“Having our students involved in FIRST is not just about increasing educational opportunities in science and technology; but instilling well-rounded life capabilities such as self-confidence, communication and leadership,” said Koji Yugawa, lead mentor. “jcpenney’s sponsorship represents a commitment to building the future leaders of tomorrow by making youth participation in FIRST possible.”

jcpenney’s sponsorship of 900 FIRST teams this season reinforces the company’s philanthropic goal to introduce FIRST to more schools and communities throughout theU.S. and encourage greater participation among minority and female students. jcpenney’s legacy of working with national youth organizations through its signature charity, jcpenney afterschool, helps make it possible for more students to become involved in life-enriching learning opportunities during the after school hours.

Schools, communities and government acknowledge the need to improve the country’s global economic competitiveness by increasing aptitudes in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) among America’s youth. Studies show that FIRST students are three times more likely to major in engineering in college, 10 times as likely to have an apprenticeship their freshman year, more than twice as likely to pursue a science or technology career, and nearly four times as likely to pursue a career in engineering.

About FIRST

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With support from three out of every five Fortune 500 companies and more than $14 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) and FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) for high-school students, FIRST LEGO League (FLL) for 9 to 14-year-olds, (9 to 16-year-olds outside the U.S. and Canada) and Junior FIRST LEGO League (Jr.FLL™) for 6 to 9-year-olds. Gracious Professionalism^™ is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org.

The keynote, beginning at 7:00 PM PT on Wednesday, Feb. 8, will explore the challenges, growth opportunities and best practices for technology startups in the mobile space in the UK and US

London Calling is dedicated to celebrating the important relationship between the tech communities in the UK and the Pacific Northwest. To purchase a ticket to attend the event, or for more information on London Calling and its sponsor, the British American Business Council of the Pacific Northwest, please visit: http://www.babcpnw.org/event.html.

“Over the past few years, the expansion of mobile technology has lead to a boom in the mobile industry,” said Mike Buhrmann. “Finsphere is taking the time to educate and advise mobile startups on the skills and resources necessary to jump-start their businesses to grow successfully in both local and international markets.”

Finsphere recently closed an $11.3 million investment round led by Vodafone Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Vodafone Group. With the investment, Tobin Ireland, Group Director of Commercial Development at Vodafone, joined the Finsphere Board of Directors. Participating in the investment round were existing Finsphere investors Mohr Davidow Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Frazier Technology Ventures.

About Finsphere Corporation

Based in Bellevue, Washington, Finsphere was founded in 2007 to enable wireless carriers to help protect their customers through identity authentication services. Finsphere utilizes sophisticated analytics to provide a platform for the development of non-intrusive, privacy enhancing services to protect individuals and data across all industry segments. For more information, visit www.finsphere.com.

“We are so excited to be given this opportunity to generate awareness for our organization while holding several events to strengthen our community of over 450 students. This is really a great opportunity for our families that come from all over the eastside to hang out, play games and just have fun together. The fact that Microsoft is also allowing us to participate in software training and host a public mini concert is extraordinary. We really appreciate their generosity.” says Melissa Heilweil, BYSO Development Assistant.

The partnership with the Microsoft store kicks off an exciting year for the Bellevue Youth Symphony Orchestra who is gearing up for the Symetra Bellevue Family July 4th, the Eastside’s Largest 4th of July Celebration, where BYSO will give an Independence Day performance on the main stage prior to and during the fireworks display.

The Bellevue Youth Symphony Orchestra is a non-profit organization established to provide a positive and stimulating musical environment for students. BYSO uniquely complements and builds upon both school music programs and private instruction. BYSO encourages the development of musical skills and self-confidence, as participants in all ensembles rehearse orchestral literature which appropriately challenges their skills. For over 47 years our program has provided instrumental music experience to match the ability levels of talented youth from early elementary grades through their college years.

