When I finally screwed up the courage to leave the world of corporate cubicles and launch my own start-up company, it presented me with an interesting problem – what do I say when people ask me what I do?

No longer can I be pigeon-holed into one of those generic, but succinct and important-sounding responses such as “accountant” or “regional manager”. As a new business owner I wear many hats that can change daily, or even hourly. A simple title doesn’t even begin to do justice.

If I tell people I have just started a company, they inevitably demand an explanation of what the company does. Now that is easy to answer if you are providing an existing product or service, but how do you explain a missionary business before people’s eyes glaze over and they start looking for someone more interesting to talk to? This is a real problem for tech start-ups where typically only 1% of the population would even understand what the hell you are talking about.

Long confined to the realm of feminist studies, issues pertaining to women’s access, participation, advancement and reward are rising to prominence in innovation, technology and entrepreneurship – areas traditionally characterised either by gender-blindness or strong male dominance. The inner workings of this shift are little known, but its implications are wide-ranging, especially in the transition from the Industrial to the Knowledge Society. The Special Issue opens with the editors’ Introduction “Athena in the World of Techne: The Gender Dimension of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, followed by papers thematically organized as follows:

Gender in public services sectors and entrepreneurship

Often focused on traditional male-dominated branches in the old industrial economy, primarily in the private sector, innovation policies and measures typically fail to identify innovative areas in the public services that concentrate many women’s occupations. This gap is addressed in Nählinder’s paper “Where are all the Female Innovators? Nurses as Innovators in a Public Sector Innovation”, which analyses a project that encourages nurses to invent “product innovations” in their field and assists the inventors to realize their ideas, highlighting both the individual and the collective dimension of entrepreneurship.

Let’s be honest. In today’s volatile economy, foresight and planning are easily pushed aside in favor of reactively averting poisonous arrows and perilous moats.  Those hazards continuously threaten us—and often appear from a surprise enemy. How many of us keep putting our foot on the gas and have not slowed down to finesse these dangerous conditions?

• I’m a banker, not a marketer.
• I don’t have time to focus; I am too busy.
• Let me explain why that won’t work…
• Planning is expensive and time-consuming.
• If I focus my market too much, I will miss out on new opportunities as they arise.

I really enjoyed the Boston Angel Boot Camp on June 1. A shout out to Jon Pierce for a job well done.

Among the many great discussions, the most critical one in my mind centered on the impact that the source of money can have on an early, seed startup. The discussion covered two main sources of seed funding: Vc and true angel.

What’s different? Isn’t seed money just seed money?

Absolutely not. There are hugely different expectations around returns and time depending on the source.

Nordic Seed Capital Initiative.

Creation of a community within the Nordic seed stage.

Increased cooperation between the seed stage and ...

www.nordicinnovation.net/_img/johan_bjoerkevoll.pdf

In her role as a volunteer with the 1M/1M project, Irina Patterson has counseled dozens of would-be entrepreneurs and talked to angel investors around the country. The Miami-based technology communications consultant says her goal is to keep nascent entrepreneurs from giving up on their business ventures. But she says entrepreneurs who fail to validate their ideas in the marketplace and investors who don't take them seriously are common obstacles to that goal. Patterson spoke recently to Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

Karen E. Klein: What is 1M/1M?

Irina Patterson: One Million by One Million is a Silicon Valley-based global initiative that aims to help 1 million entrepreneurs globally reach their first $1 million in revenue. It was created by blogger and author Sramana Mitra. She asked for volunteers, so I raised my hand, virtually, and became one of the first ambassadors.

In an age of instant communication, one would be forgiven for getting a tinge nostalgic just remembering the way things were done a few years ago. "What are you doing" earlier evoked hours of catching up with your high school friend on a variety of subjects, but these days a 140 character tweet would do, why wouldn’t it – its ‘Cool’ after all. A status update on Facebook where you announce your acquisition of a Levi jean gets you 15 likes and 10 comments – its ‘Cool’, congratulations again. Then comes the latest location wars which not just wants to know what are you doing, but, where so too.

Platforms like these have transformed information delivery and demolished many a barriers. And it is only prudent that one goes with the times. Having said that, it also calls for caution!

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology, conceived as Europe's version of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is slowly beginning to take shape, although with little resemblance to the flagship institution that was first envisioned. Instead, the fledgling organization now consists of clusters of institutions, including but not limited to universities, linked by their collaborative work on overarching themes, such as climate change and energy.

