SSTI Digest

California  Capital Valley Ventures, a business accelerator with a three-month training program for tech entrepreneurs, is coming to the Sacramento region, the Sacramento Bee reported. The venture is being spearheaded by Jack Crawford Jr., founder of NetLink, NetSource, 2Publish and Campus Engine. Crawford reportedly plans to start a workshop series capable of holding 25 people interested in beginning new businesses. The series, scheduled to begin this month, will involve three-hour sessions held once a month for three months and offer training on raising capital, forming a management team and generating revenues. More information is available at: http://www.capitalvalleyventures.com 

While technological advancements occur every day, truly revolutionary technologies over the past three hundred years — those that promise so many diverse applications that they result in disruption and restructuring of several different industries — can be counted on one hand. The field of nanotechnology, with major implications for nearly every industrial sector, appears to be one of those once-in-a-lifetime breakthroughs.  At this point, only a few states are preparing on a large scale to capitalize on the research and resulting economic growth of this exciting field. A $350 million research institute taking shape in southern California at the universities of California at Los Angeles and Santa Barbara is one of the most aggressive investments to date. 

Despite many indications that show strong potential for growth, Southern California's bioscience industry still faces challenges, according to a new report from the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance (larta). Released July 19, Heart of Gold: The Bioscience Industry in Southern California highlights the strengths of the region's industry and honestly assesses the ways that the industry can overcome its weaknesses. The report was created to present a full  and objective overview of the industry through analysis of data from numerous sources, interviews with leaders of the biosciences industry, and insights from bioscience publications.

Cliff Numark is leaving his position as president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Technology Alliance to join a Los Angeles-based private consulting practice.

Encouraging local sources of capital is a common element of most tech-based economic development efforts. The broad strategies to accomplish this typically include forums, investor groups, tax credits, CAPCOs, and public seed capital to fuel fund development. A different approach was made almost two years ago when Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge announced the state was giving a $200,000 grant to Redleaf Group, a West Coast venture capital group to open its Atlantic headquarters in Pittsburgh. (see the Pittsburgh story in the 7/23/99 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest). Besides the obvious advantage to the state's economic development strategy of increasing deal flow for local businesses by having venture capital nearby, that inducement grant appears to be producing more notable fruit for the state.

Julia Wilson is the new Executive Director of the San Diego Telecom Council. She formerly was director of corporate and foundation relations for San Diego State University.

The latest Issue Brief from the National Science Foundation (NSF) shows research and development (R&D) expenditures remain heavily concentrated in a few states. Ten states -- California, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Maryland -- account for nearly two-thirds of national R&D investments. With the exception of California, which can claim one-fifth of the nation's R&D activity, there has been some movement in rankings of the top ten in the last four NSF reports:

Few economic sectors have experienced the combined economic, technological, social, biological, and – now with threats of mad cow and foot-and-mouth diseases – medical pressures that confront American agriculture. Adding the challenges of competing in the knowledge-based economy presents a formidable task for rural regions. New Valley Connexions, a public-private partnership in California that teams agriculture businesses with both state and local governments as well as the larger business, financial, and educational communities, may provide a worthy model for study and replication in other parts of the country. Core funding for the initiative was provided by the Division of Science, Technology and Innovation within the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency.

Complementing California’s support for New Valley Connexion, described above, is the state’s $2 million Rural E-Commerce program. Administered by the Division of Science, Technology and Innovation within the California Technology, Trade & Commerce Agency, Rural E-Commerce provides grants to non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and local governments for innovative, community-driven solutions to the telecommunications challenges faced by rural residents. Examples of projects eligible for Rural E-Commerce support include rural telecommunications planning, rural network infrastructure, innovative applications, education and training, and related community planning efforts. According to the request for proposals, Rural E-Commerce grants also can be used as matching funds for rural communities competing for federal and foundation grants in areas relevant to rural e-commerce, such as the Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) and the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program.

Does patenting encourage or speed the transfer of technology from universities? Does the prospect of receiving royalties and licensing fees increase motivation among university researchers to work with businesses to commercialize technology? A recent paper suggests the answers to both questions is "no," but that more empirical and statistical research is needed to determine whether or not increased emphasis on intellectual property rights is achieving the desired results. How Do University Inventions Get Into Practice?, prepared by a team of researchers from across the country, is the first report on a study that attempts to understand:

President Bush has nominated Los Angeles resident Hector Barretto to serve as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

Even tech hot spots like San Diego are finding they are not immune from the Digital Divide. In fact, a new report from the San Diego Regional Technology Alliance (SDRTA) finds that the region suffers a wider Internet access divide between Caucasians and Hispanics than the nation as a whole. With Hispanics representing 25 percent of the area’s population, the issue will have future economic repercussions in tech-based entrepreneurship and increasing shortages of workers with tech skills.