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SSTI Digest
TBED People on the Move
Thomas Still has been selected at the new president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. Still, currently associate editor of the Wisconsin State Journal, will fill the vacancy created by Larry Kline's departure this past spring.
TBED People on the Move
Patrick Tam started this week as the new executive director of SIRTI, the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute. Tam comes to SIRTI from a Seattle-based international technology transfer company.
TBED People on the Move
Robert Templin, Jr., has been named the new president of Northern Virginia Community College, effective August 17. Templin, currently a senior fellow at the Morino Institute, was a previous president of Virginia' Center for Innovative Technology.
The little matter of a survey...
Our heartfelt thanks to all of you who so far have completed our annual readers' survey. A record number of responses!
To the several thousand of you who were waiting for a personal request, this is it. Please (pretty please) take a few minutes to tell us what you like and don't like about the SSTI Weekly Digest on the following site: http://www.ssti.org/digestsurvey02.htm [expired]
Thanks!
Governor Establishes Alabama Research Alliance by Executive Order
Last week, Governor Don Siegelman signed Executive Order Number 71, which establishes the Alabama Research Alliance, a partnership among Alabama’s research universities, the business community and state government. The mission of the research alliance is to foster economic development in Alabama by investing in existing and new research initiatives at Alabama’s research universities.
The research alliance will focus on investing in and promoting research in areas including, but not limited to: space, science, technology and defense; automotive manufacturing and production design; agriculture; biomedicine and cancer research; and aviation computer electronics.
The new Executive Order amends a 1999 Executive Order by Gov. Seigelman by changing the name from the Alabama Research Institute (ARI) to the Alabama Research Alliance and by expanding the Board of Directors.
GRA Expands VentureLab To Georgia’s Research Universities
The Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) is facilitating the expansion of VentureLab at the state’s research universities. Piloted at the Georgia Institute of Technology, VentureLab is a strategy for enhancing and accelerating the process of spinning new technology-based enterprises out of university research.
GRA President C. Michael Cassidy defined the goals of VentureLab as providing earlier and increased awareness by the business and investment community of university commercialization opportunities and providing an easier and more efficient process for turning these technologies into new companies or new markets for established companies.
Recent Reports: Calfornia Analyzes R&D Activity on County Level
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 Analysis identifies $50.24 billion that California institutions secured in federal research support between the years 1993-99 (the latest data available). The Analysis includes unclassified research funding from 17 federal agencies on a county-by-county basis and details who performs the research including individual business, public and private educational institutions, federal government, nonprofit institutions, and state or local government.
Recent Reports: Cyberstates 2002 Finds IT Employment Grew 1 Percent Nationally
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.
Nationally, only 80,000 jobs were added in the year, compared with 440,000 in 2000.
On the positive side, California, Kansas, Virginia, Oregon and New Jersey added the greatest number of technology jobs during 2001.
Cyberstates 2002: A State-by-State Overview of the High-Technology Industry is available for $195 through http://www.aeanet.org. Press releases on the individual findings for many states are available for free download on the site.
Recent Reports: MCG Report Reveals Increase in Number of Small Businesses in Arizona
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.
The number of Arizona's small businesses, estimated at 651,317 by the MCG report, includes 281,022 home-based businesses. For comparison, Arizona had 329,031 small firms in 1997, the last year for available U.S. Census data. The 1997 total, however, does not include limited liability partnerships, limited liability companies, not-for-profit corporations, and C corporations.
Recent Reports: Virginia's CIT Examines State's Telecom Industry
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.
The report states that, with the national telecommunications industry in turmoil, further consolidation is inevitable. Between March 2000 and February 2002, more than $1 trillion in market value in the telecom industry was lost, and more than 300,000 people in the industry lost their jobs. In addition, the telecom industry recovery will lag the rest of the economy by 18-24 months.
State & Local Tech-based ED RoundUp
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.
Digest Survey Eyes More Responses
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.
We recognize demands on your time exceed availability, so the 2002 Digest survey asks only 11 critical questions. Completing the online survey forms should take only a few minutes. Most are multiple choice for further simplification, although your personal comments are very helpful, too.
Every SSTI staff member involved in preparing the SSTI Weekly Digest and Funding Supplements will read every comment or suggestion, and a summary of the results will be submitted to the Economic Development Administration, the source that allows the Digest to be a free publication.