Executive Summary

Today, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) scientists, epidemiologists, and policy experts are working with governments, research institutions, and multilateral organizations across the globe to support the Department’s mission of enhancing the health and well-being of Americans.

While the majority of HHS’s work to protect and promote the health of Americans is carried out within our borders, the increasing interconnectedness of our world has demanded that HHS expand its global presence. Our mission-oriented efforts also provide the opportunity for HHS to share technical expertise, exchange best practices, and collaborate on health science, public health, and health policy efforts that contribute to a healthier, safer world. This HHS Global Health Strategy articulates the strategies that will guide these global efforts to prevent disease, disability and death, promote health and well-being, advance knowledge and innovation, and strengthen partnerships and systems to improve responsiveness to myriad health challenges at home and abroad.

The Global Health Strategy identifies three goals that contribute to achieving HHS’s global health vision of a healthier, safer world: to protect and promote the health and well-being of Americans through global health action; to provide leadership and technical expertise in science, policy, programs, and practice to improve global health; and to work in concert with interagency partners to advance U.S. interests in international diplomacy, development, and security through global health action.

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Today's college grads have it tough. The unemployment rate for students with a new bachelor's degree is 8.9% — which is pretty on-par with the rest of the nation.

Those with a GED have it even tougher, with an unemployment rate of 22.9%.

Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce released a study today that reveals the unemployment rates and salaries for nearly every type of college major — and includes these numbers for recent grads, those with experience, and those with a graduate degree (via Washington Post).

Thanks to generous support from the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Detroit Creative Corridor Center delivers: resources, services, strategic counsel and development support.

In a conventional sense, this program is business acceleration for the creative sector. In an unconventional sense, this program strives to be a global model representing the convergence of:

> On-site business development consulting

> Strategic counsel from respected subject matter experts

> Innovative work setting

> Access to tools, equipment and resources

> Access to new markets and opportunities

With DC3′s industry-specific insight, our partner’s at TechTown’s broad-based entrepreneurial programming, and with generous support from NEI and the MEDC, we are pleased to announce the launch of the Creative Ventures program.

The nonprofit Code for America plans to open a first-of-its-kind "civic accelerator" in San Francisco, a program designed to house, mentor and fund startups focused on using technology to improve government efficiency.

Mayor Ed Lee will announce the initiative this morning, highlighting a San Francisco partnership aimed at streamlining government processes, such as small-business applications or locating property records.

The details are still being worked out, but Code for America will work with the city to identify departments in particular need of new online tools. Code for America will sponsor so-called hackathons this spring and summer to find and fund entrepreneurs building the most promising solutions.

What's the Latest Development?

The passing of Steve Jobs left many of us wondering what it takes to be so creative and successful. It is a long and arduous road, to be sure, but a new book gives fresh insight into what qualities are shared by innovate leaders and disruptive businesses. The authors of The Innovator's DNA have found five principle 'discovery tools' used by our time's leaders: "These skills include associating, observing, questioning, experimenting and networking. It's a skill set they believe can be developed by anyone."

Kansas City looks to take a focused, creative and aggressive approach to attracting, retaining and launching businesses.

Kansas City, MO - infoZine - City of Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Sly James, along with steering committee co-chairs Tom McDonnell and Madeline Romious, celebrated the kickoff of the public input portion of AdvanceKC, the City's recently announced economic development strategic planning initiative, and its website, advancekc.org.

AdvanceKC will leverage quantitative and qualitative research to develop consensus for an economic development plan to allow the City to take a focused, creative and aggressive approach to attracting, retaining and launching businesses.

We are the Entrepreneurial Generation. Or, in the words of William Deresiewicz, we are “Generation Sell.” It’s a welcome change from earlier characterizations—the Apathetic Generation, the Entitled Generation, and Generation Me—and it’s more accurate too. With unparalleled access to information, markets, and technologies to help us build independent businesses, we’re more likely than any previous generation to become entrepreneurs. We fund our projects on Kickstarter, hawk our crafts on Etsy, and make our parents cringe by rejecting traditional career paths. I’m an entrepreneur, and so are most of my friends.

Our penchant for self-employment has been the subject of many articles in recent months, most notably Deresiewicz’s November 12 New York Times op-ed, “The Entrepreneurial Generation.” But while the articles accurately highlight the symptoms of entrepreneurship, they fail to diagnose the causes. What’s unique to this generation isn’t just that we are entrepreneurs; it’s why

No matter whether you already think of yourself as an entrepreneur or not, being vocal and visual about who you are and what you do matters. This was the key message of Enterprise Week 2011, an annual week in November dedicated to raising awareness of enterprise activities, which coincides with Global Entrepreneurship Week. The focus is on giving people the opportunity to consider new ideas and ways of being enterprising. Any organisation can add events to Enterprise Week with the intention of building skills, recognising opportunities and inspiring confidence.

Few recent topics have inspired as much love and hate in social media circles as the Klout score.

The Klout score, which purports to measure on a scale of one to 100 an individual’s social media influence on various topics, has been called “a little bit socially evil” by author John Scalzi. TechCrunch warns us that “nobody give a damn about your Klout score and that “If you even so much as whisper your Klout score within specific circles, you’re likely to be met with a piercing stinkeye.”

Even if the Klout score “exists to turn the entire Internet into a high school cafeteria,” it’s apparently catching on. It’s used by exclusive party organizers to determine VIP status and reportedly even used by some companies to make hiring decision.

