GSA Technology Council

Elsevier, the leading global publisher of scientific, technical, and medical information products and services, announced today the acquisition of assets from Collexis Holdings, Inc., a leading developer of semantic technology and knowledge discovery software. The combination of Elsevier’s content with Collexis’ semantic technology will provide institutions and researchers new ways to collaborate, showcase accomplishments and improve grant related workflow efficiencies.

“Elsevier’s research performance, planning and funding (PPF) strategy, delivered through our SciVal suite of research tools and integrated workflow solutions, helps accelerate scientific discovery and improve the social and economic impact of research while improving research driven ROI,” said Jay Katzen, Managing Director, Elsevier Science and Technology. “By combining Collexis’ solutions that address several PPF pain points across our customer’s collaboration, funding and strategic planning initiatives with SciVal, we’ve created a unique set of solutions that enable Universities and Government agencies to improve research outcomes.”

Collexis technology is considered market leading in the academic segment; well architected and thoughtfully developed over time. Main products include:

* Expert Profiler: helps institutions better expose their research history and capabilities by aggregating the “conceptual fingerprints” of existing published papers. By using historic publishing and citation data to expose unique relationships among people and institutions, Expert Profiler provides senior decision makers with transparency while researchers can use it to identify others with whom to collaborate.
* Reviewer Finder: helps grant managers identify the best reviewer available by automatically identifying the most highly qualified researcher with the lowest conflict of interest. This solution can reduce the time grant managers spend identifying a reviewer from upwards of a month down to one week. Reviewer Finder won the 2010 SIIA CODiE Award for the Best Solution Integrating Content into Workflow.
* Professional Networking: BiomedExperts.com connects biomedical researchers to each other through the display and analysis of each scientist’s co-author network allowing scientists and researchers across organizations to collaborate in new and time-saving ways.
* Knowledge Engine and Knowledge Services: Using the Collexis Knowledge Engine, Collexis helps institutions search, index, categorize, trend and match information inside their own custom data for discovery. They build embedded knowledge solutions in integrated workflows for academic, government and corporate clients.

Collexis Holdings, Inc. is headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina with operations in Cologne, Germany and Valparaiso, Chile. The acquisition is effective immediately and terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.

via: Elsevier

Immedion, LLC, South Carolina’s first dedicated data center and managed services provider announces they have hired Tommy Crutchfield as their new Senior Account Executive for Columbia data center facility. Tommy will be responsible for expanding the Immedion brand and their footprint in the midlands region.

Tommy brings over 20 years of sales experience working with Fortune 500 companies as well as small technology firms. Most recently, Tommy was employed with Team IA, a regional software technology and services company headquartered in Lexington, SC. In addition, Tommy was the Midlands Portfolio Manager for SC Launch!, Partner and EVP of business development for Truematter, Vice President of Crutchfield Associates and Sales Executive for Motorola Communications and Electronics.

On top of his sales experience, Tommy has been directly involved in growing the knowledge economy in the Columbia area for many years. He is a member of the South Carolina Information Technology Directors Association, Information Technology Professionals of South Carolina, the South Carolina Chapter of Government Management Information Sciences (GMIS), a current Board member of EngenuitySC and formerly a two-term Chairman of the Information Technology Council for the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

“Tommy is exactly the person we were looking for to help us develop our presence in the Columbia market” said Frank Mobley, CEO of Immedion. “His experience and his knowledge of the Columbia area will be invaluable to us as we grow and expand in the midlands region. We are pleased he has chosen to join our team.”

via: Immedion

AFL Telecommunications presented the 2010 – 2011 Naruse Scholarship Award last week to Brian Foley, son of Sean Foley, Market Development Manager for AFL’s R&D Center and an AFL associate of 12 years. Brian is a graduating senior of JL Mann High School where he is ranked in the top 10 of his class. During his high school career, he was awarded “AP Scholar with Distinction”, National Merit Scholar Letter of Commendation, and 1st place in a local Law Day Essay contest. He received recognition from several regional colleges for his academic achievements including the Washington and Lee Book Award, Furman Scholar, Wofford Scholar and Presbyterian College Fellow.

Brian is actively involved in high school through his participation in cross country, speech and debate and as captain of the academic team. Outside of school, he serves his church as an usher and a Peer Minister for his youth group. He is a Boy Scout and earned the rank of Eagle at age 16. His Eagle Scout project involved building a dock and beautifying the area at Paris Mountain’s Lake Buckhorn. The project included 70 hours of planning and personal effort, as well as managing over 190 volunteer man-hours. As part of the Student Conservation Association, he spent the last two summers living in wilderness areas for three to four weeks each building trails in Vermont and Alaska.

