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Google Chromebooks, not Microsoft Windows 8 computers, are selling well for Acer. In a weekend report, Bloomberg noted that Chromebooks account for between 5 and 10 percent of Acer’s recent shipments to the US; an interesting data point considering the timing. Microsoft’s Windows 8, hoping to re-ignite the PC market, launched in late October, or just about the same time Acer began selling Chromebooks.

Acer’s president, Jim Wong, has been one of the most vocal critics of Microsoft’s partners of late, first announcing disappointment in Microsoft’s decision to launch its own Surface computers and now suggesting that Windows 8 “is still not successful.” For its part, Microsoft has turned the finger-pointing back at PC makers, with The Register reporting last week that Microsoft feels partners didn’t build enough attractive Windows 8 tablets for the 2012 holiday season.

Blame game aside, the numbers are telling. This month, Microsoft announced sales of 60 million Windows 8 license sales, but that figure includes sales to hardware makers for new PCs that may not have been sold yet. And the overall PC market is down in terms of sales. In the final quarter of 2012, the industry experienced a decline of 6.4 percentage points over the year ago quarter.

A few reasons explain the sales decline. For starters, consumers and businesses may be holding on their older computers longer; unless you have a budget PC from a few years ago, you can very likely upgrade to Windows 8 or simply keep using Windows 7 for now.

Cheaper options for PC-like tasks are available as well: Smartphones to some degree and tablets to a much larger extent can handle many activities once reserved for computers. Plus, you can remotely connect to and use a computer from these tablets if needed.

The popularity of Google’s Chromebook is another example of less need for a traditional computer. It’s clearly not a full computer replacement but after using one since June of last year, it fits nearly all of my needs, for example. So much of today’s computing activities take place in a browser that the Chromebook can be a secondary device allowing an old computer to suffice for more resource intensive tasks or apps.

Ironically, Acer’s Chromebook entries are simply low-priced Windows laptops repurposed for Google’s Chrome OS. That cuts out any licensing fees to Microsoft, which if the market for Chromebooks grows, can hurt the company down the line. No Windows also means no Office; essentially a double whammy for Microsoft revenues if Acer’s Chromebooks become a hot seller. Samsung sells both Windows 8 computers as well as Chromebooks and it appears HP is entering this non-Microsoft market too.

Don’t think Acer is divorcing Microsoft, however. The company still builds Windows devices and surely makes the bulk of its PC division revenues from these.

In fact, I just received a Windows 8 tablet review unit from Acer — the Intel Atom-based W510 — and my initial impressions are mostly positive. The $599 tablet offers the benefits of touch when desired plus full Windows compatibility and an optional keyboard dock: A handy combination. But if that’s too much money for you, Acer’s Chromebooks start at a low $199; a price that will command more attention than any Windows 8 laptop on the market.

As human beings, we are born with a creative impulse, with an innate desire to use our imagination to better the world around us. Yet, all too often, our organizations end up being less innovative than the people within them. The dozens of in-the-trenches innovators who responded to our Innovating Innovation Challenge embody the first assertion and are working relentlessly and fearlessly to overturn the second.

We asked for real-world case studies and bold new ideas that will help us make innovation a deep-rooted, systematic competence in every kind of organization. In other words, how do we make innovation more of a natural act and less of a happy accident?

Of course, that’s easier said than done. The disciplines of management were invented, more than a hundred years ago, to drive variety out of organizations. The goal was to excise the irregularities, in an effort to ensure conformance to work rules, quality standards, timetables and budgets. Today, though, it’s the irregular people with their irregular ideas and irregular methods who create the irregular successes and profits. All too often, the quest to routinize the irregular ends up squelching innovation. The goal? Organizations that are paragons of penny-pinching efficiency and bastions of rule-busting innovation.

We received more than 140 entries from a diverse group of thinkers, practitioners and experimenters from around the world in pursuit of that goal. The judges and the MIX editorial team pored over the stories and hacks looking for depth, boldness, originality, clarity, and the ability to inspire and instruct in equal measure. We found those qualities in abundance — and are delighted, along with our partners at Harvard Business Review and McKinsey & Company, to announce 24 finalists (in alphabetical order):

Don’t Use Your New Innovation Project to Change Your Business Model — Build On What You Do Well and Ensure Your Success
Hack by Jean Angus, Saint-Gobain

Managing for 21st Century Crime Prevention in Memphis
Story by Toney Armstrong, Memphis Police Department

Democratizing Entrepreneurship: Village Capital’s Peer Selection Model
Story by Ross Baird, Village Capital

iMentors — Innovation belts spreading innovation within the organization
Story by João Manuel Brito Martins, co-authored by Jose Alberto de Oliveira Pereira, EDP Brazil

Keeping the Start-Up Spirit Alive at Red Gate
Story by Alice Chapman, Red Gate Software

Shell GameChanger — A Safe Place to Get Crazy Ideas Started
Story by Russ Conser, co-authored by Hans Haringa, Henk Mooiweer and Wim Schinkel, Shell

Case Coelce — Inspiring Innovation for Traditional Work Environments
Story by Luiz De Gonzaga Coelho Junior, co-authored by Odailton Arruda, Coelce

Fail Forward
Story by Ashley Good, Engineers Without Borders Canada

Making Innovation part of the DNA
Story by Jens Hauglum, co-Authored by Bente Mari Kristiansen, Bjørn Henrik Vangstein and Eyvind A. Larre, FINN.no

