SSTI Digest

The New York New Media Association has been acquired by the Washington D.C.-based Software and Information Industry Association. At this time, the groups plan to maintain separate offices, staffs, boards, and memberships.

To help business incubator managers match start-up businesses with private investors through an Internet-based network, the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) has partnered with LocalFund, Inc., a network service provider based in Billings, Mont. The program allows incubator managers to establish their own entrepreneur-investor networks where potential investors can learn more about local start-up companies ready for investment. Entrepreneurs submit business plan summaries through a secure website, and potential investors search the site for companies that match their interests. Investors then contact entrepreneurs directly. Under the partnership agreement, NBIA members receive discounted rates on all LocalFund software. By creating a local entrepreneur-investor network, incubator managers provide new businesses with access to capital and give angel investors opportunities to develop their portfolios. The Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire at Durham estimates that approximately 350,000 angels…

Michigan Governor John Engler on Thursday unveiled NextEnergy— a comprehensive economic development plan to make Michigan a leader in the research, development, commercialization and manufacture of alternative energy technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells. Gov. Engler's energy blueprint proposes the creation of a 700-acre, tax-free NextEnergyZone in York Township near Ann Arbor, building the NextEnergy Center there and attracting alternative energy companies from around the world to the zone, making it a cluster of energy innovation. Surrounded by fuel cell vehicles at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Gov. Engler announced his plan would help reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, improve the environment and strengthen the economy. He said he would work with the Michigan Legislature and Congress to fund the plan and would establish a Michigan NextEnergy Development Fund to leverage additional capital for industry expansion. The market for fuel cell products alone is expected to grow to an estimated $95 billion by 2010…

Preparing an index or report card is often a useful tool for tech-based economic development efforts to assess a geographic area's relative performance across selected statistics or indicators. The outcomes measured, if considered temporally, can help decision makers identify and shift policy and investment priorities for their community, region or state. Two recent reports apply indices in very different ways, providing examples of how they can be used to promote varied strategies or objectives. The first looks at the Washington D.C. metro region from the perspective of five broad categories of indicators. No recommendations are suggested; the authors hope the report encourages broader awareness of and public engagement toward those areas showing improvement or greater need since the previous year's report was completed. Measures used for these types of indices, which are both quantitative and qualitative, typically draw from independent data or value-neutral statistics. For instance, a state may look at change in per capita income over a specific…

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (MBCI) Tribal Chief Phillip Martin and Mississippi Technology Alliance President and Chief Executive Officer Angie Dvorak recently announced a partnership to help foster science-based economic development for the state of Mississippi. The alliance's partnership with a tribal government is possibly the first of its kind in the U.S. "This is an opportunity for members of the public, private and academia sectors to come together to aggressively explore ways to work with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians," Dr. Dvorak said in a press release. The Mississippi Choctaw Technology Forum held earlier this week in Philadelphia, Miss., formally recognized the partnership. The April 15-16 event enabled representatives from science and tech-based industries to examine research and business partnership opportunities with the MBCI and tour the MBCI facilities. Representatives also were able to gain perspectives from technology industry officials and discuss research proposals with some of the top scientific educators in Mississippi…

Changes have led the business community to redefine its performance standards, government to rethink its goals and nonprofits to redouble their efforts to meet rising demands, according to a new report published by the Three Sector Initiative, a collaboration of seven organizations representing business, government and nonprofits. Working Better Together: How Government, Business and Nonprofit Organizations Can Achieve Public Purposes Through Cross-Sector Collaboration, Alliances and Partnerships works off the premise that technological, social and political changes have had far-reaching implications for the way government, business and nonprofit organizations fulfill their missions and work together. The report details the ways the sectors have used collaboration to form partnerships with each other to address complex problems. The report also draws on regional dialogues with representatives of the three sectors, providing examples of how leaders can work together. New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen explains that fiscal constraints motivate her state…

