GSA Technology Council

Senator James H. “Jim” Ritchie, Jr. (R-13), Majority Whip, has announced the six iAm Laptop Pilot Program grant recipient schools and two alternates. Senator Ritchie’s iAm Laptop Pilot Program was adopted through the General Assembly’s budget and provides $5 million in funding for six public schools serving ninth grade students. These schools will receive their individual matching grants beginning this fall.

Upon announcing the Laptop Pilot Program schools, Senator Ritchie said, “The iAm Laptop Pilot Program provides a unique opportunity to couple cutting edge technology with modern teaching techniques to greatly enhance the competitiveness of all South Carolina students, especially those currently stuck in under performing schools. No longer will our students be limited to traditional school hours and teaching methods. Instead, this program will provide our young people with the educational resources necessary to say ‘I am in charge of my future. I am the future of South Carolina.’ This program places South Carolina in the forefront of innovation and is an important strategy to improve equity and opportunity among all of our high school students.”

Senator Gerald Malloy (D-29), one of the early champions of this transformative program, said, “This program has the potential to break down the educational barriers facing students not only in the I-95 corridor, but in every underprivileged household and rural area of South Carolina. I am confident this program will stimulate improvement in the academic performance and competitiveness of South Carolina’s students.”

The iAm Laptop Pilot Program will be administered by the K-12 Technology Initiative, a collaboration of the Department of Education, the Budget and Control Board’s Division of the Chief Information Officer, the State Library, Educational Television Commission, and business and community leaders. The iAm Laptop Pilot Program will be evaluated through an independent party to determine its efficacy in anticipation of implementing a statewide laptop program in the coming years. When the program is fully implemented it will provide a laptop for every ninth grade student in the South Carolina public schools.

After a competitive grant proposal process, the Committee named six public schools as grant recipients with two alternates. The six recipients are Midland Valley, Aiken School District; Scott’s Branch, Clarendon School District 1; CA Johnson, Richland School District 1; Lakewood High, Sumter School District 2; Bethune-Bowman, Orangeburg School District 5; Creek Bridge, Marion School District 7. The two alternate schools are Broome High, Spartanburg School District 3; Marion High, Marion School District 1.

Schools were chosen based on their most recent EAA school report card rating, the percentage of students on free or reduced lunch, their technological capacity, and their vision for the program. The proviso required at least half of the recipient schools to have ninth grade students that scored unsatisfactory or below average on the most recent EAA school report card and that have free and reduced lunch student counts that exceed the statewide average to ensure the program is targeted to those students most in need.

Tom Fletcher, K-12 Technology Initiative Chairman, said, “The K-12 Technology Initiative Committee would like to thank the Legislature for providing funding for this innovative program and especially Senator Jim Ritchie for his leadership on this issue. We are confident that it will provide unique learning experiences for the participating 9th grade students as they progress through high school. This program leverages the infrastructure, digital content and professional development that have been put in place over the last eleven years by the K-12 Initiative. We also expect that the lessons learned from these model projects will provide leadership and guidance to other schools as they seek to implement similar projects. We look forward to Legislative funding in future years to provide this resource to all high school students in South Carolina.”

Senator Ritchie will speak to the GSA Technology council about the iAm laptop program for school children on September 12th.

Earlier this year Senator James H. “Jim” Ritchie, Jr. (R-13), Majority Whip, introduced a joint resolution in the South Carolina Senate to create the nation’s first statewide universal wireless network. S. 465 establishes the South Carolina Wireless Technology and Communications Commission to develop a public-private partnership aimed at creating the nation’s first “Wi-Fi” covered state.

Senator Ritchie and Senator Gerald Malloy (D- 29) also introduced S.464. in an effort to create the iAm laptop program for all eighth graders in South Carolina.

Join us as Senator Jim Ritchie discusses these initiatives and his goals to give the state “competitive advantage in the knowledge based economy.”

