In an effort to provide quality, high-speed telecommunications services throughout the state, North Dakota has committed $3 million for the first phase of a broadband telecommunications network that is expected to cost the state $20 million when completed. When the first phase is finished later this year, 218 locations in 64 communities will be connected.

Oklahomans need “to make fundamental changes in the way we see ourselves and the way we do things...to prevent us from slipping farther and farther behind, languishing on the sidelines of the New Economy,” according to a 14-member committee of public and private sector leaders. 

Marty Grueber has left the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council (RIEPC) to join Battelle Memorial Institute and the Environmental Technology Commercialization Center. Beth Ashman Collins has been named director of research at RIEPC.

The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) is seeking a chief executive officer. OCAST's statutory mandate is to contribute to the public policy goals of expanding and diversifying Oklahoma=s economy, providing new and higher quality jobs to improve Oklahoma's per capita income and encouraging the development of new products, new processes, and whole new industries in Oklahoma. The full description can be found on the SSTI homepage at http://www.ssti.org

Two of the state-wide issues Oklahomans will decide on November 3 would allow major changes in the way the state conducts technology transfer activities. The purpose of the initiatives is to promote the commercialization of university research and support university innovation.

With the establishment of a $1 million trust fund to serve as seed money, the new Oklahoma Institute of Technology intends to position the state as a national leader in information technology, engineering, and biotechnology. Governor Frank Keating signed Senate Bill 694 into law June 8, creating the public-private collaboration. Tulsa World news reports indicate supporters of the institute anticipate raising a $100 million endowment for the project and securing additional state support.

It only seems natural that SSTI celebrate a decade of convening the premiere professional development event for the nation's tech-based economic development community in a state that, for nearly 20 years, has been a pioneer for innovative approaches to transform regional economies — Oklahoma. SSTI's 10th annual conference and pre-conference intensive workshops will be held at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City on Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

Joseph Hammang, currently vice president for science, technology and business development at the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp., has accepted a position with the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council to run the Samuel Slater Technology Fund and six Slater Centers. Mr. Hammang will remain the Governor's Advisor for Science and Technology.