Thus spake Zuckerberg: “We don’t think a modern messaging system is going to be e-mail.”

The Facebook founder said so in November, when his company unveiled its new messaging platform: a system, sans subject lines, designed based on the assumption that in the future most electronic communication will come in brief, informal bursts. In December, Zuckerberg’s prognosis was essentially certified by the New York Times, which ran an article suggesting that among young people who are in college or about to be, e-mail is quickly going out of style.

When most people think of startup hubs, a few common places come to mind. Even the average non-tech enthusiast knows that Silicon Valley and New York City are startup hubs thanks to stories about Google and movies like The Social Network. And while these places are certainly at the heart of technology, plenty of new startup hubs are blossoming around the world.

1. Delhi, India

India is rapidly emerging as a major world startup hub. In a January 2011 article on five red-hot Indian tech startups, Memeburn notes that India has an advantage over China (another up-and-coming startup hub) in its relatively free, open economy. Additionally, “its high percentage of English speakers and its highly educated new caste of IT whiz kids” make India the “perfect breeding ground” for game-changing technology entrepreneurs.

Since taking over AOL, Tim Armstrong has been surprisingly active buying and selling assets. By our count, he's spent at least $596 million on 13 properties, and sold five assets for at least $342 million.

AOL's acquisition strategy centers on buying premium content sites, or small technology companies. The content feeds AOL's vision of becoming the world's number one digital media company. The technology pick ups are supposed to make that easier.

A more savvy and experienced interviewer won't ask this question. They'll ask the much more relevant "What do you perceive as your key areas for development?"

If you are asked the "weaknesses" question, answering in an honest and disclosing manner concerning areas for development will generally yield a favorable result. I personally rank introspection, humility and a thirst for knowledge very highly, even if some of the areas for development are areas in which I wish the candidate were stronger today.

Most of us struggle to stay focused. We live in a world of constant distractions – where emails ping up on our cell phones, where entertainment is always just a click away.

The problem is, a lack of concentration can destroy your ability to work effectively. If you're not concentrating:

* You'll make silly mistakes. How many times have you sent an email without its attachment? How many times have you forgotten a call that you meant to make?

The recession has had a negative impact on many startups and small businesses. The NPD Group recently published data showing that the number of restaurants operating in the US has decreased by one percent in 2010 on top of losses in 2009. So how has the recession impacted the world of university startups? You might expect to see a dramatic slowdown in the number of startups spinning out of universities as inventors become more risk adverse and seed capital is harder to find. But the data shows that the impact was not that severe.

According to the AUTM FY09 Annual Licensing Survey the number of startups dependent on university technology grew steadily over the past decade, although the numbers were about even in 2008 and 2009. The survey also indicates that the number of startups becoming non-operational in 2009 increased significantly over 2008. The number of startups with no initial funding increased significantly in the 2008 and 2009 period, while those that did get funding relied increasingly on VC and state funding.

EU leaders promised at the end of the Council of the European Union summit on 4 February to fuel cooperation on large-scale research projects, to make funding formalities less troublesome and to find new sources of venture capital for innovative start-up enterprises.

A strategic and integrated approach to increase innovation and profit from Europe's intellectual capital will give European citizens, researchers and businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the boost they need. The EU Council plans to improve the mobility and career prospects of researchers, and ensure a full European Research Area (ERA) within the next two years - one of the EU's most important goals. The Council also noted that the year 2015 will have a Digital Single Market, and more national public procurement budgets will be spent for the purchase of innovative products and services.

Russian architect Alexander Remizov has designed a new hotel for life after global warming.

Naturally, it's called The Ark and it can stand up to earthquakes and floods.

Remizov tells Spiegel the could be put together in three to four months. The hotel with 151,000 square feet of living space would cost roughly the same as building an energy-efficient house.

More technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) companies based in emerging economies have ascended to the top ranks of the world’s creators of shareholder value, according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). This is one core finding of “Swimming Against the Tide: How Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Companies Can Prosper in the New Economic Reality.”

In March 2006 we produced a report setting out projections for potential growth in GDP in 17 leading economies over the period to 2050. These projections were updated in March 2008 and we have now revisited them again in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, extended now to cover all G20 economies.

Our key conclusion is that the global financial crisis has further accelerated the shift in global economic power to the emerging economies.

Measured by GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, which adjusts for price level differences across countries, the largest E7 emerging economies seem likely to be bigger than the current G7 economies by 2020, and China seems likely to have overtaken the US by that date. India could also overtake
the US by 2050 on this PPP basis.

