Where should you turn to when you need an idea to set off an entrepreneurial endeavor or escape the shackles of writer’s block? If this was the 20th Century, you might have no choice but to sit around and think for a while, hoping that something might spark your creativity and an idea will just pop into your head.

But this is the 21st Century, and there are tons of websites out there that can give a much-needed spark to your creativity. Here are five of the best.

Data are the raw material of the next economic paradigm. Data, information, knowledge, innovation, and wisdom are all related; but it all starts with data. In order to produce anything valuable in the domain of social capitalism, the creation and formation of data is hypercritical. The better the data, the better the information, knowledge, innovation, wisdom and culture that will follow. Each stage of transformation along the chain reaction from “data” to “culture” is an opportunity for both great value creation AND astonishing corruption.

Technological innovation is a driving source for the socioeconomic development of any entity that is. What is innovation? We can ask and that states that this leads to social and economic development, but what or Who?.

Since our foundation we have sought ways to meet basic needs like food, shelter, communication and unity in groups to achieve survival. According to the abilities and characteristics of each one of us succeeds division of labor, each is assigned a task to develop (the men hunting and fishing and women to collect fruit and care for the elderly and children) and thus achieve survival.

Researchers We are beings by nature, natural phenomena observed and wonder how? Why? What if I did or would cause this? Giving rise to the creativity that I think is the basis for innovation and thus facilitate such activities.

Lots of discussion these days about the changes in the VC industry. Here’s my take:

1. The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet  bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion.

2. But VC is an “illiquid asset” so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks.  Consumers pulled their money out of these risky investments, but when LPs make commitments to VC funds they make 10-year, legally binding commitments. So as of 2008 total LP commitments were still at nearly $250 billion.

In 2009, for the second year in a row, both the US and Europe added more power capacity from renewable sources such as wind and solar than conventional sources like coal, gas and nuclear, according to twin reports launched today by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).

Renewables accounted for 60 per cent of newly installed capacity in Europe and more than 50 per cent in the USA in 2009. This year or next, experts predict, the world as a whole will add more capacity to the electricity supply from renewable than non-renewable sources.

The reports detail trends in the global green energy sector, including which sources attracted the greatest attention from investors and governments in different world regions.

In a recent interview, Annie Lesroart of eBay, shared with us how eBay implemented a fast, ambitious and effective strategy to go green. From forty employees, the program expanded to hundreds of thousands of eBay buyers and sellers (including people who don’t even work at eBay!) How did this happen? And how can it happen for you?

by Chris Jarvis, Senior Consultant for Realized Worth, Follow Chris on Twitter @RealizedWorth

The change began over pizza and soda. A group of employees from a company known for its innovation and leadership could not help but notice the irony of the styrofoam cups in their hands. Turns out that styrofoam constitutes as much as 30% of landfills worldwide. A discussion ensued around what it means to be green, each of the employees deciding something had to be done. Without approval, mission or mandate, and with very modest ambitions, these employees formed the “Green Team.”

Whether we’re talking about social media, content promotion or basic networking, it’s often advised that small business owners reach out, engage and connect with their “influencers”. But…who are these mythical people we’re supposed to be talking to all the time? What do they look like and where do they hang out? And why does no one ever tell us?

Well, today we will! As a small business owner, there are five types of influencers that you should be aware of and reaching out to on social media. Want to know who they are?

(Reuters) - British scientists could be invited to compete for cash prizes to discover new technologies as a cost-effective way to support research in an era of lower public spending, Science Minister David Willetts said on Friday.

Willetts is responsible for around 5 billion pounds of annual research and development funding but faces a sharp reduction in a government spending review in October unless he can persuade treasury officials to look elsewhere for savings.

The new coalition government is seeking cuts of around 25 percent in the budgets of all departments apart from health and international development to reduce a 156 billion pound budget deficit. Willetts said he believed money spent on research made economic sense, but it had to be used as effectively as possible in straightened times.

A startup makes a new entry in the race to build the virtual personal assistant.

Smart phones promise a lot of computing power and connectivity: We can search the Web and communicate from anywhere. But it can be hard to make full use of all these capabilities on small screens with tiny buttons. Now comes a new wave of applications that combine speech recognition and artificial intelligence to help people carry out simple tasks on their mobile devices.

The latest such service, from Vlingo, a company that makes voice-recognition applications, tries to go beyond earlier apps by combining a user's spoken commands with personal data and information stored online . Called "SuperDialer," the service can, for example, let a user say "Call pizza" and subsequently see a list of nearby pizza places drawn from both the user's address book and the Web.

If you are an entrepreneur that is looking for investment capital to grow your startup, it is easy to get excited when a potential investor asks for your business plan. And why not? This angel investor or venture capitalist may be able to provide just what you need to make your dream a reality.

Before you get too excited, take a breath. Bear in mind that you are intending to enter into a business relationship with an investor and just as you would qualify any potential business partner it is also important to qualify your investor. There are several things to consider before you start handing over the requested documents like your business plan, financial statements, etc.

Just what happens to your brain when that daily cup of joe kicks in? Lifehacker has pulled together a nice little primer based on research appearing in Stephen R. Braun’s book, Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine. The post also references a short video – “A Brain On Caffeine” – from CurrentTV. It’s re-presented above.

Office of Technology Transfer Partnership Intermediary Network (OTTPIN) is a web portal deal management tool for Technology Managers that provides a single location for viewing patents, leads, and the deals and opportunities managers currently have in progress.

