Offshore-industrin ropar på arbetskraft

DANMARK. När den danska arbetsmarknaden som helhet går trögt finns det fortfarande branscher som ser ett ökat behov av arbetskraft. Inom offshorearbete, där olje-, gas- och vindkraftsindustrin ingår, beräknas 7.000 nya jobb skapas fram till 2020.

Läs mer om detta i Nytt Från Öresund

Processer – ett hinder för innovationsarbetet?

Många organisationer driver idag projekt inom området BPM (Business Process Management). Ofta förväntar man sig att dessa projekt ska generera innovation. Men: är detta en realistisk förväntan? Mitt svar är NEJ… men samtidigt JA!

Läs och tyck till om Åke Freijs blogginlägg på ensmartareplanet.se

Feature: Mobile health strategies – developed vs developing economies

New feature video reveals how developed and developing countries have very different healthcare services and patient groups in mind when it comes to the contribution of mobile technology. Interviewees reveal how a willingness to adopt innovation can differ markedly and reveal unexpected views on who will be borrowing ideas from whom in the future.  Interviewees include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Smart Communications, HP, NetHope and Formula Innovation.

At MobileWorldLive.com

RIM puts BlackBerry Playbook on massive sale; Android Market shoehorned onto rooted units

Research in Motion may not have found itself in a coveted spot as 2011 ended, but if it’s learned anything from HP, there’s a surefire way to rid itself of remaining BlackBerry PlayBook inventory: sell ‘em for a loss. After the unloved slate went on sale in its native land, Americans can now save up to $400 on a PlayBook through February 4th. RIM’s official webstore is offering the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB model for $299, leaving us to wonder who would ever choose the smaller two if all three remain in stock. In related news, those who take the company up on the offer can now gain access to the Android Market with a few choice moves.

Read story at engadget

Trend Spotting: 12 Greentech Startups to Watch in 2012

Each year, a handful of greentech companies become the talk of the town. Some engage in a competitive and oversubscribed fundraising round. Others announce a development partner that makes competitors take notice. Still others grow sales or flop in a make-or-break year.

Read about them in GreentechMedia

The Elderly React Slowly Because They Want To Be Right

Older folks may appear to react or process info slowly. But there may be a method to their meander-ness: they’re making sure they get it right.

Scientists gave undergrads and adults over 60 visual tests. In one, a computer screen would show an array of asterisks and the subjects had to choose as fast as they could whether there were between 31 and 50 or between 51 and 70. In a second test, the subjects saw a string of letters and quickly decided whether the letters spelled a real English word or not.

The researchers found little difference in accuracy between the younger and older subjects, although undergrads had significantly faster response times. But the older participants’ slower response times were not all the result of a decline in skills. In other tests, the older subjects were encouraged to decide faster, and their response times greatly decreased with hardly any loss of accuracy.

The researchers think it might be a greater desire to avoid mistakes that makes the elderly more deliberate. Because, as the old adage says: if you don’t have time to do something right, how will you find the time to do it again?

Story from huffington post

Venture Capital and Energy in the United States: Where to From Here

Six or seven years ago the broader venture capital community took an interest in energy as a category for venture capital investing. Storied venture capitalist like John Doerr and Vinod Khosla began to give speeches, raised lots of capital and put down some bets. Many firms were already making sizeable investments but not the headliners. The idea that energy might be “cool” began to percolate into the ethos of Silicon Valley. So why did this begin to happen, where are we today, and most importantly, where do we go from here.

Read the story in HuffPost

Social Media – Worth the Investment or Money Down the Drain?

Is social media worth the investment or money down the drain? From an engagement perspective there are definite benefits to having a social media presence, particularly as they provide free platforms to place content and interact with key audiences. But is the ROI proportionate?

huffingtonpost

Kinect Motion Controller Coming To Windows; Microsoft To Fund Developers Building Apps For Kinect

Forbes.com writes:
Some assembly required, at this point, but exciting news, especially if you’re a tinkerer.

Microsoft will build a special version of the Kinect motion controller for the Windows, Craig Eisler, general manager of Kinect for Windows wrote in a blog post Tuesday. The Kinect has been a hit on Microsoft’s XBox360 gaming console, but the motion-sensor has also sparked widespread interest from tinkerers, hackers, scientists and startups.

The new version of Kinect will arrive with ‘numerous upgrades and improvements’ to the Kinect software development kit (SDK) and runtime. Among them: a ‘near mode,’ that will enable a new class of ‘close up’ applications,’ Eisler explained. The motion controller itself will get a shorter USB cable, and a small dongle so that it will work with other USB-based peripherals.

Mycket händer i EU – som kräver uppmärksamhet

Det händer som sagt mycket i EU. När man säger så, grymtar de flesta. ”Ja, euorokrisen och skuldkrisen är besvärande”. Men även på området framtidens innovations-politik är det mycket på gång i EU, något som jag pekat på tidigare. Det som sker där när det gäller kommande forsknings- och innovationsprogram syns inte i media. Är det tyst, så tror man givetvis att inget sker. Så är det emellertid inte.

Nästa vecka, den 30 november offentliggör EU-kommissionen det nya ramprogrammet fram till 2020, kallat Horizon 2020. Det är ett förslag som ersätter det tänkta 8:e ramprogrammet, CIP och EIT. Ett program som enligt budgetförslag skall få 80 miljarder euro till sitt förfogande. Perioden är 2014 – 2020. Läs mer på Innovation för tillväxt