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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Jun 8, 2012 |
"Companies with the ability to fully utilize and understand their data are becoming the most powerful. What are the 5 most important questions you have about your business and your customers?"
State of Montana Consolidated Plan - Comments Accepted Until June, 20 http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- City Club Missoula - Reviving A River: Making The Clark Fork Clean, Healthy And Whole, 6/11 http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Montana Department of Commerce
Montana Goes to Mount Everest
- Montana Small Business Development Centers Network Highlights: June 2012
It's summertime in Montana, and the SBDC Network is as busy as ever! Here are some of the latest news items from around the network:
- State of Montana Consolidated Plan - Comments Accepted Until June, 20.
The document is used by federal agencies to make appropriation decisions regarding resources made available to Montana for addressing issues related to affordable housing, homelessness, infrastructure, public facilities, economic development, and other community development needs.
Inteneo Systems
- Everest expedition a high point for Bozeman, Montana
The educational experience it provided students established a new benchmark in Himalayan mountaineering. Climbing is a big part of our culture here in southwest Montana. MSU and its cosponsors are commended for recognizing that with this well-planned and executed project.
Northwestern Energy
- Need for speed will send doctors to the cloud, experts say
Providers are more challenged than ever to share health information in a timely, accurate fashion, he says. "The data is being used for life and death."
- Tapping big data for early identification of preventable conditions
The cost to the U.S. healthcare system from preventable conditions and avoidable care has been estimated in the range of $25-50 billion annually.
- 'Big data' from social media, elsewhere online redefines trend-watching
"Big data," as it has been dubbed by researchers, has become so valuable that the World Economic Forum, in a report published last year, deemed it a new class of economic asset, like oil.
Visit Montana - Montana Dept. of Tourism
- NorthWestern Energy Wellness Program Brings Home the Gold
"We believe that encouraging our employees to improve and maintain their own good health is one of the best investments we can make," added Kendall Kliewer, NorthWestern's vice president and controller with responsibility for employee benefits. "Promoting wellness at work can substantially reduce health care costs, absenteeism and workers compensation costs, which benefits employees, their families and NorthWestern."
- NorthWestern Energy Encourages Customers to Include Efficiency in Summer Projects
"The easiest and cheapest way to save energy is to become aware of what you're using it for," said Bill Thomas, NorthWestern Energy's Manager - Regulatory Support Services.
Big Sky Commerce
- Visiting the Real Montana
I had a great trip. Not because I got lost on my way to the last best place, but because I know the real Montana is found in the last best people.
- 'Wildest part of Glacier'
You'll be grateful you made the trip.
Vision Net
- 5 Questions You Must Ask Your Credit Card Processor
To prepare for this complex marketplace, here are five questions to ask to make sure you're getting the best deal.
- The 2nd Annual Big Sky Commerce Charity Golf Classic Benefiting Tamarack Grief Resource Center, 8/22, Missoula
Contests Galore!- $1,000,000 Shootout- $5,000 Putting Contest- Closest to the Pin- Hole in One and more!
Come Home Montana
- Vision Net Brings Technology Seminar to Great Falls
One of the leading technologies discussed today is video conferencing. This opens a whole new world by eliminating the burden and expense of travel. Ferris says it allows, “virtual learning as opposed to field trips, so kids can sit in the classroom and see stuff live and not have to travel”.
Flynn's Harp
- Montana Career Opportunity - Development Director - Opportunity Link
The Development Director will supervise Opportunity Link program teams and be responsible for and/or coordinate securing of funds necessary to support program implementation.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Database Administrator - First Interstate Bank
A key focus for database resources will be the data warehouse/operational data store project.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Natural Resource Officer - Crow Agency,Montana
Rocky Mountain Region, Crow Agency, Office of the Superintendent, under the Deputy Superintendent, Branch of Natural Resources, located in Crow Agency, Montana.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Director of Firm Operations - Anderson ZurMuehlen
To provide the finest service, Anderson ZurMuehlen needs the very best people. We currently have 250 employees in seven offices across Montana.
- Montana Career Opportunity - GIS Data Entry Assistant Temporary (Summer Intern, Lincoln County, Montana
This temporary position will assist with writing metadata & publishing the Lincoln County GIS data set to the Montana GIS Portal.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Executive Director, WorkSafeMT.
As chief executive officer, the Executive Director is the public face of the organization, chief fund raiser, is a champion of the values of work place safety, and maintains the collaborative partnership with the Department of Labor and Industry.
Montana Business
- Recent success for often-maligned CTI and its CEO stir global interest
The spate of recent news, while drawing little attention from Seattle area media, has left influential national bloggers and websites musing over why CTI's developments haven't attracted more investor interest and movement in its stock price. The stock has stayed under $1 for some weeks and is down 40 percent from a year ago.
