High Tech From a growing collection of information technology companies like GeoLearning Inc., whose founder, Frank Russell, was cited by business consulting giant Ernst & Young as one the Midwest’s top innovators, to a company developing new applications in the burgeoning field of DNA research that could save time in life-threatening situations, West Des Moines is brimming with entrepreneurs. In fact, there are so many entrepreneurial start-ups in West Des Moines that the city plans to update its Web site to become a portal for information an entrepreneur might need to know, from how to write a business plan and register a business name to sources of venture capital and other funding sources. Further development of the city’s Web site is a first step toward positioning West Des Moines as the No. 1 place in Iowa for entrepreneurial opportunity and success, an idea city leaders are borrowing from the state of Nevada, which is looking at initiatives across all branches of state government to entice entrepreneurs into launching or relocating their businesses there. Other signs that West Des Moines is coming of age as a technology hub are found at Des Moines Area Community College’s West Campus, whose for-profit arm, the Synerge Center, uses students to test new technologies before they hit the market. At the West Campus and Synerge Center, Hewlett-Packard iPAQ Pocket PCs are requirements for many students, who use them inside and outside the class to access digital textbooks, review lecture notes and conduct research. In the classrooms, instructors rely on interactive electronic whiteboards instead of chalkboards, and students transmit the information instantly to their hand-held devices. All required course materials, syllabi and even campus news are delivered through the college’s Web portal, which automatically formats the data to fit the iPAQ screens. In certain classes, students even use their iPAQs to test the network equipment and systems they are learning to administer and repair. The City of West Des Moines itself has undertaken a project that will make free wireless Internet access available to all business owners and patrons in the Valley Junction Historic Business District by the end of 2005. The city’s strategic partners in the venture are Communication Designs of West Des Moines, Regions Bank, MidAmerican Energy Co. and the Historic Valley Junction Foundation. The “Wi-Fi” Internet initiative will begin in Valley Junction because “it was just a logical place for us to start,” said Clyde Evans, the city’s director of community development. “It’s a defined business district and we’ve put a lot of effort into that area.” Communications Design has agreed to perform the installation free of costs, and MidAmerican Energy has a grant program for local initiatives such as this. At first, the service would be available in the area bordered by Railroad Avenue and Vine, Fourth and Sixth streets. The second phase would expand wireless Internet to First and Eighth streets. Advances in technology like this are nothing new to West Des Moines. Recently, the city completed connecting all city facilities and buildings, including all traffic signals, with fiber-optic cable to improve communications and service and save money on telephone service. Interconnecting traffic signals with fiber-optic cables allows street intersections to be remotely monitored at a central location to optimize signal timing and traffic flow.