Innovation is, by its very meaning, future-looking (unless you are one of that rare breed of scholar -- the historian of innovation). The question is how far out in time one should reasonably look in attempting to fashion a view regarding the future directions of innovation. Against this backdrop, this Kat recently ran across an interesting report on scientificwatch.com entitled “The World in 2025—10 Predictions of Innovation”, here. This Kat is well aware of the challenges in seeking to identify future trends of any kind (as noted by Yogi Berra, here, the legendary American baseball player turned aphoristic seer-- “The future ain't what it used to be”). Nevertheless, given the provenance of the study, Thomson Reuters, and the vast informational resources at their disposal, this Kat believes that Kat readers will find the study—its purpose, methodology, results and conclusions, to be of potential interest.

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Resilience was a hot topic at last week’s O’Reilly Velocity conference, and the topic was hottest during the keynote and subsequent interview by David Woods, Professor of Cognitive Systems Engineering and Human Systems Integration at The Ohio State University. As an expert in Resilience Engineering, Professor Woods has consulted on catastrophic failures and resilience for organizations ranging from NASA to emergency rooms. For Velocity’s performance engineering audience, his take on engineering adaptive systems to be resilient provided refreshing insight into the complex problems facing technologists today.

Innovation is of the utmost importance for Europe’s economy, but has so far gotten far too little attention in discussions about the organisation of the new Commission. A Chief Innovation Officer, able to lead the Commission on the innovation front, is urgently needed, argues Roland Strauss.

Roland Strauss is Co-founder and Managing Director of Knowledge4Innovation the platform that brings together innovation leaders from the private, public and academic sectors. Roland is also a Managing Partner of IncubatorEurope.

The latest round of fellowship awards by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, announced on September 17, included University of Pennsylvania professor of innovation and bioengineering Danielle S. Bassett. Bassett heads a group that uses network science to develop analytical tools to predict how the human brain works. Specifically, the group looks at neuron interactions to see how they change under particular conditions — for example, when people have an accident, disease or psychiatric disorder.

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Whatever your native language, you've probably noticed that city people speak it differently than do country folk. But so what? It's also true that Chicagoans speak a bit differently than do Baltimoreans, and the French of Marseilles is not that of Paris. When it comes to differences in accent, grammar and vocabulary, you might expect that region, culture, social class and gender would count for more than the size of your town. So the people of, say, Caracas, should sound more like their fellow Venezuelans than like people in Miami. But according to this paper, you would be wrong. "The Spanish language," its authors write, "is split into two superdialects"—a city dialect in which Caracas and Miami have a lot in common, versus a dialect of rural regions and small towns.

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One of the more noted phenomena commonly associated with millennials is that many of them still live with mom and dad. Taylor estimates that about 40% of young American adults either never left home or boomeranged back after college. Whereas in previous generations an adult living with one's parents was a sign of failure, that stigma appears to have mostly disappeared in recent decades. In fact, Taylor says the cohabitation of parents and their adult children is, for the most part, harmonious:

NorTech, a Cleveland technology-based economic development organization, is hosting what it's calling the 2014 Innovation UnConference this Wednesday, bringing in a few hundred participants for a conference with no boring speeches, no set agenda and no predetermined topics. It's just a whole bunch of the area's best business and entrepreneurial minds and people looking to make connections. We caught up with NorTech president and CEO Rebecca O. Bagley who filled in some details on the UnConference and economic development in Northeast Ohio.

The latest survey data on the  living preferences of the Millennial generation (born 1982-2003) once again validates the picture of a cohort  that, contrary to urban legend, actually prefers the suburbs, even as they prepare to shape the suburbs in their own image. We and others have previously made this data-based point on this website. The results of the survey challenges the often wishful thinking of academics and ideologues who yearn for a more urbanized, denser America. 

Every country, region and society has challenges. The problem is that we are not asking the generation that will inherit these to find solutions NOW and implement them NOW. What is one innovative, transformative program or project you would implement?

If a mobile camera app icon manifested into a physical product, it would be the new Polaroid Cube. And judging by the looks of this wee little box, the action camera might just win over plenty of hearts, helmets and handlebars.

The Cube, which starts shipping next month, offers 1080p video recording and a retro-fabulous aesthetic for a price tag of $99. That’s half the price of a base model GoPro, the leading brand that defines this category.