About our speaker

Jim Ritchie was elected to the South Carolina Senate in November 2000. In his first term, Ritchie was instrumental in developing and securing passage of legislation such as the South Carolina Education Lottery Act and the deregulation of broadband technology. He was also the author of the South Carolina Venture Capital Act and… more…

GSATC Learning Lunch

Topic: SC Senate Initiatives for Tech Competiveness
Presented by: Senator Jim Ritchie
Date: Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

Location: Crowne Plaza (Map: I-385 at Roper Mtn.)

Agenda

11:30 – 11:55 Registration, Networking, Lunch
11:55 – 12:10 Announcements
12:10 – 12:50 Presentation
12:50 – 1:00 Door Prizes, Adjourn

This meeting features easy access from I-385, plenty of free parking, ample networking opportunities, a great presentation, and door prizes. Plan to attend.

Lunch is $15 in advance, $20 at the door.

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Senator, District 13, Spartanburg, Greenville and Union Counties
Majority Whip

Jim Ritchie was elected to the South Carolina Senate in November 2000. In his first term, Ritchie was instrumental in developing and securing passage of legislation such as the South Carolina Education Lottery Act and the deregulation of broadband technology. He was also the author of the South Carolina Venture Capital Act and the landmark Domestic Violence Prevention Act of 2003, which made domestic violence a felony in the state.

In a 2002 report by The State, after serving only two years, Ritchie was selected by his colleagues as one of the Ten Most Effective Senators in South Carolina. In 2003, the Maritime Association of the Port of Charleston honored Ritchie with its first Legislator of the Year award for his leadership in effecting expansion of the port.

Ritchie was named Majority Whip in 2004. That same year, he received the Golden Advocate Award from the South Carolina Solicitors’ Victim Advocates Forum for his leadership in restructuring the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network. The South Carolina Policy Council also presented him with its Palmetto Leadership Award in 2004 for his commitment to individual liberty, free enterprise and limited government.

In 2005, Ritchie successfully lead the fight to pass landmark tort reform, medical malpractice reform and economic development initiatives. Recognizing his leadership, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce named Ritchie its Public Servant of the Year. He was also named Legislator of the Year by the South Carolina Medical Association Alliance and the Spartanburg Medical Society. In addition, he received the W. Mack Chamblee Jr. Quality of Life Award from the South Carolina Association of Realtors and was the recipient of the Palmetto Conservation Foundation’s Founders Award. Most recently, Ritchie was honored by the Home Builders Association of South Carolina with the 2007 Hammer and Trowel Award.

Ritchie currently serves on the Banking and Insurance, General, Judiciary, Medical Affairs, and Rules committees. In November 2005, he was named chairman of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission, a screening board for all judicial nominees in South Carolina.

He is a shareholder in the Holcombe Bomar, P.A. law firm. He received his law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1986. He received his B.A. from West Virginia University in 1983 and graduated from the Fund for American Studies’ Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems at Georgetown University in 1983.

Ritchie is a Liberty Fellow. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Palmetto Conservation Foundation, the Urban League of the Upstate, the Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg, the Peace Center for the Performing Arts and the Orthopedic Research Foundation of the Carolinas.

He and his wife, Evelyn, have three children: Caroline, 19; Jimmy, 17; and seven-year-old Anna Grace.

Vision Business Solutions has added Dean Griffin as director of project services. Griffin holds a master’s degree in industrial management from Clemson University and is certified with the American Production and Inventory Control Society. Griffin has 15 years experience in manufacturing consulting and has been an Epicor software senior consultant for the past 10 years.

Verizon Wireless announced today that it spent 68.2 million to enhance services and coverage throughout South Carolina in the first six months of 2007, bringing the network investment here to more than $537 million since 2000. The company’s ongoing network investment now totals more than $37 billion nationally over the past seven years.

