NEXT WEEK: GRIDIRON COUNTDOWN
The Mississippi State football season kicks off on Sept. 4 against the University of Memphis.
We get the annual season preview next week.

FOR THE RECORD—JULY 26
Invocation and Pledge: Bill Ford
Attendance: 56.8%
Present — 109 (38 exempt, 1 honorary)
Absent — 79 (13 exempt, 11 honorary)
Makeups reported: Keith Remy and Debra Hicks in Little Rock, Ark.
Guests and visitors: Visiting Rotarians were Dick Dickerson of the North Jackson Club and Brad Prewitt of the Tupelo Club. Member guests were Bill Harned of Horace Harned, Cindy Akers of Frances Coleman, Don Trotter of Trey Breckenridge, Gerald Nelson of Mike Mazzola, Jeffrey Rupp and Kristin Reeves of Amy Tuck, Marc McGee of Ken Ramsey, Richard Hilton of Tommy Tomlinson and Tim White of Scott Dodd. Guests of the Club were Bubba Weir and Paul Sims, Starkville Daily News.

GOVERNOR VISITS
District Governor Roscoe Greene makes his official visit today. The governor of the 44- club District 6820, is past president of the Rotary Club of Rankin County in Brandon.

LITERACY DONATION
Jack Forbus presented a $1,000 State Farm Companies Foundation literacy grant to the Starkville Rotary Foundation. This year’s Rotary Classic Rodeo proceeds went to the East Mississippi Community College tuition guarantee. So, Loren Zimmerman, Rodeo chair, accepted the donation.

As district governor three years ago, Jack led Rotary into a partnership with Mississippi Public Broadcasting and its Between the Lions literacy program.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
John Robert and Mary Ann Arnold celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a special event at First United Methodist Church on Saturday.

NEW VIEW, NEW SOUND
We’re enjoying upgraded audiovisual technology today. The board decided it was past time to invest in a wireless microphone and video projector. Thanks to the ad hoc AV committee Trey Breckenridge, Zach Rowland and Ned Browning. Thanks to the country club for footing the bill for a new audio circuit and to Backstage Music for installation.

INTERACT INTERNATIONAL SERVICE
Our youth leadership club will stuff back-to-school bags for MSU international students tonight. Interact members have collected supplies from area businesses over the summer. Spearheading the project is Alli Noffsinger, MSU Coordinator of International Education and globe-trotting Rotary ambassador.

NEW MEMBER
Rocki Katz, sponsored by Larry Mullins, thanked Mullins and Bill Robinson for encouraging him.

A Starkville native who “graduated from State twice after seven years,” and from Oklahoma State once, has just retired from Exxon-Mobil as tax compliance manager. After the better part of 30 years in Houston, Tex., he and wife Vicky decided to return to Starkville.

Their “ready-made” family consists of twin daughters and two grandchildren.

Rocki said that from Vicky’s perspective, retirement means “twice the husband and half the income.” But, the Texas native is enjoying Starkville.

COMMUNITY SERVICE—GET SWEPT UP
It’s time to “Get Swept Up!” in the annual community clean-up before the first MSU home football game. project takes about an hour on Wednesday, September 1, at 8:00 a.m. Contact Lynne Richardson, Community Service chair, lynnedavisrichardson@gmail.com by August 9.

MISSISSIPPI’S INNOVATIVE ECOSYSTEM
Tony Jeff, president of the Mississippi Technology Alliance, took us through a whirlwind of current technological and social change.

Titling his talk “Shifts that Will Change the World (& Starkville),” he said, “To profitably participate in the future of technology, it’s helpful to understand five laws and seven key paradigm shifts.”

Illustrating the speed of change, he noted that the 19th Century saw more technological change than the previous nine centuries combined. But, the first 20 years of the 20th Century saw more technological change than the entire 19th Century.

Seven Key Paradigm Shifts
Given his limited presentation time, the MSU Industrial Engineering graduate showed a video illustrating our rapidly changing environment (youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY) and just listed the shifts:

1. Social Networks
2. Mass Collaboration
3. Eco-Friendly
4. The Long Tail
5. Hand-Held Computing
6. Broadband/HDTV
7. A ging and Healthcare
   

Five Laws
Moore’s Law holds that the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit is increasing exponentially, doubling approximately every two years.

Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns extends Moore’s Law to describe an exponential growth of technological progress.

Say’s Law of Markets is most often summarized as “Supply creates its own demand.”

Metcalfe’s Law says the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system.

Grove’s Law says “Only the paranoid survive.”

Starkville, Mississippi and the Shifts
Since Jeff’s organization, established in 2001, drives innovation and technology-based economic development, he stressed the key concepts that it promotes for Mississippi development:

1. Technology shifts will drive winners and losers.
2. Innovative companies and communities must get ahead of shifts.
3. Business leaders must understand technology trends.
4. Technologists need translators.
5. Starkville has the innovation, but needs to build the rest of the innovation ecosystem.
   Jeff said that an innovation ecosystem requires a conscious effort by communities to build networks that encourage innovation and entrepreneurs; have service providers, managers and a workforce; and provide capital.