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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Mar 13, 2007 |
"Work is an essential part of being alive. Your work is your identity. It tells you who you are. It's gotten so abstract. People don't work for the sake of working. They're working for a car, a new house, or a vacation. It's not the work itself that's important to them. There's such a joy in doing work well." -- Kay Stepkin, baker, as quoted in Working, by Studs Terkel
For those of you in Missoula: "City Club Missoula meeting to examine growth, quality of life this Friday. You're invited to participate." http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- SBA offers Web tool to help entrepreneurs
The video interviews provide information on business plan development, small-business-friendly financing, business promotion and planning and research.
- Encourage entrepreneurship and increase investment by eliminating capital gains taxes
“Capital gains taxes have a negative impact on the number of entrepreneurs and risk-takers,”
Montana Education Excellence
- Why Google put a research lab in Poland
"Businesspeople have come to the conclusion that they need the universities, not just their graduates," says Anton Cizmar, vice rector of the Technical University of Kosice. "I think it's a miracle what has happened here." "If you invest in the university system and support research in areas of interest, students will naturally gravitate into those areas," says Mr. Pashupathy of Google, which opened its Krakow lab earlier this year. "It's a nice circle which ultimately benefits everybody."
Education
- U.S. education agency taking nominations for American Star of Teaching award
Know a teacher who makes a difference in the lives of students?
Montana Business
- After School Program Grants Available in Montana - State Superintendent Linda McCulloch today announced the release of applications for 21st Century After School Grants Program.
The 21st Century Community Learning Centers provide opportunities for academic enrichment during non-school hours (before-school, after-school and summer) in a community learning center environment. Services reinforce and complement regular academic programs and offer literacy and educational development to families.
- Curriculum of MIT to be online for free
MIT intends to reach an epic milestone soon: By the end of the year, its entire curriculum should be available online for free.
- Brigham Young University business school ranks 8th in BusinessWeek poll
"Our tuition is much, much lower so the students go out with good salaries and get a really good return on what they spend at BYU,"
- B-schools get back to basics
"Business schools are on the wrong track," Bennis and James O'Toole , colleagues at USC's Marshall School of Business, wrote in Harvard Business Review in 2005. "Some of the research produced is excellent, but because so little of it is grounded in actual business practice, the focus of graduate business education has become increasingly circumscribed -- and less and less relevant to practitioners."
- A plan in place: Hathaway scholarship changes mean Wyoming students have to plan for their futures
State lawmakers approved a "success curriculum" this session, requiring recipients of the state-funded Hathaway to take certain classes depending on which of four tiers of the scholarship they hope to earn.
- Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on Educational Effectiveness by the Business Community
The United States in the 21st century faces unprecedented economic and social challenges, ranging from the forces of global competition to the impending retirement of 77 million baby boomers.
Montana Economic Development
- Web sites learn to thrive in Montana. Grupthink and Ideal Bite
Grupthink http://www.Grupthink.com , for one, was created in Missoula with a budget of exactly zero dollars, explained John Masterson, a co-founder of the Web site and of http://www.Modwest.com fast-growing Web-hosting company that currently boasts customers in 53 countries.
Funding and Building your Business
- Gov. Schweitzer Appears on Charlie Rose
On March 7, Gov Schweitzer had a very interesting talk with Charlie Rose. Montana can be very proud of our Governor and his message in this discussion.
- Helena makes pitch to airlines
Compared to other states, Montanans are underserved and pay more for commercial air service than people in other parts of the country, a recent Department of Transportation study found.
Regional Business
- Let clever ones lead themselves
What's the best way to manage the gifted people who are increasingly important in the knowledge economy?
- Small-Business Myths Busted
The truth as you know it about starting a business may really be a lie. Let us help you sort the myths from the realities.
- Getting Past Your Business Launch
11 tips to act on now that'll help you keep your business going well beyond the startup phase
Regional Economic Development
- Sitestar Acquires Assets of OneWest.Net. Acquisition Fortifies Company’s Foothold In The Northwestern United States
"This deal strengthens our foothold within the region where we expect to continue to grow through new customer sign-ups and additional acquisitions.”
Idaho Business
- Students paying to find internships. As experience becomes more important to landing a job, firms offer search help for a fee
Hunting for an internship takes time, and as more students realize their value, competition is getting fierce. A slew of businesses have popped up to help match students with internships, charging hundreds to thousands of dollars to help them write resumes, identify potential employers and find summer housing.
- New Guidebook Identifies 22 Policies to Increase Affordable Housing.
The guidebook features “Solutions in Action” for each of the 22 recommended policies
- Best Practices in Real Estate Development
The database, which is searchable by year and development category, contains more than 450 case studies from throughout the world.
- Keeping it in the family: Company launching this week to bring 'localization' to Boulder County
It's part of a movement spreading through communities around the country that sees frequenting local businesses — particularly local farms, restaurants and shops — as the antidote to the damaging impacts of globalization and the key to broader environmental and social sustainability.
