GLITR Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Your report for Tuesday, June 16, 2009

National Summit kicks off with a variety of views
The National Summit, the Detroit Economic Club's effort to convene a national gathering on improving America's economic competitiveness, kicked off Monday with an emphasis on the importance of green technology and of retaining the manufacturing of technologies developed at Michigan's universities. There were also political undertones, with free marketeers warning against the evils of protectionism, and Democrats pointing out that it ain't protectionism when the other country's doors are closed to United States products, it's simple justice. More. And the rest of our National Summit coverage is below in the Blue Box, brought to you by National City.

Pontiac's GuidePoint adds Web access to Visteon nav users
The Pontiac telematics supplier GuidePoint Systems announced Monday it has developed a new Windows-based application that will allow users of a new Visteon Navigation System to access the Internet in their car or truck. Guidepoint said the new application is part of an agreement that calls for Guidepoint to be the provider of connectivity and driver safety and convenience services on the Visteon Navigation System, a new radio-navigation head unit being developed for aftermarket applications by Van Buren Township-based Visteon Corp. Guidepoint said the new Visteon unit will be integrated with a Guidepoint module, which will deliver Internet connectivity and GPS tracking capabilities to the vehicle. The integrated solution will allow users to surf the Web and access location-based services using the touch-screen application built into the Visteon unit. More.

Online Tech launches secure online data storage
Ann Arbor-based Online Tech Inc., Michigan’s largest managed data center operator, has launched OTVault, a new online data storage product designed for secure, high volume online backup and archiving for businesses. Online Tech, long preaching to the market that data is as valuable as money for most businesses, now offers another way for businesses to protect their valuable data. OTVault is an easy, cost effective solution for backing up servers or archiving data from any location into a secure, SAS70 certified data center. More.

Ford's 10th anniversary sustainability report shows progress
Dearborn-based Ford Motor Co. Monday released its 10th annual Sustainability Report, which provide a comprehensive look at the company's progress on environmental and social issues over the past year. The report shows a company on track to reach its product carbon dioxide goal, which calls for a 30 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020. The report also shows Ford cut its global water use by 24 percent and improved its North American energy efficiency by 4.5 percent. Most importantly, it also found Ford continued to boost its vehicle quality, now on par with the best in the business. More.

Dynamic Computer, Guard RFID in deal for child radio alarms
Guard RFID Solutions Inc. announced Thursday that it has formed a distribution agreement with Dynamic RFID Solutions of Farmington Hills. to provide its next generation of active radio frequency identification technology. Dynamic is making GuardRFID’s infant protection, patient protection and asset tracking solutions available to its customers. The TotGuard Infant Security system uses the only Disposable Infant Tags on the market, eliminating the need to clean, disinfect and sterilize tags after use, and removing the risk of cross-infection between infants. These tags utilize GuardRFID’s unique dual-tamper detecting mechanism, which is designed to significantly reduce nuisance alarms. More.

Turning Michigan manufacturers into wind energy suppliers
As people gather during June 15 - 17 at the Renaissance Center to hear national speakers discuss our economic situation from a 30,000 foot view at The National Summit, a more practical, how-to conference will be taking place on Wednesday, June 17 in Troy at the Seco Tools headquarters. Local metalcutting companies will be gaining real-world technical and financial resource knowledge that will allow them to make an intelligent decision about their ability to diversify out of automotive manufacturing and enter into the wind energy sector. This is the first diversification event in the area that is narrowly focused so that attendees can actually receive knowledge that is specific to their manufacturing issues. More.

Ferndale firm offers hospital computing cart
Ferndale-based EnovateIT, a provider of mobile and wall-mounted workstations, Monday announced its first internally designed, developed, and assembled Medical Computing Cart. Mobile carts are widely used throughout hospitals -- from admissions and operating rooms to patient rooms -- improving patient safety by bringing technology to the point of care. Founded in 2003, Enovate's business model has grown from being a successful healthcare IT value-added reseller to a self-sufficient in-house studio and manufacturing division with a large direct sales force. More.

Compuware unveils IT portfolio management product roadmap
Detroit-based Compuware Corp. Monday unveiled the 12-month strategic road map for its IT portfolio management software, Changepoint. The announcement came in Garden Grove, Calif. at the Project Portfolio Management Summit. Using an agile development and delivery approach, Compuware will deliver significant value to customers throughout the next year by increasing usability and adoption; by delivering services to ensure long term ROI; and by pursuing a next-generation integration strategy. More.

National City brings you coverage of the National Summit

National summit panel: major advances in clear energy ahead: Look for huge advances in clean energy in the years ahead. That was the message from the National Summit's Monday early afternoon technology town hall, "The Business of Clean Technology Innovation." Alan Shaw, president and CEO of Redwood City, Calif.-based Codexis Inc. predicted a huge surge in gasoline from biological sources. "Ethanol is nothing but a stepping stone to that," he said. Shaw said his company is "trying to drive the world to a sugar-based economy. Sugar is the most abundant form of carbon on the planet." He said anything that can be done with hydrocarbons can be done with carbohydrates -- the same atoms are there, just arranged differently. Eward T. Lu, program manager in advanced projects at Google Inc., predicted a Google application out soon that would help homeowners measure and analyze the energy efficiency of their appliances and their homes, and boost efficiency. More.

