Group targets needs of tech companies

When Cisco Systems' Judi Gardner was asked to endorse northern Nevada as a location for high-tech businesses, she couldn't do it.

Too many questions about the quality of the labor force, the reliability of electric service, the availability of robust networks lingered for Cisco's Reno-based manager of worldwide operations to put her credibility on the line.

Down the street at Redundant Networks Inc., Janice Fetzer had similar misgivings in her role as chief operating officer and general manager.

From their uncertainties about the ability of northern Nevada to make a serious bid as a technology center has grown The Technology Action Group, an informal group of about 80 people committed to building a better foundation for technology businesses.

"Stop trying to build excitement," Gardner said, noting that the area's much-vaunted quality of life doesn't mean much to a technology-based company that can't meet its business needs in northern Nevada Instead, the Technology Action Group has been committed, as its name says, to action rather than more talk about ways to build a better business climate for technology companies.

A big part of that effort, Gardner said several days ago, is focused on the labor force current workers as well as future workers who now are in the school system.

She wasted no words about the current labor force saying it simply doesn't have the skills for high-tech work and said the future doesn't appear bright unless the educational system changes.

Approximately 50 people in the Technology Action Group have studied the educational system from kindergarten through college.

Among their findings: * Schools operate in silos on technological issues, each pursuing its own agenda without integrating it with the next school down the line.

* The computer hardware used in local schools varies from classroom to classroom often depending on the ability of parent groups to raise money and seldom is tied into even rudimentary networks.

Funding for computer maintenance is scant.

* Teachers don't routinely integrate technology into their curriculums, and few are trained in the use of technology in their classrooms.

* Science programs often get shrift, while math requirements at local schools often don't meet the standards established in programs at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The result? A top high school math student may find himself facing a semester or two of remedial math programs before entering a UNR engineering program.

Members of the Technology Action Group are taking their concerns to anyone who will listen elementary school principals, school district executives, deans of UNR.

"People are starting to listen," Gardner said, although she acknowledged change is slow to arrive.

Fetzer, meanwhile, has worked with volunteers focused on power-supply issues.

Because only a handful of transmission lines link northern Nevada to other states in the western power grid, she said technology companies worry about the reliability of electric supplies.

The Technology Action Group plans a workshop this summer to spotlight concerns about power supplies.

Another goal of the group, Fetzer said, is to encourage stronger telecommunications networks to handle the flow of data into northern Nevada.

The Technology Action Group also raises concerns about the marketing of northern Nevada.

"The marketing effort has been focused on tourism," Fetzer said.

Additionally, the group's members are concerned that competing economic development agencies, each with limited money, may not be completely effective.

At the same time, Fetzer said members of the group are aware of the dangers of marketing the region to technology companies before it's ready to provide them with a good home.