Georgetown as Tech Town? New owner of Seattle Design Center hopes so

Puget Sound Business Journal | Marc Stiles |Dec. 3 http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2014/12/georgetown-as-tech-town-new-owner-of-seattle.html?ana=e_sea_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2014-12-04&u=ilbLUrKrU2/jjJJmX4zKbA08463807&t=1417715089

The Seattle Design Center, which opened in 1973, is a two-building property where interior designers and their clients can look over housewares, custom furniture, fabrics, lighting and related products. It’s home to regional and national designer showrooms and a large event space. The design character of the center will remain, though Greenbridge hopes to make tech startups and other creative companies part of the mix. Hamilton McCulloh, spokesman for Greenbridge, said the new owner will turn the five-story Plaza Building, which measures nearly 280,600 square feet, into office space as “a great alternative” for creative companies and tech startups. The Plaza will be renamed.

 

Industry Group Lays Out Principles for Internet of Things

AdAge | Kate Kaye |Dec. 4

http://adage.com/article/privacy-and-regulation/pro-tech-group-aims-influence-internet-things-policy/296057/

A Washington think tank funded in part by corporate backers has published guidelines for collection and use of data gathered via the Internet of Things, the catch-all label given to devices and products like fitness-tracking wearables, web-connected thermostats, and data-generating vehicles. Released today, the 10 guidelines published by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s Center for Data Innovation come in conjunction with an event featuring as speakers Republican and Democratic U.S. senators who sent a letter in October to Commerce Committee leaders requesting an oversight hearing on the Internet of Things, or IoT.

 

Diversity takes center stage at Microsoft annual meeting

USA Today | Jessica Guynn |Dec.3

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/12/03/microsoft-diversity-jesse-jackson-satya-nadella/19840381/

Diversity took center stage at the Microsoft annual meeting on Wednesday as the technology giant agreed to release the diversity data it reports to the federal government by the end of the month. Microsoft said it would make public the EEO-1 form which details workforce data by race and gender in different job classifications. Companies have been reporting the information to the federal government for decades

 

In tech, the gender pay gap increases with rank

SF Gate | Kristen V. Brown |Dec.3

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/In-tech-the-gender-pay-gap-increases-with-rank-5933477.php

The tech industry’s lack of women is a well-worn issue, but a small consolation has been that in tech, the pay gap between men and women seems to be smaller than in other industries. In fact recently, several studies have trumpeted that in tech there is no gender pay gap at all. But new salary data from some of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies reported by Glassdoor shows that while that gap may start off either small or nonexistent at many companies, it increases as men and women rise through the ranks. Similar trends turned up at Amazon, Cisco and Microsoft — all of the companies for which the report showed data for multiple levels of experience.

 

Inslee, Jackson, and New Report on Washington’s STEM Skills Shortfall

Xconomy | Benjamin Romano |Dec.2

http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2014/12/02/inslee-jackson-and-new-report-on-washingtons-stem-skills-shortfall/

Washington state has a well-known mismatch between the tech industry’s demand for workers and the state education system’s ability to provide them. A new report released Tuesday at the Washington STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Summit points to the causes and potential solutions to that mismatch, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said solving the state’s education funding “crisis” will be his first priority in the coming legislative session. Inslee framed the problem this way: For each computer science degree produced in the state, there are 27 jobs available. “We are not filling these jobs with our sons and daughters,” Inslee said. “We like sons and daughters to come to our state and build new businesses, but we like our children even better.”

 

‘Willy Wonka of coffee’: Starbucks debuts epic new 15K square-foot roastery and tasting room in Seattle

Geekwire| Taylor Soper |Dec.4

http://www.geekwire.com/2014/willy-wonka-coffee-starbucks-debuts-epic-new-15k-square-foot-roastery-tasting-room-seattle/

The 43-year history of Starbucks can be now be traced along a one-mile stretch in Seattle. It starts at the famed Pike Place Market downtown, where the company opened its first store back in 1971. Now, it ends just a 10-minute walk up the hill from that original shop. On Friday, Starbucks will open the doors to a new 15,000 square-foot “Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room” in Capitol Hill that shows off just how far the iconic company has come.