Babson College is setting out to change the way entrepreneurship is defined. The educator, convener and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds(TM), Babson has launched a new, fully integrated advertising and marketing campaign. The campaign is designed to extend the definition of entrepreneurship, asserting, "The World Needs a New Definition of Entrepreneurship. It's Being Written Here at Babson." The keystone of the campaign is a new digital hub, define.babson.edu, which creates opportunities for the community at-large to participate in the "Redefining Entrepreneurship" effort by posting and sharing their definitions and accessing information about the entrepreneurial experience.

"Technology has evolved. The economy has shifted. The world has changed. And today's entrepreneurs do more than just start businesses," said Babson's Chief Marketing Officer, Sarah L. Sykora. "As the recognized global leader in entrepreneurship education, we here at Babson know that 'entrepreneurial thought and action' is crucial to organizations of all types and sizes, from large corporations to new ventures. Today, more than ever before, the social, economic and environmental issues confronting our world require solutions - the type that entrepreneurship, broadly defined, is uniquely capable of delivering. Through this campaign, we invite the community to help us extend the definition of entrepreneurship and, in doing so, help shape how the world views and values entrepreneurs."

Today is Community Manager Appreciation Day, and we have plenty of resources for those who are managing their own communities.

With a bevy of social spaces to choose from, creating a potent and tight-knit community around a product or brand can seem daunting, even for those experienced in the social space. Every brand has to have its own tailored and unique message, and cater to its specific demographic of fans. With all of these options, it’s hard to keep a focused lens on what’s best for a brand, but Mashable is here to help.

Make sure you read up on the most recent resources we’ve published on how to effectively handle and grow your own community — our appreciation gift to you. Below is our in-depth roundup, and be sure to stay focused on Mashable for future community management advice.

Australia is classified as an innovation-driven economy, according to a new global report, with a business start-up rate of 6%, compared to 8.7% in the United States.

Last year, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor conducted its 13th annual survey of the rate and profile of entrepreneurial activity around the globe.

Based on a survey of more than 140,000 adults in 54 countries, GEM estimated that 388 million entrepreneurs were actively engaged in starting and running new businesses in 2011.

This included an estimated 163 million early stage entrepreneurs who are female, and 165 million early stage entrepreneurs aged 18-35.

TopCoder®, Inc., the leader in online programming competition, skills assessment, and competitive software development, announced today that it is working with faculty members at Harvard Business School ( www.hbs.edu ) to provide an environment where HBS MBA students can build new online businesses, from idea generation through product development and final roll out to market. In support of the School's new FIELD course (Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development), part of the required first-year MBA Program curriculum, TopCoder has created an online platform, a virtual "factory" environment, in which student entrepreneurs will explore how to use professional communities and digital creatives to conceptualize, build, manage, and grow real digital products and businesses. See http://community.topcoder.com/hbs-field/ for full details.

Start-up accelerator’s first program outside of US will offer mentorship, money and workspace in NYC to five fortunate companies.

A handful of unknown Israeli Internet start-ups could soon make a name for themselves in the United States, if recently launched start-up accelerator DreamIt Israel has any say in the matter.

DreamIt Israel’s opening was announced last week by Dreamit Ventures, a leading American-based start-up accelerator. Applications have already begun flowing in for the inaugural four-month program, perhaps lured by the prospect of receiving mentorship, guidance, a stipend of up to $25,000 and access to early stage capital.

With its legislative agenda for job creation stuck for the foreseeable future, the Obama administration has turned inward, looking to the federal bureaucracy for new ways to jump-start the economy.

Lately its gaze has settled on the Small Business Administration. Yes, it has proposed merging the S.B.A. into a much bigger government agency dedicated to business and trade. But an arguably more consequential decision came in December, when the S.B.A. unveiled a new $1 billion program to invest in young companies by loaning money to venture capital funds. Unlike the reorganization, which faces long odds in coming to pass, the new investment program, part of the administration’s Startup America campaign, is likely to commence this spring. But what remains unclear is whether it can win over the venture capital industry that it is meant to assist.

Forget the buzzword, what is true innovation? How should it be used and how does it affect our everyday lives? Harvey Briggs takes a critical look at how the concept of innovation is used today, and what it should be.

In my travels and in my work I hear the word “innovation” thrown around a lot these days. Everybody’s talking about it. You can’t open a business magazine without reading an article featuring it. And, of course there are thousands of “experts” like myself making a pretty good living peddling their particular brand of it.

The level of innovation capability within organizations is connected to the ability of making the right sense of collective experiences, especially in uncertain or ambiguous times. In this post Susanna Bill delves deeper on the importance of sense making and the effects it has on the level of innovation capabilities. And addresses a personal dilemma.

I have had a rough fall. One of my main strategies, which I have used for as long as I can remember, fell apart and didn’t work anymore. To me the strategy of determination, say writing an offer to a potential customer or creating a presentation for a meeting or seminar, has always helped me get things done. I wait until I feel a sense of urgency, then I act. All throughout last fall though, this method completely failed. An academic paper to be written never made it. A proposal for business collaboration did not happen. This made me very confused and I could not make sense of why.

One reason why there isn't more innovation in your organization is because too many people are working on their own. The result? Overwhelm. Stress. Bottlenecks. And too many missed opportunities. Here are 20 ways to change the game:

20 WAYS TO CHANGE THE GAME

1. Tune into the vision of what you're trying to accomplish

2. Identify the gaps between the vision and the reality

3. Make a list of what isn't getting done

4. Make a list of everything you do, then note the tasks that should be done by someone else

5. Write a job description for every role that should be done by somebody else

The Unreasonable Institute–a sort of TED for socially responsible entrepreneurs–selects 25 entrepreneurs from around the globe each year to participate in an intensive six-week workshop in Boulder, Colo., providing world-class mentorship, access to seed capital, intensive skill training, a global network of support, & international exposure to each entrepreneur. First, however, prospective entrepreneurs have to get through the final round of the Institute’s application process: fundraising. Currently 46 finalists are racing to raise $10,000 over the next 40-odd days.

