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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Nov 8, 2016 |
PLEASE VOTE TODAY - "Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting." Franklin D. Roosevelt
Community Initiative Update And Broadband Adoption Discussion, 11/10, Webinar http://www.matr.net/ev ... =6195
Montana Department of Commerce
Montana Politics & Legislature
- Montana Small Business Development Center Network Welcomes New State Director Chad Moore
Although the SBDC has grown and continues to grow in Montana, many business owners and entrepreneurs still don't know who we are or the services we offer.
- Montana Small Business Development Center Partnership Survey
In order to help us evaluate and strengthen our partnerships throughout the state, please complete 10 survey questions regarding your experience working with us.
Northwestern Energy
- TED Talk: It's time for women to run for office
"What we see, we can be. It matters that women run."
Big Sky Code Academy
- NorthWestern Energy's property tax payments are going up this year, not down. In fact, they are going up 10 percent.
As NorthWestern continues to invest in its electric and natural gas infrastructure, our property taxes have increased.
Great Falls Development Authority
- Want to be a success? You need passion, purpose, persistence - and be able to code
"...if you are a 16-year-old, then a really good tangible skill to learn is coding. It's a massive advantage for anyone."
Artificial Intelligence and The Internet of Things
- GFDA Top 12 11/07/2016
Untame Your Entrepreneurial Spirit in Great Falls, Montana!
- Great Falls Growth Highlights 10/20/2016
ADF Group continues growth at state-of-the-art fabrication plant in Great Falls as they exceed 210 jobs.
Energy and Climate Change
- Elon Musk: It is only a matter of time before AI takes down the internet
Tesla and SpaceX chief executive is again wary about the dangers of advanced artificial intelligence.
Come Home Montana
- Washington State's Big Climate Policy Experiment
On November 8, voters in the nation's northwest corner will decide on I-732, which would create a carbon tax swap and potentially become a new model for fighting climate change.
- Making Energy Work For Your Small Business Or Agricultural Operation, 11/15, Bozeman
Detailed presentations and panels addressing funding options, energy efficiency projects, renewable energy technologies/updates, energy in manufacturing facilities, opportunities for agricultural producers and application assistance will be delivered.
- $50-$300K vouchers for small to medium size clean energy companies - Apply by Nov. 13
Are you a U.S. owned small to medium size business (500 or less employees) developing clean energy technology? You have an opportunity to receive $50K to $300K in technical assistance from Idaho National Labs and other U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) labs through the Small Business Vouchers Pilot (SBV).
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Freight companies hiring in Billings to gear up for online holiday shopping
"We definitely need seasonal employees in your area this year," said Seattle-based spokesman Dan McMackin of UPS, which operates a distribution center on Lampman Drive in Billings.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Library Director - Miles Community College
This position is responsible for long range library planning, developing library policies and procedures, strategic planning and budgeting, as well as day-to-day operations.
Montana Business
- SBA Announces Funding for Women Veteran Entrepreneurship Training
Successful applicants will be organizations with a demonstrated history of providing successful entrepreneurship training to women veterans, women service members, and women spouses of service members and veterans. Applications must be received by Dec. 12.
- For Startups to Thrive Everywhere, Here is What Policymakers Need to Understand About Entrepreneurship
A healthy economy relies on a balanced mix of established firms and startups, yet, a longstanding national decline in new business formation threatens this balance.
Careers
- New Name, New Products for Helena's Microdistillery - Gulch Distillers
"This brand reflects our passion for Montana history and the Helena community."
- Montana companies, innovators honored at annual Prospera business awards
"It's amazing what we do here in the Gallatin Valley," said Prospera Executive Director Paul Reichert. "That's why we're here, to celebrate the people and businesses that make this community special."
- Bozeman, Montana video game tournament brings competitors from across West
People came from all over the Great West to participate in this fighting game showdown spearheaded by Blake Mickatavage of Bozeman.
Montana Data Focused Business Cluster
- 7 Long-Term Productivity Habits Of The Most Successful People
One thing uniting the most high-power leaders with the lowest-level workers is time.
- 22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader
"To get the few critical things done, you must develop incredible selective ignorance. Otherwise, the trivial will drown you."
Next Generation Broadband in Montana
- How Bees Explain Big Data
It's estimated that weather has a $500 billion annual impact on the economy and now there is more precise weather data available to meteorologists, scientists and farmers than ever before.
- You Don't Need Big Data -- You Need the Right Data
Uber's success results from something very different: the small, right data it needed to do something very simple -- dispatch cars.
- Q&A with Stanford statistics Professor Susan Holmes: Statistics in the era of big data
I make all my students learn biology as well as they learn statistics. And the biologists I work with, they have to take courses where they're learning statistics. We have to have an integrated bridge between the two.
Government
- A need for speed: Missoula County Public Schools project adds 21 miles of fiber under Missoula
But while it's not visible, the project will have an immediate and noticeable impact in classrooms.
- Chattanooga and Other Cities Are Doing Broadband for Themselves
What does a city like Chattanooga do when Comcast says extending broadband access just isn't profitable enough?
Incubators and R&D
- Stanford experts debate Affordable Care Act: What steps should new government take?
Stanford scholars explain what has worked and what they think should be changed in the Affordable Care Act, and what the next administration should consider doing about health care reform.
Other Economies
- Older Scientists Are Touted as Offering Untapped Value
Looking across a variety of fields, the study found that while a researcher's productivity generally declines with age, creativity and impact do not.
Regional Business
- 'We Almost Have Riots': Tensions Flare in Silicon Valley Over Growth
"Silicon Valley has been flashing a 'vacancy' sign for decades -- come here and build a company," said Larry A. Rosenthal, a specialist in land use and urban policy at the University of California, Berkeley. "Now some people are saying, 'We've hit our limit.' They may be reaching their threshold tolerance for pain."
