Have you noticed that more companies beg you to participate in their business today? It started with an email survey on your last stay at their hotel, but now includes requests for online product reviews, to social media input on the design of future products. They do it because engaged customers become loyal advocates and buyers. Welcome to the “Participation Age” of marketing.

Some say it’s happening today because it’s new, and technology makes it possible. Others say it stems from Intrinsic Motivation Theory, which asserts that people have always been motivated by a desire to join, share, take part, connect, and engage, and find that experience rewarding. In any case, your business needs it today to rise above the crowd and edge out competitors.

At VentureBeat, we haven’t had much to say about last week’s mass school shooting at Sandy Hook. We didn’t feel it was our place to do so, and we thought a respectful silence on the subject — and the controversial adjacent topics of mental health and national gun laws — was the best course for a tech and business publication like ours.

It is every human’s most natural instinct to want to help those we see suffering. We don’t want to make a political statement about guns or use this tragedy to promote ourselves in any way. What we will offer, however, are a few ways you can materially help those directly affected by the shooting: The parents and families who lost children and siblings.

Although wireless charging of mobile devices hasn’t yet become mainstream in the home or office, it could be on the road. The 2013 Avalon Limited model is the first car to natively support this: Toyota is adding a wireless charging pad in the car as part of a technology package. With the option, drivers and passengers can place a supported phone on the small console pad for a recharge during travel.

Phones that support the Qi wireless charging standard can be used with the pad. Nearly three dozen such phones exist, including the Google Nexus 4, Nokia Lumia 920, and HTC Windows Phone 8X. Third-party manufacturers, such as Energizer, make Qi-enabled sleeves for Apple’s iPhone, which would work as well with this charging pad.

Startups are redefining the term “small business.”

A company may have only 5 employees or be based out of a garage, but it can still have a global audience and customer-base. Accessing supply chains and setting up shop in other countries has become so easy that small businesses no longer need to start local — they can go big right off the bat.

This runs counter to traditional business strategies. In the past, it was an accepted truth that companies were better off incubating in a domestic market. That way they could develop a loyal following, prove value, streamline processes an amass assets before testing the rough waters of international competition — especially without a crack legal squad ready to take on foreign regulations.

Concerns that Series A rounds will be hard to come by in 2013 are widespread in the venture business, according to a survey being released today.

Forty-five percent of venture capitalists think this will be the most difficult financing to obtain, according to a survey of venture capitalists and startup chief executives by Dow Jones VentureSource and the National Venture Capital Association. That reflects an ongoing debate in the industry about whether seed-stage investors have financed too many consumer Internet startups that will now have trouble tapping the venture capital they need to grow.

Only 13% of the VC respondents said seed/angel financing would be the hardest to get in 2013 while 28% thought it would be Series B financing. The survey, conducted from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7, collected responses from more than 600 venture investors and CEOs of venture-backed startups. Responses were equally divided between the two groups.

Nothing has been more central to America's self-confidence than the faith that robust economic growth will continue forever. Between 1891 and 2007, the nation achieved a robust 2% annual growth rate of output per person. Unfortunately, the evidence suggests to me that future economic growth will achieve at best half that historic rate. The old rate allowed the American standard of living to double every 35 years; for most people in the future that doubling may take a century or more.

The growth of the past century wasn't built on manna from heaven. It resulted in large part from a remarkable set of inventions between 1875 and 1900. These started with Edison's electric light bulb (1879) and power station (1882), making possible everything from elevator buildings to consumer appliances. Karl Benz invented the first workable internal-combustion engine the same year as Edison's light bulb.

MOSCOW -- I've been a regular visitor to Vladimir Putin's Russia, and, when I was describing what troubled me most about the place to a wise foreign policy friend, he urged me to read the play "Three Sisters" by Chekhov. It's the tale of the aspiring Prozorov family, whose three cultured and educated sisters -- Olga, Masha and Irina -- grew up in Moscow but for 11 years found themselves marooned in the countryside. The sisters are always waxing poetic about their plans to go back to Moscow (the Emerald City), but they never make it and their dream fades.

Putin brings out the Three Sisters in me. Every time I come here, I expect to find that, this time, Russia is really pivoting from being a petro-state, with a heavy authoritarian gloss -- and a president who relies on anti-Western rhetoric to maintain his political base -- to a country that has decided to invest in education, innovation and its human capital and is ready to be a partner with the West. But it never materializes, and lately it has started to go backward.

President Obama today named twelve eminent researchers as recipients of the National Medal of Science and eleven extraordinary inventors as recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honors bestowed by the United States Government upon scientists, engineers, and inventors. The recipients will receive their awards at a White House ceremony in early 2013.

“I am proud to honor these inspiring American innovators,” President Obama said.  “They represent the ingenuity and imagination that has long made this Nation great—and they remind us of the enormous impact a few good ideas can have when these creative qualities are unleashed in an entrepreneurial environment.”

The best creative solutions don't come from finding good answers to the questions that are presented.

They come from inventing new questions.

From Microsoft to PayPal, it seems every day another business launches an incubator. Here's what's motivating them to get in the game.

