It has been a rather hectic few days, thanks in part to the pressures of preparing for our Structure Big Data Conference in New York next week. On the flip side, it has been a special week for me; after living in San Francisco for nearly eight years, I went (almost) to the top of the Pyramid, aka the Transamerica Building. It was an amazing experience in more ways than one; I’d been invited to attend a lunch meeting with a group of very smart people.

One of the attendees was Bill Liao. He’s an Australian-born serial entrepreneur, and his latest effort was co-founding Xing with Lars Hinrichs. Xing.com is Europe’s LinkedIn and has done well for its founders and employees: It was sold to Hubert Media Group for $57 million. Liao, if you read his Wikipedia bio, is one of those entrepreneurs who marches to his own drummer. It’s a polite way of saying he’s just unusual.

When students asked what subjects they should major in to become a tech entrepreneur, I used to say engineering, mathematics, and science—because an education in these fields is the prerequisite for innovation, and because engineers make the best entrepreneurs.

That was several years ago.

I realized how much my views have changed when the The New York Times asked me to write a piece for its “Room for Debate” forum this week. The paper wanted me to comment on the divergence of opinion between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. In a speech before the National Governors Association on Feb 28, Gates had argued that we need to spend our limited education budget on disciplines that produce the most jobs. He implied that we should reduce our investment in the liberal arts because liberal-arts degrees don’t correlate well with job creation. Three days later, at the unveiling of the iPad 2, Steve Jobs said: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing, and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices”.

Spend enough time in Silicon Valley, and of all the buzz words you’ll hear neatly tucked in with “graph,” “serendipity,” and “personalization” is one often uttered though, on the whole, not yet fully understood: “Big Data.” On the surface, everyone realizes the opportunity. Data is being generated at lightning speed, the cost of storing is tiny, and new technologies are available to help manage, organize, and secure the data. Earlier this month, LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman delivered a presentation on this topic at SxSW, and starting next week, GigaOM’s annual big data conference “Structure’” kicks off in NYC.

At the consumer level, while we are wowed by pretty visualizations, the real advancements in big data technologies cover (1) how data is structured and stored, (2) how it is organized and retrieved, and, most interesting to me, (3) how underlying mathematics can be written into algorithms to leverage the data and help discover entirely new things. I’ll paraphrase from one data scientist, LinkedIn’s Peter Skomoroch, who notes on Quora that cheap data storage allows users to leverage asymmetric information, larger data sets increase the likelihood that new insights can be found, and machine learning advancements can be used in entirely new, game-changing ways.

Some problems in business can be solved with money; many cannot.

When you’re pitching to an investor, one of the best things you can do is to show how the important problems facing your business are those that can be solved with money, because money is what they’re providing.

Plans to build the nation's first tsunami-resistant building are unfolding in Cannon Beach, Ore., in a region that is almost identical, seismically, to the subduction zone that triggered the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last week. Elevated 4.5 meters off the ground, the building would provide an evacuation zone for coastal residents and tourists while also serving as a new city hall.

"The goals are to save lives and provide continuity of government," says Jay Raskin, an architect and former Cannon Beach mayor who is helping to spearhead the design process.

The Pacific Northwest coast is vulnerable to quakes produced by the Cascadia subduction zone, a 950-kilometer-long fault running from northern California to Vancouver, B.C. There hasn't been a Cascadia earthquake since 1700, and many researchers say there is a one-in-three chance a magnitude 9.0 temblor and tsunami will strike in the next 50 years

The revolutions in North Africa have expanded from a tiny uprising in Tunisia, to a full blown Middle East revolt that has toppled governments and brought the west's biggest powers to war.

Now, with Tunisia finished, Egypt primed for elections, and Libya at war, who's next?

We guide you through those candidates still in the midst of change, who have yet to see their regimes toppled. Some are countering with extreme force. Others are trying to appease their upset populations. But all remain under stress as protesters take to the streets.

Asking questions can help motivate teams and build trust.

Robert Simons, a Harvard professor and author of Seven Strategy Questions, says asking questions can also help executives "stay on top of a changing world."

