|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Fri Oct 20, 2006 |
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." -- Winston Churchill
Great program: "Wyoming sees job guide as a retention tool" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Boomtown Institute
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- The Agurban E-Zine Issue 97
Downtowns and Riverfronts...Recreating Your Assets
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural CommunitiesMontana Education Excellence
- The Line Government Won't Cross - Offshoring vs. Inshoring
"On our projects we are not [even] supporting offshoring to exotic places like New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, etc.,"
Education
- Unique University of Montana Leadership Program to Promote Sustainable Food, Farming
"The Montana Good Works Fellowship appears to be the first of its kind in the nation," said Neva Hassanein, UM associate professor of environmental studies. "This gift will support emerging leaders early in their careers and help them in their work to make our food system more sustainable."
- PACE Run Across America... 48 Miles To Go!
Road warrior: Sun, semis and snakes don't deter cross-country solo runner. If the kids at Russell Elementary in Missoula ran across America, Paul said he would too.
- University of Montana Named a College "Best Buy"
President George Dennison indicated his gratification about UM’s inclusion, since these listings make clear to potential students the value received for the value given. “We try hard to earn the ‘best buy’ billing by emphasizing affordability and quality,” he said.
- Montana State University researcher's and student's work provides break-through view of science
MSU's Science/Natural History Filmmaking program is the only one of its type in the United States. It is designed to educate students not just in film and video production but also in the language and methodology of research and natural resources conservation.
Montana Business
- Video games can teach. Scientists suggest new way to educate youngsters
What's needed, he said, is research into which features of games are most important for learning — and how to test students on the skills they learn in games. The departments of education and labor and the National ScienceFoundation would lead the way under this plan.
- Kindergarten 101: Utah Governor's plan for optional full-day classes hits target
Gov. Jon Huntsman is right when he says Utah schools "can't retrieve these kids in middle school," meaning children who fall behind in basic subjects in the early grades can't, years later, be brought up to grade level in reading and math.
- Montana Legislators discuss education challenges
Some suggested that competing in a global economy means kids should learn more — and learn earlier on.
- Montana educators focus on math, reading
Reading and mathematics took top billing in the thick catalog of course offerings, and many of the educators at the conference were looking for new teaching strategies in those subjects.
Montana Economic Development
- Proprietary Resin Technology from Purity Systems of Missoula to be Used to Recover Approximately $3.0 Million of Copper In Solution in Australia
Redbank Mines is pleased to announce initiatives to recover approximately $3.0 million of copper in solution based on proprietary resin technology under licence from PSI Systems Inc http://www.puritysystemsinc.com of Missoula, Montana.
- Doctor Down of Polson Gets Orders for President's Helicopters
Ricketts admits "After 15 years, I was comfortable; in a cocoon,” but he acted to get the expertise he needed to fill the order – and hopefully even more such large orders – by contacting the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center (MMEC) in Bozeman.
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Economist Larry Swanson: "Billings lags in city spending"
If Montana wants to position itself to capitalize on its real economic strengths, he said, it has to acknowledge that its metropolitan centers are driving the economy, and that those cities need to keep making improvements in order to maintain their leadership roles.
- Montana scenic railway, The Charlie Russell Chew Choo, gets help from state tourism program.
All told, seven recipients across the state split almost $200,000 aimed at tourism-related facility improvements. The seven winners were selected from 38 applicants seeking $1.69 million
- Economic road map: Plan gives Butte guidance
The Butte-Silver Bow Community Business Plan, released Wednesday, is one-stop information shopping for economic development, summarizing Butte’s strengths, challenges, goals, target industries and incentive programs.
- Remember Universal Service as a vital element in Montana’s economic development when you go to the polls on Nov. 7.
Universal Service is a vital element in Montana’s economic development. It deserves a high place among the many issues we consider when we go to the polls on November 7.
- Notes on Bicycling in Copenhagen
Thirty-six percent of Copenhagen residents commute by bicycle.
- Bitterroot Food co-op organizers seeking 800 members
The group is modeling the co-op after the Community Food Co-op in Bozeman which has been extremely successful.
- Gallatin Development Corp. now 'Prospera'
The organization has refined its mission to include principles such as providing guidance for businesses, access to capital and networking opportunities.
- Businesses in Eastern Montana are Excited
From Stevensville to Sidney, Glasgow to Glendive, Bozeman to Broadus, Webb Brown and Mary Whittinghill have been listening to business people to find out what's on their minds. They are seeing and hearing some new things, this year -- not least of which is the robust economic activity that is stirring among Montana's smaller towns, especially in Eastern Montana.
GIS Technology
- Ontario government spending $2.5 million to build and expand angel investment networks across the province.
The National Angel Organization (NAO) will work with the Ministry of Research and Innovation, MaRS, the Ontario Centres of Excellence and others to ensure angel investors and start-up high-tech companies are linked together through the networks.