Blank Checks: Unleashing the Potential of People and Businesses
Hack by Sanjay Khosla, Mondelez, co-authored by Mohanbir Sawhney, Kellogg School of Management

Sustainability as Innovation Strategy: How Sustainability and Innovation Drive Each Other and Company Competitiveness at Danone
Story by Monica Kruglianskas, Danone, co-authored by Marc Vilanova, ESADE Business School

Innovation as a Business: How to Create a Repeatable and Sustainable Innovation Engine
Story by Lawrence Lee, PARC

Transforming Corporate Culture through Pervasive Innovation at KT
Story by Misook Lim, Korea Telecom

Democratise Innovation — for sustained Innovation culture
Story by Lalgudi Ramanathan Natarajan, Titan Industries

Whirlpool’s Innovation Journey: An on-going quest for a rock-solid and inescapable innovation capability
Story by Moises Norena, Whirlpool

Unleashing Inclusive Innovation at Cisco
Story by Kate O’Keeffe, co-authored by John Marsland, Carlos Pignataro and Lisa Voss, Cisco

Global solutions, local failure — Overcoming barriers in implementing open innovation
Hack by Frank Piller, co-authored by Patrick Pollok, David Antons and Dirk Lüttgens, RWTH Aachen University

Project Bushfire — Focussing the might of an entire Organization on the Consumer & Customer
Story by Stephen Remedios, The Stephen Remedios Company, co-authored by Aswath Venkataraman, Sandeep Ramesh, Shruti Kashyap and Shashwat Sharma, Hindustan Unilever

21st Century Play Dates: How USC Annenberg’s Innovation Lab brings together diverse communities to provoke innovation
Story by Susan Resnick West, co-authored by Erin Reilly and Jake de Grazia, USC Annenberg School

Innovation is not coincidence; it is built systematically every day and everyone can take part in it
Story by Óscar F. Rodríguez, Banco Davivienda

Is managed innovation an oxymoron?
Story by Kumar Sachidanandam, Cognizant

Crafting one of the world’s largest ideapreneurship — seeding a grassroots revolution in service innovation
Story by Pranay Shah Singh, co-authored by Puneet Ramaul and Annu Talwar, HCL Technologies

“Ever Forward” Extreme Makeover — DPR Construction Rebuilds their Continuous Improvement Process from the Foundation Up
Story by Dan Tran, DPR Construction

Innotribe — a tribe of innovators in the financial industry
Story by Peter Vander Auwera, SWIFT

Please check out the finalist stories and hacks and add your comments and ratings ̬ they’ll make a difference as finalists update and build on their entries for final judging. We’ll announce the winners of the challenge here the week of February 11th.

Note: This post was originally published on SBA.gov blog. To see the original post, please click here.

The Affordable Care Act will help small businesses by lowering premium cost growth and increasing access to quality, affordable health insurance. Depending on whether you’re a small employer or a larger employer, different provisions of the Affordable Care Act may apply to you as described below.                                           

1.  Businesses with Fewer than 25 Employees- Small Business Tax Credits

The Affordable Care Act does not require that businesses provide health insurance, but it offers tax credits for eligible small businesses that choose to provide insurance to their employees. To qualify for a small business tax credit of up to 35 percent (up to 25 percent for non-profits), you must have:

• Fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees
• Pay average annual wages below $50,000
• Contribute 50 percent or more toward employee health insurance premiums

read more

Google announced back in November that it was rolling out changes for AdWords Impression share reporting (the number of impressions received in a campaign or ad group divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive).

The company added new columns to separate search and display impression share, and added hour of day segmentation and the ability to apply filters, see charts and apply automated rules using impression share metrics. They also improved the accuracy of how data is calculated.

Today, Google reminds users that it is continuing its plans to phase out the old impression share columns on February 4th, which is coming right up.

“Any saved reports using the old IS columns will need to be updated to use the new columns,” says product marketing manager Rob Newton. “If you don’t remove/replace those columns before they’re retired on February 4th, you won’t be able to run those saved reports.”

Saved reports will be updated to use the new columns.

When you think of modified muscle, cars like the Camaro, Charger and perhaps even the Nova come to mind. A 1964 Lincoln Continental though – that one’s a bit of a stretch. There are however those who would disagree with me and in fact I’ve found one such owner on eBay.com. What you are viewing is perhaps the most tricked out 1964 Lincoln Continental in existence. From the full Air-Ride suspension to the supercharged 351 Windsor V8 that’s been stroked to 427 cubic inches, this old Lincoln is truly a sight to behold. Famously known for its suicide doors, the 1964 Lincoln is one of those rare cars that is an icon of the automotive world. This one in particular, clad in cherry black paint, really stands out and is a machine that I think anyone would be proud to own.

Source: eBay.com

Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner, the frontman for the Ohio Players, has died at the age of 69. The Ohio Players were a funk and R&B band popular in the 70s. The band is most famous for its number-one hits “Love Rollercoaster” and “Fire.”

Bonner is reported to have passed away “quietly” in his hometown of Trotwood, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. Bonner was a current member of Sugarfoot’s Ohio Players, a spinoff band billed on its Facebook page as “a 9 piece band with 3 horns, lead and background vocals, keys, bass, drums, guitar, and a whole mess of funk.” The Facebook page is also where Bonner’s family announced the news of the death. From the announcement:

Yesterday, Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner passed away quietly in his hometown of Trotwood-Dayton, OH. While his family, friends, colleagues, and fans mourn his passing they celebrate fondly his memory, music, and legacy.

