Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
A federal judge on Friday ordered a notorious patent troll to pay the legal costs of a start-up after the troll lost an ” obviously baseless” lawsuit over a questionable “matchmaking” patent.
The ruling appears to be the first time that a court has applied new “loser pays” criteria issued by the Supreme Court in April, which makes it easier for companies to recover fees from trolls.
Image: Flickr / puuikibeach
You pick up the phone, and BAM! You’re blindsided. The person on the other end of the line wants to buy your business.
You freeze. You don’t want to say the wrong thing.
Your mind races.
What am I supposed to do now? Are my ducks in a row? Am I prepared to get what I think this is worth? What is this business worth? Is it worth anything?
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
What proportion of researchers in the country where you live are women? Explore our interactive map to find out. It might be that you live in a nation where the figure looks promising, at least on the face of it. In Thailand, for example, nearly 86 per cent of researchers are women. But if these posts are poorly paid, is that a good thing? Or perhaps you live in one of the many countries — including swathes of the Pacific islands and chunks of Africa — where data is unavailable.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Want to create a high performance team? Want to limit the amount of time you spend settling squabbles between team members? It turns out those two issues are closely related: Our research shows that on top performing teams peers immediately and respectfully confront one another when problems arise. Not only does this drive greater innovation, trust, and productivity, but also it frees the boss from being the playground monitor.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
It’s tempting to caricature Millennial workers as bright-eyed idealists, given their loudly stated preference for having a social impact through their careers. Either that or as narcissists only out for themselves. But neither is quite true, according to a new paper from The Brookings Institution. It’s easy to cherry-pick from the data to verify a stereotype about Millennials one way or the other, but the holistic picture painted by the paper is more subtle.
Image: http://blogs.hbr.org/
Every now and then, a thinker calls for a renaissance in some field of work – a rebirth, or return to classic roots after a period of straying from them. Is management – not yet a very old discipline – due for one? When Richard Straub, President of the Peter Drucker Society of Europe, recently declared so, it got me thinking by analogy about how one might come to pass.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
A college diploma is one key to starting your career engine, but learning to be more creative could help turbo-charge it. Just like college coursework, creativity can be learned—you don’t have to be born with these skills. Focusing on them is definitely worthwhile: companies value creativity because it spurs growth and competitiveness. As a recent graduate, you can stand out from the crowd by coming up with great ideas no matter what position you start in.
Image: http://www.innovationinpractice.com/
There has been a lot of buzz around the Internet of Things (IoT) over the last year and a half. We are hearing about all kinds of devices being connected to the Internet – anything from home appliances to entire factories. Investors are enthusiastic about smart hardware and wearable tech and IoT startups are popping up everywhere.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Your job seems normal now. In 15 years, when someone tells you they're a simplicity expert or a robot counselor, you won't blink an eye.
All of the predictions we've seen lately regarding the "jobs of the future" assume that we'll even have jobs once the robots take over. Eventually, we may not. But in the medium-term future, there will still be jobs for the taking (including jobs overseeing robots).
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Starting a business this summer? After deciding to form a corporation or LLC, you also need to consider which state you plan to incorporate in: Do you want to incorporate where you live (also known as home state incorporation)? Or incorporate in another state like Delaware or Nevada?
Image: sxc.hu
It’s not just your phone and your watch that are smart anymore. These days, many more devices than just your computer are connected to the Internet. As we know, scads of other devices, software and many other tools are now connected and exchanging data – creating this Internet of Things. This exchange includes important things like downloads and status updates needed to make our devices more effective and useful than ever.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Google's YouTube is said to be finalizing a $1 billion acquisition of Twitch, making the San Francisco-based video game streaming service another start-up success story. But just as when Facebook purchased WhatsApp earlier for $16 billion, there will be both celebration and hand-wringing.
Image: Gannett
Whenever we look around in society today we see the importance of the entrepreneur. In many countries, the entrepreneur is revered as a disruptor, visionary, risk taker or a contrarian; many of whom have become household names such as Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey and the list goes on. The entrepreneur has also attained a seat at the policy maker’s table allowing the former to help influence policy in order to increase the rate of startups. But, the entrepreneur also lives a life fraught with risk, uncertainty, booms and busts and myriad of other factors that could lead to the destruction of his/her business.
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Most aspiring entrepreneurs are convinced that the strength of their initial idea somehow defines them as a leader, as well as the success potential of their derivative business. In my experience, it's a lot more complicated than that. It takes leadership ability, as well as a good idea, to make a successful entrepreneur, and great leaders evolve from key leadership decisions along the way.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
One thing I've noticed during the past 25 years of delivering innovation-sparking services to a wide range of forward thinking organizations: People in business have a tendency to get overly complicated -- equating complexity with value -- as if the harder it is to understand something, the more meaningful that something must be. (Like the image below). Not true. When it comes right down to it, things are a lot simpler than we think.
Image: http://www.ideachampions.com/
I am often asked about the state of innovation in the seemingly mature world of laptop hardware. At a time when smartphones and tablets have become the darlings of modern computing, is there still room for new breakthroughs in laptop design and user interface?
Image: Monty Python & the Holy Grail
It was just last week that we saw the cheapest assembled 3D printer become available to consumers around the world. That was when New Matter’s MOD-t 3D printer launched their Crowdfunding Campaign. Priced at $149 for the first 500 backers, $199 for the next 500, and $249 for the rest, it proved that 3D printers could be cheap enough for most consumers to at least consider purchasing.
Image: http://3dprint.com/
Don't forget to add shipping when you check out! Manually update the contribution amount by the amount stated in the perk.
If you have already purchased your printer but forgot to add the shipping, please go back to the page and make a second contribution in the amount of the shipping. To do this, please just choose the “Supporter” perk ($5) and update the amount during the check-out process to match the shipping amount.
It's that time of year many of us look forward to annually: the summer vacation. But what is considered a dream vacation varies depending on who you ask.
If you're traveling in the U.S. this summer, a trip to an urban destination like San Francisco or New York may the ultimate vacation, while others may turn to a beach destination like Honolulu or Key West, Florida.
Image: FLICKR, DANIEL PECKHAM
A recent demonstration involving two trucks tethered by computer control shows how automation and vehicle-to-vehicle communication are creeping onto the roads.
A pair of trucks convoying 10 meters apart on Interstate 80 just outside Reno, Nevada, might seem like an unusual sight—not to mention unsafe. But the two trucks doing this a couple of weeks ago were actually demonstrating a system that could make trucking safer and much more efficient.
Image: http://http://www.technologyreview.com/ - Two trucks using Peloton’s technology drive close together in Utah.
