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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Apr 8, 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
UPDATE - Big Data Week - May 5-11 - 30+ Cities Worldwide including Missoula! - How can we bring the Montana data economy together for collaboration, visibility and growing success? - http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Big Data Week - May 5-11-14 - 30+ Cities Worldwide Including Montana
Montana Department of Commerce
- Video: Explaining Big Data
Big Data is the next big thing in computing. This video explains Big Data characteristics, technologies and opportunities.
- UPDATE - Big Data Week - May 5-11 - 30+ Cities Worldwide including Missoula!
How can we bring the Montana data economy together for collaboration, visibility and growing success?
Missoula BarCamp
- Partnership with National Geographic Creates New Opportunities to Market Montana - "Where the Locals Go" online hub
"Where the Locals Go" connects National Geographic's more than 26 million global unique visitors per month with authentic Montana experiences.
Northwestern Energy
- MACH One @Missoula (was BarCamp) April 11 & 12
In just a week, programmers, artists, and community leaders will be coming to learn, create, & connect together.
Visit Montana - Montana Dept. of Tourism
- NorthWestern Energy to build new headquarters
NorthWestern Energy has an agreement to build a new $23 million Montana headquarters building in Butte.
Great Falls Development Authority
- Montana Office Of Tourism To Host Tourism And Brand Workshop, 4/24, Deer Lodge, Montana
This free workshop is an outreach effort to assist businesses in Southwest Montana to bolster their ability to attract and retain visitors to their area, learn about how to leverage social media sites and to share best practices.
- Yellowstone Fighting Online Supervolcano Rumors
Although the YouTube video says the animals are leaving, park spokesman Dan Hottle told the Jackson Hole Daily that they are actually running toward the park's interior and the volcano.
- Follow along as we explore Montana's roadside history
"Montana is the heart of the West where travelers cut a lot of old-time trails. Just turn your fancy loose to range the plains and mountains, and if your imagination isn't hobbled you can people them with pictures and phantoms of the past.
Come Home Montana
- Great Falls Development Authority Board of Directors votes unanimously to support the Great Falls Public Schools levy
We have worked together for years to create the positive economic momentum we have going in Great Falls. Now is not the time to go backward.
Montana Business
- Montana Career Opportunity - Executive Director - Great Falls College
Executive Director of Communications and Marketing to lead/manage public relations
- Montana Career Opportunities - Engineers, Town Manager - Northwestern Energy
We deliver the safe, reliable energy you need, along with the energy efficiency programs, tips and rebates you want. At work, home or play you can count on us - we are delivering a bright future.
Montana Economic Development
- Missoula Mercantile remains empty; library, museum eye space as potential tenants
Will retail shops eventually settle in? Will the Missoula Public Library take over the site, or will a world-class Montana Museum of Art and Culture eventually fill the cavernous space with works by Pablo Picasso, Robert DeWeese and Rembrandt van Rijn?
- New Leaf Brings High Tech to the Environmental Movement Environmentalists
New Leaf uses a wide range of WiFi-enabled sensors to monitor for dangerous chemicals in areas where industrial pollution is suspected. The resulting data is fed into New Leaf's geospatial model that provides robust analysis at a fraction of the cost of traditional environmental surveys.
- Missoula tech company Submittable receives grants for $187K
A large portion of the grant money comes from an unlikely source: coal.
- Bozeman, Montana photonics firm Photon Machines Inc. bought by billion-dollar tech company Teledyne Technologies
Shannon Bice, production manager and manufacturing engineer, declined to give specifics but said the company would stay in the Gallatin Valley "for sure."
Startup Weekend in Montana Communities
- Butte, Montana: Poised for the future
If mining shouldered a greater share of local economic output, it would provide the community with additional time and resources to continue to grow the technology, historical tourism and other sectors of the local economy.
Government
- Startup Weekend at MSU gives crash course in business creation
Dorsey & Whitney in Bozeman offered legal advice.
- Startup Weekend Spokane this weekend (4/11-13) a crash course in launching business
They'll also hear that three area startups, so far, have been launched directly from earlier Startup Weekends in Spokane.
Idaho Business
- Missoula County's adversarial approach with residents must end
Missoula County has an attitude problem.
- The Mentally Ill, Behind Bars
The full scope of this problem was outlined two years ago in a study of the city jails by the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a research and policy group. The study found that inmates with mental disabilities cost three times as much as other inmates, and that their numbers were growing, even as the city jail population as a whole was declining.