Sugarfoot, or Foot, or Sugar, was the founding and cornerstone artistic talent of OHIO PLAYERS and the face and sound of the OHIO PLAYERS brand, which he knit together and launched in 1964 with former members of The Ohio Untouchables. With a career spanning 56 years, he passed barely short of his 70th birthday.

Humble yet charismatic, soft spoken and of few words, the weight of his thoughts, lyrics, and music has influenced countless other artists, songs, and trends. He will be missed but not forgotten as his legacy and music lives on. More details and an official historical perspective of his career will soon be forthcoming.

For those who don’t recognize the songs “Love Rollercoaster” and “Fire” by their titles, the performances below will instantly jog the memory of anyone over 15. The two songs have pervaded pop culture for decades, and a cover of “Love Rollercoaster” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers was featured prominently in the soundtrack to the movie Beavis and Butt-head Do America.

If you’re a carrier having trouble coping with the onslaught of mobile data traffic, why not get a Wi-Fi provider to ease the burden? That may be the approach that Germany’s Deutsche Telekom is taking.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, DT is weighing a stake in Spain’s Fon, a crowdsourced Wi-Fi community in which members share with one another their home and business Wi-Fi connectivity. The Journal’s unnamed sources did not reveal the size of the potential investment, nor its timing.

Fon has been around since 2006, but its fortunes didn’t really take off until the smartphone came to prominence. Operators like BT, Softbank Mobile, Belgacom and KPN began working with Fon, tapping into its alternate network of access points to offload traffic off of 3G networks. In some cases, operators are bundling Fon Wi-Fi routers (called Foneras) with their smartphones.

If the Journal report winds up being true, this would be an interesting strategic move for DT, one that would allow it to confront the market pressures that are forcing down mobile data prices. DT runs mobile networks under the T-Mobile brand throughout Europe and the U.S., and it’s been more aggressive than most in making use of Wi-Fi (T-Mobile USA’s Bobsled app, for instance).

But if DT were able to deploy tap into the Wi-Fi networks of millions of its own customers as well as those of other Fon members (Foneros), it could start shunting substantial portions of its mobile data traffic off of its 3G and 4G networks and onto the unlicensed frequencies. Iliad’s Free Mobile has adopted just such a Wi-Fi centric strategy in France – using the Wi-Fi connections of Iliad broadband customers – and consequently its dirt-cheap voice and data plans has launched a price war among the French operators.

Twitter released new data Monday on requests from governments for Twitter user information during the second half of 2012, following a July report with data from the first six months.

In Q3 and Q4 of 2012, Twitter saw increases in information requests (1009, up from 849 in Q1 and Q2) and removal notices (42, up from 6), and a slight decrease in copyright notices (3268, down from 3378).

Twitter’s two reports are now hosted on a specific site dedicated to government transparency, and the company wrote in a blog post that it would be providing “more granular details regarding information requests from the United States,” as well as adding sections to track removal requests and copyright notices.

We believe the open exchange of information can have a positive global impact. To that end, it is vital for us (and other Internet services) to be transparent about government requests for user information and government requests to withhold content from the Internet; these growing inquiries can have a serious chilling effect on free expression – and real privacy implications.

Google has been providing transparency reports since 2009, and the company released its most recent set of data last week. My colleague Jeff Roberts explained the significance behind the data release and the stats Google provided, which applies to the Twitter data as well:

What this means in practice is that authorities in the United States and other countries are regularly demanding that Google hand over the keys to user accounts like Gmail or YouTube. In many cases, the government may have a legitimate reason to ask for such information, such as solving a crime or stopping a spying operation. Other times, though, governments may simply be fishing for data in a way that flouts citizens’ right to privacy. Such fishing expeditions, unfortunately, are relatively easy in the U.S. thanks to the sprawl of so-called administrative subpoenas — a legal tool that lets agencies demand data without first proving to a judge that they have a right to get it.

While Twitter has followed in Google’s footsteps in releasing surveillance data so far, Facebook has so far declined to provide the info, although it noted it’s working to promote transparency in other areas of its site. The company just launched an “Ask Our Chief Privacy Officer” feature on Monday to replace the voting system for privacy changes that it recently abolished.

Here’s the chart from Twitter showing the overview of government requests for 2012:

Netflix recently posted surprising US subscriber growth of 2 million in the last quarter, which has caused the stock to nearly double since the beginning of the year. It puts Netflix at 5-6 million subscribers since its infamous price increase.

The narrative appears to be simple — as Netflix successfully raised prices, it could afford to add more quality content, which in turn leads to subscriber growth. This can continue as long as untapped demand still exists. But how much growth is truly left? This confounding question is the reason why the Netflix stock has yo-yoed over the last 12 months.

On one hand, our previous media study suggested current demand for online streaming to be 40 million households. So there is still room to grow. But as they come closer to the potential 40 million, one expects life to get harder. Competition will increase as Redbox and Verizon enter streaming. Even HBO has acknowledged that a streaming-only option may need consideration. They’ll all spend money to fight over an increasingly smaller piece of the pie, driving acquisition costs per user very high. There is an opportunity for international growth, but life will still be difficult if the US market matures quickly.

On the other hand, if you look into the future 25 years, wouldn’t you be surprised if anyone did not have some kind of digital streaming service? The question to solve for is: is it 25 or 5 years from now?

