Are high house prices good or bad for innovation? It seems the RBA are saying house asset inflation is good for Australia, perhaps mainly based around housing stock shortages. Our Executive Director, Christopher Hire, takes a look at property prices impact on innovation, and how they may prevent tomorrow’s employers – today’s start-ups – emerging.

A new initiative in the Silicon Valley, centred around Santa Clara University, is creating a forum for the leading minds in ethical financial innovation, responsible risk management, and behavioral finance. A key feature examined in the new initiative, will be a much-needed alignment of incentives, for those participating in financial markets.

A global meeting of the WISE – at the World Innovation Summit for Education established by the Qatar Foundation, seeks answers to the problems of global innovation in Doha, Qatar.

The recent International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) conference in Cairo, quoted World Bank research linking each 10% increase in internet to a 1.3% increase in economic growth.

Innovations from CeBIT, a wrap-up of analysis from CeBIT & some future Innovation Themes!

Super-fast Internet is the new ‘Wealth of Nations’ – enabling innovation competitive advantage & improving destination desirability; failure is not an option.

National Broadband Network, & closer technological collaboration between Australia & Germany are 2 key themes of CeBIT AusInnovate.

Shared Services as Innovation. Jack Cassidy, MD of Bearing Point raised this as enabling collaborative innovation. Good point.

Conroy opened CeBIT AusInnovate, with National Broadband Network for Australia. Then the detail – CSIRO & DSTO – the need not to kill innovation… highlights from CeBIT in Sydney.

Our Executive Director, Christopher Hire’s LIVE innovation analysis from CeBIT Asia Pacific; on this journal, twitter & social media.

Africa is often neglected in terms of innovation, but Africa needs a plan for innovation. A 100 year plan…

TRAVEL, GERMANY — This April, Christopher Hire from 2thinknow was assessing Düsseldorfas an innovation city, in the 2thinknow World Innovation City rankings for 2008, scheduled to be released in the last quarter of 2008.
A largely industrial city, on the Rhine, Dusseldorf is over 800 years old. The city is known as a fashion and advertising capital, with a major fashion fair annually.
The video contains many of Düsseldorf, ’s more impressive sites, the Rhine and buildings.
Königsallee, is a world-class shopping street, and the city contains various museums and galleries, such as …

VIDEOS, Youtube — This one’s been attracting quite a lot of attention on Youtube.
OK it’s an advert, and they’re not saving the world, but it’s worth a look from a design viewpoint.
And corporations like BMW should be encouraged to improve automobiles and other products by engaging with designers.
Besides, BMW are one of the world’s best crawling, no … driving, machines…. Watch. You’ll see what I mean.

COMMENT, Global – The places where we eat and live are our cities.
2thinknow rank and recognize innovation cities. Cities are important.
But there is a smaller unit that is critical to social change. This true key to positive change in our society is the role of where we eat and talk.
Families around the kitchen table.
It’s where families come together, eat, fight and discuss.
And despite feminism, it is still largely a female manager of the home and kitchen table. Let’s be realistic!
That’s why, as Western democracies are run by a cabinet of …

COMMENT, Melbourne — The publisher of this journal, 2thinknow, is in the process of relocating from Wednesday 14th to Tuesday 21st February 2008.

We have a nice new office overlooking the skyline city of Melbourne, in the inner-city suburb of Southbank.
Of course the copier is not yet plugged in, servers not working, and the writers are not yet being edited.
The espresso machine is working though. Thankfully.

In Australia inevitably you end up being ‘hands on’ with any task (if you need it done right), so it was 3am the night before.
Talk to …

Videos, Youtube — What is so great about the USA is that people just ‘get on’ with new ideas.
Youtube has become part of the election process asking for submissions from voters.
it may not be as effective as traditional media yet, but as truly high-speed broadband video grows it can only become more important in political democracy.
So, watch this space!

Rudd’s 2020 summit is a good idea, but will it fulfil its promise?

REVIEWS, Global – The T-Shirt Collectors scene is potent globally. And yes, it now has a magazine. T-World.
Like sneaker-collector and custom sneaker decoration scene in Melbourne, another scene. With a local, but soon to be even more international, vertical-niche magazine.
The magazine, created by and crafted for T-shirts enthusiasts, T-world highlights global T-shirt culture.
T-world is a new niche publications with a cult status already, after only the 3rd edition.
It can be ordered online, or via MagNation in Melbourne or New Zealand. Try this link to have a look and order.
What’s the …

REVIEW, Mag Nation, Melbourne & New Zealand — One of my favorite magazine shops, in late 2007, won a prestigious retail award in Melbourne.

You can often find me browsing the magazines, and occasionally spending more than I planned on European or US magazine titles. I like to support small or independent businesses so I also often grab a coffee here and browse.
Chief Magazineologist (sounds like a 2thinknow title!) for Mag Nation, Sahil Merchant commented:
“There is something about magazines that makes them worthwhile and approachable for all.
“Most of the …

COMMENT, Korea –A design agency in South Korea exploring new materials have arrived at a new design incorporating green ideas into the design of a shop.

The basis is a French botanist using a light material on the skin of a building, on which various plants can be grown.
From the site:
“Mass Studies was founded in 2003 by Minsuk Cho in Seoul, Korea, as an investigation of architecture in the context of market-privileged culture of mass production and intensely over-populated urban condition. Mass Studies explore building materials/techniques, space matrixes and building typologies …