Up to now, several innovation intermediaries have assisted managers to transgress the boundaries from closed to open innovation and facilitated the access to opaque and highly difficult to connect technology markets. Examples such as NineSigma, Innocentive, Utek and Yet2.com have been specificaly helpful for technological problems requiring solutions fromom distant and distinct innovation actors. This work aims to address the lack of continuous effort to study the content, structure and governance mechanisms of these intermediaries as well as other less publicized forms such as incubators, innovation agencies, science and technology parks that further complement innovative practices. How do innovation intermediaries help you to implement open innovation?

Got a great idea? President Obama might be interested. His administration is awarding prizes for innovative ideas such as $10 million for a car that earns 100-plus mpg or cooking alongside White House chefs for those with the healthiest school lunch recipes.

The White House recently unveiled Challenge.gov, a new online site that features more than 35 contests by more than 15 government agencies. Among them is the new "Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge," part of first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" initiative to combat childhood obesity. Winners will receive, aside from the White House experience, a "grand prize" and inclusion in a cookbook.

Switzerland tops the overall rankings in The Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011 released by the World Economic Forum ahead of its "Summer Davos" in Asia.

The US falls two places to fourth position, overtaken by Sweden (2nd) and Singapore (3rd), after already ceding the top place to Switzerland last year.

"In addition to the macroeconomic imbalances that have been building up over time, there has been a weakening of the US’ public and private institutions, as well as lingering concerns about the state of its financial markets," the WEF said in a statement.

I had a really fun 20-minute interview with Howard Lindzon of Stock Twits as part of a 5-part series on whether the web is dead.  If you have 20 minutes I think you’ll enjoy watching.  I’ve also covered the general topic in the text below the video embed.  Obviously taking on this topic is bound to be controversial and I’m not trying to pick any many fights but I think it’s worth a healthy debate.

About 30% of city traffic is caused by people driving around looking for parking.

That’s an estimate by the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA). As a car-owning San Franciscan, I have to say it sounds about right.

It’s also a favorite statistic of Zia Yusuf, newly hired CEO of Streetline, a Silicon Valley-based startup that has a vested interest in the plight of urbanites and their parking issues. Streetline, which sells a sensor-based system to track parking space information, has raised $3.7 million since 2006 from Sutter Hill Ventures and other backers, according to Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB).

Could a major industrialized country be powered entirely by renewable energy? Germany wants to be the first to try.

On September 8, WRI hosted an event featuring Jochen Flasbarth, President of the German Federal Environment Agency, Umweltbundesamt (UBA). The event, moderated by WRI President Jonathan Lash and with respondents Christopher Flavin, President of the Worldwatch Institute, and Ana Unruh-Cohen, deputy staff director for the U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, highlighted UBA’s effort to figure out how the country could transform its electricity supply to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.

Long before you are shortlisted for a job/project, your Resume already go through many expert set of eyes. Thus it is extremely important to show your all creativity & skills and add life to the lifeless resume. Today we have collected best samples to boost your first impression on your future employer.

Yesterday Martin Scorsese, the legendary director, listed the 15 gangster films that shaped the way he has portrayed crime on film (Goodfellas, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, etc.). Scorsese watched these films as a youngster and young director, during his big moment of influence. The first film (The Public Enemy) came out in 1931, and the last one (Point Blank) in 1967. Above, you can watch scenes from the original Scarface (1932), which appears on his list.  The rest of Scorsese’s picks, along with related film clips, can be found here.

Selecting the top ten most successful entrepreneurs in the last century is very subjective. Some persons measure importance on net worth alone while others measure how meaningful the entrepreneur’s efforts have grown to be. The finest way to actually select the best group is to mix the two.

Following is a list of ten crazily successful entrepreneurs who are acknowledged as icons all over the world. Their lucrative accounts are nothing short of astonishing and are the material dreams are made of.

A social entrepreneur is someone who identifies a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to create, organise, and manage a venture to make social change. A social entrepreneur measures success based on the impact on the society. While social entrepreneurs are often non-profit groups, the aim is to advance the social and Environmental goals.

Often social entrepreneurs present new ideas that are user friendly and ethical, social and environmental problems. They typically get people support to implement and make a positive impact on the society.

What are the top 100 rankings?

The Innovation Cities Top 100 ranks the top 100 cities in the world as innovation destinations. There are 30 Nexus, 65 Hub and 5 Node cities in the top 100 ranking.

What is the index and how does the index classify cities?

The Innovation Cities Global Index classifies the full 289 cities across a broad range of continents into 5 performance classes. Cities selected from a list of 1,540 cities. These are cities 2thinknow are watching for innovation. (more details below)

Running a site doesn't only require Web development skills. Any site where the users can add content and communicate with each other requires a great deal of care and attention if it's going to be a success.

Increasing user participation on your site is achievable if you aim for the old adage KISS, or  keep it simple, stupid. Beyond that, there are a few things you can do to get more people to interact with your site. Here are seven tips to set you on that path.

