They say you can’t go home again. But sometimes you can go home after a few years and notice that your home has changed quite a bit.

This past week, I went back to Wisconsin, where I’m originally from, to visit family and do some reporting. I stopped by the capitol, Madison, to take stock of what’s happening in Wisconsin biotech, and maybe come away with a story idea or two.

Checklist for new businesses, analysis of key contracts you need, and a form of Non-disclosure agreement you can use right away.

A larger purpose isn't just good karma. Leaders who instill their company with a greater mission have more motivated employees and more loyal customers.

Purpose leaders are meaning machines who make our work important instead of banal. They are dealers of hopes and dreams. And they know that they must think large if they are going to affect the world at large.

There is a story that beautifully illustrates this point. Legend has it that Sony founder and CEO Akio Morita met with a small group of men in a burned-out Tokyo department store in the wake of World War II. Morita’s advisors presented a strategy for building a fledgling Sony. The plan would make Sony the number 1 technology company in Japan. However, Morita didn’t see this as the company’s goal. He changed the mission to make Japan the number 1 technology country in the world.

This year’s Le Web event in Paris was based around the them of the Internet of Things (IoT); the way in which objects around us will gather data and connect to controls or other machines via the Internet.

The term Internet of Things was coined by the British technologist Kevin Ashton in 1999. Today, the huge amounts of data we are producing and the advances in mobile technologies are bringing the idea into our homes and daily lives.

Non-profits seeking an easy and efficient way to collect donations might want to consider setting up electronic or online options. The Internet is already used for everything from shopping and paying bills to communicating with loved ones, so why not use this great online tool for collecting electronic donations too, to save everyone time and money. Here are some of the many reasons why CEOs may want to consider accepting donations electronically at their non-profits.

1.)     Receive Money Faster

Online giving is important because the funds become available more quickly than when checks need to be processed or people pledge donations. Sometimes pledges remain outstanding because they are forgotten about or because the donor just doesn’t take the time to mail in the check or visit the non-profit’s office.  This is why online giving makes it easier for the donor to transfer money to the organization. This increases the organization’s cash flow, which helps to fulfill end-of-year projections and goals, and makes it easier for the non-profit to transfer money to its different accounts.

Here is a list of venture capital firms with a presence in Singapore that are actively investing in startups. While venture capital and private equity firms appear similar in their objectives — to make money through means like a company’s sale or IPO — they possess very different mindsets. This list doesn’t contain private equity firms.

It’s true. I am not happy all the time living in Cleveland. But I don’t want to be happy all the time. That’s unnatural. Said Nietzsche:

“Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through our life without any obstacles, we would be crippled. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.”

Cleveland is a struggle. But that is how I know it. That is how many Clevelanders in their 20’s to 40’s know it. We didn’t know the city of Mr. Jingeling and Bob Hope—the city of a near million—the “Best Location in Nation”. No, we knew Cleveland on its knees. We knew Cleveland praying. But being born into post-industry is a good first lesson. Life is an obstacle. Cleveland prepares you.

Competition between countries, states, and cities for talent, jobs, and businesses can be a very healthy activity. It incentivizes governments to formulate policies that promote economic growth and improve local assets such as workforce development programs, quality of life enhancements, infrastructure investments, and efficient regulatory and tax structures.

But competition for jobs can also lead to inefficient policy choices, namely counterproductive intraregional competition, commonly referred to as “poaching.” In these situations, communities deploy some of their resources, usually in the form of finance or tax incentives, to lure companies away from jurisdictions next door. This type of behavior is also common with the attraction of new companies, where cities within the same region try to undercut their neighbors to make sure a business lands within their own respective borders.

Lately, economic development incentives has been a very buzzworthy topic. The New York Times is currently running a series based on its investigation into “How Taxpayers Bankroll Business.”  The reason for this newfound focus? As always, it usually comes down to following the money. And since money is tight (on both the state and local levels), taxpayers are paying extra attention to where their money is being spent.

Unfortunately, in many cases, the funds used for economic attraction are deployed unproductively. On the local level, this can mean neighboring communities using incentives to induce companies to pull up their stakes and locate only a few miles away to the detriment of the home jurisdiction. On the state level, cities that lie directly on the border between two states can fight perpetual border wars over firms and the jobs they provide.

At Google's new YouTube LA space nearby, Otis released its annual report on the creative economy of the Los Angeles region. This is the sixth year that Otis has commissioned the report from the LAEDC (L.A. Economic Development Corporation), to present data that demonstrates the viability of this sector, the fourth largest in the region.  As President Hoi explained, Google's YouTube Space LA, which opened last week, was the perfect venue for this event, embodying a "bold new type of industry space where a global firm works with local creative partners."