Featured 2012 Repertoire:
Mini Performance – Ensembles – January 31, 2012 at 6:30pm Microsoft Store in Bellevue Square Mall
Masterworks Concert 2 – Youth Symphony – March 11, 2012 at 7:00pm Theatre at Meydenbauer
Masterworks Concert 3 - Youth Symphony - May 21, 2012 at 7:00pm First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue

Please go to www.byso.org for ticket information and additional details.

Here is the text from their directory listing:

DataWeb, Inc.

Get a great deal on a Xbo 360 Bundle with Kinnect:

The Cellular Connection plans to open 20 locations in the Washington and Oregon region by the middle of 2012.  Editor’s Note:  Cellular Connection really should be part of the Eastside Business Directory.

Since opening its first retail store in Marion, Ind., in 1991, The Cellular Connection has expanded to more than 750 locations, primarily located east of the Mississippi River. The company’s new stores in the Pacific Northwest will be opening between December and January at the following locations:

• Centralia, Wash. - 1111 Johnson Road

• Cottage Grove, Ore. - 1498 E. Main St., Suite 101 and 102

• Eugene, Ore. - 4750 Royal Ave.

• Bellevue, Wash. - 15015 Main St.

• Seattle, Washington - 14355 Aurora Ave.

“We’re ecstatic to penetrate this new market and open our doors to a new customer base,” said Scott Moorehead, president and CEO of The Cellular Connection. “For two decades, our unmatched customer service has simplified the buying experience for our loyal customers in the Midwest. We look forward to meeting the wireless needs of Pacific Northwest residents, and will look for further expansion opportunities across this region.”

The Cellular Connection’s long-standing relationship with Verizon Wireless coupled with its buying power allows the company to make its services more accessible to customers while offering unparalleled customer service and competitive pricing. The company sets itself apart from the many other cell phone retailers today by offering superior customer service. At big box stores, customers are just the next person in line. At every The Cellular Connection location, customers get personalized, one-on-one attention.

Upon entering the new store, guests are greeted by a digital welcome screen informing them on all of the latest and greatest products and new ‘hot’ deals.

To learn more about The Cellular Connection, visit http://www.ecellularconnection.com.  Consumers can also find more information about the company at http://www.facebook.com/tcctalk  and http://www.twitter.com/tcctalk.

Shoppers have many outlets to choose from when looking to purchase products, one of which is to purchase online.  Most websites can undersell your local retail stores because they do not have to charge you sales tax if your residence is not co-located with their store or warehouse.  A state can only charge taxes to a customer that resides in that state.  Could this be a global form of tax evasion, could states not benefit from its taxation rights due to a technicality?  There are many organizations out there right now looking into solving this dilemma and producing an “internet sales tax.”  It is very likely that if a universal internet tax is accepted into law, it will result in more of a burden to online retailers and reduce growth of internet use and e-commerce.  Moreover, if this tax is implemented, how will this change the future of online shopping?  Below I will review some of the facts on shopping online and the impacts of internet taxation.

The first question most consumers may ask is what is the law on internet taxation?  The Supreme Court conducted a test to determine if a state tax excessively burdens interstate commerce.  The first rule is that a consumer must have nexus (a tie or link to) that state before it can collect taxes from that consumer.  “In Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, the Supreme Court explained that a business had to be physically present in a state before that state could require the business to collect use tax on its behalf” (Atkins, 2005, p. 1).  In the Quill Corp case, North Dakota sent a notice that the corporation owed taxes for purchases that North Dakota residents had made even though Quill Corp did not have any physical locations or employees in North Dakota.  The Supreme Court sided with Quill Corp stating that the taxpayer must have physical presence in the state in order for them to collect a tax on purchases.