These days, it seems, there's an incubator for everything. In fact, the National Association of Business Incubators estimates there are some 1,250 of them operating in the United States. There are incubators for every race, gender, industry, and region in the country. Some incubators combine several requirements to narrow their niche even further, like La Cocina, a San Francisco-based incubator for low-income, minority women, who want to launch food business. 

Okay world prepare yourself: the apocalypse may still happen. Insanely popular Korean sensation ‘Gangnam Style’ is about to hit one billion views, which will make it the first video ever to reach such heights.

Sitting currently at over 997-million views, Google is certain it may cross one billion by the days end. The video overtook long time most popular video, Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’, on Nov 24th 2012 leaving it in the dust. Not only is it the most popular YouTube video it is also one of the most searched terms in 2012.

The late Steve Jobs still heads the Best CEO list, secured in that position by his stunning track record during his 14 years at the helm of Apple. During Jobs’ tenure, the Cupertino, California-based tech company saw its market value increase by US$359 billion from 1997 to 2011, and its shareholder return increase by an average compound annual growth rate of 35 percent. 

Though Jobs died a little more than a year ago, such figures are “likely to go unbeaten for a long time”, according to the authors of the 2013 version of the CEO Scorecard, INSEAD Professors Morten Hansen, Herminia Ibarra and Urs Peyer. The full rankings can be found on the Harvard Business Review site (click here; full details will be featured in the next edition of INSEAD Knowledge on January 10, 2013).

Now that it’s Dec. 21 and the world hasn’t ended, let’s talk about 2013.

Venture capital investors have expressed confidence in the coming year for healthcare IT markets, while listing biotech among the sectors they’re least confident about. While investors are running a tight ship, “good companies are still being funded,” said Bill Trainor of Mutual Capital Partners Fund.

Here’s a look at which healthcare markets are ripe, and overripe, for investment in 2013.

The clock is ticking and you still haven’t decided what to get that special someone in your life for the holidays. When it comes to those last-minute gift-buying decisions for family and close friends, intuition may be the best way to think your way through to that perfect gift.

When faced with tough decisions, some people like to “trust their gut” and go with their intuition. Others prefer to take an analytical approach. Boston College Professor Michael G. Pratt, an expert in organizational psychology, says new research shows intuition can help people make fast and effective decisions, particularly in areas where they have expertise in the subject at hand. When it comes to holiday shopping, it might help to draw on the expertise you’ve accumulated about your family, and friends.

They won’t set out or intend to, but the result will be the same – an awkward, insincere and boring toast. But if you think you may be an at-risk demographic for such a speech, you’re not alone. There are no formal courses to take here; it’s just you, a holiday speech and the subsequent fallout. Scared yet? Here’s what you need to do to make your holiday speech a joy and not the verbal equivalent of coal for Christmas:

When Wharton MBAs look for an impactful summer internship, more and more students are finding opportunities in the startup space – including, but not exclusively limited to, consumer internet (OneFineStay, GoodReads), e-commerce/retail (AHAlife, Birchbox, baby.com.br), consumer goods (The Honest Company, Lot18), and enterprise software (Yammer, Addepar). It has been exciting to see the growth in the number of students choosing a startup for an internship – 61 students in the class of 2013 – a 45% increase from the previous summer.

In speaking with startups to share student interest and talk through how to fill hiring needs with Wharton MBAs, I’ve heard loud and clear that busy startup CEOs and product teams have long to-do lists and need great people.

A new report set out to explore the reasons for the lack of early-stage VC in South Africa and to provide some proposals for its development. A number of proposals are made that could be used to help accelerate early stage VC funding.

First, the survey participants concurred that VC is a critical mechanism in support of innovation and economic growth. It was established, however, that although South Africa has a later stage VC market and a well-developed PE market, there are very few early-stage VC funds available, whether private or government funded. This presents a problem for entrepreneurs seeking capital at the early-stage as they are faced with a limited set of funding options.

If you live and breathe technology startup culture, you know that there are definitely some distinctive personality types that permeate the industry.

You have the heady and sometimes arrogant but passionate founder. The uber-connected and overly caffeinated social media manger. The hipster designer who may or may not have tried to become a stand-up comedian. The dorky and almost-but-not-quite socially awkward but brilliant developer. 

You know these people. In fact, there is a fairly good chance you are one of these people. 

Turns out, with accelerators, size really does matter.

While startup accelerator Y Combinator has sliced the size of its next class by around 40% after deciding that it grew too fast, competing, smaller accelerators are either maintaining their class sizes or, in at least one case, expanding a little.

In the land of startups, changes to incubators is kind of a big deal.

European Pressphoto Agency/Nacho Gallego Class size for startup accelerators is a finely tuned metric, and each accelerator has its “sweet spot.” Functioning as both a finishing school for entrepreneurially-inclined programmers (Airbnb, Dropbox, GrabCAD and Twilio all emerged from accelerators) and a source of talent for Google, eBay, AOL and other tech titans acquiring teams, accelerators have grown in number and size in recent years. The recent re-jiggering of class size by one of the oldest and most popular ones in Silicon Valley comes amid an industry-wide debate over the wisdom of  seeding all these companies while Series A funding has failed to keep pace.