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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Aug 16, 2005 |
"You're not fully a member of our economy and our society without Internet access." Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin
Come Home Montana
Wyoming Business
- Yockim finds family security in move back home to Sidney, Montana
"As a teenager, I didn't want to spend my life in Sidney. I wanted to get out and see the world and never come back. Two things changed that, having my daughter and my experience in Iraq," Yockim said. "Now I can see the value in life here, and my values have changed. I'm a father now who wants a safe and healthy environment for my family."
Education
- Heartland Bio Composites moves closer to Torrington, Wyoming plant that will produce wood substitute products made of recycled plastics and wheat or barley straw.
"We've got lots of interest there, and we're very comfortable with our supply channels of wheat straw," he said. He said the company will pay $45 a ton for wheat straw. "That would mean the profitability for wheat or barley acres would increase just about 50 percent because you get to sell your straw," Sutherland said. "So it's huge for the farmers."
- Wine of Wyoming
For everyone involved, the wine of eastern Wyoming is an economic experiment in its infancy. And they're learning as they go.
Montana Business
- Idaho plan to toughen high school standards gets preliminary OK
Ed Board members want high school kids to take more math and science, complete a senior project and devote more than half of their electives to career development.
- To Woo Students, Colleges Choose Names That Sell - "All I hear in higher education is, 'Brand, brand, brand,' "
"There has been a sea change over the last 10 years. Marketing used to be almost a dirty word in higher education."
- Maine program led by former Gov. Angus King to give kids free Internet
"It helps to realize the promise of equity that was one of the great ideas at the beginning. Now every seventh- and eighth-grader in Maine not only has access at school but also access to the Internet and all of the information it contains at home," King said.
- A call for a New Rules community platform centered on education and public schools
Schools ARE a center of their communities, they don't need to "become." The fact that the schools are struggling is so outrageous precisely because it affects the daily lives (as well as future) of a huge number of people, and a cross-section of the community.
- BSU professor shows teachers how students can benefit - "TechTactics: Instructional Models for Educational Computing."
Under her direction, teachers and those studying to be teachers learn about technology skills for the classroom. I am a native Idahoan, and I love the state. I had to leave for my doctorate and when I walked out in the morning, I would gaze west toward Idaho, yearning for the day when I would be back. The only place I ever wanted to be is here.
- US Can't Lose Its Tech Edge
Both the US government and corporations need to let American students know that the technology they love is designed by people in high- paying, rewarding jobs. It's time to print up the campaign posters: We need you to be a computer scientist.
- Race for engineering edge to be won, lost in colleges - As Pacific Rim nations graduate more engineers, U.S. may be loser
"From an engineering standpoint, the future leaders of the world are going to come from the Pacific Rim."
- Developing a constitutional lesson plan - CRMW hosts series of events on Montana's education provisions
“What could be more directly relevant to our lives than the public education system?” says Brown, who’s assembled “blue-ribbon panels of people with a wonderful depth and breadth of knowledge” to address the education issues currently facing Montana.
GIS Technology
- Backpacking Light Magazine of Bozeman, Montana Announces Winners of First Annual Lightitude Awards for the Outdoor Industry's Best Lightweight Gear
“Above all, this new award recognizes superior innovation and performance in product design for lightweight gear,” said Ryan Jordan, co-founder and publisher of Backpacking Light Magazine.
- RightNow Technologies Inc. of Bozeman, MT updates CRM suite, adds telesales application
Bozeman, Montana-based RightNow releases a major update of its marketing, sales and customer service applications about once a year.
- Ecotourism stresses responsible travel and its coming to Montana - Off the Beaten Path and Papoose Creek
Ecotourism can provide models for ways to preserve landscapes while letting local people make a living
Funding and Building your Business
- Researchers say GPS can guide tourists, track convicts
Siemens AG, is working on a system to send text messages to precise locations rather than to individual cell phones. Any GPS-compatible phone that's passing through the coordinates would receive the message.
Legislative Newsletters
- Attracting angel investors requires dancing the finance fandango
Many angels are willing to overlook a few holes in your business plan package if they like you and your idea. These investors come in several varieties, including passionate angels, entrepreneur angels, management angels and professional angels. Usually angels are more patient than venture capitalists who often demand a big return on their money, fast.
- Intellections
Regional Business
- Idaho Sen. Larry Craig starts first senate podcast
"It is my goal to ensure Idahoans have as much information as possible about the happenings in Congress," Craig said. "This is just one more tool for distributing news and information about what Congress is doing. Other tools include my Web site, an RSS news feed and my biweekly eNews."
Regional Economic Development
- New FCC rules endanger ISPs
"This will also raise prices and limit Internet options for consumers. It's putting a monopoly back in action."
Utah Economic Development
- Amtrak steps up Empire Builder service in bid to save itself in Montana and the West
Editor's note: Today, the Missoulian presents a special report on the history and future of passenger rail service - in Montana and the West.
- New venture capital program eyed for small firms
Nearly 30 percent of SBICs licensed before 2001 have failed, and only 5 percent have repaid all of the money committed by the federal government. After three years of liquidating failed SBICs, the participating securities program shows a loss of $1.7 billion.
Government Technology
- Rural Utah seeks business - Right kind of infrastructure called key to luring firms to smaller cities
Attracting new business to rural Utah really does depend on the ability to provide the right kind of infrastructure
Idaho Business
- On the Record - Mitigating Identity theft and security issues.
Personally identifying information is easy to sell because there are no laws against selling it. If we're serious about making it harder to sell, we need to make it illegal to sell. It really is that simple.
Washington Business
- Learning Lean - New business model cuts waste from production - Buck Knives of Post Falls, ID
Lean manufacturing is a new way of looking at production that starts from the premise that adding value for the customer is the primary goal. "One of the goals of a lean organization is to push down the ability to say, 'Yes'," Buck said. "The closer the decision can come to the person doing the work, the more efficient the process."
- PCS Edventures of Boise to buy LabMentors
LabMentors reports it has delivered more than 500,000 lab exercises this year.
Other Economies
- Another good use for yeast - Alder Biopharmaceuticals Inc. today announced an $11.1 million first round of venture capital
The Bothell company is looking at ways to use yeast -- rather than mammalian cells -- to speed up the production of antibodies that are used in developing new drugs.
Incubators and R&D
- Why not at Education Cluster of Economic Development. One community moves forward.
Buchanan County bucked the traditional economic development strategy - courting factories and call centers - when it decided to pursue higher education as a means of diversifying the economy.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- From Yellowstone to Mars
What the spacecraft really is looking for is a former Yellowstone.
Connectivity & CommunicationsCool Stuff That's Coming
- Phone companies to introduce Internet-based TV service
Internet protocol television, or IPTV, uses the technology that powers the Web to deliver video.
- 10 Top Pitfalls Of Implementing Converged IP Networks
Steps businesses can take to avoid problems as they move to converged networks of voice, video and data.
- Modifications to hybrids net up to 250 mpg
Politicians and automakers say a car that can both reduce greenhouse gases and free America from its reliance on foreign oil is years or even decades away. Ron Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage.
- Nanotubes May Heal Broken Bones
The idea in Haddon's research is to use the nanotubes as substitutes for the collagen to promote new bone growth when bones have been broken or worn down.
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