This is the challenge of latent demand — unmet needs unarticulated by current consumers (pre-Starbucks, no one was asking to pay $4 for a cup of coffee). Or demand from an unexpected population of consumers (like Xbox drawing in women and kids via Kinect). By definition unmet, unarticulated needs from unexpected consumers is hard to measure.

It is possible to quantify latent demand, but the real challenge is estimating when the dam will break. Investing in latent demand requires as much faith as it does fact, as there is a risk of being perceived as over-investing if the upside doesn’t materialize soon.

One proven way of quantifying latent demand is looking at generational demand. In particular, looking younger is a very effective latent demand strategy. Some companies try to influence the point of entry into the category, which is much earlier than the point of entry into a specific brand. In particular, looking at the teen market can prove very fruitful. Several recent moves suggest Netflix is betting on teens and young adults an untapped source of consumers to come their way.

There are roughly 42 million 15- to 24-year-olds in the US. According to Nielsen’s 2012 Cross Platform Media report, 36% of total minutes for 18- to 24-year-olds are via streaming (game console, internet/PC, mobile) which is the highest of any age cohort. For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume share of minutes translates into penetration. So let’s say 15 million teens/young adults who actively stream. These 15 million consumers aren’t paying customers now, but could eventually become so. And this would grow the US streaming market potential nearly 40%. And each decade would add even more.

Netflix has quietly been sowing the seeds of latent demand with this group via smart sampling, habituation, and content. By charging a single price per household and allowing multiple users per household to use Netflix for free, they have let millions of teens and young adults enjoy the benefits of Netflix on their parents’ dime.

After some point in time, these young consumers will be habituated to the benefits of Netflix. My high-school-aged nieces, Emily and Kaitlin, are watching The West Wing with me on Netflix. It’s one of my favorite shows and I’ve gotten them hooked. As we talk about the show, I also ask them questions about their feelings about Netflix. My unscientific research with them and their friends yields some startling results. The vast majority of their media consumption is via streaming. The vast majority of their friends have Netflix. And the ones who don’t are sheepish about not having it. And while they can imagine sharing an account with friends, they prefer the privacy of an individual account. So, the thought of paying $8/month when they are on their own doesn’t faze them a bit.

Netflix also has the first part of latent demand going for them, which is the idea of unarticulated, unmet needs. The beauty of the media business is that great content has an amazing shelf life. The West Wing started the year my younger niece Kaitlin was born, yet 14 years later she found it. A business model that brings ever growing user base to evergreen content is great one.

Netflix’s content moves to create a Just For Kids section and their exclusive Disney deal suggests that they are trying to ensure habituation starts even earlier. If Netflix can win with latent demand, they may have a competitive advantage that HBO and even Amazon Prime may find hard to compete with.

Some employees can work 9am to 5pm, five days a week. Others are available on evenings and weekends. But in today’s talk, filmed at the TEDSalon in London, entrepreneur Wingham Rowan describes another type of worker — one who has a highly unpredictable schedule.

“Think of someone who has a recurring but unpredictable medical condition, somebody who’s caring for a dependent adult, or a parent with complex childcare needs — their availability for work can be such that it’s ‘[I can do a] few hours today’ and ‘Maybe I can work tomorrow, but I don’t if and when yet,’” says Rowan. “It’s extraordinarily difficult for these people to find the work that they so often need very badly. Which is a tragedy because there are employers who can use pools of very flexible, local people booked completely ad hoc.”

Rowan says that he is encouraged by websites like Task Rabbit, which allow people to pick up odd jobs. But he pictures a far more wide-reaching effort to employ flexible workers, beginning with his website Slivers of Time.

His big idea: instead of giving people at the bottom of the economic order online tools that are essentially glorified classifieds, could they use complex analytic tools –  more like what a Wall Street trader deals with — to chart their economic opportunities? And could governments help on this front? Rowan reveals that there is actually a precedent for this — lottery systems, which governments across the globe have approved. To hear how flexible employment would work on the same model, watch this talk.

Below, more TED speakers with big ideas on hiring.

Misha Glenny: Hire the hackers!
Hackers are, generally, thought of as common criminals. But there is another way to treat coders who use their talents to point out flaws in cyber-security measures rather than to steal money, says underworld investigator Misha Glenny. At TEDGlobal 2011, he suggests a bold reversal: instead of prosecuting hackers, engage them and even put them to work.

Andrew McAfee: Are droids taking our jobs?
With unemployment high, people are very concerned with the question, “Are robots and computer programs taking over jobs that people could be doing?” At TEDxBoston, Andrew McAfee admits that, yes, they are. But this is no reason to despair, McAfee says. Because human beings will always excel in one area that digital technology cannot compete: coming up with new ideas.

Maria van der Heijden: Jobs for 1 million women
In India, an estimated 700 to 800 million people live on less than two dollars a day. Maria van der Heijden, who founded Women on Wings, shares a vision for how to change this equation — by hiring women for jobs that pay a living wage. In this talk from TEDxDelft, van der Heijden shares how she hopes to employ a million women by connecting their handiwork with global markets.

Majora Carter: 3 stories of local eco-entrepreneurship
Brenda Palms-Barber of Chicago, Illinois, took an interesting approach when she started a line of skincare products made from honey. She hired ex-convicts to care for the bees. The idea was to give them employment experience and teach them life skills that could keep them from returning to prison. In this talk from TEDxMidwest, Majora Carter looks at Palms-Barber’s approach — as well as the approaches of two others — to work toward a greener planet and, in the process, hire local workers.

