I've been working at Acquia (a start-up commercializing open source Drupal) for almost a year now. It's been a valuable experience working with open source because it follows in the same founding principles of the internet: facilitating collaboration and free, open flow and sharing of information through connectivity. Witnessing the growth of the Drupal community, and open source in general, has really opened my eyes to the power of crowdsourcing innovation and technology.

The results of these open models are very disruptive. They create brilliant technology such as Linux, MySQL, PHP, and Drupal while reducing the adoption costs of these technologies by licensing under a General Public License.

But, I sometimes wonder what percentage of the population truly understands the importance and significance of open source and crowdsourcing. Or, if lawyers and traditional corporate executives understand the underlying principles and why these models are successful. Users of Drupal clearly do, but there's a larger population that still needs to be educated and convinced.  Continue Reading...

The following is a guest post from Robert Tuchman, the author of "Young Guns: The Fearless Entrepreneurs Guide To Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own." Here is a brief bio to keep in mind before reading:

Robert Tuchman is the Founder of TSE Sports & Entertainment, a company he started out of his one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan at the age of 25. TSE has gone on to appear on Inc. 500’s list of America’s Fastest Growing Privately Owned Companies. Tuchman now serves as President of Premiere Corporate Events, a division of Premiere Global Sports. A frequent guest on "Your World with Neil Cavuto," he has also appeared on CNN, the “CBS Morning News,” BET, and has been the subject of features in USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Entrepreneur. He lives in New York City.

Graduation from college carries such ironic emotion: you have spent four years yearning to graduation, but as soon as you do, you spend your remaining days nostalgic about your school days. College is a great time, but with graduation comes reality. You are now armed with all that you need: you are the fuse and your diploma is the match. Let the fireworks begin!

Many leave college and send out applications to tens of corporations looking for a job. But there are others who take a bit more of a risk: they seek entrepreneurial pursuits. Know that what lay behind you and what lay in front of you is trivial compared to what lay within you. Have courage.

If it is entrepreneurship you desire post graduation, there are several thing you must consider. Continue Reading...

Some of the best ideas come from the crowd. Businesses are starting to recognize this trend and launching competitions to crowdsource new products with intent to actually produce the most popular submitted ideas.

Yahoo is now trying this approach to develop new green products. Their competition "Make It Green" is currently running with a couple of days left to submit new ideas. If yours is selected, you could see it on store shelves and share a slice of the profits.     Continue Reading...

These two moguls in the making were at Lennox Lounge tonight selling home-made candies for $2 apiece. Elijah, age seven, (right) said the price was 4 x 50 cents. Not bad math for a second grader. Said elder brother, Giles III, age 14, theirs is a multi-generational business. Angela’s World of Creations, which sells chocolate and hard candy lollipops, edible arrangements and assorted souvenirs is a mult-generational business.      

Continue reading on TechTrotter...

Last May, College Mogul and the BU Entrepreneurs co-hosted the first Boston Ultra Light Startups meetup on open source and crowdsourcing. The event attracted over 80 attendees and introduced members of the BU Executive Leadership Program to startups that are utilizing these concepts to build new business models. If you weren't able to attend, I wrote about the event on Xconomy and provided a transcript of the crowdsourcing discussion here on College Mogul.

We're now excited to host our next event, 'The Economics of Cleantech',  that will take place on July 16th from 6 - 9pm and hosted at Northeastern University. We have some interesting speakers lined up from the solar and wave energy industries and working on getting 1 or 2 more from the venture capital industry. If you're in and around Boston, I welcome you to come!

Here is some more information on the event. Please be sure to register.    Continue Reading...

Related links:

• "Chad Mirkin Receives $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for Invention"
  
• "World-Renowned Nanotechnology Expert Proves There Is Big Potential In the Smallest of Matter"
  
• International Institute for Nanotechnology (directed by Mirkin)
  
• Mirkin Research Group (Northwestern University)
  
• Nanosphere (co-founded by Mirkin)
  
• NanoInk (co-founded by Mirkin)

PBS broadcast the latest edition of FRONTLINE/World tonight and one feature was right up College Mogul's alley.

In "Egypt: Middle East, Inc.," you'll see how Soraya Salti, is turning on Egypt's youth to entrepreneurship.

“Either these youth become a burden on our economies or they become an engine of growth and prosperity,” says Salti.

"We want to instill in them the entrepreneurial spirit and the entrepreneurial skill-set so that they can create their employment opportunity. We want to create excitement. And what's the best thing to do, more than create a competition for entrepreneurs?”

Watch the full 20-minute video on the FRONTLINE/World Web site.

It's time to broaden our view beyond the "web 2.0" and social media applications often featured on TechCrunch and sites like Mashable. There's larger problems that need attention such as building sustainable eco-friendly buildings in China for a population that will grow by 400 million in the next 12 years, or tackling the decreasing clean water supply in rural India, and bringing broadband internet to third world countries.

Entrepreneurs are tackling social economic issues and other broader problems like global warming by starting companies. Sometimes these entrepreneurs start initiatives  designed to incubate other entrepreneurs or simply start their own innovative solutions.

Technology innovation doesn't only occur in the US and Silicon Valley. There's interesting start-ups, movements, and hot beds of technology all around the world.

But where?Continue Reading...

Wondering what's the current state of venture capital and angel investors in the Boston area? Read on.

Here are notes from the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge's recent Innovation Series event "The View From All Sides: What It Takes and Means to Secure Funding in Today's Economy."

But first, the panel:

Shawn Broderick: Executive Director, TechStars Boston (similar to Y Combinator) and Founder/CEO, TrustPlus

Rob Go: Venture Capitalist, Spark Capital / Start @ Spark

Rich Miner: Managing Partner, Google Ventures

David Friend: Angel Investor and Serial Entrepreneur; Chairman, CEO and Co-founder, Carbonite

Lee Hower (the forum moderator): Co-founder, LinkedIn; Venture Capitalist, Point Judith Capital

So if you need advice on how to pursue investment, this recap is for you. Continue Reading...

Interesting: LA Observed reported that University of Chicago freshman Emmett Rensin and Alex Aciman have sold "Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books, Now Presented in Twenty Tweets or Less" (for an undisclosed amount via agent Brian DeFiore) to book publisher Penguin Group. (You can read the post on LA Observed.)

Aspiring pitchers and presenters, take note... Continue Reading...