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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Feb 22, 2008 |
"I sat there and forgot and forgot, until what remained was the river that went by and I who watched. On the river the heat mirages danced with each other and then they danced through each other and then they joined hands and danced around each other. Eventually the watcher joined the river, and there was only one of us. I believe it was the river." Norman Maclean
The waters, the land, the clear big sky - these make Montana special. What are we doing to protect the legacy? --- For those of you with questions: "Setting the Record Straight on Conservation Easements" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html and (thanks to Steve Running for sending this along) Helena, we've got a problem: "Human-Induced Changes in the Hydrology of the Western United States. "The Montana water supply is in trouble!" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
2008 Montana Legislature
Come Home Montana
- Democrats see no hope for more school funding. Montana State Senator Rick Laible, R-Darby pushes Republicans on education
Wilmer said Republican House Speaker Scott Sales’ two appointees to head the Education Committee -- Chairman Rep. Rick Jore of the Constitution Party and Vice Chairman Rep. Jack Wells, R-Bozeman -- are “very strongly against public education.”
MAPS™ : Media Arts in the Public Schools
- Montana Career Opportunity - Executive Director - Partnership Health Center
Missoula County $70,000-80,000 annually, DOQ Responsible for the advancement and management of Partnership Health Center (PHC) through implementation of program policies established by PHC Board of Directors.
- Local woman feels people are Glendive, Montana’s great asset. "Good People Surrounded by Badlands"
“People don’t recognize what a good community we have.”
Missoula Children's Theatre
- MAPS: Media Arts in the Public Schools & Corvallis High School Receives Best Buy Teach Award
“Our Montana MAPS students are amazing. And a special thanks to the administrators at Corvallis High School – without them none of this would have been possible,” said MAPS President, Peter Rosten.
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- "The Little Red Truck" To Screen At International Family Film Festival In Hollywood 2/29 & 3/1
J.K. Simmons, of Spider-man and Juno fame and a participant in the film, plans to attend the Saturday screening.
Funding and Building your Business
- Study Reveals $13.9 Billion Annual Federal Telework Deficit. Most Federal Workers Can Work From Home, But Don't
If all federal employees who are eligible to telework full time were to do so, the federal government could realize $13.9 billion savings in commuting costs annually and eliminate 21.5 billion pounds of pollutants out of the environment each year.
- Teaching South Koreans English from Rural Wyoming
So the Holidays moved back home to Ten Sleep, WY (population 304) in Washakie County (population 7,819) with a population density of 3.5 per square mile to start their new business, Eleutian Technology LLC.
Education
- Inside Entrepreneurship: Know the rules for startup investing
While there are a number of rules that could be relevant to your situation (a corporate attorney can best advise you), your education about fundraising should start with an understanding of "accredited investor" qualifications.
University Business Plan Competitions
- Governors propose investing in higher ed
Faced with increasing global competition in the marketplace in a down-spiraling economy, many governors are asking their legislatures to make a significant investment in higher education.
- Stanford eliminates tuition fees for students who's parents earn less than $100,000.
"Thanks to our increasingly generous financial aid program ... attending Stanford will cost less than most private and many public universities."
- Today is "Introduce a girl to engineering day"!!
Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers is "a colorful, 256-page celebration of the contributions of women engineers to every aspect of modern life.
Connectivity & Communications
- Elite learners from around globe schooled in start-up culture. Imagine Cup - "Start-up school"
The 24 participants were finalists in the third-annual Imagine Cup, an international competition for student teams who employ technology to solve complex problems. Improving education was this year's theme.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- A Blueprint for Rural Broadband
The site provides guidance on locating companies licensed to provide wireless services in or near rural communities as well as helpful links to other government and private resources related to encouraging rural broadband opportunities.
- Reality Mining
Sandy Pentland is using data gathered by cell phones to learn more about human behavior and social interactions.
- T-Mobile to offer local service with unlimited calling
T-Mobile USA Inc. is set to begin testing Thursday a wireless program to coax people into giving up their land-line service at home, while retaining their home phone numbers and current touch-tone phones.
- MTA Commentary—VoIP Wants Free Lunch
Voice over the Internet, or VOIP, providers have found a way to get around the ugly inconvenience of having to pay others for terminating their calls.
- The Curse of Internet Anonymity
Today’s generation of kids under the age of sixteen –- let’s call them Generation Facebook –- are the first to literally grow up on the Internet. Teaching these kids that it’s OK to lie about one’s identity has profoundly dangerous long-term consequences.
- Broadband Legislation Would Provide Economic Stimulus of $134 Billion Annually, Says Report
If Congress passes legislation that enables every state to implement programs modeled after ConnectKentucky and experience an increase in broadband adoption, the direct economic stimulus would be more than $134 billion per year for the nation.
