The United States is rapidly becoming the very first "post-industrial" nation on the globe. All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing. It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution.

The Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster recently won $129.7 million in funding from federal sources to create a Regional Energy Innovation Cluster (E-RIC). Sponsored by the Department of Energy and other federal agencies, the E-RIC is intended to facilitate innovation and commercialization of technologies that improve the design of energy-efficiency building systems. According to the DOE, buildings are responsible for 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption, and by leveraging resources from research institutions, economic development agencies and other public and private organizations, the E-RIC “will create an economically dynamic region focused on building efficiency technologies.”

That was Clarium Capital President Peter Thiel talking to our own Sarah Lacy on stage during TechCrunch Disrupt today. His point was that Internet innovation today is much like innovation in the automobile industry in the 1950s and 1960s. That is, there isn’t much — it’s all about the big boys, in Thiel’s mind.

Thiel kept coming back to this point during his talk. Given this, Sarah was especially curious about his early Facebook investment. While Thiel said that he believes that Facebook is currently undervalued at $30 billion, he would think twice about funding a startup like Facebook today. Again, he just doesn’t believe there’s going to be a lot that’s happening that isn’t dominated by the big boys.

Like many developing countries, Bolivia has a nascent, but promising entrepreneurial environment. The country has a good number of institutions that offer financial and technical services that network the country’s millions of micro-entrepreneurs. However, as readers of this blog are well aware, data has confirmed time and again that it is young firms that grow that provide the most benefits to society in terms of job and wealth creation and innovation. Thus, the challenge ahead for Bolivia is to enable more growth entrepreneurs.

The current interest in entrepreneurship, even if focused on micro-entrepreneurs, is good news for at least two reasons. First, international organizations like the World Bank and the Andean Development Corporation have supported programs undertaken by the institutions helping micro-entrepreneurs because entrepreneurship, even at that scale, has proven to be a good way to lift people further from the poverty line. The United Nations estimates that 90% of the three million Bolivian rural inhabitants are living in conditions of poverty and marginalization, and entrepreneurship is a useful tool to palliate this human crisis. Second, as Miguel Hoyos from Red Bolivia Emprendedora (RBE - Bolivian Entrepreneurship Network) which hosts Global Entrepreneurship Week in Bolivia pointed out to me, these institutions could adjust their methodologies as the country’s entrepreneurial environment evolves to support growth entrepreneurs.

Last week, Peter Longo and I had the opportunity to attend the State Science and Technology Institute’s (SSTI’s) 14th Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The theme for the event was “Accelerating Innovation” – underlining the need for new ideas in an economy where things have changed so dramatically over the past few years. As of November 2009, the national debt topped $12 trillion, and approximately 14 states in this country were (and still are!) living hand to mouth. Should our universities, states, governments and companies be approaching this economic downturn using the same old practices? Simply put, no. There has to be a better way to do business in our states. The SSTI conference provided an environment where all states could come together to share best practices, innovative ideas and new visions to encourage technology-based economic development (TBED) and lead our country down a path we can all benefit from by working collaboratively.

Mobile devices –- from the straightforward mobile phone with a camera… to iPhones stuffed with apps — have given smaller businesses the ability to operate nimbly and cost effectively.

Are you using handheld mobile devices to run your business? Now I’m not talking simply about using a smartphone to retrieve and answer short emails, or take voice calls while out of the office. Today those kinds of activities are a given and I will assume you already use mobile phones in that way.

Rather, what I am referring to here are innovative uses of mobile devices to operate your business — to close sales; to source the right repair parts and get them into the hands of your repair staff; to deliver goods and services to customers; to manage inventory and supply levels; take payments outside the office; and much more. If your staff is currently using mobile devices to such ends, give yourself a star. But if not, here are 10 ideas for integrating mobile devices into your internal operations to generate more revenue, improve your bottom line, or deliver better customer service:

Mr Wijesinghe, of Meewellawa village, in the dry northwest of Sri Lanka, used to dread his neighbours calling round. A call, by custom, means serving a cup of tea. His well was dry for increasing portions of the year — and every drop had to be fetched from up to 4km away.

That was before last year's installation of a system that collects rain from his roof and diverts it into a tank and a pond. Now, Wijesinghe has drinking water. In addition, water percolating down from the pond has recharged his well and also irrigates a lush new garden rich in fruit and vegetables that he sells. His family has time for other activities.

As for a cup of tea — his door is always open.

One place I worked had tons of those motivational posters that were all the rage a while back.

You know the ones: rock climber at sunrise labeled “Inspiration,” or maybe it’s a closeup of a lightbulb labeled “Eureka,” or maybe it’s a rock climber climbing a giant lightbulb labeled “Tenacity.”

They quickly became so omnipresent that the creation of the above cartoon was only a matter time.

