|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Fri Feb 23, 2007 |
|
This MATR newsletter sponsored by: Add an event... Upcoming Events
New Events
MATR supporter: MATR Web services provided by:  To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page |
“It’s like a bunch of kittens tied together with rubber bands. They move in different directions and they're hard to coordinate.” Nevada Chief Information Officer Terry Savage, talking about what it's like trying to implement open source software in government, at a National Conference of State Chief Information Officials meeting in San Diego
Do you know someone who would like to work with one of the best companies in Montana? "Outstanding Montana Career Opportunity - Product Manger - Modwest. com, Missoula" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Boomtown Institute
Come Home Montana
- Rebuilding America's Productive Economy
“America’s economy may well be on the verge of a great resurgence largely unacknowledged by pundits, academics and the media. The Heartland will play a critical role in that resurgence.”
- Who Loves Ya, Baby? Are your communities and states reaching out?
We see affinity as one of the greatest assets rural communities have to offer.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Montana Career Opportunity - Firmware Design Engineer - Dynojet Research, Belgrade, Montana
Dynojet Research, a world leader in the aftermarket motorsports industry has an immediate opening in our Belgrade, Montana facility. Responsibilities include firmware programming for control systems in motorsports products.
- Marlers are a team at home and at work at Marias Healthcare clinic. Indiana physicians find happiness in Shelby, Montana
Now home is Shelby and both of them are thrilled. "We hadn't really considered coming to Montana, even though Michele has a sister in Missoula," said Charles. But now they couldn't imagine being anywhere else. And Shelby is equally as happy to have the team of Dr. Charles Marler and Dr. Michele Marler at the Marias Healthcare clinic.
- Outstanding Montana Career Opportunity - Product Manger - Modwest. com, Missoula
As Product Manager, you will play a key role in the ideation, planning, and design of Modwest http://www.modwest.com Products.
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- New program brings equity to Indians going into business
The money is intended to help Native Americans develop or expand private businesses on or near reservations
Montana Education Excellence
- Towns Chasing Workers, Not Just Jobs
"A community that has talented people will draw work to itself."
Education
- Montana and Wyoming Students to converge on Laurel Montana for the Seventh Aviation and Technology Week, May 7-10
This year organizers expect as many as 12,000 students to attend and participate in this “hands-on” learning event.
- Building fun for future engineers Sixth Graders at Montana State University
The Engineerathon is part of National Engineers Week, Feb. 18-24, which seeks to raise awareness about engineers' contributions to society and inspire interest in engineering fields among middle and high school students.
Montana Business
- Families Are Uprooting In Search Of The Perfect School
Changes in technology -- and many parents' obsessive search for the perfect school -- are enabling families to move further afield to access quality education.
Montana Economic Development
- NutraCea Announces Phase II Expansion of Dillon, Montana Plant to Meet Growing Demand for Company's Value Added Products
NutraCea announced today a phase II expansion of its Dillon, Montana plant by 50%, with the intention of increasing total production capacity to 2700 tons annually from the original 900 tons when the first phase expansion efforts began in February, 2006.
- Jury orders NorthWestern Corp. to pay $17.4M to Montana Power Company retirees
When NorthWestern went through bankruptcy reorganization, its board of directors decided to stop paying the pensions, but some testified that they received no notice and the checks just stopped
- Big Sky Airlines hiring pilots - in Boston
The hiring stems from Big Sky expanding its operations to the East Coast after winning a Delta Connections contract. Big Sky Airlines now serves 20 cities in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Oregon and Washington state.
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Bernanke, Gates, Busch, McGraw Will Headline Montana Economic Summit In Butte, April 30-May 1
“This is all about jobs,” Baucus said. “The Summit is about working together to boost our state’s economy and create more good-paying jobs. We want our kids to be able to stay here and raise their families.”
- The Burton K. Wheeler Center Hosts: "The Price Of Paradise: Affordable Housing In Montana", 5/17-18, Missoula
Whether it is termed "Affordable," "Workforce," or "Entry Level" housing, the time appears to have come for Montanans to discuss how best to address high housing prices vis a vis our still low state wages. You are invited to participate in this process during a day and a half conference in Missoula, MT.
