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The Massachusetts Legislative Tech Hub Caucus has finalized plans to introduce a so-called "Innovative Communities" bill to the Massachusetts General Court. The Caucus is co-chaired by State Senator Karen Spilka and Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante. The bill, which Spilka introduced in the Senate on Friday, aims to connect the state's cities and towns with emerging technologies developed by Massachusetts companies.

Spilka met with members of the tech community following her re-election last November. At the meeting, a panel of judges that included iRobot CEO Colin Angle picked the idea for the bill in a contest modeled after startup pitch competitions. Industry insiders complained that startups often struggle to secure contracts with local councils.

"The process is lengthy and hard for them to understand," agreed Spilka. "We're trying to be innovative and creative. We're sending a message to the startup and tech community that Massachusetts is a welcoming place to do business."

This has turned out to be something of a momentous week for the Massachusetts IT community. During Tuesday's state of the city address, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced the creation of StartHub, a startup portal to help entrepreneurs connect with the city and with each other. The city will soon begin the search for its "startup czar," who will be in charge of city-community relations, according to Mayor Walsh's chief of staff.

With the Innovative Communities bill, the Tech Hub Caucus hopes to boost both technological adoption among municipalities and growth opportunities for the state's software developing companies. By bringing private initiatives and public funding together, the Massachusetts tech scene can remain a leader on the national stage.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh delivered his first State of the City address on Tuesday, focusing largely on education and housing. Among his other announcements was one of great interest to the Massachusetts tech sector: the launch of StartHub, a regional platform to encourage entrepreneurship. Mayor Walsh said the project would include the naming of a full-time "startup czar" to guide its policies.

There are still very few details on this initiative, but members of the tech community welcomed the news. Walsh's chief of staff, Dan Koh, told BetaBoston that StartHub is the result of a series of roundtables the mayor has held with tech CEOs, venture capitalists and accelerators. Many complained that companies were not getting enough assistance from city officials.

"I think this is a big move by the city and has the potential to benefit the startup community if done right," said HourlyNerd CEO Patrick Petitti, whose website allows companies to hire MBA candidates and graduates part-time. "Without knowing the job description, I would imagine and hope that he or she will act as a conduit between the community and the city, engaging with entrepreneurs to understand needs and challenges."

As this blog reported at the time, New York City already launched a portal, Digital.NYC, in October, to help entrepreneurs connect with investors and with each other and assist IT professionals in finding work. Los Angeles also has a similar project in place to liaise with its tech community.

While this initiative has barely gotten off the ground, entrepreneurs and city leaders hope that in areas like software development Boston will be able to maintain the standard of its world-class universities.

Early-stage investment fund Connecticut Innovations (CI) has announced that it supported 100 tech startups throughout the state during the 2014 calendar year, providing tens of millions of dollars to companies in various areas. CI was created in 1989 by the Connecticut General Assembly to boost the development of the state's private IT sector. The agency provides capital and loans to businesses that show promise.

In 2014, CI directly invested $20.2 million in 44 bioscience, clean energy, financial tech and IT startups, helping them attract an additional $61.8 million in angel investments and venture capital from other sources. Thirty-two of them had previously received funding from CI and were selected for their potential for future growth. Twenty-two others received $15 million in loans from CI and $37.4 million more from banks.

The agency also provided $32.4 million in tax-exempt funding to nine companies through its Specialty Finance Group, nearly $4 million to bioscience projects, $2.4 million to funding partners and $216,000 to 21 startups through the Entrepreneur Innovation Awards.

"Increased CI investment levels and entrepreneurial community building efforts of the past several years have created incredible momentum, spurring the growth and development of young companies in Connecticut," said CEO Claire Leonardi. "In particular, we look forward to more commercialization and company spinouts from our universities, which has been a focus here at CI."

Initiatives like CI that bring together private and public funding to promote innovation are the best way to ensure that Connecticut is able to hold its own in America's tech scene in the years to come. Biosciences, energy and software developing companies can all benefit from the opportunities that these funds provide.