Ankur Jain is the 20-year-old founder of the Kairos Society, a group that tries to discover the world leaders of the future and bring them together for support, mentoring and networking. He swung through San Francisco in between being named one of the partner organizations for President Obama’s Startup America initiative and the Kairos Society’s Global Summit in New York February 25-27, no doubt feeling as light and celebratory as this picture I found on his blog.

Portugal is the country that most improved on the European Union’s list of innovation, occupying first place among “moderately innovating” nations, according to a Brussels’ study released this week.

The 27-member bloc’s Innovation Union Scoreboard placed Portugal in the 15th overall position, showing it as the country that made greatest gains during the past five-year period.

Among other indicators considered, Portugal came third in the number of new doctorates in the 25 to 34 age group per 1,000 inhabitants.

The country also showed strong improvements in innovation of products, processes, organization and marketing among its small and medium-sized companies.

After starting as a two person operation in Carnegie Mellon in 2006, Google now has 150 people in Pittsburgh.

In order to accommodate its new employees, Google settled into the penthouse space in a 100 year-old Nabisco cookie factory building.

To make the space Googly, it hired local architecture firm Strada, which worked with Google to create a space that was intimate but with room to expand, says a Strada employee.

If you are a startup founder or major investor, how do you find that CEO for your “Dream Team” to close on funding and kick start your company? It makes logical sense to scour the job boards, engage an executive recruiter, or scan the networking sites like LinkedIn for a good array of candidates, and then interview the ones with the best resumes.

If that’s as far as you go, you haven’t done the whole job. In reality, none of these alternatives is as effective as face-to-face networking. As I’ve said before, there is no substitute for building your network, or using your network of trusted advisors.

NFL alum and former national champion Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, explains how the new Startup America program will help entrepreneurs overcome what’s often called the “valley of death” on the way to success.

More and more I’m thinking crowdfunding is a genius idea that I need to add to my quiver of fundraising resources. -Especially with a relatively creative project that involves cool mapping features and a spiffy marketplace for foodies. I mean, with resources like kickstarter (blog) and indiegogo (blog), I’d almost feel guilty not giving crowdfunding a shot. Look at the success stories; Diaspora (blog)- a wicked sweet social network that allows for a more privy social network experience; Or Satarii (blog), a vlogger’s wet dream; Or even MixAr (fbook), an augmented reality iPhone app!

The “tech transfer health index” is a simple but powerful technique to quantify the impact and productivity of the entire long tail curve of technologies in a university’s IP portfolio. Here’s why we should adopt it. When I worked in a university technology transfer office, we spent a lot of time pulling together performance metrics. We had 14 different reports, each with its own subtle nuances and unique methodologies. Needless to say, despite our best efforts, our metrics didn’t reconcile well over time and unintentionally gave the impression that our tech transfer office was somewhat, uh, creative in our accounting. The problem, however, wasn’t just accuracy.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Purdue officials reported double-digit increases in research funding and in the number of new patents issued for Purdue technologies in an annual governance report presented Friday (Feb. 4) to the university's Board of Trustees.

Joseph B. Hornett, senior vice president, treasurer and COO of Purdue Research Foundation, and Richard O. Buckius, Purdue's vice president for research, presented a report about the impact Purdue's research, technology and economic development initiatives have on the state's economic and educational base.

Buckius reported a record $438 million in sponsored research programs for fiscal year 2009-10. That represents a 28 percent increase over the previous fiscal year when the university received $342 million in research awards.

The first medical app ever in the AppStore is now the first app approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be used to review and make medical diagnoses of MRI, CT and PET scans.

Mobile MIM, created by the Cleveland, Ohio, company MIM Software, shrinks the size of radiology images and transfers them securely while still allowing physicians to measure distance of the image and image intensity values, among other things. The app is not replacing the full workstation, but can be used to make a diagnosis when a physician does not have access to a workstation, the FDA stated.

I was a panelist on a session on Reverse Innovation during the recently concluded World Economic Forum at Davos. The session attracted over 125 CEOs and senior executives. The conventional wisdom is that innovations originate in rich countries and the resulting products are sold horizontally in other developed countries and then sent downhill to developing countries. After all, aren't developed nations such as the U.S. and Germany the richest and most technologically advanced nations in the world? The U.S. and Germany, for instance, have well over 300 Nobel Prize winners in science and technology whereas India and China have a combined total of less than 10. Doesn't it, therefore, stand to reason that developed countries will be the first to adopt the next wave of innovations? Won't the developing world adopts those innovations only when they have "caught up" economically? No. Not really.