- The Whitefish Housing Authority embarks on a two-year affordable housing plan
An updated housing study would give the city the nexus to ask for mandatory inclusionary zoning that would require developers to provide affordable housing or cash in lieu of housing units. A voluntary program has enabled the Housing Authority to purchase several affordable homes and condominium units.
- "Focus On Affordability - Missoula Considers Housing Challenges And Choices", 2/27, Missoula
Join Missoula's local government leaders in a public discussion of Missoula's housing opportunities, including a presentation of the draft report "Analysis of Impediments to Affordable Housing Choices."
- Affordable homes out of reach for many in Kalispell and the Flathead Valley of Montana
There is a waiting list of 1,100 families in Flathead, Lake, Lincoln and Sanders counties to receive federal Section 8 vouchers — several times the number of vouchers available. Section 8 vouchers are federal subsidies to families to pay a portion of their rents so they afford places to live.
- N.Y. man wins private use of Montana ski hill
"We are so excited to collaborate with The North Face and Outside on this public-private partnership," said Katy Peterson of Travel Montana. "Both brands reflect ideologies kindred to Montana. And, having close to 23,000 entrants express interest in Montana's winter offerings far exceeded our expectations."
Funding and Building your Business
- Venture Capital in Secondary Cities. Missed Opportunities for wage and job growth
By failing to attract capital at rates similar to larger communities, secondary cities are missing a major engine of wage and job growth.
Regional Economic Development
- Learning More While Working
Additional education in the workplace can be a short-term hardship, but it is an investment in the future for both the individual and the business. Are you doing it?
- Establishing Corporate Entrepreneurship in the Organization
An organization desiring to establish and entrepreneurial environment must implement a procedure for its creation.
- Why Good Strategies Fail
This book goes a long way in explaining how strategy makes or breaks a company. To put it another way, I won’t think I’m so smart if a company that I invest in succeeds, and I won’t think I’m so dumb if it tanks.
- Hiring and Cultivating Employees Who Succeed. Andrew Field and PrintingForLess.com of Livingston, Montana
StartupJournal.com asked Mr. Field, who received a Best Boss Award from Winning Workplaces in 2005, to recommend books for those seeking to improve their talent management. Here are his picks, along with a Web site and film suggestion:
- The Next Net 25. Business 2.0 Magazine's guide to the hottest Web 2.0 companies - and the powerful trends driving them - in this make-or-break year.
This year's field is chockablock with "me too" companies, and the bar for startups has been set even higher, in terms of both what customers expect and the kind of return on their investments the angels and venture capitalists want to see.
- Successful East Coast Firm, Battery Ventures Reaching for the Upper Rungs Out West
With lots of hard work, a sense for deal-making, an eye for good investments, savvy people skills -- and a dose of luck -- he's hoping to bring his firm into the big leagues, looking for the hot IPO that will transform Battery from a mid-tier firm to a top player.
- How the Venture Game Is Played
Even in the booming market that we are experiencing right now, you have only a 0.6% chance of getting capital, according to the National Venture Capital Association.
- Is your company looking for a new identity?...for free? Must contact Chicago Agency by the end of Friday 2/23
We are searching for companies that are interested in lending their name and allowing VSA Partners, an award winning design agency in Chicago, to create a fresh new identity and stationery system for inclusion in a Mohawk Fine Papers letterhead kit paper promotion.
- Panel of Web Community Founders: Utter Defiance of the "Venture Capital" Model
Here’s a little factoid that blew my mind: both Fark and PlentyofFish have only one employee
- Inside Entrepreneurship: How to keep bigger slice of equity pie
What are the different strategies a founder can use to retain the highest ownership stake possible during a venture capital funding?
- Working in France, in Style of Silicon Valley
He was able to lure eight of his 27 employees back from the United States.
Utah Economic Development
- Place-Based vs Person-Based Community Development Policies
The efficiency, equity, and political economy of modern place vs. person policy trends, and their implications for urban development, deserve an updated literature and policy review.