Utah Business
- Is the Gig Economy Cannibalizing or Creating Jobs? Here's Some Early Evidence.
The rise of online temping, freelancing and independent contracting has huge implications for the circumstances of workers and families in cities.
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- GOED appoints 3 industry consultants to oversee strategic growth
The Governor's Office of Economic Development has appointed three industry consultants to oversee strategic growth in the aerospace, financial services and life science sectors.
Education
- Forget Big Data in Education--Little Data Is Making Learning Personal
'We need to look at what data makes possible in the interaction between one teacher and one student.'
- Five reasons to fight for school food reform
The best preventative health initiative out there is a good diet.
Montana Education Excellence
- Conference gives girls hands-on learning experience in STEM fields
"I like the hands-on stuff best," said Jessie, while twirling the propeller of her homemade airplane that she made and learned to fly at the conference. "A lot of it is stuff you don't get to do in class."
Community
- Great Falls, Montana struggle to find teachers
GFPS Assistant Superintendent Ruth Uecker said this issue is just one indicator of a larger problem. The shortage reaches back to post-secondary students and their professional decisions both in school and upon graduation.
- Dancing, singing birds: Jack Horner gives Clancy kids the real dinosaur story
"Birds are dinosaurs," Horner told his enthralled audience of kindergarten through third-graders at his first talk. That's why Horner believes they chirped rather than growled. "I think they sang like birds."
- Center for Structural and Functional Neuroscience at the University of Montana
A diverse group of faculty representing synthetic chemists, molecular biologists, physiologists, and clinicians form a dynamic and collaborative neuroscience research group.
Funding and Building your Business
- Bozeman Mayor Carson Taylor says neighborhood groups are key to preserving small-town feel
"Those neighborhood associations can decide: What do they want to look like?" he said. "And create a smaller discussion that probably would work better for everybody."
- Portland First in Nation to Mandate Deconstruction of Historic Homes
In response to the demolition epidemic sweeping across Portland, the City convened a Deconstruction Advisory Group (DAG) to recommend a new policy for managed deconstruction.
Government Technology
- iInnovate Leadership Network's goal is to give startups backing after they've taken off
A veteran Seattle tech executive is launching a network to provide help and guidance to young companies growing beyond launch and the early startup stage.
- What you need to know about startup boards
Every company has a board of directors -- but few founders and entrepreneurs give the matter of board composition much thought.
Non-Profit News
- California GovOps Secretary Touts Agile Development
GovOps is taking its lessons -- such as user-centric design and delivering "minimally viable products" upfront -- and applying them to other projects, whether they're waterfall or agile.
- Digital Government Services Explosion -- What Took So Long?
"...there are too many people inside government who have had enough of the way things have worked over the last 20 years in most governments around the world which was a wholesale outsourcing, very tangled delivery with frankly a handful of very large vendors who got very, very good at milking the system."
- Talking leadership with Megan Smith the country's chief technology officer
One challenge, though, is that some colleagues are not aware of the state-of-the-art tech innovation options they can employ.
- Wastewater disposal standards could drain ratepayers' wallets in Helena, Montana
Current technology won't meet the ultimate standards for the amounts of total nitrogen and phosphorus that are allowed to be in wastewater, say Camp and Fitzwater, so whatever the city spends for upgrades it can't buy what it needs.
- Colorado Appoints First Digital Transformation Officer
Brandon Williams may be the first-ever state digital transformation officer.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Erik's Ranch - Paradise Valley, Montana resort offers options for adults with autism
Its resident "members" are moderate- to high-functioning adults with autism.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- The Age of 'Megachange' -- Why It Makes Us So Anxious
People are nervous about the economic situation, the social situation, and then all of that ends up having political consequences.
HACKING AND VIRUS ALERTS
- Kickstarter Campaign: The First Desktop Waterjet Cutter
Cut any material with digital precision using high pressure water. A compact waterjet for every workshop.
- Elon Musk thinks universal income is answer to automation taking human jobs
Musk said that he believes the solution to taking care of human workers who are displaced by robots and software is creating a (presumably government-backed) universal basic income for all.
Transportation
- Google's Chrome Hackers Are About to Upend Your Idea of Web Security
The Chrome team "Department of Chromeland Security," is about to start naming and shaming the nearly half of the world's websites that don't use strong encryption, putting a clear "Not secure" warning next to thousands of popular online destinations that use unencrypted HTTP connections rather than encrypted HTTPS connections.
Events
- Autonomous trucks are coming to the mainstream sooner than you think
Robotic drivers will be all over our the road soon enough, and one of the first examples that makes an impact won't be a sexy Tesla sedan. It may just be a big rig.
- Sustainable Transport Enables Tremendous Opportunities
Specific strategies to create more inclusive and equitable growth, social development, protection of the global environment and ecosystems, and addressing climate change.
- A Slow Ride Toward the Future of Public Transportation
By transporting many passengers on what could be very flexible routes, driverless buses could help reduce the number of cars clogging city streets.
- Tesla May Have Announced the Breakthrough Needed to Make EVs Affordable for Everyone
With the Tesla Network, you could sit on your couch while your car makes you money.
- Stations at Nissan R&D hub can charge cars or suck their battery power back to grid
"Integrating it into our own facilities demonstrates the confidence we have in the technology and our steadfast belief that our electric vehicles can play a pivotal role in developing an ecosystem of technologies that work seamlessly together to create sustainable and efficient solutions for the future."
- Gulch Distillers- Brand Re-Opening! , 11/15, Helena
- Igniting The Spark For Community Development: Developing Community Readiness, 11/15, Webinar
- 1 Million Cups - Missoula - University Of Montana Strategic Plan Coordinating Council, 11/16
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