Call him a visionary for his role co-founding Sun Microsystems Inc. Call him a rainmaker for his prescient investments in companies like Juniper Networks while at Kleiner Perkins. Call him a pioneer for his early commitment to clean technology at his firm Khosla Ventures.

You can call billionaire Vinod Khosla many things. Just don’t call him a venture capitalist.

“I object to being called a venture capitalist,” the storied investor told the audience on the second day of the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco. “I’m a venture assistant. I don’t very much like the venture profession.”

I was an entrepreneur for years. I must have pitched 40-50 VCs over the years. Possibly more. As I talked about on many occasions when I was an entrepreneur – and blogged publicly about - I learned a lot about my business and myself in these meetings. It was largely a positive experience.

Exclusive - Startup accelerator TechStars, arguably one of the best of its genre in the world, is today announcing the launch of its first thematically focused business kickstarter. Dubbed TechStars Cloud, the sub-accelerator will focus exclusively on backing cloud computing and infrastructure startups, and companies that work with OpenStack.

For its first thematically focused accelerator, TechStars has attracted some high-profile mentors, including Pat Condon (founder of Rackspace Hosting), Jeff Lawson (founder & CEO of Twilio), Brad Feld (Foundry Group), George Karidis (CSO of SoftLayer), Jud Valeski (co)founder & CEO of Gnip), Rajat Bhargava (founder & CEO of StillSecure, Interliant), and many others.

The slidedeck below just landed in my inbox (actually, a link to a Slideshare presentation, which is infinitely better). The sender: InSites Consulting, one of Europe’s finest research firms imho.

The topic: Social media around the world (facts and figures about social media in 30+ countries).

As a young entrepreneur, I cannot overstate the importance of serendipity. I don’t know whether I’ll ultimately be successful or not, but the success I’ve had so far has been 10 percent inspiration, 90 percent perspiration, and 50 percent surprises. And if you’re saying that this adds up to 150 percent—you’re catching on to my first lesson, which is that it will surprise you how much more it is than you thought: more work, more fun, more pain, more whatever. Your mileage will vary, but here are some of the surprises that I encountered along the way:

1. People love failure. I haven’t failed (yet) as an entrepreneur, but I failed a class in entrepreneurship at Stanford business school because I was too busy working on Piazza. People love the story, and not just for the irony. If you’re relatively smart and you talk about how you failed at something, it makes people think there must be a story there, and it humanizes you. I used to be sheepish about admitting to any failures, but I’m out and proud now. Failed classes, failed marriages—it’s all good.

With the wonderful fall weather come gardening activities I loath. But I appreciate the need to trim and prune now so I can see my backyard come alive in the spring.

This got me to thinking about the economic lessons from the movie Being There, in which Chance, the simple-minded gardener, becomes involved with some Washington rainmakers. Through his new friendships, Chance offers gardening advice that's mistaken as economic wisdom — spring follows winter, growth follows death, expansion follows recession. The movie is as fantastic as it is pure and the economic lesson, though flawed, is as simple as it is whimsical: Economies can still grow after they die.

NSF has issued a report of an international workshop on Changing the Conduct of Science in the Information Age. The report (found here) acknowledges that "new digital technologies are transforming the practice of science" and discusses the implications for data access, sharing, and reproducibility. Among the recommendations of workshop participants was the creation of a system of "reliable and unique identifiers for individual researchers, organizations, and publications to create linkages between publications and their appropriate data." The purpose of such a system would be to "ensure that data sets are linked to subsequent publications and other research outputs, further aiding attribution and the reproducibility of research," thereby encouraging creators of data sets to share widely and users of those data sets to credit their originators.

For the third year in a row, the U.S. has slipped down on the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual competitiveness survey. The rankings are based on an international survey of 14,000 executives combined with a set of indicators in 12 categories, including infrastructure, economic environment, innovation, and education. Switzerland came in first for the third year in a row, followed by Singapore, Sweden, and Finland. Behind the U.S. were Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark. The U.S. had been first in 2008. The full report is available on the WEF web site.

In late August the Australian Parliament passed a new R&D tax credit for Australian businesses, which is retroactive to July 1, 2011. The core provisions, which may be among the most generous tax credits offered by a nation, include a 45% refundable R&D tax offset ("equivalent to a 150 per cent deduction") for small businesses under A$20 million in annual turnover, and a 40% non-refundable tax offset ("equivalent to a 133 per cent deduction") for all other eligible businesses. Further details can be found here.

I had the opportunity recently to talk to Ed Abrams about how the company he works for uses social media and how it’s helped them to increase sales, loyalty and brand engagement. What company does Ed Abrams work for, you ask?

He’s the Vice President of Marketing of IBM Midmarket Business. Yes, he works for a little company called IBM, and they’re crazy about social media.

I thought it would be interesting to share some of Ed’s insights and offer some advice on what any business can learn from IBM’s social media use, regardless of its size. I also asked Ed to share some of his own takeaways from his experience, which he was kind enough to offer.

Are you stuck in a rut?

