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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Mar 14, 2006 |
"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again, fail better" - Samuel Beckett -
I had the great pleasure of speaking with the Montana Board of Public Instruction last week on a number of subjects. In the end, I think the most valuable discussion was on the need to better publicize the innovative programs and efforts of our K-18 Montana school system. To that end, we're setting up a new category: Montana Education Excellence. If you have stories that can help promote excellence in our school systems, please send them to MATR and we'll post them. Let's let everyone know what are schools are doing to help us become "The State with the Best Education". Thank you, [email protected]
Come Home Montana
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Missoula, Montana - This is the best the Big Sky state has to offer -- an outside enthusiast's dream
"Pretty Big Mountain Lion Spotted Near University" isn't a headline that appeared here during the Homestead Act era. No, it ran with a story in The Missoulian this past June.
Education
- Working women need to take charge, wake up their inner CEO
''I do think that women are already CEOs. I believe they can take those same skills and be successful running their own company."
Montana Business
- Officials hope audit of UM space center will clear the air
It would be troubling if auditors discover that taxpayer dollars were not used as intended in the original project application, Burns said in a statement to the Missoulian. “That's a real breach of the public trust, and anyone who misuses federal appropriations should be held accountable.”
- Online Universities Put 'Learning Resources' on the Web. "Western Governors University"
"We call it an education without boundaries,"
- Discovery To Offer Online Study Aid. Homework Helper For Use by Kids. Cosmeo
"We've gone out and aggregated the best of educational video content," said chief executive Judith A. McHale.
- Lawmakers: Wyoming education funding remarkable. Two-thirds of budget goes to education, including scholarships
Spending on education accounts for nearly two-thirds of the $3.4 billion in state spending that Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed into law Friday.
Montana Economic Development
- Artisans gather for Made in Montana show
"Oh I'm so glad it's back, last year I just cried," she said. "I've picked up quite a few artists here."
Funding and Building your Business
- Gov. Brian Schweitzer: Oil, gas, coal key to Eastern Montana's future
"We need investor capital and technologies," he said. "I'm trying to be the catalyst for that."
Regional Business
- Hiring by college affiliation not always a good idea
School ties are immensely powerful in the business world, providing pre-existing networks of relationships and low search costs. But while relying on them often works out just fine, lost in the mix of well-meaning loyalty to educational institutions and nostalgia for the past is the possibility that the ties that bind can also blind, undermining corporate efforts to build meritocracies.
- Entrepreneurs need to set ethics policy
We talked about several steps that he might take to develop a position that would reflect the company's values:
- Sale begins when the customer says yes
Sign on my desk: "Our meeting will not be interrupted unless a customer calls."
- Banking on startups. Casey leads Square 1 in a niche populated by few - Startups
And the clients? Startup tech companies, often pre-product, often pre-revenue.
- Venture Capitalists Mentor Their Fledglings More and Better Than They Did During the Boom
Today, CEOs and their venture backers should view their relationships "like a marriage," Mr. deSouza says. "We're going to have to get along for a long time."
- The Art of the Board Meeting By: Guy Kawasaki
The three most powerful words you can utter at a board meeting are, “We beat projections.” The second most powerful three words are, “I don't know.”
Utah Economic Development
- Google office coming to Arizona State University. First office on a U.S. college campus
"We wanted access to great talent, where our employees would have a nice work/life balance and have things they wanted to do like restaurants and art,"
Washington State Business
- New Utah slogan 'embodies heart and soul of state' - "Life Elevated."
"The new slogan embodies the heart and soul of our state," Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said. "It captures the essence of life in America's greatest state."
Wyoming Business
- Clearwire, the Kirkland, WA wireless company, attracts $360 million in financing
Using a precursor to the technology standard known as WiMax, Clearwire offers download connections up to 1.5 megabits per second and upload connections up to 256 kilobits per second, speeds it claims are 25 times faster than typical dial-up connections. The service - including a monthly modem charge - costs $35 to $42 per month.
Incubators and R&D
- Basic job skills most in demand in Wyoming
Workers with basic job skills will be more in demand in Wyoming than those with skills associated with advanced education, according to a state study.
Small Diameter Timber Utilization
- Utah Governor signs bill to lure research and technology that could one day create more than 120,000 high-paying jobs.
The legislation, which provides $65 million plus $110 million in bonds, is designed to lure research teams with a track record of creating technology that translates into new businesses.
Careers
- Banking on biomass. Western Woodfuels of Whitefish, Montana
“Why not create heat or energy rather than see all this material get taken to the landfill?” he wondered. “Rather than wasting that energy, I began looking into what other people do with it.”
Non-Profit News
- How to succeed in business: Be likable. Jerks Usually Stuggle Even If They're Talented
According to a Harvard Business School study released last summer, people choose work partners based on, naturally, their competence on the job but, more notably, on their likability.
- Landing the deal can all depend on how well you break bread
"Whenever we make a mistake such as talking with a mouthful of food, ordering the wrong kinds of foods or holding our fork like a shovel, we ruin a relationship and diminish our personal brand," Whitmore says.
Connectivity & Communications
- 23 kegs of Community Brew to aid tsunami relief
Proceeds from sales of Missoula Community Brew will be divided between Community Focused Disaster Response, the organization helping to rebuild Komari, Sri Lanka, and the homebrew club.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Wireless firms move into social networking
Providers hope to profit from MySpace-like service but it's also sparking fears for safety of young users
- National Leaders Join Oregon's RAIN (Regional Alliances for Infrastructure and Network Security) Board
The system fuses alerts sourced from 9-1-1 centers, NOAA, online dispatch, radio traffic, AMBER Alerts, etc., with geospatial and other supporting information, thus delivering high-value, real-time situational awareness to targeted, authenticated and authorized recipients. The system enables subgroups (both planned and self-organizing) to form community networks and exchange sensitive information with trust and confidence.
- PIN Scandal 'Worst Hack Ever'; Citibank Only The Start
"It's significant because not only is it a really wide-spread breach, but it affects debit cards, which everyone thought were immune to these kinds of things."
- Broadband on the range. Senate plans may spread high-speed service to rural spots.
A proposal to allow wireless broadband providers to use vacant frequencies between TV channels is gaining support in Congress, a development that could deliver high-speed access to underserved rural areas.
- Fraunhofer Shows Thought-Controlled Typing
Human patients can learn to manipulate cursors and such systems could provide greatly improved quality of life for quadriplegics, Fraunhofer said. Other potential applications of the BBCI are in safety technologies, where the EEG activity in the EEG could be used to aid driving safety by applying brakes in an emergency faster than a conventional reaction time.
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