Tag Archive for Detroit

| March 19, 2013
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Detroit Tech City

Detroit Tech CityDetroit has become the only two-time winner on the top five list of fastest growing tech cities, says Dice.Com. According to MiTechNews, Detroit was No. 5 on the Dice list this year, with year-to-year growth of 10 percent in tech job listings. The Motor City was No. 1 on Dice’s list in 2011.

DetroitBack in 2011, Dice said Detroit had more than 800 tech jobs posted on any given day; now it’s more than 1,100. Automation Alley, ranked the greater Detroit region among the best for its strong record of students completing science, technology, engineering and math degrees.

The article says that annual salaries for Detroit-based tech pros are rising at above average rates, up 7 percent from last year to $76,515 on average.

Dice.comDice says St. Louis, Mo. was No. 1 on this year’s Dice survey at 25 percent year-over-year growth in tech job listings, followed by:

Tech Hubs Redefined“Detroit is a great place to be, and that’s what’s driving it,” said Dice.com senior vice president Tom Silver. “I think what’s contributing to it is a growth in opportunity as well as a pretty good cost of living. Increasingly, people are moving from more traditional tech centers like the Valley and NYC where it’s really expensive, to cities like Detroit, which are a great place to live.”

Employers are also discovering a “rich pool of talent” in cities like Detroit too — that they can get for more reasonable salaries, given the lower local cost of living.

Dice noted that Quicken Loans, Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) and New World Systems are high-profile Motown-based companies with listings on Dice.com.

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I have covered what I have called the Detroit Miracle for a here and here.

 

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Category: Business | Tags: , , , ,
| January 8, 2013
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Open Source Wireless for Detroit

Open Source Wireless for DetroitDetroit is the proving grounds for a new open source wireless network technology called Commotion. According to FierceWireless, Commotion is a new wireless mesh-networking platform being deployed across Detroit by the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute (OTI).

DetroitThe OTI has completed the first phase of construction of the  wireless test bed in Detroit’s Cass Corridor, where Commotion connects low-income apartment buildings, community centers, churches and businesses. FierceWireless says the prototype open-source network allows neighbors to communicate with one another and can potentially distribute Internet access to local residents, the group says. “The Detroit wireless network … will put control of the Internet into the hands of its users,” said OTI Director Sascha Meinrath. “The partners OTI works with in Detroit are not only self-provisioning connectivity for local residents, they’re proofing out technologies that support free, safe, ubiquitous communications around the globe.”

Open source wirelessStacey Higginbotham at GigaOM reports the new stack has technologies such as Serval, which would enable the handsets to recognize the Commotion network, Tor, a program that can hide where a user is coming from and OpenBTS, an open source base station that runs software that can interface between VoIP networks and GSM radios.

The OTI release on the news notes that more than half of Detroit residents do not have Internet service at home due to the cost of service and a lack of investment in infrastructure by Internet service corporations.

GigaOM also notes that the public release of Commotion follows a funding round for a company called Open Garden, which is pursuing a similar mesh network creation software. Meanwhile Range Networks has formed to support the OpenBTS standard and deliver a “network in a box” that runs the OpenBTS software and allows users to make voice calls anywhere in the world.

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George BushAm I the only one that sees the irony that the fed‘s are using Detroit as a proving ground for technologies designed to help take down dictatorships. According to the OTI press release, the U.S. Department of State is funding the Detroit Commotion project to test the potential of the technology in third world places like Egypt or Syria or Detroit.

Don’t worry, we are the government and we are here to help.

Do you think Open Source Wireless for Detroit will work?

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Category: Wireless | Tags: , , , , , ,
| December 20, 2012
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Detroit Leader in Identity Fraud Rings

10,000+ Identity Fraud Rings in U.S.Motown has a new not so good title. ID Analytics‘ ID:A Labs has identified the metro Detroit area as one of the top areas for identity fraud. According to their research there are over 10,000 identity fraud rings in the U.S. and the three-digit ZIP codes with the most fraud rings are around Washington DC; Tampa, FL.; Greenville, MS; Macon, GA; Detroit; and Montgomery, AL.

Detroit, MichiganThe credit rating bureau says an identity fraud ring is a group of people actively collaborating to commit identity fraud. Help Net Security reports this study is the first to investigate the interconnections of identity manipulators and fraudsters to identify rings of criminals working in collaboration.

