By James McNair
The Cincinnati Enquirer

In an unprecedented relaxing of their competitive instincts, Ohio's largest technology companies and computer science programs are teaming up to make the state a leader in the arcane but fast-growing field of data management.

The consortium of companies, colleges and business groups came together to tap one portion of Gov. Bob Taft's Third Frontier program to bolster Ohio's technology base. Last week, the group applied for $10.7 million to establish a proposed Wright Center of Innovation at Wright State University in Dayton. Ohio will grant $100 million for such centers in 2003 alone.

Backers include Wright State, NCR Corp., LexisNexis, Electronic Data Systems and Ohio State University.

Unlike many government-sponsored efforts to spur technology activity, this one involves more give than take on the part of its applicants. During a three-year period, 20 parties have committed to contributing $46.2 million between them to the Dayton center. Most of the money will take the form of engineering expertise, managers, computer equipment and technology services instead of hard cash.

John Fonner, director of technology adoption for CincytechUSA, an arm of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and one of the Wright Center participants, said the parties' willingness to work together is remarkable.

"It's absolutely extraordinary. These conversations have never taken place before, other than to say, `Let's do something good for the community,' " Fonner said. "The proposal stresses collaboration - university to university, company to company and interregional collaboration as well."

Joseph Thomas Jr., associate provost for research at Wright State and acting director for the proposed Wright Center, said the pursuit of higher goals led companies to drop their competitive gloves.

Others ready to take part in the Wright Center are Reynolds & Reynolds and Standard Register Co., both of Dayton; the University of Cincinnati and Kent State University; the Wright Brothers Institute in Dayton; the Turner Foundation in Springfield; the Ohio Supercomputer Center in Columbus; and the Uniform Code Council in Dayton. Two small Tristate companies, Cincom Systems and Intelliseek, are also part of the group.

Another participant: Procter & Gamble, which is delegating one of its top technology executives to the project. The consumer goods giant will also share the fruit of an expected $25 million in outlays on a next-generation product-encoding technology.

What the proposed Wright Center hopes to accomplish is to make Ohio a leading-edge state for innovation in data management, a broad field that covers informational databases, electronic product labeling, digitized public records and consumer and market data. According to the proposal, the data management market generates $50 billion a year in outlays and is growing at a double-digit pace.

By putting their researchers in the same labs and testing new applications on shared computer systems, the consortium hopes to develop products with commercial potential.

The group's objective is to create at least 500 new high-wage information technology jobs in the next three years, create and grow businesses, and spawn more new technology. The effort was spearheaded by LexisNexis, NCR, Reynolds & Reynolds and Standard Register, all of which are steeped in data management technologies.

Thomas said the group's application for $10.7 million in Third Frontier money will be decided by the state May 30 after a review by the National Academy of Sciences.

E-mail jmcnair@enquirer.com.