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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Mar 21, 2014 |
“We think of data as the customer’s voice. It’s telling us what works and what doesn’t work. Data is the lifeblood of the business … We always begin with data.” http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Big Data Week - May 5-11 - 30+ Cities Worldwide and MONTANA! If you're interested in learning more about data or if your company provides data expertise or if you know how to spell data, let us know and we'll include you in the upcoming info on Data Week in Montana. [email protected] http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
AAA Mountain West
Montana Department of Commerce
- AAA: Range of electric cars cut in cold, hot weather
Among AAA's recommendations: storing the electric car in a garage; monitoring recharge times in colder weather; preheating or cooling the car while it's plugged in to reduce battery drain, and using electric seat heaters to keep warm.
TEDx Events in Montana
- Made in Montana Tradeshow to Highlight Montana's Unique and Authentic Products
"Visitors to the state list shopping as their number two expenditure while in Montana," noted Department of Commerce Director Meg O'Leary. "Since we know they're looking for authentic Montana products, this show focuses on connecting buyers and vendors to help boost the number of local products they carry."
Northwestern Energy
- Annual TEDxBozeman conference to showcase local speakers this Friday 3/21
Tickets for the six-hour event were sold out by March 11.
PrintingForLess
- Montana Soap Box: NorthWestern supplied gas during cold winter
NorthWestern Energy's Montana natural gas system has been a tremendous asset for hundreds of thousands of Montanans this winter.
Visit Montana - Montana Dept. of Tourism
- What Mr. Rogers can teach us about direct mail
"It's a beautiful way to reach the neighborhood. Won't you be my customer?"
Inteneo Systems
- Montana Office of Tourism - March Montana Update
Voting for the MTA's (Montana Tourism Awards) Now Open
Come Home Montana
- Colleges Are Tested by Push to Prove Graduates' Career Success - Data is key
College admissions officers trumpet graduates' success in finding well-paying jobs. But the schools often have a hard time getting solid proof.
- Airbnb Says "Data is the lifeblood of the business - We always begin with data,"
"We think of data as the customer's voice. It's telling us what works and what doesn't work. Data is the lifeblood of the business ... We always begin with data."
Flynn's Harp
- Montana Career Opportunity - Software Engineer - Arrow Solutions Group
This position includes the design, implementation, and troubleshooting of control systems used for production equipment for the company.
Missoula BarCamp
- Businesses filing to put social purpose ahead of shareholders
The initiatives to allow a higher purpose than shareholder value was in response to the traditional corporate-law constraints that make it the fiduciary duty of officers and directors to operate with the underlying assumption that their role is to maximize shareholder profits.
Montana Business
- MACH One @Missoula (formerly Missoula BarCamp), 4/11-12, Missoula, Montana
The theme and focus on the arts, technology, and community is largely the same - but we're highlighting agile and lean technologies for community and culture (a.k.a. culture hacking).
Montana Economic Development
- Bitterroot Cabins: Hamilton business manages vacation properties throughout the valley
"Everyone is happy - the property owners who are receiving some income on their investment, the visitors who are here to enjoy a Montana experience and our employees who get to earn some seasonal income. It really is a fun business."
- Massachusetts' Hard Look at Hospital Mergers
A growing body of research argues hospital consolidations lead to higher prices for consumers, particularly in areas where there are already few competitors.
- Bozeman men Alex Crosby and Zachary Case develop DD Buddy app to find people sober rides home
"We're not saying don't drink. We're saying don't be stupid."
MSU Leadership Institute & UM Global Leadership Initiative
- Where the Good and Bad Jobs Will Be, 10 Years From Now - Missoula is a creative class meca
Forty-five percent of metros (179) will experience employment growth greater than the national average of 10.8 percent.
- Montana Site Selector
Montana Site Selector is a sophisticated tool developed to provide business owners and entrepreneurs access to the critical data needed to start or grow a business in Montana.
- Montana Sky to improve service - Fiber optic upgrade benefits residents, businesses in area
"If you are thinking of moving a business to Libby, there are a lot of attractive aspects: the dam, the river, rail. But information technology drives any business. If an IT business was thinking of coming to Libby before, it would say no way. With fiber, we can provide big-city speeds in an area with low cost of living and high quality of life."
