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.
Harrisburg – Continuing to advance his JOBS1st PA initiative, Governor Tom Corbett today announced the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority approved an investment of $14 million to the four Ben Franklin Technology Partners which provide technology-based economic development support for entrepreneurs and job creation throughout Pennsylvania.
Image: http://www.yourerie.com
Recently, I religiously tried to follow a new routine I created for myself: a 7-day work week routine.
The idea was quite simple: I would work 7 days a week, rest 7 days a week, go to the gym 7 days a week, reflect 7 days a week. This was less about working lots, much more about feeling fulfilled every day, feeling stretched during the day but also rested. I aimed to work less each day, and replace two hours of work with a long break in the middle of the day.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
We know that starting up a business is hard, really really hard. Especially when you’re creating a business that’s focused on tackling a pressing social problem.
Incubation programmes like the Bethnal Green Ventures accelerator play an important role in supporting entrepreneurs through the early stages, by providing intensive mentoring, funding and space to develop an idea. But what happens after you leave the incubation nest?
Image: http://www.nesta.org.uk
Linda Wittbrodt was perusing Michigan Technological University’s website when she stumbled across a faculty project seeking funds to teach senior citizens online skills.
Wittbrodt thought that was cool, so she donated $25 through a new approach the Upper Peninsula university is using: pitching of an idea online and asking people to make a donation, a strategy known as crowdfunding.
Image: Crowdfunding is being used to back Michigan State professor Richard Neubig's scleroderma research. (Dale G. Young / The Detroit News) From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140808/SCHOOLS/308080032#ixzz39pMycA9g
The National Business Incubation Association is moving its headquarters and global training center to the UCF Research Park.
The Florida High Tech Corridor Council provided an incentive package to the NBIA for the move, with $100,000 per year for five years, a total of $500,000.
Image: UCF campus sign (August 7, 2014)
AsianScientist (Aug. 7, 2014) – “The fire is lit, this wave of Singaporean entrepreneurs is going to either discover that Singapore is a great place for start-ups, or they will learn not to bother”, said Dr. Stephen Turner, chief technology officer and founder of Pacific Biosciences, a biotech company specializing in sequencing technologies.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Ever notice how Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Kors, and countless other pioneers all seem to experience fashion deja vu on a daily basis? They must know something we don't.
Perhaps it's the fact that the more decisions we make, the more we're stressing our brains out and killing our productivity.
Devoting time to a cause you believe in is not only fulfilling, but can transform your life.
My philanthropic passions stemmed from watching a 60 Minutes segment on El Sistema, an orchestral program in Caracas, Venezuela, where they took underprivileged youth and taught them music.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
A program sponsored by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. has been put in place to support commercialization of high-tech innovation. WEDC will provide $1 million in funding to entrepreneurs through the program, called SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) Advance, which will be administered by the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s Center for Technology Commercialization.
Image: Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. is a public-private partnership tasked with improving the state’s business climate.
One of the most ubiquitous aphorisms in business is that the best leaders understand the need to “walk the talk” — that is, their behavior and day-to-day actions have to match the aspirations they have for their colleagues and organization. But the more time I spend with game-changing innovators and high-performing companies, the more I appreciate the need for leaders to “talk the walk” — that is, to be able to explain, in language that is unique to their field and compelling to their colleagues and customers, why what they do matters and how they expect to win. The only sustainable form of business leadership is thought leadership. And leaders that think differently about their business invariably talk about it differently as well.
J. Craig Venter, the biologist who led the effort to sequence human DNA, on unlocking the human genome and the importance of building extraordinary teams for long-term results.
The year 1999 may have been the apex of the dot-com bubble euphoria, but it wasn't the heyday of Web developers. At least, not according to U.S. state and federal Occupational Employment Statistics, which didn't even register that "Web developer" was a real job.
Since then, Web development has become so popular that it has made it into our labor statistics even as it has faded as a marketable job skill. Today, it's not enough to be a generic Web developer: the best developers have specialized.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Feel free to browse the above interactive graphic containing U.S. PE deal counts by county for a while. It’s far more mottled than the landscape of venture funding that PitchBook unrolled a while back, illustrating the country’s diversity and depth of PE investment. Hotspots dominated by a metropolis, like Houston-housing Harris County in Texas, take the top spots as expected, but the sheer saturation of the Northeast and Great Lakes regions still surprises. And these deal counts are only the totals from January 1, 2010, through June 30, 2014. A few highlights:
Image: http://blog.pitchbook.com
IN 1742 Benjamin Franklin invented a new type of stove, for which he was offered a patent. Franklin refused it, arguing in his autobiography that because “we enjoy(ed) great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours.”
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.netÂ
Being one of eleven grandchildren of a U.S. Postman and a homemaker who fed us well from their 40 square foot garden has been invaluable to me as an entrepreneur. During my early years, I learned how to keep the peace among my cousins when we visited our grandparents in their 800 square foot home. For some reason, I was the mediator between the six boys and five girls. Go figure. I would have never imagined those early life lessons ultimately serving as a training ground for entrepreneurship.
A young entrepreneur might run across a lot of articles offering advice for the new business owner. But how many articles are actually geared toward the young entrepreneur?
As a former young entrepreneur myself (now I'm 30), I’ve decided to share my insights from my past experiences -- all the types of things that I wish someone had passed on to me when I was first starting out.
These days, the world of tech is no longer the murky, obscure thing that makes your computer or television work. Today we are all so immersed in tech that Silicon Valley and its key tech players are celebrities to us. Silicon Valley is the new Hollywood, and just like Tinsel Town it is not always the brightest or the most talked about stars that are the real movers and shakers of the space. Google, Facebook and “real life Tony Stark (Iron Man)” Elon Musk may be in constant orbit of our tech planet, but before their stars went supernova there were others putting the tech world building blocks in place.
A new kind of computer chip, unveiled by IBM today, takes design cues from the wrinkled outer layer of the human brain. Though it is no match for a conventional microprocessor at crunching numbers, the chip consumes significantly less power, and is vastly better suited to processing images, sound, and other sensory data.
Image: http://www.technologyreview.com
I’m now home after 3 conferences and 2 weeks on the East Coast. During the trip, much of my time — and all of my speaking roles — was spent talking about networks, communities, ecosystems and platforms.
Maybe I’m getting crotchety in my old age, but it seems like there’s some sloppiness in the use of these terms by innovation scholars. Since this is my main area of research — both for the past decade and probably another decade to come — I’d like to summarize some of my thoughts on these constructs, with pointers to the literature.
Image: Van Alstyne and West - http://blog.openinnovation.net
