In the May 9, 2003 Issue:

Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2003. 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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ITAA Studies Show IT Job Outlook Still Gloomy
Research released this week by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) suggests that, failing a dramatic turnaround in the national economy, a recovery in the IT sector in 2003 will most likely continue to be a “jobless” one.

A telephone survey of 400 hiring managers from IT and non-IT companies nationwide found that predicted demand for hiring IT workers has reached an historic low of only 493,000 positions over the next 12 months — down from 1.6 million at the start of 2000 and less than one-half of the predicted 1.1 million positions needed at the start of 2002. Sixty-seven percent of those interviewed said they thought hiring demand would stay the same or decline over the next 12 months.

Companies are also moving more positions overseas, with 12 percent of IT companies and 3 percent of non-IT companies saying they have already opened up overseas operations. Large IT companies were most likely to say they have made the move — 22 percent have already moved work offshore. Additionally, 15 percent of IT firms say they will, or are undecided about, moving jobs overseas in the next 12 months, while 4 percent of non-IT firms say the same.

Sixty-seven percent of respondents already outsourcing IT work overseas say that jobs most likely to be moved offshore are programming or software engineering positions, followed by 37 percent moving network design and 30 percent moving web development jobs.

The ITAA annual survey placed the size of the U.S. IT workforce at 10.3 million, with hiring and terminations amounting to less-than-one-percent growth during the first quarter of 2003 and the IT workforce growing by 86,000. While that may be good news, it is below fourth quarter 2002 growth, which added 97,000 jobs, the slowest quarterly growth in 2002.

Percentage of Women, Minorities in High Tech Workforce Down
A separate ITAA study released this week finds that racial minorities and women lost ground in IT employment between 1996 and 2002, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Surveys.

Among the key findings of the report is the percentage of women in the overall IT workforce fell from 41 percent to 34.9 percent between 1996 and 2002. The percentage of African Americans in the overall IT workforce also fell from 9.1 percent to 8.2 percent during the same period. However, when administrative positions were removed from consideration, the percentages of both groups rose slightly over the six years. The percentage of women IT professionals rose from 25 percent to 25.3 percent of the workforce, and the percentage of African American IT professionals rose from 6 percent to 6.2 percent.

The ITAA findings indicate that the groups still are underrepresented in the IT workforce as compared to their representation in the whole U.S. workforce. Women comprised 46.6 percent of the U.S. workforce and African Americans represented 10.9 percent of the U.S. workforce in 2002.

The data were presented in a report by ITAA’s Blue Ribbon Diversity Panel, convened to examine the current state of women, minorities, people with disabilities and older workers in the IT workforce. The report represents an update of a previous ITAA report released in 1998, examining the same topic, and also presents a discussion of barriers to entry in IT. Three major solutions for improving diversity within the IT industry are presented:

ITAA provides global public policy, business networking and national leadership to promote the continued rapid growth of the IT industry. Both reports described above are available at http://www.itaa.org/.

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North Dakota Legislature Clears Path for TBED
In the final week of its 2003 Legislative Session, the North Dakota State Legislature passed sweeping legislation that favors tech-based economic development in the state. The Greater North Dakota Association (GNDA), serving as the state's Chamber of Commerce, subsequently issued a summary of those bills targeted toward job growth. Some highlights of GNDA's summary are presented below:

Additionally, $5.25 million was allocated to promote partnerships between the State Commerce Department and the University System to develop centers of research excellence. A few measures to receive funding under this initiative include:

All of the bills may be accessed through the North Dakota Legislative Branch at: http://www.state.nd.us/lr/

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Maryland's TEDCO and NSA Team to Promote Tech Transfer
To spur technology development in the state, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) has entered a collaborative agreement with the nation's cryptologic organization, the National Security Agency (NSA). TEDCO’s mission is to help foster a technology economy that will create and sustain businesses throughout Maryland. NSA coordinates, directs and performs highly specialized activities to protect U.S. information systems and produce foreign intelligence information.