Another fact on internet taxation is The 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2007, signed by President Bill Clinton.  What this law did was to make an effort to preserve commercial, educational, and informational potential of the internet.   This law prohibits federal, state and local governments from collecting internet only taxes such as the Quill Corp case.  The law does not exempt sales taxes from being collected on purchases made online, but rather that online purchases are still taxed as the same as local purchases and mail order purchases.  Congress has extended the law three times, was signed by President George Bush in 2007 and is currently good until November 2014.  “The online tax moratorium doesn’t apply to regular sales tax, however. A 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision held that companies with no actual physical presences in a particular state — a store at the local mall, or a regional distribution center for example – were not required to charge sales tax for items they ship to that state” (Fuller, 2011, p. 1).  What this meant was that if you buy something online and the retailer doesn’t charge sales tax, you the consumer are supposed to send the tax to the appropriate authorities.

The last fact is the movement to simplify tax collection of online companies that do not have nexus presence in a state.  The movement, also called the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SST), is trying to reduce the administrative costs of collecting taxes.  “Even though the SST movement began with the worthy goal of simplification, over the years it has been overtaken by revenue-hungry tax administrators, politicians and interest groups — all too excited to continue their never-ending quest for more state tax revenue” (Williams & Stephenson, 2011, p. 2).  The SST has been struggled to overturn the Quill Corp decision and has been generally unsuccessful in swaying state and Congress to approve new legislation.

In conclusion, more and more consumers are turning to online shopping not just for the ease of finding hard to find products and locating a great deal, but in order to avoid being charged taxes because of the nexus rule.  This has been legally acceptable from looking at the Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2007.  Until the greedy politicians have a chance to change the laws governing internet use and business, buying online to avoid paying state taxes is not a form of tax evasion.  The opposition to this is the movement of the SST to enable states to charge taxes to consumers that are not nexus located to the retailer.  Many opposed to internet taxation are convinced that an increase in tax and fees will result in more expenses for the consumer and will ultimately restrict the growth of internet use and e-commerce (Griffin, Smith, and Watson, 2009).  Most Americans would agree that every state has a right to collect a form of sales tax that will help benefit their state, but in the end if an internet tax rate such as the SST is trying to pursue would primarily hurt the small business that are trying to conduct sales online.

Launching December 1st, 2011, the Issaquah Highlands community will be able to take advantage of faster internet speeds like the new HFNQuantum 100 plan, with download speeds up to 100 Megabits per second and upload speeds of 20 megabits per second, for less than $55 a month.  The Quantum Gig service will provide qualifying residents with a gigabit connection to the Internet and 100 megabit upload speeds for less than $200 per month.

ISOMEDIA Inc., the Internet services provider and network operator for the Highlands Fiber Network, developed these new faster service plans in response to residents’ feedback and increasing demands for network and Internet bandwidth.

“We are truly excited to be bringing one of the fastest networks in the country to the residents of the Issaquah Highlands, and at a considerably lower price than any other service, including Comcast and CenturyLink.” said Steve Milton, CEO|CTO of ISOMEDIA. “With this change HFN has made a huge leap forward over other Internet providers, providing a faster, better service at an unbelievably low price to the community.”

The development of the new HFNQuantum service plans were unanimously supported by both the owners of Highlands Fiber Network, Port Blakely Communities, and the community’s HFN Advisory Council, made up of community residents.

“This new faster internet service will bring more convenience and connectedness for our residents,” said Rene Ancinas, President of Port Blakely Communities and CEO of Port Blakely Companies.     “As a vibrant community known for progressive features and amenities, this enhances Issaquah Highlands’ attractiveness as a very desirable place to live, work and play.

No other network in the United States has speeds this fast for prices this low. The HFNQuantum product line of up to 10, 100, or 1000Mbps allows the Issaquah Highlands residents to take advantage of speeds so fast that websites on the Internet itself will have a hard time keeping up.  Issaquah Highlands residents will have the fastest Internet speeds anywhere – with a service that is unparalleled for its speed, reliability, and price.