The Connecticut State Department of Education is taking a hands-on role in the development of the state's technology workforce by promoting IT training in schools. Most recently, the Department announced the second round of a funding program to furnish schools with computers and expand their bandwidth. As part of this second round, $10 million will be distributed throughout the state.

The funding is related to the implementation of the Common Core State Standards Initiative in Connecticut, which features periodical computer-adapted tests to keep close track of students' progress in English and math over the course of their school years. Connecticut is a member of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, whose exams replace the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) for grades 3–8 and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) for grade 10 in the 2014–15 school year.

The program kicked off in July 2013 with $24 million, which was awarded to 128 schools. Interested districts can apply until February 13, and funding will be distributed to qualified applicants according to town wealth.

The Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) has stressed the importance of education in order to ensure that the state can compete on a national and even a global scale. According to a CTC survey, demand for IT workers will exceed supply in 2015, and there is concern that this could drive companies to move to states with more available qualified employees.

Connecticut will need more initiatives like this one to continue developing its tech workforce and become a hub for software developing companies in its own right. Local managed IT services providers can help companies keep pace with the latest technological innovations to drive their business goals forward.

Thank you to everyone who attended our webinar, Design Awesome Applications with FileMaker Themes, presented by John Mathewson, Kyo Logic.

If you missed the webinar, or would like to review it again, the video is posted below.

In this session, John Mathewson, President of Kyo Logic, explained how to use themes and styles to customize your application and take advantage of this new FileMaker architecture. John explained why solutions based on themes and styles will significantly outperform solutions based on free-form customization. The session was filled with practical tips, how-to guidelines, and under-the-hood explanations of why using themes and styles will improve solution performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quC0HbF1DhI

2014 was a big year for New York City's tech sector. As the Gotham Gazette points out, there was a fair degree of uncertainty when Mayor Bill de Blasio took office on New Year's Day, largely due to his own admitted lack of IT knowledge. However, as 2015 comes around, the city's tech companies find themselves with more growth opportunities than ever before.

While de Blasio's predecessor Michael Bloomberg undoubtedly laid a very solid foundation, the new mayor has built on that and successfully expanded the tech industry beyond the borough of Manhattan. The Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo, for instance, is now home to 500 IT firms employing over 10,000 people. De Blasio's office also launched Digital.NYC, an online portal that helps entrepreneurs and tech professionals network and find funding from investors.

Moreover, New York City has successfully built its own tech identity completely different from that of Silicon Valley. Most industry giants have New York offices, which is only natural considering the city's status as the world's financial capital, but more notably, startups are not only emerging but remaining in the city.

"In 2006 you had people in New York City that were told they would get funding from Silicon Valley firms, but only if they moved out to San Francisco," said Dan Ciporin of venture capital firm Canaan Partners to U.S. News & World Report. "Those days are long gone."

As more tech businesses are able to grow and thrive in New York, the city is cementing its place atop the industry as it has in so many other areas, from business to entertainment. Local managed IT services software companies can provide startups with technical assistance and guidance to ensure their long-term success.

Since the first film hit the big screen in 1977, the Star Wars universe has expanded through sequels, prequels, books, video games and all manner of additional merchandise, making it likely the most extensive universe in fiction. Among passionate fans, a continuity error between two different episodes can lead to “Han shot first” levels of controversy. In order to avoid such contradictions, since 2000 Lucasfilm has maintained a vast database of characters, languages, planets, races, vehicles and weapons since the turn of the century.

The Holocron, named after a Force-powered repository of Jedi knowledge, is in fact a FileMaker database operated by Lucasfilm employee Leland Chee. Its full contents are strictly private, since it includes information on works that are in development. It goes into astounding levels of detail, such as providing names to characters who were never named and had but a single line in the films.

“A lot of that information, like naming of background characters, especially from the films, came from that Decipher collectible card game,” said Chee to NPR. “Most of their card sets were pre-Episode I, so it was mostly classic trilogy material, and they were naming every single background character. They were also pulling from the Star Wars Holiday Special as well, because they had image reference for that. But yeah, if someone wasn’t named, they would name them.”

