research

Waiting for Green Energy

Laurence Shatkin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:57:41 -0500

Recently I’ve been working on a book about green careers, which will be part of a four-volume set called Progressive Careers, to be published by JIST next fall. As I noted in a previous blog, much of the information about green careers is difficult to obtain or, at best, still in flux.

Dark-Sided DARPA Dangles $40k for Crowdsourced Balloon Hunt

Kit Eaton — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:20:44 -0500

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has long been shrouded in mists made of equal measures of awe, mystery, controversy, and spying. Now it's strolling out of those clouds, jauntily singing a 1980s pop ditty by Nena. 99 red balloons, floating in the summer sky

Er, 10 red balloons, actually.

STEM Picks Up Steam

Laurence Shatkin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:06:17 -0500

Recently, I’ve written several blog entries on fields that are likely to experience growth now that priorities for the U.S. economy are shifting. These are the fields that are covered in my book 200 Best Jobs for Renewing America.

Will Microsoft's Pivot Reinvent How You Surf the Web?

Kit Eaton — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:00:46 -0500

Microsoft's in-house dev team revealed an experimental tool called Pivot, a whole new dynamic way of interacting with data on the Web and on your PC. Will it change everything? Maybe not, but it is a sign of the way things will go.

Scripps Gets a Cool $1 Million for Ocean-Going Robotic Swarms

Addy Dugdale — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:26:53 -0500

Razorfish's FEED Study: Brands Are the New Celebrity

Stephanie Schomer — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:20:02 -0500

You know social media is a powerful tool for business when a grocery store attracts more Twitter followers than pop star Lady Gaga and almost as many as Miley Cyrus, whose departure drove her 2 million fans to make #MileyComeBack a trending topic for more than a day.

Tech & Innovation Spending Show Corporations Are Recovering

Chris Dannen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:49:32 -0400

Despite cutting back on spending, big corporations actually expanded their R&D budgets by 5.7% in 2008, reports The New York Times. It's only half as much as the increase in 2007, but it hints that research spending is one of the last things on the corporate chopping block and that the economic slowdown might not stymie innovation as much as conventional wisdom suggests.

Great Opportunities in a Shrinking Industry Sector

Laurence Shatkin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:03:24 -0400

Yesterday it was announced that Fisker Automotive, a company based in Irvine, California, will buy and retool a former GM assembly plant in Wilmington, Delaware, with the goal of manufacturing plug-in hybrid cars. The purchase of the Delaware site will cost about $18 million, and retooling the facility will cost an additional $175 million.

SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES HAM STRUNG ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Brett Galvin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:44:34 -0400

SMEs FINDING SUSTAINABILITY BENEFITS OUTWEIGH THE COST

Brett Galvin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:37:19 -0400

The Status of the Stimulus Plan (2)

Laurence Shatkin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:24:17 -0400

In mid-June, I posted a blog entry about the status of the stimulus plan, which I have been following closely ever since writing a book about it (Great Jobs in the President’s Stimulus Plan). I rushed out this book before the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 had actually been passed by Congress and signed by the president.

Why Twitter and Facebook Will Never Kill E-mail

Kit Eaton — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:15:28 -0400

Twitter's on every tech-fan's lips, half the World's teens seem permanently plugged into MSN or Facebook, and seemingly every gadget's getting wired to a social network. With these big changes afoot, is email slipping into history?

The Infrastructure-Manufacturing Connection

Laurence Shatkin — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:59:04 -0400

In my recent book 200 Best Jobs for Renewing America, I describe six large fields whose growth will be essential for the United States to remain competitive in the world economy. These fields are education, infrastructure, health care, information and telecommunication technologies, green technologies, and advanced manufacturing.

Attention Marketers: 80% of Twitterers Are Narcissists

Kit Eaton — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:25:17 -0400

So we all know Twitter is portrayed as a lifecasting app--a tool to let users share data on their day-to-day activities and feelings. New research has confirmed this unequivocally, but also reveals that 20% of Tweeps are "useful info" broadcasters.

What's Wrong with GDP

Laurence Shatkin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:31:34 -0400

One of the most remarkable speeches that Robert F. Kennedy made was about what’s wrong with using traditional economic measures as gauges of our success as a society:

Age Distribution of People on the Web

Jay Bhatti — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:52:55 -0400

Despite Privacy Concerns, 74% of people openly show their age on the web!

As a people search engine, Spock crawls and indexes millions of web documents and social network profiles everyday.

What It Takes for a Career to Emerge

Laurence Shatkin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:47:11 -0400

I have spent most of this month researching and writing about emerging green careers for a book about that subject, and the effort has made me aware of the many factors that must be in place before an emerging career can reach the point where it can be adequately described in a career information resource.

Twitter Doesn't Sell Advertising, Yet 20% of Tweets Mention Brands

Kit Eaton — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:51:06 -0400

Twitter's founder has indicated his lifecasting site won't be getting into the advertising game anytime soon, but a survey has found something to indicate the contrary: 20% of Tweets mention a brand somewhere in their text.

Neuromarketing Hope and Hype: 5 Brands Conducting Brain Research

Kevin Randall — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:17:57 -0400

Even before the age of Mad Men marketers were trying to tap into the human subconscious to influence consumers to buy their products.

More Than Energy Conservation

Laurence Shatkin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:48:22 -0400

As part of my research for a book about green careers, I have been investigating the occupation Weatherization Installers and Technicians. I came upon an interesting paper by two researchers at the National Consumer Law Center that quantifies the societal benefits of weatherization in low-income housing.

Living Knowledge Conference

Clay Dillow — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:00:40 -0400

Many academic conferences are little more than venues to present research. But is anybody conducting any research on the research? The Living Knowledge Conference aims to do just that. Held at Queen’s University Belfast, Living Knowledge brings together academic researchers, civil society organizations, and policy makers so that all parties can ensure they’re on the same page, allowing for collaboration between researchers and the cobbling together of a policy agenda.

New Data on the Glass Ceiling

Laurence Shatkin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:00:17 -0400

A researcher at the University of New Mexico’s Anderson School of Management has found evidence that suggests female managers construct their own glass ceiling by underestimating how they are perceived by their associates.

Are Gamers More Evolutionarily Advanced?

Chris Dannen — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:53:12 -0400

A new study suggests there is a correlation between video gamers, depression, and being overweight. According to the CDC, the average American gamer has a higher body mass index than his peers, and also tends to be more reliant on the Internet.

Competing by Collaborating

Laurence Shatkin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:37:53 -0400

Recently in this space I’ve written couple of articles about immigration, making reference to the experiences of my grandparents. But the global labor market is now very different than it was a century ago. Although the United States is still a magnet for immigrants, many immigrants later return to their home countries, and some workforce migration even goes in the opposite direction. This week I came across a couple of articles about these phenomena.

Job Loss and Long-Term Earnings

Laurence Shatkin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:47:06 -0400

Perhaps you saw the article in the New York Times this week, “Income Loss Persists Long After Layoffs.” If you missed it, I recommend that you read it, but I warn you that it is depressing news.