IdeaConnection Innovation
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Demand for High-Skilled Labor Rising

Feb-05-11 By Aminda
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has recently released an excellent overview of major themes relevant to workforce training and innovation. It’s goal is to provide a concise critical overview of the major themes in the literature on the role of workforce skills in innovation in OECD countries. Topics include: the evolution of academic programming to meet labour market needs; the importance of training innovation-related competencies and the role of innovation intermediaries in the overall economy.

Crowdsourced Translation Giving Egyptians a Voice

Feb-02-11 By Aminda
Amidst the chaos in Egypt, technology has enabled people around the world to lend a hand in allowing Egyptians to make their voice heard.
After the government attempted to silence the people by cutting off internet access last week, engineers from Google and Twitter came up with the idea to use Google’s new site SayNow, which had just been acquired by Google on January 25.
The site allows anybody across the globe who has phone access to dial one of several phone numbers and leave a voice message. The messages are hosted on SayNow and a link to the message is automatically tweeted on the Twitter feed @speak2tweet.

Innovative Non-profit Seeking Sponsorship

Jan-31-11 By Aminda
Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs) a non-profit organization working to impact, empower and reconstruct local and global communities through innovation, is currently seeking sponsorship of their new work space. They are inviting individuals, businesses and organizations to have their name engraved on the walls of different rooms of the RLabs Space.

A Presidential Nod

Jan-27-11 By Aminda
U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent State of the Union address has been getting plenty of attention for its emphasis on innovation.
Public affairs Journal, The New Republic, reports; Obama placed innovation at the center of his narrative, and promoted technology innovation (especially clean energy innovation) as the central imperative of national economic renewal. But while he has emphasized the importance of invention in the past, he has never done it as explicitly and forcefully as he did last night before a prime time national TV audience in a year of tepid recovery, 9 percent unemployment, and fears of lost national mojo.

This was different from the past, in which presidents have tended to either ignore innovation or tick it off as one of many programmatic topics. Even for Obama, last night’s rhetoric was new.

Crowdsourcing for the Greater Good

Jan-26-11 By Aminda
Just as General Electric has utilized crowdsourcing in an effort to advance sustainable, environmentally sound technologies, Sony, in partnership with the World Wildlife Federation has recently announced the result of their Open Planet Ideas Project. The goal was to tackle and address a defined set of looming environmental problems using already existing Sony technology. The winner is a cross platform software application designed to mobilize a new generation of volunteers accustomed to social networking.

Keeping the Internet Open

Jan-24-11 By Aminda
A Canadian blog is alerting readers to potential changes taking place in Internet accessibility.  The premise is that as big telecom companies broaden the scope and influence, their effect will mean they ultimately replace smaller, independent Internet service providers (ISPs), which will in turn lead to the demise of open internet thus impeding innovation.

Developing Innovation Talent

Jan-22-11 By Aminda
Cultivating an innovative culture is a team effort between employers and employees. Here are some tips for both.
What Organizations Can Do
Innovation Management magazine recently published an in-depth piece about cultivating innovation talent management. Some of their key points:
Keep innovation Visible
In the most innovative companies, the concept is a defining part of the organization’s strategy; from definition and development to execution. It is regularly discussed in company meetings from the Board on down and as normally as topics such as marketing, sales, operations and finance.

A Marked Need for Marketing

Jan-20-11 By Aminda
An organization’s marketing department is often thought of in terms of only one function – the communication. Granted, this is the most visible side, the ads and glossy brochures, but it really is only part of what Marketing does. Smart R&D teams will understand that they should be communicating and connecting with marketing to generate products not only with the best technology, but that are going to be the best sellers. Why? Because marketing is charged with tapping into the voice of the consumer, generating useful information about what features are desired and how much consumers are willing to pay for them.

Grading Government Open Technology

Jan-18-11 By Aminda
Innovative companies interested in U.S. government projects will want to check out a report from Open Source for America.  The Federal Open Technology Report Card evaluated key indicators of open government and open technologies developed through online crowd sourcing and refined metrics outlined by the OSFA leadership committee. These included questions regarding public budgets, use of social media, and open source technology practices.

Keeping the Traditional Current

Jan-14-11 By Aminda
Investment education site, The Motley Fool, has posted an insightful profile of house-care products producer, Clorox. The author recommends Clorox as a value stock to purchase following a slump in earnings. What’s interesting, however, is his rational for selecting a company that wouldn’t normally be on the radar of active investors, with its relatively flat stock movement.

He goes on to applaud Clorox for the company’s ability to innovate and keep up with social media, despite being such a large, traditional organization (they have been around nearly 100 years). And despite being a producer of such uninspiring products as toilet bowl cleaner, bleach, trash bags and mops.