What are the best cities for technology jobs now? You can probably guess that Seattle, would be high on the list, and it indeed came in at number one on a list compiled by newgeography.com. But if you guessed the Silicon Valley, you would be wrong.
The Valley, despite a concentration of tech jobs- six times the national average – it came in at 17 on the site’s list of the top 51 cities for tech jobs. It points out that the Valley was one of the biggest tech job losers over the last decade, dropping 80,000 positions, despite the more recent dot-com funding craze.
San Francisco itself is way down at number 29.
Newgeography used high-tech employment data from EMSI, an economic modeling firm. It then charted those areas that have gained the most high-tech manufacturing, software and services jobs over the past 10 years.
The top ten, newgeography says, are:
Seattle, Baltimore, Columbus, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, Jacksonville, Washington, DC, New Orleans, Riverside/San Bernardino, and San Diego.
The next batch inlcudes more surprises: Indianapolis is 11, Buffalo 12, San Antonio 13, and Charlotte 14. Boston is way down at 22.
Factors affecting high-tech job creation, the site says, include the presence of a major research university – although that wasn’t of much help to Boston, which lost 45,000 tech jobs (18 percent) in the last decade.
Business costs are another factor. They’re high in the Valley, Boston, and the Bay area, less so in many of top ten cities. Even low business costs are not a sure path to tech job creation though. Texas has good business metrics, but nevertheless experienced losses in tech jobs, primarily due to cutbacks in telecom, electronics, and communications equipment manufacturing.
Personally, we think a careful look at the results of this study suggest something we’ve said all along: big manufacturing operations are not the be all and end all of job creation. Placing an emphasis on creating a welcoming atmosphere for startup tech companies is a better way to go, and some areas, including Durham in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, are taking that route.
Newgeography suggests that two up and comers in this decade might be Detroit, which it says “has some real high-tech mojo,” and New Orleans, which has expanded its tech workforce by about 10 percent since 2009.
The U.S. high-tech industry lost 115,800 net jobs in 2010, for a total of 5.75 million workers. This two percent decline in tech industry employment was less than half of the 249,500 jobs lost in 2009, which followed several years of sustained growth, according to the TechAmerica Foundation’s 14th annual Cyberstates report.
Over the longer term of 2007 to 2010 – the span of the economic downturn – the tech industry fared better than the private sector as a whole, with a four percent decline in employment versus a seven percent decline in the private sector.
“Of the four high-tech sectors highlighted in our report, only software services added jobs in 2010 – 22,800, a one percent gain,” said Robert F. Bennett, chairman of TechAmerica Foundation. “Of the jobs lost, 72,100 were in communications services, 53,600 were in tech manufacturing, and 12,900 were in engineering and tech services. Fortunately, the initial numbers for 2011 look more promising in terms of job growth.”
Job growth occurred in all four tech industry sectors
TechAmerica Foundation also today released a midyear jobs report for 2011 based on a different monthly data set from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This report shows that between January and June 2011, the tech industry added a net 115,000 jobs, a two percent gain, not adjusted for seasonality.
During this time period, job growth occurred in all four technology industry sectors, with the fastest growth in engineering and tech services. A 12 month review of June 2010 in comparison with June 2011 also shows growth in three of the four tech industry sectors, with job losses occurring in communication services.
“Tech jobs were down in 2010, trending with the rest of the economy, but we have fared better than the private sector as a whole over the course of the economic downturn and there are some positive signs for 2011, said Dan Varroney, acting President and CEO of TechAmerica. “We are poised not only to grow our own industry but to support the growth of the economy as a whole. The key to growth is to support what we call the Four T’s: technology, talent, tax, and trade.”
“Technology: We need robust federal investment in basic research to create the scientific base that companies can use to produce new products and innovations.
“Talent: We need to invest in STEM education to provide our children with the foundation in math and science that will prepare them for high paying careers while allowing highly skilled foreign nationals educated at our universities to remain in the United States and join American companies instead of returning to their home countries and competing against us.”
