These days, innovation and creativity are in high demand in the work world, making them something that a lot of people would like to have.

The reality is that some people are more creative and innovative than others, which begs the question: why? As the voluminous list of books and articles on the topic testifies, many factors influence human creativity and innovativeness.

But the one that intrigues me the most is genetics. Some people are innately predisposed to be more creative and innovative than others. In fact, as much 55 percent of the difference between people on standard tests of creative temperament is accounted for by our genes. In one study conducted by University of Minnesota psychologist Tom Bouchard and his colleagues, half of a sample of identical twins raised in separate households, often many miles away from one another, had the same scores on measures of creative temperament, while fraternal twins raised together only had the same scores 12 percent of the time.

For Silicon Valley, 2008 and 2009 were years of reckoning and transformation. The financial turmoil that seized the global economy hammered the venture capital industry, bringing a sharp decline in dollars and deals.

But after a steep drop in the first half of 2009, venture deals rebounded modestly in the second half and featured an encouraging resurgence in early stage investments. The pattern underscored recent surveys of venture capitalists that suggest the industry is approaching a new sense of equilibrium and confidence.

Nationwide, venture investments totaled $17.7 billion in 2009, the lowest since 1997 and down from $28 billion in 2008 and $30.5 billion in 2007. The MoneyTree Report, a quarterly review

Google last week said it plans to build an experimental fiber-to-the-home network that would deliver speeds of up to 1 Gbps. And this week FCC chairman Julius Genachowski outlined a goal of delivering 100 Mbps broadband to 100 million homes as part a “2020 vision” associated with the National Broadband Plan. However, amid what many perceive as good news for the wired broadband industry, the Telecommunications Industry Association and United States Telecom Association said they would not produce Supercomm, an industry trade show, due to “financial projections.” Translation: Wired broadband is in trouble. And it’s the fault of ISPs and Silicon Valley.

Despite a rollout of faster technology from some cable providers, and Verizon’s continued fiber-to-the-home buildout, the wired broadband world isn’t looking terribly exciting outside Google’s testbed project. A close inspection of the long-range FCC plan doesn’t have me overly inspired, especially as other areas of the world invest in 1 Gbps networks today.

Meanwhile, in the same time two-week period as all of this wired broadband news, the mobile industry’s largest trade show, Mobile World Congress, took place. It was chock-full of the usual mobile players as well as a who’s who of anyone in the tech scene. And issues associated with mobile broadband, from new networks to spectrum shortages (GigaOM Pro, sub req’d) and how to build applications for mobile handsets (GigaOM Pro),were all anyone could talk about.

The story of downtown Rochester's revival goes through Nashville, San Antonio, and Pittsburgh:

Pittsburgh joins such cities as Nashville, Tenn., and San Antonio as examples of downtown revival. But in Pittsburgh, the work is ongoing and retail remains the city's Achilles' heel, [Mike Edwards (CEO of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership)] said.

"We don't have a defined retail district, which is one of our objectives this year. But, as most experts will tell you, retail follows rooftops."

And in that area, Pittsburgh lags other cities its size, with only 5,000 downtown residents. The strong market is office space, with 45 million square feet downtown, 92 percent of it occupied, and a work force of 140,000.

Once again, Pittsburgh is a model for urban redevelopment. I think it is a good one for Rochester to follow. That city also seems to be on the rise, in relatively good position as we make the turn upwards from the bottom of the Great Recession.

This observation about the necessity of freedom seems obvious - and yet it is remarkable how often this truth is overlooked. I believe the connection between freedom and innovation is ignored in both capitalist and communist economies. Innovation can be squelched by the demand for short-term profits, or it can be smothered by central planners.

