Innovation Now

TechNet members place in Newsweek’s Green Rankings

Dell, HP, Intel, and Yahoo ranked amongst the top 10 Green companies in America according to Newsweek. TechNet companies lead the list, which also included Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Google, Symantec, and a handful of others.

For the full rankings, click here.

Intel Announces Investment in Next-Generation American Manufacturing

Intel Corporation announced today that the company will invest between $6 billion and $8 billion on future generations of manufacturing technology in its American facilities.

The investment supports the creation of 6,000-8,000 construction jobs and 800-1,000 permanent high-tech jobs, and also allows Intel to maintain its current manufacturing employment base at these U.S. sites.

The investment will fund a new development fab in Oregon, as well as upgrades to four existing fabs to manufacture the next-generation 22-nanometer (nm) process technology.

Intel’s next-generation, 22nm microprocessors will enable sleeker device designs, higher performance and longer battery life at lower costs.

Read the full story here.

Cisco Releases Third Annual Broadband Study

“The results of the third annual study of the quality of broadband connections around the globe reveals continued improvements worldwide, with more countries already prepared for the applications of tomorrow than in previous years and two thirds of the countries analyzed meeting or surpassing today’s needs. Overall, thanks to a range of investments in infrastructure, global broadband quality has improved by 50% in just three years and penetration of broadband continues to improve, with about half of the households (49%) of the countries investigated now having access to broadband (up from 40% in 2008).”  Read more here.

iPad Gives Special Needs Kids a Boost

The Wall Street Journal reports that the iPad is helping children with speech and communication problems. View the story here.

What Does It Take to Innovate?

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post has a very thoughtful post today about what it takes to innovate, referencing Facebook in the process.  Check it out.  He says:

“People have many incentives to innovate. They love what they’re doing. They’re competing with others. They want to make money. They want, as Zuckerberg does in the film, to “make something cool.” And they should be richly rewarded for their successes.  But there really isn’t a replacement for public investment, and good rules. You need a good education system. You need intellectual-property rules that ensure space for new ideas and uses. You need a tax code that encourages research and development spending. You need, in other words, to furnish people with an environment in which innovation can take place.”

Yahoo sets an example

“Yahoo unveiled a new data center in Lockport, New York today, boasting one of the most energy-efficient data centers in the world – and exemplifying the push among big Internet companies to green data storage.”

Read more here.

President Clinton, Cisco, Duke

“Cisco and Duke Energy are teaming together on a $5.3 million effort to green commercial buildings in Charlotte, N.C…”

Read more here.

Amyris announces IPO

“Biomaterials company Amyris announced today a $16 share price in its initial public offering…”

Read more, here.

How Innovation Happens

Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaks on how innovation happens.

Google is Hiring Again

“In a county with more than 100,000 people looking for work and an unemployment rate above 11 percent since June 2009, Google has gone on a hiring spree, increasing the size of its global work force by nearly 2,000 people during the first six months of 2010.”  More here.