In the December 3, 1999 Issue:

Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2002. Information in this issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest was prepared under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. Redistribution to all others interested in tech-based economic development is strongly encouraged — please cite the State Science & Technology Institute whenever portions are reproduced or redirected. Any opinions expressed in the Digest do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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Clinton Creates Federal E-Commerce Working Group
In a move to facilitate electronic commerce, President Clinton issued a memorandum this week creating the United States Government Working Group on Electronic Commerce. The Working Group will review current laws and regulations governing, impeding or hindering e-commerce, and will recommend revisions that facilitate e-commerce while ensuring consumer and public protection.

Impediments may include regulatory or licensing requirements and technical standards and other policies that may hinder electronic commerce in particular goods or services. While some of these legal restrictions are the subject of pending legislation, other potential barriers are outside the scope of those legislative proposals.

The Working Group will establish a subgroup, led by the U.S. Department of Commerce, to: (1) identify laws and regulations that impose barriers to the growth of electronic commerce, and (2) recommend how these laws and regulations should be revised to facilitate the development of electronic commerce, while ensuring that protection of the public interest (including consumer protection) is equivalent to that provided with respect to offline commerce.

The subgroup shall carry out the responsibilities and tasks identified below on behalf of the Working Group.

Within 60 days, the group will invite the public to identify laws or regulations that may obstruct or hinder electronic commerce, including those laws and regulations that should be modified on a priority basis because they are currently inhibiting electronic commerce that is otherwise ready to take place.

The group also will invite the public to recommend how government should adapt public interest regulations to the electronic environment. These recommendations should discuss ways to ensure that public interest protections for online transactions will be equivalent to that now provided for offline transactions; maintain technology neutrality; minimize legal and regulatory barriers to electronic commerce; and, take into account cross-border transactions that are now likely to occur electronically.

The group will invite representatives of state and local governments to identify laws and regulations at the state and local level that may impose a barrier to electronic transactions or otherwise to the conduct of commerce online or by electronic means, to discuss how state and local governments are revising such laws or regulations to facilitate electronic commerce while protecting the public interest, and to discuss the potential for consistent approaches to these issues.

Each federal agency, including independent regulatory agencies, is requested to identify any provision of law administered by the agency, or any regulation issued by the agency, that may impose a barrier to electronic transactions or otherwise impede the conduct of commerce online or by electronic means, and to recommend how the laws or regulations may be revised to allow electronic commerce to proceed while maintaining protection of the public interest.

The Working Group will review the findings of the subgroup and report to the President sometime next year.

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$130.6 Million NYSTAR Created
Most of New York’s science and technology initiatives have been consolidated into the New York Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR), which has received an annual budget of $130.6 million as a result of the Jobs 2000 Plan or “J2K” signed by Governor George Pataki in mid-November.

The new office incorporates the programs, functions, and staff of the NY State Science & Technology Foundation. The foundation, established in 1961, was one of the oldest continuously running state S&T programs. The Foundation had been part of Empire State Development Corp. since 1995; NYSTAR will be a separate entity.

With a total price tag of $522 million, J2K provides funding for projects ranging from NYSTAR and public venture capital to local water development projects.

As part of J2K, the 1999-2000 state budget includes a $156.5 million investment in high-tech academic research; $280 million in venture capital funds to invest in emerging businesses in New York State; $34 million to retrain employees to operate new high-tech equipment; and $51.5 million for infrastructure improvements to supply water to accommodate business growth.

Specific components of the J2K Plan include:

NYSTAR
NYSTAR will increase the state's investment in research universities and help turn that research into new jobs. The office will administer a Research Development Program to develop and recommend policies that encourage research and economic development involving colleges and universities; develop policies where the state may more effectively share in royalty and licensing fees generated from the development of new technologies for use in future high-tech initiatives; and organize informational resources to assist prospective researchers and universities in the preparation of successful grants.

The NYSTAR office will oversee the following:

NYSTAR also will provide $2.5 million for business assistance through the New York Institute for Entrepreneurship at Empire State College.

NYSTAR will receive advice and oversight from a new advisory council, which will consist of 11 members: seven appointed by the Governor and two each by the Temporary President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly.

Venture Capital
The New York State Venture Capital Program will provide for a $250 million investment in businesses in New York. This program will exist within the New York State and Local Employee's Retirement System.