Incubators and R&D
- Live longer, live better: futurologists pick top challenges of next 50 years
The pace of advances in technology means the rate of progress will be 30 times faster in the next half century, futurologists believe - and that opens up the prospect of innovation in many fields.
- The Future of Technology - Exciting Times
A Website Management System such as SiteFin can be combined with an Enterprise Resource Planning system (NetSuite) and a document management system (MS SharePoint or Fortis) to create a comprehensive web presence for both external and internal use. Our customers have realized great cost and efficiency benefits to their business by using all of these systems together.
- Catching Up With Zoho
"We think businesses need more functionality [than what Google offers],"
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Rocky Mountain Lab rats in Hamilton, Montana
With tens of thousands of lives at stake worldwide, Hamilton scientists Frank DeLeo and Michael Otto struggle to unlock the secrets of antibiotic- resistant staph infections
Montana Business
- State Strategies to Promote Angel Investment for Economic Growth
Ensure that angel investors are well-represented on state economic development advisory boards, along with entrepreneurs, universities, and other industry representatives;
Montana Economic Development
- Whispering Turbines of Hamilton builds some of the most powerful racing engines in the world and are the 2007 National Hydroplane Champions
‘What’s your game plan?’ and he quoted a famous driver in our sport, saying ‘I am going to get out front and improve my position.’
- Resodyn receives contract with Army worth $2.6M
Farrar characterized the research and development contract as “relatively large” for Resodyn, and said about six new staff will be added to complete the work.
- 2008 Made in Montana Marketplace Sold-out! 2/29-3/1, Great Falls, Montana
“Ask any Montanan, and they’ll tell you Montana entrepreneurs and craftsmen create the finest products in the world. The Made in Montana Marketplace is our chance to tell the world what Montanans already know,” said Governor Brian Schweitzer. “Bringing this quantity of quality vendors and buyers together can produce big breaks for many local companies.”
- Mercury trade capped - Court frees Montana from controversial pollution market
“The EPA tried to turn common sense and the law on its head, because for well over 30 years it has been kind of a bedrock principal of the nation’s clean air laws that EPA sets the floor, and the states are free to protect human health and environment in a more precautionary way.”
- SBC Request for Proposals for Web and Communications Work
The SBC is currently looking for a contractor to help with Website and Communications Development and Maintenance. Please forward this to anyone you think might be interested.
- EmployAbilities: Blackfoot Telecommunications Group finds a rich resource for access to a valuable work force
For Blackfoot Telecommunications Group, it's a combination of the right person for the job and the right thing to do.
- Davidson Companies hack worries customers
“I’m irritated,” she said. “This is an ongoing problem that isn’t just D.A. Davidson [a previous name of the company]. The industry has to become accountable. … I think it’s probably across the board. All these companies are not held accountable.”
- Two weeks left for Big Sky Airlines. Airline, parent company reject buyout offer by employees
“It’s a sad day for all of us, but the harsh economics of the global and national economies, the staggering fuel costs and the inefficiency of flying just four airplanes couldn’t be overcome,” deLeeuw said.
North Dakota Business and Economic Development
- Saving the world through zoning
If our civilization is in trouble, how can planning codes help?
- $100,000 grant from the Northwest Area Foundation to the Community Giving Assistance Toward Employment (GATE) boosts Glendive, Montana area food promotion
"For once in our life we have a strategic advantage over eastern Oregon and Washington," Smith said. "We can grow a lot of stuff here."
- Montana Secretary of State Brad Johnson Snags National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) 2010 Annual Meeting for Montana
Johnson said, "We're keeping Montana in the national spotlight. It's not just the beauty of our state that we're looking forward to showing off. We have some programs in our Secretary of State's office that other states can really use as an example."
- Native American Community Development Corporation's Small Business Support Services Center's goal is to help
"We're offering any support services for small business," said Conway, "and it's aimed at businesses on the Blackfeet Reservation."
- Setting the Record Straight on Conservation Easements
The first false claim I’ll address is that land held under a conservation easement is taken off the tax roll, requiring the remaining landowners to make up the difference in revenue.
- Ravalli County Farmers and Ranchers - "If you want my land then buy it"
“I don’t want anyone or any agency telling me what to do,” Ray Peterson said in the jam-packed shop. “If you want to do something with my land, then buy it.”
- "Big Sky-Small Acres" provides answers to new land owners in Montana.
"It's information they can go out that day and apply to practices on their place."
Regional Economic Development
- Who Wants to be a Venture Capitalist in North Dakota?
To date, DVG claims it is the only completely student-managed venture capital fund within the United States.
Utah Economic Development
- Human-Induced Changes in the Hydrology of the Western United States. "The Montana water supply is in trouble!"
These results are robust to perturbation of study variates and methods. They portend, in conjunction with previous work, a coming crisis in water supply for the western United States.
