CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Baxter stayed behind in the lobby of the M.I.T. Media Lab, diligently picking up miniature boxes of Junior Mints and teacup candles and putting them in a pumpkin-shaped plastic bucket, as most attendees of Technology Review‘s Emerging Technologies (EmTech) conference here filed into the main auditorium on Wednesday morning.

Don’t feel bad for Baxter, though, it was simply performing the picking and placing operations it had been programmed to do. The crimson-sleeved robot had no idea that its maker, Rethink Robotics founder Rodney Brooks, would shortly take the stage to tout Baxter as a technology for fundamentally transforming the manufacturing industry.

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) Oct. 25, 2012 — While a majority of startup business owners do not believe the economy will grow in the next 12 months, 83 percent are nonetheless confident that their own profits will, according to the fourth-quarter Kauffman/LegalZoom Startup Confidence Index, released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and LegalZoom.

The latter finding represented a 4 percent rise from the previous quarterly survey, conducted in July 2012, and was the highest confidence level expressed by entrepreneurs in any of the 2012 quarterly surveys.

Forty-one percent of entrepreneurs reported being very confident in future profitability in the fourth-quarter survey, compared to 39 percent in the third quarter. The number of respondents who were somewhat confident in future profitability rose from 40 percent in the third quarter to 42 percent in the fourth-quarter survey.

While Silicon Valley, Austin and other traditional high-tech hotbeds are considered cities with high-growth companies, new Kauffman Foundation research shows that innovations can come from a wide range of sectors and regions. The Ascent of America's High-Growth Companies: An Analysis of the Geography of Entrepreneurship examined the number of Inc. 500 firms by state and analyzed them over 30 years. It found that since the 1990s there is a huge complex of fast-growing firms in the D.C. area. Several states, including Virginia, Maryland, and Massachusetts, have remained in the top 10, while Washington, D.C., and Utah are rising stars.

QUESTION What can a big company learn from a small start-up?

PROFESSOR Dom Sagolla, Chief Product Officer At Chaotic Moon Studios+

TOPIC Wisdom

If you’ve successfully flushed a toilet recently, then you appreciate (at least subconsciously) the workings of a good sewer system. Waste disappears, no matter what time of day or night, or what the weather’s like.

But weather is actually a challenge for a sewer system, especially precipitation. That New York City’s sewers can handle the waste of more than 8 million residents on a daily basis—plus the occasional downpour or major storm like Hurricane Irene—is a testament to its resilience.

Louisiana Economic Development’s Economic Gardening Initiative provides Louisiana-based small businesses with the information they need to grow and succeed. Through accelerated technical assistance and research, an experienced economic gardening team will provide customized services tailored to your business needs, including:

• Review of core strategies, including threats and opportunities, business strategy and niche markets 
• Business development opportunities through market research and qualified sales leads 
• Improved internet presence by increasing your company’s visibility and credibility within the market, and advice on how to best use technology to connect with customers

TORONTO, CA, October 16, 2012—A gigantic patent deal by AOL, Microsoft and Facebook was one of five extraordinary intellectual property licensing deals that received Licensing Executives Society, (U.S.A. and Canada) 2012 Deals of Distinction™ Awards during the Society's Annual Meeting today.

Now in their 8th year, the awards are presented annuallyto companies that orchestrate the most outstanding IP-based licensing and business deals in five industry sectors including: High Technology; Chemicals/ Energy/ Environment and Materials; Industry-University-Government Interface; Life Sciences; and Consumer Products. Here are details on the winning deals:

High Technology Sector Winner AOL, Microsoft and Facebook

ORLANDO, FLA., OCT. 25, 2012  -- Ranging in industries from information technology, software, healthcare and auto parts, fifty high-performing companies from across the State of Florida, were honored at the second annual Florida Companies to Watch celebration event on Friday, October 19 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, FL. Hosted by GrowFL at the University of Central Florida, in partnership with the Edward Lowe Foundation and sponsored by SunTrust Banks, Inc. and with special support provided by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the awards event attracted nearly 400 attendees in celebration of the impact these companies generate to our state.

Florida Companies to Watch is a unique awards program that honors second-stage growth companies for their impressive employment rates and revenue growth.  These companies have a reputation for generating a large portion of new jobs and strengthening Florida's economy.

The combined impact of the Class of 2012 Florida Companies to Watch is immense. In 2011 alone, the companies generated $355 million in total annual revenue, and held 1,576 full-time equivalent employee positions. The companies collectively created 350 net new jobs compared to the previous year. Between 2008 and the end of this year, these companies will have generated $1.4 billion in revenue and added 1,297 employees reflecting a 204 percent increase in revenue and 151 percent increase in jobs for the five-year period. In 2012 alone, that translates to a 35 percent annual revenue growth and 37 percent annual growth in employees. For a complete list of this year's winners please visit the Florida Companies to Watch website.  *Data compiled in August 2012.