Funding and Building your Business
- "Satellite Imagery And Remote Sensing", 10/26, Helena
The presentation will demonstrate how remote sensing is being used in Montana and how the public can access the new MontanaView imagery archive from any computer.
Regional Business
- Sun on the move with data center. Portable system can help companies add capacity efficiently
The system, code-named "Project Blackbox," will be unveiled today and will make it possible for companies to easily and quickly add capacity to information technology networks without going through the hassles of designing and building an infrastructure.
- Paid for not taking the car to work. Region's best job sites for commuters listed
"We really have to make some effort here to get people out of their cars."
- Smart small companies know how to take care of their workers
Some fast-growing companies, especially in high tech, offer in-house massages, contributions toward health club memberships, meal reimbursement for employees working through dinner, and lunch delivered directly to employees' desks.
- Web startups may see more mergers
Should an Internet arms race begin, it will likely be fought over online audiences. Building a large Web following is hard to do, and many of the big public Internet companies will seek to buy what they have had trouble creating: new-generation social-networking sites with large followings of users who spend time posting videos or creating their own Web pages.
- When the team stops following its leader
"People fall out for different reasons, but it's almost always because internal motivation has disappeared,"
- Raising Money From Informal Investors. Whoever leads the deal dictates the terms
The devil's in the details when taking money from--and structuring a deal with--friends, family and angel investors.
- How To Break The 80/20 Rule
What's insidious about the "80/20 rule" is that it tends to be self-perpetuating.
- Boss or leader? Learning to delegate
How do you become a leader, not just a manager, of others?
Regional Economic Development
- The Problem with a Call Center Economy
Former Secretary of Economic Development John Garcia, who served during the call center recruitment hay-day of Governor Gary Johnson, predicted that call centers would become adouble-edged sword "—providing jobs but not lifting the state's wages and economic standing.
Idaho Business
- Rethinking Growth Strategies. How State and Local Taxes and Services Affect Economic Development
An analysis of the relevant research literature, however, finds little grounds to support tax cuts and incentives—especially when they occur at the expense of public investment—as the best means to expand employment and spur growth.
- Families Flock to Indoor Water Parks
The lure of indoor water parks reflects a change in Americans' vacation habits. Families take more short vacations, especially two- or three-day getaways planned on short notice, in addition to a big summer vacation.
- Collaborative Appoaches to Western Problems
Marianne Roose, a county commissioner in Lincoln County in Northwest Montana, has no small set of problems to cope with.
Wyoming Business
- Festival, filmmakers pump up Idaho economy with jobs, revenue
This could mean a shot in the arm for Idaho's economy, especially if a growing group of industry professionals is successful in their attempts to woo filmmakers to the state.
Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)
- Wyoming sees job guide as a retention tool
"For years, policy makers in Wyoming have worked hard to make sure that young people have every opportunity to stay in Wyoming to live, work and raise their own families," Gov. Dave Freudenthal said. "Those efforts get a boost from these Career Cluster Guides, which alert students to the opportunities before them but, more importantly, also help them know how to best seize those opportunities."
Miscellaneous RamblingsIncubators and R&D
- Boosting Brain Power. Breaking news from the biggest neuroscience meeting in the world
Now scientists are trying to figure out how we can maximize the benefits that these cells bring, potentially boosting brain power and slowing cognitive decline.
University TechTransfer
- Research Roundup at Montana State University (#264), Antarctic namesakes, Math, science and girls, Triple Jordan, Big questions, snowy roads
MSU computer science professors Rafal Angryk and Anne DeFrance received a $75,000 National Science Foundation grant for a project that might lead to a more gender-balanced workforce in computer science and related fields.
- Will the drive by Universities to attract the best and the brightest research scientists spark an academic arms race for talent?
FSU intends to hire 200 tenured or tenured-track professors within a five-year period, with the intention of transforming the quality of its Ph.D. programs.
- Wyoming rocket scientist, John Wickman wins $730,000 grant design to develop a prototype of a new solid rocket motor
"Basically, this is a solid rocket motor with a pintle nozzle, where you can control the thrust level of a missile in real-time, like you would a gas pedal on a car,”
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- The Art of Commercialization
Those that can do, do. Those that can’t do, license.
Connectivity & Communications
- BSU students invest for success
D.A. Davidson & Co. gives $50,000 each to 20 schools in the Northwest to invest in the stock market.
- 1st Annual Fall University Of Montana School Of Business Administration Networking Event, 10/24, Missoula
Come meet and network with business leaders throughout the community.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Securing your network in a growing wireless world
Welcome to the increasingly cluttered wireless world of the Internet. Lots of people have wireless connections for their computers. And if US cities like Boston and Philadelphia have their way, everyone will have it, or at least access to it.
- Working invisibility cloak created at last
In 2001, Smith built a metamaterial with a negative refractive index, which bends microwaves in a way impossible for ordinary lenses. Now he has gone one step further.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page
