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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Feb 8, 2011 |
"We've got to act quickly because the changes that come will continue for a thousand years or more. People will be dealing with the consequences of the decisions we make now for 30 generations." Sally Mauk http://matr.net/articl ... .html
Missoula economic development project raises $2.3M http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- Overview And Demonstration with Chris Gibbons - Littleton Economic Gardening Program, 2/16, Webinar http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html ---
Montana Department of Commerce
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- Montana's Housing Board Celebrates 25 Years of Low Income Housing Tax Credits
From Libby to Lame Deer and from Scobey to Superior - nearly 200 communities have received the economic benefits associated with increased affordable housing through the Board.
The Best Place Project - Missoula, Montana's Five-Year Economic Development Strategy
- Kineo: Like an iPad, but made for elementary and middle school students.
As more school leaders look at using iPads and other tablet computers as learning tools, the Florida-based company Brainchild has developed an iPad-like device that is designed specifically for elementary and middle school students.
- How--and why--to teach innovation in our schools
Innovation.... We currently don't test for that.
- Pittsburgh Public Schools Standardizes on Polycom® Telepresence for Distance Learning
Through Pittsburgh's Distance Learning program, students hone their foreign language skills by playing Spanish Jeopardy with their counterparts in other schools, debaters face off with teams from across town or in another state and math students test their knowledge in video-based contests.
- Zuckerberg's dad: Son got computer exposure young
"rather than impose upon your kids or try and steer their lives in a certain direction, recognize what their strengths are and support their strengths and support the development of the things they're passionate about."
- Utah students' idea for online education software catching fire
Educational technology specialists are praising it as a paradigm-shifting breakthrough in a market long dominated by Blackboard.
- New Study Suggests More Time in Preschool Offers Bigger Gains
A study released this week suggests teachers should dedicate more time to self-control exercises and children should spend more time in preschool.
Highway 12 Ventures
- Missoula economic development project raises $2.3M
Economic development efforts in Missoula took a giant leap forward on Tuesday when it was announced that the Best Place Project has raised 77 percent of its $3.2 million goal, according to project representatives.
Come Home Idaho
- GutCheck: Qualitative Research Made Easy - Highway 12 Ventures
Marketers are finding Gutcheck to be a great tool, as well as entrepreneurs who don't have the money for fancy research methodologies and are eager to chat up potential customers to gain feedback on their products or service.
- Highway 12 Ventures - Portfolio News | January 2011
Another great month for our portfolio companies, check out the full stories by clicking the links.
Come Home Montana
- RFP - Consultants or independent contractors to provide professional business development services for the downtown core of Sandpoint, Idaho.
The City of Sandpoint, Idaho in cooperation with its downtown business association and its urban renewal agency has issued an RFP for a downtown economic restructuring consultant. They have gotten a number of good responses from firms in the East, Midwest and Southwest. But, no responses from the Rocky Mountain and Northwest regions.
MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association
- Montana Career Opportunity - Software Developer - Mars Stout
MARS STOUT is looking for an IT team member to develop, implement and support great software.
Leadership Montana
- Overview And Demonstration with Chris Gibbons - Littleton Economic Gardening Program, 2/16, Webinar
Christian Gibbons is the Director of Business/Industry Affairs in Littleton, Colorado and is co-inventor (along with city manager Jim Woods) of "Economic Gardening," an entrepreneurial approach to economic development. Mr. Gibbons has run this project for the City of Littleton for 24 years.
Montana Business
- Workshops, Presentations On Tap For Leadership Week At UM, 2/21-26
Peers Reaching Out from Curry Health Center will lead an interactive conversation that tackles the topic of how good health can contribute to better leadership.
Montana Economic Development
- Lending Partnerships Keep Businesses Thriving - Montana Community Development Corporation Quarterly Report
Together, we steered first-time business owners toward economic independence and helped existing businesses keep their doors open despite a historic recession. Together, we helped businesses grow and communities prosper.
Regional Economic Development
- EPA offering CARE Grants: county, local governments, Tribes, non-profits, universities - due 3/22/2011
"The world turns softly not to spill its lakes and rivers." -- Hilda Conkling
- Annual Membership And Awards Luncheon Of The Missoula Area Economic Development Corporation, 3/22, Missoula
With a presentation of our annual C.P. Higgins and Frank Worden Awards
University of Montana & Montana State University Tech Transfer
- Being small shouldn't keep a business from exporting
If you want to find customers, I've got a number for you to remember: 95.
Bill Payne
- Montana State University and the University of Montana High-Tech Work Incubates Innovative Businesses
BusinessWeek lists MSU among 10 smaller universities that are extremely successful at licensing inventions that helped launch small businesses. The Carnegie Foundation says that out of more than 4,000 universities and colleges, Montana State is among the 107 with the highest research output by faculty members.
Careers
- Startup Valuations: The Venture Capital Method
It is one of the useful methods for establishing the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue startup ventures.
Funding and Building your Business
- Federal website aims to help young job seekers find work - mynextmove.org
It is geared toward "students, young adults and other first-time workers as they explore potential careers based on their interests," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis
- Get a job: Here's how
"Looking for a job or changing careers is one of the most stressful life events we go through."
Montana Education Excellence
- 'Royalty Financing': The New, New Thing in Venture Capital
The concept of "royalty financing" has been around for a long time.
- Susan Wojcicki: The most important Googler you've never heard of
Wojcicki has still another role at Google. She has helped shape the company's unconventional culture, drawing on her experience as the first Googler to have a baby and as a pioneer who has navigated the cultural land mines that make women so rare among Silicon Valley executives.
- The Top 10 Best Ways to Fail as an Entrepreneur
True or false: If you haven't failed miserably as an entrepreneur, then you're simply not trying hard enough.
