An Exploratory Study of University Entrepreneurship Centres i

Because syncing with Twitter wasn’t enough, professional social network LinkedIn has taken further steps to increase the site’s social sharing aspect for SMBs and business professionals. As of yesterday, sharing news on LinkedIn got a whole lot easier with the adoption of a bunch of new site features. Here’s a look at the best of what’s new.

Better Controls

One of the most useful parts of Facebook has always been the ability to control which members of your network have access to which information. For example, you could set your filters so that your family and professional contacts were seeing different items and updates. LinkedIn has finally adopted this feature, giving users’ complete control over who sees which updates – whether it’s everyone, specific connections, a group you belong to or a specific user. Depending on how you use your LinkedIn statuses, this can be a really powerful way to target individual pieces of content toward the right audience. It gets rid of that firehouse effect that we often get trying to share information in social networking and ciphers directly into the group you’re most interested in reaching. This is a nice add from LinkedIn.

Thursday was a good PR day for the social buying site Blippy. They were featured in two New York Times articles. But Friday wasn't so great, as the major technology blogs reported that credit card information from its users were found on Google. An hour later, Blippy responded with a post on its blog, explaining that the leak was months old and affected only four beta users, not current Blippy users. Later, they amended the blog post to include an apology. News of more credit card leaks continued on Saturday. Of course, Blippy is by no means the only startups to suffer from potential public relations disasters, and it remains to be seen what, if any, impact this has on the site.

Blippy's response, including the need to re-edit its official announcement, demonstrates the importance in responding quickly and correctly to a crisis.

Starting in the summer of 2009, Russian holding firm Digital Sky Technologies (DST) began taking huge stakes in successful American startups.

First it plowed $200 million into Facebook at a $10 billion valuation.  Then it dropped $180 million into Farmville-maker Zynga, setting its value between $1.5 billion and $3 billion. Finally, last week, DST invested $135 million in discounts-for-group-buyers site Groupon, setting a $1.2 billion valuation.

So what the hell is going on, right?

It's all part of DST CEO (and billionaire) Yuri Milner's clever strategy that's changing the way tech companies grow up.

In response to Google's recent Fiber for Communities project, a group of entrepreneurs in Philadelphia have decided to conduct their own broadband stimulus experiment.

The Philly Startup Leaders are offering a Gigabit Genius Grant, and they plan to award $10,000 to the person who submits the best idea for using super high-speed Internet to improve their community.

According to Philly Startup Leaders founder Blake Jenelle, "Our contest is showcasing dozens of ways that ultra-fast broadband will change communities. There are projects that will change how we deliver medicine, protect neighborhoods, perform art, educate children, experience history, connect with each other and more." The projects will be available to view on the Startup Leaders' website.

Welcome to our April Update on what’s new at Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal. In this update …

1. PLEASE JOIN US! May 11th, 2010 for our SPRING EDITION Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal LAUNCH at The Union League of Philadelphia, 140 South Broad St., Philadelphia, from 4-7 PM
2. GET YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED by the most well-known expert on innovations!
3. YOU’RE INVITED: An Education Forum facilitated by authors Clayton Christensen and Michael B. Horn on "What Our Education System Will Look Like When Transformation Is Complete"…join us for this exciting event at The Union League of Philadelphia, 140 South Broad St., Philadelphia, from 10 AM - 4 PM!
4. NEW BLOGS on socially relevant business trends and seniors in healthcare!
5. SNEAK A PEEK at the upcoming spring edition of the Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal
6. SOCIAL INNOVATOR NOMINATIONS
7. NEW Op-Ed from co-founders Tine Hansen-Turton and Nicholas Torres: “Back to the Basics and Good Ideas; Let the Spirit of Innovation Prevail”
8. How to GET INVOLVED …

Boulder, Bend, or Boca Raton? ZoomProspector.com, a business location Web site, says smaller cities have become the best places to start new companies. ZoomProspector weighed 11 factors—including the number of startups, quality of the workforce, and resources like universities and venture capital—to compile a list of the top places to build the next Apple (AAPL) or Google (GOOG).

Penn’s Center for Technology Transfer (CTT) introduces UPSTART, a program aimed at developing Penn intellectual property by helping faculty form new companies based on their inventions and technological innovations.