MSU Leadership Institute & UM Global Leadership Initiative
- Bozeman, Montana's SCORE Chapter #263 is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary
Bozeman SCORE Chapter #263 is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary and continues to provide one-on-one counseling to businesses, start-ups, and non-profits at no charge.
- Ford joins top brands in push for plant-based plastics
"It's encouraging to see these leading companies use their market influence to reduce dependence on petroleum-based plastics. We hope other companies will follow their lead," says Erin Simon, senior program officer of packaging for World Wildlife Fund, in a statement.
- Flywheel Makes Four Investments In First Half Of Year Including Missoula-based TerraEchos
Missoula High-Tech Company Wins IBM Award For Information Management
- Mystery Ranch brings back original pack
"This line is utterly emblematic of Bozeman. Every pack and every piece of gear I've built has had Bozeman, Montana, next to the company name."
Careers
- University of Montana Student Leadership Conference Seeks Presenter Proposals
The conference is free and open to all UM students and young leaders in the community.
City Club Missoula
- Study says college grads are not meeting human resource standards
Here is how Generation Y's habits and lifestyle are conflicting with their Generation X employers:
- It Can Happen Here: The Screwed Generation in Europe and America
Here's a tribute to futility: today a majority of unemployed Americans age 25 and older attended college, something never before seen.
- 10 Things Law Schools Won't Tell You
We reveal why the Juris Doctor isn't what it used to be.
Government
- City Club Missoula - Reviving A River: Making The Clark Fork Clean, Healthy And Whole, 6/11
Christine Brick, science director of the Clark Fork Coalition, will address the group on the topic, "Reviving a River: Making the Clark Fork Clean, Healthy and Whole." She will emphasize the upper Clark Fork watershed from its headquarters in Butte down to the community of Milltown.
Incubators and R&D
- Does your community have an "Office of Innovation and Sustainability"? Why not?
Last August, the city unveiled its Office of Innovation and Sustainability (OIS), which focuses on promoting the spirit of innovation and facilitating financial and environmental sustainability.
North Dakota Business and Economic Development
- Meet the 9 startup grads from the Portland Seed Fund
The startups each got $25,000 in capital to get their ideas off the ground, participating in a TechStars-like three-month long bootcamp.
- Energy Department Announces Launch of Energy Innovation Hub for Critical Materials Research
Rare earth elements and other critical materials have unique chemical and physical characteristics, including magnetic, catalytic and luminescent properties, that are important for a growing number of energy technologies. These critical materials are also at risk for supply disruptions.
Regional Economic Development
- North Dakota Ranks First in Economic Growth
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, North Dakota`s gross domestic product increased by 7.6 percent last year.
- Will North Dakota Be the First State to End Property Taxes?
If any state is going to take such a dramatic step, North Dakota would seem to be a likely candidate.
Wyoming Business
- Facebook's False Promise: STEM's Quieter Side Of Tech Offers More Upside For America
From the standpoint of economic development, it's time to focus on the growing divergence between two different aspects of technology.
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- Cheyenne, Wyoming supercomputer construction near completion
The computer, which would currently rank among the 10 fastest computers on earth, is designed to help answer science's most fundamental, yet most complex questions about weather, from discovering how and why hurricanes and tornadoes form to predicting the effects of global warming on Wyoming and other parts of the world.
Education
- Born to Rise: A Story of Children and Teachers Reaching Their Highest Potential
Born to Rise recounts a journey that led Kenny to risk her life savings to open schools in Harlem while proving that all children, regardless of socioeconomic circumstances, can learn at high levels.
- Student Motivation: An Overlooked Piece of School Reform
This series of papers examines topics related to students' academic motivation, a critical but often overlooked aspect of education.
- Early Education is an Economic Imperative
"The gap between the rhetoric and the reality is stunning given the research, the support of our top economists, and the growing understanding of the importance of our children's earliest years not only for school success, but for our nation's economic success."
Missoula Schools Excellence
- U.S. Colleges and Universities Must Take Entrepreneurial Approach to Overcome Challenges - Forget B-School, D-School Is Hot
Faculty should be treated as enablers of innovation and provided incentives such as research funds to encourage development of innovative teaching models. Likewise, state policymakers should give colleges incentives to innovate by offering higher levels of funding to institutions with better student outcomes (and, presumably, more effective curriculum and teaching).
- Washington's new education initiative is no A+
The A+ Washington initiative is intended as a way to expose more players in the education space to successful education reform, regardless of their financial status, political bent, or union stance.
