|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Fri Oct 28, 2005 |
"Technology can be very dangerous if your fight it." Bob Wright - Chairman and CEO, NBC/Universal as he discussed a cell phone he had used that also received 36 channels of TV.
Congratulations to Tom McCoy and the Tech Transfer Team at Montana State University: "MSU so far has licensed 104 technologies, 65 of them to Montana companies. Ninety-three patents have been issued on the university's inventions, with another 151 pending." This is outstanding economic development for Montana. http://www.matr.net/article-16632.html
Come Home Montana
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Featured "Come Home Montana" Community~CULBERTSON
The Town of Culbertson is centrally located in rural Northeast Montana with distances of about 50 miles to Canada, Sidney, Wolf Point, and Williston, North Dakota.
- Montana-Jobs.net Featured Career Opportunity ~ Grant Writer / Agecny Development Specialist
NMHR's mission is to address the causes of poverty and promote self-sufficency in our communities.
- Montana-Jobs.net Featured Talent - Desired Field: Facility Manager
Leadership: 25 Years Management and Supervision
Education
- Greg Gianforte, CEO and founder of RightNow Technologies in Bozeman, MT publishes book on entrepreneur strategies -
"Bootstrapping is really about an entrepreneur thinking outside the box and, in particular, thinking of innovative ways to start and grow a business without a lot of money," he said.
Montana Business
- Supt McCulloch Honors Montana Teachers With $25,000 Milken Awards - Leo Bird, Browning High School and Kelley Morand, Capital High School
"Each one of these outstanding educators makes a significant difference in the lives and futures of our children," said McCulloch. "This marks our 13th year of recognizing excellence in education with the Milken Family Foundation, and we are proud to acknowledge the vision and dedication these educators bring to the profession."
- MSU Burns Center offers online courses for science teachers - "Landforms for Elementary Teachers,","The Dirt on Soil Science," "Water Quality in the Classroom - A Characterization of the Science and Issues,", "General Relativity"
- The 4th and 5th grade students at Russell Elementary School in Missoula are Running & Walking Across America With A Superintendent, A Bear and The Army!
Currently, the 4th grade class has completed 603 miles and are ahead of the scheduled pace, while the 5th grade has 534 miles in their footsteps.
Montana Economic Development
- Gazette opinion: Commuter perks pay off for business
It's a good benefit for commuting employees.
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Private company may fund Havre visitor center
A large company that does business locally has expressed interest in fully funding the center, Bear Paw Development Corp. planning director Craig Erickson said Monday.
- Grant to cover study for commercial kitchen, farm-to-table restaurant, other ag opportunities in Glendive, MT
“The program assists Montana’s farmers, ranchers and agricultural entrepreneurs in developing new products and ideas to grow our state’s agricultural industry.”
Funding and Building your Business
- Capco Draws Firms, and Doubts, to D.C.
"It's a straight transfer from the taxpayer to the Capco [venture firms]. It's one of the biggest rip-offs out there, and there are some real doozies," said Julia Sass Rubin , an assistant professor of public policy at Rutgers University who has studied Capco programs. "It's a very convoluted and complicated piece of legislation. . . . It's difficult to understand why anyone would do this, except that they don't understand it."
- State by State Venture Capital Investments: None for Montana
Regional Economic Development
- Diversity called vital for business
"You don't want to make all the eye contact with the man when the woman holds the checkbook," Brackins said.
- Learning to manage clients can tame unpredictable workloads
Sometimes I turn down work because of a big job, but then the client delays that job and I'm left with a gaping hole in my schedule. Or I end up working on several jobs at once and putting in insane hours. Any suggestions?
- The do's and don'ts of billing and collecting from customers
If time and expenses are your main source of revenue, you can't afford to take chances when submitting your bills. Use this simple list of do's and don'ts to help increase your efficiency and avoid tracking and accounting problems.
- Tricks of the Web search trade
We'd like to optimize our Web site to improve our paid and non-paid search rankings.
- The cost of compliance - Sexual harassment training becomes a lucrative business
"E-mail is the new frontier of harassment," she declared. "At one company, someone sent his friend an e-mail about '10 reasons why beer is better than women.' His friend hit 'send all' by mistake. It cost that company a whole lot of money to deal with that problem."
Utah Business
- Cities' focus on technology 'not always a good thing' - New study quantifies shortcomings of New Economy high-tech clusters
A study by two business professors at the University of New Hampshire has put another nail into the coffin of "New Economy" theories that predicted that technology clusters heralded an era of perpetual growth for regional economies.
- Center for Rural Entrepreneurship - A Rural Policy Research Institute National Research and Policy Center
- The October edition of the SBA Solutions Newsletter
- A rapid warm-up for the Northwest
Economists in the region warn that this could come with a big price tag. Global warming "is likely to impose significant economic costs," 52 leading economists from around the country warned in a recent letter to government and business officials in Oregon. "The adjustments that businesses, households, and communities will have to make are without precedent," the economists wrote. "Many changes seem largely unavoidable, and some are clearly imminent."
