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Top Ten Business Ideas for 2012 to Inspire Entrepreneurs

Jan-10-12 By IdeaConnection
We’re already making inroads into 2012 but the predictions for the year ahead are still coming in thick and fast. Springwise, that bible of the most promising business ideas, ventures and concepts has been honing its soothsaying powers to highlight what it considers to be the top ten business ideas for 2012.

The aim of compiling the list is to provide rocket fuel for the mind for entrepreneurs and innovators: “We hope that you’ll find these concepts as inspiring as we do, and that they spark even more innovation in the year to come!”

The World Bank and the Government of Moldova Need Your Help

Jan-08-12 By IdeaConnection
The World Bank has announced that it is partnering with the Government of Moldova to organise a competitive Open Innovation Hackathon focused on the reuse of open data in Moldova.

The aim is ambitious. Though the development of killer apps is a must the priority is to build a high capacity ecosystem around the country’s open data.

“The long-term objectives are not the release of open data or the creation of killer apps, though both are unquestionably valuable. The real goal is to catalyze new partnerships that become long-term producers of viable apps for an Innovation Economy.”

Use Social Media to Select Your Seat Partner on Flights

Jan-06-12 By IdeaConnection
Airline travel can really suck when you’re stuck next to the kicking kid, the loud bore or the arm rest hog.

Recognising that this can make journeys unbearable for its customers Dutch airline KLM will soon be launching its 'Meet and Seat' service that will enable passengers to choose who they sit next to based on the LinkedIn or Facebook profiles of  their fellow travellers.

The new service will be available to all, but you will only be able to select your in-flight neighbor if the other person has signed up to participate.

Open Innovation backed by UK Government Minister

Jan-04-12 By IdeaConnection
In a wide ranging speech on universities, research and innovation UK science minister David Willetts offered strong support for open innovation.

Acknowledging the UK’s reputation for failing to capitalize on many of the great ideas that are generated by its universities the minister outlined areas the government is keen to promote.

“We are reforming IP and backing open innovation in our universities. We are liberating them from the idea that the only measure of their contribution to the wider economy is setting up a tech transfer office and then counting patents."

Five Burning Questions about Implementing Open Innovation

Dec-30-11 By IdeaConnection
The research and advisory company Nerac has been holding a number of executive roundtable discussions on open innovation throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. Participants were all Nerac clients who are engaged with OI at some level.

From all the debates and discussions several common themes emerged and now Nerac analyst David Fazzina has produced a short but welcome document that answers the top five questions that emerged from the executive talkfest.

New Year Resolution–Read More about Business and Innovation

Dec-29-11 By Jane Mundy
One of my New Year resolutions is to read more about business.  But countless business books are published each year,  so how do you separate the wheat from the chaff, the good from the bad, without spending hours on end reading book reviews? Or reviewing the reviewer—argh!

Crowdsourcing Lunar Search for Signs of Alien Life

Dec-28-11 By IdeaConnection
If intelligent alien lifeforms exist our chances of detecting them may be improved if they are untidy.

Two prominent physicists, Prof Paul Davies and Robert Wagner of Arizona State University are proposing a new crowdsourcing initiative that would have volunteers all over the world scouring hundreds of thousands of photos of the moon  for tell-tale signs that ET may have once passed through our cosmic neighbourhood.

Top Innovation Predictions for 2012

Dec-27-11 By IdeaConnection
Do you face 2012 with fear and trepidation or are you excited about what could be just round the corner? Could it be your best year yet?

Even with the most highly polished crystal ball nobody knows what the next 12 months has in store. American baseball legend Casey Stengel once said, "Never make predictions, especially about the future". Nevertheless those wise sages at Innovation Excellence have pulled together a top ten list of predictions for innovators in 2012.  And paying attention to them may just improve your chances of keeping and staying ahead of the pack.

Survey Reveals How it Can Pay to be a Member of the Crowd

Dec-23-11 By IdeaConnection
Interesting results from a new survey of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk workers offers some revealing insights into who makes up this virtual crowd and how much they rely on crowdsourcing for their income.

For starters, nearly twenty five percent of those who responded to the survey said that crowdsourcing is responsible for more than ten percent of their annual income.

 

Crowdfunding with New Facebook Game

Dec-22-11 By IdeaConnection
Online social games do more than exercise your fingers; they can elevate your thinking, improve your decision making, enhance your social interactions, boost your creativity and nurture your problem solving skills. And they can be used to benefit less fortunate people in the world.

WeTopia by Sojo Studios is a recently launched social game that allows players to fund programs that improve the lives of communities. It is the latest in a burgeoning craze of games for social good that engage the crowd on humanitarian issues and motivates them to help.