Montana Education Excellence
- Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS) one of seven sites in U.S. to present innovative school mental health services model at national conference in Chicago
MCPS received a $393,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education in fall 2011 that is supporting the implementation of the Montana Behavioral Initiative (MBI) into all MCPS elementary, middle and high schools.
- Missoula's Lewis and Clark Elementary looks into holistic learning program
"Students are the architects of their own learning," he said. "Education isn't happening to them; they're making it happen for themselves."
Community
- Museum of the Rockies prepares for Folklife Festival
Montana State University, the state's first land-grant university, today announced MSU has been invited to participate in the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. celebrating the 150th anniversary of the nation's land-grant university system and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- Montana educators working to learn more about helping underprepared students
About 30 percent of Montana students enter college needing remedial classes in math, reading or writing. Although they pay for those classes, they don't receive college credit for them. The numbers are worse nationally.
Funding and Building your BusinessEnergy and Climate Change
- Why you should offer employees free beer
Beer in the workplace? Is that an employee benefit -- nevermind a wellness strategy?
- 3 Ways to Supercharge Fan Engagement on Facebook
When applied consistently, these three strategies can turn the tide and increase fans' interaction with your Facebook page.
- Paranoid Companies Miss the Best New Opportunities
Your goal is "coopetition" - to find a way to partner with your competitor in such a way that both parties can substantially benefit from the other's resources - without stealing customers or damaging anyone's credibility.
- What It's Like To Be The CEO: Revelations and Reflections
You get your best ideas when you're not staring at a screen.
- Get Ready for the Labor Shortage
The nature of the economy, and what we think of as our economic challenges, is about to take a startling turn.
- How to raise funds through social media channels
Successful social fundraising campaigns should educate, empathize with the impacted community, provide donors with gratification and recruit influencers for their committees.
- How to Create a Search-Friendly Website
Here are a few of the most common mistakes, as well as tips on how you can avoid them.
- How to Reverse an Entrepreneur Downward Mood Spiral
Here are a few clues that you can look for in yourself, to see if you slipping into this abyss:
- An Incubator Just For Media Startups: Turner's Media Camp Accelerator Gets Underway
In most cases, Media Camp is no different from most other incubators: Companies accepted into the program get an investment of about $20,000 in exchange for a maximum 6 percent of equity. In exchange, they get 12 weeks of administrative and legal help, participate in weekly dinners, and get one-on-one mentorship from executives in the media industry.
- Others' discoveries open up possibilities for entrepreneurs
APIs create amazing opportunities for inventors, entrepreneurs and others who want to start their own small businesses.
Government Technology
- Technology saves energy with 'intelligent efficiency'
The United States is using technology to develop "intelligent efficiency" that could save as much energy as produced by natural gas, coal or nuclear power, a new report says.
- Can V-Poles Replace Urban Clutter?
"Meet your inevitable future."
- Warming nears point of no return, scientists say
The Earth is reaching a "tipping point" in climate change that will lead to increasingly rapid and irreversible destruction of the global environment unless its forces are controlled by concerted international action, an international group of scientists warns.
Non-Profit News
- Lessons from Utah's Massive Data Breach
In the four months preceding the event, cyberattacks against state information systems had spiked by 600 percent, leaving IT staff stretched dangerously thin. "We had so many attacks that we were fighting those fires as opposed to spending resources to scan our network," Fletcher explains.
- New Website a One-Stop Shop for Colorado Data
The Colorado Information Marketplace functions as a directory for anyone interested in looking up public data on Colorado state and local government agencies - ranging from information on public schools to state telehealth network locations.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Please Take the Northwest Nonprofit Sector Survey
Your answers will give us valuable information about the "state of the sector" in each of our states and throughout the area we represent.
HACKING AND VIRUS ALERTS
- AT&T Will Transfer Data Through Your Bones
The reason why there's interest is because AT&T has already achieved a proof of concept of their system.
- 10 Things Law Schools Won't Tell You
Villere & Co.'s Sandy Villere talks about inexpensive 3d printers.
Transportation
- Change your LinkedIn password now. The service has been breached
At this point, stop reading this and go change your LinkedIn password to one that's strong. Do it now. I'll wait.
- Cities gear up for bikes
You can glimpse the future right now in forward-looking American cities -- a few blocks here, a mile there where people riding bicycles are protected from rushing cars and trucks.
- Is Transportation Deregulation the Key to Improving Our Cities and Economies?
Diana Lind argues that transportation regulations needlessly stifle competition that could "benefit our intertwined problems of high prices, congestion and slow service."
- How To Build a Culture of Bike Safety
As an urban designer involved in a team that designs bicycle and pedestrian master plans, I've become increasingly aware of the factors that make urban bike use a feasible -- or not so feasible -- choice.
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