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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Jan 22, 2008 |
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" -- Martin Luther King Jr.
"MATR teams with Amazon to recommend great entrepreneur and business books to MATR readers. What books would you recommend?" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Boomtown Institute
Come Home Idaho
- Saving rural America: Author, Jack Schultz of the Boomtown Institute offers suggestion for growing areas
The "millennials." "This is the generation that will be the most entrepreneurial in the history of the country, since the 1800s. "They've got it in their genes to start new businesses."
- Boomtown Institute - What We Know About the Millennials - Part II Key Trends that Shaped This Generation
Eight key trends of the 90s and 00s have had a profound effect on their generational personality.
Come Home North Dakota
- A Mining Town With a Bleak Past Starts to Blossom. Kellogg, Idaho
“Our thought was, ‘Can we get something very affordable, enjoy it and see some appreciation,’ ” Mr. Greenwell said. “And it’s worked out pretty well.”
Missoula Children's Theatre
- "the emptied prairie" from National Geograpic - North Dakota ghost towns speak of an irreversible decline.
Ghost towns stud North Dakota, and this empty house is just one bone in a giant skeleton of abandoned human desire.
Montana Chamber of Commerce
- Showing Kids an Open Road on “The Little Red Truck” Missoula Children's Theatre
"Nobody likes me because I smell like feet.”
MSU Leadership Institute
- The Montana Chamber of Commerce - “Health Insurance Strategies- the past, present, and future of health insurance”, 2/18 Billings,2/20 Missoula,2/22 Great Falls
Health care is a vitally important topic for many employers,” said Webb Brown, President/CEO of the Montana Chamber. “While our Montana Chamber Choices health insurance program has been tremendously successful in covering almost 20,000 lives, we know we still have a long way to go. We want to make sure all Montanans understand their options.”
- Montana Chamber Business Days at the Capital a Big Success
Thanks to all who attended and participated in this year's Business Days event. Next year, Business Days will be on January 5-6th, which should be the first few days of the legislative session.
PrintingForLess
- MSU Leadership Institute to Sponsor Speeches by Author Eric Weiner (The Geography of Bliss), Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, Renowned Primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, Former Child Soldier, Ishmael Beah and Others at MSU this Semester
“This will be best semester ever of leadership speakers,” says John Mahoney, a senior studying Business Marketing in his fourth semester at the Leadership Institute.
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- PrintingForLess delivers grant to mentoring group, The Livingston Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Challenges others to match
PrintingForLess also challenged the program to find additional sponsors to match its donation.
Funding and Building your Business
- Supporting Generation Iowa
Generation Iowa is composed of young leaders between the ages of 18 and 35, to offer recommendations on how Iowa can better nurture, attract and retain young professionals.
Education
- Geekout: How to Make Short URL's
Keeping URL's short is becoming important.
- Venture funding reaches 6-year peak. Investors lit up Washington state startups in '07
Software, health sciences and clean-tech energy led venture investments in 2007.
- MATR teams with Amazon to recommend great entrepreneur and business books to MATR readers.
I'd like to ask that if you have read a book that you think is worthy of recommendation that you let me know [email protected] so I can pass it along to those who use MATR as a resource.
- On the Job: How to succeed in business world by being nice
Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment; your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interest first; and the most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
- Cisco's Chambers sees a new Internet revolution. We're moving from desktop to Web-top mode.
As a company, you have to change your DNA, and you also have to change your leaders. It was a shock to me that probably 15 to 20 percent of my leaders just could not make the transition. Very good people, but they were command and control
- How I went from low-tech to high-tech to small business success
What's the single biggest change I have spotted in those 2 1/2 years? The invasion of highbrow technology into the once low-tech world of small business
- Tapping Into the Wisdom of Crowds
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire the experts do a reasonable job: they get the answer right 65 percent of the time. But the audience is much closer to perfect: it gets the answer right 91 percent of the time.
- The Risk of Innovation: Will Anyone Embrace It?
Dependency drives profits, the ultimate arbiter — for some — of an innovation’s success. Look how Apple has converted the mania for the iPod into record profits — and a record stock price.
- Office efficiency: Software links Internet with telephone system
"With regional offices and regional stores, long-distance telephone costs run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year," said Connelly, who labeled the Microsoft programs "extremely cheap" when compared to other options.
- Executive Suite: Textron CEO zeroes in on Six Sigma
You define a problem, take measurements to be crystal clear on what you're trying to improve and analyze the data using statistical tools to sort through the noise. The last piece is control, so that once you fix something, it's fixed for the last time. The idea is to create output so predictable that there are only three defects per million.
- How good should your business be? Corporate social responsibility has great momentum. All the more reason to be aware of its limits
A bad name has seldom been more expensive, especially when there is a war for talent and customers can look at your supply chain in Vietnam on YouTube.
- Visions: One company's approach to green best practices
The IT industry has begun to realize that being environmentally responsible is not an “add on,” but rather it is a key factor in running a smart business in today's market.
- Centre for Innovation Launches Global Innovation Portal
Our definition of innovation is quite broad, and it includes many social and economic factors that affect innovation performance.