The idea of fixing Detroit—or any other city in desperate need of revitalization—is overwhelming, to say the least. And legions have tried, with various levels of success.

What if you could harness the best and brightest ideas from around the world?

That was the mission of a recent crowdsourcing exercise put forth by IDEO, the iconic design firm, and Steelcase, the Michigan-based producer of workplace furnishings and solutions. By itself, it is simply one inspiring story, but it's also a prototype for all that’s possible in creating a more sustainable world.

When I ask busy executives to describe a satisfying life, they often envision a scenario in which they work hard but dictate their own assignments. They want time to take part in important family events. They are eager to make real contributions to their organizations, and they also want breaks when they’re tired. What they really need is control. But, frequently, what they think they want is balance--and that’s where trouble starts.

Here’s what I tell them: work-life balance is a myth. That myth compels many of us to view an ideal life as a set of perfectly level scales. On the tray on one side is your personal life. On the other side is your work life. With heroic efforts, you can keep both trays exactly level. If one starts to tip too far, you make some kind of nifty move that balances them again.

A new device developed by scientists in the United States measures blood sugar levels in saliva, so that diabetics do not have to draw blood when checking their levels.

The study, published in the journal Nano Letters, involved thousands of plasmonic interferometers being etched onto a biochip that was then able to measure the concentration of glucose molecules in water. Small alterations in the intensity of the light passing through the slit of each plasmonic interferometer provides data on the concentration of glucose molecules in solution.

The current presidential primaries have taken an unfortunate turn as the term “vulture capitalism” has found its way into the political lexicon. We can expect to hear more of this colloquialism this fall during the general election. Misinformed or misguided candidates have managed to vilify an institution that could well be one of the best solutions to reignite our ailing economy — venture capitalism.

After being a part of seven successful companies that were started with venture capital funds, we have witnessed the creation of thousands of jobs. Many of those involved in the formation and growth of these companies have gone on to start still other companies with venture capital funds and created thousands more jobs themselves. The branches from the “parent” tree go on and on.

In an ominous sign for Michigan's entrepreneurial efforts, a report released Friday shows that venture capital investment in Michigan companies reached a 14-year low in 2011.

Last year, the amount of venture capital flowing to Michigan companies plunged 46 percent to $83 million compared with $152 million in 2010, according to the MoneyTree Report from the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers. That was the lowest amount of investment since 1997.

The number of Michigan companies getting venture dollars held steady, with 31 deals last year compared with 32 in 2010.

To motivate investors to reinvest in additional rounds of financing at start-up companies, venture capital deals often include “pay-to-play” provisions. Under these provisions, investors that don’t reinvest have their preferred stock converted to common stock or otherwise made less preferential, VC Experts explains.

According to venture capitalist Brad Feld, pay-to-play provisions were rare in the 1990s. But after the Internet bubble popped in 2001, they became very common. New data show that investors have moved away from pay-to-play provisions in recent years.

The figure below shows data on the share of venture capital deals with pay-to-play provisions taken from the Venture Capital Report produced by law firm Cooley LLP. While the data only cover deals for which Cooley did the legal work, they show the frequency with which VCs are using pay-to-play provisions.

Discussing dumpsters over dinner isn't exactly romantic.

But that's how David and Sara Russick spent date nights in their budding relationship. Their passion for building a trash collection business later led to their 1997 marriage and to Bagster, a start-up so successful that Waste Management bought the company and its indestructible trash bags two years ago.

Now the entrepreneurial couple is on to a new love: being investors.

The Russicks launched Gopher Angels, an investor network that will recruit wealthy individuals to put at least $50,000 into Minnesota start-ups within two years. The network will address a dire need among local entrepreneurs who are struggling to raise money to fund promising innovations.

Ten Asian countries, including some developing countries in South-East Asia, have, as a bloc, caught up with the global leader in research and development (R&D) investment, the United States, according to a US report published this week (17 January).

The total science spend of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam rose steadily between 1999 and 2009 to reach 32 per cent of the global share of spending on science, compared with 31 per cent in the US.

A "major trend has been the rapid expansion of R&D performance in the regions of East/Southeast Asia and South Asia," according to the biennial report 'Science and Engineering Indicators 2012' produced by the National Science Board, the policy-making body of the US National Science Foundation, which drew upon a variety of national and international statistics.

In a first for Australia, a group of key players in the entrepreneurial space have been brought together to deliver a national entrepreneurship program and business plan competition.

The ambitious ‘Innovation in Entrepreneurship’ series aims to condense years of knowledge into a 12-week course that covers everything from intellectual property protection, marketing and managing for growth through to capital raising options and exits.

The program is designed to close the knowledge gap for business owners who have spent years becoming experts in their fields.

RIYADH: Vision is the most important factor in driving entrepreneurship and continuous learning is extremely important for businesses. Entrepreneurship will thrive with locally appropriate solutions. In the emerging economies, entrepreneurship needs to be a national effort supported by appropriate eco-systems and policies. Entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity can only flourish in an atmosphere of freedom.

These were some of the most important observations made during the first day of the opening session of the Sixth Global Competitiveness Forum on “The Entrepreneurship Imperative”.

John A. Quelch, distinguished professor of international management, vice-president and dean at CEIBS, the leading China-based international business school, moderated the session.