The Wall Street Journal:

According to the study published Monday by the Fiscal Policy Institute, immigrants constitute just over one-third of New York City residents. But they are 48 percent of the city’s small-business owners.

Immigrants dominate businesses like grocery stores, taxi services and dry cleaning but they are in every sector of the economy.

Howard Schultz. God Bless Him.

When last we left the chairman and chief executive of Starbucks, in mid-August, he had written a widely publicized e-mail lamenting the poisonous state of our nation’s politics. That led him to his first big idea: a call for a boycott of political contributions until Democrats and Republicans began to act in a nonpartisan way for the good of the country.

The idea had undeniable appeal. But it was also — let’s face it — pretty quixotic, fun to dream about but impossible to turn into reality.

A common misconception I often hear in the startup world is that non-profits are easy and safe, since they don’t have to pay taxes, and they don’t have to make a profit for their shareholders. In reality, from the feedback I get from non-profit executives, exactly the opposite is true.

Technically speaking, in the United States, a non-profit corporation or association is one which has been exempted from Federal income taxes by meeting the criteria set out Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code, most notably religious, educational, and charitable entities. Other countries have similar exemptions for similar organizations.

Yet even a non-profit has to make a profit on everything it sells, in order to cover operating expenses (salaries, offices, equipment, research, travel, etc.), unless it relies wholly on donations. Even then, the business and leadership efforts to solicit and manage donations cost real money, and may be more difficult than the marketing and sales jobs of most startups.

I’m deep into writing my latest book. For now, the title is “Startup Communities: Creating A Great Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Your City.” I’m open to different titles – if you’ve got ideas just put them in the comments.

Following is the current table of contents. It’s still pretty dynamic as I’m adding stuff while I’m writing. I’ve also got a bunch of guest sections coming from all over the US (I’ve got a dozen so far) so as they come in, I’m trying to fit them in (which often generates a new, or different section). If you are a leader in your entrepreneurial community and have something you want to add, email me 500 – 1000 words.

In a hangarlike building where General Electric once assembled steam turbines, a $100 million battery manufacturing facility is being constructed to make products using a chemistry never before commercialized on such a large scale. The sodium–metal halide batteries it will produce have been tested and optimized over the last few years by a team of materials scientists and engineers at GE's sprawling research center just a few miles away. Now some of the same researchers are responsible for reproducing those results in a production facility large enough to hold three and a half football fields.

Ten years ago, solar panels were made mostly in the United States, Germany, and Japan. Chinese manufacturers made almost none. But by 2006, the Chinese company Suntech Power had the capacity to make over a million silicon-based solar panels a year and was already the world's third-largest producer. Today Chinese manufacturers make about 50 million solar panels a year—over half the world's supply in 2010—and include four of the world's top five solar-panel manufacturers. What makes this particularly impressive is that the industry elsewhere has been doubling in size every two years, and Chinese manufacturers have done even better, doubling their production roughly every year.

Americans love online technology, but it may come at a cost to their personal and professional lives.

A decade of studies by the Center for the Digital Future, a unit at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, creates a portrait of the American Internet user reaping the benefits of online activity while at the same time paying a high price in the form of time, privacy and well-being.

“After 10 years of studies, we find that the strengths, as well as the consequences of technology, are more profound than ever,” said research professor Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at USC. “At one extreme, we see users with the ability to have constant social connection, unlimited access to information and unprecedented buying power. At the other extreme, we find extraordinary demands on our time, major concerns about privacy and vital questions about the proliferation of technology – including a range of issues that didn’t exist 10 years ago.

Since the crowdfunding bill, officially called the HR-2930 Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, was accepted by the House on November 2nd, and is expected to pass in the Senate any day now, we’re all wondering what this really means for small business fundraising.  Is this the access to fundraising start-ups need from the SEC?  With sites like Kickstarter, Kiva, IndieGoGo, and Rockethub, does the new act really matter?

As it stands, individuals who wish to fund their bright ideas may do so by collecting “donations” in the form of crowdsourcing, but they cannot sell stock or other securities to their benefactors through social media. In the 1930s, the Securities and Exchange Commission prohibited organizations from “general solicitation” for funding without a substantive relationship with accredited investors. Therefore, social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, cannot currently be used to reach people for funding unless the solicitation takes place in the form of a direct message. Third-party social media sites must be registered with the SEC as an official “broker-dealer” before users can legally accept transaction-based compensation or offer securities sales or stock in the company.

On Friday, Mayor Michael A. Nutter detailed The Philadelphia Fashion Incubator at Macy's Center City, a new fashion design initiative devoted to supporting and promoting emerging fashion designers and encouraging local designers to keep their businesses in Philadelphia.

Modeled after a similar program in Chicago between Macy's State Street and The City of Chicago, the year-long residency program, which launches in Philadelphia in March 2012, will provide the selected Designer-In-Residence (DIR) with office space, a production room and shared showroom space/conference room.

What’s happening is that we might, in fact, be at a time in our history where we’re being domesticated by these great big societal things, such as Facebook and the Internet. We’re being domesticated by them, because fewer and fewer and fewer of us have to be innovators to get by. And so, in the cold calculus of evolution by natural selection, at no greater time in history than ever before, copiers are probably doing better than innovators. Because innovation is extraordinarily hard.

