In the April 20, 2001 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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PPI Releases Metro New Economy Index
Offering an assessment of the progress made by the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas toward becoming high-tech communities as well as providing policy recommendations to help cultivate and encourage New Economy businesses, the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and Case Western Reserve University's Center for Regional Economic Issues yesterday released The Metropolitan New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the Nation's Metropolitan Areas. These metro areas account for approximately 60 percent of the nation's workforce.

The top 25 states (based on aggregate score) are:

1 San Francisco/San Jose, CA 95.6
2 Austin, TX 77.9
3 Seattle, WA 68
4 Raleigh-Durham, NC 61.4
5 San Diego, CA 61.4
6 Washington, DC 60.6
7 Denver, CO 58.1
8 Boston, MA 54
9 Salt Lake City, UT 49.8
10 Minneapolis, MN 49
11 Atlanta, GA 48.6
12 Dallas, TX 46
13 Miami, FL 45.6
14 Houston, TX 45.3
15 Portland, OR 42.7
16 Phoenix, AZ 41.6
17 New York City, NY 39.5
18 Philadelphia, PA 38.3
19 Chicago, IL 37.7
20 Los Angeles, CA 37.4
21 Rochester, NY 36.1
22 Hartford, CA 35.6
23 Sacramento, CA 35.5
24 Kansas City, MO 35
25 Orlando, FL 34.3

Co-authored by Robert D. Atkinson, vice-president and director of PPI's Technology and New Economy Project, and Paul D. Gottlieb, associate director of the Center for Regional Economic Issues at Case Western Reserve University, the index uses 16 economic indicators grouped in five subcategories -- knowledge jobs, globalization, economic dynamism, transformation to a digital economy, and technological innovation capacity -- to rank the metro areas on the extent to which they have made the transformation to the New Economy.

Some of the indicators used in the study include number of initial public offerings (IPO's), workforce education levels, broadband telecommunication providers, dot-com domain names, patents issued, and the number of science and engineering graduates from area colleges and universities.

Along with the rankings, the report recommends a public policy framework that metro areas should follow to succeed in the New Economy. In particular, the report argues that it is time to replace the Old Economy goal of simply getting bigger, with the New Economy goal of becoming more prosperous. To do this, metropolitan areas need to shift focus from providing businesses tax breaks and other subsides to investing in the skills of the workforce, a vibrant infrastructure for technological innovation, and quality of life.

Specifically, the report advises metropolitan areas to:

"Too many city benchmarking reports simply provide information that allows the top-ranked cities to crow, and the bottom-ranked cities to start wringing their hands. We felt it would be irresponsible for us to rank metropolitan areas on their participation in the New Economy without providing at least a rough blueprint for  improving their performance. This report is targeted at an audience of national and regional policy makers, in hopes of better advancing the metropolitan agenda in this New Economy," Atkinson stated.

The report may be obtained at http://www.ppionline.org or by contacting PPI's communications office at (202) 547-0001.

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South Carolina, Florida Get New Tech Councils
On Wednesday, South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges announced the appointment of a 38-member Steering Committee of the Technology Transition Team. The group, chaired by the president of the South Carolina operations of BellSouth, consists of business leaders, technology entrepreneurs, financial executives, research university leaders, and government representatives. Technology Transition Team responsibilities include:

In Florida, according to a press release from the Tampa Bay Partnership, a new, privately led technology council is underway called Tech Florida, Inc. Intended to meet only once or twice a year, Tech Florida, Inc., will provide a forum for high technology industry executives across the state to network and to express their thoughts to government and political leaders on issues ranging from tech-based economic development, workforce development, taxes, and education. Public affairs consultant, Ron Brower, will serve as the first executive director for the council.

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SSTI’s 5th Annual Conference To be Held in Pittsburgh
Ben Franklin Technology Partners. Pittsburgh Technology Council. Industrial Resource Centers. Tech 21. Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse. Whether one is looking for examples of states’ efforts in workforce development, innovative university-industry research partnerships, effective technology councils, or practically any other tech-based economic development program, Pennsylvania is one of the first states to come to mind because of its long-standing tradition of supporting innovative approaches to building a tech-based economy.

With so many local, state, university, and federal efforts to cultivate science, technology and economic growth, it is only fitting that Pittsburgh will be the 2001 site of SSTI's annual conference on practical tools and policies for tech-based economic development. Building from the success of last year’s sell-out event in Chicago and the wealth of great resources in Pittsburgh — beginning with our host team of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the Center for Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University, Heinz Endowments, Innovation Works, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Community and Economic Development, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, and the Pittsburgh Technology Council — SSTI is working to make sure our fifth annual event is the best conference yet for tech-based economic development practitioners and policymakers alike.

SSTI’s fifth annual conference will be held September 20-21, 2001. As in the past, several limited-seating, in-depth workshops and off-site tour options will precede the conference on Wednesday, September 19. The conference will be held at the historic Omni William Penn Hotel, located in the heart of the downtown business district. The 596-room hotel provides an intimate-yet-formal setting for the conference, a quality much appreciated by last year’s conference participants in Chicago. A special room rate of only $138 has been reserved at the hotel for SSTI conference registrants. (Mention the SSTI conference to get the discounted rate when calling 1-412-281-7100 to make reservations.)

For the conference, US Airways is also offering outstanding discounts for air travel to and from Pittsburgh (a U.S. Airways hub). Reservations can be made by calling 1-877-874-7687 (reference gold file number 13131883).

More information about the conference will be posted on SSTI’s website soon.

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Useful Stats: R&D Intensity for All 50 States
Due to a number of requests from SSTI Weekly Digest readers, we have prepared the accompanying table presenting the 1998 "R&D Intensity" rankings for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. R&D Intensity is considered a state's total R&D performance as a percentage of the Gross State Product. Readers' requests came as a result of an April 6, 2001 SSTI Weekly Digest article on a recent Issue Brief from the National Science Foundation, R&D Spending is Highly Concentrated in A Small Number of States. Figures for only the top ten states were provided in the Issue Brief.

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HUD's Best Practices Program Terminated
The Best Practices program in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which for the past five years has highlighted and honored hundreds of varied and effective approaches to community development, has been discontinued. The program publications, website and annual conference provided state and local economic development efforts easy access to information and contacts for successful practices worthy of emulation.

HUD Secretary Martinez has determined that funds required to continue Best Practices would be used more effectively to increase training for HUD staff. The agency website reports HUD will look for “other means to achieve the original objectives of the Best Practices program at a sustainable cost.”

The scheduled August symposium in Washington, D.C. will not be held, and there is no longer a deadline or need to submit nominations for Best Practice awards. For the time being, many of the past examples of successful community development programs can still be found at: http://www.hud.gov/whatworks/

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People
Joe Alviani has resigned as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to accept a position in the private sector. MTC Executive Vice President Philip Holahan is serving as Interim Executive Director.

The Vermont Economic Progress Council has named Fred Kenney as Executive Director. VEPC is the nine-member panel established in 1994 with members appointed by the Governor to provide long-term economic policy planning. In 1998 it was given the responsibility of implementing the Economic Advancement Tax Incentives Act and reviewing applications for tax incentives.

After seven years of serving as the first president of the Connecticut Technology Council, Laura Kent is resigning her position at the end of June. The Council now boasts over 400 members.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge has promoted Tim McNulty to the new position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Technology Initiatives.

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