Obama Recruits Tech Giants for New Cybersecurity Efforts
CBS News | Reena Flores and Arden Farhi | Feb. 12
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-recruits-tech-giants-apple-intel-reveals-new-cybersecurity-information-sharing-proposals/
“At a cybersecurity summit to be held on the Stanford University campus Friday, Obama will announce initiatives to form organizations that will gather, share and analyze information, as well as ease access to cybersecurity threat information for corporate entities. The executive order is also expected to enable the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to better manage the flow of information into the government. The administration says strengthening the federal government’s capabilities is becoming increasingly necessary to protect American consumers. “Cybersecurity and consumer protection are two sides of the same coin,” Obama’s economic adviser, Jeff Zients said, in a briefing with reporters. “When a company invests in strong cybersecurity, they are protecting not just their own networks, but in most cases their customers’ information and security as well.”… In the wake of recent cyber attacks, several private industry titans are expected to embrace these new measures. Apple and Intel will be attending as the summit’s big tech names, while several financial companies are also backing the administration’s moves. MasterCard, AIG, and Bank of America are also among those expected to have representative at the summit. Companies like Intel believe the Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) first outlined in February of 2014 is, in fact, a practical plan to implement. “Now that we have tested the framework ourselves, we can say that it provides clear and demonstrable benefits,” an Intel spokesperson said. “Given that the CSF focuses on risk management rather than compliance, we believe it has the potential to help transform cybersecurity on a global scale.”
5 Cities Poised to be the Next Silicon Valley Tech Hub
Forbes | Nav Athwal | Feb. 12
http://www.forbes.com/sites/navathwal/2015/02/12/5-markets-poised-to-be-the-next-silicon-valley-for-real-estate/
“With record-high prices in Silicon Valley, opportunities to profit from real estate are slim. There are, however, emerging Tech hubs with characteristics similar to Silicon Valley before its real estate boom including: relatively low housing costs, low unemployment rates, median tech salaries higher than the median salary for the city’s total workforce, the presence of major tech companies, venture capital funding to spawn new businesses… Seattle, WA. Think Seattle, you automatically think rain, great coffee and Tech titans Microsoft and Amazon, which continue attracting Tech talent to Seattle… According to Startup Seattle, VC investment in IT companies in 2014 nearly doubled from 2013 as $804 million was invested in 139 deals… Because of Tech, Seattle is the fastest growing of the country’s 50 most populous cities (6.9 percent between 2010 and 2013). Most attractive to investors, however, is the steady climb in median real estate prices, which have grown 32 percent over the last three years to $440K. While much higher than Dallas and Austin, because median income is also higher, Seattle’s Affordability Index still comes in at a respectable 98. This contributes to Seattle being eighth on ULI’s list of ‘Overall Real Estate Prospects,’ finishing strong in investment (4th) and development (3rd). Seattle has become one of the country’s top capital destinations outside the core major markets like New York City, Los Angeles and Boston, and therefore attracts not only local investors, but also institutional investors, to its economy and investor demand should continue to rise in 2015.”
LinkedIn Wants to Make it Easier to Get a Tech Job in New York
Business Insider | Lisa Eadicicco | Feb.12
http://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-tech-jobs-new-york-2015-2#ixzz3RekuGyEC
“Part of the reason developers are so valuable is that there are an abundance of tech jobs, but not enough people with the right skills to fill them. LinkedIn wants to help solve this problem in Silicon Alley. The company just announced that it will be working with Tech Talent Pipeline, a $10 million public-private partnership lead by Mayor Bill de Blasio designed to support the growth of the City’s tech ecosystem and prepare New Yorkers for 21st century jobs… LinkedIn will now supply data to Tech Talent Pipeline to help the organization narrow down details such as what employers are looking for and the type of experience most New Yorkers have. The professional networking site will give Tech Talent Pipeline data on a regular basis, which includes information such as the most common job titles in New York City, the most in-demand skills, and the graduation rate for tech-related degrees in New York City compared to the Bay Area in San Francisco. The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough jobs, according to Allen Blue, one of LinkedIn’s co-founders and vice president of product management. Many tech jobs require advanced skills, and there’s a lack of proper training for many of these requirements. ‘The mayor is basically leaning toward the same thing leaders all over the country are,’ Blue told Business Insider. ‘There’s a skill gap in the U.S.’ “
How to Nurture Millennial Tech Leaders
InformationWeek | Daniel Weinfurter | Feb. 11
http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/team-building-and-staffing/how-to-nurture-millennial-tech-leaders/a/d-id/1319047
“Millennials now outnumber Baby Boomers in the workforce, according to a study released by Virtuali, a leadership training firm. Amazingly, half of these individuals are now in leadership positions. And frighteningly, fully 64% of these individuals are unprepared when entering leadership role… This generation arrives in the workforce far more tech-savvy than previous generations, having grown up immersed in technology… The technical competence gap is diminished, and deep technical experience is less necessary for mere proficiency. Instead, Millennial technologists view managers more as coaches and mentors. The job of a tech leader is not to compensate for the technical deficiencies of certain members of the team, but rather to develop a high performing team that does not need that technical crutch from the top leader… Millennials also arrive at the workplace more as collaborators than cowboys… They were supervised, organized, and instructed in teamwork and collaboration. They bring the expectation of joint effort with them to the work environment…You need to ask hard questions about your tech leadership pipeline. What percentage of technical people — be they developers, systems architects, or software engineers — have the makeup to be successful managers of technical teams? If coaching, collaborating, measuring, and motivating are keys to gaining high performance from the Millennial generation, what skills, competencies, and training will be vital to lead the next-generation workforce?”