Tax system needs reform
“Tax: We need to reform our tax system to make capital welcome. We are competing against countries that are aggressively implementing tax policies that lower the cost of business. We need comprehensive tax reform that attracts investments in technology and creates a framework that encourages repatriation of profits made by foreign operations of U.S.-based corporations.
“Trade: We need to open new markets to U.S. products and services by finishing the pending Free Trade Agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea and continue to pursue other opportunities to expand trade.”
Eight states added tech jobs in 2010
The state-by-state data reveal that eight states added tech jobs in 2010. The largest gains occurred in Michigan (+2,700), the District of Columbia (+1,400), West Virginia (+400), Utah (+400), and South Carolina (+300). On a percentage basis, the District of Columbia saw the fastest job growth in 2010 at 4.3 percent, albeit at a small base.
For the sixth straight year, Virginia led the nation with the highest concentration of tech workers – 98 of every 1,000 private sector workers in the state were employed in the tech industry. Massachusetts and Colorado ranked second and third, respectively.
Cyberstates 2011 relies on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report provides 2010 national and state-by-state data on high-tech employment, wages, establishments, payroll, wage differential, and employment concentration. All data are the most recent available at the time of publication.
Cyberstates 2011 may be purchased for $150. The 2011 midyear report may be freely downloaded. Both reports can be accessed at: www.techamericafoundation.org/cyberstates.
DC-based LivingSocial, Groupon’s largest competitor, may delay plans to file for an initial public offering of stock and take a new $200 million financing round instead, according to Bloomburg, which sites anonymous sources.
The round would value LivingSocial at $6 million and might include equity and debt the report says. It has raised $632 million in backing so far.
The company was discussing a potential IPO of more than 10 billion, but a delay may be prudent in the current volatile market for both it and Groupon.
Jon Carpenter, Director of Marketing, LivingSocial, will be at TechMedia’s upcoming Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29.
GrubHub grabs whopping $50 million for mobile restaurant ordering service
CHICAGO -GrubHub, a web and mobile service that connects diners to restaurants and simplifies online ordering for delivery and pick up, has raised $50 million in Series E funding to aggressively focus on its mobile development and acquire New York-based Dotmenu, the parent company of Campusfood and Allmenus.
This Series E funding is led by Lightspeed Ventures with Mesirow Financial, Benchmark Capital, Greenspring Associates and DAG Ventures participating. Terms of the acquisition will not be disclosed.
“Since starting GrubHub with my partner Mike Evans in his apartment in 2004, we’ve sent over $200 million in delivery and pick up orders to independent restaurants across the country,” said Matt Maloney, GrubHub co-founder and CEO. “With our unwavering focus on providing the best service to diners and the most efficient technology to restaurant owners, we have grown to become the leader in the online ordering space.
“It is precisely for this reason that we are acquiring Dotmenu. Dotmenu has shown great expertise in servicing the college market, and by combining our extensive networks, we will become the foremost resource for diners and restaurants for their online ordering needs.”
The Series E and Dotmenu acquisition comes just six months after GrubHub raised $20 million in funding led by DAG Ventures. The funding rounds, coupled with the acquisition, strengthen GrubHub’s position as the category-defining leader in the industry.
Largest restaurant listing in the country
Through the acquisition, GrubHub will have the largest restaurant listing in the country with 250,000 restaurant menus in over 50 major cities and countless college towns across the US. The two companies are projected to send over $225 million in combined order revenues to independent restaurants in 2011, and will continue together to achieve more aggressive growth in the years to come.
“GrubHub has a strong presence in the top US markets,” said Michael Saunders, Founder and President of Dotmenu. “This, combined with our network across more than 300 college campuses, allows us to build upon the strong relationship we have with our diners long after they graduate. The acquisition will enable us to make an immediate impact on our restaurants by sending more orders their way.”
