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The Evergreen Startup State
by Maureen Sirhal
Despite its ranking as the state with the highest unemployment rate in the nation, Washington remains a hotbed for new companies, according to a new report.
The state tops the nation for the creation of new companies, according to the third annual Index of Innovation and Technology released by the Washington Technology Center (WTC), a state-sponsored science and technology organization that funds industry-university collaborations.
While jobs are down in the state, WTC Executive Director Lee Cheatham said, the economic outlook for Washington is far from hopeless. "On the positive side, we continue to see people who try out their ideas in new companies," she said in a statement.
Unlike other high-tech regions in the United States, Washington continues to reap venture capital for startups. The state finished ninth in the nation on that score, according to the index, which assesses growth, financial capacity, competitiveness and other factors.
Additionally, the state ranked first in exports per capita, third for percentage of households with Internet access and fourth for the percentage of households with computers in 2001. The state's inventors also saw their patent holdings increase by 11 percent from 2000 to 2001, and the average technology wage is among the highest in the nation, at $118,252 per year.
But Washington also has the highest percentage of business closings in the country. "Money makes these companies go around. And they're having a tough time finding enough of it right now," Cheatham said. "Investors are still expecting higher returns than are available, so many are sitting on the sidelines."
Opening Software Channels In Oregon
An Oregon lawmaker wants his state to embrace the "open source" software movement.
Rep. Phil Barnhart, a Democrat, is among a small but growing number of lawmakers looking to software systems based on public platforms that allow users to see and alter the underlying code in an effort to improve the security and efficiency of technology services. Barnhart has introduced a bill, H.B. 2892, that would tell Oregon agencies to consider open-source software such as Linux when contemplating purchases.
"Oregon could save millions of dollars while increasing the flexibility, usefulness and reliability of its computer systems," Barnhart said in a statement.
Under the measure, state agencies would have to justify the purchase of proprietary software systems, like the popular Windows operating system manufactured by Microsoft, when an open-source alternative is available.
Texans File Bills On Engineering Rules
Texas state Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Democrat, introduced legislation last week that would amend the state's licensing rules for engineers.
Under the measure, S.B. 277, unlicensed engineers who are privately employed and do not offer their services publicly would be exempt from state regulation. According to current law, only certified and licensed engineers can actually use the title "engineer" on their business cards. Republican state Sen. Jeff Wentworth authored another bill, S.B. 648, that would exempt certain industries, including aerospace and defense contractors, from the rule on the title.
High-tech firms in the state fear that the issue could put their workers at an economic disadvantage by forcing them to use alternative identification.
In California, meanwhile, a state Senate committee next week will examine piracy issues surrounding online file sharing and digital rights. State Sen. Kevin Murray, chairman of the Entertainment Industry Committee, will preside over the hearing.
The witnesses will include representatives from: the Internet service provider EarthLink; the file-swapping services Kazaa and Morpheus; the Motion Picture Association of America; the Recording Industry Association of America; and groups for actors, singers and directors.
Bells Take Broadband Battle To States
The battle over telecommunications policy is moving to the states as the regional Bell telephone companies press lawmakers to pass laws that deregulate services such as the high-speed Internet.
In South Carolina, lawmakers last week passed a measure to free BellSouth, the state's dominant provider of local phone service, from requirements that it rent its telecom equipment to rivals in the broadband market, according to The State, the daily newspaper in Columbia. Meanwhile, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that a Missouri House committee approved a similar measure designed to ease the ability of SBC Communications to provide broadband data services.
The moves come just two weeks after the FCC concluded its overhaul of regulations for the high-speed Internet. The FCC voted to ease the requirement that the Bells share their telecom lines with broadband competitors, but some Bells are hoping to further ease restrictions by seeking new rules in state legislatures.
Experts say it is unclear how the FCC's decision will impact the authority of states to regulate certain services. Some industry groups argue that state action is unnecessary in light of the FCC's decision, but others said the Bells hope that state lawmakers will reduce the oversight authority of public utility commissions in the states.
More Power For Minnesota Researchers
Unisys has given the University of Minnesota's Digital Technology Center two supercomputing systems worth $2.4 million. Under a partnership with Intel and Microsoft, Unisys provided the systems to assist university researchers with high-performance computer applications to study areas in biology, chemistry, fluid dynamics, genomics and geophysics.
"We will use the equipment as the 'electronic brain' that connects networks of data to draw images of the phenomena we are studying," said professor Paul Woodward, director of the center's Laboratory for Computational Science and Engineering. "This might be pictures of giant stars, thunderstorms on earth or the movement of river sediments. We will be able to visualize digitized data and manipulate it to look at it in different ways."
The center, created in 1998 as part of a technology research initiative, performs research, education and outreach in digital design, computer graphics, telecommunications, data storage and retrieval, multimedia, data mining, scientific computation and other digital technologies.
California Facilities To Get Computer Donations
The Beaumont Foundation of America last week announced that it will make $12.5 million in computer equipment available to California schools that serve low-income students and nonprofit community organizations.
Beaumont, which was formed from a billion-dollar class-action settlement, is distributing the products as part of a national initiative to provide technology equipment to underserved regions. The group is offering products that can wirelessly connect to the Internet as part of the program.
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell hailed the donation. "Given equal access to digital information," he said in a statement, "our students will have an equal opportunity to advance intellectually, socially and economically."
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