Big Idea

WHAT'S THE big theme for the 2007 mayor's race? Whenever I try to come up with one, it turns into a list of important but (let's face it) tired issues: crime and taxes and schools and so on. Those issues matter, but we need a theme to organize our priorities and hold our attention. Eight years ago, I argued that depopulation and its consequences was the big theme for whoever succeeded Ed Rendell. The defining fact of Philadelphia then was this: A city of less than 1.5 million residents can't sustain the infrastructure of a city built for more than 2 million.

What it means, and why it's a good thing:   We used to call it "regionalism. " But, these days, that word comes with baggage: While some make it their life's work (like the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission), others dismiss it as a goal, and many are just tired of hearing the word. But in a new age of energy and sustainability and the need to "silo-bust," the idea that communities can achieve more by working together than by acting like islands has never been more relevant.

Here's the problem. You're a biotechnology firm with a great idea you know could make you rich. But you need cash to bring it to market. So you find yourself a partner with deep pockets to foot the bill. Almost as fast as you can say abracadabra your great idea now belongs largely to your well-endowed colleague. And wealth may elude you yet again. This is the dilemma young biotechnology firms face all the time. They risk reaping the full value of their ideas by seeking alliances with larger pharmaceutical or chemical companies that have money and time to invest.

CN8, the regional TV channel carried only on Comcast Corp. cable systems, looks as if it's about to become something. The question is, what? Tomorrow, the locally produced channel makes a huge growth spurt, going live on cable systems that serve 2.2 million homes from Maine to Connecticut, many of which Comcast absorbed in its acquisition of AT&T Broadband. Breaking out beyond the Mid-Atlantic region for the first time, CN8's mix of public affairs and local sports will extend to a total of 6.2 million homes.

In this city, it's not often you can implement a good idea without getting bogged down in bureaucratic mumbo jumbo or political mishmash. Let's face it, simple and effective is not something Philadelphia does well, what with its haze of antiquated agencies, undermining union obstacles, and pat-down political patronage. Too often, Philly is where good ideas go to die. That's why the idea the University of Pennsylvania had three years ago to have its students participate in an on-campus competition to develop practical public policy plans for the city is so refreshing.

The big idea: What Conde described at this year's World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, as "the last nail in the coffin of the imperial CEO. " He foresees a new direction in organizational dynamics that gives workers authority to green-light their colleagues' best ideas, taking the boss largely out of the loop. Wayne-based SunGard Data Systems Inc. uses what it calls a "collaboration architecture" - a software system and mindset - to let employees direct their own projects.

For Laurada Byers, life goes on. It has to, if the life of her slain husband and Daily News columnist W. Russell G. Byers is to have lasting meaning. "I'm not so much into observing his death as I am celebrating his life," she said. "His life is the thing that was most important. " So, last year she marked the first anniversary of her soulmate's senseless Dec. 4, 1999, stabbing death, with a family outing to two of their favorite places - Longwood Gardens and the nearby Hank's Restaurant.

The big idea: Most recently, to take on the phone companies. Comcast Corp. started offering digital voice services three years ago and now has 5.2 million customers, making it the country's fourth-largest residential phone company. For making that happen - "it's been a really crazy ride," she said - Avgiris recently was lauded by Pink magazine as one of the nation's 15 most innovative businesswomen. Avgiris also has been officially named a Wonder Woman by a cable TV trade journal, although her sons, 18 and 23, "sometimes don't think I'm wonderful," she said.

The big idea: Goes by the name "One Citi. " It's a year-old initiative to coordinate Citibank, Citi Cards, Smith Barney, and other affiliated business units in three targeted metro areas: Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago. But don't look for a One Citi logo on storefronts and ATMs. "One Citi isn't a brand," Brown said. "It's sort of an internal moniker for how we deliver the company to our clients. " The goal is to leverage regional strengths - in Philadelphia, the venerable Smith Barney franchise, which was founded here, is one - and make certain that every customer who has a Citi Card (more than one million regionally)

The big idea: Putting Campbell's soups on a low-sodium crash diet. Since 2006, the Camden company has reformulated more than 85 recipes. By August, 48 varieties - including the children's favorite Chicken & Stars - will be "healthy" under FDA labeling laws, with 480 mg of sodium per serving. The key was a unique sea salt. Campbell has exclusive access to the magical crystals, and where they come from is a closely held secret. The company will not divulge the sea salt's country of origin, or even its continent.