Heiko Fischer: The future of work
A stunning number of people don’t feel like they have any control over how things work at their place of employment, says Heiko Fischer. In this talk from TEDxKoeln, he shares a vision for turning human resources on its head and thinking about employees as resourceful humans. Because companies need their best work — and innovative ideas — in order to stay competitive.

Clay Shirky: Institutions vs. collaboration
There are two ways to accomplish a business goal, says Clay Shirky at TEDGlobal 2005. You can build an institution with employees, and then layers on top of those employees to manage them. Or you can build a mechanism that allows for collaboration, and harness the spirit of hobbyists and volunteers. In this talk, Shirky explores the upsides and downsides of hiring versus coordinating.

Cyber warfare has been a popular trope in books and film since the 80s, but it’s never really felt like a real thing until recently. Every day, there are new reports of hacking attacks made by individuals and countries against their rivals and adversaries. The U.S. military rightly thinks this trend is only going to continue, and is now preparing to greatly expand its cyber warfare capabilities.

The New York Times reports that the Pentagon is preparing to expand the Defense Department’s Cyber Command to more than 4,000 people. The center only has about 900 personnel currently working for it. With the expansion, the Defense Department hopes to create three different forces – national mission forces, combat mission forces and cyber protection forces. The first would protect national infrastructure, the second would execute cyberattacks against enemies, and the third would protect the Pentagon’s computer systems from unauthorized intrusions.

It’s an ambitious plan, but the Pentagon recognizes that it’s a challenging one as well. Defense officials say that it will be difficult to find and train thousands of people in something as complicated as cyber defense. That being said, the military says that the threat of a cyber attack is “real” and it needs to bolster its defenses before something disastrous like Stuxnet attacks U.S. infrastructure.

The Pentagon’s move to expand its cyber forces comes as the number of cyber attacks against private and public organizations increase every year. Anonymous has been a major source of these attacks with its latest target being the U.S. government. The government also regularly attributes a number of attacks against its systems to China or Russia. The most recent being a supposed Chinese cyber attack against the White House’s servers.

Alongside an increase to the Pentagon’s cyber defenses, the U.S. government will most assuredly propose more legislation that will beef up security. CISPA and CSA were defeated last year after privacy and government regulation concerns were brought to light, but some lawmakers will undoubtedly bring it up again this year. It’s also been suggested that President Obama will issue an executive order to institute a number of cybersecurity rules in the country.

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On Friday, the Ashton Kutcher-led Steve Jobs biopic jOBS had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film, which is directed by Joshua Michael Stern and co-stars Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak, will open to the public on April 19th.

Here’s a look at some of the early reviews, which are mixed.

CNET calls the film “saccharine” and says that viewers will spend two hours “watching cardboard cutouts lose arguments to Ashton Kutcher”:

My primary disappointment was in how shallow the film felt, given the extensive historical record. In the early days Jobs’ co-workers had to wrestle with a man who smelled bad, who cried often, who yelled constantly, who missed deadlines, who overspent his budget by millions. He did it in service of products we love and use daily, and yet his obsessions took a toll on those around him. He also inspired others to do the best work of their lives, pushing themselves further than they ever imagined they could go. There is great drama to be found in all that, but it is not to be found in the saccharine “jOBS.”

The Guardian gives the film two out of a possible five stars, calling Ashton Kutcher’s portrayal of Steve Jobs as a “surprisingly effective turn.” Still, The Guardian laments that it’s everything else that falls short:

The results, then, are mixed. This is far from the bomb some would have envisaged, but neither is it the character illumination one would wish for. Jobs appears so consumed by his work here that little else mattered in his life. That may be true, but we’re left none the wiser as to what made the man tick, beyond what we already know. Apple will no doubt feel satisfied, even relieved. Those wanting a sharper, more incisive view will have to wait for Sorkin.

The Hollywood Reporter says that the film is “a biopic that’s perhaps too respectful of the tech icon’s innovations still remains frequently engaging.”

Playing somewhat like a two-hour commercial covering the first 20 tumultuous years of Apple’s development, Joshua Michael Stern’s biopic of Steve Jobs is a passably entertaining account of the career of one of the 20th century’s great innovators that doesn’t break any stylistic ground, hewing closely to public perception of the tech giant.

Writing for Gizmodo, reader Seth Kinkaid gives a fan’s review. He says that despite some clear inaccuracies and exaggerations, “it was the experience [he] wanted.”

I wasn’t sure exactly what I would get, but it turned out to be surprisingly nice. It was… satisfying. It also proved that I could enjoy Ashton Kutcher’s acting as Silicon Valley’s most prized CEO. Although his performance wasn’t perfect, it felt right. The rest of the movie was just as good.

The Next Web’s Matthew Panzarino calls the film “entertaining, if impressionistic,” but adds that “this isn’t going to be the canonical Steve Jobs biography movie.”

[O]verall, jOBS works. The lead actors are likable and appear to have put serious effort into getting the spirit of the characters right. The film looks (mostly) good aside from some of what could likely be ascribed to budgetary constraints. And though the director is a tad indulgent here and there, it doesn’t take away from the overall feeling of ‘decent’ that I came away with.

Film School Rejects gives it an upside…

An often-solid performance by Kutcher; a very solid series of supporting performances (particularly by Gad); surprisingly well-paced and quite entertaining.