More than 60 presentations on patterns, or solutions to problems in a given context, figure to be the highlight of CPSR's 8th biannual Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing (DIAC) symposium, "Shaping the Network Society: Patterns for Participation, Action, and Change," being held May 16-19 in Seattle. CPSR (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility) describes patterns as observable actions, empirical findings, hypotheses, theories or best practices that exist at all levels. Patterns can be global or local and theoretical or practical, according to CPSR. Some of the presentations at the DIAC-02 symposium have particular relevance to state and local tech-based economic development affects, including: How to Survive Once the Government Funds Run Out Computer Learning Centers in Public Housing Complexes Using Technology for Social Engagement of the Aged Community-based Information Technology Workforce Development Designing a Collaborative Community Information System The Challenges of Global Learning in the New Digital Age Bridging the…

The SSTI Weekly Digest will be taking a brief spring break and will resume publication on Friday, May 3. 

New York Governor George Pataki recently announced a multimillion plan to transform the aging 300-acre W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus in Albany, N.Y., into a world-class research and development technology park.  "The transformation of the Harriman Campus will provide opportunities for researchers and entrepreneurs to work together right here in the Capital Region, attracting technology businesses and building new industries, to create high quality, high-tech jobs for 21st century," Gov. Pataki said in a press release.  The plan paves the way for $304 million in combined public and private investment to help renovate aging facilities at the campus and to develop new office space.  Under the plan, public sector investment will provide for site and infrastructure improvements costing $14 million and demolition costing $50 million. Approximately $240 million of private sector investment will build 1.2 million sq. ft. of new office space ($134 million); 650,000 sq. ft. of renovated office space ($40…

Ten rural communities and the technologies being used within them are the focus of Networking the Land: Rural America in the Information Age, the latest report released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the Department of Commerce.  NTIA's new Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) report reveals the communities are using telecommunications and information technologies for many purposes, from developing local economies to managing natural resources to improving access to education. Case studies are presented on the 10 communities:  Seba Dalkai Boarding School, Navajo Nation (Ariz., N.M., Col., and Utah)  Mayville State University (Mayville, N.D.)  Sevier River Water Users Association (Utah)  Coastal Economic Development Corporation (Bath, Maine)  Regional Medical Center at Lubec (Lubec, Maine)  University of Vermont and State Agricultural College (Burlington, Vt.)  Marshall University (Huntington, W.Va.)  North Dakota State University (Fargo, N.D.)  Virtual Chautauqua…

Economic development leaders within the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Technology Corridor have joined other areas of the U.S. in marketing the area as one unified region. Elected representatives from 10 cities and two counties located in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Technology Corridor recently signed a joint proclamation as a statement of support for the Corridor’s targeted industry cluster development regional efforts. This effort, focusing on the strength of the regional economy, is designed to attract prospective businesses and industry to the Corridor.  For planning and marketing purposes, the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Technology Corridor is defined as a region including the metropolitan areas of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City and adjacent communities represented by Priority One and Iowa City Area Development (ICAD). Representatives of Priority One — an economic development division of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce — and the nonprofit ICAD worked to define the regional economy and to determine both short- and long-term development prospects. The approach utilized…

In Perfectly Competitive Innovation, a March 2002 research department staff report for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine address whether current copyright, licensing and patent laws which grant monopolist rights to inventors beneficial or harmful to the innovation process. The authors suggest the latter in certain markets.  Most modern analysis of innovation, the authors contend, is based on models assuming monopolistic competition as a prerequisite for understanding innovation and growth. Instead, Boldrin and Levine conceive a model that confers the "right of first sale" practice that was granted to entrepreneurs historically [defined loosely as before the mid-19th century]. They also argue that, contrary to prevalent opinion, idea generation and the creative effort should be viewed as sunk costs instead of as fixed costs. Models based on competitive markets can address sunk costs.  The econometric model developed by Boldrin and Levine supports the conclusions that:  "the historical process…