SSTI Digest

The California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency (TTCA) has released A County Level Analysis of California's R&D Activity 1993-1999, which, for the first time, offers California state and regional policymakers a county-by-county, instead of statewide or national, analysis of research and development trends.

The AEA's sixth annual survey of employment in the electronics and information technology sectors revealed 20 states experienced more IT job losses than creations in 2001. Texas led the way with more than 3,000 job losses while South Dakota experienced the greatest percentage loss of its IT workforce at 14 percent.

Of Arizona's 664,454 businesses, 98 percent qualify as small businesses with fewer than 100 employees, according to a study released by the Arizona Department of Commerce and the Arizona State University's Center for the Advancement of Small Business. The study was conducted by the Masters Consulting Group (MCG), an MBA student organization at ASU's College of Business.

Virginia is one of the most connected states in the country with 5.19 million access lines, 2.76 million wireless telephone subscribers and 218,808 high-speed lines, according to a report issued by Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT). State of the Telecommunications Industry in Virginia analyzes the state of the national and local telecom industry and identifies the key drivers of Virginia’s success in attracting telecommunications companies, focusing on the industry during the latter part of 2001 and the first half of 2002.

Arizona

The Governor's Strategic Partnership for Economic Development (GSPED) has formally recognized the state's 12th industry cluster, E-Learning. The implementing organization for the cluster is the Globalized E-Learning Association, which grew from earlier efforts by the Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council, the telecommunications infrastructure foundation under GSPED. E-Learning is the 12th Arizona cluster recognized by GSPED since its inception in 1992.

SSTI extends a friendly reminder there is still time for readers to complete the 2002 SSTI Weekly Digest survey. As mentioned in a separate e-mail earlier this week, the survey results help us determine the editorial direction and content of future Digest issues.

Nominations are being accepted currently for the 2002 Tibbetts Awards to recognize those small firms, projects, organizations and individuals judged to exemplify the very best in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) achievement.

Governor Dirk Kempthorne has announced the creation of TechConnect East, a regional science and technology office to be located at the Idaho State University Incubation Center in Pocatello, Idaho.

The nation's metropolitan areas were responsible for "driving the economic performance of the nation as a whole last year," accounting for 98 percent of job growth and 86 percent of national economic growth, according to a new report prepared for the U.S. Conference of Mayors by DRI/WEFA.

The Center for Economic Forecasting and Analysis at Florida State University has completed a New Economy index for Tallahassee, showing how the Florida capital compares with 66 MSAs and, in a second analysis, a comparison of 20 Florida MSAs. Tallahassee ranks 11th among all MSAs assessed, a finding the authors suggest confirms "the city's economy has a number of very strong advantages."

Today's online issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education reports Microsoft Corporation is contributing $750 million to China to support computer science education, basic research, software training, and business growth.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced 51 grant recipients will share $6.1 million for rural economic development. Funding for the projects comes from the USDA's Rural Business Opportunity Grants Rural Development and Rural Business Enterprise Grant programs.