Could this community become a major player in the convergence? It could.

A group of entrepreneurs, academics and others gathered the other day to talk about the digital convergence that is reshaping human activities all over the world. Not just talk about it but create some opportunities that could reshape Long Beach.

They just might do it. Most meetings like this at best generate an interesting discussion, but these participants are different. They don't just want change, they seem ready to create it. Instead of fading away after the last speech, they were abuzz with creating new relationships and a shared goal.

What they say they want to do is turn Long Beach into a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity focused on Digital Media Arts (the theme of the meeting, put together by the Long Beach Community Foundation). But instead of going after an "easy" solution, such as trying to lure a Steven Spielberg film animation studio to town, they want to help foment a digital revolution themselves.

Long Beach has the makings of a digital media center. It has Cal State Long Beach (35 years after dropping out, Spielberg went back and earned a degree there in film production and electronic arts). It has Long Beach Unified, a much-honored school system that could become even stronger by focusing on digital media arts. It has a sprinkling of entrepreneurs already active in that field and, additionally, is the possible site of a major movie studio on Boeing's

One of the presenters at the meeting was Bob Cabeza, an executive with the YMCA of Greater Long Beach (disclosure: a Press-Telegram editorial board member is a volunteer board member of the YMCA and the Community Foundation). Cabeza oversees a program called the Youth Institute that has trained hundreds of young students in the digital media, including video, animation, Web sites, magazine layout and photography.

The Youth Institute alone could bring transformational change to Long Beach. Its participants have taken on projects both as volunteers and for a fee, which means that contributions and foundation grants to the program become not just a gift but an investment. Its graduates earn a certificate from Cal State Long Beach, enhanced prospects of a career and, importantly, develop an interest in education that might not have happened otherwise.

That matters. More than one speaker attested to the fact that education systems, designed for the industrial age, sometimes turn off students who are integrated powerfully into a global convergence of social media, instant access to an unfathomable wealth of digitized information, and a digital life their elders are largely ignorant of. Also, in some neighborhoods, dropping out of school can have disastrous consequences.

So Spielberg could do worse than contributing to (or rather investing in) the Youth Institute, if not in a local entrepreneurial start-up. Also, Long Beach Unified could increase its connections with the institute, even if it can't increase its funding of digital media; City Hall could set up a digital media district and put some redevelopment money into it; and entrepreneurs could profit by setting up shop in Long Beach and joining in the convergence.

This is a tall order. But it's also doable, and well worth doing.