This was the year social networks became normal. Next time you're in a crowded restaurant, close your eyes and listen to the chatter around you. Count how many times you hear the word "Facebook" in an hour. This year, the number of people on Facebook reached 800 million. Remember when it was for college students only?

Google+ also launched this year. It's not just a new social network; it's what Google+ chief Vic Gundotra called "the + part" of the new Google. Every part of the Google experience, especially search, involves social connections now. And Twitter was no also-ran in 2011. It became a system-level part of every iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch on Apple's new iOS 5. In the ongoing war of the social networks, this year's pivotal battles were over three key territories: identity, location and sharing. How did it play out?

The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) approved a $4 million equity investment in Angel Ventures Fund I, a fund that will invest in knowledge-intensive, technology-based firms in Mexico.

Through this project, the MIF and Angel Ventures Mexico L.P., the fund’s manager, will contribute to the development of a conducive ecosystem for financing early stage companies through the creation of the first fund dedicated exclusively to seed capital in Mexico. The fund will match qualified angels’ investments in innovative projects and start-up companies with high growth potential, as well as in existing early stage companies that are relatively new and need support to to scale up.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo Thursday announced that $785 million has been awarded through the Regional Economic Development Council initiative, continuing the governor’s efforts to redesign the way state government works in order to drive economic growth and create jobs.

The Finger Lakes Region, which includes Genesee, Wyoming and Orleans counties, was awarded $68.8 million for 93 projects.

In 1987, Martin Marietta (later Lockheed Martin), the largest employer in Littleton, Colo., shed 7,000 jobs - half its local workforce.

Those who were laid off equaled about 20 percent of Littleton’s pop- ulation at the time, and the layoffs left more than 1 million square feet of retail and office space vacant.1 Because of this devastating setback to the community and other economic challenges, the city shifted its efforts from recruiting outside companies to focusing on helping entrepreneurs already in Littleton grow their businesses.

According to Chris Gibbons, business/industry affairs director for Littleton,

“The community wanted to take back its own economic des- tiny from out-of-state corporations, speculative real estate developers and low-end service jobs. It wanted an economy built from the inside out with employers who had a commit- ment to Littleton and would build the community as well as their companies. It wanted good jobs with good pay that would stay in the community. ... Littleton did not depend on the federal government or distant corporations to salvage its economy when times were bleak. It relied, rather, on its own initiative, with a local government creating a nurturing ‘gar- den’ in which entrepreneurs could survive and thrive.”

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Technology around DNA is evolving to the point where it may be possible to affordably print original DNA sequences.

Three issues of Nature magazine are shown. They contain the original scholarly articles in which Francis Crick and James Watson first revealed to the world the structure of DNA.The issues (dated April 25, 1953, May 30, 1953, and August 24, 1953) are part of the Dr. Elliott and Eileen Hinkes Collection of Rare Books of Scientific Discovery at the Sheridan Libraries of Johns Hopkins University.

The state of Washington's Governor Chris Gregoire announced the state will contribute $5 million to the W Fund, a new $25 million investment fund intended to spin more startups out of research labs at the University of Washington, Washington State University and other state research institutions. Administered by the Washington State Department of Commerce, key growth sectors targeted by the W Fund include biotech and clean tech. The fund intends to start considering investments in early 2012.

Citing data from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) this morning introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at jumpstarting the economy through the creation and growth of new businesses.

"Kauffman research makes clear that there is a need for a major legislative jumpstart of our nation's entrepreneurial engine," said Carl Schramm, Kauffman Foundation president and CEO. "With virtually all net job creation coming from companies less than five years old, entrepreneurs are a critical force for U.S. economic growth."

Today, the White House made an announcement to increase the capital available to investors in early stage companies and entrepreneurs growing high potential businesses.

The federal government launched a $1 billion Early Stage Innovation Fund. It will provide matching capital to Small Business Investment Companies targeting early stage firms seeking funding from institutional investors. In order to further accelerate the success of high growth businesses, the President is pushing for:

an increase on the cap on “miniofferings” from $5 to $50 million so more small businesses will be exempt from certain regulations;

In order to create killer marketing campaigns, marketers sometimes find themselves playing the role of psychologist to understand what makes their audience tick. Getting real insight into the inner workings of our prospects' minds can only be made better with one thing that all marketers love...data! TabJuice tapped psychologists to define six universal learning methods that they've identified in shoppers, and link those behaviors to data that explains how shoppers make purchasing decisions in this Social Commerce Psychology Infographic. You might find many of these concepts extend to the way websites and authors gain authority, increase traffic, and generate leads on the web, too!

Long-term, large-scale trends like population growth, resource constraints, and climate change are reshaping buyers’ needs and business practices. These big shifts and other “megatrends” are creating major risks (think: geopolitical unrest) and opportunities (think: clean technology innovations).

WRI is working with partners in the private sector to make a compelling case for next practices — innovations that will help solve urgent challenges, like global climate change. In doing so, we can draw several lessons from how companies approach megatrends today.

The Management Innovation eXchange (MIX) is an open innovation project aimed at reinventing management for the 21st Century. The premise: while “modern” management is one of humankind’s most important inventions, it is now a mature technology that must be reinvented for a new age.”

