Catching Up On Readings: What Is the Long-Term Impact on Bringing the Red Planet Closer?

This week’s Christian Science Monitor goes beyond the initial excitement of the wonderful success of the Mars rover Curiosity, which landed safely on that planet’s surface last week. It’s a huge achievement – the last time a country successfully landed an object on Mars was in 1971 by the Soviet Union. Some scholars are hoping that the mission will generate a new interest in science education in the United States. The CSM takes an in-depth look at the mission’s long-term impact outside of NASA research. >>>

Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Markos Symeonides, EVP, Axios Systems (Part 5)

Sramana: So, it’s the usual adoption cycle. I think we’re still at that early adopter phase of these technologies.

Markos: Yes, definitely. People get concerned. They say, “Wait a minute. We don’t want the business being disturbed by all these things.” So, they don’t have to be disturbed, but it’s a case of you need to think about how you implement it. You need to think about under what circumstances do crowd sourced communities work? For what types of requests, what types of support? It’s not for everything, but it’s for some things. People need to take a step back and think about how it would work in their environments. >>>

Women of 1M/1M: Kimbra Studios, Littleton, Colorado

Welcome to our new series, Women of 1M/1M.  We bring you new stories of ambitious, talented and dedicated women entrepreneurs from around the world who using the 1M/1M program and curriculum to grow their businesses and achieve their dreams.

We’ve all seen things like photo key chains. Well, Kimbra Studios makes custom photo jewelry and accessories that allow people to have photos of friends and loved ones on display in a variety of ways.

The idea for the business came to founder Kimbra Orr in 1998 when she saw a locket she loved. Yet, she questioned why lockets were designed to tuck photographs out of sight. Orr felt that great memories should be shown off. With that thought in mind, she began designing sterling silver charms that would make gifts that people could treasure for years and pass down from one generation to the next. >>>

Catching Up On Readings: Cool Olympic Apps

Let the games begin! As readers will know, the 30th Olympiad opened this past Friday in London. Keep track of medals, follow your favorite team, and even play some virtual games with these fun apps highlighted by PCWorld. >>>

Outsourcing: Josh Lieberman, Co-Founder of KMS Technology, Atlanta and Ho Chi Minh City (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: That’s the real winning story.

Josh Lieberman: Absolutely.

SM: In India, no matter where you are … in the big cities, you’re looking at 30% attrition. In the smaller cities, you’re looking at 20% attrition. That’s the real problem. If you’re looking at below 5% attrition, that is the real winning story. >>>

Catching Up On Readings: Where Will Consumers Take the Future of Latops?

In Wired magazine’s Gadget Lab article on the new MacBook Pro, author Kyle Wiens weighs in on the new computer, with the highly publicized retina display. It’s think and lightweight, but as Wiens notes, these advantages may have costs that are not readily apparent. What does the demand for increased portability at the expense of repairability say about consumers, and how will they shape the future of the laptop, netbook and tablet markets? For the rest of this past week’s posts, click on the full paragraph. >>>

Entrepreneurship Flowers Far Away from Silicon Valley

These days, the media is becoming better at reporting on entrepreneurship outside Silicon Valley. In Silicon Valley, however, people tend to be somewhat cocky about the region’s place in the entrepreneurship landscape. But technology entrepreneurship is happening all around the world, and we have always tried to present an international and non-parochial view of the entrepreneurial universe. In my recent blog post Far Away from the Valley, I presented a list of interviews with successful companies from across the globe. >>>

Catching Up On Readings: Making the Most of Mobile Strategies

The blog runs a lot of interviews with entrepreneurs discussing the importance of a mobile strategy. But how to make yours successful? This article from GigaOM offers some tips. >>>