Louisiana Internet Software & Technology Association Blog : Louisiana Internet Software & Technology Association : LISTA Blog : LA Technology Law News & Updates

Continuing upon the momentum that inspired Entrepreneur magazine to praise New Orleans as a "blueprint for economic recovery" in 2009, Greater New Orleans, Inc. is pleased to announce three business expansions to the region. Through work with GNO, Inc. and local partners, Los Angeles-based Graphite, Manhattan-based Orphmedia, and Baton Rouge-based RallyPoint have all established offices in New Orleans.

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 Angel groups have grown significantly in the last decade, as more and more organizations have been established and more individual angels have joined the groups. Angel groups now exist in nearly every American state and Canadian province. In May of 2008, the Angel Capital Association listed 165 members. Recently the Angel Capital Education Foundation listed 281 Angel groups in 49 US states and Canada. The only state not represented was Louisiana. That number is now 282 with the addition of South Coast Angel Fund, which now represents Louisiana on that list.

The term “angel” originated in the early 1900s and referred to investors who made risky investments to support Broadway theatrical productions. Today, the term “angel” refers to high-net worth individuals, or “accredited investors,” who typically invest in and support start-up companies in their early stages of growth.

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 The 36th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques is ongoing in New Orleans from August 3 to 7, 2009.  The Siggraph Conference is being held at the New Orleans Convention Center and details about the program can be found on the web at the conference web site. For more information on Louisiana's digital interactive media tax credit program, please go visit the exhibits presented by the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, Greater New Orleans, Inc. and the Baton Rouge Digital Industries Consortium. 

Erich P Rapp.

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The Wall Street Journal on Monday July 6, 2009 had a Page C-1 story entitled, Venture-Backed Start-Ups Seek Stimulus. The gist of the story was that venture funds like Novak Biddle Venture Partners, RockPort Capital Partners and Flywheel Ventures were directing the start-ups they are investing in to explore the federal stimulus package as a means of finding additional capital.

This story suggests to me that venture capital funds and angel investors would find Louisiana's new digital interactive media tax credit incentive program very attractive. Marketable tax credits are not much different in economic terms than stimulus program grants. A start-up developing a web platform, mobile application or software package can get marketable tax credits equal to 35% of the funds they spend in Louisiana on labor residing in the state and 25% of all other expenditures.

If, for example, a start-up used labor residing in Louisiana to develop a new web platform and in the process spent $1,000,000 in Louisiana. The State of Louisiana would issue tax credits for $350,000 and the start-up could sell the tax credits for $0.85 to $0.90 on the dollar realizing perhaps a little more than $300,000 in extra funds. Thus, a venture capital fund investment of $1,000,000 spent on labor residing in Louisiana becomes an investment of $1,300,000.  That seems like stimulus that a venture capital fund or an angel investor would like to see.

Erich P Rapp.

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As Louisiana becomes a hub in the next few years for the development of software, mobile applications and web platforms, I am wondering what value can Louisiana digital interactive media developers bring to the industry. One area that desperately needs to be addressed is the news media and journalism.

It is no secret to anyone that is conscious that the industry that delivers news to the public is struggling to find a profitable business model in the digital media age. Where is this industry heading and can developers in Louisiana add value to the evolution.

Perhaps, the Politico.com web site and the story behind it present a glimpse of the business techniques that will govern the future of journalism and news delivery.

The first and foremost Politico.com business concept that stands out to me is volume of content and extreme detail about a relatively narrow (at least for a newspaper) subject. It's hard to imagine any traditional media source providing as much detailed and essentially real time data about politics in Washington DC. While the Federal Register provides a great deal of detail about federal action, its not anything close to "real time" and it is completely devoid of the human component. Politico is the federal register of politics using a Twitter model without the 140 character limit and a huge mix of gossipy human stuff. No one but a reporter at Politico could possibly want to know this much about politics in Washington DC. 

