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innovation DAILY

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.

Tanya Benedicto Kilch

Chattanooga, Tenn. was historically known as "River City" for its prime waterfront location along the Tennessee River. A few years ago, when it installed a city-owned fiber-optic network, it became known as "Gig City." Local leaders -- especially Mayor Andy Berke -- now tout Chattanooga for having the fastest and one of the least expensive high-speed Internet services in the U.S.

 

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money

The number of objects connected to the Internet and in use will grow 30 percent from this year to next, for a total of 4.9 billion, according to a new report from market research firm Gartner, and will hit 25 billion by 2020.

Along with the growth in the number of devices, Gartner predicts an increase in total spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) to climb from $69.5 billion next year to $263 billion in 2020.

 

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NewImage

SPECIAL REPORT: Business and civil interests representing the mobile payments markets are developing global principles, standards and codes of conduct for digital finance, as cashless payments move to the fore in the developing world, following a meeting this summer in Perth, Australia.

The fifth annual Responsible Finance Forum Better – backed by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the World Bank Group – convened over 100 industry, government and private sector leaders to discuss how to deliver digital financial services fairly and safely.

Image: Amsterdam's Public Transport Chip Card. (VeloBusDriver/Flickr)

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TVs

Televisions weren’t always smart. In fact, given how long people tend to hang on to their TVs, plenty of so-called “boob tubes” still dominate numerous living rooms across the country.

Fortunately, you don't need a smart TV to tune into Netflix and other streaming services. All you really need is a plug-in gadget. The add-ons come in a range of sizes and prices, anything from a HDMI streaming stick to a set-top box shaped like a hockey puck to a full-fledged console, with a range of features to suit a variety of users.

 

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Think of entrepreneurial success as a recipe: half cup of vision, half cup of profit resources, and a gallon of customer relationship building. But there’s one thing missing to these ingredients. For true long-term entrepreneurial success, you have to first turn to your workplace’s culture.

It’s easy to forget the importance of building an engaging and collaborative work environment. With bottom lines to think about, business owners often don’t link the connections between a vibrant culture and their business’ viability. But the two things go hand in hand. If you are reading Under 30 CEO, I already know you have the acumen and desire to improve your business, and a great workplace should be part of that vision.

Image: Free Digital Photos

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gift

Now that (for better or worse) technology is a central part of everyone’s life, as opposed to something other early adopters geek out over when new products are released in advance of the holiday shopping season, it felt like it was time for our annual holiday gift guide to evolve.

 

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NewImage

Yesterday, 26 November 2014, may go down in the history of the European Union as a historic date, comparable to the announcement of The New Deal in United States in the 1930s. The potentially historic event that took place was a speech in the European Parliament where the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced a €315 billion investment plan to kick-start confidence in Europe’s economy.

 

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High tech startups are taking an urban turn. Manhattan and Brooklyn, downtown San Francisco, and Santa Monica are all becoming tech hubs. This is a new development. While large urban centers have historically been sources of venture capital, the high tech startups they funded were mainly, if not exclusively, located in suburban campuses in California’s Silicon Valley, Boston’s Route 128 corridor, the Research Triangle of North Carolina, and in the suburbs of Austin and Seattle. But high tech de- velopment, startup activity, and venture investment have recently begun to shift to urban centers and also to close-in, mixed-use, transit-oriented walkable suburbs. This report, which is based on unique data from the National Venture Capital Association, Thompson Reuters and Dow Jones, examines this emergent urban shift in high tech startup activity and venture capital investment.

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The Embrace wristband.

A new wristband from a startup called Empatica is built for people with epilepsy—it hopes to detect their seizures and alert family when they’re in the throes of one—but it could also appeal to people who simply want a sleek-looking gadget for logging activities and stress.

Empatica, which builds wearable devices to measure how biological signals relate to emotions, sought $100,000 in crowdfunding for the device, called Embrace, on IndieGoGo in mid-November. The company met that goal after a day of soliciting donations, and has since raised more than $50,000 on top of it.

Image: The Embrace wristband.

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dolphin

It’s a bummer to modulate your calorie intake at Thanksgiving but sadly, most of us fear the fat pants – and, for the diabetics in particular, the carbo-loading. If only we had the metabolism of our aquatic friend, the dolphin:

Dolphins can selectively choose to turn their diabetes on and off – on a daily basis. The National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego is conducting research on what triggers this voluntary switch, and how it can be applied to us mere mortals.

 

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Keiretsu Forum, a global angel investment network, has added an accelerator that will work with digital health companies among other sectors. It is part of a wider trend of accelerator growth around the country as investors see the opportunity to shape companies’ development, specifically their investments.

 

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Anna Rosso, NIESR

Using 'big data', independent research think-tank NIESR has set out an alternative count of firms in the UK Government's 'Information Economy' industries, and compares these to estimates using conventional industry codes. The research builds on analysis conducted with Google in 2013, and is published by Max Nathan and Anna Rosso at NIESR, alongside Francois Bouet at Growth Intelligence and funded by Nesta.

Image: Anna Rosso, NIESR "Big data can shine a light on real-world economic shifts that are moving ahead of current administrative data and classifications."

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Jonathan Long

Whether we are talking about a football game, an election or an entrepreneurial journey, one thing is certain -- there are going to be winners and there are going to be losers.

Want to stack the odds of being a successful entrepreneur in your favor? You can start by taking note of the following 10 things that you should never do.

Image: Jonathan Long

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European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker wants a “capital markets union” in Europe.

BRITAIN has long regarded itself as having a certain entrepreneurial flair that sets it apart from its continental cousins. And now it’s official. The recently released annual Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index placed Britain fourth in the world, and well ahead of its European neighbours.

Image: European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker wants a “capital markets union” in Europe.

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