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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Feb 18, 2014 |
1 in 4 Americans Don't Know Earth Orbits the Sun. Yes, Really.
Montana Data Focused Business Cluster
Montana Department of Commerce
- New skills are needed to work on Internet of Things - Experience with Data is Key!
A 2011 McKinsey report estimated that the United States faces a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep data analytics skills, and 1.5 million managers and analysts to make business decisions based on their findings.
- High tech and big data will lead University of Montana's new course
"What we've been doing for years and years, probably in the next five or 10 years of the global century, isn't going to be what we need to be doing," said Shawn Clouse, an associate professor of management and information systems. "We need a learning environment here that brings about the 'ah-ha' moments the students talk about."
- Target Warning Shows Limits of Cyber Intelligence
Apparently, it all could have been avoided--if only someone had listened.
- More firms buying insurance for data breaches
The threat of cyber hacking, underscored by the credit card breach at Target, is now so great that US businesses are rushing to buy insurance coverage against the expense of being hacked, or losing sensitive customer information.
Visit Montana - Montana Dept. of Tourism
- Butte lands grant for tourist mobile application
"E-marketing is essential to reaching Montana's target travelers," said Duran. "This grant provides tourism organizations with the resources they need to remain competitive in the rapidly changing world of digital technology."
Big Sky Commerce
- Bison Creek Ranch at Glacier National Park
Our goal is to provide a unique experience for all visitors to Glacier National Park, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, and Montana.
Great Falls Development Authority
- New, safer credit cards making Missoula debut - Big Sky Commerce
Big Sky Commerce provides software and hardware for the chipped cards, and he says business has picked since Master Card set a deadline for merchants to become compliant by October 2015.
Come Home Montana
- Total employed workers in Great Falls up 733 during 2013
For growth in Great Falls, GFDA is working on a whole range of basic or primary jobs, as well as retail developments.
- Great Falls, Montana Fights for Every Job
Brett Doney would like to see more enrollment in training programs and two-year colleges which can quickly qualify young people for positions in primary jobs.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Montana Career Opportunity - CFO - Sterling Bank Services
Sterling Bank Services, part of the Cennox Group, is hiring a CFO to oversee our US companies. This position will be based in our US headquarters in Missoula Montana. SBS is looking for experience and someone with enthusiasm to lead our financial team within our rapidly growing company.
- Billings VA Clinic still hiring doctors, surgeons
The clinic has filled 30 positions, but it's still recruiting and hiring for about 20 more, including two surgeons, a dentist, an audiologist, ophthalmologist, podiatrist and urologist along with registered nurses and others.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Software Developer - Land Systems - Plum Creek
We currently have an opening for a Software Developer in our Columbia Falls, Montana office. Our 75 person IT team is headquartered in Montana and is driven and passionate about their desire to deploy technology and initiatives which help our businesses achieve Plum Creek's goals.
- Montana Career Opportunity - Program Manager, Chief Marketing Officer - Montana Department of Commerce
Are you ready to tell the Montana story?
- State of Montana Career Opportunities
Be part of the solution for a better Montana
- Montana Milky Way
As anyone who has lived in Montana can tell you, our state's greatest treasure is its incredible outdoors. And that includes the sky above.
Montana Business
- VC firm goes to"The Third Coast" for next big thing in tech
Graduates shouldn't have to leave for California to get funding for their dreams, he says.
Careers
- Voices of Montana Tourism - The Land and Water Conservation Fund and its impact on MT Tourism
The impact of LWCF on Montana cannot be overstated. In fact, it's estimated by the LWCF Coalition that every $1 in oil and gas revenues invested through LWCF generates $4 in economic value.
- Cascadia Business Development Launches StrongestLink Training and Operations Software
In short we guide our clients into taking the right actions, at the right time, for the right reasons. We quickly bring companies into proper operational alignment -- turning businesses with growing pains around in months - rather than years.
- Sleigh ride: Lolo man's draft horses dash through the winter snow - Outlaw Carriage Company
"There is something about horses that brings people together," he said. "They help us slow down and see life for what it is."
- High elevation niche: Butte-based Peak Inc. offers high-altitude training for military, civilians
While The Peak has in the past primarily attracted the attention of the Department of Defense for training soldiers prior to deployment because of its three drop zones at elevations 5,600, 8,000 and 10,000 feet, The Peak is expanding its training courses offered to the general public.
Rural Communities
- Study: Four-year degree is worth more than ever before
The Pew study shows that a college education is correlated with higher median earnings for 25- to 32-year-olds than at any time since the survey began.
- It Takes Teams to Solve the Data Scientist Shortage
Data scientists are in high demand, but our research has found there is simply not enough PhD talent to fill the jobs. The shortage is especially severe in the U.S. where 80% of new data scientist jobs created between 2010 and 2011 have not been filled, according to our analysis.
- Be An Entrepreneur While Seeking That Ideal Job
Here are my recommendations on how and why initiating a startup while looking, or about to be looking, for a job is the right thing to do:
- The resume that makes for a top executive
A new study published this week in the Harvard Business Review, which provides a snapshot over time of the demographics and career trajectories of Fortune 100 executives, shows how much the boardroom is definitely changing.
Government
- "The Twilight of Common Dreams - Why America is Racked by Culture Wars"
The appalling poverty in many rural communities, accompanied by the depression and anger of many rural residents is symptomatic of a nation that is certainly crumbling around the edges and looks as if it is crumbling at its core.
Idaho Business
- 10 tips to make sure Obamacare works for you
You may have purchased a plan on a health insurance exchange, but knowing how to navigate it is critical.
- MISSOULIAN EDITORIAL: Budget games a creative, engaging exercise in city spending
Missoula City Councilwoman Caitlin Copple found a way to make the budget fun.
