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KALAMAZOO — Paul DeVries, who played college football for Western Michigan University two decades ago, has turned to an online “crowdfunding” campaign in hopes of raising $20,000 to underwrite the further development costs for his computer game.
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 GRAND RAPIDS — When Mark Sellers bought Grand Rapids Brewing Co. last year, he thought he bought all of its assets. But it turns out he had a cybersquatter parked on his website who refused to relinquish the domain name until the squatter, a Grand Rapids Internet promotions company, was paid $2,000.
Now Sellers owns the web address, GrandRapidsBrewingCompany.com, and will use the site to help market his new brewpub when it opens this August at the entrance to the city’s entertainment district on Ionia Avenue and Fulton Street.
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 GRAND RAPIDS — In 15 years, the concept of privacy will be replaced by an all-intrusive social network connected to people who have wireless electronic devices implanted in their bodies.
That was the prediction from West Michigan serial entrepreneur Keith Brophy in his annual technology trends forecast for the tech group aimWest, held March 21.
Brophy, CEO at IdeoMed in Grand Rapids, has been offering his future tech predictions for more than a decade. In years past, his trends have ranged from a couple years out to a couple decades. This year, he focused on the brave new world of connected people and connected communications he sees manifesting by the year 2027.
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 GRAND RAPIDS — Craig Hall, principal at Lee Shore Equities, hopes the upgrades to his 38 West Fulton St. building — home to San Chez Café on the first floor — will make way for what he’s calling the Grand Rapids Tech Hub.
So far, he’s moved The Factory, a co-working space with 1,700 square feet on the third floor, into 5,000 square feet on the top floor. Next he has plans to transform the remaining 13,000 square feet into executive offices and other amenities focused on growing technology startups in West Michigan.
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 CLIMAX — Stephen Jessup, principal of the Jessup Group, is a Battle Creek native who used to travel to large cities for his healthcare accounting business.
But when CTS Telecom Inc. installed high-speed optic fiber to a building in his hometown, he cut back on his travel and did more business with his clients in cyber space.
Now that CTS has $4.2 million to invest in the village of Climax and surrounding areas to bring affordable high-speed Internet connections to the country, more businesses like Jessup’s can compete in this increasingly connected world with competitors in metropolitan centers.
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 DETROIT — More than a dozen of the 41 new vehicles launched during the press preview of the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit were hybrid, plug-in hybrid electric or all-electric vehicles.
But last year, only 20,000 full-electric or plug-in electric hybrids were sold in the United States, including 9,674 Nissan Leafs and less than 8,000 Chevrolet Volts, compared to nearly 269,000 hybrids — roughly 2.4 percent of total U.S. auto sales.
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WEST MICHIGAN — Local colleges can’t keep up with the demand from employers for information technology graduates.
Next spring, Grand Valley State University expects to graduate 60 students with bachelor’s degrees in computer science and information systems, and another 10 with master’s degrees. Calvin College has 15 bachelor’s candidates and Hope College has just one. Western Michigan University plans to graduate about 20-25 from its program.
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WEST MICHIGAN — While businesses don’t often turn down money, some of West Michigan’s developing companies are finding their prize-winning prestige is more important than financial reward.
In November, 13 companies from across the state took home prizes in the second annual Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition, a contest that links technology entrepreneurs with venture capitalists and industry colleagues in various stages of product development.
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