America’s Most Innovative Tech Hubs
Nerd Wallet | Courtney Miller | Feb. 9
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/cities/americas-most-innovative-tech-hubs/
“America’s Most Innovative Cities, NerdWallet’s guide for understanding where the impact of tech funding, innovation and startup activity is the strongest – Resident for resident and startup for startup, these cities have an outsize impact. Factors we considered:
Number of patents per 1,000 residents. We looked at the number of patents granted in the technology class by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in each metro area from 2009 to 2013 to find the areas with the most inventive residents.
Financial support for innovation. We examined the amount of venture capital funding an area received per capita in 2014 to understand if entrepreneurs have access to the capital they need.
Economies of agglomeration. Agglomeration — nearness of location — is used here to describe the benefits when companies, like startups, cluster together. The higher the density of startups, the more innovators can benefit from common labor pools and idea sharing.
Seattle, Washington, metro area: With household names such as Amazon and Microsoft dominating the region’s employment scene, the metro area can sometimes seem like the land of the giants. But it’s still very much a player in attracting and sustaining a thriving community of startup entrepreneurs. The density of tech startups in the area is more than double the national average.”
See the full infographic here
Cracking Down on Non-Compete Deals: Bill Would Change Wash. State Law to Mirror Calif. Approach
GeekWire | Todd Bishop | Feb. 9
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/cracking-non-compete-deals-bill-change-washington-state-employment-law-mirror-californias-approach/
“New legislation introduced in the Washington State House of Representatives would make it much tougher for employers in the state to use non-competition agreements to limit the ability of employees to work for rival companies after they leave. HB 1926, which had its first reading last week, would bring Washington state law more in line with California’s approach to non-competition agreements, banning non-compete deals except in the case of a business sale…If the bill is signed into law, he said, ‘workers will be free to move to a new job when they choose to, without the fear that their ex-employer will sue to keep them locked out of their profession. This will allow market forces to reward good employers, and it will let workers make rational choices about where they work’… The bill already has the support of Seattle-area startup leaders including investor Chris DeVore, the managing director at Techstars Seattle, who has called for an end to non-compete agreements as a way of boosting entrepreneurial activity and the availability of tech talent.”
Legislators Want Computer Science to Count for Language Requirement
Campus Technology | Dian Schaffhauser | Feb. 9
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/02/09/legislators-want-computer-science-to-count-for-language-requirement.aspx
“A bill being pushed in the state of Washington would allow two years of computer science to count as two years of world languages for the purpose of admission into college in the state… According to research by the National Center for Education Statistics, about 19 percent of students graduated from high school in 2009 with at least one credit in computer science topics. That’s down from 25 percent in 1990 and 2000. A recent study by the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) found that only three out of four high schools currently offer computer science courses, and only four in 10 count credits earned in a computer science class toward requirements; the rest count them as electives. The organization recommended in its report that high schools begin counting those classes toward graduate requirements… Co-sponsor Chad Magendanz is also promoting HB 1813, a bipartisan proposal to expand computer science education to prepare students for jobs in high tech. ‘If we give more children access to computer science learning now, they’ll have greater opportunities in the future,’ he said in a statement about that bill.”
Mega Distribution Centers Coming to Puget Sound Region
Puget Sound Business Journal | Marc Stiles | Fed. 6
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2015/02/mega-distribution-centers-coming-to-puget-sound.html?ana=e_tf&s=newsletter&ed=2015-02-06&u=ilbLUrKrU2/jjJJmX4zKbA08463807&t=1423461550.
“Amazon.com sent ripples through the South Puget Sound real estate market when it announced plans to open two large distribution centers in DuPont and Kent. Expect more news about big distribution centers. Two e-commerce retailers are hunting for sites in the region, where they plan to build high-tech centers of 1 million square feet each, according to two commercial real estate brokers, Casey Trees and Chris Spofford who work at the Seattle office JLL…The need for the large, high-tech centers are an extension of how e-commerce is affecting not just how people shop but how goods are delivered. The need for the large, high-tech centers are an extension of how e-commerce is affecting not just how people shop but how goods are delivered…Whoever wins the contracts to build and lease the buildings will stand to make big money. Because such projects they’re taller and special features, such as larger-than-normal power needs, today’s centers can cost upwards of $150 a foot. That’s more than twice as much as yesteryear’s distribution centers.”
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