OTTPIN is a web portal that specifically fosters interactions between Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Partnership Intermediaries (PI), facilitates Patent Pipeline Reload Meetings, and assists PI employees in tracking technology transfer and transition agreements, leads, and deals. In addition to viewing patents and leads, OTTPIN is particularly useful in helping managers document leads, upload documents, assign and track action items, set and receive reminders, and share information.

OTTPIN supports a number of DoD Partnership Intermediaries, located across the U.S. from Alaska to South Carolina, by creating the collaborative software used to help manage deal flow. The OTTPIN system provides functionality common to each PI in a web-based environment that accommodates different time zones and working hours.

As the August 5 deadline approaches for the submission of SBIR/STTR grants, many of you may be still working long nights on your application.  By the way, this deadline stands under the assumption that a continuing resolution (CR) is passed to fund the program beyond July 31 (see http://www.zyn.com/sbir/ for details). We have our fingers crossed here.

Having assisted several investigators in writing and editing SBIR/STTR grant applications (and currently writing one myself), I know how involved the process can be, especially for first-timers. I highly recommend educating yourself by going to an SBIR conference (this year’s is in Oklahoma City, http://www.sbirok.org/), attending an information session or workshop (offered by numerous universities and incubators), or listening to online seminars, such as those offered at http://center.ncet2.org/.

Back in the days of the Cold War, the U.S. government launched DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to jump-start military technology. Now the challenges are global warming and energy independence -- and the Department of Energy is tackling the new crises the same way: The Advanced Research Projects Agency -- Energy, or ARPA -- E, is funneling hundreds of millions of stimulus dollars into what it calls "high-risk, high-payoff" green-technology projects still in their infancy.

The agency, founded in 2007 but not funded until 2009, doled out $351 million between October and March, largely to companies and laboratories tackling early-stage grid tech, solar fuels, and energy-efficient lighting. In its latest wave of funding, in April, ARPA -- E announced grants totaling $106 million to 37 ventures in disruptive biofuels, batteries, and carbon capture. While large corporations including GE and Applied Materials were among the grantees, less familiar names were also on the winners list. Here are three promising projects funded in the April round.

If you have been reading this blog over the past couple of weeks you might have picked up that I’m a big admirer of Steve Blank and his thinking about how to build startups. Yesterday he wrote a blog post entitled Welcome to the Lost Decade (for Entrepreneurs, IPO’s and VC’s) which sets out the changes to the environment in which we are all working and explains how tough life is going to be for the startup ecosystem as a result. As I said I’m a big fan of Blank, but I think he over states his case this time. In the rest of this post I will pick out the salient points from Blank’s piece and then finish by saying why I think the situation isn’t as bad as he makes out.

Blank’s starting point is that the startups and their venture funds used to rely on the IPO markets to provide liquidity and latterly to fund the later stages of growth, but that the IPO market has been moribund for a decade. As you can see from the two charts below the difference between the nineties and noughties is stark.

Sandwiched between two floors of dead fish at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences, Kyle Luckenbill is creating art.

As the Academy's curatorial assistant resident dead fish paparazzo he photographs and x-rays the institution's 3,000 species-defining specimens as part of a National Science Foundation grant.

"We didn't really plan an exhibit with the project, but it was one of those things where it was sort of a no-brainer," Lukenbill says.

The U.S. Senate passed the 2,300-page financial reform bill today (vote was 60 to 39) after more than a year of deliberation. The Obama administration is casting it as a major victory — protecting average consumers from Wall Street excesses.

For the most part, senators voted along party lines, with only three Republicans breaking ranks to support the legislation, one of the highest domestic priorities for the Democrats.

The bill, to be signed by President Barack Obama this weekend, blocks major banks from growing irresponsibly, empowers the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Reserve to break up foundering businesses, and places hedge funds and credit rating agencies under the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Large companies will now be required to have shutdown plans at the ready so that if they fail, they don’t take other segments of the economy down with them.

The United Nations Environment Program and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century today reveal in a pair of new reports that despite an overall financial downturn in 2009, global investments in sustainable energy increased worldwide. Core clean energy investments from private and public sources totaled $162 billion.

Policies that favor the development of a green economy and businesses in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency also increased: more than 100 countries enacted some type of policy target and/or promotion policy related to renewable energy by early 2010.

New ARPA-E projects in 18 states will accelerate innovation in clean energy technologies, increase America's competitiveness and create jobs

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced 43 cutting-edge research projects that aim to dramatically improve how the U.S. uses and produces energy. Funded with $92 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), today’s selections focus on accelerating innovation in green technology while increasing America's competitiveness in grid scale energy storage, power electronics and building efficiency.

“These innovative ideas will play a critical role in our energy security and economic growth,” said Secretary Chu. “It is now more important than ever to invest in a new, clean energy economy.”

If you expect to succeed in the thrill-a-minute, roller coaster ride of a startup, let me assure you it takes more than a good idea, a rich uncle, and luck.

In fact, the idea is often the least important part of the equation. Investors tell me that they look at the people first, the business plan second, and only then at the idea.

If you want some tips to beat the insurmountable odds, take a look at the following concepts, adapted from Richard C. Levy’s book, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cashing in On Your Inventions.”

He was talking about inventions, but I think his concepts apply perfectly to any entrepreneur starting a business.