J2K also expands the CapCo program to provide tax credits for certified capital investments in New York by $30 million. The CapCo program provides tax credits to insurance companies that make capital investments in emerging technology companies.

Job Retraining
The Strategic Training Alliance Program will be amended to address the need for private sector job retraining to enable the state's established workforce to upgrade their skills to handle new technology to help businesses remain competitive. The program will receive $34 million.

A copy of the J2K legislation (Senate Bill 3) can be found on the New York Assembly’s website: http://assembly.state.ny.us

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Coleman Foundation Offers Entrepreneurship Grants
The Coleman Foundation has allocated up to $1,000,000 for this year's Entrepreneurship Awareness and Education Grant program. The program will award a one-time grant of up to $25,000 to any university, college, community college or community-based nonprofit organization to establish or significantly expand an entrepreneurship initiative that focuses on any of the following areas:

The foundation also will award a one-time grant of up to $15,000 for any high school or community-based nonprofit organization to establish or significantly expand an entrepreneurship initiative that focuses on one of the following areas:

The Foundation's objective is to facilitate the implementation of entrepreneurship education initiatives by covering direct costs associated with new or significantly expanded programs. The intent is to target populations that might otherwise not be exposed to entrepreneurship education. Priority will be given to practical programs that have developed community and/or institutional partnerships and can demonstrate both
financial and programmatic sustainability. Proposals focusing on general business education, free enterprise or economics do not qualify.

Only nonprofit educational institutions and organizations holding a current Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3) are eligible to apply. The deadline for first quarter applications is December 31, 1999. Proposals will be evaluated on first come, first serve basis and will be awarded and announced quarterly.

For more information, visit http://www.colemanfoundation.org/ .

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Dept of Commerce Briefs

1999 Baldrige Winners Announced
Two manufacturers and two service companies have been selected as winners of the 1999 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's premier award for performance excellence and quality achievement. No award recipients were selected in the new education and health care categories.

The winners are: STMicroelectronics, Inc. - Region Americas (Carrollton, TX; manufacturing); BI (Minneapolis, MN.; service); The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. (Atlanta, GA; service); and Sunny Fresh Foods (Monticello, MN.; small business/ manufacturing).

The Baldrige program is managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in conjunction with the private sector. Since 1988, 37 organizations have received a Baldrige Award. More information can be found at: http://www.quality.nist.gov/

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ATP Solicitation Opens
With the FY 2000 budget battle finally behind them, the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) has available approximately $50.7 million dollars in fiscal year 2000 for first-year funding of new projects that can run as long as five years. This year, ATP is conducting one competition, using the same competition structure and selection criteria that it used during the 1999 competition. The deadline for full proposals is March 8, 2000.

ATP accepts abbreviated pre-proposals throughout the year to provide feedback to potential applicants as to the suitability of the proposed project. Pre-proposals should be submitted no later than two months prior to the deadline for full proposals to allow enough time to incorporate the feedback comments in a full proposal. Details of this optional pre-proposal process may be found in the ATP Proposal Preparation Kit.

The kit and copies of the presenters’ slides from the Nov. 15-17 ATP National Conference are available from the agency or via its website: http://www.atp.nist.gov/

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Navy, NIH Offer Inventions for Licensing
The Department of the Navy and the National Institutes of Health each have published lists of 61 inventions and 9 inventions, respectively, that are owned by the federal government and are available for licensing. Foreign patent applications are filed on selected inventions to extend market coverage for companies and may also be available for licensing.

Both the lists and contact information are available for review on the SSTI website at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/120399t.htm

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The Downside of S&T Success
The Sacramento Bee recently ran a story showing there is a downside for California being home of the Silicon Valley phenomenon: 20 percent of the 6,600 computer and telecommunications positions within the California state government are vacant. Some local governments are reporting even higher vacancy rates.

According to the story, the result for California residents is that they do not have the World Wide Web convenience of government service delivery now offered in many other states — such as online vehicle registration or fishing license purchases.

More serious information needs such as tracking child support payments also are not being addressed because of the lack of trained workers. Other sites, once created cannot be updated because the trained staff have left for positions in private business.

Slow government hiring processes and noncompetitive civil salaries and benefits are cited as the reasons for the problem.

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