- Are Venture Capitalists and Business Angels Biased Against Female Entrepreneurs?
A recent paper by Lyda Bigelow and Robert Wuebker of the University of Utah provides some solid evidence that investors are biased against female entrepreneurs.
- The building blocks of employee motivation
If passion comes from within each person, is it possible for employers to bring it out in their employees?
Utah Business
- Tom Brokaw To Speak At UM Commencement on May 14 (but you can hear him at MSU on 2/28)
During Commencement UM will present Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees to Brokaw and to Bernard Osher, founder and treasurer of the Bernard Osher Foundation, which seeks to improve quality of life through support of higher education and the arts.
- UM students work with online Montana Digital Academy
The help desk, Direct Academic Student Help, or DASH, started in November and averages about 10 to 20 help requests per week. Currie said he's hopeful interest in the service will grow as more students hear about it. He plans to hire more UM students next semester to answer questions in other subjects. Eventually, the service could become more proactive and offer live tutoring along with answering basic questions.
2011 Montana Legislature
- Civility Initiative Brings Community Together
"The simple message of the Civility Initiative is one we believe everyone can get behind and benefit from as we all strive to treat those around us with respect. The best solutions and results for our community come from collaborative efforts and true collaboration demands civility and respect for one another." Lt. Gov. Bell
Education
- Montana GOP takes aim at renewable power - Montana lawmakers hear from military about dangers of relying on oil, coal
"We need to, in an environmentally and sensible way, continue to access those extractive resources in Montana, for Montana and the U.S. But to think that that is the only approach that we should take, that is going to sustain us into the foreseeable future, is very, very short-sighted." U.S. Navy vice admiral Dennis McGinn, retired
- A tale of two freshmen
Their newbie status is one thing they share. Both are five weeks into their first session, but they were sent from opposite ends of the state and from different communities. They aim to accomplish different things.
Government
- Harvard Changes Course
School's Curriculum Overhaul Part of a Push to Alter Elite B-School Culture
- Snow days virtually eliminated with Web tools
Despite winter storms that forced schools and colleges across the nation to cancel classes, tech-savvy educators are turning to Facebook, podcasts and other Web tools to keep students on track.
- Lawmakers debate proposed state partnership with online Western Governors University (WGU)
"We need more capacity [for higher education] and there's no way the state can afford the new capacity we need in the economic environment we're in,"
Other Economies
- Montana Senator's Baucus and Tester Push Defense Secretary for New Treatment For Troops With Brain Injuries
"Although brain injuries are often called the 'invisible wounds of war' they take a serious toll on our veterans and their families and we owe it to them to make sure that we spare no expense to make sure they have access to every rehabilitative service out there."
- Montana Governor Schweitzer's Budget Director Disputes State Debt Assessment
A national news organization examining the states most likely to go bankrupt ranks Montana 11th, an assessment starkly at odds with the increasingly optimistic budget picture painted by Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
Connectivity & Communications
- Flight of Nevada's brightest
Even without budget cuts, it's an open question whether we can keep our best here, attract educated outsiders, or take our middling high schoolers and whip them into college shape.
Energy and Climate Change
- The state of the Internet
As the Internet continues to grow in prevalence and complexity, what can we do to replicate our past two decades of success?
- A Broadband Boom in the Boondocks
Unlike regular Wi-Fi networks, which are generally limited to beaming high-speed Internet around a house, super Wi-Fi promises to blanket entire neighborhoods with high-speed access.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Sally Mauk: University of Montana climate change speaker worried about lasting consequences
Montana is getting warmer. The debate is about what, if anything, we should do about it.
- Flathead Electric Cooperative Launching High-tech Program to Help Consumers Better Manage Their Use of Electricity in Libby, Montana
Flathead Electric plans to gather 300 volunteer households in the Libby area and, for the same project later in the year, 150 households in the Marion and Kila areas, to test how well a few different technologies work toward lowering peak-time usage. Volunteers will receive participation rebates, as well as further incentives when their usage decreases during peak times.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Teen's speech to lawmakers on life as son of gay parents is Internet hit
"There's an element of surprise because he's so young, and you don't expect him to be such an eloquent orator," she says. "And it's topical as well."
- Peter Thiel: 21st Century Free Radical
Never mind enormous yachts: Peter Thiel is spending his billions on space travel, life extension, artificial intelligence, and paying top students not to go to college
- U.S. Catholic Church blesses iPhone app as aid for confession
... Choose from 7 different acts of contrition
Non-Profit News
- Swedish grocer delivers recipes and ingredients for 5 dinners each week
The addition of delivery service to a concept that already gives consumers a way to vary their cooking repertoire while minimizing shopping time and waste may just prove an irresistible mix. Grocers around the world: time to put recipe kits at the top of your to-do list!
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- Foundations partner on Montana Early Care Initiative
"The Montana Early Care Initiative is providing funders with a learning group to explore ways to improve early childcare in Montana. As we investigate solutions, we may find natural areas for collaboration."
- About Western Montana Area Health Education Center
The Area Health Education Center (AHEC) http://wmtahec.org/ program was developed by Congress in 1971 to recruit, train, and retain a health professions workforce committed to underserved populations.
- Watson Children's Shelter has room to grow after fundraising campaign in Missoula
"It was about the worst time for us to be fundraising," said Fran Albrecht, executive director of the shelter. "But we had to persevere. We had no choice.
Transportation
- googleartproject.com - All of the greatest museums of the world.
Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.
- United to resume summer flight from Missoula to Chicago, San Francisco
Airport deputy director Brian Ellestad said the popularity of last year's direct flights prompted the renewed services to Chicago and San Francisco.
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