The agreement establishes that TEDCO and NSA will focus on tech transfer by identifying federally funded NSA research results ready for industrial transfer; identifying technologies in the industrial sector that merit transfer into NSA; and identifying technology-based business opportunities that benefit both Maryland and NSA.

It is not the first time TEDCO and NSA have joined forces. In November 2001, the two organizations hosted a technology showcase that drew nearly 200 entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors. Their new agreement comes as part of TEDCO's Federal Lab Partnership Program (FLPP), which seeks to increase collaboration between Maryland companies and federal research laboratories. FLPP matches the labs' capabilities and technical skills with companies or entrepreneurs to help them develop tech-based products and services.

"We are fortunate in Maryland that, because of our location and because of the federal lab presence we have here, we can capitalize on the research conducted in the federal labs," said Aris Melissaratos, secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

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R&D Caps May Jeopardize Effectiveness of Transportation Spending
Given the proportionately small amount of money invested in transportation research and development (R&D), significant gaps exist in ensuring that the more than $120 billion in annual transportation funding is being spent wisely, witnesses have told a House Science Subcommittee. The testimony came at a hearing in April exploring the needs of transportation R&D as Congress considers the renewal of a massive transportation bill.

"Considering that we won't have the ability to simply build more roads to keep pace with our growth due especially to urban population density, we must look at new ways to improve the overall system, to make it safer and more efficient," Environment, Technology, and Standards Subcommittee Chairman Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) said.

Congress is currently working on reauthorizing the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), and the Science Committee shares jurisdiction with the Transportation Committee on the research provisions of the bill. Many parts of Surface Transportation Research and Development Act of 1997 passed by the Science Committee were included in the original TEA-21 legislation in 1998.

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) said, "After more than ten years of investment through ISTEA and TEA-21, we do not know whether our transportation system and our R&D investments are meeting the goals of ISTEA and TEA-21." ISTEA refers to the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Act.

To ensure that national goals are being met and that federal investments are fully realized, Dr. Michael Walton, Chair of the University of Texas at Austin Department of Civil Engineering, recommended that Congress create a National Strategic Plan for Transportation Research and Development. Such a plan, he said, would help maximize coordination and collaboration of independent research efforts among the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and its entities, state departments of tranportation, universities and private industry.

Joining Walton on the panel were: Dr. Michael Meyer, Associate Professor, Georgia Tech; Mr. Emil Frankel, DOT's Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy; Mr. Eric Harm, Deputy Director, Division of Highways, Illinois Department of Transportation; Ms. Kate Siggerud, Acting Director, Physical Infrastructure Team, U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO); and Ms. Anne Canby, President, Surface Transportation Policy Project.

The witnesses criticized a lack of stakeholder involvement in the research conducted by the government. Siggerud presented a GAO report that found the "Federal Highway Administration's processes for developing its research agendas do not always consistently include stakeholder involvement. External involvement is important for FHWA because its research is to be used by others that manage and construct transportation systems." FHWA has accepted GAO's recommendations, but has yet to fully implement them.

Harm called for an increased long-term research effort, stating, "The Federal Highway Administration program should be one of broad, fundamental, high risk/high payoff research that will address the transportation issues that we will face five to ten to 20 years in the future." Frankel acknowledged the DOT's priority on a short-term research agenda, but added, "We are mindful that our future ability to make short-term improvements depends on our willingness to commit some of today's scarce resources to the search for  long-term solutions."

All testimony on the transportation R&D priorities for FY 2004 is available at: http://www.house.gov/science/hearings/ets03/index.htm

The GAO report cited by Siggerud, DOT's Actions to Implement Best Management Practices for Setting Research Agendas and Evaluating Outcomes, is available at: http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-640T

For Good Measure
GAO has released two additional reports since the House Science Subcommittee hearing. In the first, Actions Needed to Improve Coordination and Evaluation of Research, GAO recommends that DOT and its Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) develop strategies to identify potential areas of research duplication. The report also suggests that RSPA develop performance measures to more effectively assess its research coordination efforts. It is available at: http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-500

