Place Based Economic Development with Simon White

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Entrepreneurship

AMEX pledges US$100-million for digital start-ups -- in the US

This article by Roger Cheng (CNET News, November 8, 2011) reports on American Express’s announcement that it will invest $100 million in startups that are designed to address mobile and online payments, security, reward and loyalty programs, and other forms of digital commerce. Rather than launch its own major initiatives in the way Visa and Google has, AMEX will support start-ups “at an arm’s length”.

American Express established an office in Silicon Valley to tap into local startup talent. The business will be run by Harshul Sanghi, managing partner at the company’s enterprise growth group and the former head of Motorola Mobility Ventures. The company said he brings a deep understanding of the venture community.

I guess AMEX can’t be blamed for focusing on the USA, and Silicon Valley in particular, but there are many innovators in developing economies that face the constraint of a lack of access to venture capital.

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The enabling city: places of social innovation

“Social innovation thrives on the ideas and efforts of social entrepreneurs and creative individuals whose socially conscious work contributes to environmentalism in a variety of ways”, writes Chiara Camponeschi in her 2010 e-book, The Enabling City; Place-Based Creative Problem-Solving and the Power of the Everyday. Here, the sources of innovation

MindLab –– a platform for co-creating better ideas.

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ICTs as an Enabler for Private Sector Development

This October, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) its annual Information Economy report, which focused on the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in enabling private sector development: Information Economy Report 2011; ICTs as an Enabler for Private Sector Development (PSD). The report shows that the