Entrepreneurs made America the leader of the free world, and only entrepreneurs can keep it there.

That’s according to Steve Case, the billionaire founder of America Online, who is reëmerging as an influential figure in Washington, D.C., and one of the country’s most important technology investors..

Image: http://www.technologyreview.com

Last night on #InternPro Twitter chat, we had a very interesting – and for many, a scary – conversation… about jobs and careers.

Specifically, we discussed how many jobs the average Millennial will have in what everybody likes to call “The New Economy”.

Before we dive further into the conversation, some basic facts and reputable projections:

It ain't no Hollywood Walk of Fame, but it's a start.

By late 2014, Philadelphia will have its own "Innovators Walk of Fame." The inaugural class of six was unveiled this evening at a gala event hosted by the University City Science Center.

"We've decided to invest in this to shine a spotlight on innovation in the region," Science Center CEO Stephen Tang told NewsWorks. "We believe that greater Philadelphia is an innovation hub for the world — but, for whatever reason, we've been underappreciated and overlooked."

Image courtesy of University City Science Center

Enjoy this close-up look at the many ways Israeli innovation has made all our lives easier -- and why this small nation has made such a huge impact on the world of technology. 

China is home to the world's largest population of digital natives, totaling more than 75 million people — that's almost twice as many as the U.S., which has more than 41 million.

India and Brazil clock in at third and fourth place, respectively.

Statista created the following chart, which lists the 10 countries that boast the most digital natives. Check it out, below, for the full results.

Image: Mashable.com

It obviously makes more sense to look for a job while you still have one. After all, you won’t feel the pressure to pick any old job that you’re offered because you have to pay your mortgage, car loan, credit card bills or because the gap between jobs on your resume is growing wider and wider. That said, job hunting while you’re still working can present its own set of prickly problems. Here’s how to safely look for a new job — without risking the one you currently have.

Image Courtesy of ponsulak / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

An undertaker of one's greatest dream -- with courage as abundant as his or her ingenuity. A willingness to take a chance in spite of the fear. A born leader becomes an entrepreneur because he or she knows they could never survive under the rule of another.

An entrepreneur is one who thinks for themselves -- whose passion for success is unscathed by the judgments and negativity of skeptics and naysayers.

Corporate executives are exhorted daily by well-meaning public leaders that they should support their local entrepreneurs in order to be good corporate citizens and to bolster local economies. But engagement with entrepreneurs is not a question of conscience or moral imperative; it is a question of strategic self-interest. As any experienced corporate leader knows, engaging entrepreneurs has potentially the same spectrum of pleasure and pain reflected in the formal definition, from the prospect of inextricable involvement including conflict, to the promise of partnership, to the happy possibility of union in blissful corporate matrimony and acquisition.

Image Courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Earlier today, PricewaterhouseCoopers and National Venture Capital Association released a report showing that total venture capital spending in the U.S. rose 12 percent to $7.8 billion compared to $7 billion for the previous third quarter. But how has that changed since, say, 1995, when their Thomson Reuters data originates? We took a graphical look at how VC funding has changed in the last nearly two decades. While there’s been definite growth, it’s not nearly what it was during the VC bubble in 2000.

Image Courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Global Context for Innovation

Hongxin Tan, General Manager, International Technology Transfer Center of Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, "Innovation and Technology Transfer Challenges in China"

Lars Malmborg, Kalmar Kommunbolag AB, Kalmar, Sweden, "Baltic-China Science Park Network"

Chuck Erickson, CEO, US Market Access Center, San Jose, USA, "The Incubator as a Soft Landing Zone"

Veneta Ivanova & Wolfgang Kniejski, INI - Novation GmbH, Germany, "Changing Roles of Science and Technology Parks Overcoming Challenges in the New Global Economy"

Valery Tsepkalo, Director, Belarussian Park of High Technologies, Belarus, "Creating an Innovative Environment in the Republic of Belarus"

Alena Apiakun, Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno, Belarus, "Innovation Centres in Belarussia"

Jelena Angelis, Oxford Innovation Ltd, UK, "Joining hands – South-East England’s Innovation Advisory"

Tatiana Stelmakh, Russian Union of Innovation and Technology Centers, "The Realization of the Project to Develop Russian Innovational Networks which Support Innovational Enterprises and the Integration within European Networks"

Environment and Energy

Rainer Nõlvak, Business Angel and environment protection enthusiast, Estonia, "Role of Private Initiatives in Environment and Energy"

