MIDDLETOWN – Back in February at the scheduled Middletown Area Town Hall (MATH) meeting a presentation was made where "Tools and Strategies to Move MATH Forward" were presented.

Three CDs were handed out to help better educate the audience. The idea was that those three CDs would be viewed, the information learned and each one of those CDs would be physically shared with three other people in the same manner. That means nine people would have more knowledge at the end of the month than they did at the beginning. Then, at the March meeting, those three people would return with the CDs and the process would be begin all over again with three new people. And, on and on.

This is the "pay it forward" approach for spreading knowledge. The process does not require a lot of people to work. It does, however, require passionate people. In the business world, this process is often referred to as "netweaving."

The content of that CD has recently been transformed into an online lens to speed up the learning process and make the information more accessible to more of the community online 24/7. You can view this information yourself at www.squidoo.com/TMMF. However, it should be pointed out that this information is not simply good for Middletown. It can benefit any community that truly desires to move itself forward.

Three things are crucial to get the process rolling effectively:

1) Care. If people do not "care" about the process, it is futile to try to implement it. Just look at how long it has taken to get a viable town hall going in Middletown. Caring matters.

2) Connect. No one can throw a ball to himself. A caring person needs to connect with another caring person in order for his caring to be beneficial. Local high school students had to reach out to the Interent in 2006 to entice the Fox News Channel to come for "Middletown Days." There simply was not adequate interest expressed by the local adult community to bring this history-making event to fruition.

3) Design. Throwing a ball to the wrong person is a waste of time. It is important to know who can help you get where you want to go.

One of the people who can get Middletown where it needs to go is Kevin Comora, president of Vizicast Multimedia. Comora introduced Middletown to the wonders of digital signage back in September of last year at a Middletown Merchants mixer, held in the Multi-Use Room of the Middletown High School.

Did anyone "care" about what Comora had to offer? Did Comora "connect" with any important decision-makers regarding the implementation of digital signage in the area? Is there now a "design" to bring digital signage to Middletown? According to Lake County Chief Administrator Officer Kelly Cox, he and Comora are now discussing the benefits of digital signage. This is a major breakthrough when you consider Lake County has a moratorium on billboard signage and has never even had as much as an opinion regarding digital signage on its books.

Amazingly, digital signage can actually further reduce the total number of billboards in Lake County and at the same time increase the number of advertising messages being spread.

The times demand change ... and change may be coming – even to Middletown.

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