And yet, I am told that Politico is profitable and widely read. That is more than the New York Times can say at least as to the profitable part. All of this suggests that no matter how much detail one provides about politics in Washington DC, there is at least some audience for it. It also suggests that if you can place an enormous amount of entertaining (at least to someone) political information in a digital setting at a low enough cost , the business can pay for itself with advertising. The delivery of news has a "long tail" component. 

The August 2009 issue of Vanity Fair magazine contains an article entitled, Politico's Washington Coup which describes the Politico story in some detail. If you want a sense of the future of journalism, this article is a good read.

This may hold some promise for local newspapers. The key to the future for local newspapers may be more information. Adding more stories in a digital format does not cost as much as adding more pages for more stories in a printed newspaper. The specialty for the local paper is local news. Local news is as to your local newspaper as Washington politics is as to Politico. It seems like the local newspapers need to go more local with everything, e.g., more local business news, more local society and social event news, and more local entertainment news. Change the emphasis from the AP news feed to everything local with the names of as many local people printed in the newspaper as possible.

Digital interactive media developers in Louisiana need to partner with traditional media organizations to build a better news delivery device using Louisiana's digital media tax credits incentive program.

Erich P Rapp.

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I am very concerned about the market for transferable Louisiana Tax Credits after reading about the problems that members of the New Orleans Saints have had. See Ex-Saint Kevin Houser says tax credit fiasco not his fault. 

Louisiana needs a "Tax Credit Exchange." I will propose to the membership of LISTA that they advocate the creation of a non profit corporation (need to check with my tax attorney friends on this concept) to operate a Tax  Credit Exchange that would make a market for certified tax credits and various grades of contracts to deliver tax credits at a future date.

The paper work and related contracts would be uniform and the status of the contracts would be verified with the appropriate arm of Louisiana government.  If the contract involves little more than a "hope and a prayer" that the person entering into the contract will apply for credits and undertake a creditable business venture in the future, those credits will be deeply discounted and the purchaser will understand that he is purchasing a very speculative contract.

Alternatively if the purchaser decides to buy an existing tax credit that is certified by the state, the value of that credit will be much less significantly discounted. The customers in the market will be better educated about what they are buying, and the process of selling the credits into the market will be orderly and uniform.

I will be reaching out to people with expertise useful in the creation of such a market in the weeks ahead. If you have such expertise and want to help create an orderly market for tax credits in Louisiana, I am looking for your help.

If you think I am making a mistake with this recommendation, I would also like your input. I think we need a more orderly market that discourages the type of problems the New Orleans Saints players have had (but for the grace of god go I), but I want to know what y'all think. I want to start a discussion of the problem. Please write comments on this blog entry and send me email correspondence with your thoughts on this subject.

I am very open to discussion about this subject. Please comment.

Erich P Rapp.

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Senate Bill 277 concerning digital interactive media has been formally sent to the Governor for his signature on Thursday June 25, 2009. We hope that the Governor will act soon on this important piece of legislation.

Unfortunately, a proposed amendment to the new digital media program allowing a digital media tax credit recipient to have the state convert the tax credit to cash at $0.90 on the dollar did not complete the legislative process on Thursday before the formal deadline for adjournment. This concept was presented to LISTA by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce. We felt this option was an excellent addition to the program proposed in SB 277. LISTA regrets that this amendment was not adopted by the legislature as a whole. We will review this concept again in two years at the time of the next Louisiana fiscal legislative session.

In the coming weeks, the original members of LISTA will meet to discuss the future direction of the organization. One of my first proposals to the membership will be opening membership up to a broader group of interested people and companies. The original members were asked to make substantial financial contributions in order to get the organization started. I will now propose to the membership that the average cost of membership be reduced significantly and that the organization make efforts to enlist many new members.

As with any government sponsored business incentives program, the new digital media program will not survive unless it is beneficial to the state as a whole. Determining whether the program is successful requires an expert in economics and financial analysis to review and analyze all of the available relevant data. I would like to see LISTA join with other economic development agencies and organizations in Louisiana to sponsor a university professor's effort to track all available data on the digital media industry in Louisiana from July 1, 2009 and forward to determine whether the digital media act is fulfilling its potential for the state.

