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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Sep 21, 2007 |
“We can either be victims of change or we can plan for it, shape it and emerge stronger from it…” Luther Propst, Sonoran Institute Executive Director
Land use is a vital core of any economy. It's a visible indicator of what an area thinks of itself and its future. Does its use contribute to a better quality of life? How much is available? How much is preserved? How well is innovative long-range planning embraced and used by the community? The answers to questions like these can either improve or inhibit the ability of a community, state or region to excel. Three interesting articles that take a look at land: "Farmland Protection. A Land Link for Western Montana. The Community Food and Agriculture Coalition" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html and "Rural And Small Town Subdivision Design Workshop, 9/25-26,Three Forks, Montana" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html and "Big Vision, Bold Plans for the Changing West - Sonoran Institute 2007 Strategic Plan Overview" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
MAPS™ : Media Arts in the Public Schools
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- The Center for Disease Control Honors MAPS: Media Arts in the Public Schools program.
2007 has been a good year for MAPS.
Funding and Building your Business
- Report touts benefits of telecommuting. Workers save gas, reduce carbon emissions
Telecommuting saves 840 million gallons of gas a year, reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by nearly 14 million metric tons, a study released Wednesday found.
Business Plan Forums
- Early Stage, Step 14: Strategic partnerships require legal protections
Can your early-stage business create so-called “strategic partnerships” to further develop business ideas?
- Sixth Grade Game Programmer Nets $6.5 Million In Funding
"What's increasingly happening is companies are testing free to play and then upsell, where you're trying to monetize the players through other measures,"
- Inside Entrepreneurship: Avoid missteps when you incorporate
I routinely advise entrepreneurs to surround themselves with good people.
Education
- Mint Wins TechCrunch40 Top Company Award; Takes $50,000 Prize
Mint is a personal finance application that lets users track and monitor their financials in one place without the need of routine maintenance or accounting knowledge.
Montana Meth Project
- Alumna Gives $128 Million to High School. Universities should be careful about who they reject.
It all began when Warren Buffett, long before he became the celebrated investor, was rejected by Harvard and attended Columbia instead.
University TechTransfer
- Teen Meth Usage in Montana Declined by Nearly 50% Since 2005, Meth Project Gets More Funding
National Youth Survey Shows Montana Leads the Nation in Meth Reduction
Connectivity & Communications
- UW-Madison lands $41 million grant to move research from college to clinics
"Many complicated factors contribute to this breakdown in the translation of fundamental knowledge, and we have set up an expansive plan and structure to ameliorate the problem.”
Montana Biotech
- Metro-Scale Wi-Fi Network Saves Lives in Tucson
ER-Link enables doctors at Tucson's University Medical Center to use video and vital information telemetry to gain a sense of the severity of a patient's condition by viewing and in some cases speaking to patients in real time from Tucson Fire Department ambulances en route to the hospital.
- Alaska Airlines Plans To Provide In-Flight Wireless Broadband Next Year
"Alaska's route system and their proven leadership using innovative technology make them an ideal airline for our system's flight testing and early deployment."
- Murdoch eyes free Wall Street Journal website
Dropping the charges would follow a move this week by The New York Times to end its online subscription service.
Montana Economic Development
- Stanford researcher defends stem cell work in Hamilton, Montana lecture
“They're perfectly right to have that opinion,” Weissman said. “They're not right to impose it on the rest of us.”
Regional Economic Development
- Conference focuses on Indian business in Montana
“The overarching goal is to build strong, sustainable private business sectors in Montana’s Indian country.”
- Learning life skills in Deer Lodge, Montana
Chad Matt-feldt’s tattooed forearm contrasts with his stark white homework assignment, but the standard-issue blue pullover and the razor wire around his living quarters separate him from other concerned dads.
- Farmland Protection. A Land Link for Western Montana. The Community Food and Agriculture Coalition
Keeping land in agriculture from one generation to the next
- Expert suggests keys for business success in Sidney, Montana workshop
“This is one effort to keep creative juices going to improve the economy of our area,”
- Building Business in Columbia Falls, Montana
In this day and age, when the big retailers have a huge impact on our buying habits, it is important to keep small business alive.
- American Indian Leaders attending conference say process to gain federal recognition too slow
The Little Shell Tribe, which has been trying to get recognition for nearly three decades, is among 17 tribes nationwide whose applications for federal recognition are pending with the BIA. More than 200 other Indian groups also are seeking recognition.
Utah Business
- As job market advances, so can American workers
Based on my collaborations with dozens of states and localities over the past 10 years, I have identified seven steps needed to bring workers out of low-wage jobs and meet the needs of businesses and local and regional economies:
- Big Vision, Bold Plans for the Changing West - Sonoran Institute 2007 Strategic Plan Overview
The Sonoron Institute’s new strategic plan sharpens our focus on the goal of a West “both prosperous and healthy, with a civilization to match its scenery,” as Western writer Wallace Stegner envisioned.
