Contrary to popular belief, there is no cohort of monks guarding the secret scroll of candidates on short lists in job searches. In this digital age, however, it can be both harder and easier to get noticed in the search process. Let me suggest a few ways to increase your visibility.

Use online social networks like LinkedIn wisely. Your LinkedIn profile should be complete, consistent with your résumé, and include a robust summary section. Many people don’t realize the full power of the summary in keyword searching. You have 2,500 words in which to describe your areas of expertise, your career path, and your desired next steps. Use this space as a billboard to promote your career experiences, successes, and aspirations. Also, pay close attention to the categories you establish in your LinkedIn profile. They may be used as search criteria, along with the summary and specialty sections.

A recent article published by Ad Age, revealed that bloggers are increasingly succeeding in attracting funding for new ventures. Why is that?

Geri Hirsch went from authoring her fashion-lifestyle blog, Because I’m Addicted, to co-founding Leaf, a series of how-to concept videos covering things like living, eating and fashion.

Frankly, when I hear that one startup has copied another startup, I really don’t care (give me the numbers, show me the traction). People complain about copying way too much. In my article on comedy website HaiVL one reader said that it’s a “9gag clone like a few others in the market”. While for CocCoc’s recent Coromrowser, some said that “CocCoc stole Chrome source code then renamed it”. And complaints like this don’t just happen online, they happen in conversations at startup events and throughout discussions in meeting rooms. I hear too often comments like “They’re successful but they copied so-and-so”. But seriously, get over it.

Well, here are two quotes for all those people in Asia and Silicon Valley who spend all day complaining about copying and stealing. First, one you’ve probably heard a million times already:

Your crowdfunding campaign be it on indiegogo, kickstarter, rockethub, crowdfunder or any other of the myriad crowdfunding platforms, could be your one big chance at making your dreams become reality.

The last thing you want to do is be hasty and rush into something without thinking through your marketing and managing your potential pledgers perceptions effectively.

You don’t have to plumb the Mariana Trench for tips on terminating your creative slump. James Cameron surfaces here to share his methods of getting inspired and getting the work done.

From Terminator 2 to Avatar, James Cameron has become known for pushing technological innovation in filmmaking. When taking time out from making the Avatar sequels, the Oscar-winning director can be found a long way below sea level in his guise as a deep-sea explorer (the latest diving expedition, 36,000 feet below the sea, is the subject of his upcoming documentary). The filmmaker, screenwriter, technology pioneer, and explorer is constantly looking for ways to galvanize his audience with the shock of the new. But is he man or machine when it comes to creativity? We asked Cameron for some insights into his creative process, from the inception of a script idea to keeping his objectivity, and sanity, on set.

Nick Bilton, in his Disruptions column for the New York Times, lamented the echo chamber of Silicon Valley.

Sometimes, Hollywood screenwriters create scripts filled with inside jokes that only people in Hollywood could appreciate. Sometimes, New York media writers write about other New York media writers. And sometimes, tech entrepreneurs in San Francisco and Silicon Valley to the south create companies best appreciated by other people who live and breathe technology.

Start-up accelerator Ignition Labs is seeking five health and medical technology start-ups for its 2013 development program with the aim of turning early stage ideas into fundable businesses.  

Under the program the five successful applicants will receive $25,000 in seed capital with the possibility of further funding, mentor coaching and work space in the ATP Innovations incubator in Sydney.

The number of startup accelerators in the US has nearly doubled each year, expanding from 20 in 2009 to more than 120 in 2012. You don't have to look far to find an accelerator these days and chances are what was once a Silicon Valley phenomenon is now available locally, whether you are in the US or abroad.

In any industry, especially one experiencing rapid growth, the natural progression is to have a small number of widely known brands at the top with new entrants jockeying to be seen at the same level. If you're a newly formed accelerator, you might be wondering how you compete with the Y Combinators and TechStars on the national scene.

A lot of businesses who start their online existence try various methods of growing their popularity, including Adsense campaigns, PPC campaigns, social media groups, etc. However, one of the easiest and most rewarding way of promoting your site and gaining more potential clients is often ignored: guest blogging. By resorting to guest posting, businesses and individuals alike receive plenty of opportunities, including the option to get in touch with a wider audience and to increase their brand awareness. If you’re not convinced yet, here are 10 reasons why you should try guest blogging:

In the beginning of every great organization or business, is the creation or development of a great leader. Leadership is a quality that many people are born with through personality traits and natural skill sets. As a whole however, leadership is a mark that has to be intentionally developed with willingness and a determined attitude. Whether you are the head janitor, own your own lending company, or are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, leadership will be the fuel that delivers you to greater heights of business success.

As the leadership ability of a person continues to grow, so will the organization. Great leaders are multi-faceted and most don’t excel at just one thing.  If you’re interested in being a great leader, you have to be lucky enough to have been born with these traits, or go out and actively develop them. Here are just a few of the traits that make a great leader.

Remember Plexxikon? The Berkeley, CA-based company had a lot of talent for structural biology-based drug design, an impressive new treatment for melanoma, and a strong management team.

Two years ago, nobody on Wall Street cared one whit. Plexxikon flirted with the idea of going public, found little interest, and sold itself off to Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo for a more than 10-fold return on investment. It was a poster child for how dead the biotech IPO market was in 2010 and 2011.

