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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Feb 12, 2010 |
RIP - Utah Inventor, Fred Morrison, 1920- 2010 - Inventor of the Frisbee
"If you have a one-cylinder engine and a spark plug goes out, you're not going to go far. If you have an eight cylinder engine and a spark plug goes out, the motor keeps running." Greg Gianforte, CEO of RightNow Technologies in Bozeman, Montana on having a diverse local economy. "Economists see tech companies as a saving grace in Bozeman economy" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- "What ( insert your city or state name here ) can learn from the Israeli model to boost entrepreneurship " http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Missoula Public Schools Excellence
University of Montana Tech Transfer
- Willard Alternative High School in Missoula, Montana offers second chance to struggling students
In order to ensure the school’s academic integrity, Willard has a contract system. There are three types of contracts.
PrintingForLess
- University of Montana's Tech Transfer Notes - January 2010
The Office of Technology Transfer is charged with protecting and managing the university’s intellectual property as part of its service mission to the university community.
TechRanch
- PrintingForLess.com - Your One-Stop-Shop for All Your Printed Material
If you can dream it, we can probably print it!
Vision Net
- The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF) Forms Alliance with National Business Incubation Association
Through this alliance, NASVF and NBIA seek to create more networking opportunities and make available additional resources to encourage dialogue between business owners and funders.
Highway 12 Ventures
- Vision Net of Great Falls, brings ‘CSI Montana’ lessons to all Montana students.
"The crime lab is set up to do video conferencing so they don't have to travel so much, and some of our schools are set up for exactly this sort of thing. It's pretty easy to put these technologies to work so we can essentially put the crime lab in the classroom." Bruce Wallace, ITV manager for Vision Net
Come Home Montana
- 5 Minutes With Jerry Ropelato & Stan Bassett of TopTenReviews
Does the world really need another review site? What’s so different about TopTenReviews?
- Highway 12's New Entrenpreneur-In-Residence (2.0) - Jason Christensen
So what exactly does an “EIR” do?
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- Montana Talent - Social Media and Advertising Professional - Molly E. Haislmaier Bradford
I am open to discussions about short- and long-term projects, both on a set budget or hourly rate model. It is my pleasure and my promise to bring small-town integrity and the spirit of the cowboy to the innovation of the new millennium.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Marketing Analyst & Coordinator - AAA
AAA is a trusted companion to over 160,000 members in Montana, Wyoming and Alaska in automotive assistance, travel, insurance, and financial services.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Where telecommuting is the rule
"I think you get better loyalty. I think people are more willing to get the job done,"
Montana Business
- Addressing the Dearth of Female Entrepreneurs
There are too few women running high-tech companies; that's too bad, considering evidence shows female-led businesses outperform those run by men
- What ( insert your city or state name here ) can learn from the Israeli model to boost entrepreneurship
When it comes to promoting entrepreneurship, “the Israeli model” is the one to emulate.
Montana Economic Development
- Economists see tech companies as a saving grace in Bozeman economy
RightNow Technologies, Zoot Enterprises and several smaller firms counted in the manufacturing column of Bozeman's economic profile collectively employ 13 percent of Bozeman's workforce.
Regional Economic Development
- California residents keep moving into the Bitterroot Valley of Montana
Of the out-of-state arrivals, 44 households came from California, 22 from Washington, 19 from Oregon, 15 from Idaho, 12 from Colorado and 10 from Arizona.
- Corporate Welfare Roulette
One thing that governors and mayors absolutely love to do is win a prize in the national game called "Corporate Welfare Roulette."
Careers
- Wise Advantage - Now, There is an easy-to-use, do-it-yourself, affordable GIS tool for small business
An Affinity program designed to help organizations provide their business members with:
- Creating jobs from bottom up - Align regional players to stimulate jobs
Few federal incentives exist to create regional level platforms where multiple voices are heard and synergistic initiatives take place.
- Utah Schools Must Produce More Job -and College- Ready Graduates
Investing in a better educated and more skilled workforce is the most viable long-term strategy for helping America and Utah emerge from this crisis in a stronger and more competitive global economic position than we entered it.
Economic Gardening
- The deepening data center skills crisis
Companies are forced to put data center projects on hold due to shortage of IT pros with the right skill sets
Funding and Building your Business
- Economic Gardening Focus Under Consideration in Oregon
At the risk of oversimplification, the idea behind economic gardening (created in large part by economic developers in Littleton, Colo.) is for a community to grow its own jobs by encouraging local entrepreneurial activity.
Incubators and R&D
- New Small Business Coalition on Patent Legislation formed to oppose a"First to File" patent system
A new Small Business Coalition on Patent Legislation has been formed to represent the interests of small business in the patent "reform" debate.
- "Think Beyond The Label" - Evolve Your Workforce
Our goal is simple: to raise awareness that hiring people with disabilities makes good business sense.
- Entrepreneurs Need to Bootstrap to WIN
While bootstrapping is incredibly hard, there are huge rewards.
- How "Undercover Boss" made Waste Management better
Here’s the truth about what really went down and why, from a fascinating interview with the Undercover Boss himself and his VP of corporate communications, Lynn Brown.
- Flocks of Angels, and All You Need is One
“How do I find angel investors?”
Montana Education Excellence
- Research funding has saved jobs
Horowitz added that it was important to continue funding science-foundation and university research groups to bolster technology jobs, which paid an average annual wage of $75,000 compared to $42,000 for the average private-sector job.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- Visiting University of Montana professors (including President George Dennison) give Mercer Island High School students a taste of college
In an unprecedented recruiting move, the University of Montana did not just send its regular group of students and administrators to talk with students about coming to their school. They sent their own president.