1. Enable Social Logins

I'd suggest losing registration altogether if you can. But if your site requires registration, best to make it as simple as possible. A quick click here, a quick click there, and hey presto - one registered user without the barrier of a signup form.

Check out our guide to JanRain Engage and you'll be setting up social logins in no time.

Early this year we wrote about Pumkpinhead, the working name for new startup About.me being created by repeat entrepreneurs/investors Tony Conrad and Tim Young. We didn’t know much about the startup except that it had top angel investors involved: True Ventures, Ron Conway, AOL Ventures, Scott Kurnit, Founders Collective, Radar Partners (Doug Mackenzie & Kevin Compton) and David Mahoney. Freestyle Capital has also invested since then.

The company is still in stealth, but they’ve given out a few beta accounts to friends and advisors, they say. Part of the product is a personal profile page that points people to your content around the Internet, allowing you to pull all this information together to build a single online identity. So these beta users are creating very noticeable splash pages. Examples: Founder Tony Conrad, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, Typekit founder Jeffrey Veen and author Ellen Hopkins. You can see my About.me page here.

IN WINCHESTER, VA. The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison's innovations in the 1870s.

The remaining 200 workers at the plant here will lose their jobs.

"Now what're we going to do?" said Toby Savolainen, 49, who like many others worked for decades at the factory, making bulbs now deemed wasteful.

During the recession, political and business leaders have held out the promise that American advances, particularly in green technology, might stem the decades-long decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs. But as the lighting industry shows, even when the government pushes companies toward environmental innovations and Americans come up with them, the manufacture of the next generation technology can still end up overseas.

The Canadian Minister for Finance, Jim Flaherty, has highlighted a Budget 2010 measure that will strengthen the ability of Canadian businesses, particularly high-technology firms, to attract foreign venture capital.

“The best way to build a more competitive economy is to create an environment that allows the entrepreneurs who employ so many Canadians to succeed and expand—not an environment that stands in the way of their success with high taxes and red tape,” said Flaherty at an event at the Communitech Hub in Kitchener, a new facility dedicated to the growth and commercialization of Ontario’s digital media industry. “That is why, in Budget 2010, we narrowed the definition of taxable Canadian property, eliminating the need for tax reporting under the Income Tax Act for a wide variety of investments in Canadian corporations. As a result, the world has yet another reason to consider Canada an investment destination of choice.”

Venture capital is difficult for startup companies to come by these days. Colorado's state universities are trying to make it a bit easier.

Colorado State University launched a $3 million venture-capital fund in July aimed at helping entrepreneurs whose technology was developed at or in partnership with the school.

The University of Colorado is considering starting a similar fund that would contribute profits to charity. The university's entrepreneurial centers in Boulder and Denver recently revived dormant funds and put them under the supervision of graduate-level business students.

The funds are concentrating on relatively modest investments, ranging from $25,000 to $250,000, too small for most professional venture-capital funds. VC firms typically won't invest in early-stage companies with promising ideas but no revenue or customers, said Mark Wdowik, who heads CSU's venture fund.

I strongly feel that selling is an art and one that is refined over time. Regardless of the product/concept/service being sold, there are certain key factors which I feel form the foundation for a successful sales drive.

1. Develop a 30 second elevator pitch, that sticks to the 30 second limit
The elevator pitch is meant to captivate an individual to such an extent that he/she is anxious to learn more about your product. It should serve as your opening statement and project a creative, yet factual representation of what your product stands for. That said, content from your sales collateral/brochures should not find their way to the elevator pitch.

For example, a web based application is supposed to run on the cloud, so making references to this in a 30 second pitch just doesn’t add any value. Rather, think about the positive emotions that the use of your product generates, regardless of what your product may be. Does it inspire creativity in those who design with it? Or does using your product deliver a smile on every end user’s face? Bring out these intangible benefits in your elevator pitch and connect with your prospective customers on a more personal level.

MODERN tools of data analysis — fast computers, smart software and vast troves of digital information — often open the door to new insights. Consider the subject of jobs in America.

For decades, the assumption has been that small business is the economy’s dynamic engine of job generation. Look at the numbers broadly, and that is the irrefutable conclusion: two-thirds of net new jobs are created by companies with fewer than 500 employees, which is the government’s definition of a small business.

But research published last month by three economists, working with more recent and detailed data sets than before, has found that once the age of the businesses is taken into account, there is no difference in the job-producing performance of small companies and big ones.

WILKES-BARRE – Able to stand on its own even before it was bought last year by a bigger company, Internet marketer Pepperjam remains in a downtown business incubator that provides tax breaks to its tenants.

Pepperjam, founded in 1999, leases space on the third floor of the Innovation Center @ Wilkes-Barre, managed by the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry.

A little more than a year ago, GSI Commerce Inc. purchased Pepperjam for an undisclosed amount. The publicly traded GSI, headquartered in King of Prussia, reported sales of $1 billion in 2009.