Everyone knows Walmart is an impossibly large multinational corporation possibly intent on world domination. But just how close are they to getting there?

On the face of it, 2010 looks like a bad time to start a new business. Early stage capital, whether it is venture funds, angel investors or bank loans, remains tight. And while technically the recession has passed, consumers and businesses are still keeping a tight hand on their wallets. Despite the obstacles, however, start-up formation has increased recently, possibly due to laid-off workers deciding to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. At the same time, high unemployment has expanded the talent pool for start-ups looking to hire. For those who can find creative solutions to the financing challenge, starting a new business now may turn out to be perfect timing. “The recession is a great time to start a company,” says David Wessels, an adjunct professor of finance at Wharton.

WASHINGTON, Oct 20, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Supporting programs for innovative, technology-driven small businesses under SBA's Federal and State Technology (FAST) partnership program, the U.S. Small Business Administration has granted $100,000 awards to 20 state and local economic development agencies, business development centers, and colleges and universities. Candidates were submitted by the governors of all 50 U.S. states and territories.

The FAST Program is designed to stimulate economic development among small, high technology businesses through federally-funded innovation and research and development programs like the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR). The project and budget periods are for 12 months, starting Sept. 30, 2010.

New York University seniors Katie Shea and Susie Levitt were interning at Goldman Sachs Group (GS) and Citigroup-Smith Barney (C) when their sore feet inspired them to start a $10,000 dorm-room company selling foldable flat shoes that come in their own tote bag.

A year later they have imported 70,000 pairs from China that retail for between $10 and $25. Women can don the slipper-like footwear to hike or drive to the office in comfort, then switch back to their high heels when they arrive at work.

Inspired by Mark Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook as a sophomore at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., and stymied by the shortage of jobs in the recession, college students are launching businesses before they graduate. They're entering industries that previously required large investments, thanks to websites that offer help with manufacturing, inventory management, and accounting, says Dane Stangler, a project manager with the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City (Mo.) nonprofit organization that promotes entrepreneurship.

Cairo/Kuwait City - Thirteen Arab countries on Monday launched a 1.2-billion-dollar development fund to support and finance private-sector small and medium enterprises in the Arab world.

Finance ministers gathered in Kuwait - led by Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa - to discuss the mechanism and the regulations of the fund.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait donated 500 million dollars each to the fund's capital, while the rest of the funds will be provided by another 11 Arab League members. Two more countries are expected to join the initiative.

The fund, which was proposed by Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah during an initial Arab economic summit last year, is expected to strengthen and provide necessary resources for enterprises in Arab states.

Since 2009 we have been suffering a serious global economic crisis and the situations in most small countries, including Denmark, has been very difficult due to growing unemployment and unsustainable public finance deficits. This crisis has occurred at a time of structural problems related to an ageing population. InnovationManagement interviewed Bengt-Åke Lundvall, Professor in the Department of Business Studies at Aalborg University, on the role of innovation and innovation policy in this context.

Purdue University is expected to announce Tuesday that it will open an office in California's Silicon Valley.

The university is working with the state to open an outreach office in Mountain View, Calif., state and university officials have confirmed.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is providing $500,000 for the office.

This afternoon, Purdue spokesman Chris Sigurdson would not provide details of the project but confirmed an official announcement will come Tuesday.

Mitch Roob, Indiana's secretary of commerce and chief executive officer of the Indiana Economic Development Corp., said that the new office was an initiative of Purdue President France Córdova.

I am a proud alumnus of Los Angeles Valley College, one of the nation's 1,200 community colleges. Last week President Obama praised community colleges as "the unsung heroes of America's education system," critical to our success in the "global competition to lead in the growth industries of the 21st century."

That seems a tall order for schools that, as the president acknowledged, don't often get the same resources as four-year colleges and universities, even though they educate nearly half the student population -- some 12 million students -- each year. How can they meet the challenge, and where are they going to get the resources to do so? Here's how they did it in The Dalles, Oregon, a small town at the center of farm country 90 miles east of Portland.

Four years ago, when U.S. and international windpower companies began flocking to north-central Oregon, Columbia Gorge Community College saw a gap between the local workforce and the technical skills needed to build and operate the turbines. The 5,800-student college quickly set up a six-month training course to meet the industry's short-term needs, then worked closely with employers to develop a renewable energy technology program including a two-year degree. This is exactly the type of opportunistic challenge that community colleges are in a unique position to address. Today hundreds of Columbia Gorge graduates are working for the area's constantly-expanding windpower companies, and the national windpower industry recognizes the college as one of the premier workforce development programs in the country

The term “disruptive innovation” has been around 7 years, since Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen introduced it in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma in 2003. A disruptive innovation is cheaper, more convenient, and easier to use than existing approaches and changes the world for the better.

Here, according to Fiercehealthcare.com, are the top ten health care innovators.

1) Asif Ahmad - Duke University Health System- - VP of diagnostic services and CIO, who designed and implemented a Computerized Physician Order Entry System for entire Duke System, reducing potential harmful events by 45%.

2) Donald Berwick, M.D., Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services- Administrator, who in 2004 as CEO of Institute of Healthcare Improvement launched a safety campaign that was said to have saved 122,300 lives in hospitals. He is now engaged in promoting “meaningful use” of EHRs, which , he believes, will save millions of more lives.