I would also like to see LISTA and such a university professor track the geographical distribution of the beneficiaries of the digital media act in the state. Our goal at LISTA is to encourage and support growth of digital interactive media businesses throughout the state. We thus want to know the extent to which this goal is being fulfilled.

The new digital media program will also lead to the adoption of related rules for the administration of the program by the Louisiana Department of Economic Development. LISTA and its members will actively participate in and comment on the development of such rules. 

Additionally, LISTA and my law firm, Kean Miller, will undertake a series of presentations inside and outside of the state on the use of the digital media tax credit program. Further still, LISTA and Kean Miller will begin offering educational seminars on topics of interest to the digital media community. 

Again, I offer my thanks to all of the people who assisted with the adoption of SB 277. It has been an educational and ultimately gratifying experience for me.

Erich P Rapp.   

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The Louisiana Senate has concurred on the amendments to Senate Bill 277 from the House of Representatives. The formal legislative process is complete.  SB 277 now goes to the Louisiana Governor for his signature. Please send messages and make phone calls to the Louisiana Governor's office urging the Governor to sign SB 277.

Assuming that Governor Jindal signs SB 277, the new digital media program is a game changing event in the history of the Louisiana economy. I suggest to you that the impact of this event on the Louisiana economy over the next ten years will rival the impact of sugar and cotton agriculture in the early 1800's and the discovery of oil in Louisiana in the early 1900's.

Louisiana is about to enter the digital media revolution in a dramatic way.

Erich P Rapp.

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The Louisiana House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 277 re digital interactive media tax credits today. The bill must now return to the Senate for a concurrence vote on the House amendments. If the Senate concurs on the House amendments, the bill will be sent to the Governor for his signature.  Thankfully, Senate Bill 277 received a favorable vote in the morning.

The successful passage of SB 277 will allow a wide array of software and web platform development projects to earn 25-35% marketable/transferable tax credits on the cost of production of such software and web platforms. This program will likely result in a material increase in the value of software and web platform development in Louisiana. SB 277 is authored by Senator Ann Duplessis and supported by the Louisiana Internet Software and Technology Association (LISTA), Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.) and Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce (BRAC).

In the mid-afternoon after SB 277 had successfully passed the House, a small group of House members unhappy with the governor's proposed budget cuts began an effort to slow consideration of other bills on the agenda. This effort successfully prevented about 20 bills scheduled for debate from being considered and many more bills on the agenda subject to call from being considered. 

At 6 PM today, the legislature reached a Constitutionally mandated deadline for considering bills that have not yet been voted on favorably by both houses. Thus, the bills remaining on the docket at 6 PM will die unless both houses simultaneously vote to allow consideration of any given bill. Some effort to get a two-third vote on some of the remaining bills will be taken tomorrow morning. It remains unknown how successful this effort will be.

One victim of this work slowdown and the hard 6 PM deadline was an amendment to the digital interactive media bill allowing the program users to choose between tax credits and a discounted tax rebate in cash. The successful passage of this bill contemplated for SB 199 would have been to put a minimum value on the tax credits in the market. LISTA, GNO, Inc. and BRAC all supported this amendment which was contemplated to be amended into SB 199. SB 277 in the form passed by the House and the Senate only provides for the issuance of marketable/transferable tax credits. It is also unknown if this bill will ultimately be considered in this session by suspension of the rules by two-thirds vote. The effectiveness of the effort to suspend the rules and allow further bills to be considered will likely be known by  the middle of the day on Tuesday.

A further report will follow tomorrow.

Erich P Rapp.

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The Twitter organization has launched a "Verified Account" service in Beta this week. So now, you know that @TheEllenShow is really Ellen DeGeneres and @The_Real_Shaq is really Shaquille O'Neal when you read their tweets. Well sort of. If the Twitter profile says that the account is verified, you will know that the celebrity in question has confirmed that the profile is approved by him or her. The verified badge does not, of course, indicate who is actually writing the tweets, i.e., whether it is the celebrity themselves or a ghost tweeter.