Highlands Fiber Network

HFN Quantum – Leap Forward

http://www.HFNQuantum.com

About Highlands Fiber Network (HFN)

The Highlands Fiber Network is a Fiber To The Home (FTTH) network for the Issaquah Highlands community in Issaquah Washington.  Owned by Port Blakely Communities, the Issaquah Highlands developer, HFN services over 2500 customers from apartments and single-family homes to large commercial businesses within the Issaquah Highlands development.  HFN is a community network supplying residents with the fastest most reliable Internet and Phone services available today with true fiber to the home connectivity across the Issaquah Highlands community.  More information is available by visiting http://www.HighlandsFiberNetwork.com.

NIC was selected out of over 300 of Philips Medical’s worldwide preferred suppliers who support all divisions of Philips Medical including Imaging Systems, Home Healthcare, and Patient Care and Clinical Informatics.  NIC Global supplies Value Add Assemblies to Philips. As well as Sheet Metal, Die Cast, Extrusion, Machined and Plastic parts.

Folkert Bolger, Philips Healthcare’s CPO out of Best, Netherlands visited NIC last week to present the award along with key members of Philips Ultrasound’s mechanical products group out of Bothell, WA.  Folkert challenged the NIC team to move forward on achieving cost and performance objectives into the future.  He stated, “this is not the end, but the beginning.”

Bridget Brewer, NIC’s President, stated that “we are honored to be recognized for the effort and dedication we put into serving a great customer like Philips.  We will continue to embrace improvement, cross-company team work, and approach cost competitiveness in collaborative and creative ways.”

www.nicglobalms.com

Bellevue-based Intentional Software Corporation recently announced that Eric Anderson, co-founder and chairman of Space Adventures, Inc., has joined Intentional Software as president of the company working with Intentional founder and chairman, Charles Simonyi. Anderson, an experienced entrepreneur who pioneered and was the first to monetize the business of human spaceflight, has responsibility for bringing Intentional’s transformative technology to the worldwide marketplace.

Anderson and Simonyi have known each other since 2004 when Simonyi signed up for the first of his two space missions to the International Space Station through the space tourism business Space Adventures, co-founded by Anderson in 1998. Anderson brings to Intentional Software his extensive experience and successes in building new markets, developing innovative customer solutions, guiding managerial teams, and in being responsible for business plan execution.

“Eric is truly an outstanding entrepreneur,” said Simonyi. “He’s one of very few who can take futuristic ideas and make them real. I founded Intentional Software with the idea of transforming the way software is built and knowledge is used, by allowing the true intentions of today’s knowledge workers and business experts to be precisely expressed in the software they need. This remains an audacious goal, and the magnitude of its difficulty is exceeded only by its importance to the future. Software as we know it is the bottleneck in the digital horn of plenty. With Eric joining me in our business, I am confident that Intentional will unstop the bottleneck and change the world.”

“As many adventures as Charles and I have had together, the future opportunities made possible by the technology that Intentional Software provides will be our greatest adventure yet. We will transform not only the way software is written, but the way knowledge itself is managed and put into action by millions,” said Anderson.

“It’s an honor and privilege to work with my close friend Charles Simonyi and his brilliant team on building a company that aims to profoundly improve the way knowledge itself is put to use in today’s world,” continued Anderson.

Anderson garnered accolades as one of the leading entrepreneurs in the aerospace industry throughout his tenure at Space Adventures. Having sold more than $250 million (USD) in spaceflights, including all eight orbital missions of private space explorers to the International Space Station since 2001, Anderson is credited for having created and validated the market for space tourism, a market set to eclipse ten billion dollars per year by the end of the decade.

In 2008, Anderson won the “CEO of the Year” award, presented by Smart CEO magazine. Earlier this year, Anderson was honored as an Ernst & Young 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year. Anderson is a member of the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. Anderson graduated magna cum laude from the University of Virginia with a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering and computer science.

About Intentional Software Corporation
Intentional Software Corporation’s mission is to enable the world’s knowledge to be used more efficiently. Intentional Software builds knowledge intensive applications, transforming how we capture, process, and utilize knowledge. Founded by Charles Simonyi, Intentional Software provides organizations with measurable improvements in the way knowledge assets are used. For more information please see www.intentsoft.com .