While many of these fraud rings involve two or more career criminals, surprisingly, others are family members or groups of friends. The article says that ring members operate by either stealing victims’ identities or improperly sharing and manipulating personal identifying information such as dates-of-birth (DOB) and Social Security numbers (SSNs) on applications for credit and services.

Other findings of the study include:

  • States with the highest numbers of fraud rings include Alabama, the Carolinas, Delaware, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas.
  • While many fraud rings occur in cities, a surprisingly high number were also found in rural areas of the country.
  • A large number of families are working together in fraud rings, even using each other’s SSNs and DOBs. However, rings made up of friends are more common, with the majority of fraud rings made up of members with different last names.

social network“In this latest research, we have taken a broader approach, looking at connections among bad people rather than studying individual activity,” Dr. Stephen Coggeshall, chief technology officer of ID Analytics said in the post. “This information enables us to build new variables into our fraud models so we can help our customers to make better decisions and improve protection for consumers.”

ID:A Labs looked at about 1.7 billion identity risk events including applications for credit cards, wireless phones, payday loans, utilities, and other financial services credit products. It also examined changes in personal identifying information among accounts such as changes in name, address, DOB and SSN to identity over 10,000 fraud rings in the United States.

 

10,000 ID fraud gangs active in US, especially the Southeast, study finds

ID Analytics chart The dots show concentrations of identity theft crime rings.

 

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Category: Security | Tags: , , , , ,
| November 21, 2012
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Thanksgiving 2012

I remember J.L. Hudson’s Space aliens march in the Detroit Thanksgiving parade Nov. 30, 1967.

Category: Fun | Tags: , , , ,
| August 18, 2012
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China’s Largest Automaker Comes to Motor City

Great Lakes StateChina’s largest automaker has opened a new outpost in the Motor City’s suburbs. TheDetroitBureau.com reports that Shanghai Automotive Industries Corporation USA Inc (SAIC) located in metro Detroit to build closer ties with one of its principal partners, General Motors (GM), as well as some of the other North American automakers and suppliers.

Shanghai Automotive Industries CorporationSAIC USA Inc. expects to have 100 employees in its new 30,000-square-foot operations center in the Motor City at 322 N. Old Woodward, Birmingham, MI. What that means in the long-term, especially with the Chinese expected to eventually target the American market, remains an unanswered question according to the blog.

Cooperation between U.S. and Chinese automotive companies is increasingly important in the new global automotive marketplace, SAIC Motor Chairman Maoyuan Hu said in a statement. The article reports that Maoyuan said, “…the opening of the new North American Operations Center in Birmingham marks an important step in creating a stronger ties between the US and Chinese automotive industries. With the increasing importance of cooperation between the major global automotive markets, this move by SAIC to strengthen its US presence is significant.”

“I believe SAIC USA will enhance the operation of localization in the recruitment of professional, technical and management personnel and actively expand economic and trade activities,” Maoyuan said.

The blog saya SAIC USA’s decision to expand its Operation CenChinater in Michigan was based on a number of critical factors, including access to a highly trained work force, proximity to key global automotive partners, especially General Motors, proximity to world-class automotive parts suppliers and the favorable business environment in Michigan. The CEO of China’s largest automaker said, “… we expect SAIC USA will continue healthy growth in this market and this will be a new chapter of mutually beneficial cooperation for China and the US, with the support of both countries.”

The Michigan SAIC USA facility will focus on three main areas of SAIC USA’s automotive business, including purchasing, logistics and technology and engineering.

SAIC USA parent company, Shanghai, China based SAIC Motor, is the largest automotive manufacturer in that booming country. It is also GM’s principal partner in China, involved in a variety of joint ventures, including the original Buick assembly plant in Shanghai. Among its various operations are Shanghai GM, Shanghai VW, SAIC Motor Commercial Vehicle Company, SAIC-GM Wuling Automobile Co. In total SAIC Motor sold over 4 million vehicles in 2011 in the China market alone.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said, “The company’s commitment to Michigan cements our standing as the automotive capital of North America.”

Most analysts eventually expect a Chinese presence in the US. Whether SAIC would come to the U.S. with product of its own remains to be seen, though that’s a possibility the maker isn’t ready to discuss right now.

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GM makes about $1 billion a year in China so it is little wonder SAIC moved in to the Detroit Area. The move should also help stabilize the Detroit job market which has been up and down lately.

 

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