You may well have heard talk recently about Facebook’s £33bn valuation and similarly high valuations for other private companies on SecondMarket.  I’m writing today to share a few thoughts on why we need to be careful with these numbers, but before I go any further, I want to make the point that I think Facebook is a fantastic business with good prospects which has done a great job of innovating beyond their initial product.  Similarly, I think SecondMarket provides a valuable service and it is helpful for small shareholders in private companies to be able to sell their shares before larger shareholders are ready to exit, particularly for companies on the IPO track who are waiting much longer than they used to before listing.

How to sell your product: What I’ve learned during my first month of cold calling

Cold-calling will grow hair on your chest.  It’s definitely not for the faint of heart – just ask my Co-Founder Yu-kai.  So if you don’t have what it takes, then you better find someone who does.

The key is to be persistent and patient.

Rejoice every time that someone rejects you because it means you’re getting that much closer to a sale.  Seek out the rejections!

Recently I took part in a program whose front end featured a talk by Joseph Ackerman, CEO of Elbit Industries, a leading Israeli defense contractor. Ackerman spoke about innovation in management, his own philosophy, and illustrated his approach with the H W principle.

On the screen he showed a large “H” and a large “W”. “H” stands for height. You can do nothing about your height, he explained. You are born with it, it is determined by your genes. Accept it, live with it. “W” stands for weight. You CAN do something about your weight. If you are underweight, you can fatten up. If you are overweight, you can exercise and slim. It is not easy, but it is possible.

You don’t always have to use Photoshop to create optical illusions in your photographs. With a technique called forced perspective you can create illusions that make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It just takes a little creativity with the placement of the subjects in the shot and the camera angle. To give you some inspiration, here are 20 Creative Examples of Forced Perspective Photography.

It’s not the first time a tree offers a window into humanity. Anyone who has read Shel Silverstein’s classic knows that. But, even so, this little video by Amy Krouse Rosenthal says a little something about what we see and what we actually notice. It was filmed this past summer in Chicago…

25 September 2010 – Germany today emphasized innovation in efforts to combat climate change, telling the General Assembly to that it will contribute its technological expertise in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency to help both developed and developing countries build sustainable development.

“Anyone who’s serious about combating climate change has to build on innovation, new technologies and exchange,” Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s Vice Chancellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs told the General Assembly’s high-level debate at UN Headquarters in New York.

The Government of Canada is offering to be the guinea pig for new products and services developed by Canadian entrepreneurs.

Announced at a Toronto press conference on Friday by Rona Ambrose, Canada’s Minister of Public Works and Government Services, the new program is part of Ottawa’s $40-million Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program. It is designed to help small businesses bring new products and services to market by first testing them within the government.

“With this new program, our Government will be giving our talent a kickstart in getting their innovative products and services off the ground,” said Minister Ambrose.

The creative juices of web designers never stop flowing and it’s their creative bent of mind that forces them to come up with something new and unique. Logo and web designing are the creative areas that give the utmost importance to the fonts. In shaping up the entire vision of the web designer, fonts play the major role.

We have to admit that there are infinite fonts floating over the net. Digital, cool, gothic, abstract; you name it and you have plenty of choices in front of you. Put the keyword in the search engine and you find the whole lot of different type of fonts. In-fact, there is a big ‘font pool’ to pick and choose from. Problem arises when you have to choose one for yourself.

When I first read Paul Graham’s blog post on “High Resolution” Financing I read it as a treatise arguing that convertible notes are better than equity. As I’m generally a believer in ‘pricing rounds’ I initially didn’t agree with the premise of the post.

I just re-read it and on second reflection, I’m surprised just how much I found myself in near TOTAL agreement with Paul. Having re-read it, I believe his real premise instead is, “Fixed-size, multi-investor angel rounds are such a bad idea for startups that one wonders why things were ever done that way.”

One woman's dream to create national parks in the sea More »

Crossing the Chasm is more than a title to one of the most amazing works of Geoffrey A. Moore. It is an effective management process for bringing cutting edge high tech products to progressively larger markets. Though Microsoft is a different story all together, but the discipline behind Bill Gates becoming a billionaire is something to give a though to. The book deals with some marketing logic of entering the mainstream market and emerging to be a market leader in the field of high tech product markets.

I finally left the office at 8:30pm. It was cold and rainy out. I think I got home on autopilot. I pulled into the driveway and pushed the garage door opener. Nothing happened. “&!@$!” I muttered.

I grabbed my laptop and piled some files on top of it. Then, juggling a pile of office homework, I fumbled for my keys. I went up to the door and tried to put my key in the door, but it wouldn’t fit. “&%$!” I muttered again. And then I looked up and saw my neighbor coming to the door. “Ivana, what are you doing here?”