In 2006, José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, formally unveiled plans for the establishment of a new institution to foster European innovation and research. The proposal immediately faced skepticism and opposition, especially from academics who questioned the wisdom of diverting money from the European Union's research and education budget toward a new institution. Some critics saw the plan as a misguided pet project of Mr. Barroso, for whom closing the innovation gap between Europe and the United States and key Asian economies through research and development has long been a policy priority.

This was originally a comment made in response to a hacker news thread titled:  Ask HN: How to become a millionaire in 3 years?

The comment has over 200 upvotes, which means people found it useful. I decided to add more thoughts, refine existing ones, and put it in a permanent place. This is just my own humble advice and I hope it’s useful for entrepreneurs.

I move forward the only direction
Cant be scared to fail in Search of perfection

-Jay-Z, On To The Next One

I’m going to go and replace 3 years with a “short time frame”.

There are two things that have really surprised me in my years in “management”

1. How few people give their employees real feedback on a regular and formal basis

2. How much employees crave this information, whether positive or negative

So my message to you if you work in a position where you have people reporting to you – don’t sweep feedback under the rug – even if it’s negative. Employees will always appreciate honest and constructive criticism over nothing. So here’s some guidelines for you if you’re currently on the “less than annual” plan

By Rich Bendis

President, CEO, Innovation America

Even in this era of global markets, new ideas, new companies and new jobs are still created on a local level. One of the bright spots for the future of the U.S. economy is growing evidence that a culture of entrepreneurship is beginning to spread beyond Silicon Valley to urban and rural areas across the country.

States as diverse as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas, and Georgia are among the regions bringing together three essential ingredients for innovation: specialized talents, networks and knowledge.

Yes, we are living through a time of economic transition. North Dakota, probably not the first state to come to mind, was a national leader in job growth in the last decade. Philadelphia, where I live and work, was once a major manufacturing center; now one of its major sources of jobs is the health care and life sciences industry, a stable employer even in tough economic times.

How well we emerge from this transition is likely to be determined by how well regional economies diversify, apply technology, and encourage entrepreneurship. Thankfully, there are signs that local and regional economies are working to maximize their strengths and make those strengths relevant in the global market. Because as our world is faced with environmental concerns, climate change, social and economic transitions, the global market requires new products and services to be relevant, not merely workable.

Here are some of the positive signs I see at work among state and regional economies:

Many are working to harness the benefits of investments in R&D and in the talents people develop through higher education in order to spur new business development. Jump Start, Inc, a Cleveland public-private partnership and Georgia Bioscience Commercialization Center are both focused on working with start-ups in their regions.

The entry point for entrepreneurship is lower than it has ever been thanks to technology and social media. Entrepreneurship, as Peter Drucker has pointed out, “endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” Dorm-cubators are popping up at universities around the country and some campuses provide “value-added'” services that help students collaborate and innovate. Libraries, far from being obsolete, and powerful search engines provide fast, easy access to knowledge are becoming incubators of new ideas

Local economies are benefiting from networks. The instant sharing of information via social media and mobile devices is facilitating collaboration at unprecedented levels. The ability to collaborate and partner helps develop innovation networks and builds the relationships of trust vital to bringing new ideas to market. Grass roots networks, which have been vital to the success of Boston and Silicon Valley, are now being spawned in other areas. Philly Startup Leaders is an unstructured, active local network of entrepreneurs who share information and advice.

Industries are using technology to modernize and become smarter. Existing enterprises, especially those we think of as non-tech, are modernizing. At an IBM hosted forum at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, I heard enterprises as diverse as the City of Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Gas Works and the non-profit Philadelphia Education Fund discuss ways they are infusing the benefits of technology into their operations. This is happening in communities around the nation, helping to create more effective organizations

One area of caution and concern I see is access to capital. Only four percent of venture capital investment went into early stage companies last year. Experience shows us that these are the companies that will create the future jobs. Companies with less than 20 employees were the source of 107 percent of the new jobs created after the 2001 recession. Access to capital remains one of the crucial differences between self employment and the ability to build a business that creates new jobs.

Washington may set national economic policies, but local and regional economies build the bases of employment. We show every sign that we have the people, the creativity and the resources to come through this transition toward a strong, sustainable economy.

Emerging India has evolved from the world’s back office into a knowledge and innovation hub. In the next decade, expect benefits for not just the nation but the global economy

When Americans think of Indian outsourcing, they visualize call centres doing low-level tech support and information technology (IT) companies fixing bugs in computer software. Indeed, that is where the Indian industry got its start. But while the West was literally sleeping, Indian outsourcers evolved into world-class research and development (R&D) machines.