Major areas of improvement across South Carolina this year include:

Enhanced Coverage in the popular vacation destinations of Kiawah Island, Seabrook Island and areas along Myrtle Beach’s Grand Strand.
Several new cell sites have been built in the Upstate along the Interstate 85 corridor, helping to meet the growing needs of burgeoning businesses and travelers along this busy highway.
Enhanced coverage in South Carolina’s Midlands, in the smaller metro areas surrounding the city of Columbia such as Lexington, Irmo, Camden and Lugoff.
The network enhancement enables more Verizon Wireless customers to use their wireless phones to make calls; send and receive emails and TXT, Picture and Video Messages; and download games and Ring Tones while enjoying superior wireless service.

Part of this investment has been toward the statewide activation of its high-speed Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO) Revision A (Rev. A) network. The enhanced network allows Verizon Wireless customers to download files at speeds as much as ten times faster than customers of other wireless service providers that use different broadly deployed network technologies. Verizon Wireless’ 3G high-speed BroadbandAccess Network is currently available in Anderson, Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach and Spartanburg.

“South Carolina has some of the top markets in the country for wireless usage per capita, so it is imperative that we continuously enhance our network capabilities to keep up with the state’s rising demand,” said Jerry Fountain, Verizon Wireless – Carolinas/Tennessee Region president.

Network tests in the first half of 2007 indicate that the investment to further boost network strength is working for customers. This testing is performed by teams of technicians/engineers (who serve as the inspiration for the famous TV Test Man ad campaign) who have traveled approximately 12,000 miles across the state so far this year. The test teams ride in special vehicles loaded with computers, wireless phones and other equipment to measure and ensure strength and reliability versus other carriers.

“Making sure that residents and visitors of the Palmetto State are having all their wireless needs fulfilled is a great undertaking,” Fountain said. “We’ll continue the ongoing commitment and investment here to serve our customers and communities for a long time to come.”

Clemson University continues its climb among the nation’s best public, doctoral-granting institutions by placing 27th in the annual ranking by U.S.News & World Report. This is the university’s highest ranking to date. Last year, Clemson was ranked 30th among the 164 institutions in the category.

University President James F. Barker said the goal to become a top 20 institution has never been about impressing magazine readers.

“I’m very excited about the number 27, but I’m more encouraged by what’s behind that number. We’re seeing improvement in areas that directly impact faculty and students – smaller classes, lower student-to-faculty ratios and continued strong retention and graduation rates,” Barker said. “We’ve always said that if we do the right things, if we make good decisions, if we’re strategic about resource allocation and if we constantly focus on academic quality, the rankings would take care of themselves. Today, I’m happy to report that our plan is working.”

U.S.News & World Report rankings are based on statistical measures, such as student SAT scores, graduation rates and faculty salaries, as well as a subjective measure of academic reputation. The list of public doctoral-granting institutions ranks universities across the country that offer a wide range of undergraduate majors as well as master and doctoral degrees.

Clemson increased the number of classes with fewer than 20 students for the 2006-2007 academic year – 43 percent compared to 39 percent the previous year. The number of incoming freshmen in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class improved to 47 percent from 45 percent last year.

The engineering program at Clemson is ranked 57th among engineering schools granting doctoral degrees, a move up from number 60 last year. Clemson also is recognized as having an “outstanding example of an academic program believed to lead to student success” in its Writing Across the Curriculum program and is one of only five public institutions among the 15 recognized for making writing a priority.

via Clemson

The management team of TheTrainingCo., producers of the annual Techno Forensics Conference at NIST Headqurters in Gaithersburg, MD, has made our GSATC members a special offer for this year’s Techno Forensics Conference being held on October 29 – 31, 2007.

They have offered us some FREE VIP seats for the conference. The first 30 members to register for the conference online will be allowed to register for FREE as a conference VIP.

This will be the third year for Techno Forensics and many of their Techno Security attendees attend both conferences every year. These are some of the top practitioners in the world in the fields of eDiscovery, Digital Forensics and Information Security and Technical Business Continuity Planning. Last year, there were over 700 people registered for this conference. They anticipate at least that many this year with a strong possibility for over 1,000. This is a very popular conference.