Video content is in – it has been proven that websites yield better responses when a video is featured. It’s no surprise; the average Web surfer has a short attention span, and prefers a shiny moving picture to wading through pages of text.

Videos grab attention, engage viewers and, if executed properly, can succinctly communicate your entire value proposition in as little as two minutes.

The power of video continues to impress me. Some of my company’s videos have been viewed tens of thousands of times, and I can tell from our website’s analytics that customers who view our videos are more likely to buy from us.

The Census Bureau recently trumpeted news about growth in Black and women-owned businesses. With the press release bearing the headline of “Census Bureau Reports Minority Business Ownership Increasing at More Than Twice the National Rate,” the Census’s Press Office gave the impression that the 2007 Survey of Business Owners unearthed a boom in minority entrepreneurship.

The press release explained that the number of “black-owned businesses in 2007 [was] up 60.5 percent from 2002….The number of white-owned businesses increased by 13.6 percent…. The number of women-owned businesses … [was] up 20.1 percent from 2002. By comparison, men-owned businesses … [were] up 5.5 percent from 2002.” By comparing White and Black entrepreneurs and male and female ones, the Census Bureau gave the impression that Black and female entrepreneurs did better than White, male ones between 2002 and 2007.

However, a more careful look at Census’s own data tells a different story.

The Tico Times, an award-winning weekly that was the first English-language newspaper in Central America has published an interesting piece on technology transfer in Costa Rica’s Central Valley.

Costa Rica's Silicon Valley, this region is already home to some of the world’s leading companies in computer and biomedical technology. Its dominant export is Intel’s microchip and it boasts an array of other multinational companies such as Cisco Systems.

As part of a forum meant to push the country further ahead in research and development, Stanford University’s Ximena Ares made a presentation last week at the University of Costa Rica on technology transfer – or the process of getting ideas off paper and into practice.

Richard Grayson, an American composer and pianist, has a knack for improvising on the piano. Ask him to play Darth Vader’s theme from Star Wars in the style of Beethoven, and he has it covered. (Watch above.) The same goes for The Muppets’ Theme in the style of a Bach fugue; “Singin’ in the Rain” in the style of Wagner, or Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” in the style of a Tango. You will find 70+ improvisations on Grayson’s YouTube Channel. Find it here.

Creative workers, creative enterprises and creative communities bring the entrepreneurial strengths of the private sector to economic development. In 2006, arts industry wages alone infused more than $3.9 billion into North Carolina’s economy, according to research by Regional Technology Strategies (RTS), which estimated creative sector employment at more than four percent of total employment in North Carolina.

In 2009, the market value of goods and services produced and sustained by North Carolina's Creative Industry was more than $41.4 billion, or 5.86% of the state's total production. According to research by the N.C. Department of Commerce, the Creative Industry creates and sustains nearly 300,000 jobs or 5.54% of total state employment.

Read the latest research on the Creative Industry in North Carolina »

You also might find the following links and documents helpful:

• Other North Carolina Arts Research
• Fact Sheet: The North Carolina Arts Council
• Background: The North Carolina Arts Council
• North Carolina: The Creative State - Jobs Talking Points
• The Arts = Jobs: A National Perspective

The fourth quarter has gotten off to a good start, as private company financing rose to $363 million on 115 deals recorded in the past week (versus $294 million and 110 deals in the prior week).  As always, California retained the top position, however, its share of total funding fell to 35% for the week (versus 50% in prior week).  Illinois took over the second spot and continues to build a case for Chicago as an emerging venture capital hub.   New York beat out Massachusetts for the third spot.  The Empire State kicked off the fourth quarter with its single largest week of funding since mid-July.  The Top 5 funding league table was rounded out by Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.  After a lackluster third quarter, Massachusetts continues to register lower than expected private company financing.  Pennsylvania was the sixth most funded location in the third quarter, behind the big three (CA, MA, & NY), Texas and Washington.  Last week, Pennsylvania got an early jump on the competition (Washington and Texas) taking in nearly $20 million in funding.  Interactive charts on the past week’s dealflow are below (they may take a second to load).  To see profiles on the private companies receiving funding in the last week, logon to CB Insights.

This is part of my various Series on Venture Capital, Angel Investing and Entrepreneurial Culture.

As described in this recent post, this mapping project evolved from that late night a few months ago when I decided to first map-out the Silicon Alley early-stage investor ecosystem. I wanted to provide a resource for entrepreneurs wherein they would be able to actually see the entire venture ecosystem in one glance. Due to much encouragement and postive feedback, I eventually created maps for Boston and then for Silicon Valley. This was of course not enough. I wanted these maps to be interactive and eventually, crowdsourceable. That's when I reached out to my good buddy Shane Snow. As I've mentioned here before, he is a super-talented entrepreneur, hacker, designer and journalist extraordinaire who can basically do anything.

Well, after quite a bit of effort, I'm happy to say that today we're releasing the next iteration of all this. We've now created a crowdsourceable global map of what we hope will one day be the entire world's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Either click here or on the global map icon on the right-hand side of my blog's homepage to enter the map environment. You will find instructions for using the map there- it's very straightforward.