The program, a comprehensive suite of services geared to connect entrepreneurs, investors and funding organizations with Penn researchers, combines the business-creation strengths of CTT and its New Ventures Team with the entrepreneurial interests of faculty founders and regional investors.

UPSTART representatives partner directly with University faculty and staff to complete the steps required to legally form a company, raise funds and recruit employees to manage the company.

WASHINGTON -- A new report from the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars defines the criteria for a new technology assessment function in the United States. The report, Reinventing Technology Assessment: A 21st Century Model, emphasizes the need to incorporate citizen-participation methods to complement expert analysis. Government policymakers, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and citizens need such analysis to capably navigate the technology-intensive world in which we now live.

The U.S. Congress set a global precedent in 1972 when it created an Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), but then reversed course in 1995 by shutting down the OTA. In the meantime, 18 European Technology Assessment agencies are flourishing and have pioneered important new methods, including Participatory Technology Assessment (pTA). By educating and engaging laypeople, pTA is unique in enabling decision-makers to learn their constituents' informed views regarding emerging developments in science and technology. pTA also deepens the social and ethical analysis of technology. European pTA methods have been adapted, tested, and proven in the U.S. at least 16 times by university-based groups and independent nonprofit organizations.

T he number of European patent applications filed last year fell for the first time in 20 years, according to new figures released by the European Patent Office (EPO).

In 2009, 135,000 applications were received – 8% fewer than in 2008.

The drop in the number of filings from outside the 36 member states of the European Patent Office (EPO) was sharper (-11%) than for filings from European countries (-5%).

At 52,000, the number of patents granted was also lower than in 2008, a fall of 13% compared to the previous year.

The EPO says the fact that the fall in approvals is partly due to its increased focus on quality over quantity. In an effort to chip away at the backlog of applications, patent examiners carried out more examinations but the grant rate was lower.

The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economics and Statistics Administration released two new reports last week: one that defines and measures the size and scope of the green economy and another that looks at the ways in which the American economy's greenhouse gas emissions have changed over the past decade.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said the reports will provide a basis against which the Obama administration's success can be measured in creating cleantech jobs, clean energy supply and energy efficiency improvements.

The first of the two reports, “Measuring the Green Economy,” provides an initial step toward measuring the size and composition of the emerging green economy and the number of cleantech jobs it has created. By using publicly-available data on more than 20,000 products and services, the report shows that the green economy is well-poised for growth:

- Shipments/receipts of green products and services comprise between $371 billion to $516 billion in 2007.

- The number of green jobs ranged from about 1.8 million to 2.4 million.

- Green manufacturing jobs totaled between 200,000 and 240,000.

- Green services jobs were much higher, and totaled between 1.4 million and 1.8 million.

- Energy conservation, resource conservation and pollution control were the predominant green activities, accounting for about 80% to 90% of green shipments/receipts and employment.

Our Green Economy Map illustrates the sectors that make up the green economy.

You know the value is there in social media, but despite your best efforts (or what you think are your best efforts), you’re still struggling to attract anyone. What’s going on and how can you change your social media luck? Below are six reasons SMBs often fail in social media and how you can turn it around.

Stop me when this sounds familiar.

You have no framework: Perhaps the largest reason small business owners fail to see an ROI with social media is because they jumped in without creating a social plan or framework for what they were trying to do. Social media may be ‘newer’ (in theory, anyway), but it’s still a marketing channel. That means before you go into it you want to develop a framework for your objectives, know how you’ll achieve them and determine the key performance indicators you’ll note along the way to make sure you’re on track. Walking into any marketing channel without a clear plan for why you’re there is a recipe for disaster.  Make sure you create your strategy BEFORE you try to implement one.

For nearly four decades, Boy Scout merit badges have been awarded for the qualities, principles and virtues society most values in young people.

Though an Entrepreneurship merit badge was quietly introduced in 1997, this year the Boy Scouts are updating the badge and re-introducing it with greater prominence. The new Entrepreneurship Merit Badge is a true testament to the age of the entrepreneur, encouraging business savvy and innovation from an early age.

