BEIJING — Google said Tuesday that it would stop cooperating with Chinese Internet censorship and consider shutting down its operations in the country altogether, citing assaults from hackers on its computer systems and China’s attempts to “limit free speech on the Web.”

The move, if followed through, would be a highly unusual rebuke of China by one of the largest and most admired technology companies, which had for years coveted China’s 300 million Web users.

The European Union is seeking to promote clusters of large companies, SMEs, researchers, and other economic actors to help foster innovation, bring together a critical mass of commercial and R&D expertise and get maximum value from investment.

After a year in which Ohio lawmakers canceled more sessions than they passed bills, battled repeatedly over the budget and struggled to work across party lines, 2010 brings a chance for a fresh start.

Ohioans should know quickly whether the hyperpartisan Statehouse atmosphere has eased. One of the first orders of business is trying to place one or more issues on the May ballot -- action that must be taken before Feb. 3 and requires at least a three-fifths vote of each chamber, necessitating bipartisanship.

The new programme from the Australian Government to assist young companies has been launched under the banner of Commercialisation Australia. Recent announcements have called for applications for the Commercialisation Australia Board (680 applications received for seven seats), for the CEO, Case Managers and Volunteer Mentors.

The suite of assistance initiatives under this programme are replacing COMET, Commercial Ready and other government programmes that have been cancelled over the last 18 months. The assistance replacing those programmes is detailed on the Commercialisation Australia web site and comprises up to $50,000 to access specialist advice and services, up to $200,000 over two years to assist in the recruitment of experienced executives, 1:1 matching Proof-of-Concept grants of $50,000 to $250,000 to test the commercial viability of a product/service/process and repayable grants of $250,000 to $2m to take a new product/service/process to market.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - (Business Wire) Global Clusters (http://globalclustersprogram.fi/) today announced that 28 Finnish technology companies identified from a pool of some 60 worthy contenders are taking part in its current international business development program. Designed to provide Finnish executives with training in product and service launches and winning strategies for marketing and the financing of growth, the program consists of three workshops in which executives examine topics such as identifying favorable growth segments and prime geographical markets. Since the program’s inception in 1999, a total of 111 participating Finnish companies have raised more than $143 million in venture capital and without exception have reported considerable advances to their ambitions of growing their businesses internationally.

“Our selection criterion always includes the scalability of the business as well as the will and ability to attain rapid growth in the company’s respective segment,” said Juhani Saukkonen, director, Global Clusters. “Participants are instructed in the most effective high-tech marketing tools and concepts, which have been established as the de facto standard among entrepreneurs and executives aiming for leadership in their field.”

This past summer we surveyed over 1,000 venture capitalists, and asked them a simple yes or no question: “Is the Venture Capital Business Broken?” Over 53% of the respondents said “yes.” This triggered a lot of conversation in the blogosphere and in the VC community.

It got me thinking about what exactly is going on and made me want to do a deeper dive. As a result, late in the fourth quarter I reached out to 50 general partners of venture funds across the country in Silicon Valley, Austin, Dallas, Tysons Corner, New York and Boston to gauge their sentiments about the state of the venture business.

Dear SBIR Insider,

I hope you had a good holiday season and here's to 2010 being a great year for you.

You haven't heard from the SBIR Insider for quite a while because sometimes it is better to keep quiet and stay out of the way. We have respected that in regards to the ongoing SBIR reauthorization efforts (or lack thereof) but now it's time for you to know what's really going on, and for you to evaluate what you may want to do about it.

During a visit with Rochester business leaders on Monday, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said there needs to be a "national call to action" to encourage business innovation -- especially when it comes to renewable energy technology.

She compared the call to the one put forward in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy to put a man on the moon.

"For this race that we're in right now, the finish line is not going to be Neil Armstrong landing on the moon," she said. "The finish line is going to be about a decision of whether the next big electric car battery is going to be built in Detroit or is it going to be built in South Korea."

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission is holding a workshop on innovation and investment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of the FCC’s effort to craft new rules to protect the open Internet.

Free Press, the national, nonpartisan advocacy group, is encouraging members of the public to attend this free workshop on Jan. 13, at 4:30 p.m. at the MIT Media Lab, Bartos Theater in Cambridge, Mass.

"Without strong FCC rules to protect Net Neutrality -- the principle some call the First Amendment of the Internet -- big phone and cable companies would get to pick winners and losers online," said Misty Perez Truedson of Free Press, which coordinates the SavetheInternet.com Coalition. "What we are fighting for is to ensure that the next Internet innovator doesn't need to get permission from the likes of Comcast or AT&T before launching the next great online craze."

In the latest issue of the Arkansas Times, I wrote a short piece about a big idea we have at Capsearch. Our big idea is building a more vibrant high-tech community in Arkansas. I borrowed largely from Paul Graham of Y Combinator, he has great stuff to say about startups here. We are proposing a pretty radical idea – paying web startups to relocate to Little Rock with state/city funds. We have some fantastic local assets to work with – ample private capital, a good university (UALR), and most importantly a strong entrepreneurial spirit. What we need more than anything now is innovative thinking and creative strategies to ensure that we build the type of economic future we want. I would love to hear your thoughts and any ideas or suggestions. Here is the AT piece:

We all know that the failure of Detroit is tied to its chief industry’s refusal to innovate. I have written here about how the Houston energy industry’s refusal to innovate could doom that city.