One major celebrity Twitter account is stopping new entry production. Trent Reznor has left Twitter (at least for now). He comments at some length on his social media experience on his blog in an entry entitled, Online communities, etc. His commentary is interesting glimpse at the celebrity or "public figure" experience in the social media era and thus worth a few minutes to read.

So much for the special problems of the famous in a social media driven world.

Erich P Rapp.

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The Louisiana Governor's office declared its support today for Senate Bill 277 concerning digital interactive media business incentives in Louisiana. After several weeks of negotiations and discussions with the leadership at the Louisiana Department of Economic Development about the exact language to be contained in Senate Bill 277, Senator Duplessis, LISTA, the Department of Economic Development and the Governor's office have reached an agreement on the terms of Senate Bill 277.

The Ways and Means Committee of the Louisiana House of Representatives will hold a hearing on Senate Bill 277 on Monday June 15, 2009 at 9 AM. If you are involved in this business and interested in supporting Senate Bill 277, please come to the committee hearing to show the committee members the business community support for the bill. If we as a digital interactive media industry in Louisiana fail to show our interest, we may find the committee members find it hard to care about our bill. Let's show our support.

The most exciting part of the bill is the definition of "digital interactive media." Under the new program, the digital interactive media incentives would be available for the development of many different types of software and web platform development as well as the development of video games and interactive animation. Under the existing law, the incentives have largely been limited to video game development. We are very excited about the potential for new businesses in the broader community of digital interactive media moving into Louisiana. In the years ahead, we anticipate new developer/programmer and new design jobs coming to Louisiana in material numbers.

The next most exciting thing about Senate Bill 277 is the proposed incentive parity with the film and television production incentives program. Under the existing digital interactive media program, the benefit was 20% transferable tax credits on in-state expenditures and the percentage declined over time. The new program would allow 25% transferable tax credits on all in-state expenditures and a 10% bonus for expenditures on labor residing in Louisiana for 35% transferable tax credits on expenditures on labor residing in Louisiana without any declining  benefit over time. As a practical matter, this combination of benefits effectively reduces the cost of developing many types of software and web platforms in Louisiana by over 30%.

It will take time to educate the digital interactive media industry about the benefits of this new program, but the program will eventually be a significant draw for new software and web platform development business in Louisiana.

Once this legislation becomes law, we must begin thinking about qualified workforce development by education and by transfer of qualified labor into Louisiana and we must work to change the perceptions about the workforce potential in Louisiana. Louisiana, however, can overcome these problems and build a digital interactive future.

I offer a prediction. With the proposed digital interactive media program enacted, Louisiana will be transformed from a digital interactive media backwater to a top five state player within ten years. Louisiana will be a leader in software and web platform development.

Erich P Rapp.

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The Louisiana Senate passed Senate Bill 277 on Thursday June 4, 2009. The bill will now be considered by the Ways and Means Committee of the Louisiana House of Representatives. The hearing has not yet been scheduled. An update will be provided on this blog when the meeting is scheduled.

We need everyone to send emails and make phone calls to their Representatives in the House expressing their support for Senate Bill 277 authored by Senator Duplessis and also expressing their opposition to Senate Bill 199 authored by Neil Riser.

SB 277 concerns tax credit incentives for businesses operating in the digital interactive media arena. The bill would provide tax credits for many types of software and web platform development. The objective of the bill is to increase the amount of such business being done in Louisiana and to increase the number of  software and web development and design jobs in the state.

The bill is a renewal of a program that has been in place for the past four years, but has been little used because it was previously limited to video games. The renewal of the program would include a modernization of the definition of digital interactive media and would place the level of tax credits granted on parity with the existing film tax credit program.

Senator Riser's Senate Bill 199 would not change the definition of digital interactive media to include software and web platform development and design generally. It would instead limit the coverage to video game development. LISTA is opposed to Senate Bill 199 by Senator Riser.