..and a downside:

Relies on basic and unimaginative filmmaking tricks, particularly a score calibrated to make audiences think “something triumphant and bold is happening!” and long-winded montage sequences; “tells” rather than “shows” large swathes of character development and exposition; leaves many unanswered questions (you know, like, why computers?).

Check here for more coverage of jOBS.

One hundred million. That’s the number of young people across the Middle East and North Africa who will need employment opportunities in the coming decades. When my organization, Education For Employment, began operations in 2006 as a demand-driven answer to Arab youth unemployment, I felt that creating a social franchise model was the best way to meaningfully address an issue of this scale. So I created a network that allows affiliates to access the perspective, credibility, and resources necessary to provide world-class training for youth, place graduates in jobs, and provide on-going professional and volunteer opportunities for alumni.

At the time it was an unorthodox method and I faced strong pushback from potential donors and partners in the US and around the world. They were concerned about relinquishing control to affiliates and what that would do to both quality and efficacy.

Experience has proved that the model works. And in some cases, the turmoil surrounding the Arab Spring has shown that a social franchise is the only effective model in times of great uncertainty.

Running a franchise — social or not — is complex, but there is much to gain for those that surmount the challenges:

• Social franchises craft local solutions to global problems. Although unemployment is a global challenge, there is no one-size-fits all solution. What works in Morocco could fall flat in Yemen. The franchise model empowers local board and staff members to take appropriate action. With deep roots and broad networks in their communities, these leaders mobilize diverse resources and optimize EFE’s operations in specific labor, economic, political, and social contexts. The local expertise of EFE affiliates also helps us take advantage of less apparent opportunities and sidestep potential disasters.
• Local legitimacy leads to resiliency. In regions in turmoil, this can be the difference between expanding operations and closing shop. With ethical, networked leaders involved, a franchise model is the best way to keep an organization running in an unstable area where uncertainty or lack of trust can make it challenging for foreign organizations to operate and deploy funds. In Yemen, EFE’s local board and staff give the organization credibility, and when the U.S. government withdrew funding from all American NGO’s, Yemen-EFE was granted an exemption because it is an entirely local entity.
• Organizations are able to setup and scale rapidly. At EFE, support hubs in the U.S. and Europe provide the local affiliates with access to cutting-edge financial and evaluation systems, links to high-level corporate partners and media outlets, credibility in appealing to major international employers and donors, and expertise in areas such as budgeting and marketing. Sharing curriculum, knowledge and partners among affiliates further speeds setup and scaling. EFE-Egypt, an early affiliate, took almost four years to become operational. EFE-Tunisia, the newest in our network, was up and running with board, staff, funding, and curriculum in under a year.
• Uniform quality and a familiar brand attract valuable partners. We partner with those who see the EFE Network as an effective HR solution. For example, Palestinian-owned Consolidated Contractors Corporation, the largest construction company in the Middle East, employed EFE graduates first in Palestine, and is now sourcing employees from EFE-Tunisia. We also benefit from the support of corporations who see the EFE Network as a regional platform to expand their CSR involvement and increase their return on investment. Intel, for instance, partners with us to deliver entrepreneurship curriculum and start-up support to youth in Palestine, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.

Establishing EFE as a franchise has been an interesting journey, and one that has given me valuable insights into developing a successful social franchise. To those doing the same I would offer the following advice:

• Get local “skin in the game.” Local funding helps to defray startup and operating costs, cements commitment to the mission, and gives local supporters a meaningful stake in its success.
• Find ethical, networked leaders at the local level. Guidance and input from trusted local contacts can provide crucial information on the reputation of potential board and staff members, who will build the reputation of the organization.
• Choose a viable context. Identify a country of operation that is stable enough for a sustained intervention and whose government does not view your work as threatening. EFE chose countries where, despite the turmoil or challenges, there were sufficient government and social structures to enable us to operate.
• Build a strong, local board. The first step to setting up is always to identify 6-12 powerful, dedicated and insightful women and men who are prepared to build the organization from the ground up. These individuals are crucial to securing local financial support, building credibility, and greasing the wheels in negotiations with businesses and bureaucracies.

Over the years, EFE has used these guiding principles to make many critical decisions on where to expand — and where not to. Despite the complexities these principles sometimes present, our experience is that when they are in place, the social franchise model can be a powerful way to make progress in times of instability.

Follow the Scaling Social Impact insight center on Twitter @ScalingSocial and register to stay informed and give us feedback.

View looking west along the New Jersey shore. Storm waves and surge cut across the barrier island at Mantoloking, NJ, eroding a wide beach, destroying houses and roads, and depositing sand onto the island and into the back-bay. Construction crews with heavy machinery are seen clearing sand from roads and pushing sand seaward to build a wider beach and protective berm just days after the storm. The yellow arrow in each image points to the same feature. ((High resolution image. Science Feature: Start with Science to Address Vulnerable Coastal Communities.

According to a new technical report, the effects of climate change will continue to threaten the health and vitality of U.S. coastal communities’ social, economic and natural systems.

The report, Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities: a technical input to the 2013 National Climate Assessment, authored by leading scientists and experts, emphasizes the need for increased coordination and planning to ensure U.S. coastal communities are resilient against the effects of climate change.

The recently released report examines and describes climate change impacts on coastal ecosystems and human economies and communities, as well as the kinds of scientific data, planning tools and resources that coastal communities and resource managers need to help them adapt to these changes.

