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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Dec 18, 2007 |
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"I am the future of America. I will not graduate from high school." http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Excellent stories on developing better economies in rural communities: "High-Tech Brings Rural Towns Back to Life. The Center to Bridge the Digital Divide" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- "Wealthy son of tiny Winifred, Montana, Norman Asbjornson puts his money where his heart is" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- "Native son, Dr. Nelson Ludlow returns to rural Washington State to build Mobilisa Inc. into one of the fastest growing companies in the State. Company teams with WSU for further success." http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Boomtown Institute
Come Home Montana
- The Agurban from Boomtown Institute - Happy Holidays!
Thank you for the opportunity to share with you some of our successes throughout 2007. We look forward to the possibility that one day we may be able to assist you and your community.
Idaho National Laboratory
- Montana Talent - Senior Manager
Objective - To contribute my business skills and experience by collaborating with a business in order to enhance their organizations success.
- Roger Lang to protect 7,000 acre Bitterroot Valley Montana ranch ‘in harm's way'
Most of the ranch, like much of the Sun Ranch, will be placed under conservation easements, says Lang, who earlier this year launched the Sun River Institute in Cameron to enhance sustainable wildlife and ranch management techniques in the West.
- Wealthy son of tiny Winifred, Montana, Norman Asbjornson puts his money where heart is
Thanks to Asbjornson, the town of 150 people has a new city hall, library, museum and community center. In addition, students receive scholarships to attend Montana State University, and construction is under way on a new business, more evidence of Asbjornson's generosity.
- Olympic Freestyle Medalist, Eric Bergoust eyes life after skiing and comes home to Montana as he enters hall of fame.
In the short term, Bergoust said, he's trying to figure out what to do with all his trophies and where to stash his ski clothes. “I try to use the trophies,” he said, while pulling out two silver platters he won at another international competition. “We used these as cheese platters at a party we had a few weeks ago.”
- Montana Career Opportunities - Account Director - Studio Manager - O’Berry-Cavanaugh
Growing Bozeman brand marketing firm Seeks senior-level agency/marketing professional with ability to map strategy to actionable plans, passionate about innovation and exemplary client service.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Manager - Intellectual Property - Montana State University
The position is responsible for managing patent filings and working closely with external patent counsel on the filings and on responses to office actions, docketing, and maintaining all correspondence related to the patenting.
Idaho TechConnect
- Idaho National Laboratory Technology Available for Licensing - Control Systems Cyber Security Self-Assessment Tool (CS2SAT)
CS2SAT is a desktop software tool which guides users through a step-by-step process to collect facility specific control system information and then makes appropriate recommendations for improving the system’s cyber security posture.
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- Idaho TechConnect is the state's only market driven private-public organization focused solely on technology - its development, transfer and commercialization.
TechConnect's Mission Statement: Accelerate Idaho's innovation-based economy by connecting people , ideas and resources.
Funding and Building your Business
- Native son, Dr. Nelson Ludlow returns to rural Washington State to build Mobilisa Inc. into one of the fastest growing companies in the State. Company teams with WSU for further success.
“I knew all along I wanted to move back to Washington State; in particular, I wanted to move to Port Townsend,” said Ludlow. “Even when I was in grade school on Whidbey Island, I thought Port Townsend was the cool place to be.”
- Strategic Entrepreneurial Economic Development, or SEED program targets rural Minnesota counties
The nearly $70 million that will be requested from the 2008 Legislature will support ideas from entrepreneurs in rural Minnesota and encourage growth from within rural counties.
- High-Tech Brings Rural Towns Back to Life. The Center to Bridge the Digital Divide
Three trends are fueling growth in some rural areas, says Bill Gillis, director of the Center to Bridge the Digital Divide http://cbdd.wsu.edu/ in Spokane, Wash.
Education
- What's Coming In 2008? Follow The Entrepreneurs
One way to know what's next is to follow the money. Another is to follow the talent. These three heading into rich Internet apps, mobile phones, and Web advertising.
- Program pairs experienced execs with start-up entrepreneurs
Knowing how the game is played can be more helpful than being handed a bag of money.
- Starting Up is Harder to Do
Hardware prices, marketing efforts and Google-sized salaries are all pushing up the launch cost, which may account for the shrinking number of seed investors.
