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.
THE U.S. TECH INDUSTRY WOULD BE WISE TO KEEP AN EYE ON THESE COUNTRIES' INNOVATIONS--AND LEARN A THING OR TWO ABOUT THINKING BIG.
BY VIVIAN GIANG
Every few months there seems to be another region somewhere in the world that claims to be the next Silicon Valley. Sometimes the new high-tech hub is hyped up, but other times, it’s evident that there’s something special brewing.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
MOVE BEYOND THE WEATHER TO MAKE SMALL TALK LESS PAINFUL AND MORE PRODUCTIVE. HERE ARE FIVE THINGS THAT GREAT CONVERSATIONALISTS KNOW.
BY LAURA VANDERKAM
Small talk gets a bad reputation. To avoid this allegedly meaningless drivel, people skip networking events. Or, almost as bad, they attend, but talk to the three people they already know.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Global flows have been a common thread in economic growth for centuries, since the days of the Silk Road, through the mercantilist and colonial periods and the Industrial Revolution. But today, the movement of goods, services, finance, and people has reached previously unimagined levels. Global flows are creating new degrees of connectedness among economies—and playing an ever-larger role in determining the fate of nations, companies, and individuals; to be unconnected is to fall behind.
Image: http://www.mckinsey.com
Why it is so hard to say “NO”?
Saying no is definitely more difficult than saying yes, and research studies have shown that many people just end up saying yes because they do not want the discomfort that comes with saying no. Social connection is one of our fundamental needs, and saying no seems to put our relationships at stake. That’s why, the more close the person is, we find it more difficult to say no. We fear that a negative reaction would change the way the other person views us.
America’s most clandestine intelligence agency did not accidentally send out a butt tweet. Almost immediately after the tweet went out, the garbled language (below) was shown to be a conspicuously guised attempt to hire code crackers.
Feel free to try to crack the coded message yourself. Below, we’ll tell you what the message is and how it was cracked.
Image: http://venturebeat.com
IN THE 19TH CENTURY, EMPIRE STORES WAS A BUSY ROW OF WAREHOUSES USED TO STORE AND SHIP COFFEE. ABANDONED IN THE 1950S, NOW ARCHITECT JAY VALGORA IS TRANSFORMING THE AREA INTO A THRIVING RETAIL AND BUSINESS CENTER TO ATTRACT INNOVATIVE TALENT.
BY CHRIS GAYOMALI
It's a freezing afternoon in late March, and I'm standing in a dark abandoned warehouse in Dumbo, Brooklyn, with an excitable architect. A few stories below us, construction workers are drilling and hammering away, causing the old wood floors to rattle. My hard hat doesn't fit quite right.
Image: Empire Stores. West Elm will move its headquarters to the space, which will also feature retail chains, restaurants, bars, and office space catering to technology companies. RENDERINGS COURTESY OF STUDIO V
Oh, you lucky dog! When you started the process of raising money you hoped it would go well, but you didn’t really know for sure. The first few fundraising pitches were a little rough, and you had some doubts that things were going to work out as you hoped. Then, finally, you received a commitment from a lead investor.
And then someone else committed to invest.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51096110@N00/4641629303
Since the U.S. business tax credit for research and development (R&D) was enacted in 1981, U.S. innovators have had to wait 15 times for it to be extended. That’s 15 times that progress was slowed, new ideas were stifled and unknown innovations remained just that – unknown.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
The city of Santander is an old seaport on the north coast of Spain. A couple times a week, a ferry brings over a handful of English tourists who crowd the beautiful beaches of Playa de la Magdalena and El Sardinero, and shop and dine in the city’s historic center. Otherwise, the Spanish city of 180,000 has little interaction with the foreign world. Or at least that was until Santander was chosen four years ago to become Europe’s test bed for a sensor-based smart city.
Image: Santander, Spain's sensors measure everything from the amount of trash in containers, to the number of parking spaces available, to the size of crowds on the sidewalks. Flickr/FreeBird
When LinkedIn went public in 2011, its share price soared over 100% on its first day of trading to the amazement of traders and tech investors. The media went wild, and the company’s subsequent public market success helped pave the way for the Facebook and Twitter IPOs. But despite the jolt it delivered to the market, LinkedIn’s blockbuster public offering wasn’t a fluke. It was a plan well executed.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
If you think you know what you just said, think again. People can be tricked into believing they have just said something they did not, researchers report this week.
