Innovation and entrepreneurship are crucial for long-term economic development. Over the years, America’s well-being has been furthered by science and technology. Fears set off by the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of its Sputnik satellite initiated a wave of U.S. investment in science, engineering, aerospace, and technology. Both public and private sector investment created jobs, built industries, fueled innovation, and propelled the U.S. to leadership in a number of different fields.

In this paper, I focus on ways technology enables innovation and creates economic prosperity. I review the range of new advances in education, health care, and communications, and make policy recommendations designed to encourage an innovation economy. By adopting policies such as a permanent research and development tax credit, more effective university knowledge commercialization, improving STEM worker training, reasonable immigration reform, and regional economic clusters, we can build an innovation economy and sustain our long-term prosperity.

BOCA RATON & GAINESVILLE, Fla., Oct 19, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Institute for Commercialization of Public Research (the Institute) announced today the availability of funding for early-stage technology and life sciences companies that have spun out of Florida's universities and research institutions. The goal of the new Seed Capital Accelerator Program is to bridge the funding gap for companies whose technology was developed through publicly-funded research, and to attract additional investment capital through a required match against funds provided by the state.

"This program underscores Florida's commitment to develop its innovation-based economy by leveraging the $2B+ in research conducted throughout the state," said Senator Jeremy Ring, (D- District 32), who, in 2007, sponsored the legislation that created the Institute. "Florida universities have had a significant impact on the economic development of the state, which ranks tenth in the country for research awards, and this program will strengthen Florida's entrepreneurial ecosystem and go a long way towards new company and job creation in our state."

For the group gathered at Utah Business’ entrepreneur roundtable Wednesday morning, the problem is money. From startups looking for seed money to companies deciding whether to sell or go public, Utah’s entrepreneurs’ biggest decisions are based on money.

For entrepreneurs trying to get seed money or other funding early on, capital is harder to find, particularly in certain industries, said Andy Raguskus, president and CEO of OtoKinetics, Inc. “I’m not sure the term venture really applies to venture capital anymore.” He said investors are becoming more risk averse and don’t want to get involved until late-stage funding.

"It wasn't luck, we were just doing things right," asserts Scribd founder Trip Adler. In this clip, Adler explains that luck can come to any entrepreneur who works hard and remains persistent in trying to reach his or her goal.

Do you still think your small business couldn’t possibly function if you offered your employees flexible work hours? Do you believe your staffers need to be at their desks 9 to 5, or they couldn’t do their jobs effectively? Then you’ll want to know about a growing trend: Companies are increasingly offering even low-level or hourly workers flexibility that used to be available only to white-collar employees.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on this trend and took a look at how factory workers, retail clerks, food service employees and customer service call centers are starting to offer flexible hours to suit their employees’ schedules.

Patent data is a rough but imperfect proxy for innovation; patents are often owned by large corporations or universities rather than individual inventors. But regional patent data does point toward areas of high intellectual productivity, and it's safe to assume that some of those patents flow from start-up companies.

Last year, I took a look at some of the subtler patterns that patents reveal. The map above is based on a measure of innovation density, which we calculate as patents per square kilometer.

Imagine you have a bright idea for a new gadget or game. You're convinced people will love it, but it's going to take more money and time than you have on hand, so you need to raise some funds. You've got a few options: you could talk to a bank manager for a loan, you could seek investment, or you could approach a commissioner.

What do these people have in common? They're all gatekeepers, and while we expect gatekeepers to be perfectly impartial experts, most are only human, vulnerable to making mistakes (including favoring friends). Anyone who's tried to raise money or win a grant will know the frustration of having the fate of their project lie in the hands of only a few people.

Boulder-based TechStars has launched a new accelerator program, in an effort with cloud hosting firm RackSpace, the two said today. According to the two, they are launching a cloud computing focused accelerator--TechStars Cloud--in San Antonio, Texas, which will use apply the TechStars program concept to cloud computing startups. The effort, according to Rackspace, is the first, thematic accelerator to focus on cloud computing. The effort is different than TechStars prior efforts, which have been geographically focused. According to Rackspace, the new Techstars program will be based in San Antonio--the home of the firm--and will accept applications until November 2nd; the program will run from January to April 2012. Details of the relationship between Rackspace and TechStars were not announced.

Although portions of the visible world come in through one eye only, the brain instantaneously takes all that information and creates a coherent image. As far as we know, we “see” with both eyes at once. Now a new study suggests that the brain may know which eye is receiving information—and can turn around and tell that eye to work even harder.

“We have demonstrated for the first time that you can pay attention through one eye, even when you have no idea where the image is coming from,” says Peng Zhang, who conducted the study with University of Minnesota colleagues Yi Jiang and Sheng He. And the harder that eye is working—the heavier the “informational load”—the more effectively still that eye can attend to its object. The findings will appear in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.

A really easy Thursday read. Here are eight potential career challenges, along with tips for:

1. Creating memorable brand experiences (personal or organizational): Meet consumer interests with emotional intensity & just enough mention of your brand so they know who made it happen.

2. Shooting better informal videos: When you are using one Flip or phone camera to shoot video of a speaker, don’t go for b-roll. You’re not making an epic. Just video the speaker & don’t shake.

