According to Gov. Ernie Fletcher, Kentucky is on the wrong side of a widening digital divide as the Commonwealth ranks 44th in its proportion of high-tech companies, 45th in household computer use, and 43rd in citizen Internet use. To help improve these figures, the governor has called for a broadband deployment and adoption plan that will leverage state, federal and private investment to have full, statewide broadband deployment by 2007.

Julie Coons is the new president of the Technology Council of Maryland. Coons most recently served as executive vice president of PCIA -- the Wireless Infrastructure Association.

Secretary Aris Melisssaratos of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development recently announced two new appointments. Leslie Sipes-Pachol will serve in the position of executive director for the Maryland Economic Development Commission, and Paul Mauritz has been promoted to become Assistant Secretary for Technology Strategy and Business Development.

The Alaska MEP, a new nonprofit entity formed by the Alaska Native Arts Foundation and the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, has named Robert Pope as the first Interim Director.

Biotechnology is one of the few tech-sectors in which jobs still seem to be in strong demand despite the weak economy, according to local news reports from around the country. As a result, many states, communities and universities have directed a portion of their economic development efforts toward encouraging life sciences research and biotech commercialization.

The Bullitt County Economic Development Authority of Kentucky has named Bob Fouts as interim director.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) has issued a new study showing Maryland continues to underperform in some key areas of innovation while leading competitor states in other areas.

Neil Shpritz, executive director of the BWI Business Partnership in Maryland, is retiring in October.

Christopher Foster has been named technology coordinator for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

John Murray has been named executive director of the Maryland Economic Development Commission.

A technically-skilled workforce is one of the elements required for a tech-based economy, so the issue of stopping the brain drain is of critical importance to some regions and states.  The choice for some states, it has been observed, is to turn into retirement homes or to retain their college graduates; in short, to avoid losing their minds.  Maine, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are just a few of the states that have been looking at the issue.

Christopher C. Foster is the new state technology coordinator at the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

Editor's note: Few federal programs that fund research have undergone as much independent review and outside scrutiny as the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) within the National Institute of Standards and Technology and come out with high marks nearly every time. Yet two more independent papers described briefly below find that ATP funds make a positive difference for spurring innovation and commercializing technology.

Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher joined National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials earlier this month to announce a partnership in support of the Moon-Mars initiative. The agreement pairs the Kentucky Science and Technology Corp. (KSTC) with the nation's principal agency for space exploration.

William Tew has resigned as director of the Office of Licensing and Technology Development for Johns Hopkins University.

Three I's neatly sum up the 22 recommendations recently released by Maryland Governor Robert Erlich's Commission on Development of Advanced Technology Business — Investment, Innovation, and Image. The year-long study looked at the state's existing physical, financial and intellectual infrastructures to support the state's research and technology sectors, making specific recommendations in three groupings to foster continued growth.

Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher has named Derrick Ramsey as deputy secretary of the Commerce Cabinet.

Ann Quinn was recently named managing director of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Venture Capital Fund.

The Greater Baltimore Alliance, now renamed as the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, has appointed David Gillece as chief executive officer and Christian Johansson as managing director.

Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development has reorganized into three geographically defined divisions. Robert Hannon has been named to run the regional program.

With the support of Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), BrainChild Maryland was launched this week to identify and capitalize on Maryland's most promising new technologies. The for-profit company will identify university and federal lab technologies that have the greatest potential for becoming viable products and services.

Buddy Buckingham, director of regional planning at Murray State University, will serve as interim director of the new MSU Innovations and Commercialization Center. Buckingham also currently serves in the Kentucky General Assembly.

To transform the nation’s medical research capabilities and speed the movement of research discoveries from the bench to the bedside, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) laid out on Monday a series of initiatives collectively known as the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research.

Gaining an understanding of the real and potential economic impact of government investments in research and development (R&D) has suffered for decades from a lack of rigorous but broadly applicable methodologies for the assessment. To advance the field toward a more appropriate degree of uniformity, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently released a primer on economic impact analysis of government R&D programs.

The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) has begun a review of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) that will examine the program's mission and execution. MEP requested the independent analysis.