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Preqin‘s latest research into the Asian private equity industry has highlighted the accelerated growth in venture capital investment throughout the region in recent years. After a number of years of slower fundraising and investment activity across the continent, venture capital deal flow across Asia, particularly in more emerging economies such as those in Northeast and South Asia, has increased significantly. The level of investment in buyout opportunities across Asia has also grown in 2014, with $29.6bn of investment so far in 2014 compared to $25.7bn in the whole of last year.

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Few agree as to whether there’s a bubble in venture capital. Bill Gurley says there is one, Marc Andreesen says there isn’t, and so forth. Either way, some journalists have been quick to note that if there is a bubble, it is different this time. Because venture capital is funded by private, wealthy investors, the thinking goes, at least mom-and-pop investors aren’t at risk.

Image: Percentages may not add to 100 percent because of rounding. Source: Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst Sources of Capital survey - http://www.businessweek.com

When 25-year-old Greg Caplan left his job at Groupon recently, he really wanted to spend some time traveling and working remotely, but ran into a few problems.

“I was able to find remote work, but it’s difficult to find friends to travel with,” he says. “The biggest issue is traveling alone. I thought it’d be lonely. I wanna go travel but I wanna do it with a community and in a more structured way.”

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What makes a good incubator? I can think of some qualitative things, like the type of people you surround yourself with, but I'm glad someone is crunching the numbers out there. Stockholm-based UBI Index has put out a new ranking of accelerators around the world, with Sweden's Stiftelsen Chalmers Innovation making the list from the region. A the top list of University-associated incubators can be found in the infographic at the end of the article.

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Whether it's for art, technology or film, Kickstarter has become the go-to place for entrepreneurs and creatives to turn their dreams into reality.

Since its launch in 2009, the crowdfunding platform has seen 70,226 successfully funded projects. But along the way, there have been 100,760 unsuccessful campaigns. This raises a question: Do certain Kickstarter categories perform better than others?

With so much venture capital being foisted onto the digital health space, it’s beginning to beg the question: How long will this last, can it sustain itself, and what’s an entrepreneur to do? And, what are the implications for emerging companies versus traditional healthcare companies and systems?

Those were just a few of the burning questions discussed at Health 2.0‘s Pre, Post, M&A IPO panel held in Santa Clara.

This SlideShare presentation reviews basic terminology commonly used in the venture world. First, the entities into which capital sources are aggregated for purposes of making investments are usually referred to as "funds," "venture companies," or "venture partnerships." They resemble mutual funds in a sense but are not, with rare exceptions (AR&D was one), registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 because they are not publicly held and do not offer to redeem their shares frequently or at all. The paradigmatic venture fund is an outgrowth of the Greylock model, a partnership with a limited group of investors, or limited partners, and an even more limited group of managers who act as general partners, the managers enjoying a so-called carried interest, entitling them to a share in the profits of the partnership in ratios disproportionate to their capital contributions. Venture funds include federally assisted Small Business Investment Companies (which can be either corporations or partnerships) and, on occasion, a publicly held corporation along the AR&D model, styled since 1980 as "business development corporations." This post, following common usage, will refer to any managed pool of capital as a "fund" or "partnership."

A big strategic statement (such as a core purpose, mission, or vision statement) shouldn’t simply be words on a plaque or page that don’t really shape day-to-day activities.

When you get a strategic statement right, you’ll use it on a daily basis to shape decisions, priorities, and approaches to what you do and how you do things.

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Entrepreneurs are a unique breed of people. While some people sit and fantasize about the glamor of being their own boss and creating their own business, those in the thick of business ownership understand that even considering all its rewards, entrepreneurship is a difficult and complicated path.

The world's most successful entrepreneurs aren’t the ones who impulsively quit their jobs to chase a get-rich-quick idea. They are the ones with an entrepreneurial mindset -- a set of perspectives and values that allow them to achieve greatness.

Many new entrepreneurs are so excited by their latest idea that they can’t resist contacting every investor they know, assuming the investor will be equally excited and want to contribute immediately. Others will work hard on a business plan, and then mail it indiscriminately to every potential investor they can find on the Internet. Both of these approaches are a waste of your time and theirs.