There are many things going on right now that are not particularly pleasant or enjoyable. Many of those things, though, are out of our control. What we can change and what we do have control over is how we think, approach things and apply solutions.

I see people putting way too much focus on what they can’t do and not nearly enough focus and action on what they can do.

Laughing with friends releases feel-good brain chemicals, which also relieve pain, new research indicates.

Until now, scientists haven't proven that like exercise and other activities, laughing causes a release of so-called endorphins.

"Very little research has been done into why we laugh and what role it plays in society," study researcher Robin Dunbar, of the University of Oxford, said in a statement. "We think that it is the bonding effects of the endorphin rush that explain why laughter plays such an important role in our social lives."

As a cornerstone in our efforts to become the source for all things digital media in Canada, you will receive your copy of CDMN news each month. Features will include the latest in industry news, studies and events to keep you informed of our nation's progress in resuming its rightful place as a leader in the global digital media economy.

Because your time is limited, we will include an overview of each story in the newsletter; for more information including informative links, be sure to click through or visit our website at www.cdmn.ca.

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What would you do if you were the university official in charge of company research partnerships and a Fortune 100 tech company offered to fund a research center at your university to the tune of $2.5 million dollars a year?  If it were me, in these tough financial times, I’d say “great, tell me more,” visions of a nice press release dancing in my head.

But wait, there’s A Catch:  the company has made it a condition that in order to receive the millions, your university must open source any resulting software and inventions that come out of this research funding.  Yes, open source.  Your university cannot stake claim to any patents.  There will be no intellectual property clauses, no negotiations, no… nonsense.

Researchers have, for the first time, shown that the energy efficiency of computers doubles roughly every 18 months.

The conclusion, backed up by six decades of data, mirrors Moore's law, the observation from Intel founder Gordon Moore that computer processing power doubles about every 18 months. But the power-consumption trend might have even greater relevance than Moore's law as battery-powered devices—phones, tablets, and sensors—proliferate.

The move to a low-carbon economy is the most significant addition to the Scottish government's strategy.

Economic agency Scottish Enterprise wants companies to tap into the boom in orders for renewable energy and other low-carbon technologies.

Engineering and aerospace firms are among those it thinks could benefit.

Finance Secretary John Swinney said a "low-carbon" economy and innovation in areas such as renewable energy could see millions of pounds of investment.

The reason innovation requires leadership is that the person or team with a good new idea or clever new design starts out as the only ones who really “get it.” Their insight and enthusiasm will blink out after a while, and nothing new will actually get implemented, unless they exercise some real leadership. They have to spread the word, line up support, overcome skepticism, and generally act like focused, skilled leaders. Otherwise, their innovation does not stand a chance.

Innovation is, in my book, quite simply a fertile union of creativity and leadership. Thus you might say that the term ‘innovative leadership’ is redundant and all leadership is innovative. That assumes people in leadership roles really are leading, as in visualizing the new and better and moving us in their direction. Sadly, real world leadership is more prosaic, and less innovative. In fact, in almost every survey ever done on the topic, employees say that their leaders are holding them back, not drawing them ahead, in the quest of innovation.

Investors invest in people, not ideas. Customers buy from people, not companies. Employees rally for a great leader. As an entrepreneur, you need relationships to succeed. That means relationships with team members, investors, customers, and vendors. One of the best ways to build a good relationship with anyone is to make them feel important.

One of my favorite authors, Brian Tracy, in his book “No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline,” outlined seven ways to make other people feel important, which I believe are extremely relevant to entrepreneurs and business:

Accept people the way they are. Because most people are judgmental and critical, to be unconditionally accepted by another person raises that person’s self-esteem, reinforces his or her self-image, and makes that person much more likely to accept you and follow your lead.

Startups don’t need – shouldn’t have – COOs. I have this conversation with every startup that comes to see me and has a CEO & a COO. I think usually a COO title at a startup is an ego thing. You have two founders and it was agreed that one would get the CEO role so the other needs to call themselves president or COO.

But ask yourself, what does a COO actually do? In a mature company it’s often like a presidential chief of staff. They will often run all of the daily reports into them covering off for finance, sales, marketing, biz dev & HR. Many times they also pick up product and tech, too.

Tens of thousands of Americans have a dream of owning their own business. For some, the idea of taking control of their worklife is a huge motivator. For others, it’s the desire to increase personal wealth that drives them. Whether you are looking to just replace your current income with an independent work life or are looking to be the next Bill Gates, you have to start somewhere. Here are five things you can do now to set yourself on the path to entrepreneurship.

1. Live Cheaply Starting a business guarantees you just one thing – you will be on a tight budget for some amount of time. It might be just a few months, it might take a year or so to build your company’s profitability, but your personal expenses will need to be under control before you start. Get in the habit of living cheaply now. Review your household budget (or develop one) and look for areas to cut back. Pay off credit cards, look for deals when you shop, clip coupons, find inexpensive entertainment options. The more you can control expenses now, the less stress you will be under during the early stages of your startup.