At an event held on Monday, June 3, 2013 at 10:00 A.M. in the East Wing Rotunda of the Harrisburg State Capitol Building, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP) announced the results of an independent, third-party evaluation of its impact on the State’s economy. Conducted by the Pennsylvania Economy League and KLIOS Consulting, the report covers the five-year timeframe from 2007 through 2011. The report found:

• BFTP boosted the Pennsylvania economy (Gross State Product) by $6.6 Billion from 2007 through 2011.
• Since 1989, BFTP has boosted the state’s economy by more than $23.5 billion.
• From 2007 through 2011, the Commonwealth received $358 million in additional state tax receipts as a direct result of BFTP investments in client firms. Another $144 million in state tax receipts flowed from related BFTP client services, for a total increase of $502 million in state revenue due to BFTP.
• New state tax revenue generated because of BFTP represents a 3.6 to 1 payback to the Commonwealth on its $137.7 million investment during that period.
• From 2007 through 2011, The BFTPs generated 7,485 additional jobs in client firms.
• Client revenues, purchasing and investments rippled throughout the Pennsylvania economy, giving rise to higher employment across the state. From 2007 through 2011, BFTP generated an additional 12,715 jobs beyond those in client firms.
• BFTP produced a total of 20,200 jobs in the Commonwealth between 2007 through 2011 that otherwise would not have existed.
• Since 1989, BFTP has generated 51,000 additional jobs in client firms.
• Since 1989, BFTP generated 89,000 additional jobs as a result of increased purchasing and investment by client firms, yielding a total of 140,000 new jobs attributable to BFTP’s work.

If you’re a medical intern, most of what you need to do your job can be pulled off a computer screen: Blood test results. Paged messages. Orders to start a medication. All but, of course, how sick a patient is.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, suspecting that more and more of an intern’s time is spent in front of a computer, looked into just how today’s intern spends her working hours on an inpatient ward. They asked trained college students to shadow 29 internal medicine interns from two different Baltimore teaching hospitals and document how much time they spent talking to patients, eating lunch, reading charts, and the like — over the course of three weeks. Their recently published results confirm a trend that old-timers nostalgically lament and that those of us in training know to be all too true: Only a small percentage of our time is spent in direct patient care.

An industry-led program in Ontario that works to improve access to capital for human health technology and bioscience companies has received a major financial boost from the province of Ontario.

The Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation is providing funding to support the Capital Access Advisory Program (CAAP), a new initiative launched by the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO), a Toronto-based non-profit organization representing bioscience industry leaders dedicated to advancing Ontario’s life sciences industry.

At this week’s Biotechnology Industry Organization show in Chicago, a panel of law experts bemoaned the recent Supreme Court hearings on whether individual genes can be patented, saying there was no sign that anyone involved in the case truly understood the technology or the business implications of their arguments. That’s disturbing, because the decision could have important effects on industries including the developing field of molecular diagnostics.

BIO attendees, mostly executives in a variety of biotech fields, crowded into meeting rooms to stand through overfilled sessions on the promises and challenges of personalized medicine and diagnostics. In some cases, these tests can help doctors diagnose disease or predict whether a particular drug will work in a patient or cause unwanted side effects. Other tests can determine how quickly a patient metabolizes drugs, information that can help doctors decide how big a dose to prescribe. At the convention, panelists described the many challenges facing companies that develop these tests. Among others, they are still working out how much to charge for diagnostics and how to partner with drug companies, and the industry is still not governed by clear regulatory rules. In this context, the turmoil over gene and biomarker patents is disconcerting.

Althoughplagued with mixed opinions that are influenced by mythology surrounding the investment industry, corporate venturing isfinally resurfacing as an important component of the corporate innovation toolbox. As companies reassess the contribution that corporate venturing can make to their innovation objectives, it is critical that the fundamentals of corporate venturing are understood. Thisarticle addresses a number of important points to consider when applying corporate venturing in a global innovation strategy.

I’m a strong believer that investors invest in people, before they invest in a business plan, or an idea. But I continue to learn that there are a host of other factors, maybe not even related to you or your business, that could keep you from getting the funding that you need. You may not have control over many of these, but it helps to know, for planning purposes, what is really happening.

Obviously, a key factor is always the state of the economy and the mood of the venture capital community. The good news is that both of these are looking up these days. According to the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index® for the First Quarter 2013, the Q1 increase marks three consecutive quarters of positive sentiment among Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

Wisconsin Democratic legislators announced a competing venture capital bill this week that would invest $208 million over six years, much larger than the $25 million plan supported by Gov. Scott Walker and legislators on both sides of the aisle.

The bill announced Thursday would create the Wisconsin Forward Jobs Fund that would invest $208 million from the state general fund in qualified investment capital funds as well as directly into promising Wisconsin startups that are also receiving money from angel investors, according to the analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau. Matching investment requirements could leverage up to an additional $740 million in private investments, legislators said.

The initiative was launched by Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Minister Richard Bruton, who wants a further €525m to come from the private sector in order to create a combined €700m fund.

“While the multinational sector is and will remain crucial to our industrial strategy, I am determined to ensure that we also support the creation of a powerful engine of Irish enterprise that can sustain and create the levels of employment we need,” said Mr Bruton.

Montana State University is set to begin its search for a new Vice President for Research, Creativity and Technology Transfer.

An 18-member committee has been formed to conduct the national search. Martha Potvin, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, is the search committee’s chair.