system has turned sleazier than normal,�? his role models and support staff, voting “in the interests of his community,�? Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, his college thesis, Winston Churchill, David Garrow and Bearing the Cross, Emory University’s Oxford program, basketball recruitment as a point guard, the work ethic, the dynamics of being in front of a crowd, Wood County, Al Baldwin, Kerry and Edwards, Chris Redfern and BGSU, the upcoming limited-just-to-education debates of the gubernatorial candidates, leapfrogging, incubators, Toledo’s excellent geographic location, the $6M of Earned Income Tax Lucas County people leave on the table, Sherrod Brown, NYC’s $100M benefit, Michael Bloomberg, 3-year backdating on the earned income tax, the Sylvania road-work boondoggle, a county master plan, “political rhetoric,�? Ben’s ability to come from behind to win, his distinction of being a first since Roosevelt, Mike Oxley, and Brennan Financial’s advisors.

This was a good interview, and we - George, Gloria and Tim, and YellowDogSammy - adjourned to TonyPackoLand before the quick hop back to Cleveland. Ben is exceptional. Check the links. Listen to the podcast. Again, hear the future.

Part 1. Time: 12.25
Part 2. Time: 18.21
Part 3. Time: 19.08
Part 4. Time: 16.16
Part 5. Time: 14.18

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