I think of this connection after reading an excellent column by Georgy Satarov. He picks apart a recent interview by a high government official, a government official describing in detail how the Putin-Medvedev administration is going to create some sort of engine for economic development and innovation. It won't happen. I have no idea about what is the future for Russia at this point, but it does not look very bright. The people running the country seem determined to close any possible space for democratic opposition. Without democratic opposition, there can be no peaceful change. And Russia vitally needs change. It plods on, its extractive industries subsidizing its maddening and oppressive inefficiencies.

Silicon Valley has rebounded from prior downturns, but this time a shakeout in venture capital, a foreign brain drain and a crisis in California education pose new threats to the innovation ecosystem, says a report being released today.

"I'm not telling you the sky is falling, but I have a duty to report that some of the indicators are not good," said Russell Hancock, chief executive of Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network, which has indexed the region's business climate each year since 1995.

A prominent theme in this year's report is that Silicon Valley needs to acknowledge how federal investments in space and defense fertilized the region in the 1960s and 1970s, creating the environment for civilian entrepreneurship in computing and networking to flower in the 1980s and 1990s.

Saying the stars are aligned for an entrepreneurial renaissance in Wisconsin, guild.com founder Toni Sikes has joined a state-based venture capital fund.

Sikes started in January as general partner of Calumet Venture Fund, which has nearly $10 million and was formed by Judy Owen, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who began her career as a chip designer at Intel Corp.

Owen made the announcement about Sikes at a luncheon meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel. She also echoed Sikes' views about the state's growth prospects.

"In some sense, I do think this is the year of the Midwest," Owens said.

Small companies need to develop alternative sources of finance to overcome the credit crisis that is engulfing them.

With traditional forms of lending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in short supply, the UK industry group the Forum of Private Business (FPB) says that a move away from bank lending could help many firms to stay afloat.

It is urging the UK government to look into creating more alternative options for small businesses which have been denied finance by traditional sources of lending. The call came in the wake of an official report, which found that the banks have broken their promises to lend to small businesses, placing many in danger of insolvency.

While the FPB is continuing to lobby for banks to increase the supply of credit to small firms, it is also arguing that counter-cyclical alternatives need to be put in place which will be less affected by recession and will increase choice and diversity in the marketplace.

A strategic element of the Economic Development Council of Collier County's (EDC) 5-year plan is a program dedicated to supporting local entrepreneurial CEOs of second stage growth companies. The EDC has already achieved success by outreaching to more than 600 CEOs and educating them about the program, assessing the need for assistance and inviting them to use one of the many Economic Gardening tools available.

The next opportunity for CEOs to participate in Economic Gardening is the CEO Nexus Forum, which will take place on Monday, February 22, 2010. The first forum, held in November, included 23 CEOs representing nearly 400 employees in Collier County. The forums are limited to 30 participants and offer an opportunity for the CEO of second stage growth companies to connect with peers and hear from a CEO who has taken a business to a more advanced stage of development.

Some of the feedback heard from CEOs after the first Nexus Forum included, "it was real-time, value-added advice; the speaker was very articulate on business challenges and solutions; and enjoyed the opportunity for a frank discussion on successes and failures from a local entrepreneur"

The Small Business Administration's loan guarantee programs can't revive credit access because most small businesses use other types of credit

The Obama Administration recently proposed changes to the Small Business Administration's loan guarantee programs to help small business owners whose access to credit has been reduced as a byproduct of the financial crisis. According to a Feb. 5 White House press release about the plans, "The President is proposing to temporarily increase the maximum SBA Express loan size to $1 million" and "to temporarily allow for the refinancing of owner-occupied commercial real estate (CRE) loans under the SBA's 504 program." In the same release, SBA Administrator Karen Mills explains that "more small business owners will have quicker access to…capital to help restock inventories and support larger revenue sales" and "the ability to refinance into SBA's 504 loan will give them the chance to lock in long-term, stable financing."

However well-intentioned these proposals might be, I don't think they will help the typical small business because SBA-backed loans aren't an important source of financing for small businesses.