- Registration Usability - 87 Registration Forms Tested
Some tips for registration form design.
University Business Plan Competitions
- Jaime Escalante: Education Excellence Means "Do it Right the First Time"
To motivate the students you innovate. To be in the classroom and just take the textbook -- it gets monotonous, and students they don't like that. You have to relate with something the kids like to do.
- Analysis: Universities overproduce Ph.Ds
If public universities (and really that means legislatures and taxpayers) won't pony up for more full-time faculty, higher education will have to take more responsibility for its role in creating the oversupply problem.
- University Venture Summit Starts Students Early on Venture Capital Path
Representatives from many of the nation’s leading venture firms gathered Friday to learn, network and converse at the University Venture Summit sponsored by the University Venture Fund. In a panel discussion, leaders of local and national funds discussed industry trends and what venture capital firms look for in deals.
- Cash for school grades? It works.
Paying for performance can introduce students to courses they would never otherwise take.
Connectivity & Communications
- Venture capital 101: University of Utah Conference, fund helping students learn the ins and outs of private equity
About 225 students from 20 colleges and universities — including Indiana University, Stanford University and the University of Michigan — attended the conference. Most of them want to start companies or work in business financing such as venture capital.
Incubators and R&D
- FCC resumes testing of prototype devices to beam high-speed Internet over unused TV airwaves
If the tests are successful this time and the devices are approved, the coalition plans to introduce commercial devices for sale after the digital television transition in February 2009.
- Birth of a new medium. Lights! Camera! Sales! How to use video to expand your business in a YouTube world
The unorthodox formula has brought her a total of 8.2 million views on YouTube -- and, just as important, a host of buyers.
- National Intelligence Director Wants To Monitor All Net Communications
The federal government should be able to read all communications on the Internet, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said during a New Yorker interview.
- Despite The Internet, Google Generation Lacks Analytical Skills
A study conducted by the University College London found that young people lack analytical skills necessary to assess the information they find on the Internet
Regional Business
- Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana leading research on staph infection that is now killing more people than AIDS.
If you could give every human being a nasal swab, you would find that up to 30 percent turn up colonies of staph.
- Boise State scientists win grant to develop West Nile vaccine
Researchers have developed a vaccine for horses, but so far nothing has emerged for humans.
Montana Business
- Why Baby Boomers May Bust the Housing Market
"The retirement of the baby boomers could signal the end of the postwar era for planning, and reverse several longstanding trends, leading decline to exceed gentrification, demand for low-density housing to diminish, and new emphasis on compact development. Such developments call planners to undertake new activities, including actively marketing to retain elderly residents and cultivating new immigrant residents to replace them."
GIS Technology
- AquilaVision, Inc. and Invizeon partner with the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association on Appropriation Funded Project
The notification component of this system, CHAIN, developed by Missoula company, Invizeon, Corp. http://www.invizeon.com , has the capability to contact a variety of devices simultaneously, including cell phones, pagers, land lines and email addresses, as to the activity of the tracked offender or vehicle.
- For troubled adoptees, a last stop. Ranch for Kids in Eureka, Montana
A Montana ranch offers intervention and structure for kids -- mostly from abroad -- whose new families can't handle their disruptive conduct.
- Billings teacher, Russell Walks designs Indiana Jones film’s promotional art for Dr. Pepper, Kellogg's and "a couple of other companies he can't mention....
Suffice it to say, this spring, any time you see art from the fourth film in the "Indiana Jones" franchise, it'll probably be Walks' work.
- Cabela’s angry Montana customers
Most politicians, particularly those in the West, learned long ago that you don't rile up sportsmen without consequences.
- MSE Inc. of Butte, Montana looking for nich markets, new partnerships and a growing reputation of quality.
MSE is a major Butte employer of 147 people locally and a total of 165 across the country, with an annual payroll of $10.4 million in 2007, and a Montana payroll of $9.4 million. It paid $118,000 in property taxes last year.
Montana Economic Development
- You are here and Skyhook knows it without using GPS
"There's no GPS inside the phone . . . how do we actually arrive at the location?" Steve Jobs
Regional Economic Development
- Great Falls Airport wants global recruiting reach
Now the airport is ready to seek out and invite businesses from around the world that are looking to build distribution warehouses, manufacturing plants or aircraft maintenance facilities that depend on quick deliveries and the practically weather-proof air service provided by the Category III instrument landing system.
- New focus for the Great Falls Development Authority. Data centers not Call centers
The Great Falls Development Authority once focused on enticing call centers to move to Great Falls, but recently shifted its focus to data centers, which don't require as large of a pool of potential employees, something Great Falls is hard-pressed to offer with its low unemployment rate.
- Big Seven to discuss Lewistown, Montana area’s economic future
“Everyone was doing their own thing. But many of us felt that working together is the key."
- Diversification key to success in Butte, Montana
The county is seeing growth and diversification in several sectors that can offset a potential downturn at the Montana Resources mine, but the economy is still “very dependent on this sector, and it helps to sustain jobs in these other areas.”