The dominant model of how speech works is that it is planned in advance — speakers begin with a conscious idea of exactly what they are going to say. But some researchers think that speech is not entirely planned, and that people know what they are saying in part through hearing themselves speak.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
THE SECRET TO (FINALLY!) GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP? IT STARTS WITH NOT VIEWING IT AS ANOTHER ITEM ON YOUR TO-DO LIST. DITCH THE DOS AND DON'TS AND LEARN TO SIMPLY FALL IN LOVE WITH SHUT-EYE.
BY LAURA VANDERKAM
You know sleep is important, and you know the usual rules for getting it: No coffee after noon, kick the TV out of the bedroom. But such a focus on dos and don’ts is a sad way to look at one of the most awesome things we do each day.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26700360@N08/5954198017
The rising prevalence of smartphones and mobile phones has made their use as a way to help people manage their health more viable. So much so that the National Institutes of Health has started an mhealth grants program and is looking for submissions.
It plans to offer awards of up to $500,000. Self management of chronic conditions and improving patient-provider communications are among the sought-after areas. It begins accepting applications today through May.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
The Beespace office feels spare and minimalistic, located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. Painted pipes and girders line the warehouse-like ceiling. Coworking areas and "flex spaces" scatter across the open floor plan. The small kitchen doubles as a printing area. Six large tables extend along the far wall, each with a whiteboard divider to scrawl new and exciting ideas.
Image: http://www.beespacenyc.org/ - The front desk and mural at Beespace, a non-profit incubator based in New York City.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Entrepreneurship, startups and technology transfer efforts at regional universities just may be getting a boost from a familiar face who is returning to the Triangle.
W. Mark Crowell, a veteran executive who led technology transfer efforts at UNC-CH, NCSU and Duke, will be back in the area soon.
Crowell is stepping down as executive director of the innovation program at the University of Virginia and plans to become a consultant based in Chapel Hill. Crowell announced his decision to leave U. Va. Innovation on Friday.
Image: http://wraltechwire.com
Just over $4B was invested in software deals by venture capitalists (VCs) during Q1, 2014, four times as much as biotechnology.
Software deals netted out 42% of all dollars invested in the first quarter of 2014, with biotechnology receiving 11%. VCs invested $816M in IT Services or 9% of all dollars, making this the third largest investment category. Interest in IT Services continues to accelerate, with dollars invested in this category increasing 33% compared to the prior quarter.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
A quote has been floating around the Internet for the past few weeks and while some agree, many disagree. I welcome feedback, opinions or your thoughts.
"The most dangerous phrase in the language is "we've always done it this way." Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
Consider technology. Consider science. Consider food products. Would you want to still be using the bag phone? Would you want someone to use surgery techniques from 1960 on you?
Image: http://normanislandadvisors.createsend4.com
If you think Y Combinator dominates the world of the startup accelerators, YC President Sam Altman agrees with you.
In an on-stage interview at TechCrunch’s Disrupt New York conference, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington said he was trying to get something controversial from Altman, so he asked whether YC sucks “99.9 percent of oxygen out of the accelerator ecosystem.” Altman countered that other accelerators are “doing really cool things,” especially the ones that focus on specific areas like hardware.
Image: http://techcrunch.com
It’s time for me to come clean. In today’s social media crazed world it will come out sooner or later anyway. I have one high school varsity letter and it’s for bowling. Yes, you heard right, bowling. And it wasn’t ten-pin, but candlepin bowling. Anyone who grew up in New England, with parents like mine who looked for ways to get the kids out of their hair on rainy Saturdays, knows exactly what I’m talking about. Candlepin bowling rocks.
You researched the company you wanted to work for ahead of time. You were dressed in your snazziest interview outfit and showed up promptly and prepared. You answered every question brilliantly — even the strange job interview questions like, "If you were a pizza delivery man, how would you benefit from scissors?" (Thanks, Apple.) There’s absolutely no doubt in your mind that you nailed that job interview. So why haven’t you heard anything back?
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