But energy innovation is coming. It’s coming fast. As one commenter on my Houston story noted, energy innovation is coming on at a Moore’s Law speed, at an industry that moves on 30-year time frames.

The UK government gave on Friday (8 January) its green light to the construction of nine new offshore wind farms, which would see Europe's capacity multiply and bring the UK closer to meeting its renewable energy targets.

The so-called 'Round 3' grants announced will deliver 32 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy, supplying a quarter of the UK's total electricity needs by 2020. This adds to the 8GW provided by previous rounds.

If you’re familiar with Sam Horn’s bestselling book, ‘POP! Stand Out in any Crowd‘, then you will have a head start on appreciating the kind of ‘POP culture’ we’re about to explore together.

An influential personal brand is a heady and unpredictable mix. If it were a recipe, I’m convinced it would be one of those fiercely guarded family secrets dating back hundreds of years. For this reason, while many have tried, few succeed in capturing in writing the essential X-Factor elements for success. It’s a big ask, but I hope to change all of that for you, right here, right now. Ready?

Jews are a famously accomplished group. They make up 0.2 percent of the world population, but 54 percent of the world chess champions, 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates and 31 percent of the medicine laureates.

Jews make up 2 percent of the U.S. population, but 21 percent of the Ivy League student bodies, 26 percent of the Kennedy Center honorees, 37 percent of the Academy Award-winning directors, 38 percent of those on a recent Business Week list of leading philanthropists, 51 percent of the Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction.

Encouraging the growth of green technology and green jobs has been a priority for the Obama administration. The recent announcement that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will fast-track green technology patent applications is a step in the right direction.

According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke the USPTO pilot program will speed up the process of examining certain green technology patent applications, with the ultimate goal of promoting U.S. competitiveness in the green sector.

“American competitiveness depends on innovation, and innovation depends on creative Americans developing new technology,” Locke said. “By ensuring that many new products will receive patent protection more quickly, we can encourage our brightest innovators to invest needed resources in developing new technologies and help bring those technologies to market more quickly.”

Its size doesn’t rival the federal health-care bill, or even The Da Vinci Code. But with 80-plus pages dense with facts, figures and proposals, Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s new white paper on innovation-based economic development is hefty reading for the public. Moreover, the world doesn’t need another addition to a shelf already groaning under the weight of numerous “studies” and plans that never amounted to much, and BRAC officials readily admit as much.

Over the years, there have been the Gulf South Research Institute [founded in 1964 and considered ahead of its time], Louisiana Science and Technology Foundation [1984], state Office of Technology, Innovation and Modernization [created in the early 1990s], and “Louisiana: Vision 2020” report [first published in 1999], to name a few.

Bell Labs, the research arm of telecom giant Alcatel-Lucent, announced a "bold and daring" target today of overhauling the Internet and other communications networks so they are 1,000 times more energy efficient within five years.

The amount of energy consumed by networks equates to 300 millions tons of plant-warming gases each year, about the same as 50 million automobiles.

If Bell Labs and its new "Green Touch" consortium of partners can spur the technologies to hit that target, the Internet could run for three years on the same amount of energy it now devours in a day.

There is no doubt that these are tough economic times. Unemployment is high and credit is tight. Key indicates show that is the worse economy in a generation. Many technology transfer offices have seen potential business partners reduce their innovation portfolios and expenditures. This coupled with a reduction in funding sources, from grants and investors to university sources are blowing the technology transfer research commercialization efforts into the perfect storm.

There are difficulties and challenges, but these times also create opportunities. Here are seven tips to help your technology transfer office succeed in these tough economic times.

The Nordics and Baltics are still very much a wild west when it comes to venture capital and building startups into real growth companies and all the way to the IPO dreamland.

All the countries have their peculiar histories when it comes to VC landscape and so does Finland. Will Cardwell, the CEO of Techopolis Ventures, wrote a very enlightening post called “Reeling in the last decade in Finnish VC” (here) on how the scene has developed in Finland what factors have influenced it.

Based on Appleton, Wisconsin, the NEW Capital Fund focuses on high growth businesses in agriculture, manufacturing, information technology, and life science industries. The Fund supports early-stage companies through equity investment and seed capital financing that can help them achieve initial company milestones to further attract subsequent funding from venture capitalists and other angel groups. With 76 topical partners and roughly $10M worth of capital, the Fund aims to invest in 12 to 14 businesses three years from now.

NEW Capital Management, Inc. oversees the primary operations and usage of the Fund along with its Investment Board that is comprised of five ace members that facilitates the investment process. Also, it allocates the group's resources to alleviate the risks involved in financing start-up companies and gaining an above-average rate of return as well.