TechCrunch:

Most wind turbines have a recognizable shape, but a new design from Segway inventor Dean Kamenhttp://www.business-opportunities.biz/?s=Dean%20Kamen is less obvious in its functionality: This turbine has a vertical axis and rotors made of plastic fabric meant to be easily moved by the wind.

Archetypal wind turbines require a good amount of steel and concrete to be built, and once installed, it is difficult to move them. Kamen’s design uses air to inflate the rotors, which act as giant sails. The rotors can be easily deflated, making the turbine not only lightweight, but mobile.

At a university best known for turning out captains of industry and Wall Street hedge fund magnates, Yale is now focusing more attention on nurturing its entrepreneurs.

At last week’s inaugural Yale Entrepreneurs Conference, organizers put out a call to alumni to join the efforts of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute and others to foster entrepreneurship at Yale, on campus, around the country and around the world.

The full day conference on Oct. 14 featured presentations and panels by student entrepreneurs as well as sessions with leading Yale alumni entrepreneurs.

KRAKOW - The European Institute of Innovation and Technology said it is launching a contest to reward entrepreneurs in its knowledge and innovation communities, in an effort to encourage more enterprise in Europe. The contest is organised in cooperation with Science|Business.

The Budapest-based EIT, a three-year-old European Union initiative, said it will pick a winning venture next year from among each of its three Knowledge and Innovation Communities, or KICs. The groups – in the fields of ICT, sustainable energy and climate-change technologies – are large consortia of universities, companies and research organisations that operate across Europe, and are intended to be innovation hubs. The groups began work in 2010, but already include numerous small companies and entrepreneurs.

KANSAS CITY, MO -- (Marketwire) -- 10/20/11 -- The Internet's profound effect on how U.S. businesses operate is even more pronounced among young companies, according to a research report released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The study, "Casting a Wide Net: Online Activities of Small and New Businesses in the United States," reveals that new businesses have a higher propensity to use websites, email, and to sell online, and that these inclinations have an impact on capitalization and longevity.

The research compares data from the Kauffman Firm Survey, which follows 4,928 firms from their founding in 2004 through 2009, with recently released data from various government sources on businesses overall.

On an August afternoon, Adam Passey, 28, steps up to the front of IGN Entertainment's lunchroom in a rumpled cardigan and hipster glasses, and bounces through a presentation on a hub for mobile games that he spent the summer coding. IGN's engineering managers are impressed. Passey added features that other similar hubs don't have. But they're particularly impressed because, by conventional measures, Passey shouldn't even be here.

Silicon Valley companies have notoriously strict hiring standards for engineers. They want grads from the country's top computer-science programs, like Stanford's and MIT's, or people with sparkling résumés and deep experience. Passey, from Medford, Oregon, didn't even graduate from college. "I briefly studied computer science at college, but I wasn't really excited about the actual degree program," he says.

No physician inventor should apologize for making money off an innovation that improves medicine. Certain orthopedic surgeons, however, have pushed a tenuous ethical line in how they distribute their own devices.

Entrepreneurial surgeons have formed medical device companies to develop, manufacture and distribute implantable plates, rods and screws used to fix maladies such as spine fractures.

The perception of conflict of interest can be raised when surgeons purchase devices from their own company. If a surgeon developed a new device due to their strong belief in the device’s improved performance, however, it only makes sense to want to use that new device.

If you agree with The Wall Street Journal's recent claim that Web startups have hit a cash crunch, you might just be in the wrong place at the right time.

According to a recent report by CB Insights, a New York City-based VC database, the cash is still flowing, to the tune of 790 firms receiving a total of $7.9 billion worth of VC in the third quarter of 2011. If that rate of investment continues through the fourth quarter, CB Insights estimates it'll be a $30 billion-plus year for venture capital, the highest level in a decade.

SSTI’s 15^th Annual Conference Nov. 8-9 in Columbus, OH is just a few weeks away and this year’s agenda includes thoughtful discussion, practical tips and workshops centered on relevant, timely issues that matter to those involved in tech-based economic development (TBED) policy and practice.  Featured topics include Capital Access, Research Commercialization, Nurturing Startups, and Innovation and Organizational Metrics.

SSTI’s plenary sessions incite dialogue and promote community building. Senior leaders from EDA, NIST and SBA will kick-off the event discussing how we communicate the value of investments in innovation, encourage collaboration, and adapt to changing economic and fiscal conditions. The conference wraps up with discussion and audience participation on the latest trends, the challenges ahead and their implications.  Networking opportunities, yoga, a morning run, and dinner with small groups is built in to maximize your conference experience.  Early registration is available through Oct. 24. Register now at: http://www.ssticonference.org/.

Funding announcements are very boring, both to read and to write.

But they're covered every day on tech sites, whether an entrepreneur has raised $400,000 or $400 million.

The amount of money raised has become a way some people benchmark a startup's success. The more an investor pours into a startup, the better the startup's idea and team must be. It will have enough money to live a little longer, at the very least.

That logic is a bit twisted.

The amount of IT spending on cloud computing services, such as data storage, is growing.