Careers
- One of few triple amputees to survive Iraq injuries will speak March 26 at MSU
Anderson's presentation is part of MSU's Year of Engaged Leadership, which highlights the university's events and activities that develop leadership skills of students, faculty, staff and community members.
Come Home North Dakota
- Self-Employment a Breakthrough for People with Disabilities - Montana-based consulting firm, Griffin-Hammis Associates LLC
"Unfortunately, a lot of families don't know that these resources are available and the schools don't know that they're available, just because of the overwhelming task they've already got."
- Welders, America Needs You
He knows a guy who's making $300,000 a year. "I figure I can do about half that," Eric Bankson after he graduates in June
- More Montana college grads finding work in Montana
Some 78 percent of recent Montana graduates found jobs within the state in 2012 -- an increase from 72 percent five years before, according to a workforce report presented this month to the state Board of Regents.
Government
- North Dakota wants you: Seeks to fill 20,000 jobs
North Dakota's huge oil boom has spurred thousands of job seekers to flock to the state for years now. In some cities, the population has quadrupled.
Idaho Business
- Mayors Rally to Defend Block Grant Funding
Even though Obama proposes cuts, mayors are asking Congress not to touch Community Development Block Grant funding (which, unlike most federal funding, flows directly to cities).
- Tester, Walsh push bill to protect Montana consumers from online sales taxes
Senators' legislation prohibits states from imposing unfair taxes on Montanans
Incubators and R&D
- Treasure Valley's fiber-optic cables need better network
Google wants to build fiber optic infrastructure in some cities. A Boise entrepreneur hopes to beat Google to the punch.
- Legal worries spur changes to Idaho Commerce's economic incentives plan
The attorney general's office had warned that the original bill could leave Idaho "constitutionally vulnerable."
Regional Business
- Young businesses blossom at Nampa's TECenter
The island has provided fertile ground for more than 120 sapling businesses, including about 30 that continued growing after leaving the TECenter.
- MACH Central, creative coworking, is Open in Missoula, Montana
One of our first coworkers is Lars Lohn, in from out of town, one of the Patriarch coders behind mozilla and firefox.
South Dakota Economic Development
- Ambassador Baucus to promote access for US business in China
Many U.S. businesses are thriving in China's growing consumer market, while almost 220,000 Chinese are currently studying at American colleges and universities, the most from any country.
University Business Plan Competitions
- South Dakota farmers on buying binge - Ag equipment sales fueled by economy, pent-up demand and new technology
The boom has many causes, chief among them a strong ag economy scarcely affected by the 2007 recession.
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- Montana University John Ruffatto Business Plan Competition, 5/15, Missoula, Montana
Get an inside look at the 24th annual John Ruffatto Business Plan Competition at the University of Montana. Students from all of Montana's higher education institutions are invited to compete for a $10,000 grand prize.
Education
- The Secret to Finland's Education Success - Early Education
Finland's preschool programs enroll 98 percent of the country's 6-year-olds, and younger children attend day care programs.
- A Brilliant Way to Learn Chinese Through Pictures
The whole point of Chineasy is to give the Chinese language context in order to make the thousands of characters easier to learn and remember.
- New Senior High program in Billings, Montana recognizes students who take every tough class
To complete the program, students must take every Advanced Placement and honors class that Senior High offers. They write a rigorous research paper as juniors and then complete a final project, called a magnum opus, their senior year.
- How schools discourage some girls from pursuing STEM.
While most school communities have relatively fast Internet service and computers, the poorer, disproportionately black, Hispanic, and Native American educational settings rarely provide the students with technological activities beyond the basics of word processing and PowerPoint.
- Results-Based Financing for Preschool Catching On
"The taxpayers are the ultimate beneficiary. It's a great way to shift funds from remediation to prevention."
Montana Education Excellence
- AltSchool gets $33 million in venture capital
The business plan was relatively simple: Build a new kind of school that offers technology-fueled, personalized learning and automated administrative services that keep costs low.
Funding and Building your Business
- Eight Montana Students Honored as Newman Civic Fellows for 2014
Through service, research, and advocacy, these Fellows are making the most of their college experiences to better understand themselves, the root causes of social issues, and effective mechanisms for creating lasting change.
- University of Montana Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone Magazine
Please enjoy the first issue of the University of Montana's Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone magazine.