The registration price is currently listed at $495 on the website. Select that price but enter “0″ for amount paid and enter “Special GSATC VIP” in the Promotional Code section of the form. For any members who hold a CISSP or a CISA certification, this conference also provides 20 CEU hours.

Here’s more information about the conference:

http://www.techsec.com/html/TechnoForensics2007.html

To register for one of the FREE VIP seats, visit the following online registration page.

https://www.techsec.com/conferences/register.cgi?c=TF-2007

The Greenville County library system is hosting a ValueLine and ReferenceUSA database demonstration on October 25 at 3:30p at the newly rennovated F.W. Symmes Branch Library on Pelham Road. For more information and reservations, call 288-6688. The Library system also offers free access to ReferenceUSA to all library card holders either from the branches or online through the website, www.greenvillelibrary.org. As previously noted here, ReferenceUSA can help identify contacts for both businesses as well as charitable organizations.

The Carolina SaaS User Group’s Charlotte chapter, a forum where best practices, resources, and experiences within the SaaS vertical can be shared, today announced its October key note speaker will be Jeff Kaplan, one of the nation’s foremost authorities in the SaaS vertical, Managing Director of THINKstrategies (www.thinkstrategies.com), and founder of the SaaS Showplace (www.saas-showplace.com), the largest vendor-independent directory of SaaS offerings and insights online.

Jeff Kaplan will be speaking on understanding the business implications of on-demand services and how to capitalize on these rapidly evolving opportunities. In addition to moderating a panel of local SaaS practitioners, Kaplan will provide his perspective regarding SaaS market trends, and give his candid feedback and advice regarding individuals SaaS strategies and solutions; go-to-market plans; target markets and buyers, packaging and pricing of offerings, sales tactics, competitive strengths, weaknesses, and threats; and future business opportunities. The event is sponsored by Hosted Solutions, Liquid Computing, Logical Advantage, NCTA, and Juniper Networks.

“With the recent explosion of On-Demand applications, industry knowledge and best practices have become increasingly important to the flourishing of the software marketplace. As such, this venue was created to provides a forum for leaders in the industry to share their experience. By securing Kaplan’s participation in the event we have been able to truly capture one of the leading minds in the industry.,” said Josh Wolff, General Manager for Hosted Solutions Charlotte data center and President of the Carolina SaaS User Group. “We are excited for this unique opportunity to gain Jeff’s perspective and gain nationwide acumen of on-demand services.”

The Carolina SaaS User Group events are gatherings where area SaaS leaders can come together to discuss market trends, information and experiences. The events take the form of guest speakers, panel conversations, and roundtable discussions. “It’s refreshing to see a grass roots initiative like the Carolina SaaS User Group emerge into to such a powerful concept within the local technology community . I’m proud to be a part of this effort and look forward to addressing the NC / SC SaaS organization,” said Kaplan.

The event will take place on Tuesday, October 2nd, from 11:30AM to 1:30PM on the club level of Bank of America Stadium. To attend the event, or for more information on the Carolina SaaS User Group visit: http://www.carolinasaas.org/ or call Josh Wolff at (704) 295-7961.

PropertyBoss Solutions announces the addition of Ken Knight as Application Specialist. He is responsible for web development including the PropertyBoss web portals, client-hosted sites, and PropertyHost (providing client access to PropertyBoss software using a standard web browser

Knight, an independent consultant for over 20 years, has provided networking, software and web development services for customers throughout the United States and Canada, including customers such as Harvard University, NASA, Ace Hardware and Kraus Flooring (Orders Inc. based in Greenville, SC).

Knight started programming at the age of 14 on a TRS-80 Level II from Radio Shack. He developed one of the first Integrated Development Environments (IDE) for the PERL language. Most recently, he has developed software and websites in languages such as Delphi, PHP, WinDev and WebDev.