- To Halt Climate Change, Planners Need To Help People Drive Less
Meeting the growing demand for conveniently located homes in walkable neighborhoods could significantly reduce the growth in the number of miles Americans drive, shrinking the nation’s carbon footprint while giving people more housing choices, according to a team of leading urban planning researchers.
- “The China Threat: Myth or Reality” Experts at Mansfield Conference say watch rise of China
China has outpaced Japan, is closing on Germany and may soon eclipse the United States in global economic production.
Utah Economic Development
- S. Jordan, Utah company's niche is managing customer feedback. Allegiance Technologies, Inc.
"The client had 140,000 e-mails there that no one had ever looked at."
- BYU prof's carbonated yogurt going national. Fizzix
Prof. Ogden first added carbon dioxide to yogurt in 1983. After nearly 30 patents in as many countries, 10 years and two appeals to General Mills, Fizzix has made the grocery bigtime.
Idaho Business
- Taking Off the Rose-Colored Glasses in Utah
Growth pressures Utah faces include traffic congestion, an underfunded public education system and affordable housing, the lieutenant governor said. The state is working to address each, but encourages help from the private sector to accomplish long-term goals.
Washington State Business
- Wireless Internet Anywhere You Want Expands to Other Idaho Cities
It's called Bridgemaxx and it's basically internet anywhere you go that has a power outlet. Bridgemaxx is now planning to spread to other Idaho cities like Burton, Sugar City, Pocatello, Idaho Falls, and Jackson.
- Boise firm, Scott Peyron & Associates helps controversial companies build better public images
Peyron's said getting positive press for his clients is not always easy.
Other Economies
- $4.54 million for research in state. Six teams awarded money by Life Sciences Discovery Fund
The money will come from private donors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Allen Foundation, Microsoft Corp., Amgen Inc., Safeco Corp. and Regence BlueShield.
- $30M Zillow infusion may go to home-improvement tab
"We believe Zillow is well on its way toward becoming a market-leader in a huge, and untapped online category of online tools and information for homeowners."
Non-Profit News
- State officials pitch opportunities to venture capital managers
"We have the infrastructure available to be able to transport and transmit that, we have the science," he said. "What we need is you all, what we need is capital, what we need is investment."
- Kansas economic road map is one Milwaukee can follow
"Entrepreneurs create. They innovate. They employ. They are vital to the success of every economy. Ewing Marion Kauffman wanted his foundation to advance entrepreneurship and, in doing so, enhance living standards for all Americans," its president, Carl Schramm, said.
Energy
- Sustainable Living Systems in Victor, Montana wins grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture
The project goals include making the current locally grown, produced and distributed food supply more self-sustaining and secure, and improving the economic and physical health of Bitterroot people, farms, communities and ecosystems.
2007 Montana Legislature
- California regulators propose developing energy self-sufficiency by 2020
The commission wants California's electric utilities to collaborate on creating one grand plan for improving energy efficiency throughout the state, rather than pursuing their own separate programs the way they do today.
- PG&E helps Habitat for Humanity go solar
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has decided to pay for solar power on every house that Habitat for Humanity builds in Northern and Central California during the next year, about 65 homes in all.
Transportation
- Guest column: The quiet sound of government functioning well -
Our system of government was not and should not be designed to make the lawmaking process easy, but it was never intended either to be abused and burdened by senseless encumbrances and restrictions created more to protect partisan advantage than to promote the public interest.
Montana Education Excellence
- S.F. studying congestion pricing to ease traffic, promote transit
Drivers would pay to travel on San Francisco's most traffic-choked corridors.
- Boston Goes Bike-Friendly
"We need to get more people to take the bike around. It's good for their health, it's good for the environment, and there's less congestion on our streets," Menino said. "It's time for this issue to come to the forefront."
Leadership Montana
- Students at the University of Montana flunk civics test
“America's colleges are still failing to give their students a solid foundation in America's heritage.”
- Montana University Regents hear ideas to solve university hiring woes
MSU President Geoff Gamble said Tuesday he thinks the report is “very important,” especially for the Bozeman campus, where the high cost of living and high cost of housing make it harder for the university to fill job vacancies. MSU has more unfilled job vacancies than the rest of the University System put together, he added.
- University of Montana plans text message alert system
“It’s important to let students know what’s going on,” he said. “I’m glad Public Safety is rolling on this.”
- Reflections on Leadership
Can leadership skills be taught, or are these things that you are born with - you either have them or you don’t? If they can be acquired, how do you develop such skills?
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