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.
Many of us can't escape social media. In private and in public, we're glued to our smartphones — often at the expense of having a conversation with the the real, live human beings in front of us.
Writer and director Gary Turk urges everyone to put down their gadgets in his poem Look Up. The video is a touching montage of a lost young man falling in love with a woman who gives him directions, and their life together without the hindrance of social media.
Image: http://mashable.com
The cost of entry for an aspiring entrepreneur has never been lower, and the total wealth of opportunities has never been larger. You can start a new e-Commerce site on the Internet for as little as $100, with cheap smart phone apps, new technology innovations, or tapping the multitude of opportunities brought by capitalizing on our concern for dwindling natural resources.
Guys, have you ever had one of those mornings when nothing seems to go right?
You attempt to shave your neck-beard, but your dull razor leaves your bathroom looking like a murder scene. Then after getting ready, you realize your shirt is wrinkly, your sweater is fuzzy, your shoes stink, your belt no longer fits and you're suddenly aware that your tie is seven years out of fashion.
Image: http://mashable.com
A lot has been said about the need to build communities around emerging technologies, including disruptive concepts like ‘crowdfunding’. These communities comprise of enthusiasts, including the early-adopters, who together help create traction and an aura of interest around the disruptive idea.
Image: socialmediabootcampuk
If your mind conjures images of cubicles and gray cinder blocks when you hear the word “incubator,” think again.
Incubator managers around the country are evolving. While some may have stolen a page from the coworking handbook, they’re realizing they have so much more to offer entrepreneurs than just a place to crash. Like the suave return of elbow patches on corduroy sport coats, incubators are reinventing the old, putting a fresh face on what’s hip – and the fish are biting.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Kermit the Frog showed up in the emergency room at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston recently, complaining of chest pain. A quick tilt of my head showed me Kermit’s records—his EKG results, the radiology tests ordered for him, and his medical history.
Image: Digital doc: Emergency physician and clinical informaticist Steve Horng wears the Google Glass device used in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s emergency department.
Foluke Tuakli hopped on a bicycle and weaved around her classroom at the University of Maryland, College Park, acting out the problems that cyclists encounter on the road. "I'm turning, I'm turning," she shrieked as the bike wobbled.
The demonstration was part of a student pitch for a bicycle GPS app in a freshman entrepreneurship class in the honors college. Other student groups had their own pitches: a new type of sustainable drinking fountain where water is squirted directly into the mouth, a Third World slum development project, and a day care center that emphasizes healthful eating habits.
Image: Daniel Chavez and Mimi Verdonk present their entrepreneurial projects at the University of Maryland, College Park. President Wallace D. Loh has put an emphasis on innovation throughout the campus. (Daniel Kucin Jr., BALTIMORE SUN / April 23, 2014)
When starting your first business, it pays to show some audacity. Some of the most successful companies – Google, Facebook, and Apple, to name a few – started out as ideas that many considered crazy or risky at the time. But a few bold entrepreneurs chose to take the necessary risks and it paid off for them.
Since the 1970′s, communication experts have been citing research results released by Dr. Albert Mehrabian on the related value of three vital components of human communication:
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
A new survey of 30,000 college graduates gives higher education leaders a chance to make their case that college isn’t all about jobs and income. The evidence from the largest survey of its kind is, however, mixed about whether colleges are doing enough to help students’ well-being in life, according a new measurement designed by Gallup and Purdue University.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
The modern car has rendered the average motorist lazier than a coffee-starved sloth.
It started way back in the 1940s with the advent of the humble electric window. And, quicker than you could say “that sounds too much like hard work”, a whole host of electric in-car functions followed: electric power steering, electric tail-gates, electric side-mirrors, electric pretty-much-everything.
Image: http://motorburn.com
We've heard where we need to add to our lives--sleep, time, discipline--but the bad habits in our paths make forming better ones even harder.
Inspired by Life Hack's"10 habits of highly unfocused people," these personality traits might sound a little too close to home for all of us.
Image: http://www.fastcompany.com/
Most people agree that the two strongest human urges are survival and procreation, but there is very little consensus on the next most powerful. I believe it’s the need to succeed. Humans hate to fail — hate it more than almost anything else.
But what about all the people in the world who apparently have no drive for success — for instance, kids who choose to be drug dealers rather than get an education and “succeed”? I see a different explanation for such behavior. If you hate failure, you have a wonderful way of ensuring that you don’t experience it: Play the game you know you can win.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
If there’s one thing I hate these days, it’s discussing the U.S. economy.
Will raising wages by seventeen cents destroy humanity? Will edible deodorant add 0.000007 percent to GDP? If we resurrected giant man-eating dinosaurs, could we use them to keep our warehouse pickers in line? Isn’t it awesome when the Dow hits a record high (but everything else flatlines or shrinks)?
The next technological revolution will unfold and run out of the rectangular screens of tablets and mobile phones. It will come in form of wearable technologies in all forms and shapes. We are getting just a glimpse of tip of this new segment in form of wearable glasses, watches, fitness bands, mood sensing headgears, vibrator fitted lingerie and much more. Today Intel is attempting to take this segment to new high and is inviting innovators to take part in competition to design a “Make It Wearable” challenge.
Image: http://daily.bhaskar.com
By Theodore Panayotou
While people have begun to accept that the new economic model of the country must incorporate innovation and entrepreneurship, very few see themselves taking part in this transformation. Most claim that there is no money to invest because starting one’s own business requires a huge investment. Having deep pockets is viewed as a sine qua non for being entrepreneurial.
Image: http://cyprus-mail.com
$200 million later, was TNInvestco worth the risk?
We think it was; however, the TNInvestco model needs a major overhaul to justify future taxpayer support. And that future support is needed for Tennessee to compete for innovation-based jobs in the 21st-century economy.
In our opinion, the benefits of TNInvestco will ultimately outweigh its flaws when compared with other economic development investments, but there are important lessons to learn from the TNInvestco experiment before we commit more state support.
Michigan's ranks of entrepreneurs have flourished in recent years, according to two reports issued Monday: a yearly report by the Ann Arbor-based Michigan Venture Capital Association and the 10th annual Michigan entrepreneurial scorecard compiled by MiQuest, a Lansing-based nonprofit affiliated with the Small Business Association of Michigan.
Both reports point to building momentum in Michigan's ability to attract and fund fledgling entrepreneurs.
Image: MiQuest President Diane Durance
Late last year, I called my mobile operator and asked that my voicemail service be deleted. Why? I was tired of getting missed calls and subsequent messages and forgetting to listen to them until long after they were relevant. I was also tired of telling (sometimes indignant) people that no, I hadn’t heard their message.
The growing numbers of voicemail messages I hear when calling other people that ask me not to leave a message but, instead, to send an SMS or email, suggest I’m not alone in my frustration. As does the number of people who tell me they’re receiving fewer and fewer messages with callers hanging up as soon as the first strains of a voicemail message play.
What is Open Innovation?
Open innovation, also known as crowdsourcing or co-creation, is a way for companies to harness the ideas and strength of people outside their organization to make improvements to internal processes or products. Many companies, from automobile manufacturers to technology companies seek input from those outside their organization for solving some of their trickiest problems. Open innovation is also a way for companies to avoid the stale, repetitive thinking that can happen when employees are accustomed to their internal ways of solving problems. By including more outside ideas, companies can ensure their ideas stay fresh and new while providing opportunities for those outside their organization to participate in technology development.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