Many of those involved in economic development at the local level have demonstrated an incredible ability to not only adjust to the tumultuous economic conditions of the past few years, but to think outside the box and seize new opportunities.

The Economic Development program at NLC explores, shares and connects city leaders with these various paths to economic development “success.” By examining economic development in a local context, local leaders and economic development officials can enrich their capacity to affect economic change.

That is, what tools do local governments currently have to support job creation and business growth? What are the policy and governance implications of particular approaches to economic development? How can local leaders rethink the work they do and the partners they engage to advance the economic development goals of the community?

Are you thinking about a future in business and envisaging an MBA as a vehicle to get you there? Think again. The MBA as most commonly taught today is outdated, and does not provide its students with the skills and mindset that is required to succeed in business today, let alone tomorrow.

In fact, Henry Mintzberg first pointed this out about 25 years ago, but none of the players – business schools, industry, students – were willing to listen as all were comfortable with existing arrangements. Perhaps it was also that no one could quite see what was wrong with the fact that traditional MBA programmes produce “managers who are excessively analytical and detached”. After all, we are all rational beings, making rational decisions which are then communicated down the line of command. So where is the problem?

When it comes to business, there’s a thin line between “people pleasing” and good customer service. And these days, in crowded and competitive markets, anything less than a customer-obsessed strategy (as coined by Forrester Research) simply won’t do.

That drive to wow customers, clients, bosses, and colleagues can set you apart from the rest. But can a relentless need to please actually be hurting your business and career?

A U.K.-based program called Decoded promises to teach n00bs to code in a day. Writer Louise Jack (and many ad industry types) signed on to find out if they can walk in with a civilian's basic web knowledge and walk out with an app.

If so many people’s jobs are touched by the Internet and digital technology, then how come so few of us have even a basic understanding of how things work? This is the fundamental question behind a new course in the U.K. called Decoded, which promises to teach people how to code in one day.

DURING the 2008 Summer Olympics, China dazzled the world with Beijing’s posh athletic venues and revamped urban landscapes. And as the US and Europe have struggled with economic crises in the years since, China’s prodigious economic growth rates convinced many that it was only a matter of time before it became the globe’s economic leader. But there are many reasons to be skeptical. Critics have cited China’s income inequality, poor urban migrants and political corruption as reasons to doubt China’s ability to maintain its rapid growth. Often lost in the discussion, however, is the fact that the cards are stacked against the Chinese entrepreneur.

The potential market for Chinese entrepreneurs is huge. Millions of Chinese have foregone certain purchases due to cost, accessibility and convenience. And millions of Chinese innovators would love to flood the market with smaller, cheaper more convenient products that don’t appeal to the mainstream market’s performance expectations.

We’ve all been to those websites of dubious origin. You know the ones.  They look cheesy … fly by night. They’re the online equivalent of the guy selling video DVDs or “designer” handbags out of the back of a van in an alley.

And then there are the sites that don’t exactly look suspicious (and may in fact be legitimate).  But still … you don’t have enough information to be sure.  No big brand name backs the site to give you confidence.  The site has no contact information on it.  And there’s nothing to indicate who or what company is actually going to fulfill your order or performt he services.

Even though most Americans have become very frustrated with this economy, the reality is that the vast majority of them still have no idea just how bad our economic decline has been or how much trouble we are going to be in if we don't make dramatic changes immediately.  If we do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the U.S. economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old lies that our politicians keep telling them.

Just "tweaking" things here and there is not going to fix this economy.  We truly do need a fundamental change in direction.  America is consuming far more wealth than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding.  If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable.  Hopefully the crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.

Every other tweet today has been about SOPA and American Censorship Day.

If you haven't been following tech news closely, you probably have no idea what either of those things mean.

Here's a breakdown of what's going on and why everyone is so concerned. It's a big deal for tech innovators everywhere.

What is SOPA?

SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act. It is one of two bills being considered by congress today. The other is the Protect-IP Act.

Nerds can dominate a New Year's Eve party; don't be left out of the conversation.

It's that time of year for eggnogging and partying. And let's face it, lots of parties consist of moseying around a room, drink in hand, stopping in on various clutches of fellow revelers engrossed in colloquies on one subject or another. The challenge: to find a series of conversations to join where you can make a few strikingly original and/or clever au fait statements and then quickly move on to the next chat before you stick your foot in it.

But how do you know, as you float, if a given conversation is one whose subject matter can give you an opportunity to shine or will leave you standing there with nothing to say? Here's my strategy: I try to pick out a word or two from the conversation as it comes within earshot and if on that basis the conversation seems promising, I pounce; if not, as the song goes, I "walk on by."

Sometimes I can’t help but think back to my first cellular phone back in the mid-1990′s. But the history of mobiles started a decade prior, when phones were beyond the means of most consumers. Now we have countries with more mobile subscriptions than people and the phone itself is used less and less for it’s original purpose: Voice calls.

This infographic, courtesy of Savings.com, brings together historical datapoints showing the decreasing cost and size of mobile devices, in conjunction with more capable hardware and services.