- Missoula's 2010 non-discrimination ordinance likely to serve as blueprint for Billings
"It was a long haul," the mayor said, "but it was a very orderly, thoughtful hearing. Folks on all sides of the question behaved and were respectful. In the end the council weighed all it had heard and all that it knew and voted
Workforce Development
- Average Idaho wage slips against national average
Idaho's national rank for average wage fell from fifth lowest in 2012 to fourth lowest last year.
- On the market again: Boise's 87-year-old former Macy's building
Partners worried they wouldn't be able to find enough people who wanted to live Downtown and could afford apartments.
- Thinfilm and PakSense Align to Provide Printed Electronic Temperature Labels to the Food Industry
PakSense's current products are one-time use electronic time and temperature loggers optimized to monitor and record conditions at the "container" level for up to 90 days.
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- Equal pay for equal work still a dream for Montana women
"Montana's economy cannot reach its full potential if we're leaving half the workforce behind," Bullock said. "When women do better, all working families do better."
Education
- Early intervention helps prepare kids
The national celebration seeks to draw attention to the needs of the youngest members of our communities. The events in Helena are organized by the Early Childhood Coalition, a diverse group of professionals and parents focused on improving services to children under 8 years old.
Montana Education Excellence
- Wyoming moves slowly toward performance-based funding for community colleges
And as a similarly focused national nonprofit aimed at improving college graduation rates gains traction in Wyoming, the state is poised to increasingly reward colleges for performance instead of student population.
- A New Way for Schools to Pay for Technology
The federal e-rate program that provides money to schools and libraries for Internet connectivity is about to undergo a major overhaul that could mean the end of subsidies for pagers and mobile phones in favor of broadband wireless infrastructure.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- Changing times may force University of Montana to change funding priorities to stay relevant
As the state's universities grapple with changing budgets and enrollment, and as they compete to recruit students, the most relevant school will likely win the battle (and yes, some have come to describe it as a battle).
- Montana State University names Chris Kearns new vice president for student success
"I'm incredibly excited about this opportunity to join the university community. I 'm very impressed by their commitment and their vision," Kearns said.
Funding and Building your Business
- MCPS Needs your support for the Summer 2014 i3 (Inspire, Imagine, Innovate...) Program
It has been our desire to bring i3 to our high schools and make it available during the school day however budget constraints made this impossible for the current school year. We will however offer 30 students the opportunity to participate in i3 Missoula this summer. Twenty of these students will be new to the program and 10 will be returning students.
Energy and Climate Change
- Don't Assume A Non-Profit Will Reduce Failure Risk
A common misconception I often hear in the startup world is that non-profits are easy and safe, since they don't have to pay taxes, and they don't have to make a profit for their shareholders. In reality, from the feedback I get from non-profit executives, exactly the opposite is true.
Non-Profit News
- How cost, other factors stifle glass recycling efforts in Montana
The Target public relations department did not return repeated emails or calls from the Missoulian on Friday requesting clarification on exactly what percentage of the glass loads are too contaminated to recycle or exactly how clean glass is recycled.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Charley Pride to headline Red Ants Pants Music Festival July 24-27 in White Sulphur Springs, Montana
"I love that he's fond of Montana and that people here are fond of him," she said. "He's a legend of country music and a groundbreaker in his era on many levels. It should be a perfect fit because he offers a slice of classic, old-school country and still puts on an incredible show."
HACKING AND VIRUS ALERTS
- Take 15 pounds off your selfie with new app
Angelica Goglio, visiting from Milan, said she thought the app was cool. "You don't have to worry about your weight. For a selfie girl, that's the best."
- New Gadget From Amazon Makes Grocery Shopping Dangerously Easy
Dash automates the task of creating a shopping list. It looks like a little wand, and you can speak into it, or use it to scan a barcode.
- States probing massive data breach of Social Security numbers
In what could be one of the biggest data breaches in history, the federal government and authorities in several states are investigating the criminal sale of Social Security numbers, bank account data and other personal information for up to 200 million U.S. citizens.
- Bozeman schools chief gets phishing lesson from computer virus
It copied all the addresses of Watson's email contacts - more than 1,000 teachers, school employees, parents, community members and reporters - and sent them all phony email messages in his name, urging people to open the same infested link.
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