- Famed angel investor Hal Nissley has secret weapon: his wife
Nissley, whose previous investments include Oracle Corp. [ORCL] and computer equipment maker Digital Dynamics Inc., said it was not his wife's business acumen he valued so much as her keen judgment of the founding team members' character, which he said is more critical than the underlying product in predicting a company's success.
- A French Twist in Silicon Valley
It sounds more like a gimmick than a way to start a company: set up a Web site and let visitors vote on everything from your business strategy to your management hires to the company logo.
- Startup Lawyers: When Can You Do It Yourself?
It's not meant to be exhaustive or detailed, but to just provide some of the core elements that startups usually consider when contemplating whether or not they need to hire a lawyer.
Montana Meth Project
- Science Cafés Tap Nation's Fascination With Research and Discoveries
About 60 science cafés have cropped up across the United States.
- Seeking an elite education? Download it onto your iPod
By making hundreds of lectures from elite academic institutions available online for free, Apple is invigorating the minds of people seeking something beyond the usual iPod fare.
- The University of Pennsylvania joins Harvard and other colleges in announcing loan-free financial aid packages
"Our aim is to send a signal out to every family who would not otherwise believe they could afford our tuition and fees that we're affordable to students from every economic background," Penn President Amy Gutmann said.
- Log in, enter password, read a textbook
"Essentially what you're doing is you're able to reach all types of learners. ... They stay engaged at all times."
- I am the future of America. I will not graduate from high school.
More than 1.2 million students drop out every year. That translates to one dropout every 26 seconds.
Connectivity & Communications
- Lamar Associates Announces Free Anti-Meth Training. Online-Onsite Training for Indian Country
Lamar Associates is a 100 percent American Indian-owned small business with an intimate understanding of the challenges facing Indian Country. The company has been awarded a $500,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide onsite and online training.
Incubators and R&D
- Google offers encyclopedia. Net service may rival Wikipedia, reward authors
For now, submissions are by invitation only as Google fine-tunes the system, but the Internet search leader said it will eventually publish articles by all comers.
- Old media seek to know Google, not just fear it
Google's unstated mission is to "sell targeted advertising in every medium everywhere."
- Nearly 95 Percent of E-mail is Spam
Spammers are increasingly emulating retail store fronts by tailoring their content around national holidays.
- Ribbit debuts as “Silicon Valley’s phone company”
It has more than 600 developers working on developing telephone applications that are integrated tightly with business and consumer web applications.
- Striking writers in talks to launch Web start-ups
At least seven groups, composed of members of the striking Writers Guild of America, are planning to form Internet-based businesses that, if successful, could create an alternative economic model to the one at the heart of the walkout, now in its seventh week.
- Companies listen online, tap into marketing opportunities
Somewhere, someone is reading and analyzing your words.
Regional Business
- Turning Carbon Dioxide into Fuel
Researchers are harnessing solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, which can be used to make fuels.
Montana Business
- Horizon Air to repaint 4 planes with school colors
The 70-seat Bombardier CRJ-700s will be painted to honor the University of Washington, Washington State University, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon.
Montana Biotech
- Butte, Montana based SeaCast foresees offshoots and becomes more involved in the community
SeaCast, a precision parts casting company moving to a facility west of Butte, may bring more than a foundry company to the Mining City.
- Jet setters: Montana based Edwards Jet Center offers luxury travel
Sentient Jet contracts with about 25 U.S. fixed-based operators, and out of that herd Sentient has selected Edwards Jet as its preferred operator for 2007 for reliability, safety and service.
- Bionic Women. The Bozeman chapter of Business and Professional Women is pushing the boundaries.
Bozeman’s chapter just happens to be the largest in the state, so it’s a great place for business women to meet fellow comrades.
- Montana’s Terror Economy
It’s a new, strange story. In a part of the country that was built on the most extravagant homesteaders’ and oil-drillers’ hopes for the future, economic health in this new century rides largely on the continued threat of threat itself.
- Montana Chamber of Commerce - December Eye on Business Newsletter
As you ring in the year 2008 on January 1, you are not just ushering in a new year. There are also a handful of new laws that will take effect at the start of the year that could have an impact on your life or your business.