Idaho Business
- Utah incentives for high-paying jobs at issue
State officials are trying to make sure that the high-paying jobs created by companies receiving economic development incentives are, indeed, high-paying.
Wyoming Business
- Boise firm, MobileDataforce sells software for L.A. building inspectors
The city of Los Angeles has bought a mobile software application from a Boise company that will be used by the city's building inspectors.
- Former Idaho gov. Cecil Andrus says tax incentives 'not the way to go'
Tax incentives are unfair because they’re invariably targeted to large businesses, even though small businesses on the whole are the ones that drive job growth the most.
Other Economies
- Wyoming Federal Representatives Encourage Technology Business
"Success breeds success. Highlighting just how many healthy technology companies that are already flourishing in the Cowboy state could help attract more and show people that yes, it can and is being done right here at home. This WTO report is a part of that effort." Sen. Enzi
- Investors sought for Powell, Wyoming fiber optic network
U.S. MetroNets founder Ernie Bray said the company had yet to complete a project using the financing model followed by Powell, but the city was a good candidate for being the first.
Universities and Economic Development
- Finger Lakes WIRED offers business Internships to teachers to improve their understanding of today's workplace
The program is intended to improve educators’ understanding of today’s workplace, including skills and education required for in-demand careers.
Incubators and R&D
- Can higher education foster economic growth?—A conference summary
Higher education has always played a large role in the economy as a producer of human capital and as a center for research and development.
University TechTransfer
- Scientist at McLaughlin lands $2.3 million in grants
John Bermingham, a scientist at the McLaughlin Research Institute, has been awarded a grant for research that will help better understand the way the nervous system works.
Careers
- Technology related to childhood virus now available for licensing from Montana State University
Looking for a way to boost natural immunity before vaccines take effect, Hardy and other MSU scientists have come up with a quick test to screen compounds that might enhance resistance to rotavirus infection and, possibly, infection by other disease-causing agents that enter through the mucous membrane system.
Energy
- Chief Information Officer Roles Morph From Support Into Strategy
"Many CIOs have become business partners."
Connectivity & Communications
- Australia to Ban Old-Style Light Bulbs
Legislation to gradually restrict the sale of the old-style bulbs could reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012 and cut household power bills by up to 66 percent, said Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
- Tim Flannery to Sign Books on March 5 at MSU Bookstore - Richard Branson asks Tim to help judge $25MM contest to remove CO2
This month, Branson offered $25 million to the scientist who develops the best way of removing significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Branson has chosen Flannery to be one of the judges, and he will help select the $25 million winner.
- Selling Homeowners a Solar Dream. "Solar for free"
Energy startup The Citizenrē Corporation's haikulike Google ad says it all. "Solar for free," it headlines. "No initial investment needed. Just monthly payments for power."
- Biodiesel company Imperium gets huge infusion -- $214 million - but says it needs more
Imperium has big plans to become the dominant supplier of biodiesel, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Getting Clueful: Five Things You Should Know About Fighting Spam
The battle for your users' e-mail inboxes probably will never end, but it's not a failure of technology. Experienced e-mail and system administrators share the key points they really, really wish you understood.
- Type 911.gov. Two scientists think that social networks can improve disaster relief.
As the researchers envision it, community members would register in advance on their community response grid (CRG) using computers, cell phones, or any other mobile device. Emergency coordinators could gather and disseminate information via the site. One of its most important features would be its role in fostering closer community contacts and enabling resident-to-resident assistance during major emergencies.
- Smaller, Cheaper, Better Lasers. Affordable HD-DVD players are one potential payoff from a simpler process for making semiconductor lasers.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, overhauled one of the main laser elements, the mirror that makes up the cavity where light is produced.
- Regrowing Teeth
Researchers are finding ways to use stem cells to regrow teeth--a potentially easier and healthier alternative to dentures and dental implants.
- Google to launch business software. Web-based package aims at Microsoft's, IBM's core business
Jumping into a new market, Google Inc. is unveiling a product today to compete with Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp. in the multibillion-dollar business of providing e-mail, calendar, and other tools on corporate computer desktops.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page