Washington State Business
- Group launches Web site to help bring businesses to Boise Valley
"The site does an excellent job of showcasing the beauty, lifestyle, and thriving business climate in the Boise Valley," said Dennis Johnson BVEP chairman of the Boise Valley Economic Partnership. "It's innovative, easy to use, and really brings to life the uniqueness of our region."
Other Economies
- Itron about to become a giant. $1.6 billion Actaris acquisition to add 6,000 employees, nearly 30 factories worldwide
“I think it’s notable that a company from Spokane can grow from an outgrowth of a local utility company to become what is without question the largest supplier in the world for electricity meters,” says LeRoy Nosbaum, Itron’s chairman and CEO. “The real add is the huge presence we will have outside the U.S.”
- Rolling entrepreneurial thunder
Despite the struggles in turning that interest into a profitable and growing enterprise, he says that as a creative outlet for him, “It’s been really a blessing.”
- Washington States passes innovation partnership zones
Designation as an innovation partnership zone would help an area attract private investment, Phillips said. It would also make a statement that a particular area is important to the state's overall economy.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Tech summit looks globally. Emerging markets hold deep reservoir of creative talent
For Intel Corp., "Russia is the largest software development site outside the U.S.," said Intel Russia President Steve Chase at the symposium Thursday.
Incubators and R&D
- A refrigerator that will toss you a can of beer
It took the 22-year-old Cornwell about 150 hours and $400 in parts to modify a mini-fridge common to many college dorm rooms into the beer-tossing contraption, which can launch 10 cans of beer from its magazine before needing a reload.
Non-Profit News
- 'Cold' lasers: Sci-fi or a serious healing device?
Physicians say there is some credible scientific evidence for cold lasers, but to beware of exaggerated claims.
- MSU professor earns prestigious award for work with microscopy
Codd's work assists research on fuel cells, medical catheters and the cleanup of contaminated soil and water.
Energy
- Foundation looking to give money to more Idaho organizations
"Idaho has the smallest number of applications and grants awarded,"
Connectivity & Communications
- Residents banding together to get discounts on solar panels
More than ever, buyers are so eager to feel good about helping the environment while combating high energy bills that they are willing to form ad-hoc co-ops and work with businesses for affordable solar installation prices.
- Montana Governor Schweitzer says clean energy is this generation's challenge
We need kids who want to be scientists and change the world, he said. "Without teachers who energize children, we're going to lose this battle."
- To the end of the earth. The future of unchecked global warming
This is our future - famous cities are submerged, a third of the world is desert, the rest struggling for food and fresh water. Richard Girling investigates the reality behind the science of climate change
- The past, present and future of Idaho's geothermal power. Wyoming considering 20 to 40 new geothermal wells
It's relatively inexpensive, plentiful, environmentally friendly to the extreme, and it may just be the key to staving off a potential energy crisis.
- Bush's Polar-Bear Problem
Fish and Wildlife director H. Dale Hale said this was not an attempt to censor scientists, though the travel memos specifically require that the traveler "understands the administration's position on climate change, polar bears, and sea ice and will not be speaking on or responding to these issues."
- Innovative Thinking and Funding Make Townsend, Montana's New Boiler System a Success. "Fuels for Schools"
Not only is the Townsend School the first facility under Fuels For Schools and Beyond to receive CO2 emission offset replacement grant money, but it is also the first school district that will burn wood pellets in its new biomass heating system. Over the 30-year life of the system, savings are expected to exceed $1 million.
Transportation
- The Different Flavors of Muni Wi-Fi
As citywide Wi-Fi initiatives spread like wildfire, local governments choose from the expanding crop of business models in moving forward with adoption.
- Tech Firms Push to Use TV Airwaves for Internet. Cable, Phone Companies Watch Warily
A coalition of big technology companies wants to bring high-speed Internet access to consumers in a new way: over television airwaves.
City Club Missoula
- Cities adopt policies to ensure roads aren't built solely for cars.
Hoping to correct a decades-old "urban planning mistake," city officials are moving to require that anyone building new streets or altering existing ones set aside space for bicyclists, wheelchairs and strollers.
- Bozeman Chamber, Big Sky hope to woo Frontier Airlines
Got $75,000 and a desire for more flights between Denver and Gallatin Field Airport?
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Millar to look at growth challenges at next City Club Missoula
The new director of the Missoula City-County Office of Planning and Grants will take a look at the challenge of dealing with Missoula’s growth at the next City Club Missoula luncheon.
- City Club Missoula meeting to examine growth, quality of life this Friday. You're invited to participate.
Millar will discuss three areas where his work in Missoula is focused: code revision, housing challenges and city-county cooperation in the urbanizing area. He'll talk about the toolbox of ideas tried by other Western towns in situations similar to Missoula's.
- A New Battery Takes Off in a Race to Electric Cars. VROOOOM! Or, rather, much more softly: brmmm.
“The real breakthrough is with the new batteries, which offered us energy density — which in turn provided us with a reliable, high-powered package in a relatively small space.”
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