Believe it or not, the economy is slowly getting better. I’ll grant you, the last two calendar quarters for which we have numbers (2nd and 3rd quarters, 2011) have seen pretty sluggish growth but it was growth nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the NFIB reports two consecutive months of improved (if still pretty low) Small Business Optimism Indices, the National Association of Home Builders notes a positive trend in multifamily housing construction that bodes well for the near future, and the National Retail Federation tracked better-than-expected consumer spending during the holiday shopping season (see below).

With the year of 2011 in social media thoroughly recapped and analyzed by Mashable, it’s time to set our sights on the year ahead. While I recently shared my predictions for media and advertising, there are some broader social media trends with big implications that are worth identifying.

Be sure to add your own predictions here or on our open thread, where Mashable readers have been sharing their own ideas for what might lay ahead in the New Year.

The probability of being killed at work is 25 times higher for a coastal fisherman than for an offshore worker, according to a study from the UiS. Seafarers also run a high risk of accidents.

Fifteen people died on vessels registered in Norway during 2010, figures from the Norwegian Maritime Directorate (NMD) show. Eight of these were fishermen.

Although these statistics show that the number of work accidents went down in 2009-10, the total has remained at a high and stable level for many decades.

The number of accidents in maritime transport has moreover increased since 2000, with a growing number of vessels sinking, going aground or being involved in collisions.

How many times have you heard it?  “Tell me something I don’t know.”  “Give me your best creative ideas.”  “I want a concept that people will be talking about.”

It doesn’t matter if you’re inside an organization or sitting in an agency – there is a never-ending desire and need for differentiation. Whether it’s a company, product, or person, engaging and persuading stakeholders often involves thoughtful, clever marketing.  The problem, though, is that creativity is both misunderstood and dropping in supply.

For a number of years, my partner Jason Mendelson has been teaching an extremely popular course at CU Boulder Law School with Brad Bernthal titled Venture Capital – A 360 Degree Perspective. While it’s a course taught in the law school, it’s (not surprisingly) become popular with the MBA students at CU Boulder.

Brad Bernthal, Phil Weiser (the Dean of the CU Law School), and I have been talking about a new course to complement VC 360 called Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Public Policy. We’ve decided to take a crack at a cross-campus course (law, engineering, and business) that focused on contemporary issues around entrepreneurship, would be a great introduction to any student who wants to immerse herself in entrepreneurship, and would enable us to create some unique content around this topic.

Thinking of trading in the same old, same old for a new gig in the New Year?

Whether you're going after a new career or launching a business, here are some pointers for how to get started, culled from SecondAct's best advice for would-be career changers.

1. Follow your heart.

Brad Gruno, recognized as SecondAct's Best Comeback of 2011, lost 40 pounds following a raw-food diet, and then followed his craving for crunchy-yet-healthy snacks to create a dehydrated vegetable chip that became a hit. "Find what you love, and success will usually organically happen from there," Gruno tells Kara Ohngren in this story.

Entrepreneurship requires balancing unbridled optimism with delusional foolishness.  Most entrepreneurs are mocked and misunderstood until they are wildly successful, at which point the chorus changes from “good luck with that ‘business’, pal” to “I always believed in ya, buddy!”

Master of your Domain

There is an undeniable appeal to the notion of bootsrapping your company to success without venture capital. While bootstrapping has many advantages aside from control and ownership—such as being master of your domain and giving you the freedom to build your own Xanadu for all stakeholders—the reality is that the disadvantages may be greater. I speak from experience, having bootstrapped my own company, WatchMojo.

This (usually) means that the VC believes the opportunity you are pursuing isn’t a big enough opportunity for them to invest in.  In other words, what you are building should be a feature to something else already out there, instead of a stand-alone company that will generate the type of returns that the VC is looking for.  For instance, assume you are building something that fits inside an email client that does X.  (Perhaps “X” translates languages).  While super helpful to some folks, a VC may take the postion that this should be a feature or tool within the email client, but not an opportunity to build a large company with paying customers around it.  Of course, we can debate whether this is a correct statement, but in the eye of the VC this is how it is.

We got a tour of StartX, the non-profit accelerator program for Stanford students and recent alums.

The accelerator provides office space -- but doesn't take any equity. The startups aren't pressured to raise money, but most end up raising money anyway.

The point is to help them learn and give them access to mentors and information. And they also give them feedback.

The lecture title no doubt helped draw the throng to Shaker LaunchHouse on a cold and rainy November night. "Launching a Billion Dollar Company: The Story of OfficeMax."

More striking than the size of the crowd was its youthfulness. Young professionals, college students and even some high schoolers filled more than 300 folding chairs arrayed across what was once the service garage of a car dealership.

They came to hear local businessman Bob Hurwitz describe how he built from scratch a chain of office superstores. First, Todd Goldstein, the 29-year-old co-founder of LaunchHouse, reminded everyone why that mattered.

As assistant vice chancellor of technology transfer and intellectual property development, Alan Bentley has spent the past six months overseeing expansion of Vanderbilt University’s push to commercialize research and turn discoveries into products.

It’s an area that saw a decline in startup activity in recent years as the university reassessed how it funds new drugs, technologies and other innovations developed in-house — and gets them to market.

Bentley, 40, arrived at Vanderbilt from the technology commercialization arm of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where he was director of commercialization. In Cleveland, he focused on cardiovascular medical devices developed by the clinic’s doctors.