GrubHub is free for diners who order and pay for their meals with cash, credit or PayPal. Restaurants pay commissions for each online order they receive from GrubHub, and every order is supported by GrubHub’s 24/7 customer service. Restaurants that do not currently partner with GrubHub can still list their telephone numbers and menus for free.
Visitors to the site or mobile users enter their address to see every local restaurant that delivers to them. Diners can view menus and coupons, read reviews and order for free online, by phone or through the GrubHub iPhone and Android apps.
There are more than 300,000 delivery and takeout restaurants in the country. On average, GrubHub users order out more than 10 times a month and over 22 percent of GrubHub’s revenues come through mobile orders. Pickup and delivery are the fastest growing segments in the restaurant industry, which is one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy. With more people searching for restaurants and ordering food on-line and through smartphones, the opportunity for continued growth is substantial.
Facebook changes
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbergy disclosed huge changes to the social network, which he says now has a record billion visitors a day.
They include a new feature called Timeline, which curates news, apps and visuals. The feature, which sorts content with an algorithm.
While Zuckerberg and Facebook made a lot of hoopla over the Timeline changes to users’ profiles, it is sure to stir up more controversy among users, who have been notoriously unfriendly toward the continual alterations Facebook makes to the site.
The company also added a lightweight status steam called “Ticker.”
One user told us recently, “They just don’t know how to let it alone.”
On the other hand, perhaps it will quell the Facebook fatigue that more than a few of our friends show signs of experiencing.
Here’s a video showing an overview of what Timeline looks like:
WASHINGTON, DC – Consumers in the Baltimore and Washington, DC areas are using daily deal websites such as Groupon and Living Social and engaging with user-generated product and service review sites like Yelp in ways that impact their purchasing decisions.
The Capitol Communicator/WB&A Market Research Poll, a study sponsored by branding and marketing communications agency ZilYen, queries consumers on their behavior across a range of online activities from exploring daily deal websites to following companies on Facebook and Twitter to scanning QR codes with smartphones for product and service information.
If you’re looking for insight into the Digital Media world in the Potomac region, you might want to check out TechMedia’s Digital East Conference next week (Sept. 28-29) at Tysons Corner, VA. And now, back to our regular program:
According to the July/August study of 836 households, about a quarter of respondents said they purchased online coupons through a daily deal website in the past two months (Baltimore 24%, Washington 30%).
One-third using social media
Slightly more Washington, DC area residents bought a daily deal coupon for a merchant they had not tried before (25%), than for merchants they had made a previous purchase from (21%), whereas a similar proportion of Baltimore area residents purchased these daily deal coupons both for merchants they are trying for the first time and for merchants they had experience with in the past (17% vs. 16%).
Baltimore and Washington, DC area residents are also using the growing reach of Social Media to follow and gain information on companies through Facebook and Twitter. In fact, about a third of residents in both areas “friend” or “like” companies on Facebook (Baltimore 34%, Washington, DC 32%), while almost one in ten “follow” or “tag” companies on Twitter (Baltimore 7%, Washington, DC 9%).
“There is so much online data available that consumers can quickly get information overload when researching a purchase,” says Steve Markenson, president of WB&A Market Research, “so our study provides some insights to help marketers and communicators develop the most effective strategies.”
Other findings from the study available at www.WBandA.com are:
More than half of residents said that user-generated online reviews have impacted a purchasing decision in the past 6 months (Baltimore 57%, Washington, DC 59%). However, a smaller proportion of residents are actually posting reviews themselves (Baltimore 42%, Washington, DC 33%).
There is higher overall smartphone ownership in Washington than Baltimore (58% vs. 42%), with more Washingtonians scanning a QR code for additional information or discounts on products/services (23% vs. 17%).
More Baltimore area residents (59%) would be impacted by an online tax as compared to half of Washington, DC area residents (50%).