We need you to express your support for SB 277 and your opposition to SB 199 to all of your Representatives in the Louisiana House of Representatives. Every call and every email is important. A message to a Representative from a constituent voter will have a big influence on the legislator. The message can be limited to a sentence or two expressing your wishes. You can get the email address and phone number of  your representative at  http://www.legis.state.la.us/

For more information, the Saturday June 6, 2009 edition of the New Orleans Times Picayune includes an article describing SB 277 and its progress through the legislative process. The article was written by Times Picayune Capital Bureau Chief, Robert Travis Scott, and is entitled, Growth is sought in digital media. 

Erich P Rapp.

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The Louisiana Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee voted a favorable referral of Senate Bill 277 out of committee to the full Senate on Tuesday May 26th. The current form of the bill is not yet available on the Louisiana legislature web site, but should be posted very soon. 

Representatives of LISTA have worked with representatives of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development on language for the legislation that would provide material support for the growth of operations of Louisiana web platform and software development businesses in Louisiana. Despite concerns of some for the potential cost to Louisiana state government of the legislation, the bill has so far been favorably received by the legislators.

The current legislation would provide transferable tax credits in the amount of 25% of web platform and software development costs and 35% of certain related labor costs to firms developing such projects in Louisiana. These tax credits could then be sold in the secondary market for as much as $0.90 on the dollar.  The passage of this legislation would seem likely to make Louisiana a national hub for web platform and software development in the years ahead.

The full Louisiana Senate may vote on this legislation on Thursday May 28th or Monday June 1st. If you are interested in web platform and software development businesses in Louisiana, please email and call your Senators and Representatives asking them to support Senate Bill 277.

If you do not know who your Senator and Representative are, you can find out by typing your home and business addresses into the appropriate place at  http://www.legis.state.la.us. It only takes a few minutes to find out and send your representative and senator an email. Please take the time to do this. It is really a big deal for the growth of this important industry in Louisiana.

For media coverage on Senate Bill 277 and the Louisiana Internet Software and Technology Association, please see the New Orleans Times Picayune article on Wednesday May 27th entitled, Movie, software tax benefits OK'd.

Erich P Rapp.

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When I was a young boy, I enjoyed reading the articles in Popular Mechanics Magazine. The articles usually involved an electronics kit or some similar  "do it yourself" project. Whatever they were suggesting in the magazine was always a few years ahead of a product in the consumer market. That meant no one else had it, and that was a good thing to me. I was a geek and so were my friends.

Today at 46 years old, I am something of a magazine addict. I know that is a very "low tech" thing, but I still like turning printed pages in a magazine. Best of all today, the marketplace for magazines is so weak that a subscription to the typical magazine is less than $10 for a year of issues delivered to the house. It's a bargain by any standard. This interest and economic condition led me to a subscription to my boyhood magazine, Popular Mechanics. 

Popular Mechanics has changed significantly since I was a young, but one thing is the same, the magazine is still trying to present imaginative ways for the reader to get ahead of the consumer product market with some wit and elbow grease. You can still find a current version of those "how to..." articles of my youth in the magazine. You can get tips on soldering a circuit board or cooling a computer processor. If you follow their instructions and use some imagination, you can have something cool (by teenage geek standards) that no one else you know will have.

I have been writing regularly here and elsewhere about the challenges that cable television companies are facing from video streamed over broadband internet and the adaption of your television to receive that streaming video. I have concluded that cable television companies are facing a serious challenge to their existence from video streamed over broadband internet.

An article entitled, Ditch Cable, Save Cash in the May 2009 Popular Mechanics magazine confirmed everything I had been thinking. Popular Mechanics was suggesting that their reader, the electronics hobbyist, could save, on average, over $700 per year by canceling their subscription to the local cable television service and replacing it with a combination of an old fashion television antenna and video streamed through broadband internet access.

Of course, this approach is not yet as user friendly as a remote control on a digital cable box, but nothing presented in Popular Mechanics ever was. If, however, the past is any indicator of the future, the subject of this article will be the basis of many consumer products in the years head. In fact, the idea will be widely available in the large stores selling televisions by Christmas 2009 in the form of HDTV's that will stream video over broadband internet using a "widget engine" as an internet channel controller.  