Imagine how much sooner Dr. Jonas Salk could have discovered the polio vaccine if in 1955 if he was on Facebook. Often, researchers work in a vacuum. They can be stuck on a problem blocking progress on their research that someone on the other side of the world has already solved. Yes, there’s a wealth of information online and in scientific journals, but what if there were one central place online where a researcher could ask a question and someone else could answer it?

Enter ResearchGATE, which its founder Dr. Ijad Madisch (pictured) fairly describes as “Facebook for scientists.” In close to two years of operation, ResearchGate has built a social network of more than 250,000 researchers from 196 countries. Over 1,000 subgroups have been formed for specific disciplines, and 60,000 research documents have been uploaded for sharing with others on the site. These guys aren’t pretending they’re farmers.

“People ask a question, presenting an issue they have in the lab, and anyone can answer the question. This is happening on a daily basis,” said Madisch, who was in Silicon Valley this week drumming up support for ResearchGATE from researchers at universities and private research labs, while also networking with potential investors, although he added the company is currently “well funded.”

NASA hopes to jumpstart its new direction in space exploration by refocusing on transformational technologies, and the agency has a new tech guru to help lead the way.

As part of the shakeup, NASA administrator Charles Bolden named Robert Braun as the U.S. space agency's new chief technologist. Braun is currently an aerospace engineering professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, but returns to NASA after spending 16 years working on robotic space exploration at the NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia.

SPACE.com spoke with Braun near the end of his first week doing what he calls his dream job. The chief technologist talked about how NASA can tap new innovations and game-changing technologies to realize any number of possible futures for exploring the moon, the asteroids, Mars and beyond:

SPACE.com: So what's your job as NASA's new chief technologist?

Braun: As chief technologist, I report directly to the NASA administrator. I'm his principal advisor and advocate concerning matters of technology across the agency.

I consider what types of technology the agency should pursue, what are the proper investment strategies, what are the appropriate mechanisms for engaging the larger aerospace community, what kind of partnerships should we establish with other government agencies, and how to best invest NASA's technological capital on the significant needs facing society today. I'll be directly managing a new space technology program that invests in early-stage and game-changing technologies for future application in NASA missions or other national needs.

Sanjeev Agrawal found venture capitalists to be a risk-averse bunch over the past two months as he began looking for new investors to back Aloqa Inc., the mobile application start-up where he’s chief executive.

“That’s not very encouraging to entrepreneurs who are doing something, because they are risk takers,” he said. “Obviously, we’re not talking 2007 here, but sometimes the number of proof points you need to provide to show you’ll be a big company can be overwhelming.”

Though Agrawal is confident that venture-backed Aloqa, whose software helps people find restaurants, friends, real estate and other products and events based on their locations, will close its Series B round in the next two months, many start-ups may be in for an unpleasant surprise in 2010, some investors say.

What works in the U.S. can work here, too - it’s a tenet held by many entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in India and other emerging regions of innovation. While not everything should be duplicated, one small Indian firm believes it can apply the model employed by Y Combinator, a Mountain View, Calif.-based business accelerator and seed fund.

Founded in 2007, Morpheus holds four-month business accelerator programs where it works with 20 very early-stage companies, taking a 4% to 8% equity stake in exchange for advice, mentoring and business connections.

Now the firm, made up of three partners with entrepreneurial experience, will also invest capital in these start-up companies, the same way that Y Combinator does. The firm has raised a small fund of about $250,000 from unnamed high-net-worth individuals for the next two incubator sessions and will seek to add on further funding.

“We saw the model of Y Combinator in Silicon Valley,” said Sameer Guglani, general partner with Morpheus. “They are doing a lot of things for young ventures, investing to help entrepreneurs get started and connecting them with experienced entrepreneurs. That’s exactly what we want to do with Morpheus in India.”

In California, attendees at the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab event continued to flood the channels with follow-up questions to the expert panel from Green Pacific, AE Biofuels, SynGest, Chevron and Flagship Ventures. More about VLAB.