President Hoi remarked that "We must invest - proactively invest - in the creative economy to assure our region's future." He spoke of investments in people and place, and the necessity for coalitions. More than 200 entrepreneurs along with leaders of business, philanthropy, education, and non-profit arts organizations attended the event, and participated in discussions about possible initiatives for collaboration.

The holiday season is a pretty important time of year for nonprofit marketers. People are already in the "giving" mood, and with many trying to get their donations in before the end of the year for tax deduction purposes, there's no better opportunity for nonprofit marketers to make sure their particular cause is top of mind.

With the holidays in full swing, all you nonprofit marketers out there probably have your holiday marketing ducks in a row already. And if you don't, there's still time to leverage the holiday season to achieve your 2012 fundraising goals. In fact, in 2011, 10% of all donations came on the last 3 days of the year. Furthermore, approximately 33% of online gifts are given in December, and donors also give 80% larger gifts on average in December.

LinkedIn has launched (in)cubator, a program that allows any company employee with an idea to organize a team and pitch their project to executive staff once a quarter. Those whose ideas are greenlit by cofounder Reid Hoffman and CEO Jeff Weinr, among others, then get up to three months to spend developing that project.

(in)cubator is a more evolved version of the company's "hackdays," in which employees work on various creative projects one Friday a month. So far, LinkedIn says it's approved five (in)cubator projects, including a tool called go/book, a meeting booking system the company is currently using internally.

Apple's Chief Executive Officer, Tim Cook, pledged to invest in making Mac computers in the U.S. on December 6, and will probably create about 200 jobs. Apple's main sales right now come from iPhone and iPad products . Some parts for Apple’s products are already made in the U.S., Cook said in the interview. For instance, the glass for the iPhone and iPad is made in Kentucky, he said.

Apple's major recruitment target is general manufacturing. Apple’s commitment could set a precedent for electronics suppliers, but it probably doesn’t presage a large or rapid shift of production back to the U.S..

At GigaOM, we closely track the world of broadband, and were curious what has happened to the prices of it relative to some other technology-dependent products and services. So using the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we compared the prices of wireline broadband to that of computers, computer software, and wireless cell phones. We also tracked those against the entire Consumer Price Index.

Here’s what we found: While the price of these other technology-driven products and services has continued to fall over the last few years—personal computer prices have dropped over 44 percent in five years—the prices for wireline broadband have mostly been flat.

What motivates someone to launch a startup? The secret sauce in this recipe includes things that are almost mystical in nature, including ambition, fearlessness, and more than a handful of luck. The motivation to begin a startup always begins with an idea  — the next “big thing” that an entrepreneur envisions. That’s how Apple, Google, Facebook, Foursquare, and countless other success stories begin. While many famous entrepreneurs launched their businesses in a garage or dorm room long before they were legally able to drink.  However, there are other successful, inspiring entrepreneurs whose stories begin at the least expected starting point: the 9-5 job. Yes, your best chance to turn a startup into a commercially viable entity may begin with your experience sitting behind a desk and working inside a traditional corporation.

You’ve identified a problem that you feel is your calling and you’re at that juncture where you need to take the plunge.

But what do you do after that? How do you get started?

Like you, there are many aspiring entrepreneurs who have had to face this question. Like you, I have also had to figure out the answers.

I have put together these steps for you to follow to help you see your idea through to launch, so that you don’t have to ‘figure out’ for yourself like I had to.

The University of Minnesota wants to create two venture capital funds to invest in startups that are trying to take university-created technology to market.

The funds could fill a void left by traditional venture capital funding, which has shied away from backing startups and early stage technology companies lately because of the higher risk and the long wait until they pay off.

First, the Board of Regents must approve the concept called MN Ventures and decide how the funds would be supported and managed.

Earlier this week, TechCrunch featured a guest post by Michael Staton, who serves as an entrepreneur in residence at Learn Capital. Staton wrote about the importance of learning to code in today’s world. Staton is also the founder of Inigral, creator of SchoolApps.

Staton wrote about Dev Bootcamp, an intensive course that teaches students how to code and become entry-level software engineers. He noted the program’s high success rate at placing students in jobs–over 90% of graduates find tech jobs in three months or less after they complete the three-month program.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Being overweight is known to increase the risk of needing a knee replacement, but a new study finds that knee replacement surgery may also raise a person's risk of gaining weight.

Analyzing the medical records of nearly 1,000 knee-replacement surgery patients, researchers found that 30 percent of them gained five percent or more of their body weight in the five years following surgery.

One possible explanation for the counterintuitive results, experts said, is that if people have spent years adapting to knee pain by taking it easy, they don't automatically change their habits when the pain is reduced.