Its call centre operators are now helping enhance patient care for US hospitals, optimize financial transactions for Australian banks and streamline parts management for European engineering firms. Its IT companies are developing mission-critical avionics systems, next-generation telecom technologies and complex medical devices.

I tell entrepreneurs that Google was an “exception” to all the investment and startup rules, but I’ve always wondered what it takes to be an exception.

Since every business is built by unique individuals, I’m totally convinced that exceptional people are the key to an exceptional company.

To check out the Google founders, and because I still see so many business plans that are modeled after Google (more search engines, and more billion dollar growth models), I had to take a look at the recent book, called “Inside Larry & Sergey’s Brain,” by Richard L. Brandt. It didn’t disappoint me.

Sometime next year, Facebook’s billionth customer will sign up, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told an audience at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in the south of France.

British newspaper the Guardian reported that Zuckerberg said there was “no chance” of hitting the one billion mark this year, but “it is almost a guarantee that it will happen.”

Despite the widespread complaining about Facebook’s personal privacy controls, the social network is still growing. The rate of new user signups has slowed, Zuckberg told Inside Facebook in a separate interview. “It still does at a super-linear rate, though not quite 3% a week anymore.”

The first annual AlwaysOn Venture Capital East 50 highlights the 50 individuals based in the eastern U.S. who have backed the most profitable winners during the last four years. To compile the first VC East 50, our editorial team sourced data from our research partners Morgan Stanley, VentureDeal, and the 451 Group on more than 700 active venture capitalists, 1,400 VC investments, and 1,000 technology liquidity events during the last four years, from October 1, 2005, to September 30, 2009.

The winning VCs were selected based on total number and dollar amounts of successful M&A and IPO deals from their portfolio companies. For IPOs, AlwaysOn examined opening market capitalization as well as subsequent stock performance, relative to the NASDAQ. For each investment, AlwaysOn counted one lead investor per firm to identify the true dealmakers, understanding that in many cases, more than one partner is involved in helping each company. Much of the exact valuation data that would have been ideal for this kind of analysis remains private and inaccessible, of course, so we present the VC East 50 ultimately as a representative list based upon our best efforts.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At the inaugural ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit today, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $100 million in Recovery Act funding will be made available to accelerate innovation in green technology, increase America’s competitiveness and create new jobs. Today’s announcement comes as some of the nation’s top energy leaders and members of the scientific research community have gathered to ensure U.S. leadership in clean energy technologies.

“This is about unleashing the American innovation machine to solve the energy and climate challenge, while creating new jobs, new industries and new exports for America’s workers,” said Secretary Chu.

America has lost 8.5 million jobs since December 2007, and the unemployment rate is a high 9.3%. Some hope that new ventures can make up the hiring difference. But given the state of the venture capital (VC) industry that backs startups, those lost jobs aren't coming back anytime soon.

It’s easy to get in a rut when designing websites. Web designers know what they’re good at and tend to play to their strengths. However, certain projects allow a designer to look at a site in a different way, and to push their creative approach to new limits. Boosting creativity starts with studying current trends in web design, evaluating what makes them successful, and implementing those techniques using your own unique style. To get your creative juices flowing, here are 10 tips to consider.

1.) Think in color—and the lack thereof. When re-vamping or creating a site from scratch for a client, use the knowledge that is available of color to strengthen your concept. For instance, blue themes are attractive both to men and women and suggest calm and tranquility while providing a sense of dependability and reliability. This is why the color is often used in combination with white for the websites of hospitals (see sites for Johns Hopkins Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital) to suggest that the hospital is capable of soothing and healing and can be counted on as reliable.

Many folks who are just tuning into the HTML5 saga because of the battle between Adobe and Apple are surprised to learn that the push to create a fifth official version of the HTML specification began six years ago. And that's just the first half of the story because the latest implementations, while nice, are far from standards. The HTML5 demos from Apple, for instance, are impressive, but they only run well on Safari.

That's how slowly committees can work. The browser creators and other stakeholders have a big collection of ideas for improving the browser and the Web, and these are gradually coalescing into a fifth generation for the standard. But agreement takes time. Many of the new tags and JavaScript functions exist already as experiments on some of the browsers, but interoperability and standardization are still to come. That's why the Flash groupies joke about HTML5 being a time machine to take you back to 2000.

To read the full, original article click on this link: How HTML5 will change the Web | Developer World - InfoWorld

Author: Peter Wayner