Chee points out that the database is “not that complex,” just extremely comprehensive. Indeed, FileMaker development can provide businesses with similarly detailed looks into their operations. Whether the subject is intergalactic warfare or something more mundane, a relational database can help keep track of essential information.

Connecticut’s approach to technological development has largely been locally driven rather than statewide in recent times, and that is certainly the case when it comes to the adoption of super-fast internet. Ten municipalities have agreed to an initiative to install optic-fiber internet with speeds up to one gigabit per second, more than 100 times faster than the current average home connection. The expectation is that more towns, perhaps dozens, will join in the coming weeks.

In this case, the state is taking an active role in the project, although it will have to be the municipalities themselves that decide to participate. State Comptroller Kevin Lembo and Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz both agreed that high-speed internet is no longer just a luxury but a necessity for Connecticut’s businesses to be able to compete on the national stage. Across the country, cities are striking deals with providers, with Kansas City, Missouri, and Louisville, Kentucky, these are well-known cities that probably don’t need the states in their titles among the largest ones.

As this blog reported in September, New Haven, Stamford and West Hartford were the first to drive this initiative, which now appears to be moving forward. Still, this is a costly enterprise. The biggest expense is what is known as the “last mile,” which is actually bringing the optic fiber to each individual business and residence. While this should prove easier in Connecticut than in more rural areas, the final bill could surpass $100 million.

There are several local and private initiatives underway to try to make Connecticut a leader in the STEM fields. Ultra-high speed internet would be a major boost to the state’s software developing companies and to the region’s plans of becoming an IT hub.

The Meriden Board of Education has taken a major step toward helping Connecticut develop its standing in the STEM fields. Board members this week voted to scrap plans to renovate automotive shops at the city's two high schools, Francis T. Maloney and Orville H. Platt, and convert them into labs. They stressed the importance of modernizing education in accordance with 21st century employment opportunities.

"Obviously, we'd love to have both options available in our high schools, but we just can't afford a full-blown auto shop and a STEM lab," said superintendent Mark D. Benigni to the Record-Journal. "I strongly support the board's decision. We're building schools for the next 50 years."

Maloney High School already discontinued its automotive course four years ago due to low demand and the inability to find a new teacher when the position was vacated, and had been using the shop to store music equipment, according to principal Jennifer Staub. Platt, on the other hand, has 68 students taking the course, but the principal said the labs will offer more interdisciplinary opportunities. Meriden is also home to H.C. Wilcox Technical High School.

Bill McDonough, president of the Connecticut Technology and Engineering Education Association, said that Meriden's case is typical of the state's so far. Connecticut's STEM efforts have been localized and driven by community efforts, and McDonough believes state authorities should take a more hands-on approach to give students better opportunities.

Local managed IT services software companies contribute to Connecticut's tech growth, providing businesses with the support they need to thrive in today's IT-driven corporate landscape.

Connecticut continues to be a national leader in technological innovation. The Milken Institute think tank ranked the state ninth in its latest State Tech and Science Index, a biennial evaluation of all 50 states according to their tech-driven economic development. It is the sixth straight edition in which Connecticut has been inside the top 10. The state received an average score of 65.5 out of 100.

In Connecticut's case, the high marks are a result of a steady influx of capital and a focus on research by both private and public organizations. Of the five indices that make up the average, the highest ranking was in human capital investment, where Connecticut was third nationally with a score of 75.9, followed by a tenth-place ranking in research and development inputs.

Not all the results are positive, however, as Connecticut fell in four of the five indices, and dropped out of the top 20 altogether in technology concentration and dynamism. This data should drive state leaders to continue investing heavily to ensure that the Nutmeg State remains in the top tier two years from now.

Unsurprisingly, the Northeast region has a strong presence at the top of the list, with Massachusetts, the overall leader for the fifth straight edition of the index, and New Hampshire both joining Connecticut in the top 10. New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont are all ranked between 11 and 18.

Managed IT services software developers can help local companies thrive and keep Connecticut in its rightful place as a national leader in technology development.