Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Erasmus for Entrepreneurs

Published on February 26, 2009 in EU funding programmes. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

Euractiv reports that the European Commission has just approved a plan to enable 870 young entrepreneurs to spend between one and six months in another EU member state in 2010. Entrepreneurs will be paid up to €1,100 per month to move to other EU countries to learn from experienced business owners.

“The project is similar to the long-running Erasmus programme which allows students to spend a year studying abroad,” said Maive Rute, Director for Promotion of SMEs’ competitiveness, quoted in Euractiv. “51% of young Europeans would be interested to follow an entrepreneurial route, but too few of them put their ambitions into practice,” she said.

I can’t help but asking: will this program actually stimulate entrepreneurship?

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Brnopolis ideas lab

Published on February 21, 2009 in Business innovation and Czech Republic. 0 Comments

On Thursday we hosted another meeting of the ICT businesses within Brnopolis – an open Brno community of people in creative professions, and interested in international city development. The non-profit apolitical initiative invites and exchange opinions and experience through a moderated weblog, as well as face-to-face informal meetings held through the OpenCoffee Club, which meets in over 80 cities around the world.

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Interesting development?

Published on February 20, 2009 in Austria and Business innovation. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Some days ago I met a person who told me about a very interesting, time and money saving product. He has developed a software solution to support IT enterprises and their administrative processes. This solution enables you to fill in data into predefined documents like letters, reports, offers, bills etc. without further programming effort.

His problem: how to find partner, how to spread his product and idea, how to find partners? If you are interested in his product or know similar products please share your experiences with us! In case you would like to know more about this software solution, please find information under www.tdiwiz.com.

Is Prezi better or different than PowerPoint?

Published on February 19, 2009 in Business innovation and Hungary. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Every once in a while I get contacted by a young entrepreneur – or team. They have some interesting new business or idea to show me. Usually, they are looking for funding. Alas, rarely do they find financial backing in Hungary. However, a handful of these businesses have gone on to Great Things. (For example, this one.)

I rather like the business model behind Prezi. In essence, it’s simplier, fancier version of PowerPoint (although the founders will probably wince when they read me saying this). Rather than executable software, Prezi is a service delivered entirely online. CEO Peter Arvai told me the service is still in beta, but Prezi is already attracting paying customers.

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The most effective Internet motivators? Children!

Published on February 10, 2009 in Czech Republic and Facts, figures & trends. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009, was the sixth Safer Internet Day: an opportunity to think about the potential dangers that children and youngsters are exposed to, when they go alone out of the house on-line. And to discuss what can be done to help them behave more responsibly and be better informed about the risks and traps.

But among all those cries of “how children fall victims of the Internet”, did anybody think about how much do we owe our children, when it comes to Internet take-up? How much do they increase the penetration of Internet in households?

Available statistics are clear on this subject: households with children have a much greater Internet penetration than households without children. And the reasoning behind this fact is also obvious: children need Internet because of their schools. Not only to be in touch with classmates, but also to prepare homework and engage in other school-related activities. And the higher the school is, the more the student is dependent on the Internet. At the university level, students cannot enroll for classes or register for examinations without going online.

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Vienna. The Digital City.

Published on February 5, 2009 in Austria and Facts, figures & trends. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , .

I would like to take a new brochure entitled „Vienna. The Digital City” as a starting point to discuss the meaning of Vienna as maybe “THE” IT location in the Centrope region with you. Not only this brochure but also other statistics and studies show the innovation process of Vienna as an IT location and its increasing significance for the Centrope region.

But what is the perspective of the neighbouring countries?

Of course the facts show the progress Vienna has already achieved: Vienna is apart from London and Munich the third most important IT location in Europe, along with Helsinki.

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FP7 negotiations to be discussed at the Coordinators’ Club in Vienna

Published on February 3, 2009 in Austria and Current events. 1 Comment

Negotiations in FP7 – Approaches and Procedures will be the first topic of the Coordinators’ Club in Vienna. Mr. Georgios Zisimatos, the Head of the RTD-Health European Commission unit will talk about the necessary steps in the FP7 negotiation process and highlight common pitfalls and how to avoid them. The networking event starts at 6pm at Brick-5, Funfhausgasse 5.  More information you can find on the web site.

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Comparing our visions of the future

Published on February 2, 2009 in Facts, figures & trends. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

In 1965 Intel co-founder Gordon Moore made a courageous prediction: He said that every two years the number of transistors on microchips would double and their efficiency would grow dramatically. Today we can see that the US entrepreneur was right. Forty three years later, one single chip contains a billion transistors and provides a platform for personal computers, MP3 players as well as the web.

Nowadays you can hear and learn about future technologies nearly everywhere. I came up with the idea of analyzing some former “future visions” and comparing them with today’s state of the art.

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