Health insurance panel backs more IT, market-based reforms: A National Summit session on the technology future of health care perhaps could have used a proponent of single-payer health care, since a recent CBS News / New York Times poll finds that 59 percent of the 1,112 people surveyed said they supported government-provided national health insurance. Perhaps not surprisingly since it was comprised of two insurance CEOs, and a private insurance consultant, all four panelists opposed single-payer health insurance. Still, the Monday midafternoon panel on "Technology Innovation Creates Healthcare Access and Efficiency" said they believed more IT and more market based reforms could cut health care costs and finally get serious about covering the 45 million Americans who lack health insurance. More.

Smart factories the best way to preserve U.S. manufacturing: Rockwell Automation Chairman and CEO Keith Nosbusch today called for business and government to invest in smart factories that are flexible, efficient and sustainable as the best way to create higher-paying, long-term manufacturing jobs in the United States. “The public and private sectors need to invest in advanced technology that will lower costs, increase productivity, and make U.S. manufacturing competitive globally,” Nosbusch said. “This investment is the best way to create enduring, higher-wage manufacturing jobs that can compete against other economies with lower costs of doing business.” Nosbusch spoke Monday at The National Summit, a gathering hosted by the Detroit Economic Club to promote actions to improve America’s manufacturing competitiveness in the global economy. More.

At the end of the day, the technology, energy, environmental and manufacturing panels issued final reports. I covered the tech panels. The highlights of the others: Energy: America need to work on carbon sequestration technology so we can use our abundant coal; we need a better grid to link wind and solar producing areas to population centers; and conservation is job 1, an easy way to expand our capacity 10-20 percent. Environment: Improvements require both a carrot and stick approach, with tax incentives and financial support along with fines and penalties; business must share best practices and benchmarks; greenhouse gas reduction is a must, as is more careful water use. Manufacturing: Requires an integration of technology, energy and environment to make "made in America" mean something again; capital markets must regain their skills; education must focus on technology and lifelong learning; infrastructure spending must keep pace with technology that wears out.

Note: Today's Blue Box was sponsored by National City. For information on how you can sponsor content in the Blue Box, contact Jeff Lasser at (248) 455-7319 or jeff.lasser@cbsradio.com.

THE WORLD IN TECH

Music industry vows to show Minnesota woman stole 24 songs
The recording industry began its second attempt at proving that a Minnesota woman engaged in illegal sharing of copyrighted music on the Internet and should be held accountable. Attorney Tim Reynolds told a jury Monday that the record companies would prove that Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, of Brainerd, illegally shared songs on the Kazaa network. He told jurors illegal downloading has cost the music industry billions of dollars and thousands of jobs and made it harder to find and groom new artists. Defense attorney Kiwi Camara countered that Thomas-Rasset would testify she never shared songs illegally, and that the record companies can't prove she did. More.

Tweeting Iran: Elex news in 140 characters or less
An opposition activist spreads word of an upcoming protest in the streets of Tehran. Another posts pictures of clashes between demonstrators and police. As Iran's government cracks down on traditional media after the country's disputed presidential election, tech-savvy Iranians have turned to the microblogging site Twitter. Its use to organize and send pictures and messages to the outside world -- in real time as events unfolded -- was a powerful example of how such tools can overcome government attempts at censorship. Even taking the official Twitter site down in Iran didn't stop the workarounds. More.

Survey: Family time eroding as Internet use soars
Whether it's around the dinner table or just in front of the TV, U.S. families say they are spending less time together. The decline in family time coincides with a rise in Internet use and the popularity of social networks, though a new study stopped just short of assigning blame. The Annenberg Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California is reporting this week that 28 percent of Americans it interviewed last year said they have been spending less time with members of their households. That's nearly triple the 11 percent who said that in 2006. These people did not report spending less time with their friends, however. Michael Gilbert, a senior fellow at the center, said people report spending less time with family members just as social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are booming, along with the importance people place on them. More.

Virgin Media, Universal launch music service
Virgin Media, the cable TV operator owned by entrepreneur Richard Branson, launched a new kind of music download subscription service Monday with Universal, the world's largest music company. The service, described by the companies as a world first, will allow Virgin Media's broadband customers in Britain to stream and download as many songs and albums as they like from Universal's catalog for a fee. But entertainment lawyers said the service was unlikely to solve the global music industry's problem of billions of dollars lost to music piracy, and would need to offer content from big-name entertainers to be attractive to consumers. More.

Stocks: Techs tumble as broader market falls on stimulus pullback
Technology stocks stayed deep in the red through the close of trading Monday, pulled down by a broad sell-off that pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average down nearly 190 points. Worries seemed first to arise from a meeting of the Group of Eight finance ministers in Lecce, Italy. The ministers reportedly said they would look to end unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus that has brought the global economy close to stabilization after the credit crunch. The Nasdaq Composite ($COMPQ), fell 42.42 points or 2.3 percent to 1,816.38. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) fell 187.13 points or 2.1 percent to 8,612.13. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) fell 4.29 points or 1.6 percent to 270.5. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) fell 10.01 points or 2.2 percent to 452.03. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) fell 7.42 points or 2.8 percent to 253.06 while the Amex Biotechnology Index (BTK) fell 24.71 points or 3.6 percent to 658.73. The S&P 500 ($SPX) fell 22.49 points or 2.4 percent to 923.72. Monday's data highlighted the unripe nature of the "green shoots" of recovery in the manufacturing and housing sectors. Factory activity in the New York area continued to decline in June -- falling at a modestly faster pace than it had in May, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Empire Manufacturing Survey. Meanwhile, a survey of home builders' confidence also dropped in June.

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