Brian received appointments to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD and the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY and was accepted into Clemson, Georgia Tech, Duke and University of Penn. He chose to attend MIT this fall, where he plans to major in mechanical engineering.

The Naruse Scholarship Fund is administered by the Center for Scholarship Administration located in Greenville, South Carolina. Rising seniors of AFL associates are eligible for up to $2,000 per year, with a cap of $8,000 per student per year over a four-year period. The award is applied to the cost of tuition, room and board, fees, books and supplies.

Pictured left to right: Jody Gallagher, President and CEO, AFL Telecommunications; Sue Foley, mother of recipient; Brian Foley, Naruse Scholarship recipient; Sean Foley, Market Development Manager for AFL’s R&D Center and father of recipient.

via: AFL

ConvergeSE will take place on Friday, June 25 and Saturday, June 26, at Amoco Hall on the University of South Carolina campus in Columbia, S.C. Geared for web designers, web developers, and marketing professionals, this two-day conference will feature industry-leading speakers and workshops.

Gene Crawford, President of Period Three, a Columbia-based web development firm, and co-founder of the conference, says that last year’s ConvergeSC was such a success that they have expanded the conference to two days and changed its name to ConvergeSE. Day one will be a series of workshops and day two will feature speakers covering a wide range of topics.

“We’re encouraging web folks from all over the Southeast to join us and we’re excited about our line-up of talented speakers from around the country,” says Crawford. “This isn’t a one-dimensional conference. Be ready to learn more about your niche and how other fields are innovating for the Web.”

ConvergeSE is for: Web designers, web developers, marketing professionals, content creators, business professionals that deal with the Web, and students.

Where: Amoco Hall, Swearingen Building, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of South Carolina, 301 Main Street, Columbia, S.C. Workshops will take place at the South Carolina ETV campus, 1101 George Rogers Blvd.

When: Friday, June 25 and Saturday, June 26, 2010

To register online and to learn more about group discounts, go to http://convergese.com.

About ConvergeSE: ConvergeSE is a two-day conference for web, marketing and business professionals to collaborate on and gain insight into all things Web from some of the best and brightest industry professionals. ConvergeSE is coordinated by ConfSquad.com. For more info, go to http://convergese.com. Follow the conference on Twitter (@convergese) and Facebook (facebook.com/ConvergeSE).

via: Convergese

Our April 2010 learning lunch featured IBM Distinguished Engineer and security expert Jeff Crume. He is the author of “What Hackers Don’t Want You To Know” published by Addison Wesley and gave us an update on current IT security vulnerabilities and what we can do about them.

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The Greenville Area Development Corporation, charged with promoting and enhancing quality of life in Greenville County by facilitating job growth and investment, announced today that 2009 had been another strong year for job growth, capital investment, tax revenue generation and private sector support at their 2010 annual Investor Appreciation luncheon Thursday.

GADC President & CEO Jerry Howard and Board Chairman Mike Buiter also honored two key contributors to Greenville County’s successful economic development year. Joe Kernell, Greenville County Administrator, was saluted for his “superb staff support of GADC projects, and for creative vision and incentive support of the GE Aviation and Proterra projects,” said Howard. Morgan Harrell, project manager with the South Carolina Department of Commerce, was presented with the Greenville Area Development Corporation’s sixth annual William D. Workman III Buffalo Hunter Award, presented since 2004 to an individual or organization that has had a major impact on the local economy.

As project manager at the Department of Commerce since 2007, Ms. Harrell works with business clients from around the world to identify sites in South Carolina for relocation or expansion of facilities, and is an active participant in Commerce’s sales missions, trade shows, consultant referral programs and collaborative events with economic development representatives, business leaders, and state and local government representatives.

A graduate of the South Carolina Economic Development School, Ms. Harrell has worked on more than 30 significant economic development projects spanning the state, including such announcements in Greenville County as Lab21, Kemet, Q Tires, Adex Machining and Calder Brothers.

“But it was for Morgan’s key role and relentless pursuit of Samsung Networks America’s customer contact center – a center that currently employs over 600 citizens and could potentially grow to over 1,000 jobs — that we honor her with the 2009 William D. Workman Buffalo Hunter of the Year Award,” said Howard in making the announcement. “This was one of South Carolina’s largest economic development projects in terms of jobs for all of 2009, and Morgan was instrumental in delivering the project to Greenville County.”