My article entitled “Busting Bureaucracy with Radical Management” was published on the MIX today. It begins:

To transform organizations so that they are fit for human beings–more inspiring and engaging and yet just as disciplined and even more productive–we need to understand why promising ideas for improving management developed in the 20th Century–such as teams, empowerment, delayering or innovation–failed to become a permanent part of the standard management repertoire.

Many believe that entrepreneurs are born, not made. While I agree that successful company builders usually have a natural inclination to be entrepreneurs, a good education helps polish that apple. There are people who are natural musicians, but that doesn't mean we don't try to teach them music.

Of course, there's no law saying you have to go to college to start a business. We can all point to examples of successful entrepreneurs who dropped out of college, but still went on to make a big impact. Current young adults have grown up hearing about Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) as the paragon of success. Why not try to follow in his footsteps?

How do you measure and gauge your success today? Is success all that you thought it was cracked up to be?  By definition, success is a noun: “the favorable outcome of something attempted.”

The answers to the two questions above are tied into the lens we look through at any place in our life cycle. Each place in that cycle is real, legitimate and important. The question and answer of how we gauge our success has dramatically changed for most of us in the past few years, as we have seen our circumstances and assets change. That has gotten me thinking about what the benchmarks are today that gauge success for me.

Often entrepreneurs forget to set aside for their own retirement funds. However, our employees may want a retirement fund, and it is important for us to listen to their needs. A recent survey showed that only 10% of small businesses offer some type of retirement plan.

The Harris Poll of 501 small business owners indicates only 11 percent say they are likely to add an employee sponsored 401(k) plan within the next two years, 69 percent say they won’t because their business is too small, and more than half say it would be too expensive.

Google’s vice president of engineering for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, Nelson Mattos, commands god-like respect among googlers. He is, after all, the man responsible for engineering and product development.

Mattos, the brain behind analytics products such as Google Trends and Google Instant, believes that Africa is in a unique position to change the way we experience the web via mobile devices. This is why Google is paying particular attention to the continent.

Mattos spoke to Memeburn about the future of search and why it lies with social. He says that Google+ is not simply a social network, but more of a platform that all other Google products can take advantage of, thanks to the social graph.

When Shane Snow co-founded Contently a year ago he had just 48 cents in his bank account. Fast forward to the end of 2011 and the startup is on track to clear over $1 million in revenue.

Watch Snow’s interview to hear about his experience going through the TechStars mentorship program, raising money and how his experience of losing a big sale helped him better understand Contently’s business model.

Los Angeles-based Start Engine, the business accelerator being spearheaded by Activision co-founder Howard Marks, said today that it has created a new, $15M investment fund for its portfolio of startups, and added former Governor Gray Davis as an advisor. The accelerator--just one of the many accelerators to emerge in Southern California in recent weeks--also said it has added John Maataa, the COO of the CW; Hayward D. Fisk, former VP and General Counsel of Computer Sciences Corporation; General Merrill A. McPeak; and Greg Suess of ROAR to its advisory board. Governor Gray Davis is currently in the Los Angeles office of Loeb& Loeb; Davis was Governor from 1999-2003. Start Engine did not provide deals on the structure of its new $15M investment fund. Start Engine, modeled after the YCombinator and TechStars accelerators, is running its first class of startups in January; the group is investing $20,000 in those companies, and providing other resources, mentors, and a program to help those startups get funded and into the market.

The Technopolicy Network organized its 8th annual conference in Tampere, Finland on Sept 26-27 with the theme Open Innovation for Regional Development. It’s not the weather in late September which attracts people to Finland, so it must have been the current topic that did the trick and attracted some 140 participants to Tampere.

The first day was an interesting mix of talks providing varied aspects to the topic. Dr . Erkki Ormala of Nokia Corporation provided the day’s most insightful talk on contemplating on the innovation needs of and processes in a multinational firm. Given Dr. Ormala’s experience on the international innovation arena, the presentation was to the point. The day ended with parallel sessions on how to utilize open innovation in the regions.

Anthony DeFelipo is a living, breathing, 16-year old argument for why entrepreneurship should be an elective at every public school. DeFelipo and a friend placed third at a recent Boston Startup Weekend event with a mobile app called BiteRight, and he's planning to launch a jewelry business soon, Earth Custom Designs, that will use non-precious stones imported from developing countries.

And DeFelipo tells me he probably wouldn't have discovered entrepreneurship if not for a course offered at his high school, Providence's MET Center. "I wasn't doing good. I got Ds and Fs. I had problems with showing up late," DeFelipo says. But ever since taking a course designed by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, DeFelipo says, "I found a passion in entrepreneurship. I carry a notebook with me, and whenever I see a problem, I try to think of a solution." (DeFelipo is pictured at right, holding a prototype piece of jewelry from Earth Custom Designs.)

Businesses need to be more open with one another to help boost the economy.

The call comes from David Gill, director of St John’s Innovation Centre, as the annual Meerkats and Avatars event gets under way today.

Open innovation between mid-sized businesses and early-stage companies would allow UK plc to derive greater benefit from its thriving technology sector and would make a lasting contribution to the country’s competitiveness, Mr Gill says.

Introduction of the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), in which early-stage, high-technology SMEs tender for government contracts, has already made a tangible difference to many Cambridge companies, he says, by introducing them to a “real” client and this concept could be extended.