“With this snapshot of consumer behavior in Baltimore and Washington we are helping marketers and communicators find the hot buttons of their audiences and ways to reach them,” says Paul Duning, co-founder of Capitol Communicator. “It will be interesting to see how this data changes over time.”
It seems as if a new daily deal site pops up just about as often as their persistent emails pop into our email boxes. While the major players such as Chicago-based Groupon and DC’s LivingSocial have raised more than a billion in venture backing, literally hundreds of smaller regional and niche firms are also fighting for portions of the daily deal meal.
Lab42 asked 500 daily deal users which sites they use much, how often they look, and how much money they spend to produce this “What’s The Deal” infographic:
WASHINGTON, DC – Results from a survey by Facebook-focused Social Code, show that for ads with a ‘Like’ button, older Facebook users have a higher click-through-rate while younger Facebook users will tend to click ‘Like’ directly within the Facebook ad.
SocialCode, a DC-based full-service Facebook agency working with global brands and agencies to translate their marketing goals on to Facebook, disclosed the results from a new Facebook advertising research study. The research examined over four million data points across over 50 clients from a wide variety of industries to get a better understanding of how age and gender affect click-through rates (CTR) and ‘Like’ rates on Facebook.
“In general, younger Facebook users are more comfortable using the ‘Like’ button than older users at this point,” said Laura O’Shaughnessy, CEO, SocialCode. “With inline fan ads on Facebook, older users have a high level of interaction and curiosity about the ads as evidenced by their high CTRs, whereas younger users have a higher propensity to click the ‘Like’ button right in an ad on Facebook.”
He added, “We assume that while older users are adopting Facebook at a high rate, they are also the newest subset to join the social network, meaning they may not have high friend numbers so ads are less likely to have social context in advertisements.”
AGE FINDINGS
The SocialCode study found that while age has a strong positive effect on whether a user will click; it oftentimes has the opposite effect on the likelihood of the user becoming a fan of a page.
50+ year-old users, the oldest segment in the study, are 28.2 percent more likely to click through and 9 percent less likely to ‘Like’ than 18-29 year-old users, the youngest group observed
Versus the rest of the younger population on Facebook, 50+ users see a 22.6 percent higher CTR and 8.4 percent lower ‘Like’ rate
GENDER FINDINGS
When broken down by gender, age has a much more pronounced effect on CTR for women than it does for men, whereas for men there is a stronger effect on ‘Like’ rate than women.
Overall, women are 11 percent more likely to click on an ad
‘Like’ rates are almost even for men and women; men are actually 2.2 percent more likely to ‘Like’ an ad than women
For women, CTR is 31.2 percent higher for the 50+ age group versus 18-29 year olds, men only see a 16.2 percent difference between the age groups
Versus all age groups, 50+ women’s CTR is 22 percent higher versus a 16.4 percent difference for males
The oldest male segment has an 11.7 percent lower ‘Like’ rate than the youngest segment, and 9.5 percent lower ‘Like’ rate versus all age groups. Women only see a 7.2 percent and 7.9 percent difference respectively
The age and gender research study conducted by SocialCode examined over four million data points for ads containing a ‘Like’ button across over 50 clients in different verticals for the past ten months. While performance varies greatly based on multiple variables, this study looks at the aggregate trends for
WASHINGTON, DC – While tracking social media related to your business and participating in discussions is important, “You shouldn’t obsess over either,” says Jamie Grove, vice president of Evil Schemes and Nefarious Plans (aka Marketing) at ThinkGeek.com, the site where you can satisfy your geek lust with such things as pizza slicers shaped like Star Trek’s Enterprise.
Instead, when done right, social media create a “halo effect” around a brand in which customers create excitement around your brand.
Grove, who has worked online at places such as CompuServe before the Internet boom and as VP of e-commerce at Highlights for Children, has also been architect of several eCommerce websites and created iPhone apps, will talk about how retailers can use social media at the upcoming Digital East Conference at Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28.