“Sandy showed us that coastal states and communities need effective strategies, tools and resources to conserve, protect, and restore coastal habitats and economies at risk from current environmental stresses and a changing climate,” said Margaret A. Davidson of NOAA’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management and co-lead author of the report. “Easing the existing pressures on coastal environments to improve their resiliency is an essential method of coping with the adverse effects of climate change.”

A key finding in the report is that all U.S. coasts are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change such as sea-level rise, erosion, storms and flooding, especially in the more populated low-lying parts of the U.S. coast along the Gulf of Mexico, Mid-Atlantic, northern Alaska, Hawaii, and island territories. Another finding indicated the financial risks associated with both private and public hazard insurance are expected to increase dramatically.

“An increase in the intensity of extreme weather events such as storms like Sandy and Katrina, coupled with sea-level rise and the effects of increased human development along the coasts, could affect the sustainability of many existing coastal communities and natural resources,” said Virginia Burkett of the U.S. Geological Survey and co-lead author of the report.

The authors also emphasized that storm surge flooding and sea-level rise pose significant threats to public and private infrastructure that provides energy, sewage treatment, clean water and transportation of people and goods. These factors increase threats to public health, safety, and employment in the coastal zone.

The report’s authors noted that the population of the coastal watershed counties of the U.S. and territories, including the Great Lakes, makes up more than 50 percent of the nation’s population and contributed more than $8.3 trillion to the 2011 U.S. economy but depend on healthy coastal landforms, water resources, estuaries and other natural resources to sustain them. Climate changes, combined with human development activities, reduce the ability of coasts to provide numerous benefits, including food, clean water, jobs, recreation and protection of communities against storms.

Seventy-nine federal, academic and other scientists, including the lead authors from the NOAA and USGS, authored the report which is being used as a technical input to the third National Climate Assessment — an interagency report produced for Congress once every four years to summarize the science and impacts of climate change on the United States.

Other key findings of the report include:

• Expected public health impacts include a decline in seafood quality, shifts in disease patterns and increases in rates of heat-related morbidity.
• Changes in the location and the time of year when storms form can lead to large changes in where storms land and the impacts of storms. Any sea-level rise is virtually certain to exacerbate storm-surge and flooding related hazards.
• Because of changes in the hydrological cycle due to warming, precipitation events (rain, snow) will likely be heavier. Combined with sea-level rise and storm surge, this will increase flooding severity in some coastal areas, particularly in the Northeast.
• Temperature is primarily driving environmental change in the Alaskan coastal zone. Sea ice and permafrost make northern regions particularly susceptible to temperature change. For example, an increase of two degrees Celsius during the summer could basically transform much of Alaska from frozen to unfrozen, with extensive implications.
• As the physical environment changes, the range of a particular ecosystem will expand, contract or migrate in response. The combined influence of many stresses can cause unexpected ecological changes if species, populations or ecosystems are pushed beyond a tipping point.
• Although adaptation planning activities in the coastal zone are increasing, they generally occur in an ad-hoc manner and are slow to be implemented. Efficiency of adaptation can be improved through more accurate and timely scientific information, tools, and resources, and by integrating adaptation plans into overall land use planning as well as ocean and coastal management.
• An integrated scientific program will reduce uncertainty about the best ways coastal communities can to respond to sea-level rise and other kinds of coastal change. This, in turn, will allow communities to better assess their vulnerability and to identify and implement appropriate adaptation and preparedness options.

This report is available online.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join NOAA on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels.

Google continues to deal with the fallout from “Safari-gate” privacy scandal that led to a record fine (for a single company) from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission last August. The company was fined $22.5 million.

Now, iPhone users in the UK are getting together to sue Google over the debacle. The Guardian reports:

At least 10 British iPhone users have started legal proceedings and dozens more are being lined up, according to Dan Tench, the lawyer behind the action at the London-based firm Olswang.

“This is the first time Google has been threatened with a group claim over privacy in the UK,” he said. “It is particularly concerning how Google circumvented security settings to snoop on its users. One of the things about Google is that it is so ubiquitous in our lives and if that’s its approach then it’s quite concerning.”

There is a Facebook Group called “Safari Users Against Google’s Secret Tracking,” which has been set up by the law firm in connection with the users who are going after Google. In the “About” section, the description says:

This group has been set up to provide information for anyone who used the Safari internet browser between September 2011 and February 2012, and who was illegally tracked by Google.

Any users in the UK may have a claim against Google for this breach of their privacy. Other users, who have set up this group, are taking action against Google to hold them to account.

…

Members of this informal group have instructed the leading technology and media law firm, Olswang, to begin an action against Google.

If you have concerns or want to join the action, contact us via this group and we will share your views or put you in touch with the legal team.

It will be interesting to see how many users get on board with this, and what it ends up meaning for Google. A press release from Olswang has more on the case.

Though Shaun White has garnered a reputation as heavy partier when he’s not on the slopes, he’s still most famous for dominating the snowboarding competition at the X Games. White achieved a perfect score in his final snowboard superpipe run last year, and it seems as though he has kept up his skills, despite his other troubles.

At this year’s X Games in Aspen, Colorado, Shaun White made history (again) by winning the snowboard superpipe competition for the sixth year in a row. White now has 15 X Games gold medals, including some for skateboarding in the summer X Games.

White bragged about the accomplishment via Twitter:

White’s superpipe run was the same one that received a perfect score at last year’s X Games. Though he only scored a 98 total this year, it was enough to put the gold medal out of reach for his competitors.