Sigridur Thormodsdottir, Nordic Innovation Centre, "Clean-Tech Networks - Opportunities for Collaboration"

Uffe Bundgaard-Joergensen, CEO, InvestorNet, "Food & Clean Tech Innovation Funds"

Katharina Krell, Greenovate!Europe, Belgium, "Innovation Vouchers Tailored to Environmental Service SMEs"

Peter Vadasz, Mayor of Güssing, Austria, "Regions Promoting Renewable Energy"

Linas Kliucininkas, Head of the Department Engineering, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania, "Post-Ignalina Energy Supply in Lithuania"

New World Ventures, the Chicago venture capital firm run by brothers J.B. and Tony Pritzker, is going to start writing larger checks for later-stage technology companies as it seeks a higher national profile.

The 18-year-old firm, which has outposts in Los Angeles and New York, also will be renamed Pritzker Group Venture Capital. It is part of the Pritzker Group, whose two other investment arms focus on middle-market acquisitions and asset management. Unlike other technology venture capital firms whose contributions come from limited partners, the Pritzkers' fund taps an evergreen pool of private capital from the brothers.

Image Courtesy of ddpavumba / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I am a glutton. Most Americans are, it seems: more than two thirds of the population is overweight or obese, and that proportion continues to rise, even as public awareness of the importance of healthy eating is at an all-time high. I know what a healthy diet looks like, and I certainly don't enjoy being fat, so why is eating less such a difficult process? It turns out that every decision we make about eating is influenced by mental and physiological forces that are often outside of our awareness and control.

Image Courtesy of marin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A new study co-authored by a researcher in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) finds that organizations that display a feedback button on their website to invite suggestions from customers frequently struggle to foster thriving online forums for new ideas.

The study looked at just over 23,800 organizations and found that success with the online feedback mechanism varied widely, according to co-author Henning Piezunka, a Ph.D. candidate in management science and engineering at Stanford. His research, conducted with a colleague at the European School of Management and Technology, in Berlin, has been published online by the journal Research Policy.

Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Recently, the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) contacted top business leaders to ask the question, “What are some tips for creating really interesting company blogs even in (a) dry, boring old industry?”

Whether you work for a multinational corporation or a one-man startup, their tips are worth checking out to turn your blog into the audience-building, client-engaging machine it can be.

Image Courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Technology based entrepreneurship has rapidly gained momentum in western societies with low costs to entry and high Return on Investment (ROIs) acting as the prime catalysts. The trend has piqued interest in Pakistan recently as well for similar reasons.

Consequently, entrepreneurship courses and workshops are gaining interest among the country’s youth. As recently as a month ago, there was news in The Express Tribune about a book exchange project launched by two students of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi. This was truly a commendable effort and such entrepreneurial spirit can only be facilitated through the innovative use of Information Technology.

Image Courtesy of Gregory Szarkiewicz / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you are an employee, are you wondering if entrepreneurship is in your future? If you currently own or run a business, were you born to be an entrepreneur or did you have to work for decades to reach the point where you could be successful in your own business venture?

The exact mix of factors of genes and experiences that lead to an entrepreneurial tendency is hard to pin down. I thought a great deal about this 10 years ago when I took on the role of CEO at Fishbowl, an inventory management software start-up with no sales and plenty of debt. I’m not a scientist or a researcher by any means. My gut instinct is inclined to believe that we control our own destinies, and we’re more than the sum of the parts in our genetic makeup.

Image Courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There’s been a lot of academic research highlighting the differences between two types of entrepreneurs: those building so-called gazelles, or fast-growth companies that lead to thousands of jobs, and those running smaller, local businesses who often seek simply to earn a living.

Another big difference between the two types of entrepreneurs: People who make less than $25,000 and those who make between $100,000 and $149,999 were both more likely to know an entrepreneur than respondents in other income brackets. Those in the higher income bracket were almost twice as likely to know a “growth entrepreneur” than the poorest survey-takers. That’s according to survey results published today (pdf) by the Kauffman Foundation.

Image Courtesy of Worakit Sirijinda / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We’ve all heard the story of how a Harvard sophomore took an idea (or stole, depending on which side of the debate you are on) and turned it into a social networking megalith. That sophomore was none other than Mark Zuckerberg and the megalith, of course, is Facebook.

As an entrepreneur, you are not the only one who salivates at the notion of becoming a seemingly overnight success story like Zuckerberg and changing the course of history for your industry forever.

Image Courtesy of Suvro Datta / FreeDigitalPhotos.net