Cable television companies are riding a gravy train of profit today. Video streamed over the internet has done almost nothing yet to damage them, but their business model is in serious trouble in the years ahead. They know it.

Can Louisiana play an important economic role in this evolution. If the Louisiana legislature and the Governor enact Senate Bill 277. this spring, Louisiana will see a river of new digital interactive media business flow into this state including potentially the replacement of the current business model for cable television, and Louisiana will become a leader in this digital interactive media industry. Senate Bill 277 is a business incentives program for bringing digital interactive businesses to Louisiana.

Erich P Rapp.

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Traditional media outlets are dramatically reducing the local based services that they offer to communities. For example, the Baton Rouge Business Report's Daily Report stated on April 28, 2009 that several local radio station DJ's would be laid off as part of Clear Channel's 590 person reduction in its national work force. On the same day, the Daily Report also stated that  WVLA-TV NBC 33 and WGMB-TV Fox 44 would cease broadcasting local news from a Baton Rouge location effective immediately. These actions are service and job losses to the local community, and we must assume based upon events around the country that more such service and job reductions are coming.

Perhaps, however, this reduction in local service presents an opportunity for a new way of distributing media content. Is there a local digital interactive media response to the scaling back of traditional media in the form of television and radio stations. Can the "media" part of web based digital interactive media go beyond blogging and .mp3 file downloads to offer a new and better product to replace the receding traditional media outlets.

If Louisiana is to replace the local media jobs and services that it is losing, it will need to find a way to attract new digital interactive media talent. Louisiana Senate bill 277 is one way to get new talent capable of developing digital interactive media software products and web platforms into Louisiana. By passing Louisiana Senate Bill 277 which provide for tax credits and business incentives for digital interactive media companies doing business in Louisiana, the state will place itself in a position to not only replace the media jobs it is currently losing, but the state will also be in a position to attract many new high paying computer programing ( design and development) jobs to Louisiana.

If a larger community of web platform developers and designers are attracted to Louisiana, a new generation of web based interactive newspapers, radio stations and television stations would likely arise in Louisiana. Louisiana would be a leader of this new generation of interactive media, and these services can then be exported to other communities across the country.

Louisiana should not let the dramatic changes occurring with the business models for traditional media companies leave Louisiana with a smaller and more economically disadvantaged economy. Instead, Louisiana can grow a new and better positioned digital interactive media economy for the future.

Erich P. Rapp. 

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The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival web site describes Synch Up:

"Sync Up: The Jazz & Heritage Talent Exchange is a series of morning conference sessions held the Friday and Saturday of both festival weekends (April 24-25 and May 1-2), from 9 a.m. to noon. Topics to be discussed include the economic climate for international music festivals, distributing music through such digital media as video games, artist development in the Internet age, new funding mechanisms like nonprofit record labels, copyright protection and more.

The Sync Up conference takes place at the Jazz & Heritage Center (1225 N. Rampart St.) — a historic building adjacent to the Foundation offices that the Foundation purchased last year and is converting into an education center.

Admission is free, but advance registration is required as seating is limited. Please register online, or by calling (504) 558-6100." 

This year's Synch Up Conference will include:

"Legendary talent scout Seymour Stein, hit-making songwriter Jill Sobule and video-game music guru Randy Eckhardt will be among the featured speakers at the second annual Sync Up conference, presented by the the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival."

For more information on the Synch Up Conference, see the schedule at the Synch Up Conference web page.

Erich P Rapp.

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Senator Ann Duplessis of New Orleans has filed Louisiana Senate Bill 277 providing for a digital interactive media tax credit.  This bill has been co-authored by Senators Kostelka (Monroe), Marionneaux (Livonia/Baton Rouge region), Michot (Lafayette), Quinn (Metairie) and Walsworth (West Monroe). It has also been co-authored by Representatives Abramson (New Orleans), Arnold (New Orleans), Cortez (Lafayette), Downs (Ruston), Leger (New Orleans), Ligi (Metairie) and Robideaux (Lafayette).