Manny Fernandez, managing partner of KPMG Texas, agrees with Simons. There's one question in particular he likes to ask:

"How can I help you to be successful? I ask it 20 times a day," he tells Fortune.

A reader asks: I have a recognizable brand, but when I went online to get the domain name, it was already taken. What can I do?

Answer: This is as much a marketing question as a legal question. There are, however, five ways that you can work through this problem. Let’s take a look:

Use another domain level – There are a host of domain levels beyond “.com,” including geographically specific domain levels such as Italy (“.it”); Germany (“.de”); and Great Britain (“.uk”).

So ask yourself: What do you really need? Are you selling a product or service in a particular country? Does it matter whether you have the “.com” versus the “.net” domain level?

We are a week away from another historic global entrepreneurship event - this time in Shanghai, China, for the annual gathering of global leaders in the entrepreneurial movement led by the Kauffman Foundation.

The Global Entrepreneurship Congress began as an international meeting of the individuals and organizations driving the Global Entrepreneurship Week movement—an opportunity for startup evangelists from 105 countries to connect. Now, it is slowly evolving into something with a broader concentration. The Congress looks at the state of entrepreneurship in the Host nation—China in 2011—while examining the smartest thinking, research and programs on the planet. For three days, leaders from over 100 countries will connect and generate ideas around the common themes of innovation and entrepreneurship. The momentum generated will benefit more than just Global Entrepreneurship Week—scheduled this year for November 14 – 20—it will sow seeds for a multitude of other collaborative efforts across the planet.

At AUTM, Ken Levin, from the Department of Veterans Affairs, moderated a discussion on valuation and what industry thinks of the valuations Technology Transfer Officers put on their IP properties. His advise to these IP managers should be regarded seriously by any appraiser doing IP valuations work.

Mr. Levin would have done Socrates proud, leading a lively, interactive session, full of noteworthy valuation factors, admissions and omissions, shining a light on the purpose and importance of valuation PRIOR TO negotiations for commercialization.

One key point made by the group is the difference between valuation before commercialization and after … between when you don’t know much (early stage, start-ups, etc.) and when you know quite a bit. The first is prospective; the latter is retrospective, as of a point in time.

Bangalore -- Three months after he quit as the India head of US-based venture capital firm BlueRun Ventures, Mumbai-based Sasha Mirchandani has set up an early-stage fund to invest in start-ups.

"The venture capital space is getting crowded," Mr. Mirchandani said, adding he has started KAE Capital with a $20 million corpus. "There is a bigger need of capital in the early-stage space."

In New Delhi, Harish Gandhi last week moved from VC firm Canaan Partners, where he was an executive director, to join AIF Capital, a $450 million private equity fund.

The Cleantech Forum opened in San Francisco on Monday, but the focus was decidedly elsewhere.

In his keynote speech, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Partner John Denniston wasted little time in making the point that clean technology companies — driven by low costs and government subsidies — are booming in China, India, Korea and other locales outside of the U.S.

“This is a global game,” he said, noting that of the top 10 companies each in solar, wind and advanced batteries, just four of those 30 are in the U.S. Denniston, whose Kleiner colleague Ray Lane earlier this month said the firm is devoting one-third of its business to energy for the next 50 years, said Kleiner doesn’t earmark a specific amount to invest each year in cleantech companies.

When I was in business school, one of the most common things I would hear people say was that they wanted to do something new—like start a company or take an unconventional career path—but that they needed “a great idea” first. That always surprised me a bit, especially at an entrepreneurial hub like Stanford, since most successful entrepreneurs don’t begin with brilliant ideas—they discover them.

Ironically, this would include the biggest business idea to come out of Stanford in decades. Google didn’t begin as a brilliant vision, but as a project to improve library searches, followed by a series of small discoveries that unlocked a revolutionary business model.

At some point, the “business cluster” emerged as a kind of silver bullet for economically-challenged municipalities.

Find a way to put companies together in a single geographic area and they will become each other’s customers, suppliers and collaborators. Innovation, prosperity and jobs will follow.