Over three years ago the Department of Energy allocated around $4.5 billion in stimulus funds for smart grid projects in the U.S. That included $700 million for demonstration projects that helped install technology like wireless data networks and battery farms for the power grid. With such a large amount handed out over a relatively short period of time, the chances of problems were high. And according to a newly released report from the Department of Energy’s Inspector General, the smart grid demonstration program had some management issues.

Those problems included:

1. Handing out funds for a couple projects for estimated costs instead of actual costs of projects, which resulted in over payments.
2. Funding a project that also received a grant from another DOE program, the ARPA-E program, for the exact same project.
3. Funding a project that had not handed in proper documents, and had not begun making the energy storage units that it claimed for the award.

The audit looked at just 11 projects, with a total of $279 million in awards, out of the $700 million smart grid demonstration program. Out of that section alone they found $12.3 million in questioned costs, and they have now recovered $6.6 million of those misspent costs, and plan to recover another $5 million. It’s probably safe to assume there’s similar levels of mismanagement throughout the entire $4.5 billion.

The report says:

The Department had not always managed the Program effectively and efficiently. . . .In the absence of significant improvements, the Program is at risk of not meeting its objectives and has an increased risk of fraud, waste and abuse.

As a result the report recommends that the program:

• Ensure adequate review of payments made to recipients
• Provide training to recipients on proper submission of reimbursement packages
• Ensure that recipients contribute their required cost-share from allowable sources
• Ensure the elimination of any potential overlapping funding among awards authorized by various Department programs
• Contracting officers should resolve the questioned amounts in our report.

The stimulus funds delivered an unprecedented, and game-changing amount of federal support for the next generation of power grid technology. It’s natural that with such a large amount of money allocated that mismanagement would happen.

One of the things not addressed in the report is how effective — or not — this type of stimulus program for smart grid projects actually was. Many in the industry back in 2010 complained that the funds actually had a sort of chilling effect on the sector, because the funds took awhile to actually get delivered, which meant utilities waited on these projects and didn’t put money into other new ones.

Professionals in every field need to be careful about the messages they send out over social media and email – indeed, over the past few years, we’ve seen plenty of stories (even slideshows full of them) of people fired for posts on Facebook and Twitter.

But doctors – who must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (or HIPAA) – are in an especially sensitive situation.  For them, security slip-ups can lead to hefty fines. And, over the past few years, as more health information has gone digital, the government has tightened privacy laws by, for example, increasing maximum fines, cracking down on more violations and penalizing organizations for smaller breaches.

That’s creating a high-pressure environment for doctors – but also growing opportunity for physician-only social networks that promise doctors a secure way to collaborate and communicate with peers.  Back in September, Doximity, a kind of “LinkedIn for doctors,” said that it had crossed the 100,000-member mark less than two years after launching. On Monday, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company announced that it had reached another milestone, attracting 125,000 doctors, or one out of every five doctors in the U.S. Registered users include those who have created a profile and, on average, share more than a dozen professional milestones (including their residencies, awards and articles). Of its 125,000 users, the company said, about one-third are active on the site each month.

Jeff Tangney, the company’s CEO, said Doximity’s growth is even double that of Epocrates, the popular mobile health company he co-founded in the late 1990s (and that was recently acquired by athenahealth). He attributes part of its rise to the quality of the network and the content – the company made a point of launching with thought leaders from top hospitals like Columbia, Stanford, UCSF and the Univ. of Pennsylvania.  But he said that the tightening privacy laws are also giving the site a boost.

“Privacy and HIPAA seem to be a real tailwind for us,” Tangney said. “The law, while having more teeth, has become part of the doctors’ consciousness that they need to be more careful about sending that message or email.”

Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services said it made the most “sweeping changes” to HIPAA, raising the maximum penalty for negligence, strengthening data breach notification requirements and expanding the pool of parties who must comply with the law.

But even before that, Tangney said, doctors were becoming more aware of rising penalties for security violations. In 2011, an emergency room doctor in Rhode Island was fired for posting information about a patient on Facebook. (Even though the doctor never mentioned the patient’s name, the hospital board decided her post was too revealing.) This month, a hospice in Idaho became the first health care organization to be fined ($50,000) for a breach affecting fewer than 500 individuals.

As doctors look for secure social networking options, Doximity, however, isn’t their only option. For example, QuantiaMD, founded in 2008, says 160,000 doctors (or a quarter of the country’s physicians) use its site; Sermo, launched in 2005, says 20 percent of doctors are part of its community; and forMD, a new site backed by accelerator Blueprint Health, is throwing its hat into the ring.

But not only does Doximity provide a secure and real-name network of doctors (all members are authenticated), it opened up an API in October to let developers and medical services plug into its platform. Tangney said 15 companies are using the API and, going forward, it will be interesting to see what kinds of tools and services can be built on top of the network.

To date, company has raised just under $28 million from investors including Morganthaler Ventures, Emergence Capital Partners and Interwest Partners.

The social media team at Equinix recently posted some cool photos of the company’s SV1 and SV5 data centers in San Jose. “Do you love the symphony of cables like we do?” asked Equinix’s Phil Schwarzmann. It’s the latest example of data center companies showcasing the visual interest of their mission-critical facilities. Check out 10 Beautiful Photos of Equinix Data Centers on the Interconnections blog.

For more “data centers as art,” see The Top 10 Data Center Images of 2012.