Has Google attached strings to its planned high-speed broadband rollout?

Therese Poletti over at MarketWatch thinks maybe they have. Google is planning to build and test ultra-high speed broadband internet in trial locations across the United States.

And cities across the plains are falling all over themselves with cries of “Pick me! Pick Me!”

But as Poletti points out, those cities that get picked may end up paying more in the long run than they bargained for.

…But some cities might want to think twice before they court Google. They might want to make sure they have some funds in their coffers and incentives that will very likely be required to help turn their cities into 21st century digital hubs.

Jeff Amerine

Techpreneurship, with Jeff Amerine

(Jeff Amerine is an IA advisor, entrepreneurship educator, and officer with the University of Arkansas Technology Licensing Office. Each Thursday, his Techpreneurship blog will appear in INOV8. Drop him a line in comments.)

Earlier this week, I attended the Building the Arkansas Innovation Economy symposium at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock.  The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and UALR, led by Dr. Mary Good, organized the two-day event.

The event included speakers from the White House staff, other federal agencies, universities, state government and industry.  I think there would be little debate amongst the attendees that the most inspiring and compelling speech of the event was delivered by Gov. Mike Beebe.

Beebe spoke with great conviction about Arkansas’s determination and tenacity in the pursuit of dramatic educational improvement. He painted a clear picture as to how education drives entrepreneurship and economic development.

I can’t do the speech justice, and I am sure the details of the speech are covered elsewhere in the press.  So I’ll just give you one amusing anecdotal comment I heard from an out-of-state presenter after Beebe’s speech.

She said something like this, “Gov. Beebe really believes what he says; does he have Presidential aspirations?” And then she said, ”We sure don’t get that message from our governor.”  Frankly, regardless of political preference, it was hard not to have those sorts of positive feelings about Beebe after he spoke.

The consensus from people I run with in either party is that we need to keep him at the helm here in Arkansas for a bit longer.

The message for techpreneurs…the Governor gets it.

There were several highpoints from the two-day event, but I want to end with a challenge to Arkansas techpreneurs.  Joe Brenner from Nordex outlined his view of the future of wind energy in Arkansas.  He gave a clear picture of the large manufacturing plant and high-wage rate employment they have in the works for Jonesboro.

With wind turbine manufacturing plants being built in Arkansas from at least three different major global providers across the state, how can startup techpreneurs leverage these developments?  How can Arkansas become a worldwide center of excellence in renewable energy technology and manufacturing?

Here are some thoughts to chew on.  In addition to the attraction of global wind turbine manufacturers, Arkansas has a unique facility in the University of Arkansas Research Park called the National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission (NCREPT).

The facility, led by Dr. Alan Mantooth and managed by T.A. Walton, allows researchers to test power grid power electronics, systems for hybrid electric vehicles, and advanced battery technologies.

As an example, if you need to test your system with the power load from 1,000 homes…they can do that. Need to test a power system intended to run a 50 story building? Well, they can do that also, and a whole lot more.  Check it out:  http://ncrept.eleg.uark.edu/Index.html

In addition to NCREPT, one of the world leaders in high power, high temperature silicon carbide electronics is right here in the Research Park as well.  Led by Dr. Alex Lostetter, Arkansas Power Electronics International (APEI), has power electronics that make electric/hybrid electric vehicles and renewable energy (like wind and solar) power conversion more practical.  Check them out at: http://www.apei.net/default.aspx.

So, renewable energy techpreneurs, the ingredients for Arkansas to be a worldwide center of excellence in renewable energy technology are right here before us, right here in our backyard.  The Governor believes we can be a center of innovation.  I’m convinced we can do it.

What say you?

The INOV8 patent of the month for February 2010 had some tough competition, but we settled on this back-end payment filtering system for credit cards.

The lucky winning inventors are the John Robbins’ of Little Rock, Sr. and Jr., and Glen Hoffman of Conway. Their work is assigned to Data Path of Little Rock.

The payment filtering system joins cancer research, basketball hoop advancements, a trigger-point massage device, really cool library chairs shaped like books and many other innovations in February’s list of Arkansas patents.

Check them all out here.

Jeff Amerine

Techpreneurship, with Jeff Amerine

(Jeff Amerine is an IA advisor, entrepreneurship educator, and officer with the University of Arkansas Technology Licensing Office. Each Thursday, his Techpreneurship blog will appear in INOV8. Drop him a line in comments.)

Infomercials, cure-all spamercials, amazing get-rich quick schemes clutter the Internet, our in-boxes and the airwaves.  We’ve become numb to the relentless barrage of “sounds too good to be true” messaging.

I suspect you’re thinking, “where is this knucklehead going with this stream of consciousness?”  Well, there is a point to this particular rant.  At the risk of pointing out what should be obvious to all techpreneurs, I am preparing to sermonize a bit, and I’ll apologize in advance.

Integrity matters, that is my topic this week… As techpreneurs, we continuously claw our way across a minefield of scarcity.  The scarcity of funding, scarcity of talent, scarcity of customers, and scarcity of time define the daunting challenges all early-stage ventures face.  I’ve seen this sometimes cruel gauntlet bring forth the best and worst in entrepreneurs.

The process tests our integrity and our ethics.  We must pass that test to be successful techpreneurs.  Here are some situations that should have only one obvious answer that we can all use as an integrity “gut-check.”

• Say whatever you have to say to get that first round of investment.
• Everybody exaggerates product/service performance claims.
• The business plan is a marketing document; it doesn’t need to reflect reality.
• We have a patented product (when in fact the product is patent pending – big difference).
• We have negotiated a license for the intellectual property (when in fact only discussions have taken place).
• We have X, Y, and Z Fortune 500 customers (when in fact all that has been done are free pilots).
• We have invention-assignment agreements in place with all employees (when in fact the documents weren’t done).
• Just give the early employees stock options that vest over a really long time that have no acceleration clause.  It won’t matter from a dilution standpoint, because we’re going to sell out way before the options vest anyway.

You get the picture.  Aside from the ethical issues, the really foolish aspect of these sort of willful misrepresentations to investors, customers or employees is that they WILL find out the truth!

When they do, the offending techpreneurs may as well leave the country.  Even though the start-up game spans many industries and has many players, the word gets around on “bad actors,” and it sticks.

Once you happen to get a label as someone loose with the truth, that radioactive half-life may as well be forever. Integrity and character are worth far more than any wealth or short-term advantage gained by deception.

Sermon complete.  Please share with me some positive and negative examples of good or bad ethics and integrity you’ve seen in the start-up game.