By earning the Entrepreneurship merit badge, Scouts will learn about identifying opportunities, creating and evaluating business ideas, and exploring the feasibility (how doable it is) of an idea for a new business. They will also have the chance to fit everything together as they start and run their own business ventures.

The move shows the increasing value of entrepreneurial thinking as a social problem-solver and a necessary lifeskill in the pursuit of success today. It also validates geekiness as a proverbial -- and now physical -- badge of honor, much-needed vindication for us geeky kids everywhere.

Ramping up customer satisfaction, maximizing the effectiveness of human capital and repairing supply chains were just a few of the ambitious aims of the ground-breaking "tools" entered in the inaugural Wipro/Knowledge@Wharton Innovation Tournament, whose final round of judging took place on March 23 in Philadelphia.

One innovation promised to reduce unfulfilled customer orders, while another sought to monitor customers' satisfaction with a product or service. Four other innovators focused on improving how people do their jobs by sharing knowledge or monitoring performance. Another found ways to connect companies with new suppliers, while another devised a bridge between humans and machines.

Iowa ranks 30th among the 50 states in population and 23rd in square miles, but it is number two in wind -- and it wants more.

Iowa now has over 25,000 wind turbines and doubled its proportion of wind-generated electricity from 7% to 14% in 2009, the biggest jump in the U.S. Estimates put the current 2010 percentage of Iowa's electricity coming from wind above 17%.

Because Iowa added 879 megawatts of new capacity last year (enough to power more than 200,000 homes), the state's installed capacity is now second only to Texas. It has 3,670 megawatts of total installed capacity, enough electricity for 880,000 homes -- in a state with only 3 million people. And it has over 14,000 megawatts of wind power awaiting approval.

BOSTON — After nine years of regulatory review, the federal government gave the green light Wednesday to the nation’s first offshore wind farm, a highly contested project off the coast of Cape Cod.

The approval of the 130-turbine farm gives a significant boost to the nascent offshore wind industry in the United States, which has lagged far behind Europe and China in harnessing the strong and steady power of ocean breezes to provide electricity to homes and businesses.

With Gov. Deval Patrick standing beside him, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced at a news conference at the Massachusetts Statehouse that the government had approved a permit for Cape Wind Associates, a private venture, to build the farm.

Using a single wind turbine, the University of Delaware's Lewes campus soon will shift from being an electricity consumer to a producer -- powering its campus and selling the surplus to the city of Lewes.

Workers completed installation of the wind turbine's blades at the Hugh R. Sharp Campus on Tuesday, and university officials will meet with the Lewes Board of Public Works today -- possibly to finalize agreements that will allow power produced by the turbine to feed into the PJM electric grid. The grid -- which serves Delaware, 12 other states and the District of Columbia -- coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity.

The UD project is in line with state efforts. Delaware officials have been pushing for sustainable energy alternatives and have supported the proposed NRG Bluewater Wind offshore wind project. The state also has agreed to buy the power.

The university's turbine is expected to produce 5.52 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year -- enough to power the Lewes campus and research facilities with some left to spare, said Jeremy M. Firestone, an associate professor of marine policy and legal studies. Firestone is one of several university officials involved in the project.

Secretary Clinton announced the launch of the “Secretary’s Innovation Award for Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment” this morning during remarks at the Summit on Entrepreneurship. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Innovation Award seeks to find and bring to scale the most pioneering approaches to the political, economic and social empowerment of women and girls around the globe.

The award is part of the State Department’s continuing emphasis on public-private partnerships, and is administered by its Office of Global Women’s Issues. The award, and the office, is founded on the premise that the major economic, security, governance and environmental challenges of our time cannot be solved without the full participation of women at all levels of society. The Rockefeller Foundation, as part of its mission to expand opportunity and promote more equitable growth, seeks to identify innovative approaches that can be scaled to address these challenges.

A panel of jurors, co-chaired by Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer and Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin, will assist in the selection of two award winners in 2010. Jury members include Cherie Blair, Beth Brooke, Paul Farmer, Noeleen Heyzer, Anne Mulcahy, Sheryl Sandberg, Sheryl WuDunn, and Muhammad Yunus. Each awardee will receive a grant of up to $500,000 with which to expand the scope of their idea.