Incubators and R&D
- Idaho's cloud-services act needs improvement
The industry segment is actually called "software as a service." State tax policy was blind to that transformation.
North Dakota Business and Economic Development
- Montana Board of Regents to consider University of Montana neural injuries treatment program for veterans
If approved, the center would tap existing scientific resources across campus to assist student veterans who may suffer from traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder - two hallmarks of the nation's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- MSU copes with $3.5 million in budget cuts from research
MSU administrators and faculty have come up with ways to solve the problem, without undercutting the research that's important to MSU's identity, success and future.
Oregon Business
- Rent in North Dakota city of Williston exceeds NY, LA
"I think they are optimistic the oil boom will be around for the next 20 years because of the different levels of oil they now have access to through fracking," Winter added. "I just don't know with the weather that many people who are working in the oil fields will stay for more than a couple years."
Regional Business
- Squarespace confirms plans for big Portland outpost, hiring dozens this year and dozens more later
Squarespace, a big New York website builder, says it's chosen Portland for a major customer-service office to open this spring. The company plans to hire dozens of employees this year and "hundreds" within the next few years.
Washington State Business
- The American Manufacturer Network
The American Manufacturer Network Mission is to enhance and assure the domestic supply base for the Department of Defense
- Rural, small hospitals may get break from federal rule
The rule requires that a doctor be present in a department during routine procedures, such as blood transfusions and some immunizations. While it passed in 2009, it wasn't enforced at small hospitals until this year.
Workforce Development
- Seattle's smartest creative geeks: Kyle Kesterson - Freak'n Genius
Kyle Kesterson, 29, can pinpoint the start of his transformation - from formerly homeless high school dropout to CEO of a rising tech company - down to a single moment.
21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."
- Intellectually disabled struggling to find work
Employment is seen as crucial for improving the quality of life for people with these disabilities and considered a benchmark for measuring the success of special education programs. Yet the jobs picture is as bleak now it was more than a decade ago.
Education
- CodeMontana Surpasses 1,000-Student Goal, Sets New Goal at 5,000 Students Participating by Spring 2015
The program is designed to encourage Montana high school students to learn computer programming.
Montana Education Excellence
- Why Higher Ed is Slow to Become Longer Ed
A child born in 2014 can expect a 4-year degree at a top private college to exceed half a million dollars.
- Pay It Forward program rethinks college tuition -
Students in Washington state could be among the first to go to college without having to worry about paying tuition up front.
- Senators pitch reforms to make college more affordable
"Everyone should have access to higher education at a price that doesn't drown them in debt."
Community
- 38 from Sentinel High DECA chapter qualify for international conference
This year, 38 members - including one Hellgate High School affiliate member - qualified for the International DECA Career Development Conference in Atlanta by placing either first or second (and, in some cases, third) in their respective events.
Funding and Building your Business
- The U.S. Middle Class Is Turning Proletarian
This group, what I call the yeoman class -- the small business owners, the suburban homeowners , the family farmers or skilled construction tradespeople- is increasingly endangered.
Energy and Climate Change
- Comcast-Time Warner deal would be bad news for consumers and valley startups
The company could jack up prices and thwart innovation with impunity. Worse, it could control not only what television networks you can access, but also what Internet sites you can visit and applications you can use.
- The Dealership Alternative selected for national entrepreneurial program
TDA is one of 70 businesses around the country, and one of eight in Montana, selected for the program by Goldman Sachs called 10,000 Small Businesses.
- Pick The Entrepreneur Lifestyle Alternative For You
Technically, I believe an entrepreneur is anyone who manages his own profit and loss, and doesn't meet the government tax definition of an employee.
- 5 Attributes to Look for in High-Performing Employees
I'm interested in investing in people." legendary venture capitalist Arthur Rock
- How to Get Your Employees to Think Strategically
"Strategic leaders take a broad, long-range approach to problem-solving and decision-making that involves objective analysis, thinking ahead, and planning."
Connectivity & Communications
- Kerry calls climate change a weapon of mass destruction, derides skeptics
He labeled those who denied the evidence of climate change as "shoddy scientists and extreme ideologues."
- 'Meet The Press' Shows Us Exactly How Not To Cover Climate Change
The only debate left is what to do about climate change, not whether it exists.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- Bozeman prepares to advance broadband plan
The request will ask for an organization to create the master plan that will likely outline the physical location of the broadband ring, a data center and what it means to the functionality of the network and policy issues related to scaling the system, Fontenot said. He expects the plan to cost the city $90,000 to $100,000.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Big Sky Documentary Film Festival kicks off in Missoula
"The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is the biggest cinema event in Montana which means we bring in the most filmmakers, we select the most films, and an interesting thing about the films we select a lot of them go on to be nominated for Academy Awards," Event Coordinator, Michael Workman, said.
- Museum of the Rockies exhibit "Tails to Toepads" begins Feb. 22nd
More than 60 live lizards go on display February 22nd.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Apple exploring cars, medical devices to reignite growth - Why not buy Tesla?
Mergers and acquisitions chief at Apple met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
HACKING AND VIRUS ALERTS
- Human lung made in lab for first time
"It's so darn cool," said Joan Nichols, a researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch. "It's been science fiction and we're moving into science fact."
- Overseas scammers target Butte to gain access to personal computers
Beware of phone calls from 215-220-2321, said Anastasia Burton, deputy communications director for the Montana Department of Justice, which oversees the Office of Consumer Protection in Helena. Beware of the caller ID words "School District," as well.
- Crowd-funding site Kickstarter hacked; CEO urges password changes
"(W)e strongly recommend that you create a new password for your Kickstarter account, and other accounts where you use this password," Strickler said in the blog post.
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