- First Webmaster Certificate Recipient, Steve Hug, Launches New Career - The Lifelong Learning Center, Missoula County Public Schools Adult Education Division
The Webmaster Certificate was designed to give students the basic information they need to maintain small websites.
- The Board Of Regents Workshop - UM Presidential Search - Public Invited, 2/17, Missoula
The workshop will also afford opportunity for campus and public comment about the process as well as the search committee.
- Missoula County Public Schools raising money to buy defibrillators - Missoula Education Foundation
Donations for AEDs can be sent as cash or check to the Missoula Education Foundation http://www.missoulaeducationfoundation.org/ , a nonprofit group working with MCPS.
- Local college students from Rocky Mountain College will show girls that science is cool at "Chicks in Science"
“As a girl, it’s kind of cool to be in the sciences.”
- Montana State University project inspired NBC's "Science of the Olympics" Website
A popular NBC Olympics multimedia Website that explains the science of movement is rooted in a series of online science modules created at Montana State University.
Regional Business
- Ravalli County Business Classes for Small Business Owners, Managers, and Entrepreneurs
Get the basics of running and managing a successful business by attending Building Bitterroot Business classes offered by the Ravalli County Economic Development Authority (RCEDA) http://www.rceda.org/ and the Bitterroot College Program of the University of Montana (BCP) http://www.umt.edu/bcp .
Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)
- NorthWestern Energy Reports 2009 Financial Results
NorthWestern Corporation d/b/a NorthWestern Energy reported financial results for the year ended Dec. 31, 2009.
Developing an Angel Network in Montana
- Webinar: NIH/NIAID SBIR/STTR Grant Programs, 02/23, Online
These webinars are open to anyone interested in how universities and industry can seek funding for their collective efforts
Washington State 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.
Education
- A Good Start? Washington state Companies Raised $57M in January, Up from $22M in Previous Month
All in all, it’s a decent start to the year for Washington state companies. But the innovation community does need some early-stage funding, and it needs it fast.
Government
- More Students Taking, and Failing, A.P. Tests
“I think the focus shouldn’t be so much on students obtaining credit and taking care of some intro course while they’re in high school, as on getting the skills they’re going to need.”
- A Missed Opportunity to Stimulate Change in Higher Education
Montana: Last year, the state legislature allocated a portion of the state’s stimulus funds to create a virtual community college designed to re-package existing courses and programs focusing on dual high school-college enrollment and workforce training and deliver them online to every corner of the state.
- Do School Libraries Need Books?
Do schools need to maintain traditional libraries? What are the educational consequences of having students read less on the printed page and more on the Web?
- Colorado may scrap tuition limit in public universities
Colorado lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are working on legislation that could give public universities the right to hike their tuition without state approval.
Other Economies
- Montana Governor Schweitzer Announces State Accountability and Cost Reduction Partnership Ideas Available Online
“We have received over 700 cost savings ideas to date,” said Governor Schweitzer. “Montanans know that just like businesses have to streamline in tough economic times, so does state government. We will continue to be accountable for every dollar.”
Connectivity & Communications
- Business study goal: Encourage innovation, create jobs
The study said Iowa could create up to 130 bioscience businesses with 5,100 high-paying jobs, if the state was willing to spend up to $300 million during the next 10 years.
Energy and Climate Change
- A 50-Watt Cellular Network - Solar-powered base stations can link up remote rural areas.
Over the past year, VNL, based in Haryana, India, has reengineered traditional cellular base stations to create one that only requires between 50 and 120 watts of power, supplied by a solar-charged battery. The components can be assembled and booted up by two people and mounted on a rooftop in six hours.
- Google to build ultra-fast broadband networks. Would you like to see a network in your community?
Google plans to build experimental, ultra-fast Internet networks in a handful of communities around the country. Google says those systems will be more than 100 times faster than the networks that most Americans have access to today.
- Wi-Fi at the Speed of Light
Wireless optical networks could provide gigabit-per-second data transfer.
- MTA Commentary--Broadband Stimulus: Boon or Boondoggle?
Remember Touch America?
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Unplugged: Goodbye cables, hello energy beams
Poor transmission efficiencies and safety concerns have plagued attempts at wireless power transfer, but a handful of start-ups - and some big names, like Sony and Intel - are having another go at making it work.
- Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer Talks About His Ambitious Plans for Wind Power
What's the biggest problem with alternative energy?
- The Northwest Power and Conservation Council unanimously adopts regional energy plan - No coal, only wind, gas, efficiency
The latest energy plan for the Pacific Northwest has been adopted with the goal of limiting greenhouse gas pollution by increased conservation and wind power development.
- Western Governors urge Congress to incentivize natural gas vehicles, infrastructure
"In addition to providing critical support for job growth in America, further development of NGVs and NGV infrastructure will help reduce our national trade deficit and dependence on oil from unstable and unfriendly regimes."
- Polar explorer, Will Steger, sees economic opportunity as driving force on global warming
"Will we have to wait for the next generation to take power before anything happens?" asked UM environmental studies professor Robin Saha. Steger replied that young people in general and residents of scenic wonderlands such as Montana are his best hope.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Heavy Metal Music, Rush Limbaugh, Other Sounds Aimed at Beetle Pests
Beetles don't like heavy metal music or Rush Limbaugh
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- TED 2010 Conference Makes for Strange Bedfellows
The four-day, $6,000 a head, invitation-only event, dubbed “Davos for the Digerati set,” will gather industry titans, celebrities, academics and alpha geeks for its 26th year.
- Sky’s the limit: Missoula documentary film festival gets bigger, better
Boasting a who's-who list of modern documentary filmmakers, corporate sponsorship from the likes of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and HBO Documentary Films, and some 138 films from 30 countries, this year's festival is bigger by almost any measure. And, ventures Steinberg, it's better as well.
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