- Green decking — Darby, Montana composite lumber company seeks investors - Bitterroot Composite Lumber Co.
Corrine Gantt and John Schneeberger want to build a "green" business on the outskirts of Darby.
Montana Economic Development
- McLaughlin Research Institute Receives $2 Million Biomedical Research Grant from the Montana Department of Commerce
“The McLaughlin Research Institute is a world class facility, doing cutting edge research right in our own back yard,” said Governor Brian Schweitzer. “This grant is an investment in Montana’s future doctors and scientists, and research that has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of serious disease.”
Regional Economic Development
- Montana Tribal, business heads discuss strengthening groups' economic ties
The tribes represented at the Great Falls conference contributed more than $473 million to the state's economy in fiscal year 2003, according to the State Tribal Economic Development Commission and the University of Montana's Bureau of Business and Economic Research.
- Baucus, Tester fight off threat, secure millions for Montana
Rural Montana: $42,419,132
Utah Business
- The Rise of Family-Friendly Cities. It's lifestyle, not lattés, that our most productive workers want.
If you talk with recruiters and developers in the nation's fastest growing regions, you find that the critical ability to lure skilled workers, long term, lies not with bright lights and nightclubs, but with ample economic opportunities, affordable housing and family friendly communities not too distant from work.
- The John Gardner Blog - Washington State University Vice President for Economic Development (Great!)
Any large organization struggles to keep up with change. I’ve always found it a bit ironic that universities spawn the most radical of new ideas and creativity – while also often being the refuge of stubborn hold-outs.
- Acting Globally but Thinking Locally? The Influence of Local Communities on Organizations
Despite globalization, local factors remain important, and in many ways local particularities have become more visible and salient as globalization has proceeded.
Government Technology
- Craig McCaw funds a company that plans a product for cheap GPS tracking
S5 Wireless, a Utah company, is looking to bring a GPS-like device to market that would allow kids, pets, packages and other items to be tracked by small, cheap chips that can be powered by a single battery for up two years and tracked indoors and outside over long distances.
Idaho Business
- State to Outsource All IT
"Maintaining the status quo is not an option. Technology is the underpinning for a well-run, modern enterprise."
Washington State Business
- Who is going to be Idaho's high tech quarterback?
Tech needs a quarterback who can convince our state leaders that the era of tech playing second fiddle to agriculture is over and it’s time to give the tech industry the respect and support it deserves.
Other Economies
- AdReady lands $10 million for expansion - Startup helps companies cut cost of online ads
"We really remove a lot of the cost out of the creative development process," he said. "If you walked into any creative agency, you are going to pay anywhere from $500 to $5,000 to have an ad created for you."
- Economic benefits seen from new innovation zone in Clallam County, Washington
"There are two ways to go," Keegan said. One is to "get the money up front and then figure it out," and the other is the way it'll be done here: Bring the partners together, let the ideas flow and then go back to the state with a grant application.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Some sell out, while others think big. Region needs more acquirers, fewer acquirees
Every sale of a promising start-up to an out-of-state entity makes our region feel a bit more like we're running a farm team, rather than playing in the majors.
Non-Profit News
- "Free" - The Past and Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson - Editor-In-Chief of Wired
The New Abundance Economy.
Energy
- Montana Food Bank Network loses crucial semi for deliveries. Anyone got a BIG RIG????
If you can help, call the Montana Food Bank Network at 721-3825.
- New at GrantCraft
We invite you to join this growing community of practice. Find fresh ideas. And make a difference.
Transportation
- Panel opens door for energy-efficient taxi service in Missoula, Montana
"The commission's decision in this case is going to be a direct reflection of its vision for what's possible in Missoula and the rest of the state."
- Wind turbine for Arby's nixed in Livingson, Montana
Currently, turbines are considered buildings, not signs, according to City Planner Jim Woodhull. The height limit for structures in that area is 45 feet.
Montana Education Excellence
- Streetcars Roll In Seattle
The line, long sought by billionaire developer and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, is designed to serve those living in thousands of new homes, several major new businesses and new development.
- A Common Thread 670 Miles Long. The Yellowstone River Runs Through Montana and Affects Many of Us.
“Anyone who wants to run for public office should read cover to cover their segment of this study.”
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