Thinkgeek does things differently
“We do things a little differently at Thinkgeek,” Grove tells us. Once marketers “get hold of something, they tend to ruin it,” he says. “Most brands are trying to control the social media conversation. Many firms have poured resources into social media and now they’re scratching their heads trying to figure out how to make money from it. Our approach is more about participating in the community and celebrating it.”
That is a direction we’ll see more companies taking, he predicts, noting that it’s based on a really simple idea: treat your customers the way they want to be treated.
Slashdotted
A top 200 online retailer, Thinkgeek focuses on fun gifts and toys. The 12-year-old firm has revenue of about $100 million annually. The company describes its genesis this way on its website:
“ThinkGeek started as an idea. ThinkGeek started as a way to serve a market that was passionate about technology, from programmers, engineers, students, lovers of open source, to the masses that helped create the behind-the-scenes Internet culture.
“Three out of the four founding ThinkGeek members started an ISP in the Northern Virginia area way way back in 1995. We couldn’t afford Solaris, learned about a free UNIX-like OS, and spent almost an entire day downloading it onto over 50 floppies for installation on an old 486 laptop with no cd-rom (thanks Slackware!). After a few years with the ISP gig, the ThinkGeek idea popped into our heads, and, operating out of a spare room at the ISP office we setup shop and launched the site on Friday the 13th, 1999.
“A month or so later we were Slashdotted. Promptly thereafter, ThinkGeek was acquired by the good folks at Andover.Net who through an acquisition and a bunch of name changes, is now known as Geeknet. So we’re part of a cool gaggle of sites including slashdot.org, sourceforge.net, linux.com, and freshmeat.net.”
Grove says the first thing a retailer getting into social media needs to consider is “what are you going to talk about?” A lot of companies come out “blabbing about themselves all the time basically,” and that’s the wrong way to go. “People like to associate themselves with brands,” Grove says, “But they don’t want to hear about them all the time.
“Stop trying to use social media as an acquisition channel.” In fact, he says, company’s would be better off putting their social media into the hands of staff responsible for customer satisfaction rather than acquisition. “Put it in retention, not acquisition,” he says.
What brought the customer to you in the first place?
Be careful before you outsource your social media functions, he warns. “A lot of large firms outsource to PR companies or corporate communications. Those folks are not always in touch with your brand, so that may not be the best strategy. Find someone in your company who uses social media and is passionate about your brand. That’s the type of person you want handling your social media.
He suggests, “Think about what draws that customer to you in the first place.” In Thinkgeek’s case, he notes, “We’re a geeky company and we celebrate the geeky product line we sell. We share our geekiness with others. So, conversations revolve around topics such as “Star Wars,” or “Star Trek,” gadgets, computer stuff, or other things that bring its customers to the site. “Get into it,” he says. “Interact with followers. Point out other people in the community.”
Thinkgeek has done that with a variety of approaches. “We’re the granddaddy of Internet pranksters,” he says. “We create fake products. Last year it was a Playmobile Apple computer store.” Sometimes the company will actually makes and sells them if they’re popular enough, such as the iCade, a retro game arcade cabinet for the iPad it launched this year.
Grove says you should do as much tracking as you can, but don’t obsess over it. “We’re very heavily into paid search and affiliate marketing so it’s in my nature to collect a lot of data and analyze it. But don’t obsess. Build tracking in where ever you can.”
It’s probably a mistake to look at social media just for ROI, he notes. “When you’re really good at social media, you get a halo effect,” he says. “Social media sharing creates deep interest in a brand. People get excited about what you’re doing and share it, creating excitement around your brand.”
Mobile Digital Television is on track to reach two-thirds of U.S. households by early 2012, as dozens of TV broadcast stations are now installing new transmission equipment that will allow live, local TV signals to reach viewers wherever they go in a local market.