Government Technology
- Teleperformance expanding in Utah - Customer-care firm's hoping to hire up to 1,000 for Lindon center
Provo has been an excellent market for us for about nine years.
- Utah's fast-growing firms honored
"I think it is going to result in more capital coming this way, the retention of talent and our best graduates, and I think it will mean economic stability over the long term."
South Dakota Economic Development
- Audit finds Montana isn't following technology development law
The agency charged with managing information technology growth in state government is not doing its job, and isn't actively enforcing the laws or policing spending decisions of other agencies, legislative auditors found in a report released Wednesday.
Government
- Tuition rising? Not in South Dakota.
The reason for the change is demographics. Like many Plains states, South Dakota faces a dwindling number of children and, thus, high school graduates.
- Made in South Dakota Program Introduces New Website to Promote the Creative Community
Just in time for the holiday season, more than 1,000 new products and new search options are available. The artists have created pieces that will give a little bit of home and South Dakota to their customers.
Other Economies
- Governance in the Digital Age
We must do so fully cognizant that a business-driven society that fails to embrace the values of its civil society, as Yankelovich has written, "without showing respect for its employees or customers, without inspiring people to give their creative best to their jobs, without employees and management understanding each other and without employees' buying into management's vision of the future (will) inevitably slip into mediocrity or worse."
- State of Montana, Blue Cross close to deal on children’s insurance
Advocates for the insurance program, however, said Tuesday they’re disappointed the state is not abandoning the insurance contract with Blue Cross and insuring the program itself.
Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)
- Maine bond initiative would use borrowed $20M for job creation, stability
"Maine cannot afford another year without a bond package and, through compromise, the governor and Legislature put forward this modest bond package," he said. "For Maine to remain competitive, we need to make the right investments, right now."
University Business Plan Competitions
- Interesting panel on SBIR rules
The impact of this rule is that most venture-backed organizations are no longer eligible for SBIR funding.
Incubators and R&D
- Tech's Young Turks Are Back - University Business Plan Competitions Pave the Way
Without having ever held down a real job - not even paper routes - the two entered the Voltage idea in a Stanford business plan competition. One of the judges, Ken Gullicksen of Morgenthaler Ventures, wrote on their form: "Come and meet with me as soon as possible." They won the competition, and Gullicksen and others provided funding.
University TechTransfer
- Research roundup at Montana State University (#254) MSU scientist advises international panel, Tlingit shelters, Changes to dye for, Dangerous No Zone
- Inland Northwest Research Alliance (INRA), Inc., October 2005 Journal
Careers
- Montana State University licensing fiber optic invention to help advance fiber networks to homes and businesses.
MSU so far has licensed 104 technologies, 65 of them to Montana companies. Ninety-three patents have been issued on the university's inventions, with another 151 pending.
- Entrepreneurs -- missing link in training scientists
While our universities have little trouble churning out basic researchers or skilled clinicians, we seem unable to train -- or even identify -- those who might specialize in bridging the gap between lab and patient. The question now is whether academic leaders can overcome their intrinsic distrust of the private sector and embrace the very real opportunities that exist just beyond their ivy walls.
Non-Profit News
- Starting Salaries for IT Professionals Projected to Rise in 2006
"In addition, companies are accelerating the hiring process to avoid losing top candidates to competing employers."
Energy
- Montana Nonprofit Association Advocacy and Information Network - Members Only Benefit: $199 Memberships to GrantStation PRO
For a limited time only, MNA members have the opportunity to purchase a full membership in GrantStation PRO for $199 (regular price $599) which provides you with real time, online access to a comprehensive set of fundraising tools and resources.
Connectivity & Communications
- Second coal gasification group in Idaho to vie for FMC site: Competitor to construct pilot project
“We just want to start small-scale in the Department of Energy's backyard and get the process proven and then we'll go large,”
- Parrot Mine Shop lands $45,000 federal grant to tap the hot water below Butte, Montana
While geothermal technology has been around for decades, it is not widely used because drilling to a depth of heated groundwater can be expensive. But Butte has an advantage, because mine shafts already reach those depths, and many have filled with groundwater, Sampson said.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Akimbo, Current Media could embody TV's next generation
For the past decade, the Internet has opened the door for people and subjects that wouldn't otherwise make it into mainstream media. Current is now using that opening to change mainstream media. And the industry is paying attention.
- Google secretly tests free classified ads
Google confirmed the development of the service a few hours after taking down the link.
- Their clout rising, blogs are courted by Washington's elite
That's why politicians are eager to co-opt them - or, at least, engage them.
- Internet to ask, 'How may I serve you?'
But now comes an Internet that works on your behalf — finding or doing things in the background, with no intervention.
- Stanford team works to develop speed-of-light network
The group of professors and students say they have demonstrated a way to make a chip from the elements silicon and germanium that can perform the tasks of much bulkier and more expensive optical networking technologies.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page