The second report is entitled Coordination Needed in Selecting and Implementing Infrastructure Vulnerability Assessments. In it, GAO addresses RSPA's Transportation Infrastructure Assessment program, which is set to end in December following the last of four transportation vulnerability assessments. Prior to March 2003, GAO finds, RSPA did not fully coordinate its activities with the Office of Intelligence and Security in either selecting the vulnerabilities or implementing the assessments. RSPA now intends "to disseminate reports, conduct workshops, and post information on the Internet to inform decision-makers in the transportation community about the results." This report is available at: http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-502

SSTI Weekly Digest readers interested in regular updates on transportation research activities may wish to subscribe to the Transportation Research Board's (TRB) free electronic newsletter. A division of the National Academies, TRB promotes innovation and progress in transportation through research. Its newsletter, covering all transportation research developments in the U.S. and abroad, is available at http://gulliver.trb.org/news/.

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New Mexico Looks to Build Hydrogen-based Economy
As states and communities consider how to build a tech-based economy, the prospects of centering efforts around hydrogen fuel cell technology has become an increasingly appealing option. Fuel cells may have huge implications for the future, and the technology already is the focus of some states' multi-billion economic development strategies. California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and Ohio offer a few examples (see May 17, 2002 issue of the Digest). In all, approximately 20 states are believed to be in various stages of hydrogen development.

Among those states is New Mexico. According to Albuquerque Journal reports, Governor Bill Richardson is looking to place New Mexico at the fore of a hydrogen-based economy. Leading the charge is HyTeP, or Hydrogen Technology Partnership, an informal network of New Mexico people and organizations working together to pursue development of a hydrogen-based economy in New Mexico. A Los Alamos National Laboratory executive is on loan to the New Mexico Economic Development Department to coordinate HyTeP.

A workshop held last week in Santa Fe was attended by more than 100 industry and government leaders, who helped brainstorm on how to achieve the goal of fostering New Mexico's hydrogen industry. The HyTeP team is expected to develop a business plan for growing the fuel cell industry in the state, according to a report in the New Mexico Business Weekly.

More information on HyTeP is available at www.hytep.org.

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TechSoup, Gifts In Kind Are Useful Resources for Nonprofits
Nonprofits looking for financial assistance, technology assistance or assistance in general may not need to look much further than one browser window. Two online resources, TechSoup and Gifts In Kind, offer a wide variety of tools that can help nonprofit organizations stretch tight budgets.

TechSoup is a comprehensive source of technology information just for nonprofit organizations. Powered by CompuMentor, one of the nation's oldest and largest nonprofit technology assistance agencies, TechSoup.org offers nonprofits one-stop shopping for their technology needs. While TechSoup is aimed at the 650,000 small to midsize nonprofits, larger nonprofits also may find useful information.

TechSoup's newest service distributes donated and discounted technology products exclusively to nonprofits. Software, hardware and other essential technology products can be ordered for a small administrative fee. This unique resource is made possible due to generous contributions from technology providers such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Symantec.

In addition to having staff at CompuMentor, TechSoup has partnered with many other nonprofit agencies and commercial firms. TechSoup.org is a continually growing and evolving site. A subscription to By The Cup, the organization's free monthly e-newsletter, enables one to keep abreast of the latest TechSoup features.

Gifts In Kind International
Gifts In Kind International saw its beginnings in 1983 with a large product donation from 3M Corp. Today, many top manufacturers and retailers, including 40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, rely on the nonprofit to design and manage the donation process.

Driven by a mission of providing an effective conduit for the donation of products, goods and services from the private sector to the charitable sector, Gifts In Kind has established itself a leader in the field of product philanthropy. The nonprofit is considered one of the most cost-efficient charities, and the eighth-largest, in the world, operating at less than 1 percent of the value of products, goods and services contributed annually.

In 2002 alone, Gifts In Kind and its 400-plus global affiliates distributed nearly $800 million in quality products to a network of more than 200,000 charitable nonprofits around the world. Its product line ranges from emergency relief supplies to building materials to computer training labs for children. Gifts In Kind also provides comprehensive discount services through numerous vendors in just about every area — computer hardware, software, technology planning and web hosting, to name a few.

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

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