Based on a new survey of member plans, the Open Mobile Video Coalition of America’s (OMVC) broadcasters says that 96 stations are now on-the-air with Mobile DTV and that the total number of Mobile DTV stations is expected to grow to 126 in 48 markets by the end of the year.
In addition, OMVC announced today that its Mobile DTV Trust Authority, managed by Neustar, is now operational and in discussions with several companies developing new Mobile DTV products operating with conditional access. Manufacturers of Mobile DTV capable devices are entering into agreements directly with Neustar to obtain the digital certificates and keys necessary for secure use of Mobile DTV service by these devices.
Dyle mobile TV brand established
Recently, the Mobile Content Venture (MCV), a joint venture of 12 national television station groups, including Belo Corp., Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps Co., Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television Inc., Media General Inc., Meredith Corp., Post-Newsweek Stations Inc. and Raycom Media, all of which are part of the standalone entity known as Pearl Mobile DTV, as well as Fox, ION Television, and NBC, announced Dyle mobile TV, its new consumer brand for services delivered through MCV member stations.
Dyle mobile TV will feature content from NBC, FOX, Telemundo and ION, as well as local news, weather and other local content, across 32 markets, reaching 50 percent of the U.S. population in 2011.
“Our stations throughout the country are now deploying the equipment needed to bring Dyle mobile TV to millions of viewers,” said Erik Moreno and Salil Dalvi, co-GM’s of MCV. “We’re very excited about the rollout of the Dyle service to consumers,” they added.
“OMVC members are making the investments needed to make Mobile DTV available to millions of viewers,” said Colleen Brown, CEO of Fisher Communications and chair of the Mobile 500 Alliance. The Mobile500 Alliance represents more than 400 local TV broadcasters who are planning to add Mobile DTV capability to their digital broadcasts.
“Mobile DTV channels now being transmitted are providing viewers with the latest news, emergency weather information, traffic updates, and their favorite programs,” Brown continued.
The OMVC’s Mobile DTV Forum is working to complete Consumer Electronics Device Profiles for new programming services later this summer. The profiles are baseline technical guidelines that will give CE manufacturers details about how broadcasters will implement new services and the inputs needed to build consumer electronics products that receive Mobile DTV. The Mobile DTV Forum is comprised of TV technology companies, consumer electronics firms, and broadcasters.
In the fall, the OMVC will initiate a model Conditional Access System in the Washington, D.C. market, a move designed to help CE companies test gear that receives, decodes, and displays mobile broadcast signals. Conditional Access is an essential element in Mobile DTV, to facilitate both robust audience measurement and the eventual deployment of subscription programming.
WASHINGTON, DC – Two new bills centered on cyber security were introduced in the U.S. Senate Thursday, although its a wonder anyone noticed with all the debt-ceiling debate brouhaha.
Sens. Thomas Carper, D-Del., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., introduced a bill that would require financial firms, retailers and federal agencies to guard private information investigate possible breaches and notify consumers if their information may have been compromised.
In a statement, Sen. Carper said, “At the very least, identity fraud can cause worry and confusion, and at the very most it can cause serious financial harm. We need to replace the current patchwork of state and federal regulations for identity theft with a national law that provides uniform protections across the country.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, introduced legislation requiring organizations to notify customers when their personally identifiable information is compromised.
“It is past time for Congress to pass a national breach notification standard to ensure that consumers are notified when their information is exposed so they can take the necessary steps to protect themselves,” Feinstein said.
Her Data Breach Notification Act of 2011 would also provide additional information to law enforcement agencies to help stop future attacks.
It’s too bad it took major security breaches at Citibank, Epsilon, Sony and others to stir Congressional action.
We also think it’s an industry shame that company’s as technologically sophisticated as Sony and Citibank require serious security breaches before they take the problem seriously.
Tracking downloads by 4 millions users across the country from January through June 2011, a Pando Networks’ study revealed that some states are averaging connectivity speeds as much as ten times faster than those in other cities (see interactive maps at bottom).
