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SSTI Digest
Geography: Ohio
ACE-Net to Privatize by Sept. 1
The Angel Capital Electronic Network (ACE-Net) will be privatized by September 1, 2000. The Internet-based listing service for growing companies and angel investors has been run by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy.
A privatization team representing ACE-Net regional partner organizations finalized plans in May for making the transition from the SBA. Job descriptions of future staff positions are being drafted. The privatized ACE-Net is expected to provide additional services to registered angel investors, such as educational tools, research, and training.
When launched in September 1995, ACE-Net was to be early entry into web-based investor-business matching for capital. Unfortunately, the effort was hampered by federal bureaucracy and regulations, according to ACE-Net supporters.
SSTI Publishes Directory of Technology Councils
Collaboration and partnership among public, private, and non-profit entities have taken on a renewed urgency as states and localities seek quick and cost effective methods to cultivate the necessary environment to foster and support technology-based economies. SSTI’s latest publication focuses on two groups of technology-based economic development organizations that have grown in numbers alongside the New Economy: 1) regional technology councils, and 2) industry associations focused on information technology and life sciences, the industrial sectors most associated with the New Economy. As these groups have become larger and more numerous, their strength as allies in S&T policy has emerged.
SSTI News: A Note from the Executive Director
We try hard to be objective in the SSTI Weekly Digest and to present information without editorializing. This is one of the rare instances that we will not even attempt to be objective. We have several items involving SSTI to report:
Ohio Completes Assessment of E-Com Readiness
According to a new report by a public-private collaborative project called Ecom-Ohio, Ohio lags many others in the “Net” Economy. The group draws attention to the state’s digital divide among certain population groups and laments slow Internet adoption in small and medium-sized businesses and a lack of public incentives and investment to help correct the situation.
People
Anna Darin has been named the executive director of the Council of Development Finance Agencies (www.cdfa.org)
SSTI Releases New Publication
Digest readers may have noticed in our headlines over the past few months that state efforts to improve their economic standing through science and technology are undergoing a tremendous period of growth and expansion. While state S&T programs have been in existence since the 1950s, most activity occurred in the early 1980s and early 1990s during severe economic downturns. The activity of the last 15 months rivals that of the early 1980s and will in all likelihood ultimately surpass it.
New Developments in State Science and Technology Policy compiles the key state S&T initiatives covered in the SSTI Weekly Digest since late 1998. The 20-page publication serves as a convenient snapshot of current directions in state S&T policy and is an accessible way for state program officials, legislators, and others to learn easily about the most recent developments in the states.
SSTI Website Changes
SSTI has added two new features to our web site to make your visits easier. Both are free services from Mind-It.com. First, a site search engine has been added to our home page http://www.ssti.org allowing quicker browsing and researching.
The second new feature is a free notification service http://www.ssti.org/whatsnew.htm which sends subscribers email messages whenever our site is updated. Recipients are then able to click on the link to SSTI's home page to see the modifications we've made to the site (follow "What's New"). Mind-It.com allows individual users to monitor several unrelated web pages with this valuable service http://mindit.netmind.com/
People in S&T
SSTI bids a warm farewell to Deb Tharp, who has accepted a full-time position with Battelle Memorial Institute in the Technology Partnership Practice group.
Editor’s Note
The SSTI Weekly Digest has typically focused on state and federal activities in technology-based economic development. This special issue of the Digest, however, focuses on the important role that foundations can play in technology-based economic development by:
- Examining opportunities presented by foundations’ use of “program-related investments,”
- Suggesting resources for identifying foundations that may be effective S&T
partners, - Providing an example of foundations’ activities in one sector – the
environment, and - Announcing a funding opportunity currently available from one foundation.
Digest Goes Digital
Beginning January 7, the SSTI Weekly Digest will be distributed only by electronic mail. Fax delivery service will end with the December 31 edition.
Because the Digest is available to its readers through subscription revenues, we ask that redistribution be limited to your immediate, internal staff. Forwarding or redistributing of the Digest outside the offices of our subscribers is considered a breach of our copyright.
We retain the right to cancel any subscription when this request is violated. We are open to negotiating rights for greater redistribution.
People
In addition, a couple of new faces have been added to the SSTI team. We warmly welcome Shannon Burnett as our newest Policy Analyst and Ruth Carr as our Executive Assistant.