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innovation DAILY

Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis.  These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.

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When a city struggles--much like Detroit is struggling today--residents move. But what if the city moved instead? Madrid-based architecture student Manuel Dominguez imagines a mobile, nomadic city with his design for Very Large Structure, a gigantic community on wheels.

The structure stretches the length of five football fields and is nearly 600 feet tall, perched on caterpillar-like legs that run along a track. In Dominguez’s vision, the city would follow a schedule throughout the year, traveling to different places based on the needs of the region. Onboard, solar panels, wind turbines, and hydrogen would provide renewable energy for a full city, including hospitals, restaurants, libraries, universities, and sports stadiums.

Image: www.fastcoexist.com

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We live in an age of touch-screen interfaces, but what will the UIs of the future look like? Will they continue to be made up of ghostly pixels, or will they be made of atoms that you can reach out and touch?

At the MIT Media Lab, the Tangible Media Group believes the future of computing is tactile. Unveiled today, the inFORM is MIT's new scrying pool for imagining the interfaces of tomorrow. Almost like a table of living clay, the inFORM is a surface that three-dimensionally changes shape, allowing users to not only interact with digital content in meatspace, but even hold hands with a person hundreds of miles away. And that's only the beginning.

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Nikita Rau is a high school senior and, at this moment, drinking applekiwi-strawberry juice out of a plastic cup. We're in the cafeteria of Bronx High School of Science, in New York. The noise level is high--too high for older ears--but the kids seem excited. Or maybe frenzied would be a better word.

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Statistics on commuting get a lot more interesting at the state level.

Nationally, American workers spent an average of 25.4 minutes getting to work in 2008, compared to 25.7 minutes in 2012. The percentage of workers who drive to work alone has grown slightly since 2008, from 75.5 percent to 76.3 percent. Carpooling fell from 10.7 percent to 9.7 percent.  More people are working from home, with an increase from 4.1 percent to 4.4 percent.

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When a potential employee accepts a job offer you – as the employer, manager, and entrepreneur – must willing to negotiate further terms. Nowadays, job seekers have at their disposal a plethora of details regarding salary negotiations thanks to the numerous books and websites readily available. The majority of them join a job interview with solid knowledge of their employer and respective company. If you want to close a mutually satisfying deal, you must be equally prepared. The same thing applies when you negotiate with an employee who is already working for you.

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What a brilliant idea! That’s what a lot of people think after a new idea pops into their minds. Or it’s something someone says at the end of a wonderful ideation workshop where a team of colleagues has just brainstormed new concepts. Of course, at that very moment it looks and feels like utter brilliance. Just like adoring parents swooning over their child. But, in this instance is it really justified?

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National Science Foundation

State government agency expenditures for research and development totaled $1.404 billion in FY 2011, an 11.3% increase over the $1.261 billion reported in FY 2010. Expenditures for R&D facilities (construction projects, major building renovations, and land and building acquisitions intended primarily for R&D use) totaled $109 million in FY 2011, a 1.7% increase over the $107 million reported in FY 2010. This InfoBrief presents summary statistics from the FY 2010 and FY 2011 Survey of State Government Research and Development, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

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"The trouble with being punctual," so goes the saying, "is that there's no one there to appreciate it."

Yet if you have a meeting with your boss, a coffee date, or a job interview, you know they'll appreciate it. Still, it's easy to fall afoul of the tyranny of the clock: between our endlessly distracted minds and distraction-rich devices, we can fall into a pit clicksand--and soon need to scurry out the door.

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This paper analyses the role of commercialization strategy and product reputation in the relationship between innovation and the market performance. This is a particularly interesting question for high tech companies. The technical complexity of their products can make it difficult for the consumer to evaluate their degree of quality and innovation. Because Go to Source

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If you're closely watching the developing situation around crowdfunding, one of the themes you start to see is that expertise matters - and therefore the whole crusade to provide a platform for funding but little else may need to be reevaluated. Because investors that only provide capital and not industry knowledge and contacts are shortchanging the entrepreneur.

Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Get it Right 10 Interesting Facts About Lefties VIDEO

Historically, lefties have gotten a bad rap.

You probably aren't sure exactly why, but there has definitely always been an unfortunate shifty air around southpaws.

To finally clear the air, YouTube channel Alltime10s has compiled 10 interesting facts about our cultural history with left-handedness. They previously tackled obscure Simpsons facts, and the Springfield crew is included again — this time filling you in on why Ned Flanders really needed to open the Leftorium.

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There is not much agreement about what makes an idea innovative, and what makes an innovative idea valuable.

For example, discussions on whether the internet is a better invention than the wheel are more likely to reveal personal preferences than logical argumentation. Likewise, experts disagree on the type and level of innovation that is most beneficial for organizations. Some studies suggest that radical innovation (which does sound sexy) confers sustainable competitive advantages, but others show that “mild” innovation – think iPhone 5 rather than the original iPhone – is generally more effective, not least because it reduces market uncertainty.

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It starts with the bowls of leftover Halloween candy, brought in by colleagues too afraid of temptation to leave them lying around their own homes.   What follows is a veritable avalanche of sweet and savory goodies – the seemingly endless supply of cakes, cookies, and treats that the holiday season always seems to bring to every office, everywhere.

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My generation – the Baby Boomers – are beginning to retire, particularly the very successful ones who can afford to retire earlier.  They have stayed at work late, risen early, traveled more than they wanted when their children were young, survived under different bosses, ascended through the ranks, and attained ever increasing responsibilities.  Now, many of them have decided to slow down, play more golf or tennis, volunteer, and travel for pleasure.  But that’s mostly just the men.

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Ed Gadsden, former chief diversity officer at Pfizer, once asked his sponsor, the legal scholar and federal judge Leon Higginbotham, why he took such an interest in him, aside from the fact they were both African American. “You’re nothing like me, Ed,” Higginbotham told him. “The people you’re around, the things you see, what you’re hearing — you provide a perspective I wouldn’t otherwise have.” Now, as a sponsor himself, Gadsden has come to appreciate the perspective his own protégés provide: “They make sure I’m never blindsided,” he says.

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The two largest time commitments for most adults on this planet — sleep and work — too often make uneasy bedfellows. The proliferation of nonstandard work schedules and, for many, the outright abandonment of schedules have made traditional daytime-weekday patterns less common. Approximately one in five American workers now functions under some variety of nonstandard schedule. Meanwhile, about half of the nation’s night-shift workers sleep six hours or less per day. The demands of other unconventional arrangements, such as multiple job-holding and independent contracting, have also contributed to the sleep deprivation that plagues much of the workforce.

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In the last ten days, two important reports have been released that should make people optimistic about the future of the American economy.  The first was a report by the Science Coalition, a group of American research universities that highlighted over 100 companies created by federally funded research.  The second report was from the White House and US Department of Commerce about the growing importance of innovation and entrepreneurship to American universities – as an academic, research and economic objective of the university.  In full disclosure, I produced the US Department of Commerce report in 2012, although I have since left the Obama Administration.

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