- 33 more turbines slated for Judith Gap Wind Farm in Montana
"The only thing holding up the project is sale of the 52 1/2 megawatts the additional generators would produce. So far, Invenergy has not sold the energy," said Jones, who is headquartered in Conrad.
- Economic Growth and Housing Affordability in Montana
Will the regulatory environment faced by Montana’s housing sector kill the goose that laid the golden egg? That remains to be seen.
Utah Economic Development
- Medical school could bring clinical trials to Idaho
Idaho may be getting a good bang for its buck with WWAMI, the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho medical school partnership, in terms of the number of doctors that stay in Idaho.
- The Smart Growth Implementation Toolkit
The Smart Growth Implementation Toolkit helps communities across the nation to encourage development that creates safer, healthier, more livable neighborhoods; helps to protect the environment and reduce energy consumption; expands housing options; helps households lower their expenses; and maximizes returns from existing community investments.
- The Annie E. Casey Foundation - Building Strong Communities Through Affordable Housing. Peer Technical Assistance Leads to Action
The objective is to create market rate communities owned by public/private partnerships which seamlessly include affordable components.
- Drying of the West
The American West was won by water management. What happens when there's no water left to manage?
Government Technology
- State needs to promote self better
"You have to make sure that Utah is perceived as something special."
Idaho Business
- Montana Governor Schweitzer Foments Real ID Rebellion with 17 other states
"Today, I am asking you to join with me in resisting the DHS coercion to comply with the provisions of REAL ID, " Schweitzer wrote. "If we stand together either DHS will blink or Congress will have to act to avoid havoc at our nation's airports and federal courthouses."
Wyoming Business
- Gunning for gun makers. Idaho tries to attract firearm manufacturers
Idaho is the only state with a state constitution that protects gun makers from special taxation or registration.
- What Sun buying MySQL means to Boise
Did you even know that MySQL has an office in Boise? Don’t feel bad if you didn’t, I’ve found very few people who do.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Rushing to wind in Wyoming
Wyoming ranks seventh in the nation for wind electrical generation potential but is 15th in production, according to 2007 figures released this week by the American Wind Energy Association.
Careers
- When Our Computer Systems Make Us Stupid. (This is very good)
Now consider an example from San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. In an attempt to run more trains per hour, Bart upgraded its hardware, wrote new software and redid its computer system. During the first few days after switching to a state-of-the-art system, if a train was behind schedule, it would run right past the station. That is exactly how they programmed their computer.
- Why Things Suck - The 33 Things That Make Us Crazy
Nothing works the way it should.
Non-Profit News
- Highly Skilled And Out Of Work. Long-Term Joblessness Spreads in Middle Class
"What has happened is a polarization of the labor market. It was very strong at the very top and very strong until recently at the bottom," said Lawrence F. Katz, a labor economist at Harvard University.
Energy
- 6 questions for Greg Mortenson, director of Central Asia Institute and author of "Three Cups of Tea"
Why do you emphasize schools for girls? Educated women refuse to let their sons join the Taliban, which targets impoverished, illiterate society. When they become mothers they won't endorse and support that - so extremists lose their ideological way to get recruits. We can spend money on bombs, roads, electricity and condoms, but until we invest in girls' education, nothing will change.
Montana Education Excellence
- BPA: Conservation in the Northwest saved enough to power small city
Surprisingly, about one-third of the energy savings came from homeowners switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
- States combat global warming
States are deploying an array of strategies to reduce pollution. Among them: capping the carbon dioxide emissions of power plants or vehicles, and promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy.
City Club Missoula
- Choteau School Board decision to cancel speech took away a unique opportunity to learn
Our school leaders seem to be under the impression that high school students are not able to hear about what some deem "controversial topics" and form individual judgments. This raises the question of what exactly public high school education is. Is it the spoon-feeding of information to America's next generation or is it presenting this generation with all the facts and allowing students to decide how those facts are interpreted? To the Choteau school board and some of the Choteau community I hope you realize that our school is probably one of the few districts in the nation to deny a Nobel Peace Prize winner the right to speak to its students.
- Billings School District 2 offers $1M deal for saving energy. Energy Education Inc. promises to save district $3.7M over 5 years. (Why not in all schools including the University System?)
The company, based in Wichita Falls, Texas, specializes in energy conservation management for schools and promises to save the district at least $3.7 million in energy costs over five years.
- Distance learning rules mulled over by Montana
The Montana Board of Public Education said last week it had made “significant progress on access to K-12 distance learning” in the form of a rule change recommended by an advisory committee.
- City Club Missoula - The Climate Change Debate that Shouldn't Be. Steve Running on the Perils of Pseudo Science
Much of the discussion centered on Running’s canceled speech to a group of Choteau high school students last week. Some locals in the north-central Montana town complained Running's talk would contain only one side of the global warming debate. That concern prompted the school superintendent to cancel the discussion altogether. “OK, what is the other side?” Running asked. “And how do people come to the conclusion that another side is needed?” “It’s like turning the Titanic. We need to start turning now.”
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