A new study from Europe’s Centre for Economic Policy Research throws a wrench into at least one part of that theory.

The analysis of 1,604 companies in the five largest Norwegian cities found that regional and national clusters are “irrelevant for innovation.” On the contrary, international cooperation or “global pipelines” were identified as the main drivers of innovation.

Everywhere he looks, Andy Stoll sees creativity at work in the Corridor.

So this social entrepreneur and media producer is putting his creativity to work to build a community of connections for artistic types in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City area.

Inspired by www.creativeportland.me and http://desmob.com, Stoll, 31, of Cedar Rapids, teamed up with Cramer Dev in Iowa City to launch http://iccreatives.us/ in early February.

That’s ICCReatives, appropriately pronounced: “I see creatives.”

Creativity is usually an aspect of a business that is overlooked as it’s difficult, if not impossible to quantify.

Owners and managers often place a value on “thinking out of the box.” But if creativity is so important why do large and small companies often leave it to chance?

Entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson have always been keen to use creativity at the workplace to help innovate. – “At Virgin, we encourage and reward creativity in our employees and we have enjoyed the success of empowering other people’s good ideas.”

1. Artwork

Replace the standard corporate posters in the office with a piece of art that is a talking point such as contemporary art or a sculpture.

Try some websites like www.20×200.com and www.unknownprints.com for some affordable art that’s different from the norm.

Entrepreneurship is the way economies move forward. This has been true since the dawn of time. The first use of controlled fire was an entrepreneurial idea; the mix of simple science, common sense and a problem that needed a solution. The more modern version of the entrepreneur has sometimes been confused with a need to maximize profit. Regardless of profit, entrepreneurism is about problem solving; although it does help if there are incentives to engage in such activity now that the opportunity to build wealth has replaced basic survival motivations.

However, commercializing scientific and other ideas helps both our economy and society. It creates jobs and tax revenues and a pulse of activity that can synergistically lead to more business activity and new businesses. Much of that activity is a function of how government, education and economic development all act in concert to support the entrepreneurial community.

The best part of writing for this blog is getting to talk to lots of successful business owners. Recently, I was reflecting on the companies who really capture my imagination and heart. They have in common an important ingredient for successful companies, large and small. It’s not nice packaging or a good product at a good price or passion or exceptional service — although those things are all important. It’s that they all have a company story, told well.

I’ve already mentioned some of these companies in previous posts. There was Vineyard Vines, which was started by two brothers who sold ties out of the back of a station wagon in Nantucket, and there was Sweetgreen, which was started by three college friends who craved quick, healthful food near campus. Big brands recognize the power of a story as well. This past holiday season, Whole Foods grocery bags were printed with “Every Meal Has a Story. Celebrate Yours.” Starbucks offered point-of-purchase material that read “Share a cup, share a story” and bags that read “Stories are gifts. Share.”

I'm hearing this from everyone I know in Silicon Valley. And you can see the evidence on the web.

Joshua Schachter posted this on his twitter feed yesterday. This is what a new developer gets when they show up at work at Tasty Labs.

I guess the developer setup is a key part of the recruiting war in Silicon Valley. Tasty Labs earns their name with the inclusion of Dr Pepper in the standard dev setup.

TONY PROPHET, a senior vice president for operations at Hewlett-Packard, was awakened at 3:30 a.m. in California and was told that an earthquake and tsunami had struck Japan. Soon after, Mr. Prophet had set up a virtual “situation room,” so managers in Japan, Taiwan and America could instantly share information.

Mr. Prophet oversees all hardware purchasing for H.P.’s $65-billion-a-year global supply chain, which feeds its huge manufacturing engine. The company’s factories churn out two personal computers a second, two printers a second and one data-center computer every 15 seconds.

While other H.P. staff members checked on the company’s workers in Japan — none of whom were injured in the disaster — Mr. Prophet and his team scrambled to define the impact on the company’s suppliers in Japan and, if necessary, to draft backup plans. “It’s too early to tell, and we’re not going to pretend to predict the outcome,” Mr. Prophet said in an interview on Thursday. “It’s like being in an emergency room, doing triage.”