The most striking findings were the core differences between the average speeds on a state-by-state basis. The data indicates that the fastest state was Rhode Island at an average of 894 KBps, which was almost three times faster than the slowest, Idaho, which had a dismal 318KBps. Rhode Island and Idaho may stand out as the extremities, but the disparities they highlight reflect more expansive, regional trends. The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region contained eight of the ten fastest states.
With California, Oregon, and Washington in the top 15, the West coast was also a remarkably a speedy region. On the other hand, the rural Midwest and Mountain-West states of which Idaho is a member comprise nine of the ten slowest states. Middle America’s slow connectivity could be representative of its more widespread populations and a lower demand for high-speed data infrastructure.
Generally, the slower downloading, rural states were also the least likely to complete a download once begun, with some notable exceptions. Users in Hawaii, dealing with a fairly sluggish average of 432KBps, still managed to complete 87% of their downloads. Colorado residents averaged a relatively slow 474KBps, but managed to complete 86% of their downloads.
Bucking the trend in the opposite direction, the District of Columbia enjoys an average of 759KBps but only completes 80% of downloads. Such findings suggest high-speed internet users may not necessarily hold the most stable connections (or be the most patient internet users). Culver City, CA, the headquarters of Pando Networks client Riot Games, had the highest average completion rate at 98%.
More interesting findings are visible when the data is broken down to the city level. The fastest download averages tend to be concentrated in fairly affluent, metropolitan suburbs. Topping the list is Andover, a suburb of Boston with a median income of $114,000 and average download speeds of 2,801KBps.
Other notable, high-average suburbs include Burke, VA (an average of 1,674 KBps) outside of DC and Santa Monica, CA outside of Los Angeles (1,428KBps, with an average completion rate of 96%).
Keeping with the statewide trends, the slowest downloading towns tend to be in rural areas with low incomes. Taking the bottom spot is Pocatello, a small community in Idaho with a median income of $34,000. Other notably slow communities include Yuma, AZ (290KBps) in the Mojave desert and Mission, TX (270KBps) near the Mexican border.
Also notable are the wide margins between the various major ISPs. Excluding business and private networks, the data puts Comcast Cable at the top spot, averaging download speeds of 890KBps. Other notables near the top of the list included Verizon (788KBps) and Cox (757KBps). At 673KBps, Road Runner was the slowest of the major broadband providers.
Such wide gaps also exist amongst the providers of wireless 3G and 4G data plans. Topping the list are AT&T with an average of 416KBps and Sprint with a respectable 391KBps. T-Mobile turned in an average of 364KBps, Verizon Wireless had an average of 216KBps and ALLTEL was the slowest with an average of 155KBps.
What are the best cities for technology jobs now? You can probably guess that Seattle, would be high on the list, and it indeed came in at number one on a list compiled by newgeography.com. But if you guessed the Silicon Valley, you would be wrong.
The U.S. high-tech industry lost 115,800 net jobs in 2010, for a total of 5.75 million workers. This two percent decline in tech industry employment was less than half of the 249,500 jobs lost in 2009, which followed several years of sustained growth, according to the TechAmerica Foundation’s 14th annual Cyberstates report.
WASHINGTON, DC – Results from a survey by Facebook-focused 
Mobile Digital Television is on track to reach two-thirds of U.S. households by early 2012, as dozens of TV broadcast stations are now installing new transmission equipment that will allow live, local TV signals to reach viewers wherever they go in a local market.
WASHINGTON, DC – Two new bills centered on cyber security were introduced in the U.S. Senate Thursday, although its a wonder anyone noticed with all the debt-ceiling debate brouhaha.
Tracking downloads by 4 millions users across the country from January through June 2011, a Pando Networks’ study revealed that some states are averaging connectivity speeds as much as ten times faster than those in other cities (see interactive maps at bottom).