- University of Montana reaches agreement to develop new accessibility policies, disability training
"We want to make sure the technology we use on our websites, in our classrooms and in our offices are available to all," UM President Royce Engstrom said.
- Governor Steve Bullock Appoints Bill Johnstone, Chairman and CEO of Davidson Companies and Billings Attorney Martha Sheehy to Board of Regents of Higher Education
Gov. Steve Bullock named two new members to the state Board of Regents on Wednesday, bringing the board back to a full seven members.
- University of Montana alum Tom Cotter pledges $11 million for scholarships
"I have great compassion for students and their ability to pay for their education," Cotter said, speaking from his California home. "The costs are increasing faster than the rate of inflation."
- Keep Montana's public schools public
If one looks at test scores and other data, Montana students are actually doing a lot better than students in states that have embraced reforms. In Montana, she said, reforms are being carried out, but they're happening at the community level, not a "top-down approach."
Energy and Climate Change
- Get the most from your Millennials, the new workforce
Yes, if you handle us the wrong way, we become frustrated and disillusioned -- but handle us the right way and we'll open doors you didn't even know existed.
- Inspiring first year workers: it's about the big picture
You can make a difference with specific, concrete actions that will inspire your first year workers.
- Why Some Innovative Leaders Get Exceptional Results
Leaders need to shed outmoded management and organizational biases, to foster an atmosphere where disruptive innovation becomes the norm.
Government Technology
- Scientists Sound Alarm on Climate
"Temperatures are going up. Springs are arriving earlier. Ice sheets are melting. Sea level is rising. The patterns of rainfall and drought are changing. Heat waves are getting worse, as is extreme precipitation. The oceans are acidifying."
- President Obama, Google, Microsoft, Intel and others create climate change data site to help communities prepare
The Obama administration is tapping the expertise and reach of more than a dozen U.S. companies, universities and private groups, as well as the World Bank for its "Climate Data Initiative," which is part of the president's broader plan to fight climate change.
- Land managers unprepared for effects of climate change on Crown of Continent
Unlike traditional empirical science, where we study the evidence of what happened and develop convincing explanations, the best we can do with climate change is generate a range of possible scenarios and take guesses about which to act on.
- Key climate-change measurement imperiled - The "Keeling curve"
A recent crowdsourcing appeal has brought in some money, he said, but more will be needed to keep the $1 million per year project going. Increased awareness of the funding issues, brought about by the crowdsourcing request, has spurred new funding opportunities from private sources.
- Big-Name Drivers Flock to the First Fully Electric Racing Series
"Formula E is a really exciting project and a really big innovation in motor racing," says Sebastien Bourdais, who has competed in Champ Car, F1 and Le Mans. "You don't get to be a part of such technological advances very often in a career."
- Montana rules hinder renewable power projects, feds say
"It was a perfect system that they had to prevent (renewable power) development," he said. "Well, now FERC has told them that's against the law."
- Wind farms can provide a surplus of reliable clean energy to society, Stanford study finds
"Our study showed that wind actually produces enough surplus electricity to support up to 72 hours of either battery or geologic storage. This suggests that the industry could deploy enough storage to cope with three-day lulls in wind, common to many weather systems, and still provide net electricity to society."
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- A Quasi-Governmental Recipe for Efficiency
One of the reasons Bryant Park remains so successful is because of steady, data-driven changes to its operations. The examples are many, and delve into every area of the park's management.
- It's all about data... Koch Group Seeks Lasting Voice for Small Government
"Being in the field and testing during the slower periods, and in smaller areas, allows you to refine strategy and tactics so that you can make the larger investments with confidence."
- Superhero Vision Coming in Graphene Contact Lenses?
Is infrared vision mode for Google Glass in the offing?
- Apple's Upcoming Health App Is the Start of Something Huge
Apple is poised to launch a body-monitoring app known as Healthbook, tracking everything from sleep to nutrition to exercise to vital signs.
- Idaho National Laboratory releases open source MOOSE modeling and simulation software
The program, Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment, or MOOSE, makes it easier to create computer simulations from complex mathematical models.
- Larry Page Lays Out His Plan for Your Future
In an onstage interview with veteran TV newsman Charlie Rose at the TED ideas conference today, Page outlined a Google-built version of the coming decades that could wind up becoming everyday reality for all, if the company's earlier successes are any indication.
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