You can read and print a copy of Senate Bill 277 from the Louisiana legislature web site or click on this link provided.

We are confidant that we have built a group of Senators and Representatives from all regions of the state. We also anticipate adding additional co-authors at the time the bill comes before a legislative committee for hearing.

Futher still, Greater New Orleans, Inc. ("GNO, Inc.") has also endorsed Senate Bill 277.

The passage of this bill in its current form would be a giant step forward for the Louisiana economy. The future of the United States economy is information and media driven. The jobs that would be brought to Louisiana after the passage of this bill would be almost uniformly high paying and bring new outside money into our economy. We urge everyone to contact their Representatives and Senators and ask them to support Senate Bill 277 in its current form.

Erich P Rapp 

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Eric Marcoullier will speak at the Tulane Business School at 5:30 PM on Monday April 20, 2009 at Goldring/Woldenberg Hall 2) Room 2110.

According to the Tulane Entrepreneur's Association:

"Marcoulllier isCEO and co-founder of the online data services company Gnip, Inc.  He previously co-founded MyBlogLog, a distributed social network for bloggers that sold to Yahoo in 2007.  Eric's other ventures have included CEO and co-founder of training games provider Minerva Software and co-founder of IGN.com, which sold to Fox Interactive Media in 2005.  He advises several companies, including recent Automattic acquisition Intense Debate, as well as Future US, Zynga Games, Zemanta and Zentact and Megamesium, both of which he also co-founded."

Sounds like a pretty good presentation. This information comes to you largely as a result of a Facebook entry from Chris Schultz of Voodoo Ventures. I would not have known of this event without the post from Chris, and I am kind of late getting it up in any case. Wish I could get there for the presentation.

Erich P. Rapp.

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The first order of business for the Louisiana Internet Software & Technology Association ("LISTA") is the passage of legislation renewing the Louisiana Digital Interactive Media Business Incentives Program. The current law expires at the end of 2009.

LISTA has worked with a Louisiana legislators to submit to the legislature a new bill on digital interactive media business incentives. The bill has several goals. Those goals include removing the sunset or expiration provision in the tax incentives program; updating the definition of "digital interactive media" to reflect the current status of the industry; and giving the tax credit program parity with the film tax credit program.

LISTA believes that the adoption of this bill will make business conditions in Louisiana very favorable for the development of new businesses in the digital interactive media arena. A copy of the tax of the bill and more detailed information about the bill will follow on this blog shortly.

Erich P Rapp.

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The former McGlinchey Stafford Law Firm building on Magazine St in the Central Business District of New Orleans is reopening as the I.P. Building. This new office building is the result of the vision of the Idea Village and GNO, Inc. They are seeking to create a work environment in New Orleans that has the creative technology vibe of Silicon Valley.

Six anchor tenants have agreed to or have leased space in the building including Carrollton Technology Partners, TurboSquid, Launch Pad and iSeatz.com. The Idea Village will also be relocating into the I.P. building.

For more on the opening of this new building see the New Orleans Times Picayune news article by Kate Moran on April 13, 2009 entitled, Former McGlinchey Stafford Building becomes hub for entrepreneurial companies.

Erich P. Rapp.

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On Friday April 10, 2009 and Saturday April 11, 2009, the Hotel LeCirque in New Orleans, Louisiana was the host to WordCamp NOLA 2009. The speakers presented to a sold out crowd of Internet platform and social media enthusiasts.

The event included presentations and panels on social media advertising strategies, the impact of social media on traditional news media, using Wordpress tools for blogging, and even advice from a millennial blogger on connecting with a younger audience.

The audience seemed interested and attentive, and the volume of tweets to #wordcampNOLA was enormous. Hopefully, the WordCamp NOLA event will be repeated next year. More information can be found at the WordCamp NOLA website.  

Erich P. Rapp.

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