Ms. Harrell is a distinguished graduate of the College of Charleston, where she earned a B.S. degree in Political Science and Communications. Following graduation, she moved to Columbia to work in the Office of the Governor and served as constituent services coordinator, executive staff assistant and later an assistant in the Office of Administration. She joined the Department of Commerce in 2007.

Past award winners have included AdvanceSC and Board chair Carol Burdette in 2008, Willson “Will” Williams of Warren & Associates Design-Build LLC and former Project Manager of Global Business Development at the South Carolina Department of Commerce in 2007, Alan “Daniel” Young of the Department of Commerce in 2006, Dr. Wayne Bennett of the Clemson University Foundation in 2005, and Bob Marriott of the South Carolina Department of Commerce in 2004.

The award is named for former Greenville mayor and South Carolina economic development advocate Bill Workman, and has been presented annually since 2004 to an individual or organization instrumental in generating major capital investments and job creation in Greenville community.

“Morgan and her colleagues at the Department of Commerce have gone far above and beyond the call of duty week in and week out in helping ensure that positive economic growth – and the hundreds of good jobs and millions of dollars in economic contribution and taxes that go with them – are landed right here in Greenville County,” said Howard in making the presentation.

In reporting to a record-setting attendance of private and public sector leaders, Howard noted that, despite the soft economy, new jobs announced from the GADC successfully assisting companies to

locate new facilities or expand existing facilities in Greenville County reached 909 in 2009 while capital investment from expansions and relocations announced totaled $185.5 million, and included 14 announcements during the calendar year. Since inception in 2001 and through 2009, the GADC has announced a total of 9,869 new jobs and $2.1 billion in capital investment in the county for projects they have managed.

Greenville County revenues from fee-in-lieu-of-tax (FILOT) agreements generated by GADC-assisted companies soared 13.3% to a record level of $7.31 million – a 10:1 return on investment for public dollars invested in the organization during the year.

Additionally, Howard noted that private sector support of the organization reached an all-time high, thanking attendees for the record 132 investor organizations now contributing to the GADC’s success.

“Without all of our investor companies, the Greenville Area Development Corporation’s ability to produce such great returns for the people of Greenville County – in quality jobs, increasing tax revenues and a robust and vital economy – would be severely restricted,” said Howard. “Every penny our investors provide goes into marketing Greenville County to the world, and every penny you invest is working hard and producing better jobs and a brighter future for our community.”

via: GADC

Tuesday, June 1

6:00pm SQL Server Innovators Guild

The SQL Server Innovators Guild June meeting will feature John Welch presenting, “Processing Flat Files with SSIS.” The session will help you to be more efficient when working with these types of files. You’ll learn to handle missing delimiters in the files, and parsing files that have multiple data formats. You’ll also see how to produce complex output formats, like headers and footers that contain summary information.

See all the events on our calendar!

We tried a new scanning system, we gave away a few extra beer tickets, and OrangeCoat awarded invitations to their upcoming beer tasting. It was a classic Ta5 in Greenville!

Photos available on Picasa or Facebook.

The Greenville County Library System was recently selected by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), Southeastern/Atlantic (SE/A) Region to receive an Express Outreach Project Award, to promote the use of technology in gaining access to health information. With this award, the library will begin the Senior Health Information Project (SHIP), which will focus on introducing senior citizens of Greenville County to reliable sources of health information that are available electronically.

Between July and November 2010, library representatives will visit approximately 20 community centers throughout Greenville County, informing senior citizens about the vast array of useful health information that is available through the Greenville County Library System’s website. The sessions will include a demonstration of the resources followed by hands-on practice.

Call 527-9257 for more information on the project.

via: Greenville County Library

The Greenville County Library System has received funding through a Technology/Electronic Health Information Awareness Award given by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), Southeastern/Atlantic (SE/A) Region to hold a technology health fair. The Technology/Electronic Health Information Awareness Award is given to organizations to increase public awareness of the availability of health resources and technology.

The Technology Heath Fair will be held at Hughes Main Library in January 2011. Speakers, demonstrations and interactive sessions will highlight the health resources available at the library and in the community. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore the library’s health resources in print and online, listen to speakers and discover local health-related organizations.

Contact 527-5259 or visit www.greenvillelibrary.org for more information and updates on the fair.

via: Greenville County Library