As a co-founder of RockThePost, the leading crowdfunding platform for entrepreneurs, I naturally advocate for startups to get funding via crowdfunding, as it provides several additional benefits that can prove very useful early on.

On the flip side, other options to obtain funding include personally funding your venture, reaching out to friends and family, angel investors, and of course, the world of venture capital. Venture capital is popular among entrepreneurs not only for the money, but also to gain access and tap into the resources that are available through the alliance.

PwC's 2012 Family Business Survey - "Family Firm: A resilient model for the 21st century" - has launched.

This year, 1,952 family businesses took part in the survey from over 30 countries, including, for the first time, Australia, China/Hong Kong and India. According to this year's survey, 80% of family businesses have strong and confident ambitions for growth.

Other key findings include:

• 65% have grown sales in the past year (compared to only less than half in 2010) Almost 60% say attracting the right skills/talent will be a key challenge in five years' time
• 64% think the general economic situation will be their key challenge in five years' time
• Over 60% see the need to continually innovate as the key internal challenge in five years' time
• A quarter of our respondents' sales are currently international; this will rise to 30% in five years' time

Visit the site.

The relatively small glaciers that drape the planet's mountains will play an important role in future sea level rise, according to a new study that estimated glaciers' collective size.

Researchers calculated the ice thickness for 171,000 glaciers worldwide, excluding the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which hold the bulk of Earth's frozen water. Through a combination of direct satellite observations and modeling, they determined the total volume of ice tied up in the glaciers is nearly 41,000 cubic miles (170,000 cubic kilometers), plus or minus 5,000 cubic miles (21,000 cubic km).

Companies are well aware that hidden in their dispersed, global operations is a treasure trove of ideas and capabilities for innovation.

But it’s proving harder than expected to unearth those ideas or exploit those capabilities in global innovation projects.

What works for an innovation project conducted in a single location doesn’t necessarily work for one dispersed across many sites around the world. When a project spans multiple locations, many of the natural benefits of co-location are lost. Part of the challenge of dispersed innovation thus becomes how to replicate the positive aspects of co-location while harnessing the unique benefits of a global initiative.

100 cool quotes on what it really takes to innovate. Noodle on anyone of these to get your creative juices flowing. Just published in the Huffington Post.

Michael T. Owyang and E. Katarina Vermann at the St. Louis Fed are out with some fascinating research looking at school types versus income. They compared private schools, public schools and Catholic schools under various conditions (rural versus urban, high versus low drop-out rate and starting teacher salary) with future outcome for students.

Inspiration feels like catching a genie in a bottle — elusive and sometimes unreal. But when you tap into it for yourself, then you find a new kind of motivation. In an inspired state, every impossible question has an answer. You were probably inspired when you started your business. And if you’ve inherited something that you never wanted, then it’s time to discover the parts of the business that set you on fire — so to speak.

Five emerging technologies could become mainstream next year. A list announcing the constituents was released by The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), a heavyweight trade body in the US consumer electronics market, recently. Mind you, these are not products but new technology trends that we are talking about. So let the drums roll as I list the five…

• 3D printing 
• Next-gen TVs and displays 
• Evolution of the audio market 
• Mobile revolution in Africa 
• Technology in education

Thank you, Bonnie, for that introduction and for the invitation to speak today.  I also want to commend Nancy Smith and her colleagues at GrowSmart Maine for undertaking an update of our original Charting Maine’s Future report from 2006.

It is great to be back in the state of Maine to see and hear about the tremendous progress since 2006 on many of our goals and recommendation and to hear about the numerous economic success stories throughout the state. These stories illustrate the depth of commitment and breath of talent throughout the state of Maine.   

Darrell West examines mobile entrepreneurship’s key role in expanding opportunities for social and economic development around the world. Examining places like Nigeria, Egypt, and Indonesia, West notes that micro-entrepreneurs generate 38 percent of the gross domestic product, generating new ideas, business models, and ways of selling goods and services.

As part of the Center for Technology Innovation's Mobile Economy Project, West analyzes the importance of wireless technology for entrepreneurship, how mobile improves access to capital and market information, how it helps entrepreneurs serve broader geographic areas and reach new customers, the manner in which it empowers women and the disadvantaged, and the way mobile payments stimulate economic development.

West offers policy recommendations that outline the steps needed to overcome current barriers to m-entrepreneurship.

Tech startup founders in their 20s and 30s make all the headlines, but when it comes to entrepreneurship, increasingly it’s baby boomers who are more likely to be in business for themselves — and creating jobs in the process.

For Lynn Gray, the idea of starting her own firm had never been anything more than an occasional daydream.

“I never really had the time to think, 'Do I want to do something completely different and take a risk?’'’ said the former head of recruitment in Lehman Brother’s Global Real Estate Group.