- Great Plains at Center of Mounting Brain Drain
Of particular concern is the effect of population loss among young, educated workers on the states’ economies, resulting in a brain drain that could leave the region lagging the rest of the nation for many years to come.
Idaho Business
- 2008 Utah Legislature Overwhelmingly Passes Utah Fund of Funds $200 Million Expansion
“Entrepreneurship is consistently the greatest accelerator of economic growth in Utah, and it is fitting that entrepreneurs played a key role in ensuring passage of this legislation.”
Oregon Economic Development
- Idaho's Tamarack owners file for bankruptcy
"The main thing to understand is that it's really not Tamarack Resort filing," Boespflug said in an interview Tuesday night. "Tamarack itself is not affected, and it's business as usual."
South Dakota Economic Development
- A new Oregon incubator called the Center of Excellence helps apparel, footwear startups
The Oregon Employment Department has estimated that the size of what it calls the apparel and sporting goods cluster will grow almost 13 percent to 21,500 jobs statewide by 2012.
Washington State Business
- SDSU/Brookings Angel Fund - New Angel Fund Formed in Brookings, S.D. to Invest in Local Companies
The fund will invest primarily in regional companies located in Brookings and the tri-state area of South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.
Other Economies
- Learning From a Native Speaker, Without Leaving Home. LiveMocha of Issaquah, WA offers 160 hours of beginning or intermediate lessons for free.
“It’s a community of like-minded learners who can leverage their native language proficiency to help one another,” he said. The name “LiveMocha” is meant to evoke the relaxed atmosphere of a coffee shop.
- InnovaTek Collaboration Receives Research Funding for Hydrogen Fuel Technology
InnovaTek, a Richland-based developer of patented technologies for sustainable power and environmental safety, is teamed with Washington State University to improve InnovaTek's hydrogen fuel processor technology.
- Greater Spokane Incorporated - One year after the merger of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Spokane Area Economic Development Council
“It’s been a hard thing; you’re going to have some tension,” he says, but adds, “In my interviews with the senior staff of both units, it’s clear that everyone there believes that Spokane is the most important thing, not their job title or job responsibility.”
Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)
- Star-struck states sweeten film incentives
New Mexico was the second state (after Oklahoma) to pursue film projects with tax breaks, and its efforts have paid off handsomely — in both money and prestige.
Non-Profit News
- Budget Cuts, Mismanagement Muddle SBIR Grants
Without congressional reauthorization, the 1982 law that created SBIR grants will expire in seven months, and there is no guarantee that Congress will act by then.
Energy
- The Grant Institute's Grants 101: Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop, 7/9-11, Missoula
The Grant Institute's Grants 101 course is an intensive and detailed introduction to the process, structure, and skill of professional proposal writing.
Montana Education Excellence
- University of MontanaResearchers Help Spearhead Climate Change Project. You can participate
Students, gardeners and other citizen scientists in every state can enter their observations into an online database at http://www.budburst.org, giving researchers a detailed picture of our warming climate.
- Interview with Nobel Prize winner, University of Montana Professor Steven Running
Yellowstone Public Radio has an enlightening interview with Dr. Steven Running as he discusses the necessity to validate scientific papers and research, especially when climate change is the topic.
- UC Report: Current solar technology 'a loser'
Borenstein calls for more state and federal money to be spent on research into better technology, rather than on subsidies for residential solar power systems.
- Global warming inspires enterprising solutions
Nearly 400 start-ups are operating 600 carbon-mitigation projects in the USA, with the number of companies set to triple the next two years.
- Fuel from Algae - Solazyme
A startup's new process could make fuel from algae as cheap as petroleum.
Leadership Montana
- University of Montana research has evolved to prepare a better future - VISION - UM Confronts Ticking Clock of Climate Change
Through cutting-edge technological advancements paired with common sense and the tenacious curiosity of University researchers, UM is evolving with wisdom, resolve and grace.
- Texting to be used in University of Montana alert system
An emergency mass alert system via text messaging has been worked out between the University of Montana’s Office of Public Safety and UM’s Information Technology Office in the event of a campus-wide crisis
- MSU Extension announces new Internet resource. "eXtension" Got a question?
"eXtension is a sort of next-generation Google, where curious minds can find a range of information including how to calculate their retirement readiness score, tips to easing credit card debt, how to grow the best tomatoes on the block or ways to set a schedule for a new-born baby,"
VIRUS ALERTS
- "The Perfect Storm: How Ordinary Individuals Create Extraordinary Results", 3/1, UM Missoula
The conference will include a keynote address by Chad Crittenden, from the CBS series "Survivor: Vanuatu."
- Hackers able to reroute Net traffic
Rogue servers can orchestrate attacks that infect personal computers with virus
- Researchers Find Way to Steal Encrypted Data
The technique, which could undermine security software protecting critical data on computers, is as easy as chilling a computer memory chip with a blast of frigid air from a can of dust remover.
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