The questions, combined with those that came in via cards passed around at the event, are an excellent example of those items that are “on people’s minds” when it comes to bioenergy projects.

Here are some answers to your questions, based on the Digest article archive and discussions with producers, plus answers to some of the questions that were addressed at the event.

Q. Costs, costs, costs . . . what are current, 3 and 5 year targets for production costs, and what is the target wholesale fuel price (leaving us with an idea of the expected margin for the business).
A. Production costs range widely by producer, but most advanced biofuels producers are aiming to be competitive with $70 per barrel oil, or roughly $2.37 gasoline, translated to a retail price. Target fuel prices are, according to the EIA, $2.46, $2.88 and $3.04 per gallon, for 2010, 2013 and 2015 respectively. Typically, individual producers reach these rates based on commercial scale, so keep an eye out on their timelines as well as the projected cost of feedstock in their models.

You have until midnight Friday (Pacific Time on February 19, 2010) to apply for the 2010 News Entrepreneur Boot Camp.

Why should you apply? Because we'll be bringing 20 journalists to Los Angeles in May for an intense, one-week camp in entrepreneurial thinking, and showing you how that applies to publishing a news website. By the end of the camp, you'll not only have been trained in the right mindset to run a successful publishing business, you'll have materials in hand with which you can pursue the funding that you'll need to continue your journalism career.

Oh, and we won't charge you a thing for this: It's free. (We'll even kick in $250 to help get you to LA.)

You need more reasons to drop whatever you were planning to do today, and apply? Here are 10:

1. When you work for yourself, you'll never get laid off.

2. Entrepreneurship provides you an option to extend and develop your career that no boss can take away or control.

I [Fred Wilson] went down to Philly yesterday and spent the afternoon with students and faculty at Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs, the entity that administers the entrepreneurship major/courses at Wharton and runs a bunch of fantastic "outreach" programs like the Venture Initiation Program

WEP is run by Professor Raffi Amit and as we were making our way from one meeting to another, I said to Raffi that "you can't teach people to be entrepreneurs but you can teach entrepreneurs business." He replied to me that his research into the topic suggests that "there are no unique and defining characteristics of entrepreneurs" which leads him to believe that you can in fact teach people to be entrepreneurs.

That threw me and I've been ruminating on his conclusion ever since. I've been working with entrepreneurs for almost 25 years now and it is ingrained in my mind that someone is either born an entrepreneur or is not.

New research from Nielsen reveals what types of entertainment people have paid for online, and what they're willing to pay for.

People have shown a willingness to pay for music, games and movies, but they're less thrilled with the idea of paying for news. We can add this to the heap of indicators that the New York Times paywall plan might be a folly.

The bigger picture here though is that the vast majority of people still don't pay for entertainment like movies, music and news online.

From robots that study the seas, to the surprising connection between dolphins and diabetes: The American Association for the Advancement of Science conference hasn't even started yet, and I'm already learning about some wonderful things. Technically, AAAS opens Friday morning, but I got to San Diego on Wednesday so I could get in on some laboratory tours at the University of California San Diego, and a few press briefings Thursday.

Eric Vance, another journalist here, compared it to speed-dating—15 minute sprints through what a scientist is working on and why they think it's important. And, by that standard, there were definitely a few researchers I'd have shaved my legs for.

Why write a check when you can donate a patent or three?

3M Co. took a creative tack with a recent gift to the University of Minnesota Law School by donating three royalty-bearing patents. The patents, which cover optical lenses and prism technology, have an estimated value of $760,000 and are expected to generate $2 million during the next five years.

The law school will share the gift with the university's Office for Technology Commercialization, which helps start-up companies applying the university's research and manages the intellectual property aspect of that research.

The law school plans to use its share of the proceeds to start a 3M Fund for Law, Science and Technology, which will bolster technology teaching and research.