In this city, it's not often you can implement a good idea without getting bogged down in bureaucratic mumbo jumbo or political mishmash. Let's face it, simple and effective is not something Philadelphia does well, what with its haze of antiquated agencies, undermining union obstacles, and pat-down political patronage. Too often, Philly is where good ideas go to die. That's why the idea the University of Pennsylvania had three years ago to have its students participate in an on-campus competition to develop practical public policy plans for the city is so refreshing.

WASHINGTON - President Obama is embracing an unlikely group of political icons as he tries to paint Mitt Romney as extreme: He's praising Republican presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. The Democratic president typically offers up GOP leaders of the past as evidence of how both parties can work together in Washington to pursue big ideas and rebuild the economy. With Election Day seven months away, Obama hopes to persuade voters that he, like his Republican predecessors, is a reasonable moderate.

LAS VEGAS - Concert pianist Bob Taub watched his teenage daughter strive to learn the violin, and wondered: Could he design a digital tool to help her see and hear the exact notes where she was going astray? Last week, six years into an add-on career as an inventor, Taub was here at the massive International Consumer Electronics Show, moving his idea a bit closer to reality. His invention, MuseAmi, is already at the heart of an iPhone app that may prove to be the ultimate Karaoke tool.

'W e are tolerant, but we have our limits," says a city official. Somehow 17th-century Amsterdam sounds oddly familiar, especially when it comes to immigrants, religious broad-mindedness, interfaith romances, and radical new ideas. And so this play by David Ives, New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656 at Lantern Theater, launches an absorbing, 2½-hour theological debate. The Portuguese Jews had fled persecution and found refuge in Holland, but their safety came at a price: obedience and silence.

His One Great Idea: To teach children more about social and emotional health and resilience. "My one great idea for Philadelphia is for us to invest time and resources in building the social and emotional health of our children. "Current research supports the idea that children who are socially and emotionally healthy - that are resilient - do better in math and science. They're just better problem-solvers. "As a parent or a teacher, one thing that's important is to make sure the child has a strong bond with an adult.

Alex Steinweiss, 94, an art director and graphic designer who brought custom artwork to album covers and invented the first packaging for long-playing records, died Sunday in Sarasota, Fla. The record cover was a blank slate in 1939 when Mr. Steinweiss was hired to design advertisements for Columbia Records. Most albums were unadorned, and on the occasions when art was used, it was not original. "The way records were sold was ridiculous," Mr. Steinweiss said in 1990. "The covers were brown, tan, or green paper.

THE CHICAGO CODE. 9 tonight, Channel 29. SHAWN RYAN set out a while back to make a particular type of cop show - one that put viewers into patrol cars with the police and was to be called "Ride-Along" - and ended up making the bigger, even better one that premieres on Fox tonight as "The Chicago Code. " Bigger isn't always better in television, but as Ryan, who created FX's "The Shield" and went on to co-create CBS' "The Unit" with David Mamet, probably knows better than most, attracting a bigger audience sometimes requires a bigger idea.

One of the frequent questions Tom Corbett said he received on the campaign trail was whether he was going to be like Gov. Christie. Corbett, who was elected Pennsylvania's 46th governor Tuesday, said the short answer was "yes. " Granted, both are Republicans from Northeastern states facing major budget shortfalls. Like Christie, Corbett will have to make the leap from being a prosecutor to the governor's mansion. Many thought Christie would struggle in the executive role, but he hit the ground running.

The moment when Kim Carson realized the power of the ensemble came during a late rehearsal. She was playing the title role in People's Light & Theatre Company's 2008 Christmas panto, Cinderella. Two characters were fighting over Cinderella at the palace ball - a funny scene they'd rehearsed repeatedly. But this time, they couldn't get through it without one of them bursting into laughter. "And I knew," says Carson, "if he was enjoying himself that much, then the audience will, too. " For Benjamin Lloyd, the recognition that an ensemble had jelled came last winter when the Wilma Theater's production of the searing drama Scorched reached its tech rehearsal, when sound, light, and other cues solidify scene by scene as "the actors sit in the audience and watch each other act - and you haven't seen each other act in the play before.

This is one of those rare plays that people fall in love with. Like Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, Alan Bennett's The History Boys is a big, juicy drama, full of interesting ideas as well as complex characters. It won hearts and minds first in London, then in New York, then among moviegoers. The remarkable British cast remained, remarkably, intact for each of those productions, so it is all the more remarkable that the Arden Theatre's production reimagines that cast so brilliantly with local talent.